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

“We stayed up, right?” Sasha asked after finishing her beer.
“We did,” Heinrich replied around a mout full of food.
“Why does it feel like we did worse this season.” Sasha said, putting her hands under her chin.
“Because Gomes went to Brentford for 3.4 Millon?” Uwe replied?
“Because we finished with 1 less point than we did last year but also finished 5 places lower?” Heinrich said.
“Yeah,” Sasha replied, grabbing a fry and munching it down.
“You have to admit Petrov looks likes a good replacement for Gomes-” Heinrich said.
“Until he leaves-” Sasha interrupted.
“Oh for crying out loud,” Paul said, sitting back in his chair. “Honestrly, if you had told me ten years ago we’d be bitching about finishing 13rd in the Bundesliga I would have taken you all to get drug tested, than throw you in the psych ward.”
“You can’t, all the psych ward doctors are on the medical staff, it’s the only explanation as to why they had so many injuries,” Sasha said.
“And despite that we stayed up. right?” Paul said.
The table grumbled in assent.
“Look, lets be objective,” Paul said. “Is the club in a better position now than it was this time last year player wise?”
“Yes.”
“Yes.”
“Maybe.”
“Always the pessimist, eh Ulrich?” Paul said with a smile. “Look, every year since Coach arrived, we have gotten better. We got promoted out of the RegionalLiga faster than anyone expected, we got promoted out of the 3.Liga and Bundesliga 2 faster than anyone expected, and we’ve stayed up since coming into the the Bundesliga. And that’s with one of the smallest payrolls in the league, not to mention we’re near the bottom, when it comes to things like marketing and other income streams.”
“And the facilities have gotten better,” Uwe said.
“As has the scouting,” Richard said, having finished eating. He rarely spoke until his plate was clean.
“And coach signed a new contract,” Uwe said, and the table nodded.
“Yeah, Gomes signed a 4 year contract as well, didn’t he,” Sasha said with a tone that said she didn’t want a reply.
The table agreed with a series of grumbles and other noises, and Uwe raised his hand to get another round.
Everyone’s phone buzzed, but only Paul looked at his, and he sighed.
“What?” Uwe asked as the waitress came over, mugs of beer balanced on a tray.
“Zane Iqbal and Beskitas have agreed to terms, he will sign with them when the window opens…”
Richard was quick enough to stop Sasha from throwing her mug in ager, but that just meant her cursing was louder.

The transfer window was the transfer window. 12:01 hit, and the club received like 35 offers for Gomes. I accepted them all, and put the onus of which team would be the best fit for him in his hands. Well, I did not accept any of the offers for teams in the Bundesliga, but there were only a few of those, most of the offers came from clubs in Spain and England. Brentford wouldn’t have been my first choice, but there were worse options out there for him. That he waited until the last day to leave was a bit galling though, I will admit that.

The only other out of any significance was Molde activating the release fee for Hugo Swift, which was unexpected to say the least, but given the season..

On the Ins, Sergio Gonzales first popped up in screenflow, having played for Chile in on of the many South American U19 tournaments. The screenflow report was good enough to convince me to send a scout to look at him, and when the final numbers came back, I made an offer, Audax accepted, and he was in Berlin a few days later. He’s a very good wingback who is just versatile enough to be mediocre in about 6 other positions, and as good as he is now, if he can develop (IE avoid my medical staff) he could be one of the best in the game I think. His Positioning, Tackling, Movement, Agility and Endurance skills already make him better than most of my D(L) options, so I may play him at D(C), but I think in 3-5 years teams are going to be making big money offers for him.

Aleksander Petrov was not my first choice to replace Gomes (Mirko Tulli turned down a contract offer to sit on the bench at Inter), but when I saw he was already on my shortlist when the scouting report came thru initially, I realized I had seen him in a screenflow report. Truth be told, he may not ever be much better than he is now, but then again his Final Third, Ball Control, Movement and Quickness attributes, not to mention his Agility and Determination, already make him one of the best young Strikers in the game IMO. Levski Sofia could have asked for more, and I would have sold a couple more players to get him.

Roy Ruizendaal is a player my local (IE Germany and Austrian Scout) found at FC Leifering, better known as one of the feeder clubs of RB Leipzig and RB Salzburg, and having one of the best Youth Setups in the game as a whole. He has a good future I think. Then I finally saw his injury report, and he’s had 20 injuries since he joined the club out of their youth system in 2026, mosr were of the 10 day to 2 week ‘Moderate’ injury, but that was before the torn hamstring he suffered in July of last year. I will admit signing him is a risk, but the reward is high IMO.

Matteo Anelli popped up in the Agents advertising their players post, and while he may not ever be much better than he is now, what I was looking at was his versatility to play all the defensive backline positions fairly well. Is 1.5 Million for a player whose never played above Serie B football too much. I don’t think so, but I’ve been wrong before.

One thing I haven’t mentioned in previous recaps has been the Youth Intakes, because frankly they haven’t produced anyone who I think has a solid future at a top level club. That changed this year with Juri Jaspert. If I had to guess, I would say his PA is in the 140-150 range, but the fact that he can play either side of the defensive backline makes him quite valuable in the long run. He may never see a ton of first team playing time here, but I would like to think that if stay on top of his training, I can move him in the future for some decent money.

