Calm like a bomb

I lost a game this morning. There was no rage. Order has been restored. So I sold my entire first team save a few players so now when I lose games it is because my team is poor and this does not anger me.

I decided to clear my FA ai before the auctions ended which would give me 48 hours before any auto resolves to construct a new team. After spanking most teams I was starting to think I might have been a bit hasty. Then I got round to an away game against a deactivated team which soon made me realise I had not made a mistake by auctioning my team. So i've had 7 clear cut chances and he's scored with a penalty which has been his only 'attack' of the game. Fun times commenence until I finally equalise in 90+6 with a corner goal.

Anyway i'm still annoyed by various things at the moment. First off is how low half of my players sold which I attribute to two things. 1) people are idiots and wont bid on anyone over the age of 12 and 2)No one has any money from not investing in stadium, paying 100m to sign some 16 year old then paying them 50k a week.

Naldo sold for 200k. He is 33 and on £24,000 wages. His Natural Fitness is 19 and he has had almost zero attribute degredation over his career and infact has some yellows and greens still. So to own a player who is almost guaranteed a goal every other game as well one of the best defenders in the game would cost £670k in wages for the season. How many games would those goals win ? How many cups, leagues and competitions would he win you ? Seriously, why would you rather pay 30k wages on some 16 year old ? You will have pay him 4m+ in wages before he's likely to be first team ready. Even with zero resale value this is still a mega bargain. Do the maths people.......

In other annoying news I found a regen who had my name and spent the best part of 3 seasons trying to wrestle him away from idiots who didn't play him. The first one gave up on the game the day he signed him yet set a daft auto renew amount on the day and the other one seemed to value him at about £1m despite the fact he's rubbish. So today i'm greeted with this:

Lee Jones has disappointed supporters of your club by publicly announcing that he is considering leaving at the end of his contract. Jones is believed to feel unsettled at the number of players competing for the same place in the team as him and it is believed this is the reason why he is considering bringing his time at Strawberryfield to a close.

Are you shitting me ? I've got 1 senior midfielder who is retiring!

So what am I doing now ? Well i'm trying to construct a team that wont get hammered to get me through until end of season and then spend some cash in the wage auctions. My aim is to retain a top 10 ranking until the end of the season. New tactics have been prepared and new, cheap, signings should be arriving shortly.

Nice little screenshot before I drop down. Rank 1-5 all joined the GW as friends from outside the FML world and for the first time we occupy the top 5 spots :)

Franco :(

Your long-serving Italian midfield playmaker has announced he will retire on Monday 3rd August at 18:25.

He told you that after carefully considering the matter he has decided that the best option is to retire now at his peak rather than play on and risk serious injury in the future.

1966 apps / 946 goals /663 assists / 318 MOTM From MC. Signed for £233k in season 1.

Legend.

It's all woe this week :(

Rage Quit

After another series of ridiculous away results in the league I have decided to call it a day.

I've even lost the will to be angry any longer. Playing bottom of the league who has won about 2 games all season and not being able to create any chances, just because I was away from home, was the final straw. After about 20 tactical changes I managed to get the team to actually do something rather than sit around like retards and the opposition GK got MOTM... again. The two games before this to poor teams the same thing happens just because it is an away game. Play them at home and you put about 5 goals past them.

This has been building for about 7 seasons now.... having consistently been one of the best teams and repeatedly done over by fucking shit at the bottom of the league. Put all my team in auction to see if I could raise any cash for next season but none of the morons on the GW will bid on them because anyone over the age of 23 is apparently too old.

This game is one big joke and the joke is on those who keep playing in the hope of creating something when at the end of the day any away league game just comes down to a random result. It's just a shame it's taken me 49 days signed in to realise this..

Match day

As kick off approaches, T-Bag Town enter the match against Useless United as clear favourites today. Everyone in the footballing world is expecting Useless United to be relegated this season having won just a couple of games all season and holding the worst defensive record in the league. In contrast T-Bag Town have been on good form of late with only 2 defeats in the last 20 games which came against top of the league.

It's 3:05pm so let's head over to our reporter for a match update, how's it going Jimmy ?

Jimmy: Kick off has been delayed by 10 minutes i'm afraid. Someone has parked a transit van in the entrance to the car park so their 10 fans can't get in on time for kick off! Useless United are using the local pub's facilities because they don't have a ground. There's been an announcement on the club's PA system (the karaoke machine) to try and locate the driver so hopefully we can get under way soon.

The vidi printer is still showing it's 0-0 after 20 minutes, what's happening Jimmy ?

Jimmy: Incredible scenes here Bob. Useless United have unveiled a surprise today, they have a new signing out on the pitch. I'm not sure who it is Bob ? He's playing in goal and he's wearing a red mask. I think it might be... Spiderman

Spiderman eh Bob ? That doesn't sound very likely to me, what makes you think that ?

