Seventeen seasons in, and BFC Dynamo has climbed the rankings in Europe, we’re now a top 25 team. Our Facilities are excellent, are coaching staff is excellent, our player development is excellent, which means when a big clubs comes calling, our players want to leave, and no amount of money will keep them here…blast and damn…

Man City has decided to go the “If You can’t beat them, Buy Them!” route of improving the squad. Lucas Curbelo and Jakov Popovich both left on high money deals, of the two I am more worried about losing Popovic. Curbelo I didn’t want to lose, but bigger reputation talks, so I took the money and Curbelo walked…

The Dylan MacLennan tour ends with him going on a free to Kortrijk, meanwhile Shane Verhove moves to Genoa, Emili Martinez goes the Chelsea, and Conrad Braune leaves for RB Salzburg. Junior Meye goes to Heidenheim on a loan spell, as does Spangenberg, and maybe not so surprisingly, Edwin Tonorio. The keeper I brought in last year to be a backup and was happy signing a backup contract was upset because his lack of playing time took him out of National Team consideration. Lorient want to pay me a cool €500K for a loan spell, sure, why not.

Because I am a numpty, and forgot to take screenshots at the beginning of the season, these are from the Middle of the season save I opened in FM24, in which I am using the Mustermann Skin.

My scout in Italy/Switzerland/Austria consistently finds these good young defenders in Serie C, whose ranks Pietro Rotunno could join. A very good attacking wingback, he also possesses solid defensive skills, and with some good training should become quite capable on the left.

Alban Lüthi is a sold young midfielder, physical, defensively solid, and quick enough to make most defender worried. He’s had a rocky couple of year, moving from Young Boys to Standard, to Liverpool, and then to Berlin. His versatility is the primary reason I signed him, the fact he will probably be the team captain in the near future is also a good thing IMO

Dragan Grčić came to my attention last year, when I noticed him on the Slovenian U20 squad. When City start going after Popovic, Grčić was the only keeper I went after, because he was already very good, and at just 20 years old, could only get better. Plus he was an absolute bargain at €4.3M Euro’s. Something tells me Jakov might have been ambivalent about leaving, but when he saw Grčić arrive, he left two days later.

If Jorge Ruiz was a country not in South America, he’s be capped numerous times. Being Brazilian, he’s not World Class, just Hall of Very Good, which if we’re being honest is world class for about 85% of the other countries not named Brazil (Or Germany, England, Portugal, etc) out there. Despite being this good, at Flamengo he only started about 50% of the games each season. Did I overpay to get him? Heck no, because there were worse European players going for more…

At €46M, Alexandr Pancheka, formerly of Milan by way of Man City and Dinamo Moscow, is the player I’ve paid the most money for (so far) at Dynamo. After two seasons at Milan though, he was transfer listed, and with Curbelo leaving, I needed a capable replacement for him, and Alexandr fits that profile nicely. His Possession attributes are quite good, as are his attacking attributes, and while he’s not the strongest or best jumper, he will run circles around you all day. The midfield general I’ve been trying to develop, but they all leave before I am ready to promote them, Alexandr steps into that role, baton in hand.

One of the lessons I learned (the hard way thank you) was that midfield depth is not a bad thing, especially when you loan out younger players you could have probably played, and were forced to play wingers and striker out of position because you didn’t want to change the formation. Yell at me all you want for that, we still won the league, but as a result, when a good midfielder became available for a nice price, I took a look at them. Ignacio Fraile is one of the lucky ones to have signed, because he’s going to get playing time and opportunities despite being here on a fringe contract. A Solid all around M(C)/DM who might start most games on the bench, but finish them on the pitch.

Why sign two quality midfielder when you can sign three? Or four? OK, Just three this year. Alexandre Lacrouts is a solid, dependable midfielder that’s bounced around a few teams, but has always increased his value each time. I suspect he’s one of those players who’s good enough to do a solid job, but you think there might be better option out there so you go looking for them. I think he will be a good addition to the midfield rotation, the first half of the season hasn’t proven me wrong…

Can we 3-peat this year? I think we have a good shot. I would like to get further in the Champions League this year, that series against PSG still rankles, but as we all know, the FM Gods are fickle.

Season recap will be coming up next, I just have to type out, right after this meeting of Midfielders Anonymous…

The team is really starting to come together. We’ve found good starters at most of the positions, capable backups at most positions, and a few youngsters I am eager to see how they do on the field. The FM24 Beta came out as I started this season, and with the new ability to play your FM23 Save in FM24, that’s what I did. I’d like to think some of the scores we would have achieved in FM23, but who knows for sure?

