Earlier today I was talking with a colleague at work about the upcoming start of the domestic football season. Yes, the World Cup was brilliant and yes, the Champions League qualifying rounds have been going for a few weeks, but the start of the domestic season is something else. It also got me to start thinking…”when will the new Football Manager be announced? It is normally at this time of the year isn’t it?” And lo, when I go home and checked my emails, word was with me that the game had indeed been announced today.

As such, the long wait now begins. Not content with making us wait until November to see the game release, we going to have to wait until October before Sports Interactive start to reveal the main new features of the upcoming game. That in itself will be a long wait, especially as Sports Interactive and head honcho Miles Jacobson normally rustle up some fun ways to reveal the new features.

I feel obliged to provide you with more than 170 words in this news post, so here are some details on pre-order offers and such-like.

From today, the game is available to pre-order, both online and on the high street, and anyone who does pre-order will enjoy access to a beta version of the game roughly two weeks before its official on-sale date.

In addition, those who register with Sports Interactive’s new free-to-join supporter’s club, inSIder, before the close of the English transfer window will be rewarded with an exclusive discount when they pre-order the game from the SEGA store (offer available until 11pm BST on 1.9.14).

inSIder is a thank you to loyal fans of Sports Interactive that will give an inside track into the studio and what it is working on, as well as special offers and competitions on a regular basis.

For more details or to sign up, go to www.footballmanager.com.

Now you are fully up to date you can get ready to see another few months of your life disappear to football, both real and simulated.