Bit unfair, this one. I once made a Keegan-esque emotional pledge never to review or interview CM Star because I used to work there. So there was a slight whiff of nepotism (or maybe just fish) in the air as I was strolling past the Liver Building on my way to find out what the hold up was with my passport, when who should I run into but... It was, of course, Chris Hughes from CM Star, who had just turned up after worshipping at the feet of Michael Owen. Before he could meet Emile, I asked him about his footy predictions, Star and pretty much anything that came to mind.

So, Chris, looking forward to the new season then?

I am indeed - even with the added bonus of the World Cup this Summer it's been too long since the last time I went to a match that mattered. A few weeks back I was getting excited about pre-season but I've had my fix now and it's time for the real stuff to get underway. That said, the Chester v Liverpool XI friendly should be something of a night to remember.

Give us some Premiership predictions. Winner? Relegations? Who will be the surprise package?

Much as I'd love to tip Liverpool for the top, that might be just a touch unrealistic - second again looks more likely but then Arsenal have pretty much opted for consilidation and that team from Manchester haven't been quite as active as I expected, though I suppose that spending £30m on one player kinda has that effect. From Liverpool's point of view, I don't see them going all the way whilst Emile Heskey is still our most expensive signing. They've spent in bits and bobs again this Summer and whilst I'm fairly impressed having now seen the new guys in action, I'm not sure it's the real deal just yet. So, Arsenal for the top with Liverpool second and the Mancs third - Leeds have the potential to upset any of that though.

West Brom and Birmingham are obvious choices to struggle along with Everton, West Ham and Sunderland. Villa might have a tough year as well. A surprise team? Any of the promoted three have the chance to do that and I can imagine Southampton having a good go this year as well.

Any players you're particularly looking forward to watching?

Bruno Cheyrou - I've seen him twice and he's not disappointed me so far. More of the same would be most welcome.

How closely do you think a love of football ties in with enjoying Championship Manager? I think it obviously helps, but it's not essential.

I wouldn't say that it's essential and in some cases, football knowledge can cloud your judgement when it comes to players in CM. You have to remember that the game has been written at the start of the season so the teams that turn out as surprise packages in real life might be relegation fodder in the game. I can't imagine non-football fans taking much of an interest in CM but it's not just a great sports management sim, it's a fantastic game as well. Some people may be put off by the subject material which is a shame.

How does CM compare generally with other management sims out there?

It doesn't - it's a class apart. I'm yet to find a game to match CM for depth and playability. The earlier examples of Premier Manager left a similar impression on me but since then there's not been another game that comes close. I can only assume that the other management titles out there sell reasonably well for their publishers because realistically they can't compete with CM for raw gameplay.

What is the single most wanted aspect from yourself to be incorporated into CM4?

Full online gaming capabilites - but it's gotta be done in a certain way. If the promised online feature turns out to be a case of playing as with the current multiplayer feature but over the 'net, I might just cry. Or at the very least not bother subscribing to it.

The match engine. It seems that having a great-looking engine might compromise the size of the databases and other detailed aspects. If this is true, would you retain the original in-game 'look'? Come to that, do you like the way matches are currently displayed in the game?

The current match engine is great-looking anyway, no mistake about that. I'd hate for a more advanced engine to impact upon the other areas of the game though - there's no real need to change the current look of things but I can understand the reasons for doing it. At the moment, I love the CM 3 match engine, it's the best management matchday experience going and half the appeal of it is that you build a mental picture of what's going on. I don't want to see everything that's happening - I'm sure you appreciate that element of things when it comes to story-writing. A large part of the CM matchday comes down to imagination and that's a good thing.

Will you run out and queue outside your local retailer on the morning of CM4's release (possibly missing a lecture in the process) or are you prepared to wait a little?

I've thought about this already and yes, I'll be there for opening time, lecture or not. Games release day is a Friday so fingers crossed the timetable will allow it anyway. I bought CM 00/01 on the weekend of its release - I'd not realised that it was out when I walked into MVC, hadn't discovered the CM Scene or anything like that at the time. My receipt for CM 01/02 says 4.36pm on the day of release - not bad seeing as I'd said that I wouldn't be buying it. Only time I've ever gone down early for something was the release morning of the Game Boy Advance - I'd been to Chester and back by 9am. It'll be the same with CM 4 if I have anything to do with it.

