Sir Alex Ferguson is in trouble again. Not content with official Martin Atkinson bending the laws of space and injury time to allow Michael Owen to curve the ball past Shay Given in the Manchester derby; he's now deflected attention away from his team's continuing inability to defend by suggesting that Alan Wiley, the man in charge of his side's draw with Sunderland, is basically the Rik Waller of refereeing. This is grossly unfair. At no point in the game did Mr Wiley become beached in the centre circle and have to be righted by the combined efforts of grounds staff and The St John's Ambulance, or inadvertently produce a KitKat Chunky Caramel instead of a yellow card. The FA's new respect campaign means that no one, not even the most dour and Scottish amongst us, can question a Ref's eyesight, impartiality and parentage as happily and freely as we use to, and it's a similar situation with Championship Manager. In the years after old developers Sports Interactive left to create Football Manager, many frequently commented that CM was un-fit to even be on the same pitch as their new rivals; but thanks to the advances Eidos' series has made in its' latest edition, to do so now would be a serious health risk.

Last season's self-enforced sabbatical for the franchise has allowed developers Beautiful Game Studios to really get to grips with the enormity of producing a management game of serious quality. The leaps and bounds the series has come on could surely not have been achieved within the normally hectic time frame between yearly updates. Championship Manager 2010 is not only a more well-rounded experience, it's also pushing the boundaries of the genre in a number of important directions; becoming a real contender to Football Manager by defining and refining its own personality into something other than being FM's understudy.

While consideration has obviously been given to catering for the casual player - the game can be set up to take almost any responsibility you dislike off your hands, and even the manual has been split up into separate basic and advanced sections - CM 2010 has depth in abundance beginning with its training options.

One of CM's biggest successes is the way it manages to clearly display a lot of pertinent information on a single screen. The main training page, for example, gives you a breakdown of the different components that make up a particular training schedule, the changes of player improvement under this regime, and a bar graph, which looks like it comes from a sports science A-Level course, that plots intensity against benefits in different areas - Sam Allardyce would be in heaven. From this screen you can switch between the information on each of the training programmes, assign different schedules to different players, design you own ones, or watch players run various types of drills and take part in practice matches. In these days of severely tight economics, these last two options are particularly useful. With the need for every member of your squad to step up and contribute, being able to run the rule over individuals current on your books, and any you offer a trial to, means you now have more chance than ever to get the balance right, and avoid carrying any dead wood that may sink you in a competitive game.

One area of pre-match preparation that CM 2010 allows you to invest in even further is that traditional training ground favourite, the set-piece. Using an overhead view of the pitch, and player markers that you can drag around, the game's set-piece creator breaks down the process into individual steps, during each of which you can give instructions to the player with the ball and the other members of your team. Once you get use to the way the system works, it's easy to use and manages to capture the key conundrum at the heart of any dead ball situation - do you go for something complex that could just as easily end in masterpiece or mayhem, or opt for simplicity and risk predictability?

If, even after making use of all these new aids, you feel your current ranks still aren't up to job, then it might be time to dip into the murky waters of the transfer market. In the past this would usually mean a visit to the player lists, where you would spend hours finding, and then forgetting, the names of players you're interested in, and cursing those who you set your heart on, only to find out they have no interest in joining you. In CM 2010, however, it's now much easier than ever before to dip your toe before taking the plunge. The game's Scouting Network options provide you with an easy-to-use map of the world, from which you can decide how much of you pot of cash you wish to allocate to unearthing talent in individual countries. Unlike similar features in previous years, given a little time, this one actually works, providing you with players you'd actually consider signing, rather than those who are either too old or whose stats are way too low.

Something that makes scouting even more important in CM 2010 is the new Player Knowledge system. An on-screen gauge shows you how accurate your current knowledge of a player's stats are, and as you gather more information on them, and the gauge rises, the figures continue to change, becoming more precise and revealing the true picture. The idea may be no more than a development of the 'Fog of War' mechanic in Football Manager, but it's a much more subtle and accurate recreation of how teams develop portfolios on players before deciding to pull the trigger on a transfer, and it's vital to use it if you're going to avoid the embarrassment of a 'Graeme Souness and George Weah's cousin' scenario.

Both the Scouting Network and Player Knowledge features are part of an overall transfer system that's now more dynamic than ever before. Predictable and unpredictable in equal measures, you really feel involved in the agony of making and awaiting decisions, and the joy or despair that comes as a consequence. All this, and you've probably yet to see your side kick a ball in anger - which is now a more enjoyable and important way to spend your time thanks to Championship Manager's new 3D match engine.

Over recent years the transition from two to three dimensional representations of matches has been the most obvious area of focus for developers, but until now even the mighty FM has only been able to muster a pretty ropey attempt. CM 2010 changes all that however, with an engine that fills games with colour and personality. For anyone who remembers the matches in Codemasters' LMA Manager titles on the PS2, Champ Man now resembles something very similar. The flow of games up and down the pitch and the moves teams put together are believable, and while there's the odd visual glitch, most notably the way when players kick the ball the top and bottom haves of their bodies don't seem to be connected, the animations are amazingly detailed and varied for the genre, with outfield players performing tricks and sliding in for chances while goalkeepers spread themselves Schmeichel-style to deny opponents what look like certain goals.

As its' key post-match selling point, for its' last few iterations Championship Manager has proudly sported the inclusion of Prozone - the data collection system that allows you to analyse in minute detail various aspects of a game after it's been played. Despite its' huge potential though, in the past it's a feature that's been seriously hamstrung by the inability to do much in the rest of the game to address any issues you've identified with it. Thanks to CM 2010's new framework of transfers, training and tactical possibilities, team-talks and other interactions with players, as well as the helpful observations provided by your Assistant Manager, the Prozone tools now come much closer to the achieving the value they're regarded with in real football; although they still paint a picture in incredibly fine detail while the rest of the title works in slightly broader strokes.

While the Prozone issues of the past have now been addressed to some degree, there are other areas of CM 2010 that Beautiful Game could go back to the tactics board on, with the most obvious being some completely unbelievable opportunities in the transfer market. While it's a nice touch that agents will offer you the chance to sign their players who are currently at other clubs, whilst managing Liverpool the first two individuals I was informed were interested in joining my club were Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs, and, after politely turning these enquiries away, I was then able to sign Arsenal wonder kids Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere for £3m and £2.5m respectively. The navigation and in-game help could also be improved in places, with a longing for the breadcrumbs feature in Football Manager and the need to refer to the manual cropping up on a number of occasions. Finally, there are the media options, and its here that CM is still definitely playing second fiddle to Football Manager, with lots of tabloid chatter but no real chances to interact with the press.

Football management games have now come so far that we no longer really speak of the stacks of leagues, hundreds of teams and thousands of players they include. These are all taken as a given. CM 2010 even comes with the option to sign up for CM Season Live, another new feature in which you'll receive monthly, real-world updates throughout the course of the year. It's yet another feather in the cap of a series that's now performing at international level; providing a wide range of options that compliment each other well, resulting in a more cohesive whole that's now a true alterative to Football Manager. The respect campaign for Championship Manager 2010 starts right here.

Reviewed by James Hamblin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).