Pre-season 2010 negotiations
Delicate negotiations.
If I misjudge these and have another bad season like the one I’ve just finished (Played 14; Won 2; Drew 2; Lost 10), I could be risking a Game Over. Or worse.
I have dim memories—going way back now—of having to release players en masse in order to trim an ML salary bill down to its bare bones and avoid a Game Over. As it happened I turned that ML around, I think (it was PES4 or somesuch—I don’t properly recall), but I’d hate to have to try the same here.
The question is, do I want to go all-in and get as many good or great players as possible, and gamble that I’ll ‘click’ with the game this coming season—or should I just play it safe, make sure that I can pay the bills at season’s end, and let the games take care of themselves?
A compromise position, somewhere in-between, is what I went for.
Burchet’s contract was up for renewal. I didn’t renew it. I let him go. Usually that’s something I hate to do. Even the most mediocre player can be useful as trade-in fodder.
I thought I needed a dedicated left-sided AMF. Yamada just wasn’t doing it for me. I searched and found Nakamura available for a couple of thousand points. I couldn’t really afford it but I went for him anyway.
I also picked up an old friend, Chiesa, from the Youth list. I just can’t bring myself to call it the Rookie list. It’s the same distaste that makes me wince whenever I get to the Strip Selection stage, pre-game, and see that it’s called Uniform Selection. It’s just not right…
I also got a striker—yet another one; I’ve got far too many, really—called Sibon, who seems pretty poor stats-wise but has immense height and strength. If I have to muscle my way to a few results that’s what I’ll do.
Nakamura comes straight in on the left. I’m hoping his free kick ability will get goals. Yamada goes to the bench for now. I’m sticking with Handanovic as goalkeeper. His abilities are solid across the board. Lehmann is still a youngster and I can’t afford a rookie’s mistakes between the posts while I’m struggling. Maldini & co. are now 20+ years old, so they have fewer excuses. Must do better, lads.
All of which wheeler-dealering took my points tally down to just 1000-odd after paying the salary bill. That’s a little lower than I intended. I think I’ve just made most of this season 2010′s games do-or-die games…