FM24 has been out for almost a week now, and I’ve actually continued this save on it. Truth be told I am about 4 seasons ahead of where this commentary is, so I think after this season, I will just be doing full season recaps, then a short break.

I do have a ‘Beta’ save planned, but as they say, life happens, and my ability to sit and type at the computer has been limited lately by a neck injury. Nothing serious, a possible slipped disc impinging on a nerve that affects my right arm (and I of course and right handed), it just makes playing hard sometimes.

I do have plans for the YT channel this year, one of the things I am going to do is concentrate more on my favorite part of the game, and that’s scouting. I’ve done an inordinate amount of behind the scenes work, and finished just as FM24 went to Beta, so of course all of my data is FM23 related, but what I am working on there differences are minimal. But then again, see the above…

As is my wont,. I tend to go thru skins until I find one I like to use, and then I pretty much stick with that one. That’s why some of the screenshot look different, as I played this save using Mustermanns FM23 skin for the most part, but with FM24 having come out, I am trying some of the new and old ones again, the screenshots in blue today are from a slightly modified version of the Sas Skin, which you can find thru Second Yellow Card’s YT channel.

As always, I thank those of you who have followed me in this!

Jellico

The seasons has gotten off to a very good start. After seeing how Cezar performed last year coming off the bench, I’ve decided to feature him more, hoping that MacLennan will take being challenged to heart and will step his own game up.

Bayern still has our number, I think my record against them is like 2-20-2, at least that’s what it feels like, but the loss at Bayer 04 was especially galling, because not only did MacLennan miss a PK, he was also responsible for the turnover that led to Relvao scoring in the 71st minute to take the lead.

We absolutely crushed Molde, it was a game I was not expecting, but for some reason they sat back in their 442 and said “Bring It!” and we did, to the tune of 77% Possession, 21 shots, and 11 on target. What’s mildly scary is the 2 woodworks his we had, one of which took a weird bounce off the pole before coming back out. I think it was one of those case where the ME couldn’t show what happened exactly, and had to compromise graphically, but I would have bet money the shot was going in.

That victory set the tone going forward the next few weeks, as we beat Union the Hoffenheim. From an Analytics POV, we should have lost to Standard, they had more shots, more on target a higher xG, but almost all the highlights in the game were ours. Viveros has really stepped up his game this year, he’s always been a solid player, but he’s really starting to shine in the bigger games.

The draw at Werder I am putting down to not enough days off between games, which strikes me as plausible because with full rest we thumped Hannover thanks to a Viveros Hat Trick. The came the biggest shock of the season, so far:

Again, a game on paper we should not have won, or drawn, but we did. It’s been a long time since I saved a game as soon as I could once the final whistle blew, because I knew if I didn’t something would glitch and I wouldn’t beat them again on the replay…

A frustrating draw at RB Leipzig (they clawed the draw back with a 93rd minute goal) and a good win at Stuttgart in the Pokal meant we had gone 9 games without a loss. So Of course we lost to BVB to start November.

When then drew with Juve. This was a game neither team wanted to win IMO, we had 10/1 and a 1.53 xG, they had 10/4 and 1.15xG…we had one player above a 6.9…one! They had 3, but IIRC Juve was pretty much guaranteed a bye at this point, so the were ok with the draw.

Wins at Dusseldorf and HSV followed, then thanks to a Cezar goal in the 3rd minute, and some chippy defense (5 yellow cards), we held Sheffield to a draw. I think they guy were so excited we were moving to the next round of the Champions League they forgot we still had Bundesliga football, which is why we lost to a poor 1. Koln team.

We got our revenge against BVB By knocking them out of the Pokal in extra time, thanks to a Traore goal, Viveros beat one of our local rivals all by himself, and then we beat a very good Real San Sebastian team:

Not convincingly perhaps, but with 3 wins and 4 draws we had a good change of getting into the top 16. Staying there would require some help.

We ended the year with wins at Augsburg and Wolfsburg, and then got absolutely thumped by BMG. The Dylan MacLennan ride is over, not only did he miss another PK, but he has like 4 goals in the League, and 2 goals in the CL, and is just a non factor in the games he plays. Cezar is playing well, Tenorio, Viveros, and Curbelo are picking up the slack at AM(C), and I think I may just play Osman up top next to Cezar from here on out.

And then the SOB asks to see me before the break, he wants a new contract, with higher pay, to reflect his value to the team…

Some peoples kids man….

