2014 Daddy Issues - Peely Scores With Some Old Men

[MerlionMaple96]

Great season Peely...38 goals with Pizarro is amazing. It really puts into context my struggles to score with any striker on this year's game

[Lee-Roy]

Great season Peely

Same as Ash, I thought 35+ was a bit tough, glad you're reviewing the challenge.

[Danne]

Sadly it just isn't a lot of fun playing with a terrible striker and I'm not sure it makes for an interesting career for anyone to follow.

 

From season six I'm dropping the age limit to 34 and will update the challenge to reflect this.

 

It seems like a really enjoyable challenge, I'm considering giving it a try when my current career is finished.

 

Great work so far Peely, I greatly enjoy your narration and I look forward to your coming updates.

[Peely]

Great season Peely...38 goals with Pizarro is amazing. It really puts into context my struggles to score with any striker on this year's game

 

Thanks MM. It's a relatively easy league to score in, of course, but the difference between a young striker and an old codger is still quite large.

 

Great season Peely

Same as Ash, I thought 35+ was a bit tough, glad you're reviewing the challenge.

 

I'm hopeful that it will make the challenge more fun for all concerned. It's already allowed me to dodge the DJ Campbell bullet in season 6 in favour of a far more interesting option. DJ Campbell is hardly the greatest striker in the game anyway, but at age 36 he really looks shocking!

 

 

Sadly it just isn't a lot of fun playing with a terrible striker and I'm not sure it makes for an interesting career for anyone to follow.

 

From season six I'm dropping the age limit to 34 and will update the challenge to reflect this.

 

It seems like a really enjoyable challenge, I'm considering giving it a try when my current career is finished.

 

Great work so far Peely, I greatly enjoy your narration and I look forward to your coming updates.

 

 

Thanks very much. It is quite fun when you come to the end of a season and start shopping for your next oldie.

 

After my customary weekend lull, I hope to have update 3 for you this evening.

[iPedanta]

I can't wait. I'm praying my guess is right too. I think this career is a great idea, it would be great if you could add even more to the story of Niels and Son, maybe add some media hype from Niels or something! Or maybe Origi randomly turns up or something

[Peely]

I can't wait. I'm praying my guess is right too. I think this career is a great idea, it would be great if you could add even more to the story of Niels and Son, maybe add some media hype from Niels or something! Or maybe Origi randomly turns up or something

 

Sadly I don't think I've picked the right combination of leagues to have Origi in the database, so he won't be making an appearance on the pitch (although that would be quite hard to explain, anyway), but maybe he'll pay a visit sometime

[Peely]

Season 3 - Ivica Olic

 

 

Last season had brought me down to earth a bit after my early success. By any reasonable standards a first and a second place finish in my first two seasons in charge, together with some good performances in cup competitions was a very creditable start to my career, but the looming shadow of my father was always there to remind me of what I had to live up to.

 

Transfer Activity

 

As always, the first order of business was securing the services of a suitably experienced striker for the season. I went for another Bundesliga veteran:

 

Pretty decent for a 35 year old.

 

There was plenty of other transfer activity, too:

 

 

 

Alfred N'Diaye joined Kone in the heart of midfield and proved himself to be an excellent signing. I heartily recommend him to anyone who needs a good and inexpensive defensive midfielder.

 

The Season in Review

 

I was depserate to win something this year after last year's succession of near misses:

 

Curse you Porto. At least Olic made a good start to his season.

 

A fine victory against Arsenal took us through to the semi finals of the Champions Leage, where we faced mighty Barcelona.

 

A predictable end to our European adventure this season, but there was no shame in going out in the Semis to perhaps the best team in the World.

 

At last we win something again.

 

The shame.

 

We dominated the league with ease.

 

And my players dominated the average ratings league:

 

 

The Veteran

 

Olic looked the part at the start of the season and the team had performed well with him up front, but how many goals did he manage to blast into the back of our opponents' nets?

 

 

Very nice. That will help to get the challenge back on track.

 

 

My Player of the Season

 

 

Carmona had been sharing the left midfield position with Diego Capel and had done a fine job.

 

My Stats

 

They really don't think much of my transfer dealings, do they.

 

Getting a bit closer.

 

 

 

 

A much better season, but I'm desperate to get my hands on some European silverware. It took my father five seasons and a move to one of the biggest clubs in the World to secure a Champion's League win. It would be very satisfying if I could out-do him.

 

For the next season I planned to bring in an African striker who was once the highest paid player in the World. I was sure he'd be a great addition to the team, just as long as I could persuade him to take a bit of a pay cut.

 

The Scoring With Pensioners Challenge

 

Season 1:  Nuno Gomes - 33 Goals

Season 2:  Claudio Pizarro - 38 Goals

Season 3:  Ivica Olic - 42 Goals

 

Total: 113 / 1,000

 

So I've passed the 100 goal mark and it's only taken me three seasons I'm a whole thirteen goals ahead of schedule: a few more good seasons and I may even be able to shave a few seasons off this career

[Ashez]

N'Diaye is class, used him alot last year .

