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


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14 hours ago, Jens said:

Really interesting to follow, you little cheater :D

Incidentally, this could be the answer to my 1K midfielder challenge, without cheating with an editor...

Ahem... We prefer the term 'lateral thinking'... ;) 

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12 hours ago, mcandrew003 said:

Another top-notch year mate, enjoyed the long Update aswell. Congrats on the promotion, I think you are 1 team ahead of me now, but I'm so addicted to this save so the race is on ;)

Some quality transfers in there aswell bud, seems that amount of money has really helped you out. Looking forward to the next one!

Thanks mate, yeah with this amount of money, I can't go wrong really, just need to make sure I take it with me everywhere... But the problem is that I don't want to leave... And I want to hang on to the players I signed instead of sharing them with second chance clubs... I suck at this!

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11 hours ago, Mr.Manager said:

Great update! A bit brief though, do you not think you could go into a bit more detail??

Okay, I'll make the next one longer for you! :)

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1 hour ago, veerus said:

Watch this turn into Armstrong 1k, Part 2 - The Journeyman Edition...

Yeah, I am seriously considering it, if I can talk him into coming with me even when I go down a few divisions... He should be able to rack up the goals in the lower leagues...

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3 hours ago, scratch99 said:

Yeah, I am seriously considering it, if I can talk him into coming with me even when I go down a few divisions... He should be able to rack up the goals in the lower leagues...

I'm sure if you throw 300k a week at him he'll be your personal slave, let alone drop down a couple of divisions!

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20 hours ago, Ashez said:

Very impressive mate, this approach could really see you do some damage on this challenge! 

Thanks mate, I probably can, if I can keep my focus on the challenge. More interested in Coventry and Armstrong than the challenge itself at the moment. :)

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20 hours ago, Idol said:

I'm sure if you throw 300k a week at him he'll be your personal slave, let alone drop down a couple of divisions!

Yeah, money talks! But some players won't come to Division for any amount of money, so we'll have to see!

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Been a bit tied up, so pretty late with an update- sorry! Hoping to get one out tomorrow (if I can get through the 8 games tonight)... But I've gone ahead and updated the title of this thread to accurately reflect what's going on. :)

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5 hours ago, scratch99 said:

Been a bit tied up, so pretty late with an update- sorry! Hoping to get one out tomorrow (if I can get through the 8 games tonight)... But I've gone ahead and updated the title of this thread to accurately reflect what's going on. :)

Looking forward to it dude, missed this career!

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Update - Season 3 - Coventry
 
The luxuries of managing Barcelona are now long forgotten, as we knuckle down to a full season in League 1. We're looking for Barcelona-like performances though, as our players are a level or two above the standard League 1 player (and we have most of Barcelona's money locked up in a cupboard here). 
 
 
Targets
 
I signed off the last update with three specific targets for this season:
  • Promotion again for Coventry
  • Getting Oldham Athletic out of League 2 by pulling some strings
  • 100 goals for Adam Armstrong
Pretty ambitious targets and you'll find out shortly that I didn't reach all of them, but it was a pretty successful season. :) 
 
 
Transfers
 
Well... I'm not sure to handle this section. We bought and sold more players than the entire Premier League did. In fact, we did so much business that we were required to register as an import/export company. 
 
Here are our transfers out:
Spoiler

 

secondchance-season03-126.png.081dc3a541594b271a7a7853155a4f48.pngsecondchance-season03-127.png.df3cc2fb883024e7b6956ac2ec608117.pngsecondchance-season03-128.png.62af2b05769f7c82f9e551518dbda312.pngsecondchance-season03-129.png.2a3f5a0a8e2383aa82507b95ad0a5947.png

 

 
And here are our transfers in:
Spoiler

 

secondchance-season03-130.png.a4688f2e460791ba58ccdf03883c2d94.pngsecondchance-season03-131.png.3a84a7bdfe3e6b5de4e65d811ba4d0e1.pngsecondchance-season03-132.png.34ce15609c1f3c5cfa2bb2be98d7fd93.pngsecondchance-season03-133.png.7af58af4815a032d278ef3b63249200c.pngsecondchance-season03-134.png.c64a107dfbca9787cefcdafd06441b38.png

 

 
We bought good players, as well bringing more in on free transfers. We kept the ones we needed, then we bought bad players in exchange for the good players we didn't keep. We tried to release as many of the bad players as we could, and demoted the rest to the reserves.
 