Jimmy: Well T-Bag Town are dominating the match today, the stats are showing 75% possession and I count around 5 clear cut chances already. Spiderman is averaging an 8.5 and certainly looks to be 'playing with confidence'. I'll update you at half time !

It's nearly half time in the match with T-Bag Town vs Useless United and it's still 0-0 ?

Jimmy: Yes that's right Bob, it's still 0-0 here. I've never seen anything like it, T-Bag Town have had around 9 clear cut chances now. Just before you joined me, Obinna picked up the ball from around 30 yards out, beat his man, rounded the keeper and passed the ball into the net. As he was running off the celebrate, Spiderman webbed onto the goalpost, swung in and saved the shot!

Wait a minute, here's a chance! Brienza has picked up up the ball on the half way line, he's beaten 3 men but his shot has hit the cross bar. Rossi Steps up on the rebound and slots it home with a stunning volley!! GOAL for T-Bag Town!! I'm not sure what happened to Spiderman here he seemed to be playing with his wrists, one of the locals thinks his web got jammed. I think the floodgates might open in the second half it should be about 7-0 by now.

The second half is well under way now, is it still only 1-0 ?

Jimmy: To say that T-Bag Town are playing with Useless United is the understatement of the season, poor old Useless don't know what day it is. It's Still 1-0.

Just 10 minutes to go, T-Bag Town looking comfortable I take it ?

Jimmy: That's right, everyone in the side is turning it on it's almost cruel, the other team are just not on the park. Wait a minute what's going on here... T-Bag Town's GK is looking very complacent indeed. He's been waving to the crowd for a good 30 minutes now, but he's just taken off his gloves and walked to the sidelines to sign some autographs for the fans. T-Bag Town's manager is furious and shouting at him to get back in goal but he's not concentrating. Naldo is under pressure just inside his own half, he's going to have to pass it back... GOAAAAL for Useless United !!!!! The GK was nowhere to be seen, beaten by a slow moving backpass, this is incredible!! It was the first attempt on goal all game!

T-Bag Town certainly seem to be involved their fare share of these type of games this season, I think we must be in stoppage time now, Jimmy?

Jimmy: That's right, we have played 5 of the 6 added minutes now. Spiderman has been awarded MOTM. He webbed the champagne right from box into his goal and is sipping it right now. I've been down to the bench to try and see what T-Bag Town's manager is up to. Seems he noticed Useless's DR only has 8 pace and he has set Obinna on him with 19 pace/acceleration but it's not really doing anything. Commentators curse right there Bob! He's just beat his man and won a corner. Bosko Jankovic steps up and whips it into the 6 yard box, Naldo rises above everyone else and scores his 44th goal in 94 games ! The referee blows his whistle, It's all over, it's 2-1!!

Well Bob, I think the morale of this story is not even Spiderman can save a corner.

T-Bag Town's manager is still looking stressed.

An expensive mistake

Ok this one is my fault but it still annoyed me!

During my previous week of anger at the way things were going I decided to address the problem with a new signing. As per my FM strategy down the years, if something is not working, buy more attacking players. I figured I needed to beef up my midfield with an older and experienced player so off I went to see what the ageists had ignored on the free list.

A 32 year old chap by the name Gastón Fernández looked like he would do the trick. Good pace, acceleration, dribbling, passing and decent finishing. His wage was £26k, so combined with his Aquistion Fee I paid a total of £660k.

Ready for his debut i'm deciding where best to place him then I realise he can't actually play in MC ! He can only play in AMC. I try him in MC anyway and he averages a 5.9 meaning I have nowhere to fit him in my team and he is completely useless to me.

Having spent £5m on players this week and racking up a wage bill of £283k in the process it was time to cut my losses and move him on.

He sold for £2ok. So including paying his wages for 3 days I made a net loss of £718k from this particular deal.

Would anyone else like me to buy a player for them..

I hate the league

That is all.

Is it any wonder ?

Another game, another GK MOTM and another 1-shot-wonder (1sw)...

How many times will this happen throughout the season ? Well I will tell you ! I have been recording data on this to support my annoyance. At the last count, 48% of FA based games I had either drawn or lost, the opposition GK got MOTM!!!! It would also be around 70% if I disregarded results against the only 2 good teams I've played. Also that's not including games I have won where the opposition keeper has got MOTM either! I don't even want to look at the number of 1sws but the stats are skewed as they normally get another shot in near end or something.

In-between typing this I have won two games, the opposition GK got MOTM in both... I scored 3 goals in one of those games.

So it's my tactics not creating the right chances ? The one where my striker scores 1 in 1 in friendly games ? The one which lead my team to 90 games unbeaten ? Yes I think this is clearly the reason. Various tweaks have done nothing to help. When your creating 5+ CCCS a game what more can you do ?

In another related annoyance of the day my GWC opponent got AI rights over me despite me chucking a few challenges in. Having checked the game it appears I lost. It appears I was 1sw'ed, it appears I was 1sw'ed in the 94th minute...... Good times.