Here lies Part 3 of my Football Manager series: Looking back at the time(s) when the game took over my life. Read Part 1 and Part 2 first.

It felt good I must say. Usually with any new Football Manager game I would have the tendency to first dip my toe, picking, perhaps, a high end Championship side to build my knowledge of the game.

Part Two of my 'How Football Manager Ruined my life series...here is part one

Eventually, my time at HSV drew to a close. It was after my January modules in the second year of college, with results of B,E,E, that I realised that I needed to stop. I had got lazy; Football Manager at this point had become not only an addition, but also a distraction.

Since leaving university, or as I like to call it the infinitely drunk and occasionally academic bubble – I have failed to get a job that uses my degree, I have gained one and a half stone in weight (losing almost all my muscle mass) and, worst of all; I have found Football Manager again.

I must admit that although I greatly admire Lionel Messi, and probably agree that he is the most noteworthy player in the world, I am not wholly in agreement about winning the FIFA Balon d'Or today.I am not sure what the criteria for the title are, but if they indeed are the player that seems to do the most amazing things on camera - the one that most looks like a Playstation player, it is indeed