FM26 – In the Year 2225

Two Hundred Years in, and this is about the time, usually, you see those teams that dominated their league the first 100 years starts to fall off, and newer teams start to rise. It’s all the time, especially in the “Lower Competitions” you start seeing teams you have probably never heard of winning things. As a reminder, the Nations in this years save are:

Brazil
England
France
Germany
Italy
Japan
Portugal
Spain

As always, first thing to do is check and see where Crystal Palace is:

Relegated from League One, blivet. But there are other teams who have fallen off as well…

The English Premier League

The “Big Six” had started to fall off by 2125. Teams like Wolves, Brighton and Sunderland had worked their way up the table and into prominence, while more than a couple of teams on the outside were trying to claw their way in. In 2225, some things have changed, some things have stayed the same:

The story thus far has been Wrexham, who worked their way into the Premier league in the 2080’s and 2110’s, and then had a very good run in the 2170’s and 80’s not only winning the Premier League 6 times, but coming in 2nd Place in the Champions League 4 times as well.

Wolves were the dominant team until 2131, and the Liverpool went on a run that saw them finish no lower than 4th for the next 33 years. Brighton, Tottenham, and West Brom all won the league, then starting in 2165 Wrexham and Wolves traded 1st and 2nd place the next decade. Bournemouth had a bit of a run, and then the “usual” unusual event occurred: Preston winning the League. This is the 5th time I’ve done a 1000yr save, at some point, Preston always win the League…

In addition to winning the League 6 times, Wrexham also has a most undesirable honor: In the 2187/88 season, they lost 33 games, and finished with -2 points due to going into Administration. Ignore the date, its FM26 doing FM26 things:

Honestly that season was more notable for what was going on at the bottom of the table than the top. But here’s the 2125 to 2225 English Prem League Winners:

And the Records thus far:

Ligue 1, France

Somethings do not appear to change, because they are gradual, and this is the case for Ligue 1. Yes, the usual suspects are there, but the first switch may have occurred

From 2125 to 2176, with a couple of exceptions PSG was winning the Ligue. The tarting in 2178, Rennes won the Ligue, and then kept on winning it until 2215 (with 4 exceptions when they finished 2nd or 3rd). In 2216 Lyon won 3 in a row, PSG had a brief 2 year renaissance, then Marseilles and Rennes split the other years. The key to PSG’s slide? Starting in 2178, a series of Tycoon owners have gradually sclaed back their investments in the club. In fact their most recent wins have to do with a small surge in spending (if €332M in transfer fees for one year, 2219), can be considered small.

I’ll forgo the League results here, it’s literally just page after page of PSG and Rennes until recently.

Records wise, this is a bit odd when you look at it:

Montepelier had 4 draws and 30 losses, but Laval had 12 draws and 22 losses, while Bourg-Peronnas had 2 wins, a draw, and 31 losses…

The Bundesliga, Germany

There has been a decent amount of change here. As someone who did a save with BFC Dynamo, I will say it’s a bit gratifying to see tems like Carl-Zeiss Jena and Holstein Kiel in the top League, and it is also very nice to see Kaiserslautern finishing top 6 as well. But several teams have fallen out as well, Bayer being the biggest one IMO:

Freiburg had broken the grip Bayern had on 1st place, and kept it until 2138, when Bayern roared back, and after some back and forth with Freiburg the first couple of years, won the League from 2144 to 2153. From 2155 to 2163 it was Hoffenheim winning the league a total of 5 times, Bayern winning it 4, with Freiburg and BVB winning single years. Then in 2163, Hoffenheim went on a very long run, until 2201 it only lost the League 5 times, and since then it has been Hoffenheim, Freiburg and Bayern battling it out for the top spot, with the occasional one off winner, such as Koln in 2208. Staring in 2212 Bayern again went on a winning streak, winning the League 10 times, with Hoffenheim and Koln breaking their streak. The team to keep an eye on? Stuttgart, who have finished top 4 since 2216.

Bayern beat Hoffenheim 3-2 to spoil their invincible season in 2167/68. At some point, Like PSG in Ligue 1, but they do not have the ownership issues PSG does, and while there are years they spend quite a bit in the transfer window, more often than not they do not go overboard (no €332M in and €14.5M out years in Munich…), it will be up to other teams to improve to where they are consistently better than Bayern to keep them out of the top spot. Several teams are close, but not there yet.

Serie A, Italy

Another League where not a lot has changed thus far.

