Rebuilding FC Barcelona on every FIFA since FIFA 14 Part 1 – FIFA 14
By Jim James
As we know, FC Barcelona are a mess right now, and as a Barca fan myself, it would be a quite morale boosting experience before our big defeat vs Elche (this was made on the 17th), to win them some Champions Leagues, so we’re doing it 7 times. Normal service resumes soon.
What we are doing is rebuilding Barca through FIFAs, with no cheats, all games simmed, and no mods. The rebuild is complete once the Champions League is won.
FIFA 14
One of the harder FIFAs. This FIFA had a monumental 10 Career mode save slots, reduced to 8 soon after, to 4 in FIFA 19 and then back to 8. But Barca were pretty good back then, 94 rated Messi, 21 year old Neymar, Xavi & Iniesta at 89s, 86 Pique, and 86 Fabregas headlining the team. It even had a young Alexis Sanchez.
Season 1
We Start with $92.5 million, and we transfer list some dead weight. We’ll see if that does anything. We need goalkeeping reinforcements, and Manuel Neuer could be available on the cheap, so we submit a $20 million offer for him. Ashley Cole is the best LB in the game, and he’s also cheap, and we submit a $7 million offer from the advice of our scout, we accept a $22 million offer for Mascherano as well.
Mascherano sells, and after some counter negotiations we sign both Ashley Cole and Manuel Neuer. We sell Victor Valdes for $5 million.
We try to sign Adil Rami as a Carles Puyol successor, as he is 1 rating lower but has 87 potential. He’s 27. Potential is weird in FIFA 14. We sign him a few days later.
We try to sign a few wonderkids as a safety net if this goes a few seasons beyond expected, we end up signing Joao Cancelo, Luke Shaw (I know), Zakaria Bakkali, and Luciano Vietto, ending with $15 million to spare at the end of the window for January signings.
By January we’re doing well, 3rd in the league, and in the Champions League knockouts, and picking up form. We loan Joao Cancelo to Las Palmas, and reject transfer offers for Rami and Neuer. On deadline day we loan Zakaria Bakkali back to PSV, and Luke Shaw to Levante. We also manage to get Nemanja Vidic on a pre-contract. However, in the last game in January, Neuer suffers a broken Tibia and we can’t get a replacement in time, writing off the season.
Update, through some miracle we end up BEATING Dortmund, Juventus, and Atlético in the Champions League, setting up a final with Chelsea. Messi scores for us in the 21st minute, but Bertrand scores in the 75th, making it extra-time. Ramires scores in the 114th minute, to no reply. We have a season 2. We also devastatingly lose La Liga on goal difference, and we lose in the Copa Del Rey Semi finals to Real Madrid.
Season 2
We start with $87 million, and we’re starting this season by trying to sign a blockbuster, Radamel Falcao, unfortunately, it doesn’t work. The first transfer of the window is Luke Shaw back out on loan to Almeira. We also sign Fernando Muslera as a Neuer backup. Pinto is old, and if Neuer has another multi-month injury, we can’t have Barca’s 2014 equivalent of Rob Green winning us the Champions League.
We loan out Joao Cancelo to Rayo Vallecano and we counter an offer for Sergi Busquets from Man U. We get Alex Sandro from Porto for $20 million, we get Zakaria Bakkali out to Rio Ave on loan, and Sergi Busquets sells for $25.5 million.
We get Mattia De Sciglio for $18 million, and Marquinhos for $23 million. We also sell Bojan and Alexis Sanchez to PSG and Man U for combined $39 million.
In January we blow almost the entire budget on Luis Suarez and Vincent Kompany for a combined $78 million! I have also noted Cristiano Ronaldo’s signing for Man City should we be in for a 3rd season… We also sell Ibrahim Affelay and Issac Cuenca for combined $12 million.
The final is back again! Victories vs PSG (5-2), Real Madrid (3-1), and revenge on Chelsea (4-1) gets us BACK in the Final. Opponent: Just like Real Life, Juventus. Injury woes persist as regular starter Cesc Fabregas is out with a broken ankle. No treble like the real life 14-15 however as we lose on away goals to Malaga in the Copa Del Rey. However, we win La Liga! We win by 7 points with a total of 95! However, the game is here. Juventus. Two blows by Vidal and Marchisio put them up 2-0 by halftime, which is how it stays. Two seasons two Champiosn League Final losses. Heartbreaking. I want this FIFA to be OVER ALREADY.
Season 3
We Start with $68 million this season. We start by selling Pedro and Cole for a combined $40 million, so we can try for Ronaldo. However, the deal falls through with Ronaldo’s reluctance to sign for us. We get Falcao however, for $100 million, a great compromise at 90 overall. He gets into the front 4 of MSN + Falcao. We also sell Jonathan Dos Santos.
We sell Luke Shaw to Sunderland on a cut price deal, as he never impressed, not getting a single appearance and spending most of his time here out on loan. We also loan out an almost ready Joao Cancelo to Standard Liege. Also, heartbreak. Falcao suffers a broken tailbone and is out for 4 MONTHS. Guess Zakaria Bakkali (Remember he is still here?) can make his 1st team breakthrough now. It’s only August, and Vietto, Fabregas, and Falcao are all injured. Also Lewandowski went to Bayern from Real Madrid in the window. Weird.
