Career The GOAT Challenge - Early Season 6 😱

[DanEnglish]

Welcome (again) to my attempt at possibly the hardest FMM challenge available …
 

The Challenge  
This horrific challenge <link> from @eternalaurora involves:

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The GOAT Challenge
(Greatest Of All Time)

• Start with a newly promoted English North / South club - in FMM23 Taunton are the hardest.

• Kaiserslautern all the way up - i.e. win the league every season all the way up.
• Win the treble (x3 trophies) within two Premier League (PL) seasons
• Win the quintuple (x5)within two more PL seasons
• Win the septuple (x7) within two more 3rd PL seasons.
• Bonus Points - use all 4 narratives each half season - asset stripper (with ‘abolish transfer windows!’), austerity measures, injury crisis, unrest at home.
• Bonus Points - no loans in + no exceeding wages - i.e. never play a competitive game over wage budgets.
• Plus - no unlockables nor cheating - inc. no rich benefactor, no editor, etc, plus no reloading, etc.
• Bonus Points - play with a manager profile of no badges + no reputation.

Attempt 2
This will be a serious attempt to complete this challenge - after a successful (but exhausting) 1st season test <here>

I will likely fail - as it’s exceedingly difficult - but at least it should be fun for you to watch me fail 🙂 
 

Sections
Let’s aim for 3 posts per season:

• ✅ Save setup
• ✅ Season 1
• ✅ Season 2
• ✅ Season 3
• ✅ Season 4
• ✅ Season 5
• ▶️ Season 6 <started>

Suggestions welcomed! 🙂 

Edited September 22 by DanEnglish

[DanEnglish]

Save Setup

For anyone wishing to try this challenge - here’s my save setup - on FMM23 vanilla database (no changes.txt file) with the winter update.  
 

Nations
Adding Scotland adds a source of players who don’t need work permits + allows for more ‘loaning out’ options to other English speaking clubs. Hopefully.

Club
Taunton’s facilities + staff are rubbish 🔻 

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That 0.5 star training facility means my players are unlikely to develop in it …

… and the only way I have a scout is by offering a staff contract to an elderly player !

Manager
I am also rubbish 🔻 no badges + no reputation !

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Expectations
In this GOAT challenge - we need to win the league - so I’ve selected the ‘WINNERS’ expectation to maximise my wage budget …

… though I wonder how much will disappear when we switch on the narratives!
 

Next
I haven’t pressed ‘continue’ yet (am still on day 1) …

… so my next post will be an ‘early season 1’ update - after seeing the devastating impact of switching on all 4 narratives 😱

Edited June 5 by DanEnglish

[leedsunited87]

Good luck Dan! Will be interesting to see how you get on 

[StuartM]

This sounds super difficult but if anyone can, Dan can. Good luck!

[DanEnglish]

Early Season 1

The Good
We reinforced with free transfer signings. Our ‘loan army’ will develop at other clubs, while we have reinforced our whole first team.

It took some time to search through them all … with an 11 page shortlist 🤦 

 
I’m particularly excited about these ‘four fan favourites’ …

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Solid keeper Muir 

Solid center-back Taylor 

Surprisingly effective creator Ndukwu

And French star striker Gomis 🔥 

… interestingly Gomis was the ONLY work permit application which I got accepted! 😠 
 

 
The Bad.  

But then we ‘switched on’ these 2 narratives - as the challenge requires.

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Austerity measures - decreases the wage budget by ~20% and hurts morale 🔻

Asset stripper - removes all transfer funds 🔻 …

… the administrator starts to transfer list (then sell) our players 🔻 …

… plus we ‘disabled’ the transfer window 🔻 for extra difficulty (and points) …

… so now the administrator can sell my players throughout the whole season! 
 

 
Now we have no funds + our players are starting to get sold off. Ouch. 

 

The Ugly

Plus we turn on ‘unrest at home’ + injury crisis’ narratives. Now my players hate me AND some of them will be injured and … wait … what?!

