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Age is a terrible thing


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Decided to write this thread to see if any of you guys had any loyal servants for your club that you never wanted to see retire or leave.

As you can see below Batesy who I signed at the age of 17/18 in 2013 has finally retired at the age of 39 in 2035 and has been a great player, but I can't say I blame him... Five years of mediocre finishes in League One is bound to annoy anyone.

<a  href=http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/5729/11aidanbates4.png' alt='11aidanbates4.png'>

Uploaded with ImageShack.us[/img]

Any similar stories?

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(FM08)

In my Triestina team, once a regen goalkeeper came through my academy with the rather apt name "Alessandro Italia", who would later on indeed become a legend for the Azzurri. From the moment the message appeared on my screen about the new intake it was obvious he was a very special talent.

Goalkeepers do peak late and therefore it's important that they get plenty of games as a youngster. What made it slightly harder and remarkable for Italia was that there was another goalkeeper in the same intake, Salvatore Amoroso, who was then better (but Italia had more promise) - and both ended up fighting for the odd Cup game in the first team. Both goalkeepers ended up becoming outstanding players, though.

6 months after turning 18, Italia was looking likely to stay on in the Primavera (Under-20s) with Amoroso going out on loan probably to a Serie C1 side, or Serie B if he was lucky (Amoroso's development had been remarkable). Yet Villarreal, relegation cannon fodder in La Liga and penniless, bizarrely enough came in with a loan offer for Italia offering a first-team place. They had one goalkeeper in the team, an 36-year-old Germán Lux, whom at the time looked slightly better than Italia but with his age was likely to drop lots of attribute points in the near future. So I took a gamble and negotiated a recall clause into the contract, and Villarreal eagerly accepted.

His Villarreal career started off slightly frustrating as Lux continued holding the role between the posts. But after a bit of patience Italia made his first start (mixed, I remember it being a rating of 6 and he wasn't great). But slowly he got into the rhythm and astonishingly began single-handedly winning points for Villarreal. He was the ultimate definition of a superkeeper, literally - pulling off save after save as the dreadful Villarreal defence opened up quicker than Theo Walcott running down the flank and crossing into Row Z. There were absolutely hilarious games where the opposition would hit Villarreal for 20+ shots but Villarreal would go down the other end and win the game with an undeserved goal as Italia simply refused to be beaten. He picked up one rating of 5 that entire season, but averaged a very respectable 6.89 for a side predicted to finish 20th - and Villarreal indeed escaped relegation and did so quite comfortably.

The next season a lot of teams were after him - on loan and for transfer. Obviously I threw away all the transfer offers and looked at the loan ones - and Villarreal were on the list again. No-brainer really, Villarreal were still skint, still expected to finish last, still rubbish and still had Lux as their only self-owned goalkeeper. And once again Italia pulled off another relegation escape, averaging 6.97 and landing himself a spot on Villarreal's favoured personnel list.

He then joined Roma on loan (oddly enough Villarreal didn't bother making a loan bid - and they got relegated that season. Hm...) and made his debut for Italy too, at the tender age of 19 years and 259 days. His loan at Roma was successful but unfortunately didn't make the 2020 European Championship squad.

He then went on loan to Genoa - I was considering whether to finally blood Italia or give my first-choice goalkeeper one more year and then sell him for less in exchange for better results, but decided Italia needed guaranteed first-team football. Sod's Law then dealt me a stupid hand with Genoa pushing me all the way to the title with Italia right behind it. Genoa finished second and I finished champions. By then Italia seemed to have finally brushed away all competition in the Italy team and was now first-choice.

He then joined my first-team and was outstanding for his entire career. Best goalkeeper I've ever had. His attitude was excellent too and he's tutored many goalkeepers who have gone on to have solid careers (off the top of my head: The current Italy number one, the current Ireland number one, the current Montenegro number one, two German number ones and an English number one). Even at 38 he was doing a good job between the posts although his reflexes were shot to pieces and was oddly enough letting in goals, a real rarity in his career.

At around 34/35, he had smashed Buffon's caps and age record (150 caps, 35 years or something) and won countless club trophies with Triestina. At that age he had also monopolised the entire Italy caps list for goalkeepers - he was one of four goalkeepers playing at the time who had at least a single cap, and two of those had been because Italia was injured!

He won 2 European Championship medals, having been a part of the 2024, 2028, 2032 and 2036 squads (tied with Matthäus, Schmichael, Winter, Thuram, van der Sar and Del Piero) and 2 World Cup medals, having been a part of the 2022, 2026, 2030, 2034 and 2038 squads (tied with Matthäus and Carbajal, although Italia didn't make an appearance in 2038). He also won a Confederations Cup medal but sadly couldn't add the Olympic Games to his cabinet. He also leads Italy's all-time capped players list with a whopping 166 - not the highest in the world, but certainly amongst the best for a top footballing nation like Italy - and is the oldest player to have ever played for Italy at 35 years 281 days, even more impressive due to the fact that FM2008 suffers from players decaying too quickly early.

Italia amassed 718 league appearances in his whole career which was a staggering total. I've forgotten exact numbers but I believe he has just under 1,000 appearances for all clubs (:() of which around 750+ were for Triestina, 572 of those league appearances.

Kind of sad to see him go because every goalkeeper I sign now will be judged against him and I'm not used to seeing my current goalkeeper coming out for silly balls or not making as many reflex saves - I need to acclimatise again!

He's now a manager and apparently a rubbish one - largely thanks to him, Newcastle, predicted to finish 13th, have been relegated in 18th - and is currently on the lookout for a new job. Newcastle are £20m in debt according to FMRTE - this sounds oddly like a certain scenario last season in real life!

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Decided to write this thread to see if any of you guys had any loyal servants for your club that you never wanted to see retire or leave.

As you can see below Batesy who I signed at the age of 17/18 in 2013 has finally retired at the age of 39 in 2035 and has been a great player, but I can't say I blame him... Five years of mediocre finishes in League One is bound to annoy anyone.

<a  href=http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/5729/11aidanbates4.png' alt='11aidanbates4.png'>

Uploaded with ImageShack.us[/img]

Any similar stories?

I know this is off topic but the tool in the right hand corner is this a add on or part of the game? I have seen it in a few Screenshots on the board but cannot find it

Can someone throw a light on this for me :-)

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I can throw light on it for you. I shall now preceed to tell you. If you click on FM, then preferences, you can click on turn on or off advisor. That is what the tool is, and now I have given you the necessary information for you to implement this tool if that is what you so desire.

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I can throw light on it for you. I shall now preceed to tell you. If you click on FM, then preferences, you can click on turn on or off advisor. That is what the tool is, and now I have given you the necessary information for you to implement this tool if that is what you so desire.

Speaking in poetry?

Anyway, those look like two very interesting careers... well done to the Southport manager for sticking with them for over 30 years, and to see them still in League 1 shows that the manager is fantastically dedicated. That's an amazing feat!

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Speaking in poetry?

Anyway, those look like two very interesting careers... well done to the Southport manager for sticking with them for over 30 years, and to see them still in League 1 shows that the manager is fantastically dedicated. That's an amazing feat!

Or that the manager sucks at FM :D

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