It's a common tactic in football punditry to look back at last season's teams, stats, and bold pronouncements, and to use them as a means to measure progress in the here and now.
Let's try it with Football Manager Handheld 2015. In last year's Football Manager Handheld 2014 review, I concluded:
"Football Manager Handheld 2014 remains the best football management game on iOS, but it’s a big fish in a small pond. Other platforms have shown that a portable version of the full game is viable, and should be the target from 2015."
So, has that target been reached?
Well run clubNo it hasn't, is the disappointing (if somewhat predictable) answer
This is still the best football management game on mobile by some distance, though. You can still rattle through a season as the manage of your favourite football club fairly snappily, dipping in to get involved with transfers and tactical tweaks as you see fit.
There's an improved 2D match engine that shows match highlights a little more convincingly than before, and a new Scouting Agency system that summarises the top 50 senior or young players in the world - handy for quick-fire purchases, if you have the virtual money.
When it comes to offering a precis of the desktop Football Management experience, this is compelling stuff.
Ambitions not metBut by now we want more. There's no sign of that desktop-like experience we craved last year.
This is still a very simple take on the FM experience built on a rather clunky framework. You still have to enter another menu to get related links, rather than being able to just touch any UI element or name for more related information.
And despite some extra welcome UI improvements elsewhere, this is essentially the same slightly ugly '90s spreadsheet-like experience as before.
Of course, it hasn't lost its ability to drag you in for one more game (ten consecutive times). But the lack of movement in areas such as match-day tactics is looking like more of a limitation every year.
Limited roleIf an opposition team report is going to recommend that I man-mark a particular player, why not offer me the option to assign a specific member of my team to execute such a task?
And, why can't I give out specific player instructions beyond setting a general role for them?
All in all, match days feel like a curiously hands-off, slightly randomised experience. Perhaps that reflects the essentially powerless nature of football management, but it left me questioning the worth of my tinkering in the areas that I could control.
Another year, another opportunity missed to give us what most Football Manager fans really want - a version of the great game that shares more of its DNA with the desktop versions.
Improvements have been made in Football Manager Handheld 2015, but they feel like mowing the pitch and slapping a coat of paint on the changing room doors when the team's ageing engine room needs replacing.