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

“What has gotten into this team?” Heinrich asked for the umpteenth time

“Are you complaining?” Uwe asked. They were sitting next to each other, ignoring the scenery outside the train.

“No, I’m just…”

“We all are,” Sasha said from the seat up front. “Don’t complain about it, other wise you’ll jinx us. How much longer?”

Hans sighed, and your could feel rather than hear his eyes roll. “We literally left the station 15 minutes ago. It’s 128 kilometers to Berlin, so maybe another hour or two.”

“Thank you Hans,” Sasha replied, sitting back in her chair and looking out the window. Hans resisted the temptation to turn back around and look at her, instead he turned enough to see Dietrich looking at him with a shocked face. Sasha rarely said thanks, but since the ‘Bar Incident’ and the month helping clean the stadium out as part of the cleanup crew as penance, she was a lot less quitter and more polite version of herself.

The next fifteen or so minutes passed quietly, they talked amongst themselves about work, and the upcoming games, debating whether or not to travel to Cologne for the game there in two weeks. There was a loud noise, and then the door closest to them opened, and a group of Magdeburg fans, wearing the teams blue and white colors, came in. They stopped short when they saw the Dynamo supporters sitting.

“You lucky bastards,” one of them said, pointing an unsteady finger. “You bribe the ref for that 95th minute foul?”

“No, we bribed Chukwuma to push Eisenhunt when they went up for the jump ball,” Uwe said, rolling his eyes. “Besides, it was a VAR decision, you have a problem with it, complain to them, and then your own player.”

“That was a bullshit decision,” another Magdeburg supporter said.

“Maybe it was, it’s not like you didn’t a few calls go your way back in September, ja?” Dietrich said. “Today was a good game, we both came away with a point, helps you with not being relegated-“
“WE AREN’T GOING DOWN!” a third supporter yelled, stepping forward.

“Goddammit,” Sasha swore. “I was sleeping! Who’s yelling?” She stood up, taking a look at the group of Magdeburg supporters.

“Just a group of supporters upset at the outcome, Sasha,” Heinrich said.

“YOU’RE RIGHT WERE PISSED YOU BERLINER-” The original antagonist started to yell, until the guy standing next to him put his arm around his shoulder, then his hand across his mouth. The guy yelling was surprised, and started to resist, which led to his friend putting him into a headlock.

“You’re Sasha, from the BFC Ultras?” the guy holding his friend asked.

“Yes, I am,” Sasha replied, clearly confused as to what was going on.

“Sorry to wake you up,” he said. “Good game today, nice comeback.” He smiled, turned around, taking his friend with him, started walking to the back of the car. The others followed him, confused as well.

“She’s the one who beat up those three guys at the bar before Christmas,” the guy holding his friend said, before opening the door and dragging his friend thru it.

Sasha looked back from the door and saw everyone in her group staring at her. Then she rolled her eyes and sat back down.

“I’m going to sleep. Wake me when we get there.”

2028 has gotten off to a decent start for us. Transfer wise the window was quiet. Despite some scouting and some offers, the only person to sign for us in the January transfer window was Niklas Kölle. I’m taking a bit of a flyer on him, he’s a ‘Jack of All Trades, Master of None’ type of player who loves big matches but is injury prone, and he’s a bit older as well. He’s going to compete for a starting position, I just don’t know which one yet. He’s had some solid seasons at MSV Duisburg and Hoffenheim II, but last season at Sønderjysk in Denmark he didn’t do so well, but he’s here on a free, and if he contributes, I’ll be happy. On the outs, noone of consequence left.

Schedule wise, 2028 has gotten of to a great start. I think a lot of that is because Mile Rodic finally decided he could score.

The friendly at Cracovia was nice, not only did we get a decent tuneup game against a solid opponent, they also paid us a bit of money to travel.

Munster is the worst team in the league this year, they need a miracle to not be relegated, but Rodic getting a brace in the 4-0 win was definately a highlight. He scored again as we beat Dynamo Dresden, and made it three games in a row when he scored against Schalke in the victory there.

Against Kiel he reverted to his old ways, and then everyone had a horrible game when we played Regensburg. An injury kept him out of the KSC match, but everyone who did play had a mare of a game, Mehri ended up on a 7.1 due to the goal, everyone else was sub 6.7. We beat Darmstadt thanks to a very lucky Injai goal, and then was Magdeburg foul in the last minute of the game gave Nezri a chance to score, which he did, which clawed the draw back for us.

The Winter of Rodic appears to be over, as he went 6.3 in that match. The Spring was just as frustrating.

Drawing at Braunschweig was bad, but considering we had 16 shots, 1 on target, and a 73% possession rate against their 4 shots and 0 on target, despite half the team being 7.0 or better player ratings wise, the only thing that would have been worse would have been losing to a team fighting against relegation.

The 1-0 loss at Koln may look bad, but they are running away with the league this year, and are going to be promoted, so holding them to 1 is a good thing. Rodic had a 6.1 this match, so of course he scores at Heidenheim, and then a brace at Armenia Bielefeld. We’re neck and neck with Bochum in the standings, so a draw is nearly as good as a win, and like the 1-0 loss to Koln earlier, losing to 2nd place Nurnberg by the same amount isn’t too bad either. Kaiserslautern is fighting relegation as well, they’ll need a lot of help to stay up as well, but of course Rodic scored another brace.

I really want to like him, I think he has a ton of potential, but there’s not a lot of ‘in between’ with him, he’s either scoring goals, or he’s invisible.

What’s interesting for us is not only are we finishing top half, but we are challenging for 3rd place. The only games left this season are against a solid Hannover squad, and an 1860 Munchen squad that’s fighting to stay in the Bundesliga 2. Some things go our way, we have a shot at 3rd place, and that would be great, if only because the €16.79M prize money will finally make me feel secure about our finances, and the reputation boost couldn’t hurt either.

Fingers crossed…

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

“This season is making my head hurt,” Sasha said, leaning over the table, hands holding her head.

“You sure it’s not the beer?” asked Heinrich, taking a healthy drink of his own.

