Career The GOAT Challenge - Early Season 6 😱

[DanEnglish]

Bonus

In addition to that latest update (see last post),
in preseason we signed a new CLUB CAPTAIN 🔥

Welcome to ex-Villa’s 33 year old Tyrone Mings

Spoiler

Edited August 23 by DanEnglish

[DanEnglish]

Mid Season 5

#DeadGoat?  ☠️🐐☠️
Will this season end my Goat challenge?  
 

Problem
I’m now 17 points behind the league leaders 😱 with 20 matches remaining. Plus I’ll need to switch on ‘injury crisis’ on Jan 1st.

Remember we MUST win the league (this season or next) to continue this GOAT challenge. 

And this is NOT title-winning form.
 

Question
What should I do?!

1. option 1️⃣ try to win now - recall my best players, try to win the league this season - the risk is that my administrators sell these best players + I’m worse off for next season.  
    
2. option 2️⃣ develop for next season - keep my best players loaned out (developing elsewhere), play the ‘high potentials’ now (develop in-house), try to lose the playoffs + try to win the league next season.  Though I’d lose the Kaiserslautern bonus (double points)
    
3. option 3️⃣ something else … ?!  
    

What do YOU suggest? 🤔 

[P.Rahul]

Try to win now !!! Still u have 20 games left if u win every game then u can win !!! 

[Leminnis]

I think you should go for option 2... Although Leeds has a small advantage over you (17 points when there are 60 more at stake), I would choose to be cautious and try to achieve promotion next season... Otherwise You risk losing the league, since nothing guarantees that you will win it, as well as losing your players due to sales...

[DanEnglish]

🇺🇦 Ukraine 🇺🇦 

A quick international update 😉  

While it’s not part of the official GOAT challenge, it’s fun ‘added difficulty’ for me.
 

Your Votes
A slight majority on the FMM Discord ..

So we accepted the 🇺🇦 Ukraine job 

  
 

Results
However our European League group went BADLY 🔻

Losing two away matches killed our prospects of finishing first (vs Poland + Northern Ireland). We just conceded too many goals.

  
 

Qualifiers
Next up is the Euros 2028 Qualifiers …

… 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England should top our group - but who are our biggest competitors for 2nd place? 🇹🇷 Turkey?

 
Our squad has some good players (two GKs + both IFs 🔥) …

… BUT we lack quality at central defense + a central striker 🔻 and we are getting so many INJURIES 🔻

Will we be good enough to qualify for the Euros?! … I genuinely don’t know!
 

Next
A club update on our 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Championship title ambitions - do we target the title this year or next season?!

[DanEnglish]

Mid Season 5

Quote

What’s YOUR worst decision in FMM?

• Wasting an entire transfer budget on one player? 
• Leaving from a long career at one club to go to a rival?
• … something else … ?

Why?
As this post could be MY worst decision 😬 

 
Recap
We enjoyed 4 consecutive league wins from the 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 VNS to the 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Championship. But now it falls apart …

This GOAT challenge requires a league WIN to continue. BUT currently we are only 5th 🔻 a huge 17 points behind an incredible Leeds squad. 

What do we do?!

The Decision  
Should we (1) TRY to win the league this season … or (2) wait to try again NEXT season … ?

Thanks to the FMM Discord group, you voted for Option (3) ‘do something else’ - so that’s what I did to decide this GOAT challenge next step.

Spoiler

 
Option (3)
Our next match was vs league leaders Leeds, so we let that match outcome decide our plan:

• beat Leeds? 14 points behind with 19 matches remaining. Possible ✅
   
• lose to Leeds? 20 points behind with 19 matches remaining. Almost impossible ❌

So we’ll let the match engine decide 🙈
 

The Result
💥 Boom 💥 the match engine decides! 😱

Spoiler

We’ll try to WIN the 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Championship THIS season. 

Now only 14 points behind an amazing Leeds squad 😬 this may backfire

Next
Game on!
This will be incredibly difficult.  
There’s an +80% chance I’ll fail.  
This challenge ends if I finish 2nd.