“Next draw, I hope we get cities I haven’t actually travelled to before,” Sasha said. She was sitting at the table, head in her hands, staring at her beer.
“What’s wrong with Italy? Or Belgium, Or England?” Paul asked.
“What’s wrong with Sheffield?” Heinrich asked.
“What’s right with Sheffield?” retorted Sasha, finally giving in and drinking half her beer in one go. “Or Chelsea, Or Milan?”
“You’ve never been to Milan,” Paul said.
“I have too, when I was six.”
“Pretty sure it’s changed since then.”
Sasha looked at him with a bit of side eye. He ignored her.
“Besides, we get to yell at the Man City, Molde, Benfica and Real San Sebastien fans wqhen they show up.”
“Not a lot of fun in that, unless they speak German…” Sasha said.
“New stadium for Juve?” Erich chimed in.
“If I showed you four new stadiums with all the advertising removed, you couldn’t pick out Juve stadium on the first try,” Sasha said, “I swear, they all look alike, metal and glass and no soul to speak off.”
“Like ours,” Heinrich said.
“Exactly,” Sasha said, finishing her beer. “To young, doesn’t have any character.”
“Can always try burning the stand down again,” Heinrich quipped, dodging Sasha’s hand.
“That wasn’t my fault, someone hit me and I dropped the flare and besides, it was only a small fire that was put out pretty quick.”
“Still, the scorch marks lasted until we moved.”
“I know…” Sasha sighed.
“Turn it into something fun maybe?” Paul said. “How many countries jails can Sasha spend the night in?”
He didn’t dodge her slap, which caught him on the head.
The table was quiet.
“I’m not going to Belgium just so I can stay the night in a Liege jail,” she said, crossing her arms.
“Killjoy,” Heinrich said with a smile.

I really think we reached a turning point with the squad. We have some quality players, a few players with great potential, and some veterans that hold it all together. Additionally, given the clubs recent success, were sitting on a huge chunk of money, and have the ability to go out and spend a lot of it on players.

What the board won’t let me do is get a new affiliate, or increase our scouting range, or are Youth Recruitment. It’s highly annoying…

Transfer wise, it was a quiet window. I am not trying to be as reactionary when it comes to moving players who aren’t performing (I think), but rather am willing to give them enough rope to succeed or not.

The only two outs of significance were Iacopo Zappasodi and Martim Fernandes. Iacopo came in and my hope was that he would be part of the midfield rotation, but what game time he did get didn’t produce any results, and then the field got so crowded he ended up being the odd man out. I sent him out on loan in the hopes first team playing time would see his game improve, and while he had good runs at Groningen and Trabzonspor, but neither was enough to convince me he was worth a new contract, so he left on a free.

Martim was a good player for us, club leader, player of the year last year, and came into the office demanding a star player contract. I like Martim, but he’s not a Star Player. So he left in a huff, I put him out there, and Athletico Madrid picked him up for €23.5M. I am seeing this sort of thing happen more in this save.

Leonard Spangengberg is a RB Leipzig product who never cracked the first team, and I was looking for some depth on that side of the field. He’s primarily a winger, and he’s not a bad one, but he also doesn’t excel in any one area. That’s not bad, but then again if injuries foce me to play him at Wingback, I’ve got more problems than I care to think about.

Tim Schau is an absolute steal at €13.5M, I am not sure what caused the falling out between him and QPR, but when he popped up as being available, I couldn’t click fast enough. He’s an elite level player IMO, First Touch, Balance, Passing, good movement, good physicals, and he’s only going to get better. He’s the First Team DM DLP(S), the question is how long can I keep him here before some team with bigger, deeper pockets snatches him away?

Lucas Curbelo caught my eye in the screen flow, when as an 18 year old he was starting for the Uruguayan National Team. Now, I don’t know about you, but an 18 year old midfielder starting for any national team is worth looking at, but starting for Uruguay? I am not sure how Ludogorets signed him for jus €60K, but he sat on the bench last season, which is probably why I got him at the price I did. I think with a lot of First Team playing time, which he will get, he will also be a very good player.

It’s the Champions League. Not sure what I was expecting to be honest, but I certainly wasn’t expecting Man City, Chelsea, Juve, Benfica, and really good Standard and and San Sebastian teams. If we come out of this with less than three losses, I will be very surprised.

I thought about this, for a decent amount of time…

Then I said “Thanks but No Thanks.” We’re building something here at BFC Dynamo, I want to see it thru.

