2015 The Second Coming of A Spanish Legend: A 1K Challenge

[AventzgerYT]

Great work ! btw Subotic isn't Turkish haha!

[MerlionMaple96]

Oscar how much Asst. for the first time I can see so that somebody is able from it so much to squeeze. Season probably to good you can rank. I am greeting;)

Cheers mate! Oscar really is amazing, it says something that his performance is even better than Hazard.

I'd love to know how you've got a single striker to score 70 plus in a season consistently in the EPL!! Going great so far keep up the good work

Haha, cheers mate It's down to three things really, a good tactic, a superb squad, and a very good striker in De Tomas. You really need all three

Another EPIC sesson 

Cheers UKFS

Storming it!

Cheers Ash

Awesome season again  

Cheers Tom!

Great work if de tomas would be in the first team of Real he would surely rock

Haha, I don't know about that. He is still young in real life, though I am sure he is one for the future

Great work ! btw Subotic isn't Turkish haha!

Right, he's Serbian. I knew that, I have no clue why I thought he was Turkish lol XD

[dirtboy]

Going well at the moment, long way to go though...

[MerlionMaple96]

Going well at the moment, long way to go though...

Cheers DB

[MerlionMaple96]

De Tomas is rocking it three and a half seasons in. Can he keep the pace? 

Transfer Report

Transfers Out

More influential players left the Bridge this summer as old legs were sought to be replaced by younger, fresher, alternatives. Perhaps the biggest name of the lot was Cristiano Ronaldo, who departed on a free transfer at the end of his contract to Everton. Gary Cahill also left the club at the end of his contract, but still hasn't found a suitor yet, and is languishing in the free agent market. 

Ronaldo saluting goodbye...he will be missed 

Transfers In

With an advanced playmaker in Ronaldo and a centre back in Gary Cahill leaving the club, I signed two new names, one to cover each position. First to be brought in was Lucas Andersen from Ajax. The Danish wunderkid would make more than a superb replacement for Ronaldo, and at the cost of a mere 12 Million Euros, was quite the bargain. Taking the place of Cahill in defence was a familiar face to fans of the English game. Ryan Shawcross only cost 6 Million Euros and was definitely a step up from the departing Cahill.

Dat hair tho... 

 

Starting XI

No changes here at all...

 

Season 4.5: Barrel of Leaves

Let's get to the main business now though, the actual season.

De Tomas opens his campaign with a goal! (again!)

Capital One Cup

4th Round

Knocked out on pens

FA Cup

Winning it on pens

Champions' League

Final

Back to back to back Champion's League wins with De Tomas scoring again! Talk about a big game player

Premier League

Absolutely atrocious season in the league as United take the cake. We will need to improve...

 

Player Reports

Player of the Season

Despite failing to win the Premier League this season, we still had a successful campaign, taking into account our FA Cup and Champion's League victories. None of this would have been possible of course, without some standout performances in the team. Everybody's favorite Brazilian, Oscar, had another solid season scoring 16 goals and picking up 26 assists. This was far better than Eden Hazard, who comparatively slumped to a pathetic 11 goals and 12 assists. However, despite another solid season, Oscar would not be taking home the PotS award for a third time running. Instead, the award goes to Cesar Azpilicueta, who had a most remarkable season, scoring 5 goals and providing, wait for it...a whopping 27 assists. And yes, he did it from full back. Amazing!

Yeaaas, it wasss meeee who assisted all those goals...

Attributes

Performance

 

De Tomas

So how did De Tomas get on this season? Let's find out!

Attributes

Performance

Injuries restricted his game time this season, but he's scoring at more or less the same rate, so I'm not too concerned.

 

Player Performances

Appearances

Average Rating

Assists

Goals

 

 

 

Counter

Games: 240

Goals: 305

An injury hit season for De Tomas meant that he missed about 10 games. However, his strike rate hasn't dropped so overall I would consider this season a success. Not a whopping success, but a success nonetheless. Although we're 30% of the way to our goal, the Chelsea squad definitely needs some revamping, so next season will be very intriguing. What did you guys think of this season? How about De Tomas' performance? Let me know in the comments below  And as always,

So leave a comment please 

 

*BONUS*

Players who have scored > 100 goals:

De Tomas: 240 games, 305 goals

Players who have made > 100 assists:

Oscar: 208 games, 107 assists

Edited July 25, 2015 by MerlionMaple96

[dirtboy]

Decent season, unlucky with injuries there.

