SIGN_UP: FM 16 - The Return of Baker's Dozen

[jtiessen]

That was a good first season. Too bad they are all getting snapped up.

[podunkboy]

That was a good first season. Too bad they are all getting snapped up.

It's just the nature of sport - no 15-year-old with a cannon for an arm is going to keep playing for his hometown team if the Yankees come to town with a pro contract...unless he really hates the Yankees. (Pardon the baseball analogy, it's just one I'm more familiar with.) Word gets out, scouts show up, wave bye-bye to those 6 spectators in the stands.

[toonbalmy87]

It's just the nature of sport - no 15-year-old with a cannon for an arm is going to keep playing for his hometown team if the Yankees come to town with a pro contract...unless he really hates the Yankees. (Pardon the baseball analogy, it's just one I'm more familiar with.) Word gets out, scouts show up, wave bye-bye to those 6 spectators in the stands.

and say hello to $1 million contract

[podunkboy]

and say hello to $1 million contract

yeah, well you might be spending another season at Stirling U, your current rating's still low (although it'll probably tick up after half the dozen leave!)

[toonbalmy87]

yeah, well you might be spending another season at Stirling U, your current rating's still low (although it'll probably tick up after half the dozen leave!)

Stirling till i die

[vikeologist]

T-Shan has been taught by Chinese mother to be humble and not draw attention to himself, value loyalty above all else.

Unless he's one of the players who's been sold and is now earning, in which case Scottish father has taught to value fast cars above all else so that he can quickly escape Chinese wife / mother.

[podunkboy]

So, winning the league just gets us into a promotion playoff against the Highland League winner...

first leg was okay...

2nd leg much better.

then we have to play the relegation candidate from league two:

no problems there...

and then we picked up another piece of silverware for the cabinet.

[grianaig]

Fantastic Uni....

Can't wait to get stuck into these fourth division teams

[jtiessen]

We have a few scoring machines on our team, Shanguang and Protsiuk are constantly lighting it up. Looks like Pryde took the Player of the Season from my best guess.

Can definitely see why some are getting a look from other teams.

[podunkboy]

Lowland League Player of the year:

and 4 players make the League Team of the Year.

(I think personally we deserved more...)

Stirling U end of season team awards (and coincidentally, the tactic I played most of the season)

and our silverware.

the injuries we had to deal with:

BTW, here was Bianco's starting player screen:

[podunkboy]

So, we got promoted, but remain firmly amateur. The board won't spend a dollar to relay the "terrible" pitch, won't send me on a coaching course, will not allow me to spend any money derived from player sales (we have no transfer budget, so all signings have to be entirely free). And then all the Premier and Championship teams in Scotland came in to poach off all the players (including any decent bench players I signed to support the "dozen".) And yet, the board expects direct promotion from League 2 this year.

So, the players who left for green pastures:

Ace Robinson: Inverness CT - free transfer

Bruce McHugh: St Mirren

Justin Alexanderson: Hearts

Dougie Smith: Motherwell

Walter White: Thun (Switzerland)

Yuriy Protsiuk: Celtic (the rich, they just get richer...)

Tony Shanguang: Aberdeen

Stuart Bunn: Preston

Ariel Pride: Kilmarnock

and for that, each team has pledged 15% of next sale (which I'm hoping will be a fairly significant amount AFTER the team turns pro).

still another 2 months in the transfer window, so who knows if anyone will be left?

[toonbalmy87]

Wahooo Balmont till singing stirling till i die

[podunkboy]

this just in: Arturo Bianco has signed with West Brom, at least on January 1, 2017.

[jtiessen]

Inverness eh? Off to the north coast we go

[Shevchenko]

Well I'll be... If there was a choice, I'd go for Rangers, not Celtic

[Thebaker]

Preston - that doesn't seem a good move

[Lenzar]

St. Mirren. Time to shuffle between the also-rans, I guess.

[grianaig]

Oh well still at the Uni just now, happy to continue getting game time in the first team

[mayihavecookie]

First one to leave the country, but Thun?

Could you maybe post some screenshots of the player profiles?