“You’ve turned down quite a few job interviews this season Coach,” Armin said. They were sitting in Coach Schmidt’s office, which looked pretty spare when compared to other offices he had been in.
“I’ve got a good thing going here in Berlin, if I have my way I’ll finish my career here.”
“How long do you expect that career to last?”
“Well, I suspect what will happen is that my career will end sooner than I want it to, later than some of the fans and players want it to.”
“And then?”
“Find a youth team to coach somewheres,” he said with a smile. “Although admittedly dealing with some of the players is probably easier than dealing with some of the parents.”
“Do you think the club has turned a corner?”
“How so?”
“From being a stepping stone club to a destination club?”
“I think we’re in the middle of that process. But I think we are also going to have young players we find who will come here, get seen, and be poached by bigger clubs.”
“You don’t seem upset by that.”
“It’s football. Only way to stop it from happening is to become a big club as well, with the money, reputation, and results to convince a player to come here instead of a Bayern, Arsenal, or Madrid.”
“Do you regret not being able to keep a player like Luca Montanaro?”
“Not as much as people and fans want me to.” Coach leaned back in his chair.
“We new he had the ability to be special when we signed him. I don’t think it’s a coincedence that six month into the 28/29 season after we did sign him there were scouts from almost every major team in every major league in the stands watching him, which also put other players out there as well. We knew we weren’t going to be able to keep him long term. If I do have a regret with Luca, it’s not putting a bigger release clause on him.
“Any thoughts of going after him when he left Newcastle?”
Coach shook his head. “Preliminary talks. His agent made it clear he was looking for a big money contract and the club made it known what their floor for a credible offer would be. And I am…not exactly adverse, but wary of investing big sums of money in a player. Signing him would have taken up all of our budget, and I am not a fan of doing that, even for a player of Luca’s quality.”
Coach leaned back in his chair, thinking.
“Take a player like Dragan. Great keeper. Would I still love to have him? Of course, but Sheffield came along and offered him good money and a chance for European ball, and to their credit they are playing in Europe-“
“So are you,” Armin said, interrupting with a smile. Coach smiled in return.
“Yes, but they were expected to be competing, were just crashing the party, so to speak.” He smiled, as did Armin.
“But no, I don’t begrudge anyone wanting to leave. If a player doesn’t want to stay, or has unrealistic expectations of their time here, I’m happy to let them move to another club. As long as we get fair market value for them.”
“And have a replacement for them?”
“Maybe.” Coach sat forward again.
“If there’s one thing I am incredibly proud of, then one thing I hope does outlast me, it’s our scouting department. I think for the size of club we are, we have the best in Europe, if not the hemisphere. Those men and women, they’re the ones going to the ends of the earth to find some of these diamonds in the rough, and helping get them here.”
“Carlos Tenorio?” Armin asked.
“Los is the latest. But players like Luca, Jon Jimenez, Christopher, Essomba, Dragan, Jakob, Babacar Fisher, Mbaye…”
“Do you ever stop to think about the team you would have today if they hadn’t left?”
“No, but then that’s what the editor on Football manager is for, isn’t it?”

The transfer window was quiet, and that was by choice. The last thing I like to do is spend money just because I have it, and to be honest there weren’t a lot of established players out there I was willing to spend money for, not yet anyways. Younger players, with really good potential, both in terms of ability and resale value? Yes please.

Angelo Bolzan caught my eye because he has 3 U21 caps already, and because his Decision Making, Positioning, Tackling and Anticipation are all near elite levels. Even is his PA isn’t that much higher than his CA, he’s a great young player, one I think Cagliari may kick themselves for when they realize they could have gotten more money for him.

The “I am not a fan of Dylan MacLennan” fan club has seen it’s ranks grow almost exponentially. For a Deep Lying Forward, he is adept at getting the ball, and then giving it away to someone else for them to score. Which wouldn’t a bad thing if the other person was scoring, and thus far, they haven’t been. While I am going to give him the opportunity to redeem himself, I figure a little fire under his seat won’t hurt, so in comes Abdoulaye Traore. The young Ivorian can play all three positions up top, and I expect his elite levels of agility, Balance, Fitness, Quickness and first touch to come in quite handy. He may be a year or two away from being a full time starter, but I will try and get him as many chances as possible,

On paper, Osman Cengiz Buğdaycı is one of our better strikers. But the games aren’t played on paper. I was more than a bit surprised when Galatasaray made him available, and for 13 million I think we are getting one of the better young strikers in the game. Elite level ball control skills, good endurance, he’s going to get the opportunity the grab one of the starting forward spots.