[LordArcoDW]

Well and there I was reading it from the last few days and tbh the results are quite surprising, great I'd say even though I was infuriated to see Subotic being called a Turkish   

[tomppasson]

Nothing to worry about next season stats will go up again  

[MerlionMaple96]

Decent season, unlucky with injuries there.

Agreed, injuries are a bitch :/

Well and there I was reading it from the last few days and tbh the results are quite surprising, great I'd say even though I was infuriated to see Subotic being called a Turkish   

Cheers mate. Yeah, I have no idea why I thought he was Turkish tbh, even though I knew he was Serbian...

Nothing to worry about next season stats will go up again  

I sure hope so, it seems the game this year has been very topsy turvy though, so I guess you are right

[LordArcoDW]

I am pretty sure you were aware of that he is Serbian but that jump was a bit big though  

[MerlionMaple96]

I am pretty sure you were aware of that he is Serbian but that jump was a bit big though  

See, I know that at the back of my head he was Serbian, because I remember thinking that he and Vidic in his prime would have made a rock solid partnership for the Serbian national team haha. 

[samhardy]

Well done Maple  

[MerlionMaple96]

Nearly two months since the last update, but I'm back and so is De Tomas! Can we finish the 1k before the release of FMM 16? Let's find out!

Transfer Report

Transfers In

I was honestly more or less very pleased with my squad from last season. However, I did make one signing during the summer. It was a surprisingly big one as well, although it cost a lot less than it should have. Toni Kroos joined us from Madrid for a cool 13 Million Euros. 

Yes Toni, that's the way to London. 

Transfers Out

No big names per se departed the club in the off-season, with all four players who left being released on free transfers. First to go was Lucas Piazon, who joined Stuttgart, while Richairo Zivkovic signed on with Juventus and Josh Barker headed to Stoke. Josh McEachren, at the time of writing is still looking for a new club.

Starting XI

Kroos couldn't even get into the starting XI!

 

Season 5.5: Magic Bus

Let's get to the main business now though, the actual season.

De Tomas with the winner!

Capital One Cup

Final

A massive comeback from 3-1 down but we lose it all on pens

FA Cup

No De Tomas, no problem

Champions' League

1st Round First Leg

A great win, but letting in that away goal was not ideal :/

1st Round Second Leg

 A near impossible task to hold Barca to a draw with only 10 men

Premier League

A tad close in the end, but we just about nick it

 

Player Reports

Player of the Season

Once again we had a lot of potential candidates for the award this season. The first big contender unsurprisingly was Oscar who notched up a scorching 13 goals and 34 assists, singly responsible for almost 50 goals in the season. Another big player was last season's winner Cesar Azpilicueta, who provided 15 assists from right back over the course of the campaign. However, the award goes to another Spaniard in Koke, who scored 9 times and made a further 21 goals for his teammates from the center of the park, which is a very impressive amount indeed!

Theeeeese, trophy iisss mine? Koke's trophy? Koke like. 

Attributes

Performance

De Tomas

So how did De Tomas get on this season? Let's find out!

Attributes

Performance

So damn consistent!

Counter

Games: 301

Goals: 377

He's back baby! What a season for the Spaniard as he notches up 70+ goals once again. He's almost halfway there, but he's already 26, so it's still going to be very, very, tight. What did you guys think of the season? Good, bad or ugly? As always, I look forward to reading what you have to say. And remember...

So leave a comment please 

*BONUS*

Players who have scored > 100 goals:

De Tomas: 301 games, 377 goals

Players who have made > 100 assists:

Oscar: 257 games, 141 assists

 

Edited October 11, 2015 by MerlionMaple96

[Ashez]

Solid season mate  

[MerlionMaple96]

 

I think I'll be trying a different style in this update, something a bit more flowing and hopefully not so rigid. So let me know what you guys think later on in the comments

 

First things first, I must admit that as I do with at least one season in every one of my careers, I ended up losing the save file to the 21-22 season in this career. As such, I'm going to run through the major bits of that season quickly before a proper update for 22-23.

 

It turned out to be a mildly successful season for the club itself as we ran away with the Premier League (Nearly picking up 100 points on the way) and also won the Community Shield. However, we failed to pass the quarters in any of the other competitions

The same could not be said of the main man, who had a knockout year up front. Despite only playing 53 games, the Spaniard wowed the Stamford Bridge faithful with goal after goal after goal, racking up a final tally of 81 strikes over the course of season. 

