Der Bär Wird Wieder Brüllen, The Seventh Season, Part Three

We survived.

Not because we did well, any other season and the 38 points we achieved would have left us close to if not in the relegation playoffs. No, we survived because Augsburg, Regensburg, Koln, Hoffenheim and Mainz all had horrible seasons as well, and we lucked out by having our last 8 games playing all of them.

The January transfer window was very…Shakespearean: Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. The teams reputation is still not good enough for better youth players at better squads want to come here, and our financial situation is still not great, and I don’t want to endanger that by overpaying for a loan player who may or may not help us in the long run. Our loan January move was loaning Mikael Björk out to Getafe. This was a two fold move, as I wanted to play some of the younger players, and he was complaining about playing time, and Getafe not only was going to pay us €500K for the duration of the loan, I was pretty sure given their own finances they weren’t going to sign him permanantly.

January was pretty good for us. Rodic once again decided he wanted to be a contributing striker, and had a series of games where he performed very well, scoring the winning goal at Stuttgart and having some very good opportunities in other games. The Union Berlin game reminded me we still have a long ways to go.

The win at Bayern wasn’t a fluke exactly, we played well enough, but it felt like Bayern was playing down to our level, a lot of their first teamers sat because of their schedule in the Champions League, but if were being honest, Bayern’s 2nd Teamers are probably a cut above most other teams 1st squad player. They really didn’t turn it on until the last 30 minutes of the game, when some scrappy defense and good saves by Owusu saw us hold on for the win. Is it a good win? Yes. Iconic, save defining? Probably not. We followed that with two good performances against BMG and Leipzig, where late goals in both game beat us, then we laid an absolute egg against Borussia Dortmund. I was quietly hoping it wasn’t a sign of things to come. I should have prayed harder.

Counting the game against BMG, that 5 games without a goal scored. The worst thing is we are on paper and the pitch a better team than Koln or Augsburg, but we played down to their level. Yes, a draw is better than a loss, but those are games we cannot afford to be losing. The bounce back win at Regensburg was nice, as was the win at Hoffenheim, as winning both meant we weren’t going to be relegated. We stumbled against Wolfsburg, but our draw against Eintracht and other results meant they finished 7th instead of 6th, and they missed out on Europa League, instead going to the conference,

The prize money in the Bundesliga is pretty darned good, no Premier Level, but finishing 13th meant a €42.2M payout. In other financial news:

Breaking even is good, and the board put our financial windfall to good use by by upgrading all the facilities. However, while our payroll for the next season is €17.42M p/a next year, our transfer budget is only €8.07M.

There was some bad news as well, as Injai tore his hamstring in May and was going to be out for at least three months. That really hurts, because he was the teams only reliable scorer.

Rukavina, a fall signing, and young Fall each had 5 goals. And as much as I want to like Rodic, his attributes just do not show up on the pitch. When he’s on, he’s very on. It’s just its a rarity for him to be on.

How much time do you try and give a player with that sort of potential when it’s fairly obvious he’s not interested in achieving it?

The summer is going to be interesting. I think we have some good building block in place, and the scouts have found several players who can be a good fit for the squad, if they decide to come to Berlin and play. The scouts are doing their thing, and I have a growing pool of potentially good to great players to start really looking at.

This year was a test, and we passed with perhaps a ‘C-‘, but we passed, and I think we can do at least as well next season.

It wasn’t late, but it was after most other businesses had closed. Nicholas had been reading scouting reports, when the grumbling of his stomach became loud enough to be distracting he realized it was time to call it a night and and headed out to get some dinner before going home.

He had just put his jacket on when the phone on his desk rang. He looked at it for a moment, debating whether or not to send it to voicemail, but then realized he would be checking it out on the way to the car anyways, and picked it up.

“Hello, this is Nicholas,” he said.

“Coach Schmidt, it’s Danny Fogarty.” Nicholas paused.

“Listen, I wanted to call and let you know that tomorrow morning Chelsea is going to send an offer to BFC for Rome-Jayden, they feel his release fee of €4.3M is too good to pass up for a player of his caliber. However, my client has asked me to inform you that he is willing to turn down any contract offer from Chelsea if you would be re-willing to work his current contract.”

Nicholas pinched his nose and held in a sigh. The current contract was a pain in the ass the first time it was negotiated, mostly due to Fogarty fighting for every euro he could.

“The ink on his current contract is less than a year old Danny, and he already one of the highest paid players on the squad,” Nicholas replied.

“Nevertheless-“

“No,” Nicholas said. “I’ll grant you he had a decent season for us this year, but if he wants the type of contract you says he wants he needs to show it on the pitch next season. You have my word, he improves over the summer and into next year, I’ll tear up his old contract in December and sign him to a new one.”

“I’ll tell him that,” Danny said, “But I’m not going to recommend he do that.”

“He’s not Premier League ready Danny.”

“Chelsea thinks he is, Mendy is retiring and they want a good young keeper to take over.” There was a few moments of silence. Nicholas squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them again and looked out his window onto the the practice field below.

“Well, I wish him luck in his future endeavors,” Nicholas said, hanging up before Danny could reply. He waited a few seconds, then placed another call.

“I need you to come to the office and refresh my memory on our goalkeepers list. And stop somewhere and grab dinner, as long as it’s not pizza I’ll reimburse you.”

Der Bär Wird Wieder Brüllen, The Seventh Season, Part Two

“We need a miracle to stay up…” Heinrich said. The bar was quiet, the weather had a lot to do with that, a colder winter and recent snowfall had caused many people to stay indoors.

“We have two in Regensburg and Augsberg. Augsberg has 7 points, there’s no way they are staying up,” replied Heinrich.

“And Ammerbach was voted out, that in and of itself is a win,” Sasha said, finishing her drink. Few tears were shed when the Club President had lost re-election by one of the largest margins in club history. For awhile it looked as if he was going to win again, but an article in Berlin Football Daily on the club mentioned that Coach Schmidt wouldn’t vote for Ammerbach if he could, which led to the boards and chats exploding with theories as to why. Many thought it was due to player and personnel differences, but more than a few thought it was due to the dire financial straights Ammerbach and the rest of the board at the time had put the club in right after their back to back promotions.

“We lose two or three more players to injury, we are going to need that miracle,” said Hans.

“I think we will be fine,” Sasha said, and the table stopped to look at her.

“What?” she said, looking back at them. “I think we were lucky to be promoted when we did. Augsberg is horrible this year, why Zeidler didn’t leave before he was fired is something I will never understand. Regensburg, Hoffenheim and Cologne are all having down years. Yes, we might end up in the Relegation Playoffs, but I think we can scrape by.”

“RUMINT says Reims approached him,” Dietrich said after finishing his own drink.

“Reims and Lazio did,” Sasha said, looking down at the table.

“Reims, no. Lazio…maybe?” ventured Heinrich.

“Replacing Nuno?” Dietrich said. “They say Gallardo is on the shortlist.”

“Reims is having internal issue of their own, two failed takeover bids so far,” Uwe sai, looking at his phone. “Odd as it sounds, staying in Berlin is probably the best move for him.”