Federico Dannemann is probably the first player I regret signing. It’s not a failure on my scouts, but a failure on me. He was coming off a fine season on loan at Millonarios, with 10 goals and 15 assists, and when I initially scouted him almost all of his attributes cam back in that 13-18 range, and he came in on the low side. He a better than average M(C), the problem is I have enough of those on the squad. I am going to try and get him in the rotation, but it may not work out.

On the outs, Angers came in hard for Jon Jimenez, at first trying to backload the offer to meet his release fee, then after a few back and forths of me putting my foot down and say, “Pay me this much or no” They finally did. I fully expect to get most, if not all of the €36.5M transfer fee, if only to offset what I am going to lose because of the Dannaman transfer…

Our Champions League run lasted a lot longer than I thought it would, as a draw against Wolves and a win at Monaco put us in the Knock out rounds. Now, February has 28 days. We had 8 games, which means a game every 3.5 days, and while I do have depth, it is not quality everywhere (something that needs to be rectified).

Bayern got two goals early in the Pokal, and the lone goal MacLennan scored was ok, buit again was too little too late.

Milan has a very good squad, and it showed when they beat us on aggregate 3-0. To be fair, it should have been 5-0 or 6-0 the way we played the last game, but I think they actually dropped down to cautious and said “Come at me Bro” in Italian, and we went “nah, it’s late and we’re tired….”

While the teams we played in March and April may not have been the best, I will take going 6-1-1 against them every day of the week and twice on gameday. That run of games put us in the top 4, fighting it out for 3rd thru 7th. In the end, despite our best efforts, we finished 3rd on goal differential. The arrival of Osman indeed di light a fire under Dylan, and he started scoring more often, but rightly or wrongly, I’ve soured on him.

I have no idea how MacLennan scored 18 goals, some of them must have come when I was AFK. Cezar with 16 is good, but I do like the Viveros had 7/7/8 and Tenorio had 3/9/1. The squad isn’t to old, it has decent depth, and it has a ton of potential. Next couple of years they need to start playing to it, or it’s going to time to take and Etch-a-sketch to the roster, shake it clear, and start from scratch…

“What is with this team…” Sasha moaned, head down on the table. The only thing particularly worrying about this situation was that she was sober.

You expecting the bottom to fall out? Up,” Paul slid a plate of food under her as she sat up

“No. Yes. No. They are doing good, it’s just that…”

“It’s just that if someone told twelve year old you fifteen years ago the team you chose to follow would not only be playing in the Bundesliga, but playing Champions League football-” Paul said, until Heinrich cut him off.

“You’d be wondering what you had to eat for that day, or are afraid of waking up and it all being a dream?”

“Yes. No.”

“I get it,” Heinrich said sitting down with his own plate. “No one expected the team to be where it is, least of all us. But at the end of the day, why worry about it. Live in the moment, they are doing well. Enjoy6 the victories, drown the losses in a couple of beers, and decades from now we can be telling our grandkids about how we remembered when Dynamo was in the Bundesliga and doing well. Lord knows all the new fans won’t hang around that long.”

They all looked around. The bar was a bit more crowded than usual, a lot of newer, younger faces.

“Next thing you know they’ll start asking for wine spritzers and “light’ Beer,” Paul said. Sasha shuddered visibly.

“So,” Heinrich said around a mouth full of food. “What’s the RUMINT on who they are going after in the transfer window?

Whatever Dylan MacLennan is, he’s not a first team, top tier striker. When I look at his attributes, he should be, but there has to be something going on behind the scenes, as he just…disappears. I should have fought to keep Mirko Tulli, who spent all of a season at Monaco before signing at Eintracht Frankfurt this season.

Luckily our defense has has been very good, we haven’t been blown out (yet) and we’ve salvaged more than one draw.

August was a decent start, even the Borussia Dortmund game. Neiva got sent off in the 3rd minute on a straight red, but Viveros put us up 1-0 in the 17th minute, and it took a Christopher Essomba goal (because of course it would be one of our former players) who scored in the 93rd minute to get the draw back. Although if I am being honest we should have conceded at least two and maybe a 3rd, but parking the bus really frustrated them.

In what may become a theme of this season, we lost to RB Leipzig due to a Luca Montanaro goal (yet another former player.

Olympiacos did well to earn the draw, but I’d like to think that if Castillo and Tenorio hadn’t gone out with injuries, we would have won.

The draw against Villareal was well earned, Popovic was very good between the sticks, and , from a statistical point of view we were even, so I will take a 0-0 draw.

