[CM4] Americans in Spain

Sloan · 11-09-2003, 06:21 PM

In this dynasty I will be playing CM4 with EP5. I will be controlling Real Madrid as an American manager. I will try to keep Real Madrid as a world super power in soccer, but I have placed severe restrictions on myself: I can only buy American players.

Leagues Running: USA, Spain, England, France, Germany, Italy
My Nationality: American

Rules:
-I can only sign American players
-I can use players currently on my roster, but I can't renew their contracts
-I have to make a reasonable effort to move out star players as I bring new ones in, I don't want to get fired right away so I don't have to sell everyone at the start
-I can only hire American staff

Sloan · 11-09-2003, 06:22 PM

The Real board has given me $32 million to get started with. Here are the players I target right away.

Americans Targeted On First Day

Freddy Adu 13 AMC $0
Tim Howard 23 GK $1,000,000
DeMarcus Beasley 20 FLC $6,250,000
Landon Donovan 20 FLC $6,000,000
Eddie Gaven 15 M/SC $1,000,000
Brian McBride 30 SC $2,400,000
Edson Buddle 21 FRLC $475,000
Cory Gibbs 22 DLC $190,000
Jonathan Spector 16 DC $190,000
Claudio Reyna 29 MC $750,000

Players Put On Transfer List

Cesar GK 30 $ 6,250,000
Fernando Morientes 26 SC $20,000,000
Tore 23 SC 9,500,000

Sloan · 11-09-2003, 06:26 PM

July

No soccer to be played this month, but a lot of wheeling and dealing to take care of in my first month on the job.

7-22-03 Our first signings

No big names yet, but we do manage to land a coupld of great prospects. We steal 16 year old Jonathan Spector from Manchester United for $700,000, and 15 Year old Midfielder/Striker Eddie Gaven from the NY/NJ Metrostars for $525,000.

Neither play will play that much, if at all this year, but they are definitley big prospects.

A couple of loan offers for our GK Cesar come in today as well, but I reject them. We haven't head from Howard yet, and I want to sell him not loan him out.

7-23-03 AM Edition: We get Adu

Not really a big suprise, but we get what may be the world's biggest prospect in 13 year old attacking midfielder Freddy Adu.

Sunderland also accepts our offer for Claudio Reyna. We offer him a 3 year contract paying him $36,000 a week with a 1.5 million dollar signing bonus.

we also put in an offer for 20 year old striker Conor Casey who is currently playing in Germany.

7-23-03 PM Edition: Talks intensify for Buddle and Howard

Columbus accepts our offer for Edson Buddle. We offer him a contract offering him $2,200 a week for 4 years.

The Metrostars come back to us and ask for $1.2M and 10% of the next sale for Howard. We agree to these terms.

Chicago rejects our bid for Beasley. We come back with an $8M offer.

Columbus rejects our bid for McBride. We come back with a $4M ofer.

7-24-03 McBride wants to play for Real! We get Reyna!

Brain McBride let it be known to local media that he was upset with Columbus management for not allowing him to talk to us. Hopefully they will accept our next offer.

Our $190,000 bid for Cory Gibbs is rejected, we counter with an $800,000 offer.

Claudio Reyna agrees to our contract and we land our first big signing. Reyna's signing allows us to put midfileder Claude Makelele on the transfer market for $9,750,000. Makelele was unhappy with me anyway.

7-25-03 Buddle signs
Edson Buddle signs with us which allows us to put 20 year old striker Portillo on the transfer market.

Cory Gibbs tells local media that he would enjoy playing for Real Madrid, and he is very unhappy that the bid for him was rejected.

I make a $210,000 bid for Delvin Countess GK for Dallas. He is a good prospect, and I'll need him just in case Howard doesn't come now.

7-25-03 PM Edition: Howard bid accepted, Fans love Reyna

The bid for Howard is accepted and we offer the goalie a contract that will pay him $11,500 a week.

In a move that shocked everyone, Real Madrid's supporters hosted a rally in support for their new midfielder Claudio Reyna.

Chelsea puts in a bid of $9.5 million for Claude Makelele. We accept of course.

7-26-03 Beasley talks dead

Chicago rejects our $8 million bid for Beasley. We decide to hold off for now to see who else might be available.

Columbus accepts our offer for McBride. We offer him a 3 year contract that will pay $14,000/wk.

7-27-03 One in/One Out

Chelsea takes Makelele off our hands and Howard signs with us.

Reyna feels the love. He announced today to the team's website that he couldn't wait for the season to start.