“He won’t leave,” Sasha said, “Not anytime soon anyways. If had wanted to leave he would have jumped at any of the offers last year, or the year before. No, he’s here for the long haul, and so are we.” She waved her mug at the waitress, who responded with a nod and headed to the tap.

This summer I am purging my medical department.

All three of these injuries hurt, but Injai and Rukavina really hurt. Injai had 8 goals across all competitions, and was a consistent scoring threat. Rukavina will be familiar to those of you who followed my ASSE save on Youtube, he was a solid winger there, and he has similar attributes this time around. Even better was that he was available on a free, as Burnley had let him go. He came in, scored two goals, then broke his ribs. Blivet.

The one thing that is even more troubling than our injuries is our defense.

It’s obvious I don’t have the quality on the backline. There are bright spots, Montanaro and Owusu, but even I can tell the quality of players we’re facing more often than not are so much better than I have at my disposal. Our saving grace is that there are worse teams in the league this season, so if we do stay up, it’s not because we were good enough to stay up, but that we were lucky to be the best of a bad bunch.

And it’s not the fact that we are losing that has me troubled, I expected to lose more games than we won or drew this year, what’s troubling is that were are getting well and truly thumped. We had a stretch of games early on where we lost 5 in a row, scored two goals and gave up 15. Granted, 4 were against Bayern, but still. And it took a 91st minute Eisenhunt goal to secure a win against Cologne, who are terrible this season.

We had a good run to finish October and into November, but Injai going down really hurt us more than I expected, because I had high hoped for the likes of Rodic and Eisenhunt, but it’s clear to me now that Eisenhunt doesn’t have the skills to be a full time Bundesliga player, and Rodic doesn’t have the mentality. If I could combine them together I’d have a pretty good player, but I can’t.

Werder bounced us out of the Pokal, we had a good win against a bad Hoffenheim team, and then lost three in a row going intro the holiday break, Wolfsburg and Eintracht Frankfurt are good squads, but Mainz is having a down year, and losing 1-0 to them was not what I was looking for.

As December came to a close, as our first half a season in the Bundesliga finished, we sit at 5 wins, 3 draws, and 9 losses. That’s 18 points. Doing the same the second half of the season would be 36, and that may just be enough, but I would feel a lot better if some of these close losses were draws and some of the draws were wins, because God help us if it comes down to goal differential…

Der Bär Wird Wieder Brüllen, The Seventh Season, Part One

The press room wasn’t as full as it could have been, which on one hand was a good thing, a full press room often meant something had gone either very right (a rarity, but it happened from time to time), or something had gone very wrong. A somewhat full press room, that was OK by Nicholas. He pointed at one of the reporters who had a hand raised.

“Yes, Otto?”

“Thanks Coach. How would you rate your chances of staying up this year?”

“I think we have a good chance of staying up. With Rome-Jayden signing our defense is already better, and Luca Montanaro is a diamond in the rough, if he develops he’ll be one of the best I think.”

“You seem sure about that,” Armin Schmidt said. The reporter for Berlin Soccer Chronicle had long been a thorn in the press rooms side.

“You expect me to say we have no chance of staying up, were going right back down?” Nicholas replied with an arched eyebrow. “We are again in the same position we were when we were promoted from the Regionalliga, and the 3.Liga. On paper my team doesn’t look as fast, doesn’t look as technically proficient, and in many ways, we are not. But we play well with each other, one players strengths will help cover another player weakness. Our goal this season isn’t to win the Bundesliga, that’s at least a decade down the road, if not more. No, or goal this season is staying up, and to do that I have to build a squad that will get at least 35 points. With Rome-Jayden and Luca joining an already defensively solid squad, I like our chances.”

“Coach, Luca was somewhat of a surprise signing for the club, there were a lot of other teams that were after him, can you give us any insights as to why he chose to sign here?”

“First team playing time,” Nicholas replied casually. “That and he can use the club as a stepping stone, if he wants too.”

The press room went silent.

Armin laughed, causing the others to look at him.

“You think you’re going to find success like that?” he asked. Nicholas shrugged in response.

“It’s we got to where we are today. Were a low reputation squad in one of the premier leagues in all of world football. I could offer a player twice what they would be earning, and more playing time, that almost any other club in the league, and they would rather go sit on the bench at a Bayern, or BVB, or AZ, or Standard for less money, because the badge means more to them then ours does at this time. We will get there though.”

“Coach, what can you tell us about Mbaye Fall?” asked another reporter.

“He’s got something special. He could be this generations version Keita Baldé Diao, AS Collège Africain Sports-Études is known for developing some of the better young players in the game today, that we were able to get him scouted and signed before any of the other teams did is a testament to the skill of our scouting department.”

The presser ended shortly there after, and as they journalists walked out to the parking lot, Armin heard a voice call out to him. He turned around, and saw it was a new fellow, an Brit name James Pexton who had come over to write for Daily Football. After a brief handshake and introduction, they resumed walking to the parking lot.

“You really don’t like him, do you?” James asked. Armin stopped walking for a second, and looked at the younger reporter.

“Like has nothing to do with it-”

“No, you don’t like him. I am wondering why, if you don’t mind my asking.”

Armin thought about it for a moment. “He’s too optimistic. He doesn’t want to face reality. His team is weak, and he’s going to be relegated this year.”

“Because all your years of experience tell you this?”

Armin stopped and looked at the youngster.

“Yes,” he said with some finality.

Pexton shrugged. “I’ve been assigned to Germany, and I’ve been doing a lot of research, especially into predictions and the like over the years. I would bet this year they will stay up,” Pexton said, as they left the building and entered the parking lot.

“The optimism of youth?” Armin asked, a bit too snidely.

“No,” replied Pexton, with a shake of his head. “Just the every prediction you’ve made about BFC Dynamo since they hired Schmidt as the head coach has been wrong, including your article taking them to task for hiring an “Inexperienced, unknown coach with next to no experience. Makes me wonder who’s not facing reality. See you next conference, Armin, it’s been a pleasure.

As unprepared as I was for promotion out of the Regionalliga, and the 3.Liga, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t dreading this first season in the Bundesliga. There are some world class teams of course, but eben then there are teams that while they won’t get European football, are still very good. Our goal, as it has been for every promotion, is to hang on for dear life.

Trasnsfers In

Signing Rome-Jayden Owusu-Oduro took up almost all of our transfer budget, but he was a solid keeper for us last year, and there weren’t and better options out there I could sign for the same amount of money. There were a couple of loan options available, but I am hoping Oduro will stay for a few years and help keep the defense stable. If only he wasn’t afraif of important matches…this season they are all important.

With the expansion of the scouting department, I hired a scout whose knowledge of West Africa was quite good. Ivory Coast, Senegal, and Niger are the three countries to concentrate on when scouting West Africa, and less than a month later, he sent in a report on Mbaye Fell.

Fast, Pacy, Agile, above average numbers in Technique, Off the Ball, Flair and Finishing, young Fell is a winger you can build a team around.