Was this the worst FMM decision I’ve ever made? Maybe 🙈 

Edited September 1 by DanEnglish

[DanEnglish]

Late Season 5
‘The A Team’

    
 

Jan 1st  
Its the day before that Leeds match + decision (above). We are 17 points behind the league leaders.

We switch ‘on’ INJURY CRISIS + austerity measures. Painful.

Spoiler

20 first team players are out injured. 

5 of them are out for 6-12 months. Terrible.

‘The A Team’
So we recall ’The A Team’ - these are our best players, previously (safely) developing out on loan.

They were being saved for our first 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Premier League season. But no. We need them NOW.  
 

Early Feb  
Disaster - 3 of our ‘A team’ players are SOLD by our administrators.

Spoiler

These are our 3x ‘A team’ players SOLD !

 

This is because we still have ‘asset stripping’ active (it’s been ‘on’ for +12 months now!).

So we’ll see ZERO extra funds in our budgets 😭   

We are 14 points behind,
with 15 matches remaining.

 
 

Early March  
However thankfully the ‘asset stripping’ narrative finally STOPS. 

Spoiler

Now we can rebuild our facilities, sell squad players for profit + reinvest for the future.

We are 9 points behind,
with 10 matches remaining.

  
 

Early April  
Our wonderkid striker (Dzeko-regen) demands a transfer. 

Spoiler

We reject it + eventually agree on a new 5 year contract. He’ll deservedly be our highest earner (on only £3k / week in the Championship!)

 

We are 8 points behind,
with 6 matches remaining.

  
 

Early May  
I’ve spent months (unsuccessfully) trying to weaken league leaders Leeds … BUT …

Spoiler

… slowly top clubs have bought Leeds’ star players - including star DC Araujo off to Porto + star striker Calvert-Lewin off to Newcastle. 

Thankfully their form dropped dramatically. 

But is it enough?

 
We are just 3 points behind,
with 2 matches remaining.  
(now taking into account goal difference) 

Spoiler

I genuinely haven’t played the last 2 matches yet. So - like you! - I really don’t know how this will end.

My ‘A team’ should be good enough to get 4-6 points from our remaining matches.

BUT are Leeds going to drop 3-5 points from their final two games? 

 
Will Leeds ‘bottle it’? 
Unlikely.  
Improbable.  
But ‘possible’.

Squeaky bum time 🙈 

[StuartM]

However this ends up, this is a massive turnaround and wonderful effort 👏

[DanEnglish]

Both matches have been played. Game has been saved. There’s no going back. Wow. I need a rest.

Spoiler

😲

[StuartM]

Its a cliffhanger!

[DanEnglish]

End Season 5
Is this the End?

Failure
Not every challenge succeeds. Many fail. And that’s ok.

I’ve posted some past failed FMM saves <here>, <here> and <here> … this could be another one 😢 
 

Recap
We MUST win the league to continue this GOAT challenge. We now rely on Leeds ‘bottling it’ …

Spoiler

We are 3 points behind (with goal difference). There are 2 matches remaining.

We play teams in 9th and 24th …

… Leeds play teams in 15th and 20th 

… so we’re rely on Leeds bottling it 😬

Match 45  

Despite throwing EVERYTHING at them - we can’t beat Millwall 😭 

Painful … and so did Leeds win?

Spoiler

Leeds LOST !!!

A huge result.

We are now 2 points behind.  
With 1 match remaining.  
Argh!  

The Last Game
To have any chance, we MUST win …

Spoiler

… and we destroy bottom-placed Ipswich, leading 5-0 at half time.

… and Leeds must NOT win …

Spoiler

I spend the entire 2nd half watching for goals in the Leeds game …

It’s 0-0 at half-time.

Still 0-0 after 70 mins …

… and a GOAL 😱

Leeds are losing?!
We may win the league?!?

The Final Result
Those final 20 mins were scary. It was like watching teletext back in the 1990’s.

Full-time!

The Result
“They think it’s all over …”

Spoiler

Leeds bottled it …

… so we’ve WON the league!!!

• 4 points from our last two matches.  
• 24 points from our last eleven matches.