Arijon Ibrahimović, who is not related to Zlatan, did his best impersonation by scoring a brace in the latter half of the game, first drawing and then scoring the winner that let Bayer win. Scoring 2 against Union on the bounce was nice, as it’s always fun to beat an intercity rival, and then at home, against Man City, we won, 1-0

I still can’t believe it. They absolutely outclassed us, but everyone on our squad who wasn’t an attacking player had a 7.1 or better, and the Jon Jiménez goal was very nice. Turning around and blanking Stuttgart 3-0 was a nice way to end the month.

Needing extra time to beat Union in the Pokal was a gut punch. Drawing against Werder, whose also a relegation candidate, was equally annoying.

Napoli crushed us. I thought we had a chance until Kvarradonna weaved his way past five of my players and scored in the 8th minute. What’s also getting frustrating is that we are starting to “play down” to some of the not so good teams. Take Wolfsburg as an example, they are a bottom of the table club, who beat us 2-0, but then we turn around and beat them 2-0 in the Pokal.

Djurgårdens got an absolute gift of a goal in the 95th to claw the draw back. I logged off and didn’t touch the game for a couple of days., only to be blanked by Bayern. Again. We closed out the year with a good run of games, but again a 96th(!!) minute goal gave Braga the draw. We’d be top 16 if it weren’t for these last two games. .

Annoying as hell.

But not as annoying with MacLennan and his 7 goals.

I think it’s time to start spending some of this money the board has set aside for me to use.

It’s not like I can threaten them with the Wolves job interview to give me more…

“An unexpected finish from the youthful BFC Dynamo squad sees them playing in the Champions League for the first time, and their path will not be easy. Man City, Napoli, Monaco, Braga, Wolves, Villareal, Olympiacos and Djurgårdens means, Dynamo will have to be extremely good and extremely lucky to go further than the League Phase.”

An Excerpt from Berlin Soccer Post, June, 2034.

“There is a philosophical change underway at BFC Dynamo. While outwardly theclub was…parsimonious shall we say…with spending money on players, behind the scenes it was quietly built up one of the best scouting departments in Germany, if not all of Europe. While finding the proverbial diamonds in the rough, Tenorio, Sountoura, Baffouman, the club has started to sign more established players who look to have a long term career in the scarlet and black, such as Cezar, and Neiva. Should the club stay successful especially with top of the table finishes and continued European Football, it may well cease to be a stepping stone club, and the likes of Mirko Tulli and other good players might be persuaded to stay long term”

An excerpt from Kicker’s “Year in Preview, the 2034/35 season.”

The transfer window was quiet, but it doesn’t mean it wasn’t busy behind the scenes. As expected, out good finish last year had several players come and ask for new contracts, several player leave for “bigger” clubs, and several players expected to step up this year, especially with the tactical change to a Brazilian Box inspired 4-2-2-2.

TRANSFER WINDOW:

Out’s:

Alexis Portocarrero and Juan Ayala both caught a case of “We want a new contract that gives us “Star Player Status” even though at best we are “Regular Starters”. This is something I hope is fixed in FM24, because as this save goes on, it’s getting more and more prevalent. I told both players “Nein” and listed them, the fact none of the other complained after they left tells me they thought the same thing of their demands that I did.

Standard came in with an unsolicited offer for Ognjen Vojvodić, who seemed way to eager to leave. I think we have enough young talent to replace him, but losing him was unexpected.

Martim Fernandes was the team players of the year last year, and I was really reluctant to let him go, but he didn’t have a release clause, and Athletico is a bigger club. Again, one of those moves that could hurt us if someone doesn’t step up.

Baffouman, Jaspert, Zappasodi and Vinterburg all went on loan for first team playing time. I thought the transfer window was over, and then with something like four hours left, Chelsea swooped in for Novotny. I don’t remember if they had another player get injured, but here I was looking forward to Novotny being my front pivot man and…nope, of to England. That just means Carlos Tenorioa gets more playing time.

IN’S:

I do not have the original screenshots I took, I believe this is around the time the external I was saving things do decided to yeet itself into the next world, so the screenshots that follow are from the players at the end of the season.

Boris Castillo should be able to step up and claim one of the D(C) spots, and if he can’t the opportunity is there for him to be the D(R) instead. An above average player in most area’s, he still has the potential to get better. He will get a lot of opportunities the season.

I signed Phillip Schulz to be part of the rotation, but chances are he’s going to be a full time starter. I think he fits that ‘savvy veteran’ player mold that every team needs: A guy who knows his capabilities, knows what he’s good at, and plays in such a way that he sets himself up to meet those goals all game. He probably won’t get a lot of highlights, but when you look at his statistics at the end of the year, he’ll be top 5 and you’ll be surprised.

