FM14: Willkommen in München

[sabotai]

TSV 1860 München

Germany, 2. Bundesliga (2nd Division)

Player Budget: $261k per week
Player Payroll: $261k per week

I have a transfer budget of $222k, but no room in the budget to sign anyone.

Tactics - Starting off with the good ol' 4-4-2.

GK: Gábor Király (37yo, 3.5 stars) (Goalkeeper - Defend)

DL: Moritz Volz (30yo, 2 stars) (Fullback - Defend)
CDL: Kai Bülow (27yo, 3.5 stars) (Central Defender - Defend)
CDR: Guillermo Vallori (30yo, 3.5 stars) (Central Defender - Defend)
DR: Markus Steinhöfer (27yo, 3 stars) (Fullback - Defend)

ML: Daniel Adlung (25yo, 3 stars) (Wide Midfielder - Attack)
MCL: Dominik Stahl (24yo, 3 stars) (Deep Lying Playmaker - Support)
MCR: Yannick Stark (22yo, 3.5 stars) (Ball Winning Midfielder - Support)
MR: Moritz Stoppelkamp (26yo, 3 stars) (Wide Midfielder - Attack)

ST: Benjamin Lauth (31yo, 3.5 stars) (Complete Forward - Attack)
ST: Yuya Osako (23yo, 4 stars) (Poacher - Attack)

I have a few starting worthy players out with injuries that will not be back and in shape in time for the start of the season. Both Volz and Steinhöfer are better as wingbacks than as fullbacks, but I want to start off games with my back 4 playing defensively. My plan is to change them to wingbacks and go offensive at halftime if the score is tied or if we're down. And if that happens frequently, I'll change them to wingbacks fulltime.

[Brian Swartz]

Cool! Can't remember the last time I saw a German FM dynasty on here.

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7/1/2013: Friendly: 3-1 Win vs. Kecskemet (Hungarian Div. 1)

7/2/2013: Hired another scout (14/14 in judging) to help me out. I only had one scout.

7/4/2013: Friendly: 4-0 Win vs. Paks (Hungarian Div. 1)

7/5/2013: Sky Bet gives us 5-1 odds to gain promotion to the Bundesliga.

7/7/2013: German Cup Draw: We drew Bielefeld, a 2. Bundesliga team. Was hoping to get an easy first game. There are a few D1 vs. D2 games.

7/8/2013: Friendly: 2-1 Win vs. Diosgyori (Hungarian Div. 1) - We dominated this match but just couldn't find the back of the net. A goal in the 90th minute saved us from a draw.

7/15/2013: Friendly: 4-1 Win vs. Plauen

7/17/2013: Transfer: I sold young player Mike Ott (midfielder) to Schalke for a deal totally $2.2 million. My supporters gave it mixed reviews. They didn't want him to go but were happy we got a few million for him.

I've also loaned out several of our higher tiered young players so they can get some first team playing experience.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

Cool! Can't remember the last time I saw a German FM dynasty on here.

Ich hoffe, es gefällt dir!

[sabotai]

7/21/2013: Division (H): Tied 2-2 vs. Cottbus. Led 2-1 and lost it in the 89th minute when a shot bounced off the goalpost, and then bounced off the back of my GK to go into the net.

7/24/2013: We are told that our German Cup match was rescheduled so it could be shown on TV and that we'll be getting $575k in TV money.

7/26/2013: Division (A): Win 2-1 vs. FSV Frankurt. They scored in the second minute due to a defensive lapse in concentration, but we get it back on a corner kick right before half time. Stahl got sent off in the 63rd minute after getting 2 yellows, but we still score a goal in the 68th minute. It was scored an own goal by their GK. He got most of the ball on his save attempt and but it slowly rolled into the goal just as he got to it after he recovered. I guess he accidentally knocked it in when he tried to get it right before it crossed the line.

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8/4/2013: German Cup: Win 3-1 vs. Bielefeld. Osako with the hat trick! We also received $131k for the win.

8/9/2013: Division (H): Draw 1-1 vs. Union Berlin. We dominated the action, 22 shots to 9, 6 on target to 3. We had a few that we so close.

8/10/2013: German Cup Draw: We drew a 2. Bundesliga team, Aue. The game will be played on Sept. 23.

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8/18/2013: Division (A): Draw 1-1 vs. St. Pauli. Led 1-0 most of the way but they scored in the 88th minute to get the draw. Told my team that I wasn't happy with that result and they all appeared fired-up by it. Domink Stahl was injured in the game and will be replaced by Daniel Bierofka. Luckily he'll only miss one or two games. Stahl is second to Osako in form so far this year so I need him back.