… WHAT?! … in a 24 man squad, I expected maybe half to get injured - so I’d still have a first XI available … BUT …

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Switched on both narratives

The ‘Injury Crisis’ Strikes 

18 injuries?! … 75% of my squad …

… now I only have 6 fit players + only ONE of them is good.

 
 

Even worse - remember those ‘four fan favourites’ who I was excited about? Well - three of them are now seriously injured 🤕 

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And our squad now hates me. These squad dynamics have taken a HUGE DROP in professionalism + morale

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Switching on that ‘unrest at home’ narrative hurts 🔻

Our squad dynamics show the impact 😢    
 

 
Solution
With only 6 fit players - we recall back some of our ‘loan army’ + recruit some (rubbish!) new backup full backs. We also had an easy friendly vs non-league Bournemouth to build match fitness.

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These two are rubbish.

… but the better free transfers had all been signed elsewhere 😞  

 

Thankfully we have stayed within budgets from mid-July onwards - the extra budget from a ‘win the league’ expectation really helps.

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Wage budgets after signing free transfers

Wage Budget after the injury crisis - after recalling players from loan + bringing in 2 FBs on free transfers.

Plus a sneak peek at the 1st Sep wage budgets

I’ve got £1k in wage budgets to solve any January issues - like the dreaded ‘injury crisis’ again
 

 
Next
A mid-season 1 review.

Will I be fired if I’m NOT top of the table? And what happens when we switch on the narratives again in early January - including the dreaded ‘injury crisis’?! 😱

Thoughts?

 

Edited June 6 by DanEnglish

[Haukr]

Wow this is really a thought challenge. 

How often does the challenge require you to switch on all these narratives of you want to get all the bonus points?

Are you allowed to accept unlockables if you unlock them during the save? Or should the full save be without it? 

 

Edit: Never mind, i read the rules. Anyway, good luck on your journey!! 

 

Edit 2: Tried starting a save with bishop strat just to try this out. But i am having a issue with badges. 

Even though i set "none" badge, i get initialized as a Bronze-General manager. Anyone had this issue and have a solution? 

Or are you allowed to start with a badge?

 

Edited June 6 by Haukr

[DanEnglish]

5 hours ago, Haukr said:

How often does the challenge require you to switch on all these narratives of you want to get all the bonus points?

Great questions. I’ll be switching on the narratives once in the early season + again in early January if they’ve switched off - so either 1x or likely 2x per season.

5 hours ago, Haukr said:

Even though i set "none" badge, i get initialized as a Bronze-General manager. Anyone had this issue and have a solution? 

The colour is bronze - BUT if you check the ‘staff’ > ‘coaches’ page you can see it’s a bronze colour but NO badge

If you click ‘take coaching badge’ at the bottom - it’ll give you this screen where you can get your real bronze badge. 

Yeah? 🙂 

[DanEnglish]

On 05/06/2024 at 09:13, leedsunited87 said:

Good luck Dan! Will be interesting to see how you get on 

On 05/06/2024 at 17:15, StuartM said:

This sounds super difficult but if anyone can, Dan can. Good luck!

5 hours ago, Haukr said:

Wow this is really a thought challenge. 

Thanks friends 🙂 I think VNS to VNL should be relatively easy, but the league two to championship will be really hard (no money for transfers) + the premier league years will be near-impossible.

😬 

[Haukr]

2 hours ago, DanEnglish said:

Great questions. I’ll be switching on the narratives once in the early season + again in early January if they’ve switched off - so either 1x or likely 2x per season.

The colour is bronze - BUT if you check the ‘staff’ > ‘coaches’ page you can see it’s a bronze colour but NO badge

If you click ‘take coaching badge’ at the bottom - it’ll give you this screen where you can get your real bronze badge. 

Yeah? 🙂 

Tried restarting with "no badge" and it says "none" under badges in game. 

But once i press "take coaching exam" i instantly get gold badge - general. 

Even tried with a new profile. Might try reinstalling 

[DanEnglish]

1 hour ago, Haukr said:

 

But once i press "take coaching exam" i instantly get gold badge - general. 

Even tried with a new profile. Might try reinstalling 

Ah. Yeah I’ve had that before. That’s because it gives you the best badge you’ve won in the game so far (not just for this individual save). So I’m just NOT pressing ‘take coaching exam’ ! 

