Pre-season negotiations 2012
I want to win the Treble in season 2012. This is my #1 ambition in PES2008 right now. I really want to restart Master League with a new team in a super-tough custom League with all the settings on Very Hard. I’ll even ban myself from having any players that I’ve already had in this ML. I’m also toying with the idea of banning myself from playing a 4-3-3 formation. If I had the option to start with just 10 players in every game, I’d take it. I’m worried about the future for me and PES2008.
I’ve decided that I have to win a Treble with my existing team first, though.
As things stand, I’m sure I could skip through pre-season negotiations without getting any players and still be in with a great chance of winning the Treble. But a few new players won’t do any harm at all. There are still more than a few stiffs in my squad. It never hurts to have several quality players for every position
After a good season 2011, with lots of goals, I am rich. After finishing in 3rd place, I am rich. After winning the Golden Boot with Schwarz, I am rich. I have almost 50,000 points; my salary bill is about 20,000. I am rich.
(Not as rich as I have been in the past, though. I remember one post-season on PES4 when I had 155,000 points to spend. That was after a lot of seasons.)
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I didn’t schedule any pre-season friendlies at all. I’m impatient to just get on with things.
I pulled out all the stops to get Mathieu and Micah Richards in the first week of negotiations. I was so keen to get them that I didn’t bother looking for any other players. I’ll cut a long story short, right now: I didn’t get either of them in the whole 8 weeks of negotiations.
I offered silly money and some of my best players as trade-ins. The clubs always accepted. There were no problems there. The players wouldn’t accept. As I’ve mentioned before, I refuse to pay inflated wages. Their current salaries were 1050 and 1100 points. I wouldn’t go higher than 1600 salary points for either of them.
Yes, if I’d offered 2000+ points and/or 1-year contracts, I’d almost certainly have got one or both of them. But no player in the game is worth unbalancing the books for, no matter who they are. And, to be honest, Mathieu and Richards aren’t all that special.
Mathieu at age 25 would be a great buy – but at age 30? I don’t think so. I need to win the Treble in this coming season. For once in my PES Master league life, I’m not really looking to build for the future. This is why I have not gone hunting in the Youth list for a couple of negotiation periods now. I just want to ‘complete’ this Master League and move on.
This is very unusual for me. From PES4 to PES6, I was a one Master League player. I played the same career from late October one year to late October the next. It hurts me to think about breaking that grand tradition in PES2008. In PES5 especially, Master League on Top Player/Normal/Normal in the default Leagues was consistently challenging. PES2008 is a step or two back for the series in so many ways – but not least in terms of its relatively low difficulty once you get over the initial struggles with the Default squad. Curse you Seabass!
All of this is brave talk indeed for a player (me) who has only one D1 Cup to his name in five full seasons so far. I’m talking the talk. I’d better start walking the walk…
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After it became clear to me that I was not going to get Mathieu and Richards, I just shrugged it off and got some other players:
Giovinco – AMF, 25 years old. A quality midfielder who can play in several positions. Stats in the high yellows or reds. I traded Chiesa and paid 3500 points on top. Chiesa has been quite disappointing. His great years are several seasons away. I don’t plan to be playing this Master League in several seasons’ time. I’m building for the now, not for the future.
Jansen – left-sided SB, 25 years old. Traded Weir for him, and paid 500 points. This was one of those negotiations where I didn’t have to pay any extra points. The game judged Weir to be worth more than Jansen. Hmmm. I disagree. To secure the deal, I handed over 500 points. I could afford it.
Kaiser – CMF/SMF/DMF, 22 years old. I was surprised to get this fella. An all-time PES legend, I thought he had ‘Negotiations broken down’ written all over him. I offered Donadel plus 7000 points. Kaiser accepted. I spent a minute exulting over his existing stats (great) and his development curve (stupendous). I felt a pang of regret that if my wishes for season 2012 come true I’ll have to wait a good long while before being able to get him again in my next career.
Marchisio – an AMF with middle shooting who’s been on my shortlist for a few seasons. Finally got him. Very similar to Djiba and Delgado in some ways, but with much more of an attacking bent. I traded Boyd for him, and paid a couple of thousand points.
Beerens – WF/AMF. Traded Frutos for him, and paid several thousand points on top. I have high hopes for this player. On paper he looks to have it all – pace, stamina, strength, shooting – and he’s only 24 years old. Out of all six signings, only Kaiser is better than him.
Iwam Russell – aka Ian Rush – CF, 25 years old. The original and (in my opinion) best goal-poacher extraordinaire. I got him from the Unbelonging list where he’s been for a couple of seasons now. I had to make room in my squad, so I terminated Folan’s contract. Rush has pretty average stats in most areas right now, but his Scoring special ability is there (obviously), and I need someone to play when Schwarz cannot. Someone who is a real fox in the box.
Here’s my full squad for the 2012 campaign:
It’s a slight worry that I’ve jettisoned four strikers and only brought in one true replacement. It looks as if I have too many defenders and midfielders. But enough of those midfielders have secondary positions up front (WF, SS, CF) to cover. Shimizu and Beerens in particular are more or less out-and-out strikers.
Now for the new First XI:
Only two additions – Jansen at left back, and Kaiser on the right of midfield. I remember playing him there in PES5 where he was sensational. I did consider putting Kaiser in at DMF and moving Bradley to the right, but Kaiser’s attacking attributes decided it.