2125 to 2177 was about 2 teams: Inter and Parma…but mostly Inter, as they won it all but 13 times. Parma had a stretch from 2162 to 2169 where they won every year except 2167/68. Then starting in 21778/79, Napoli had a lock on 1st place until 2203/2204, when with the exception of a lone Juve win in 79/80, and a lone Inter win in 86/87, the Scudetto was theirs. Parma, and then Inter won it all again, but starting in 2211 AC Milan made it’s way back to the top, and with the exception of 2212/13 and 2217/18, the Scudetto stayed in Milan, as either AC or Inter won it.
Again, another League where it’s going to take other teams, like Napoli, rising to the top and kicking the Inters, Juve’s and the like down. At one time it seemed Parma would have some staying power, but they have fallen off.

Records wise not a lot has changed:

Inter went ‘Invincible’ in 2150/51, the only blemishes on the season were draws at Lazio and Parma. They won the League by 30 points, in fact it was the battle for 2nd thru 4th that was probably more interesting to ‘casual’ fans.

LaLiga, Spain

The top teams are slowly starting to change here, as the Big Clubs were are used to winning it all are starting to fall of. This is not because the Madrids and Barcelona’s are getting worse, but your Girona’s are getting better. That said, this years winner was a surprise

Mallorca has been a ‘Top 6’ teams for decades, and unless I missed something (entirely possible) they’ve never finished higher than 3rd. This year though, they won the league, maybe not handily, but it was out of left field. They’ve been on a spening spree recently, and it’s starting to pay off. Julian Ludwig, the 24 year old AM(L)/Striker, had 30 goals and 4 assists; 31 year old Konstantyn Bondar, whose been with the team for 12 years now, had 26 goals and 12 assists, and 22 year old Silvi Escabros, a product of Girona’s Youth system, had 14 goals and 16 assists. They have a World Class keeper in Takuya Kaneko, who they paid €42M for. They have the building blocks for the future, and I am interested to see in what happens.

Until Mallorca won, it was a 3 Club League for the most part: Girona, Barcelona, Real Madrid. Occasionally a Real Sociedad or Athletico might win, but for the most part it was Girona’s League to lose, especially during a run from 2139 to 2181 where they won the League all but 10 times.

Girona didn’t lose a game in 2151/52, their goal differential was +80

The Liga, Portugal

Again, to my untrained eye, nothing out of the ordinary here really, other than SPorting dropping off to 10th place:

There hasn’t been the single team domination we’ve seen in other leagues, that is one team ripping off 20 plus years of 1st place finishes. Gil Vicente, Braga, Boavista, Porto, SPorting, Benfica, and at the end of the century Alverca SD traded back and forth, one team might go on a five year run or so, but more often than not it came down to the last few weeks. Starting in 2204 though, it’s been Gil Vicente’s Century, as the only years the haven’t won were in 2220/21 and 2221/22, when Porto won by 5 points and 1 point repectively.

Not a lot has changed records wise, it will be interesting to see if/when Benfica loses the record for most League wins:

Campeonato Brasileiro Série A and The J1 League, Japan

I’m going to be honest here, I included the leagues to give the game more diverse results. I know next to almost nothing about either Countries Leagues, and the fact my real name fix didn’t work for Brazil has be all over the place trying to figure out who’s who and whether or not they are winning is good, bad, or both. The Leagues are still playable, so if your interested in how they are going, please download the save and see for yourself, because anything I come up with will most likely be wrong…

CONTINENTAL COMPETITIONS

EUROPE

The Conference League

“I believe in Breiðablik Superiority” – Zealand

Breiðablik won the Conference League in 2221, a Semi-Pro club in Iceland with no transfer budget to speak of. The more things change…

I love this competition, not because the “Big Teams” win it, and they do, but because there are so many teams from smaller leagues that do win it, and no team has won it multiple times in a row:

Honestly, the only thing more fun than seeing a Panetolikos or Zilina winning, are some of the Stadium names. Mousa Dembele Stadium in Liege? Hugo Lloris Arena in Nice? I’m pretty sure he got that for being a coach though…FM26 is horrible at saving histories so I would have to go back to be sure.

The Europa League

Tottenham has the record for most wins, with 13 thus far. The “Bigger” teams do win this more often than not, but there is the occasioanl surprise, Dundalk Streda in 2143/44, Puskas Academia in 2171/72, PAOK beatin Bayern in 2202/03, Konyaspor beating Parma in 2220/21 or Ujpest beating Rennes in 2223/24

European Football Championship

Belgium won in 2128 and 2132, other than that, the usual suspects of England, Germany and Spain, and France occasionally. More interesting? Scotland in 2nd place in 2204, losing to Germany, Bulgaria losing to Spain in 2196, and North Macedonia losing to Wales in 2156.

The Champions League

I’m not going to screenshot every result, but take the opportunity to point out a few occasions where the expected “Big Team” didn’t win. A Big Team still won though, as a prime example Preston winning in 2204/05, 2201/02/ and 2197/98. They beat Zilina that year, the Slovakian team had a very good run. I suspect we have another century or two before the smaller league big clubs start winning.

