Career Ian - The Fabled Number 10 Shirt Challenge (Completed)

[broodje kip]

That’s some nice score from a very unexpected guy Ian. Nice work

[FuddledFox]

Great season Ian.

[Kun Aguero]

50+ goals from a player with just 11 in Shooting, great work!

[Ian]

7 hours ago, shosky said:

A wonderful return from an unheralded player. But for that early season injury, he would have beaten Hendrick. Great job Ian

Thank you Shosky, Yes without that injury he’d more than likely have done it as he was very consistent.

6 hours ago, broodje kip said:

That’s some nice score from a very unexpected guy Ian. Nice work

Thank you Lord Danish, he did very well.

1 hour ago, Foxy said:

Great season Ian.

Thank you Foxy

15 minutes ago, Kun Aguero said:

50+ goals from a player with just 11 in Shooting, great work!

Thank you Kun, yes I thought he may have been better for assists than Jeff but didn’t turn out that way. We did have loads of CWC games this seasons so I’m intrigued as to how my next choice will get on in a normal season.

My next pick I felt was a better standard of player as in I’d heard of him yet he’s not actually valued any higher than Mollet and actually a touch less so we’ll see how he does.

[smoggy90]

Cracking season there Ian!

[Ian]

1 hour ago, smoggy90 said:

Cracking season there Ian!

Cheers Smoggy

[Kanegan]

Massive stuff mate. He was brilliant there. 

[Rob]

A masterclass in picking a player based on what you want from him. Well done.

[Ian]

2 hours ago, Kanegan said:

Massive stuff mate. He was brilliant there. 

Thanks Kane, yes he did very well.

1 hour ago, Rob said:

A masterclass in picking a player based on what you want from him. Well done.

Thank you Rob, yes he has some good attributes in the right places. I really like my next player so hopefully he’ll perform in a similar way.

[Ian]

Season 3 - Player Choice

We’ve had two good seasons so far with our two No.10’s both proving their worth and now we have the first Italian who will then be followed by another Italian. There was an Italian I really liked the look of but felt he was a little too young and even might still be next year but if all goes to plan I’ll use him then as the extra years growth could make all the difference.

Anyway, my choice of Italian for this season was Riccardo Orsolini.

 

Riccardo Orsolini (Italy)

I really like the look of this player and he always shows up in my player searches so thought I’d give him a shot. He’s a steady type with no real weaknesses and at face value I’d rate him much higher than Mollet yet he’s not quite valued as highly so we’ll see how he does I guess.

 

So that’s my player choice revealed and I’ll be back later to show you how the season went but for now here’s a little preview where you can see he put his mark down in helping us win the European Super Cup early on in the season.

 

Thanks for reading.

Edited June 15, 2020 by Ian

[broodje kip]

Orsolini are one of the guys that look very promising all the time but we never even buy him 😂

Good luck with that nice start

[Rob]

I love this player choice. He always appears for me too and I never use him either. 

[gunnersaur]

Good choice interested in seeing how he does ... Like Rob and broodje I think he looks very good but never use him 

[Ian]

On 15/06/2020 at 12:04, broodje kip said:

Orsolini are one of the guys that look very promising all the time but we never even buy him 😂

Good luck with that nice start

Thank you Mr Danish, yes he’s a nice looking player and I like his name too.

On 15/06/2020 at 12:12, Rob said:

I love this player choice. He always appears for me too and I never use him either. 

Yes I’m always tempted but there’s usually someone else available that I’m sure will be good so go with them instead. Shame though as he’s probably very useful and pretty cheap.

On 15/06/2020 at 14:27, gunnersaur said:

Good choice interested in seeing how he does ... Like Rob and broodje I think he looks very good but never use him 

I was intrigued too and we’ll see how he performed very shortly as I’m about to post the next update. 

[Ian]

Season 3 - Riccardo Orsolini (Italy)

It’s safe to say things are going well after two seasons as both Hendrick and Mollet did very well indeed and drove the team to two very successful campaigns. Next up as our No.10 is an Italian and if you read my last update you’d know that the player I chose for this season was Riccardo Orsolini who I had high hopes for so let’s see if he could maybe beat Jeff’s opening season return.

 

Transfers

We reduced the age of the squad a bit this season as a few older players left and were replaced by younger versions. I actually didn’t want to get rid of either Sandro and Fabinho but both decided they wanted to leave so I obliged in the end. I was particularly disappointed in Fabinho as he’d been retrained into a fine central defender and I just couldn’t see any real reason why he’d want to leave but that’s that. I do know that I’m not really enjoying squad building so much this year as I’m finding it incredibly difficult to keep players happy with their game time and my approach is often to just part exchange them for a similar type of player which once you’ve done that a few times becomes very boring well for me anyway. Some of the slightly younger incoming players need no introduction as most of you know the talent they possess I’m sure and I have no idea what is going on with the outgoing transfer screens this year as half the time the player exchanged players don’t show up. 

Spoiler

 

Team Results

Riccardo helped steer the team to another very successful season as all we missed out on was the Champions League where unfortunately we were defeated with a last minute winner against Liverpool by Wilfried Zaha, a player you’ll be seeing more of in the future. No real problems in any of the other competitions as we are really dominant now domestically as you’d expect.

