Hattrick

[Elwood]

Interesting to see there are 13,500 users online right now. That's a LOT more than I've ever seen before!

And I'm still able to read the conferences via the sneak peek (though can't seem to open the full conference window - no side menu displays).

Pretty impressive.

[kopiteinkc]

Originally posted by kopiteinkc
Thanks for the advice everybody, the site is back up and running and he is on the transfer market.

(#8315937) if you are interested :D

No takers, oh well.

[kopiteinkc]

Originally posted by Darr
It's train him in Playmaking as long as his PM wasn't to low, no lower then inadequate... If he's lower I'd sell him... But he might not be worth much, I've seen 17 Pass PM'ers going for around 80-120K, so I'd think winger might be around 40-70K...

Well he went in the end for around 35K. A bit disappointing but his PM value was low. (poor)

I have three or four young inadequate PM as it is and couldn't stop their training for him.

I already have a pass wing/pass IM so selling him seemed the best option.

[kopiteinkc]

It looked like I was going to avoid automatic relegation after beating the team 3rd from bottom and get myself into a playoff-relegation spot instead.

But now the top team in my league, who I assumed would beat my rival in the closing weeks of the season, has abandoned his team and even the bottom team in our league beat the top of the league.

I got shellacked 8-0 and my rival will almost certainly win and put him out of reach. Doesn't seem fair to replace teams mid-season.

[Footer Phooter]

This happened to me last season. I lost to a team, and was informed by one of the other owners that the owner had quit the team (the team was 2 time defending champions of the division). The team then got reset, and several owners got free wins. Oh well, I got promoted anyway. (I'll be back in iv next year)

[kopiteinkc]

Yeh. It pisses me off cos I beat my closest rival 4-0 on Sunday, but it seems unlikely I can get more points than him in the run in as he is going to get a free 3 next Sunday while I play a strong promotion candidate.

Oh well, div. V here I come!

[mbrossetti]

Don't worry about it. I was pissed when I abandoned my team and went down to div 4 for this season, but it was my fault. I figured I should use it as a means to rebuild my team. Depending on how much money you can draw each home game in div 5, why not just try to stay in the div 4/5 mix for a few seasons before pushing upwards. I'm going to spend the next two seasons rebuilding my midfield. I already have a back four that are all solid defenders and earn at least 3* each game. My forwards are all solid and above, one is even formidable, I'm contemplating placing him up for transfer for min $750, since he's only 21 I'd want nothing less than that. My only worry is my midfield. my two inner mids are 29 and 30 respectively. I've got no one coming in to replace them, but I'm calling up a youth player each week to see what I can get. I've got $1.5m as my running balance, so I figure if I can get another 3-4 seasons out of them, while training passing and cross passes for 2 seasons each, I should have from $3-4M to spend on replacement players. My team will all be about 25-26 and I can bring in two impact midfielders to help me push for div 3 and above. That's at least my plan right now.

[kopiteinkc]

Originally posted by mbrossetti
why not just try to stay in the div 4/5 mix for a few seasons before pushing upwards.

Yeh, I wasn't worried about staying in div 4 for a long time, I just didn't want to go down and lose supporters. Though with 3 wins out of the last 4 or 5 games the "fans" have been coming back in droves. (Relegation will test out those fair weather fans!!)

[mbrossetti]

Originally posted by kopiteinkc
Yeh, I wasn't worried about staying in div 4 for a long time, I just didn't want to go down and lose supporters. Though with 3 wins out of the last 4 or 5 games the "fans" have been coming back in droves. (Relegation will test out those fair weather fans!!)

I've noticed though that there is usually a good number that will stay with the team until it appears that you've basically given up. Even when I got dropped from Div.3 I still had a decent number of supporters make the drop with me. I'm just upset b/c I lost my first game since regaining my interest in the game. Lost game 1 in Div 4 6-1 when a half-assed team took the field and just lost to the team 2nd from bottom 2-1 on the road even though I had the ball for about 75% of the game. The match report said the other teams GK made a few spectacular saves to keep me on the wrong side. Pissed me off since if I won that game I would have had a chance to play for the division lead this sunday. Wouldn't get it on account of the massive goal differential, but it would have been nice to finish the season with 39 out of 42 points. Now I have to aim for 2nd place with 36 points. I'm more interested in the money you get awarded for finishing in a decent position. Again, I'm just trying to hoarde money to be in a nice position to outspend almost anyone on some good players.