“No,” Sasha said, looking up. “Maybe it’s the crowd.” The bar was a lot more…active these days, especially after games. When the locals finally realized Dynamo wasn’t getting demoted anytime soon, the crowds started to grow, and more fans started to show up. Some of the joined the Supporters group, others didn’t. A Lot of new faces, a lot of new noises.

“How do we beat Hannover but draw to Munich? How do we draw Munster AND Nuremburg?”

“Cruyff’s Law,” Hans replied, and everyone looked at him. “Cruyff’s Law,” he repeated. “The Ball is Round.” He said it as if it was the answer to everything. “Hey, at least we beat Dresden, ja?” The others all nodded.

“Heinrich, another round please?” Sasha asked, head back in her hands. With a sigh and a smile, Heinrich nodded and stood up, heading to the bar. A few moments later there was a commotion, and the rest of the table headed over to see why.

“Are you illiterate?” Hans asked. There was small group of people huddled around coaches stool, all of whom were looking at him like he was speaking a foreign language.

“The seat was empty,” one of the guys started to say. He was well dressed, a nice business suit, but without the tie.

“And the sign on the seat, and on the bar in front of the seat, and on the wall next to the seat, and the fact there’s forty plus other people here now and none of us aren’t sitting there wasn’t a clue?” Hans asked.

“He sat in Coaches seat?” asked Uwe.

“He what?” Sasha asked, stepping forward only to be held in place by Hans and Uwe’s hands on her shoulders.

“It was unoccupied-”

“For a reason you idiot!” Sasha said, squirming away from the hands holding her. She walked thru the crowd as it parted in front of her. “The sign here,” she said, slapping her hand on the wall next to the chair, “And the sign on the bar, and on the back of the seat, and I bet the barkeep told you as well, but you didn’t care because-” Sasha was standing in front of him, getting ready to scream up into his face some more. She sniffed, and the guy standing in front of her furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

“I smell <sniff> arrogance,” Sasha said. “I smell <sniff> entitlement. Hubris<sniff>, I smell hubris, and <sniff> disrespect.” she said. Then she sniffed deeply once more.

“I smell….Bayern…” she said, looking right at the man. “Admit it,” she said, stepping forward, forcing him to take a step back. “You are in the city on business, maybe even in the area. Wanted a drink and a bite afterwards, came here, saw it was a supporters clubs bar and didn’t care, saw the signs on the wall and the chair and didn’t care, sat your entitled ass down-” she poked him in the chest, forcing him back another step, “Because you think the rules don’t apply to you?”

“Lady, you had best back off-” one of the other men in the group said. Sasha looked around the man in front of her at the one addressing her.

“Or what?” She said with a sweet smile. She leaned back in front of the man standing in front of her, and looked up at him, still smiling.

“Scheisse,” Uwe, Heinrich and Hans all said at the same time.

A second later, the guy who sat in coaches seat was whooping in pain, as Sasha’s knee caught him right in the gonads. He was bent over, gasping for breath, when Sasha grabbed him by the hair, and threw him into the bar, where he fell in a jumbled heap.

“Oder was, guter Herr?” Sasha asked, ignoring the guy behind her, who was now a moaning pile of limbs. “No answers?” she asked. “Fine. Wer ist als nächster dran?”

“I did not have sitting in jail before Christmas on this years Bingo Card,” Uwe said, sitting with his back against the wall. It had been about an hour since they Police had processed them in, and they were trying to get as comfortable as they could. None of them were sure how long they were going to be there.

“I’m sorry,” Sasha said from the next cell over. She was lucky, sort of, as the only female in the group she was in a cell by herself.

“I would say this is the strangest thing to happen to me this year, but there are still days left in December,” Hans replied.

“Hows your jaw?” Sasha asked.

“Fine,” Hans replied. “How’s your hand?”

“I broke a nail,” Sasha replied, voice sad. Uwe couldn’t help it, he smiled.

“They got what they deserved,” Heinrich said. He looked around the current surroundings. “Then again, so are we.” A door opened, and steps approached the cells they were in.

“Alright you lot, your bail has been posted, lets go,” the older cop who had helped process them in approached, and opened the door. They all stayed in place, looking at him. “Fine,” the cop said, “If you want to stay, stay.” He made to shut the door, but the guys all clambered out, and then waited as Sasha’s door was open and she came out.

“I’ll pay you back, I swear,” she said. She was quiet, she always got quiet when she was apologetic. It was rare, which was how the guys knew she meant it.

“Who posted our bail?” Uwe asked, as they followed the cop back out of holding and into the main office area of the station.

“Johann couldn’t have, not this quickly-” Heinrich said, before stopping short, everyone behind him running into him.

“OK, this was definitely not on my Bingo card,” Hans said. On the other side of the office, standing with his arms across his chest, Coach Schmidt stood, staring at them while Klaus was bent over the desk, signing paperwork.

“We’re in it now…” Uwe said.

The season has been a confusing one, but think thats because the team is still trying to jell, because I am still trying to find a starting XI with good rotation, and still trying to figure out what the color of the sky is in Mile Rodic’s world. The kid looks like Tarzan, but he plays like Jane, as the saying goes.

The season got off to a good start. Sort of. Munster is a terrible team, and I thought after we scored we would really do some more, but no, they equalized, and we walked away with a draw.

Against Dynamo Dresden, we thumped them good, Injai getting his second goal in as many games. An Injai Hat Trick against Kickers in the Pokal was very good to see, as was the comeback from two goals down to draw with Schalke. Regensburg has a very good squad, so losing by one to them thanks to a late goal isn’t bad, but a draw would have been better.

We should have beaten Darmstadt, instead it took a 90th minute goal to claw the draw back. Magdeburg isn’t the strongest club either, but their offense was stronger than our defense the five minutes of the game, because that’s when they scored two to take the win. Koln is the best team in the Bundesliga 2 this season, and to be honest as poorly as we played they should have scored more than two. Against Heidenheim, Rodic finally decided to score instead of pass, and yet again again not only did we play down against a superior team in the Pokal, this time Stuttgart, it seemed all the guys except Stocker were in a competition to see who could get the lowest rating. Four of them tied with a 6-1. Beating Bielefeld helps a little bit though.

