Der Bär Wird Wieder Brüllen, The Ninth Season, Part Three
“We stayed up, right?” Sasha asked after finishing her beer.
“We did,” Heinrich replied around a mout full of food.
“Why does it feel like we did worse this season.” Sasha said, putting her hands under her chin.
“Because Gomes went to Brentford for 3.4 Millon?” Uwe replied?
“Because we finished with 1 less point than we did last year but also finished 5 places lower?” Heinrich said.
“Yeah,” Sasha replied, grabbing a fry and munching it down.
“You have to admit Petrov looks likes a good replacement for Gomes-” Heinrich said.
“Until he leaves-” Sasha interrupted.
“Oh for crying out loud,” Paul said, sitting back in his chair. “Honestrly, if you had told me ten years ago we’d be bitching about finishing 13rd in the Bundesliga I would have taken you all to get drug tested, than throw you in the psych ward.”
“You can’t, all the psych ward doctors are on the medical staff, it’s the only explanation as to why they had so many injuries,” Sasha said.
“And despite that we stayed up. right?” Paul said.
The table grumbled in assent.
“Look, lets be objective,” Paul said. “Is the club in a better position now than it was this time last year player wise?”
“Yes.”
“Yes.”
“Maybe.”
“Always the pessimist, eh Ulrich?” Paul said with a smile. “Look, every year since Coach arrived, we have gotten better. We got promoted out of the RegionalLiga faster than anyone expected, we got promoted out of the 3.Liga and Bundesliga 2 faster than anyone expected, and we’ve stayed up since coming into the the Bundesliga. And that’s with one of the smallest payrolls in the league, not to mention we’re near the bottom, when it comes to things like marketing and other income streams.”
“And the facilities have gotten better,” Uwe said.
“As has the scouting,” Richard said, having finished eating. He rarely spoke until his plate was clean.
“And coach signed a new contract,” Uwe said, and the table nodded.
“Yeah, Gomes signed a 4 year contract as well, didn’t he,” Sasha said with a tone that said she didn’t want a reply.
The table agreed with a series of grumbles and other noises, and Uwe raised his hand to get another round.
Everyone’s phone buzzed, but only Paul looked at his, and he sighed.
“What?” Uwe asked as the waitress came over, mugs of beer balanced on a tray.
“Zane Iqbal and Beskitas have agreed to terms, he will sign with them when the window opens…”
Richard was quick enough to stop Sasha from throwing her mug in ager, but that just meant her cursing was louder.
The transfer window was the transfer window. 12:01 hit, and the club received like 35 offers for Gomes. I accepted them all, and put the onus of which team would be the best fit for him in his hands. Well, I did not accept any of the offers for teams in the Bundesliga, but there were only a few of those, most of the offers came from clubs in Spain and England. Brentford wouldn’t have been my first choice, but there were worse options out there for him. That he waited until the last day to leave was a bit galling though, I will admit that.
The only other out of any significance was Molde activating the release fee for Hugo Swift, which was unexpected to say the least, but given the season..
On the Ins, Sergio Gonzales first popped up in screenflow, having played for Chile in on of the many South American U19 tournaments. The screenflow report was good enough to convince me to send a scout to look at him, and when the final numbers came back, I made an offer, Audax accepted, and he was in Berlin a few days later. He’s a very good wingback who is just versatile enough to be mediocre in about 6 other positions, and as good as he is now, if he can develop (IE avoid my medical staff) he could be one of the best in the game I think. His Positioning, Tackling, Movement, Agility and Endurance skills already make him better than most of my D(L) options, so I may play him at D(C), but I think in 3-5 years teams are going to be making big money offers for him.
Aleksander Petrov was not my first choice to replace Gomes (Mirko Tulli turned down a contract offer to sit on the bench at Inter), but when I saw he was already on my shortlist when the scouting report came thru initially, I realized I had seen him in a screenflow report. Truth be told, he may not ever be much better than he is now, but then again his Final Third, Ball Control, Movement and Quickness attributes, not to mention his Agility and Determination, already make him one of the best young Strikers in the game IMO. Levski Sofia could have asked for more, and I would have sold a couple more players to get him.