Allthough it is amusing to up the initial bid on a player to an outrageous fee (or as high as you're willing to go) and then let others just get carried away. I bid 500K on a solid defender, passable winger to play as a wingback, the next day the bids were up to 1.3m. I think he sold for about 1.8. I had two weeks earlier bought a similar player for about 560K.

[Darr]

Well another season ends, time for stamina training to begin... I hope I'm one of the few able to pull the mythical 17 year old excellent the first week of next season... As much as I'd love to keep him and train him, I think with the minimum big being upped I'd have to get a taste of the new market...

[mundial]

How did you all do? I finished fourth, no better than last year, but my team (notably my midfield) got a lot younger and with a season or two of training winger or PM we may be ready to contend for the div title. Interestingly, I finished with the 2nd best defense in my division, but no top scorers. My central defender who sometimes fills in at IM was my leading scorer...

Unfortunately the division champ only managed a loss and a tie in the last two games, knocking him out of the auto-promote zone and giving him a quali he is probably going to lose, against a team who currently owns one of my former defensive prospects...

Got all that? Anyway, my division's not going to get any easier next year, with him probably still around and at least two newly-promoted teams...

Nick
Mundial F.C.
IV.62

[Mike_OC]

My team sucks!

Just finished up my 2nd full year and still finished up in 7th(next to last) place. I bought a really good young defensive Inner mid. and did a little better but not by much.

Is there anything I can do during the offseason?

[kopiteinkc]

I got relegated from IV to V. Finished 7th On goal difference. Lost the last game by the odd goal. If only ....

I spent quite a while training my young defenders and was able to sell a couple to sort out my finances.

Now I have my youth squad cooking at excellent and have switched to playmaking with a couple of 17 year olds in there. I am hoping to do well in V, but may want to keep training my youngsters and avoid promotion, we'll see what the competition offers.

[Footer Phooter]

Finished 5th in Div. iii. Have a qualifier to stay up. If I do stay up, I'm going to get killed next season.

[champmanager]

I finished a topsy-turvy season with a trophy in div 4 in England. Two seasons ago I won the league with 12 wins, 1 loss and 1 draw -- and lost the playoff. this year there were four teams in contention, all with an average rating of 29+ by the end, and I've got a very tough playoff to get to div 3.

[mundial]

I forgot to mention that in the last game of the season, I cracked the 30-star barrier for the first time ever. Baby steps, baby steps.

Nick
Mundial F.C.
IV.62

[Footer Phooter]

Well, I'm in div. iv once again. Hopefully I'll do better in the upcoming season.

[champmanager]

I lost my playoff in overtime, another season in div iv, and this time there will be at least four strong teams in the running, and I have an old squad without a lot of money to throw around. I could cry.

[Elwood]

I beat Cyclones of GM-George fame in the qualifier to stick around for at least one more year in ML!

Ended up being a blowout, but really was closer than the 5-1 score indicated. Also cracked the 50 star barrier yesterday for the first time :)

Only about 20 more weeks of scoring training and I can move on to something else. Been training scoring since October of 2001 (not like you can tell from my offense ratings, but I generally don't keep trainees much beyond formidable - sell them to fund midfield and defense), so I'm looking forward to changing formations and training type. I think this coming season will be the first time I don't sell my 2 top skilled scorers at the beginning (need to keep them, as they're here for the long-term).

Indy
US ML

[champmanager]

Originally posted by Elwood

Only about 20 more weeks of scoring training and I can move on to something else. Been training scoring since October of 2001 (not like you can tell from my offense ratings, but I generally don't keep trainees much beyond formidable - sell them to fund midfield and defense), so I'm looking forward to changing formations and training type. I think this coming season will be the first time I don't sell my 2 top skilled scorers at the beginning (need to keep them, as they're here for the long-term).

Indy
US ML

I train scoring too, but how do you decide when to sell someone off? If seems like the prices jump dramatically as they go beyond excellent (I've only got one formidable striker now, but shall soon have four I think). Should I sell all but two of the formidables when they become so and buy passable or solid youngsters to train?
Another question: I've also got two youngish (21-23) formidable playmakers who aren't great passers. Would in make sense to switch to passing, since I can have four midfielders and five strikers improve?