One of our users asked on Twitter whether we could display the ratings of the other teams in the game. It was a good question, and we thought we'd write up our answer here so we could explain it in more detail.

There are various reasons why we've chosen not to display the ratings of the other teams. The main reason is that, in real life, teams don't have "ratings".

Obviously ratings are part and parcel of football management games - without them, it would be impossible to play the game. How would you know if that new striker is better than the ones already in your squad? How would you decide which manager to appoint? And so on.

So for any part of the game that requires you to make an informed decision, it's vital that there are some ratings or statistics that would enable you to make that choice.

But opposition teams don't fall into that category.

The rating of your opponents makes no difference to your job as chairman. Your task is to help the manager build the strongest possible squad, within the limits of your club's finances. If your opponents have better squads, there's nothing you can do about it.

The original message on Twitter said that it would be especially useful to see your opponent ratings after your team has been promoted, so you can work out how well your club might do in the higher division.

And while that's a very understandable comment, the current situation reflects the way that football works in real life. When your club gets promoted, there's a sense of excitement and trepidation about how things will work out the following season.

Will the momentum of promotion carry your team upwards for another successful season at a higher level? Or will you struggle in a relegation battle? In real life, clubs (and fans) don't know the answer to those questions, and that's how it works in our game too.

Another very important reason why we don't display opponent ratings in the game is that, if we did, it may encourage people to over-analyse the results of individual matches.

"My team is rated 65 but I just lost to a team rated 60!"… "Why did I only manage a draw against a team rated 10 points lower than me?"… "How come we got knocked out of the cup by a team 25 points below us?"

Questions like these would crop up all the time, and we'd get users convinced that our game was "unfair" every time their team failed to beat lower-rated sides. (They would, of course, conveniently overlook all the occasions when their team gets a surprise win against a higher-rated opponent!)

So no, we're not going to start displaying the ratings of the opposition teams. But, if you really want more information, the game does already give you the data in more subtle ways.

Just before every season, there's a news story where "media experts" give an indication of how the season might pan out, with their predictions of the teams who'll be at the top and bottom of your division.

That should give you a good indication of whether you're likely to be challenging for the title, scrapping for relegation, or anonymous in mid-table.

The fans also let you know where they expect the club to finish - and they are normally pretty good at coming up with a fair reflection of your chances. Unless you've swayed their opinions with your own prediction, of course!

During the season, the match previews before each game give an indication of how you would expect to fare in that particular fixture.

And once you've progressed up a couple of divisions, it should be easy enough for you to work out the actual ratings you might need to challenge for promotion in any given league.

We’ll start you off with Non-League C: a team rated around 25 would be at the bottom of the league, and a team rated 35 should be somewhere near the top. There are lots of other factors too - your manager’s rating, for instance - but hopefully you’ll get the rough idea…