Wanting it Bradley: pre-season 2012
Posted by: not-Greg in Bradley, First XI, negotiations, squad, tags: Bradley, First XI, negotiations, squadHave I mentioned yet that I dislike the next-gen version of PES2008? I might have mentioned it somewhere. Season 2012, my sixth season in this career on the last-gen, PSP/PS2 version, makes this the longest of my three PES2008 careers so far. The first two careers were on the next-gen PS3 version, so they don’t count. Usually I start just one career in October after the game’s release and then play that all year, but this year has not been a regular PES year.
Will I be playing this same last-gen career until the eve of PES2009’s release? Yes. Almost certainly. Barring accident, illness, or general misfortune, I’ll be playing this same Coventry City career for the next 6 months. Every day.
Will we—the wider gaming community at large—still have a concept of last-gen/next-gen consoles come October 2008? I think so. It’s the kind of usage that, once established, takes time to wear off. Games manufacturers have not helped the situation by releasing transparently rushed products onto the next-gen market. There’s a bitter taste in my mouth that won’t go away. Seabass, I am cursing at you.
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Onto my transfer activity (I do get wrapped up in my sermonising, don’t I?).
A strong finish to last season left me with 16,516 transfer points in the bank and an existing salary bill of only 9176. There’s plenty of room for manoeuvre and to build up my squad for the testing times ahead. In Division 1 I’ll be playing twice the number of games against significantly better opposition.
I shopped around, checking out all my favourite haunts—Openness to Negotiation, Youths, Advanced Search… I couldn’t seem to buy anyone, strangely.
For some reason no one would come to me, even from the Openness to Negotiation list. I think I know why. I noticed something in the PS3 version that’s just as true in this one. The players all want silly money.
For as long as I have played Master League on PES I have conducted Negotiations in a particular way. I rarely offer players more than their existing salary+100 or so points. In all but a few hardcore cases, this has been enough, down the years. But not in PES2008—you have to all but double their money in this version.
I know that lots of PES players do this anyway to be sure of getting their men, but I like to run a tight ship. The memory of almost going bankrupt and risking a Game Over a few seasons ago is especially raw. I can’t stand the thought of paying over the odds for just a couple of players. I’d rather spread the love and get myself a bunch of young players to develop. Yes, I was off to the Youth list again.
Ioannidis (DMF), age 17 - Looks like he’s got it all. A young clone of Mathieu and Bradley. Speaking of Bradley…
Bradley (CB/DMF/SMF), age 20 - Picked him up from some other club in a speculative trade offer: A Akman+4000 points. I was stunned when the offer was accepted. Akman is a fading, mediocre player. Bradley is… well, he’s Bradley. I’d all but stolen one of PES2008’s greatest players. Bradley was great on the next-gen version of the game, but so was almost everyone else. I never really appreciated him there. Here, on the last-gen version… Bradley is stupendously good. As I type this entry I’ve already played a few games with him—and wow. Just wow.
Bradley goes straight into my First XI as DMF, no messing. And it’s time for Roberto Carlos to claim his regular slot at left back. They’ll both occupy their roles in my team for the next ten seasons at least.
Up front, Podolski moves to the centre while Komol comes in on the left. Komol’s a natural right-footer so it’s not really the best place for him, but it’s the position he scored my greatest PES2008 goal so far from, and I have fond memories of playing Dennis Bergkamp in the same role in PES5, with magnificent results.
The weakest link in my First XI is Nakamura—he was good when I got him, but now he’s ageing and fading fast. As the only naturally left-sided midfielder in my squad he holds his place for now, but I’ll be looking to replace him in the mid-season negotiations.
And that was it. No one else came in. No one else went out. My squad size increases by one player to 23. They’re mostly pretty good players. I don’t expect to do brilliantly well in my first season in Division 1, but we’ll see.
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I’m quite suprised by your struggles for signing players, nothing to do with your teams ‘ranking’ is it?
I never struggled with getting players when they were over 70 and certainly not 80 for openess!
Nice that your out of the bottom division, still next-gen bashing I see though!
Nice site btw, shame about the advertising not really sure of it but your site, your rules.
Bradley- he is that damn good!
Oh yes I still have my PS2 and PSP versions. It is the 360 one I traded in..
Paww—my team is ‘A’ ranked at the moment. I’ve changed the style of blogging about my career lately, and that’s the kind of detail I’ve started leaving out. Naughty me.
When I’ve offered silly. ludicrous money for players, I get them, whereas offering their current salary+anything up to 500 points more=failure.
And I just can’t stop next-gen bashing, I’m sorry. Every time I tell myself that that’s it, I’ve given up for good, I just have to have one more little go, and then before I know it I’ve written a paragraph.
Still, for a game I now loathe, I did play it for 130+ hours. It’s not a bad game. It’s just not the great PES game I wanted it to be—I’ll always blame it for that.
Not Given—Bradley! Oh my god, Bradley! *kneels at the altar at the Church of Bradley*
I never thought I’d say it, but I’ve finally played with a DMF in PES who’s better than Mathieu. I’ll be saying that on a post too, in due course.