[DanEnglish]

Mid Season 1

Ready, Steady … Go! 
Despite the injury crisis - our recalled players did surprisingly well in their 1st league match …

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5-0 with six clear cut chances? Nice!

Our good start sees us top the table

 
Player Sales
Due to ‘asset stripping’ - our Chairman ran 7 rounds of transfer listing our players  this 1st half-season 🔻

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With many of the players sold for ‘almost- nothing’

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Many of the deals I wasn’t allowed to negotiate

 
Player Rebellions 
Due to the ‘unrest at home’ narrative - there were multiple rounds of criticism + rumours about our players rebelling - which really hurts morale 🔻

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Have I lost the dressing room …

… and some players HATE me

 

Academy Prospects
Very poor 🔻 Plus I do NOT need another keeper.

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Manager Awards  
“Oh thank you, thank you very much …”

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Finally some good news … 4 months of good news?!

 
Jan 1st  
⚠️ So where are we in the league? ⚠️ 

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1st! With a huge lead. 

This squad of free transfers are just too good for the VNS. They’re good enough to compete in the league above. Easy.

Our main striker Asante leads the scoring charts 

We are still below our wage budgets

Next  
We need to switch on 2 narratives AGAIN

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Both ‘austerity measures’ + ‘unrest at home’ have expired (see GIF below) 🔻 so I’ll switch them back on in the first week of January …

… but thankfully ‘injury crisis’ is still active ✅ so I don’t need to reactivate it - phew!

 
We should win the VNS league - BUT how many of our players will have been sold during that time?! 😱 

Thoughts?

 

Edited June 7 by DanEnglish

[Haukr]

13 hours ago, DanEnglish said:

Ah. Yeah I’ve had that before. That’s because it gives you the best badge you’ve won in the game so far (not just for this individual save). So I’m just NOT pressing ‘take coaching exam’ ! 

Ok, are you going in as none badge and then after playing for a while the game grants you a badge for which you can choose specialism? 

[DanEnglish]

31 minutes ago, Haukr said:

Ok, are you going in as none badge and then after playing for a while the game grants you a badge for which you can choose specialism? 

If the game forces me to take a badge, I will. Otherwise I’ll try to continue with ‘no badge’ as long as possible 🔥 

[DanEnglish]

End Season 1

⚠️ There’s a HUGE plot twist coming up ⚠️   

    
 

Narratives  
We turned 2 narratives back on

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Asset stripping - the Chairman made another 7x rounds of transfer listing our players! 🔻

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New signings are generally won’t be transfer listed in their 1st half season at the club - BUT now we’re in the 2nd half season, they’re all being transfer listed 🔻 

7 rounds. Urgh.

… so THREE good players (my summer signings) got sold for ‘almost nothing’ 🔻

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Austerity Measures - thankfully those player sales mean our wages are below budget - so there’s only a negative morale impact this time 🔻

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Unrest at Home - not only does the Board hate me, but also our fans + players hate me  🔻 

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The only good news is that we do NOT need to switch on ‘injury crisis’ again 👍 (as it’s still active).
 

Cups
We had decent runs in both Cups - showing we can compete with clubs in the Division above …

… you’ll notice after a good run in the FA Cup, we got smashed by Premier League side Brighton - we were lucky it was only 0-3.

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League
🔥 The big question - did we win it?! Yes we did 🔥 

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🔥 1st 🔥   
Won with 6-7 matches remaining. Easy

Ghanaian / English striker Asante was top scorer.

Three of my players topped the league’s assist chart.

Season Summary
We won the league ✅ with lots of extra points. Success!

Next
⚠️ A HUGE plot twist ⚠️ where I’ll need your help!

Edited June 8 by DanEnglish

[DanEnglish]

⚠️  Plot Twist ⚠️  
 

Strategy 
So here was my plan for the VNS + VNL (seasons 1 + 2):

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• sign - sign 3-5 free transfers for each position
• squad - have a ~22 man squad + loan the rest out (to develop + have backup options)
• sales - SELL some players* to reinvest cash into the wage budget, training ground, better coach(es) + maybe young domestic talent

* those sales ‘would’ have had to be in the 1st week of the new season (before I have to switch on the narratives again)

Celebrations
However - the day after celebrating our league win - we got this message …

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“Taunton emerge from administration” ?!

