Career Bati Attempts In-game Challenges 5/7, 6/7 & 7/7

[Dagion]

Maybe the assistant has troubles getting the needed log ins to write down the update after giving Bati the boot? Who knows 😉

[BatiGoal]

6/7 You Can't Win Jack With Kids

 

May

Being one of our main rivals it was crucial not to lose this match. Equally as crucial to take all points here and close the gap, but we simply couldn't. I blame the group of players and my Assistant Manager. I need better professionals in my circle. 

 

 

The draw brings us the following standings. Still 3pts behind Juve and 5pts now behind Inter. With 3 games left to play we need both teams to end the Serie A in a terrible fashion. I honestly don't see that happening. My Assistant Manager does. 

 

 

A solid win here including the by now usual late goal conceded, to make sure we end with the worst GD possible of the three title contenders.

 

 

Now the table looks like this. It's +3pts for us and Juve, but Inter drew their match. The three horse race is now reaching its climax with just 3pts between them and us. The problem is our GD tho. A win for either team in one of their final two games essentially means we're done. 

 

 

Another must win game for the Parma side and we do win. We did what was required of us so let's race to the league table and see how the other two performanced. 

 

 

A loss for Inter and a draw for Juve. They both failed to secure 3pts. The race is still on till the very end. One game left to play and there's still a chance how minimal I couldn't care less, we're going for it. 

 

Players ☑ 

Formation ☑ 

Tactics ☑ 

Subs ☑ 

A quick lil prayer for goodluck ☑ 

 

 

 

Oh no... I know EXACTLY why this happened... 

4 hours ago, samhardy said:

I’m seeing a 4-0 loss to Juventus with 2 red cards to end all chances.

He gave me a reason to despise him even more. 

 

 

 

Lost for words. I know it was always going to be a challenge with this group of players, but yeah. Always disappointing to fail a challenge no matter how long or short. At least my Assistant Manager and I know it wasn't our doing. It's Sam's. He jinxed it. 

Anyways.. I'll replay this challenge at some later point. For now we passed one and failed another. 

 

5/7 Austerity Measures ✔️

6/7 You Can't Win Anything With Kids ❌

7/7 The Dangers of Capitalism (up next) 

If I've lost the majority of my loyal supporters, I really don't blame ya. But we'll try to win the last one and end on positive Vibes.

[Kanegan]

You gave a good run with those kids. Bad luck though.You should come back to this challenge some time later.

[BatiGoal]

In order to wash away that terrible taste of the previous challenge, which we btw lost because of @samhardy - it's important I remind everyone of that, we're quickly moving on to the third and final challenge of this series of 3.

 

 

7/7 The Dangers of Capitalism

 

Challenge Recap:

• Chairman Y donates club to Chairman X --> motivation: pain --> new chairman starts stripclub --> misread that --> new chairman starts to strip the club --> I come in to lead the dance --> and meet challenge objectives: AVOID SACK!

And in that light I've found the perfect selection of 5 once Great Big Clubs that are today still Great but play their football on a smaller stage:

 

Sunderland AFC - FA Cup winners x2 and top-flight winners x6, most recent one.. wait for it... 85 years ago! After hurtful back-to-back relegations in 2016/17 and 2017/18, The Black Cats are now playing ball in League One.

Deportivo La Coruña - from Spanish League winners in 1999/2000 to relegation from La Liga in 2011 to Segunda Division relegation fighters in 2020. The glory days from the early 00's are well buried in the past.

Hamburger SV - from being a proud German club that had never been relegated from the Bundesliga -> to being a (still proud) club ever relegated from the Bundesliga. A dark black season for the HSV in 2018.

1.FC Kaiserslautern - won the 2.Bundesliga in 96/97 and straight after the Bundesliga in 97/98. But then years later in 2012: relegated. And in 2018: relegated once more. Now this club is active in 3. Liga. 

AS Saint-Éttiene - winners of the French Ligue 1 x10, last one dating back to the 1980/81 season. And winners of Ligue 2 in 2004. Currently nowhere near being the dominant French title contenders they once were.

 

The above clubs have a massive and loyal fanbase, despite the troubles in recent decades, both financially and on the football pitch. My job, however, isn't to bring back those glory days. Many a manager have had the sack in unsuccessfully attempting so, so my job's a little easier; Avoid the sack on empty pockets.

Pls drop a comment with your club of choice. First club to receive 3 votes gets the nod, and will feature in this challenge. Thank you! 

[Dagion]

My vote would be Saint Etienne, then Sunderland. Interesting challenge this one, you can get the sack even if you do well.

But more responsibilities from the Assistant should see this challenge end well!