As a net whole, November and December were very good, Bochum will be fighting for promotion this year so losing by one hurts, but not as much as losing by more than one. Holding Nurnberg to a nil-nil draw was good, as was beating Kaiserslautern and Hannover, but it took Owusu-Odero being a hero between the sticks to secure the draw.

At the halfway point of the season, we are at 26 points, with 7 wins, 5 draws, and 5 losses, which is very good. The problem is the squad is just not jelling. Injai and Rodic do not like playing with each other, while the midfield and defensive line are pretty much set, niggling injuries and the like have made team cohesion pretty much non-existant. I’m still playing the 4-2-4, but noone other than the midfield of Iqbal and Kornvig, and Mengi at WB(R) have stepped up and claimed a spot. I am not expecting someone like Injai to dominate the offense, where every goal comes off his foot (I actually abhor that sort of thing), and more than a few people have stepped up, but unless we get more consistent with how we play, we’re looking at lower mid table again.

The other issue is that any good player who would be able to help the club either doesnt want to come here and/or we can’t afford them, which means the January transfer window is probably going to be a whole lot of sound and fury without signings.

That said, the chances of us getting relegated are slim…

And I just typed that….blivet.

A New Challenge, Part Three

June 27th, 2273

File Size, 1.5GB

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

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

England

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Save Game file:

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

A New Challenge, Part Two

It is now the 24th of June, 2123, we are 100 years into the future.

Database size has shrunk slightly, to 63K players, the playable Leagues have remained the same. save size, 772MB.

So, what has changed? For the Countries I have loaded not named Spain, not too much.

England:

Tottenham has won the League.
Blackburn finished 7th, but missed out on European Football
Luton Town avoids the drop.

Craziest finish so far: 2101/02, When West Ham, Bristol City, and Brentford finished 1,2,3 on the same points, 72, separated by goal differential.
Tottenham had 103 points in 2019/92.

The Prem has been a Arsenal v Tottenham the last decade.

In the Championship, Oldham misses out on promotion due to goal difference.
Eastleigh is back mid table.
Palace languishes in mid table.

League One
Villa has fallen to mid table.
Wrexham has fallen to midtable as well.

League Two
Huddersfield finished 5th but lost in the playoff
Ipswich is relegated

France:

Ligue 1
Monaco won by 16, beating ASSE.
They have 8 teams in European Football.
PSG last won the League in 2104, since then it has been Monaco, Nice and St. Etienne.

Craziest Finish so far: 2102/2103 PSG finished 1sr on 76 points, Bordeaux on 74, ASSE And Monacao on 74, OGC Nice on 73.

Germany:

Bundesliga
Gladbach won the League
Bayern has won the League 4 times since 1090, since then it has been RB Leipzig for the most part.
St. Pauli regularly finishes top 5.
Dynamo Dresden and Hansa Rostock are top flight.

Craziest finish thus far: When the firstplace team isn’t beating everyone by 20 points, probably 2087, when Leipzig finished 1st ahead of Bayern, despite drawing 10 games and only losing 1, on a +3 goal differential. Bayern won the CL that year though, so they are probably OK.

Hannover and Schalke have fallen down to 3. Liga

Italy:

Serie A
Genoa won the League this year. Bari finished 4th, Lazio 12th.

Serie A has been won by Juve more often than not, and not a lot of other teams have won it multiple times in a row until recently, with Milan at 4.

Craziest finish thus far: 2076. Juve won 32, Drew 4, and lost 2 to finish with 100 points, and came in second to Fiorentina, who went 33/4/1 to finish with 103 points. Fiorentina’s bestest friend? Benvento, who finished 4th and beat Juve 2-0.

In Serie B, Atalanta finished 5th because Salernitana beat them head to head.
Sampdoria and Torino are relegated to Serie C.

Parma, Bologna, Sassualo are in Serie C.

Spain:

La Liga
Athletico, Real Madrid and Barca have won most of the titles, although every once and awhile a Betis, Zaragoza or Villareal wins.

Probably the League with the most changes

Bilbao is in the Primera RFEF.
Getafe and Valladolid were just promoted out of Grupo II.
Eiber was mid table.

Girona is in the 4th Tier Segunda Division RFEF.
Vallacano was just promoted out of Segunda Division Group 5

Craziest finish so far: Athletico went invinceable in 2104, finishing on 108 points

Portugal:

Benfica win the League.
Porto is midtable.
Until 2109, Santa Clara won the League 9 out of 10 times, then Benfica has won 11 of the past 12.

Craziest finish so far: Probably 2071/72, when everyone beat up on everyone and Santa Clara won the League with 69 points, the lowest points total ever if my search-fu is correct.

Europe:

Champions League
Until Bayern won back to back games in 2115/2116, the last team to win back to back (or more) was Arsenal 15 years earlier.
No team outside the Big 6 has won the Champions League since the start of the save.

Europa League
No team has won back to back, though several have won it numerous times, with Tottenham winning 11.
Greek clubs PAOK Saloniki, AEK Athens, Panathanaikos have lost in the finals.
The only other club outside the Big 6 to play in a Final was Ajax.

Europa Conference
Austrian and Portugeuse teams have won this comp several times, but the last 5 years have seen Real Madrid, Bodo/Glimt, Aris Saloniki, Olympiacos and Slavia Pragee win.

World Cup:

England last won in 2078.
Netherlands went back to back in 90 and 94.
Serbia won in 2102.
The Outlier so far, Uruguay, who won it in 2058.
Team you didn’t expect to finish so high: Czech Republic, 3rd place in 2110

World Golden Ball: Suchat Khamkaew from Thailand(!) won it in 2110-2111.

This is from the 2109-2110 Sseason:

The next year he won it, he had 58(1) appearances across all competitions, 11 goals, 24 assists, and 16 POM’s with an 8.05(!) rating.

