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

This is going to be a slightly different format, as usually I go thru the summer signings and post screenshots, but for some reason I do not have them for Season 8. I do have a save game at the end of season 8, and will post screenshots of the players then. Thanks for reading!

“The meteoric rise of BFC Dynamo up the German Football pyramid is a story most would find to the fantastical at best. The one time powerhouse of East German football, beset by poor financial decisions found itself languishing in the Regionalliga, until the President Ammerbach took a risk and hired a relatively unknown young Coach in Nicholas Schmidt. In seven years, despite some more questionable financial decisions, and as Coach Schmidt himself will attest to more than ‘A Bit of Luck at Times”, BFC Dynamo find themselves in the Bundesliga for the second year, once again fighting relegation.“

-excerpt from “Has the Clock Struck Twelve? Can BFC Survive?” Berlin Soccer Post Article.

The press room was a bit more crowded, it was the one time when preseason had ended and the league kickoff was near.
“Yes, in the back,” Coach Schmidt pointed.
“Hello Coach, Rolf Jurnigen, Sport Buzzer. “With the season starting, and the transfer window still open, is the club in a position make any more moves?”
“Well,” Coach Schmidt said, leaning forward and resting his arms on the table, “I’m not one to never say never, but the fact of the matter is we had a fairly small transfer budget, and we’ve spent most of it. If there is a deal out there, we will certainly listen, but there most likely will not be any more signings until January, if then.”
“Dragan Pavlovic has certainly impressed in goal the preseason.”
“He has, and his performing at a a high level will be a key part in our staying up.”
“There are some who said you should have fought harder to keep Owusu here,” another reporter interrupted. Nicholas looked and saw it was Armin.
“Why? After Chelsea made their offer, he wanted to leave. I’m not going to stop a player who doesn’t want to be here. While they are here, either they are as invested in this team and its success as I am, or I will find another team for them to move too.”
“That seems a bit…”
“Harsh? Maybe it is, but I have to face reality here, right? We do not yet have the stature of some of the other squads to sign high profile players, and if we did, at the moment we certainly don’t have the money to pay them what they’d like, as we have one of the lowest payrolls in the league, so we find diamonds in the rough-‘
“Luca Montanaro?” another reporter interrupted him, and Coach Schmidt smiled.
“He’s a good example,” Coach Schmidt replied, “But as I was saying, we find a diamond in the rough develop them, and move them on later for money, or we find good players on good squads who are looking for an opportunity to play.”
“Like Flavian Frey and Davide Tiozzo?” asked Laurie Schumacher, from Kicker.
“Yes, and Hugo Larsson and Allaster Halfacre. Good players on good to great squads all. But the depth of PSG’s bench meant Frey would probably not see any starts there anytime soon, same with Tiozzo at Juve. Given time could they have been successful there? Maybe? Will they be successful here? I believe so, but I am ever the optimist.” He said the last with a smile, and was rewarded with a chuckle from the room.
“Can you tell us more about the Sebatiano Esposito signing?” Schumacher asked.
“He’s a veteran striker who can play multiple positions and brings a senior leadership quality to the team. Do I expect him him to score 20 goals and have 10 assists in 38 games? No, and he knows it. But he knows how to move the ball, lead our offense, heck even Rodic listens when the man talks, that alone was worth the signing.” Schmidt smiled, and this time the laughter from the room was a lot more genuine.
“Do you plan on having him and Injai at the top them?”
“I think more often than not Sebastiano will be up top. With Injai leaving on loan, Esposito and Jose Luis Gomes will be my game day starters. Rodic and Tiozzo will get their opportunities up top as well,” Schmidt replied, and the room went quiet. The unknown signee from Portugal had put in several good performances in the preseason, and may had touted him as a potential steal.
“I think he has a lot about him, there’s something about how he plays that fits in quite well with what we are trying to do here, and I’ve been well impressed by how well he’s performed in the preseason. He and Injai have formed quite the partnership already.”
“Some have started to call this club a Stepping Stone Club,” Armin said, his voice more than a bit accusatory.
“We are,” Nicholas replied. He took his glasses off and wiped them on the sleeve of the sweater he was wearing, then put them back on.
“It’s a balancing act, and sometimes you run the risk of tilting to far. Yes, we are bringing in a lot of young talent, and developing them. Yes, some of that talent is leaving, maybe for less than what some think is ‘Market Value’.” More than a few people in the room noticed he looked directly at Armin when he said that, “but at this point any profit is good profit, and I think we will hit a lot more than we miss, and the club is OK with that, as long as we don’t miss too big. Dragan is a prime example of that. We might have overpaid for him, but we had to in order to get him to come here. But Four-Five years down the road, he either stay for big money, or we will move him for big money. That was understood by all parties before the contract was signed.”
“Hi Coach, Thomas Munster, Spox.com Your name has been linked to quite a few jobs the last two seasons.” the rest of the question was unasked, but everyone in the room knew what it was.
“Another hazard of the job,” Nicholas replied. “A coach doing goods things at a club is always going to get noticed. It’s nice to be considered, but it would take an extraordinarily good offer for me to consider even leaving Berlin.” There was a flurry of note taking.
“Who do you like in the World Cup this year?” A voice from the back of the room called out.
Again Nicholas smiled.
“Portugal. I realize people will call me out for not supporting the home country, but were in a state of transition, next World Cup we should be contending I think. Portugal has a very strong squad, and a very good head coach.” The room laughed with him as he said the last part. Jurgen Klopp had surprised many people when he took the Portugal jon after being fired from Liverpool,
“Have you thought about an International Job?”
This time Nicholas took a few moments before answering, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms.
“I’m not going to say no. It would depend on the country, their structure, their level of support for the team. It’s a whole new set of problems and issues to deal with, which on one hand would be interesting to solve, but on the other, bigger headaches. It’s bad enough getting second guessed by the locals here, but getting second guessed by the entire country?” he shuddered a bit too theatrically. “My job at the moment is preparing this squad, and for some of them that means playing for their country. It’s a great honor, and if they do well they also help our club out.”

