Career Scratch Tries The 3x1KC [Season 19 - The Finale]

[Scratch]

2 minutes ago, Rich said:

Loved the opening with the ill behaviour 😝

Anyway awesome going, less goals but same amount going through the boys is great, there still looking good as well. Hopefully they keep going mate 🤞🏻

"Back once again" was from season 12 update. "With the ill behaviour" was added this season. What will I add next season I wonder... 😄

Anyway, thanks mate, was a really good season all things considered. Expecting a slow drop from here, but they are still so much better than the average player in China I guess they will keep doing well. 🤞

[Scratch]

Here's an extra for you England fans:

Yes, England won the World Cup again, but even bigger than that, they won a penalty shootout! 🤣

I know, I know, they beat Columbia in one a few years ago, but still, can't say it's their strong point...

[Scratch]

Season 14

Back once again. With the ill behaviour. Can you feel it? Nothing can save ya!

Spoiler

Bet you weren't expecting that! Maybe "With the ill behaviour, with the ill behaviour, with the ill behaviour" as the song/career plays out, but at the last minute I went with another option that I'd guess a lot less people know about. Anyone want to guess the next line?

Anyway, this was the season where shit started getting real...

 

Transfers

Spoiler

I stuffed up and kept too many older players that I now can't sell. I have 4 backup strikers who are 30 or 31 and are slowing down drastically. So there will likely be more business over the next season or two, as I ship out whoever I can and bring in the next generation.

 

Results

We won everything again this year, but league goals were down to 121 (compared to 142 last year and 179 at our best).

We've only lost 2 games all save and we're currently unbeaten in the last 610 games, but it's only a matter of time until we lose one now.

Spoiler

Anyway, here are all the screenshots:

Spoiler

This has been a glorious team, averaging 5.5 goals per game over the career, so I thought I'd share a few of the top players (three with Crossing of 20!):

Spoiler

I've had plenty of bombs as well, but being able to develop players like that at Beijing has been awesome!

 

The ITN Job

I've gone through the whole save without chasing the Italy job. Now that we're nearing crunch time, it's looking like that might have been a mistake. It's going to need a mammoth task to get all three across the line, but with the Italy job, I could have gotten Pellegri and Esposito real close to 1K by now.

Still, no regrets. I don't enjoy that part of the game, as it makes the seasons drag out. Not saying I'll never do it (have done so in the past of course), but for this save I wanted to avoid it.

So then this happened:

And bookies think I'm the favourite! It made me take stock and wonder if I should apply. After all it could be the difference between the success and failure of this career.

But after much deliberation, I decided not to apply. Of course FMM then did this to me:

Stop tempting me FMM!! So... What did I do?

Spoiler

I turned them down! But I won't be surprised if I come to regret that.

 

The Lads

Well, this is the year where they started to fall apart. Still excellent players for this league, but we can now clearly see where this headed and I think we can all agree they aren't going to look good if I need them to play another 5 or 6 seasons!

 

Injuries

A few injuries this year - Pellegri out for 10 days, followed by another 3 week injury, while Esposito had a month long injury:

Spoiler

 

Progress

Here's the overview:

And the history screens:

Spoiler

Which gives us:

Season	Esposito	Pellegri	Badji
01	38	19	24
02	60	63	50
03	41	71	51
04	60	65	49
05	65	78	56
06	59	65	59
07	52	51	81
08	74	46	62
09	59	60	65
10	55	82	63
11	62	69	89
12	68	56	68
13	56	69	64
14	61	49	41
Total	810	843	822

Esposito, who's the youngest, still around his peak level, but the other two have their worst seasons for many years. The decline was more obvious near the end of the season too - the average game saw the lads score 2 or 3 goals combined, compared to the 4 or 5 they would have gotten a season or two before that.

 

Final Thoughts

I think I'll ask the lads to reconsider retirement after the new year rolls around, and hopefully sign them to 5 year contracts (which I think actually gets 6 full seasons).