With Vojvodić leaving, I felt I needed a replacement, so I looked in my scouting pool, and Viveros was listed by Bayer. For €2.1 Million. They bought him last year from Porto for €8M, and he had 6/5 in 27 games for them, so either he had a falling out with the coach, or Bayer has some good depth (they don’t), to let a player this good go for that cheap. He will do the job for us I think.

To be honest, I forgot about Renato Arruda. I started this season, then went to Italy on a school trip with my son for 10 days, came back and was in the middle of the transfer window when news popped up that we had signed him.

I don’t remember doing that.

In hindsight, this may not have been the best move. He’s an above average player to be sure, but the lower finishing and concentration plus below average positional skills are making me more than a little wary. I thought he would be a good off the bench option, but after the first games of the season, I am starting to think Olympiacos are getting one over on me.

I’m really looking forward to this season, especially the Champions League games. Yes, we are playing some tough teams, but it will be nice to see how we stack up against them, and to find out how close/far we are to joining that elite level of football.

The celebration after winning the game was muted, Bayer 04 had walked off the field, Jaissle shaking Nikki’s hand and congratulating him.
Then the big screen switched to the Borussia Munchen-Gladbach-Mainz game. BMG had drawn with Dynamo two weeks prior, and then had played a listless game away at Hoffenheim the resulted in a draw, meaning Dynamo no longer controlled its own destiny. They needed a win, and a BMG loss or tie, and it looked like they might get their wish. Mainz was in the relegation zone, but had been playing BMG tough, they were currently tied at 2 all wih just under 15 minutes left.
“Didn’t they start the same time as us?” Sasha asked?
“Stadium had a power outage right before the second half was supposed to start, delayed the game by about 15 minutes,” Heinrich said, staring into his phone.
“Oh, crap,” said Klaus, watching the big screen. Vladimir Camara, the former Dynamo player, lofted a long pass across the field, where Bernd Anacker ran up on it, dribbled around the Mainz defender, and lofted a cross in at the top of the box. Ulrich went for the header, but instead of directing it towards the goal towards Naldo, he kept it going right, where it bounced in front of Joe Gelhardt, the veteran winger waiting until it was a few inches in the air, before blasting it into the upper left corner of the goal past Yusufu’s outstretched hands.
14,000 voices all groaned, Sasha’s loud “VERDAMMT!” caused more than a few people around her to step away.
Fifteen minutes later, despite Mainz’s best efforts, BMG’s defense held, and the ref whistled the game to an end. Coach Schmidt called the team to huddle around him, gave a short speech to them that no one heard, then had them line up, he and his coaching staff shaking their hands as they headed to the stands to applaud the fans. Schmidt and his coaching staff followed, walking around the stadium, clapping for everyone who remained. As they headed towards the entrance to the lockers, a small crowd of men in suits came out. The coaching staff stopped in front of them, and there was a short discussion. There were handshakes and congratulations all around, and the coaching staff, still waving and clapping, headed inside.
Before entering, Coach Schmidt turned around and called out, and the chairman turned around to look at him.
Coach Schmidt raised his hand, and made the universal ‘spending money’ hand gesture, then turned and left, before he could see the chairman face go red with anger.

We only had two outs in the January transfer window. Joan Vallejo is a capable midfielder, but he wanted a new contract that guaranteed him First Team playing time. I countered with Squad Player, because up to this point that’s what he was, a very capable M(C)/DM player off the bench who could get the occasional start when players better than him needed a day off, but he wasn’t having it. I am not a babysitter, so out he went, for €1.1M.

BMG made an unsolicited offer for Federico González. He had a really good season last year, with 4 goals and 10 assists in 18 appearances, and at the halfway point this season had 5 goals and 3 assists in 11 games, he was part of a very good rotation, but he jumped at the chance to go to BMG. I couldn’t figure out why, until I saw they were already playing Europa League Ball, and he would be a full time starter there. FYI they lost in the Semi’s to Inter on aggregate, they have a very good team, and for a €7.75M fee, González joined them.

I did sign a bunch of youth players, a couple might have potential, but they are more to help the squads have more options so my younger players don’t get hurt. The Youth Intake this year was a great big bucket of “Meh”, it will be another year or two before I see some top talent coming thru.

