[cklarock]

Hold Fast Ye Mighty Vale

This thread will be a continuation of my previous Aylesbury Vale story. The prior story was played on PES6, and as I just picked up the hardware to let me play PES2008 (I live in the relative PES-hinterland of the United States), I've decided to continue the story of my fictional Buckinghamshire club as my first PES2008 Master League.

At the time I created Aylesbury Vale, I had no idea that there was an actual Aylesbury Vale Football Club, founded in 1930, and currently playing in the Spartan South Midlands Premier League. In an eerie coincidence, I'd pulled Claret and Sky Blue as my AVFC's primary colors, as well as named their ground Friar's Road, which is apparently a real place in Aylesbury.

Since PES won't let me start play in the Spartan South Midlands Premier League (damn you, Seabass!), we'll have to assume an alternate past for AVFC, once that involves them making the decades-long slog up through the English Football pyramid, all the way to the top . . .



. . . and most likely, back down again.

[brewcity77]

I missed the first one, ckla. May have to go back and check that out...

But nonetheless, good to see you doing a story. You've always been a great contributor to other stories (Harchester consortium 4TW!!) and I can't wait to see what you do with this. Best of luck, my Yankee friend .

[cklarock]

Thanks mat . . . uh, I mean, 'dude.'

[cklarock]

System: PlayStation 2.

Option File: Montyblade's Championship OF, edited with Compulsion's legendary PES Editor, to re-create Aylesbury Vale.

ML Defaults: In order to enjoy my game a bit more (and keep some of the defaults around a bit longer), I increased the 1-99 stats of all the default players by 4 points. This reduces their overall suck just enough to make it a good challenge for my skill level, without making them better than they are supposed to be (second-division journeymen). Additionally, some of the players have been reduced in age to make them better long-term prospects.

Game difficulty: Top Player
Master League difficulty: Hard
Transfer frequency: Normal

Transfer restrictions: Vale cannot make an offer for a player ranked higher than the club (on the D-A scale). Additionally, if a higher-ranked side comes in for a player, and offers the listed price or greater, he must be sold. Unaffiliated players (free agents, players with no team, etc.) must have two or more stars before an offer can be made.

[cklarock]

The Story To Date

1994-2005
Buckinghamshire minnows Aylesbury Vale complete a magical decade by fighting all the way into second place in the Championship, making their first ever trip to English football's top division. Tears are shed, roses strewn, and debt incurred.

2006
Vale struggles in the top-flight, spending the season flirting with the relegation zone and never placing higher than 13th. The Hold Fast story begins with the final day of the season, when Vale lose to Manchester City and are sent back to the Championship in crushing fashion.

The drop forces Vale to sell of the cream of its playing crop, including captain Ben Stevens, and ace striker Park Chu Young. The Manager Wes Halbrook is sacked, and a short list of replacements grows embarassingly shorter as the usual suspects rule themselves out of the running.


2007
Vale finally appoint new manager Ian Holloway to pull the disheveled organization together and mount a run at a return trip to the Premiership. Unfortunately, the club is plagued by financial wrong-doing and scandal, and are forced to sell off large parts of their roster just to keep an even keel.

The club chairman Nathaniel Leach is also indicted for fraud and de facto bung payments. He hires Juventus' solicitor, hoping to also get away lightly after dragging the game through the mud.

The club's dire financial straits force the team to make a fire sale of its players, letting go such glittering lights as Giersen, Lothar, Hamsun and Ordaz.

As if all that trouble wasn't bad enough, Espimas was released to tend to family matters back in Spain, only to turn up at Bayern Munich a few weeks later!

Despite his rapidly shrinking roster, and against all expectation, Ollie is able to squeeze the lemon of Aylesbury's youth program and field a team that includes the wildly popular Castolo, and manages to scrape through into a promotion spot despite losing on the final day.

Castolo throws a mammoth party to celebrate, very nearly getting arrested in the process, and a few days later is sold to FC Porto for the princely sum of 8 million pounds.

Negotiations with Huylens break down, hinting at some trouble beneath the calm surface of a promoted side, but in the end, the temperamental dutchman is persuaded to spurn an offer from Newcastle United, and re-sign for Vale.

2008
Aylesbury Vale acquire a veritable United Nations of new players, including Trinidad and Tobago international Chris "Me Mum" Birchall, Brazillian striker Ailton, Greek forward "Sally" Salpingidis, and Italian side-back Balzaretti (and are they ever!).

As the story begins, Ollie welcomes the players back from holiday and they prepare to make their second trip to the top flight, determined this time to Hold Fast.

[Ajacied_Breda1]

Chris "Me Mum" Birchall, Brazillian striker Ailton, Greek forward "Sally" Salpingidis, and Italian side-back Balzaretti (and are they ever!).

Gotta love 'em nicknames!

Good luck.

[Mnch]

Yes! Ckla is back

Loved the layout of your old story, will it be the same or a bit more surprising?

[Evo King]

Glad to see you back ck.

Your last story was quite possibly the most underated story on PESFan and was great while it lasted. I'm sure this will be just as good, if not better.

Good luck man.

hmm, I wonder if Chris Kennedy will re-surface from hiding and somehow turn up in Aylesbury...

[lewis12]

very nice, loving the back story
i'll be following.

[cklarock]

Originally Posted by mnchster

Loved the layout of your old story, will it be the same or a bit more surprising?

For now I'm planning to keep it essentially the same.

Originally Posted by Evo King

Your last story was quite possibly the most underated story on PESFan and was great while it lasted. I'm sure this will be just as good, if not better.

