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Interview with bimbobob

Written by bimbobob

This is an interview with bimbobob, the manager of Angry Death's Hat-trick, who are the other HT-England Cup Finalist in season 67.

You acquired Palegreen Wanderers in September 2003. In March 2007 you renamed the team Angry Death's Hat-trick. We understand that Angry Death was a player (not in your hall of fame yet) formerly a member of the Cunnily named Funts, a team managed by Tom DHT, who now has a Cup trophy named after him. Please tell us a little bit about this, for those that don't know the story?

Sadly Tom passed away in 2007, I became good friends with him on Hattrick through the Football League Supporters Association federation (which, by default, I am apparently now in charge of). Tom was someone who always looked to the funny side of life and decided to create a team full of amusing player names, as you note, called The Cunnily Named Funts. Shortly before his death our teams met in a friendly match, UberThundera (before their name change) triumphed 7-3 with Angry Death scoring a Hat-trick (112437481).

Changing my team name felt like a fitting tribute. After last weeks Cup Thread on the HT-England forum I am considering a name change to Angry Death's Hat-Disorder, I have no doubt Tom would approve. The funts first match under their new guise was (113148914), 4 days later Tom was no longer with us.

Following on from this question, we note that Ask Bitsch (370668828) signed for you aged 18.61. Was there any special trick to finding this funnily named player on the transfer market, or is it just a patient game of waiting and trawling through every listed player every three days or so?

It is simply patience, something I usually lack. It is thanks to Tom that I always try to find players with names that stand out but only if I stumble across them. There is no scouring of the transfer markets, I will search for a player with a certain skillset and if I come across a good name then I will hotlist them. Ask Bitsch should consider himself lucky to be in the team, his skills could be slightly better and I do my ratings no favours by sticking with him.

This season, has seen the introduction of a new SE event engine and man-marking. How has it affected your team, and what further evolution to the game would you like to see implemented?

I hate this type of question, I am not a manager who spends time analysing the finer points of the HT match engine, I do very little scouting of opposition and was grateful when HT finally put the ratings on the team selection page so I no longer needed to use third party tools to get that information. In general man-marking hasn't affected me too much, I have used it a couple of times but dislike the penalty given to my player. Targeted well it can have its uses but for someone like myself who spends a minimal amount of time on team selection it doesn't really offer much. I did briefly consider man-marking for my semi-final against Apostrophe last week but come Tuesday I had forgotten all about it. I am also not an ideas man so have no idea how to improve HT, I am looking forward to seeing the redesign of the site but I fear it will stick to rigidly to the HT design of old and fail to embrace the simplicity that can come with great website design.

Do you play any other games besides hattrick?

I've tried a few over the years but none have really grabbed my interest. I'm more into PC Gaming, my dilemma tonight is do I play Final Fantasy XV (you know i'm far too into computer games because I can tell you FFXV releases on PC in the UK at 5pm) or watch the Cup Final, I'll probably choose the latter because why wouldn't I want to watch ADHT continue its mediocrity in HT.

Are you actually a bimbo?

Probably. I actually hate my username, I came up with it years ago because I was fed up with typing names into websites only to be told my choice was taken and didn't want to add random numbers to it. At the time, bimbobob was unusual and easy to type. I wish I had spent more time coming up with something better, bimbobob is completely phased out of the rest of my life, but for some reason I've not changed it on HT. For the record, my name isn't Bob.

What was your favourite tune/track from the last 12 months?

I love music but I know my taste probably won't resonate with most people. I'm a fan of female vocalists/bands in general but not usually mainstream acts.

I'm going to be that annoying person who lists more than one song.

My favourite track is actually from an all male band, Highly Suspect - Little One (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKcIedFBiVU) but special mentions should also go to

Angel Olsen - Shut Up Kiss Me (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nleRCBhLr3k) and

The Regrettes - Seashore (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iiqf2R462lo).

They are not all from the last year but I consider 12 months as the time frame when I discovered the tracks. Congratulate me for stopping myself listing lots more artists who I think are awesome.

