Steven Gerrard is playing for Arsenal, Gary Neville is playing for Liverpool, Thierry Henry is playing for Chelsea and Frank Lampard is playing for Manchester United. Some cynical football pundits claim that loyalty has lost all meaning in today’s game of mercenaries, money and millionaires. Clearly, some cynical football pundits haven’t ever had a go at playing LMA Manager 2007.

Loyalty isn’t even an operable word here. Players show no loyalty to their clubs and the only time they seem prepared to stay put is when they refuse to move to the lower leagues. Well done Codemasters! It must have proved particularly tricky programming that. Even with the better touches here, such as the 3D match engine, you still can’t avoid glaring examples of what would never happen in real-world football. Goalkeepers haven’t fallen over their own line with the ball in their hands since Dave Beasant retired, so unless this was deliberately included as a wonky tribute, it’s safe to say that the AI on match days is dire. The fact that this review is only one page long saves LMA Manager 2007 from mentions of awful defending, missing open goals and refusing to collect loose balls. Oh wait… no it doesn’t! We find room for anything if we want to.

Besides the ridiculous transfers and dodgy 3D match engine, what really undermines LMA Manager more than anything else is just how damn easy it is. Pick a relatively young team, watch their value and attributes rocket, flog them all for a huge profit, wash, rince, repeat. Keep going and after a few seasons you can go out and buy every superstar you want (no loyalty, remember?), build a new training ground, build a new stadium, hire the best physios, coaches and commercial staff and bingo. You’ve turned into the virtual Chelsea, throwing money at football until it starts crying and lets you win everything. There is an argument that LMA Manager 2007 is pitched towards the undemanding football manager fan but really, how many people of those are there in the world? Five? Regardless, that’s the exact score this game deserves.

Ryan King