There's going to be more and more of this in future, although it does slow the game down and become tiring after a while. Also I may need to rethink the quality of player I'm going after, as some are happy to join Coventry, but can't handle life in the lower divisions and decide they want to leave mere months later:
secondchance-season03-85.png.b154e92b5d951b4c2858055cefe06a93.png
 
And it's also happening with the ones I sell on:
secondchance-season03-115.png.054313c4e1d2208476b7af74f69f7b4c.png
 
So I need good players, but not great players... Not sure I'll be able to force myself to do that though, I'm addicted to buying flashy players. Is this a bad time to mention that Balotelli and another 20 or so quality free agents are joining in the off season? 
 
 
Charity
 
As you can see above, I exchanged a lot of players on to second chance teams. Oldham, down in League 2, were the team that got the most players (6 of them!). We'll see if it help with promotion later. Quite a few other clubs got players too, but not at the same scale as Oldham.
 
Blackpool was the tricky one. They were mired in the relegation places in League 1:
secondchance-season03-52.png.510aa0f226e37040b1e79c6a0c962149.png
 
I could only get them to take 1 player on exchange. It wasn't going to be enough to save them, so I went back to gifting money and bought one of their bit part players for £10M. There were still 2 weeks left in the transfer window. Do you think they spent a penny of that money? Well if they did, it was on Ferraris and golf memberships, not on players...
 
But Blackpool had bigger problems. It turns out that half the team were unhappy with the manager:
secondchance-season03-53.png.3ed4cdeb03528159455342a2d7bfd81d.png
 
We took matters into our own hands when we played them in early February (that's GK Romero up front, not AF Romero) :
secondchance-season03-79.png.cbb2deb020649bc0e9d6721981baabaa.png
 
secondchance-season03-80.png.fe91484d80f372d45b347b7ce22d1006.png
 
That should help their goal difference! 9 goals to Redshaw! And maybe the players will have a little more faith in their manager. But will it be enough to save them? We'll see later...
 
Most of the games we 'lost' weren't such huge losses as that however. We'd normally try and crush them for the first 60 minutes or so, trying to get Armstrong as any goals as he could, then change formation. Some of these games were really excitingly close, with these 2 being the pick:
secondchance-season03-08.png.d05f17c51730abc702d761f5623efbee.png
 
secondchance-season03-96.png.098d0cdf3654a4ed7246db33ce1b2c59.png
 
 
Brexit
 
One of the most important pieces to completing this challenge kicked in this year: Brexit! 
secondchance-season03-101.png.0dc9ee57400aca6a793a4b48cf58ec20.png
 
It's going to make signing players harder, but it looks like it will keep me out of a Spanish jail cell. My lawyers tell me the Spanish won't be able to extradite me now. It's been a tense few years, but fortunately I have the best lawyers money can buy.
 
 
Job Opportunities
 
Jobs with second chance teams regularly became available, but I was committed to seeing this season through with Coventry and didn't pay them much attention. Zaragoza came knocking:
secondchance-season03-03.png.2a586ed59f01f470ed1f546309f58dd6.png
 
But I told them very politely that I still had work to do in England and wasn't ready to return to Spain yet. I think it was just a ruse by Barcelona's lawyers to get me back to Spain for a job interview, so they could get me detained there. I wasn't born yesterday!
 
 
International Jobs
 
In July, I noticed that Gareth Southgate was Very Insecure in his job, after England went out of the World Cup in the group stage. 
secondchance-season02a-92.png.a0ce57b0744df41a9dcff2f4d3473c22.png
 
If I could get the England job, I'd be able to get Armstrong a bunch of international goals and really boost the 1KC attempt. But just like in my original Armstrong 1KC career, Southgate never got sacked...
 
Weirdly, he remained Very Insecure for 6 months or so, and England won or drew every game in that time frame. The second he lost a game? No more pressure on him... That happened for the France job too. Seems backwards...
 
