The everyday blog of Richard Bartle.
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8:38am on Thursday, 8th October, 2026:
Weird
I'm still playing Football Manager 2024, and am currently top of the Premier League with Burnley. It's not that I care much for Burnley, but they offered me a job after they were relegated to the Championship, so I took it as a way to get into the Premiership the following season.
Anyway, this game takes almost a minute to load. Its opening screen shows a team celebrating the scoring of a goal. Here's the centrepiece of it:

The chap on the right seems to be showing a level of admiration for the scorer that goes beyond "hooray, you scored a goal".
Although there are doubtless scores, if not hundreds, of gay male professional footballers right now, there are currently none in the top four divisions who are out of the closet. Contrast this with the case for female professional footballers, where there are so many that some of the non-gay players feel obliged to wear mascara to signal the fact that they're straight.
I don't know if the Football Manager 2024 title screen is deliberately trying to break down barriers, but even if it isn't, I guess it could be helping to do so regardless.
Oh, and if anyone knows how to beat a 4-2-2-2 formation, let me know. I'm having trouble with Manchester United.
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Copyright © 2026 Richard Bartle (richard@mud.co.uk).