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Football Manager 2011 unveiled

Due out before Christmas.

SEGA's announced Football Manager 2011.

It'll be released for PC and Mac before Christmas this year.

A PlayStation Portable version, called Football Manager Handheld 2011, will also be released before Christmas.

FM2011's got real-time contract negotiations, a revamped training system and match engine improvements.

There's a new "match preparation" area of training so managers can give specific areas to focus on in the lead up to a match.

There are also more basic training schedules for players, and 14 different individual skill areas that you can focus your players on.

There are new boardroom and backroom requests and a new player interaction module that allows the manager to have private conversations with players and public conversations regarding players at other clubs.

Over 100 new animations have been added to the 3D match engine.

There are more player emotions, new player models, new stadiums, pitch textures, improved lighting, floodlit night matches and more goal celebrations.

The media module's been revamped, too, so managers can better keep up to date with events going on in their football world.

"And the most requested feature that the Sports Interactive community has asked for in the last few years, dynamic league reputation, which makes for an even more realistic model of the footballing world."

The series has sold more than six million copies worldwide, SEGA said.

From the official blurb: "For the first time ever, aspiring managers can now negotiate contracts with players in real time. And by working with a multitude of real-life football agents, Sports Interactive gained an insight as to how these negotiations can be made as realistic as possible in-game.

"Prepare to meet different types of agents in your contract talks; each with their own personality so will therefore need a different approach."

"At Sports Interactive, we always strive to give the end-user the best experience possible," said Miles Jacobson, studio director at Sports Interactive.

"The training system for example has always been the best we thought it could be, until now. We've found a way to make it even better!"

The first screenshots are below. We're speaking to Miles Jacobson in a bit. Pop any questions you've got in the comments below and we'll do our best.

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