Singers FC: pre-season negotiations 2009
The first week of negotiations immediately presented me with a dilemma. Two CPU teams made bids for my players. One bid was 5000 points for Ruskin; the other bid was 7800 points for Altintop.
Both players were key members of my squad, especially Altintop with his burgeoning talent. What to do?
Okay. I’ve been thinking about doing this, and I’m going to do it: I’m changing my House Rules to include a rule that I heard about elsewhere.
From now on, “if a higher-ranked side comes in for a player, and offers the listed price or greater, he must be sold.”
This means I had to sell Ruskin and Altintop, right now. It hurt, but I did it. Away they went.
The point of this kind of House Rule is to make the transfer market more realistic. In reality a team that finished 6th from bottom of a league’s lower division (as I did last season) would never be able to keep a player that a better team wanted to buy. Even if the club declined the offer, the player himself would most likely rebel and the team would be unsettled. So in most cases it’s best to sell such players. That’s how the dynamics of the transfer marketplace operate in the real world, and now it’s in my Master League career as well.
But… I’ve got to include a personal caveat with the new House Rule.
Master League, for me, is immersive and compulsive for many reasons. One of those reasons is being able to get young players with average abilities and grow them over many seasons into superstars. I would sorely miss this aspect of Master League if I had to sell my best youngsters as soon as they showed a spark of a talent.
So I won’t sell them. Not all of them. I’m going to designate three members of my squad as protected players—they don’t have to be sold if bids come in for them. Two of those three players will be Camacho and Maldini.
And the third protected player will be… Mathieu.
I finally got him. Flush with cash from the sales of Altintop and Ruskin, I made two straight bids (just money, no exchanges) for Mathieu and a decent-looking striker called Cassano. Both bids were successful.
Throughout my first ML career as Coventry City, for five full seasons, I tried and failed to sign Mathieu, even when my team ranking was ‘A’ and then ‘S’. I have no idea why I’ve suddenly been successful in getting him this time around.
For the past three PES years, Mathieu has been the rock upon which I have built my teams. I’ve never played him as a left-back (unless injuries or suspensions have forced me to). Mathieu’s best position in PES is his alternate DMF position. Not even the likes of Gerrard has played better for me as a DMF through all the years.
Here’s Mathieu on the pitch in my first pre-season friendly, wearing the sky blue of Singers FC. I could hardly stop cackling with maniacal glee…
I hope Mathieu will be as good for me in PES2008 as he was in the last few versions. I’ll file a full report on his progress toward the middle of the coming season. If he’s anything like his illustrious counterparts in PES5 and PES6, I should have scored a couple of super-long-range blockbusters with him by then. Here’s hoping.
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I bought a versatile WF called Melengue in a trade deal that saw Recoba depart from my squad. (Good riddance to Recoba: a good player, but absurdly unfit almost all the time. He only ever played about 1 game in 6.)
I also plucked a celebrated PES name out of the Youth list: Kompany, a CB. Both Melengue and Kompany are pictured to the left. Melengue has the most ridiculous hairstyle of any player I’ve seen on PES2008 so far. Kompany merely looks a bit camp. (Or kamp?)
I’ve never actually played with Kompany before, so I don’t know what to expect. At least the name ‘Kompany’ is rich in punning possibilities. If he has a couple of poor performances that materially affect my results, I’ll go straight for Bad Kompany, no messing.
I also picked up a decent young CB from the Rookies list called Serrano. Hiding in the Unbelonging list (always a must-see list for the stingy-minded ML manager) I found a great Brazilian left back called Marcelo. I needed a replacement for Ruskin. Marcelo and Bale will swap the left-back position between them.
I could have got plenty more players. Most of the cash from the Altintop and Ruskin transfers is still unspent. I’ve still got an excess amount of Default players in the squad. I could’ve gone mad on the transfer market if I wanted to. But I’m happy enough with the players I’ve brought in. I don’t want to buy new ones just for the sake of it. I’ll save my money to strengthen my squad in the mid-season period if necessary.
Here’s my new First XI and my 25-man squad in full:
Maldini drops to the bench, but he’ll still play in almost every game at either CB or SB. PES2008’s ‘quirky’ fitness and stamina modelling guarantees it. Caracciolo takes Altintop’s place as lead striker. Cassano displaces Kmolo. (And something occurs to me: 9 of my 25 players—over one third—have names that end in -O. I could easily assemble a novelty team made up entirely of such players. That might be one to think about for the future…)
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Pre-season friendlies. I only played the two matches that were chosen for me. Usually I like to skip pre-season friendlies completely, but when you have a lot of new players it’s always best to play a couple of meaningless games to enable them to settle down quicker. It still takes many more games for Teamwork levels to come up to scratch, but at least with two friendlies you’re getting a head start.
My friendly opponents were Lokomotiv Moscow and a South American Stars selection. I drew 1-1 with Lokomotiv. I was able to field most of my new signings from the start. Marcelo and Melengue are both very quick down the left side. Mathieu seems just as solid as ever, although I didn’t get any clear-cut chances to test his famous long-range shooting. They’ll come.
In the second game against the South American Globetrotters, I took a pounding. I was 0-3 down at half-time. Kompany was sent off as my frustrations grew. Somehow I prevented them from scoring any more goals, and then I noticed that their goalkeeper was taking all of their corners and free kicks. Near the end of the game, I got a consolation goal after one of their corners…
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And so to business. There’s real talent in this squad and I plan to challenge for the title, not just push for promotion. Plus I’ve got Mathieu at last…
“if a higher-ranked side comes in for a player, and offers the listed price or greater, he must be sold.”
Its a good rule its one I’ll be using!
