Mission accomplished: midfield retooled!
 

I know I've posted in some other threads about my midfield moves but thought I'd put 'em all together in one big thread.

It sure has been a busy season so far for the Dragon midfield. First, I had Jon Riser (26yo, WC pm/inad def/excellent exp) go down for a +5 injury at the very start of the season. At that point, I tried something I'd never tried before and bought a bad ass magical middie with crazy wages (see this thread) only to finally realize five weeks later that I couldn't really afford him. I then went on to sell him and buy this new guy:

This dude was going to replace Hubert Gortemaker (26yo, magnificent pm, inad pass & def, solid exp) the minute Riser would come back.

The moment Riser was ready to come back, I put Gortemaker on the market and I bought this fellow:

Canadian magical middie with not as crazy wages as the previous magical one. He became the top man in my midfield, allowing me to transfer list Patrik Kvarning (26yo, wc pm, no secondaries, excellent exp). Kvarning sold yesterday evening and I was able to buy to older fellow here:

This dude will be a Dragon forever and will be my coach and backup middie someday, maybe in 3 or 4 seasons, when my current coach's leadership has dropped from his passable state to weak, giving him time to at least make it to formidable experience, if not outstanding, making him a cheaper coach. One bad thing, he won't be available for this Sunday's match, as he is suspended. However, he will be available for my Round 8 cup match and that's the most important at this point in the season :)

This leaves me with these transfer moves for the weeks:

Date	Type	Players	To/From	Price	TSI then
2/23/2006	Bought	Paulo Hanies	from Fc Pilatus Dyna	5 526 000 C$	81 000
2/22/2006	Sold	Patrik Kvarning	to estrella roja d	5 752 000 C$	29 200
2/21/2006	Bought	Joachim Bellavance	from FC Slide	5 186 000 C$	193 790
2/19/2006	Sold	Hubert Gortemaker	to The Terrions Un	5 596 000 C$	23 940

Not bad huh?

Had I known I would be able to pull off the retooling of the midfield without going in the red (I have 40k U$ in the bank as of now), I would have waited to list Jon Riser, at least after this Sunday's game....

My wages will go up quite a bit though, mostly to the $450k U$ range, but the good prices I paid for the players I got will kind of cut into that. Following the sale of Jon Riser, I should be left with $2.5M or so and no other expenses to make, at least not until Jimi Hendrix goes on sale and I think about maybe changing my keeper :)
I've gone from a midfield of WC/WC/magnigicent to magical/ET/ET. Granted, my inital three dude had higher experience but I think I did pretty well :)

Watcha think of the whole move?

FM

Nice work, FM, very nice.

Looks like a great job to me FM! :D

And to top it off, he assisted me in finding another titanic to add to my collection as well.

Now if I could just get a new keeper trainee.

Dola,

I'm considering spending the 3 million or so I have to improve the team elsewhere and buy a cheap trainee to plug in for the time. I'd have to make do with my high formidable keeper atm, but he's in excellent form right now. I also expect him to pop today.

the prices are good... but the lack of secondaries(passing mainly) is gonna hurt some. 2 middies with passable passing would add 2 -3 levels of central attack(old ratings) over these guys.

But you did what you had to do with the money you had. Possession is the most important thing anyway and you'll have plenty of it with these guys.

Good Luck!

I'm not a huge fan of Hanies but he did come cheap. The Bellavance move, on the other hand, was absolutely inspired. I'm still trying to figure out how WC/WC/Mag was surviving in II in Canada when you would be treading water in IV in the US with that. Must be C-Ratings, kindof like C$ ;)

SI

Good show, Frogger. :D

I'm not too sure what kind of midfiels a IV team in USA can put in week in week out, but I could explain how I'm surviving in II, heck how I've survived everywhere since starting HT, with a couple of things: experience of the players and management of the team spirit...

And I'll throw in another one: high PM wingers...

These WC playmakers both had excellent experience and the magnificent was at solid, that helps a whole lot. Team spirit management with lots of PICs early on and carefully chosen alternance between normal and PIC in later stages of the season can make the difference between 4th place and 7th.

Finally, most of last season, I had Marcus Hansson, an outstanding pm/world class winger to help out and this season, I have a couple of brilliant pm wingers (now to outstanding and formidable winger) and deciding when to play one toward middle can also mean a lot between success and failure...

I know I would most probably not be in II in USA but I'd think I could certainly live and survive in III with the team I had prior to the midfield changes...

As for Hanies, yeah, he came in cheap and he'll stick around for a long time, eventually becoming a backup, but what a nice backup when, at 32-33, you're still supernatural (assuming he'll lose a level of pm by then) with formidable if not outstanding experience...

FM

Still hunting for that trainee. I'm dropping down a level more than I'd like to. I'm looking to keep some cash in the bank or to possibly buy another player to help out.

I'd have to say I like the way the Raiders are shaping up. I've added three nice upgrades at the loss of my super keeper, while having the cash to add a competitive keeper and possibly another upgrade as well.

I can't complain.

Dola, and I have a sweet new logo.

Good for you AE, good for you.

This last couple of weeks is when I've had the most fun with my team since at least couple of seasons. I'm looking back my transfer history and I've wheeled and dealed more players since mid-december than I've done in a long while, starting with Marcus Hansson going for a great 5.25M U$, then selling The Justice, a somewhat normal supernatural scorer for a pretty good 4.5M U$, then dabbling in the crazy world of magical players, wow. This has been a hectic ride lately.

Because of Hanies' suspension, I'll only see the full effect of the new midfield on Wednesday, but today could be interesting, even if I'll "only" start a midfield of magical/et/brilliant...

FM

Honestly,

I have to say the most fun I had with my team was in 2003. Limited internet meant all I could do was sit, scheme, and plan. That excel file of yours was printed and posted on my cork board.

oh, that's for sure, these first few seasons, wheeling and dealing players every couple of weeks, it was amazing. Even with full internet access, all I was thinking about was scheming and planning what my next move would be... :)

Now, I had sort of fell into the "buying a player per season" beat. To move three within a week has been a great deal of fun :)

FM

Added two more players before the deadline. I may not win tonight, but the Van Meter Bulldogs will be surprised to say the least.