Career Armstrong shooting for 1000 goals

[Real_Random]

This is going to be really close mate. Hopefully you can get there force him to play on and score goals. KIU

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10 hours ago, danovic78 said:

A great season there, its gonna be a tight finish. If he keeps his primary attacking then I think you will do it!

Thanks. Yeah, I'll park him in the box and he can just bang them in.  I was surprised that the decrease in pace didn't affect him more (although it did mean the counter-attacking no longer works well). His scoring rate was just as good as ever. If shooting and movement start to decrease, we could be in trouble, but so far, he's hanging on to them...

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12 hours ago, BatiGoal said:

Fantastic stuff! What a season again. I think I'll be miserable for weeks if you don't make it. You deserve it. Playing for months the career just becomes part of you. And it'll be so sweet re-reading your journey a few months later.

It's going great. Keep him playing as much as you can without forcing injuries and those attributes won't drop as quickly. YOU GOT THIS!

Thanks! I'm not sure I can contemplate post-Armstrong life. I have other careers lined up, but it's going to be a very strange feeling when this one's done...

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11 hours ago, BatiGoal said:

12 hours ago, veerus said:

Great recovery! Have you tried bumping up his motivation training to medium or intensive? I've never done it myself but it's supposed to keep the stats from going down a bit better which is all you need to do for a couple more years..

This is the time where details can make a huge difference. Sometimes even the difference between success and failure. I don't have much experience on these sort of training regimes either but definitely worth considering. Good advice!

I haven' tried that either. The one thing I do know is that if I stop the intensive fitness training, then his stats drop a further point, so I need to keep that up. I could bump up motivation, and drop attacking back a notch, but I'm nervous about that too. Or maybe I can get rid of tactical... I don't know!! But thanks for the advice.

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1 hour ago, Real_Random said:

This is going to be really close mate. Hopefully you can get there force him to play on and score goals. KIU

Thanks mate! Going down to the wire.... 

[Meow]

Great 1 KC attempt! KIU!

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2 hours ago, Meow said:

Great 1 KC attempt! KIU!

Thanks mate!

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World Cup

 

Where on earth are you from?

We're from Engerland

Where you come from

Do you put the kettle on?

Kick it

From Fat Les' Vindaloo

 

Can we end 64 years of hurt and win the World Cup for England? The English FA don't think so. And truthfully, neither do I, but we're going to give it a damn good try!

 

 

The Squad

 

I won't go through the squad, as it's 2030 and there aren't many names you'd know, apart from John Stones (36), Lewis Cook (33), Cameron Borthwick-Jackson (33) and of course Armstrong (33). Everyone else is generated... There's some good players, but few great ones. My Celtic squad is far better.

 

The media were surprised that I included Adam Armstrong:

 

I guess they have a point. He was only runner up in the World Player of the Year award this time round. He's clearly in decline. And anyone can score 71 goals a season in Scotland. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

 

Settling In

 

I have to say this World Cup is exceedingly poorly run. I'm not even sure which country it's in and no one seems to be able to tell me. Still, we've all arrived here and settled into our hotel. John Stones arrived with a damaged shoulder and won't be able to play for a month, but he's working out well as the team bus driver so not all is lost.

 

Anyway, we had a few good training matches and then headed into our first match with Chile. 

 

 

Group Match - Chile

 

Our opener was against Chile, a tricky team, but one we should beat. Some of the experts thought we should play safe and go for a draw, to make sure we didn't lose and have our World Cup be over. But that's not my style and we went with an attacking formation (4 3 2 1 attacking and direct). I wanted 3 points in the bank.

 

We dominated the match, but couldn't score. As we reached the closing stages, it looked like it was going to be a draw. I could see the papers' reaction already: under-performing England team, unable to win the games they need to, just like always... And then, in the third minute of stoppage time, Oliver Mason (substitute for Armstrong) popped up and scored the winner. 

 

Phew.... A large sigh of relief all-round. Not very convincing, but we had the 3 points and our tournament was off to a good start.

 

 

Group Match - Ivory Coast

 

On to the next match and Ivory Coast. Not a particularly strong team, but it's hard to predict how these sort of matches will go. Thankfully, there was no suspense here, as we ran out 5-0 winners, with a hat-trick to Armstrong. This is more like it!

 

The only downside was an injury to Lee Cook, which means the end of his tournament. Not the end of the earth, because while he's a good player, we do have other options in central midfield. However, we don't want too many more injuries.

