Career Scratch: Second Chances (DONE) & Armstrong 1KC (DONE)

[Scratch]

Just now, Real_Random said:

Just caught up mate and your doing a fantastic job. Armstrong looks great. KIU

Thanks mate, I'm super stoked how he's turned out given the training facilities aren't quite as good as I'd like them most of the time. Not sure what was in the water! 

[Mr.Manager]

Good progress Scratch(/Alan Armstrong)...

Shame to hear you're not enjoying it as much though. I think the "bug" you uncovered whereby you can pretty much create unlimited money may have spoiled it slightly.

On the plus side, when you're nearing the end and you've just got a few stubborn clubs to sort out, it does get a lot more interesting!

[Scratch]

1 hour ago, Mr.Manager said:

Good progress Scratch(/Alan Armstrong)...

Shame to hear you're not enjoying it as much though. I think the "bug" you uncovered whereby you can pretty much create unlimited money may have spoiled it slightly.

On the plus side, when you're nearing the end and you've just got a few stubborn clubs to sort out, it does get a lot more interesting!

Shh... I had to lay low for a couple of weeks until people forgot about that!

Actually I haven't really taken advantage of that bug apart from the first time, but even then most of the money was 'legit' from plundering Barcelona. No need when I have a billion pounds! ? But you're right - having that much money has probably spoiled it somewhat and turned it into a procession rather than a challenge. It's almost like I'm micro managing 20 odd clubs instead of just one. I'm just buying and selling...

Anyway, the 1KC part keeps me going. And I do enjoy ticking teams off the list and watching how they go. And I enjoy having a good reason to change teams etc. So it's not all bad (I'm still playing!). 

[Taff]

I know how these long careers get dude, it's hard to keep motivated, but you are doing a bang up job so KIU

[Harish]

Just the whole thing mate Very interesting career and a 1Kc with an English player is always something that catches my eye...I never have home this far in a 1kc as I always get frustrated...But you look like you ate doing a great job.

KIU and Good luck!!!!

[Ashez]

Very and I mean very impressive season mate! At this rate you'll have Bolton is the Prem in no time! Armstrong  

[Scratch]

16 hours ago, Taff said:

I know how these long careers get dude, it's hard to keep motivated, but you are doing a bang up job so KIU

Thanks mate. What's frustrating about this one is how long it takes, the way I'm playing this one. But I should stop moaning about it!! I'll keep going! ?

[Scratch]

15 hours ago, Harish said:

Just the whole thing mate Very interesting career and a 1Kc with an English player is always something that catches my eye...I never have home this far in a 1kc as I always get frustrated...But you look like you ate doing a great job.

KIU and Good luck!!!!

Thanks. I've been all the way through a 1KC once before and it took me almost 3 months! It's so hard to keep that up. The only reason I made it through is because I was posting about it here and the support I got kept me going! I highly recommend posting it here if you try again. ?

[Scratch]

11 hours ago, Ashez said:

Very and I mean very impressive season mate! At this rate you'll have Bolton is the Prem in no time! Armstrong  

Thanks mate, I hope so. Not a great start to the next season though. A loss and a draw to start life in the Championship and after 5 games Armstrong only had 2 or 3 goals! But we'll click shortly I'm sure...

[Scratch]

Update - World Cup With Colombia

 

I won't spend long on this, as it's not really related to this challenge - beyond keeping my reputation high, so I can swap clubs when I want to and maybe get the England job to help with the Armstrong 1KC.

 

We got through the group stage easily enough: 0-0 against Holland, 3-1 against South Korea, 2-1 against Morocco. 

 

We had an easy run in the knockout stages: 5-0 against Iceland, then 3-1 against Tunisia. That set us up against Brazil in the Semi Final and we pinched the win:

 

That was the hardest match. We had Portugal in the final and we beat them 2-1:

 

Sadly, it didn't have any effect on my ranking. I was 13th before the tournament and I remained 13th afterwards. I was sure that would put me up to number 1 or 2. Not sure what's up with that. There was no holidaying or anything like that. Makes me think I might pack the International job in and concentrate on the main job at hand. 

 

Frustratingly, England were knocked out at the group stage, but Gareth Southgate is only Insecure and I'd be super surprised if he gets sacked:

 

Really, I would give up the World Cup win for either Southgate getting sacked or a modest improvement in my ranking... But there you go... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  Now, back to business!