The highlight in this series of matches is that we beat a full strength Bayern Squad. They had more shots on goal, but they also had more Yellow Cards, and were just off their game the entire match. I would have counted this seasons mostly successful if we had been relegated but beat Bayern on the way down. We’re reaching the point where mistakes are starting to catch up to them in a couple of years other teams will be challenging for first place. The only real disappointing result in this run of games was losing the Pokal to Hannover, only to turn around 5 days later and beat them. Annoying AF to say the least.

We went on a rampage in March, only to pay for it in April and May. We had the opportunity to finish 2nd, but let it slip thru our hands, which I am upset at. I can take some solace in the fact that BMG and Hoffenheim are both decent squads, and to be fair so is RB Leipzig, but 3rd is not 2nd, even though we came away with European Football and a lot of money.

The team, is still struggling to find its offensive identity, which is odd considering how well we did this year. Maclennan and Cezar each had 12 goals, Novotny led the team with 9 assists, and I had 15 players start at least 15 games. Maybe I am tinkering to much, and that’s affecting things? The enemy of ‘Very Good’ is perfect, and it seems I am not a fan of ‘Very Good’ lately. I still think we are a couple of players away from being better than ‘Very Good’, but the nice thing is, the club now has the money to spend, and as long as I spend it wisely, we’ll be playing European football for a long time to come.

“This club is going to give me a complex,” Klaus said.

“You sure it’s not the Indian food you had earlier disagreeing with you? Again?” Sasha asked.

“Christmas season got you down?” Heinrich added to the conversation, setting a tray full of beers down on the table and handling them out.

“We could win the League!” Klaus said.

“Not unless Bayern stumbles,” Sasha sighed. Heinrich gave her a bit of the side eye, Bayern was usually a curse word when she said it. “And with €220M Euros spent so far, I don’t see the tumbling anytime soon. Dammit.” She sighed, and drank down half a blass of beer.

“We could finish Second!” Klaus said.

“Shockingly, we are all OK with that,” Heinrich said.

“But what if-” Klaus started to say, until Paul, who was sitting next to him, wraped his arm around his neck and clamped a hand over his mouth.

“Think very carefully on what you are about to say, and then sit and theink of the consequences you will suffer should what you want to say come true. Ja?”

He purposely avoided looking at Sasha, she was throwing enough daggers in Klau’s direction he didn’t want to get hit by any more unfriendly fire than necessary.

“Next round is on Klaus!” Heinrich said, and the table responded with mostly cheers.

We aren’t doing anything really different formation wise this season. Any changes to the instructions have been minimal at best. I am playing a 4-2-1-2-1 formation that I started to use last seasons, and for whatever reason, that and the players I signed, the players I kept, and as good summer worth of training, have helped us get off to a very good start.

I didn’t put to much stock in our August games, with the exception of Eintracht they are all weaker teams than us, but it’s nice to see MacLennan hitting the ground running, and scoring. By all rights were should have lost that Eintracht game, because were simply better than us.

September is made me start to worry, if only because Hertha and HSV are not the best teams. On paper at least we are better than them, but for whatever reasons our defense was nonexistent against Hertha, and both offense and defense were lackluster in the Hamburg game. The Bayern game was a great game, until the 89th minute, when Benjamin Šeško scored to claw the draw back. We were absolutely dominating that match, but one defensive “Whoopsie” later I was chucking bottles at the guys.

The team responded, really well.

The good news is that we’re winning a lot of games. The bad news is that noone has really stepped up to be “Der Mensch”. While on one hand I abhor an offense where one player is responsible for 90% of the goals and assists, on the other hand it’s annoying to have yet another player step up and carry the team for a game or three. MacLennan appears to be trying to be the focal point of the the offense, but he’s to streaky at the moment, and the issue is I don’t know what games he’s going to show up for. When he doesn’t show up for games, Cezar or Novotony steps up, usually. And if they don’t, someone else does and our defense holds. It’s not a reliable plan, but its working. So Far.

The plan worked very well all of October, then not so much against a good Borussia Team and a horrible Mainz team. It was surprising to see Tenorio score against Werder, because he is more of a facilitator, but I suspect if I wanted to retrain him as a striker/attacker, he’d be pretty good, but right now he’s an excellent support player, and why take that away from him?

Leipzig bossed us, and while I could blame the three games in eight days thing, the fact is we were 6/2 with a .67 xG, and they were 13/6 with a 1.35. We tried playing keep away, with a 63% possession rate, but it didn’t work. We went into the short break strong though, and at midseason, are in 2nd place.

I am not sure how, or why, or how long it’s going to last, but I am pretty sure we are finishing top 6.

