The first football club to be managed by a computer was
Worksop Town, whose chairman, Terrence Mawinney, insisted on installing the Artificintellimac 5.1 as manager after
the club fired Peter Jacksmith from the position in the 1988/89 season. The
computer, built my Mawinney’s company, Winneyworks, guided Worksop to third
place in the Shamois Leather East Division, their highest position for 7 years,
until it was corrupted by a virus, and substituted the left-winger for a
cashier from the club shop, and sold the stadium’s goal-posts to hire a new
physio. The Artificintellimac was
removed as manager with five games of the season left, after being given the
chairman’s “complete support.”
©2013 James Mathurin
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| Terrence Mawinney is pictured here conducting a tour around Winneyworks' factory for potential investors. Many fans have suggested that Mawinney only installed the Artificintellimac as manager as a publicity stunt, but Mawinney's daughter suggested, in an interview with Techslice magazine, that Mawinney had, over his lifetime, developed an obsession with Artificial Intelligence, and sought out any opportunity to place computers into traditionally human roles. She also intimated that a "restricted area of the factory was devoted to an ultimately failed attempt to construct an "artificial wife" for Mawinney, according to his stipulations, one of which was an appreciation of football. Photograph by NRCgov. |