Are you bored of CM3 yet?

On and off - I'm still playing it and still enjoying it but with half a mind thinking about CM 4 at the same time. I don't think I could ever get bored with it as such - frustrated maybe but never bored.

What one thing have you enjoyed about the current version over any other?

CM 01/02 has been all about minor additions and these have enhanced the game for me in a big way. I think I enjoyed CM 00/01 more at the time as it was my introduction to the CM 3 series - the latest version has been more of a continuation of that.

You recently ran an article on CM Star about lower league management . How closely do you adhere to the rules of LLM? Would you sign up some players you know could get you out of there and use a 'super-tactic', or are you a slavish follower of LLM purity?

Lewis brought the LLM stuff over with him which was much appreciated - I've read it all of course and I agree with a lot of it but some of the so-called 'ethics' are a bit too pure for me. Having been raised on a diet of Premier Manager, it became an accepted fact that you couldn't just pick and choose who you approached - there was a transfer market and a scouting function but that was it. Perhaps that was a bit extreme but it worked. I usually choose a lower league team but I don't go along with things like not using the Transfers screen on the game - I think that's taking it a little too far. You read about players being transferred and more importantly released all the time so using that option is fair game to me. I'd rarely use a downloaded tactic though and it's not often that I go back and sign players that have been good on previous games. It only serves to remove the rose-tinted view that you had of them.

Who the hell is Raúl Santa? And who is your favourite CM3 player ever? Mine is Paul Dillon, who is unforgiveably absent from 01/02.

Dunno, I'm kinda hoping someone can tell me that. He plays for a club in Spain called Yeclano - no idea as to which division they play in but it's a few rungs down the ladder. He was immense for Runcorn in my 00/01 game so as I've mentioned above, I've stayed well clear this time so as not to destroy the legend. I'd have to credit Raúl as being my favourite CM 3 player though - he did restore my interest in the game last January and made me continue with CM Star really. Anthony Magnacca has been my pick for CM 01/02 though I'm warming to Tó Madeira now - I'm starting to see what all the fuss is about.

Onto CM Star. What are your intentions regarding the site once you start university?

I have a mental image of how I'd like things to work out but I'm sure it won't happen. Anyways, if I end up in Hull Uni's Scarborough facility (fingers crossed) and manage to get the in-hall accomodation that I want, I should have access to a network port allowing Internet access. With enough luck, I'll be able to upload and the like from that - I'll go ballistic if it's restricted. Home visits might become more frequent. That said, I'll need a new PC before going away as well - you might have to put up with a small period where I can't do anything with the site for my first few weeks away but I'll try and get it all sorted. I'm sure the people up there will make me a special case as webmaster on one of the UK's biggest independant CM websites ;) So anyway - I'd like things to continue as normal but until I'm up there, I can't promise anything.

How well do you take criticism of your site, particularly where the new design is concerned? This seemed to receive a mixed response around the scene, which is growing more favourable.

I do get a bit upset when people say that they don't like it but my mentality is thus: if anyone stops visiting the site on the basis of not liking the design, then they obviously feel that they can live without our content. If that's the case then fair enough, don't bother with our site. I want people to judge the site on content and content alone and I believe that the new design makes that content more accessible. In any case, there's not much to the new design anyway so there's nothing to dislike about it - other than the banners ;) There are certain people around the Scene who's opinions I value above all others and I've had their support in this so as far as I'm concerned it's a job well done. Of course there will be people that don't like it but if it's the content that you're visiting for, it shouldn't matter. CM Stuff's design is far from being a work of art, you acknowledge that yourself on a regular basis but it's not stopped the site from being fantastic and winning praise all around the Scene. Champman.tv looks great but the content is mediocre. The nicer looking sites may bring more people in but I believe that we have a smaller fan base with a higher level of intelligence. And that's good enough for me.

Where do you get your ideas for articles from? I'm sick of hearing other webmasters moaning about the scene drying up, yet you seem to come up with new ideas for the site all the time.