We really tried our best to throw the season away. Between the five-seven players I had injured for most of the last half of the season, the January transfer took way more time to get thru considering the number of players that left and came in, and our form took a nosedive. I was hoping some of the younger players might step up, but in the end it was the veterans who saw us thru.

Petrov’s goal against Mainz was good, and I was hoping it set the table for more, but in what was going to be a theme for the rest of the season, our defense could not hold as Mainz got a 91st minute equalizer. HSV came back to draw, and while beating Bayer 04 6-1 was nice, it meant we broke their 5 game winning streak against a mostly B squad…to be fair, if I was the Bayer coach I might have played a mostly B squad against me too. Union went ahead, and then we were behind the proverbial rock because Sergio Gonzalez got himself sent of on a Red, but Petrov’s 87th equalizer was very nice.

Then February hit us like a ton of bricks.

RB Leipzig thrashed us, they should have won by more. HSV nocking us out of the Pokal wasn’t unexpected, but we were lackluster all game. The defense couldn’t hold the lead against Frankfurt, and it took a last gasp 89th Rukavina goal to stave off an Augsburg club that’s going to relegated one way or the other. Hoffenheim embarrassed us, and at this point I was starting to worry, then the March games happened and I really began to worry.

Anelli getting sent of in the 47th minute just made Freiburg’s job easier, and while Tiozzo’s 2 goals in the first 22 minutes were nice, our defense yet again fell apart in the second half allowing Wolfsburg to equalize and claw the draw back. Nalso scored for BMG in the 14th, Rukavina equalized in the 16th, Brekalo scored for BMG in the 83rd, Tiozzo equalized in the 90th, and while we were still celebrating Naldo scored again in the 91st minute. Thanks you FM Gods…The Koln game was terrible, a boring affair where both teams tried to lose, and both teams were so bad they couldn’t. Herha dominated us, and then finally, thanks to a resurgent Esposito, we beat HSV, and avoided relegation.

Tying a very good Borussia team was OK, but Petrovs brace gave me a lot more confidence towards the future, even if Bayern’s C Squad shut us out 3-0.

Payroll was set at €34M, and the transfer budget at €13.84 Million. Workable, but then to be honesty I am not sure where I am going to spend it all.

I think we are at the “Tipping Point” phase of our stay in the Bundesliga, in that I have some good players, but if I want to finish higher, I need to spend some money and bring in some quality young players and good veterans, and while I am loathe to give up on players quickly (see Mile Rodic) then maybe moving a player on after only a year or two would not be a bad thing? They say perfect is the enemy good, but I am not looking for perfect, I am looking for ‘Very Good’…

While Tiozzo and Esposito are capable scorers, I can’t expect the offense to go to them. Thru them, yes. When Gomes left he had 10/6, and while I don’t expect Petrov to be an assist machine, 15+ goals would be outstanding. Not starting Barros for more than 2 games might be criminal, but given how poorly we were doing, and that we were in a relegation fight not starting him may have been the better option, same thing with Essomba, but at some point, in order for them to show me what they can do I have to let them play. This year was the first time in a long time I went with age and experience over youth in an effort to stay up, and while that worked, it wasn’t exactly satisfying.

If you can’t play scared, you shouldn’t coach scared. Next season, we are going to do things differently.

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

The pressroom had a few more bodies in it these days, which wasn’t a bad thing really. The tone of the last couple had been a bit more…challenging, especially after the loss against Bayern, but with the January transfer window coming up, and the rumors floating around, there was reason for it to be crowded.

Coach Schmidt took his jacket off, folding it over the chair, and sat down. As soon as he did hands were raised, and voices called out.

“Jeremy,” he said, pointing at the young reporter from Planet Football.

“Thanks coach. I was wondering if we could get your thoughts going into the transfer window. A Lot of rumors going around about Games and potentially a few others leaving.”

Coach Schmidt nodded.

“It’s highly probable, but there’s always an opportunity he could stay as well. He’s a great young player, he’s having yet another good season for us. If I could go back and resign him all over again I would have made the Release Clause even bigger,” he said with a smile. He pointed, but the reporter he had looked at was interupted.

“What do you have to say to the rumors your are moving him on because of what happened in November?” Michael Amber, from Berlin Soccer Post, had apparently decided being confrontational was the way to make himself known. Thus far, Coach Schmidt had either ignored or let the criticism not affect him. Between Armin and Michael though, he had his hands full lately.

“Those rumors are unfounded. If I was to let go of every player who had some sort of altercation, I wouldn’t have a starting eleven, or a second eleven.”

“Do you think what happened will scare away other teams, or lower his value?” Michael followed up his first question with another.

“Why would it? The facts of what happened are quite clear, there’s a reason the state decided not to press charges.”

Michael sniffed, and looked away. Coach Schmidt sighed, and ran his hands thru his hair, then made a motion to a smartly dressed young man, who handed him a manila folder. Coach opened it, and took out a sheet of paper.

