I think it was Premier Manager 98 on ps1.
I've played pretty much every manager there is.. But I think the first one I played was Premier Manager 1997, it has Oxford United in the Championship (Division 2) and that was enough to make it sick! I also remember playing Premier League Manager 2000, that was probably my favourite football manager game ever. Both PS1 titles.
WoW I might be the oldest guy on the forum. I first played the original Football Manager back in 1986 on the Sinclair ZXSpectrum (It was already a few years old then)
You can actualy play it for free along with tons more old Spectrum games at this cool website. Just choose Football Manager from the list and away you go... Doubt it has Bale, Ganso, Kadlec etc
http://www.zxspectrum.net/