O’Shea was a risky pre-season signing in many ways: past his peak, and slightly average even at his peak.

But he has been more than adequate in defence, and presents a danger up front at corners. It’s been a long time coming, but he got his first goal for Coventry City. It was an atypical situation for him - receiving the ball in open play just outside the box:

In off the post, lovely. Incidentally - see where Marcos chests the ball down following the initial clearance? Well, in PESes past, I’d have first-timed a volley at the goal, but in PES2008 the shoot button seems to be disabled in these kinds of circumstances. Thus I have become adept at doing what I did with Marcos here: turning away, shielding the ball, and laying it off.

In this game I was constantly battling for possession and trying to make something happen. Some matches are just like that. Blackburn scored again to make the score 1-2. Who should step up to get my second equaliser but Braafheid, my other so-far non-scoring defender:

In off the same post. How peculiar.

After losing 1-2 to Man Utd (tough game) and then thumping the Villa 4-2, I received a notification message: qualification for next season’s European Championships was assured. It was mathematically impossible for me to finish outside the top 6.

This left a couple of fairly meaningless games to get out of the way before the end of the season. All that was at stake was whether I would finish 3rd or 4th. I had my heart set on 3rd, and played accordingly.

I destroyed Arsenal 4-2 at their ground. Or better to say: Schwarz destroyed them. I was 3-0 up by half time thanks to yet another Schwarz hat trick. His third goal was a bit special:

Another replay angle showed that I’ve still not achieved my aim of planting a long-ranger in the ‘postage stamp’ corner of the net just yet. The ball veers toward the centre of the goal. Schwarz’s shooting power alone beats the keeper. (I’ll post a clip here of this other replay view in a day or two.)

Arsenal came back at me, scoring two completely lame goals that made me groan. Happily, I went up their end late on and secured the win with a poacher’s goal from Chiesa.

Going into the final game of the season against Anderlecht, Schwarz was the division’s top score with 23 goals. Rooney was just behind him with 22. I thought Rooney was sure to score at least one goal in Man Utd’s final game. I played Schwarz against Anderlecht despite his stamina bar being only three quarters full. I figured it was worth the risk, as it was the last game of the season and there was always the chance he’d sneak a goal or two.

I beat Anderlecht 4-1. Traore got a hat trick this time. Bramble headed in from a corner. Schwarz had a poor game, lumbering around with his low stamina.

There was no need to worry, though. Rooney didn’t score, and Schwarz finished the season as the Golden Boot winner.

I finished 3rd by two points (Liverpool drew their last game).

So Chelsea won the league with 93 points - 18 ahead of me - and they lost only 3 games all season. That’s fairly realistic, I suppose - real league winners tend not to lose more than a handful of games all season. It’s something I’ll have to replicate next season if I’m going to challenge for the league - as I expect to do. I’ll be looking for at least three top-drawer players in the negotiations coming up.

——————–

Here’s something I’ve never done before: my Player of the Season, and my personal favourite Goal of the Season.

Schwarz has to be Player of the Season. He got 23 goals in 38 games - and he should have had more. With better players and more experience next season, I’d hope for Schwarz to get 50 goals.

Marcos and Guimaraes are joint runners-up for Player of the Season. Marcos has been superb for a player of such modest abilities. Guimaraes has become a true star in my team. But Schwarz’s all-round performances - not just his goals - have been consistently phenomenal all season.

My Goal of the season: Reyes vs Bolton. You’ll see hundreds of ‘better’ goals in all kinds of places, but this is my personal favourite right now - I just love the technique, the lack of backlift, the high graceful loop over the keeper (I’m gushing with praise about Reyes here, not myself. All I do is press buttons):

In many ways I prefer the long-range Schwarz strike from the Arsenal game, but the Reyes goal just looks beautiful.

And so that was season 2011. No relegation battle this time. Just a season of consolidation. If I’d got to grips with PES2008 a bit quicker (what was wrong with me this year?), I’d have been challenging for the title. I’m ready and waiting for the start of season 2012. I’ll be shooting for the Treble. Scoring 81 goals in a season would have won me the league by a long way in previous instalments of the game.

I’ll score 100+ goals next season. The question is: how many will I let in?