If I can get 5 or 6 seasons out of them, averaging around 30 goals, then we'll be real close. But it's likely to go right down to the wire (assuming I can get them to stay on). I'm already starting to regret not taking that ITN job! 😄

Thanks for reading.

 

[Dai_]

Man, you had me. I thought you were going to take that Italy job. It makes up for losing your International players for a few League games.

Anyway. Great numbers. I still believe you'll do it. Keep it going.

[Rich]

I still believe in you mate, you can do this, good work 😁

[Scratch]

9 hours ago, Dai_ said:

Man, you had me. I thought you were going to take that Italy job. It makes up for losing your International players for a few League games.

Anyway. Great numbers. I still believe you'll do it. Keep it going.

Haha, I guess I really don't like ITN management. Especially at this point, where I want to get through the rest of it relatively quickly. Don't want to get bogged down trying to sort out Italy!

[Scratch]

5 hours ago, Rich said:

I still believe in you mate, you can do this, good work 😁

Thanks mate. I'll get there eventually if they don't retire on me. I got all three to reconsider retirement, but only Esposito would sign a new contract. So I have him for 6 seasons, Badji for 4 and Pellegri for 3. 🤞

Pellegro also got injured for 2 months - he'll only miss 4 or 5 games as most of it was pre-season, but we don't need any more injuries knocking the lads around.

[Rob]

Amazing undefeated streak. Well done. Like Dai said, FMM loves to throw a spanner in every now and then so that’s a wonderful run.

As for the goals, this is getting nerve wracking now! I think you’ll do it!

[DIRECTFX]

Great job so far . Hope you can keep it up getting closer .. Don’t blame you for passing on Italy job they all defense anyway 

[Scratch]

On 19/04/2021 at 17:32, Rob said:

Amazing undefeated streak. Well done. Like Dai said, FMM loves to throw a spanner in every now and then so that’s a wonderful run.

As for the goals, this is getting nerve wracking now! I think you’ll do it!

Thanks mate. Still going with the run. Had a few close calls in the next season, but now into the season after that and we're still going! 

[Scratch]

15 hours ago, DIRECTFX said:

Great job so far . Hope you can keep it up getting closer .. Don’t blame you for passing on Italy job they all defense anyway 

Thanks mate. I probably should have taken that job, just to see their faces when I unveiled my 1 2 1 3 3 tactic! 😄

[Scratch]

Season 15

Alright, I'll drop the song lyric thing. In my defence, you do go a little crazy in these long careers. 😄

Let see how the downward spiral is going.

 

Transfers

Spoiler

This is the busiest I've been since the beginning of the save. I really messed up by letting too much of the team reach 30+. I've cut it back a lot although there's more work to do next season too.

The actual names won't mean anything (apart from Serrano), but I sold 6 starters (from the two match day squads I have, plus several of the back up strikers). Then I promoted my current promising youngsters who were blossoming and bought a whole team's worth of the following generation.

 

Results

We won everything again this year, and league goals jumped right back up to 147 (compared to 121 last year and 179 at our best) - I guess the team really needed that overhaul.

Anyway, here are all the screenshots:

Spoiler

And we still haven't been beaten yet, so our long run continues (around 650 games unbeaten), but there were a few close calls there.

 

The Lads

Further degradation this year. Both Pellegri and Badji had 'rolling back the years' moments, but you can't see it in their profile! 😄

They are still good for the Chinese league and we still have the odd game where they'll get 6 goals between them, but we also have the odd game where it's only 1 or 2.

 

Injuries

Spoiler

Not helping are the injuries, especially for Pellegri:

• Pellegri (part 1) - out for 2 months (half in the off season, half at the start of the season).

• Pellegri (part 2) - out for a month.

• Badji - out for 10 days.

• Esposito out for 10 days.

