Career Hunty and Joaquin’s Last Hurrah - Completed

[FuddledFox]

 

Welcome to my first career of FMM21.

I wanted to give my own Last Hurrah challenge a go which involves getting as many goals or assists out of a player 35 or older in two seasons. There is a slight twist as well because points get taken away if your player doesn’t beat his goal or assist total from season 1 in season 2.

More details can be found here.

I think the club and player choices are fairly obvious from the graphic but let’s meet them anyway.

The Club

I will be managing Ajax because I have played very little of the Dutch league over the years and I wanted a league which wasn’t too strong so the guys could hopefully rack up some decent numbers.

The Lads

I have decided I want to go for both the goals and assists leaderboards in one go so looking to get the goals is the mighty Klaas-Jan Huntelaar.

The Dutch Destroyer is now 37 but he has a few attributes in the right places so there’s no reason not to think he won’t get some goals so long as I get crosses in the box and have players with some pace to do the running for him. One worry is just how much he will decline over the two seasons and whether he will be able to even move by season 2 let alone get me some goals so I don’t have his points total decimated.

He is out of contract at the end of season 1 so I will make sure I get him onto a deal for season 2 as quickly as possible so he doesn’t retire or leave.

 

Looking to provide the ammunition for Hunty will be the Andalusian Assassin Joaquin. Considering he is 39 he looks bloody good so hopefully that will remain the case throughout the two seasons of this challenge. The plan to start with is that he will play on the right wing as the only winger in the team with the aim of getting the ball to him so he gets in plenty of crosses for Hunty to (hopefully) head home. If his pace just plummets and he can’t get into the game out wide I do have the option of playing him as an AM as well but that might come at a price for Hunty’s goal total.

I managed to sign him easily enough, although £3.2m seems a bit expensive for a 39 year old, and he is on a two year deal so he should complete both seasons.

 

Season 1 is done so I should have an update on that tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.

[Rich]

Good luck Foxy, let’s hope there stats don’t decline to early 😉

[broodje kip]

I know you did a 1k with Mitrovic but DT with Joaquin and Huntelaar? Mad!

[Rob]

Good luck Furby. You’ll smash it. 

[Titjes]

Good luck Foxy 😉

[FuddledFox]

1 hour ago, broodje kip said:

I know you did a 1k with Mitrovic but DT with Joaquin and Huntelaar? Mad!

I will probably lose the save file after two seasons.

@Titjes @RichD @Rob thanks for the comments.

[Mr Tree]

Good luck Foxy!

[Woody]

Joaquin looks dreamy at 39...

Best of luck mate 👍

[FuddledFox]

43 minutes ago, Woody said:

Joaquin looks dreamy at 39

Just like me!

[Woody]

4 hours ago, FuddledFox said:

Just like me!

I would never doubt it 😉

[smoggy90]

Good luck mate! Interesting challenge and I agree with Woody, how good does Joaquin still look!

[FuddledFox]

Season 1

 

It’s time to get my adventures in FMM21 under way and I’m not sure what to expect from this save because both players look decent for there age but they could decline quickly.

The Setup

I don’t feel like I can rely on Hunty up front on his own because he has no pace so I decided to play a front two with Tadic or Traore partnering Hunty and providing some pace to worry opposition defences. I have Joaquin as the only winger in the side so that he is hopefully the main source of crosses and the focus of most of the play.

 

Transfers

I actually did most of my business in January as I struggled to sell Onana for a decent price in the first window. My main focus was to improve defence as Ajax seemed to have an abundance of defenders who can’t tackle so I made them midfielders and brought in Simon Deli and Sidnei as my back two. A couple of new full backs and Rog as a midfielder completed my business.

Club Results

We won the league and cup double in Holland and then for to the Europa League semis but went out to PSG 1-0 on aggregate.

Spoiler

The Lads

Hunty had a decent season finishing as top scorer and his attributes didn’t decline too badly over the season. His main decline has come physically and he wasn’t exactly an Adonis when the save started. The tactic seemed to work well for Hunty to get some goals but what surprised me was he scored most of them from open play and wasn't so dangerous from corners as his lack of pace seemed to make it hard for him to lose his marker.

In the end he scored 28 goals this season.

 

Joaquin didn’t perform as well as Hunty did and I think the lack of corners scored harmed his assists total. He is on the decline across the board as well with his physicals dropping but also his crucial dribbling and creativity attributes as well. I’m not really sure how a player can become less creative though unless his eyesight is going!

He assisted 16 times and the one bonus with that is it seems like a total that could be matched next season and he won’t lose any points. 

