AS well as knowing the game inside out, another essential for any football manager is an extremely thick skin.

Never has the Press been so outspoken about a team AND a manager's performance. Get it right and they treat you like a God, get it wrong and...well, just ask ex-England team boss Graham Taylor.

Now all you PlayStation owners are being given the chance to take over the very hot seat, courtesy of Premier Manager 98.

The release from Gremlin Interactive is the first serious soccer management game for the little grey box and according to the PR blurb it is somewhat addictive.

You can take over the running of your favourite team, whether it's Blackburn Rovers, Burnley, Bolton, Bury or Torquay.

Premier Manager 98 contains the most accurate player data of any management game with the developers enlisting the help of Goal! magazine to provide the gen for all 92 English League clubs as well as European and South American sides. All the statistics on individual players, team formation, tactics etc is used to compute a real game to give the most realistic results possible. It means that the manager - you - can watch all the highlights of important incidents from each match, created by using the Acuta Soccer 2 engine.

You can settle for concentrating on team management, player selection, training, etc, or you can take complete control, from setting admission prices to planning ground development such as a new stand and the hiring and firing of vital members of staff. Put this together with authentic kits and match commentary and you have a pretty good package.

All correct league and cup competitions are included with two modes of play. Premier Manager allows you to take control of any team in the league or start at the bottom and work your way up.

Get it right and you are on the glory trail, get it wrong and you'll be on your way to the dole office.JE

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.