Final position: 3rd (75 pts)
Won:23 Drew:6 Lost:9
Goals scored:81 Goals conceded:47 Goal difference:+34
Yellow cards: 31 Red cards: 6

I didn’t realise until now that this season is a season of European football for me. Winning the Division 1 Cup last year automatically qualified me for the European Masters Cup (the game’s UEFA Cup equivalent). Winning the Cup in every other PES has brought European football in its wake, but for some reason this year I completely forgot, or neglected to remember, which amounts to the same thing, really.

Checking out my upcoming European fixture, I see that I’ll be playing Espanyol away in the first leg of a knockout tie. After four-and-a-half seasons of playing the same clubs twice per year, playing a brand-new club with whom I have no prior history just feels weird. The match is a good few weeks away yet. I’m already worried about fixture congestion and how a stamina-challenged squad will cope in all the games. I’ll worry about it when I get there, though.

For now, there’s league games to get through. Europe will look after itself. Finishing as high as possible in the league is the #1 priority.

I thumped Anderlecht 4-1 at their ground. Marcos ruled in this game. He owned. He was 1337. He pwnd them. He - I’ll stop that now. Marcos played most excellently against Anderlecht, and bagged himself this goal:

Marcos is a 24-year-old left-footed CMF/SMF in PES2008. He seems to be a made-up Konami player. I’ve played him in my midfield as the left-sided AMF without any problems at all. He’s been one of the best all-round midfielders I have ever had the pleasure of playing with in any PES.

In the next match against Fenerbahce, he showed that he is more than just a rasping left foot. Fenerbahce had the effrontery to score first. I came back, scoring my equaliser quickly (always good for the nerves, that). Then in the second half I was pressing and pressing for another, but making no headway.

What I love about Marcos is that he’s an effective attacking force, but can also put himself about a bit. If I’m ever short of a DMF, I have no doubt he could play there and do well. On the edge of the Fenerbahce box, I lost the ball to a defender. Up stepped Marcos:

In PES2008, stamina and form is as big an issue for Marcos as for everyone else. However, unlike some players I could mention (Shaw, Shimizu, I’m looking at you two), Marcos can play two games in a row before there’s much of a dent in his stamina bar. Sometimes I can play him for three games in row - league, cup, league again - before having to rest him. My best buy from the Unbelonging list so far? Definitely. Player of the season? Possibly. There’s a ways to go yet.

Marcos simply performs - time and again, game in, game out. Looking at his stats, it’s difficult to see what marks him as so special. It’s psychological with some players, I think. I started well with Marcos, so now when I get him on or near the ball I always believe something special can happen, and I play accordingly - with confidence. It was no surprise to me when Spain came knocking on my door for him.

Marcos’ international call-up meant he was unavailable for the next game, which turned out to be an easy 2-0 league win against Newcastle - sweet revenge for their 1-0 victory back in the second game of the season. My other contender for player of the season, Schwarz, got both of the goals. I haven’t scored with many first-time shots in PES2008. I was happy with this one, as it put the game to rest late in the second half:

Arsenal are next in the Division 1 Cup quarter final. In our recent league match I just couldn’t cope with their skills and teamwork. If I’m going to hold onto that trophy it looks as if I’ll have to do it the hard way.

For the first time in five seasons, I completed the four-week mid-season negotiation period without signing any new players. That’s how it has to be sometimes.

It wasn’t for the want of trying. I need new players. My squad is a little top-heavy. I have a good First XI, with several established stars and stars-in-the-making (such as Marcos, pictured left). There are some good players in the rest of the squad; a few of them are great players, who I leave out of the First XI for other reasons.

Shaw, with his dodgy Stamina and Body Balance, is a case in point. He’s come on a lot in the past season, as I’ve spent two pre-seasons training him on nothing but Stamina and Body Balance. He’s only a season or so away from being an automatic first choice again.

But looking at players such as Boyd, Folan, Frutos (all three are big, lumbering kinds of strikers, long past their best); Weir and Cafu (Cafu in particular has been somewhat disappointing; he has a shallow development curve that doesn’t peak for about eight more years yet); and even my old warhorse Donadel (despite his excellence in my Division 2 struggles) - all of these have to go, I think, and be replaced by players who can perform reliably week in, week out, if I’m to have the kind of squad that can challenge for trophies in Division 1.

