“Next draw, I hope we get cities I haven’t actually travelled to before,” Sasha said. She was sitting at the table, head in her hands, staring at her beer.
“What’s wrong with Italy? Or Belgium, Or England?” Paul asked.
“What’s wrong with Sheffield?” Heinrich asked.
“What’s right with Sheffield?” retorted Sasha, finally giving in and drinking half her beer in one go. “Or Chelsea, Or Milan?”
“You’ve never been to Milan,” Paul said.
“I have too, when I was six.”
“Pretty sure it’s changed since then.”
Sasha looked at him with a bit of side eye. He ignored her.
“Besides, we get to yell at the Man City, Molde, Benfica and Real San Sebastien fans wqhen they show up.”
“Not a lot of fun in that, unless they speak German…” Sasha said.
“New stadium for Juve?” Erich chimed in.
“If I showed you four new stadiums with all the advertising removed, you couldn’t pick out Juve stadium on the first try,” Sasha said, “I swear, they all look alike, metal and glass and no soul to speak off.”
“Like ours,” Heinrich said.
“Exactly,” Sasha said, finishing her beer. “To young, doesn’t have any character.”
“Can always try burning the stand down again,” Heinrich quipped, dodging Sasha’s hand.
“That wasn’t my fault, someone hit me and I dropped the flare and besides, it was only a small fire that was put out pretty quick.”
“Still, the scorch marks lasted until we moved.”
“I know…” Sasha sighed.
“Turn it into something fun maybe?” Paul said. “How many countries jails can Sasha spend the night in?”
He didn’t dodge her slap, which caught him on the head.
The table was quiet.
“I’m not going to Belgium just so I can stay the night in a Liege jail,” she said, crossing her arms.
“Killjoy,” Heinrich said with a smile.
I really think we reached a turning point with the squad. We have some quality players, a few players with great potential, and some veterans that hold it all together. Additionally, given the clubs recent success, were sitting on a huge chunk of money, and have the ability to go out and spend a lot of it on players.
What the board won’t let me do is get a new affiliate, or increase our scouting range, or are Youth Recruitment. It’s highly annoying…
Transfer wise, it was a quiet window. I am not trying to be as reactionary when it comes to moving players who aren’t performing (I think), but rather am willing to give them enough rope to succeed or not.
The only two outs of significance were Iacopo Zappasodi and Martim Fernandes. Iacopo came in and my hope was that he would be part of the midfield rotation, but what game time he did get didn’t produce any results, and then the field got so crowded he ended up being the odd man out. I sent him out on loan in the hopes first team playing time would see his game improve, and while he had good runs at Groningen and Trabzonspor, but neither was enough to convince me he was worth a new contract, so he left on a free.
Martim was a good player for us, club leader, player of the year last year, and came into the office demanding a star player contract. I like Martim, but he’s not a Star Player. So he left in a huff, I put him out there, and Athletico Madrid picked him up for €23.5M. I am seeing this sort of thing happen more in this save.
Leonard Spangengberg is a RB Leipzig product who never cracked the first team, and I was looking for some depth on that side of the field. He’s primarily a winger, and he’s not a bad one, but he also doesn’t excel in any one area. That’s not bad, but then again if injuries foce me to play him at Wingback, I’ve got more problems than I care to think about.
Tim Schau is an absolute steal at €13.5M, I am not sure what caused the falling out between him and QPR, but when he popped up as being available, I couldn’t click fast enough. He’s an elite level player IMO, First Touch, Balance, Passing, good movement, good physicals, and he’s only going to get better. He’s the First Team DM DLP(S), the question is how long can I keep him here before some team with bigger, deeper pockets snatches him away?
Lucas Curbelo caught my eye in the screen flow, when as an 18 year old he was starting for the Uruguayan National Team. Now, I don’t know about you, but an 18 year old midfielder starting for any national team is worth looking at, but starting for Uruguay? I am not sure how Ludogorets signed him for jus €60K, but he sat on the bench last season, which is probably why I got him at the price I did. I think with a lot of First Team playing time, which he will get, he will also be a very good player.
It’s the Champions League. Not sure what I was expecting to be honest, but I certainly wasn’t expecting Man City, Chelsea, Juve, Benfica, and really good Standard and and San Sebastian teams. If we come out of this with less than three losses, I will be very surprised.
I thought about this, for a decent amount of time…
Then I said “Thanks but No Thanks.” We’re building something here at BFC Dynamo, I want to see it thru.
THE FOOTBALL MANAGER BLOG OF FM_JELLICO 