Link to save: https://www.mediafire.com/file_premium/kc0xezzfsqqrnq8/APexton_-_06242123.fm/file

A New Challenge

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

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

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

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

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

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

It is now June 24th, 2050.

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

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

ENGLAND:

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

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

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

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

FRANCE:

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

GERMANY:

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

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

ITALY:

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

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

Spain:

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

Portugal:

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

World:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anyone else smell smoke?

Jellico

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

“Can we reboot this year?” Sasha moaned again. It was a common theme, and not just for her.

“I don’t know what the deal is with the Rodic kid…” Theo sighed, finishing of his drink. They were at the bar, trying to drown their sorrows. Given the shellacking they just suffered at the hands of KSC, it would be awhile before any of them stopped treading water.

“He’s weird,” Heinrich said.

“You can’t that,” Sasha replied. “It’s not nice.” She noticed the others at the table had stopped their drinking and had looked at her.

“So what’s a nice word for weird?” Tobias asked.

“Mercurial.”

“Eccentric.”

“Screw it, he’s weird,” Sasha said after a few moments of thinking. “Who else gives up an open shot on goal to try and pass it to a guy with three defenders around him?”

Mile Rodic does. On more than one occasion. It’s been frustrating because he will make such a nice move, make a great pass, but it’s almost as if he was afraid to score. Good thing Theo Berdayes is there to pick up the slack.

The transfer window was pretty quiet. The big move was Luca Belardinelli leaving for St. Gallen, he really wanted to go play in Switzerland, and for a good defender we got on a free, I am OK with that.

I did a lot of searching for players to bring in, but those I really liked didn’t want to come here, or if they did they (or their teams) wanted too much money. I did find a couple of players who I think are going to be able to contribute though.

Mikael Björk is Belardinelli’s replacement. A solid CD, the injuries susceptibility doesn’t bother me that much, and he’s been a solid performer for us.

Mamin Sanyang is a wingback wo can’t jump, or a Advanced Mid that can’t cross. I’ll be using him at wingback, and we’re going to try to make him a passer first.

January and February were BRUTAL.

I am not kidding when I say if we had lost to Ingolstadt, I would have walked away from the save. I had no idea what was going on, I hadn’t tweaked the tactic, everyone, save Theo’s hamstring, was relatively healthy, but our defense was horrid. It was the sort of defense I wished we played against every once and awhile.

Theo got back into scoring form, Mile actually scored (cue Owen Wilson voice “Hey, I scored….wow….”)

If there was a saving grace, it was that Bielefeld, 1860 Munchen, Kaiserslautern, Magdeburg, Ingolstadt, and Rostock were doing worse than us, and we played 5 of them our last 9 games. The most frustrating game in all of this was the Munchen game, we dominated possession to the tune of 8 shots, 4 on target, with an xG of .51; they counterattacked to the tune of 17 shots, 4 on target and an xG of 1.63 Part of me says the teams give a damn done broke because we had staved of relegation, were safe, and they didn’t want to do anything to hurt themselves. Theo scored every game, in the hopes of getting a move away from, his parent club most likely, and as we limped to the end of the season, we in 12th place, having Won 10, Drawn 8, and losing 15 with a -13 goal differential. For which we received €9.95M in prize monies.

Theo Berdayes ended the season with 19 goals, which was the most in Bundesliga 2. I tired signing him, he went to Dynamo Dresden for 575K.

The good news is that we have a decent payroll of €4.7M p/a, and a transfer budget of €2.45M. Bad news is I still have a roster thats comprised mostly of players overachieving, and I can improve in so many positions it’s not funny. That said, Lavalle was respectable in goal, his stats were about the same as Pavlovich’s, he let in a few more goals, but as bad as our defense was the second half of the season I am willing to give him as pass on that.

Rodic ended up with 7 goals, I don’t remember any of them…

That’s the roster, and its deceiving. There’s talent, Dohrmann, Ott, Bjork, Okekre all have potential, but I think its more the 120-130 potential than it is the 150-160 variety. Rodic, well, he’s…Rodic. The rest of the team is roleplayers, and you need them, but they need to be able to do the job they need to do, at the level they need to do it, and I don’t know that I have that.

That means spending time looking at players, which means scouting. Fun times ahead.

The room was quiet, all three of them men present staring at the names on the whiteboard.

“OK,” said Coach Schmidt, “What is the reality of us signing any of those players?”

“We can try,” the GM said. “There’s no harm in trying.”

“Look, we can’t expect to hit on 100,000 to 1 odds every time,” Stock said. The new Chief Scout had adapted pretty quickly to his role, and had very few problems working with the two. “We can ask, but we’re going to get turned down. A lot. We aren’t big enough to attract a big name player, we can’t pay them enough even if they do want to come here. At the end of the day, players are realistic, they’ll take less money for a guaranteed spot, but were-“

“We’re the place they play to get noticed by bigger teams. We give younger players looking for a chance to play, and if they do well we do what we can to keep them here, if they move on good for them.” Coach stood up, went to the whiteboard, and started erasing most of the names on it. “Plan for next year, build for the future. Speaking of which, I need to make an appointment about upgrading some facilities.”

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

He had been logged on for all but a minute when his email pinged, and seeing who it was from, he opened it quickly.

“Hi Coach,

Hope things are going well with you. New York is interesting. The local football scene isn’t all that great, but the school actually has a very good Ice Hockey team. Different sport, men on skates swinging sticks at each other, but it’s one of the few I have found that rivals football in terms or grace an ability. I may be biased because we have a very good squad here though.

Anyhow, the reason I am writing to you today is going to be a bit convoluted. My roommates Brother is dating a girl from Montenegro, and she has a brother who players semi pro ball there, and he was telling her about this kid he saw playing at Titograd, could be the next Stevan Jovetić. Could be worth checking out?”

Coach finished reading the email, type a reply back, then called Christian Preiß, the Chief Scout.

“Mile Rodic, Montenegran, plays for Titograd-“

“Played for Titograd Coach. Linner was in the area, I asked him to stop by and take in a couple of games, he told me Rodic was on his ‘To Watch’ List and found out he had been released.”