The summer leading up to 22-23 was once again not particularly busy in terms of transfer action. With the squad already more or less settled, the only purchases I made were those of left back Emanuel Insua for 6 Million Euros and striker Alexandre Lacazette on a free transfer. Both players were brought in just to add depth to the team.

Apparently I signed the digitally rendered version of Insua

Headed in the other direction were once again a bunch of players who I deemed were more or less unworthy of a contract extension with the club. The pick of these players was Neil Taylor who had been our first choice left back since I had arrived at the club. However, Father Time takes his toll on everyone, and the Welshman was no exception. So, after having made 231 appearances in Blue, he ventured into the uncertain realm of free agency.

Taylor waving goodbye after his Testimonial

The starting lineup since the last time we met had changed a tad. Luis Martins had made the left back spot his own in the last season, while Jannik Vestergaard had formed a formidable partnership with Kurt Zouma at the heart of the defence. Looking further upfield, Kevin Strootman had displaced the aging Cesc Fabregas in the middle of the park, while the homemade prodigy Nathaniel Chalobah was able to lay claim to the destroyer role ahead of Nemanja Matic.

 

The season itself was largely successful. To my immense delight, we were able to surpass last season's 99 points, with a whopping 104 point haul that left Manchester United a long 18 points back.

The Champions League was also a huge success as we overcame the likes of Leverkusen, United and Napoli en route to a final against a strong Bayern Munich side. However, despite taking the lead, the Bavarians were not able to hold out against our incessant pressure as both Hazard brothers struck to hand us yet another Champions League title.

We had no such luck in the domestic competitions however, as we suffered exits to Liverpool and City in the Capital One and FA Cups respectively. We even lost the Community shield on penalties to the Merseyside outfit!

 

Our Player of the Season was not a particularly close run affair for once however, as the only real contenders were Oscar and Koke. Oscar once again showed his consistency with 14 goals and 28 assists over the course of the season, but once again I had to opt for Koke and his 9 Goals and 23 assists, simply because of the insane production for a player who is playing in the centre of midfield. 

Uhhhh...look at that sexy chest control. Drool worthy.

Like seasons before, De Tomas was on fire once again this season. In fact, he was so good he was averaging around 1.5 goals a game. Unfortunately for us, he did get hit by a few injuries during the season, causing him to miss about 20 games, and meaning he only scored a measly 59 goals. A pity indeed.

So after seven and a half seasons, the Spaniard was now sitting at 517 goals from just 393 games. Not too bad at all! However, at the age of 28, he has only just hit the halfway mark, despite only being a few years away from the dreaded 30! Only time will tell if he can make it to 1000, but one thing is for sure, it'll be awfully close. 

Do let me know what you guys thought of the season, the transfers and the performance so far of De Tomas. Can he make it to 1000? Is he under or over performing? Is a move to a lesser league in order? 

leave a comment and let me know

Bonus:
Players who have scored > 100 goals:

De Tomas: 393 games, 517 goals

Oscar: 352 games, 110 goals

Players who have made > 100 assists:

Oscar: 352 games, 194 assists

Hazard: 382 games, 143 assists

Koke: 315 games, 101 Assists

[FastFurious]

Amazing season with 81 goals! Getting to 1000 will be close but a few more 80 goal seasons would really help (which he probably would have done if not for the injuries)

[MerlionMaple96]

Amazing season with 81 goals! Getting to 1000 will be close but a few more 80 goal seasons would really help (which he probably would have done if not for the injuries)

Cheers mate. I think the biggest worry is that he just about passed his peak, as he is 29 next season. So I have no idea if he will ever be able to score 80 goals again

[Ashez]

Shame about the goals but I'll keep the faith, loved the new style btw! 

[MerlionMaple96]

Shame about the goals but I'll keep the faith, loved the new style btw! 

Agreed. He would have been on course for a another 80 goal season if not :/

Cheers! Was really hoping people would like the new style

[MerlionMaple96]

 

After a largely successful season last time around, I knew that I did not have to be too aggressive in the transfer market. However, the team did still need some reinforcing in goal, in central midfield and up front. In goal I chose to bring in Matej Delac, the young Croatian keeper who actually used to be on our books when I got to the Bridge. He had made quite the name for himself at Cruzeiro since then and so I decided to pick him up as a back up for Courtois. In the other two positions I decided to go for two experienced English players (Nothing to do with FIFA fair play regulations I swear ;)) The first was Jack Wilshere who never quite lived up to the billing at Arsenal, eventually joining Swansea, and the second was Danny Welbeck, who quite funnily enough became quite the player at Arsenal, scoring over 150 goals for the club.