The World Cup

Tunisia beat France in 2202. Ghana beat Germany in 2154. Senegal beat Syria in 2142. France Beat Ivory Coast in 2170. Again, as the save goes on, expect more results like this, just not all the time…

The Ballon d’Or Winner

Polydoros Panakoulias won 4 Ballon d’Or’s. 2137, 2139, 2140, and 2143. and those years he didn’t win, including 2138 and 2144, he came in 2nd place. At the end of the 2140 season, he was 27 years old. When he was 19 Inter paid €51M to get him from Olympiacos. In 34 appearances, as primarily an AM(R), he had 14 goals, 13 assists, 12 PoM’s, and an 8.12 rating.

And that is the second 100 years down. If you have a specific question about a specific year, you can hit me up on twitter @fm_jellico
In the meantime, feel free to poke around at you leisure:
https://www.mediafire.com/file_premium/1pkrpq0brfzpirg/1000_yr_2225.06.26.fm/file

Thanks for reading!

FM_Jellico

The Kids Are Alright Season ∞

It’s the manager that has problems…

First of, I have to say I love the idea of this sort of save. It can be fun, and interesting, and a lot easier if you choose a country with really good youth recruitment and a bevy of decent teams to choose from. There are a couple of problems inherent in this sort of save though.

The game doesn’t know you are doing a Youth Only save, and the feedback and actions of the board and fans can be detrimental
If you aren’t playing in a big country, or a big team in a small country, the path to success is longer, and that where we are in Romania.

I last posted season 11. I have played up to season 22. And I can tell you right now what the next 30 years in the save are going to look like should we keep playing: More of the same.

There are a few problems we are dealing with, that with time and the application of a little application, can be overcome. But all of these problems are a series of interlocking, overlapping circles, some bigger than others, with less overlap, but they all have to be done at or near the same time for us to be going forward.

Case in Point:

We have more academy graduates playing than any other team in Europe. Are some of them Elite talents? Yes, Rocky Jivan (Class of ’34) had the potential to be one of the best M(C)’s in the game IMO. He went to PSG for €3.4M, never broke into the 1st Squad, had a season with PSG 2 where he had 3 goals and 16 assists, went on loan to Rapid Bucharesti, then left on a free to go to Ludogorets. Is he still a good M(C)? Yes, I would bet he’s in the 130 range as a player, but his potential was probably 150-160.

Nikolay Tuntev came thru as a 2 star PA Strike in the Class of ’35

Three years later, he left for PSG at €3.2M. Had 3 good seasons on the PSG 2 squad, had a season on the first team where he scored 8 goals in 7 appearances, but he’s their 4th option.

Radu Aldea (Class of ’35) went to Inter, so did Alin Munteneau and Dennis Mocanu (Class of ’35 as well), Andrei Voice (Class of ’36) went to Juve, Iulius Tarcea (Class of ’38) went to Milan, and that’s just internationally. I’ve had several player move within smaller clubs for decent money as well, although quite a few have ended up staying in Romania.

The reason for all these good young players moving are interlocked.

The minimum Fee clause is set by the agent, and they are very attainable for other clubs. I tried setting Jivan’s clause to €20M, and his agent countered with a locked offer for €3.2, which I had to accept or he could have left for a lot less. I could have taken it off and tried to get more money, but that’s a shake of the dice I am not willing to take.
We are one of the best clubs in Romania, Top 3 even, and while our reputation has grown, it’s still Regional. While we have been performing well in Continental Competitions, a Semi Final loss in the UECL, Europa League Knock out Round Losses, Europa League Group losses, and a couple of UECL Round of 16 losses, there have also been years we haven’t qualified.
The Country rating as a whole has improved, going from 65th to a high of 32nd before falling back recently to 40th, as the other clubs in Romania have not had the success that we have had.

This sets up a cycle that is particularly troublesome to deal with:

Good player comes thru Youth intake
Good player gets Senior Team starts Early, sometimes when 17 y/o, also gets International appearances on the Youth Squads
Good player develops, signs new contract with minimum release fee locked by agent.
Team plays in Europe really well, Player gets noticed
Team with Better Reputation makes offer to player, meeting release clause, Player leaves, often sits on 2nd team, and then leaves for another club.

To break this cycle, we need to

Grow our reputation, and countries reputation
By getting good, young players, and developing them
Holding onto them for more than 3-4 years to build up a quality squad that will get us the wins we need
While sending out other players to other teams in the country to get them inproved as well so the country rating can improve as well

Which we can’t do because teams with a better reputation currently get all of the good, Young Romanians.

Is it a cycle that can be broken? Yes, I believe so, but it’s not something that’s going to happen overnight, it’s a 30 year project, at least.