“An Article from the Berlin soccer post, January 12th, 2012,” he started to Read. “As the national teams continues its quest in winning the Euro Championship, and winning the World Cup in 2014, noone can deny that the country has done a very credible job of rebuilding after the 90’s. One of those reasons was identifying and cultivating excellent youth prospects, who although they are on the young side now, may well become the National teams next star in the next decade. Earlier in the week at Stadion auf dem Wurfplatz several of us had the opportunity to watch several talented youngsters for both Hertha Berlin and Borussia Dortmund play. While several young players had fine games, this reporters opinion is that the player of the match should have been Hertha product Nicholas Schmidt. The midfielder was everywhere, tackling, passing, running, but what amazed many onlookers was that he all but shut down Borussia and German National team starter Mario Gotze. The Borussia attacking Midfielder has been a key component of their rise to the top of the Bundesliga, and although his recently announced hip injury due to cartilage inflammation may have slowed him down in the game, anyone who was present will have seen that the way Schmidt was inside Gotze’s front pocket all day, the Dortmund attacking Midfielder was going to be in for a long struggle. Had Samed Yeşil not scored three goals and an assist, it’s very likely Schmidt’s performance, including an assist in which he all but emabarassed Gotze on defense, would have won the award.”

Schmidt stopped reading, and held the paper up.

“The byline on this article has the name Joachim Mueller on it.” he asked. The press room was silent.

“But Herr Mueller didn’t write it, did he Michael?” Schmidt lowered the paper to the table folding his hands.

“Those of you may not remember the scandal back then, but Herr Mueller was the senior reporter for Berlin Soccer Post, and he used to send younger reporters out, promise them a byline, and then claim credit. He was caught when another young reporter reported him to management, and after an investigation had found out that it was a practice he had done for about three years. But he was powerful enough that he could ruin a young reporters career, and he did, on more than one occassion. But in their defense, and to their credit, Berlin Soccer Post found out, investigated, fired Herr Mueller, and spent the next decade rebuilding its reputation. I’m proud to be a subscriber.

“But what you may not know is that Herr Amber and Herr Mueller had a physical confrontation over the issue, isn’t that right, Michael.” Coach Schmidt stopped talking, and stared at the reporter, who returned the stare in stone silence, until he folded his notebook, shoulder his bag, stood up and walked out of the press room.

“I bring up that story to illustrate a point: None of us here think any less of Herr Amber. That he got into a physical confrontation with a coworker is on one hand regrettable, but knowing the reasons why, I would be hard pressed to say there is not any of us in this room who would not have done the same thing. How does this relate to Jose?

“Jose is a good, young lad. But he’s out of his element here, there is quite a bit of difference, culturally amongst other issues, between Berlin, Germany and Mindelo, Cape Verde. To help him adjust, Jose brought a few of his friends along with him. One of those friends stole from him, amongst other things. Jose found out, they had a fight, and Jose beat his friend up, in a public space. That’s why Jose was arrested and let go, that’s why his former friend was arrested, let go, and sent back to Cape Verde. You,” Coach said, pointing to the reporters in the room, “know all this because it’s public record. Jose didn’t miss any games as a result. He has been cleared not just by the police, but by the team, and by me.

“So, if you will pardon my language, any team who comes after Jose, and they will, that want to use this incident against him to try and lower his value, lower his salary, lower his standing in the game, are fucking idiots who haven’t done their due diligence, and that’s not a team I am willing to sell Jose to, and I don’t care if they offer us 10 or 100 times his release clause amount.

“Young Men will make mistakes,” he said, taking his glasses off and polishing them with a handkerchief he retrieved from his pocket. Putting them back on he scanned the silent room. “Sometimes those mistakes are justifiable, sometimes they are not, but if I were to use Jose’s mistake against him, keep him off the squad, it not only hurts the team, it hurts him, because punishing him for doing the right thing means the next time he’s in a similar situation he may not react the same way, and that can only hurt him in the long run. Am I happy he got into a fight? No. Am I proud he stood up for himself? Very. And if I am going to hold his mistake him, I have to hold all of my players mistakes against them, and then just to be fair will have to extend that consideration to my staff, my scouts, and eventually those of you sitting in this room right now. And if I were to do that, how many of you would be here in two weeks?”

He gave them a look few had ever seen, Nicholas Schmidt well and truly angry and pissed off. He scanned the room, looking reporters in the eye as best he could until they either looked away or nodded in agreement.

“That’s it for the off field Jose questions,” Coach Schmidt said, a statement of fact noone in the room was going to argue with. “Now, who has a football related question I can answer?”

The past few seasons have become familiar to us at Dynamo. We start out strong, get afflicted by the holiday malaise, stumble through Spring, and hang on for dear life until math and circumstance determine we aren’t being relegated, despite my fears otherwise. I was really hoping this season would be different, but the issue is I’ll have to wait till spring to find out. Until then though, we had a few issues, like playing down to our opponents.

Yes, that is us needing PK’s to beat Lubeck in the Pokal. An 86th minute gasp of a goal by Frey gave us the draw, and we lucked out. Had we not beaten the RegionalLiga team, I suspect my job may have been on the line.

Davide Tiozzo has gotten off to a good start, which has been very nice. I doubt he will ever be world class, but I’ll take very good for a guy whose capable of playing the wing and up top. They Bayer 04 game was annoying, even Gomes finished on a 6.9, with the goal. We just were lackadaisical everywhere, and it showed. Stomping Union made everything feel a little better anyways.

Moukoko equalized for Red Bull in the 86th minute, and I threw my hands up, cursing the FM Gods, when Rukavina scored the winner for us in the 89th minutes. I spent the next ten minutes prostrate in front of my tower thanking the FM Gods for their kindness and generosity, they rewarded me with a draw against an Eintracht teams that is having issues this season, and a last gasp win against an Augsburg teams that is getting whiplashed from all the pro/rels its been going thru the past few seasons.

The things started to fall apart as they usually do: Slowly at first, then suddenly all at once.