8/25/2013: Division (H): Win 2-0 vs. Kaiserslautern. Went up 1-0, Osako gets hurt. Send in Bobby Shou Wood who gets hurt, so I switch to a 4-5-1 tactic I have as one of my backups. Score a second goal out of it. We held them to only 5 shots, 2 on target. It helped that they had 18 fouls.

Wood is fine, Osako will miss 4-5 weeks, and Bierofka got hurt at the very end of the game and will be out for 2 weeks.

I was asked about my opponents playing dirty and I took the diplomatic route (I'm a new head coach, I should probably keep my head down a bit).

After 5 games, we're sitting in 3rd place, one of 3 teams without a lose. Köln is 5-0-0, Bochum is 4-1-0, and we're 2-3-0.

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8/30/2013: Division (A): Tie 2-2 vs. Fürth. We went up 2-0, but gave up one goal to them and in the 78th minute, a header from Schindler went the wrong direction (into our goal).

9/15/2013: Division (A): Win 2-0 vs. SV Sandhausen. We hit the crossbar 3 times. Could have been 5-0.

Our match in the German Cup vs. Aue has been moved to the 24th so it can be on TV. We'll be getting $575k in TV money.

Most of my players are around 90% for the next match due to the scheduling. The game with Sandhausen had to be rescheduled. Perfect. I play the best team in 2. Bundesliga next.

9/17/2013: Signing: We signed striker Stefan Maierhofer on a free transfer. He's getting $9.25k per week. I used some of the money from the transfer budget to boost the payroll so we could sign him. He's 31 years old, has great mental attributes and looks to be a great Target Man or Advanced Forward.

9/18/2013: Division (H): Win 5-3 vs. Köln. We scored 4 goals in the first half and took a 4-0 lead. My guys unsurprisingly faded in the 2nd half but we were able to hold on for the win.

We now have a game in 4 days, and then our German Cup game 2 days after that...

9/22/2013: Division (H): Lose 0-5 vs. Düsseldorf. With the German Cup game just 2 days later, I played mostly backups. I was giving the game away, but 0-5...geez...

9/24/2013: German Cup: Lose 1-2 vs. Aue. We played like total crap in the first half and managed to show up for the 2nd. Not good enough.

We received $327k for getting to (and losing in) the 2nd round of the German Cup.

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9/29/2013: Division (A): Lose 0-1 vs. Karlsruhe. With 30 seconds left in extra time at the end of the game, the ball just sat there in fron of the net, wide open, 2 players right there but they just couldn't get it. Longest 1.5 seconds of the season so far.

10/4/2013: Division (H): Draw 1-1 vs. Ingolstadt

10/13/2013: Division (A): Win 2-0 vs. Aue.


Bobby Shou Wood doesn't like that he's not getting my first team time. Osako and Lauth are the starters, I have Stefan Maierhofer now who's a good target man and when they've had their chances, Stephan Hain has played better. Wood is 5th of 5 strikers on the team right now. The guy has a ton of potential and is only 20 years old. He could end up being great, but there's just no space for him now. I offered to loan him out and he said no. So, he's transfer listed and we'll see what happens.

So far the season MVP is MR Moritz Stoppelkamp. His average rating is 7.32 so far this season, highest by far for the team.

The bright side of potentially selling Wood is that I'll be able to build up my defense. Christopher Schindler is only defender pulling his weight. Vallori is the team captain, but he's been very average and the two fullbacks, Mortiz Volz and Markus Steinhöfer have played poorly. I have a player, Grzegorz Wojtkowiak, who I can try in one of the fullback positions, but I need major help on defense.

I did make an offer to a good 22 year old D(C) with some potential, but he was expecting to be treated like a star so no go there.

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10/20/2013: Division (H): 0-4 Loss vs. Paderborn. No idea how to explain this one. My guys just got beat down.

11/3/2013: Division (A): 2-1 Win vs. Bielefeld.

11/10/2013: Division (H): 1-0 Win vs. Dresden. Both teams had over 20 shots (23 for me - 9 on target, 22 for Dresden - 7 on target). Frustrating watching Osako and Stoppelkamp miss shots they've been making all year as well as watching the other team tee off on us. Lauth finally buried one in the 85th minute to give us the win.