And I don’t have the interest in hitting the ‘Auto Resolve’ button for the next 30 seasons while playing the European games. That doesn’t hold any interest for me. I haven’t touched this save in almost a month, and when I loaded it back up again, I saw the familiar names, and just…eh. I knew this was going to be a challenge when I started it, I just wasn’t aware of how big a challenge it was going to be, and that’s my fault. It’s been fun, but near the end it was getting frustrating, and that’s just no way to play FM, so I am going to set this save aside.

I appreciate all of you who have followed along, and for the foreseeable future I will have some more content coming, mostly related to screenflow and scouting.

Thanks,

Jellico

Bonus content:

Teodor Drăgan, the best Romanian Player in the game. CFR Cluj, Class of ’30, to Porto for €5.25M in 2035, then PSG for €72M in 2038. First International Experience, Romanian U21 squad at age 17, where he won goal of the tournament. 2036/37 Champions League Young Player of the Season, FIFA Best U21 Men’s Player the same year. Blue is 13-16, Green is 17+, and I would bet most of those blues are 15 or 16

Der Bär Wird Wieder Brüllen, A Recap & 10 Years later

As I usually do with my saves, I simmed ahead 10 years to see if the team and coaches that followed have continued to build upon the foundation I left. This is sometimes a very hit or miss proposition, especially when you tend to use a ‘non-standard’ formation that you have the squad for. One of my best examples of this was my FM17 save, where we won multiple Champions Leagues and Ligue 1’s as USL Dunkerque using a 3-4-1-2, and after I retired the next coaches tried using a 4-2-3-1 and didn’t have any of the success I did.

Seeing as how my last formation was a 4-1DM-1-3-1, I am slightly concerned.

In Dynamo’s case, they have hired some coaches that have had some good results, but have not come close to what we accomplished:

The Multiple League wins are nice, but the lack of European success is, to be frank, galling, so lets take a look at that.

2041 – Lost in the Quarter Finals to Barcelona
2042 – Lost in the Quarter Finals to Barcelona
2043 – Lost in the Semi Final to Spurs, after beating Bayern in the Quarters
2044 – Lost in the Quarter Finals to Milan
2045 – Lost in the Quarter Finals to Athletico Madrid
2046 – Lost in the Round of 16 to RB Leipzig
2047 – Lost in the Finals to PSG
2048 – Lost in the Semi-Finals to Chelsea
2049 -Lost in the Semi-Finals to RB Leipzig
2050 – Lost in the Quarter Finals to Sheffield United

Not a bad run, but it’s frustrating to come so close and not win it all again, and as we can see from the following, the club has stayed strong:

And I am not going to begrudge them a 4th place finish this season, they finished with 74 points, RB Leipzig finished with 79.

If there is one thing I am very proud of in this save, it’s the scouting. I will admit I hit quite bit more than I missed, but as I like scouting, for my longer, more detailed saves I tend to spend a lot of time with it, and for whatever reason, my FM23 Scouting setup worked very well in conjunction with my screen flow, and I was able to find a lot of good players early, Luca Montanaro as an example. I wanted to see how well I did, so I added a new coach and turned the editor on. In saves like this I always enable it, then the first thing I do when I get in the save is remove it from the toolbar so it’s not tempting me.

This is the current Dynamo Senior Squad. A note, not only am I using the Mustermann Skin, but I have altered the ranges as well, where:

Poor (RED) is 1-7
Average (ORANGE) is 8-12
Good (Blue) 13-16
Excellent (Green) 17-20

An older squad now, but still some familiar names:

Andrey Stefanov, my Bulgarian WB, 150 CA / 160 PA
Carlos Navarro, whose personality went from Driven to Professional, and has never has less than a 7.4 Average rating over the seasons, 178 CA / 180 PA.
Polat Kaya, my first good Youth Intake player, 179 CA / 185 PA
Constantin Ulreich, my second best Youth Intake player, 4 years after Polat, 158 CA / 164 PA.
Dragan Grčić, 13 seasons as the Dynamo Keeper, 173 CA / 174 PA.

And those are just the players still on the squad. If I go and take a look at the who’s who of players who have been thru the club it’s pretty wild:

2029/30 Transfers:

Luca Montanaro D(C), was found in Serie C, and I signed him for €400K ‘In’ this save, with the expectations he wasn’t going to stay long. He stayed 2 Seasons before Leipzig activated his release clause, and ended up in Man City (AKA Dynamo B). When Nicholas retired in 2040 he was 180 CA / 180 PA.
Mbaye Fall (M/AM(R) is one of the first bricks in the ‘Find a decent Scout for Africa and put them to work immediately. Signed on a Free, went to Bournemouth 3 years later for €40M, a very good winger 140 CA / 158 PA

2029/30 Transfers:

Dragan Pavlović (GK) was our first really good keepers (sorry Owusu, but RNG screwed you over this save). 172 CA / 176 PA.
Santiago Barros D(C) our first ‘Big Miss’. Never improved in training, was mediocre at best on the field, left Dynamo to play in the English Lower Leagues before ending up in Ireland. In 2040 he was 81 CA / 180 PA. One of FM’s mysteries…
José Luís Gomes (Striker) was my first ‘Wonderkid Striker’. 18 goals his 1st season, the next season he didn’t want to renegotiate his contract and went to Brentford on the cheap, €3.4M. Several solid seasons there led him to Stoke, and then Man United. 146 CA / 156 PA.

