The OG Football Manager sim is making a comeback — and it'll be here sooner than FM26

The grandaddy of management sims is making a glorious return later this summer. Kevin Toms, the mastermind behind the 1982 original Football Manager, is re-releasing his revamped classic, Football Star Manager, on Steam on the 14th of August. And he's not shy about taking a cheeky dig at the current giants of the genre.

Toms, who first brought his footballing brainchild to mobile in 2016, is now gracing PC screens just in time for the Premier League season kick-off. The trailer for the Steam port boldly proclaims the game as “the original, the best, the only Football* Manager coming this year.” This thinly veiled jab is clearly aimed at Sega and Sports Interactive’s much-delayed and ultimately cancelled Football Manager 25.

Kevin Toms Football Star Manager | Announcement Trailer - YouTube

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The trailer then dives headfirst into self-deprecating humour, boasting that Football Star Manager has “absolutely none of the features you’ve come to expect from modern gaming.” As the trailer quips, “So, forget about your graphics card, say goodbye to your family and get ready to go back to where it all began.” Sounds like the perfect excuse for a digital detox and a lengthy save.

For those unfamiliar, Toms' original Football Manager series wrapped up in 1992. The "Football Manager" name was later resurrected by Sports Interactive in 2005 after a split from then-publisher, Eidos. Fast forward to today, and while Sega and Sports Interactive were grappling with FM25's cancellation (which promised groundbreaking features like women's football and a new Unity graphics engine – perhaps they should have just stuck with stick figures and spreadsheets?), Kevin Toms has swooped in with a nostalgic power play.

Kevin Toms Football Star Manager, promises an "easy-to-pick, fast, pleasant, and extremely addictive gameplay" experience that won't require a supercomputer to run. You can manage a club across four divisions, dabble in the transfer market, balance the books, and even rename teams, edit kits, and retitle players.

So, if you’re tired of micro-managing every single blade of digital grass and yearn for a time when football management was about pure, unadulterated strategic fun, set a reminder for the 14th of August. Kevin Toms Football Star Manager, is ready to show the modern titans how it’s done, one retro pixel at a time.

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