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I don't know about the referee, but whoever decided upon putting a crap football management game together with a painfully slow arcade football sim deserves to be shot (either that, or beaten severely around the shins with a slightly damp haddock). Most footie management games are not that exciting, but the good ones manage to get you really involved with the players and their problems.

Manchester United Europe on the other hand only lets you change formation, swap players around or change your players' names to something ridiculously rude. The most fun I had was changing all the players' names to Slartibartfast. I'd love to see Saint and Greavsie get their tongues round that - (wibbly dream type stuff) - "And it's Slartibartfast passing to Slartibartfast, but Slartibartfast has intercepted. Oh no, it's a foul, Slartibartfast is being shown the yellow card. Man United has put Slartibartfast in to take the penalty... and yes... gooooaaaalllllll! Slartibartfast has scored."

Anyway, back to the game. Although the management side of the game, to put it politely, leaves a lot to be desired, the footie side ain't 'alf bad. It's got really nice touches such as red and yellow cards, aftertouch controls and send offs. But unfortunately the great control system is hampered by terrifyingly slow play and the fact that before every half you have to sit around while you wait for your players and the umpire to saunter slowly on to the pitch. What we want is to hit Fire and go straight into the match play, if I wanted to get in touch with all the protocols in the game of football I'd go down Twerton Park on a Saturday to watch the Rovers.

Unless you're a serious Man United fan then there's no reason why you should waste your pennies, go out and do something less boring instead. Like getting the train up to Old Trafford and drinking in the electric atmosphere of a great home game.

If you're really serious about beating this game, it's best to let the computer play for you. No matter how good you think you are at footie sims, it's better not to leave it up to luck.

1. I managed to get through to the semi-finals of the Cup Winners Cup by just clicking on the tick every time!
2. Aftertouch, yellow and red cards and sending off in the arcade section.

1. One hell of a multiload, even on disk!