Let's start off with saying I'm American. That being said, I grew up not really knowing much about soccer. I grew up in the 70's and 80's and soccer just wasn't prevalent in my life. It wasn't on tv, I never saw any scores, and was never really taught anything at all about it. And that's too bad because right now I'm really finding a love for the game!
The newest soccer (football?) game came out today called Fifa 13. I've played the demo version and love the game! And since it has a manager mode, I want to start out managing my own team. But who should I pick? Well, I found a show on tv that really sparked an interest in me.
The show is called Being Liverpool and is a sort of look at the Liverpool football club in England. I guess they've been around for something like 120 years and have a long history. After watching the first episode of the show, I decided I wanted to Be Liverpool! And so starts my quest as an English football club manager!
Needless to say, European football is a lot more complicated than American sports are when you take into consideration selling and buying players, salary negotiations, loans, and things like that! But I learned all I could before I started the game. We'll see how I do. I figured I would keep track of how things are going here in my blog! Hooray for Liverpool and Robert as their new "Gaffer!"
The game let me download the current roster to start with so I already have all the changes and things that the current skipper has done. I don't like that, though! It isn't his team anymore, it's mine! So of course I have to try and muck things up! *chuckle* Ok, let's look at sending a few guys off on loan, putting some guys up on the transfer block, and picking up some new talent!
As a side note, I don't know who most of the 15,000 plus players in the game are. *chuckle* So I'm mostly going on stats, things I read on the internet, and trades I watched on Youtube.
To start with, I put a guy named Joe Cole on the transfer block. I'm sure in real life experience counts, but in the video game this guy is 30 years old, sitting on the bench, and eating up a lot of my money. I can't have that! Some of the old guys have to go! So out he went. I sent a kid named Jack Robinson out for loan for the season. So he can play for another club and build up his skills before coming back stronger and better. I had wanted to try and sign a guy named Antonio Valencia, but he plays for Manchester United who are a big, rich club and after an inquiry they told me they weren't interested in letting me have him. I probably could have persuaded them to send him my way for a huge pile of money, but...I don't have a huge pile of money to spend at the moment. So I forgot about him. I am still trying to negotiate for a kid named Fellaini. We'll see how that turns out.
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Things aren't going well trying to get Fellaini. I offered whoever the hell he plays for 9,500,000 pounds for him, but they want 12,500,000. Geez, WAY too many zeros! I upped the offer to 11,500,000 pounds. We'll see what happens. This guy is draining a ton of my money, though.
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Ok, after simulating a few days, someone decided they want to pick up Joe Cole. It's a team called Galatasaray SK. No, I don't know who they are either. But they officered me 3,700,000 Pounds for him. (Sorry, I don't know where the pound symbol is on my keyboard.) I could probably send them a counter offer and ask for 4,000,000, but I'm trying to get rid of him anyway and can use the money. I send him on his way! BYE JOE!
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Ok, the cheap asses have rejected my offer of 11,500,000 pounds for Fellaini! Do I really need this afro guy on my team? I'll try one more offer of 12,500,000 pounds. That's the number they're telling me they want. If they don't take that, screw him!
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Ok, forgetting Fellaini for the moment, here's an interesting happening: Chelsea wants to buy my CF Luis Suarez. Suarez is rated as a pretty good player and one of my starting team! I'm not going to sell him to them! Geez, they think they can just throw money at me and I'll give them one of my best players? Screw that! Offer rejected! (They offered me 22,500,000 pounds for him, by the way.)
Maybe I should try to borrow a kid for a season and see how he does? I found a kid named Deulofeu and decided to try and borrow him for a season. 18 years old and probably still wet behind the ears, but we'll see what we can do with him. Another kid who's only 17 I figured I'd try and buy. His name is...are you ready? Ibrahima Mbaye. We'll see how things go. I haven't even played my first friendly match yet!
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Now the damned Italians want to buy my goalkeeper! Hell no! Go away Italians! I reject the offer and they come back and offer me more money! I don't want more money, I want a good goalkeeper!
I ended up getting both the kids I was shooting for. Deulofeu is loaned to me for this season and Mbaye was sold to me, and will hopefully develop into a great player.
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FINALLY, I did get Fellaini! And then it looks like people in the press were unhappy that I'd spent that much money to transfer him to Liverpool. Well screw them! *chuckle*
Ok, time for the first friendly, and you know what? I think I'm going to start the game with a bunch of the young kids just to see what happens! Here we go!
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For my first friendly match I played Atletico Madrid. Some team from Spain, I guess? *chuckle* I played on "semi-pro" level and still barely beat the computer! The score ended up 2 to 1 Liverpool! My winning goal came with only a short time left on the clock, too! Very nice! Ok, well I'll update the blog after I've played a bit more.
Oh and by the way...the first goal of the season for me was scored by Fellaini who the press said I had spent too much money on! *chuckle*