 

And that means we're certainties to go through to the 2nd round. The FA will be happy. And I'll get to keep my dreams of glory intact for now.

 

 

Group Match - Iran

 

Our last group match and it's against Iran, who should be no match for us. We can't get too cocky however! Also, we want to finish top of the group so we might get an easier team in the next round.

 

Well, they parked the bus and made things difficult for us, but we got the win. The ball went in the net 4 times, but only the 4th (from Armstrong!) counted. Three disallowed goals! And they weren't playing the off side trap. I guess the linesman needs new glasses...

 

That leaves us top of the group with 3 wins. Only one was convincing, but when was the last time England won all it's group matches? I'll take it!

 

And as a reward for finishing top of the group, we get a nice easy game againt .... Spain? 

 

 

Second Round - Spain

 

Spain are still a pretty good team in 2030 and I'd rather have avoided them. The bookies have them clear favourites. And it's an interesting reunion for some of us. Here are the lineups:

 

On the left we have England, with Armstrong, Tanner, Boardman, Sessegnon and Matsumoto representing Celtic. On the right we have Spain, with Bravo, Morales and Paz representing Celtic. Whatever the result, there is going to be some banter in the change room when we go back for preseason. 

 

On to the match, and it's a mighty struggle. Possession equal. Number of shots very similar. The score being 1-1 at the end of normal time. Still locked together after a very tense first half of extra time. And then Kane Marsh scores and we hang on to our hats as Spain throw everything at us. Then just as the whistle is about to go, Marsh gets another one and the nation jumps up screaming! 

 

3-1 over Spain. The country will be talking about this game for some years to come I think and Marsh will never need to buy another drink.

 

And that brings us to... France...

 

 

Quarter Finals - France

 

Once again, a difficult match and the bookies have France as favourites. To top things off, both of my starting centre back are banned for too many yellow cards:

 

With John Stones already out injured, that means I'm playing two players who identify as fullbacks in the centre back positions. Still, if you want to be champions, you have to be able to cope with these problems and beat the big teams. We can do this, right?

 

Wrong!

 

We dominate the game, but could only score once to their twice, and just like that, our dreams are over and we're packing our bags to go back home. 

 

At least they've finally told us which country we're in. Artemio Franchi! So this is Italy...

 

 

Packing up

 

While we were packing, the country was busy coming to terms with the loss and deciding what they thought of our performance. The FA at least were happy.

 

As for me, I'd really started to think we could win thing, or at least get to the Final, so it burns. But I guess that's football and it's certainly not England's worst tournament performance. At least we wore the shirt with pride! And if it's any consolation, we lost to the eventual winners.

 

Looking at the bigger picture, England has moved back up to 9th position, from 28 when I took over and down into the low 40s at our worst. So things are generally positive for England.

 

As for Armstrong, he scored 6 goals in our 5 games. If we'd gone further in the tournament, he sure would have challenged for the golden boot.

 

Anyway, for now the England dream is over and it's back to Celtic to start our delayed pre-season...

[Meow]

@scratch99 You can check the host nation from the seeding page, well if you've still got a save from before the World Cup ended. Helps so much more with immersion.

[BatiGoal]

Very refreshing update. Love it. 

[Ashez]

Every goal at this point is vital, 6 is decent and you did enough to keep your job for more extra ones which is all that matters! KIU

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8 hours ago, Meow said:

@scratch99 You can check the host nation from the seeding page, well if you've still got a save from before the World Cup ended. Helps so much more with immersion.

Thanks for the tip. I just couldn't find that when I was looking. I'm sure it would have been mentioned in a news article before the World Cup but I didn't really focus on the World Cup until I got there. But then I really wanted to know where it was, for the immersion, as you say. Anyway I'll know for next time. Thanks!

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7 hours ago, BatiGoal said:

Very refreshing update. Love it. 

Bit of a different update. It was a nice little mini-break for me. I really switched focus away from Armstrong and onto the World Cup. As much as I love this career, I really enjoyed the change.  

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45 minutes ago, Ashez said:

Every goal at this point is vital, 6 is decent and you did enough to keep your job for more extra ones which is all that matters! KIU

Yeah, at this point I'll take 6 goals! But honestly, I would have taken England winning over the 6 goals. I got quite caught up in it!

Back to normal now though. ..

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Season 15 Update 

 

The last few seasons have been glorious, with plenty of goals as Armstrong powers towards 1000 goals. However, there is the ever present threats of injury, retirement, and fading skills, which mean we can't relax. It's getting tense!

