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Scottish legend tells of a baby born with the ability to play phenomenal football. Much worshipped and revered, the baby, christened Graeme, soon became one of the best three-year-old strikers Galloway had ever seen. He was soon picked for the Scottish Under-Five International squad and his playing career took off.

Forty years later the boy genius is now manager of Liverpool. He has a car, his own bedsit and a bank account. By anyone's standards he's landed on his feet and made a success of things. And now he's received the ultimate accolade; a game from Zeppelin with his name on the cover. And, by a remarkable coincidence, the game happens to be about the sport 'our Graeme' was born into. Football. Bung in the game, practise shouting (you'll need to keep your team under control!) and get a load of that menu screen. Well, it's not bad. At least it's got graphics and a cursor you can move around. (Remember the old days when you had to press keys and select stuff manually? Urgh!)

Of course, you can do all the stuff you've come to expect from soccer management sims. Buy, sell, select, train, drop and generally muck around with your players to your heart's content. And, when Saturday comes...

Er, you go and watch the match. Or rather you watch edited highlights. You see a goal, some milling folk and a ball. It either goes in or it doesn't. Like real football, but without the excitement, really.

I mustn't be unfair. It's nice to see moving graphics of any sort in a management game like this. And there's no way of knowing whether the action you're watching is going to end up with a scorching goal or a diving save. But to be honest, the views won't have you gasping in delight (unless you've just upgraded from a Spectrum).

So how about a recap? Okay, on the whole, Graeme Souness Soccer Manager is a pretty good game. It's fairly quick, it's nicely balanced and it does work well. It's one certainly worth having, at least if you're a fan of such things.

1. It's not greatly different to any other footy management game.
2. The graphics are okay, but they quickly get very boring.
3. There are always loads of injuries.

1. Total joystick control.
2. There are at least some animated graphics to go with the matches, which may or may not add to the game's playability factor.
3. You can turn them off if they annoy you too.
4. The whole thing runs with admirable speed.
5. There are few annoying interruptions to the flow.
6. There are five divisions and Cup matches to play.