forameus

Expecting loyalty these days is naive though. The boy's clearly very talented, and at 16 he's got his whole life ahead of him. Does he decide to stick with Scotland, where he's grown up and hope to either come along for the ride as we have a revival, or cause one himself? Or does he look at his career as a whole and realise that he stands to be far more successful - and more importantly to him I'd imagine, far richer - by representing where he was born? Expecting loyalty or "patriotism" is all well and good, but it's not really realistic now. Players are quite happy to sack off international football completely in favour of club football, so why do you expect them to care so much about something like this? But as far as I know, this kind of stuff is fairly common at youth level. Several players have represented both, flitting between them at will. He could still end up playing for us, or he could turn out for England. I suspect if he's as good as he could be, he'll play for them, not us. It's his choice, let's concentrate on people that actually want to play for us.

I think I'm going to pick him up as my bring-him-on-for-a-laugh player. He's not going to be particularly expensive (I'm still shocked at how reasonable Forrest continues to be) and he'll be tremendous fun being the mental bouncy ball of strength that he is.

While it's obviously annoying given it's against us, it was absolutely magnificent shithousery not seen since the days of Cerny. I can always appreciate that level of mugging off the referee as he does his pathetic "I'm pointing at my watch" routine.

Immediately bought him, he's incredible again. Managed to get him in my starting team on 7 chem to save having to bring him on each game. Bought Fraser too, bringing him on in the Forrest role on the left. Don't think he's quite as explosive or as good as the Forrest card, but still a great option to have.

Yeah, from Reddit it seems to be Team of the Knockout Stage, so I suspect that'll include teams that are already out. Heavily rumoured that Ronaldo's in it, so it's certainly not just semi-finals. Every team already has their live cards still.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I got him for. His 81 was brutal to use without a stat boost. 86 will be very useful in the higher-rated SBCs that don't need chemistry. No chance of linking him to anyone useful.

I had a spare hour or so last night, so decided it'd be easy to get the James Collins objective. 7 goals with an Irish player on at least Pro level Squad Battles. Easy, right? Picked up the 81 IF James Collins to do it, then immediately forgot to put him on the bench for the first game. Forfeited, leaving me with three 83+ squads to beat. And of course, the AI decided to start randomly swinging. I know it's complete fantasy, but it almost seems like the AI knows what player you're trying to get goals, and completely nerfs them. Especially when he's a lumbering mess to start with. Wanted it done in two games, but it took four. 1 goal in the first, 2 in the second, and then after remembering attribute boost cards, he got a hat-trick in the 3rd. Had a chance in the last minute of the 3rd to get the clincher, but hit a ridiculous fresh-air shot several yards from the ball. Aye. Clinched it on the final game, against the featured squad. Failed that and I would've missed out, wouldn't have had a chance to complete before the refresh. Up against the 92-rated, and wee moments Maradona on coke, but big Jimmy got a hat-trick to clinch it. I hate these objectives, but I kind of love them at the same time. EA just keep dragging me back in.

You massive VL Decent willpower though, no chance I'd be able to keep hold of them

Nice team. I loved that 4-3-3 too until I saw the light of 3-4-2-1. With you on the coins. I packed and sold Prime Maldini after finally getting up the courage to say goodbye, and immediately ploughed the money to fill other spots. It improved the side, but once I decided I wanted to go in a different direction, I sold, I think, 3 of the 4 I bought for a pretty huge loss, to the tune of about 500k. It hurt. A lot. Been pretty much exclusively untradeable ever since. Still though, with all the VLs who finish their Christmas dinner, and start saving packs for TOTS, just do what lets you have fun. If that's keeping all the coins and rifling them through TOTS, go for it. Or just splurge it on a player you'll rage-sell at a loss.

I forgot about Weah actually, got him in my club. If you expand out to Scots + Scottish Premiership it looks a bit better. You can put Boyata in obviously, along with Weah/Morelos. If there's ever a need to kick down your rating for anything, I'd definitely pursue having at least Forrest/Fraser and one other up top. I just fucking love that Forrest card.

