In what can only be seen as another step along the road to the day when even our most treasured hobbies are played out by free-thinking robots, Everton football club has signed a deal with Sports Interactive, creator of the Football Manager series, giving the Toffee Men exclusive access to the latest FM incarnation's database of foreign talent.
 
David Moyes has gained himself access to the opinions of over 1,000 worldwide scouts who compile the data for the FM games; instantly getting his hands on the vital statistics of more than 370,000 individuals from the world's favourite sport. In the past, Football Manager has predicted the rise of such talents as Wayne Rooney, who began his playing career with Everton, Barcelona wunderkind Lionel Messi, and Aston Villa's Ashley Young.
 
No doubt Moyes' Premiership rivals are choking on their Ready Brek at the prospect of Goodison Park's youth academy being stuffed to the gills with burgeoning footie talent. Even more so because, claims Sports Interactive, this wasn't the first time it's been approached by a team looking for the inside edge. It won't have harmed Everton's cause any that the founders of SI, brothers Paul and Oliver Collyer, are die-hard Everton fans.
 
If nothing else, the story sheds light as to how Alex Ferguson got his red nose. All those hours staring at his PC screen looking for the next Cristiano Ronaldo have given his schnozz a healthy glow.