Featuring leagues and teams from 50 different countries, 280,000 players, managers, scouts, assistants and various other back room staff Football Manager 2006 (FM2006) is a statisticians dream. We all think we have what it takes to be the next Alex Ferguson, José Mourinho or Rafael Benítez and guide our favorite team to ultimate glory and do a better job than our team’s current manager.

You know the kind of thing when your watching the match “Why is he playing him” or “why are we playing that formation” well FM2006 gives you the chance to manage your favorite team trying different formations, tactics and players along with buying selling and just about any and everything a football manager has to do. The only question remaining is can you do the job?

Initially what I have personally found and like about Football Manager 06 is the fact that it is less complicated than Championship Manager and reminds me of the old Football Manager games back in the old days of the Spectrum and C64.

Are you the type of person who wants all the best players in the world from the start or do you prefer to build up a small team from the lowest leagues and climb your way up because you get to choose whether you want to be the manager of an international side all the way down to the lowest levels of the league. Once you have taken control of your team and have evaluated where you need to strengthen, the transfer market beckons. Every player from every team can be approached and offered something but whether they want to talk to you is another thing but it's worth a shot because you might be able to bag a star player on loan because your money grabbing board is too tight to give you a big enough budget.

As well as the transfer market, you can have as little or as much news concerning your team or other teams in your league as everything can be customised so you can avoid the rubbish. On top of these two features, you have complete access to all you players whether they are playing in the senior, reserves or the U18's. From these menus you are able to gauge each of your player’s strengths and weaknesses from a multitude of stats.

As you may be able to tell, there a vast array of menus and we haven't even got to a football game yet but all of this is necessary to go through if you want to fully experience what a manager has to go through. Of course a lot of hard work can be done by your assistant coach but you can give him a break if you really wanted to and take full control over everything. My advice here would be not to do this as he reminds you when contracts need renewing, players that are unhappy and how their training is coming along. The training of the players has been simplified to just how hard you work them, so you never have control on what area of skill they are perfecting. This in my opinion is a bit of a let down because I know I would want my defenders training at being more physical and improving their defensive skills and not how high they can jump as an example, but for most gamers, this lack of stat crunching is perfect as it is something less to worry about before picking your team, formation and tactics.

Match day consists of you choosing your best 11 players and 5 subs or if you are lazy, you can let any one of your staff choose it for you. Tactics are essential to give your team an edge over your opponent. Of course how you play and in what formation might conflict and leave your players confused on the pitch, but the best way to learn this is through trial and error. Once the game kicks off, you are presented with a 2D image of the pitch showing the highlights of the game in real time which allows you to make substitutions and perhaps a change of tactic. After the match you are shown all the other results and how they have affected the league table. As well as league games, you have all the minor and major cup competitions to participate in but this all depends on what league you are in.

Graphics & Control:

If you are looking for a beautiful game, than here is not the place to look, the graphical highlight being the in game 2D in match display which is in fact more than adequate for you to monitor what is happening on the filed and a 3D version as seen in management titles such as LMA would although being a graphical improvement have actually brought very little if anything extra to the game. FM2006 is pure stats with menu upon menu to plough through in order to make your team as unbeatable as can be, keyboard support is offered but the only real and slight advantage by using such a peripheral would be that searching for specific players would be easier.

The continual flow of menu after menu can become quite tricky with nearly every button/trigger and shoulder button on your controller accessing one of the many menus. In fact, you could quite easily get confused as to how you were able to access a previous menu or screen which you are now not able to find. Of course over time, you will get used to it but it is initially a frustrating part of the game.

Longevity:

The game will last as long as you want it to be with achievements ranging from purchasing a 30millon player to staying with a club for at least 10 seasons which in football years is a mighty long time. The ability to choose any league / national team is a sure fire way of extending the life and with the inclusion of LIVE which will allow you to pit your team against other LIVE players and the ability to set up leagues, this game could go on forever.

Overall:

I personally love this game for its simple style of play because it means I don't have to race, shoot or outrun anyone else and I can simply sit back in my chair, relax and play this game at my own pace.

With all of the previous console football management games I have played and enjoyed I would have to say that this is by far the most detailed and comprehensive although this doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have liked to see a few extra additions such as having to discipline players and staff for smashing up the hotel, drinking and partying and so on as well as a quick tactics or formation changes in the match where you just need to scream Attack and push your players forward the extra yard.

If you don't like managerial games than avoid this like the plague but if you do, well this is a must but than again it is the only one so far available on the 360.