At the moment, I'm all out of ideas when it comes to true originality - it's always a column these days but that's no bad thing. If I get some ideas then I'll usually have exhausted them within a week but then I'll find some more somehow. Take the article on the reserves that I wrote this week - I can't believe that I'd not written something as obvious as that before now and I had to search my archives to make sure that I'd not already done it. At present, I have a few more column topics floating about up there somewhere and four or five new-ish concepts as well. I might save some for CM 4 stuff but I fancy doing a couple in the next few weeks, time permitting. They involve a fair bit of game playing though so that's obviously an inconvenience.

Can we expect any grand future plans from ver Star?

I try not to think past the end of the week so anything grand is out of the question. I'm thinking that I might start work on a full-on player database tonight which will be a major undertaking but other than that, my future plans only include things that are very much in keeping with what we've done before. I've an interesting concept coming up this week or next though, similar in a small way to Daniel's Man Yoo relegation story on Project CM but with a lot of differences. Actually, the whole concept isn't that similar at all but the first installment might be along the same lines (he says, cryptically)

Do you mind the fact that your ideas are sometimes copied around the scene (you were the first to do a weekly scene review)?

Ideas being copied doesn't bother me so much - content being ripped straight from my site does. I'd have no problem with some other sites displaying my work if they asked and credited the source appropraitely but they don't. As for the Scene Review idea, I think CM Belgium might have done it first though it's one of those ideas that I have in my head for a long time, don't get round to doing it and then someone beats me to it. Everyone seems to be doing them now so I've shuffled it up a bit and added some new bits such as the Article of the Week award. They're all different in some ways.

Which other sites do you visit frequently, and why?

I have a subfolder called Scene up in my links bar with a list of twenty or more Championship Manager websites in it - quite depressing really. Under Pressure is at the bottom of the list by virtue of being at the end of the alphabet so I'll tend to check them out first thing when I log on - the fact that the news from the Scene is added on a regular basis does them no harm here either. Project CM, CM Stuff, CM Gamer, The Dugout and The Gaffer are never far behind though sometimes the latter three on that list aren't included every day. If I could only choose three CM websites to visit in an evening, UP, PCM and Stuff would be my pick.

If you could offer one piece of advice to budding webmasters, what would it be?

Don't give up in the early stages - unless you're T Side from CM Stuff in which case you'll have a hero-like status already. I almost packed it in at the start as I fell away from CM at the time. As I said, Raúl rekindled that interest and from there, I haven't looked back. It's a shame to see so many people giving up early or becoming disillusioned at a lack of visitors. We were only pulling in 100-200 a day before winning accolades from the likes of CM Gamer, The Dugout and SI Games and that was after a year of work. To see newcomers becoming disillusioned within the first two months because they think this is a small number of visitors is just stupid. Oh - and launch with a completed site as well. That means no 404 errors and no "Under Construction" notices. I want to see three to five CM columns to get used to your style. Don't be afraid to e-mail anyone on the Scene either - if you don't ask, you rarely get so get in touch!

Is the scene drying up?

Four months has been rather a long time in Sceneland, you can be sure of that. Sites such as Under Pressure, The Gaffer, The Full 90, CM Addict, CM Stuff and the return of Project CM have returned the Scene to a very strong level indeed, stronger than before the Spring graveyard period. And whilst we've all moaned that CM 01/02 is too similar to the previous game, this has helped the Scene. Instead of writing help guides and the like, we're doing opinionated stuff because everything that can be said on the advice side of things has been said. It's certainly not drying up.

And finally, if I asked really nicely, could I come back to work for CM Star once I've finished with ver Stuff?

Hmm, tough one that. You'll find that our job interview procedure has become a lot more testing since you last did some work for us - applicants have to be able to count to ten rather than five now. Keeps the rabble out you see. Seeing as your Moss Side Barrow Boy story currently contains eleven installments in correct one to eleven order, you easily qualify. So, yes, you can work for CM Star any time you want to. Would you prefer to be paid in salted or chocolate-covered peanuts?

At that point, Chris cambered into the CM Star Ford Capri and demanded that I go and mither Love of Champman instead. I said I would, but secretly I think I was on LoC's 'list' too.

In the meantime go and visit CM Star for a right riveting read. Mind you, you probably do already!