😱

Do you realise what this means ?! 
This is sensational news! It means the asset stripping narrative is now ‘inactive’ - which means I can finally sell players + keep / reinvest the money … 

  
 

Player Sales
Thankfully by early-March, I’d already swopped in a couple of ‘higher valued’ young players into my first XI - hoping to push up their value for a summer sale.

It worked much better than expected. After some heavy negotiation, Exeter 🔥 bought 3 of my players for £500k 🔥

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I wonder if they were higher potential players - as they’re not that good now, but were the higher valued ones 🤷

Next
What do I do with this £500k cash?! 
Especially as the cash will DISAPPEAR in the 1st week of next season - when I reactivate the narratives.

Question - what do YOU think we should do with £0.5m ?!

 

Edited June 9 by DanEnglish

[P.Rahul]

Improve wage budget!!! And sign many players on loan !!! 

[DanEnglish]

1 hour ago, P.Rahul said:

Improve wage budget!!! And sign many players on loan !!! 

Interestingly I’m choosing to NOT sign players on loan to get an extra 1 point per season (0.5 points x2 for Kaiserslautern bonus)

Yes I can improve my wage budget - BUT it’s still difficult to get players to want to play in the VNL for a no-reputation manager AND I’ll lose that wage budget at the start of the next season when I switch on the ‘austerity measures’ narrative! 😱

[P.Rahul]

Improve coaching staff !!! And youth academy 

[DanEnglish]

Plot Twist (Part 2)

I think I’m screwing this up.  
We are at risk of wasting this £500k cash 🔥💰🔥  
 

17 hours ago, P.Rahul said:

Improve coaching staff !!! And youth academy 

• ❌ Facilities - I can’t upgrade my training nor youth facilities, as it’s TOO SOON since my last request (after we won the league, before we got money) 🤦
   
• ⏸️ Staff - only fired / hired / train one coach - as don’t have the training facilities to hire more   
   
• ❌ Wages - can’t move it all into wages, as guess that budget will disappear when I switch on the ‘austerity measures’ narrative at the start season 2.  
   
• ❓Transfers - theoretically I could spend it on ‘wonderkids’ - BUT most good youngsters don’t want to play in the lower-leagues / VNL, plus all my work permit applications are being rejected!

Aaaarrrggh! 😱

Edited June 10 by DanEnglish

[P.Rahul]

Sign wonder kids 4*+ PA only sign first team scout and bargain scout!!! Combo and and sign players which suggests by scouts!!! Which players u can afford!!! and send them on loans !!! Search players under 100k price !!! U will find good wonder kids !!!  Search only uk Ireland players !!!!

Edited June 10 by P.Rahul

[DanEnglish]

Early Season 2

 
Signings 
We signed a bunch of decent British free transfers (all agreed 6 months before) 🔥

… including these 2 great mentors who’ll be our new Captain + Vice Captain! 

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They’re not the world’s fastest …

… but they’re great for the 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 VNL …

… and have great personalities 👍 
 

We also needed to spend that +£500k …

… It all went on these 2 young players - both had attribute spreads I needed + had the ‘promising’ label 🔥 

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Worth +£1m, we bought this ‘promising’ DC for 400k 🔥 

… then this ‘promising’ striker cost 150k - with 12-13 attributes in five key areas for an advanced forward (AF) 

… these two should be great for the VNL + later when (if!) we get promoted  
 

We also have a loan army 🔥 dozens of players out on loan at other VNL clubs, to pump up their value so I can sell them in the summer. 
 

Start of Pre-Season   

In the first week of season 2 - we switched on the ‘asset stripper’ + ‘austerity measures’ narratives. We now have no money again 🔻

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Here’s our budgets before switching on the narratives …

Then we switched them on

Here’s our budgets afterwards - is exactly the same - we have to cut costs (I loaned out a few more players 😉)

  
 

Our chairman then went through multiple rounds of transfer listing players 🔻 thankfully one 1 sold so far …

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Plus we sold this guy for ‘almost nothing’

Urgh. 
 

