Dinner was overpriced, but as he wasn’t paying, he didn’t care too much. If he was still hungry on the way home, he’d swing by the pub and grab a sandwich.
“The board and I have concerns.” Hans Biermann was a small man whose waist was expanding as fast as his hair was thinning. A Long time supporter of the club, he had joined the board before Nicholas had been appointed, and after the previous election, he had kept a tight rein on the board, including the finances.
“About?” Nicholas said, sitting back.
“The finish last season.”
“We finished a point lower than the year before,” Nicholas replied, drinking his water.
“And Five spots lower.”
“We got lucky that year. I’ve said as much, there were a lot of bad teams, we were the best of them.”
Biermann looked at him thru heavily lidded eyes.
“The board is expecting better,” he said.
“The board is getter better than it’s paying for, including me,” Nicholas said.
Biermann blinked.
“Our payroll is second lowest in the league. Our Commercial income is second lowest in the league. Our transfer budget is in the bottom 5, our facilities are average at best. I am one of the lowest paid coaches in the league. Are you not happy your are getting the results you are paying for?”
Biermann blinked a few times.
“I’ll be honest here Hans, I am not sure what your position is on this. If you are unhappy with where we have been finishing, with where the team has ended up the past couple of seasons, you should be doing more to change that. You haven’t, ergo I can only assume that you are happy to be getting the results you are with the current financial structure in place. You want change, I have to be able to spend more in the market. I have to be able to tell a player we have good facilities them to play at.” Nicholas saw a waiter walking by and asked him for a drink.
“Now, I am not saying we have to spend like Bayern or Leipzig. I am not saying i need a hundred million euro transfer budget to go out and sign one player who won’t help us in the short term. I am saying if you want better results, if the board wants better results, we have to spend some money. Wisely.”
“There are questions about your ability to do that,” Hans replied, as the waiter returned with Nicholas’s drink.
“Hans, as they say ‘Pardon my French” but that’s fucking bullshit and you know it.” He raised the glass and drank everything in one go. “Ever since I took over as head coach this club has been operating on a budget that sometime shoestrings would laugh at. Have I made some bad personnel decisions? Of Course, but that happens in football. If you want perfection you are in the wrong business, and you know that. There has never not been a time where I have presented the board with a proposal that has not been well thought out, well prepared, and well researched.”
Hans stared at him for a moment, then frowned.
“You assume to much,” he said.
Nicholas stared at him for a minute, then pulled the napkin out of his lap and stood.
“Up until this minute, you and I have had a perfectly acceptable relationship Hans. You stayed out of the football side of things and didn’t tell me who to play or what to do. In return you have done some of the things I have asked you in the past to do, and yet for some reason now you are upset at me because I ask you to spend more? So the club and you can earn more in the long run? Do you want to make me your enemy Hans?”
Hans sat back in his chair, shocked.
“You forget your place!” he finally said after a few moments of trying to figure out what to say.
“My place,” Nicholas said, bending down so he could stare the chairman in the eye “Is on the sidelines, coaching the teams I put together with the funds at hand. In nine years I’ve helped this team go from the RegionalLiga to the Bundesliga. I’ve turned down I don’t know how many coaching jobs to stay here, because I was certain the board was on board with the shared vision we both have. Are you telling me the board feels differently?”
“You are not irreplaceable,” Hans said angrily.
“I am not. But once any prospective coach calls me and asks what happened and I tell them, you will not get a good coach here. Oh sure, you might get lucky, but even then unless the club doesn’t change it’s ways the stay in the Bundesliga won’t be long. I would go so far as to say within five years this club would be back down in the RegionalLiga if it weren’t for me and my staff, all of whom would leave with me. And you are forgetting one very important thing Hans.” As he talked, he leaned in closer.
“Elections are coming up. Some of the board love me. The players may not like me but they respect me. The fans love me.” He smiled.
“I don’t have to run against you, but I can find someone willing to, someone who is more than happy to go in front of the press, go online, and talk to people about why Dynamo where it is and why the current state of the club is where it is. That means you, going out in front of the fans, the press, and the public, justifying your position.”
“That’s Blackmail!” Hans said.
“No,” Nicholas replied with a smile. “Blackmail is coercing you to do something against your will and self interests. You like being the club chairman. You want to be the club chairman for a long time. So either help me do the things we need to do to improve this club and stay chairman, or be prepared to fight hard for them to remain the same place. Your choice.”
Nicholas smiled, and then turned on his heel and left, leaving a spluttering club chairman behind him.
I am not saying we are in a bad spot, but we can be doing a lot more, especially with out finances. I remember having to not sign players I wanted to sign because we didn’t have the money, now we have the money and they aren’t letting me spend it. And it makes no sense. But that is football, right?