Something else was concerning me. After all my hard work to get a World Class reputation, the inevitable happened (for someone now managing in the lower leagues). My reputation started to slip, from World Class down to Continental. My rank went from number 2 down to 38.
 
While that's still plenty to move around the second chance teams, it wasn't going to be enough for an Australian to get the England job if it did become available again. So when Colombia came knocking:  
secondchance-season03-19.png.e6f5ea938d1a7cff763c0c641ecfaeca.png
 
I took it. Maybe we can pinch a Copa America win or something and keep my name in the papers...
 
 
Results
 
We have a team that would be comfortable in the Premier League, so we were always going to crush it at this level. We won almost every game (that we were trying to win). The good form extended to cup runs as well. Here's how we went:
 
We won League 1 comfortably, going 34-4-8, with 130 goals for and 67 against. 
 
In the League Cup, we stormed through the rounds, knocking off many teams higher than us: Leeds, Fulham, Brighton, then Newcastle in the quarter final, followed by Chelsea 7-3 on aggregate in the semi final:
secondchance-season03-75.png.d72bcc9ce00f013c4ad06714e5c6694a.png
 
That set us up for a Final showdown with Leceister. We won 3-1 to give Coventry their first major trophy since the FA Cup in 1987!
secondchance-season03-89.png.eefdaee33d4430415cdb09d5747fc271.png
 
After each win, the board would give us £55K to spend. Cute! We locked it up in the cupboard with the other £1B we have.
 
Not long after winning the League Cup, we beat Scunthorpe 2-0 in the final of the Checkatrade Trophy.
secondchance-season03-100.png.efbfac8a74540a3c86c2a019aaea7004.png
 
We similarly stormed through the early rounds of the FA Cup, beating Hull and Stoke amongst others. We went into the Semi Final against Leicester in high hopes, having beaten them in the League Cup final the previous month and with the treble locked down already. We were brought back down to earth though, as Leicester beat us 1-0.
secondchance-season03-108.png.5aeba8a8e200d97c18a24408a861d0c2.png
 
I guess we are human after all... I'll admit I was quite disappointed. I'd started to believe we were invincible. Still, it was a great season.
 
 
Accidental Armstrong 1KC
 
Yes, it's official. This is now a 1KC attempt as well as an EPL Second Chances attempt. Of course that's going to rely on me being able to take Armstrong wherever I need to go. It could all fall away if he doesn't want to join me in League 2 at some point. But for now we're going to go for it. 
 
He starts the game as 19 years old, but I didn't get my hands on him for a season and a half. He was almost 21 by the time I got him, so we're starting from a little behind. No matter, that should be offset by playing in dominant teams at a lower level. 
 
In April, we got the dreaded "he's reached his peak" message:
secondchance-season03-105.png.6944506eea8fc76d6b9ce6a85ab4d286.png
 
But let's face it, his peak isn't too bad for League 1 (or for any league for that matter). 
secondchance-season03-106.png.8ddbef15a21bf16d2b942896ae0601b0.png
 
As far as injuries go, he got through the season fine, only to be injured 4 days after our last game. Best time to get an injury I guess.
secondchance-season03-113.png.cd0c751eeae330984232acecd1b2b7da.png
 
He was quite tired for much of the second half of the season and I rested him a little, but not as much as I might normally have, because he kept scoring goals (unlike when he was tired at Celtic). No stopping him at this level.
 
This was his form in the first half of the year:
secondchance-season03-15.png.fc9ca933be0b1b0065c9b609ffb27f73.png
 
And the second half:
secondchance-season03-90.png.a36c36bd25f7717fce799f71cc6c2f6a.png
 
I'd asked him to score 100 goals, but he didn't quite manage it. He finished with 85 goals in 60 games and now has 113 goals total (under my management).
secondchance-season03-112.png.14c0918b4f405d2cd8971fe0541bbcab.png
 
Not bad going... Worth noting that he crushed Coventry's previous record of 50 goals in a season by Clarrie Bourton in the 1931–1932 season.
 
 
League Tables
 
Here's the top and bottom of all the English leagues:
Spoiler

secondchance-season03-118.png.6d3e2880077ce4a4dca72c590e616f01.png

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secondchance-season03-125.png.2859a7e874eb7c4de842daa6efb3d8d7.png

 
 
Man Utd won the Premier League again, so no bonus point this year.
 