[crazedbaron]

Motherwell eh? I'm not sure how I feel about that

[SoSolidSnake]

So Bianco makes the team of the season, with pretty decent stats, and now he's on his way to West Brom! Good start! And congrats to the Bakers Dozen of course

[podunkboy]

First one to leave the country, but Thun?

Could you maybe post some screenshots of the player profiles?

yes, I was waiting until the transfer period ended so everyone's moved to whatever club stole them. Hopefully, with a better quality of competition and better training facilities, their stats will really start taking off.

I did try to go in with loan offers on some of the players who moved, and their clubs won't even listen to a loan offer because of their "first team commitments". So maybe I can loan in some veterans who have been pushed out of a starting spot by a 16-year-old amateur.

I asked the board if they could find us a senior affiliate where we could share training facilities (because they shot down a "senior affiliate that might loan us some players" - they don't want to be dependent on loans, but they won't spend any money on training facilities or youth recruitment), and they came back and said that they couldn't find a suitable training affiliate...really? Stirling U shares grounds with Stirling Albion, how about them?

So, all our 1/2 gold-star players are being poached by teams below us, anyone over 2 stars is being poached from teams above us, and I've lost a Chief Scout and HoYD to better squads. I had to go sign a 33-year-old striker with decent staff attributes to become our new Chief Scout.

Scottish amateur football is hard...

[podunkboy]

Inverness eh? Off to the north coast we go

At least they have those wonderful sunny beaches...

[jtiessen]

Hahah... well no worries about skipping training to go to the beach then.

[podunkboy]

After the end of the summer transfer period of 2016, the only members of the dozen left at Stirling U are: Balmont, Jackson and Watanabe.

Hey, Protsiuk is playing in Champion's League (yeah, it's U-20's, but it IS against Bayern Munich).

and then, he follows with a hat trick against Sevilla U20's...

Ace Robinson's doing well at Inverness CT, setting a "yougest goalscorer" record.

And now, for some midseason stats screens.

(Messed up and screen-capped the wrong profile screen for Watanabe, will have to grab another one...)

[podunkboy]

Overall, the kids are getting some good spot playing time at their new clubs, and most have them have been called up for U18 or U21 internationals...and it should surprise no one that they're no longer Scotland's little secrets...THE Premier League has taken notice...

[podunkboy]

Not leaving much in the Stirling U cupboard.

Celtic's so loaded they can just loan Protsiuk out to another Premier team.

Despite the losses in players, still manage to take the league:

How do you keep the boys down on the farm after they've seen the bright lights of...Liverpool?

At least Bianco will have company in the EPL, as West Brom's promoted.

Where...the boys are...

These sell-on fees would be great if: 1) Stirling U would use this money to go semi-pro or pro or 2) actually upgrade their facilities (which they are refusing to do...)

Doesn't matter how much money you have if you can only offer amateur contracts, and any player worth anything immediately is "free transferred' away.

[podunkboy]

So, yeah, after a blow-up with the board for their refusal to spend any money (fixing the pitch, training facilities, youth facilities, etc.), Baker took the first lifeline offered.

I got them back-to-back promotions, more than a million dollars (and counting) in sell-on fees, and they wouldn't spend a dollar to improve the club, pay a salary, or allow Baker to take a coaching course. So, I walked. And I took Watanabe with me:

I tried to take Jackson to Forfar, but Aberdeen gave him a better offer:

Alexanderson's left Scotland...

And so has Bunn...

The first post-departure match-up with old Stirling U:

Balmont's not developing too quickly...bad pegs.

Celtic wants Pryde and Protsiuk.

[podunkboy]

Post Summer transfer-window locations and values;

and their late-summer production.

[toonbalmy87]

great out injured and career is probably now screwed

[Jakarooney]

Damn. Sorry to have missed out on signing up. Looks like a fun one. Nonetheless i'll be following with intent. Good job!!

[Lenzar]

Hmm. Looks like Brucie is the new Alan Hansen..

