Season 2009 got underway with a big game against Lazio, one of Division 2’s toughest teams.

Lazio always give me a good game. I don’t recall ever having an easy time against them. Truth be told, there aren’t many games where I have a really easy time against anyone. It’s not just because most of my players are only above-average. My House Rules dictate that I keep the size of my squad to 25 players and that at least 5 of them have to be original Default players. Consequently I struggle to field a decent, fit team. Usually about half my players are missing several notches from their green stamina bars.

The only times when this does not apply are at the start of the season and just after the mid-season negotiations. So, actually, right now is the best possible time to play Lazio. I approached the game as if it was a very early championship six-pointer…

Singers FC 1-0 Lazio

…and it didn’t disappoint. This was one of the hardest games to get a result from that I have ever played on PES2008.

From start to finish it was as if I was fighting with the controller to get my players to do what I wanted them to do. I don’t think it was scripting. I never felt that my players were suspiciously below-par.

It was the Lazio players. They were superb, always chasing me down, intercepting passes, stringing together dangerous moves. My new defensive pairing of Jackson and Kompany (Jackson & Ko., I might start calling them) had their work cut out stopping the trademark Italian passing triangles on the edge of my box. Mathieu played deeper in this game than he probably will for the rest of the season. He was a true DMF, making numerous last-ditch tackles and generally just getting in the opposition’s way. Akinfeev was heroic at times in goal.

Then I had Kompany sent off. It was in the middle of the second half and I was starting to get complacent, thinking I had the defensive game sussed. I mistimed a sliding tackle and that was that: red card. Looks like I picked the wrong season to give up playing dirty…

But yet again, having 10 men seemed to give me a new lease of life. This happens so often in PES2008 that I have to say I believe it must be hard-coded into the game that a human player enjoys a wee bonus with 10 men. I kept the ball better. I passed better. My aerial through-balls started penetrating the Lazio back line. Near the end, I forced a corner…

The goal was a Lazio own-goal. I’ll take it.

Sampdoria 1-0 Singers FC

This game was everything that the Lazio game wasn’t. I enjoyed the lion’s share of possession, keeping Sampdoria down to one half-chance for most of the game, and pounding their goal with shot after shot (after shot) seemingly at will. Surely it was only a matter of time before I broke through?

But no. Their keeper saved everything. In three consecutive attacks I hit the post, the bar, and then the other post. I had that sinking feeling…

On a breakaway attack by Sampdoria, it happened. Their striker broke through clean on goal. El Moubarki was nearby. I did it again. I deliberately fouled the striker, from behind, 25 yards out. A red card and a free kick followed.

They scored from it. I’ve started to remove my defensive wall before most CPU free kicks (L2+down on the D-pad, repeatedly, until it’s done). Doing this moves your keeper back towards the middle of the goal, making it easier for him to save direct shots from the free kick. My goals conceded from free kicks have gone down by about 75% since I started doing this.

Akinfeev saved this free kick—but only deflected it onto the bar. Naturally the ball rebounded back into play and bounced through a penalty box packed with my players straight to the lone Sampdoria player. He tucked it away.

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So, I start season 2009 with a victory and a defeat. Not too bad really. Could have been better. I’ve yet to score a proper goal. I’ve really missed Altintop. Caracciolo is good, but Altintop was very good and well on his way to becoming great. I’m sure I would have got at least one goal with him in these games.

When you play nothing but Master League, after a few games of a season you just know how it’s going to go. You can instinctively take the measure of your team. It’s too early to tell right now. I’ll know after playing a few more games and seeing how my new players bed down into the team. If Kompany, Cassano, and Mathieu turn out to be good buys—and if the likes of Camacho and Caracciolo continue their solid progress—I’m convinced I could not only win promotion but win the D2 Championship as well.

The first week of negotiations immediately presented me with a dilemma. Two CPU teams made bids for my players. One bid was 5000 points for Ruskin; the other bid was 7800 points for Altintop.

Both players were key members of my squad, especially Altintop with his burgeoning talent. What to do?

Okay. I’ve been thinking about doing this, and I’m going to do it: I’m changing my House Rules to include a rule that I heard about elsewhere.

From now on, “if a higher-ranked side comes in for a player, and offers the listed price or greater, he must be sold.”

This means I had to sell Ruskin and Altintop, right now. It hurt, but I did it. Away they went.

The point of this kind of House Rule is to make the transfer market more realistic. In reality a team that finished 6th from bottom of a league’s lower division (as I did last season) would never be able to keep a player that a better team wanted to buy. Even if the club declined the offer, the player himself would most likely rebel and the team would be unsettled. So in most cases it’s best to sell such players. That’s how the dynamics of the transfer marketplace operate in the real world, and now it’s in my Master League career as well.

