Bob and Jim FC, Part 1
By Jim James
We start off with the creation of the club. Bob and Jim FC, and we put them in the 3.Liga for a change. We get Bob Roberts and yours truly, as I created them and wanted them to be the forefront of this rebuild. We sign striker Dennis Peters as a homegrown talent, and immediately start training and playing him as a CB as that’s his actual best position somehow.
Our first game was in the pre season tourney against RKC Waalwijk. After a promising start Schneider scored off my assist to make it 1-0. Van der Venne hit the bar in the 20th minute and a rebound was gobbled up by Peters. Then in the 27th, Roberts had the ball at the edge of the area, passed to me, I turned, shot, and scored. 2-0 us now. In the 43rd, Van de Venne’s header went over the bar, he has been by far their best player. The second half kept the goals coming. Kramer got them back in it in the 51st minute, but 2 goals and an assist by me made sure we smashed Waalwijk 5-1.
We tried loaning in Miguel from Real Madrid, but thanks to EA’s broken loan mechanics, he declined. We then go for Karamoko Dembele from Celtic as our RW is our worst position. We do an 800,000 Euro deal, but couldn’t get across the line on wages, so we go to the next game, vs SC Cambuur, without any new transfers.
A win here would pretty much guarantee progressing to the knockout stage. However early on Sambissa hit the bar, but it was responded 7 minutes later by a screamer from Bob. Kallon put the ball in the back of the net on 41 minutes, but our lead was safe as it was disallowed. Surely we kept the lead going into halftime? Nope, as in stoppage time Sambissa made up for his effort off the bar earlier, and it was all square. The second half was quite the show. Schroeder put us up 2-1, Peters and Zimmerman #26 made crucial tackles to keep our lead in check, I scored to make it 3-1. However, Uldrikis, who had come on 3 minutes earlier, found a way through with 8 minutes left. Entering stoppage time, Doodeman’s effort was saved critically by Graf, and Cambuur had 2 corners at the end of the game, neither did anything though. We won 3-2 and secured a place in the semi finals with 1 game left.
We have 2 transfers in the works, but still nothing going into the match vs Crawley Town. We’ve done the hard part. Just win and get to the semi finals. We didn’t though, as even though Bob scored on the brink of half time, but Appiah equalised in the 63rd and that’s how it stayed. We still top the group though.
We sell Zimmerman #7 for 1.6 million Euros, and that allows us to get worse but much, much younger Alex Cardero as his replacement. We sign the Spaniard for 1.1 million Euros and somehow just 400 Euros a week on wages. I’m sure that won’t become problematic anytime soon. We train the former Oviedo man on a Box-to-Box plan, and he’ll hopefully be the partner to Bob for the majority of this rebuild.
I want to raise a few more funds before our next signing so I’m rocking with the one new signing for the semi finals vs Academica. I had already increased to a 78, so big things were expected of me. So it would make sense that at half-time I had a 6.9, no contribution at all and were down 2-0. Schroeder #9 had messed up 3 chances so he came off. Comeback season appeared to be on as I scored in the 52nd minute, but in the entire half we lost the ball in the worst ways possible and in the 90th minute were put out of our misery by Melniciuc.
On the bright side, that tournament did get us a crucial 700,000 Euros to spend, and we got another 600,000 after selling our RB Muller. As a replacement for 1.45 million, we get Ivan Fresneda from Valladolid, a steal, as at just 16 years old he is 64 rated with 84 potential. My spidey senses tell me we may not need another RB the whole career mode. We fail in negotiations for Karamoko Dembele again.
Our first game is against SV Waldhof. After Hoger scored to put the opponents up, we finally started looking like a football team, scoring twice (once by me) and saving a penalty. We were outclassed in the second half, and Hoger scored again, and we were lucky to come away with a draw.
Dennis Peters has finally converted to CB, and he jumps to a 68. We put him on Defensive CB plans, so he can work on his Speed, Tackling, Short Passing, and Defensive Work Rate, as that is still at Medium.
Before the next game, Schroeder has been terrible, so I swap him for Mamadi Camara, a 62-rated 17 year old CAM from Guinea-Bissau. However, his low potential probably means he won’t be our starter at the end of the Career Mode.
Our next game is vs Freiburg. Freiburg II. It’s the first one I’m quick simming, and it’s a 2-2 draw with goals from Camara on his debut and Bob. However I didn’t even get an assist.
Can’t get Dembele AGAIN.
Next game vs Havelse now. Cardero put us in front after 10 minutes, followed up in the 20th minute by me. I get a brace just after half-time, but they get one back with half an hour to go. Do they come back? No, as a penalty converted sees me getting my hat trick, and us go up 4-1. They get a consolation and it ends 4-2. Our first win of the season.
Duisburg was our 4th game. A disallowed goal in the 9th was followed up by an actual goal in the 12th by Ademi. I score to make it 1-1 by half time, and experiment, putting myself on the right and subbing on ST Muller for Schneider. Did it work?
yes.
I scored in the 75th minute and Muller got the sealer with 5 minutes left. 3-1 was the result.
For our next game vs Saarbrucken, I switch from a 4-3-3 to a 4-2-2 with Myself and Muller starting at ST and putting Camara out in the RM position. It doesn’t work, we lose 3-0, my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.
“Your players are super tired, you say? WELL HOW ABOUT A GAME WITH 2 DAYS REST THAT IS A SIX-POINTER?” Says the game. We have to put out an almost fully-rotated side for the next game, but still fronted by the gruesome twosome, Bob and I. We face SVWW. At Half-Time, somehow we were 3-1 up, thanks to a 1st half hat trick by me. I had to take off a battered Peters and Roberts, and Nilsson scores. However, Zimmerman comes in clutch in what would eventually be the winner, ad SVWW fails in a comeback attempt, getting a measly 82nd minute consolation.
At this point, my manager rating is up to 96. The transfer window ends, and this is what we have going into season 1. See you next time for part 2…