Paul – credit goes to cklarock for that pithy quoted rule, which he’s operating in his Aylesbury Vale ML over on PESfan (linked to in the post above).
I’m not sure that he invented the rule (maybe he did!) but it certainly is effective. It took Altintop out of my squad just as he was starting to become almost Schwarz-like, which would have led to the game becoming easy again (probably).
I know I’m bending the rule slightly by allowing myself exceptions, but (for now) I just can’t stomach the idea of not allowing myself to watch talented young players grow in my ML team. At least there are only 3 protected players out of a squad of 25, and there are about 6 other players I’d hate to lose to a transfer bid.
I’ve had another idea for a House Rule: an under-25 squad, or even an under-21! Or what about an over-30 squad? There’s all kinds of ways to go.
I think your right, it will be an effective rule, I like it alot actually. In my new season I’ve only just got past the mid-season and nobody came in for anyone (I can’t see why they would either! lol) but its the way football goes.
I’m not suprised your bending your rules your do see quite fond of your developing players, I might feel differently once I lose someone but for now I hope to not have to reserve players.
Btw I’m not sure when you did it but thanks for linking my pesavg blog up there. I’ve had little time lately to do anything on (I had alot of stuff un-pubished) but its all changed. I hope to get it up and running properly soon. (I’m giving myself alot of work to do to get it off the ground!) but once I get a few niggles out of the way in terms of formatting I’ll let you know
The squad size thing is another one I”m going to be using, albeit not 25.
Btw I skimmed ove the pre-season thing before, goal keeper taking corners and free-kicks? If I get the chance I’ll play them and see if that happens – thats one hell of a bug if so – (Could be as good as ‘free money’ if your clever about it.)
On the subject of using under 25’s/21’s, would be a awesome challenge just won’t like the idea of giving anyone away. What about a 30+ team. Beckham could finally get picked regularly. No no that’s harsh i tend to buy him, decent English midfielder, allows me change my attack style drastically.
About the goal keeper taking all set-pieces, it’s alright just don’t depend on it as you will forget and try it regular season. Well only if your me
BTW, GD did you purposely put that smiley face on left of your web page? lol kinda funny actually…
Congrats on signing Mathieu, though I think he’s not as good as he was. You said you wouldn’t sign top class SBs, but then you go and sign Marcelo. Naughty. He’s in Dublin right now with Brazil’s international squad.
Great signings overall. Kompany is pretty good, but Cassano is weak.
I would play all 8 pre-season friendlies if I were you. That’s a good time to pile on the development points, and to score a lot of goals.
Paul – No worries about the link. I added it a few days ago. Get posting! I know it can be a pain having a blog that you have to work on regularly. This blog is my fifth, I think, over the years – I lost interest in all the others after a few weeks once the novelty had worn off (they weren’t PES-related). But when it’s a topic you’re really into and really is about something you really do every day (play PES), it’s easy to keep the enthusiasm going and update it every day. That’s what I plan to do anyway.
Lakriss – do you mean the little smiley on the top right of the page? Nothing to do with me. It’s part of the template design from Wordpress. This isn’t really my webpage, it’s hosted by them and the design is one of their numerous off-the-shelf templates. I could pay to be able to change the code, or I could move the blog to my own paid domain and have full control (I bought the domain name a couple of months ago), but I haven’t got the time at the moment and I’m happy enough with Wordpress for now.
Oh, and the goalkeeper who was taking corners and free kicks wasn’t mine – he was on the other team.
Mirandinha – It is a bit naughty to get Marcelo (and Kompany and Maldini and others) but I never said I wasn’t going to get good players. I did think about having a skill level cap but decided against it, hoping that my other restrictions – 25 players in the squad, no Elcherino-style dribblers, etc. – would do the job. So far those other restrictions are working well. And Marcelo – so far – isn’t anything more than just a good left back.
The player I’m most worried about at the moment – worried in the sense that he’s showing signs of having Elcherino-style skills on the ball (dribbling past defenders on Top Player as if it’s Beginner) – is Melengue. If he keeps it up he’ll have to go!
I have to disagree about Mathieu. He’s a very special player in PES. I’ve already played a few games of the season and while I’ve yet to start slamming in 40-yard screamers with him, he’s a great DMF, the best I’ve had so far in this career. Which isn’t saying much, admittedly, but it’s always a season or two before I get the Mathieu I know and love from years past.
I got a link! I feel like I’ve really hit the big-time! This is it, my PES internet ship has finally rolled in!
Thanks for the link.
As far as I know I invented the rule, although I’m sure many others have thought of it.
Like you, I feel it just makes the trials and travails of a small-market club a bit more realistic. So far, nobody wants my Vale lot — I get a few offers under market value, or offering some dodgy 32 year old SB in trade, but nobody wants to splash the cash for my raggedy underachievers.
And . . .
. . . dare I say
. . . MATHIEU!!!!!
Now you owe us the “why Mathieu is talismanic post” you’ve been promising!
ck – The ‘talismanic Mathieu’ post is coming. I’ve just got to wait for him to become talismanic again, otherwise there’ll be no point. It’s true that ‘vanilla Mathieu’ is an average player, but after a season or so in my ML teams he always becomes one of the greatest PES players ever, IMO. I just hope this isn’t yet another thing that next-gen PES2008 has – what’s the word? – BORKED. I believe that is the word…
Yeah, maybe I didn’t play him long enough, but I’ve been so impressed by Bradley at his peak that no other DMF can ever compare (none, including the great Mathieu, Lucas, Denilson, Prieto, Camacho, Machado and Corini).
are you creazy?
to my
i belive PALMIERI is best player than Mathieu also mathieu is worse than BERGER
they are my bs AND itrust in their abilitis