 

 

Contracts

At the start of the season, I asked them all to reconsider retirement and all agreed. However, only Esposito would sign a new contract. So we have Esposito wrapped up for a full 5 seasons after this one, but Badji only has 3 more seasons and Pellegri only 2.

 

Progress

Here's the overview:

And the history screens:

Spoiler

Which gives us:

Season	Esposito	Pellegri	Badji
01	38	19	24
02	60	63	50
03	41	71	51
04	60	65	49
05	65	78	56
06	59	65	59
07	52	51	81
08	74	46	62
09	59	60	65
10	55	82	63
11	62	69	89
12	68	56	68
13	56	69	64
14	61	49	41
15	56	39	45
Total	866	882	867

Esposito clearly the best, both attribute and output wise, but the others are making a decent fist of it as well.

 

Final Thoughts

They are all within 150 goals of the target and they've only slowed a little, despite their disappearing attributes - so that gives me hope! That said, contract length is a real worry:

• Esposito with 5 years left should have no problem hitting 1K, even if he slows down significantly - he only needs to average 26 goals per season.

• Badji with 3 years left will need to average 44 - so he has to repeat this season's output, even as his abilities drop away.

• Pellegri with only 2 years left will need to average 59, which surely isn't happening (though I'll switch him to pens next season).

So to have any chance of actually completing this, I'll need to sign at least Pellegri and almost certainly Badji to new contracts. It's looking like it will be one of those cases where you have to wait until the contract is almost up before they agree. I just have to hope they don't decide to retire instead. 🤞

Thanks for reading.

 

[Rich]

Awesome season again Scratch and a nice jump up in goals! A freshen up of the squad is always good every few years I find, so good going in freshening it up 😁

[Rob]

Brilliant again. Was saying to Rich in a separate chat that tactics often get goals as much as the players, especially when the surrounding players are excellent. This is a classic example where both tactic and players are awesome, and then as the players degrade a bit the results are still excellent as the tactic and supplementary players are perfect.

[Scratch]

9 minutes ago, Rich said:

Awesome season again Scratch and a nice jump up in goals! A freshen up of the squad is always good every few years I find, so good going in freshening it up 😁

Yeah, I fell in the trap of sticking with the players who were in their prime a little too long. Some of them were so good though...

[Scratch]

2 minutes ago, Rob said:

Brilliant again. Was saying to Rich in a separate chat that tactics often get goals as much as the players, especially when the surrounding players are excellent. This is a classic example where both tactic and players are awesome, and then as the players degrade a bit the results are still excellent as the tactic and supplementary players are perfect.

Thanks mate. I'm a few months into the following season now and they are still doing pretty well. It's quite strange. They will have games where it all clicks and they still get 6 goals between them. But the next game there will be 0 goals from them. I'd rest them and keep them fresh, but I need them to improve their after match development bar every game, as it keeps slipping down towards 0 (when they'll probably downgrade). 

I think you're probably spot on with your theory there. Even with degraded players, the tactic and the supplementary players carry them through and get good results - not as fantastic as when they are world class strikers, but still pretty good. I think they are a little less consistent than they were (probably no surprise) and also the supplementary players get more goals than they used to, but it's actually not nearly as different from what it was as it probably should be.

[smoggy90]

What a season mate! Fingers crossed on the contract situation.

[Scratch]

On 23/04/2021 at 02:45, smoggy90 said:

What a season mate! Fingers crossed on the contract situation.

Thanks mate. No luck so far, I guess it will have to wait until just before it expires. But I took matters into my own hands as I'll explain in the next update shortly.

[Scratch]

Season 16

The biggest threat to this career right now is that neither Pellegri or Badji will sign a new contract and time is running out. As it stands, here's what they need:

• Pellegri needs 118 goals in 2 seasons

• Badji needs 133 goals in 3 seasons

• Esposito needs 134 goals in 5 seasons

Up until now, I've just been ploughing along as though they will sign new contracts eventually, but this season I decided to shake things up and to try to make it to the line even if they don't.