I fancy picking up that Fraser to have on the other side as a sub when I bring on Forrest. They look very similar players. Pity Morelos only got an 82 for the League SBC, and more of a pity that he's fucking shite. Imagine a Scottish only team would be looking quite good about now EDIT: Just checked, and...well it's still not very good. Forrest/Fraser on the wings, but if you want to go Scottish only then McBurnie's your best option. Decent range of IFs but not exactly top-of-the-line. 82 rated squad with Tierney on 5 chem at CB

Boateng's not bad, decent FB card, but obviously not the one you want out of that. I did it and got Sturridge. Good player, but again, not remotely what I wanted.

Not enough Champ IMO

Did Schmeichel's SBC after seeing he was quite a significant upgrade over even 89 Szczesny. Glad I did, he's an absolute colossus. A few ridiculous saves, and they've definitely got his distribution down. Pretty sure he could throw it out the stadium if he wanted. And I know it's obvious to say, but Cristiano Ronaldo continues to be a ridiculous cheat code of a player. He has quiet times, but it's weird to have a player that you just know will score if he's in the box. His shots, no matter what kind, are unstoppable.

Not sure if it's spoiling to say something hasn't happened at tapings, but...it hasn't. They're still got the belts as far as I can tell, even after the tapings after WM. But I feel fairly sure that I'm not over-egging it to say that this is the worst thing they've ever done.

For me it's Bannigan. Not exactly sitting their with stellar standout performances (although who has in our team?) but he's made a huge difference since he's come back. But it's hardly a strong field, really. Anderson started out well, but has also been dreadful at times. McDonald is probably our best player quality-wise, but he's been here for what seems like 5 minutes. It's quite damning if that's our best. Penrice...again, he's been alright, but can't really remember him doing anything that special. Spittal is probably the closest to Bannigan for me, but again, it's a big meh.

I did one and got Renato Sanches. He's not that bad, but I think he's the joint-worst option ratings-wise you could get. That SBC has to be one of the most blatant coin-sinks they've ever done. Great potential to get something out of it, but the requirements are insane, particularly the chemistry. I got Allison on the upgrade, which helped, but I think I needed to buy 4 players to make up the rest to save me from fruitlessly piling through upgrades to try and get specific players.

She's lucky she went out. Hulk Hogan was there, and given his history with making sure people made it to the ring after a strop, he could have knocked her about a bit.

EDIT: Yeah, you're right. I got the two mixed up. I now demand an extra Swaps player for the inconvenience. EDIT2: Even more annoying, although my Rivals score is probably now decent enough to reach Tier 3 without playing another game all week, I do have to play Squad Battles now to get the 4th available player. f**k sake.

Wasn't it in Online matches? I did initially think to just do it in squad battles, but I'm sure I saw the online part of it

Finally finished the Swap objectives, and I'm a shell of a man. The Colombian one wasn't too bad, finished that earlier in the week, and the playing a number of games was obviously not too bad. But that win by 2 goals...f**k me. Lost a few chasing the big win, and had several where I managed to win by 1 (including a 93rd minute goal against that denied me). Also found my first wee man messenger after a game. Clearly the better player, but after taking the lead in the 5th minute, he shushed all over the pitch then ran to the camera. Went 3-0 up, doing the same each time, think by the 20th minute. Calmed down after that, and I played a bit better, but only managed to get it to 3-1 by the end. Messaged after complaining about my "p2w team". A couple of messages questioning whether he was over-compensating for something, and his reply of basically "no you are" and he pissed off. What brings people to think "I'm going to message this complete stranger and show what a poor loser/winner I am"?

That is quite interesting. I could see it working for NXT, as Ranallo genuinely adds something I feel, even if it is just him losing his shit regularly. Anywhere else in WWE though...yikes. Not sure many people would be that interested in adding Cole and the Gang to their live event experience. More interested if they overlay what Vince is saying into the feed though.

Probably on top of the foot of the nearest player who is "two weeks away from returning"

This. There is pretty much no-one on their roster, or in wrestling around the world, that they couldn't make something of with the exposure and reach they have. They just need to write him correctly. You can write a story that makes anything enjoyable and believable. Unfortunately, they seem to struggle with that.

Me missing Fastlane has fucked me, hand-in-hand with getting WM completely wrong. Boo.