I won’t be able to keep him, he is just too good, and if her performs as I expect him too, all of the bigger teams will be soon after him. The one saving grace is that I was able to get him on a free, so anything I sell him for is going to be a bonus.

Tino Casali is a decent pickup, a veteran goalkeeper who is a solid backup. Yet another one of those “Solid, if Unspectacular” types who could be a started for some 2. Bundesliga teams. At the moment, the drop off between Oduro and him is not so great, in three years, it will be huge if I guess right, but thats ok.

Luca Montanaro popped up on my Italy scouting report within the first month I sent a scout there. At 20 years old, I think he’s one of the best D(C)’s in the game, and he’s only going to get better. If I can get his dribbling into double digits, and his passing as well, he’ll probably be the best young BPD in the league, and all the big clubs will be after him.

Transfers Out

Hüseyin Çiçek had a disappointing season. The Altinordu product has potential, but after a years worth of training and more than a few games as a starter, I was rewarded with 1 goal and a 6.46 rating. I was planning on using him off the bench, hopefully another year of training would see some improve.

The Feyenoord made an unsolicited offer for him. For €650K. Bye bye Hüseyin.

If there was a liability on the defense, it was Robin Fuhrmann. It’s not his fault, really. I brought him and he was a very good player for the Regionalliga/3.Bundesliga level of football. His versatility at being able to play all the defensive positions made him valuable, but at that level of football, being versatile in all those positions meant he was, at best, mediocre. He had one solid season early on in our Bundesliga 2 campaign, and after that gradually became a defensive liability. I could have kept him on the roster as a bench player/emergency substitute sort of player, but St. Pauli offered €58K for him.

The last player of any consequence leaving was Michel Stöcker. He had two solid seasons, then somehow got it in his head that he was worth a new contract. Usually I am pretty easy going about such things, but then he got it in his head that not only was he going to get a new contract, he wanted to be an ‘Important Player’, which would mean Luca starting on the bench. That wasn’t going to happen. I offered him regular starter, and he walked away. He tried getting the locker room on his side (and I am pretty sure most everyone went “Huh?”) and while I will suffer a fool on my team if he’s a good player (Or a player with potential, see Mile Rodic) Stöcker, for the small fee of €140K, he can go be an important player at Śląsk Wrocław.

Luis Quevedo, Mamin Sanyang, Esteban Abad, and Luis Quevedo all went out on loan, several more players were outright released.

35 points. Depending on how the league goes, 28 points has avoided the drop, but I dread a playoff. We’re a relegation team according to the experts, but we’ve exceeded expectations before.

We can do it again.

Der Bär Wird Wieder Brüllen, The Sixth Season, Part Four

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.”

Der Bär Wird Wieder Brüllen, The Sixth Season, Part Three

“What has gotten into this team?” Heinrich asked for the umpteenth time

“Are you complaining?” Uwe asked. They were sitting next to each other, ignoring the scenery outside the train.

“No, I’m just…”

“We all are,” Sasha said from the seat up front. “Don’t complain about it, other wise you’ll jinx us. How much longer?”

Hans sighed, and your could feel rather than hear his eyes roll. “We literally left the station 15 minutes ago. It’s 128 kilometers to Berlin, so maybe another hour or two.”

“Thank you Hans,” Sasha replied, sitting back in her chair and looking out the window. Hans resisted the temptation to turn back around and look at her, instead he turned enough to see Dietrich looking at him with a shocked face. Sasha rarely said thanks, but since the ‘Bar Incident’ and the month helping clean the stadium out as part of the cleanup crew as penance, she was a lot less quitter and more polite version of herself.

The next fifteen or so minutes passed quietly, they talked amongst themselves about work, and the upcoming games, debating whether or not to travel to Cologne for the game there in two weeks. There was a loud noise, and then the door closest to them opened, and a group of Magdeburg fans, wearing the teams blue and white colors, came in. They stopped short when they saw the Dynamo supporters sitting.

“You lucky bastards,” one of them said, pointing an unsteady finger. “You bribe the ref for that 95th minute foul?”

“No, we bribed Chukwuma to push Eisenhunt when they went up for the jump ball,” Uwe said, rolling his eyes. “Besides, it was a VAR decision, you have a problem with it, complain to them, and then your own player.”

“That was a bullshit decision,” another Magdeburg supporter said.

“Maybe it was, it’s not like you didn’t a few calls go your way back in September, ja?” Dietrich said. “Today was a good game, we both came away with a point, helps you with not being relegated-“
“WE AREN’T GOING DOWN!” a third supporter yelled, stepping forward.

“Goddammit,” Sasha swore. “I was sleeping! Who’s yelling?” She stood up, taking a look at the group of Magdeburg supporters.

“Just a group of supporters upset at the outcome, Sasha,” Heinrich said.

“YOU’RE RIGHT WERE PISSED YOU BERLINER-” The original antagonist started to yell, until the guy standing next to him put his arm around his shoulder, then his hand across his mouth. The guy yelling was surprised, and started to resist, which led to his friend putting him into a headlock.

“You’re Sasha, from the BFC Ultras?” the guy holding his friend asked.

“Yes, I am,” Sasha replied, clearly confused as to what was going on.

“Sorry to wake you up,” he said. “Good game today, nice comeback.” He smiled, turned around, taking his friend with him, started walking to the back of the car. The others followed him, confused as well.

“She’s the one who beat up those three guys at the bar before Christmas,” the guy holding his friend said, before opening the door and dragging his friend thru it.

Sasha looked back from the door and saw everyone in her group staring at her. Then she rolled her eyes and sat back down.

“I’m going to sleep. Wake me when we get there.”

2028 has gotten off to a decent start for us. Transfer wise the window was quiet. Despite some scouting and some offers, the only person to sign for us in the January transfer window was Niklas Kölle. I’m taking a bit of a flyer on him, he’s a ‘Jack of All Trades, Master of None’ type of player who loves big matches but is injury prone, and he’s a bit older as well. He’s going to compete for a starting position, I just don’t know which one yet. He’s had some solid seasons at MSV Duisburg and Hoffenheim II, but last season at Sønderjysk in Denmark he didn’t do so well, but he’s here on a free, and if he contributes, I’ll be happy. On the outs, noone of consequence left.

Schedule wise, 2028 has gotten of to a great start. I think a lot of that is because Mile Rodic finally decided he could score.

The friendly at Cracovia was nice, not only did we get a decent tuneup game against a solid opponent, they also paid us a bit of money to travel.

Munster is the worst team in the league this year, they need a miracle to not be relegated, but Rodic getting a brace in the 4-0 win was definately a highlight. He scored again as we beat Dynamo Dresden, and made it three games in a row when he scored against Schalke in the victory there.

Against Kiel he reverted to his old ways, and then everyone had a horrible game when we played Regensburg. An injury kept him out of the KSC match, but everyone who did play had a mare of a game, Mehri ended up on a 7.1 due to the goal, everyone else was sub 6.7. We beat Darmstadt thanks to a very lucky Injai goal, and then was Magdeburg foul in the last minute of the game gave Nezri a chance to score, which he did, which clawed the draw back for us.