[Ian]

I think your assistant has proven he’s worth his weight in gold so it might be wise to keep him on for this and even the VWC!

Sunderland for me.

[ThomW12]

Terrible shame that @samhardy ruined your last challenge, I'm sure you'll be back stronger!

I will vote Hamburger, can't decide if it is a great name or not. Either way it is better than Braintree. 

[Cockers2505]

I vote AS Saint-Ettienne, only because in my career save they served me well, but whatever you choose, good luck mate

[broodje kip]

Hamburger and La Coruna for me Bati

[Kanegan]

Go for St Etienne. Have fond memories of  that club in my journeyman career. 

[BatiGoal]

6 hours ago, Dagion said:

My vote would be Saint Etienne, then Sunderland. Interesting challenge this one, you can get the sack even if you do well.

But more responsibilities from the Assistant should see this challenge end well!

The more responsibilities he gets the more he's to blame when things turn dark. Love the suggestion, thanks. 

6 hours ago, Ian said:

I think your assistant has proven he’s worth his weight in gold so it might be wise to keep him on for this and even the VWC!

Sunderland for me.

I actually might do that yeah, one day he'll take over this account so I can retire in peace 😂 

And thanks everyone for the votes. It's VWC time now, so once I'm done with that I'll come back to this and count up the votes. Keep 'em coming in the meantime. 

[Seth Anacondas]

Sunderland, Luke O'Nien is a cracking player.

[Scratch]

Um, it has to be Sunderland doesn't it? That will keep @samhardy off your back, but if you do fail, well you won't really have failed, it will just be payback for Sam cursing your last attempt.

I had typed something about Sunderland not really being a big old great club, but I deleted it. I've seen Sunderland Till I Die and have trouble maintaining the appropriate levels of antagonism towards Sunderland supporters now, even Sam. 😯

Edit: Oh that was crushing BTW, I really thought you'd bring it home, pretty close, but oh so far at the end...

Edited April 24, 2020 by Scratch

[samhardy]

Looks like St Etienne got to three first. Great. We don’t need another failed manager at Sunderland!

[BatiGoal]

9 hours ago, Seth Anacondas said:

Sunderland, Luke O'Nien is a cracking player.

Thanks, will remember him. Either at Sunderland or a different club. 

2 hours ago, Scratch said:

Edit: Oh that was crushing BTW, I really thought you'd bring it home, pretty close, but oh so far at the end...

On the other hand, sometimes these failures keeps us on our toes. Never take anything for granted. 

2 hours ago, Scratch said:

Um, it has to be Sunderland doesn't it? That will keep @samhardy off your back, but if you do fail, well you won't really have failed, it will just be payback for Sam cursing your last attempt

🤔😈

Watched Sunderland Till I Die season 2 few days ago. Very interesting. Kinda makes me feel bad for them. They come across as very loyal hardworking football loving folks. Deserve much better than playing League One football. It definitely crossed my mind to start a longterm career with them straight away. I have a weak for such clubs when I watch or read those background stories, so I might still do. 

2 hours ago, samhardy said:

Looks like St Etienne got to three first. Great. We don’t need another failed manager at Sunderland!

Change of rules, I'm VWC-ing so most votes wins 😉 

[Scratch]

52 minutes ago, BatiGoal said:

Watched Sunderland Till I Die season 2 few days ago. Very interesting. Kinda makes me feel bad for them. They come across as very loyal hardworking football loving folks. Deserve much better than playing League One football. It definitely crossed my mind to start a longterm career with them straight away. I have a weak for such clubs when I watch or read those background stories, so I might still do.

Yeah, had the same effect on me, even though I'm a Newcastle fan. I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to feel bad for them, or to (maybe) even want them to get promoted, or to want to start a career with them, but it's hard not to feel that way. Pretty confused to be honest... 😖

Also, please put me down for 10 more votes for Sunderland. 🤣

[BatiGoal]

Thanks big for the votes, everyone, much appreciated. We have a winner.

• 4 votes - Sunderland AFC
• 1 vote - Dep. La Coruña
• 2 votes - Hamburger SV
• 0 votes - FC Kaiserslautern
• 3 votes - Saint-Éttiene

This challenge will be resumed shortly. 

[Dagion]

On 24/04/2020 at 15:19, Scratch said:

Yeah, had the same effect on me, even though I'm a Newcastle fan. I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to feel bad for them, or to (maybe) even want them to get promoted, or to want to start a career with them, but it's hard not to feel that way. Pretty confused to be honest... 😖

Also, please put me down for 10 more votes for Sunderland. 🤣

Not that strange, I really like managing Feyenoord due to it's history but I support Ajax in real life. I'd love to see Feyenoord rise again and give Ajax a run for their money. Never really understood why people could get aggressive about such stuff. On the other hand I live in the south where everybody loves PSV, and I don't manage them out of spite. FC Eindhoven is a whole different story..