[Ashez]

Congrats mate but it's a shame it lead to no progress, hopefully the England job is available soon :). 

[Mr.Manager]

Very impressive stuff. I find international jobs a bit of an unwelcome distraction but your commitment to keeping that high rank is brilliant. Have you got any Colombians on your books at Bolton?

[Scratch]

2 hours ago, Ashez said:

Congrats mate but it's a shame it lead to no progress, hopefully the England job is available soon :). 

Thanks! But not holding my breath - in my Celtic career Southgate underachieved all the way through to season 12 before he got sacked... 

[Scratch]

1 hour ago, Mr.Manager said:

Very impressive stuff. I find international jobs a bit of an unwelcome distraction but your commitment to keeping that high rank is brilliant. Have you got any Colombians on your books at Bolton?

Thanks! Yeah, I normally find them an unwelcome distraction too, but really trying to keep my reputation up as I think it will help out.

I've had 4 or 5 promising young Colombians at Bolton, but I've now sold most of them - one because he wasn't as good as my incoming free agents and someone had to go, the others because second chance teams wanted them. I've still got one on my books and I'm excited by him, but if a second chance team wants him I'll have to let him go.

I've got no evidence for this, but it feels like there are more promising young Colombians in the game than there were before. Could just be I'm aware of them now though. Some of them have trouble getting work permits, so I have to play them in the national team, take that work permit officers! If I say they're good enough, they're good enough! ?

[Mr.Manager]

20 minutes ago, scratch99 said:

I've got no evidence for this, but it feels like there are more promising young Colombians in the game than there were before.

Yeah I'm pretty sure that that happens when you manage a national team.

Ha, that's why I was asking - I was wondering whether you were playing promising young Colombians so that they could get work permits and join you in the Championship!

[Scratch]

2 minutes ago, Mr.Manager said:

Ha, that's why I was asking - I was wondering whether you were playing promising young Colombians so that they could get work permits and join you in the Championship!

You better believe it! ? I've currently applied for the Argentina job - not sure if I'll get it, but if I do that should help out even more!

[BatiGoal]

2 hours ago, scratch99 said:

I've got no evidence for this, but it feels like there are more promising young Colombians in the game than there were before. Could just be I'm aware of them now though.

Once you become ITN manager more players of that nation are generated each season. I had the same thing happen managing Nigeria. As the career progressed I had more players to choose from.

[Scratch]

9 hours ago, BatiGoal said:

Once you become ITN manager more players of that nation are generated each season. I had the same thing happen managing Nigeria. As the career progressed I had more players to choose from.

Thanks, good to know! I certainly felt that was the case, but glad to get validation backing that up! 

As an aside, Diego Simeone got the Argentina job, so I'm still with Colombia. They're a good team, but would have preferred Argentina. Oh well...

[veerus]

On 7/4/2017 at 22:40, scratch99 said:

Thanks. It's all going really well, but truth be told, if it wasn't for the 1KC I would have got bored with this challenge already. I've got too much money and I spend all my time combing through players to buy, then sell... There's very little team building either. I buy hundreds of players, keep the really top ones and sell on the rest, even the promising youngsters I want to develop... ?

Use all the money to overpay for players from teams you need to promote and empty the war chest.  That way you'll have to actually work for it a little more.  

[mcandrew003]

Excellent WC campaign! A little bit weird that the world ranking didn't change at all, but I suppose it doesn't matter too much. The International job situation is a little bit broken as nobody ever get's sacked.

[Scratch]

10 hours ago, veerus said:

Use all the money to overpay for players from teams you need to promote and empty the war chest.  That way you'll have to actually work for it a little more.  

Haha, for sure, I *could* do that instead of just complaining about having too much money!  ?

added 0 minutes later

10 hours ago, mcandrew003 said:

Excellent WC campaign! A little bit weird that the world ranking didn't change at all, but I suppose it doesn't matter too much. The International job situation is a little bit broken as nobody ever get's sacked.

Yeah, I don't know what went on with that, but anyway, over it now... I've almost quit Colombia a couple of times, but I'm hanging in there for now...

[Scratch]

 

Update - Season 7 - Bolton

 

Bolton cruised through League 1 last season and now take on the Championship in a bid to be crossed off the list and ultimately be dismantled. Sorry Bolton fans...