“Do you think anyone has a chance at stopping Bayern from winning this year?”
“There’s three our four teams I think have a legitimate chance. But a few things would have to go right for them and wrong for Bayern for that to happen. Bayern has a very good squad, but so do other teams. But, as Cruyff said “The Ball is round” so anything can happen.”
“Can you talk about the clubs Infrastructure some? A lot of money this offseason went to improving them.”
“Yes,” Coach replied, running his hands thru his hair, “And it was sorely needed as well. One of the long term goals of the club is to have the best facilities we can in five to seven years, and it’s going to take continual investment to see that happen. As it stands right now, I think our facilities are about average for a team in the Bundesliga. I would like to see more money going towards the Youth Academy and Recruitment, and we’ve had several productive talks internally about that.”

“Last question please,” The person from media, who had been silent since the interview started, spoke up.
“What’s the goal this season Coach?” Armin asked.
“38 points. We do that, unless something…not impossible but highly improbable happens, we will avoid relegation and the playoffs.”
Armin snorted, and in response Nicholas smiled.
“Have some faith there Armin” Nicholas said. “It will do you some good.”
He stood up, thanked the reporters for attending, and left by the side door.

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.

A New Challenge, Part Three

June 27th, 2273

File Size, 1.5GB

At this point, on slower machines it can take a bit to load.

Around 2200 is when you start to see a decent amount of changes, especially in ‘lower’ leagues.

England

Hull have won the Prem. Man City have been relegated.
The early 2200’s were all Norwich, as they won 24 times in 27 years
Lots of new teams in the Championship.
Leicester and Wolves in League One
Palace and Everton in League Two
Stoke is in the Vanarama North.
In 2173 Sheffield United had 4 points, and lost 34 games.

Bundesliga
Bayern is back on top, but teams like Leverkeusen, Dynamo Dresden and others have won as well. Dresden had a decent run about 30 years ago, and has won the CL as well.
In 2176 Hannover had 1 point. They scored 12 goals, and had a -73 Goal differential.

Serie A
Lots of familiar names still, but FerapiSallo? Mestre? Gubbio?
Sassuolo and Atalanta are in Serie B
Brescia, Sampdoria, Salernitana in Serie C

France
PSG still dominates, though Bastia(!), Montpelier and others have managed to sneak a League Championship every once and awhile.
Guingamp had 4 points in 2093, and didn’t win a game.

Spain
Barca and Madrid still fight it out, although there are quite a few new teams in the League.
El Ejido has won a few times, as have Tenerife and Betis.
Villareal and Deprtivo in LaLiga 2, Getafe relegated to the 3rd Division
Bilbao in the 3rd Division…
In 2250, Barcelona had 101 points, and came in Second, because Madrid went Invincible and didn’t lose a game, only drawing 1 (Thanks Zaragoza…)
In 2205, Madrid and Tenerife each had 99 goals for, 24 goals against, but Tenerife lost to Sociadad and finished 3 points behind

Portugal
Benfica is back, although Santa Clara is still winning, as is Lusitania Lourosa, and Sporting

Champions League
Lugano is the only Non Big 6 team to win it recently. Juve did just beat Fenerbahce and Dynao Dresden did beat HJK
Norkoping won it in 2231
Brondby in 2219
Bredablik in 2214
From Sept of 2038 to January of 2056 Basel played 43 Champions LEague matches and did not win…

Europa League is where you see a lot of ‘Mid-Level’ Clubs win
Breiðablik in 2267
Bravo, Honka, BATE, Goteborg, AEK, Vikingur, Celje

Conference League also has some good mid level winners
Craiova, Lokomotiv Plovdiv, Slavan Belupo, Gnistan, Sepsi, Honved, Hapoel Be’er Sheva.
Alot of variety in the winners here.

World Cup
Germany just beat Venezuela
Poland beat Austria in 2246
Chile beat Morocco in 2238
South Korea beat Germany in 2218
Slovakia beat the Netherlands in 2150
Mexico beat Croatia in 2134

This is the point where taking a deeper dive into the save becomes fun, at least for me, as I can compare what happens to some of the other Long Term saves going.