End of Pre-Season   

We have a 24 man squad ready. We had a good pre-season. After loaning out a few players, we’re 3k below our wage budget 😀 

We are ready - right?!

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Then a week before our 1st league match - we switched on the ‘unrest at home’ + horrific ‘injury crisis’ narratives.

My squad morale dropped + they all hate me 🔻

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⚠️ Injury Crisis ⚠️ 
Plus look at our first team now …

That’s right.
10 of our first team are injured. 18 of our 24 man squad are injured (75%). 

Many are out for most of the season (6-8 months!) 🔻

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Before - no injuries in our 24 man squad …

After - 18 injuries !!!

Here’s the message 😞 

 
 

 
Remember those 2 ‘promising’ youths we splashed 0.5m on? Well at least they are … what? … oh you’re kidding 🔻 … 

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A broken leg? Great. Will he ever recover? 
 

 
What about those 2 mentors - our new Captain + Vice … oh … that’s not good 🔻

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Both are out for 3 months - with serious injuries 

… will they ever recover … ?! 
 

Status 
The challenge requires that we WIN the league. This season.

BUT we only have 6 fit players. All of whom hate me. And some of those 6 will likely be sold by our chairman. Most of the other squad players are injured until after Christmas. 

We also have a loan army, but all recalled players must cost less than our remaining <£3k wages. And no loans in. Huh. 
 

Next
How can we win the league under these challenges?

AAAARRRGGH !!! 😱

Edited June 11 by DanEnglish

[eternalaurora]

I feel very wrong saying this, but looking at a top player like @DanEnglish getting tortured by my challenge makes me feel ecstatic.

[DanEnglish]

On 11/06/2024 at 19:10, eternalaurora said:

I feel very wrong saying this, but looking at a top player like @DanEnglish getting tortured by my challenge makes me feel ecstatic.

Hahaha - yes your challenge genuinely makes me panic, close down the game, and have a think about what to do next.

The wife asks ‘what you thinking about?’ and I have to quickly think of a reply - instead of my real contemplation of “how can I free up another 500 / week of wages, so I can recall a replacement midfielder?” for example 🤣

Edited June 13 by DanEnglish

[DanEnglish]

Mid Season 2

We have both 👍 GOOD news + 🔻 BAD news … 
 

👍 League 
31st December - we are TOP with a good lead

 

👍 Star Striker 
Why? It’s mostly because of this star striker 🔥 

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Asante was LETHAL at the start of the season - a huge 22 goals in 11 matches 🔥 

… but we had to loan him out asap once bigger clubs became interested in him

It took 4 consecutive rounds of mentoring to raise his aerial from 13 to 17 - now he’s too good for this Division.   
 

🔻 Backup Striker 
After loaning Asante back out, we now rely on developing backup striker Faal - who simply is NOT as good 

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Just 3 goals in 9 matches …

… and his attributes are much worse 

 

🔻 Wage Budgets 
While we remain within wage budgets for all competitive matches - we consistently need to release / loan out players to free up wages (to replace injured / sold players)

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🔻 Player Sales 
Unfortunately our Chairman is transfer listing players repeatedly - it really hurts morale …

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Edit - any ‘eagle-eyes’ readers will notice young striker ‘Fenwick’ has been transfer listed twice …

… I guess somehow I delisted him once, so the chairman listed him again. Not sure.

 
Remember those ‘four fan favourites’ from season 1? Well the chairman SOLD the only one one that remained fit + plays 😢 

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I loved this left footed IF …

… his attributes are poor - but his performances were great 

 
 

🔻 Player Morale  
Our current players still HATE me …

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Here is new free signing Scott

… and here’s his teammate Lyon

 

🔻 Youth Intake  
… and all the youth academy players are rubbish (again) …

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Next
… so where are our new future superstars ?! 😉

Beckham
To Sign or Not to Sign?!