The transfer window was quieter than I thought it would be, and while we made some moves, we could have been a lot more active. But I am also not in the position where I want to sign a player just to say “Look at me, I did something!” unless I can justify it in some way, and soothing my ego falls somewhere very low on that list…
On the outs, Zidane Iqbal went to Beşiktaş. He was a part time starter for us last season, but wanted more playing time, and I just don’t have it for him, especially as I want to develop some younger players if I can, so after turning down a couple of loan offers, he left.
Luis Quevedo just never developed. I knew when I signed him he wouldn’t get a lot of playing time here, but did loan him out to some very good squads, but he never seemed to get any better.
I have no idea what AZ were thinking when they came after Julien-Lee Magath. I signed him last year for U19 and II Teams depth, on a free. They offered me 220K for him, why would anyone say no to that?. Esteban Abad could never crack the starting lineup. And it seemed for every good game he had, we went missing the rest of the time. That’s not always a bad thing if you are consistently good, but Abad wasn’t. Even his loan spell in Belgium two years ago was underwhelming. I made him available, and Cartegena snapped him up for 400K. Maybe Liga.2 will be better for him.
Flavian Frey was one of those low risk/high reward players, who we bought for 1M from PSG. He was never good enough to crack the lineup there, but maybe he could in Berlin, so why not give it a try? Well he tried, but he didn’t do all that great. There was a possibility he could have made the AM(L) position his own, but he couldn’t, and with better players there I decided to move him on, and Huesca picked him up for 2.6M
I had no intentions of moving Babacar Fischer. We signed him last season for 11.25M, and he was solid for us, given that the wheels almost fell off. He finished with a 6.75 rating and 6 assists, again not world beating but in light of last years season, respectable. The Sheffield United decided they needed a DM and went after mine, offered 23M for him, and he left before the ink was dry. It happens…
Lamine Injai lost a step after his injury, then was crowded out of the attackers. He wasn’t even a started at Braunschweig last season, coming off the bench 17 times, and he asked to leave because he wanted to be a starter. I’m not sure what happened at Banik Ostrava, he went on loan there, then went on loan there again. I blame someone not submitting the paperwork on time…
I’d like to think I am an honest coach. “Yes, you want a star player contract. But your performance says you should be collecting splinters from the bench in both cheeks. Alaster Halfacre looked good, he practiced well, he was a good teammate, he just never did anything to stand out, and as I said above thats not a bad thing, if you are competent at what you are doing. Halfacre’s issue wasn’t that he was incompetent, it’s that other players were better. He wanted more playing time, I told him he wasn’t going to get it, so we agreed on a loan, and Zulte Wagram picked him up.
Roy Ruizendaal needed first team playing time, so he went on loan. Rukavina, as much as I like him, is part of the “Too many lessors” crowd to choose from at winger, but I feel like I owe him, not just for this save, so I sent him out on loan.
On the Ins:
First up, Federico Gonzalez
His best position might be AM(C), but with those Better than Average Movement, Passing, and Final Third Attributes, and with his excellent Technique, I am probably going to play him as a CM. His tackling skills are a bit too low for that, but his traits, especially Dictates Tempo and Plays One Two’s, makes him the ideal pivot player in my formation, and the fact he gets into the oppo are often means I can and will push him farther up, where many an attack will start on his right foot.
Jon Jimenez is the current record holder for highest amount we have spent on a transfer player. So Far. He’s one of those midfielder’s who’s above average at all the DM positions, but his better than average defensive and positioning skills means I’ll probably keep him back at HB or DLP. We probably overpaid for him, in fact one we made our first offer like 12 other teams came in for him, but he chose us, and I think we will get some good work put of him.
With Halfacre wanting more playing time, I needed some solid depth at the D(C) position, but there wasn’t really anyone out there I could afford to go after since we signed Jiminez. Palace listed Guiam Bonfante for loan, and he fit the bill perfectly, especially as all we were doing was covering some of his salary. He’s a perfect player for us, not a full time starter, but capable of being one, and happy enough to come off the bench. Plus he could be a monster mentor for us. He’s not the best D(C) Palace has, but I’ll take him in Dynamo Black and Red for a season no problems.
One of the issues I ran into last year was when the injuries hit, I ended up having very good wingers playing OK striker. I’d like to try and avoid that this year if I can, but in order to do that I need a solid striker who’s versatile enough to play other areas if needed and is OK being a bench player. Enter Mpho Mathenjwa, from South Africa via France. He’s one of those players who could dominate at say, the 3.Liga, but he’s willing to take less money and sit on the bench ion the Bundesliga, and do a capable job if called upon. I am all over that.
Goals for this season: Survival of course. Last year was an oddity, I think, and this year I think we can finish around midtable. I like that we aren’t making a ton of changes, we have a solid group of players, younger guys with potential and older capable players as well. It’s a good mix of players, they are all familiar with the tactic, and if our defense improves, so should our standings, assuming nothing else goes sideways.
BLIVET!
THE FOOTBALL MANAGER BLOG OF FM_JELLICO 