How am I Ever Gonna Make It???

[AKnightofNi]

I think I may have gotton the worst starting-off team in hattrick history. I sold my highest player already. His value was 180k, but I only got 60+k cuz of age and the fact he had 4 passables, not one really good skill.

My team now has one player over 50k (yes, I said 50k) value and he's a 29 year old inadequate keeper.

Only 5 players on the whole team with a passable rating in one of the 3 main areas (def, play, score) and 36k is the highest value any of them are worth.

Poor youth squad (yes I'm at 20k invest/week, but that is no help for quite a time from what I read).

After 1.5 weeks, I have only 100k left in the bank, since I upgraded the stadium as I was told I should.

"A inadequate coach who is fond of attacking" is the best I got after several weak or poor efforts. I quit there to save the cash.

I am training general cuz my players were in such bad form, so I don't have any trainees to pop on the horizon, and the players all suck anyway.

At present, on home game weeks, I may BARELY break even, away weeks I am screwed.

Do I use the 300k available to get better, knowing when in debt I have absolutely nothing to sell to get any cash?
Do I fold and try for a better team?
Do I just cruise on down to Div. VI next season since when I got the team I was 12 points behind the top of my series anyway?
Do I just suck now and hope I get good youth pulls next season and pray?

How did those of you with this bad a start-up manage-- and how did you deal with the frustration of wanting to start over, cuz another start-up team could NEVER be this bad?

Thanks for your help.

[daedalus]

I would stick with it, do your best and see what you can do. At worst, you start over with a lot more knowledge and understanding of what to do at the start.

[ausonny]

You're probably not going to win in the short term, so I would forget about training General and pick a position to train. I would go with the youngest part of your team, i.e. if your defense is younger than your midfield train defense.

I would only pull keepers for a while, you'll make more money. Eventually you'll be getting sellable players more often than not, and then you'll have a shot at getting out of debt and being able to buy to improve your team.

If you find a bargain, I mean a real bargain, then buy, else I wouldn't use what you have left. Keeping the money lengthens the amount of time you have until you hit the 500k barrier.

Like you I only had 1, maybe 2 players over 50k, and I made it, although I may have had a little more starting talent than you. If I remember correctly I started with 2 solids on the team.

Stick with it, if you make it out you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you earned everything you got.

[bbor]

4-5-1....nuff said

[Havok]

i feel your pain. my starting team was pretty bad to.

[Vince]

Stamina. If you're just starting, and it sounds like your team sucks anyways (sorry), form training isn't going to make that much of a difference. Stamina, however, will. I prefereably do not start anyone with less than passable stamina. While you're training Stamina, your form will suffer a little, but you can then train general for a week or two to help that out more.

[AKnightofNi]

I appreciate all the responses so far.

[FrogMan]

AKnightofNi, most everybody had a sucky team when we started. Heck, I still have a sucky team right now!

You've only been playing the game for what, 2 weeks, do not get desperate. Keep on learning about the game, ask questions, analyze your team... It'll get better. It doesn't take so long before you'll see your ratings get better.

My advice is to let go of the general training. I'm from the school of thought that training general is pretty much useless for the long term. May be fine to get your form high for only one game, but that form will eventually get down to a more normal level.

Stamina is way underrated.

Pick one skill to train and stick to it. Sure you might think you don't have a lpayer close to popping, but remember that skill levels are not integer numbers. An inadequate playmaker that you just bought can anything from a 5.1 (just popped from weak) to a 5.9 (very, very close to passable). I train playmaking and have a bunch of 17-18-19 year olds. It started with 4 weeks of nobody going up, then I saw one pop to passable, then another two weeks after that. I also trained stamina two weeks in a row (not really recommended because of the form hit) and it shows, as most of my inner mids are solid or better in stamina.

In one word my friend: perseverance... Hattrick isn't one of those games where you'll be able to dominate overnight.

Best of luck!

FM