This is a very well balanced, turn-based economic simulation game focussing on long-time development of a football club. If you expect a football manager game, you might be disappointed...because there is not much to do in terms of managing the matches. During a match, you can set tactical formation of your team in 5 steps from very defensive to ultra attacking, this has a good impact on the outcome of the match. You can substitute players and....that´s basically it. There is a decent text-mode in place, you can read what your players do on the pitch and it is very nicely done to keep suspension wether your striker scores or misses the goal, keeper saves ect. There is an option for video sequences...but that is very low-tech and not really a highlight of the game.
You can start with your own newly founded football club, competing from league 8 up to leage 1.
You buy players, invest in youth squad and develop your stadium in 3 different aspects:
- interior stuff like floodlight, pitch and seats qualiy (much more stuff to improve)
- increase stadium size (5 different types from standing area to roofed seats and VIP lounge)
- stadium infrastructure: better youth schools, better training, more parking, more merchandise, even build train station and more
Stadium upgrades lead to more audiance, hence more income from entrance fees. But your performance is very important...if you lose to many games and underperform according to the strengh of your team, people will not fill your best stadium. It is very expensive though to upgrade your stadium...so choose wisely what you can afford.
Great fun is the optional possibility to get fired at the end of the season. The bosses give you goals to achieve at the beginning of the season. You can decide if you take the challenge or play without getting fired.
Youth development is interesting: you have many different youth teams, invest money and good trainers, then receive your own good players one day.

Pros:
- long time motivation to build up your club infrasctucture and forge a winning team
- european competitions (equivalent to champions league and euro league)
- quick gameplay, one season can be finished in less than an hour
- Very detailed stadium upgrades
- well balanced player and team strengths
- you can play with up to 3 human club-competitors in same game
- german, england and other leagues playable
- economic challenge

Cons:
- players are very replacable: only 3 positions (forward, midfield, defender) - so much potential lost here
- players have no real mattering skills
- Finishing 3rd in the Ch-League cup group stage does not qualify for the euro league cup
- not much happening: events are not very variable and rather annoying in the long term
- youth player squads do not compete in leagues, stars that stand out are too rare

All in all a very good economic game about football.

It's genuinely a good game. It's a fast paced football manager, but it is still very deep. There is a varied selection of teams available to play as but what is facinating is that the in-game transfer market allows you to transfer players from clubs around the word, literally. You can buy a player from the Nigerian league or even Bermuda. You can also invest in the stock market and micro manage your club's merchandise, but the good thing is that these aren't compulsory for you team to develop financially as sponsors can be chosen. I believe that this game is criminally underrated where the majority of criticism stems from the match engine.

The match engine, graphically, isn't great. It is a cycle of different animations, but the game gives you the option to turn off animations, where you just focus on the chances created and scoreline. I personally do not mind the match engine, because in this game, as long as the match algorithm is varied and logical, it still makes for a deep simulation.

The biggest con of this game is the poor localisation. It is a game designed in German but the English choice of words aren't always the best. This is easy to look over but a good translation is what you'd expect on a game.

I genuinely recomend this game.

Awaiting refund on this one, a shocking game, with occasional crashes. It looks terrible and sounds terrible, with weird 3rd Reich music, ideal for an SS Goose Step parade but not a soccer management game.

Should have known better with all the poor reviews, but I thought with a new version released each year, refinements and improvements would be made. I hazard a guess that hasn't happened and they're just re-releasing the same ugly, flawed bore fest annually.
Mercifully it took be a lot less than the 2 hours play time to be eligible for refund, for me to realise this game is a complete pile of horsesh1t.

Since imo the last good Football Manager was the 2012 version, I've been hankering for a 90's style simple soccer management game, didn't have to look amazing, but had the playability factor of a Premier Manager or even one of the myriad of excellent ZX Spectrum simple soccer management games. This was nowhere near, and totally overpriced.

This is awful, it's impossible to buy a player in a higher division... Save yourself £16.99, and give Club Manager 2017 a miss.

Can`t start in Windows 10. Have to look for a solution.... you have to activate direct play in Windows 10 (optionalfeatures)
but the name of the Game is Club Manager !!!!2017!!! and it dont work in Windows 10???

After activating legacy direct play it runs in window mode.... realy crap.

I didn`t wont to play in windows mode - in game settings for full screen dont work.

Pls.. guy develope a game with state of the art technics!