Maybe I'll watch that Netflix documentary, seems to pop up quite a lot! Also, pleasy try to get the most out of McGeady, he always screwed me over in older FM's 😬

Edited April 26, 2020 by Dagion

[samhardy]

56 minutes ago, BatiGoal said:

Thanks big for the votes, everyone, much appreciated. We have a winner.

• 4 votes - Sunderland AFC
• 1 vote - Dep. La Coruña
• 2 votes - Hamburger SV
• 0 votes - FC Kaiserslautern
• 3 votes - Saint-Éttiene

This challenge will be resumed shortly. 

😱

[BatiGoal]

7/7 The Dangers of Capitalism

 

 

1973 FA Cup Final

(Sunderland - Leeds United)

-

32 min. - it's a Sunderland corner. Billy Hughes sinks the ball in the Wembley grass and prepares himself to take it. The Sunderland crowd roars Billy into action. The ball goes long... it flies towards Dave Watson who is standing between two Leeds defenders to give Vic Halom an extra inch of space. Vic keeps his eye on the ball and chests down the corner. The deflected high ball is controlled by Ian Porterfield. The crowd holds its breath... in a split second Ian looks, aims, and fires the round object from 12 yards hard into the back of the net. Unstoppable. Wembley erupts. GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAL!!!!!!!!!!

Full time:

🏆 Sunderland 1-0 Leeds United

⚽  Ian Porterfield - 32'

-

Line-up: 4-3-3 - Manager: B. Stokoe 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

• GK - J. Montgomery 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
• RB - D. Malone 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
• LB - R. Guthrie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
• CB - D. Watson 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
• CB - R. Pitt 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
• LCM - I. Porterfield 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
• RCM - B. Kerr (c) 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
• CM - M. Horswill 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
• LW - D. Tueart 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
• RW - B. Hughes 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
• ST - V. Halom 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
• Sub: D. Young 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

 

This being the club's last major trophy, the idea came to mind to try and honor this great Sunderland bunch by replicating their playing style in the forthcoming challenge. Objective: Avoid Sack but I'll do my best to end the season with a trophy.

My Sunderland line-up: 4-3-3

Let me briefly explain my choice of players.

Goalkeeper

GK J.McLaughlin over L.Burge since he's the more experienced of the two. Pretty similar in skill set overall, but J.McLaughlin's got better kicking and aerial. Third GK and youngster J.Patterson is thrown into The Reserves to gain experience. 

Defence

After sending two FB loanees back to their clubs, little choice as they were unnecessarily pressing the wages further and deeper down into red, it's pretty much our FB leftovers D.Hume left and C.McLaughlin right. CB pairing is left-footed T.Smith and right-footed J.Willis. Both possess great aerial and good physicals. This leaves us a fine CB sub in J.Lynch and down the pecking order A.Öztürk due to his poor tackling and positioning. Just promoted to the First Team we have Sunderland Academy lad B.Taylor who's in serious contention to grab his place on the sub bench.

Midfield

I've had success with the midfield combination as seen above, so I'll attempt to give Sunderland a little bit of the Bati touch. Probably more your typical BWMs but in this system I'll have J.Scowen and G.Dobson play as BBMs. I particularly love their great aggression, teamwork and stamina. L.O'Nien dead center as AP. Lacking in creativity which is disappointing but solid talent with a nice array of blue's and technique and passing game. In this role he's the best we got. M.Power isn't far behind as sub tho, and it's very likely these two lads will be alternating games till Xmas. The better performer will then get the majority of the games till May. The experienced G.Leadbitter is acting as a CM sub for either of the two BBMs.

Attack

A bit of a dilemma up front since I wanted Wingers but then it'd be more like a variation of a 4-5-1, and I really want to stick to the typical 4-3-3 style Sunderland played in that final vs Leeds. So Wingers pushed deeper and turned IFs, with a from loan recalled A.McGeady - great technical game and powerful shot in his right foot - taking responsibility of the left side. And C.Maguire - due to his wonderful set of 12x blue 12's attributes all over the page + an expert in dead ball situations, which is always favorable to have in the team - on the right. In 1st sub L.Gooch and 2nd sub D.Watmore we have decent prospects on either side. Our Striker is TM K.Lafferty thanks to his superior aerial, strength, movement and shooting over W.Grigg and very close behind C.Wyke.

