Career Geordiekrispy's 1k from the bottom up - Season 1-5 and done

[geordiekrispy]

Madness! a 1k LLM?

 

Ok Vibe, I am obviously mad as for my first ever 1k challenge I have decided to try not with a safe bet like PSG or Real Madrid or any other big names... But with lowly AFC Telford, yes that pinnacle of footballing greatness that is currently in the Vanarama National League North.

 

The my thinking for this is that surely the large number of games at the lower end of the English football pyramid means that with the right player(s) they should be able to score a decent amount early on, when they tend to be in the lower numbers and then as we progress up the leagues, they should improve, along with the team around them and hopefully I can nab a ITN job for the relevant nation to help out on the way too!

But why AFC Telford?

Well, honestly for 2 reasons, their initial training and youth facilities are shown as excellent... I have no idea why... But I'm hoping it'll save me some money/board requests in the short term.

 

So which player of players, which legend in the making did I choose for this crazy challenge?

Well none other than....

The Polish superstar in the making... (I hope)... Jan Los

 

Obvioulsy his shooting leaves a bit to be desired, but his Decisions and Leadership, along with his Technique should prove useful in the lower leagues.

 

I'll do the usual stuff here (manager profile etc and get the 1st season posted too).

Spoiler

 

I'm so glad that someone else (@Scratch) asked about starting reputation as it should hopefully make things a little bit easier to attract better players earlier on!

 

I decided to go for Fitness as my speciality as to get enough goals I'm going to need my star striker to be fit and healthy a lot!

 

Wish me luck!

Edited March 5, 2019 by geordiekrispy

[geordiekrispy]

Season 1 - The Pole of Poles

 

Ok, so you've all seen the challenge I have ahead of me...

1k's seem hard enough, never mind doing it from the bottom of the English leagues up!  I'll have to contend with 42 league games this season, plus cup runs. So I'm hoping for at least a goal or two a game to get a decent start on the board.

Let's see how it goes...

 

Transfers

 

Obviously there is a lot of transfers in the first season and this attempt is no different.  I pretty much sold the entire squad and brought in all new faces, who tended to be foreign... Hey it's not my fault if the best available isn't British!

Transfers Out

Spoiler

 

Transfers In

Spoiler

Literally the only expenditure was my striker and a defender, I hoped to turn the loan into a permanent deal, but they wanted millions so that didn't happen.

 

Competitions

League

If I said it was a comfortable win, I think I'd be under selling it...

Spoiler

 

FA Cup

We got all the way to the 4th round, not too shabby, taking out Bournemouth and losing to Watford.

Spoiler

 

FA Trophy

Our second piece of silverware this season!

With Jan getting a brace in the final.

Spoiler

 

Games

Spoiler

 

The main man

So how did our man Jan Los do this season?

Well he got injured for a few weeks and was really struggling for fitness for a while, so he only managed 50 games...

Spoiler

 

But at a goal a game I can't complain too much...

 

But there was a surprise, when Jan was injured his understudy/AMC partner stepped up and quite frankly smashed it out of the park!

Spoiler

If I can keep hold of both players, this may end up being a Double Trouble attempt at the least.

 

Team stats

Spoiler

 

Awards

Well I managed to snag manager of the month pretty much every month, apart from the last one and first one due to me not having to play in the playoffs and then manager of the year too.

And Los was top scorer with Steczyk right behind him.

 

My manager profile at then end looks more rainbow than green though...

 

Challenge Results so far

Season 1

51/1000

 

I think I will also try for the Rob Earnshaw hat-trick challenge when I get up to League 2...

 

Hat-Trick Tally

Vanarama National League North - Yes (a fair few, forgot to screenshot them)

Vanarama National League

League 2

League 1

Championship

Premier League

FA Cup - Yep (does 5 goals in one game count? :P)

League Cup

FA Trophy - Yes (but forgot to screenshot them)

International/World Cup

Spoiler

 

[geordiekrispy]

I'm not finished Season 2 yet, but I've got a problem... it's a nice problem though....

 

I've been offered the Ukraine national job, out of the blue, not applied for or anything...  Given that it's January and the next game is in March, I'm really not sure if I should take it, I've been keeping an eye out for the Poland job but that seems pretty safe at the minute.

 

Do I take the job to get my rating up and have a better chance of getting the Poland job if it comes up?  Or decline it and concentrate on the league?

[smoggy90]

Good luck and a great start!

[geordiekrispy]

24 minutes ago, smoggy90 said:

Good luck and a great start!

Thanks, I'm happy with hitting 50 goals after he was injured for 10 days, twice and he seems to have built up his stamina a bit more this season. Fingers crossed for an even better season!

[Kanegan]

Wow, a tough challenge you have got yourself in and a fantastic start to it. Will be watching this. KIU.

[Ian]

Good luck and a great start I’d say. I think the excellent facilities should help with his and your teams development. I’d be tempted with the Ukraine job as if you do well then later you could take the Poland job. 😀

[mulama]

this is interesting, good luck. 

[geordiekrispy]

Season 2 - The Polish imperative

 

You'll have to excuse the lack of updates as life kind of got in the way, and it's really hard to try and get time to post a season update with a toddler, a baby, a busy job and GoT to catch up on.

