Career Five Season Heroes - Apkom and Villa at PAOK [Done]

Scratch · June 24, 2020

I created the Five Season Hero challenge because I wanted to play it, so here is the post for my attempt!

I was stuck in a rut with careers. I didn't want to start anything big like a 1KC, but the smaller careers I was playing couldn't hold my attention long enough to actually get through more than a season or two. I still need at least one throwaway career to help final testing of my scouting app, but I wanted to play a real career. It needed to have an individual player focus (otherwise I replace the whole team every two years!), so I wanted something like a 1KC, just... shorter.

I missed @Foxy's Striker Peak Years Challenge or I might have tried that instead of creating the Five Season Hero one (or maybe as well, as I've been planning to post this challenge for a while). Unfortunately my striker doesn't quite qualify for the Peak Years Challenge, being a shade too young.

So... I'm planning to a) take a striker and get as many goals for him as possible; and b) at the same time, take a winger and get as many assists for him as possible; both within 5 seasons (obviously). Note: you don't have to do both goals and assists for this challenge (the two leaderboards are totally separate), I'm just choosing to. 🙂

I'm using my tried and trusted tactic which suits this sort of challenge to a T, but I'm playing in a league/country I've never played in and the two lads are ones I've never used either. They are both 23 and the striker is the right shape (decent Aerial starting point). He also managed a 1KC a couple of years ago thanks to @smoggy90's managerial guidance, so I'm hopeful of doing well. It's hard to tell how good either player is though or how much development they have left, now that they're 23, so we'll have to see how it pans out.

As for the club - I wasn't planning on using the one I chose in the end. I'd settled on the club I wanted to use, only to change at the last minute to a club I don't particularly fancy (beyond the magpie stripes), simply because I'd settled on the striker and he was already at the club.

I'm in December of season 1 now. We got off to a great start, but things have gone a little off the rails in the last month. I'm sure we'll turn it around though.

Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself, that tale is for a later time. I'll be back with some more details in the next day or so (gotta get the screenshots off the phone etc).

Edited July 10, 2020 by Scratch

smoggy90 · June 24, 2020

Sounds good mate, look forward to the next update!

Ian · June 24, 2020

Sounds nice, good luck.

Chuba Akpon as striker and PAOK as club?

Scratch · June 25, 2020

13 hours ago, Ian said:

Sounds nice, good luck.

Chuba Akpon as striker and PAOK as club?

Damn! You are good! Spot on... Can't keep a secret around here. 😄

I decided early on I'd go with a different league (I always play England or Scotland), so was looking at Russia and Greece. After checking the teams out I decided I really wanted to give AEK Athens a go, but when looking at strikers who'd come to Greece, I couldn't find anyone particularly compelling. Then I found Chuba, right there in Greece at PAOK and it just made sense to go with PAOK - not only did have have Chuba, they also had Champions League (vs Euro) and better facilities.

It's a bit harder than Celtic as there's not as much money, but it's fun so far. It's got me excited for FMM again - when it's only 5 seasons it's easier to mix up the league / club etc. Wouldn't want want to be in a league I hate for 20 seasons, but 5 seasons I can probably do.

Scratch · June 25, 2020

15 hours ago, smoggy90 said:

Sounds good mate, look forward to the next update!

Thanks mate. Ian got it right and it's Chuba that I'm using.

I'm not sure the 'possibly washed up and playing in Greece' version I'm getting will be as good as the 'wonderkid from Arsenal' version you had at Rangers, but I think he should be good enough to do the job.

Not as many goals ad I'd like in the first season (nearing the end now), but hopefully will increase as I put a better team around him. I'm sort of regretting adding the 300 goal minimum to the leaderboard now, but we'll give it a shot!

gunnersaur · June 25, 2020

Good look man ... Looking forward to seeing how you do .. considering goalscoring is your thing I'd say no problem at all

Scratch · June 25, 2020

11 minutes ago, gunnersaur said:

Good look man ... Looking forward to seeing how you do .. considering goalscoring is your thing I'd say no problem at all

Thanks mate!

We'll see how it goes with the goal scoring. Given there is a 300 goal minimum to get on the leaderboard, he needs to average 60 per season and he's going to fall a fair bit short of that in season 1 (at this stage). I got a lot of goals with Unuvar, but that was in an even weaker league (or at least about the same), with a richer club and with a wonderkid who likely had a lot more potential than Chuba has. So the jury is out.

