I want to win the Treble in season 2012. This is my #1 ambition in PES2008 right now. I really want to restart Master League with a new team in a super-tough custom League with all the settings on Very Hard. I’ll even ban myself from having any players that I’ve already had in this ML. I’m also toying with the idea of banning myself from playing a 4-3-3 formation. If I had the option to start with just 10 players in every game, I’d take it. I’m worried about the future for me and PES2008.

I’ve decided that I have to win a Treble with my existing team first, though.

As things stand, I’m sure I could skip through pre-season negotiations without getting any players and still be in with a great chance of winning the Treble. But a few new players won’t do any harm at all. There are still more than a few stiffs in my squad. It never hurts to have several quality players for every position

After a good season 2011, with lots of goals, I am rich. After finishing in 3rd place, I am rich. After winning the Golden Boot with Schwarz, I am rich. I have almost 50,000 points; my salary bill is about 20,000. I am rich.

(Not as rich as I have been in the past, though. I remember one post-season on PES4 when I had 155,000 points to spend. That was after a lot of seasons.)

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I didn’t schedule any pre-season friendlies at all. I’m impatient to just get on with things.

I pulled out all the stops to get Mathieu and Micah Richards in the first week of negotiations. I was so keen to get them that I didn’t bother looking for any other players. I’ll cut a long story short, right now: I didn’t get either of them in the whole 8 weeks of negotiations.

I offered silly money and some of my best players as trade-ins. The clubs always accepted. There were no problems there. The players wouldn’t accept. As I’ve mentioned before, I refuse to pay inflated wages. Their current salaries were 1050 and 1100 points. I wouldn’t go higher than 1600 salary points for either of them.

Yes, if I’d offered 2000+ points and/or 1-year contracts, I’d almost certainly have got one or both of them. But no player in the game is worth unbalancing the books for, no matter who they are. And, to be honest, Mathieu and Richards aren’t all that special.

Mathieu at age 25 would be a great buy - but at age 30? I don’t think so. I need to win the Treble in this coming season. For once in my PES Master league life, I’m not really looking to build for the future. This is why I have not gone hunting in the Youth list for a couple of negotiation periods now. I just want to ‘complete’ this Master League and move on.

This is very unusual for me. From PES4 to PES6, I was a one Master League player. I played the same career from late October one year to late October the next. It hurts me to think about breaking that grand tradition in PES2008. In PES5 especially, Master League on Top Player/Normal/Normal in the default Leagues was consistently challenging. PES2008 is a step or two back for the series in so many ways - but not least in terms of its relatively low difficulty once you get over the initial struggles with the Default squad. Curse you Seabass!

All of this is brave talk indeed for a player (me) who has only one D1 Cup to his name in five full seasons so far. I’m talking the talk. I’d better start walking the walk…

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After it became clear to me that I was not going to get Mathieu and Richards, I just shrugged it off and got some other players:

Giovinco - AMF, 25 years old. A quality midfielder who can play in several positions. Stats in the high yellows or reds. I traded Chiesa and paid 3500 points on top. Chiesa has been quite disappointing. His great years are several seasons away. I don’t plan to be playing this Master League in several seasons’ time. I’m building for the now, not for the future.

Jansen - left-sided SB, 25 years old. Traded Weir for him, and paid 500 points. This was one of those negotiations where I didn’t have to pay any extra points. The game judged Weir to be worth more than Jansen. Hmmm. I disagree. To secure the deal, I handed over 500 points. I could afford it.

Kaiser - CMF/SMF/DMF, 22 years old. I was surprised to get this fella. An all-time PES legend, I thought he had ‘Negotiations broken down’ written all over him. I offered Donadel plus 7000 points. Kaiser accepted. I spent a minute exulting over his existing stats (great) and his development curve (stupendous). I felt a pang of regret that if my wishes for season 2012 come true I’ll have to wait a good long while before being able to get him again in my next career.

Marchisio - an AMF with middle shooting who’s been on my shortlist for a few seasons. Finally got him. Very similar to Djiba and Delgado in some ways, but with much more of an attacking bent. I traded Boyd for him, and paid a couple of thousand points.

Beerens - WF/AMF. Traded Frutos for him, and paid several thousand points on top. I have high hopes for this player. On paper he looks to have it all - pace, stamina, strength, shooting - and he’s only 24 years old. Out of all six signings, only Kaiser is better than him.

Iwam Russell - aka Ian Rush - CF, 25 years old. The original and (in my opinion) best goal-poacher extraordinaire. I got him from the Unbelonging list where he’s been for a couple of seasons now. I had to make room in my squad, so I terminated Folan’s contract. Rush has pretty average stats in most areas right now, but his Scoring special ability is there (obviously), and I need someone to play when Schwarz cannot. Someone who is a real fox in the box.

Here’s my full squad for the 2012 campaign:

It’s a slight worry that I’ve jettisoned four strikers and only brought in one true replacement. It looks as if I have too many defenders and midfielders. But enough of those midfielders have secondary positions up front (WF, SS, CF) to cover. Shimizu and Beerens in particular are more or less out-and-out strikers.

Now for the new First XI:

Only two additions - Jansen at left back, and Kaiser on the right of midfield. I remember playing him there in PES5 where he was sensational. I did consider putting Kaiser in at DMF and moving Bradley to the right, but Kaiser’s attacking attributes decided it.

As ever, the First XI is more symbolic than anything else. All of my top players will probably end up starting a roughly equal number of games. I have a pre-tournament qualifying tournament for the European Championships (i.e. the Champions League) to get through in the first few weeks of the season. It’s always a slog when you have to qualify. I think I’ve got the squad to cope. More importantly, I think I’ve now got the experience with the game itself to avoid repeating last year’s disappointing early exit from Europe.

So: I’ve got to win the League. I’ve got to win the D1 Cup. I’ve got to win the European Cup. In any other PES year, I’d have thought it a tall order so soon after a fairly mediocre season. Not this year.

Let the games begin.