“Any ideas why?”

“Apparently. and I am reading this from Linner himself, The young man marches to the beat of a different drummer, and while I am not sure what the color of the sky is in his world, apparently he can play Advanced Forward really well in it.”

“Where’s Linner now?”

“On his way to Croatia for about a month.”

“OK, lets see if we can get a hold of Rodic, or better yet his agent, and see if we can’t get him in for a trial.”

“On it Coach.”

Am not a fan of the Fickle, but if he’s this good at 18, and has potential?

This season has been frustratingly average. Which I expected, but still…

Théo Berdayes is everything I expected him to be, a goal scoring threat who does more than enough to help us win. The rest of the team…well, they are trying. The first part of the season got off to a poor start. My mantra has been, and will be, if we lose, fine, lets just keep it close, because goal differential matters.

The team did not get the memo. And the thing is, neither Bochum or Ingolstadt are any better than us, heck Ingolstadt is as good a relegation candidate out there as anyone else in the League. I haven’t changed the formation, everyone’s is playing in a position they are good in, just for whatever reason, they weren’t clicking.

Starting in October though…

Koln is a solid club, so drawing to them isn’t bad. Bielefeld would have been a draw if not for an Lange OG and some heroics in goal by Lavellee. Thumping Hansa Rostock looks good on paper, until you take a closer look and realize that as bad as Ingolstadt is, Rostock is worse and are also relegation candidates, so them putting three on us is troubling. Mainz thumping us in the Pokal was no surprise, finishing the year out strong though was. Something clicked for Theo, and he started converting a lot more of his chances into goal. I would love to say it was the Rostock game, but I think it was the Schalke game, where he overcame a pretty tough defense to score. The 1860 Munchen game was a snoozefest, but against Braunschweig he had numerous chances before the keeper missed one. Both Schalke and Braunschweig are gunning for promotion, but if the want to win the League, they are going to have to beat Dusseldorf. And seeing as how the score in that game could have been 4-0 them, that could be a hard ask.

At the winter break, we have 6 wins, 5 draws, and 6 losses, for 23 points. We are beating the teams were are supposed to beat more often than not, but the lack of close games and multi point losses is troubling, especially when goal differential is a tiebreaker.

Financially, we are out of the water, but not to far away from shore. We don’t have a lot in the transfer window, but if we can find value in a loan or a free, and maybe move a player or two who no longer wants to be here, all the better.

2027 is looking pretty solid, but if we are being honest a Seurat painting also looks really nice until you get in and realize its just a bunch of tiny dots with holes in-between them….

Christmas was usually a joyous time for everyone, even when the team was doing poorly. That was before the owner of the bar announced that he was stepping aside to take care of his wife, who had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and the first two sales had fallen thru for a variety of reasons. Now it looked like the bar was going to be closing until a new owner stepped up, and if they didn’t, they would have to find a new place to gather.

“If you had told me before the season began that Théo Berdayes would be the reason we are midtable, I would have asked you to share what you were drinking,” Hans said, looking at the paper.

“He’s had almost as many goals this season so far as Sanogo did last season,” Paul replied. He finished his beer and signaled for another.

“It’s amazing well the teams been playing,” Hans said for what seemed to be the hundredth time that night.

“Amazing what happens when the threat of administration isn’t hanging over you,” replied Sasha, finishing of her last bite of dinner.

“How close was it?” Asked Heninrich.

“I had to make a delivery there once,” Paul replied. He worked as a salesman for an office supply company when he wasn’t doing anything related to BFC Dynamo. “The whole building was a ghost town. Empty desks, no equipment on them, whole sections just…empty. And I Swear I went into one of the media rooms and saw a teenager there watching game films and taking notes.

“Otto?” Sasha, Hans and Heinrich all asked at the same time. Paul looked at them wide eyed.

“About so tall,” Paul replied, holding his hand out, “glasses, Dynamo hat and shirt.”

“Otto,” they all replied.

“Best analyst they had last season,” Heinrich said, as the waitress came by and delivered another round of drinks.

“What happened to him?” Paul asked.

“He graduated, and went off to college. Rensselaer Polytechnic in America,” replied Hans. “Kids going into Biotechnology.”

“Wow,” said Paul, and the table was quiet for a moment.

Uwe, who one would call the senior bartender if the bar actually had a hierarchy, came over and set down anther round of drinks.

“On the house,” he said with a smile. “Are all of you going to be here for the New Years celebration?” he asked, wiping his hands on his apron.

Sasha sighed, a real one, not the dramatic type everyone was accustomed to. “I love you Uwe, but celebrating the day before the bar closes isn’t my idea of a good time. Thanks for the drink though”

Everyone ignored Hans slapping Heinrich, including Sasha, which was a first for the crowd.

“Bar’s not closing,” Uwe replied with a smile, and the table came to a halt.

“What?”

“We got an investor. Well, an investment group actually bought the place,” Uwe said with a smile. The table erupted in questions until Uwe quieted them down. “Klaus and a group of private investors formed a company and bought the bar.”

“Klaus as in the head of the Supporter’s Club Klaus?” Sasha asked, eyes narrowing.

“In his capacity as a private individual, yes. He had a partner convince him this was a good purchase.”

“Silent Investor?” asked Paul.

“Well, where the bar is concerned, yes. Klaus is bringing on a full time manager, if we are being honest Manfred was to stubborn thinking he could run the place and help his wife, a lot of small things have been missed. No changes from the outside, but the plumbing and electrical need some work, the place could use a makeover,” Uwe said, looking around. The others didn’t disagree with him.

“You turn this place into some modern mirrored and metal boutique bar serving god knows what from god knows where I’ll kill you myself,” Sasha said, taking and long drink and eyeing Uwe over the mug. Uwe wasn’t sure if she was joking, but when both Heinrich and Hans said they had shovels and would help, he smiled and sighed.

“Nothing as serious as that,” Uwe said. “Besides, that’s not what Klaus or his other major investor want.”

“Who’s this other investor?” Paul asked, eyes narrowing.