Hoffenheim and Freiburg are not great teams, and we barely eked out draws against them. Wolfsburg is having a bad season as well, but put 5 past us. By the time the Pokal came around again, we beat Hoffenheim, but at that point, FIVE of my starting XI for the season were on long term injured reserve, including Esposito, who tweaked a hip. Then we also had this:

Mehri has been with us since the beginning,he was part of the first intake IIRC, and he’s had some solid seasons while we were in the Bundesliga 2. He’s not a Bundesliga player, in fact if he CA was above 90 I’d be shocked, but he’s been a team leader and a really good mentor, and losing him for 4 months hurts the youth team development.

November was just…ugh. Getting ROFL stomped by BMG is understandable, they are a good squad fighting for a UCL slot. Getting stomped by a bad Koln team, and then a bad Hertha Squad whose board wanted me to interview for the job three days prior? Just salt in the wound.

Braunschweig is the best team in the Bundesliga 2, but Gomes Hat Trick was a thing of beauty, and we brushed them aside. So of course he disappeared against Borussia, and a Tiozzo goal in the 85th minute saw us thru. Then we crapped the bed against a horrible Nurnberg team, if they aren’t relegated it’s because they had a second half for the ages. We played Bayern tough, but despite a 7.5 from Pavlovich, we lost. we finished the first half out by barely beating a poor Stuttgart team.

And now it’s the January transfer window, the phones won’t stop ringing; everyone’s been so jealous that people are getting a rest by getting hurt they want to get hurt so they can get a rest…and the bad news is we aren’t that lucky this year. The number of bad teams we are better than is maybe five, and it’s possible 33 or so points may not be enough to keep us from getting relegated. Right now we are at 21, and this isn’t going to be one of those “Addition by Subtraction” transfer windows. If it weren’t for the fact we have about 30M to spend, it might drive one to drink…

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

“We have a problem,” Robert Vittek, the teams technical director, had walked in before he had finished knocking. Coach Schmidt had a mouthful of sandwich, and after giving his senior administrator a look made a motion for him to sit down.
“We have a whole slew of problems,” Schmidt said, wiping his mouth and sitting back. “Which one are you referring to?”
“Rocha says Gomes is not interested in redoing his contract,” Vittek said, slumping in his chair.
“That’s not news,” Schmidt said, a look on his face that was more concern than confusion, “When Gomes signed we told him he could use the club as a stepping stone.”
“Well, someone told someone that Gomes release fee was low, and now teams are sniffing around.”
This time Schmidt sat up.
“I am pretty sure it wasn’t Rocha, he’s got a big enough stable of clients, especially with Fernandes, Dawes and Chiaverra, he’s not hurting for big name talents.”
“One of Gomes…friends perhaps?” Schmidt asked.
“I’d put money on it.”
“OK,” Schmidt said, “I’ll take care of this.”

“Coach, what are you doing here?” Gomes German wasn’t the best, but it was better than Schmidt’s Portugeuse.
“We need to talk, and I prefer to do these things face to face than over a screen. Grab a jacket, it’s supposed to rain.”
“But-” Gomes started to say something when another voice from inside the apartment called out.

“Tell whoever it is to go away, we’re playing FIFA. Unless they are delivering more beer, are they delivering more beer?”
Schmidt raised an eyebrow, a look Gomes knew well enough from the practice pitch, grabbed his jacket and followed his coach down the hall.
The apartment building had a private arboretum, and Coach headed there.
“So, Director Vittek had an interesting call with your agent this morning,” Coach said. “He broached the subject of renegotiating your contract, especially in light of last years performance.”
They were walking around the small pathway.
“Your agent told my Director that you told him you weren’t interested in renegotiating.” Schmidt stopped talking, and turned to face his young striker. For his part, Gomes look genuinely surprised.
“I didn’t tell him that,” Gomes said, holding his hands up. “Coach I swear I didn’t-” he was stopped by Schmidt throwing his hands up in the air, and watched for a few seconds as his head coach began walking away. A few quick steps later he rejoined him.
“Jose, if you tell me you didn’t tell Rocha-“
Jose put a hand on Coaches arm, stopping him from walking. Schmidt turned his head so he could look his player in the face.
“It wasn’t me,” Gomes said. Coach stared at him for a moment, then nodded.
“Fine. But now we have a problem, because we’ve gotten no less than five calls from other teams inquiring about your availability, and with your low release clause number, you know as well as I do several teams are going to easily be able to meet and exceed that.”
Gomes nodded, lowering his arm from Coaches shoulder and turning away.
“This puts me in a bind, Jose.”
“I know Coach,” Gomes said. “What if I went back to my agent-“
“You can’t,” Schmidt replied, shaking his head.
“If you go to Rocha and say you aren’t interested in a move, he’s going to ask you why, because he thinks you already asked for one, and he’s been doing what every good agent does and has been pounding the pavement trying to drum up interest in you, and interest is high. If you go to him and tell him you don’t want to move now, you have to tell him why, and he’s going to know he was taken in by someone, and he won’t be happy with that, and he’s going to drop you as a client, because one,” Coach held a finger up “Trust is a two way street, and it’s been broken, and Two “Coach held up a second finger, “He’s representing about 60 other players, and you would be one less headache for him to deal with.” Coach lowere dhis hand and started walking again. “And then he’s going to tell every other agent out there you might sign with what happened, and they aren’t going to touch you with the proverbail ten foot pole. You’ll end up negotiating for yourself, which will hurt you in the long run, or sign either with some no name agent with no pull to get things done that are good for you, or sign with an agent who’s desperate to use you for his own growth, and that will also not be good for you. I know you like him, he’s a good agent, he’s the best one for your career.” They walked in silence for a minute, then coach stopped walking and looked at Gomes.
“One of your friends does not have your best interests at heart. One fo them called Rocha, and did so well enough that Rocha thought it was you. One fo your friends is sabotaging your career and reputation. I can’t help you fix that problem, I have to figure out who I can sign to replace you when you leave-“
“January,” Gomes said, interrupting Schmidt, who stopped talking.
“I’ll call Rocha, and tell him we talked, and I promised you I would stay until the January window, it’s the least I can do for all you have helped me with, especially in light of recent…events.” Gomes looked around for a moment, then stuck his hand out. “I’ll stay till January, I promise, and I’ll get this sorted out.” Coach looked at his hand, then took its, grasping it firmly and shaking it once.
“Practice Monday, 7AM,” he said, before turning and leaving.
Gomes watched him leave, then pulled out his phone.
“Mauro, it’s Jose. Come to Berlin, now. I don’t care, you work for me right? Then be in Berlin by tomorrow or I fire you and sign with Vitor Nunes.” He hung the phone up before his agent could respond, and walked back inside.

