Five thousand BFC Dynamo fans were on their feet, screaming and yelling as loudly as they could. Most of the thirteen hundred Dusseldorf fans that had travelled for the game were already making their way to the exits.
“Why hasn’t he blown the whistle?” Uwe yelled, looking at his watch.
“BLOW THE GODDAMNED WHISTLE REF!” Sasha screamed. A few seconds later every fan still watching held their breath as the ref brought his whistle to his lips, and then blew three loud blasts. The fans got even louder, more than a few jumped the rails, and headed towards the pitch to celebrate. Dynamo has just beat Dusseldorf 3-1 on aggregate, a result only a few pundits had thought possible.
Promotion was a surprise. I didn’t expect us to draw at Dusseldorf, not when we had 4 shots, 2 on target, and an xG of .16, but our back four and Owusu-Odoro in goal were very good, and we escaped with a 0-0 draw.
If you had told me we would be 3-0 up at the half, I would have asked what you were smoking and why weren’t you sharing, but we were. It’s not that Dusseldorf was inept, they were statistically speaking very good, but poor passing and defense did them in, and we dominated possession.
They guys chose the right game to give their all, and we were promoted to the Bundesliga, a couple of years ahead of schedule…
The good news is this can only help us financially. Finishing 3rd earned us €16M in prize money, and while the board was a bit…conservative in giving us just €4.05M in transfer money, we have 3 million extra in payroll to play with as well.
On one hand, we were a well rounded team. On the other hand, while I despise relying on just one player for everything, it would be nice if a couple of players at least tried.
Injai and Rodic both had OK seasons up top, but the more I look at Rodic, the more I believe his Fickle personality is really holding him back. I’ve had him in a mentoring group in the hopes that he would “change” it somehow, but so far for every very good thing he does on the field, he does about three things that make me want to pull my hair out, and there’s really not a lot up top to begin with. Honestly, depending on who comes after him and for how much, and seeing who else is out there available, I can see myself moving him on.
Zidane Iqbal was the Player of the season. A solid presence in the midfield, he could have easily had a few more goals, assists, and POM’s, but he played of CM very well. Am I worried he had the most assists on the squad with 5, yes I am. Owuso-Odoro was very good between the sticks for us, so much so that I am considering asking AZ if they would be willing to sell him this upcoming transfer window. If the price is right, it could be well worth it, and a key part of us staying up next season. Mikael Bjork was very good, to the point other clubs are seriously looking at him, and I am very happy with Kennedy Lobo’s progress this season. Everyone else did pretty much what I expected of them, and that’s not a bad thing, but it would have been nice to see a couple of them….overachieve.
Am I confident we are going to stay up? Sort of. I tend to be very pessimistic about such things, but I am trying to be better about that. I think we have a solid foundation, and with some good player moves and loans, we have a better than good chance. At this point I have no problems with Dynamo being a stepping stone club, and if a good player want to come here for a couple of years to show themselves of and possibly make a bigger move in a season or three, I am OK with that.
Oh, and to kind of help with that, I’m starting to get the band back together. No, he’s not the best coach, but he’s Dynamo Family.
“Can we stay up?” one of the board members asked.
“Depends,” Nicholas replied, holding a drink in front of him. “Anyone planning on a new stadium?”
There were several smiles, but more than a few people looked away, most of them holdovers from the previous admin.
“The money helps, immensely,” Aleksander Szymański, the teams GM said. “But there are things we would all like to see happen, and we have to prioritize.”
“Training Facilities,” said one person.
“Youth Coaching and facilities,” said another.
“Recruitment,” said Nicholas, quite firmly.
Everyone stopped and looked at him.
“We have good scouts,” he said after a few moments of thinking. “And they’ve found us some very good players on a budget that until recently can best best described as ‘shoestring’,” he said.
“But,” he said, standing up and going over to the screen on the wall, “We can’t compete with the big clubs. Yet.” He turned it on, and after a few buttons pushed and some manipulation, he had a map of the world showing, and where their scouting was concentrated.
“We need to expand our network, world wide. We need to hire young, hungry scouts willing to go the extra mile for not a lot of money, we need to find diamonds in the rough, get them here, train them up, and if necessary be ready to sell them huge profit. We also need to expect we are going to miss on a few.”
“That’s going to take time,” President Biermann said.
“Time we have,” Nicholas said, looking at the map. “We need to build up our reputation, work to make this a club players want to come too and stay at. I think we are on the right track for that, but we also need to be cognizant of the fact that we may should not try to buy our way to success, and we can’t rely on developing our own as a way to success, it has to be complimentary. And right now we can get ahead quicker on scouting than we can anywhere else, and for less money”
There were murmurs of agreement from around the table.
“Lets put a plan together,” President Biermann said. “Needs, Wants, Desires, and we all agree on the process going forward. That said, we aren’t going to get anything solved right now. Think about things for a day or three, and we will have another meeting.”
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