The Winter of Rodic appears to be over, as he went 6.3 in that match. The Spring was just as frustrating.

Drawing at Braunschweig was bad, but considering we had 16 shots, 1 on target, and a 73% possession rate against their 4 shots and 0 on target, despite half the team being 7.0 or better player ratings wise, the only thing that would have been worse would have been losing to a team fighting against relegation.

The 1-0 loss at Koln may look bad, but they are running away with the league this year, and are going to be promoted, so holding them to 1 is a good thing. Rodic had a 6.1 this match, so of course he scores at Heidenheim, and then a brace at Armenia Bielefeld. We’re neck and neck with Bochum in the standings, so a draw is nearly as good as a win, and like the 1-0 loss to Koln earlier, losing to 2nd place Nurnberg by the same amount isn’t too bad either. Kaiserslautern is fighting relegation as well, they’ll need a lot of help to stay up as well, but of course Rodic scored another brace.

I really want to like him, I think he has a ton of potential, but there’s not a lot of ‘in between’ with him, he’s either scoring goals, or he’s invisible.

What’s interesting for us is not only are we finishing top half, but we are challenging for 3rd place. The only games left this season are against a solid Hannover squad, and an 1860 Munchen squad that’s fighting to stay in the Bundesliga 2. Some things go our way, we have a shot at 3rd place, and that would be great, if only because the €16.79M prize money will finally make me feel secure about our finances, and the reputation boost couldn’t hurt either.

Fingers crossed…

Der Bär Wird Wieder Brüllen, The Sixth Season, Part Two

“This season is making my head hurt,” Sasha said, leaning over the table, hands holding her head.

“You sure it’s not the beer?” asked Heinrich, taking a healthy drink of his own.

“No,” Sasha said, looking up. “Maybe it’s the crowd.” The bar was a lot more…active these days, especially after games. When the locals finally realized Dynamo wasn’t getting demoted anytime soon, the crowds started to grow, and more fans started to show up. Some of the joined the Supporters group, others didn’t. A Lot of new faces, a lot of new noises.

“How do we beat Hannover but draw to Munich? How do we draw Munster AND Nuremburg?”

“Cruyff’s Law,” Hans replied, and everyone looked at him. “Cruyff’s Law,” he repeated. “The Ball is Round.” He said it as if it was the answer to everything. “Hey, at least we beat Dresden, ja?” The others all nodded.

“Heinrich, another round please?” Sasha asked, head back in her hands. With a sigh and a smile, Heinrich nodded and stood up, heading to the bar. A few moments later there was a commotion, and the rest of the table headed over to see why.

“Are you illiterate?” Hans asked. There was small group of people huddled around coaches stool, all of whom were looking at him like he was speaking a foreign language.

“The seat was empty,” one of the guys started to say. He was well dressed, a nice business suit, but without the tie.

“And the sign on the seat, and on the bar in front of the seat, and on the wall next to the seat, and the fact there’s forty plus other people here now and none of us aren’t sitting there wasn’t a clue?” Hans asked.

“He sat in Coaches seat?” asked Uwe.

“He what?” Sasha asked, stepping forward only to be held in place by Hans and Uwe’s hands on her shoulders.

“It was unoccupied-”

“For a reason you idiot!” Sasha said, squirming away from the hands holding her. She walked thru the crowd as it parted in front of her. “The sign here,” she said, slapping her hand on the wall next to the chair, “And the sign on the bar, and on the back of the seat, and I bet the barkeep told you as well, but you didn’t care because-” Sasha was standing in front of him, getting ready to scream up into his face some more. She sniffed, and the guy standing in front of her furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

“I smell <sniff> arrogance,” Sasha said. “I smell <sniff> entitlement. Hubris<sniff>, I smell hubris, and <sniff> disrespect.” she said. Then she sniffed deeply once more.

“I smell….Bayern…” she said, looking right at the man. “Admit it,” she said, stepping forward, forcing him to take a step back. “You are in the city on business, maybe even in the area. Wanted a drink and a bite afterwards, came here, saw it was a supporters clubs bar and didn’t care, saw the signs on the wall and the chair and didn’t care, sat your entitled ass down-” she poked him in the chest, forcing him back another step, “Because you think the rules don’t apply to you?”

“Lady, you had best back off-” one of the other men in the group said. Sasha looked around the man in front of her at the one addressing her.

“Or what?” She said with a sweet smile. She leaned back in front of the man standing in front of her, and looked up at him, still smiling.

“Scheisse,” Uwe, Heinrich and Hans all said at the same time.

A second later, the guy who sat in coaches seat was whooping in pain, as Sasha’s knee caught him right in the gonads. He was bent over, gasping for breath, when Sasha grabbed him by the hair, and threw him into the bar, where he fell in a jumbled heap.

“Oder was, guter Herr?” Sasha asked, ignoring the guy behind her, who was now a moaning pile of limbs. “No answers?” she asked. “Fine. Wer ist als nächster dran?”

“I did not have sitting in jail before Christmas on this years Bingo Card,” Uwe said, sitting with his back against the wall. It had been about an hour since they Police had processed them in, and they were trying to get as comfortable as they could. None of them were sure how long they were going to be there.

“I’m sorry,” Sasha said from the next cell over. She was lucky, sort of, as the only female in the group she was in a cell by herself.

“I would say this is the strangest thing to happen to me this year, but there are still days left in December,” Hans replied.

“Hows your jaw?” Sasha asked.

“Fine,” Hans replied. “How’s your hand?”

“I broke a nail,” Sasha replied, voice sad. Uwe couldn’t help it, he smiled.

“They got what they deserved,” Heinrich said. He looked around the current surroundings. “Then again, so are we.” A door opened, and steps approached the cells they were in.

“Alright you lot, your bail has been posted, lets go,” the older cop who had helped process them in approached, and opened the door. They all stayed in place, looking at him. “Fine,” the cop said, “If you want to stay, stay.” He made to shut the door, but the guys all clambered out, and then waited as Sasha’s door was open and she came out.

“I’ll pay you back, I swear,” she said. She was quiet, she always got quiet when she was apologetic. It was rare, which was how the guys knew she meant it.

“Who posted our bail?” Uwe asked, as they followed the cop back out of holding and into the main office area of the station.

“Johann couldn’t have, not this quickly-” Heinrich said, before stopping short, everyone behind him running into him.

“OK, this was definitely not on my Bingo card,” Hans said. On the other side of the office, standing with his arms across his chest, Coach Schmidt stood, staring at them while Klaus was bent over the desk, signing paperwork.

“We’re in it now…” Uwe said.

The season has been a confusing one, but think thats because the team is still trying to jell, because I am still trying to find a starting XI with good rotation, and still trying to figure out what the color of the sky is in Mile Rodic’s world. The kid looks like Tarzan, but he plays like Jane, as the saying goes.

The season got off to a good start. Sort of. Munster is a terrible team, and I thought after we scored we would really do some more, but no, they equalized, and we walked away with a draw.

Against Dynamo Dresden, we thumped them good, Injai getting his second goal in as many games. An Injai Hat Trick against Kickers in the Pokal was very good to see, as was the comeback from two goals down to draw with Schalke. Regensburg has a very good squad, so losing by one to them thanks to a late goal isn’t bad, but a draw would have been better.

