Career Tree's DT attempt - 11 seasons with Anderlecht (now paused)

[Mr Tree]

Hey folks, it's me again!

I've been trying to get into a new game and I seem to have a hook now, so here we go...

It's the classic Double Trouble...

But I wanted to at least do something a bit different so...

 

Club choice: Anderlecht

not the most off-base but not been done for a while - I'm gonna use Anderlecht's sound foundation and weak domestic league as a base for my career.

I was considering Benfica, cos they play in red-and-white like my bees, and I could even refer to them as Brentfica if I wanted to, but the whole SLB/FCP thing annoys me (but not enough to make me download the badge fixes etc).

Plus I needed to include the English leagues (because of my "obscure" player selections), and Belgium is a bit closer to England spiritually (and geographically). Obviously I considered Scotland too, but I've had two successful careers there, didn't want to be Celtic or Rangers, and anyone else would've meant tussling with Celtic so... We'll try something new. Belgium's good for 40 league games a season, too! Plus you gotta love Anderlecht's gorgeous purple home kit and salmon away colours

 

Player choice: Marcus Forss and Gustav Mogensen

Who?! Well, take a wild guess who these two young studs currently play for in real life....... Yep, I'm back Brentfordifying a challenge!

Marcus scored the last goal of the EFL season (excluding playoffs) two months ago, his first league goal.

 

Big Gus is seen as a "Hot Prospect" in West London - our owner infuriated fans by tweeting one of his cryptic clues for an imminent signing...

...before revealing it to be a kid who wouldn't impact the current squad. (The clue apparently being a reference to yet another Danish signing)

But who knows - maybe we'll all know the kid's name in 5yrs.

 

I am confident that my tactic generates lots of goals, and I was able to fit an average player into an elite team on my Roma save. And I know Marcus (at least) can develop into a top player on the game. 

On the other hand, I have ultimately failed my last two challenges, and I've never been good at generating high individual goalscoring numbers...

 

So wish me luck!

Edited August 18, 2019 by Mr Tree

[Ian]

I had a feeling it’d be two Brentford players you chose and I like the club choice.

Best of luck.

[smoggy90]

Good luck mate. Recently did two seasons with club Brugge and really enjoyed it, good to see different players too. 

[Paul186]

Good luck mate I'm certain you will do it this time

[Mr Tree]

10 hours ago, Paul186 said:

Good luck mate I'm certain you will do it this time

I'm not! But thanks, and I admire your optimism!

21 hours ago, Ian said:

I had a feeling it’d be two Brentford players you chose and I like the club choice.

Best of luck.

I'm so predictable but yeah, love my bees - many thanks!

13 hours ago, smoggy90 said:

Good luck mate. Recently did two seasons with club Brugge and really enjoyed it, good to see different players too. 

Cheers, yeah it's a good league so I'm enjoying it - had a rocky first season where I wasn't sure if it was gonna stick, but going well now...

 

So, might get that first season up tonight!

[FuddledFox]

Really liking both the club choice as we don’t see many Belgium saves but also the players as I know nothing about them.

Good luck.

[Mr Tree]

SEASON 1

Transfers

As ever, shipped out a fair bit of deadwood to generate funds. Struggled to bring in too much quality. Kara was my star CB before selling him after the season - good stats but getting towards 30, so I could cash in and replace with better.

Competitions

A lousy start...

I didn't even win the league! Belgium has this weird system where you play the other 15 clubs twice, then the top six play against each other twice more, and Brugge pipped me after 40 games! Details below...

Spoiler

I blew it too, losing 5-1 to them in the run-in. But that's life, not too bothered - we started really slowly, and I'd fallen out with half the squad by the end, so what can ya do...

Dimata was awesome - I had a €5m buyout but he had huge wage demands. Bolasie was great for six months but then fell apart and didn't even play the last 8-10 games.

Couldn't get past stubborn Standard Liege in the Belgian Cup...

And didn't have quite enough to trouble Sevilla in the Europa League:

Challenge

A slow start... It took till November for them to break their ducks:

 

And then just as Marcus was settling...

And evidently, it wasn't fully healed when he came back...

