WHINE OF THE WEEK THIS WEEK: CM4 RANT   We may be no closer to finding out when it will be released, and the details of what it will contain are shrouded in Eastern Bloc secrecy, but we're all in sweaty anticipation about Championship Manager Version 4, are we not? Though there are certain "innovations" that we already know are going to be there - 2D match engine (hardly a huge advance in football management games); improvements in online interactivity - the truth is that Sigh Games have kept us largely in the dark about what they're planning to do.

Instead of working on facts, the CM Scene has had to guess on the state of the next generation, along with the dearth of vast recommendation lists and, in some extreme cases, mock screenshots. In homage to this, CM Stuff has caught a glimpse of what the in-match screen will really look like - isn't it swell?

Now, as you know I'm a bit of a granddad. If I can't watch my favourite programmes (or pictures, as I like to call them), I start to get all agitated, and I've even developed a misty-eyed sense of nostalgia for outdated music (White Stripes? Bloody rubbish! Now ACR, there was a band…) and ancient films (well they're all special effects now, aren't they? Where's the acting? Where's the plot? Etc, ad infinitum), but I have a beef about CM 4, and it is this. Why are they changing anything? Isn't the game good enough in its present form? Aren't the changes we would like to see more in the shape of cosmetic additions - in much the same way as 'Attribute Masking' and board ultimatums were enhancements in CM01/02 - rather than real, sweeping changes?

When I was much younger, and Metal Mickey was still considered prime-time entertainment (bloody hell), American Football was all the craze in the UK. We'd watch Nick Hornby present coverage on Channel 4, see The Fridge (so called because he was a big f****r) do his lardy stuff, and most of all play Statis Pro Football. This was a card-based strategy game from legendary US strategists, Avalon Hill, in which we could pick from all the NFL teams, and the roster of players therein. The ream of statistics that American Football produced was kind of reflected in the attributes for each player, if you will, so that it was clear to see that say, Lawrence Taylor of the New York Giants was a mean tackling linebacker, and that Miami's Dan Marino had an arm like a long-range missile guidance system. The game was enormously complex, with a rulebook to match, but essentially it allowed us to replicate a match, play-by-play, in the same way as in real-life.

To me, there are obvious comparisons to be made with CM here. One of the great joys about Statis Pro was the way in which hours could be spent working through the cards to find the hidden gems, the running back who might not have done a great deal in the season but was still going to be an unstoppable force in card form. Each year, Avalon Hill released a new edition, with few changes to the rules but an entirely new set of cards, based on the previous season's statistics. This was good, and it was brought to mind when I started thinking about what I want to see in CM4.

Because when it comes down to it, I'm not all that bothered about sweeping modifications to what is already there in CM3. For me, the best thing about each new edition has been - as in crappy Statis Pro - the discovery of new players, finding out how good my team is, and whether the tactics and personnel I like best are still as potent as before. I know that CM isn't perfect, and that it leaves much to be desired as a wholly accurate depiction of the football world, but then, it isn't, is it? As much as it can attempt to provide us with a simulation of the state of the game, there are some things that it will never be able to give us - the true evil that is players' agents, outside events like the Bowyer-Woodgate trial making their obvious impact, David O'Dreary's runaway gob - it is as close as I have ever played to a perfect football companion, and I should know. I used to have Footballer of the Year on the Spectrum…

In short, I hope that there aren't too many alterations to an already 'ain't broke' game. I would go further than this - I don't actually see how there can be. Sigh Games have a unique opportunity to hamstring themselves by attempting to go too far with an entirely new product. They don't need to. If CM4 does turn out to be a re-hashed package instead of an overhauled one, they will still have at least one fan on the scene.