We should have beaten Darmstadt, instead it took a 90th minute goal to claw the draw back. Magdeburg isn’t the strongest club either, but their offense was stronger than our defense the five minutes of the game, because that’s when they scored two to take the win. Koln is the best team in the Bundesliga 2 this season, and to be honest as poorly as we played they should have scored more than two. Against Heidenheim, Rodic finally decided to score instead of pass, and yet again again not only did we play down against a superior team in the Pokal, this time Stuttgart, it seemed all the guys except Stocker were in a competition to see who could get the lowest rating. Four of them tied with a 6-1. Beating Bielefeld helps a little bit though.

As a net whole, November and December were very good, Bochum will be fighting for promotion this year so losing by one hurts, but not as much as losing by more than one. Holding Nurnberg to a nil-nil draw was good, as was beating Kaiserslautern and Hannover, but it took Owusu-Odero being a hero between the sticks to secure the draw.

At the halfway point of the season, we are at 26 points, with 7 wins, 5 draws, and 5 losses, which is very good. The problem is the squad is just not jelling. Injai and Rodic do not like playing with each other, while the midfield and defensive line are pretty much set, niggling injuries and the like have made team cohesion pretty much non-existant. I’m still playing the 4-2-4, but noone other than the midfield of Iqbal and Kornvig, and Mengi at WB(R) have stepped up and claimed a spot. I am not expecting someone like Injai to dominate the offense, where every goal comes off his foot (I actually abhor that sort of thing), and more than a few people have stepped up, but unless we get more consistent with how we play, we’re looking at lower mid table again.

The other issue is that any good player who would be able to help the club either doesnt want to come here and/or we can’t afford them, which means the January transfer window is probably going to be a whole lot of sound and fury without signings.

That said, the chances of us getting relegated are slim…

And I just typed that….blivet.

Der Bär Wird Wieder Brüllen, The Sixth Season, Part One

It was a bit windier than usual, which had driven a lot of the spectators back into the concourse, but the usual hardcore fans stuck it out.

“What do we think?” asked Dietrich.

“Top Half,” Uwe and Hans replied at the same time.

“Top Six,” replied Sasha, who suddenly stood up and yelled at a right back who was taking it a bit too easy on the field. Hans sighed, and helped her wrap the blanket around her shoulders as she sat down again.

“Who are these guys?” asked Uwe, looking thru the team guide. Preseason was over, the club was preparing for Munster, and already the summer had seen a decent amount of churn. On one hand its exciting, as the club was not only making moves, but bringing in some players who were pretty decent, at least on paper.

“Stepping Stones,” replied Dietrich. Uwe turned to look at him.

“It’s like this: We don’t have the reputation to pull in better players for less money. We don’t have the money to pay for good players to ‘take a step down’ and play here. So what can we offer a younger player? Minutes. Get them on the field, playing for us, doing a good job for us and-NICE SAVE!”

On the field, Owusu-Oduro had made a very nice diving save on a Rodic volley, getting just enough on it to knock it wide. There was a smatter of applause and cheering that was soon carried away by the wind.

“Anyhow,” Dietrich said, sitting back down, “Where was I?”

“Minutes,” almost everyone responded.

“Right, get them playing time, they move onto other teams, maybe for a nice profit. If they do a good job that is. Or they can choose to stay here, or try and get minutes somewhere else. It’s a balancing act. I don’t envy Coach in the least.”

Holy freaking hell this offseason was brutal. I don’t remember how many players I scouted, how many offers I made, even my usual solid go to countries like Slovakia and Croatia were black holes…and yet somehow when the Window closed, we had moved 14 players out, and brought in 15.

First, the Ins-This screenshot is from later in the save:

Hüseyin Çiçek:

I like the potential of this youngster. With some decent playing time and good effort in training, he could become a very good AM(R). He’s the sort of player we really went for this offseason, young, decently talent with potential, looking for game time.

Lamine Injai:

OK, his personality isn’t the best, but Injai is a prime example of why you scout the Portuguese lower divisions, because you will find a lot of players like this: younger player with solid attribute numbers for his position, with a lot of potential to grow. Definitely will see some starts for us.

Esteban Abad:

If you are pinching Euro’s to save some money, you have to go thru Spain, so why not check out some of their lower division players as well. He’s a DM who will probably end up playing D(C) a lot for us, being 6’4″ and all. Again, another player who in a couple of years will be a very solid player, if not sor us then another team.

Behar Neziri:

Behar is one of those players who is just a little to good for Bundesliga 2, but not good enough for the Bundesliga. Bayern let him go on a free, and I think it’s a bit of a coup we got him to sign for us. The type of player all teams need, a player very good at what he does, in this case DLP, with some added positional flexibility.

Luan Bausenhart:

While the fee to sign Bausenhart was not egregious by any stretch of the imagination, in hindsight, we may regret it. Overall he’s an “Average” player, but paying money on this level of football, if you sign “Average” its with the expectation they will get better. That may not be the case here, and is one of the few times my scouts have let me down.

Rome-Jayden Owusu-Oduro:

This years entry in the Annual BFC Dynamo “Who’s starting between the Sticks” game is Rome-Jayden Owusu-Oduro, a very good prospect from AZ. Most of his Goalkeeper attributes are already Above Average, and barring injury (and severe exhaustion) he’s going to be starting all the games for us this season. I’m expecting good things from him, but I have been disappointed before.

Teden Mengi:

Mengi has been on an odd journey, the former Man U prospect having gone on loan to Derby, Birmingham, Milwall and Bristol City in a string of less than stellar appearances, he rebounded with three very good seasons in Morecambe, in League Two. He ran out his contract in the hopes of signing with a bigger club, and oddly enough, we’re considered bigger than Morecambe. Go Us!!! Another one of those above average/very good players, he is a very solid D(C). I’d play him at D(R), but his technical just aren’t good enough for that, but I believe he will be a solid contributor for us on the back line.

Frederik Alves Ibsen:

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting Mengi to sign with us, so Ibsen was my other option, and well worth the fee we paid IMO. He and Mengi are quite similar, and will be part of the backfield rotation.

Emil Kornvig:

Kornvig is another solid older player, who if starting or coming off the bench doesn’t hurt our team in any way IMO. His versatility, above average attributes, and attitude is offset by the fact he likes to argue with officials. He can argue all he wants, but if he turnes into a yellow card machine…

Kennedy Lobo:

We finally got a scout in South America. Usually, I like to go a bit more…granular with my scouting, but our department is still small, so one scout for one continent. I told him to look for youngsters with pretty good potential, and if were being honest in most part of South America you can set that and get like 30 results back in a day. It’s sifting thru them that counts. Lobo has an intriguing set of attributes. Good Strength, Endurance, Decent Passing, A bit…erratic with his movement, above average Technique, he’s got Central Mid/Defensive Mid all over. If he develops, that is if he hasn’t topped out already, he won’t be elite, but he will be very good, and for 71K, I am willing to find out.

