The only slow thing in the game is the set up," promises Jacobson, and having run through a few league games, it's easy to see that this is definitely the case. Not so welcome are the presence of the now obligatory (anti) social options, allowing you to bug your friends by spamming their Twitter or Facebook feeds with news of your progress. If you enjoy this free ROM on Emulator Games then you will also like similar titles NCAA Football 10 and Football Manager Handheld 2013. Also like I said I have seen the ps vita version and I will be picking it up, but that does not excuse what they done on the psp. There have since been several versions of Football Manager released across many formats by Sports Interactive and Sega.

and you gain absolutely no satisfaction from achieving anything because you never get lost in the game. On the downside, some of these features are basic to the point of irrelevance, and the squads aren't as fleshed-out as they could be, with numerous odd omissions of (long established) players being particularly noticeable. As a result this cruel denial of our FM fix nags away, forever reminding us that a manager's work is never done. Some are too scared; they've heard about the divorce cases, this way they can sneak it into the loo, play it at half-time, whatever. The same solid handheld principles apply to the iOS version, with the ability to 'manage' squad selection and tactics on a fairly superficial level if you wish and up to four active nations running at once (from a choice of 12).Perhaps the title of this game should be Football Manager Abridged given that so many fun aspects of the game have been cutout to squeeze the game onto the PSP. But unless you're lucky enough to have one of those ultra portable, extra-expensive laptops, the chances are that on-the-move play is pretty impractical for all but the most devoted FM-phile. Maybe throw in a few crafted asides about taking your plucky band of strugglers to improbable European glory, and then go about the business of discussing the shiny new features, before finishing up with a tearful account of how your partner shacked up with the editor of the Angling Times because it was a better option than hearing about contract negotiations and tactical nuances before bed. The mental image of thousands of FM fans dropping their kids off at the pool while wheeling and dealing in the transfer market is a bizarre and extreme thought to pontificate on, but Jacobson's absolutely right, filthy animal that he is. It is especially good for passing time on long journeys as it is based on strategy rather than button bashing so games can be left to run at certain times without interference.

Unfortunately, though this game delivers a swifter, less complicated approach it results in a feling that your actions don't seem to get you anywhere. More interesting is the excellent new Challenge Mode, which offers four familiar pre-defined scenarios, and tasks managers with meeting their stringent objectives - such as saving a bunch of strugglers from relegation halfway through a season or coping with an injury crisis. A small reduction in the number of stats, the removal of superfluous graphics like club badges, and the super-sharp quality of the widescreen PSP display makes it possible to still cram in tons of detailed information with very little in the way of compromise. When a game as all-consuming as Football Manager enters your life, there's only one problem: knowing when to stop. All the posts above that say you can't view this in 2D, can't offer players to other clubs, fining players, no player unrest, no players asking to be transferred etc are talking crap!

If you need all the trimmings, then by all means surrender yourself to the all-consuming PC/Mac version. Gamer Network Limited, Gateway House, 28 The Quadrant, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 1DN, United Kingdom, registered under company number 03882481. The final outcome is that you feel that you're managing a team from inside a big bubble; you have limited say on tactics etc. Software developers are entertainers and we want to entertain as many people as possible," he admits. It's quite likely that you're a bit like me - a former football management addict who had to go cold turkey and leave it far behind - and not just for the predictable reasons of it being 'too compulsive' and being threatened with justifiable violence by your significant other.

The curious truth of the matter is that Football Manager just got ahead of itself, and giddily heaped layer upon unnecessary layer of detail onto its perfect core. net is owned by Gamer Network Limited, a ReedPop company and subsidiary of Reed Exhibitions Limited. A large chunk of us simply wish SI would just put a 'Championship Manager 2' button somewhere and go back to basics - and that's exactly where its Football Manager Handheld spin-off comes in, with wonderfully refined versions shoehorned into the PSP and iOS platforms.

But anyway, enough hideous visions, let us tell you what else we found out about "the ultimate handheld game and various other cheesy expressions" during our latest visit to SI HQ.

If all you want to do is focus on the team selection, in-game tactics and an occasional dip into the transfer market, then it's all here, and couldn't really be any more intuitive.

Sports Interactive have modified their genre defining football management game to purposely suit the PSP. SI have over 80 employees and I would say at least 60 of them are for FM and the other 20 are FMH (though 18 would be QA as only 2 code). Unfortunately - unlike, say, Real Racing 2 - the game doesn't resize itself to take advantage of your 1080p display, but merely replicates what you're already seeing on the device.