PES Chronicles

Singers FC are top of Division 2 at the halfway stage of the season. Here in this mid-season negotiation period I don’t need to get a load of new players. But I want to get some new players. It is very strange…

Is there a PES Master League player who is not conditioned to buy as many great players as he can in every negotiation period? It’s just the way you get after the difficult first season(s). Often it’s best to restrain yourself and simply make do with what you’ve got.

There are a couple of drawbacks to bringing in new players in PES Master League. The game models Teamwork, which is based on how effectively your individual players play together. New players will not fit in well to your team for a couple of games, or sometimes even longer. Passes will go astray and shots will go wide. (So how does that differ from normal? I hear somebody ask, waggishly.)

My squad has shown me that it’s more than capable of getting me what I want from this season—promotion—and perhaps even the Division 2 title as well. I don’t need to bring anyone else in.

Still, a few more players won’t hurt. But only a few. And they’ve got to be the right players. Players I need. Players who can fill a specific role in my squad.

I’ve had Morfeo in my squad ever since the first mid-season negotiations. He’s been good for me—he was great in his first season or so—but it’s time to move him on. He’s 36 and decidedly average now. He always was average, of course, it’s just that now he’s among much better players and it really shows.

I traded Morfeo for a player called Rasnic (AMF/SMF, both sides, 26 years old).

I won’t say too much now but Rasnic looks as if he could be a star.

He lacks pace, and he lacks any real special ability traits (such as Middle Shooting) that could make up for the lack of speed, but his other stats are all on the high side. Maybe he’ll be one of those players like Marcos from my last career who just comes from nowhere and turns out to be great and you have no idea why.

I also had a look through the Youth list to see who had popped up. Somebody worthwhile always pops up in the mid-season. That’s when the players who have retired at the end of the previous season reappear as 17-year-old Regens.

This time, I saw Stam and couldn’t resist him. (And isn’t that a great likeness of Stam, pictured right? The man looks like a Bond villain, no question.)

I also picked up Andy Cole—a player I had in my last ML career, and one of the few I’m allowed to have again this time around.

And that was it. Just three players coming in, with one going out as ballast in the deal for Rasnic. But I’m still left with 27 players in the squad. One of my key House Rules in this Master League career is that my squad can be no larger than 25 players. I had to decide on two players to release. (I did put some players up for sale, but that was a forlorn hope…)

One of the players released could be a Default player. Another key House Rule is that I must keep at least 5 of the original Default squad players at all times. I had 6 left: Valeny, Macco, El Moubarki, Libermann, Gutierrez, and Ordaz. One of them could go: I decided it was Valeny. The others have all got things going for them that Valeny hasn’t.

Which left me needing to ditch one other player from the remainder of my squad. It was tough, but I settled on Cassano. He’s been average for me out there on the right, and now that I’ve got Andy Cole I’ll be developing him from the start. I have other strikers who can play when Cole doesn’t. I don’t need Cassano. So it was bye-bye…

…and the game tried to scare me about it. What does it mean, Cassano will be sorely missed? I think that the game is telling me that jettisoning Cassano could cause my team popularity to fall, but that thing’s just window dressing. The team/player popularity mechanic is so half-heartedly modelled in PES2008 that it might as well not be there at all. The only times I have ever sensed it having any effect on the game was during my first ML career when I couldn’t persuade any clubs or players to negotiate with me in the transfer market. Otherwise, nothing. Nada, zip.

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Andy Cole slots into Cassano’s vacant right-sided CF position. Rasnic and Stam can stay on the bench for now. There are 18 games to go. I’m sure they’ll both see plenty of meaningful action before this important season is finished.