A few games later, Vincent Kompany gets injured for 3 weeks. However, Vietto and Cesc come back from injury, and Marquinhos is injured for 2 months with an LCL tear in El Clasico, EVEN THOUGH he played 70-something minutes with it just fine in the game. FIFA 14 is weird. Now is the return of the center back who I admit, I forgot we even had, Adil Rami. I should mention, we’re doing a top scorers list at the end of FIFA 22, and Neyamr has been doing well here, so it’s too bad he leaves after FIFA 17. I don’t know what I’m going to do regarding him yet after that, but don’t count him out. My money’s on Leo Messi to take the crown, though, as he’s playing for us in every FIFA up until FIFA 22, and I might sign him there. Don’t know yet, though.
Luis Suarez tears HIS LCL and is OUT FOR 2 MONTHS. As Squidward says; Rage. Fury. Irritation. Humiliation. 2 Players who we’ve spent a combined $178 million have all had big injuries this season. On the bright side, we have adept replacements.
I’m done. I can’t stand it. Gerard Pique is now out for 3 months. There is a sniper at our games injuring our players. We only have 1 reserve slot left, so if we get 2 more injuries, we’re done for. I have a plan, though. As I was writing this, Adil Rami got a 6-week injury.
Panic. We can’t sign free agents, let’s pray for no more injuries. We’ve also sent out a youth scout for youth players to fill the depth. Zakaria Bakkali gets injured, we need to forfeit games now.
We forfeit the Copa del Rey game, and once it looks like we’re getting back on the up injury-wise, Kompany gets a 2 month injury. It is about now that I’m really wishing we beat Juventus.
I don’t want to jinx it, but things may be on the up? Rami and Falcao return, and we get a youth player, we have 3 open reserve slots, yay! Luis Suarez is also returning soon. We;ve had about 4 games in a row with no injuries, the board has expressed their pleasure with my performance, and January is approaching. THE SEASON IS BACK ON LADS!
We sell Dani Alves, as he wants to leave, and Pique has returned. However bad news comes as Neuer wants to leave and there’s nothing really that we can do about it, and Marquinhos has Torn his ACL this time and is out until almost the end of the season. For once, however, It’s our only injury as Vincent Komany is back.
A shock deal: We sell De Sciglio for $46 million. I’m confident Joao Cancelo can step in for us now. A few days later, heartbreaking for me, Neuer is sold. We also sell Alex Song for $9 million, as he’s surplus. We sign Hugo Lloris for $29.5 million after a desperate scramble by yours truly for a replacement. I just really want this FIFA to be over. After another scramble, we get Ozil on deadline day for $65 million.
We draw Bayern in the Round of 16. We beat them 5-1.
We draw our group mates Inter in the Quarters. However, Ozil and Pique are out for the season. We lose on away goals. I’m ready to break the TV.
The whole season isn’t in vain, however. We win the domestic double and I think that with a few more signings and some luck, Season 4 will be the last season in FIFA 14. Again, I really want FIFA 14 ended.
Season 4
We start the season by calling up Mariano Garcia, a youth player with 86-94 potential in our academy. Hopefully we’ll never have to use him, but who knows. We start with $90 million again, and our first target is Mario Gotze, and we also accept offers for Lloris and Suarez. Don’t worry, I have plans for that.
We signed Gotze for $85 million and we brought in Manuel Neuer BACK from Man U. We also sold Cesc Fabregas to Dortmund for $28.5 million so we have about $50 million to spend on squad depth.
For the rest of the window we sell Christian Tello and sign Mats Hummels and Adnan Januzaj. I am confident in our Champions League chances.
We win the groups with flying colors and draw CSKA in the RO16. I’ve decided to skip the January window as I like my team how it is now, thank you.
Mistake. I want to quit. WE LOST TO CSKA ON AWAY GOALS. Please let this end. That is the only thing in this world that I want.
We win La Liga & the Copa Del Rey again. Cool.
Season 5
No funny business. WE’RE WINNING IT THIS YEAR. Muslera left to Bayern on a free, so we sign Keylor Navas to replace him. We had to sell Marquinhos as he was unhappy, so we got Angelo Ogbonna instead. We also sign Semih Kaya, an 85-rated center back from Gakatasaray, for good measure.
Again, we win the group and skip the January transfer window. We annihilate Dortmund 6-2 on aggregate. However, a familiar foe awaits. It’s Inter in the Quarters, the same team at the same stage that knocked us out in Season 3. We win 2-1 in Italy, followed by a 4-goal victory in Spain. We’re back to the Semi Finals.
Real Madrid Awaits. We lose 1-0 in Madrid. And we win 2-1 in Barcelona. Away goals again. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have a headache. I’ve been at this for the last 2 days. We finish 4th in La Liga, but win the Copa Del Rey. I’m desperate here.
Season 6
We lost a few players who were unwilling to sign new deals, so we signed Antoine Griezmann and Jack Wilshere to replace them. Those are the only deals we’re doing in this window.
Our Round of 16 Matchup is against Inter. We win 5-0 on aggregate. No joke, we get Dortmund in the quarters. We beat them 4-0 on aggregate.
Bayern next. We WIN 3-2 in Germany, with, that’s right, 3 away goals. We win 1-0 in Barcelona, setting up a 3rd champions league final. Real Madrid it is. My heart is beating out of my chest. Here we go. Griezmann makes it 1-0 in the 26th minute. He doubles the lead in the 45th minute. However, Isco scores in the 76th minute. That’s that scoring. All of it. WE’VE WON THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE!!!!!!!!!! FINALLY WE’VE GOT PAST FIFA 14!!!!
So that’s my adventure on FIFA 14. Part 2 (FIFA 15) is coming out shortly. That Elche comment aged well, didn’t it? I’m not playing FIFA 14 for a few months now, too.