In a development which will come as a shock to many fans, News Shopper’s web manager has been appointed the new manager of Bromley FC.

Yes, I, Simon Bull, have been given the task of replacing Mark Goldberg at Hayes Lane and leading the Conference South side to glory.

I only took over in the hot-seat yesterday and already I’ve made a great signing for the club as well as got a first victory under my belt.

My first job was getting to know my new squad of players and staff. I was pretty impressed with most of what I saw, which was why I decided to leave my assistant manager Neil Smith in charge of training. It looked like he knows what he’s doing.

It quickly became apparent, however, there were some aspects of the club severely lacking, particularly on the playing side. Even for a non-league team, the defence and midfield looked threadbare.

So I set about finding some potential recruits, starting in the bargain basement as I look to make the most of the £10k transfer budget agreed with the board.

After finding a few unattached players matching my requirements, I assigned them as transfer targets for my director of football to chase. Admittedly the initial targets were perhaps a little ambitious, but it was still disappointing he got nowhere, so I jumped in and took action myself.

In Joe Kinnear or David Moyes style, I’ve forgotten his name, but I quickly locked on to a 27-year-old Spanish defensive midfield player who my scout had highly recommended. It took a bit of haggling but he soon agreed terms and signed. I think his career had faltered elsewhere, hence him being on a free, but he’s keen to get things moving again at Bromley. Fans should be excited as he’ll definitely add some extra steel and quality in the centre of the park – if only I could remember his name.

Having left my scout looking at some central defence options for me, I took the squad off to lowly Potters Bar for our first pre-season friendly.

I set the team up in a standard 4-4-2 formation, instructing them to play a direct style and get the ball out wide. What the squad lacked in some areas, it made up for with an array of wingers to choose from.

Without breaking much of a sweat, Bromley ran out comfortable 3-1 winners. There were two good second-half goal from the skilful looking sub Moses Ademola who I brought on to the right of midfield. The boys played well but looked a bit vulnerable at the back so we’ll have to work on that.

And there you have it, that’s my Bromley managerial career to date. There are tougher challenges ahead, such as an upcoming match against Charlton, but it’s going very well so far. I think I’m clearly cut out for this management lark.

What’s more impressive is everything I’ve accomplished so far was all done is only about three hours last night while sitting in my armchair at home.

Obviously it was also done within the virtual world of the Football Manager game. Or, to be more precise, it was within the virtual world of Football Manager Classic 2015.

News Shopper:

I got my first taste of the new tablet edition of the long-running series from Sports Interactive last night, and I’m really enjoying it.

Classic 2015 is the first time a full mode from the main home computer game has been ported to tablets.

There has been a mobile version of the game for a few years now, but it’s very stripped back and basic compared to the full game. For me, it’s provided some enjoyment on my travels but ultimately its shallowness proves unsatisfying.

Classic, a mode first introduced in 2013, sits somewhere between Football Manager Handheld and Football Manager the full game. It includes much of what’s in the main game experience but some bits have been out or scaled back so it’s less complex and time-consuming. On the other hand, it’s still a bigger more feature-rich game than the mobile version players have had to make to do with to date.

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Playing Classic on my iPad last night, it’s clear Sports Interactive have done a good job porting it over.

Putting Classic mode on to tablets has obviously been a stretch, but the transition seems to have gone mostly smoothly. The user interface is very busy, but works fine once you get used to where everything is. The touch controls work well too for the most part, although I have found the menus a little awkward to navigate at times, usually when it involves scrolling up and down lists.

Classic’s 3D match engine looks a bit 8-bit, but is still a massive improvement on Handheld’s 2D presentation. Being able see players running around, watching who’s playing well and who’s not, really adds to the management experience, as does being able to issue instructions from the dugout during a match.

News Shopper:

The new Classic tablet game clearly has much greater tactical depth and higher level of detail than the handheld version. This ranges from big things such as the vast array of team set-up options to little things which still make a big difference to the authenticity, such as having a reserve team you can actually make use of.

One thing I’ve been a bit disappointed with so far is the lack of media interaction. Perhaps it’s because I’ve chosen to manage a non-league team, though it’s still surprising News Shopper hasn’t been on the phone in the game asking for an interview with this star manager in the making.

No matter what format it’s in, Football Manager is an epic game with no real end point so it’s difficult to know at what stage I’ve played enough of it to give a credible final verdict. I’m obviously not there yet so come back later for it when I’ve played some more – and I’ll share more news on how far I’ve managed to take the mighty Bromley.