Sexy, sexy, stats

The season started well enough for us with a 2-1 victory over City in the Community Shield. Although CIty started the brighter through a goal from Stevano Bovo, Luis Martins first, followed by Oscar made sure that the Shield would be headed to London.

We then continued the form in the Capital One Cup, where we overcame City again in the Quarterfinals en route to a final against the Gunners. This time around we took the lead through Kevin Strootman before we were pegged back by a Robert van Hareen equaliser. Eventually however, we were simply too good for Arsenal as Thorgan Hazard scored the winner in extra time.

Unfortunately, that was where the good run came to an end (more or less). We struggled for consistency in the League where we eventually succumbed the title to United by a lousy 2 points. Those struggles were also replicated in Europe where we lost both home and away to United in the Quarterfinals. Luckily for us, we were able to turn a few things around towards the end of the season to set up a meeting with Arsenal at Wembley in the FA Cup Final. Funnily enough we also beat City once again to get there! The final turned out to be a non-contest as Arsenal did not really get into the game till 70 minutes by which point we had already gone two up through Oscar and Luis Martins. despite setting up a nervy ending, Antonio Bochetti's goal ended up being nothing more than a consolation for Arsenal.

Despite a rather iffy season a few players did catch the eye. The first was Nathaniel Chalobah who burst onto the scene with 15 goals from central midfield! Although he did not join the "20-Club" populated by Yaya Toure and Frank Lampard, he still had an amazing season. Two time running PotY Koke also had a decent season, netting 13 times himself and laying on a further 13 goals for his team mates. However, this year was the year of Dani Carvajal as the Spanish right back tore up the assists charts with an incredible 21 assists! Bravo Carvajal! 

As a prize we agreed to let him keep that creepy beard for another season

De Tomas for his part ended up having a shoddy, shoddy season. Despite playing the full complement of games this season, he was only able to net 55 times. Atrocious for a player who has set such high expectations for himself with his past performances. His dip in form coincided with the poor performance of the team and I have no doubt that one enabled the other.

 

So at the ripe old age of 29 and having played a solid eight and a half seasons, De Tomas is at 572 goals from 458 games. Having not cleared the 600 mark yet, the alarm bells are certainly ringing. It is clear that something has to give for me to complete this challenge. Something has to change.

What do you think Vibe? Should I move to a smaller league? Should I sign a better supporting cast? Or should I just brush this off as a one off and keep on going? I want to know what you think Vibe. Your thoughts will certainly have an effect on my decision. So

leave a comment and let me know 

Bonus:
Players who have scored > 100 goals:

De Tomas: 458 games, 572 goals

Oscar: 403 games, 119 goals

Hazard: 440 games, 109 goals

Players who have made > 100 assists:

Oscar: 403 games, 208 assists

Hazard: 440 games, 155 assists

Koke: 366 games, 114 Assists

Strootman: 400 games, 100 Assists

[Ashez]

I hate these iffy seasons, hopefully you just had a harder cup run than normal or something, it is a worry though :/. 

Give it one more season then maybe a return to Spain for the pair of you is needed. 

[MerlionMaple96]

It is a worry A big worry. Asking him to score 400 goals in his 30s is ridiculous!

Maybe a return home to Madrid will rejuvenate him 

[billy2shots]

My heart says crack on but my head thinks a move is needed to get the much needed goals. 

[MerlionMaple96]

My heart says crack on but my head thinks a move is needed to get the much needed goals. 

Much the same with me. I still haven't been offered any jobs yet though so we will see.

This year's version of the game has definitely made big jobs come by less often

[dirtboy]

Big decisions to come, I think you need a move.  

[FastFurious]

For the best chance I think moving would be the right option too 

[MerlionMaple96]

 

As per the advice of Vibe, I decided that I would contact my long time friend and agent, Ashez, to let him know that I was in the market for a new job. I told him to keep an eye on all the big clubs in Europe and given my CV, I was certain that I would get whatever job came up first. Ashez however, was not so convinced, mumbling something about how I had a big head and was a little full of myself. I only assumed that he was talking about the weight I had put on recently. In my defense, last season had been stressful, and eating always helped me de-stress.

Having made plans to move at the first opportunity, I then began to prepare the team for the upcoming season, in case things did not work out immediately on the job front. The underwhelming season last time around left me no other option then to splash the cash during the summer. All in all I made four signings totalling over 82 Million Euros. My biggest concerns were the defence and the midfield. In defence I brought in both Serge Aurier and Jetro Willems to compete with Dani Carvajal and Luis Martins for the wing back spots while Steven Caulker was also added as the fourth choice central defender. My biggest signing came in the centre of the park though as I shelled out 40 Million Euros to bring Levin Oztunalli down from Leverkusen.