But… I’ve got to include a personal caveat with the new House Rule.

Master League, for me, is immersive and compulsive for many reasons. One of those reasons is being able to get young players with average abilities and grow them over many seasons into superstars. I would sorely miss this aspect of Master League if I had to sell my best youngsters as soon as they showed a spark of a talent.

So I won’t sell them. Not all of them. I’m going to designate three members of my squad as protected players—they don’t have to be sold if bids come in for them. Two of those three players will be Camacho and Maldini.

And the third protected player will be… Mathieu.

I finally got him. Flush with cash from the sales of Altintop and Ruskin, I made two straight bids (just money, no exchanges) for Mathieu and a decent-looking striker called Cassano. Both bids were successful.

Throughout my first ML career as Coventry City, for five full seasons, I tried and failed to sign Mathieu, even when my team ranking was ‘A’ and then ‘S’. I have no idea why I’ve suddenly been successful in getting him this time around.

For the past three PES years, Mathieu has been the rock upon which I have built my teams. I’ve never played him as a left-back (unless injuries or suspensions have forced me to). Mathieu’s best position in PES is his alternate DMF position. Not even the likes of Gerrard has played better for me as a DMF through all the years.

Here’s Mathieu on the pitch in my first pre-season friendly, wearing the sky blue of Singers FC. I could hardly stop cackling with maniacal glee…

I hope Mathieu will be as good for me in PES2008 as he was in the last few versions. I’ll file a full report on his progress toward the middle of the coming season. If he’s anything like his illustrious counterparts in PES5 and PES6, I should have scored a couple of super-long-range blockbusters with him by then. Here’s hoping.

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I bought a versatile WF called Melengue in a trade deal that saw Recoba depart from my squad. (Good riddance to Recoba: a good player, but absurdly unfit almost all the time. He only ever played about 1 game in 6.)

I also plucked a celebrated PES name out of the Youth list: Kompany, a CB. Both Melengue and Kompany are pictured to the left. Melengue has the most ridiculous hairstyle of any player I’ve seen on PES2008 so far. Kompany merely looks a bit camp. (Or kamp?)

I’ve never actually played with Kompany before, so I don’t know what to expect. At least the name ‘Kompany’ is rich in punning possibilities. If he has a couple of poor performances that materially affect my results, I’ll go straight for Bad Kompany, no messing.

I also picked up a decent young CB from the Rookies list called Serrano. Hiding in the Unbelonging list (always a must-see list for the stingy-minded ML manager) I found a great Brazilian left back called Marcelo. I needed a replacement for Ruskin. Marcelo and Bale will swap the left-back position between them.

I could have got plenty more players. Most of the cash from the Altintop and Ruskin transfers is still unspent. I’ve still got an excess amount of Default players in the squad. I could’ve gone mad on the transfer market if I wanted to. But I’m happy enough with the players I’ve brought in. I don’t want to buy new ones just for the sake of it. I’ll save my money to strengthen my squad in the mid-season period if necessary.

Here’s my new First XI and my 25-man squad in full:

Maldini drops to the bench, but he’ll still play in almost every game at either CB or SB. PES2008’s ‘quirky’ fitness and stamina modelling guarantees it. Caracciolo takes Altintop’s place as lead striker. Cassano displaces Kmolo. (And something occurs to me: 9 of my 25 players—over one third—have names that end in -O. I could easily assemble a novelty team made up entirely of such players. That might be one to think about for the future…)

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Pre-season friendlies. I only played the two matches that were chosen for me. Usually I like to skip pre-season friendlies completely, but when you have a lot of new players it’s always best to play a couple of meaningless games to enable them to settle down quicker. It still takes many more games for Teamwork levels to come up to scratch, but at least with two friendlies you’re getting a head start.

My friendly opponents were Lokomotiv Moscow and a South American Stars selection. I drew 1-1 with Lokomotiv. I was able to field most of my new signings from the start. Marcelo and Melengue are both very quick down the left side. Mathieu seems just as solid as ever, although I didn’t get any clear-cut chances to test his famous long-range shooting. They’ll come.

In the second game against the South American Globetrotters, I took a pounding. I was 0-3 down at half-time. Kompany was sent off as my frustrations grew. Somehow I prevented them from scoring any more goals, and then I noticed that their goalkeeper was taking all of their corners and free kicks. Near the end of the game, I got a consolation goal after one of their corners…

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And so to business. There’s real talent in this squad and I plan to challenge for the title, not just push for promotion. Plus I’ve got Mathieu at last…