Ed. Thanks Bob.

You've made the semi-finals before (2 seasons ago) and the quarter finals back in s41. In the semi you lost out to eventual Champions Les Philosophes but htms had you as narrow favourites. (609220990) You must be delighted to have progressed to the final at last?

Definitely. As a manager I feel I have underachieved with ADHT. I always felt that random got in the way of my last team build in 2013 when I got stuck in III, but the truth is I didn't build a particularly good squad. I have fared better this time, properly embracing the multi-skilled approach, but I still don't have a great squad that is capable of switching formations at will. I did feel hard done by in that semi-final 2 seasons ago but the match engine does as it will. As I'm playing a Long Shots team in this final, I know that I have a good chance of winning but Shakhtar are one of the better teams in HT using that tactic so there is no clear favourite. Whatever the result, I will be happy to have seen my team progress this far. I did knock Shakhtar out in the quarter final 2 seasons ago (609133557), so tonight is their chance for the ultimate revenge. Now, if only I can build a team that could manage to break into the top division...

HT may not last long enough for that.

Please tell us a little bit about Implausible Buffoons?

My second team in the US is currently progressing through the first stage of a new training regime (defence). I did get up to III but wasn't happy with the squad I had built so decided to sellup and just make a better job of it. The current ADHT squad are close to the end with many older players, so I am hoping Buffoons will start climbing the leagues again to keep my interest up while I rebuild. This season is a foregone conclusion, as I'm in a league almost entirely filled by bots, next season I am switching to the second stage of training (PM) so I'll be buying in some new trainees and hopefully I will be able to hold my own in IV while my midfield gets up to scratch. With any luck, my CA approach will be effective enough to promote.

Your stadium is named after Lloyd Dobler, who was superbly portrayed by John Cusack in the mid 80's classic film "Say Anything" including a wonderful scene utilising "In your Eyes" from Peter Gabriel's "So" album. They just don't make movies like this anymore, or do they?

Not really, I love films where I am pulled into another world and/or people's lives. It is all too rare that I watch a film where I wish I could see it for the first time again, Say Anything was one of those films for me.

These days the money men dictate the films that are made and that means production and resources are poured into "safe bet sequels" (the "Triple A" gaming world is the same). Occasionally, I stumble across something and yesterday was one of those days, with the 2010 film Cherry, in many ways a typically OTT US College flick but the underlying story and characters sucked me in and I was hooked from start to finish. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1315350/)

Most of my favourite films would probably be nowhere near most other peoples top 1000, although there is a lot to be said for the IMDB top 100 list.

Would you rather have sweat that smelled of pineapple or iron fingernails (the fingernails would grow as they normally do just in iron instead of keratin). Please explain your thinking behind your answer.

Fingernails of iron that grow as normal? I'd have to use proper tools for grooming? Sounds like a chore to me and fingernails get in the way of typing. Smelling of pineapple doesn't sound too bad. I'd try to ignore the people around me who constantly discuss whether or not I belong on pizza, anything belongs on pizza if the person eating it will enjoy it.

If you could invite four historical figures to dinner at your house, who would they be?

John Peel (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Peel)
Sir Bobby Robson (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Robson)
Sir Alf Ramsey (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alf_Ramsey) and
Ghenghis Kahn (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genghis_Khan)

Reading those over again I am disappointed in myself that they are all male, but I'm sticking with it. There is no coincidence that three of these people spent a significant amount of time at Portman Road in their lives. I'm sure John Peel could keep us all entertained because that man knew how to tell a story and I would love to hear the thoughts of Ipswich and England's two most successful managers. Finally, I want to find out what Ghenghis thinks of the song named after him and the associated video by Miike Snow (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_SlAzsXa7E).

And what would you cook for them?

Was I supposed to invite famous evil people and then poison them? Seems slightly implausible. I don't cook, I hate cooking, I want food to appear without the cooking part. I'll hire Heston Blumenthal to create something insane and interesting, then order in a takeaway because his previous nine courses amounted to a starter.