Spoiler

 

Riccardo Orsolini

Riccardo proved to be a tough cookie and suffered no injuries all season and had a couple of very impressive matches where he went crazy as you can see below.

 

You’re probably thinking after seeing those mega scoring games above that Riccardo beat Jeff’s season one return but I’m afraid you’d be wrong as he ended up just short. Still, he hit 43 goals and 40 assists to give him the same end total as Mollet at 83 and again we’re happy enough. His dribbling and movement improved a fair bit throughout the season and he’s now valued at a hefty £92m so he’s certainly made his mark. It’s starting to look like Jeff’s score is going to be rather hard to beat; I suppose we’d look to the early Champions League exit as the main reason Riccardo failed to surpass it here but then again those extra games might’ve hindered him or he could’ve got injured so all in all we take this and move on.

 

Player Stats

Riccardo was the main man this season for both goals and assists so a job well done from him as our first Italian Fabled No.10.

Spoiler

 

Score

 

Season 1 - Ireland: Jeff Hendrick: 46 goals and 39 assists = 85

Season 2 - France: Florent Mollet: 55 goals and 28 assists = 83

Season 3 - Italy: Riccardo Orsolini: 43 goals and 40 assists = 83

Grand Total: 251

 

So we now need to go again with another Italian and I’ll be back later with my choice of player.

 

Thanks for reading.

[shosky]

Still a great return although I had thought he would surpass Jeff's return. 👍 👍 

[Rob]

Geez, those major games and Jazzy Jeff is still too. Your score will be nuts at the end of this. Great stuff.

[smoggy90]

Great season Ian, surprised Jeff is still top but you’re doing a great job and will post a massive score. 

[FuddledFox]

Good old Jeff can’t be beat!

[broodje kip]

Great score from him. I’m sure someone will beat Jeff’s score later

[gunnersaur]

Great score ... Could look at using him after that looking forward to the next season

[Ian]

15 hours ago, shosky said:

Still a great return although I had thought he would surpass Jeff's return. 👍 👍 

Thanks Shosky, yes I thought he might too but he couldn’t quite manage it.

14 hours ago, Rob said:

Geez, those major games and Jazzy Jeff is still too. Your score will be nuts at the end of this. Great stuff.

Thank you Rob, yes one of those games was fairly early into the season and I thought then he’d beat Jeff, couldn’t manage it in the end but still happy.

13 hours ago, smoggy90 said:

Great season Ian, surprised Jeff is still top but you’re doing a great job and will post a massive score. 

Thank you Smog, he’s still holding on but hopefully someone will beat him.

13 hours ago, Foxy said:

Good old Jeff can’t be beat!

Thanks Foxy, He’s the man so far.

12 hours ago, broodje kip said:

Great score from him. I’m sure someone will beat Jeff’s score later

Thank you Broodje, I hope you’re right.

6 hours ago, gunnersaur said:

Great score ... Could look at using him after that looking forward to the next season

Thank Gunnersaur, yes he’s a nice player and was very robust. I had him behind two DLF’s but he’d probably do just as well as an inside forward. He comes highly recommended from me anyway.

[samhardy]

Great stuff as usual here Ian.

[Ian]

11 hours ago, samhardy said:

Great stuff as usual here Ian.

Thank you Sam, all of our no.10’s have done a fine job so far.

[danovic78]

Great consistency with the results.

Two DC only though....These crazy EME formations!

[Ian]

39 minutes ago, danovic78 said:

Great consistency with the results.

Two DC only though....These crazy EME formations!

Thanks Dan, yes it’s a bit strange is the EME, I’ve seen and used stuff with just one DC that works pretty well too.

[danovic78]

1 hour ago, Ian said:

Thanks Dan, yes it’s a bit strange is the EME, I’ve seen and used stuff with just one DC that works pretty well too.

I have to laugh when people say it's more realistic than the OME! 🤣

[Ian]

8 minutes ago, danovic78 said:

I have to laugh when people say it's more realistic than the OME! 🤣

I agree and you’ll never hear me making such claims 😂

If I ever have a spell of not enjoying the game which will happen at some point I’m going to promise myself to try the OME.

[Ian]

Season 4 - Player Choice

We’ve had a smashing first three seasons so far and after a fine season as our first Italian No.10 last year we have to unfortunately bid farewell to Riccardo Orsolini. We haven’t got far to travel for our next choice though as he must also be Italian and as I mentioned previously I more or less had my player chosen for this season after scouting for Riccardo last year. The player I’ve gone for is youngster Alessandro Cortinovis.

 

Alessandro Cortinovis (Italy)

I usually like to go with peak aged players for challenges like this so I’m taking a risk in going with a 21 year old here. I looked at him last year and was tempted but thought I’d leave it a year so he could develop a bit more or at least be a bit more robust as I find youngsters hard going when it comes to fitness. This is the year the World Cup is held during the season too so games will be coming thick and fast but he has really good stamina so hopefully that’ll help him when the fixtures start to pile up.

 

I’ll be back later to let you know how things went but you can see below that he somehow managed to fall out with Iñaki Williams early doors so he’s not so popular with the rest of the squad, I’m guessing they’re more than likely jealous that at such a young age he’s been chosen as the main man.

 

Thanks for reading.

[Rob]

Nah, never heard of him. A bit risky this one... 🤔