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There are two sides to being the boss of a football team. The good one is that you get to drive around in a Jaguar with a mobile phone, a massive fawn-coloured coat and more jewellery than Liz Taylor hanging off you. The downside is that you have to make important decisions, attend meetings and generally get up in the mornings. And Jimmy's Soccer Manager tends to simulate these aspects. So forget about big cars, even bigger coats and massive cordless telephones, and start thinking about putting Kettering Utd on the map of world football.

The game starts with you in charge of Kettering. You have a large amount of cash to spend on the club. You also have thirteen players, all of whom are not very good. In fact, some of them shouldn't really be walking around without the aid of a trained nurse.

Your job is to get up in the morning, go to work and get your team into shape. Instead of using, you are expected to sell the worst members of your team and buy some decent bods. By decent, I mean those who have a smidgin of hand-eye co-ordination.

All the players have a price and a skill, stamina, and ability rating. You use these to judge how rubbish they are. Your team starts off the game in a pretty sorry condition. So you trot along to the transfer market (a big barn filled with mooing players and people in hats talking very fast), and get some expensive players (possibly up to Bristol Rovers standard).

When you've picked the team you want, including the new players, it's time to go off to 'the ground'. You see your team name, the opponent's name and the score. Time ticks away in minutes and you watch the goals pile up (against you, usually).

It's a pity there aren't any views of the scorching on-pitch action. But then again if you're a real fan of management games, you might not welcome the intrusion of silly, unrealistic stick men jerking around the goal-mouth.

Jimmy's Soccer Manager has all the functions you'd expect to find in a management sim. Transfers, gate takings, salaries, unhappy players, incredibly delirious players, injuries... the list is endless.

But despite the detail (and occasional graphics, which are a nice surprise), the program runs quickly. There's no waiting for ages while the computer works things out. You press the keys and away you go.

The toughness is probably set about right. I couldn't get above the Third Division, but I did manage to win the FA Cup one season. How I cheered.

But a few niggles. All the names are made up, and whilst it's a great feeling to know you've got the world-famous W Scribo in goal, it can become repetitive. I managed to get three blokes all called M Fintch in my midfield. Real names would have been better, even if they did become out-of-date quickly. An option to rename the players and/or team names would also have been most spiffy.

But this is cosmetic and doesn't affect the gameplay, which for a management sim (generally not the most riveting things on Earth) is jolly good. You know your team is getting better as you continually tweak bits of it into shape. If you run out of dosh though, it's goodbye and leave the Jaguar keys in reception. A bit harsh, I feel, especially after all you've done for them.

Overall this is one of the better management sims. It isn't quirky or slow, but a few extra touches would have made it king of the hill. Oh, and you have to play Kettering, too. What's wrong with High Wycombe?

1. Lots of text and only a few graphical interludes.
2. It requires a lot of patience before your team naturally becomes good.
3. You can't change either the team or player name.

1. The controls are well thought out and you don't have to remember millions of different key presses.
2. Menu system is easy and fast to use, and you can do what you want, in any order.
3. There's the FA Cup to win as well as the five leagues.
4. You can LOAD and SAVE the game at any time.
5. The difficulty level is sure to challenge you for a long, long while.