“He’s at the bar,” Uwe said. “Turn around, and wave.” He smiled and turned around.

Sasha wasn’t the only one who spit her beer out when she saw Coach Schmidt smile and raise his own beer at them.

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

“How deep in the hole do you thinks they are?” asked Hans. They were standing outside the stadium waiting for practice to open. That they had to pay a nominal fee was beside the point for most people.

“Enough that they are charging us to watch practice,” Sasha grumbled, She took a drink of her coffee and grimaced. “I swear this tastes like something run thru the filter about ten times,” she said, finally lifting the lid off and pouring the contents out on the nearby grass.

“How would you know what that tastes like?” Heinrich asked.

“I don’t, but my grandmother used to talk about how after the war it took ages for them to get anything resembling the coffee, even the ‘ersatz’ stuff was just swill apparently.”

“Speaking of swill…” Hans said.

Sasha sighed. “It going to suck,” she replied. “Anyone with common sense can see it. They’ve got no money for signings, not money to pay any free agents, the best we can hope for is to be a stepping stone club in the short term, or a club that others send their prospects to for some first team playing time.”

Hans was looking around as Sasha talked, and waved to a familiar face in another group. “Well,” he replied, looking back at his own little group of friends. “As long as we stay up.”

Sasha nodded. “You wouldn’t believe how controversial that opinion is…”

First, the good news:

Then again, when you think about it our only other choice was to default, go into adminisatration, and all the way back down to the RegionalLiga, or lower, so the fact were are financially solvent is good. Financially stable? That remains to be seen.

Now, the bad news. I have almost no screenshots from this season. Either I didn’t take them, likely, or misplaced them, possible, but not as likely, because I was interested more in grinding the season out than I was getting screenshots and video. It also doesn’t help that I don’t have a save file from the end of the season, as is my usual practice. However, I can tell from the dates of the screenshots, I was playing this season around the time my wife had her knee replacement surgery, so Football manager was not one of my priorities.

As an aside, her surgery went very well, she’s kicking my tail a lot easier these days, and the can gives her a bot of reach and power when she needs it.

But there some exciting things to happen to the club, at least for me:

The increase is staff sizes was very welcome, not that I’ll be able to bring in the coaches I want, but more adequate coaches and scouts are better than none. The club loves, but, but doesn’t love me love me, which I find hard to believe, because short of turning water into wine this has been a couple of seasons of miracles. The last one is the most important to me though. The club had money in the bank. We had the same training facilities I had when I started, which weren’t that great to begin with. In the real world, making them better is a handy recruiting tool. In the make believe world, it’s still a handy recruiting tool. The transfer window was full of sound and fury again, I swear I must have looked at a hundred or so players, I was having some success, and then AEK came in for Mirza Hamzic, the board accepted the offer, I couldn’t protest (Thanks FM) and he left. One of our better, younger players on the squad, gone.

This season is slightly different than the previous two, in that were aren’t just looking to stay up, but to try and build a foundation for the teams going forward. I don’t need a team full of superstars just yet, but a group of players who play their positions well, play with each other well, and don’t make a ton of mistakes on the field? I am all for that, and a lot of the players we brought in reflected that.

Jiri Slama is a defender who can play more than one position fairly well. He doesn’t score, he doesn’t get an assist, but in his previous seasons at Brno and Sigma Olomouc, he’s been a credible defender, and I can live with that.

Michael Stocker is the same type of player, another solid D9C) who can flex left if needed, or up to DM as well.

Elmin Dold, on loan from Freiburg, can play anywhere on the right side of the field, but is best suited to play D(R).

Franklyn Okerke comes to use from Cottbus, where he played mostly at AM(R) and Forward.

What do these four players have in common? None of them are long term solutions. But they are cheap, solid fixes for the time being, players who wil get an opportunity to do a job and keep it until someone better comes into replace them. They aren’t Bundesliga level players, heck they are probably borderline Bundesliga 2 players, but they chose to come to BFC for playing time in a bigger venue in a bigger league, for cheap.

Why fight it?

Somehow Jean Marie Nadjombe parlayed a few seasons at Fortuna Koln and Offenbach into a move to Bologna for 145K. He played all of three games there, and they put him out on loan. He’s a very good D(L), and while we probably couldn’t keep him if we wanted to, and I looked into that, he’s very solid for this level of football.

Lennard Dohrmann is a stopgap winger, a very good RegionalLiga winger who is probably in a league just beyond his ability level. But every other player I tired to bring into the position turned me down, wanted more money, or went to a bigger club. He doesn’t strike me as a long term solution, but I am more than happy to be wrong here.

Theo Berdayes is the signing of the transfer window. That he’s a loan player from Wolfsburg should tell you everything you need to know about this seasons transfer window. But I wasn’t expecting Hamzic to leave, and Berdayes checked all the boxes off:

Filled a positional need
Wanted to play
Was available
Wolfsburg wanted no money for him

He is a very good striker for this level of football. In fact, he looks like one of those guys who could have a long solid career either starting in a League like Bundesliga 2, or sitting on the Bench in the Bundesliga making about the same amount of money.

If you are a team who is in need of help, but are strapped for cash and can’t pay outrageous salary demands of parent clubs, go to Serbia, Croatia, Czechia and Slovakia. There you will find good young players at good clubs on wages so low even paying 100% of their salary will barely affect your bottom line. This years version of that is Antonio Juric, who is a very solid DM/M(C) who could be a quality player if given playing time. He wasn’t getting it at Dinamo, who were more than happy to send him to Berlin.

Lastly, Rachid Moumni. To be honest, if I had the opportunity to sign him, even on a free, I probably wouldn’t. The holes is his game are just to much to get over, but I need midfield depth, and he’s available for the right price (free), so he will be part of the rotation, as long as he doesn’t cost us any games.

The one big hole this season: Getting a better keeper. Lucas Lavallée isn’t bad, but he’s not good, but after every other keeper I went to either turned me down or went to another club, I don’t have a choice really. Pavlovic seemed interested in returning, but Red Star wanted me to pay his full salary and sign a non-negotiable deal that would have cost me somewhere around 4.5M if I wanted him. If this season Lavallée comes anywhere close to being what Pavlovic was for us last season, I’ll be ecstatic.

