Budding armchair managers should reach for their sheep skin coats and foul language in time for this winter season as Football Manager 2008 steps off the sidelines.

SEGA Europe promises to get the game out to fans before Christmas on the PC and Mac, and deliver a fully updated game for the new season which will allow players to select their favourite club or international team and guide them to glorious success by putting them through Cup matches, Leagues, European Championships and even major international tournaments.

There’ll be over 5000 playable teams from over 50 countries and the Fan Feedback feature on the last Football Manager means that Sega has known what the fans want and there'll be over a hundred new features.

The new features include a brand new advisory system to help new players through the different aspects of the game, making Football Manager 2008 the most accessible game in the series yet, without losing any depth for the more experienced player.

Sega are also very proud of Match Flow, the largest change to match-day in a Sports Interactive game since the introduction of the 2D match engine. Match flow brings more atmosphere to match-days with match previews, team talks, opposition player instructions, the match itself, half time and post match. These now seamlessly follow on from one another, with no more pausing to make tactical changes, and a mini-radar pitch whilst making those tactical changes to keep you in touch with what’s going on in the match.

In addition there have been changes to International Management, the Transfer Centre, Finances, and the in-game media coverage has been expanded.

>> Link - Official Site/Football Manager
>> Link - Official Site/Sega