7-27-03 Evening Edition: Locer Room Problems?

I knew it would come eventually. Star players Zidane and Hierro both have publically voiced their displeasure over recent roster moves. A good portion of the team is unhappy.

Youngster Ryan Cochrane signs.

7-28-03 McBride Signs

Brian McBride signs. We kind of have a log jam of at forward now. I'm reducing our asking price for some of our players.

7-29-03 Gibbs offer accepted

Our offer for Corey Gibbs is accepted. We offer him a contract paying him $3,100/wk.

7-31-03 Gibbs and Countess sign

Promising young defender Cory Gibbs signs. We also get young goalkepper Delvin Countess.

Sloan · 11-09-2003, 08:16 PM

August Preseason

With most of our incoming transfers have been completed, August will see our new team take the field for the first
time.

8-1-03 Donovan bid rejected
Our $6.2M bid for Landon Donovan has been rejected. We go back to them with a $8M offer.

Milan puts an $11.25 offer for our defensive midfielder Solari. We accept.

8-2-03 Game Time!
It is only a friendly agains a lower division Portugal team, but it is the first time some of these new faces will get to play with each other.

Well, I'm not sure what to make of this game. We end up losing 1-0 to Leiria. Our probable starting lineup which included Howard, Mcbride, and Reyna dominated the game for 60 minutes but did not score. At the 60 minute mark I made several substitutions and put in many very young players who won't play during the season. They let up a goal, but the play was pretty even. Eddie Gaven (16, American) had a header that looked like a sure goal in the closing minutes, but the keeper made a great save.

8-4-03 Solari leaves
Midfielder Solari leaves to Milan for $12 million. A good portion of the squad is upset right now. I'll leave whoever is on the transfer list on there for now, but I won't put anyone new on until things settle down a little bit.

8-5-03 Donovan negotiation
Leverkusen come out of nowhere and say they want $10,250,000 for Donovan plus 10% of his next sale. I have the cash, plus there aren't many Americans with the talent and potential of Donovan so I accept.

8-5-03 Friendly #2
Mmmm, again I'm not sure what to take away from this game. The game with Vit. Setubal ended 0-0 and Tim Howard played great, but I'm concerned by our lack of offense. I played a normal lineup for this game, and we only managed 4 shots on goal. I know the team is unhappy right now, but we should be playing better than this.

8-7-03 Donovan offer accepted
Our offer for Landon is finally accepted. He asks for $13,250/wk for 4 years and we oblidge.

8-8-03 Donovan signs, Friendly #3

Unfortunately Landon won't be here in time to play in today's game. I can't really take anything away from this game. More than half the squad was away playing for their national teams so I just played everyone who was left. We end up tying 1-1 with Hierro scoring a nice goal in injury time to close the game out. That was nice as Hierro was a player that had criticized some of my moves earlier. American Edson Buddle is named Man of the Match.

8-11-03 Friendly #4
Donovan will not be able to play with us again as he injured himself for 2 weeks by straining his groin.

Another scoreless game for us. We end up with antoher 0-0 tie. This time with the Scottish club Montrose.

Despite our lack of offense so far, I feel our defense is the weakest part of the team so I put in a bid for central defender Eddie Pope before the game.

8-14-03 Friendly #5
Another game against a Scottish side. This time we face Partick Thistle. Now I'm starting to get concerned.

Our first team played well again for 60 minutes but failed to score. Thistle's goal again came late against all my young subs.

8-16-03 Pope offer accepted
Our offer for Eddie Pope is accepted. He askes for a 2 year contract paying him $13,000/wk. No problem.

8-17-03 Final friendly -- Celtic
Well, I guess this is where we find out what we have. If we play like we have played so far, Celtic will embarass us.

Result: Ugly, a 2-0 loss. Howard was beaten in the 17th minute by a 35 yard chip shot, and Cesar let a second half goal in but only because the defense let 3 attackers come down on him.

After the game we received 2 promising news items. Item #1: Star midfielder Zidane told the media he believed our squad had enough depth to compete. That is good to hear from one of our leaders. Item #2:

Eddie Pope signs. Eddie will definitely held our defense a lot.

Sloan · 11-09-2003, 08:30 PM

Preseason Projections for American Players
Tim Howard GK -- Howard will be our first choice, but the bench won't be far if he struggles.

Cory Gibbs D LC -- Gibbs probably won't start many games at the beginning of the season, but I can see him getting into more games as the season goes on. He has all the skills, but I'm reluctant to put him out there until he proves himself.