This season, it’s all about not being relegated again. 34 points, and as close to a positive goal diofferential as we can get, and I will be happy with that. Helping us out this year are the fact that Hansa Rostock and Ingolstadt were promoted, and they aren’t anywhere near ready for this level of football, and of the teams that finished below us last season, 1860 Munchen, Kiel, Regensburg, Magdeburg and Vfl Bochum, only a couple were proactive in the transfer window.

I like our chances.

Custer had a plan too…

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

“We are running out of fingernails to hold on with…” – Anon, BSC Dynamo HQ, March 2026

Coach came out of his office, looking a bit more animated than he usually did. The past three months had worn not just him, but everybody in the building down. In the past people used to joke about how during the old days West Berlin always seemed sunny and cheery, an island of light an sunshine surrounded by a sea of gray, said sea usually being building in the Brutalist Architectural theme of some sort.

“Miss Becker, can you have Otto Kurpjuhn come to my office as soon as possible.”
“He’s not in trouble, is he coach?”
“What, no, not at all. I was just going thru the data packet he put together for our last three matches. Whomever he is, he’s a very good analyst, and not only that, he writes a good report. I usually know when I am being snowed by how many multi syllable words show up but this,” he shook the papers he had in his hand, “Is well done. Good graphics, great tables, concise, clear interpretation of the data…I want to go over some things with him.”

Secretary Becker looked away for a moment, clearly caught between delivering good news and bad news. Coach saw her look and slumped where he was standing.

“He was let go in the last round of layoffs?”

“No coach, he’s…” Secretary Becker stopped talking, and looked away for a moment until she saw coach staring at her, using one of the looks he gave a ref who made a particularly egregious call on the pitch.

“He won’t be here till 430ish, coach.”

“Is he on the road?”

“No coach-“

“Is he at the next opponents game?”

“No coach he’s-“

“Then where is he?” Coach interupted.

Secretary Becker looked at her watch.

“At this time of day, Organic Chemistry class.”

“What!?” Now Coach was thoroughly confused

“He’s 16 coach, still in school. He does that-” She gestured towards the papers he was holding “In his free time. Technically he’s an intern-“

“Say no more,” Coach said with a sigh. The he looked at her again with that stare.

“Tell noone else. Does he come to the building at all?”

“No Coach,” she replied

“Good. Do me a favor, ring Herr Meyer and have him come see me soonest.”

“The Club Lawyer Coach?”

“Yes. I need to get Otto signed to a work contract even it means paying him out of my own pocket. I’ll never forgive myself if he works for another team. Thank you for your help.” He finished with a smile, turned and walked back to his office, muttering to himself. Secretary Becker heard him say “Sixteen!” more than a few times before the door shut behind him.

In the Immortal Words of Bart Simpson, “The start of 2026 Sucks and blows….”

To Whit:

Coaches previous…conversation with the Board and the Club President worked, as they all saw the writing on the wall if they didn’t commit to saving the club. The good news is they all dug the hole they are in together, and do not lack for company

The bad news is I am not sure if anyone knows the way out…

The transfer window wasn’t exactly a massacre:

This screenshot is from a bit later in the save, as at the time I was so miffed at what was going on with the finances I didn’t cut and paste…

Anyhow, the big loss/not a loss was Tim Meyer, who went to 1 FC Koln, but I took a gamble and they agreed to a loan back for the remainder of the season, and they paid his salary. Ogbaidze was now in a league he just didn’t fit in, and when Jeju came calling, away he went. I don’t blame him, it’s a very pretty place to play football.

Reher wasn’t getting enough playing time to justify his salary, and that meant he was out.

In response to my turning down a job interview with Wolfsburger in March, the board gave the club another 725K to stay afloat.

The Youth Intake was better than average, which I will take:

I don’t know that any of them will see first team playing time, but I think Uhlig can be a solid D(C).

End of March, Genk offered me a chance to interview, but given that Belgium is a country created for the express reason of giving England and Germany something tangible and away from both of them to fight over, why risk it?

Schedule wise, it was rough. The goal was to not lose as much as possible. And we did our best to not lose. And we did pretty well.

The big take away for me is that we aren’t losing by a lot, and goal differential could be pivotal as the seasons winds down.

The losses to Kiel and Regensburg though, those were annoying. By this point, it was still mathematically possible for us to be relegated, noone believed it. I am in the Terry Pratchett School of odds: If they are a million to one, I’ll hit nine out of ten times…

This is actually a good finish for us. Bochum, Osnabruck, 1860 Munchen, all finished below us. Dusseldorf finished 3rd in the league, and it took 95th(!) goal for them to win.

We finished strong, the win at K-town was quite nice, and we finished higher than anyone thought we would:

11th Place is nothing to laugh at, and neither is the 10.38M Euro’s that was deposited to our accounts, and then sent right out the doors a few minutes later to cover the club debts…

Dragan Pavlovic was a hero between the sticks for us, 36 appearances, and a 7.11 rating. Cvetkovic also has a good season, 2 goals and 4 assists in 28(1) appearances, while Sanogo lead the team with 13 goals.

The teams overall performance was above average, and considering the quality of the players we have, the financial troubles, and the chance for it to go “BOOM!’ in our faces more than once, this is a season to be proud of. We weren’t relegated, we hung in there, and we’re better prepared for next season.

We’re improving, slowly but surely. All we need now is a Keeper, D9C), maybe another M(C) and a Striker up top who plays above his perceived skill level, and we should be good.

It’s all debt.

We’re no longer drowning in it, just barely treading water. The way things are going, out stay in the Bundesliga 2 could be a long one…

Time to get down into the weeds with scouting…

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

“Do you think it’s interesting he hasn’t announced who he’s supporting for Team President?” Hans asked.

“He has announced,” Sasha said around a mouthful of food.

“What? He hasn’t made any statements.”

“And that’s his announcement,” Sasha replied, after taking a drink.