2030/31 Transfers:

Christopher Essomba (D(L), my next West African Wonderkid. Signed on a Free, in 2040 was in Liverpool after stops in Milan, Monaco, Villareal and BvB. 148 CA / 155 PA.
Alexandar Petrov (Striker), my Gomes replacement had a somewhat similar career path. Played 1 1/2 seasons for us, then went to England, but instead of going to Brentford for €3.4 he ended up at Spurs for €74M. 164 CA / 174 PA.

2031/32 Transfers:

Jon Jiménez (DM/M(C)), our first ‘Big Buy’ at €17.75M. 4 Seasons with us before he moved to Angers for €47M, then to Dynamo B for €203M(!). 176 CA / 193 PA.

2032/33 Transfers:

We spent €81M, and while most were solid, veteran players, we took some risks, several of whom paid off, and some who didn’t.

Mantené Sountoura D(L), another African find, this time from MAli. Signed on a free, went to Porto and then to Athletico Madrid. 159 CA / 168 PA. Always Scout West Africa friends. Always.
Mirko Tulli (Striker), “Mercurial Mirko” popped up very early, an Italian wonderkid picked up by Inter from Cremonese who never cracked the starting lineup but avoided signing with the bigger teams. We had him for less than a calendar year, in for €14M, out for €21M to Monaco, where he spent a year, then back to Germany (he signed with Eintracht instead of us), and then to Tottenham, where he and Gomes are a pretty goos 1-2 up top. 171 CA/ 179 PA.
Jakov Popovic (GK) was signed to replace Pavlović. Six good seasons with us before going to Dynamo B for €52M, 160 CA / 169 PA.
Jeppe Vinterberg (M/AM(L)), after Barros, our next “Miss”, but in his case, it was injuries. Signed in Jan of 33, in Feb he had a hip injury and was out for 4 months. In ’34 he was out a total of 3 months with various heel and leg issues, in ’35 it was Groin strains, twisted knees and tight hammy’s. By ’35 it was obvious the injuries had done him in, his Physicals had declined enough that he was just ‘Decent’ IMO and we moved him on. He’s at Rangers in 2040, with a 134 CA / 166 PA. Which admittedly is good, but he could have been great IMO.
Carlos Tenorio (M(C)/AM (L/C) is one of, if not my favorite, players of the save. Signed for €25K, when he came back from his parent club he immediately stepped in at AM(C) and made his presence felt. An All around threat, he moved to Chelsea for €120M at the end of the ’39 Season. 181 CA / 181 PA.

2033/34 Transfers:

After spending so much money the previous season, we regressed a little in the league, but the good news was with the foundation of the club we had, and the recent signing, we were on solid footing. This however, was probably our worst year for signings in or Bundesliga era.

Jean Cédric Baffouman (DM/M(C)/AM(C) an Ivory Coast product could never break into the starting lineup, and I thought I had better options, and he left for €145K to København, and recently moved to Werder in 2 Bundesliga. 128 CA / CA 158 PA.
Dylan Maclennan (Striker). Looks like Tarzan, plays like Jane. I thought I was getting a decent striker with potential, 32 goals 84 games is OK, but Attributes wise he was very comparable with other, better strikers who had played for us. And the problem was he would have a 3 or 4 goal game than disappear for 5-6 games. It was annoying to say the least, and I about fell out of the chair when I saw he was 145 CA / 159 PA.

2033/34 Transfers:

We signed 8 players this transfer window, and 5 of them were bangers.

Boris Castillo (D(C/R, DM, M(C) signed for €2M, then went to Dynamo B before moving to Nottingham Forrest. 144 CA / 152 PA
Santiago Viveros (AM (RLC), M(L/C), DM was poached from Bayer for the low fee 0f €2.1M, then moved to Hertha in 38/39 for €41.5M. A very good player for us until his attitude tanked, 147 CA/PA.
Angelo Bolzan (D(RC), another Italian Defender find, gave us 2 1/2 solid seasons before moving to Real Madrid for €76M. One of the games elites as it turns out, 196 CA / 198 PA. €76M seems cheap now…
Abdoulaye Traoré (AM(RLC), Striker) is yet another Ivorian Wonderkid, who spent a productive 2 1/2 seasons with use before moving to Juve for €26.5M. He’s been a quality player for them and with his 152 CA /159 PA that’s not surprising at all.
Osman Cengiz Buğdaycı (Striker, AM(R)) I was so thoroughly disgusted with Maclennan I went out of my way to find a replacement ASAP, and was able to sign Osman for a very nice fee of €13M. 2 1/12 seasons later (I’m sensing a theme here) he went to Man United for €75M. 179 CA / 180 PA.