So, a note on the player screenshots. Due to a couple of family situations, I played this season over a period of a couple of weeks. Normally what I do is during the season, I take screenshots of players and events, and then when the season is done move them out of the screenshots folder and into a Season Folder I’ve saved on an external. In the case of season 9, I am missing screenshots from the first half of the season, which means I either did not take them, or took them and then deleted them. I tend towards the former, but these days who knows for sure. However, I do have an end of season 9 save file, so again, I will use those screencaps of the players we signed.

With our defense being the primary source of concern last season, I made it a priority to go out and sign players who could not only help us out now, but help us in the future as well. I’d like to think we were successful, but give it three/four years to see if that’s true.

First in is a player my scout in Africa found last season, but he was unwilling to sign at the time, Christopher Essomba. A Fullback I am retraining to be a wingback, he’s not going to get a ton of first team playing time here this season so I am going to try and loan him out. His above average quickness and Endurance are nice, and while he has good Technique and Movement, I find it curious that he has a Bravery of 18 but only a 9 in heading. Plus his crossing could use some work, but for a young man we signed on a free who is now valued in the 10-13M range. As his playing time here was going to be limited, when AaB came in with the loan offer, I jumped all over it.

Abdelkadr Nasri is an Algerian defensive mid/midfielder who looks to be a very good DLP, and pretty good Regista if he improves in a few areas. Decent Endurance skills, very good Passing skills, good Anticipation and Positioning, he has the potential to be a very good midfield pivot player, and yet another Free signing our scout in North Africa found.

Eesa Quigley is one of those players whose career doesn’t match his potential. The former Villa Youth Candidate had several good loan spells thru out his time at Villa, but could never crack the first team, and left on a Free. I picked him up he’s a quick, pacey player with good agility, decent passing skills and is better than average in the final third. On top of that his crossing is also pretty good, and he is adept at either advanced midfield wing. He may not get much better than what he is now, but what he is now is not that bad, and I have few issues with him starting on either side. He’s not a long term solution, unless his development really takes off in the time he has left, but there’s always a need for solid, capable players, at any position, and I think he fits the bill nicely.

Babacar Fisher is the first player we paid for this offseason. The Lyon product has had a rough time of it, bouncing between the main and 2 squads for the French club, and to be honest his spells on the first team have not been that great, but this is a case of where we are paying for potential, as he is yet another good DM/M(C) with upside. Quick, Agile, with good endurance, above average passing skills, good ball control and positioning, one or two good seasons here and we will have yet another very good midfielder for the future, or another very good midfielder we can move for a lot more money than we signed him for, hopefully.

I needed some solid play at D(R), especially considering the new formation (A 5-2-1-2) I was thinking of switching to. Mengi was just good enough to be frustrating, in that he probably should have been better overall but the game found a way to highlight the mistakes he made more often than not, and Swift was OK, but it left me looking for better, and Getafe had Brayann Pereira listed for a very low fee. He’s an above average D(R) who’s not that aggressive (A quirk I am still trying to figure out), who doesn’t excel at any one area but does all the things a good D(R) Wingback needs to do to be successful, and at this point, I’ll take it, as he’s better than Mengi and Swift.

Joshua Jara is a Jack of All Trades on the defensive backline, primarily a D(C)/D(M) who can play on the wings if required. While not the strongest, his Shooting, Movement, and Ball Control are very good, and he’s quite capable in other areas as well. Another one of those players who if he deicides to play within his abilities, will have a long, solid career in the game. With his versatility I think he will be a bench player more than a starter, but I will also have few issues starting him 10-15 times a season.

Matus Novotny is a player I have kept tabs on for a couple of seasons, the Slovakian international first caught my eye in one of the youth tournament screen flow reports I get, and when he requested a transfer from Anderlecht, and I am not sure why because he had a very good season there, we were able to sign him for a very good fee. While I am not a fan of him dwelling on the ball, I love his Endurance/Agility/Passing/Movement numbers, and his Flair and Technique are also quite good. He is going to be in the midfield mix.

