“I can’t believe we sold Luca,” Sasha was sitting at the table, head in her hands.
“Are you mad they sold him, or only sold him for-” Lars was asking before he was interrupted.
“5.25 Million!” She all but yelled. The rest of the table sat and drank their beers, the tables around them ignored her outburst, either because they were used to itr or didn’t want to draw her ire.
“He’s worth twice that, if not more,” she said.
“We know,” Hans replied. “But we all knew he wasn’t going to stay long, and who knows, there could be additional fees.”
“You think?” Sasha replied.
“If he’s as good as we think he’s going to be? Yes,” replied Ulrich. “Another beer?” he asked, and she shook her head.
There was a chime, and the crowd quitted down, turning its attention to the flatscreen TV near the bar.
“Coach Schmidt, with the transfer window now closed, is there any other business you can tell us about today with the club?”
“Well Rolf, the late bid for Luca was a shock, to be sure, but we promised him when he signed that he could leave if and when he thought he received a good offer, and while it looks like he may have left for less than his overall value there are some backend clauses I am sure will help make up for any future considerations.” The bar murmured with talk, Sasha was studiously quiet, which could be good or bad.
“Any last minute signings you can announce?”
“Well, yes,” Coach Schmidt said with a smile. “I am happy to announce that the club agreed to terms with Tacuarembó FC to sign Santiago Barros. His name may not be well known here in Germany but my scouting department assures me he is going to be a very good center back in a few years time.”
“A replacement for Luca?” Rolf asked.
“Potentially,” Coach Schmidt said with a smile.
“Well, that’s some good news,” Ulrich said in a hushed voice, isn’t it?”
“And will Barros be arriving soon?” Rolf asked.
“No, as part of the signing agreement, he is going to stay on loan until the end of the season with his team in Uruguay getting first team playing time there, then report here in the summer.”
Ulrich watched as Sasha drew in a breathe to scream out in frustration, as Uwe and Hans both reached out for her. Lars frantically signaled for the waitress to bring more beers.
The only other out in the January transfer window was Teden Mengi, who we got on a free from Morecambe three seasons ago. A steady if unspectacular D(C), he wanted to renegotiate his contract. I said sure, he wanted ‘Important Player’, I countered with ‘Regular Starter’ even though my GM said he was at best a ‘Squad Player’. He pitched a fit, I sent him to Turkey. I have other things to worry about.
It’s not they we are losing, it’s that we are losing without anything to show for it. A Goal, a close fought loss, I can appreciate. Eintracht, Leipzig and HSV are all Top 6 teams, and while Leipzig eked out a win with an 87th Minute Goal, thats a loss I am OK with, because it helps us in the goal differential department.
We made up for those losses by blitzing Bayer, Union Berlin and Werder, buit to be fair if we had lost any of those games I would have been really mad, because they are worse than us, in fact I am not sure but I think Werder was already mathematically regulated at this point.
But as bad as January was, February was good, and I felt confident going into the end of the season. I should have known better.
Six points in our last 10 games. Blech. And the thing is, with the Bayern game, we could have won all of them. Well, maybe the Wolfsburg game as well. And we probably should have lost to Mainz, but a Rodic(!) goal saw us eke out the draw there.
It was just…frustrating. The good news, and it is good news, is that our first half performance meant we stayed up.
And to my amazement, we ended with a positive goal differential as well. How Stuttgart managed to finish above us with a -16 differential I am not sure…well, wait…a 7-4 loss, 5-1 loss, 4-0 loss, OK I see that now…But the better news is 9th place gets us €60.23 Million, which helps solidify our finances. The board is happy, the fans are happy, the team is mostly happy, and I a €30.53M p/a payroll and a €17.59M transfer budget, and my payroll at the moment is €18.4M p/a. So I have money to spend, I just need to spend it wisely.
Not to shabby for a team picked to finish 17th…
Player Performance wise, I am pretty happy with the season the guys put in:
Jose Luis Gomes had a breakout season with 19 goals, and Fall was the best all around performaer with his 8 goals and 11 assists. t Esposito had a fine season, as did Rukavina. Rodic, well, as much as I want to like him, he just goes missing in too many games for me. He is going to be one of those players who could have been so much more, if he wanted to be.
Pavlovic was worth every Euro we spent on him, and he will only get better, and Tiozzo had a decent season, and Frey is showing promise.
As promised, because I didn’;’t have them at the beginning of the season, here’s all the players we signed and how they looked at the end of the season:
Some of the youngsters definitely have promise, and players like Esposito I fully expect to keep things steady until someone younger and better is capable of replacing him. I’m not mentioning the Youth Intake because there wasn’t anyone worth mentioning…
This season was a solid success IMO, despite our falling off at the end. There’s some solid talent, and a transfer budget I can work with, especially with some of the promising youngsters out there…
And Jose Luis Gomes has a 3.4M release clause? Who gave him that?!?
THE FOOTBALL MANAGER BLOG OF FM_JELLICO 