Eddie Pope D RC -- Pope will be a regular starter on the defensive line for us.

Eddie Gaven M SC -- Gaven has a lot of talent, but he is clearly not ready for the big time yet. He'll spend the season down in the reserves.

Claudio Reyna MC -- We have a crowded midfield and will use a rotation of players there. Reyna will certainly take a regular turn.

Freddy Adu AMC -- Adu will probably spend the entire year with the main club. He won't get much playing time at all, but I dont' want to stick him down in the reserves where my Asst. Manager may be tempted to play him too much and burn him out.

Edson Buddle F RLC -- Buddle presents an interesting problem. We have a lot of talented forwards. Buddle is talented but not on the level of guys like Ronaldo, Figo, Zidane, etc. He is pretty versitiliy is what will keep him with the first team. We are kind of weak on the left side, plus he was our best player in the preseason.

Landon Donovan F LC --Donovan didn't play at all in the preseason because of injury. He too is very talented, but not world class yet. He will get ample opportunity to play though.

Brian McBride SC -- McBride is a dangerous striker who will take a regular turn in the rotation. His durability is a question however.

Delvin Countess GK -- Countess has a bright future, but will spend this year in the reserves.

Ryan Cochrane D RC -- Ryan is a little bit unknown. He'll spend the year in reserves, but he might have a future with the first team.

atatange1 · 11-09-2003, 08:40 PM

Great start, very interesting. Aren't you going to have a problem with non-EU's? I think the limit in Spain is 4.

Sloan · 11-09-2003, 08:53 PM

I just got to my first game and you are correct, the limit is 4. I'm going to see if I can find an editor to make the US part of the EU.

GoldenEagle · 11-10-2003, 12:30 AM

There are plenty of editors out there...

You may have to start the game over.

Sloan · 11-10-2003, 08:41 AM

I found some editors that will let me make the USA part of the EU before the game starts, but I haven't found any that will let me do it now.

I added a second nationality to some of the players and this seems to have worked, but I think I will start over anyway. I only played a couple of games and I don't want some of my players being called up to other countries national teams.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for v2.0!

Icy · 11-10-2003, 09:06 AM

Hehe Sloan we Real Madrid fans complain about the high number of foreign players in the first team and you now are going to make it 100% american, would be so funny to see this in real life, the fans would burn your home in no time after this

Interesting to see an USA manager running my supported team, i live at 70 of the R. Madrid tranning camps so i will go there to visit your usa stars, at least you have a supporter in Spain now

11-10-2003, 12:30 AM	#8
GoldenEagle Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Little Rock, AR	There are plenty of editors out there... You may have to start the game over. __________________ Xbox 360 Gamer Tag: GoldenEagle014

11-10-2003, 09:06 AM	#10
Icy Pro Starter Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Toledo - Spain	Hehe Sloan we Real Madrid fans complain about the high number of foreign players in the first team and you now are going to make it 100% american, would be so funny to see this in real life, the fans would burn your home in no time after this Interesting to see an USA manager running my supported team, i live at 70 of the R. Madrid tranning camps so i will go there to visit your usa stars, at least you have a supporter in Spain now __________________

11-09-2003, 06:22 PM	#2
Sloan High School JV Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Michigan	The Real board has given me $32 million to get started with. Here are the players I target right away. Americans Targeted On First Day Freddy Adu 13 AMC $0 Tim Howard 23 GK $1,000,000 DeMarcus Beasley 20 FLC $6,250,000 Landon Donovan 20 FLC $6,000,000 Eddie Gaven 15 M/SC $1,000,000 Brian McBride 30 SC $2,400,000 Edson Buddle 21 FRLC $475,000 Cory Gibbs 22 DLC $190,000 Jonathan Spector 16 DC $190,000 Claudio Reyna 29 MC $750,000 Players Put On Transfer List Cesar GK 30 $ 6,250,000 Fernando Morientes 26 SC $20,000,000 Tore 23 SC 9,500,000