Stephen Dworschak and Julien-Lee Magath are both Youth Players I am taking a flyer on. One is because they are here on Free’s, Two is because my U19 squad is very thin talent wise anyways, and three is because sometimes a longshot pays off. Neither may pay off in this case, but nothing ventured…

Mark Zabukovnik is a player I signed because he can play D(C)/DM/M(C) very well, and if he’s not starting in one of those positions he’s coming off the bench. An older player whose skills are above average, I know what I am getting with him, and what I will get out of him is at least 20-25 games a season as a starter and the rest off the bench, and solid performances. At this point I’ll take solid and reliable over flashy and “Hey, how’d he get past me” any day of the week and twice on game day.

Vladimir Camara is another member of the “How many Midfielders can one team carry” Club here in Berlin. When I was scouting Zabukovnik, my scout found Camara at Leiria, where he was doing well, but wasn’t standing out. He’s going to have the opportunity to clamin on of the starting Midfield spots for his own, and at 1.1M he’s a very good value for money IMO.

On the outs…

Well, the Mile Rodic experiment is over. Yes, on paper his numbers look good, but on the pitch, there’s something going on with his hidden attributes have given him the “Eh, whatever bro” sort of game play. He shoots when he shouldn’t, passes when he should shoot, and hasn’t been able to play his way off the bench. Every time he scored a goal I thought “OK, is this the turning point?” and the answer has been “NO!” Antalyaspor made an offer, I jumped all over it, and to be honest, I am not sure Mile even cared…

Luan Bausenhart never established himself, got lost in the monster that is my backfield personnel, and never did anything to stand out. Last season he had a few opportunities, but it’s clear the Bundesliga is not where his skillset is. Onasbruck signed him, but honestly he will probably be back in the RegionalLiga sooner rather than later, but he will also have a long career there if he wants it.

Mbaye Fall had a great first season for us, and his second season was even better, and it wasn’t even over when other teams started coming in for him. I think he signed with Bournemouth because they offered him playing time right away, but chances are high they are going to get relegated, but then playing in the ECL for a club like Bournemouth is not exactly a burden. For a player we found thru Screen Flow, then scouted and signed on a free, €36M (Going to €40M with some very achievable games played and international appearances) is very good piece of business.

Frederik Ibsen was another player I brought in to try and help solidify the backfield, and he was very instrumental in our getting out of Bundesliga 2, but it’s apparent he’s not cut out for the Bundesliga. He asked for a new contract, and wanted starter status and money, I offered him squad player and he said no, so I listed him and Antalyaspor picked him up, maybe to be Rodic’s chaperone…

I picked up Quevedo on a free. He’s another one of those players whose attributes look pretty good, but they didn’t translate to the field of play. Even his loans spells have been uninspired. One day he was going to be a bench player, the next day Independiente Medillin made an offer, and he accepted it before it was off the fax machine. He wasn’t going to get a lot of playing time here, so it’s a good thing. No really, it is.

Injai had some promise, but the pre injury Injai and posy injury Injai are two different players, and I don’t think he’s going to get any better. His loan spell at Chaves last year was OK (8goals and 4 assists in 23 games as a starter), and I am hoping a loan spell at Braunschweig will get him back on track, he will get more playinng time there than he will here.

Mamim Sanyang had one solid season for us, and thinks he’s entitled to a first team contract and first team money. I think he’s an OK player who’s better suited coming off the bench, and last season he pitched a big enough fit about it I sent him to the II squad, where his performances there were…lacking. Going to Corum FK in Turkey is his redemption chance, and he needs to make the most of it or he’ll be somewhere else sooner rather than later.

Molde came out of nowhere for Hugo Swift when the transfer window was closing, and I am not sure why. He was solid for us last season, but with my lack of player organizational skills he’d be lost in the shuffle. First team playing time somewhere as opposed to bench time here )probably) is a good thing.

So, not the transfer window I expected, and I am also reasonably sure the competition is stronger this year, but the ball is round, and we need to get off to a good start, if only to assuage my neverending fear of being relegated when it’s even a remote mathematical possibility. I also don’t expect to see as many teams have a bad season as we did last year, in fact if we were to get the same number of points but come in a few spots lower I wouldn’t be shocked. But I think we had a decent transfer window, and the scouts are working overtime, because with all the offers I got for Gomes already, he will be leaving in January, and I need someone available replace him.

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

“I can’t believe we sold Luca,” Sasha was sitting at the table, head in her hands.
“Are you mad they sold him, or only sold him for-” Lars was asking before he was interrupted.
“5.25 Million!” She all but yelled. The rest of the table sat and drank their beers, the tables around them ignored her outburst, either because they were used to itr or didn’t want to draw her ire.
“He’s worth twice that, if not more,” she said.
“We know,” Hans replied. “But we all knew he wasn’t going to stay long, and who knows, there could be additional fees.”
“You think?” Sasha replied.
“If he’s as good as we think he’s going to be? Yes,” replied Ulrich. “Another beer?” he asked, and she shook her head.
There was a chime, and the crowd quitted down, turning its attention to the flatscreen TV near the bar.
“Coach Schmidt, with the transfer window now closed, is there any other business you can tell us about today with the club?”
“Well Rolf, the late bid for Luca was a shock, to be sure, but we promised him when he signed that he could leave if and when he thought he received a good offer, and while it looks like he may have left for less than his overall value there are some backend clauses I am sure will help make up for any future considerations.” The bar murmured with talk, Sasha was studiously quiet, which could be good or bad.
“Any last minute signings you can announce?”
“Well, yes,” Coach Schmidt said with a smile. “I am happy to announce that the club agreed to terms with Tacuarembó FC to sign Santiago Barros. His name may not be well known here in Germany but my scouting department assures me he is going to be a very good center back in a few years time.”
“A replacement for Luca?” Rolf asked.
“Potentially,” Coach Schmidt said with a smile.
“Well, that’s some good news,” Ulrich said in a hushed voice, isn’t it?”
“And will Barros be arriving soon?” Rolf asked.
“No, as part of the signing agreement, he is going to stay on loan until the end of the season with his team in Uruguay getting first team playing time there, then report here in the summer.”
Ulrich watched as Sasha drew in a breathe to scream out in frustration, as Uwe and Hans both reached out for her. Lars frantically signaled for the waitress to bring more beers.