“What?”

Sasha sighed and rolled her eyes. “Sometimes you can say exactly what you want to say without actually saying anything, ja?”

“Maybe?” Hans replied, a confused look on his face.

“Is this a Y Chromosome thing?” Sasha asked, turning to Tobias, who in response choked on his own drink and spent a moment coughing before answering “Maybe.”

“Look, if he supported Ammerbach he would say so, yes?”

“Presumably.”

“And if supported one of the other candidates he would say so, ja?”

Hans nodded in reply.

“Then by his silence he’s saying he doesn’t support anyone who is running, and why should he, they saddled him with this situation.”

“But we’re winning games, we’re at 23 points!”

“And I shudder to think what sort of Black Magic has been used to pull that off,” Tobias said, glancing over at Sasha, who was sitting in her chair, arms crossed.

“Don’t say it,” he said, and Sasha glanced over at him.

“Say what?”

Her gave her a look, and she sighed and threw up her hands, then went back to eating.

“She still upset at the Hertha game?” Hans asked, the ducking out of the way when he saw Tobias’s hand flying towards his head.

“Definitely a Y Chromosome issue,” Sasha muttered to herself, deciding to finish her meal before starting her rant. Again.

“We fight, we scratch, we hang on for dear life, and if we keep one finger on the cliff that stops us from falling, we will have been successful.ir kämpfen, wir kratzen, wir kratzen, und wenn wir einen Finger auf der Klippe halten, die uns am Fallen hindert, werden wir erfolgreich gewesen sein.” Nicholas Schmidt, locker room speech at the beginning of the 2025/26 season.

Limited funds, limited scouting, and a squad that on paper wasn’t good enough for the league we were in had me believing that even if we started the season strong, we may still be relegated. I tend to be a pessimistic about such things though, in that even if it’s mathematically possible we can still be relegated but highly improbable we won’t be, the voice (one of many to be honest) is telling me that we are getting relegated.

Tactically, I didn’t change anything, we’re still playing the 4-2-4, I’ll make pregame changes based on the recommendations, maybe a couple of in game changes, and while not overly religious personally, I do not tempt the FM Gods if I can help it.

The ‘Ost Cup’ was an idea I had to play a Friendly Tournament with former Ost League teams in an effort to generate more money thru gate receipts etc. It worked in that we didn’t lose a lot of money because noone wanted to televise the games, and getting thrashed by both Jena and Hansa Rostock certainly didn’t help the chances that we would do one next year.

Starting the season of with a win was good, beating Sandhausen in the Pokal then drawing with them a week later not so much, the after beating a pretty good Nuremburg team, the seasons theme began to develop. We lost three games by a total of three goals.

And that’s not a bad thing. It’s essentially a repeat of last season, in that if we win we win. If we draw, that’s fine too, but if we lose, if we can keep it close, that’s only going to help us when the season winds down, because Goal Difference is the first tiebreaker. And Dragan Pavlovic has been absolutely great for us in goal, in his first 8 games his ratings have been 7.8, 6.5, 8.4, 7.4, 6.6, 7.2, 6.8, and 7.5. That’s a trend line I can live with.

Heidenheim was the first game we lost this season by multiple goals, but the game of the season so far was our Pokal Second Round Match against Hertha. Chris Reher, one of our better defenders, was injured in the 6th minutes, and was replaced by Leon Roth, a product of the Youth system who joined the year before I was hired. He is not a good player, but because of our financial woes and other player injuries, he was on the bench.

This was the first game he played for BFC Dynamo. This was the last game he played for BFC Dynamo.

Neto scored in the 2nd minute, Davie Selkie scored his first goal in the 13th minute and his 3rd goal at 45+2, which would be impressive had Eljif Elmas not scored his first goal in the 16th minute, and his 3rd goal in the 33rd. For us a very nice Ott cross had Sanogo scoring a nice goal in the 27th minute. I didn’t yell at the guys at half time, just told them to go out there and do their best. Hertha made some changes at half time, I don’t know what they were exactly, but I went on the attack because why not, and that led to Sanogo scoring in the 53rd minute, and Suljic getting his own brace in the 56th and 59th minutes. At that point Sandro Schwarz said “Genug ist genug”, and Hertha’s defense clamped down, and we didn’t score after that. To be honest, after that second Suljic goal part of me was hoping we could complete the comeback, but Hertha is a Bundesliga team, with Bundesliga money and talent, and while we lost, getting 4 on them was an accomplishment.

The above is a screenshot from later in the save, which is why the rating’s aren’t populated, but Roth ended on a 5.8, and all but two of the Hertha goals went thru him…

We bounced back against Osnabruck, a Hamzic penalty kick in the 90th giving him a hat trick and us the victory. I made no comments about the VAR decision to award the penalty…Neither side wanted to win when we played 1860 Munchen, so in typical FM fashion neither side did. With almost two weeks of good training, a healthy squad of first teamers, a decent position in the standings I felt good about our chances against Dusseldorf, who were one of the better teams in the Bundesliga 2 and were tipped for promotion.

The FM Gods chose that game to laugh at us, as we were 2-0 by the 9th minute. Could be worse, we’re not Tottenham…

The first half of the season ended on a good note, we didn’t lose. A last gasp Hamzic goal in extra time at Augsburg gave us the win, and his heroics in extra time against Braunschweig meant we only lost by 1. A draw with K-Town and a snoozer at Karlsruhe (who had Weiß on the bench after not loaning him to us again because they wanted to give him more playing time…) meant we entered the winter break on 23 points, with a record of 6 wins, 5 draws, 6 draws, and a goal differential of -3, thank you Dusseldorf.

I am pretty sure this isn’t the Christmas gift I wasn’t looking for:

That said, I was looking forward to the January transfer window. There were some good players out there who might come in on a free, the loan pool may not have been deep but it was wide, and on 23 points, I was feeling pretty confident.

New Years came, the transfer window opened, and this happened:

“Fröhliches verdammtes neues Jahr” – Nicholas Schmidt, 1 Jan 2026, at about 11:55AM