Charlton's Mervyn Day advises on CM5

Eidos has signed Charlton Athletic's Mervyn Day to work as a consultant on Beautiful Game Studios' Championship Manager 5, which is due out later this year. During his footballing career, Day played for the likes of West Ham United, Leyton Orient, Aston Villa, Leeds United and Carlisle United, and coached Leeds and Everton before joining Alan Curbishley as Charlton's number two in 1998.

One of his priorities for CM5 is to expand and develop the training programmes in the game, as he himself put it in the obligatory quote: "My main role is advising the boys on what is realistic and true to life football-wise," he said. "I'm devising a realistic training programme that takes in the needs of the whole club. Hopefully my involvement can contribute to the continued success of the Championship Manager series and further improve the realism of the game."

It may well do. Or, we should say, Day's involvement may well contribute to Eidos' continued success with the Championship Manager brand. The team behind the series' previous success, Sports Interactive, is currently hard at work on the inaugural Football Manager title, which would have been CM5 were it not for the Islington-based developer's separation from brand-owning publisher Eidos at the end of 2003.

Championship Manager 5 (Beautiful Game Studios/Eidos) and Football Manager 2005 (Sports Interactive/Sega Europe) should both be out later this year.