Thanks a lot!

Originally Posted by Evo King

hmm, I wonder if Chris Kennedy will re-surface from hiding and somehow turn up in Aylesbury...

God I hope not, I want Aylesbury Vale to be *successful*!

[cklarock]

Bungs force reloading in Aylesbury
Holloway surfing the tides of change


Aylesbury Vale has all but announced the departure of seven players who, in a stunning turn of events, have had their contracts nullified due to criminal fraud on the part of their agent and the club’s former chairman.

The seven names currently being circulated are less than the original nine players implicated, but two of the nine were in essence defined legally as bad deals within the realm of reasonable failure. Apparently, only seven of the nine had criminally poor contracts, or de facto bung payments involved.

Worse yet, Continental sides have descended like vultures and picked through the remaining Vale roster. Seven players have been sold during the last year, not counting the five that were lost when the side relegated. Ten of the starters from 2005’s first division side are gone, and a whopping 87% of minutes played on that side have left the team.

Apparently desiring to sync themselves with the tumult and embrace a Zen-like acceptance of the inevitable, Aylesbury has brought in new players for nearly every position on the pitch. But with the departures, Vale is losing blood faster than it can replenish it, and the side looks desperately thin considering the rigors of the Premier League season.

Of particular concern has to be striker, where Vale lost it’s second (some might say first) and third (some might say second) choice strikers Castolo and Ordaz to FC Porto and Atletico Madrid, respectively.

Manager Ian Holloway had been reported to be extremely disgruntled behind closed doors as he watched his veterans snapped up one after another by larger European sides. Thanks to Aylesbury’s flourishing development program, his young players are extraordinarily talented (lending credence to rumors that they, too, will soon be gone), but suffer from the inconsistency of youth. Without maturity to calm inexperienced nerves, Aylesbury may well find themselves in relegation trouble.

And with the recent scandal surrounding the club, success in the Premier League is beginning to look like the only outlet valve for a growing dissatisfaction among the club’s support. In a Christopher-Walken-esque cowbell turn, the management staff at Aylesbury Vale have begun to obsess about the details that mean the difference between one and three points. They have a fever, and winning is the only cure.

Holloway is clearly building a team intended to win immediately, but only the future knows how long he will be at the club to witness the results. It’s no exaggeration to say that the man who calmly shepherded the bleating Aylesbury flock through the darkest days of relegation, embezzlement, criminal conspiracy and the rapacious greed of larger clubs might find his reward to be an ultimatum: “keep us up, or get out.”

C’est la football.

And while it is hoped his dealings are more honest than those of his former chairman, Holloway appears at least to have continued the wildly unpopular practice of selecting a primarily international side. Expect the Vale training ground to sound like a mini United Nations next season, as six new players from six different countries (and only one of them a native English-speaker) join the club.

Predicted finish: 15th, relegated.

[cklarock]

Aylesbury Fail?
Brutal scheduling crunch to begin season threatens to doom Vale’s run before it can even begin.

The English Premier League schedules were released today, and Vale fans immediately noticed that their first three matches are (in order): Manchester United (away), Liverpool (home), and Chelsea (away).

“They didn’t do us any favors, did they?” Ollie asks with the rueful humor that has become his trademark here in Aylesbury. “Whoever it is you need to know to get things done your way, we don’t know him. In fact, I reckon we don’t know anybody that knows him. We might know some people that slapped his grandmother the way it’s gone for us.

“I suppose the bright spot is that at least we get those matches out of the way.”

A dubious advantage at best; taking even a single point from the first three games would have to be considered a success, yet even such a miserly request puts perhaps a bit much pressure to start the season for a side that is only making its second top flight appearance in its history.

“Let’s be honest,” Holloway continues, “we’re not well-liked at the FA. Most of that was from before my time. We made some enemies as a club, and now we’ve got nothing to do but carry on and bear it. If they want to get a boot in, then that’s what they’ll do.

“Do I think we can come out of this with our teeth still in our head? Some days I do. Three games doesn’t usually make your whole season, but this time it may well do. We’ll know where we stand in six weeks, maybe sooner. Our goal has to be to stay up, to snatch the odd point away and go for full-points at home.

“If we get a little luck, maybe we’ll come out of this smelling like one of the big fish.”

One hopes it’s the day’s catch, and not the fish from last season’s remarkable run.

[Mnch]

Ouch, losing seven players and playing three of the Big Four so early? Ooh.

[cklarock]

Originally Posted by mnchster

Ouch, losing seven players and playing three of the Big Four so early? Ooh.

It's going to be ugly.

Add to that mix the meta-game issue that when the season starts I'll have only played about four games on PES 2008, so I'll be learning the game as I go (or don't go, more likely).

Additionally, the players that I'd just bought (Veloso, Ailton, Salpingidis and Birchall) are massively de-valued in PES 2008. They were all top-class in the PES6 OF I was using, but are decidedly average in this version. A step up from the defaults to be sure, but far from Premiership star-calibre.

Could be a long season for the lads down the Two Lions.

[cklarock]

Your 2008 Aylesbury Vale
New faces look to impress in club's second campaign in the top flight

Goalkeepers
GK Daniels
GK Ivarov

Defenders
CB Barth
CB Jaric
CB Spector
CB Valeny
CB Veloso
SB Balzaretti

Midfielders
DMF Adrueh
DMF Dodo
CMF Minanda
SMF Birchall
SMF Ximilez
AMF Kelis
AMF Atherton

Forwards
CF Gabriel
CF Ailton
CF Salpigidis
CF Huylens
CF Freedman