An introduction + Day 1

I am, for the purposes of this experiment, Juan Day, a 40 year old former Sunday League Footballer with a Scottish father and Puerto Rican mother. I am a football manager, in my first job at Lincoln City. I know nothing of this club or its players. But if I take it one day at a time, I might just succeed.

I'm no stranger to this game, however. I am also, for real, Richard Moss, a 25 year old freelance writer and Football Manager addict. This is my experiment in playing the game under a strict limitation of one in-game day for every real-life day.

Why am I doing this?

Sports management games, more than most other kinds of video games, are predicated on wish fulfilment and role play. Many sports fans wish they could control their favourite team; we all want to believe that we'd do a better job than the person in charge, even if that person is as successful as Alex Ferguson. We despair when key players or promising youngsters leave, scream obscenities and call for management blood when our team falters, and insist we know the best players to sign, tactics to play, and substitutions to make.

And we like to think our successes in games such as Football Manager prove we could do it. But we play these games under highly unrealistic conditions. We expand and contract timelines to fit our wants and needs. We stop halfway through a match to study tactics online (or think about how to turn the score around over lunch) for two hours, then fly through three weeks in an hour.

What if we couldn't do that? What if we could only play one day, per day, and never pause matches? How would this affect the experience? Would it feel more or less authentic? Would player engagement increase or decrease? I can't wait to find out.

The rules

I have three rules for this experiment:

1) I may only play one day in-game on any given day of real life. When the game clock ticks over to the next day, I must exit immediately. I have autosave set to daily and a fixtures screen showing up every morning to ensure this works.
2) I may not spread one day in-game across multiple days of real life. It must always be a one-to-one relationship. (Although I can choose not to play the game for days on end, so long as I follow rules 1 and 2.)
3) I may not pause matches, but I can alter the match speed and highlights level (text commentary, key, extended, full) however I wish. I also have a self-imposed twenty minute time limit for half-time breaks, in keeping with real life.

This is day one—the beginning. I hope you'll join me on my journey.

Day 1 - Tuesday 5th July, 2011

I rocked up at the office at 9am to start my new life as a (not so) widely acclaimed football manager. The Lincoln Chairman Robert Dorrian informed me that the current staff "are willing to accept the mutual termination of their contracts," but I think I need people who know what's going on around here—so they'll stay for now.

It seems Lincoln City has a long history—the club was founded way back in 1884. See, you learn something every day.

I checked out the club's finances, finding a glorious transfer budget of zero pounds and a modest wage budget of around £14,000 per week—of which we are currently using £12,376. I know from previous Football Manager games that good players at this level (Blue Square Bet Premier, the fifth tier of English football) typically demand several hundred pounds per week. Great, I thought—looks like I'll have to sell before I can sign new people.

And apparently the existing squad is only decent. We've got a couple of quality players—or so I'm told—but little depth. That's not going to fly if we're to get promoted, as I told the board I can do. My best player is John Nutter, who has an absolutely brilliant name. He plays left back yet only has a rating of 7 (out of 20) for aggression and doesn't seem at all eccentric. Maybe he should change his name, lest people get the wrong impression.

The first friendly match isn't scheduled until the 9th, so I've got some waiting to do before I get to see my boys in action. In the meantime, I guess I should familiarise myself with the squad and start feeling out the transfer market.

My scout recommended some players. I offered trials to everyone without a club. I agreed to all backroom advice offered at the first staff meeting. Years of playing football management games does nothing to prevent utter cluelessness and bewilderment as to what I should do. The first two weeks will be hell.