The only other out in the January transfer window was Teden Mengi, who we got on a free from Morecambe three seasons ago. A steady if unspectacular D(C), he wanted to renegotiate his contract. I said sure, he wanted ‘Important Player’, I countered with ‘Regular Starter’ even though my GM said he was at best a ‘Squad Player’. He pitched a fit, I sent him to Turkey. I have other things to worry about.

It’s not they we are losing, it’s that we are losing without anything to show for it. A Goal, a close fought loss, I can appreciate. Eintracht, Leipzig and HSV are all Top 6 teams, and while Leipzig eked out a win with an 87th Minute Goal, thats a loss I am OK with, because it helps us in the goal differential department.

We made up for those losses by blitzing Bayer, Union Berlin and Werder, buit to be fair if we had lost any of those games I would have been really mad, because they are worse than us, in fact I am not sure but I think Werder was already mathematically regulated at this point.

But as bad as January was, February was good, and I felt confident going into the end of the season. I should have known better.

Six points in our last 10 games. Blech. And the thing is, with the Bayern game, we could have won all of them. Well, maybe the Wolfsburg game as well. And we probably should have lost to Mainz, but a Rodic(!) goal saw us eke out the draw there.

It was just…frustrating. The good news, and it is good news, is that our first half performance meant we stayed up.

And to my amazement, we ended with a positive goal differential as well. How Stuttgart managed to finish above us with a -16 differential I am not sure…well, wait…a 7-4 loss, 5-1 loss, 4-0 loss, OK I see that now…But the better news is 9th place gets us €60.23 Million, which helps solidify our finances. The board is happy, the fans are happy, the team is mostly happy, and I a €30.53M p/a payroll and a €17.59M transfer budget, and my payroll at the moment is €18.4M p/a. So I have money to spend, I just need to spend it wisely.

Not to shabby for a team picked to finish 17th…

Player Performance wise, I am pretty happy with the season the guys put in:

Jose Luis Gomes had a breakout season with 19 goals, and Fall was the best all around performaer with his 8 goals and 11 assists. t Esposito had a fine season, as did Rukavina. Rodic, well, as much as I want to like him, he just goes missing in too many games for me. He is going to be one of those players who could have been so much more, if he wanted to be.

Pavlovic was worth every Euro we spent on him, and he will only get better, and Tiozzo had a decent season, and Frey is showing promise.

As promised, because I didn’;’t have them at the beginning of the season, here’s all the players we signed and how they looked at the end of the season:

Some of the youngsters definitely have promise, and players like Esposito I fully expect to keep things steady until someone younger and better is capable of replacing him. I’m not mentioning the Youth Intake because there wasn’t anyone worth mentioning…

This season was a solid success IMO, despite our falling off at the end. There’s some solid talent, and a transfer budget I can work with, especially with some of the promising youngsters out there…

And Jose Luis Gomes has a 3.4M release clause? Who gave him that?!?