Right now we are in 4th place, tied with 3rd (Köln) in points and with the same record but they have +7 GD and we just have +1.

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11/24/2013: Division (A): Win 2-1 vs. Aalen. Stoppelkamp back in form in this match with an assist and being named player of the match with an 8.1 rating.

12/1/2013: Division (A): Draw 1-1 vs. Bochum. Bochum is the division leader right now so I'm content with a draw on the road against them.

World Cup news: Germany (2nd in world ranking) drew Group D along with England (11th), Costa Rica (40th) and Peru (18th).

12/13/2013: Division (A): Win 3-2 vs Cottbus. Was hoping to do better against one of the last teams in the division, but the win is most important. Stoppelkamp saves us from a draw with a goal in the 87th minute, his second of the match. This win also moved us into 2nd place in the division.

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12/22/2013: Division (H): Win 5-3 vs. FSV Frankfurt. Took a quick 3-0 lead, and was coasting to a 4-1 win when they score twice (81st, 89th minutes). Stoppelkamp completes the hat trick in the 90th minute to stop the bleeding on defense and secure us the win.

The next game is in 47 days, so I suppose I should schedule some friendlies to keep my guys match fit.

1/6/2014: Friendly (H): Win 1-0 vs. FC Bayern II. 25,806 showed up to watch us take on FC Bayern's second squad. That's the most we've gotten for a home game, but not much higher. Most of our home games get ~18k-23k to show up. Our last game against FSV Frankfurt had the most so far this year with 23,299.

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1/14/2014: Friendly (A): Draw 3-3 vs. Anderlecht (Belgium team - unsimmed league)

1/21/2014: Friendly (H): Win 1-0 vs. Schalke (German 1st Division - middle of the rankings)

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1/27/2014: Friendly (H): Win 4-2 vs. Eching

2/2/2014: Friendly (H): Win 4-0 vs. FT Starnberg

And now the midseason break friendlies are done. Back to business.

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2/9/2014: Division (A): Win 3-1 vs. Union Berlin. Osako got two goals and player of the match. He has 8 goals on the season in division games. We're 1 point behind #1 Bochum and 1 point ahead of #3 Inglostadt in the standings.

2/16/2014: Division (H): Draw 1-1 vs. St. Pauli. St. Pauli is the 12th ranked team and Bochum won their latest game. I need to be winning games like this.

2/24/2014: Division (A): Win 1-0 vs. Kaiserlauten.

2/28/2014: Division (H): Win 3-0 vs. Fürth.

We are tied in points with Bochum for 1st place, but are 2nd due to goal difference. We are +11 and they are +12. We are 4 points ahead of Ingolstadt.

[sabotai]

Youth Candidates to watch

M R - Metehan Subasi - 14 years old - scouted potential - 4 stars
M/AM L - Michael Schneider - 14 years old - scouted potential - 3.5 stars
D R - Kristijan Con - 15 years old - scouted potential - 3.5 stars
M C - Iasonas Moumos - 14 years old - scouted potential - 3 stars

The rest are between 0.5 to 2.5 stars potential.

3/9/2014: Division (A): Win 1-0 vs. Köln. We faced a lot of pressure in the 1nd half but held on for the win.

My U19 team defeated the Youth Candidates 4-2.

Stoppelkamp told me that he wants to move to a bigger club. I told him I think that we can win promotion this year. He said that if we don't, he will be gone. He's contracted to 2015 so I'll have him for at least another year. But if he keeps playing out o fhis mind, I could get a ton of money to upgrade everywhere. Right now he's valued at $4.9M.

3/16/2014: Division (H): Draw 1-1 vs. Sandhausen. On a freezing cold, snowy pitch, we settle for a draw against one of the bottom teams of the division. I told my team that I was not happy. They all responded favorably to my reaction. That does mark twelve straight games without a defeat, though.

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3/22/2014: Division (A): Draw 0-0 vs. Düsseldorf. They were 3rd place in the rankings. The draw keeps the status quo going. Bochum win their game and have pulled ahead by 4 points. We are 2 points ahead of Düsseldorf with 8 games to go. 2nd place is good enough for promotion. This is the first game in a 6 day stretch where I have three games.

3/25/2014: Division (H): Win 2-0 vs. Karlsruhe. Had several backups in and still got the win. Bochum lost to Düsseldorf. That pulls us to 1 point behind.

3/28/2014: Division (A): Win 2-1 vs. Ingolstadt. Some of my guys were tired for this one, but so were several of their players. I still told my guys to play at a lower tempo to conserve their energy. Bochum lost to Karlsruhe. That puts us 2 points in 1st place.