Not that I’d lay money on that sort of thing…

Coach Nicholas Schmidt and BFC Dynamo have exceeded expectations for the better part of a decade. A meteoric rise from the RegionalLiga to the Bundesliga, European Conference Football this season, a good nucleus of of players, a system that has been in place for a few years now set the table for the club to vie for yet more European Football next season.

Instead they finished in 13th place, on 35 points, and if not for some historically poor performances by Hannover and Stuttgart, might have been in a relegation fight. In fact, if not for a November-December run where they won 4 games, drew 2 and lost two, the season would have been in doubt.

Where did it go wrong?

We can’t take issue with the transfer window, given the teams performance last season it was inevitable that several good young players would leave, just as it was inevitable that finding replacements for them would be very hard, even with a large transfer budget. For all of their success, BFC Dynamo is still seen by many as a ‘Second Tier” club, and has long been regarded as a stepping stone club for many players. See Mirko Tulli as the latest example of this.

Coach Schmidt and his team play it off as a string of bad luck. Key injuries at bad times, the failure to close out games (Tel scoring in the 85th minute to claw the draw back is a prime example of this), and the fact that several good players, Tiozzo, Ouassli, Lobo, all had “below average’ seasons based on previous performances.

I think we can ascribe the 32/32 season to the following: There was no one over arching reason the team did not perform to expectations, but a of of small reasons, that when taken individually shouldn’t matter that much, but when considered in aggregate, led the team to where they finished.

I do not think it is anything to worry about.

But if it happens again next season…

-Excerpts from “Stumbling Forward, a Season in Review” By Paul Schimmerman, Berlin Football Daily.

This was the sort of season everyone was expecting us to have almost every season up to now. It was painful to watch, painful to play, and painful not to go in an tinker and tweak and try out stuff “Just Because”, because doing that always -ALWAYS- makes things worse.

The transfer window was quiet, the only out was Christopher Essomba, my promising young wingback. I was in the midst of signing him to a new contract when Borussia Dortmund swept in with a €16.75M offer, and off he went, which really stinks, because I think he has a very high potential and a good future ahead of him, and I’d rather not see it play out in the same League I am in.

On the in’s, I did a lot of window shopping, but I am not one of those managers that needs to spend money if I have it, even if I am going to lose some of it before the next window.

Galatasary listed Emre Akkaş for loan, and with some of the injuries I had he seemed to be a good fit. He does have some weaknesses in his game, yes, but his positional flexibility and many of his other attributes should be enough to offset those.

I have high hopes for Jeppe Vinterberg, but not a screenshot unfortunately. He possesses above average Agility and quickness, is a very good passer, with above average ball control and crossing ability, and very good in the finaly third as well. He can’t defend worth a lick, but as a winger he doesn’t need too. I think he could be a top flight player, and the price we got him for was a steal. Then in February he dislocated his hip in practice…

With Essomba leaving I needed some quality depth at WB, and PSG made Martime Fernandes available. He’s a bit older, but that’s not a knock against him in the least. He’s Above Average attributes in everything but set pieces and finishing, and he’s a more than capable crosser as well. a 4 star CA/PA player for €13.75M? What’s not to like about that?

The one thing that will make you physically ill was the second half of the season:

The only real accomplishment the second half was beatring BMG, because they were a solid team and finsihed 7th. Maybe getting a draw with BAyern can be called a ‘victory’ because we didn’t lose, but we should have. In past seasons our defense was strong enough to keep us close, this season it was just…bleg…

I knew we were in for a hectic last four weeks when we couldn’t even beat Hannover and Union, and they were awful this season. But we managed a 13th place finish. Which after last season’s success id a big let down.

Player wise, Mirko Tulli was everything advertised, leading the club in goals and assists, and he was already getting offers in the January transfer window. Some team will come and make an offer for him and he’ll be gone soon I bet.

Quigley had a decent season, but its become obvious we need to get better at his position. Carlos Tenorio came in the January window, and he didn’t get a lot of playing time but when he did…whoa. And for his first season between the sticks, Popovich was solid.

The rest of the club was…mediocre, as befitting our season:

And as always, the youth intake was very “Meh.”

Next season I think is going to be interesting. We need to be prepared to lose Mirko, which means a new striker, and while we have a fairly good budget, and I suspect when we sell some players that number will get higher, I am not sure we can buy our way into success.

No, this year was an aberration, a blip, a whoopsie, whatever you want to call it. Next year we will be back, fighting for midtable.