I'm more confident about the assists because this tactic is superb for that. Once again, I'm pretty sure the player I picked is a lot weaker than Vignato was in my assists 1KC, but he needs 30 per season to qualify for the leader board as is (so far) on track.

smoggy90 · June 25, 2020

3 hours ago, Scratch said:

Thanks mate. Ian got it right and it's Chuba that I'm using.

I'm not sure the 'possibly washed up and playing in Greece' version I'm getting will be as good as the 'wonderkid from Arsenal' version you had at Rangers, but I think he should be good enough to do the job.

Not as many goals ad I'd like in the first season (nearing the end now), but hopefully will increase as I put a better team around him. I'm sort of regretting adding the 300 goal minimum to the leaderboard now, but we'll give it a shot!

Ah great memories of Chuba! I used him in an Ajax TT as well I think.
Great guess Ian.
Good luck scratch look forward to seeing how Chuba does in Greece!

Scratch · June 25, 2020

2 hours ago, smoggy90 said:

Ah great memories of Chuba! I used him in an Ajax TT as well I think.
Great guess Ian.
Good luck scratch look forward to seeing how Chuba does in Greece!

I looked at him a few times several years ago, but never actually used him, so it's interesting to give him a go now, especially as things haven't quite worked out for him the way he'd have liked. I think I have a soft spot for former wonderkid strikers, LoL...

First season update coming in a few minutes (I pushed through and finished it).

Scratch · June 25, 2020

Update - Season 1

As mentioned above, this career takes place in Greece, at PAOK Salonika:

There are no other leagues loaded, so we're here to stay for the full 5 years. The club seems roughly in the same ball park as Celtic, who I often play as, except the budget is smaller and the existing players can't be sold for as much.

Greece is new to me, so I'm still wrapping my head around the set up. There are 14 teams in the league, with 26 games being played, before the teams split into two mini leagues and play 10 more games (not too dissimilar to Scotland). With only 36 league games and only one cup, there are less games than I'm used to.

Right, let's meet the players.

Goal Hero - Chuba Akpom

As guessed by @Ian, our striker, going for a minimum of 300 goals in 5 seasons, is Chuba Akpom:

Chuba is already at PAOK so there's no need to buy him. He used to be a top wonderkid at Arsenal, so his standing in the game has fallen somewhat. I'm just hoping his potential ability hasn't fallen too much along with it.

That said, he already looks pretty good for this league, with 16 Pace and 15 Movement. My tactic is very focused on Aerial and he has a good base for development with 13. I'm hoping he has some improvement to come, but even if he doesn't, we're in with a shout.

Assists Hero - Sebastian Villa

Going into the save, I didn't have a particular player picked out. I knew I wanted a right winger, because my tactic gives them mega assists. I didn't have much money, so I had to go for a budget option. Enter one Sebastian Villa:

I've seen him before, but never used him. I have no idea how good he is or how much development he will have left, but he's probably good enough for this league just as he is. I'd really like to improve his Crossing though.

Transfers

Spoiler

]

As I often do at the start of a save, I went for the full rebuild, selling off anyone older than 28, as well as anyone who could fetch decent money. I didn't know any of them! Only a few fetched more than £5M, so I had to sensible with my incomings.

I went for a few of my old faithfuls, in Moro, Almada and Paredes, but many weren't available. McKenna wasn't in the game. Palacios, Tonali, Eze weren't interested. Fati was interested, but way out of my price range.

In a way that's great, because it forces me to look at players that I might not normally use. I have used Scarpa before, but not for a long time as he doesn't really fit my tactic. I used Tapia once a couple of years ago and he didn't do well - but I was struggling to find cheap but solid CDs, so I went with him. Apart from that I didn't know any of the others I bought!

I raided Olympiakos for youngsters with a decent base because a) they are cheap so I could afford them and b) they are likely to be the best young Greek players in the game. We'll have to wait and see if any of them turn out okay. Most likely they will slip by the way side as I bring in better foreigners.

Results

We are already clearly the strongest team in Greece. We won the Greek Cup and also the league (pretty easily), although we averaged less than 2 goals a game which needs to improve.