I negotiate a new contract. A 2 year deal giving me $15,500 per week (a raise of $1,500 per week), plus an $84k promotion bonus. I also get a 15% raise on promotion to the top tier. I bought some more money on the promotional bonus by throwing in a 50% decline in my salary if we get relegated. Well that won't happen this year and if it happens next year (even if we win promotion), well, I would kinda deserve to have my salary slashed.

3 months left to sign my players with expiring contracts.

Daniel Bierofka - A backup making $15k per week, plus he's 35 years old. I'd only resign him if he were willing to take a massive pay cut, and he's not.

Necat Aygün - A backup making $5.5k per week. I offer him a $6k per week contract for 1 year and he accepts. Can't have all my backups walking away.

Kodjovi Koussou - A 3.5 star prospect at the same position as Stoppelkamp. Stoppelkamp might be walking soon. I lock him up for 3 years at $4k per week.

I lock up several other 2.5-3 star prospects on the cheap. Anyone with a potential or actual star rating of 2 or less is not being resigned.

4/6/2014: Division (H): Lose 0-1 vs. Aue. I decided to back off a bit and just calmly tell them it just wasn't our day. They responded favorably to it. Luckily Bochum tied, so we're still 1 point up on them.

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4/12/2014: Division (A): Win 4-3 vs. Paderborn. We were ahead 4-1 with a goal right after half time began, but then Paderborn scored two quick goals at the 51st and 58th minute. We locked down on defense the last 30 minutes though and they didn't get close to getting that 4th goal.

I give a youth contract to the youth candidates that are 2 star prospects.

Marco - a Spanish 15 year old M/AM (L) prospect. My scouts rate him a 5 star prospect. I give him a contract to 2018 worth $1k per week.

4/17/2014: Division (H): Lost 2-3 vs. Bielefeld. We lost Benjamin Lauth for a few weeks to injury prior to this match. Stoppelkamp has been our MVP but Lauth has been 2nd best. 9 goals, 14 assists, 7.18 Avg Form. Contrast that with Osako, who has 11 goals but just 1 assist. Losing Lauth hurts just as much as losing Stoppelkamp would, and we have to make the final stretch of the season without him.

With 3 games to go, we are up 4 points on Düsseldorf but have fallen to 2nd and are 2 points behind Bochum. On top of that, Bochum will be our last game. I'm hoping Lauth will return for the last game.

4/27/2014: Division (A): Win 1-0 vs. Dresden. With this win, we a guaranteed a playoff spot.

Lauth returns to full training.

5/4/2014: Division (H): Win 3-0 vs. Aalen. Lauth won player of the match with 2 goals. Now we get ready for our showdown with Bochum. With this win, we secure promotion as we are 4 points ahead of Düsseldorf,. We'll be playing Bochum to determine 1st place.

5/11/2014: Division (H): Win 3-1 vs. Bochum. And with that, we win the division. 47,267 people attended the game. Our friendly with Schalke was still out highest attended game until this one. Nearly 20,000 more people came this game and we delivered.

We received $14.46M for winning the division.

Not too surprising that we were able to get promotion. I took over one of the btter teams in the 2. Bundesliga. At the beginning of the season, we were given the 4th best odds of winning the division.

Now that we made it to the Bundesliga, the real challenge of dethroning FC Bayern Münich as the Fußball team in the great city of Münich begins.

[Greyfriars Bobby]

Congratulations on your championship, and good luck in the Bundesliga next season. I'm enjoying following your dynasty. Keep up the good work!

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by Greyfriars Bobby

Congratulations on your championship, and good luck in the Bundesliga next season. I'm enjoying following your dynasty. Keep up the good work!

Vielen Dank!

[sabotai]

My signing of striker Stefan Maierhofer didn't work out like I had hoped. He looked to be a great Target Man, but a funny thing happened as the year went on. He got old. I was told he was a 4 star Target Man. By the end of the year, that dropped to 2.5 stars.

Stoppelkamp came out of nowhere for me. He's now listed as a 4 star player after starting the year at 3 stars. Hopefully he'll be happy now that we made it to the Bundesliga.