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

The conference room was crowded. It was the first time in a long time that almost everyone on the staff of the club, including the scouts, were back in Berlin. Christmas had come and gone, the transfer window had closed, and Coach Schmidt had called everyone together, if only to put faces to names in some cases.
“How’s Barros looking, Fabrizio?” Aleksander Szymanski, the GM of the club, had an accent to his German, but most everyone at the table understood him. Fabrizio Angileri, the clubs scout in Uruguay and Argentina, looked up from his tablet and smiled.
“He’s got potential, that’s for sure. The question is whether or not he wants to overcome his shortcomings, and when he arrives here in the fall how hard he is willing to work on it. Pair him up with a couple of good mentors, Swift or Lobo, and he will get better. Technically speaking, he’s not a wingback, yet. And his club is playing him at centerback, which is where he plays best. He’s got the physicals to play wingback, but his technical skills…” Fabrizio lifted a hand and waggled it back and forth.
Szymanski nodded.
“Mamadou?” he asked , looking down the table.
“Some very good prospects, Mamadou Kone said. “I uploaded the videos and reports this morning. When I head back I am making a stop in Cameroon, a friend of a friend told me I should check some games out. Shouldn’t cost anything out of the ordinary,” he said the last, looking over at Thomas Stock, the Chief Scout.
“For the moment we are OK on the scouting budget,” he said.
“We can always transfer more to it if we have too,” Coach Schmidt said. For the most part he had been pretty quiet after the introductions had been made. Stock looked at the head coach, who nodded at him, and he returned it. Szymanski went down the table, talking to each scout in turn.
“Prospects?” Szymanski asked. The whiteboard in the main scouting room was updated regularly, as was the clubs database.
“Cross Tulli of your lists,” Aleksandar Jaric said. The Serbian, who had first sent news of Dragan Pavlovic two years ago, was sitting with his hands on the table. “His agent made it clear he wants first team playing time and first team money wherever he goes, and the bigger clubs are already salivating. In fact, you can also cross off Borsot and Zamora as well.” The three were Inters young trio of talent, and already had numerous scouts in the stands watching their every game.
“Anyone worth adding?” Szymanski asked?
“That fit what we are looking for? Barile, at Bologna. Good you Advanced Mid who could also be a playmaker in the midfield. There’s others looking at him though.”
“Djurgårdens shot down our offer for Chabalala,” Marciano van den Berg said. The Dutch based scout had sepent a month in Sweden, anbd the young left back had caught his eye early on. And about twenty other teams as well apparently. “He feels it important enough to at least honor two years of his contract, after that…” he shrugged.
People around the table nodded. It was the same thing, the good players were almost always found, and if a smaller club found a diamond in the rough in the 3rd division of Uruguayan Soccer, the bigger clubs would come in once they heard he was considering signing.
“Tresson at Bournemouth,Joyce at Fulham,” one scout called out.
Szymanski went around the table, getting names from all the scouts that weren’t already on their list.
“Peter?” he asked, looking at the gentleman across the table from him.
Peter Laudenklos was the teams Head of Youth development.
“As always,” he said, after taking a drink, “It’s a work in progress. The recent expansion of the Youth facilities will help, but as we all know, the club is well behind many of our competitors when it comes to facilities and the like. That’s the bad news. The good news is that the operation as whole is getting bigger and better.”
“If you had to choose between Facilities and coaching, which would you want to emphasize more in the budget?” Coach Schmidt asked.
“Coaching, for sure. Even if we have to overpay, I’ll take a good coach at a mediocre facility as opposed to a mediocre coach at a good facility any day. Kids these days may talk about equipment and facilities and kit, but the good ones want good coaching that will help them get better and on the first team sooner.” There were several nods around the table, including the head coaches.
“I agree. I’ve a meeting next month with the board, I’ll see what I can do.” Schmidt said, then stood up.
“A few words before we call it a night, if you will indulge me.”
“First of all, thanks for attending, I realize for many of you it wasn’t the easiest journey, but I wanted you all to come and see what your are helping contribute to building here. Now, we all know the nature of this industry. I will not go so far to say that everyone of you will always have a job here, heck I do not know that I will have a job here this time next year. That does not mean I am looking to move, I turned down the interview offers from Freiberg, Bayer and Roma because I want to see what we are building here come to fruition. I want to see us lift trophies, I want to see us win the league. I also know that’s not happening anytime soon, but that’s what we are building towards. While you are working for Dynamo, I ask that you give me your best efforts. You all have my phone number. That’s not to say that if you call me I will pick up, time zones are a bitch sometimes,” he smiled, as did most of the table, “but leave a message, and I’ll answer. I read all the scouting reports, all the analysts reports, when I call or email and ask questions, you might think I am pulling your leg, but there is a purpose: to help make this team a winner.
“You give this club, the fans, the players, me, you give 100% while you are here, that’s all I and the management of the club ask. If in the future, should you decide you want to move on, for whatever reason, we will not stand in your way, you have my word on that. As a club, we’ve come a long way in eight years. I think it’s going to take us at least another eight to ten get to where we want this club to be. So lets do what we can, while we can, to get it there. And under budget, preferably,” he smiled, and the room laughed with him.

It may not look like it, but we got off to a pretty good start this season:

Would I prefer some of those draws were wins? Of course, but I’ll take a draw over a loss any day of the week and twice on gamedays…

The Sebastiano Esposito in this universe was low rolled by the game when the database was being created, and to be honest if is CA is anything close to 130 I’d be surprised, but we really are a different team with him up top or on the wing. And Jose Louis Gomes is coming along very well, but the surprise for me thus far has been Mbaye Fall. The young winner is always in the mix, and he’s scored more the first half of the seasons than I thought he would all season. The draws were annoying, especially against HSV and Union Berlin, because on the pitch we were the better squad, but the win against Bayer 04 was nice, even though they are having an off year, as was the win against Stuttgart.

Predictably speaking, the wheels fell off in winter, but given the teams we were facing:

The Wolfsburg match was gut wrenching, as they scored in the 92nd minute to win. Mainz had a rash of injuries, and didn’t field their strongest squad, and it took a 90th minute goal for Koln to claw the draw back. It sucks being on the wrong side of those…

December started out great, beating Hertha was nice, but they were on a short week because of their Champions League matches. They scored the first two goals, but we came back and beat a tiring squad to win.

Losing to Bayer in the Pokal was annoying, because we are the better squad. There was also a few outside distractions as well:

BMG just outclassed us, everyone had a bad game, and while a Tiozzo goal drew us even with Bayern for a few minutes, Sesko’s goal and their great defense gave them the win. Dusseldorf is already slated for relegation, so while beating them was nice, it did feel kind of hollow when wrapping up the first half of the season, especially when the transfer budget wasn’t all that high.

But, the 1st half of the stage, we were in 9th place, on 23 points, which on paper should be well within safety, but its the Bundesliga. There was a bit of good news though:

Of course, there’s a lot more scouts in the stands now too…

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.”