I switched formations in the 34/35 season, to a 4-2DM-2-2 that has really started to pay off, especially with all the talented AM(C)’s I have at the club.

Losing the SuperCup to Bayern was a bit of a letdown, especially as it was a Lucas goal in the 93rd minute that gave them the win. We had our chances, we just didn’t take them. A 7-1 thrashing of Regional team Flensburg, with a pretty rotated side, was a nice way to start the season off. We rode a hot strreak all the way to Villareal, where we drew, then on the short turnaround time lost to Koln with a team that should have beaten them, even if it was a little rotated.

Our Champions League group was tough, even if the scores don’t reflect it. Villareal, Lens, Volos (A Greek Squad that’s had a steady buildup since the save started), Man City, Standard, and Mitjylland, the only team the truly scares me is Man City, but all of them are capable of beating us. What I really liked about the first three months of games was everyone was involved. We weren’t relying on Tatsuki to carry us, and when he had an off game Javier or Lucas was there to pick up the slack. Sago Ohayon isn’t scoring as much as I would like, but he is a good 3rd option now, with Javier and Tasuki starting. We finished out OCtober undefeated, including a victory over our former East German frenemies Hansa Rostock.

Drawing to Man City is good, but to be honest both of us weren’t trying to win, we were just trying to not lose. We had 10/4 and an xG of .94, they had 10/2 with an xG of .88. The turnaround against Hertha wasn’t as short as some of the other weeks we’ve played, but we were absolutely listless against them, they just couldn’t find the net (16 Shots, only 2 on target with 1 clear cut chance and a half chance.)

We absolutely FM’s Standard, with goals in the 91st and 93rd minute to win. It shouldn’t have fallen to that, because from the first whistle we dominated them. Tessari missed a PK in the 17th minute, in the 20th minute they had a player sent off on a straight red, and then in the 87th minute they scored. They had 7/2 for the game, we had 16/5 with a 2.67 xG, and it took them trying not to lose for us to win. Four days layer we eked out a win against Bayer 04, then four days after that we crashed out of the Pokal, having been trounced by a BvB team that brought their a game while we brought or C- one.

The highlight of December was beating a very good Hoffenheim team, and drawing against Bayern Munich thanks to a well struck Ben Dahan goal.

January Transfer’s

We brought in two players in January.

First up is Omar Mchedlishvili, a German International who fell out with the coaching staff ant Hertha and wanted to leave. The transfer fee was €14M, and the instant he became available I jumped on it, because he’s a very good wingback who can play either side very well, and him leaving Hertha hurts them and helps us.

With GK injuries becoming a thing in FM24, I wanted a bit more depth, and Wolves made Edwin Tenorio available. The Ecuadorian international is a very capable GK, and while there is a drop off from Popovic to him, it’s not as great as it was from Popovic to Almansa. The good news is he was cheap, and he’s happy being a backup.

Leaving in January:

Young Constantin Ulreich needs playing time against good competition, and he’ll get it at Darmstadt. Matti Schutz, Conrad Braune, Josue Levy, and Victor Manuel Roca were players who found themselves on the bench, and while they weren’t exactly agitating for time, when I started getting offers for them I let them go.

Losing Boris Castillo was frustrating. It was the same situation that happened before, I offered him a new contract, he accepted, but before he signed Man City, in a fit of ‘If you can’t beat them buy them” made an offer that met his existing release clause, and because they are Man City and we aren’t he left. The good news is we made a €20 Million profit on him, but this happened the last day of the window, and I may regret letting some of the other defensive players leaving.

Schedule wise the New Year got off to a fabulous start, as we beat all of our german competition, and drew with Man City and Milan (who have kicked out out of a couple of European tournaments in recent years) that had us finish 7th in the League Phase, setting us up for a Round of 16 battle against….PSG.

The came the games in March:

They beat us 3-1 the first game. We beat them 7-6 in the second game, in extra time, losing on goal differential 9-8.

Do not tempt the FM gods, for they will find a way to stab the in the chest with a smile on their face…

We still hadn’t recovered from the loss when we faced Augsburg and lost…but we got ourselves right against Hertha Berlin.

We clinched the League winning away at Hoffenheim, setting new Dynamo records for games won and goals scored:

What’s amazing to me is the dropoff between 4th and 5th place, heck even 1st to 5th place. Even more amazing was how well the players did:

Two players with 20+ goals, another four with 10+, 3 players with double digit assists, including Dahan. Tenorio is quietly turning into one of the best AM(C)’s in the game I think, and I’m still trying to find out how Palacios had 14 assists as well. The kicker is Tatsuki didn’t lead the league in goals, a regen by the name of Ivan Leiva who plays for Hertha had 31…

+18, -13, +26. Pundits. Hah.