 

 

Injuries & Skills

 

Well, the injury I had long feared struck in September, with Armstrong ruled out for 2 months:

 

By the time he started training again, he was in pretty bad shape:

 

He eventually worked his way back to a reasonable level, a step below his previous abilities:

 

From there, he lost a further point of Shooting and Movement over the rest of the season, to end the season looking like this:

 

Well I say the end of the season, but in our last game (the Scottish Cup Final), Armstrong was injured again:

 

We don't know the outcome of that one yet, but the media think it may be the end of his career. Of course I told them he'd be back and firing in no time, but I'll admit (to you, not to the press) that I have my doubts. We'll have to see how he comes back in the off season.

 

 

Transfers

 

Not much to report this year. We brought in a bunch of backup players and moved on the players they replaced. Last year I reported we brought in three main players, two of which (Sampaoli and de Oliveira) hadn't worked out. I moved these on as you'd expect, but I ended up sending the third player (Guilbert) back to Juventus for £10M more than I bought him from them for. Nice player, but just didn't force his way into the team.

 

 

Goals

 

Armstrong really struggled to get into his scoring rhythm this year. There was only 1 hat trick all year and he seem to miss a lot more than normal. He also seemed to be under more pressure as he took shots than in past years. I guess that's all part of losing your step. That said, he scored about a goal a game, which although not as good as most years, is pretty consistent with his last injury disrupted season.

 

I messed up the screenshots this year (I missed some), but here's his season:

 

He ended up with 39 goals in 40 games:

 

He's also up to 20 goals for England now (all under my management):

 

That takes him to 852 goals for Celtic in 15 seasons, plus the 20 for England, for a total of 872 goals:

 

A very disappointing season, but he's edging closer, with only 128 goals to go.

 

 

Results

 

Another good season:

 

Except for the Champions League! This time we were dumped out at the first knockout round, by Manchester City. We dominated, but couldn't win. We really need to rectify this next year as that's 2 years in a row we haven't made the final.

Spoiler

 

 

We won the league again, going 34-3-1 with 118 goals for and 9 against. We won the Scottish Cup Final 4-0 over Hearts and the Betfred Cup Final 1-0 over St Johnstone.

 

 

Awards

 

Armstrong didn't feature in the World Player of the Year award this year, but his teammate Jesus Morales was the winner:

 

Despite his injury, Armstrong was the Scottish Premiership Player of the Year award again and I was Manager of the Year again:

 

 

The Manager's Son

 

Side Reading:

Spoiler

In the off season, Simon Tibbling retired:

 

With all the criteria satisfied, the manager's son rocked up to the club:

 

This is what he looks like at the end of the season (note the international caps):

 

The staff don't rate him at all:

 

But he's done alright for himself, with those 14 caps for Australia in his first season, as well as 4 goals coming off the bench for Celtic.

 

 

The Future

 

Only 128 goals to go. If he can recapture the form of the last couple of seasons, he'll knock that off in two years. But at this stage I think it's more likely that we'll struggle from here on in. It will probably take at least 3 seasons and by that stage, he'll be struggling to play at this level. That's if he hasn't retired by then... 

 

Still we've come this far, so all we can do is push on!

Edited January 31, 2017 by scratch99

[Taff]

KIU dude, fight until Armstrong falls down dead then he would have given enough

[Mr.Manager]

You're so close now! Can't wait for the next update!

[BatiGoal]

Oh man this is really getting tense.

Do you still play him alone up front? If so I'd recommend putting 1 or 2 guys near him. If the game gets too physical he's bound to limp off injured before the end of the match. A guy his age shouldn't have the ball at his feet too long as opponent defenders will make sure he doesn't last long. Playing as a Poacher would generally be the lowest risk re injuries for Armstrong.

[danovic78]

This is gonna be close, he isn't looking great stats wise but you will just have to patch him up and send him out!

[veerus]

Ick. Tough season.  that England national job is keeping this thing alive. 

[Ashez]

I can't watch! I'm nervous just reading it! 

You loaded Scotland all? If his value drops in next few years you could attempt to drop down to a lower division but always risky. 

Get him tied to a longer ASAP! Only two years remaining could sway him into retirement! 

Please tell me you haven't updated yet?!?!?

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8 hours ago, Taff said:

KIU dude, fight until Armstrong falls down dead then he would have given enough

That's the general idea, but  I'm hoping it won't have to be that extreme!