Solid season goal wise, really impressed .

Eto'o?

[Peely]

N'Diaye is class, used him alot last year .

Solid season goal wise, really impressed .

Eto'o?

 

Thanks First time I've come across him and he's been a pleasant surprise.

 

Good guess as well

[dirtboy]

Obviously eto'o, how old is he now?

[Peely]

A youthful 35

 

We'll just have to see if age has dulled his talents.

[Lee-Roy]

Not that I have no faith in you but you're doing so much better than I expected!

1k coming your way

[anfieldsquirrel]

Wow going great

Viola player of the year btw :wub:

[Peely]

Not that I have no faith in you but you're doing so much better than I expected!

1k coming your way

 

I'm still hopeful that scoring 1,000 will be more or less a formality. It's just how long it takes that's in question

 

Wow going great

Viola player of the year btw :wub:

 

Thanks. Viola has been great. I'll provide a screenshot of him in a future update so that you can see how he's getting on

[Archie Graveluth]

Eto'o, Brute?

[anfieldsquirrel]

Thanks Peely that'd be lovely

[Peely]

Season 4 - Samuel Eto'o

 

 

My third season had been a distinct improvement over the disappointments of the second and I was finally starting to feel like a real manager in my own right. I was hopeful that the coming season would bring more successes to rub in my father's face.

 

Transfer Activity

 

This year I had managed to secure the services of a true legend to lead the attack:

 

I definitely took a screenshot of him at the start of the season, but it seems to have been eaten by the screenshot guzzler, so you'll have to make do with this lovely picture of Eto'o saluting.

 

Eto'o wasn't the only legend joining the team:

 

In truth, he didn't do much, but he seemed like a great deal at the time.

 

 

Labyad had been agitating for a trasfer for some time, so I cashed in. My signing of the season was Corchia, everyone's favourite French wingback.

 

The Season in Review

 

I felt that my team and veteran striker were good enough to achieve big things this season:

 

Ridiculous that it took a penalty to get the goal, but a good start from Eto'o.

 

Some fancy goalkeeping, combined with some p**s poor penalty taking saw me through to the final of the Taca da Liga.

 

And another impressive penalty shootout performance secured the trophy. Not how I'd choose to win, but a cup is a cup.

 

A single goal from Eto'o was enough to deprive Porto of another trophy.

 

The Champions' League threw plenty of challenges our way:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The final saw us face Bayern Munich:

 

Boosh! Stitch that, Dad!

 

My screenshot of the league seems to have been guzzled up, too. Suffice to say, we ran away with it.

 

 

A clean sweep of the player awards, too.

 

The Veteran

 

It had been an unbelievable season and Eto'o had played an important part in our success:

 

Hooray for cup matches.

 

 

Slightly fragile, though.

 

 

A decent performance. At least he filled his quota.

 

My Player of the Season

 

 

Gavilan had been a bargain signing a few seasons back and the board had taken a dim view of him, but he'd proved his worth over the last couple of seasons. He didn't provide the most assists or score the most goals, but put in consistently good performances whenever he was called on.

 

My Stats

 

 

Not looking so clever now, are you?.

 

 

 

 

I had started to attract some interest from other teams:

 

 

 

The offers were tempting, but I wasn't ready to leave Portugal just yet. I had a young family to think about and didn't want to uproot them.

 

A fantastic season that showed I'm not just a cut-price version of my father and gave the team two more trophies to contest in the following season.

 

I searched long and hard for a suitable successor to Eto'o, but there were no strikers that seemed to fit the bill, so I had to extend my search. The player I set my sights on was hugely experienced at international level, but not exactly a household name: not outside of South West Asia, anyway. Still he had aged pretty well and had some skills, perhaps he could do the trick.

 

The Scoring With Pensioners Challenge

 

Season 1:  Nuno Gomes - 33 Goals

Season 2:  Claudio Pizarro - 38 Goals

Season 3:  Ivica Olic - 42 Goals

Season 4:  Samuel Eto'o - 37 Goals

 

Total: 150 / 1,000

 

A nice, neat 150 goals at the end of four seasons. Well on target, but with a non-striker up front next season, that could change.

[Ashez]

Quality season, drawn a blank on your next striker though :/.

[Peely]

To be honest I would have been amazed if you had guessed it.

 

He's a midfielder, captain of his country and was the first player from his country to be signed by a Spanish side.

[Danne]

Great season, could it be Server Djeparov?

To be honest I would have been amazed if you had guessed it.

He's a midfielder, captain of his country and was the first player from his country to be signed by a Spanish side.

Hmm, I will have to revise my guess.

[Danne]

What about Javad Nekounam?

[Peely]

What about Javad Nekounam?