 

Right... So... Let's see if I can build on a pretty decent season last season!

 

Transfers

Not much to speak of, just replacing the people who left and loaning out the youth graduates.

Spoiler

Transfers In

 

Transfers Out

 

Competitions

Vanarama National League

Yup, won that at a fairly easy rate:

 

FA Cup

Got knocked out in the 2nd round by Scunthorpe

 

FA Trophy

Won with a bit of a battle against Leyton Orient

 

Fixtures

Spoiler

 

Ukraine

As I mentioned above, the Ukraine FA decided to offer me the job, and I thought why not... 

 

 

My first challenge was the qualifying for the Euro's.. no you know, no pressure...

Spoiler

 

With that out of the way it was just the actual Euro's to play...

 

Now due to the way FMM updates, the group stage was in this season and the playoffs and finals were in the next one, and some how I've managed to lose those screenshots...

So...

 

I only lost to Italy, so not too bad, with some really good hammerings of Wales and Croatia in there too!

Second Round was vs Switzerland

Was a bit twitchy, but got there in the end.

 

Next was Germany in the Quarter Final

Not a single problem here!  Let's see if we can keep the momentum going?

 

In the Semi's we came up against number 1 ranked France

Nope, they were just too good for us.

 

But Besedin did manage to grab the golden boot.

 

 

The actual challenge:

Ok so back to the actual reason for this career, a certain Mr Jan Los...

He again did ok, a slight improvement in stats:

And a slightly better goals return:

 

But people were starting to notice him and my other players, so it's going to be tough to keep hold of him/them.

 

Challenge Results so far

Season 1 - 51

Season 2 - 69

120/1000

 

This could be a long save unless he starts to hit a lot bigger numbers (which will start causing more issues with keeping him at Telford!).

 

Hat-Trick Tally

Vanarama National League North - Yes (a fair few, forgot to screenshot them)

Vanarama National League - Yes

League 2

League 1

Championship

Premier League

FA Cup - Yep (does 5 goals in one game count? :P)

League Cup

FA Trophy - Yes (but forgot to screenshot them)

International/World Cup

Spoiler

 

On a personal note I got offered the Newcastle job too...

Edited February 17, 2019 by geordiekrispy

[geordiekrispy]

The sticky end of the Pole

Ok, I'm going to not put as much info into this post as it's the last one for this save as it had to end...

Season 3- Sky Bet League Two

The League

Spoiler

We won the league, but it definately felt like a bit of a struggle at times.

Fixtures

Spoiler

Jan Los

Spoiler

 

He only managed 36 games this season due to a massive amount of injuries and the battle of keeping him happy and not being prised by a bigger club started.

 

Season 4 - Sky Bet League One

The League

Spoiler

Won the league with a lot more ease this year.

 

Fixtures

Spoiler

Seem to have not taken a screenshot of the start of the season.

 

Jan Los

Spoiler

His stats didn't improve at all, but he seemed to stay happy and slightly fitter...

 

Season 5 - Championship

This was the start of the end unfortunately...

After battling the past couple of seasons to keep Jan, he was eventually poached just after the winter transfer window and I didn't see the point in continuing as I could guarantee even with my very good regens from my academy I wasn't going to be able to afford to buy him back even if he wanted to come back.

 

League

Spoiler

Fixtures

Spoiler

Jan Los

Spoiler

 

I also got offered the England job, declined it and then the gave it back to Southgate...

Spoiler

 

So all in all, not too bad not too good...

 

Challenge Results

Season 1 - 51

Season 2 - 69

Season 3 - 40

Season 4 - 59

Season 5 - 35

254/1000

 

So a quarter of the way there in 4 and a half seasons, if he continued to score at that rate it would take 16 seasons to complete... So really I needed to hit 100 goals after the first few seasons...

 

Annoyingly he was doing well in the Rob Earnshaw challenge, having scored a hat trick in every competition apart from the FA Cup.

I think that the lack of the Poland job coming up would have helped, but not a massive amount.

 

Overall my tactics seem to prove that you can play gegen pressing in the lower leagues, and if Ukraine are anything to go by, internationally, but you need better players.  But they leave something to be desired in terms of getting those big season numbers for a 1k challenge.

[Ian]

Unlucky mate, it was always going to be a hard challenge this but you gave it a good go! 😀

[Rob]

Oh man what an annoying way for this to end. It was going really well too! 

[Nucleus]

Keeping hold of the player is the biggest challenge in a lower league 1K in my opinion. Finding a player who is good enough for the top division whilst willing to stay for the ride from the bottom is extremely rare.

You gave it a good bash though mate so well done  

[geordiekrispy]

I think I wasn't quite on the ball with the minimum fee release clauses on the contacts of the more important players.

Also, if I'd picked a player that I was able to get the national job for it would have helped with the goals tally and possibly the reputation with the player in question.

[Scratch]

Bad luck - it's a tricky thing to do a 1KC from down low, but you made a good fist of it and were unlucky to lose him. Once you were in the EPL you would sure have been able to give him a new contract. Anyway, great attempt mate and sorry it ended that way.