 

 

Targets

 

Here are the targets I set out at the end of last season:

• Win the league with Bolton and see them safely back in the Premier League
• Try to keep the League 2 relegation zone clear of second chance teams
• 100 goals for Armstrong!

In hindsight the third one may have been wishful thinking. If he couldn't hit 100 goals in League 1, how could he do it in the Championship? Anyway, read on to see how things went.

 

 

Colombia

 

I'll start with the news that I quit the Colombia job. I'll always have fond memories of that World Cup win, but it's time to say goodbye and focus on the challenge at hand.

 

 

Transfers

 

I bought and sold a lot of players, but not quite as many as in previous seasons. Here are our transfers out:

Spoiler

 

 

 

And our transfers in:

Spoiler

 

 

 

Nothing too noteworthy, but you'll probably notice there's not as many exchanges going on - more on that in the Charity section. No big money signings this year, although we did get in a bunch of top class free agents, including Nastasic, Dendoncker, Amiri, van Beek, Samper - and Maximiliano Romero, who I once gave to QPR (they've been back to the PL so are fair game now).

 

 

Charity

 

Once again, I was busy doing the (now) usual things:

• Exchanging players with second chance teams: There weren't as many takers this time around - not sure why they don't want my players... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
• Finding clubs standing between second chance teams and promotion/safety and buying all their goalkeepers: Once again, this worked fairly well, with teams like Norwich dropping out of contention of promotion.
• Throwing games (we don't call it that in most company, but we know we can trust you).

There's probably no point focusing on this any further, it's the same old same old by now. I will leave you with this screenshot of our Reserves though:

 

 

Job Opportunities

 

When the Leicester manager was sacked, the media thought I was a good bet to take over there:

 

And so did Leicester, who came knocking on my door (without me asking):

 

Bolton were already promoted by that point and I did consider it. I'd need to find a new job shortly and none of the second chance managers were insecure, so why not win win the Premier League with Leicester and claim those bonus points? In the end I decided I wanted to head down rather than up, so I said no. Hope I don't regret that!

 

The same thing happened with Newcastle, but as much as I love them (and despite the poetry there'd be in taking Armstrong home), I couldn't accept that job. For one, it wouldn't contribute directly to the challenge, and secondly... if I took it I'd have to dismantle the club on my exit and I couldn't do that.

 

 

Results

 

It was a decent season, but not as good as last year when we won everything. Details:

 

Spoiler

 

We won the League comfortably, but not by as big a margin as previously:

 

We won the Community Shield with a 1-0 win over Chelsea. Not a bad start to the season:

 

We won the League Cup, beating Liverpool 2-0 in the Quarter Final, Leicester 4-1 on aggregate in the Semi Final, then obliterating Arsenal 5-0 in the Final:

 

We were bundled out of the FA Cup in the 4th round by Chelsea, who beat us 1-0. I guess I have to lose some of these close ones, I've had more than my fair share of these to be honest. Still, it stings a little to be bundled out so early.

 

In the EURO Cup, we beat Red Bull Salzburg 7-3 over two legs, before Gelsenkirchen beat us 3-2 on aggregate (not one of our better results):

 

Not a bad season, but we've had better.

 

 

 

Accidental Armstrong 1KC

 

Armstrong got off to a slow start to the season, which is strange as he normally explodes out of the box. He recovered to have 41 goals by New Year's Eve:

 

The second half of the season was pretty decent too:

 

For some reason, he had a lot of goals disallowed this year. Here's a couple of egs (he could have had 5 goals in one of them!):

 

He also had some disciplinary problems this year:

 

He got injured, but fortunately it was a phantom injury (no lasting damage or time out, just a Condition hit).

 

He hit 4 goals only once this year, but it could have been 5 on that occasion (another disallowed goal):

 

So, hoping he'd get 100 goals this year was clearly wishful thinking! Still, 75 goals in 60 games isn't too bad. He now has 439 goals total under my management.

 

He's 26 now and should cross the halfway mark next season if things go well, so I think he's tracking alright for the 1KC.

 

 

League Tables

 

Here's the top and bottom of all the English leagues:

Spoiler

 

 

 

Man Utd won the Premier League again, so no bonus points. Man City, what are you doing there? Come on, earn me some bonus points!