 

New Focus

This season we decided to:

• Prioritise Pellegri so that he can reach his target in 2 seasons.

• Keep Badji ticking over so that he has a realistic chance of making his target in 3 seasons, assuming focus will switch to him once Pellegri is assured of his target.

• Deprioritise Esposito as he has plenty of time to reach his target.

 

Changes

Up until now I'd been using using the TT Blaster (1 2 1 3 3) with slightly varying instructions. Up front we had a T (Badji) sitting between two TMs (Esposito and Pellegri). Depending on the instructions either the right TM or the T would get the most goals. Esposito was keeping pace as he was on penalties.

First change: Pellegri took over penalty duties (worth maybe 20-25 goals per year with our attacking set up).

Second change: We experimented with tactics, eventually switching to this:

The majority of chances seem to go to the TM, but the T picks up quite a few goals as well. The DLF on the other hand seems to play more of a supporting role and doesn't score nearly as many. When we get to the totals, you'll see that Badji and Esposito got around the same, but Esposito had a fair few of those before we got to this tactic.

 

Transfers

Spoiler

I continued shifting out the older generation, letting some true stars go. I didn't bring anyone new in due to the number of players we brought in last season. We're probably set for the remainder of the save now.

 

Results

We won everything again this year, and league goals were decent with 141 (compared to 147 last year and 179 at our best):

Anyway, here are all the screenshots:

Spoiler

And we still haven't been beaten yet, so our long run continues.

 

The Lads

Looking pretty average now. Pellegri and Badji both had rolling back the years moments, so could have been worse!

 

Injuries

After quite a few injuries last year, there was only the one this year - 10 days for Pellegri:

Spoiler

So that was a great season for us.

 

Progress

Here's the overview:

And the history screens:

Spoiler

Which gives us:

Season	Esposito	Pellegri	Badji
01	38	19	24
02	60	63	50
03	41	71	51
04	60	65	49
05	65	78	56
06	59	65	59
07	52	51	81
08	74	46	62
09	59	60	65
10	55	82	63
11	62	69	89
12	68	56	68
13	56	69	64
14	61	49	41
15	56	39	45
16	35	72	34
Total	901	954	901

Massive season for Pellegri, thanks to the new tactic and the penalty taking duties.

 

Final Thoughts

The changes worked well and Pellegri is now likely to make it to 1K next season, needing only 46 goals - which is good because he still won't agree a new contract for beyond that.

Badji is touch and go as he is degrading fast and needs 99 goals in two seasons. If I could switch him to the main goal scoring position now, he'd be looknig good - but I need to leave him in the secondary position until Pellegri is nailed on, which probably isn't until he's almost there, due to the threat of injury.

And Esposito should be fine, with 4 seasons to score another 99 goals and the luxury of being the main focus for 2 of those.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Dai_]

Great work getting Pellegri where he needs to be. Badji is obviously the worry. Will you dabble with tactics again to try and compliment those two and worry about Esposito later? The sceptic in me says Badji is going to fail but to be so close must be torture.

[Rich]

Great season again Scratch, over 900 for all of them is so good! I really hope you can get the 3k. Would be a great achievement. 

[Scratch]

8 hours ago, Dai_ said:

Great work getting Pellegri where he needs to be. Badji is obviously the worry. Will you dabble with tactics again to try and compliment those two and worry about Esposito later? The sceptic in me says Badji is going to fail but to be so close must be torture.

Yeah, I agree Badji is the worry. If I had two full seasons with him as the focus, I'd be hopeful as the average opposition here is pretty weak, but I can't afford to switch away from Pellegri until he's almost there (he is more susceptible to injury). 

Not 100% sure what I will do yet, but once Pellegri makes it to 1K I might switch to 1 up front (Badji) with Esposito on the bench (though I've trained him as an IF now). I'll play around with it to see what gets him the most goals. But yeah Esposito can come later.