In better news, thanks to our transfer moves, we led the league in profit:

And with that, the season ended. The players left on vacation, I started scouring the lists, and then out of the blue:

Look, I’m a Palace fan, they are the club I have followed the longest (since the early 80’s) and I always have a private save with them going on, except this year. In this universe, the best they’ve done is a 3rd place finish in 29/30and won the ECL in 28 after winning the FA Cup in 27/28. Since then, with the exception of a 5th place finish, they have been very Palace Like: Solidly Midtable and well away from relegation. Joshua Kimmich is their current coach. And they have the pull to not only give my good young DM €64M, but the reputation to get him to leave?

OK…

And now the other teams are circling us as well. Next transfer window is going to be lit….

“I can’t believe we won the League,” Uwe said.
“I can’t believe we won in Magdeburg!” Sasha replied. It was a common course over the summer with her.
“It’s a dream,” Uwe said
“Its-” Sasha started to say, before Heinrichs hand on her arm stopped her.
“A nightmare would have been winning in Rostock. Or Dresden.”
Sasha started to respond, the stopped, and finished her beer.
“You really think Osman for €75M is a good deal?” Heinrich asked the table.
Paul nodded. “Man United has been on a spending spree. They want to pay €75M for him, why say no?”
“Especially with Yoneyama on the squad,” replied Dietrich. “He’ll score at least 20 this year.”
“You sure about that?” Heinrich replied.
In response Dietrich reached inside his jacket and pulled his wallet out, then set a 100 Euro note on the table. “20 or more goals, in the Bundesliga.”
Heinrich paused for a moment, then nodded, reaching inside his own wallet.
“Sasha, spot me a 20?”
“And dinner?” she replied looking at him. The rest of the table laughed.
“We excited about any of the new arrivals?”
“Dahan,” Dietrich, Heinrich and Paul replied. Uwe nodded as he took a drink.
“Really?” Sasha said.
“Kid has a ton of potential. Coach loves him. He’s one of the best young center mids in the game, and if he’s not a world class center mid in four or five years…”
“What?” Sasha asked.
“He’ll be a world class Advanced Center mid,” Heinrich sighed. “Big question is can we keep him for that long…”

After winning the League, with a bit of luck and a lot of help, we ended up winning the Bundesliga, so of course all the teams started coming after our players. The good news is that I was able to say “No” for a few of them, and they were OK staying here. Our reputation has gone up quite a bit since we made it to the Bundesliga, and this year it came into full effect. If it hadn’t we’d be hurting.

Out’s

Renato Arruda was becoming the odd man out, and when I couldn’t guarantee him the playing time he wanted, he asked to leave. As a former Captain, and a player without whom we wouldn’t be where we are, I not only said yes but let him transfer within the division. I just wish I had gotten more than €2.2M for him.

Man United coming after one of my players wasn’t a big deal. Them paying €75M for Osman is. It’s a number I never expected, but then again I am also smart enough to understand then when a potential competitor makes a mistake, you let him. He’s going to partner up with former BFC Striker Jose Luis Games, who’s now 31, and has had a solid Premier career. Osman could be a superstar, and that’s what United is banking on.

Phillip Schulz is the sort of player I talk about often in my Youtube saves, a player with mostly better than average Attributes, with a couple of very good ones. Not World class, but in the Hall of Very good, and a stalwart in the midfield for us. BMG made an unsolicited offer for him, and he was upset when I turned it down, so I made a private offer and they accepted it.

Cezar was an interesting player. Attribute wise he wasn’t anything extraordinary, I brought him in as a 3rd string striker, and somehow, despite coming off the bench in 75% of his games, he scored double digit goals every season. Then why I tried him as a started more often than not he disappeared. Marseille paid fair market for him though, so I can’t complain about that too much.

Jean Cedric Baffouman I brought in as a youngster, hoping to develop him into a midfielder. Then I went out and signed young players who were just as good as he was, if not better, with some upside as well. I think if he had stayed, he would turn into a very good player, but when Kobenhavn made their offer, he was eager to go.

Caspar Koch had a pretty good season for us last year. I was hoping to use him in the same role this season, but Wolves came in and made an unsolicited offer for him, he was all over it. So I let him go.

Lastly, Muhamed Schedlinski. Who? He was a youth prospect, from the 34/35 youth intakes. Now until recently, our youth intakes have been not a lot to write home about, and that includes Schedlinski, so when Paderborn offered me €300K for him, I first had to look him up, saw how average he was, and said “Ja!” and clicked accept PDFQ.