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7 hours ago, Mr.Manager said:

You're so close now! Can't wait for the next update!

Thanks! On one hand 128 goals does seem like we're close, but at the same time, there are so many things that can turn that into a mountain. So we'll have to see!  My spirits are down, but we'll push until the end.

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7 hours ago, BatiGoal said:

Oh man this is really getting tense.

Do you still play him alone up front? If so I'd recommend putting 1 or 2 guys near him. If the game gets too physical he's bound to limp off injured before the end of the match. A guy his age shouldn't have the ball at his feet too long as opponent defenders will make sure he doesn't last long. Playing as a Poacher would generally be the lowest risk re injuries for Armstrong.

Thanks for the advice. Yeah, he's been alone up front this season. I thought about moving to a 3 strikers upfront with him in the middle to see how it goes (and may do that next season), but just as I started thinking that, he got into the groove of scoring some braces and I parked the idea.

I did experiment with short passing instead of direct, so the other players come in closer to him, before passing it to him. In some games that seemed to work well, but in others the direct passing seemed more effective. Hard to tell.

And yep, he's playing as a Poacher. He was always a poacher, but now he's more of an in the box poacher. He used to get a lot more long range goals and counter attack goals...

Edited January 31, 2017 by scratch99

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7 hours ago, danovic78 said:

This is gonna be close, he isn't looking great stats wise but you will just have to patch him up and send him out!

Yeah, I'll send him out even if he's looking like a school team player and hopefully he'll still get some goals. The manager's son (seems weird to say my son, as I have a son and it's not him!) is mostly brown (6 to 9) range and he still managed to get 4 goals in 17 games coming off the bench for 15 - 20 minutes each time, so Armstrong should still be able to score.

 

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6 hours ago, veerus said:

Ick. Tough season.  that England national job is keeping this thing alive. 

Yeah, it's only an extra 20 goals so far, but it could make the difference in the end. It was hard to get international goals this year as we mainly played good teams or semi decent teams that park the bus. We had a couple of easy fixtures coming up in June but he'll miss those due to the injury...

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4 hours ago, Ashez said:

I can't watch! I'm nervous just reading it! 

You loaded Scotland all? If his value drops in next few years you could attempt to drop down to a lower division but always risky. 

Get him tied to a longer ASAP! Only two years remaining could sway him into retirement! 

Please tell me you haven't updated yet?!?!?

Haha, you're nervous from reading it? I'm a total mess!

Yep, Scotland is loaded. Are you saying I can change team and buy him? Or are you saying I could take Celtic down? Interesting idea either way, but probably a last resort.

I just offered him a new contract. He wanted 3 years (a good sign as he only asked for 1 in the past), but he did want the Manager job release clause (denied!). 

Updated? To the latest version? I know retirements are tweaked, but I don't know if that will help or hurt the situation, so for the moment, I'm ignoring the update. I'll probably stick to the current version for this challenge and then update.

[Ashez]

I can imagine!

As in move and buy him but it's a big risk. 

That's a positive sign then 

Yeah I wouldn't touch the update until this is done, I think on the "old version" retirements might be a tad broken as in lasting too long so updating could screw you. 

[BatiGoal]

5 minutes ago, Ashez said:

I can imagine!

As in move and buy him but it's a big risk. 

That's a positive sign then 

Yeah I wouldn't touch the update until this is done, I think on the "old version" retirements might be a tad broken as in lasting too long so updating could screw you. 

I did the update and playing an extra season with Villalibre at the moment to get a few extra goals beyond the 1K

I'll report if I see significant changes on his retirement.

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1 hour ago, Ashez said:

I can imagine!

As in move and buy him but it's a big risk. 

That's a positive sign then 

Yeah I wouldn't touch the update until this is done, I think on the "old version" retirements might be a tad broken as in lasting too long so updating could screw you. 

Move and buy him: Interesting. Part of me would like to do that to see what happens, also for the fresh challenge. And he should be able to score well down lower in the leagues. But it would mean no money and no great team mates to help him out. I think the biggest thing stopping me from trying that is I really want to get him to 1K goals just for Celtic (not even counting the England goals). Hmm... I'll think about it. Thanks for the idea.

Update: Yeah, there's no way to know what changes they made from that one line in the change list, but my first thought was that I'd update and he'd retire instantly! No update for me... If it's broken right now, lets keep it that way!