Thread by @jackkenmare_

THREAD:

William Still, the youngest manager in Belgian First Division history, on how the game Football Manager helped him in his career

🗣“Football Manager gave me that impetus to want to set up a team. I wanted to be able to talk to players. I wanted to have that relationship. I mean, I was alright at football but FM allowed me to have that glimpse of what it was like to manage a team.”

🗣"I actually think people that play Football Manager understand the game a bit more. You've got to go into a lot of detail to actually win things and be successful in the game, especially nowadays with it becoming more and more complicated.“

🗣“It definitely opens your eyes to how big of a scale being a manager is. A big part of what happens in the video game is actually what happens in real life, and when you do it day in and day out, you do realise how similar it actually is.”

🗣"It sounds stupid saying this but, there were so many aspects of it that came back and made sense. For example, when you make a transfer; you have the initial offer, then a counter offer and then a player who doesn't agree with his wages…”

🗣"Then you’ve got general player conversations, setting up training regimes, fitness groups and training programmes; both collectively and individually. And the more you go into the detail of the game, the more you understand how it happens in real life.”

🗣”If you play Football Manager the easy way; just setting your team up and making sure your transfers are sorted, then you won't learn much. But the more detail you go into, the more real it actually becomes. I think Football Manager has helped me become a better coach."

And this on the peak of his FM addiction…😂

Here’s the full interview if you fancy a long read. Go and grab a cuppa
sportbible.com/football/willi…