 

In terms of age and talent I really like this squad. I definitely see potential here and I'm positive with a little more funds and better facilities this team can improve a lot and go far. All the way to the EPL no doubt. But lack of funds brings me to the only problem I have with the squad at the moment: squad depth. Right now The Reserves don't quite have the needed quality to feed the First Team, but hopefully in the future the promising Academy lads bring the club the reinforcements like they've done in the past.

The start of the campaign..

No better way to start with a message from the asset-stripping chairman, who's selling players behind my back. Bastard! After having sold the Training Ground, we're now stripped of Gooch, Grigg and Power among others. Gutted as these three lads were close to earning a starting spot. And I was very much looking forward to seeing these men develop and fight for their place.

It does bring our financial misery from this... 

... to this. But the squad depth we were lacking is now, well, been "fixed" I suppose. Come injuries and suspensions are we're screwed big time. 

I'm trying to focus on results with whatever squad I'm left with. Big win in our first game. 

Entertaining party of mistakes on both ends, but who cares when Sunderland emerge victorious. Late late goal for the win!! 

Another 5 goals smashed in. Take that you Pompey People. 

3 pts once more. So long as our squad isn't thinned out further I gotta grab all points I can. I'll need 'em.

Small win but big pts to take the lead in the table. Perfect serie of league wins so far. Sunderland are flying! 

And pts drop late August to end the month in almost perfect fashion. I'll take the point. 

Inbetween we convincingly beat Grimsby and Fleetwood in the EFL Cup. A Cup I'm going to bring home to the "Land of the Sun" 😉 

Great run with 5 wins and 1 draw to take top spot in League One. If the Chairman is done with his stripping BS I believe I can steer this club to success. If he surprises me again with the sales of another handful of good men, I really start to worry. 

Thanks for the views. 

 

Up next: September - December update.

Edited April 29, 2020 by BatiGoal

[Mr Tree]

On 26/04/2020 at 16:59, Dagion said:

Not that strange, I really like managing Feyenoord due to it's history but I support Ajax in real life. I'd love to see Feyenoord rise again and give Ajax a run for their money. Never really understood why people could get aggressive about such stuff. On the other hand I live in the south where everybody loves PSV, and I don't manage them out of spite. FC Eindhoven is a whole different story..

Maybe I'll watch that Netflix documentary, seems to pop up quite a lot! Also, pleasy try to get the most out of McGeady, he always screwed me over in older FM's 😬

1) you should definitely watch the Netflix documentary - it's fantastic

2) there's loads of clubs that i simply would not touch with a bargepole on this game (but then i'm a very hateful sort). QPR, Fulham, Birmingham... bleurgh. Never ever.

to be fair, that's probably the whole list, now that i think about it. i have loads of personal vendettas too, but those three are the most deep-rooted - QPR and Fulham for geographical reasons, and Birmingham for pipping us (with a lack of grace) in 1995, when we finished 2nd but didn't get promoted (because of the Premier League causing reorganisation lower down the leagues).

i hated Wigan for ages (for example), because they cost me a lot of money once (don't do multi-game accumulator bets, kids). but i won the Champs League with them on last year's game, so i guess i'm over it...

[broodje kip]

On 26/04/2020 at 22:59, Dagion said:

Not that strange, I really like managing Feyenoord due to it's history but I support Ajax in real life. I'd love to see Feyenoord rise again and give Ajax a run for their money. Never really understood why people could get aggressive about such stuff. On the other hand I live in the south where everybody loves PSV, and I don't manage them out of spite. FC Eindhoven is a whole different story..

Maybe I'll watch that Netflix documentary, seems to pop up quite a lot! Also, pleasy try to get the most out of McGeady, he always screwed me over in older FM's 😬

The only club I would seems to manage is Spurs. My only time that manage them is last year and the only reason because it’s a Vibe challenge.

[BatiGoal]

58 minutes ago, Mr Tree said:

2) there's loads of clubs that i simply would not touch with a bargepole on this game (but then i'm a very hateful sort). QPR, Fulham, Birmingham... bleurgh. Never ever.

Thanks for giving me a fresh challenge idea 😁 

[Dagion]

1 hour ago, Mr Tree said:

1) you should definitely watch the Netflix documentary - it's fantastic

2) there's loads of clubs that i simply would not touch with a bargepole on this game (but then i'm a very hateful sort). QPR, Fulham, Birmingham... bleurgh. Never ever.

to be fair, that's probably the whole list, now that i think about it. i have loads of personal vendettas too, but those three are the most deep-rooted - QPR and Fulham for geographical reasons, and Birmingham for pipping us (with a lack of grace) in 1995, when we finished 2nd but didn't get promoted (because of the Premier League causing reorganisation lower down the leagues).

i hated Wigan for ages (for example), because they cost me a lot of money once (don't do multi-game accumulator bets, kids). but i won the Champs League with them on last year's game, so i guess i'm over it...