 

An Iranian defensive midfielder sounds like an unlikely choice for a goal challenge, but you may just be right

[madowell77]

Great career idea and an enjoyable read Peely.Doing amazing so far keep it up

[Lee-Roy]

Great career idea and an enjoyable read Peely.Doing amazing so far keep it up

It is a great idea, here's the actual challenge the careers based on: http://fmhvibe.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/20755-The-Scoring-With-Pensioners-Challenge

Just realised that I hadn't read your latest update

Loving it Peely, stop sneaking in updates lol. Great idea on mixing it up with a captain.

I mean midfielder :lol:

[Ameer]

Is it Yossi Benayoun?

[Peely]

Season 5 - Javad Nekounam

 

 

I fired off another email to my dad. Just like the twenty-three before it, it was a picture of me with the Champions League Winners Trophy. This time I was eating my wheatabix out of it, but previous one had seen me wearing it as a hat, drinking champagne out of it and, in one of my more whimsical moments, I had filled it with kittens. So far my father hadn't seen fit to respond, but that wasn't necessary for my enjoyment.

 

I couldn't spend all my time daddy-baiting, however. A new season was here with new trophies for me to win.

 

Transfer Activity

 

My search for an experienced striker proved particularly tricky this year; most of the players I had in mind had already retired and the rest were on the verge of retirement. In the end I decided to settle for someone who had the experience and leadership skills, even though he wasn't a forward. I still expected him to lead fro the front, though:

 

I've seen worse shooting and heading on a 36 year old striker before.

 

The rest of my transfer business looked like this:

 

 

Very little activity by the standard of previous seasons, but the two players that came in were exciting prospects. Galvez was an Argentinian striker with a hint of Carlos Tevez about him, while Martinez was a brilliant young Spanish defensive midfielder. I felt sure that both would play an important part in the future success of the club.

 

The Season in Review

 

It was going to be hard to live up to the standard set by the previous season, but with two more cups to compete for, I was hopeful of securing a bit of silverware:

 

Nekounam made a good start to his season, but it wasn't enought to secure the Super Cup.

 

The European Super Cup, however, saw Nekounam showing that he could cut it as a striker.

 

The Taca De Portugal saw us make a disastrous early exit. Tough luck to draw Benfica in the third round, but we should have done much better.

 

Our fist visit to the Club World Cup saw us emerge victorious.

 

Once again, we didn't have an easy ride in the Champions' League:

 

 

The referee hates us, but it wasn't enough to save Bayern.

 

The away goals rule brought our defence of the Champions League title to an early end.

 

Always a pleasure to take a trophy away from Porto, but it was a very bad tempered match.

 

Reasonably comfortable and 100 goals scored with a defensive midfielder up front isn't bad.

 

A good season, but not quite as good as last year. It was pleasing to win the two trophies that we hadn't competed in before.

 

The Veteran

 

The team had performed well and Nekounam had shown that he could deliver the goods in big games:

 

He decided to end his career with Sporting.

 

He could have managed another year or two.

 

Hardly amazing, until you remember that he has no apptitude as a striker and is old enough to be some of my younger players' father..

 

My Player of the Season

 

One player had been putting in solid performances, season after season and it was about time he got some recognition:

 

 

This one's for AS

 

My Stats

 

 

Still ahead of the old man.

 

The men in suits just love me.

 

 

 

The job requests kept coming in:

 

 

 

Not until the kids are older.

 

At the end of the season I sent for my head scout and asked for a list of the best strikers over the age of 35. The scout immediately handed me a piece of paper.

"I thought you'd ask me that, so I took the liberty of preparing it in advance", he said.

"But there's only one name on here", I said, "surely there must be more than this".

"Well sir, there are a few more, but this one is the best of them" the scout responded.

"DJ Campbell?" I said. "The best striker you can find for me is "DJ Campbell?"

"I... I'm afraid so" stuttered the scout.

I held my head in my hands and sighed. "I think we're going to have to extend the scope of our search".

 

And thus, the next striker to join me at Sporting was a spritely 34 year old. I won't give any clues to his identity, but I'm sure you'll...

 

 

... Love him.

 

The Scoring With Pensioners Challenge

 

Season 1:  Nuno Gomes - 33 Goals

Season 2:  Claudio Pizarro - 38 Goals

Season 3:  Ivica Olic - 42 Goals

Season 4:  Samuel Eto'o - 37 Goals

Season 5:  Javad Nekounam - 28 Goals

 

Total: 178 / 1,000

 

I'm still ahead of target, but Nekounam set me back a bit. I can only hope that the move to allow slightly younger strikers will see some more impressive tallies in future.

[Danne]

Incredibly well done all things considered. I hope that lowering the age limit will increase the amount of available players, thus keeping the challenge and the career fun and interesting. 

[Ashez]

I'm impressed!

[Peely]

Incredibly well done all things considered. I hope that lowering the age limit will increase the amount of available players, thus keeping the challenge and the career fun and interesting. 

 

Thanks. It certainly made things more enjoyable for me. You'll see the difference in the quality of players available in the next few updates.

 

I'm impressed!

 

Thanks very much

 

Any guesses on next season's player?

[Ashez]

I haven't a clue :/