11-09-2003, 06:26 PM	#3
Sloan High School JV Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Michigan	July No soccer to be played this month, but a lot of wheeling and dealing to take care of in my first month on the job. 7-22-03 Our first signings No big names yet, but we do manage to land a coupld of great prospects. We steal 16 year old Jonathan Spector from Manchester United for $700,000, and 15 Year old Midfielder/Striker Eddie Gaven from the NY/NJ Metrostars for $525,000. Neither play will play that much, if at all this year, but they are definitley big prospects. A couple of loan offers for our GK Cesar come in today as well, but I reject them. We haven't head from Howard yet, and I want to sell him not loan him out. 7-23-03 AM Edition: We get Adu Not really a big suprise, but we get what may be the world's biggest prospect in 13 year old attacking midfielder Freddy Adu. Sunderland also accepts our offer for Claudio Reyna. We offer him a 3 year contract paying him $36,000 a week with a 1.5 million dollar signing bonus. we also put in an offer for 20 year old striker Conor Casey who is currently playing in Germany. 7-23-03 PM Edition: Talks intensify for Buddle and Howard Columbus accepts our offer for Edson Buddle. We offer him a contract offering him $2,200 a week for 4 years. The Metrostars come back to us and ask for $1.2M and 10% of the next sale for Howard. We agree to these terms. Chicago rejects our bid for Beasley. We come back with an $8M offer. Columbus rejects our bid for McBride. We come back with a $4M ofer. 7-24-03 McBride wants to play for Real! We get Reyna! Brain McBride let it be known to local media that he was upset with Columbus management for not allowing him to talk to us. Hopefully they will accept our next offer. Our $190,000 bid for Cory Gibbs is rejected, we counter with an $800,000 offer. Claudio Reyna agrees to our contract and we land our first big signing. Reyna's signing allows us to put midfileder Claude Makelele on the transfer market for $9,750,000. Makelele was unhappy with me anyway. 7-25-03 Buddle signs Edson Buddle signs with us which allows us to put 20 year old striker Portillo on the transfer market. Cory Gibbs tells local media that he would enjoy playing for Real Madrid, and he is very unhappy that the bid for him was rejected. I make a $210,000 bid for Delvin Countess GK for Dallas. He is a good prospect, and I'll need him just in case Howard doesn't come now. 7-25-03 PM Edition: Howard bid accepted, Fans love Reyna The bid for Howard is accepted and we offer the goalie a contract that will pay him $11,500 a week. In a move that shocked everyone, Real Madrid's supporters hosted a rally in support for their new midfielder Claudio Reyna. Chelsea puts in a bid of $9.5 million for Claude Makelele. We accept of course. 7-26-03 Beasley talks dead Chicago rejects our $8 million bid for Beasley. We decide to hold off for now to see who else might be available. Columbus accepts our offer for McBride. We offer him a 3 year contract that will pay $14,000/wk. 7-27-03 One in/One Out Chelsea takes Makelele off our hands and Howard signs with us. Reyna feels the love. He announced today to the team's website that he couldn't wait for the season to start. 7-27-03 Evening Edition: Locer Room Problems? I knew it would come eventually. Star players Zidane and Hierro both have publically voiced their displeasure over recent roster moves. A good portion of the team is unhappy. Youngster Ryan Cochrane signs. 7-28-03 McBride Signs Brian McBride signs. We kind of have a log jam of at forward now. I'm reducing our asking price for some of our players. 7-29-03 Gibbs offer accepted Our offer for Corey Gibbs is accepted. We offer him a contract paying him $3,100/wk. 7-31-03 Gibbs and Countess sign Promising young defender Cory Gibbs signs. We also get young goalkepper Delvin Countess.

