Career Cook-ing up a storm

[StuartM]

Hi folks,

I liked the idea of @Scratch's latest player challenge and having had a go at the Diamond in the Rough challenge and not humiliated myself, I thought why not? Lets see if I rectified the situation here!

I opted to start with Bournemouth, thinking that he would perform well from the off at a lower level and we could cash in on goals and assists before going to the big time.

Tactically, I had been playing around with a strikerless setup and so it seemed like an ideal match.

Bournemouth have a fairly strong Championship squad and so I didn't actually make any transfers.

This is the man himself as we kick things off:

The system worked quite well, sending goals and assists towards Cook whilst getting good results. He hit 30 goal involvements by the January window, which attracted the attention of Wolves.

I normally counter these offers with a new contract but he wasn't that interested so I declined it and whilst he wasnt unhappy, his form tailed off quite badly...

which went on...

Frustrating!

Results held up and he did come back a bit towards the end of the season, giving us 56 goal involvements for the season.

And my first ever invincible league campaign!

At this point, I will look to jump ship and take Cook with me - given that he seemed to be looking for a bigger stage. Lets see if I can make that happen!

[FuddledFox]

Superb start and I like the plan of starting at Bournemouth and then jumping ship for the next two seasons. 🤞 for a good club to come up.

[Dai_]

Great stuff! 

I hope a decent job becomes available. 

[StuartM]

So a few really interesting jobs came up, Man It'd, Spurs, Atletico, Betis... And I got offered none of them! I thought an unbeaten season and continental rep would be enough but it wasn't.

A season in the Premier League then. I did okay with transfers but missed out on converting Morgan Rogers loan to a permanent transfer because I thought I had longer than I did to make the deal 🤦‍♂️

Onwards and upwards...

We weren't quite as free flowing as I wanted but probably to be expected. We had fair results but Lewis was finding the step up a bit much in my system

When January came I did finally get a couple of job offers, Marseille and Eintracht Frankfurt

But he had no interest in moving 😡, so I rolled back the save an continued with Bournemouth... maybe the end of the season then.

Strangely, we struggled to maintain our form but Lewis started to contribute and we had a run to the FA Cup final...

Probably deserved by Chelsea but 90+2 always stings.

Couldn't make it to the Champions League...

Respectable but not spectacular numbers from Cook

Let's see if I can get that big job this time... Thanks for taking a look!

 

[FuddledFox]

Shame you couldn’t get that bigger job but Cook performed well considering it was your first season in the top flight.

[Dai_]

That's a very good season back in the big time. Cook doing well considering the quality of the League. 

Interested to see if you get the big move or stick where you're at.

[Rob]

I love the different way folks are approaching this. Great scores considering Bournemouth! 

[Scratch]

He was doing great until he had that off period! If you can get him to replicate the best form you'll do really well - even in the EPL. Though yeah, it is harder than most leagues, especially when you haven't got the resources to compete with the top players. Will be really interested to see how you go next season.

Also, sorry you couldn't get the move. BTW, I should probably point out that you're not supposed to roll the save back as technically it's reloading, but I think we can let it pass this time round, given no-one else has called you out on it. So it's all good in this case, but probably not something to do in future.

Anyway, best of luck in season 3!

[StuartM]

Thanks @Scratch, and totally noted on the roll back - as I'm sure most can tell, its not for better results on my part!

So at the end of the season, I went for and was offered the RB Leipzig job and this time our man Cook went for the move.

I thought that with better players around him, he would cash in nicely but results were awful and with 1 point from 4 games, I tinkered and changed him to a Shadow Striker and results immediately picked up.

Lewis never really took to the Bundesliga though and was outscored by my IF who was going at just less than a goal a game with no set pieces or penalties 🤷‍♂️

Anyway, I thought we could clean up on trophies and then the goals would follow but we went out of the Champions League with a bit of a whimper, then got done in the Cup.

And subsequently went on a bit of a draw fest in the League, meaning that we ended up with 2nd!

I lost him for a month in the crunch time of the season despite keeping him well rested and I'm not sure I got an stats upgrade out of him all season!

So, it was a rather underwhelming season in the end but still a good challenge... I have a lot to learn!

I count my total to be (don't laugh):

Achievements: 7

Goals: 56

Assists: 64

Total: 127

Takeaway for next time... pick the right club and play him more!

Thanks for the comments and taking a look!

Edited June 30, 2022 by StuartM

[Dai_]

Well done mate. 

[FuddledFox]

10 hours ago, StuartM said:

And subsequently went on a bit of a draw fest in the League, meaning that we ended up with 2nd!

Glad it wasn’t just me that drew too many games in Leipzig doing this challenge!

Considering it didn’t work out quite how you wanted with club moves after season 1 I think that was a good score

[Scratch]

Wow, sorry for missing this @StuartM. 😳

Have finally added you to the leaderboard. I have to say that using RB Leipzig seems to be the hardest option. No way am I using them! The injury didn't help - in fact he didn't play that many games over the 3 seasons, which obviously doesn't help with the total etc.

Anyway, good effort, thanks for giving it a go and good luck with whatever's next.