2035/36 Transfers:

Another ‘Quiet’ window where we signed 3 players, but 2 of them are absolute world class.

Tim Schau (DM. M(C), AM(C)) we signed for €13.5 from QPR. A Season and a half later, Real Madrid signed him for €47.5, then in 39/40 Dynamo B signed him for €174M(!). 171 CA / 171 PA.
Lucas Curbelo (DM, M(LC), AM (LC), Striker) is a Uruguayan via Bulgaria, and we paid €7.5 for him. He went to Dynamo B in 38/39 for €83M. 186 CA / 187 PA.

2036/37 Transfers:

This was the year we ‘Broke the Bank’ for one player, but he was worth it IMO.

Andrey Stefanov was signed this window from Levski for €3.9. 158 CA / 161 PA.
Tatsuki Yoneyama (Striker) – More on him in a few.
Zori Eliyahu-Coracos (DM, M(C)) we signed for €41.5M from Norwich, where to be honest he had an underwhelming season. But he had two very good seasons for us before moving to Crystal Palace for €64M. 169 CA / 178 PA.
Junior Méyé (AM(RC), Striker) from Gabon. A steal at €135K when you consider he’s 135 CA / 157 PA at 21 y/o in 2040.
Casper Koch (D(RC), WB(R) I was looking at him to hold the fort down on the Defensive right, and that we poached him from RB Leipzig was very cool as well, but Wolves (who are a pretty good team in this game) offered us €30.5M and he jumped all over it. A 159 CA / 165 PA player.
Claudio Tessari (D (RC) from Italy, another world class find from the Italian Lower leagues (Serie B Palermo in this case) and a steal at €6.25M when you consider in 2040 he’s 171 CA / 180 PA.

2037/38 Transfers:

Sagi Ohayon (Striker) A bit of a journeyman career, but one of the players I signed to be part of my Striker rotation has been very good so far. 142 CA / 144 PA.
Ben Dahan (Striker, AM(C), M(C) More on him in a few.
Omar Mchedlishvili (D(RL), WB(R), M(R), AM(RC) A very good player who was so fed up with the coaches at Hertha he demanded a trade, and we were only too happy to oblige. Two very good season for us until Sheffield United came running. 157 CA/PA.

2038/39 Transfers:

Dragan Grčić (GK) With Popovich moving to Dynamo B, and with the luck I’ve had signing keepers from this Region, Grčić certainly looked like he had a big future ahead of him, and he did. As we saw above, in 2050 he’s still with the club, but in 2040 he was a 159 CA / 174 PA player.
Alban Lüthi (D(C), DM, M9C), AM(C)) could find a spot at Liverpool (or the other teams he was at), but the 157 CA/PA player will have a future here.
Carlos Navarro (M(C), AM(C)) is one of the reasons I stuck with my 3 AM(C) formation. He was already a 4 star player when I signed him, he was a 5 star player when I retired, and with a 178 CA / 180 PA it’s easy to see why.
Pietro Rotunno (D(R)) had an interesting start to his career. My Italian scout found him at Renate, a Serie C team, and he let his contract run out. We signed him on a free, beating out a bunch of other teams, because his attributed looked pretty good, and on a free, why not? As you will see, he turned into a very good player, but in 2050 he’s a 123 CA / 171 PA Player.

The 2039/40 transfer window was my last as head coach, so I am not too invested in the players, although there are a couple I want to look at.

Marco Munoz, who we bought from PSG for €33M, had a series of loan spells, two good half seasons, then went to Benfica for €11.5M. With 136 CA / 173 PA I think this is a miss by the coaching staffs who followed mine. Hossam Yehia was a young Egyptian Keeper with an intriguing attribute set. With Grčić on the roster (and in danger of being poached), having a young talent on the bench could be handy. When we signed him he was 91 CA / 159 PA, in 2050 he’s 107 CA. Ole-Christian Berntsen was on an Amateur Contract at Arendal in Norway, and had Youth Caps. I took a flyer on him because hey, what’s to lose? The coaches following me found out, as he bounced around on loan spells (and had a good couple IMO) with only a few first team starts being moved to Norwich in 2046 for €5.25M. He’s a 140 CA player, who had a 180 PA ceiling.