[podunkboy]

Sorry about the delays - I've been actively playing this save (and 3-4 others), just haven't had time to upload the pics. So, I'll be working on that for the next few days, trying to get us closer to game time.

Some contract extensions...

at midseason, Jan 2018, still not much first-team experience for most of the Dozen.

Still shepherding Watanabe at Forfar, getting some back-up action.

a little in-league transfer.

2018 end-of-season club stats

[podunkboy]

And hey, how about some Spring 2018 player profiles:

Watanabe

Protsiuk

Jackson

Balmont

Wilson

Pryde

Shanguang

Smith

White

Alexanderson

Bianco

Robinson

McHugh

Bunn

[Lenzar]

Looks like a good little career for McHugh. How are Liverpool doing in the league?

[podunkboy]

Looks like a good little career for McHugh. How are Liverpool doing in the league?

6th, 6th, 5th, 6th - the top 3 have rotated between Arsenal, Chelsea, Utd and City. In the SPL, it's just been Celtic and the wannabes, but with Baker leading Forfar into the league, Celtic's reign is about to end...we hope.

[podunkboy]

Nobody's asked, but I have a slew of screen pics for about 2 years of play in the save. It's just been a hassle to cut/paste all the weblinks and sort through all the Steam pic content. But I'm going to work on it for the next few days, as I'm off for the holiday weekend.

[vikeologist]

Certainly appreciate any updates you do, though I appreciate how much work links are. Not sure T-Shan is going to live up to my sino-scot dreams anyway.

[podunkboy]

So, very long time, no posting. Would it help if I told you've I've been actively advancing the save, and I was capturing periodic screenshots, but...well...I got lazy about the whole copy/pasting the links from Steam because...I wanted to keep playing.

The game is now in 2032. Manager Scott Baker, after leaving Stirling University (after all his players split and the board was unwilling/unable to go professional) moved on to Forfar and moved them up to the Scottish Premiership, becoming a continental

power (although they never broke through to win the Champions). And so, when the Chelsea job opened up in February 2029, he took

the reins with the Blues in 11th place, and managed to get them up to 8th, qualifying for the Euro Cup. The following season, Chelsea was Champion of the Premier League, where they have remained.

The Dozen have crossed paths with Baker since they left: Andrew Jackson and Kazushi Watanabe played at Forfar to limited success, and McHugh, White and Alexanderson are all rotational defenders at Chelsea. I had hoped to manager them for Scotland, but the job's been occupied up until recently, and when it did open, they preferred an Italian over the greated manager Scotland has ever know...apparently.

The screen shot updates are all interesting, but if there's been one problem with the save, it's that the players have been adequate players for their nations and clubs, but none of them have really been "superstars". Walter White has taken the grand tour of Europe (I had to do two screen shots just to show all his career moves), Protsiuk has been a lethal scorer when he's on his game, but many updates talk about how he's gone 8-10 games without scoring.

So, what I decided to do is upload these "current" screenshots where I'm currently managing, and maybe I'll post some updates as they wind down their careers. I attached the link to my Steam screenshots for FM16 if you want to click through the history of the save. And if someone wants it, I can upload the start file to Steam if you want to create your own history.

Again, sorry about the delays, but I got so into Scott Baker's career that I let his Dozen kind of fall by the wayside and observed them second-hand. They seemed to got along okay without me.

http://steamcommunity.com/id/podunkboy/screenshots/?appid=0&sort=newestfirst&browsefilter=myfiles&view=imagewall

[podunkboy]

Justin Alexanderson:

Bruce McHugh

[podunkboy]

Walter White:

Alistair Wilson:

Kazushi Watanabe:

[podunkboy]

Dougie Smith:

Tony Shanguang:

[podunkboy]

Ace Robinson:

Ariel Pryde:

[podunkboy]

Yuriy Protsiuk:

Andrew Jackson:

[podunkboy]

Stuart Bunn:

Arturo Bianco:

[podunkboy]

Arron Balmont:

Current Ability/values of the dozen NOT at Chelsea

Current Ability/values of those at Chelsea

[Lenzar]

143 caps for Scotland. McHugh's done well there. :o