In the Championship, Nottingham Forest were the only second chance team to go up and at the other end Sheffield United were relegated. MK Dons were in the relegation places all season, but made it to safety (on goal difference) on the last day of the season! Whew...
 
In League 1, Coventry and Charlton were promoted, but Blackpool were relegated despite the £10M gift and the 16-0 victory. :(
 
In League 2, Oldham were consistently in the play off spots, but the gifted players couldn't lift them into the automatic promotion places. They made it through the playoff final, but Exeter beat them 1-0, so they'll stay down to keep Blackpool company next season  
secondchance-season03-117.png.34a42c390d7c2e3c009deccc543c74ea.png
 
 
Past Winners (2)
Spoiler
  • Manchester United
  • Arsenal
  • Chelsea
  • Manchester City
  • Blackburn Rovers
  • Leicester City
 
 
Completed (6)
Spoiler
  • Derby County
  • Fulham
  • Newcastle United
  • Nottingham Forest
  • Norwich City
  • QPR

 

Remaining (21)
Spoiler
Championship (13)
  • Aston Villa
  • Barnsley
  • Birmingham City
  • Blackburn Rovers
  • Cardiff City
  • Charlton Athletic
  • Coventry City
  • Ipswich Town
  • Leeds United
  • MK Dons
  • Reading
  • Wigan Athletic
  • Wolves
 
League 1 (6)
  • Bolton Wanderers
  • Bradford City
  • Portsmouth
  • Sheffield United
  • Sheffield Wednesday
  • Swindon Town
 
League 2 (2)
  • Blackpool
  • Oldham Athletic
  • AFC Wimbledon
 
 
Looking Ahead
 
I'm planing to see next season through with Coventry, which should hopefully see them earning promotion to the Premier League. I guess I'll have to look for jobs near the end of the year, but ideally I want to stay until I get the promotion on my CV. My specific targets for next year are:
  1. Promotion again for Coventry
  2. Getting Oldham Athletic and Blackpool out of League 2 by pulling some strings
  3. 80 goals for Armstrong in a stronger division
Until then.... (which might be some time as I need to go play tag team with @Cockers2505 ).
 
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Haha, you just couldn't resist with Armstrong. 85 goals is an incredible tally, but even at that rate he'll be into his 30s before you reach 1000 goals. A long injury or, god forbid, he decides he doesn't want you to be his manager anymore and you'll fall short... Good luck!

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Wow @scratch99 that bug you have found is amazing ?, just tested something then mate. Stsrted with Madrid and won the euro super cup so my rep instantly went up to national. Saw Newcastle and Portsmouth jobs available before Jan so set up ten 150 million transfers for each. And applied for both jobs, Newcastle didn't want me but Pompey did. And here's the outcome and it's only January lol. Amazing that Pompey only got 600 million yet all transfers went through hmmmm.....

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4 hours ago, Cockers2505 said:

Mate some crazy scores there, Oldham in League 2, @scratch99 that is you biggest challenge there, forget all the others :'(

You are right, we need to play tag team as some have already finished it (and probably think they have won already @Taff!!! :D)

Don't worry mate, I'll get them back in the Premiership before too long! Promise! :)

Yeah, planning to get to it soon. Just wanted to finish that season and get this update posted first! 

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2 hours ago, Mr.Manager said:

Haha, you just couldn't resist with Armstrong. 85 goals is an incredible tally, but even at that rate he'll be into his 30s before you reach 1000 goals. A long injury or, god forbid, he decides he doesn't want you to be his manager anymore and you'll fall short... Good luck!

You got that right. Just couldn't resist it. :) 

85 goals is actually my record. I got 81 with Original Armstrong and 80 with Vardy, but this tops the lot! Original Armstrong didn't hit his biggest numbers until 24 or 25 years old if I remember rightly, so he's not even in his prime yet. If I can get him back down to a League 2 team in a year or two and surround him with great players, he's going to get 150 or something stupid!

The only thing that can stop him reaching 1000 is if he won't come join me at some L2 or L1 team in a few years. And he's good, but I think he's not that good that he'd turn that sort of a gig down if I offer him £350K per week. But we'll see. If I can get him to follow me, he'll get enough goals to make up for injuries etc...