Ali Hassan:

Ali is another one of those player who is too good for Ligue 2 but not good enough for Ligue 1, so OL let him go. I don’t know that he is going to get much better than he is now, but on paper he’s a serviceable D(R) and WB(R), and anything beyond that will be a bonus.

Luis Quevedo:

Another surprise signing, he had better offers from bigger clubs, but I think being a regular starter, or at least in the regular starter rotation, had more appeal to him, and with three pretty solid midfielder/DM’ maybe switching to a 3 man midfield could be possible. The only drawbacks to Quevedo are his Endurance numbers, his movement and aerials, but at the end of the day, someone could be the odd player out. He’ll get his chances. He just has to make the most of them.

Lennard Becker:

Becker and Neziri were in the same boat at Bayern, so they decided to jump boats to Berlin. This leaves me with a lot of midfield options, which can be both good and bad. Finding a group that jells together nicely could take time, and there could be an odd man out. It could be Becker.

Zidane Iqbal:

And Zidane makes 5 Midfielders/Defensive Midfielder’s brought in this offseason. Although some of them do have the ability to play elsewhere.

Zidane is our 1 in 10000 player this season. About 30 teams wanted him. I am positive some offered him more money, longer contracts, more fees, we gave him a decent salary and a Star Player Contract, and he dithered for three weeks making a decision. When he signed with us I about fell out of the chair. And of course in those three weeks three of the other midfielders I was looking at signed as well. Zidane is the best of the bunch though, IMO anyways, an Above Average player in almost every area. His Defense is not the best though, so who he’s playing with and who is playing behind him are going to have to step up.

Kian Le Fondre:

Kian is my backup Advanced Midfielder. Of course he doesn’t shoot all that well, but he’s a better than average crosser. good movement, adequate passing, very solid physicals, and for the level of football we play at, he can be a very good contributor. I am not expecting huge seasons from him, but a few goals, a few assists from both side of the pitch, he’s worth it.

The Outs:

The real surprise in this was Hannover ponying up €1M for Shawn Ott. He’s a solid winger, who two years ago had a very good season with 8 goals and 5 assists in 32 games, then was replaced Sanyang. Hannover made an unsolicited offer for him, and I couldn’t click yes fast enough. Lucas Lavallee leaving was not a surprise, he’s a good keeper, just not at this level. Lennard Dohrmann leaving was a bit of a surprise, he was solid for us at AM(L) last seasons, and I was expecting more of the same from him, but a Bundesliga team with a bigger rep came and made an offer for him…and so he left.

I am optimistic this season. I promised the board midtable, and I think that’s very achievable. A Good season here, another set of transfer windows to go thru and we are going to be challenging for promotions.

But the FM God’s get a vote too…

Der Bär Wird Wieder Brüllen, The Fifth Season, Part Three

“Can we reboot this year?” Sasha moaned again. It was a common theme, and not just for her.

“I don’t know what the deal is with the Rodic kid…” Theo sighed, finishing of his drink. They were at the bar, trying to drown their sorrows. Given the shellacking they just suffered at the hands of KSC, it would be awhile before any of them stopped treading water.

“He’s weird,” Heinrich said.

“You can’t that,” Sasha replied. “It’s not nice.” She noticed the others at the table had stopped their drinking and had looked at her.

“So what’s a nice word for weird?” Tobias asked.

“Mercurial.”

“Eccentric.”

“Screw it, he’s weird,” Sasha said after a few moments of thinking. “Who else gives up an open shot on goal to try and pass it to a guy with three defenders around him?”

Mile Rodic does. On more than one occasion. It’s been frustrating because he will make such a nice move, make a great pass, but it’s almost as if he was afraid to score. Good thing Theo Berdayes is there to pick up the slack.

The transfer window was pretty quiet. The big move was Luca Belardinelli leaving for St. Gallen, he really wanted to go play in Switzerland, and for a good defender we got on a free, I am OK with that.

I did a lot of searching for players to bring in, but those I really liked didn’t want to come here, or if they did they (or their teams) wanted too much money. I did find a couple of players who I think are going to be able to contribute though.

Mikael Björk is Belardinelli’s replacement. A solid CD, the injuries susceptibility doesn’t bother me that much, and he’s been a solid performer for us.

Mamin Sanyang is a wingback wo can’t jump, or a Advanced Mid that can’t cross. I’ll be using him at wingback, and we’re going to try to make him a passer first.

January and February were BRUTAL.

I am not kidding when I say if we had lost to Ingolstadt, I would have walked away from the save. I had no idea what was going on, I hadn’t tweaked the tactic, everyone, save Theo’s hamstring, was relatively healthy, but our defense was horrid. It was the sort of defense I wished we played against every once and awhile.

Theo got back into scoring form, Mile actually scored (cue Owen Wilson voice “Hey, I scored….wow….”)

If there was a saving grace, it was that Bielefeld, 1860 Munchen, Kaiserslautern, Magdeburg, Ingolstadt, and Rostock were doing worse than us, and we played 5 of them our last 9 games. The most frustrating game in all of this was the Munchen game, we dominated possession to the tune of 8 shots, 4 on target, with an xG of .51; they counterattacked to the tune of 17 shots, 4 on target and an xG of 1.63 Part of me says the teams give a damn done broke because we had staved of relegation, were safe, and they didn’t want to do anything to hurt themselves. Theo scored every game, in the hopes of getting a move away from, his parent club most likely, and as we limped to the end of the season, we in 12th place, having Won 10, Drawn 8, and losing 15 with a -13 goal differential. For which we received €9.95M in prize monies.

Theo Berdayes ended the season with 19 goals, which was the most in Bundesliga 2. I tired signing him, he went to Dynamo Dresden for 575K.

The good news is that we have a decent payroll of €4.7M p/a, and a transfer budget of €2.45M. Bad news is I still have a roster thats comprised mostly of players overachieving, and I can improve in so many positions it’s not funny. That said, Lavalle was respectable in goal, his stats were about the same as Pavlovich’s, he let in a few more goals, but as bad as our defense was the second half of the season I am willing to give him as pass on that.

Rodic ended up with 7 goals, I don’t remember any of them…

That’s the roster, and its deceiving. There’s talent, Dohrmann, Ott, Bjork, Okekre all have potential, but I think its more the 120-130 potential than it is the 150-160 variety. Rodic, well, he’s…Rodic. The rest of the team is roleplayers, and you need them, but they need to be able to do the job they need to do, at the level they need to do it, and I don’t know that I have that.

That means spending time looking at players, which means scouting. Fun times ahead.

The room was quiet, all three of them men present staring at the names on the whiteboard.

“OK,” said Coach Schmidt, “What is the reality of us signing any of those players?”

“We can try,” the GM said. “There’s no harm in trying.”