So that affected his output... (his rating sucks too, as I was basically alternating him and Gustav to be used as my substitute striker, giving one of them 30mins pretty much every game)

But at least he was going the right way by the end of the season!

 

As for Gustav, he fared slightly better... But only slightly...

 

Target 1200

Current total 8

AT THIS RATE THEY WILL REACH THE TARGET IN... 2168, when Marcus is 169 years old and Gustav a mere 167... Although you'd have to assume they'd struggle to maintain this output by that age

We shall aim to improve this

[Ian]

Don’t worry my TT started in a similar way and they’ve improved immensely. 

They are still young and will improve.😀

[Mr Tree]

Yep, no worries, things will pick up. And if I've proved anything on here, it's that I will persistently post even when failing a career!

 

I meant to say: I did desperately want to do it as the bees. They got 20 between them in my first year when I tried in England, and Mogensen's heading went straight up to 20 (it hasn't in this Anderlecht save). I reasoned that my facilities etc would hold them back too much though.

But Forss got a 4-month injury there too. So I guess he's hard-wired to get a long one in the first season (as he did in real life, hmm). Just gotta plough through and see where they are in their early 20's...

Edited July 22, 2019 by Mr Tree

[FuddledFox]

Those injuries really sting but the only way is up.

[Paul186]

Tough first things, but the only way is up from here.

[Mr Tree]

SEASON 2

Transfers

So after settling in, i went for the squad overhaul. I was pretty happy with the squad I'd assembled by mid-August, and then came the chance to grab Harit (on loan from Schalke) and Luan, who I haven't noticed mentioned before but was an awesome signing from Brazil. I think my first impression was that Luan would be my AP in CM, and Harit would play on the wing, but I quickly noticed something (I forget what now) that made me swap them, and they were both great. I can't particularly recommend Harit cos he was regularly getting complaints from my coaching staff for training badly, but he produced a fair bit of magic for me too.

Of the other signings, some were for the future (Veeckman, Morilla, D'Onofrio)... Danjuma was a foolish giveaway from my rivals last year, great little winger, cheers Brugge!

 

Kara left at the end of last year (but shows in both?). Didillon was my reserve keeper. Santini a decent striker but not worth keeping. And a load of crap. 10mill profit overall (or maybe break-even, if Kara doesn't count)

 

Competitions

A successful year:

Spoiler

I knew the squad was looking good when we did this preseason:

 

We were absolutely smashing the league at the break:

But then it seems they halve your points from the first stage, so my advantage was cut in two! Still, won the title with six games to spare.

Was a bit pissed off actually, cos the only games I lost were the 37th and 38th, when I played Sun-Tue-Thu-Sun-Tue-Thu-Sun in two weeks around the Europa League semis. Bloody stupid.

 

Dendoncker's idiocy cost us a Champs League spot:

 

But an awesome win set us on the way to Europa League glory:

And (spoiler alert!) Marcus came up trumps in the final!

 

He notched a brace in our Belgian Cup win too:

 

Challenge

Cut to the chase here:

A great season for Marcus!

Gah, not so good, but still young...

A few of the season's highlights:

Spoiler

Marcus got going from Game 1

And he took advantage of lower opposition:

He actually ended his European campaign with back-to-back hat-tricks!

And he was so good that there may well be trouble ahead...

 

Target 1200

Total so far 58

AT THIS RATE THEY WILL REACH THE TARGET IN... 2042, when Marcus will be 43 and Gustav 41. This is achievable!!!

Edited July 24, 2019 by Mr Tree

[Ian]

A great improvement from your duo and I’m confident in saying that once your boys get into their early twenties then their returns will improve a good bit so think of these goals as bonus ones as in the rule of Bati. 

[smoggy90]

Forss has bounced back from that injury mate and that's an excellent season.

Keep chipping away and as Ian says once they get to those early 20's the goals should start to fly in.

[Paul186]

Unlucky with Mogensen, I'm certain they both will soon be on fire scoring for fun.

[Mr Tree]

SEASON 3

Transfers

Well first we had to fend off bids for Gustav!

