What happened to my CM 5?

Not so long ago, a couple of friends asked me as to the fate of my beloved PC game, Championship Manager 5. CM5 is a simulated football/soccer management game. What you do is this: you pick a football club, & then you manage that club. As football manager, you buy & sell the players (real players), hire the coaches & physios, run the training program, make the team selection for match days, & watch how your team performs. You run the show, & see how good your football management skills are.

Since purchasing the game last year (my good friend spotted it for me at City's Harvey Norman), I had been totally hooked on it. So hooked that I would spend hours playing it, whenever I'm not out & about with friends. Sometimes, I would hurry through dinner & then rush upstairs to get into CM5.

Well, back to my friends' question: What happened to my CM5? Still playing it? I could tell they were a little concerned that CM5 was taking up a lot of my free time, that I don't spend much time doing devotionals (or Quiet Time). Well, the answer is: No, I'm no longer playing it. I haven't played the game for about more than 4 months now. That's because I've found another hobby - blogging! Well, here I am, doing just that. Besides doing my own blog, I also read the blogs of other people - both friends & strangers. It's a great new hobby.

Nevertheless, I would like to get back to CM5 soon & get back into simulated football management. Those of you who wonder what it looks like, take a look at the picture below. The club I was managing is Vitesse Arnhem, a Dutch top division club based in the city of Arnhem. The pic below shows Vitesse losing 1-0 at half-time of a pre-season friendly game against French club Nice. I think Vitesse went on to lose the match by 2 or 3 goals! Under the score-card is a soccer pitch, & during the course of a match, you will see various dots (representing the players) moving up & down to "depict" footballers in action. To the right of the soccer pitch is a bar with the match stats. Just under the soccer pitch is a thin meter showing each team's possession. If you look closely at the meter on the pic, you will notice that the yellow portion is longer than the red portion. That indicates that my team had more of the ball than the opponent. Obviously, that wasn't much of a help with my team trailing at half-time!

I managed Vitesse under the name Roger Van Haaren. Van Haaren is a loud, cocky & boastful Dutchman. He constantly harps that his team is the best in Europe, regardless of whether or not it won the European Cup in a given season. His touchline celebrations (whenever Vitesse scores) irritates the opposition & their fans, & even sections of the Dutch media. He has a short fuse & has been caught using foul & abusive language during a match, by Dutch TV. Van Haaren (i.e. me) was very successful, although the first few years managing Vitesse was a struggle as they had to live in the shadow of Holland's big clubs Ajax Amsterdam, PSV Eindhoven & Feyenoord. But over time, Van Haaren constructed a talented, young, formidable squad. Eventually, Vitesse Arnhem ruled Holland, winning the Dutch championship & Dutch Cup on a regular basis & thus shifting the balance of power in Dutch football to the city of Arnhem. Vitesse would then conquer Europe, winning a few European trophies. So, Van Haaren has won everything there is to win in the Netherlands & Europe. He even won the World Club Championship by beating some Brazilian club who were the South American champions.

But yeah, CM5 is fun. And I can definitely see myself making a comeback. Well, either that or I go find CM6 or another more current edition, & buy it if the price is not prohibitively expensive.