Coach Advice

[DukeRulesMAB]

OK, here's my situation.

My solid/poor coach of the last two seasons is down to solid/wretched. I'm going to be scratching and clawing to get a top 6 slot this year, as the series looks very, very hard. I fear wretched leadership will completely doom me. Moreover, my coach candidate has not popped to solid experience yet (he could at almost any time). Using a passable coach is not an option.

My choices as I see them:

- Wait for my coach candidate to pop to solid. I bought him at passable experience. I don't know how long he had been there. Since I bought him, he's played in 20 league/qual/cup games and 8 friendlies.

- Buy a Solid/Poor coach for the year. $268,700

- Buy a Solid/Weak coach for the year. $617,100


I have enough money to afford all these options, though the more expensive option would require me to put off an acquisition. I've more or less eliminated the first option: I simply cannot imagine surviving this year with a wretched leadership coach if it came to that. But I could be talked out of it.

Is the upgrade to Poor leadership worth 268K? To weak worth 617K? Either would be a one year option. I have the utmost confidence that one of my coach candidates (I picked up a second when the first was slow moving; he's also at passable experience) will pop by the end of the season, and I would convert next season about this time.

I'm really torn. So you guys tell me what to do, and I'll blame it on you if it goes south. ;)

[finkenst]

i'm watching this thread as i have a passable/wretched at the moment and this is wholly unsatisfactory....

i also have a coach candidate i am waiting to pop...

[sterlingice]

Unless you really need the team spirit, just save your cash for another season or midseason. You're still getting the same level of training and that's really the most important thing the coach can affect. You'll never make back the money on a $600K coach in terms of wins/losses with just weak leadership unless he's what puts you over the top to win your series. Anything below inadequate really doesn't affect your team spirit much at all. Just sit on your coach another season unless you really need him.

SI

[Havok]

I know your team pretty well Duke from your dynasty. Also, Team Spirit is EXTREMELY important. Trust me i know from experiance. But honestly the difference between a solid/poor coach and a solid/wretch coach is almost nothing. And i don't think you should dump 650k into a soild/weak coach. Just not worth it IMO.

If i were you, now that you have some money. Your midfield needs a SERIOUS upgrade. Im actually very surprised you've done as well as you have with your current cast of middies. In IV.41 you'd finish 8th place with those middies (I'm not bragging and not trying to be offensive Duke, just being honest). So my advice to you would be to take every cent you have now and upgrade your midfield. Buy 2 outstandings, or 1 brilliant with nice secondaries, or 1 magnifcent with no secondaries, or whatever. Just upgrade it.

Then get your coach when your one guy bumps in experiance. Thats what i would do anyway.....

[DukeRulesMAB]

Well, unfortunately, I can't plow *that* much into my midfield because

1) I have one of the smaller stadiums among serious DIV teams, and that is going to be remedied this offseason

2) I have to get a trainee. Already have my eye on one, in fact. He won't be cheap. :)

I am, however, considering a midfield upgrade if I don't do the coach thing (and if there really isn't that much difference between wretched and weak, then I'm not gonna bother). Probably just one outstanding with secondaries (defense) for now.

[daedalus]

What sterling said, Duke. Unless you intend to gamble and PIC through (thereby making Team Spirit level-retention worthwhile), you shouldn't really be hurt by a low leadership coach as a winger trainer (if I remember right). In any case, as sterling said, leadership below Inadequate won't hold your Team Spirit long enough for PIC'ing through to be a viable alternative.

I think your situation may be slightly different as a Playmaking trainer, Tim. You're reliant on midfield as your primary weapon (which, in turns, is reliant on Team Spirit for effectiveness) and I don't know if having a Wretched leadership coach will drop your team below "normal" or not (I never remember which of the 'S' it is). In your situation, I may be tempted to grab the Weak leadership coach with some of the money you made off that trainee. (Unless you want to channel the spirit of Kenny Rogers and gamble that the coach-trainee will pop soon enough that the Poor leadership coach may do.)

As an aside, as random as experience pops are, if you are ever waiting for a high quality coach-trainee to pop (mmmm, Passable leadership), I would serious advise hedging your bet by buying a cheap Solid experience - Inadequate (or even Weak) leadership player to hold you over while waiting (of course, in this you would still have to wait another 16 weeks before they will be eligible).

[DataKing]

The only thing I would add to this is that you should bear in mind that it isn't free to make an existing player on your team into a coach. I have a solid experience/passable leadership player on my squad who will soon be named my new coach, and it's going to cost me $750,000 to convince him to take over the reins. Just something to keep in mind.

[DukeRulesMAB]

daed - I like to think that between my two Passable/Passable candidates, one will pop by the end of the year. I really think the main one will, as it will be nearly 2.5 seasons since I bought him by the end of the season.