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2 hours ago, Mikee1984 said:

Wow @scratch99 that bug you have found is amazing ?, just tested something then mate. Stsrted with Madrid and won the euro super cup so my rep instantly went up to national. Saw Newcastle and Portsmouth jobs available before Jan so set up ten 150 million transfers for each. And applied for both jobs, Newcastle didn't want me but Pompey did. And here's the outcome and it's only January lol. Amazing that Pompey only got 600 million yet all transfers went through hmmmm.....

When I did it, I kept moving the money across to Wages before finalising the next transfer. I never let there be more than £300M or so in Transfer Funds as I've had cases in the past (not using the bug, just when I couldn't spend all the money I made), where the board didn't give me all the money. I guess at some point they figure you've got enough and they go buy Ferraris instead... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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6 hours ago, scratch99 said:

When I did it, I kept moving the money across to Wages before finalising the next transfer. I never let there be more than £300M or so in Transfer Funds as I've had cases in the past (not using the bug, just when I couldn't spend all the money I made), where the board didn't give me all the money. I guess at some point they figure you've got enough and they go buy Ferraris instead... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Yeah mate it's genius this that you've discovered it opens up many possibilities when managing in the lower league, great update btw a very enjoyable read. Keep up the good work.

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This really isn't the kind of challenge for me. Don't get me wrong, I love the read, but I would suck at it lol. Managing 1 team is tough as it is, managing 1 and another 25 on the side? Forget it :laugh:

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13 hours ago, Mikee1984 said:

Yeah mate it's genius this that you've discovered it opens up many possibilities when managing in the lower league, great update btw a very enjoyable read. Keep up the good work.

To be honest, while it's great for normal careers and for challenges like the Second Chances one (where it's anything goes), I'm not sure about it being used for some challenges, like the 1KC. It might warp things too much.

Having said that, I guess I am using it for a 1KC challenge!! Although I had £900M built up legit and I've only scratched the surface of that...

Oh well, might be something to consider for the rules of some the challenges, ie adding a "no exploiting bugs that give you money you would not have normally had" clause. CC @danovic78

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Good work scratch, keep it up. 

Regarding the money transfer for other challenges, surely that wouldn't be allowed. Even without using the actual bug it's abusing the game IMO. Fine for challenges like this where dodgy dealings are required but to use it for an LB challenging 1k or for other challenges is not really in the spirit of the rules, even if it's not against the letter of the rules. 

 

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RIP Cheick Tiote ?

Age shall not weary you. You will not suffer the indignity of languishing in the Coventry Reserves after being exchanged for a player who could not have bested you in your prime. 

cheick.png.b89d36ed34e521ada69801648c8e1f39.png

You will be remembered for your better days (and they were great).

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Update - Season 4 - Coventry
 
So, to the Championship. A tough division, no doubt about that, but our team should be a level or two above the competition. We're aiming to get promoted to the Premier League and then find the exit to another second chance team. 
 
 
Targets
 
I signed off the last update with three specific targets for this season:
  • Promotion again for Coventry
  • Getting Oldham Athletic and Blackpool out of League 2 by pulling some strings
  • 80 goals for Armstrong
The summary is that it was a great season by all accounts, but I couldn't hit all of those targets.
 
 
Transfers
 
Once again we were ... active ... in the transfer market. I think we bought and sold more players than the rest of world football put together.
 
Here are our transfers out:
Spoiler

 

secondchance-season04-100.png.d1d3d44c1501b26201d4be2b1f1ac002.png
 
secondchance-season04-101.png.4f5d3c8b24546130588e13145bb9f66a.png
 
secondchance-season04-102.png.33ba70ee348a7496bbc391fd0fed2af8.png

 

 

 

 

And here are our transfers in:

Spoiler

 

secondchance-season04-96.png.5471b931373878bdf7dcb117b03ad267.png
 
secondchance-season04-97.png.2d730b15447a15e2a5a97b4c4ced41e1.png
 
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secondchance-season04-99.png.5398000a7f4f07fc7bd94ec02fe905eb.png

 

 
Strangely, despite all that, we didn't buy too many (good) players this year. We got a bunch on free transfers, but mostly the players from last year were good enough for us at this level too. Of course we also bought a bunch of bad players while sending good players to second chance teams. We tried to release as many of these as we could, but most ended up cooling their heels in the reserves.
 