• Zero points from Leeds’ last two matches.
• 12 points from Leeds’ last eleven matches.

Somehow - we win the league - with our lowest points total so far.

  
Media Reaction
From the Discord 😉 

Spoiler

Overnight reactions …

You prophet …

 
Next
We prepare for the 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Premier League!

However this was a shock, as I expected this to fail - so I haven’t prepared for it:

• no summer transfer ❌ 
• no ‘expiring contract’ free transfers ❌ 
• and I’ve lost 3 stars in my ‘A team’ ❌

I’ll take a couple of days off - then will start to audit my squad, agree transfers / free signings, and figure out my plan for next season.

This GOAT challenge 🐐 is not dead
(yet!)

Edited September 3 by DanEnglish

[StuartM]

Amazing! Never in doubt 

[DanEnglish]

1 hour ago, StuartM said:

Amazing! Never in doubt 

Hahaha! You’re more confident than me! I didn’t even agree a summer pre-contract transfers, as was convinced this would likely fail. 

Also …

[P.Rahul]

Goat !!!! Superb efforts!!! No one will reach even championship with this difficulty 🏆 🏆!!! 🙏🙏🙏

[DanEnglish]

23 minutes ago, P.Rahul said:

Goat !!!! Superb efforts!!! No one will reach even championship with this difficulty 🏆 🏆!!! 🙏🙏🙏

I got VERY lucky this season 🍀 it’s pretty unlikely that Leeds’ form would decline so much - until you notice that they started selling all their best players - so I got super lucky there.

There’s probably a LOT of people who could do this challenge - up to this point at least. The problem is that it’s quite time consuming + you cant get ‘emotionally attached’ to a player - as they could get sold or injured so easily ☹️

[Odico]

Wow Dan, that's mind boggling. Leeds did a bottle job tho😅

[P.Rahul]

Let's see can u win premiere league with this difficulty!!! I think this will be ur toughest challenge !!! Best of luck 🤞!!! 

[DanEnglish]

End Season 5  
Quick Review

This is our GOAT challenge points total so far - after a lucky 🍀 (and undeserved?) league win in the Championship …

We are officially over half-way to our total 100 points goal 🔥…

…though that last season was one of the two INCREDIBLY hard seasons so far …

That was also our lowest points total so far 🤢 

For record keeping - here’s screenshots of my monthly wages

Spoiler

Then we sold some players 🔥 here’s the 4 biggest ones 

Woohoo!
A £28m warchest!

 
Next
A season 6 preview for our 1st season in the 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Premier League!

• rivals - includes the league’s most dominant team (Man City) 😮
• regens - includes wonderkid / regen hunting (inc. Messi’s regen?)
• squad - includes our best players + sone analysis on why we are going to get 💥 DESTROYED 💥 

 
It’s going to be really painful.  
I’m going to hate it.  
You’ll likely love my pain.  
🤨

Edited September 7 by DanEnglish

[DanEnglish]

Preseason 6
Man City - Scouting the Enemy

  
Recap
Now we enter the 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Premier League.  
We’ve (luckily) won 5 consecutive titles + promotions. Now this challenge gets ridiculously hard …

… we have to beat these guys 😱

  
 

Man City’s Squad
Pep’s club are DOMINANT.  
Look at this amazing squad …

They’ve kept world class stars Haaland, Foden, Silva, Rodri, Laporte, Ederson …

… plus they’ve reinforced with Kane 🔥 Bellingham 🔥 Bruno Fernandes 🔥 plus Torres, De Ligt, and Timber 🔥 

Wow. Look at them 😱

Spoiler

Plus their reinforcements …

 
Our Lost Star
Their only weakness is that their stars are aging - but why did Man City buy our star attacking wonderkid? 

Spoiler

With Haaland + Kane, surely they don’t need our wonderkid, but our administrators sold him.

Buying Haaland?!
So based on suggestions from the Discord group - I tried to buy ‘backup striker’ Haaland. 

Spoiler

Pity I dont have a spare £225m 😱

 
Next
Some of Man City’s dominant squad are aging (Kane, Ederson, etc) + the AI isn’t great at squad building …

… so we’ll look into the regen WONDERKIDS who we have signed without any competition and … huh … 

… what? … oh damn.

