This was about as good as it got with Championship Manager. From here on the games became increasingly over-elaborate and ridiculously hard.
Ofcourse the game is still quite unrealistic in places, particularly on the transfer market. It is also annoying that a player must bid anything up to 200% of a players asking price before the offer is accepted.
But this game combines all the best elements of the detailed later games with the relative simplicity of CM2 and CM9798. Buying, selling, comparing players, scouting and setting tactics is complicated enough to be a challenge but easy enough not to be boring. Its a fine balance but it works.
If you want to buy a football manager game then buy this one or 00/01 as they are easily the best. It may take a little while to adjust the databases but it is totally worthwhile.
For a fiver you really cant go wrong with this.