As ever, the First XI is more symbolic than anything else. All of my top players will probably end up starting a roughly equal number of games. I have a pre-tournament qualifying tournament for the European Championships (i.e. the Champions League) to get through in the first few weeks of the season. It’s always a slog when you have to qualify. I think I’ve got the squad to cope. More importantly, I think I’ve now got the experience with the game itself to avoid repeating last year’s disappointing early exit from Europe.
So: I’ve got to win the League. I’ve got to win the D1 Cup. I’ve got to win the European Cup. In any other PES year, I’d have thought it a tall order so soon after a fairly mediocre season. Not this year.
Let the games begin.
Impressive line-up. Definitely up for the challenge. I’m trying the same in 2011. Four of your players are in my team too: Bradley, Guimarães, Mattson and Kaiser. Good luck! Though I suppose you’re already finishing the season by now.
Impressive line-up. Definitely up for the challenge. I’m trying the same in 2011. Four of your players are in my team too: Bradley, Guimarães, Mattson and Kaiser. Good luck! Though I suppose you’re already finishing the season by now.
good luck winning everything, whats your team’s hexagon like now?
I like knowing who is in your team, but could i suggest for the future that you (i know it will be very time-draining, so sorry lol) show the stats of each player in your team? I have only heard of half your team (considering the large player list), and then there is also the factor of which season the player is in, whether you bolstered up their stats etc. – THAT would be interesting.
I havent seen Beerens before, Ill be having a look for him, Kaiser also, hasnt appeared in my game yet
The treble! I can feel it!
What is your WEFA ranking at the start of this season?
And how can Ian Rush be average? Do classic players spawn in to the game a la PES4?
Thats a a bit of a challenge there for you
I haven’t ever done the treble on ‘top player’ before.
If I got it by 2012 I’d be happy (trying to challenge for promotion atm in 2009 (currently 2nd 5 games past midseason).
Thanks all for the good wishes for the next season. As I’ve said in the post, my main motivation is to ‘complete’ this ML career so I can restart a Superleague ML career. But the Treble is also worth pursuing for its own sake. If I miss out I’ll be gutted as I really should be able to walk over 90% of teams by now, and play cannily enough against the other 10% to get the results needed. We’ll see.
Mirandinha – I am a long way into season 2012, yes, but nowhere near the finish. I estimate I’ll finish on Friday or Saturday, by which time we still won;t have got much past the early stages on the blog. I might go back to 2 posts per day to catch up and keep pace with real-time. It all depends. I work full-time and on my days off I like to write a good few posts in advance so that I’m not under pressure on workdays to get a post done.
David – I’m going to have to disappoint your thirst for my players’ stats in depth this ttime round. I tried doing it a week or two ago when you first suggested it. I sat and patiently jotted down a couple of players’ details. That took ages and I tried taking screen photos instead. Those were not satisfactory: for the stats to be visible I had to get really close; for all the stats to be seen, I had to take three or four shots up close. I would then have had to join them all together in an image editor. So both of those ways, I’m afraid, are not going to work. Maybe as a one-off now and then, but not a regular thing.
HOWEVER! I will be running regular league and cup tables this season.
And – I’m toying with the idea of taking this blog ‘up a level’. I won’t say much about what THAT could mean right now but if I do take it ‘up a level’, then yes, regular and minutely detailed screenshots and discussions about stats etc. will definitely be on the cards.
For the moment, though, this blog is a hobby and a sideshow to the main event – playing PES.
ck – Ian Rush is distinctly average right now as he’s sat in the Unbelonging list for six seasons without playing. He is a classic player.
The difference between PES2008 and its predecessors is that you have to unlock the classic players by winning things in the game first. When I won an International Cup as England, I unlocked a group of them. When I won the D1 Cup in this Master League a few seasons ago, I unlocked another group. Winning anything in any game mode unlocks another group. There are no PES points in PES2008. It’s all unlocking. I dislike it. PES points would have been better. I don’t WANT to have to play an Asian Cup to unlock a bunch of classic players, thank you very much. It all smacks of a last-minute rush job to me…
Paul – How are you finding your Superleague?! I can’t wait to start mine. As for Trebles on Top Player… it depends on the version of PES, but I’ve always been able to win them eventually. PES4: quite easy, virtually guaranteed every season after 2011 or so. PES5: very tough, only three Trebles in 32 full seasons. PES6: hard but more doable, two Trebles in about 15 full seasons. I don’t remember specifically about PES3 and before. All I can remember about PES3 is that Stoichkov was a superb striker with a lethal left foot!
I think i may join you when you decide to start a super league. I do have the concern that the same sort of thing will happen with the game becoming stupidly easy after 5 or so seasons once you are rid of all the defaults and can bring in virtually whoever you like. Although hopefully it will have slightly more longevity than a standard ML like your playing now
Stinger – it remains to be seen if I can win the Treble this season like I think I ought to, but if most of last season is anything to go by PES2008 is stupidly easy in single player – ML anyway. I’ve had a few more games online where it feels different – *completely different* – and isn’t so easy. I suspect they made PES2008 to be ultra-playable online and forgot to refine the single-player to the level they should have done.
When I do eventually start my Supeleague I’ll post full details of which teams I’ve put where. Whenever that is. It’s not certain that I will win the Treble in the current ML, but I’ll have been careless and/or complacent if I don’t.