Back in the day, when only Manchester United and Arsenal had the financial clout to contest the Premiership title and Leeds had just started on the slippery slope to near-meltdown, there was only one football management game worth buying to emulate these ups and downs. And, no, it wasn't LMA Manager.

Since then, of course, there's been a power shift of Chelsea-like proportions, with LMA Manager now top dog and Championship Manager dragged through the relegation mire following original developer Sports Interactive's split with Eidos.

While SI has gone on to greater things with the Football Manager series, last season's Championship Manager 5 was the biggest letdown since Harry Kewell pulled on a Liverpool shirt.

But like the overpaid Aussie (minus the girlie haircut), there are definite signs of a return to form. It isn't quite back to its best just yet, but a bit of extra work on the training ground between now and next season should see it recapture the sparkling consistency it once showed.

Key to this is a huge reduction in the number of terrible bugs and inconsistencies that plagued the last game. Gone are the ridiculous scorelines that would embarrass even Sunderland's piss-poor defence this season; basic spelling errors on player names have been corrected; players now get tired after returning from international duty; and wages are consistently set at a realistic value, even for the big star strikers. If you played Championship 2 Manager 5, you'll get the general idea. Overall this new version feels like it's had more care and attention lavished on it in the fundamental areas.

If you discount the mid-season downloadable data update for LMA Manager 2006, Championship Manager 2006 is also the most up-to-date footy management game out of the box. Basically, when the transfer window closed on 31 January, that's what made it into the player database. So if you're looking for Samaras to be in the blue of Man City, Ashton to be banging in the goals at West Ham, Walcott to be stuck in the reserves at Arsenal, or Agger to be trying to break up the Hypia/Carragher defensive partnership at Liverpool, you'll find them all present and correct.

Still the most controversial feature, however, is the 2D match engine. It's definitely improved from last year's version, with the new isometric camera giving you a closer view of what's happening on the pitch. There are also more individual and team instructions to dish out, along with more options for set-pieces. Certainly, you'll never get fidgety from a lack of buttons to click through or stat-filled screens to pore over in order to get the best out of your players.

What's questionable is how far the multitude of options and visible footy action actually goes towards determining the result at the end of 90 minutes. You always like to think that shock 1-0 away win at Old Trafford or Stamford Bridge is purely down to the fact that you're a 'special one', but there's a constant nagging doubt over whether setting a centre midfielder to make defence-splitting passes, time-waste and mainly cross balls to the far post actually has any real impact.

The 3D match engine doesn't really offer much help in this respect - which is why we'd always question favouring it over text-based commentary. In every single one of the Premiership matches we watched, players just didn't behave as you'd expect them to in real life. For instance, while managing Liverpool we instructed John Ame Riise to power down the left wing and throw in high balls for Crouch and Morientes - a pretty sound tactic when you've got two big men up front. Forty-five minutes later and we had to haul off the ginger powerhouse for continually cutting the ball back along the ground to the edge of the 18-yard box, where it was cleared by a defender every time. Likewise Steven Gerrard, who interpreted our simple instruction to run with the ball as kicking it ten yards ahead of himself and chasing after it.

Are we supposed to take Championship Manager 2006's 3D match engine's word as gospel and substitute players for not following instructions or seemingly having a bad game, or just accept that it isn't up to scratch as a realistic portrayal of football, and stick to reading the commentary instead? Chances are you'll already have resigned yourself to doing the latter before the end of pre-season, though even this isn't perfect. On the slowest speed setting matches are mind-numbingly tedious, but speed them up and the commentary simply can't keep up with the action, such as it is.

The rest of the game is a similar mixture of good ideas, well-implemented features and stuff that still needs ironing out in future versions. For example, the six challenge modes, such as avoiding relegation or winning promotion from the Conference are diverting enough, yet the game fails to include the basic option of managing an international side (apparently it's top of the priorities list for Championship Manager 2007). The new club benefactor feature is a nice touch too, bringing in plenty of money to a cash-strapped club, but also piling on the pressure if you don't start getting results quickly. The menus have also been tightened up and, more importantly, the text is now readable without making your eyes bleed.

Ultimately Championship Manager 2006 still feels like a game in progress - or to go back to those football analogies, it's a club in transition. Football management titles are traditionally a constantly evolving type of game anyway, but like a promising youth player Championship Manager 2006 is a couple of seasons away from firmly establishing itself among the elite once more.

1. The bugs and factual errors that pretty much destroyed Championship Manager 5 have been eradicated.
2. All the player stats and transfers are up to date as of 31 January 2006, from big-name players to lower-league donkeys.
3. You can give tons of detailed instructions and tactics to individuals or the team as a whole.

1. The 3D match engine isn't realistic enough, and it rarely gives the impression that your tactics are being properly represented.
2. There's no international management, which lessens the significance of achieving domestic success and recognition.

A notable improvement over last year's game, but not without its flaws, and still let down by the 3D match engine.