[Football Manager 2009] Criciúma Newsflash: Alceu sold to Coritiba
There had been a number of teams chasing our star midfielder, Alceu. Most of last season he was a wanted man, but I’d almost written off any real bids ever materialising. A £900,000 offer from Coritiba seemingly came out of nowhere.
We signed Alceu for free in 2009 and he was a first team regular and our first choice free kick taker — far too important to let go for cash we didn’t have a pressing need for. Thus, Coritiba’s offer was immediately turned down — even though it matched his valuation.
Undettered, Coritiba immediately came back with an offer of £975,000. At this point I wondered whether this offer might be too good to turn down; I had the very capable Paraná playing his heart out in my reserves and 15 year old prodigy Givaldo in my youth team. I decided to negotiate, asking a rather cheeky £1.4M. That kind of transfer fee could be used for real investment in the club.
Our match with Cidade Azul provided a brief distraction from the transfer saga. As if knowing this could be his last match for the Tigre, Alceu scored in the second minute, with Mateus finishing them off with another goal before half time. Alceu grabbed the plaudits of the press, Cidade’s manager, and man of the match.
The next morning, I was absolutely stunned to see that Coritiba had come back to me and agreed to my £1.4m valuation, and I duly accepted.
There were no complaints from fans or players at Alceu’s departure, however the board were delighted with the cash injection. I plan on hiring a few more scouts, a new defensive coach, and pestering the board to upgrade our training facilities a the the end of the season.
So farewell Alceu, though your stay with the Tigre was short you served us well.
Alceu’s Criciúma stats
- 2010: Played 17, scored 4, assists 2, man of the match 2, average rating 7.28
- 2009: Played 53, scored 12, assists 8, man of the match 7, average rating 7.07
Tags: Alceu, Brazilian Football, Football, Football Manager
wow, there’s always the reluctance to part with your star man, but you’ve made a fantastic profit so it’s really a win-win situation. with the money you’ll be able to improve various departments. nice work indeed.
It was great reading this. It’s very very strange, I also signed Alceu, on a free, while managing Criciuma! I’m still playing my game, in season 2010, and I’d love to know how yours is going, if it still is.
I still have Alceu, valued at £1.4 million, although he’s starting to figure less and less. Thinking it’s about time I moved him on for cash.
@Jarvis that’s freaky! Parallel universes! Yes, I am still playing as the Tigre and am well overdue doing an update on our progress. What does your starting lineup look like?
Well I should start by saying I went about my game differently to yours. You focused on the backroom staff (which I usually do) but I had no faith in the current team so I went for a lot of free transfers, blind buys and hoped for the best. Luckily, a lot of them worked out and for those that didn’t do particularly well, I was able to sell them for decent prices.
I also alternation between 4-4-2 and 4-1-2-2-1 with two advanced wingers, if you can picture that? Current line-up is as follows…
GK – Max
35 year old, bought from Itumbiara for 90k after selling Ze Carlos to Barcelona for a staggering £5 million after he had the same amazing season that he had for you!
RB – Elder Granja/David
Granja, a free from the start, I think I needed to offer him big wages to join, alternated with Patric until he left for Salzburg for 600k. David was my first expensive purchase, coming from Palmeiras for 110k
CB – Neto Gaucho/Evaldo/Bebeto
At the beginning I played with Dagostini and Figueiro, but my scouts found a couple of foreigners, Lucas Bovaglio (90k) and Julio Lopez (free!) Neither were spring chickens so sold them pretty quickly and got my current 3 on frees and bebeto came from Central (PE) for 65K.
LB – Cristiano Teizeira/Guaru
I HATED Wellington. He was quietly reliable but not much else. I signed Cristiano Teixeira for free but he was under-developed. Now, he’s one of my star players. Guaru fills in, signed from Coritiba for 60k.
RM – Renato
Ex-Haifa player! Free from the start. I’ve no idea how I got him to sign and how I’ve managed to keep him but he’s there. My current captain and great player. No real backup but both RBs can do RM.
CM – Goiano/Alceu/Dhiego
First two are defensive and signed for free from the start. Dhiego, probably my third best player, has great physical stats and is overall well developed for the Brazilian league. came from Pao de Acucar for 1k! Previously on loan at Gremio, who didn’t take up the option to buy.
LM – Sandro/Mauricio
Both free, Sandro can do LB, Mauricio can do ST. Mauricio was banned at the start of the game for a year, but I took a blind bet on him coming good. Figured that he wouldn’t be in the game, banned, if he didn’t have some potential. Also, if I waited until he was available to play the bigger clubs would have wanted him. While he wasn’t playing I felt really bad having him because of his wages but now he plays there are big clubs regularly watching him.
ST – Fabio/Sebastian Aravena (Chile)
Fabio was last years goalscorer. This season it’s Aravena. Fabio was free from Botafogo, while Aravena came from Universidad Catolica, also free. If I remember rightly though he was a contract-expiring purchase. He has really good stats for the Brazilian league, but hasn’t been as good as his stats lead u to think he could be. Could be my tactics though. he appears to be on par with Kerrision (as a striker, not a player) but is far behind in goalscoring rankings, currently 14th. In all competitions he’s on a goal every other game (30(3) games, 15 goals) but a good few came in the Santa Catarina, and you know how easy that can be once you get a decent team together.
I’ve a larger squad than that but I think most of the others are regens or not worth mentioning. A special mention should go to Anderson Kanu, who is still in my reserves. He was at most a bench player for me, constantly on the transfer list but nobody wants him haha. With the exception of youth he’s the only remaining original player!
I’m approaching the end of the season, 10 games to go and I’m sitting pretty in 3rd. There’s a gap between myself and Pal & Sao P, who are first and second, with a HUGELY superior goal difference. Below me, it looks like anyone can really beat anyone. The bookies actually have me favourites to beat Flamengo at home!
Having to deal with a bit of unhappiness in the camp so all is not well. I’m definitely gonna sell Renato if I get a good price, somewhere above 5 or 6 million.
Finances, we are more than stable due to my transfer market dealings. I’m nearly always over my wage budget which isn’t a good thing but with as big a squad as I have it’s to be expected. Balance is £4.5 million, club valued at £19.5 million!
@Jarvis you gutted the club! Hahaha! I have to say, I’ve done that a few times myself in previous FM games.
Poor Anderson Kanu! He still regularly starts for me and does a capable job. Wellington still gets the odd match too, but I do agree he is unspectacular — especially compared to Patric. I still regularly start Zulu, too — although I must admit his erratic form is starting to get annoying. I can’t seem to find another striker who he works well with. Ze Carlos is still keeping goal for me. Hanging around the reserves still are Evandro, Parana, and Maicon.
I’ve made some new signings this season, which I’ll update in my next post. Some more successful than others, I have to say! I’ve put a lot of money into youth development and have convinced the board to back me with better facilities. I’ve also poached some excellent youth coaches.