England Manager Travel Guide

The History…
No country in the world has a more decorated history in football than England, with the oldest competition in the world, The FA Cup, and the oldest national league which began all the back in 1888, the countries colourful past is second-to-none.

The English Premier Division as it is now known, also has a history of sharing it's spoils around with no less than 23 teams having claimed the nations most coveted honour - the title.

Liverpool currently lead the way in terms of the most titles with eighteen, eleven of these coming in a spell of near total domination in the 1970's and 80's. Up until recently it appeared to be just a matter of time before Manchester United surpassed this mark, with Sir Alex Ferguson building several teams that helped the Old Trafford club enjoy a similar spell of control over the English game in the 1990's culminating in the wonderful 'treble' season in 1999.

However, Chelsea have now burst onto the scene with Roman Abramovich's millions and have again redressed the balance. They literally ran away with their first title in 50 years in 2005, and followed that up with a success of similar proportions this year (there 3rd win in total), and all the indications point to the fact that as long as Stamford Bridge is lined with their Russian millions, this new kid on the block isn't going away.

In Europe again the English clubs like to share it round with more different winners of the Champions Cup (four) than any other country. Liverpool again lead the way with five wins, most recently in 2005; while Manchester United and Nottingham Forest have both tasted glory twice. Aston Villa make up the quartet with just one crown in 1982, which was the last in an amazing six consecutive years that the Champions Cup resided with an English club.

Equally, spreading the love appears to England's thing as they also have the record for the most different teams to have claimed the UEFA Cup, unbelievably Liverpool lead the way again with three wins, with Leeds United and Spurs weighing in with a couple each and Arsenal, Ipswich Town and Newcastle United landing the coveted trophy once. Once again English clubs enjoyed a six-year spell of total dominance with consecutive wins between 1968-73.

Only when you look at the history of the world's oldest and most famous domestic competition do you find something not dominated by the red army of Merseyside. Manchester United top the pile here with a record eleven wins, just one ahead of rivals Arsenal. The League Cup however takes us back to the common trend with Liverpool's name engraved on the trophy seven times, twice more than nearest rivals Aston Villa.

On the international scene England have undoubtedly had one crowning highlight. Coming in 1966, on the hallowed turf at Wembley, Geoff Hurst struck a hat-trick against Germany in a 4-2 triumph which allowed captain Booby Moore his proudest moment of lifting the World Cup for England for the first and only time.

Other than that, even the most patriotic of England fan will admit that their international pedigree has been one of 'nearly men' with a catalogue of Quarter Final and Semi Final exits, normally in heartbreaking circumstances, invariably via a penalty shootout.

Recent traumas have come via Maradona's 'Hand of God' in 1986; on penalties against their arch-rivals Germany in 1990; on penalties again at the hands of the German's in 1996 (embarrassingly at Wembley); yet another penalty shootout drama against other arch-rivals Argentina in 1998; and finally a fourth penalty nightmare against hosts Portugal at the European Championships in 2004.

And guess what, penalty nightmare number five hit us over the Summer as Wayne Rooney was sent-off in another Quarter Final exit at the hands of the Portuguese…

Who to Be…
In England there is quite literally a challenge for everyone. With six different levels playable in FM2007 where you choose to start your career is up to you.

Beginning at the top of the tree offers plenty of variety in itself with arguably three different tiers within the Premier League alone. Right at the top you have Chelsea, they stand out from the rest with unlimited cash basically making management at Stamford Bridge a 'build your own dream team' challenge - this can become quite dull quite quickly though for those after a real test, so any ambitious boss at Chelsea should be realistically looking to win every competition they play in every year.

In an attempt to end the Russian revolution, Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham allow you to inherit a decent squad with very competitive transfer budgets, the challenge with these teams however is not to snatch the title once - it's to build the club into one that is challenging for the top honours every year which makes for ongoing assessment - not the kind of challenge you want for a quick one-season game.

Of all the rest, Aston Villa and Portsmouth are the squads you'll want to take charge of for a healthy transfer budget, but surely keeping one of the new boys (Watford, Reading or Sheff Utd) in the top flight is the Premier challenge for any ambitious boss.

Moving down the divisions, Wolves are a team who have been regarded for so long now as the sleeping giants of lower league football. Promotion from the Championship comes with a realistic chance of establishing yourself in the top-flight. Smaller clubs who've never been in the big-time such as Yeovil, Wycombe, Rushden and Grimsby also offer great career challenges.

Finally for managers wanting the ultimate football challenge, why not try managing at the lowest rung of the ladder - the Conference North or South with a team like Farsley Celtic!

Players to Watch…
Similar to its Italian and Spanish counterparts, the English Premier League is the elite of European Leagues, which means you'll have the pick of the world's talent. An English backbone is always advisable though - remember, language problems can cost a team dearly.

One spanner in the works nowadays is the money a certain Russian billionaire has bought to Chelsea. In short, nobody can compete, which means to sign the big players you'll need operate with the utmost secrecy. In addition you'll have to fend off any attempts at Chelsea poaching your star-players, or at least hold them to ransom getting the best price possible.

Below is a list of top young English talent that you and your scouts would do well to keep tabs on:

Premier Youth:
Aaron Lennon - Spurs
Phillip Bardsley - Manchester United
Gary Cahill - Aston Villa
Ashley Young - Watford
Paul Collins - Manchester City
Tom Huddlestone - Spurs
Nigel Reo-Coker - West Ham
Leighton Baines - Wigan
Philip Ifil - Spurs
Zesh Rehman - Fulham
Nicky Hunt - Bolton
Kevin Doyle - Reading

Best Youngsters in the Championship (preferred position in brackets)
Boaz Myhill - Hull City (GK)
Kevin Foley - Luton (DR)
Billy Jones - Crewe Alexandra (DC)
Richard Stearman - Leicester (DC)
Curtis Davies - West Brom (DC)
Chris Brunt - Sheff Wed (ML)
Matt Fryatt - Leicester (ST)
Cameron Jerome - Cardiff (ST)
David Nugent - Preston (ST)

The League…
The English Premier League consists of 20 teams playing each other twice. Champions Cup football awaits the Champions, Runners-Up, 3rd and 4th place teams with Euro Cup qualification the reward for 5th place and possibly 6th and 7th depending upon who wins the domestic cup competitions.

The bottom three go down to the Championship with the top two teams in that league being promoted and 3rd-6th place contesting a play-off for the remaining promotion spot.

The same promotion/relegation format applies to League One, though four teams are relegated form League One with four being promoted from League Two.

Lower down the ladder see various different promotion/relegation systems though all involve promotional play-offs.

Domestically there are plenty of cups over the English season; the pick of these is the famous FA Cup, which is the largest, and oldest cup competition involving all the teams in FM2006. The League Cup is similar to the FA Cup but only involves clubs from the Premier League down to League Two, and both these competitions have the reward of Euro Cup football for the winners.

For lower league clubs there are various smaller competitions including the LDV Vans Trophy, FA Trophy and FA Vase - great ways of achieving glory and a visit to Wembley for the nations minnows.