Career Scratch Tries: A Long Way To The Top [Complete]

[Scratch]

I mean... This is what I can give them:

 

[Cockers2505]

There is simply no comparisons, what has he done to prove his worthiness, come on Mac, the guy is sat there waiting for your Call!!!!

[Scratch]

Might have work permit issues though... 

[Scratch]

Season 6 - Macclesfield And ...

 

Macclesfield Town is now all grown up. We've won the Premier League. We've won the EURO Cup. Now we're coming for you Champions League.

First though...

 

G'Day Scotland

As you know I've been applying (and getting rejected) for every ITN position I could. My reputation had finally grown enough that someone was willing to take a risk on an Aussie manager. And that someone was Scotland:

I quite like the idea of managing Scotland and trying to take them as far as they can. And no one else was offering, so of course I said yes:

First thing I did was find some young promising Scots to come join Macclesfield, so they could benefit from our top quality facilities and coaches.

Next I checked our Fixture list and there was only one in the next 8 months:

A chance to make the Euros! Mind you Poland will be tricky. Let's just fast forward to that bit:

Yes, they were tricky. It needed a late surge to win the game. And it was a strange game: Only 8 shots, but they resulted in 5 goals? Anyway, that earnt us a Final against Romania:

Another tough game, going to overtime, before our second wind kicked in. Anyway, that qualifies us for the Euros, where we'll be facing England, France and Slovakia (gulp).

We'll leave that for another update and get back to Macclesfield Town now...

 

Transfers

It looks busier than it was:

Spoiler

Going out:

• Pavlenka, our first choice keeper from last year. He'd already peaked when we brought him in to replace Leno, but with the improved facilities, Leno overtook him.

• Finlay Brennan, who had developed into a very good centre back, but was behind 4 other players.

• A bunch of other people who had to make way for the incoming Scots, including Immobile, signed on a free in July and sold in January to make space.

Coming in:

• Our main Scot signing: Fraser Hornby who looks a decent striker and still had a little development left in him. Might use him for a 1KC one of the days...

• A bunch of young Scot who probably won't be in the team for a year or two. Pratto's first nationality is Argentinian, but he hasn't been capped so I'm going to pinch him.

And that's about it this year.

 

The League

We're not a bad team now, capable of turning it on like this:

So, no drama this year... We won easily:

 

Cups

Let's see how much we can win!

Community Shield

Sweet revenge on Man Utd, who beat us on penalties in the FA Cup Final last year:

Euro Super Cup

Bayern Munich? No problem. A straightforward 2-0 win:

League Cup

West Ham made things difficult for us in the final. It went to extra time, where we managed the winning goal:

Champions League

We easily qualified in the group stages, topping the group in front of Barcelona:

Then we beat PSG 5-2 over two legs:

We followed that up by beating Borussia Dortmund 5-1 on aggregate in the Quarter Final:

We finally faced some decent opposition in the form of Liverpool who took us to extra time in the Semi Final (we won in the end):

As for the finale.... Well let's keep that to later... First, there's something we really really need to cover.

 

The WTF Moment

So... The FA Cup Final. We lost it last year and really wanted to win it this year. The other cups and shields we'd already won this year were nothing in comparison.

But... We didn't turn up in the final. Chelsea dominated us and beat us 2-1. They didn't get the winner until stoppage time, but they clearly deserved it:

We left the game feeling down and turned out thoughts to the Champions League Final a few weeks later.

Then the next day while reading our email, something happened that made us fall out of the chair:

Yes... Losing the FA Cup Final somehow gave us just enough street cred to tip over into being a SUPERSTAR MANAGER. Mission complete!! And totally unexpected.

Very very strange feeling for it to come on the back of a gutting loss. And it left an empty feeling... What now? Do I play out the Champions League Final (yes)? Do I play the Euros with Scotland (no)? What about everything I've built here? Is it over now (yes)?

I was expecting to be ecstatic when I got that message, but instead it felt flat and empty...

 

IMPORTANT Info For Others Doing This Challenge

I didn't see this until after I finished, but there is an achievement for this:

It turns out that to unlock the Superstar Manager event/achievement, you have to stay at the one club for 5 years.

I've been trying to move clubs since the beginning of this career, not knowing that it would actually slow down the unlocking of this achievement. I lucked out because it's so hard to get a move.

I'll be updating the challenge post to include this info - I hope not too many people have been affected. @Cockers2505 I guess this means you probably won't get it until you've been at Watford 5 years? Sorry I didn't see this before.

 

The Champions League Final

I couldn't really stop without playing this, given it was our main objective throughout the whole career. I still can't believe I made it to World Class without winning either that or the World Cup.

Anyway, I told the boys this was it, go out and win it for me. And you know what? They're good lads... They went out and beat Real Madrid 3-1:

And that was it...