Also, the Dylan Maclennan tour continues. I take solace in the fact that on a very thin Newcastle squad (their strikers last year had 8 and 7 goals),he couldn’t crack the starting lineup. Bummer…

IN’S

These screenshots are from halfway thru the season.

Javier Palacios:

A Colombian International who’s been a 3rd striker most of his time in Leicester, I was looking for someone who could com in and replace Osman, and if not outright replace him be a part of the rotation. His attributes a very good in all the right areas, and the 27 y/o is going to get a chance to be the starter, and at €17.5M I think we are getting a good deal.

Shane Verhoeve:

One thing I am relearning the hard way is that if you think you have enough dept at defensive back, you don’t. Shane Verhoeve isn’t the tallest D(L) out there, not his he the most Technically gifted, but he has very good Marking and Tackling, Excellent teamwork and work rate, elite level bravery, and while he’s not the fastest player on the pitch, his very good Natural Fitness and means he will be in your back pocket all game. His versatility is a plus, and while he’s primarily going to be a bench player for us, I have little worries about him on the field.

Sagi Ohayan:

I found Sagi Ohayon, and the next player, on the Israeli nation squad via the Screen Flow. I think he still has a little room to improve, but even if he doesn’t, I have a fast, pacy striker with very good Flair, First Touch, Finishing and Composure. Between Palacios, Ohayon, and Yoneyama, I have a very good 3 striker rotation. Now because I play two at the top, I need a 4th…

Ben Dahan:

I posted this on twitter when I signed him. I found him on the Israeli National Squad. As a 17 year old. I’m going to type this out loud: Ben Dahan is a legit 190-200 PA player.

And I signed him for €3.5M. Not a typo. I would have paid twice that for any other player who had his OTB, Decision Making, Technique and Vision alone. Throw in the 17 Aggression, 14 Flair, The fact his lowest physical attribute is 10 Strength and his stamina is already 16. I am not sure what I did to please the FM Gods with this wonderkid of wonderkids, but I am going to do everything I can to keep him.

David Brandler:

I overpaid for Brandler, I’ll admit it. But when Wolves came in for Koch, I panicked, looked at the best available D(R) and WB(R)’s on the transfer and loan list, and he was listed bu RB Leipzig. Very Good Physically, Good Mentally, and lacking in Technical skill…Children, this is what happens when you panic buy in FM.

Emil Martinez:

If you were to just look at Emil’s attributes, you would think a very good D(Mostly Everything) might be worth a lot more, and have a very good career. Emil’s problem was that he came up thru La Masia, and while he was good, there was always someone (Alejandro Balde and Jules Kounde until newgens recently) meant he was on the outside looking in. He had several good stints on their B squad, and a good season on loan at Bournemouth (who were in the Championship last season) but they finished in 7th and didn’t pick his optional fee. We get a young, versatile, and steady D(Mostly Everything) who will on the bench for half the season, and starting the other half. Just don’t ask me where.

Are these moves enough to defend out title? I don’t know, and to be honesty, I am too busy staring at Ben Dahans attributes to care…

Next, the season!

“Do you ever think we are getting to old for this?” Heinrich asked around a mouthful of food.
“To old for what?” Sasha asked
“Being a fan? Going to every game, gathering afterwards. It was cool whenm we were younger, but-“
“What’s your wife been telling you now?” Paul asked.
“Elise hasn’t said a thing-“
“That’s because she’s still mad at you for trying to fix the sink…” Sasha said with a smirk.
Discretion being the better part of valor, Heinrich shut up and ate more.
“We’re nothing,” Uwe said. The others stopped to stare at him.
“I went to my cousins wedding last month. In America. We went to a college football, that is American Football, game. The game started at 4PM. We got there at 8AM.”
“To do what?”
“Cook. Party. Drink. Make new friends. Play games. I met a guy who had been to every home game there since 1949, when he was six,” Uwe said with a smile.
“Sounds…”
“It was fun, we all had a good time. Some great food. That’s not the most impressive thing though.”
“What was?” Sasha asked after taking a drink.
“Keep in mind we are at a college football game. The stadium hold 117000 people. Every seat was full. Hardly anyone sat. The crowd was louder than they flyover before the game started.”
Everyone stared at him.
“Jesus, don’t let anyone from Bayern hear that,” Heinrich mumbled, “They’ll want their own 120K seat stadium just because they can.”
“True,” Uwe said, finishing his drink and sitting back. “But my point is, for a lot of people, it’s not fandom. It’s an extended family, where noone talks about the crazy uncles making salutes, waving flags, and singing songs they shouldn’t. And you all know as well as I do we’ve had a steeper road to climb because of the clubs past. There was a group at the game in America, raising money for a family who lost their home and belongings in a fire. They raised almost $60000 for them. And apparently the father had been a long time supporter of the team, and the school found out all about it and invited him and his family to watch the game from one of the good skyboxes. We’ve done similar things here.”
They all sat quietly for a few moments, thinking about the past.
“I make no apologies for being a BFC fan,” Sasha said. “But I am finding as I get older, getting into trouble isn’t as much fun as it used to be.”
“What is?” Heinrich asked, avoiding Paul’s attempt to whack him on the shoulder.
“Not getting caught,” Sasha replied with a smile.