Edited June 13 by DanEnglish

[StuartM]

Sign him! I think Faal will come good for you too, he just needs those outswinging, right sided crosses...

[DanEnglish]

1 hour ago, StuartM said:

Sign him! I think Faal will come good for you too, he just needs those outswinging, right sided crosses...

Haha great minds think alike.

Beckham’s 12 crossing seems like his Dad - BUT I was a bit disappointed to see how low his ‘set piece’ ability was 😡 

Edited June 13 by DanEnglish

[eternalaurora]

Dan at the beginning of season 2:

 

Edited June 13 by eternalaurora

[DanEnglish]

Bonus Update

We are in the 2nd half of season 2.
Things are starting to go horribly wrong 😱

Wasting £500k
Remember that cash we raised last season when the ‘asset stripper’ narrative ended? We spent it on 2 ‘promising’ players …

• the 1st one got a broken leg + won’t be the same again …
• … then look what happened to the 2nd one …

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What … ?!

Here’s the guy I paid 400k for … now my board are selling him for 750k …

… but ZERO will enter my transfer budgets because of the ‘asset stripper’ narrative 😱

He’s now worth 2.5m 😭 that would have changed this GOAT challenge attempt. Damn.
 

 
A 2nd Loss
My chairman made a cool +£1m in total player sales when you add this guy in … again my transfer budget remains at ZERO.

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More?!
Our chairman SOLD 9 players this half-season 🔻

• 2x central midfielders (MCs)
• plus 3x left-backs (DLs)
• plus 3x center backs (DCs)
• plus 1x keeper (GK)

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Central Midfielders (MCs)

 
 

Left backs
(plus Bondswell above)

 
 

Center Backs
(plus Dorsett above)

 
Keeper

 
 

 
This is crazy 😭 and NONE of this enters my transfer budgets. Nothing.

[DanEnglish]

Bonus Update (II)

Club Jobs
SIX clubs offered me jobs so far this season. Obviously all were rejected.

• 2x 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 League Two
• 2x 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 VNL
• 2x 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 League One

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There’s an interesting bug that when you have the ‘asset stripper’ narrative on - the ‘job offer’ message suggests (incorrectly) that club is also in administration.   


International Jobs  
The 🇳🇴 Norway job came up twice. I applied twice 😉 

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Rejected both times 😠 

They hired Ole … then fired him 🔥 

 
 

 
Also applied for a few other national team jobs, but no success yet - as you’d expect!

[DanEnglish]

End Season 2

You have noticed our chairman SOLD 9 of our players. Plus we still have an INJURY crisis. Just how much will this hurt? 

   
 

1st January  
3 of the narratives are still active

 
But that means we switched 1 narrative back on. ‘Austerity measures’ reduces both wage budgets AND hits morale. More pain 🔻

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Thankfully we don’t need to switch ‘injury crisis’ back on - but that’s only because we still have plenty of serious (red) injuries 🔻

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2nd Half Season
We really struggled - without our star striker, with many players still injured (11 !) and with more players being sold (9 !) - plus we had to stay within wage budgets.

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It took me a LOT longer to play this half-season, as I was tweaking tactics in most games - trying to ‘grind out’ narrow wins.  

Unfortunately we lost quite a few games also.

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To my horror - after loaning out our star striker - none of my attackers scored over 12 goals in the league + cups!

 

End Season
This GOAT Challenge requires us to win the league. Did we do it?!

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Thankfully YES we won it with 3 matches remaining. Relief.

This also means the ‘asset stripper’ narrative finally is turned off.

Though the Board Expectations are a bit buggy

 

 

 
We did win our 1st trophy 🛡️

 
Next  
I spent a LONG time looking for expiring contracts. Plus transfer listed players who clubs would sell for free.

BUT there’s not much quality available - unlike earlier in this save. This is perhaps the ONLY guy who excites me

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He’s costing £50k - so I really hope he isn’t rubbish!

 
So let’s prepare for next season in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 League Two.

We desperately need to sell, sign + improve the club - BEFORE the narratives are switched on again! 

Suggestions? 🙂 

 

Edited June 18 by DanEnglish