 
Charity
 
Once again, I exchanged a lot of players on to second chance teams, but not as many as I wanted. It seems I can get really good players to join my team, but something (probably their wages) turns off other teams from being interested in them. QPR got the most players (I think because they were rich and could afford higher salaries).
 
Frustratingly, a lot of players who joined lower down teams, then proceeded to want to move to a big club and had poor performances to boot. Only a handful worked out really well. The main success story was QPR. I gave them 4 very good players in January, including Romero (first back up for Armstrong) and Vukcevic (who was starting for us). They had been struggling in second last spot, but kicked on to finish 13 points clear of relegation, with all of those players contributing. Oh, there is a kicker down the bottom of this update...
 
In the first half of the season we threw a lot of games, with this 12-1 defeat to Barnsley the pick. They were in the relegation places at the time and they kicked on to end 16 points clear of relegation in the end.
secondchance-season04-22.png.b9602277e4d13cb3e7c00e9f5b0532d8.png
 
Mostly they weren't huge wins like that, as we were trying to get Armstrong to score until about 70 minutes and just capitulating at the end. We had to stop doing this mid season because we fell too far behind the leaders (12 points). After that, it was every man for himself and we'd go out to beat anyone in our path, even if they were a relegation threatened second chance team.
 
Apart from the QPR and Barnsley successes, none of my other efforts really helped, and even then although QPR and Barnsley both made it to safety, other second chance teams went down instead of them. All in all, I mostly felt helpless with assisting other teams.
 
 
Job Opportunities
 
A few enticing jobs became available this season.
 
Blackpool down in League 2 became available in December and I seriously thought about taking it, but it was too far out to be sure that Coventry would achieve promotion and Blackpool were comfortably in the automatic promotion spots. 
 
Then in April, with 4 games left in League 2, Oldham became available.
secondchance-season04-63.png.292e35fef2ecd0acff105b546d76b3f7.png
 
They had been in the playoff spots for most of the season and had slipped 3 points behind. I had 4 games to get them in the playoffs and keep their promotion chances alive and I'd soon be looking for another job anyway. This must be the perfect opportunity, right?
 
Wrong. I was ready to jump ship, but changed my mind at the last minute. Coventry were not yet promoted (they were certainly going to be so, but I wanted it on my CV). The league title was still a possibility - we'd closed the gap on the leaders to be 8 points behind, with a game in hand and 5 games to go. To top it off, we were still alive in the Euro Cup.
secondchance-season04-65.png.17ced0a490dff107d88dcc671f78e632.png
 
Note, I said "we". I guess I'd become too attached to Coventry and put their success before that of the challenge. They were going to be promoted anyway and getting the chance to fix a League 2 side would be very valuable for the challenge. But I just couldn't let go... I wanted glory for Coventry (and my CV).
 
Anyway, I saw the season through and went looking for a job in the close season. We'll leave the story there for now. Did I manage to get a job with a second chance team? Or will I be stuck at Coventry? Read to the bottom if you want to find out!
 
 
Colombia
 
The off season saw the Copa America take place and my Colombian team gave it our best shot. We were a little patchy in the group stages, but went through in 2nd place.
secondchance-season04-02.png.78e4a954aafb7f3e534f73ef9c5cf0b5.png
 
We were too good for Mexico in the Quarter Final, beating them 2-0. 
secondchance-season04-01.png.7bb596e89a5aa79eb00b40167297e701.png
 
We faced Argentina in the Semi Final and they were a class act, but a late goal from a sub saw us scrape through with a 2-1 win.
secondchance-season04-03.png.a8a262b4ab7d69241e359ff464d431c2.png
 
Which left us facing.... The USA In the final. I tried to keep the player's expectations down - after all, surely Argentina was the tougher game - and it worked, with us running out comfortable 4-1 victors.
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A nice start to the season.
 
 
Results
 
Our team was far superior to any of the others at this level, so I was expecting a successful season - and I sure got it!!
 