The transfer window was relatively quiet. We had one in, Omar Mohamed, while Fabio Neiva left for Norwich, and Leo Marques went to Porto.

Mohamed I found thru my screenflow scouting, playing for the Sudanese national team. He’s a project, to be sure, but I think he has the potential to be a squad player for us in the future. I am going to send him on loan and see how he develops, and to be honest, if he doesn’t we finally in a position where €275K isn’t going to break us if it doesn’t pan out.

The New Year got off to a solid start:

Osman had decided that since Dylan isn’t scoring, he’s going to try, and had 3 goals to show for it. We beat two good teams in Eintracht and Freiburg, then Popovic saved us a loss in our Champions League Phase game against Chelsea. Bayern outshot us 28/10 and a 1.58xG to out 3/1 .28xG, but we somehow only managed to lose by 1, which in the gran scheme of thing that while a loss, it’s the best sort of loss out there, as it doesn’t affect our goal differential by too much. The tables were turned against Benfica, as we were better, not a lot but still better, than they were, only to come away with the loss. that left us in 15th place:

Legia, Legia, Legia…

February was very good. More than a few people took it upon themselves to start trying to score, instead of leaving it up to the strikers, and as a result, excepting the draw against BMG in the Knock Out Play Off Round, February was a clean sheet. In particular, beating Hansa 5-0 in the Pokal was very nice, sending our former Eastern rivals away with their tails tucked is never a bad thing IMO.

In other news, while Osman isn’t scoring much, he’s still scoring more than Dylan, and thats a good thing.

Before we get to the last part of the season, I don’t know what we did right, but we finally had a decent Intake, and by that I mean we not only got a good player in thru our system, he might actually be very good:

Constantin Ulreich is 4 1/2 star potential, and given the quality of players we have on our squad, I think that’s a legit PA for him. Heck, if this was the RegionalLiga, hell even Bundelsliga.2 he’d be starting for us. He just needs to grow a little and put on some more weight, but he’s the DCL of the future.

I don’t want to say we finished the year on a disappointing note, because we didn’t. Losing to Leipzig hurt, and we took Milan down to the wire, but they ended up winning on aggregate. They knocked us out of the Champions League last year as well. I am sensing a theme…

We had BVB on the ropes, but our defense fell apart in the 83rd minute and Gloukh scored to claw the draw back.

Losing to Hamburg sucked, because not only did we lose to a midtable team, we lost to a midtable team who were a man down in the 61st minute, right after Osman went out with an injury of his own. Statistically speak, we dominated theme everywhere it counts, excpet for goals scored. The only danger was were were in 3rd place at the moment, with an outside chance of falling to 6th or worse if we went on a Bottle Job adventure, but we picked ourselves up and won out, until BMG got their revenge by scoring in the 93rd minute, keeping them in 6th place, while we finished 3rd. Again.

And I didn’t realize it at the time, but was surprised when I saw this:

It Was a very good game. Hertha is a good squad, but Carlos Tenorio decided he didn’t want to lose, so he scored in the 81st minute:

It feels good to win. And winning the Pokal is a very good accomplishment.

We received €1034 Million for finishing in 3rd, we’ve €216M in the bank, and a transfer budget of €88M for starters next season. The board however, is refusing to build new Youth Facilities, or expand the youth recruiting, and they don’t think we need an affiliate either.

This does not bode well.

In other news:

I knew Curbelo was good, but 2nd best in all of European Football? Crap, now all the teams are going to be after him…

The sad thing about these statistics aren’t that I have 4 players with double digit goals, it’s that Viveros is my AP AM(C), and he was better than Dylan or Osman. hell even Cezar scored 10 goals, mostly coming off the bench after Dylan pissed me off to no end, but man do I need a good striker. I think Osman could be it, he definitely looks the part. Then again so did Dylan…

Oh, this is why the board was being skinflints…

At least they did it while I was still in town, and we had money for it…

OK…that’s not good…

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.