The taylor-made replacement for an aging Kevin Strootman

Unfortunately as the transfer window drew to a close Ashez informed me that no club had made any kind of move to sign me on as their new manager despite my newfound availability. As such, I was resigned to London for another few months at least. 

The season started with a small amount of revenge as we payed back some of last season's hurt by beating United 2-0 in the community shield. Despite Koke's sending off after Zouma had got us off to a bright start, United were very poor and De Tomas was able to seal the game off in the second half.

It was much the same in the Capital One Cup where we played with such freedom and tenacity that even I was surprised by the results. Take this 9-0 rout of Reading in the 4th round for example!

The Premier League however did not follow in the same vein. At the New Year we found ourselves a full five points adrift of United in first. It was around this point where I received an exciting phone call from Ashez. Apparently a big club had become interested in me. A very big club. My heart was pounding. Would it be Real? Or Barca? Maybe Bayern? Alas it was not to be, for the club was none other than City.

I was faced with a difficult decision at that point. Should I leave lovely London for dreary Manchester in the hopes that it would somehow turn De Tomas' fortunes around? It's not like the task would suddenly become any easier, if anything the job would be even harder as I would need a couple of seasons to stamp my mark on the squad. However, considering all my options I decided to take the dive. Why? Well because #yolo of course.

Awaiting me in Manchester was a very average squad languishing in the middle of the Premier League standings. However, Sheikh Mansour had entrusted in me a small fortune with which to work with and since it was still January, I quickly went about making the team my own. I made a host of changes to the squad adding 6 players and shipping out 9 in total. Coming in was of course De Tomas, as well as Marcos Llorente, another Castilla product in Dani Alfaro, Marquinhos, and two of my Chelsea chums in Dani Carvajal and Matej Delac.

Worth every penny of his massive 42 Million Euro fee if you ask me!

Like Chelsea, City had also done reasonably well in the Capital One Cap and when I joined them, they had just made it to the Semi-Finals. After a tight two-legged victory over the Canaries, we set up a juicy affair against none other than Chelsea in the Final! The game turned out to be a complete anti-climax however as the Blues hardly put up a fight. A goal from Stevano Bovo as well as a double from Gabriel Barbosa was enough to put the game to bed.

We also made a deep run in the FA Cup, making it to Wembly to face none other than Chelsea again in the final. The Blues played far better this time around as Koke stunned us with an early free-kick. Gabriel Barbosa soon put us back on level terms though, only for Serge Aurier to leave us wanting with an absolute piledriver from 30 yards out. It hurt to see us go down to two players I signed during my time at the club.

In the Premier League, we managed to rally and finish 3rd, thus guaranteeing a spot in Europe next season.

 

De Tomas on his end had a very interesting season to say the least. At Chelsea in the first half he was quite good, scoring 36 goals in 33 appearances. However, injuries came knocking at the Etihad and he only played 16 games after January, scoring 20 times. So though his strike rate was quite good with 56 goals in 49 games, he failed to break 60 goals for the 3rd season running.

De Tomas hit thirty this season and for all intents and purposes he is over the hill now. Sitting at 628 goals from 507 games, his prospects are undeniably grim. Having come this far however I am not going to give up just yet. All I can hope for is a major improvement in the coming couple of seasons..

What do you think Vibe? Should I call it quits? Is 1000 even remotely possible? Should I have stayed in Chelsea and waited for another job? I want to hear what you guys have to say. So...

leave a comment and let me know 

Bonus:
Players who have scored > 100 goals:

De Tomas: 507 games, 628 goals

Oscar: 420 games, 122 goals

Hazard: 464 games, 112 goals

Players who have made > 100 assists:

Oscar: 420 games, 211 assists

Hazard: 464 games, 165 assists

Koke: 391 games, 119 Assists

Strootman: 411 games, 102 Assists

[FastFurious]

Great update - shame no opportunities came up abroad and definitely a very brave move to City. 1000 goals can still happen though! #believe

Oztunali has been a beast for me this year, hopefully he can come through for you too

[billy2shots]

Keep the faith. 

My first 1k this year was done at Liverpool and my player (although a regen) played until he was 37. The goals kept flying in and didn't really slow down until he hit 35 years of age. 

[dirtboy]

No! Not City! Move again! Are you counting internationals, because you may need it.