We have a long way to go in Europe, finishing bottom in the group stage and not even qualifying for the Euro Cup. We only let in 5 goals in 6 games, but could only score 2 goals! It was a bit of a shock, because I always seem to get past the group stage or reach the Euro Cup final in the first season with Celtic.

Spoiler

Injuries and Availability

A good season, with only one injury for Chuba (3 weeks) and none for Villa:

Spoiler

Development

With two 23 year olds, there was no way to tell if they were almost fully developed at the start or not. Fortunately, both developed pretty well over the course of the season.

Chuba finished the season looking like this (+4 Aerial, +3 Movement and Shooting):

Villa ended up looking like this (+2 Crossing, Dribbling and Movement):

Chuba looks like he has a little more to come 😄, but Villa looks finished now 😢. He's probably good enough to get this done at this level, but he's a fair bit short of where Vignato got to for me at Celtic and that was at a similar level. I always knew I had top top quality players in that save, but it's back to earth for me know!

Goals (Chuba)

Chuba scored 43 goals in 44 games:

He started at quicker rate than that, but had a bad patch after coming back from his injury and couldn't get back to the goal per game mark.

It's not too bad, but he needs an average of 60 to qualify for the leaderboard and I was really hoping for at least 50 this season.

Assists (Villa)

Villa had 29 assists from 48 games:

A very good start and only one short of the average he needs to make the leaderboard, but he was injury free this season, which likely won't happen often, so I'd like him to pick the pace up a little.

Progress

Season	Goals (Chuba)	Assists (Villa)
01	43	29
Total	43 (300 min)	29 (150 min)

Looking Forward

A decent start, but I'll want to do better next season, on all fronts (League goals, CL results, Chuba goals, Villa assists). The team needs improving, but whether we have the budget for that is another thing altogether.

So, we'll take it a season at a time and see how we go.

Edited June 25, 2020 by Scratch

Ian · June 25, 2020

9 hours ago, Scratch said:

Damn! You are good! Spot on... Can't keep a secret around here. 😄

It was the 23 years old and magpie stripes bit that gave me it 😂

I used Chuba on a short challenge fairly recently so remembered his age and who he played for.

Anyway, nice start and he’s looking very good. Villa is another good budget winger that I’ve used a few times and it looks like he’s going to do well in a Greece. I did a short two season challenge in Greece in the winter and it took a bit of getting used to. I got caught out in the first season as I had no idea what happened to the calendar after the league split and our squad ended up being far too light as the fixtures seemed to pile up. I had to correct that for the second season but I enjoyed the league in the end. I found there were quite a few nice young Greek players that looked like they’d turn into good players that were valued so low.

Scratch · June 25, 2020

1 hour ago, Ian said:

It was the 23 years old and magpie stripes bit that gave me it 😂

I used Chuba on a short challenge fairly recently so remembered his age and who he played for.

Anyway, nice start and he’s looking very good. Villa is another good budget winger that I’ve used a few times and it looks like he’s going to do well in a Greece. I did a short two season challenge in Greece in the winter and it took a bit of getting used to. I got caught out in the first season as I had no idea what happened to the calendar after the league split and our squad ended up being far too light as the fixtures seemed to pile up. I had to correct that for the second season but I enjoyed the league in the end. I found there were quite a few nice young Greek players that looked like they’d turn into good players that were valued so low.

Haha, I'll make the clues harder next time! 😂

I researched the league split before I started, so had a rough idea what would happen. I really wanted to play in Greece, but when I checked the League rules it said 26 matches, and I thought "that can't be right"! Google and Wikipedia to the rescue! Otherwise I would never have done a goalscoring challenge there.

In my last career I was playing in the Championship with a team that went deep in both domestic trophies and Europe (because they won a trophy) so the Greek league felt pretty light to me! Mind you I try to have two squads and it was still stretched a bit thin on occasion.

As for the Greek youngsters, I'm taking a punt on some with a nice base, but it's really hard to tell just how good they will be, so I'll probably load up on foreigners (just because there is a higher chance they'll be good). I do it every career, even though I keep telling myself to stick with local players longer. Just can't help myself. 🙁

Scratch · June 25, 2020

WTF PAOK? We qualified for the Champions League, surely you can give me a little bit of money!

image.png.58bd3ca55c6a264aacfb86450786c3d2.png

I guess I gotta do this the old fashioned way. Summoning my inner Harry Redknapp...