11-09-2003, 08:16 PM	#4
Sloan High School JV Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Michigan	August Preseason With most of our incoming transfers have been completed, August will see our new team take the field for the first time. 8-1-03 Donovan bid rejected Our $6.2M bid for Landon Donovan has been rejected. We go back to them with a $8M offer. Milan puts an $11.25 offer for our defensive midfielder Solari. We accept. 8-2-03 Game Time! It is only a friendly agains a lower division Portugal team, but it is the first time some of these new faces will get to play with each other. Well, I'm not sure what to make of this game. We end up losing 1-0 to Leiria. Our probable starting lineup which included Howard, Mcbride, and Reyna dominated the game for 60 minutes but did not score. At the 60 minute mark I made several substitutions and put in many very young players who won't play during the season. They let up a goal, but the play was pretty even. Eddie Gaven (16, American) had a header that looked like a sure goal in the closing minutes, but the keeper made a great save. 8-4-03 Solari leaves Midfielder Solari leaves to Milan for $12 million. A good portion of the squad is upset right now. I'll leave whoever is on the transfer list on there for now, but I won't put anyone new on until things settle down a little bit. 8-5-03 Donovan negotiation Leverkusen come out of nowhere and say they want $10,250,000 for Donovan plus 10% of his next sale. I have the cash, plus there aren't many Americans with the talent and potential of Donovan so I accept. 8-5-03 Friendly #2 Mmmm, again I'm not sure what to take away from this game. The game with Vit. Setubal ended 0-0 and Tim Howard played great, but I'm concerned by our lack of offense. I played a normal lineup for this game, and we only managed 4 shots on goal. I know the team is unhappy right now, but we should be playing better than this. 8-7-03 Donovan offer accepted Our offer for Landon is finally accepted. He asks for $13,250/wk for 4 years and we oblidge. 8-8-03 Donovan signs, Friendly #3 Unfortunately Landon won't be here in time to play in today's game. I can't really take anything away from this game. More than half the squad was away playing for their national teams so I just played everyone who was left. We end up tying 1-1 with Hierro scoring a nice goal in injury time to close the game out. That was nice as Hierro was a player that had criticized some of my moves earlier. American Edson Buddle is named Man of the Match. 8-11-03 Friendly #4 Donovan will not be able to play with us again as he injured himself for 2 weeks by straining his groin. Another scoreless game for us. We end up with antoher 0-0 tie. This time with the Scottish club Montrose. Despite our lack of offense so far, I feel our defense is the weakest part of the team so I put in a bid for central defender Eddie Pope before the game. 8-14-03 Friendly #5 Another game against a Scottish side. This time we face Partick Thistle. Now I'm starting to get concerned. Our first team played well again for 60 minutes but failed to score. Thistle's goal again came late against all my young subs. 8-16-03 Pope offer accepted Our offer for Eddie Pope is accepted. He askes for a 2 year contract paying him $13,000/wk. No problem. 8-17-03 Final friendly -- Celtic Well, I guess this is where we find out what we have. If we play like we have played so far, Celtic will embarass us. Result: Ugly, a 2-0 loss. Howard was beaten in the 17th minute by a 35 yard chip shot, and Cesar let a second half goal in but only because the defense let 3 attackers come down on him. After the game we received 2 promising news items. Item #1: Star midfielder Zidane told the media he believed our squad had enough depth to compete. That is good to hear from one of our leaders. Item #2: Eddie Pope signs. Eddie will definitely held our defense a lot.

11-09-2003, 08:30 PM	#5
Sloan High School JV Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Michigan	Preseason Projections for American Players Tim Howard GK -- Howard will be our first choice, but the bench won't be far if he struggles. Cory Gibbs D LC -- Gibbs probably won't start many games at the beginning of the season, but I can see him getting into more games as the season goes on. He has all the skills, but I'm reluctant to put him out there until he proves himself. Eddie Pope D RC -- Pope will be a regular starter on the defensive line for us. Eddie Gaven M SC -- Gaven has a lot of talent, but he is clearly not ready for the big time yet. He'll spend the season down in the reserves. Claudio Reyna MC -- We have a crowded midfield and will use a rotation of players there. Reyna will certainly take a regular turn. Freddy Adu AMC -- Adu will probably spend the entire year with the main club. He won't get much playing time at all, but I dont' want to stick him down in the reserves where my Asst. Manager may be tempted to play him too much and burn him out. Edson Buddle F RLC -- Buddle presents an interesting problem. We have a lot of talented forwards. Buddle is talented but not on the level of guys like Ronaldo, Figo, Zidane, etc. He is pretty versitiliy is what will keep him with the first team. We are kind of weak on the left side, plus he was our best player in the preseason. Landon Donovan F LC --Donovan didn't play at all in the preseason because of injury. He too is very talented, but not world class yet. He will get ample opportunity to play though. Brian McBride SC -- McBride is a dangerous striker who will take a regular turn in the rotation. His durability is a question however. Delvin Countess GK -- Countess has a bright future, but will spend this year in the reserves. Ryan Cochrane D RC -- Ryan is a little bit unknown. He'll spend the year in reserves, but he might have a future with the first team.

11-09-2003, 08:40 PM	#6
atatange1 High School JV Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: WA state	Great start, very interesting. Aren't you going to have a problem with non-EU's? I think the limit in Spain is 4.

11-09-2003, 08:53 PM	#7
Sloan High School JV Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Michigan	I just got to my first game and you are correct, the limit is 4. I'm going to see if I can find an editor to make the US part of the EU.

11-10-2003, 08:41 AM	#9
Sloan High School JV Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Michigan	I found some editors that will let me make the USA part of the EU before the game starts, but I haven't found any that will let me do it now. I added a second nationality to some of the players and this seems to have worked, but I think I will start over anyway. I only played a couple of games and I don't want some of my players being called up to other countries national teams. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for v2.0!

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