“Look, we can’t expect to hit on 100,000 to 1 odds every time,” Stock said. The new Chief Scout had adapted pretty quickly to his role, and had very few problems working with the two. “We can ask, but we’re going to get turned down. A lot. We aren’t big enough to attract a big name player, we can’t pay them enough even if they do want to come here. At the end of the day, players are realistic, they’ll take less money for a guaranteed spot, but were-“

“We’re the place they play to get noticed by bigger teams. We give younger players looking for a chance to play, and if they do well we do what we can to keep them here, if they move on good for them.” Coach stood up, went to the whiteboard, and started erasing most of the names on it. “Plan for next year, build for the future. Speaking of which, I need to make an appointment about upgrading some facilities.”

Der Bär Wird Wieder Brüllen, The Fifth Season, Part Two

He had been logged on for all but a minute when his email pinged, and seeing who it was from, he opened it quickly.

“Hi Coach,

Hope things are going well with you. New York is interesting. The local football scene isn’t all that great, but the school actually has a very good Ice Hockey team. Different sport, men on skates swinging sticks at each other, but it’s one of the few I have found that rivals football in terms or grace an ability. I may be biased because we have a very good squad here though.

Anyhow, the reason I am writing to you today is going to be a bit convoluted. My roommates Brother is dating a girl from Montenegro, and she has a brother who players semi pro ball there, and he was telling her about this kid he saw playing at Titograd, could be the next Stevan Jovetić. Could be worth checking out?”

Coach finished reading the email, type a reply back, then called Christian Preiß, the Chief Scout.

“Mile Rodic, Montenegran, plays for Titograd-“

“Played for Titograd Coach. Linner was in the area, I asked him to stop by and take in a couple of games, he told me Rodic was on his ‘To Watch’ List and found out he had been released.”

“Any ideas why?”

“Apparently. and I am reading this from Linner himself, The young man marches to the beat of a different drummer, and while I am not sure what the color of the sky is in his world, apparently he can play Advanced Forward really well in it.”

“Where’s Linner now?”

“On his way to Croatia for about a month.”

“OK, lets see if we can get a hold of Rodic, or better yet his agent, and see if we can’t get him in for a trial.”

“On it Coach.”

Am not a fan of the Fickle, but if he’s this good at 18, and has potential?

This season has been frustratingly average. Which I expected, but still…

Théo Berdayes is everything I expected him to be, a goal scoring threat who does more than enough to help us win. The rest of the team…well, they are trying. The first part of the season got off to a poor start. My mantra has been, and will be, if we lose, fine, lets just keep it close, because goal differential matters.

The team did not get the memo. And the thing is, neither Bochum or Ingolstadt are any better than us, heck Ingolstadt is as good a relegation candidate out there as anyone else in the League. I haven’t changed the formation, everyone’s is playing in a position they are good in, just for whatever reason, they weren’t clicking.

Starting in October though…

Koln is a solid club, so drawing to them isn’t bad. Bielefeld would have been a draw if not for an Lange OG and some heroics in goal by Lavellee. Thumping Hansa Rostock looks good on paper, until you take a closer look and realize that as bad as Ingolstadt is, Rostock is worse and are also relegation candidates, so them putting three on us is troubling. Mainz thumping us in the Pokal was no surprise, finishing the year out strong though was. Something clicked for Theo, and he started converting a lot more of his chances into goal. I would love to say it was the Rostock game, but I think it was the Schalke game, where he overcame a pretty tough defense to score. The 1860 Munchen game was a snoozefest, but against Braunschweig he had numerous chances before the keeper missed one. Both Schalke and Braunschweig are gunning for promotion, but if the want to win the League, they are going to have to beat Dusseldorf. And seeing as how the score in that game could have been 4-0 them, that could be a hard ask.

At the winter break, we have 6 wins, 5 draws, and 6 losses, for 23 points. We are beating the teams were are supposed to beat more often than not, but the lack of close games and multi point losses is troubling, especially when goal differential is a tiebreaker.

Financially, we are out of the water, but not to far away from shore. We don’t have a lot in the transfer window, but if we can find value in a loan or a free, and maybe move a player or two who no longer wants to be here, all the better.

2027 is looking pretty solid, but if we are being honest a Seurat painting also looks really nice until you get in and realize its just a bunch of tiny dots with holes in-between them….

Christmas was usually a joyous time for everyone, even when the team was doing poorly. That was before the owner of the bar announced that he was stepping aside to take care of his wife, who had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and the first two sales had fallen thru for a variety of reasons. Now it looked like the bar was going to be closing until a new owner stepped up, and if they didn’t, they would have to find a new place to gather.

“If you had told me before the season began that Théo Berdayes would be the reason we are midtable, I would have asked you to share what you were drinking,” Hans said, looking at the paper.

“He’s had almost as many goals this season so far as Sanogo did last season,” Paul replied. He finished his beer and signaled for another.

“It’s amazing well the teams been playing,” Hans said for what seemed to be the hundredth time that night.

“Amazing what happens when the threat of administration isn’t hanging over you,” replied Sasha, finishing of her last bite of dinner.

“How close was it?” Asked Heninrich.

“I had to make a delivery there once,” Paul replied. He worked as a salesman for an office supply company when he wasn’t doing anything related to BFC Dynamo. “The whole building was a ghost town. Empty desks, no equipment on them, whole sections just…empty. And I Swear I went into one of the media rooms and saw a teenager there watching game films and taking notes.

“Otto?” Sasha, Hans and Heinrich all asked at the same time. Paul looked at them wide eyed.

“About so tall,” Paul replied, holding his hand out, “glasses, Dynamo hat and shirt.”

“Otto,” they all replied.

“Best analyst they had last season,” Heinrich said, as the waitress came by and delivered another round of drinks.

“What happened to him?” Paul asked.

“He graduated, and went off to college. Rensselaer Polytechnic in America,” replied Hans. “Kids going into Biotechnology.”

“Wow,” said Paul, and the table was quiet for a moment.

Uwe, who one would call the senior bartender if the bar actually had a hierarchy, came over and set down anther round of drinks.

“On the house,” he said with a smile. “Are all of you going to be here for the New Years celebration?” he asked, wiping his hands on his apron.

Sasha sighed, a real one, not the dramatic type everyone was accustomed to. “I love you Uwe, but celebrating the day before the bar closes isn’t my idea of a good time. Thanks for the drink though”

Everyone ignored Hans slapping Heinrich, including Sasha, which was a first for the crowd.

“Bar’s not closing,” Uwe replied with a smile, and the table came to a halt.

“What?”

“We got an investor. Well, an investment group actually bought the place,” Uwe said with a smile. The table erupted in questions until Uwe quieted them down. “Klaus and a group of private investors formed a company and bought the bar.”

“Klaus as in the head of the Supporter’s Club Klaus?” Sasha asked, eyes narrowing.

“In his capacity as a private individual, yes. He had a partner convince him this was a good purchase.”

“Silent Investor?” asked Paul.

“Well, where the bar is concerned, yes. Klaus is bringing on a full time manager, if we are being honest Manfred was to stubborn thinking he could run the place and help his wife, a lot of small things have been missed. No changes from the outside, but the plumbing and electrical need some work, the place could use a makeover,” Uwe said, looking around. The others didn’t disagree with him.