Spoiler

Man City’s Kevin De Bruyne retired …

… so Man City bought his regen!

 
Aaaarrrggh!!! 😱

[DanEnglish]

Early Season 6
Welcome to the EPL 

For this GOAT challenge - somehow we need to win the domestic TREBLE either this season or next season - beating that dominant Man City side 🙈 

How? To give us any chance next season, I’ve sold our Championship level players (who’ve stopped growing) + systematically went REGEN hunting! 

 

Regen Hunting  
I am finally getting work permits APPROVED 🔥 so I went regen / wonderkid hunting!

This is what our future squad looks like …

Spoiler

Regens - these are all regenerated players, with the same nationality / feet / potential as the original superstar!

Many of them need a few seasons to develop (including the Messi and Lewandowski regens) - do we have enough time?!

So I systematically looked for every (affordable) +4.5 star potential regen available. This was done manually (without using the editor, nor the AM23 app) so some may be wrong!

  
Our 1st Team  
You can see our 1st team are mostly young wonderkids.

They need to develop VERY quickly - because currently they are NOT good enough to beat that dominant Man City side to the league title.

Poor crossing, poor pressing, poor dribbling, and poor shooting 🔻 Ouch. 
 

Our Squad  
This is what our squad looks like now …

Huge quantity, but lacks quality now. 

Overall we have far too many players, BUT I may need them when / if we switch on the ‘asset stripping’ narrative again. 
 

PreSeason
Sep 1st. Friendly matches vs other 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Premier League teams went well (2 wins, 2 draws) …

… and we survived our first few league matches 👍 sitting nicely in 5th place after 5 matches.

BUT we are outclassed - I am relying on scoring from set pieces + desperately holding onto late leads / ensure draws (with my ‘defensive 41410’). 

These wonderkids need to develop fast!  
 

Next  
We’ll play to Jan 1st. Let’s see how our squad develops and whether we can stay in the top half / lower European qualifications spots?!

Remember - we must win the TREBLE (league + both domestic cups) either this season, or next season. I doubt we’ll succeed, but we’ll try.

Edited September 22 by DanEnglish

[DanEnglish]

Bonus

Look at what my ‘Adrian regen’ GK (the black dot) did in our 2nd league match … great job mate, great job …

<GIF in spoiler>

Spoiler

Edited September 22 by DanEnglish

[P.Rahul]

U will successful in this challenge!!!👍

added 0 minutes later

U will successful in this challenge!!!👍

[DanEnglish]

Mid Season 6

On 22/09/2024 at 20:52, P.Rahul said:

U will successful in this challenge!!!👍

Er … I’d say … unlikely.  
I will probably fail in this challenge.
But am trying to delay the inevitable.

 
Oooops
Winning the ‘domestic treble’ is impossible when you get knocked out of a domestic cup 🤦 

Damn - their AMC Smith-Rowe destroyed us.  

  

⛔️ we have FAILED this season ⛔️
As it is now impossible for us to win the domestic treble. So our only hope is to win the domestic treble NEXT season 🙈 
 

Facilities
With ‘no narratives’ this season, we can finally start to develop our infrastructure 🔥 

Spoiler

Stadium 🔥 25k capacity

Training Facilities

Youth Academy

Affiliates!

So now we have 5 affiliates!

 
Wages
We stayed within our wage limits - we’re only spending ~£100k / week on our ENTIRE squad in the 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Premier League !!!

Spoiler

As a comparison - Man City spend +£1m per week on three players!

 
League Table
Jan 1st. We are doing well, but we won’t win the title.

I hope to finish 5th-6th … so that we can develop our 2nd team in the weaker European competitions next season.  

Our Dzeko-regen is doing very well. He’s our star player. But look at Villa’s Ivan Toney 🔥
 

Next
Either a 🇺🇦 Ukraine national team update, or an end-season review.

Lets see how quickly I can play this 2nd half season (as playing on ‘extended highlights’ to maximise our results - so it takes time!)

Edited October 1 by DanEnglish