In the League Cup we beat West Ham 2-0 in the Quarter Final, then beat Newcastle 3-2 on aggregate in the Semi Final. 
secondchance-season04-38.png.b27220a7aa7c5a570d64c5fc18bbe040.png
 
That set us up with a Final against Tottenham. At last, a good team to test us! Or so I thought... We ended up dominating and won 2-0. Two League Cups in a row! 
secondchance-season04-46.png.52ef310d96b65cc53eedf771774ff579.png
 
The FA Cup remains our Achilles heel, with Wigan knocking us out in the 4th round, with a 2-1 victory against the run of play. I'd like to say I got mixed up and let Wigan win because I thought it was a league game, but that wasn't the case, they beat us fair and square.
secondchance-season04-40.png.926c91837ac73b7b6231e04381c40902.png
 
In the League, we were in total control of things, until we dropped too many games (intentionally) to second chance teams and found ourselves 12 points behind Aston Villa. We knuckled down and went on a scintillating run, in an effort to catch them. I want Aston Villa to be promoted, but the League's ours dammit! As I mentioned above, with 5 games to go (for us, Villa had 4 to go), we were 8 points behind.

secondchance-season04-65.png.17ced0a490dff107d88dcc671f78e632.png

 
I thought it might be too far behind, but Villa drew their next two games, while we won three (including the catch up). That left us only 1 point behind with 2 games to go. I hadn't really expected that!
secondchance-season04-81.png.b6dd8c5534eaf2ed6b5bf0163f38ae20.png
 
The penultimate game was against non other than Aston Villa, a classic 6 pointer! I'd long been eyeing this game as a potential saviour. It was one of the reasons I stayed instead of going to Oldham. If we could win the game in hand and this game, we'd be in with a shout. Of course we had to actually win it and it was a bit tense, but win it we did:
secondchance-season04-83.png.5a574034e93fd9c5c1c7685e3a86a47d.png
 
That put us on top of the table with a game to go:
secondchance-season04-84.png.cb15f1660b0a93ecf094e065f2709c39.png
 
If we could win our last game, the title was ours! And we did it!!
secondchance-season04-88.png.cbc05caad099f2230f0d379c63777e32.png
 
secondchance-season04-90.png.601734b323b31bc0dc81a3c84d508a30.png
 
That was too tight for comfort and it was entirely of my own making. I've learnt my lesson about losing too many games on purpose, I promise. 
 
In the Euro Cup, we finished top of the group stage.
secondchance-season04-28.png.ed54adc5e1b709f8aeb360c65650789e.png
 
Then we beat Ast. Tripolis (who?) 7-0 on aggregate, then we went through 2-2 on away goals against PSG (whew!). Um, are you sure PSG scored FMM? Maybe it was a phantom goal? The other screens show that Jese scored it, but it's not there for some reason... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
secondchance-season04-52.png.ab01f8084989b056626a87b025ac3818.png
 
We then beat Sevilla 2-2 on away goals, with the winner in the 118th minute. Talk about tight!
secondchance-season04-78.png.016bc9b245ee92d997f6da3809f4ed11.png
 
We then beat Besiktas 2-2 on away goals to earn a place in the final. No, that's not a copy/paste error, we had three '2-2 on away goals' results in a row in the Euro Cup (I only realised it now!). 
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We mixed things up in the final and abandoned our '2-2 on away goals' approach. Instead we went with the '1-1 and penalties' approach and Inter had no answer for that.
secondchance-season04-92.png.98b857ebd92d417a2ef04f338a414353.png
 
Coventry winning the Euro Cup!!!
 
So a treble for the second year in a row, albeit it with the Euro Cup replacing the Checkatrade Trophy. Not bad. I'll be saying goodbye to Coventry soon, but I'd like to think they won't boo me when I come to visit. 
 
 
My Reputation
 
Throughout this entire career, I've placed a lot of importance on my reputation, both to help me move jobs easier and to help attract talent to the club.
 