Ben Dahan

Signed for €3.5M in 2037, I found Ben thru Screenflow. I didn’t have him full scouted when I did, but holy cow, was I ever surprised. I went from a 4-2-2-2 Box to the 4-1-1-3-1 to get him on the field, and boy howdy, did he ever perform. He was one of the players I wanted to follow up on after retirement and simming forward, and I am glad I did. This is Ben at 30 years old. This was his 2nd Season at Athletico Madrid, he moved for €107M.

Remember, because I modified my attribute range, those Green Circles are all 17 or better.

This is his career so far. What isn’t included, and this is frustrating, are his International numbers as well:

As an example, in 2045/46 he had 22 goals and 19 assists across all competitions. In 2046/47 it was 19 and 18. In 47/48 it was 26 and 21.

He is the 3rd 200 PA player I’ve found thru scouting in six years of FM. Part of me wishes I had found him ten years earlier, but had I done that, he’d have been playing for Dynamo B by 2030.

Tatsuke Yoneyama

Signed for €2.3M from Kobe Leone in 2036/37, Tatsuke had 5 Seasons at Dynamo, before being signed in the 2041/42 season for €201M by Dynamo B. I am reasonably sure had I remained he would have stayed in Berlin for the rest of his career. As it stands, he’s had a pretty good one:

A 187 CA / 189 PA Striker. Although if I am being honest in the 2043/44 season Dahan started at Striker and made the best XI with 26 goals, 10 assists and a 7.37 rating. Dahan and Yoneyama up top? in something like a 3-4-1-2…Hrrm…

This was a fun save, this was my sort of save, taking a club that’s in the lower leagues and trying to bring them to the top. I wanted to do something different as well, some storytelling to help drive the narrative along, and I think for the most part I succeeded. Eventually though, the game was getting rough to play. Not because we kept on winning (which we weren’t), not because we kept getting the best players (Which we didn’t), but because I was spending way to much time fighting the board.

From the beginning it seems as if I was constantly at loggerheads with them, sure getting promoted out first season was unexpected but then going €20M+ in debt to get a new stadium built while trying to stave off relegation? It took me an inordinate amount of begging to get facilities upgrades, coaches and scouts expanded. For about 10 years our only affiliate was a RegionalLiga team so bad none of my players wanted to go there, and the two years I had a loan manager were the worst because he was constantly screwing me out of deals. It took me threatening to quit my job to get an affiliate, a good one in Heidenheim, and to get youth recruitment expanded. In the real world I would have quit much sooner, as it was the goals of the save were met: Win the Bundesliga, and Win the Champions League. It was a very good save, and very fun save, and I cannot thank everyone enough for following along.

Up next, something a little different for me, 2024 being the year of change and all that. Watch this Space!

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

The theme for this season? Injuries.

Javier Palacios, a broken ankle, out 3 months.
Ben Dahan, a torn Hamstring, out 3 months
Alexandr Panchekha, a damaged Achilles tendon, our 4 months
Michael Keßler, knee tendonitis, out 3 months.

Holy hells, I don’t know what the heck is going on with my medical department, my Technical director is responsible for hiring/firing them, but I swear a lot of them are going to be losing their job this keeps up.

The season got of to a rip roaring start, with one exception:

Other than that one blip, we were firing on all cylinders, including a 5-4 win over Man City (AKA BFC Dynamo B, more on that later) in the League Phase. Several close victories (but victories nonetheless) followed, but the highlight of this portion of the schedule was beating Dynamo Dresden 5-2 in the Pokal. The only other blip was drawing to HSV, but they kept the ball away from us, and when we did have our chances, we couldn’t make the most of them.

The draw at Augsburg was very annoying, as we were better than them across the board, but the two word work hits we had certainly didn’t help, and neither did the defensive lapse we had that allowed Altmeier to score in the 73rd minute. We were lucky to escape Madrid with a draw, as they thoroughly outplayed us from beginning to end, but ending the first half of the season with just the one loss across all competitions was very nice. Beating Man City and a very good Rennes team were definitely highlights.

The only transfer of consequence was Park Jong-sun in, a South Korean keeper recommended to me by my scout. Our depth at keeper wasn’t the best, and with the injuries we were having I realized that a 21 y/o Egyptian International with next to no experience wasn’t a good plan.

He’s not a bad keeper, in fact I would have been happy to have him in our Bundesliga 2 days, and he can do a solid job for us if required.

The number of games and injuries started catching up to us in January:

FC Koln is a decent squad, they’re fighting for European football and they earned the draw when our defense decided the game was won and the last ten minutes didn’t matter. Union Berlin though, they are fighting relegation. Palacios had a goal called back by VAR for being offsides (it was the right call), then Grgic made not one but two saves on PK’s that saved the draw for us. We should have lost that game.

HSV held us to a draw, again, this time Ohayon saving us with a an 82nd minute goal, but as we were drawing BVB was winning, and they were neck and neck with us.