Only ones I wouldn't manage for a long term save are Chelsea, City, PSG. Maybe for a short challenge, other than that I'm pretty open to managing clubs. PSV have just too many fanatic supporters in my surroundings I guess. Also don't like the shady financial support they got/get from the council of Eindhoven, or any club who gets that.

[Ian]

Very good early results. I enjoyed my spell at Sunderland earlier on in the season I have to say. I particularly liked Willis and Dobson out of the original squad and both ended still being regulars in the premier league I believe well Dobson certainly was anyway.

Good luck for the next games.

[BatiGoal]

1 hour ago, Ian said:

Very good early results. I enjoyed my spell at Sunderland earlier on in the season I have to say. I particularly liked Willis and Dobson out of the original squad and both ended still being regulars in the premier league I believe well Dobson certainly was anyway.

Good luck for the next games.

Thanks. I'm really enjoying this career. It may very well be the team I'm picking for my next longterm save. With Sam's permission only, of course. 

[Kanegan]

Great start to a challenge again. Just don't screw up the finish. 😁

[BatiGoal]

21 minutes ago, Kanegan said:

Great start to a challenge again. Just don't screw up the finish. 😁

Thanks. Uhh can't make those promises 😄

[BatiGoal]

7/7 The Dangers of Capitalism

 

September

A fine O'Nien brace to beat the Wandering Boltboys followed by a Lafferty double for another 3pts. Ugly game and result vs a dozen minus one Accringtonians and a nice recovery against The Rothermen 4-1, sweet Wyke hattrick. Then a painful first league loss to those same Wandering Boltpeople despite two Lafferty goals, but who cares when we personally drop Newcastle Utd out of the Cup, YES!!! see spoiler. Finally a 2-hit tiptap by super sub Wyke to beat MK Dons.

Spoiler

For all the Mak'ems out there 👍

October

Ignore yellow and it's a month full of greens. First we beat the City of Imps by 2-3, Lafferty brace. Then Sunderland hero McGeady brings us a hard-fought win vs the Everton Youth Utd, before Maguire sweetly braces us to victory against Fleetwood Fishermen. Then a Wycombe O.G. to seal the deal vs yes Wycombe. Lafferty once more vs Tranmere, Shrewyberry was a shit game and Stoke downed by McGeady on a rainy Tuesday night.

November

Very short month with few games, but the intention is always to keep things green. Southend Shrimpers are dealt the first punishment, courtesy of a Maguire, O'Nien, Scowen, Wyke ass-whoop. Then down with The Dons and a exhilarating Shrewyberry penalty-shoot-shoot win. Wyke steals the show with a fine hattrick in breezy Bristol and Coventry C makes sure we fail to finish the month in perfect fashion. 

December

Cup success over You Better Wal Sall 1-2, a Smith surprise header, means we're still very much in the race for a trophy. Man of the Month Lafferty does a double-tap prior to Watmore earning the team's respect with a lovely sub appearance and 90+5' winner to kill The Gillies. The B's of Burton, Blackpool and Bolton experience a thunderous "lights out" at the holy Stadium of Light. Lafferty finding the net on all three occasions. And we finish the year with a narrow away win to deny Donny, Wyke wakes 'n bakes in 89th min. 

 

League

Great. We're on top with a huge lead over the chasing pack. There's no way I'm going to let this slip out of my hands. The title is Sunderland's. 

Cups

Leasing.com Trophy. Next opponent is Aston Villa Reserves. Much respect but we can't lose this tie. If we want to win a Cup - of which I couldn't find Micky Mousier name than that even if I spent the rest of the lockdown doing just that - I'm betting my money on this one right here. 

 

Now the FA Cup is really the Cup I want to bring home, but it's going to prove very tricky for sure. Away to The Cherries isn't exactly the opponent I was looking for with still a large dose of much easier teams to play. Tough tie but we're hopeful. We're SUNDERLAND!!! 

 

Carabao Cup. Hmm vs The Liverpool Front Three for a place in the semi's. Home advantage. Stadium of Light. In front of our fearless fans. I say we're definitely favorites to progress...........if The Three take a night off.

 

Samhardy Giving Me Shit

Get off my lawn!!! 

 

Up next: Jan - May or Jan - Sacked

[Cockers2505]

This should be an epic Quarter Final, good luck mate

well done in the League, recent seasons have seen Sunderland not get the best out of their players, understandably they are on the up, with you at their helm it should be a walk in the park...