I started off the year playing a 4-4-2, but then started using a 4-1-1-2-2 that I developed. Well, it started out as a 4-1-2-1-2, but I didn't have anyone to play the AMC role, so I moved the AMC to MC and the wingers up to attacking wingers and so I have a 4-1-1-2-2. It seemed to work well. The DCs play as Central Defenders (Defend), the defensive wingers play as Fullbacks (Defend). The DMC plays as a Deep-Lying Playmaker (Defend) and the MC plays as a Ball-Winning Midfielder (Support). The two wingers play as Inside Forwards (Attack). One striker is a Poacher (or Target Man - either Attack) and the other plays as a Complete Forward (Support).

I also had Shorter Passing and Much Deeper Defensive Line team instructions on all season.

When it was time to go defensive, I usually didn't change mentality too far down. Usually just put it on Counter, and changed the DMC to play as an Anchor Man and put the Ball-Winning Midfielder on Defend.

I also made a 4-1DM-2-2-1, but never really got a chance to use it. With Lauth and Osako, I never wanted to take either of them off the pitch, so just stuck with my formations with 2 strikers.

In truth, I wanted the DMC to play as a Regista, and while Stark was rated a 4 star as that as well, I just went with the normal Deep-Lying Playmaker because I didn't want my defense to be exposed while he was being too aggressive.. I'll experiment with a DMC Regista next season if I can boost my defense.

Going by average rating, my defensive wingers and my goalkeeper are my weakest areas.

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FC Bayern Münich won the German Cup. Enjoy it while it lasts...

And they won the Bundesliga title, winning the division by 8 points and going 22-8-4 with a +40 GD (65 for, 25 against)

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Stoppelkamp won the 2. Bundesliga player of the year. And was also named to the 2.Bundesliga team of the year (our only player on it)

I won the 2. Bundesliga coach of the year award.

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Competition Reputation

1. LIGA BBVA (up from 3rd)
2. Bundesliga (up from 2nd)
3. Premier Division (down from 1st)
4. Serie A (stayed at 4th)
5. Ligue 1 (stayed at 5th)

[JonInMiddleGA]

I won't go into detail about how long it took me to figure out that Division (H) and Division (A) meant Home and Away rather than suggesting that the team was playing in two different divisions simultaneously.

Nope, not even gonna discuss that.

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The board have set the initial budget at $400k per week with a transfer budget of $2.1M. I tell them we can get a mid-standing finish. $425k per week and $2.6M transfer budget.

We receive $14.41M in TV money this year.

We made a profit of just over $10M last year.

World Cup News
Germany 1-1 tie with Peru; England 3-1 win over Costa Rica.
Germany 2-0 win over Costa Rica; England 6-0 win over Peru
Germany 0-2 lose to England; Peru 2-2 tie with Costa Rica

Germany advances

I spend some of my money.

For $1.8M, I get D(LC) Markus Suttner (27 years old) from FK Austria Wien. He is a 4-star player at the position I was weakest at last year (D(L) Fullback). We are paying him $25k per week, along with a bunch of bonuses.

For $450k, I get D(C) Daniel Hofstetter who is a potential 4 star player. He's 22 is currently 2 stars. He signed for $9.25k per week. I pulled the rigger because Vellori is getting old (32) and Bülow hasn't been playing up to snuff. My best D(C) was Christopher Schindler (who is 24 years old), but I had to play him at D(L) for lack of a decent player to put there.

Now if Hofstetter progresses well, I can have Schindler and Hofstetter at D(C) with Suttner and Steinhöfer (3.5 as Fullback at D(R) - 28 years old) on the wings and have my D-Line in good shape for at least a few years.

Transfer budget is now gone. But I still have nearly $50k per week of room to resign my players and grab a few new players on a free.

World Cup news: Germany 2-1 win over Columbia. Advance to quarter finals

We are given 200-1 odds of winning the Bundesliga title.

Our mortal enemies, FC Bayern, are favorites at 4-5.

World Cup news: Germany 1-0 win over France. They advance to the semi-finals.

It's an all European Semi-Finals at the World Cup. Germany will play Belgium and Italy plays Spain.

German Cup Draw: we draw non-division team Lübeck.

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TSV 1860 Münich - 2014 Roster

Goalkeepers
GK Gábor Király - Hungarian - 38 yo - 3.5 / 3.5 stars ($17,500 p/w)
GK Vitus Eicher - German - 23 yo - 2 / 3.5 stars ($3,100 p/w)
GK Michael Netolitzky - German - 20 yo - 1.5 / 3.5 stars ($950 p/w)
GK György Székely - Hungarian - 19 yo - 1 / 2 stars ($950 p/w)
GK Tobias Beck - German - 15 yo - 2.5(silver) / 2 stars ($140 p/w)

Király was the starter last year and will continue in that role. Eicher was the backup and I'll keep him in that role as well, as well as playing for the 2nd squad. Last year, Netolitzky was loaned our and I'll probably do the same this year hoping he improves.