I was World Class after the first season at Barcelona, but fell back to Continental once I moved to Coventry. The Copa America win at the start of the season help maintain my reputation (that's why I took the Colombia job in the first place), but by February, I'd slipped back to National and was no longer ranked in the top 50. 
secondchance-season04-39.png.61694cc3b4e94e73aa7ce09dacf8e8e1.png
 
Going on to win the EFL Cup, the Championship and the Euro Cup got me back to World Class and number 2 in the world.
secondchance-season04-93.png.c7a48825d7f4d0018ff9fa8bdd263155.png
 
But I can't keep winning like this all the time. I had a lot of luck in the cups and I had 3 years to build this team and £1B behind me. Next year won't be quite so easy (though I'll try to take that £1B with me). I guess I need to accept that I will slowly slide back to National again. You're only as good as your last trophy in this game...
 
 
Accidental Armstrong 1KC
 
Armstrong had another good year. His best game was this 4 goal effort:
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Unfortunately, he was out injured for a month in November:
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He also had a couple of phantom injures where he had to go off, but just lost a little conditioning rather than actually being out injured. The constant tiredness he had last year almost disappeared this year. He's approaching his prime.
 
This was his form in the first half of the year:
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And (most of) the second half, fading a little towards the end:
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I'd asked him to score 80 goals, but the injury ruled that out. Instead, he finished with 64 goals in 61 games and now has 177 goals total (under my management).
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The scoring rate was lower than last year, but probably to be expected at the higher level. But wow, he played 61 games and missed 14 - that's a lot of games!!
 
 
League Tables
 
Here's the top and bottom of all the English leagues:
 
Spoiler

 

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Chelsea won the Premier League, giving us some bonus points. Your turn next Man City!
 
In the Championship, Coventry, Aston Villa and Blackburn all went up, while at the other end MK Dons and Charlton were relegated (in place of QPR and Barnsely, whom I saved). Umm, I guess this is a really bad time to notice that QPR had already made it back to the Premier League and I helped save them at the expense of a second chance team... Doh!
 
In League 1, Swindon Town and Sheffield Wednesday were promoted and no second chance clubs were relegated! 
 
In League 2, no second chances teams went up. Blackpool were in the automatic promotion places all season, only to fall out the end and then lose in the playoffs. Oldham were consistently in the play off spots, only to miss out near the end of the season. Maybe I should have taken that job after all...
 
 
Past Winners (3)
Spoiler
  • Manchester United
  • Arsenal
  • Chelsea
  • Manchester City
  • Blackburn Rovers
  • Leicester City

 

 

Completed (9)
Spoiler
  • Aston Villa
  • Blackburn Rovers
  • Coventry City
  • Derby County
  • Fulham
  • Newcastle United
  • Nottingham Forest
  • Norwich City
  • QPR

 

 

Remaining (18)
Spoiler

Championship (10)

  • Barnsley
  • Birmingham City
  • Cardiff City
  • Ipswich Town
  • Leeds United
  • Reading
  • Sheffield Wednesday
  • Swindon Town
  • Wigan Athletic
  • Wolves
 
League 1 (6)
  • Bolton Wanderers
  • Bradford City
  • Charlton Athletic
  • MK Dons
  • Portsmouth
  • Sheffield United
 
League 2 (2)
  • Blackpool
  • Oldham Athletic
  • AFC Wimbledon

 

 

Looking Ahead
 
Coventry are back in the Premier League and my time here is done.  Now to find another second chance team and try to move my 1KC star Armstrong and my £1B to that club. 
 
But which club? There was only 1 second chance team available, so the answer is...
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Bradford City! We'll see you there next season. 

 

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Bradford City? Oh gosh.. I remember playing them in the Challenge Cup. You're deep in this career now tho so maybe you find yourself a much better squad to work with :D solid going, mate!

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So much going on here! It is really remarkable what you achieved at Coventry and I hope you can replicate that with Bradford :).  

Reputation wise it's so annoying that the game almost forgets who you are and what you've achieved and I see no reason for it. 

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13 minutes ago, Ashez said:

Reputation wise it's so annoying that the game almost forgets who you are and what you've achieved and I see no reason for it. 

It is annoying but it's also exactly what happens IRL.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Di_Matteo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/André_Villas-Boas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Mancini

Just some examples off the top of my head! 

Excellent work Scratch, did you manage to get Armstrong up the road without too much difficulty? 

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