We’re surprised that it took this long. The first PSP football management hits the shelves a full four months after the start of the season. With Football Manager hot on its heels early next year, Championship Manager needs all the pre-season it can get if it’s going to oust its rival.

The game’s lateness does mean that all player transfers are correct, but you can forget the kind of depth you get on the PC version – this all runs in a measly 32MB of memory. It’s not bad, though.

Match day offers a variety of view modes, including the traditional text-only commentary and the more modern approach: the top-down near-real-time view. Everything else will be familiar to seasoned management gamers. Player transfers can be a little unbelievable too (Wales number one Paul Jones to Exeter City?), but the illusion of real football is pretty good. And that’s what really counts.

PSP-only features (Challenge Mode, Instant Action) do not really add anything to the package, but Championship Manager PSP does a decent enough job in its own right. The lack of playable leagues is a pretty big deal, but if you are quite happy confining your career to a single country’s league, then this will offer a satisfying, if slightly underwhelming, football management experience.