At the moment, every 5 years in the save increases the file size by about 25MB per save. My past experience has been that the save file can go up to about 4.4Gb and then it starts crashing. So if people are interest in a 350 year, 500 year or longer save, I can certainly keep the laptop going, let me know here or on my twitter @FM_Jellico what you would like to see.

Save Game file:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/v8y07gr3xa7b4qd/APexton+-+06242123+2273.06.27.fm/file

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…

A New Challenge

Admittedly, FM23 is getting a little….long in the tooth shall we say? A lot of us are playing just a couple of saves, a lot of us are playing a new save every week, or every day it seems (Shoutout to RDF! 🙂 ).

For me, the issue is, we know everything goin on the first 5-7 years of our saves. We know all the wonderkids, all the good players, in fact it’s sometimes harder to not sign a player in one save because you have used him in another. In some ways, FM23 has lost the ability to challenge us, so we impose some rules and restrictions on ourselves to make the game a bit more….fun, interesting, frustrating, maddening, etc.

So, as some of you may know, I have this spare laptop just…sitting here more often than not…

So I thought I would try and do something that would alleviate some of my issues with a new save in FM23. I started a new game with the following Countries enabled:

England – 6 Leagues
France – 3 Leagues
Germany – 3 Leagues
Italy – 3 Leagues
Spain – 3 Leagues
Chile – 2 Leagues
South Korea – 2 Leagues

That gives us a database of about 66K players to start. I simmed ahead to 2025, then started the ‘eternal’ vacation to whenever, saving the game every 5 years.

It is now June 24th, 2050.

Not a lot has changed in some Leagues, in terms of who is winning what. But all the players, coaches and Scouts we know are retired, on onto a new career. Every player is a Newgen , even Kazu retired, he no longer in the database, and most of the coaches we know are reaching the end of their career.

I have not had an in depth look at the save, but I have gone thru the leagues, and here’s some of the things that caught my eye.

ENGLAND:

There was a 3 way draw for 1st place in the English Prem, with United winning on goal differential.
Palace, Ipswich and Leicester were relegated. Newcastle have yet to win the LEague. Everton has won it twice….

In the championship, 5th place Blackburn beat 3rd place wolves to join Bristol City ands Southampton in going up.
Oldham is back in the Championship. Derby, who just avoided relegation in the Championship, just had a tycoon takeover…

In League One, Wrexham wins promotion back to the Championship after a 1 year drop, their march to the Prem still on. Ryan Reynolds left in 2033, but they had a tycoon takeover in 2039.

Swansea has been relegated out of League 2, six years ago they were in the Championship.

FRANCE:

In Ligue 1, PSG has finished in 4th Place.
Until recently, it was Monaco and PSG fighting for 1st, this year OGC won it by 5.
Sochaux and Toulouse were relegated
In Ligue 2, Union Sportive Lusitanos Saint-Maur, who start the game in the 4th Tier, just missed the playoffs.
Nimes has fallen to the National.

GERMANY:

In the Bundesliga, Bayern has won, but the last 15 yerars have seen Gladbach and Hamburg win multiple titles.

A Former East German team has not won the League, yet.

ITALY:

In Serie A, Juve pipped Napoli by 3.
Lazio avoided relegation on goal differential.

In Serie B, Sampdoria beat Perugia on aggregate to get promoted back to Serie A, joining Sassuolo and Cagliari.
Genoa languishes in 12th place.
Empoli is in Serie C.

Spain:

Atletico Madrid won La Liga by 12, 3rd place Barca beat 4th place Bilbao by goal differential. Tenerife finished 7th, good enough for the UECL.
Getafe, Deportivo, Levante are in LiLiga Smartbank.

Portugal:

Santa Clara(!) won Liga Bwin by 4 (!) For the 5th time in a row (!) This makes me very happy 🙂
Porto, Sporting and Benfica are fighting for 2nd and 3rd.

World:

Man U has won 4 of the 5 last Champions Leagues.

In the Europa League, It’s been a lot of English teams winning, Brentford, Everton, Tottneham, Arsenal.

In the World Cup, England took it home in 2042, but failed to defend in 2046.

Arsenal’s Adam Piper and Chelsea’s Celio battle it out yearly for Worlds best player.

So, new players, new faces, new wonderkids. Old teams with the same goals, new teams with different goals (Swansea back to the Prem could be fun, or getting Wrexham over the hump), new fallen giants to restore to greatness.

With the save date, you should be able too add/remove any countries/Leagues you want, I believe all the European ones will load in 4 days.

So, if you are looking for a new challenge, or just want to rummage around, here’s the link:

https://www.mediafire.com/file_premium/6vfuujnid80emy1/APexton_-_50-100yrs_2050.06.24.fm/file

Have some fun with it, and keep my posted either in the comments here on on my twitter about what you are playing, or what you find.

And yes, there will be a 2125 version posted as well, probably this weekend, the laptops chugging along nicely.

Anyone else smell smoke?

Jellico