When Ozzie Ardiles returned to coach Spurs, he wanted to play to their strengths. We had five world-class strikers and he started them all. It was a breathtaking fiasco. I'm a sucker for that kind of devil-may-care, joie de vivre, so I've been licking soccer manager simulations ever since I played Kevin Toms' masterpiece on the 16K ZX81. I'm a fan, but the complexity of the game is often too esoteric. Play better, I sometimes yell out loud.

So the "Football Manager" series has always scared me. There are menus and tables, and the systems that work are quite esoteric. It's a big, clever simulation for statisticians and data snobs, and Sports Interactive's commitment to quality is a lavish feast for those with the patience and insight to get to the bottom of the bowl.

But back is the tutorial system that made last year's game more beginner-friendly. Ideally, you would start with a club philosophy. I chose the Gegenpress, a high-tempo blend of "get into 'em" and possession soccer that establishes formations, instructions to players, and training sessions conducted by the staff.

Then it can be implemented immediately. All other areas, such as transfers, scouting, staff recruitment, and finances, are implemented over the course of several weeks in the game. You can do it all, or you can delegate and just follow the advice of the backroom team. This is sensible stuff you've forgotten, things you don't want to do because it's too much work, guidance that may or may not make sense, etc. It's tempting to think you can do better, but ignoring it is dangerous. A cautious mindset, vs. Luton" No way, you might think. The new data hub offers an incredible amount of visualization and analysis. But I didn't quite understand what I was looking at. This feature is not for the faint of heart. When I ordered a report from the analysis team, they responded, "Here is a strange picture, and in it lies the secret of your failure." I knew nothing about it, so I ignored it.

Football Manager unfolds at a snail's pace. Five hours into the start, I was still in my first week of mismanaging my childhood team. Thirteen hours into my first game, I was still unsure of how my team would fare in the league. I began to delegate a huge amount of administrative tasks, but my days in the real world were numbered. Still I kept clicking continue. On to the next match, to the next match. Thirsty and persuasive.

Last year was the moment when the veil between what we thought was happening and what was actually happening was lifted with the advent of proper match animation. This year saw the introduction of a completely new match engine. The players' movements, the course of play, and the quality of the animations have all improved, but it is a gradual development. It should be interpreted like another graph. The match engine that was reviewed was not finalized, so it may be more fluid at launch, but you can see the players sliding diagonally as they turn. No one appears to be tackling anyone. The highlight scenes seem somewhat random. I see the players getting tired, their positions, and their movements, but I can't believe what I am seeing. Nevertheless, there is a thrill to it, like the radio commentary, the video printer, and the clamor of the crowd heard on the concourse. When the net swells, the emotion is real.

The transfer market is tremendous. At its most basic option, more than 20,000 players can be scouted and offers can be turned down. They tried to get a player whose contract was about to expire for a high price, but knowing that they would be upset if they got in the way, they had a replacement that they could only buy after the left back they wanted was sold. Getting the job done was like bringing three points to the league leaders. Fans moaned on their social media feeds, but haters gonna hate.

It is mainly when dealing with the players that illusions are broken. I congratulated them in the dressing room for a decent performance, but they were all instantly demotivated. One player complained that he had not been offered a new contract, but I had no choice but to tell him that due to the club's financial situation I could not offer him one even if I wanted to. I promised him a contract for next season, but he went on a rampage anyway and caused problems in the dressing room. Even though I wanted to be Ted Lasso, I was quickly cornered by Alex Ferguson by events and trees of dialogue that were beyond my control.

In my first season in the game, my team would peel off one week and sink the next. Somewhere in the layers of data, scatter plots, radar flowers, and bar charts was the answer.

I noticed that my team had 19 points after 15 games. Normally I block that out, but here I was, looking at my inbox, about to be interviewed by a journalist who had an unspeakable hatred for my positivity. It seemed I could influence the journalists, but I was having no luck. I started biting my nails.

If you want to share in this misery, a fantasy draft system can take your fantasy football league with your peers to another professional level. With increased competition complexity, budget options, and improvements to the draft itself, there has never been a better time to share the humiliation of failure.

To use a team analogy, Football Manager 2022 would be Liverpool. There are no big new players, but there are already stars in every position, and with patience, real talent will emerge from the youth teams. If it were a player, it would be world class, a signing that would excite the brightest of fans. But without proper management, it is Gareth Bale. A mixture of divine flashes of genius and enigmatic mediocrity. It's more of a calling than a game, but as the saying goes, "love is the best of all worlds," and if you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life.