Pre-season 2015
Okay, it’s the pre-season negotiations and once again I don’t need any new players, but I want some. That’s just the way it is in PES Master League. It’s a twice-a-season habit. I also want to get rid of one or two players who are not living up to expectations. As they say on the Internet: Park Jyun-Hi, I am looking at you.
I’ve got silly money. Really silly money. Winning lots of games and spending no money: it’s a mathematical certainty.
I can buy anyone I want and not have to worry about the cost—within reason. Salaries in PES2008 are pretty ludicrous. I forgot to mention at this stage last season that Schwarz’s salary is around the 2200 mark. That’s just hideous. It’s a thousand more than my next-most-well-paid player. It’s fortunate this is only a computer game, otherwise my entire squad would be beating down my door asking for a pay rise.
Actually, I never offered Schwarz that much money—a bug in the system gave it to him. I’m on record as saying I dislike paying silly wages. There’s a weird bug in the transfer market this year where the amounts offered will show up as 1 point each (fee and salary). In Schwarz’s case, I offered him around 1300 points as salary, and he accepted, but when I checked the squad info screen after the transfer was complete, his salary was posted at the 2200 mark. I wasn’t happy but I had no choice. I had to accept it. It was a fait accompli. Thankfully Schwarz has been worth it, and thankfully I haven’t had any salary bill problems, but still, this transfer market bug (and it is a bug) is the kind of thing that could cause a Game Over under other circumstances. It wasn’t just the next-gen version that was rushed out unfinished…
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I visited the Openness to Negotiation list on a whim, and saw a Regenned 18-year-old Andy Cole sitting there just waiting to be picked up. I offered his club a player-plus-cash deal: Park Jyun-Hi and a token 1000 points as a sweetener. For the third time on all PES2008s this year, I now have Andy Cole in my squad.
For some reason the PES2008 powers-that-be love Andy Cole. He could only be considered an above-average striker in real life (IMO), but in PES2008—wow. He’s smokin‘, as I believe the kids say.
I also picked up Shubin, a talented Ukrainian AMF whom I’ve had on my shortlist since the start. Finally my team ranking is good enough to let me get him. He wouldn’t listen to any kinds of offers before.
I made a couple of rather forlorn, almost token bids for Rooney and Torres, who are both at Barcelona in my parallel PES world. Both of them are around the age of 30 and could have a great couple of seasons left in them yet. Alas, neither Barca nor the players were interested. Even the silliest offers—30000 transfer, 4000 salary, that kind of thing—were refused. I sort of knew I wouldn’t get them anyway. Looks like I’ll have to wait until they retire and regenerate.
Neither of my new signings are good enough to go into the First XI. Among my squad, I think Giggs and Larsson and Kim Cyun Hi could swap places with my entire forward line and do just as well, or better. There are lots of players like that in my squad—players who haven’t yet had a proper chance. Season 2015 is going to be a long one, I feel. Every single player will have to perform at some stage.
When I moved back to Kansas and started supporting the Wizards (Kansas...
Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke in the Man Utd days were a brilliant double act. He had his time and was top goal scorer for a couple of seasons too if I remember rightly. Had a very good goal to game ratio during the 90’s. Age hasn’t been kind to Cole though.
Paww – Andy Cole is one the few things I have ever agreed with Glenn Hoddle about. He really did need too many chances to score comparatively few goals. Yes, he was great for a season or two at Newcastle, and then for another season or two at Man Utd whilst in partnership with Dwight Yorke. But he always seemed inconsistent even when he was consistent! Do you know what I mean? I mean that I was never confident when he was on the ball that it was going into the net. That’s why I would only ever see him as an above-average striker instead of a great one.
In PES2008, on the other hand, he really is the consummate goal-scorer. He always had pace in real-life, and he has that in abundance on the game too.
True enough!
I was alot younger then (Only 10 when he was at Man Utd) so I wasn’t quite so attentive the details of the game. I was just happy when they scored.
I think I may have some insight as to the wage situation you mentioned with Schwarz. I actually think you may not be paying him the 2200, thatbis actually a representation of what the game feels he is worth.
I could be completely wrong but I think I remember thinking something similar about a few of my players (ie. the wages listed seemed to low/high) but if you scroll through the various pages of their stats (special abilities, positions etc.) and go to the one that has their contract details it might have the actual amount you are paying him.
I’m not 100% on this I just remember it coming up as i casually browsed through one day. If you could check it out and confirm or deny that would be great as I probably wont get onto the game for a couple of days
Not quite true, I had this problem with my league. My ‘championship patch’ has alot of non-standard players obviously and for some reason they have bugged out and have a wage value of 5k each. Yet else where it says they’re wages are in the hundreds. So I realised said 5k play and my wage bill halved. I know my one is slightly different due to it not being a normal player but I think these ‘hidden’ wage values are correct..
I had Shubin in my team for a few seasons, but I was disappointed with him. Simple not good enough.
Paww thats sort of what happened with me. I looked at a player in my team and it said 5K next to his name. Now there is no way I was paying the guy that much as my wage bill was only about 6K
stinger – I’ve only just now (Thurs morning) seen your request. I’ve been away from the internet since mid-afternoon yesterday (pesky work IT guys tightening up on Internet use). I’ll have to check up on Schwarz’s wages situation tomorrow morning now and I’ll post what I find out back here.
Paww – I thought you were on the PS3 version? If so, then I never noticed any of the kinds of issues with the wages bill setup that I’ve already seen loads of times on the PSP/PS2 versions.
Adriano – Shubin’s a squad player for me, I don’t want anything more from him than that. By this stage of my ML career I’m mostly buying players to provide cover for my main players. In some cases I’ve got two first-class players for a position, so the players coming in are providing cover for both of them and will hardly ever play a full game. Shubin is one of these players. Camacho, Yamada, and even Del Piero have got that right-sided AMF slot all sewn up between them.
PC version which I assume is the ’same’ version as the PS3. Had wage differences before. That was just a major one that I noticed the other day!
Paww – ah yes, I remember now, and I remember that I’ve always meant to ask you if you’ve ever thought about modding your game at all to make it harder, or at least more like ‘classic’ PES? There’s a massive modding community for most PC games and I’m sure PES2008 has a LOT of modding going on.