PRICE TO LURE FRANK ARNESEN, the Chelsea director of youth development, from White Hart Lane to Stamford Bridge? At least £5 million. Price to access the most extensive and accurate scouting network in the world? About £30.

Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Barcelona: you can spend what you like, but you can’t beat this, a database of 300,000 players and staff created by a team of more than 1,500 people and co-ordinated by head researchers in 51 countries. How do you get hold of this amazing research tool? Just head for your local high street and pick up a copy of Football Manager 2007.

“The only way you can judge players is to have people watching them,” Miles Jacobson, the managing director of Sports Interactive (SI), the makers of the simulation computer game, said. “We find superfans among people who play our game. Many of our researchers have been with us for a decade. Most assistant researchers do it for kudos and free copies.”

The devotees watch fixtures even at reserve and youth level, keeping their ears to the turf, assessing and predicting players in dozens of categories from pace to heading, corner-taking to temperament. This vast community of enthusiasts report back with their findings and SI uses analysis tools for fine-tuning where necessary — to ensure that Colchester United do not end up with a better squad than Manchester United, for example.

Versions of the game have been produced annually since 1992. Over the years it has correctly foreseen that Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs, Aaron Lennon, Carlos Tévez and many more would become stars.

When Thierry Henry was an obscure 17-year-old at AS Monaco in 1994, the game knew he was a quick, skilful and potent forward with world-class potential who could play on the left or in the centre. Arnesen, as Panorama showed, rates Nathan Porritt, the Middlesbrough teenager; so does the game, which believes that the winger has flair, pace and dribbling ability.

Over the years, the game’s reputation has grown to such an extent that it does not just simulate reality, it influences it. “Apparently Gordon Strachan (the former Southampton manager, now at Celtic) signed Agustin Delgado from our database,” Jacobson said. Which underlines that potential is one thing, performance another. If you mismanage the player — or, like Delgado, he does not settle in a new environment — he will never fulfil his promise.

Jacobson is grateful to the Manchester United manager for proving the game right in the mid-Nineties: “David Beckham, we had predicted him before he went on loan to Preston. The way Sir Alex Ferguson managed him was fantastic.”

Ray Houghton, the former Ireland midfield player, is a consultant. He worked for an agency and would come to SI with requests for a specific type of player. It would fax him back details of potential fits from the database.

Such professional-grade accuracy is why the game is so addictive — it has been cited in divorce cases — and why the 2006 version shifted 500,000 copies in this country and another one million globally, making it the second-fastest selling PC game of all time.

One leading and very playable competitor, LMA Manager 2007, is already available on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2. However, Football Manager’s biggest rival is Championship Manager 2007. It comes out two days before, on October 18, also for PC. Superficially very similar, it has some neat touches, such as ProZone player analysis, and better match graphics, but it cannot equal Football Manager for detail or authenticity.

The new edition promises 150 new features, including better media interaction, feeder and parent clubs, board takeovers and the ability to send out players on loan so that they can get work permits, as Liverpool did with Mark González. All that is missing is a “bungs” option — click the brown-envelope icon, perhaps? “The lawyers won’t let us,” Jacobson said.

COMPUTER GENERATION

Football Manager 2007’s tips for the hottest young talents



DANIEL STURRIDGE: English striker, 17, plays for Manchester City

AARON NIGUEZ: Spanish forward, 17, Valencia

HATEM BEN ARFA: French attacking midfield player, 19, Lyons

LUCAS BIGLIA: Argentine defensive midfield player, 20, Anderlecht

GIOVANI DOS SANTOS: Mexican attacking midfield player, 17, Barcelona C

CARLOS VELA: Mexican forward, 17, on loan at Salamanca from Arsenal

OSCAR USTARI: Argentine goalkeeper, 20, Independiente

KERLON: Brazilian forward, 18, Cruzeiro

FALCAO: Colombian striker, 20, River Plate

VIRTUAL ENEMIES READY FOR BATTLE OF THE SOFAS

IF YOU WANT YOUR ENTERTAINMENT to be less sedentary but still don’t want to move from the sofa, the excellent Fifa 07 is out now on most formats, with an emphasis on playing rather than managing.

“We speak to players and coaches from all levels, from the very top to grass roots, to get their feedback and incorporate it into the game,” Hugues Ricour, one of the game’s producers, said. “Ronaldinho is a massive fan and he was even quoted as spending hours playing Fifa during the World Cup. Also, Wayne Rooney plays the game a lot when he’s travelling with Manchester United and in France, Florent Malouda spends a lot of time playing Fifa.”

As usual, this year’s offering promises improved game-play, excellent graphics and sound and official licences for players, clubs and countries. The latest version of Fifa’s deadly rival, Pro Evolution Soccer 6, is out on October 27. Pro Evolution traditionally delivers less polish but has a more natural and sophisticated feel. Both are great fun.

“We try to make the game as realistic as possible but we also need to overemphasise situations to bring them to life,” Ricour said. “It’s very much the same when making a Hollywood movie — the stunts are reality plus 10 per cent and it’s this overexaggeration of moves which really bring them to life.”

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