Still far from finished and with a myriad more features yet to be implemented before release (the details of which SI are keeping very much under wraps), Football Manager Live is already looking like succeeding in its goal of uniting the hardcore elements of Football Manager with the more mainstream auction-based features of eBay and Fantasy Football.

Granted, plenty of work clearly remains to be done in the aesthetics department. What’s more, the ranking system needs greater clarification, and perhaps a player fatigue accumulation system would be a better way of punishing players who play too many games in one day, rather than lessening the amount of ranking points they’re awarded for victories. However, overall, there’s a huge amount to be excited about here.

With Sports Interactive and Sega still mulling over the best way of selling the game - currently they’re looking at going down the subscription route - FML is looking like it could well be a management experience that’s welcomingly open to all, a sim that rewards intelligent play but never penalizes those less inclined to spend their lives online. Watch this space, because SI could be about to pull another world-beater out of their already ample management sim hat.