“You turn this place into some modern mirrored and metal boutique bar serving god knows what from god knows where I’ll kill you myself,” Sasha said, taking and long drink and eyeing Uwe over the mug. Uwe wasn’t sure if she was joking, but when both Heinrich and Hans said they had shovels and would help, he smiled and sighed.

“Nothing as serious as that,” Uwe said. “Besides, that’s not what Klaus or his other major investor want.”

“Who’s this other investor?” Paul asked, eyes narrowing.

“He’s at the bar,” Uwe said. “Turn around, and wave.” He smiled and turned around.

Sasha wasn’t the only one who spit her beer out when she saw Coach Schmidt smile and raise his own beer at them.

Der Bär Wird Wieder Brüllen, The Fifth Season, Part One

“How deep in the hole do you thinks they are?” asked Hans. They were standing outside the stadium waiting for practice to open. That they had to pay a nominal fee was beside the point for most people.

“Enough that they are charging us to watch practice,” Sasha grumbled, She took a drink of her coffee and grimaced. “I swear this tastes like something run thru the filter about ten times,” she said, finally lifting the lid off and pouring the contents out on the nearby grass.

“How would you know what that tastes like?” Heinrich asked.

“I don’t, but my grandmother used to talk about how after the war it took ages for them to get anything resembling the coffee, even the ‘ersatz’ stuff was just swill apparently.”

“Speaking of swill…” Hans said.

Sasha sighed. “It going to suck,” she replied. “Anyone with common sense can see it. They’ve got no money for signings, not money to pay any free agents, the best we can hope for is to be a stepping stone club in the short term, or a club that others send their prospects to for some first team playing time.”

Hans was looking around as Sasha talked, and waved to a familiar face in another group. “Well,” he replied, looking back at his own little group of friends. “As long as we stay up.”

Sasha nodded. “You wouldn’t believe how controversial that opinion is…”

First, the good news:

Then again, when you think about it our only other choice was to default, go into adminisatration, and all the way back down to the RegionalLiga, or lower, so the fact were are financially solvent is good. Financially stable? That remains to be seen.

Now, the bad news. I have almost no screenshots from this season. Either I didn’t take them, likely, or misplaced them, possible, but not as likely, because I was interested more in grinding the season out than I was getting screenshots and video. It also doesn’t help that I don’t have a save file from the end of the season, as is my usual practice. However, I can tell from the dates of the screenshots, I was playing this season around the time my wife had her knee replacement surgery, so Football manager was not one of my priorities.

As an aside, her surgery went very well, she’s kicking my tail a lot easier these days, and the can gives her a bot of reach and power when she needs it.

But there some exciting things to happen to the club, at least for me:

The increase is staff sizes was very welcome, not that I’ll be able to bring in the coaches I want, but more adequate coaches and scouts are better than none. The club loves, but, but doesn’t love me love me, which I find hard to believe, because short of turning water into wine this has been a couple of seasons of miracles. The last one is the most important to me though. The club had money in the bank. We had the same training facilities I had when I started, which weren’t that great to begin with. In the real world, making them better is a handy recruiting tool. In the make believe world, it’s still a handy recruiting tool. The transfer window was full of sound and fury again, I swear I must have looked at a hundred or so players, I was having some success, and then AEK came in for Mirza Hamzic, the board accepted the offer, I couldn’t protest (Thanks FM) and he left. One of our better, younger players on the squad, gone.

This season is slightly different than the previous two, in that were aren’t just looking to stay up, but to try and build a foundation for the teams going forward. I don’t need a team full of superstars just yet, but a group of players who play their positions well, play with each other well, and don’t make a ton of mistakes on the field? I am all for that, and a lot of the players we brought in reflected that.

Jiri Slama is a defender who can play more than one position fairly well. He doesn’t score, he doesn’t get an assist, but in his previous seasons at Brno and Sigma Olomouc, he’s been a credible defender, and I can live with that.

Michael Stocker is the same type of player, another solid D9C) who can flex left if needed, or up to DM as well.

Elmin Dold, on loan from Freiburg, can play anywhere on the right side of the field, but is best suited to play D(R).

Franklyn Okerke comes to use from Cottbus, where he played mostly at AM(R) and Forward.

What do these four players have in common? None of them are long term solutions. But they are cheap, solid fixes for the time being, players who wil get an opportunity to do a job and keep it until someone better comes into replace them. They aren’t Bundesliga level players, heck they are probably borderline Bundesliga 2 players, but they chose to come to BFC for playing time in a bigger venue in a bigger league, for cheap.

Why fight it?

Somehow Jean Marie Nadjombe parlayed a few seasons at Fortuna Koln and Offenbach into a move to Bologna for 145K. He played all of three games there, and they put him out on loan. He’s a very good D(L), and while we probably couldn’t keep him if we wanted to, and I looked into that, he’s very solid for this level of football.

Lennard Dohrmann is a stopgap winger, a very good RegionalLiga winger who is probably in a league just beyond his ability level. But every other player I tired to bring into the position turned me down, wanted more money, or went to a bigger club. He doesn’t strike me as a long term solution, but I am more than happy to be wrong here.

Theo Berdayes is the signing of the transfer window. That he’s a loan player from Wolfsburg should tell you everything you need to know about this seasons transfer window. But I wasn’t expecting Hamzic to leave, and Berdayes checked all the boxes off:

Filled a positional need
Wanted to play
Was available
Wolfsburg wanted no money for him

He is a very good striker for this level of football. In fact, he looks like one of those guys who could have a long solid career either starting in a League like Bundesliga 2, or sitting on the Bench in the Bundesliga making about the same amount of money.

If you are a team who is in need of help, but are strapped for cash and can’t pay outrageous salary demands of parent clubs, go to Serbia, Croatia, Czechia and Slovakia. There you will find good young players at good clubs on wages so low even paying 100% of their salary will barely affect your bottom line. This years version of that is Antonio Juric, who is a very solid DM/M(C) who could be a quality player if given playing time. He wasn’t getting it at Dinamo, who were more than happy to send him to Berlin.

Lastly, Rachid Moumni. To be honest, if I had the opportunity to sign him, even on a free, I probably wouldn’t. The holes is his game are just to much to get over, but I need midfield depth, and he’s available for the right price (free), so he will be part of the rotation, as long as he doesn’t cost us any games.

The one big hole this season: Getting a better keeper. Lucas Lavallée isn’t bad, but he’s not good, but after every other keeper I went to either turned me down or went to another club, I don’t have a choice really. Pavlovic seemed interested in returning, but Red Star wanted me to pay his full salary and sign a non-negotiable deal that would have cost me somewhere around 4.5M if I wanted him. If this season Lavallée comes anywhere close to being what Pavlovic was for us last season, I’ll be ecstatic.

This season, it’s all about not being relegated again. 34 points, and as close to a positive goal diofferential as we can get, and I will be happy with that. Helping us out this year are the fact that Hansa Rostock and Ingolstadt were promoted, and they aren’t anywhere near ready for this level of football, and of the teams that finished below us last season, 1860 Munchen, Kiel, Regensburg, Magdeburg and Vfl Bochum, only a couple were proactive in the transfer window.

I like our chances.

Custer had a plan too…