Kanegan · June 25, 2020

Good stuff this. Will be following.

shosky · June 25, 2020

It's a brilliant start from the two. Keeping them happy will now be the challenge as they will soon start looking for new challenges and with no funds from the board.. Good luck

broodje kip · June 25, 2020

Great start there mate. PAOK will be bought by Roman Abramovich so no worries 😂

Mr Tree · June 25, 2020

Good luck to you Scratch, but Chuba can eternally do one:

(but IRL fair play to him for getting his career back on track - he looked like he was gonna flame out badly at one point)

smoggy90 · June 25, 2020

That’s a very good start mate, those attribute increases should help out in the second season and what follows.

Scratch · June 26, 2020

8 hours ago, Kanegan said:

Good stuff this. Will be following.

Thanks mate! Much appreciated. Hopefully I can actually finish this one, I seem to have developed a real problem with that. 😄

Scratch · June 26, 2020

8 hours ago, shosky said:

It's a brilliant start from the two. Keeping them happy will now be the challenge as they will soon start looking for new challenges and with no funds from the board.. Good luck

Thanks mate. Turns out Greece is a little different and they dole the money out later. In the end they gave me £2.8M.

image.png.a0f876979f49a90cc38a06ea114c5690.png

Not much for a CL club, but better than nothing I guess.

As for keeping the lads happy, they are already signed up for 5 years, so they are going to be here at the club for the full duration of the challenge. 😄

Of course I'll try to keep them happy. When I play Celtic it's generally okay, because we win the CL after a couple of seasons and then they're happier to stay. I was hoping to do something similar here, but Celtic gives you a lot more money so we'll have to wait and see. Still hopeful of building a good team, but going to have to be cleverer about it.

Scratch · June 26, 2020

8 hours ago, broodje kip said:

Great start there mate. PAOK will be bought by Roman Abramovich so no worries 😂

That'd be nice! But what I think happened is that the Newcastle sale went through and my old mate Cashley decided to use the money to buy another black and white team and run it into the ground. That would explain the budget I'm getting.

Scratch · June 26, 2020

7 hours ago, Mr Tree said:

Good luck to you Scratch, but Chuba can eternally do one:

(but IRL fair play to him for getting his career back on track - he looked like he was gonna flame out badly at one point)

You only gave him 4 games? I guess he must have been really young back then though.

Yeah, I'm probably representing him unfairly saying he's a bit washed up, but I just mean in terms of a wunderkid. You sort of expect them to go on to play for a top CL club and be in the national team etc. But it's no real shame to be playing in a CL team in Greece. Gotta see what he does with it from there.

Scratch · June 26, 2020

4 hours ago, smoggy90 said:

That’s a very good start mate, those attribute increases should help out in the second season and what follows.

Thanks mate, yeah, I think even if they don't develop any more (pretty sure Villa is done, giving all the signs, Chuba slowed right down) they should be good enough for Greece. Now my focus is to put a decent team around them. Season was okay, good enough to be the best in Greece, but I want to get better and go deeper in the CL...

Mr Tree · June 26, 2020

4 hours ago, Scratch said:

You only gave him 4 games? I guess he must have been really young back then though.

Yeah he was, but he was utter shite too. We played against him the next season too, he was on loan at Hull, and he was comically bad - terrible attitude. I read a piece about him after he moved to PAOK and I think he got a big head, too much too soon, and then got humbled.

Scratch · June 26, 2020

1 hour ago, Mr Tree said:

Yeah he was, but he was utter shite too. We played against him the next season too, he was on loan at Hull, and he was comically bad - terrible attitude. I read a piece about him after he moved to PAOK and I think he got a big head, too much too soon, and then got humbled.

Ah right. Must happen for a few of the young lads I guess. All of a sudden you sign for a top club and it goes to your head a bit. Sounds like he learned the hard way, hope he turns it around.

shosky · June 26, 2020

13 hours ago, Scratch said:

That'd be nice! But what I think happened is that the Newcastle sale went through and my old mate Cashley decided to use the money to buy another black and white team and run it into the ground. That would explain the budget I'm getting.

😂 😂

Scratch · June 28, 2020

Update - Season 2

Season 1 was decent, with domestic success and Villa on pace with assists. This season we want to ramp things up, with more goals for Chuba and a deeper run into Europe. To do that though, we're going to need to upgrade the team even further...