Roy Ruizendaal is a player my local (IE Germany and Austrian Scout) found at FC Leifering, better known as one of the feeder clubs of RB Leipzig and RB Salzburg, and having one of the best Youth Setups in the game as a whole. He has a good future I think. Then I finally saw his injury report, and he’s had 20 injuries since he joined the club out of their youth system in 2026, mosr were of the 10 day to 2 week ‘Moderate’ injury, but that was before the torn hamstring he suffered in July of last year. I will admit signing him is a risk, but the reward is high IMO.
Matteo Anelli popped up in the Agents advertising their players post, and while he may not ever be much better than he is now, what I was looking at was his versatility to play all the defensive backline positions fairly well. Is 1.5 Million for a player whose never played above Serie B football too much. I don’t think so, but I’ve been wrong before.
One thing I haven’t mentioned in previous recaps has been the Youth Intakes, because frankly they haven’t produced anyone who I think has a solid future at a top level club. That changed this year with Juri Jaspert. If I had to guess, I would say his PA is in the 140-150 range, but the fact that he can play either side of the defensive backline makes him quite valuable in the long run. He may never see a ton of first team playing time here, but I would like to think that if stay on top of his training, I can move him in the future for some decent money.
We really tried our best to throw the season away. Between the five-seven players I had injured for most of the last half of the season, the January transfer took way more time to get thru considering the number of players that left and came in, and our form took a nosedive. I was hoping some of the younger players might step up, but in the end it was the veterans who saw us thru.
Petrov’s goal against Mainz was good, and I was hoping it set the table for more, but in what was going to be a theme for the rest of the season, our defense could not hold as Mainz got a 91st minute equalizer. HSV came back to draw, and while beating Bayer 04 6-1 was nice, it meant we broke their 5 game winning streak against a mostly B squad…to be fair, if I was the Bayer coach I might have played a mostly B squad against me too. Union went ahead, and then we were behind the proverbial rock because Sergio Gonzalez got himself sent of on a Red, but Petrov’s 87th equalizer was very nice.
Then February hit us like a ton of bricks.
RB Leipzig thrashed us, they should have won by more. HSV nocking us out of the Pokal wasn’t unexpected, but we were lackluster all game. The defense couldn’t hold the lead against Frankfurt, and it took a last gasp 89th Rukavina goal to stave off an Augsburg club that’s going to relegated one way or the other. Hoffenheim embarrassed us, and at this point I was starting to worry, then the March games happened and I really began to worry.
Anelli getting sent of in the 47th minute just made Freiburg’s job easier, and while Tiozzo’s 2 goals in the first 22 minutes were nice, our defense yet again fell apart in the second half allowing Wolfsburg to equalize and claw the draw back. Nalso scored for BMG in the 14th, Rukavina equalized in the 16th, Brekalo scored for BMG in the 83rd, Tiozzo equalized in the 90th, and while we were still celebrating Naldo scored again in the 91st minute. Thanks you FM Gods…The Koln game was terrible, a boring affair where both teams tried to lose, and both teams were so bad they couldn’t. Herha dominated us, and then finally, thanks to a resurgent Esposito, we beat HSV, and avoided relegation.
Tying a very good Borussia team was OK, but Petrovs brace gave me a lot more confidence towards the future, even if Bayern’s C Squad shut us out 3-0.
Payroll was set at €34M, and the transfer budget at €13.84 Million. Workable, but then to be honesty I am not sure where I am going to spend it all.
I think we are at the “Tipping Point” phase of our stay in the Bundesliga, in that I have some good players, but if I want to finish higher, I need to spend some money and bring in some quality young players and good veterans, and while I am loathe to give up on players quickly (see Mile Rodic) then maybe moving a player on after only a year or two would not be a bad thing? They say perfect is the enemy good, but I am not looking for perfect, I am looking for ‘Very Good’…
While Tiozzo and Esposito are capable scorers, I can’t expect the offense to go to them. Thru them, yes. When Gomes left he had 10/6, and while I don’t expect Petrov to be an assist machine, 15+ goals would be outstanding. Not starting Barros for more than 2 games might be criminal, but given how poorly we were doing, and that we were in a relegation fight not starting him may have been the better option, same thing with Essomba, but at some point, in order for them to show me what they can do I have to let them play. This year was the first time in a long time I went with age and experience over youth in an effort to stay up, and while that worked, it wasn’t exactly satisfying.
If you can’t play scared, you shouldn’t coach scared. Next season, we are going to do things differently.
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