[Scratch]

5 hours ago, Rich said:

Great season again Scratch, over 900 for all of them is so good! I really hope you can get the 3k. Would be a great achievement. 

Thanks mate - yeah, I remember at one point thinking they'd only make 800 each, so to get them all to 900 and be hunting the 1Ks is a great feeling. Just gotta hope they stick in there and re-sign or we somehow squeeze them home anyway!

[Rob]

Blimey mate. Nailing it.

[Scratch]

6 hours ago, Rob said:

Blimey mate. Nailing it.

Thanks mate. Gonna be close..

[broodje kip]

Brilliant. 3 seasons at max and everything would be wrapped up! Nice work Scratchy

[geordiekrispy]

12 hours ago, Scratch said:

Yeah, I agree Badji is the worry. If I had two full seasons with him as the focus, I'd be hopeful as the average opposition here is pretty weak, but I can't afford to switch away from Pellegri until he's almost there (he is more susceptible to injury). 

Not 100% sure what I will do yet, but once Pellegri makes it to 1K I might switch to 1 up front (Badji) with Esposito on the bench (though I've trained him as an IF now). I'll play around with it to see what gets him the most goals. But yeah Esposito can come later.

Maybe keep rotate them in that TM role, but keeping the pens on Badji, you've got time with Esposito.

[Scratch]

Special Update - Mid Season 17

Mixing it up a little, as a few important things have happened.

I started the season with the same tactic as last season, but Badji's Pace had dropped to 7 and he just wasn't doing enough in the AMC T role:

So I made a big change, moving him back up front to a P role and relegating Esposito to the bench (bit worried he will deteriorate quicker, but needs to be done if Badji has any chance). 

After that he scored more, leaving him on 24 goals from 34 games as I write this (so he scored 15 in the last 17 games vs 9 in the first 17 games). 

 

 As a brief aside, we won the Club World Championship again, beating Man City 6-0, Bayern 3-0 and Dortmund 5-2:

Spoiler

That finally got us to a 5 star club reputation and meant the only threat to our Unbeaten run (currently at 751) wasn't really a threat at all...

 

Back to the main topic...

 

This games looks like a pretty average one:

But it is of huge significance:

Pellegri joined us with 4 goals to his name, meaning he has now scored 1,000 goals for me at Beijing! Our captain for many years and the first to reach the 1KC.

He's faded a lot in recent years:

And now it's time for him to have a bit of a rest and give the others a go. 

 

Speaking of which... That means we switch focus to this man:

He currently has 925 goals for us (he had 8 when he joined):

That means he has a season and a third (unless he signs a new contract) to score 75 goals. Going to be tight, especially with more deterioration to come, but if he can score at Pellegri's rate, it's not impossible.

He's back on penalties and he'll be moving into the central TM role. I might leave him up there by himself (with Esposito still on the bench), if increases his rate of scoring, but I'll have to play around with that. My preference is to keep Esposito going if I can as I think he will deteriorate more quickly off the bench). 

 

Of course, Badji's currently injured...

But he'll be back in a week or two and then the chase is on!

Edited April 25, 2021 by Scratch

[Scratch]

28 minutes ago, broodje kip said:

Brilliant. 3 seasons at max and everything would be wrapped up! Nice work Scratchy

Thanks mate, just provided an update - got Pellegri to 1K and switching focus to Badji. This is the biggest challenge as he won't sign a new contract so we only have a season and a third to score 75 goals... 🤞

[Scratch]

11 minutes ago, geordiekrispy said:

Maybe keep rotate them in that TM role, but keeping the pens on Badji, you've got time with Esposito.

Yeah, I just posted a new update and Pellegri has made it to 1K and is being rewarded by unceremoniously being dropped! 😄

So focus on Badji who moves to the TM role and I can worry about Esposito later...