 

Team Stats

Both Hunty and Joaquin were top goalscorer and assister.

Spoiler

 

Season Points

Just as a reminder it is 2 points per goal for Hunty and 2 points per assist for Joaquin. They then need to match or better this seasons total next season otherwise they lose 1 point per goal/assist they get less than season 1.

Goal Scoring Leaderboard: Huntelaar scored 28 goals = 56 points

Assists Leaderboard: Joaquin assisted 16 times = 32 points

Season 2 will be out in the next few days.

Thanks for reading.

 

[broodje kip]

Great score for both. I’m just curious but how’s Ryan is he good?

[FuddledFox]

10 minutes ago, broodje kip said:

Great score for both. I’m just curious but how’s Ryan is he good?

Plenty good enough for the Dutch league.

[Ashez]

Loving the player choice and personally I think that's a solid season all things considered!! 

[Rob]

Lovely season Furby.

[zila90]

Great season and nice outcome from both of the main actors considering their age and decline of attributes.

[Titjes]

Great first season Mister Fox 😉

[Rich]

Good first season mate, be interesting to see how they get on in the second season 👍

[Kanegan]

Great 1st season foxy. 

[Scratch]

Yeah, great season and the player choice makes this all the more interesting. Expecting you to nail season 2, but either way gonna be an interesting read!

[Woody]

Great start mate. S2 will be tough for those two but with a little Foxy magic i'm sure they will do well. 😉

[FuddledFox]

To start with thanks to @Ashez @Rob @zila90 @Titjes @RichD @Kanegan @Scratch and @Woody for your comments they are much appreciated.

Considering I finished this career over a week ago I think I need to pause my badge 1 attempt and get the final update out.

Season 2

So as a recap in season 1 Hunty scored 28 goals and Joaquin got 16 assists to give me a running total of 56pts. In season 2 I need them both to match those totals or better them otherwise I will lose a point for every goal or assist they get less than season 1.

Transfers

With the new dynamics and relationships system in the game the sensible thing to do would be not got too big on transfers and just bring in a few choice players to improve the squad. I didn’t really do that though as I sold 11 players for cash and then reinvested that money into 6 players who improved the squad in all areas of the pitch.

I won’t go through every transfer but if there’s anyone you want to see more of then just comment below and I will post some more about them.

 

Competitions

The amount of players going and the 6 coming in didn’t effect performances as I only dropped 4 points all season in the league and only conceded 6 goals as well.

 

In Europe I had a tough Champions League group with both Bayern and Man Utd and despite a 2-0 win over the Manc’s a 3-0 loss at Old Trafford put me into the Europe which I wasn’t too bothered about as I felt (correctly) that it was a winnable competition for us.

Spoiler

 
The Lads

The decline carried on but even by the end of the season both lads looked pretty decent considering they are 38 and 40 respectively. The stamina was the main issue but with some forward planning and the fact the Dutch league isn’t too relentless in terms of matches they both made as many appearances as last year although I was pushing them hard towards the end just to try and eek out a few more goals and assists.

 

Hunty actually had his best game of the career this season as he smashed in 4 goals in an hour against ADO.

 

So what’s the final verdict?

Spoiler

In the end both of them hit and then slightly exceeded there total from last season helped perhaps by playing 1 extra game. As some context to the number of games they played they both missed 11 games through the 55 game season with knocks or just to give them a rest.

 

The Final Score

It is 2pts per goal/assist and as they both beat there season 1 totals I don’t lose any points.

Hunty: 57 goals x 2 = 114pts

Joaquin: 34 assists x 2 = 68pts

I’m pleased with both totals for the respective leaderboards although I had hoped for a bit more from Joaquin but as his pace went it was always going to be tricky for him to get big assist totals and it became set pieces that provided him with assists towards the end.

Thanks for reading.

[broodje kip]

Attributes didn’t stop them from being a freaking beast! Great work Foxman

[Rich]

Great season there Fox, 6 goals conceded in the league is brilliant and the boys did great considering how old they now are and there stats 😁

[smoggy90]

Great score mate and your veterans have done you proud. I love playing in Holland, usually a fun league.

They still look decent as well considering their ages.

[Rob]

Wonderfully done Mr Fox

[Kanegan]

Well done Foxy. 

[Scratch]

Great work mate - a little bit tight, but no worries in the end. They are looking a little bit like they might appreciate an ice cold beer and a nice quiet seat next to a tropical pool somewhere instead of preseason training next year mind you...😄

[Woody]

Excellently done mate. Shows the oldies can still do it.

😆