Cold water and hot desert winds

retired_rebeldixie · 08-29-2006, 06:30 PM

A couple of weeks ago I introduced myself to you in the following fashion:

Quote:

But boy, oh boy, the water's cold

I've been playing this game for some time now, at first with (rather) big clubs, later, when that became too easy (it was CM4 back then after all) with progressively smaller clubs. After stumbling on this forums I took over some of the guidelines (most notably not hiring previously known players), but I never considered myself a LLM'er. Even so I kept lurking these forums, liking the general atmosphere.

Lately I've been struggling to bring the great club of Morecambe to the prominence they deserve, and I'm really enjoying the game... But even so last night I decided to take the dive and start a true 'hardcore' LLM game. So I asked Frank for a club with a beautiful Claret outfit.

And got sent to Portugal, with Uniao deCoimbra. Such a bunch of No-hopers! I've played some rather bad teams over the years, including my hometown Club of OH Leuven in the Belgian third division, but this lot must surely be the worst I've ever seen. Forty-six (yes, 46!) players in the squad, and after a full evening of looking at their stats I still have trouble recognizing the slightly less bad ones. And to help me in my job I got one coach without a single attribute in the double digits, 1 scout - again single digits, and for some reason the massive amount of two Physios... whose physiotherapy rating is closer to 5 than to 10.

And with that lot my board expects me to stay clear of relegation, with the big, red, scary relegation zone occupying 30% of the league table.

I'm looking forward to it, wish me luck.

Three seasons have passed, so I guess I owe you an update.

Season 2005/2006

With 46 players in the squad, the first order of business was to identify the really useless players and ship them of as soon as possible. In the end 21 players left coimbra during the season, most for token fees (or for free), but it did creat some transfer funds, and left me with some room in the wage budget. At the same time a couple of cheap players came in to strengthen the squad.

My search for a striker to complement the ones already in the club seemed to be met with failure though. Until, on the last day of the transfer period I managed to persuade no less than two strikers to join me - and that was pretty much the end of the season, as they proved way to strong for the weak oposition, demolishing all oposing defences and combining 39 goals and 22 assists between them. (In a 14-team league!)

In the cup I met city rivals and league team Academica in the fourth round, and thanks to great goalkeeping, wasteful oposition forwards, and their cowardly coach never daring to commit to the attack I managed to reach the penalty shootouts... where I failed to net a single one.

Highlight of the season: The 6-0 thumping of second placed Oliveirense.

Pl 26 W19 D6 L1 F55 A11 P63 1st

9 players in for 39k€
21 players out for 75k€

retired_rebeldixie · 08-29-2006, 06:33 PM

Season 2006-2007

Five players came in before the season, strengthening the squad on all fronts, while only one first teamer left.

Last seasons star strikers struggled against the stronger oposition, but a lightning fast young striker (who hadn't managed to score a single goal all of last season) blossomed, and a new spain-based Uruguayan forward performed quite well.

Even so the first half of the season was a real struggle, most of it spent just inside the relegation zone. After new year, with the addition of a new defender, and really great form of my goalkeeper and a central midfielder (who managed to end up 3rd placed in the player of the year vote), the team gained stability, and we managed to climb to 10th place and sefety.

On the downside, we were bleeding money on all sides, quickly plunging deep into the red, so when the lightning fast forward suddenly put in a transfer request because he felt too good for us (after a mere 7 months of first team action, with 14 goals and 11 assists to his name) I seized the opportunity to arrange his transfer to Blackpool for 375k€.

Meanwhile we were enjoying a fabulous cup run. Even though we never met a league team a run to the semi-finals was way more than I bargained for. And even there Vitoria Setubal needed extra time to run out 2-1 winners.

Highlight: The cup run as a whole.

Pl 30 W10 D8 L12 F46 A38 Pts 38 10th

6 players in for 30k€
14 players out for 29k€ (as the transfer of lightingboy was delayed till after the season)

retired_rebeldixie · 08-29-2006, 06:35 PM

Typing allways takes longer as expected, and I have to go out now, so the third season will follow tomorrow.

retired_rebeldixie · 08-29-2006, 06:39 PM

Oh, and as a bonus Academica got relegated out of the Portuguese league, so next season will allow some new opportunities to challenge their dominance.

retired_bmperrone · 08-29-2006, 06:39 PM

KUTGW! I never make it past the first round of the cup usually

retired_mujerenforma · 08-29-2006, 09:58 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Amhazair:
Oh, and as a bonus Academica got relegated out of the Portuguese league, so next season will allow some new opportunities to challenge their dominance.

Gil won't be happy about that!

creative36 · 08-30-2006, 01:13 AM

That just makes it more amusing.

TOTALPACKAGE · 08-30-2006, 05:26 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Amhazair:
Typing allways takes longer as expected, and I have to go out now, so the third season will follow tomorrow.

Lies... Lies, lies and more lies...

KUTGW, btw...

retired_duncan · 08-30-2006, 05:50 AM

TG! KUTGW :thup:

Don't forget: Cups Suck Arse!

retired_rebeldixie · 08-30-2006, 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Lukewarm:
<BLOCKQUOTE>Originally posted by Amhazair:
Oh, and as a bonus Academica got relegated out of the Portuguese league, so next season will allow some new opportunities to challenge their dominance.

Gil won't be happy about that!

</BLOCKQUOTE>

Yes, well...He'll just have to take it as a big boy, now won't he? Besides, I intend to disappoint him a bit more over the following seasons.

Cold water and hot desert winds

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Cold water and hot desert winds