DK - Yeah, I know, and I plan to keep enough in reserve to take care of that.

Thanks for the advice guys!

[daedalus]

Duke . . . One of the reason I suggest intermediate coaching trainees (Solid/Inadequate's) is that, even when the primary coach-trainees (Passable leadership) pops, having them continue to gather experience doesn't hurt.

[finkenst]

alright...

so in my case with a passable/wretched coach and a passable/solid candidate?? I'm probably going to get crushed in league play and intend to PIC as much as possible and stay in the cup as long as possible... But with wretched leadership it's useless to PIC because the gain just doesn't stick...

any advice for me?

[daedalus]

My personal opinion . . .

Be patient with the Coach-Trainee. Convert no coach before his time. Or something like that.

If you expect to be thrashed in league anyway, then PIC league and normal cup until you're out of cup. Then normal league through and hope he pops soon. On the other hand, I would not convert until end of season since that starts his "Clock".

One possible alternative would be to buy a temporary external coach. Either a Solid/Weak or a Solid/Poor and hope that they hold a decent enough Team Spirit that you can PIC league and keep the TS until Cup (and, obviously, hope Cup run is worthwhile monetarily, which it ought to be since you're likely to have mostly home games). You'll probably need the Solid/Weak for that, though. But remember too that the Solid/Weak will buy you more time than the Solid/Poor before you'll have to convert your Coach-Trainee, which means more time for him to gather experience which translate to lower conversion cost.

[finkenst]

My personal opinion . . .

Be patient with the Coach-Trainee. Convert no coach before his time. Or something like that.

If you expect to be thrashed in league anyway, then PIC league and normal cup until you're out of cup. Then normal league through and hope he pops soon. On the other hand, I would not convert until end of season since that starts his "Clock".

One possible alternative would be to buy a temporary external coach. Either a Solid/Weak or a Solid/Poor and hope that they hold a decent enough Team Spirit that you can PIC league and keep the TS until Cup (and, obviously, hope Cup run is worthwhile monetarily, which it ought to be since you're likely to have mostly home games). You'll probably need the Solid/Weak for that, though. But remember too that the Solid/Weak will buy you more time than the Solid/Poor before you'll have to convert your Coach-Trainee, which means more time for him to gather experience which translate to lower conversion cost.
and a solid/weak will last a long time if i get relegated back to V and my team will be that much stronger next season...

617k v. 268k.

It almost has to be worth it to go with the higher leadership guy just in training terms and will give the coach-trainee another 1-2 seasons to matriculate... i'm liking this idea...

[NAIWF]

I'm in the same boat as finkenst, and just splurged for the solid/weak myself since solid/wretched was just awful for TS purposes at the end of the year. I got lucky that my qually was a derby and I wasn't penalized for being the road team. Had that team been in a different region, I most likely would have lost.

As daed said an extra season or two before you NEED to convert your coach prospect will be worth it in the long run, and at this point 617k wasn't going to buy me a significantly better player, and I don't need to upgrade my stadium, so this seemed to be the best bet as a PM trainer. If my midfield didn't depend so much on TS, I wouldn't have done it, but there was no way for me to compete in my new series playing normal every week.

[Desnudo]

alright...

so in my case with a passable/wretched coach and a passable/solid candidate?? I'm probably going to get crushed in league play and intend to PIC as much as possible and stay in the cup as long as possible... But with wretched leadership it's useless to PIC because the gain just doesn't stick...

any advice for me?

I would absolutely hang on to the passable/solid guy until he's at least solid/solid. Everytime you looked at your passable coach you'd wonder why you didn't wait until he was solid.

If you really think you're going to get crushed, TS won't matter one way or the other and a few cup victories aren't worth the long term health of your team.

[cheetum]

WAIT IT OUT!

your passable/solid guy is from USA and also sympathetic agreeability. he is a perfect U20, Nat team coach prospect! play him in cup matches so his experience goes up faster. before you do make him a coach be sure you contact our nat team trainers (Onionpatch and targetpractice6) and see if they would like to use him. They probably want an offensive coach but they will let you know. This is a great way to show your support for USA.

[finkenst]

WAIT IT OUT!

your passable/solid guy is from USA and also sympathetic agreeability. he is a perfect U20, Nat team coach prospect! play him in cup matches so his experience goes up faster. before you do make him a coach be sure you contact our nat team trainers (Onionpatch and targetpractice6) and see if they would like to use him. They probably want an offensive coach but they will let you know. This is a great way to show your support for USA.
isn't this true in another 1-x seasons? :)

[Mr. Wednesday]

The agreeability is irrelevant to the national teams, and I think the coaching skill is too (TP can correct me on that if I'm wrong). The thing they're after is leadership and coaching style.