 

My Stats

Here's my history for this year:

And the history for the league (not including this year):

Manager of the Year for the sixth year in a row:

And here is my profile:

 

What I'm leaving behind

I leave Macclesfield Town looking like this:

And just so I can come back and look at the players later, here are a few of the lads:

Spoiler

 

The Future

As for me... I'm off to other pastures. I had some different ideas, but I think I've narrowed it down to ... a 1KC of course. I'm looking at two options, but leaning towards the one that will be a little different from what I've seen others do...

 

Edited November 29, 2018 by Scratch

[Kanegan]

Well done mate. Nicely done. Taking Macclesfield all the way to Champions League glory. This is a pretty good challenge. I may attempt this down the line after i complete some of my immediate challenges.

Would look out for your new career now.

[Scratch]

34 minutes ago, Kanegan said:

Well done mate. Nicely done. Taking Macclesfield all the way to Champions League glory. This is a pretty good challenge. I may attempt this down the line after i complete some of my immediate challenges.

Would look out for your new career now.

Thanks mate! I enjoyed it a lot. It was the perfect way (for me) to get into FMM19. I especially enjoyed the early seasons!. I think I've decided my next career, although it's a little risky (might not work out, but I think I can make it work)

[Nucleus]

Fantastic career as usual Scratch! I knew I was on the right track with the five years mention 😛

Looking forward to your next endeavour!

[Scratch]

3 minutes ago, Nucleus said:

Fantastic career as usual Scratch! I knew I was on the right track with the five years mention 😛

Looking forward to your next endeavour!

Thanks mate - I missed that totally... Didn't even think there might be something in the achievements section for it. I normally don't pay any attention to that...

Anyway, worked out fine for me. If it had been easier to move, I would never have made it!

[Rob]

Brilliant career and wonderfully written up. You have absolutely mastered this challenge. 

[Scratch]

Just now, Rob2017 said:

Brilliant career and wonderfully written up. You have absolutely mastered this challenge. 

Thanks mate! Much appreciated. Went better than I expected and now I have the confidence that I can easily do a 1KC in 19... Not that much confidence in the league or striker I'm choosing though!

[Scratch]

New career is here, just a super brief teaser at the moment (not that hard to work out):

 

 

[Cockers2505]

WOW!!! so getting sacked from Lincoln really did kill me off, to be truthful I was destined to take longer as my whole career went sour with the Lincoln job, but this about you my friend,a big congratulations, you deserve the TOP spot, I bow down to your excellent career, Macclesfield will for ever be in your debt. 👏

 

[Scratch]

1 hour ago, Cockers2505 said:

WOW!!! so getting sacked from Lincoln really did kill me off, to be truthful I was destined to take longer as my whole career went sour with the Lincoln job, but this about you my friend,a big congratulations, you deserve the TOP spot, I bow down to your excellent career, Macclesfield will for ever be in your debt. 👏

 

Yeah, I think if they'd given you some time, you'd have made it by now. I had one moment when the board was unhappy with me for a bad run of games in about season 4, but I got the wins I needed to avoid the sack. It wasn't a horrible run by any means and we were over-achieving in the first place, so I guess similar to what happened to you. 

Anyway, I think it really is a case of keep moving forward and you're fine. But no going backwards or holding still or you're in trouble. Tough game. I came out on the right side of it this time, so pretty happy! Anyway, thanks mate and also it's been really good to be doing this at the same time as others have... Keep going mate and take Watford all the way...

[URz]

All across the land every rockin’ band

Was blowing up a storm

And the guitar man got famous

The businessman got rich

And in Scratch’s bar there was a Superstar

[FuddledFox]

Well done mate.

[veerus]

Well done!  Although I'm slightly sad that we missed out on some serious schadenfreude of you team hopping for a decade before settling in with a single team and learning that you needed 5 years with a single team to get the achievement like poor @Cockers2505 just found out.

[Scratch]

14 hours ago, URz said:

All across the land every rockin’ band

Was blowing up a storm

And the guitar man got famous

The businessman got rich

And in Scratch’s bar there was a Superstar

Mate, the whole was worth it for this!  

added 0 minutes later

9 hours ago, Foxy said:

Well done mate.

Thanks Gif-meister!! 😂

[Scratch]

1 hour ago, veerus said:

Well done!  Although I'm slightly sad that we missed out on some serious schadenfreude of you team hopping for a decade before settling in with a single team and learning that you needed 5 years with a single team to get the achievement like poor @Cockers2505 just found out.

Thanks mate... Yeah, that could easily have happened if only FMM would have given me the moves I wanted. I'd have been wandering around from club to club, never getting to the destination, wondering why FMM had forsaken me... I dodged a bullet there, but maybe you missed out on the entertainment of me sliding into insanity!