Championship Manager - Top 5

For those of you yet to be aquainted with the above term, think yourselves lucky. Those for whom the words 'Championship' and 'Manager' conjour images of dark, sleepless nights in front of a glowing screen, knuckles white and eyes wide know just what I'm on about.

Championship Manager, or Football Manager as it's now known (long story), is, on the face of it, a football management simulation game for the PC. In reality, it's an addictive, relationship-wrecking, insomia-inducing, social life-shredding, dream-making, time-bending, beautiful yet deadly drug of a passtime.

You pick your team, buy and sell players, choose tactics, set training schedules, talk to the media, and then send out your boys to battle whilst you sit back and tremble with excitement. Crikey, I haven't even mentioned the bottom-clenching thrill of the cup draws yet! It may all sound a little geekish, but if you haven't ever played it then hush. Try it.

It's around about this time of year when a small, granular seed of excitement begins to swell within me, and the urge returns. With the transfer window about to open, the opportunities of players joining or leaving seem boundless. Picking up the morning paper takes on a new significance. And all this could be in my own hands! I could be the manager... I could be buying the next super-star... I could be making the news!!!

In goes the disc, and I am flown to a far away land where I am the boss, and my name is on the cheques...

Now, if I'm honest, I rarely play the game as manager of Coventry. I think it's just the added weight of responsibilty that I place on myself that's too much to bear. But what I do is start a game as Coventry each time I buy the new version of the game (released annually, just about), just to test the water, so to speak.

Even then, it's not like I play the game properly. Oh no, instead of using my freedom to buy any player I want, I restrict myself to buying only the players that City have bought in real-life. Essentially, I just want to be in the manager's shoes at that very point in time. Hence, my goes as Coventry are generally pretty pallid affairs.

I usually start by editing the players to be as life-like as I can (the CM researchers often get it wrong when it comes to Coventry players' preferred positions), and maybe making a small cash injection into the bank just for emergencies.

Coventry City, in Championship Manager terms, is never an easy ship to sail. So heartbreaking it is to ever see my beloved club relegated with me at the helm that, should at any time in the game relegation ever become a mathematical certainty, I will 'accidently' turn off my computer and declare the misfortune of a powercut to be the culprit. Nevertheless, during these times of toil, there have emerged some golden nuggets of footballing ability.

So, without further (Freddy) ado, here are my top five Coventry City players from Championship Managers, past and present:

5. Ellery Cairo

He was the answer to our prayers when the young, lightning-quick, Dutch wing-wizzard joined from Hertha Berlin. At a time when we needed wingers (hang, on, we still do!), Cairo impressed in a pre-season friendly, but did very little else and drifted away again. In CM, however, he was the business, and one to definitely hang on to.

4. Eoin Jess

Horrendously over-valued in the game. So much so that on one go I became embarrassed for the poor man, went into the game editor and lowered his value to something we'd all believe. A player who wasn't really a striker, nor a midfielder, but play him as a trequartista (in the hole) and he shone like Clinton Morrison's boots.

3. Steve Ogrizovic

As dependable as an Ikea shopping bag, he was as much guaranteed his number 1 jersey in my games as he was in real-life. The only worry with Oggy was getting to that point with a few months to go in the season, praying that he wasn't going to announce his retirement. Just one more year, Steve! Please!!!

2. Ysrael Zuniga

One could be forgiven for forgetting this guy ever donned a Sky Blue shirt. And why? Because, my friends, he was rubbish. Managing a measly three goals in two seasons, the Peruvian was shipped over to Argentina where he continued not to score many goals. Apparently he's now a dentist. Still, in the CM world this guy was a winner, and regularly scored more times in a weekend than Russell Brand.

1. Stuart Giddings

My heart still sinks when I think of what this guy could/should have become. Perhaps his prowess in CM clouded my mind, but Giddings at one stage looked like he was the new Stuart Pearce. A knee injury later and he became... well, he now plays for Hinckley United. Always highly valued in the game, always a consistant performer, Giddings was to my Coventry goes what Bourbons creams are to the biscuit world.