 

In the Championship, 3 second chance teams were promoted, with Leeds and Reading joining us on the way up. Of the top seven, only Norwich and Bristol City were not second chance teams and they were both keeperless, so it wasn't a surprise we got 3 ticked off. At the other end, we lost Sheffield Utd and MK Dons to League 1.

 

In League 1, Portsmouth were the only second chance team to go up, with Sheffield Wednesday enduring playoff heartbreak... We managed to make sure that no second chance teams were relegated.

 

There was a surprise in League 2, with AFC Wimbledon going up. I'd given up on them, as they were two levels behind MK Dons, but next season they're both in League 1. Game on!

 

That leaves us with 12 teams left to go. Only 5 are in the Championship, meaning it'll be more difficult to tick some off next year. As long as there is upwards momentum I guess that's okay, but it feels like the challenge is shifting and will be harder from here on out.

 

 

Past Winners (3)

Spoiler

 

• Manchester United
• Arsenal
• Chelsea
• Manchester City
• Blackburn Rovers
• Leicester City

 

Completed (15)

Spoiler

 

• Aston Villa
• Blackburn Rovers
• Bolton Wanderers
• Bradford City
• Cardiff City
• Coventry City
• Derby County
• Fulham
• Leeds United
• Newcastle United
• Nottingham Forest
• Norwich City
• QPR
• Reading
• Wolves

 

Remaining (12)

Spoiler

 

Championship (5)

• Barnsley
• Ipswich Town
• Portsmouth
• Swindon Town
• Wigan Athletic

 

League 1 (7)

• AFC Wimbledon
• Birmingham City
• Blackpool
• MK Dons
• Charlton Athletic
• Oldham Athletic
• Sheffield United
• Sheffield Wednesday

 

League 2 (0)

• None

 

 

 

 

Looking Ahead

 

All in all, a good season. 3 more ticked off the list and a decent bag of goals for Armstrong. Turning towards next season, the big question is where am I going to be? Not at Bolton, that's for sure, unless I'm stranded there. Come on second chance clubs - sack your managers! 

 

[Mr.Manager]

Excellent season! Three second chance teams promoted at this stage is a great achievement. And 15 in 7 seasons is very strong too - you're two ahead of me at the same stage. True that it'll be trickier from here on in though...

As for Armstrong, it's another mammoth tally. If you can get him playing for as long as you did in Scotland he'll be closing in on 1500...

[Scratch]

2 minutes ago, Mr.Manager said:

Excellent season! Three second chance teams promoted at this stage is a great achievement. And 15 in 7 seasons is very strong too - you're two ahead of me at the same stage. True that it'll be trickier from here on in though...

As for Armstrong, it's another mammoth tally. If you can get him playing for as long as you did in Scotland he'll be closing in on 1500...

Thanks mate! Yeah, I was pretty happy at getting 3 up. Stealing their competitors' goalkeepers really helped. It's not always a silver bullet, but Norwich was second at the end of January and they slowly dropped down and just missed out on the playoffs in the end, allowing another second chance team to scrape in. Anyway, I'll be happy with 1 going up next year.

As for Armstrong, he's only been with me for 5 and a half seasons, so his average is pretty good! If I can get him back down to L1 again, he's going to crack 100 eventually. Not sure about 1500 though!

[BatiGoal]

Stellar stuff! 12 remaining and the worst you got is in League One. That has got to feel great. The closer you get tho the slower the progress, we learnt that from the previous careers Just keep at it.

[kts365]

This is amazing stuff mate. Stellar. Loving it now I've caught up.

[Real_Random]

Getting very close now mate, over halfway there, Great job and KIU

[Scratch]

9 hours ago, BatiGoal said:

Stellar stuff! 12 remaining and the worst you got is in League One. That has got to feel great. The closer you get tho the slower the progress, we learnt that from the previous careers Just keep at it.

Thanks mate, yep going smoothly right now, but still a long path in front of me! I'll keep walking it, although slowly because of real life stuff at the moment...

added 0 minutes later

6 hours ago, kts365 said:

This is amazing stuff mate. Stellar. Loving it now I've caught up.

Thanks mate. Appreciate your comment!

[Scratch]

5 hours ago, Real_Random said:

Getting very close now mate, over halfway there, Great job and KIU

Thanks! Maybe halfway in terms of teams sorted, but probably not halfway in terms of years! 

[Cockers2505]

Looking really good @scratch99 smashing it, enjoying the read, look forward to your next adventure