想暂离曼城丑闻？来玩老派 Championship Manager，含 26/27 阵容

The Premier League season is in limbo. Nothing feels like it’s about the actual football being played on the pitch anymore. Sometimes we just wish we could turn the clock back to simpler times.

Enter this fan project rebuild of the old school Championship Manager video game… before it became Football Manager, before VAR, 115 charges, before three week international breaks, hydration breaks and all of the rest of the ‘game’s gone’ shouts.

The game has been updated with the current 2026/27 squads. You’ll still see the classic interface where the attacking balance of play is shown, you’ll still see the text commentary and you’ll still be able to scout real players to help save your job, but you’ll be able to do it with modern players and use five subs to help change a game.

On the champman2627 website (nice nod to .co.uk there too), the unknown hero among us explains: “On a family trip, my older brother and I got hooked on the original Championship Manager 97/98 again, taking Brighton from Division Three to the Premier League as fast as we could. He said, “Wouldn’t it be cool if it was the same game we love, but with modern teams, modern players and modern managers?” So I went away, opened up the game’s files, and saw what I could do.

“Every player, club and manager is real and current for 2026/27; none of the 1997 squads are left. It isn’t only the leagues the original shipped with: Saudi Arabia, the MLS and Brazil are in too. The game shows 2026 dates, and fees, finances and wages have been rebalanced to today’s money.”

All of the stats have been included from real world data and fine tuned with the help of AI (at last a positive use for it!). Best of all, you can’t inflate sponsorship deals and defiantly refuse to accept the results when found guilty of doing so.

Naturally, this is an unofficial build and I hope that the publicity it’s getting doesn’t lead to it being taken down. There’s a 29 season limit to play, so fill your boots in the meantime.

Incidentally, today’s also the 25th anniversary of the release of arguably the finest game in series history. Championship Manager 01/02. Thank you for the days… and the long, endless nights.