Football Manager

Ray Houghton had a glittering career at Liverpool and some star-turns in the Irish side that include that stunning strike against Italy back in the 1994 World Cup. He now balances a career of amiable punditry with ensuring that all of the 'funny' is placed within Sports Interactive's funny old game...

So how did you first get involved with Sports Interactive?

Ray Houghton: I was working for a football agency over in Berkshire, and the lad I was working with was a big fan of Championship Manager. We were looking for young players to bring in, and maybe sign up for clubs in England and he showed me that in the game, the lads at SI had a list of all the top-graded youngsters.

At that time, English clubs were taking on a lot of players from Scandinavia, so we thought if we could tap into that, it'd suit our portfolio. I was only at that place a few more weeks before I went on to Crystal Palace, but I still thought we could utilise the game for our own benefit - it was good publicity for Sports Interactive and also helped us out.

When did they call you in to help out?

Ray Houghton: I kept in touch with them, and they said they wanted to take the game from a text game to having a match engine. I was interested and came to have a look. I was a bit surprised really, seeing how it was going from text to visuals on a football field. At that point, when you put in certain things - like picking up certain players from a set-piece - your players were taking it literally.

So when a ball got kicked down the line they'd all run out of formation, leaving the whole of the middle of the goal open. Someone could just run through the middle and score, and you're thinking 'that shouldn't happen'. It was about going back to basics, trying to say 'this is how a full back would operate' 'this is how a centre-half would operate'. The basics of football.

Where do you see the Football Manager match engine going in the future?

Ray Houghton: We want to move it on. At the moment, you still can't show contact - you can't see a tackle. Say you and I went up for a ball, you won the header and knocked me over - you can't see things like the player on the floor. Because of the mechanics at the minute, it's difficult to implement - but as computers get quicker and can hold onto a lot more megabytes or whatever, then we'll be able to take it on further.

Is it true you play in the Sports Interactive five-a-side team?

Ray Houghton: We played today! We won 3-1, one of our lads Keith scored three today. He's a coder. They've all got a great attitude and we always have a great laugh. The lads we play against, usually when I'm playing they get their best five out and say: 'Look at that fella over there, he can't play anymore!' That usually spurs me on to be honest.

PC Zone Staff