We got out of League play no problem, then beat PSG 2-1 on aggregate.

We then beat a very good Wolves team in the Quarters, and an excellent Sheffield United Team in the Semi’s, to face Dynamo B (AKA Man City) at Wembley. That was the good news. The bad news? drawing at Wolfsburg, which let BVB pull even with us, and losing at BMG, which let them pull ahead. And so, despite winning the Pokal in extras time at Hertha, and getting to the Finals of the Champions League, we finished 2nd in the League, losing by 1 point.

Now, why do I call Man City “Dynamo B”? This is why:

Curbelo, Schau, Jiminez, Montanaro, and Popovich. All former BFC Dynamo players. All former starters. Montanaro we found very early on, and if we’re being fair (and I don’t want to be but OK) he ended up in Man City via Newcastle and RB Leipzig. Jiminez went to Angers, then City paid €203M(!!) for him. They paid Madrid €174M(!) for Schau, then they paid €52M for Popovich, and €83M for Curbelo. They finished 2nd in the Prem behind Chelsea. They were playing essentially a home game, as this years final was in Wembley.

And with out best striker and one of our better AM(C)’s out, we won:

In City’s defense (pft!) the Vasiliu goal was very close, but VAR clearly showed he was offsides. Sadler was BEHIND Popovich when he got the goal and scored, and how Grgic ended up on a 6.9 I am not sure, but we got to celebrate in front of the English crowd, and it felt good:

Befitting a Champions League Winning Season, several players had amazing years:

A keeper with 1 or 2 POM’s isn’t out of the ordinary. Grgic with 7 though, that’s more than a few games won. I knew Navarro had a good season, I didn’t realize it was 20+ goals AND assists, and the scary thing is he still has some room to grow IMO:

Yoneyama was very good again, and resting him for Ohayon was not a huge dropoff. Palacios stepped up when needed, but the biggest surprise for me this season was Panchekha. 17 goals and 14 assists while missing 16+ games is phenomenal.

Lars Eller was living the good life. As the President of BFC Dynamo the past six years, he hat sat at the top of the boardroom table, watching as the club worked it’s way to the top of the table not once, but three times, and less than a week ago lifted the Champions League trophy. That Coach Schmidt hadn’t smiled at him when he handed the Cup over was galling on a personal level, and it was something he was going to bring up in today’s meeting. Coach’s ego was getting big, and it was time to remind him who was in charge of the club.

There was a knock on the door, and his secretary came in a few seconds later, marched to his desk, and put an envelope down, then turned and left without a word. There was no name on the front, but he opened it, took out the letter, and started to read.

Herr Eller,

Eighteen years ago I I was hired as head coach of BFC Dynamo. They are the club I have supported since childhood, the club I wanted to coach since I was young, and the journey since the day I was hired has been a very good one. In these 18 years i Have coached a total of 6546 days, won 15 awards. In 773 games played, we have won 403 of them, drawn 176, and lost 194, with a +444 goal difference. We have won 7 Cups, 4 Leagues, and have been promoted 3 times.
The past three years the club has fallen behind. I have asked repeatedly for improvements to the training facilities, the youth facilities, and training grounds. I have asked numerous times for new affiliates, and have been repeatedly turned down. This club has a vision, a goal, and a desire, but in order for those things to be attained, the tools must be present for them to be made possible. The last time I asked you, if you will remember, you told me I had to make do with what I had.
I find I can no longer do that anymore, and I prefer to go out on top. Therefore I must inform you that as of 7AM this morning, June 5th, 2040, I resign as Head Coach of BFC Dynamo.
I wish you and the club success in it’s future endeavors.

Regards,

Nicholas Schmidt

His hands were shaking as he read the end of the letter, and when his phone rang he picked it up without a thought and yelled “What!”

“Hello, Herr Eller, this is Klaus Schneider with Voetbalzone, I was wondering if you could comment on Herr Schmidt resigning this morning?”

Eller slammed the phone back down on its cradle.

One more entry in the Der Bär Wird Wieder Brüllen universe is up, as we take a look at what happened to the club after Coach left, and take a look at what happened with some of the players who built the club, and helped carry it to the top. An interesting (at least to me) note, if you go to Club Vision -> Board you will see a board request data section. For the entirety of my duration in Berlin, the board turned down 60% of my requests. The final straw for me this season (what with FM24 having been released) they rejected all of my requests for Youth Improvement and Youth Facilities and affiliates, and I had to threaten to quit to get the training facilities upgraded as well. This whole save I have fought the board in one fashion or another, hell it almost ended after the first year when the club put in in so much debt to build a new stadium that it could have been over before it started, and I hate fighting the board. It’s time to travel, and see the world.

This has been a fun save, and I’ll expand on that more in the last post. Thanks for reading!