Pretty happy with the squad after last year's great season, so my only two money signings were right-backs (I probably wouldn't have signed Navarro if i knew Mazraoui was coming). Foden on loan but he was behind Carvalho as my AP and never really managed to get past him. One good run then he got injured, I think.

Much more going on outbound, as some promising youngsters forced out some oldies. I didn't miss the top two much - good players but I had other good options in their roles, so good money.

A nice 40mill+ profit for the year.

 

Competitions

Sorry, missed the overall summary screenshot. Won the Belgian League, Belgian Cup and Belgian Super Cup. Lost the European Super Cup, out at the CL group stage, and failed to retain the Europa League at the last hurdle.

 

My league record ended up a touch more convincing than last year, although the only loss came early (away to bloody Mouscron - more on them below!)

Other competitions below:

Spoiler

 

Gave a good account of ourselves but they took their chances

3-0 down in the shootout after the first five penalties went the wrong way, that was a good recovery to prevent what would have been a travesty!

Brutal CL draw and Roma's draw with Barca proved to be just enough for them.

Fun match but couldn't quite get it done.

 

Challenge

Improvement for big Gus!

But unfortunately, a big drop-off for Marcus:

 

Here are their attributes, btw. Sadly (especially in Gustav's case) they appear to have stopped growing

 

Target 1200

Total 101

So 100 in 3 seasons means this'll be done in 36 seasons... Which I can't do, fk you SI!!

Or write off that first season, 93 in last two seasons... is still not going to get the job done... AT THIS RATE, THEY WILL REACH THE TARGET IN 2045!!

[Ian]

Your boys are still young and I can see them still developing a bit yet particularly the physical attributes which can often make a big difference. 

[smoggy90]

Anything you can put your finger on with the drop in Forss goals mate?  He looked like he was really picking up for you and was going to kick on. Still plenty of time.

[Mr Tree]

3 hours ago, smoggy90 said:

Anything you can put your finger on with the drop in Forss goals mate?  He looked like he was really picking up for you and was going to kick on. Still plenty of time.

cheers - not really - i was messing around with the rotation a lot and it just didn't seem to work out. and up til now i was just getting the best players possible for my system, whereas i'll try to look now for providers rather than goal-thieves!!

[Mr Tree]

SEASON 4

Yuck, just a brief one here because we did not make much progress...

Transfers

Spoiler

A new winger and a centre back (to replace Sanneh) were the big inbounds, plus a backup AP. A few young guns with potential snapped up too.

D'Onofrio lost his place in goal and sulked, so I cut my losses (by making a big profit). Dendoncker was perpetually sulking too. Another year of profit

 

Competitions

A little less dominant in the league this year, but not much... The writing was on the wall with a classic FMMing on the first day of the season:

Spoiler

The other trophies...

Lame but got the job done

Incremental improvement, through to the CL knockouts got the first time...

Tough draw and, despite big Gus's late winner at home, we barely got a kick at Old Trafford

Easy Cup win

Challenge

The figures that matter:

Just a two-goal improvement for Marcus, and Gustav actually dropped a goal compared to last year. At least their averages are trending the right way - they both did alright really. Some more detail below:

Spoiler

Marcus actually won League Top Scorer for the first time:

But while he did alright, big Gus picked up the odd knock:

Marcus had a purple patch (to suit my kit) around the turn of the year...

But credit where it's due...

Meanwhile big Gus was holding his own, to the extent that I had to bat away eight-figure bids!

It's a pity he won't go much further, but "solid" is better than nowt...

And he even won his first Player of the Week award!

Target 1200

Total 145

AT THIS RATE THEY WILL REACH THE TARGET IN... 2046!! (based on 45 goals per season over last three, adding one for the poor first season)

I was feeling quite good about my squad, going 3-deep in every position, so I was just rotating based on Morale and Condition... And it didn't work too well. So I'll switch that around next year and see where we get to. Obviously the actual DT is looking unlikely, so I'll try to judge how much to bother you all with the progress over the coming seasons

[Mr Tree]

SEASON 5

Transfers

Not much inbound, another good year of profit...

Spoiler

Schlager is a decent (unselfish!) AP who I had my eye on - he became available so I swooped, and he's done great. The other inbounds were kids.