So I’m not buying new players any more just for the sake of buying them. That’s a routine you get into when you start out with the Default players in Master League. They’re so rubbish that you become focused on getting any new players - doesn’t matter who, just anyone - to replace them. Anyone else is better than the Defaults. It takes a few seasons to shake the feeling during Negotiation periods that you must, must, MUST buy new players no matter what.

Armed with my new Team Ranking - ‘C’ - I hoped to at least get past first base in my usual attempt to buy Mathieu. (If and when I finally do get Mathieu, I will speak at length about why this player is so important - even talismanic - to me in PES.) His club has so far blocked all efforts to negotiate directly with the player. This time, however… This time, permission was granted. I was talking to Mathieu!

I slapped in a hefty bid straightaway. I looked down my list of players and decided that Mathieu’s club should find Frutos+7000 points completely irresistible. Mathieu himself should be unable to resist a three-year contract worth 1300 salary points.

I always bring the length of the contract down when I think a player might be difficult to sign for the full five years. After a shorter contract, the player gets a chance to negotiate with you for a higher salary a lot sooner.

Some tipsters in the wider PES community recommend offering key players one-year contracts at ridiculously high wages. They report success using this method, but how crippled is their wages budget afterward? If they’ve offered Thierry Henry, say, a one-year deal at 3000 salary points, after the year is up he’s never going to agree to take anything less than 3000. You’d have to offer 3100 or more to keep him. Then you’re stuck with that ridiculous figure (the salary, not Henry…) for good. Unless you ship him off. In which case, why the fuss to get him in the first place?

So as much as I value Mathieu (and any other great players I’ll be going for in the future) I’m not going to threaten the stability of my entire Master League career by offering them silly wages. No player is worth sending your budget all out of whack for. It’s Master League, not Mathieu League.

I went to the next week, all excited. I hadn’t even looked at any other players. I thought: this is it! I’ve got Mathieu. Bwahaha, as they say.

I was disappointed to see a notification message saying ‘Negotiations broken down’ instead of the hoped-for ‘SUCCESS’. However I was cheered to see an encouraging message in the main menu window. It looked as if I was on the right road, in the ball-park, and so on. I just had to make the right bid, evidently.

I went back into negotiations, and this time offered the club Braafheid+7000 points, and Mathieu himself a two-year deal worth 1350 points. It was a wrench to contemplate getting rid of Braafheid - he’s been a great SB for me so far. But I figured that the prospect of getting a really good, rising star might tip Mathieu’s club’s hand. I thought the two-year deal on offer to Mathieu would clinch it.

Again to the next week, and again no joy. There were two weeks left. I started to think I’d better look at a few other players. It might not be the time for Mathieu after all. My Team Ranking was probably the culprit. Mathieu just didn’t want to come to me right now. His current club was ranked ‘B’. Mathieu himself was an ‘A’-ranked player.

I made bids for Mathieu, and again for Micah Richards. Just the two of them. (I checked my List again and tried to negotiate for Maldini (a 20-year-old youth at this stage of my ML), who is at Manchester United and not really playing for them. Man Utd refused to negotiate.)

Went to the next week, and the Mathieu and Richards deals had both broken down. I concluded that it was the players themselves who didn’t want to come to me right now. I got the message. I gave up for now. I didn’t want any other players. I wanted to hold onto the excess points and try for Mathieu and Richards again in the off-season. I went past the final negotiation week and into Week 19 of the season without placing any new bids.

Despite knowing that I don’t have to buy new players in every single negotiation period, I did feel that I’d wasted this one. I could and probably should have looked for another top-drawer striker. A superb CB would also have come in handy. The dead wood in my squad is still there, gathering dust. They only play when there is absolutely no one else available, which isn’t very often.

I also feel that I have a few too many players in the squad. 32 players is the maximum size allowed, and having 32 players limits my opportunities to get new players from the Youth and Unbelonging lists. At the end of the season I’ll be looking to get the squad down from 32 players to about 26 players. Make room for the next generation.

For now, it’s back to the ups and downs of my season. I took a look at the Calendar before Week 19, and was shocked to see two games per week for the next several weeks. Of course, when I won the Division 1 Cup last season, I automatically qualified for the PES equivalent of the UEFA Cup - the European Masters Cup. Caught up in a tense relegation battle at the time, I hadn’t realised.

So. Two games per week forever, eh? No problem…