Sold Doku - selfish, moody, good money. Diatta was unlucky really, looked a good winger but I had loads, so he just never got a fair chance. And some other bits trimming the fat in the squad.

 

Competitions

A fantastic year for the club!

Ridiculous Champions League final with 6 or 7 guys missing due to internationals, including Marcus and Gustav. 16yo Scottish striker came off the bench and made a name for himself - quite the dream debut!

Other competitions here:

Spoiler

 

 

 

Challenge

Our best year yet!

Good to see Marcus getting back to form!

And Gustav looking like he'll throw in a consistent 18-20 - better than nowt!

Some of the highlights:

Spoiler

Batting away serious bids for Marcus:

Just the one hat-trick this year:

Two of the top three in the local league

Gus even got a POTM award!

 

 

Target 1200

Total 199

AT THIS RATE THEY WILL REACH THE TARGET IN... 2042!! I mean, 200 every 5 seasons would take 30 years overall... But let's be optimistic, 54 a season from here!

[Mr Tree]

SEASON 6

With support drying up for my quest, I needed the boys to step up - were they up to the challenge?!

 

Transfers

Spoiler

A little bit of investment overall this year, splashing out on a nice teenage left-back plus a 16yo DM (overpriced but what do I care, we're loaded). Couldn't resist Swansea's generous offer for my backup AP with some young'uns poised to break through, and trimmed a little fat otherwise.

 

 

Competitions

Very good season with just the CL blemish. Think the league game I lost was very early. More details here:

Spoiler

 

Not sure what went down here, but they ripped me apart

Relatively comfortable elsewhere, including our first world championship

 

Challenge

Great seasons from both of them!

Some highlights below:

Spoiler

Top two in the league for the first time:

My whole defence, although how Cobbaut gets in there ahead of Robinson, my first-choice left-back, god only knows! And my on-loan striker too gives me 8 of the 11 overall.

Target 1200

Total 273

AT THIS RATE THEY WILL REACH THE TARGET IN... 2037!! Which, while still not likely, is at least actually plausible! At one point I was doing my sums to work out if we'll even realistically get halfway there, but now who knows...

 

Thanks for reading!

[Kanegan]

Big step up this season mate. A few more of this and you will be back in track. 

[Ian]

Great season for the boys there and they haven’t hit their peak yet so there’s definitely a chance of them reaching the total. 

[Paul186]

A good season keep on improving like this and you soon be hitting the target.

[FuddledFox]

This is going in the right direction so I certainly won’t be giving up hope.

[smoggy90]

Keep it up mate, that last season was a great one so hopefully onwards and upwards!

[Mr Tree]

SEASON 7

Oh dear - went backwards. Haven't the heart to do a full update, despite a brilliant club season (just kidding, details are behind the spoiler below).

We started well enough, and I remember well that they were on about 25 (combined) from 17. And then they went on a mutual slump, banging out about 10 games in a row of no goals and 6 ratings

We were back on track by the end, but still, a step back overall...

Target 1200

Total 331

AT THIS RATE THEY WILL REACH THE TARGET IN... 2040!!

 

One other piece of news was another new stadium to add to the leaderboard there:

A club legend, immortalised!

 

Full details on the season below. Otherwise, thanks for reading!

Spoiler

Transfers

Only signings were 16-year-olds - three CB's and a BWM.

Cashed in on a few dickheads, and let some other fringe players go. Big profit this year

 

Competitions

You saw the final league table and UCL win above. Season started well:

Easy cup win against the bottom team (who I beat 12-0 over two league games) with just my reserves, with the match coming between the UCL semi-final legs if I remember right. Two teenage Belgians with the goals.

I was smashing the league, perfect first half of the season...

...so I guess it was inevitable I would draw my first game after the winter break

I got my revenge three days later. Law of averages, perhaps!

 

Other highlights for my boys:

 

 

Edited August 7, 2019 by Mr Tree

[AnonymousLietchensteiner]

Can you show their attributes? Surely they’d be growing with all those goals?

[Ian]

Don’t give up on your boys yet, they still have time.