It doesn't look good for Székely or Beck being in my long term plans. But Beck is only 15 and his scouted potential could change.

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Defenders

(Listed by best position, not all of their listed postions)

Defender - Left
Markus Suttner - Austrian - 27 yo - 4 / 4 stars ($25,000 p/w)
Sebastian Hertner - German - 23 yo - 2 / 2.5 stars ($4,400 p/w)
Phillipp Steinhart - German - 22 yo - 2 / 2.5 stars ($3,900 p/w)
Peter Kurzweb - German - 20 yo - 1.5 / 2.5 stars ($3,100 p/w)
Maximilian Wittek - German - 18 yo - 1 / 2.5 stars ($1,300 p/w)
Angelo Mayer - German - 17 yo - 3(silver) / 2 stars ($250 p/w)

Defender - Right
Markus Steinhöfer - German - 28 yo - 3.5 / 3.5 stars ($24,500 p/w)
Moritz Volz - German - 31 yo - 3 / 3 stars ($13,500 p/w)
Grzegorz Wojtkowiak - Polish - 30 yo - 2.5 / 2.5 stars ($12,000 p/w)
Markus Schwabl - German - 23 yo - 2 / 2.5 stars ($4,100 p/w)
Kristijan Con - German - 15 yo - 5(silver) / 4.5 stars ($140 p/w)
Andreas Scheidl - German - 19 yo - 4.5(silver) / 1.5 stars ($375 p/w)

Suttner and Steinhöfer are the clear starters. Volz and Wojtkowiak can play as backups for both sides, but I plan to work Hertner and Steinhart into some games if I don't find loan offers for them.

If the scouting reports hold true, Con will be a future star.

Defender - Center
Christopher Schindler - German - 24 yo - 3.5 / 4 stars ($15,500 p/w)
Guillermo Vallori - Spanish - 32 yo - 3 / 3 star ($11,000 p/w)
Kai Bülow - German - 28 yo - 3 / 3 stars ($11,000 p/w)
Daniel Hofstetter - German - 22 yo - 2 / 3.5 stars ($9,250 p/w)
Manuel Bühler - German - 22 yo - 1.5 / 2 stars ($2,100 p/w)
Necat Aygün - German - 34 yo - 1.5 / 1.5 stars ($7,500 p/w)
Christoph Rech - German - 21 yo - 1 / 2 stars ($2,900 p/w)
Felix Weber - German - 19 yo - 1 / 2 stars ($375 p/w)
Philipp Walter - German - 18 yo - 5(silver) / 2 stars ($230 p/w)
Korbinian Burger - German - 19 yo - 4.5(silver) / 1.5 stars ($375 p/w)
Andreas Hartmann - German - 14 yo - 4(silver) / 3.5 stars ($140 p/w)
Haguibo Soro - German - 15 yo - 3.5(silver) / 2.5 stars ($140 p/w)

Schindler is my best starter and Vallori had been the captain but i think it's time for someone else to take that role. Vallori and Bülow will be in open competition during friendlies for the starting role, but I'll rotate them in and out through the season unless one becomes clearly the better starter. Hofstetter will get plenty of 1st team play as well.

I've asked Aygün if he'd agree to a mutual termination. Just his salary alone will cost me $390,000 this year, and releasing him on a free will cost me $375,000. So if he declines mutual termination, I'll just release him.

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Defensive Midfielders
Yannick Stark - German - 23 yo - 3.5 / 4 stars ($12,500 p/w)
Dominik Stahl - German - 25 yo - 3.5 / 3.5 stars ($10,750 p/w)
Stefan Wannenwetsch - German - 22 yo - 3 / 3.5 stars ($4,400 p/w)
Angelos Oikonomou - Greek - 18 yo - 1 / 3.5 stars ($2,900 p/w)
Marius Wolf - German - 19 yo - 5(silver) / 2 stars ($375 p/w)
Joseph-Antoine Tchoumi - 15 yo - 3.5(silver) / 2.5 stars ($85 p/w)

Central Midfielders
Andreas Geipl - German - 22 yo - 1.5 / 2.5 stars ($4,000 p/w)
Julian Weigl - German - 18 yo - 1.5 / 4 stars ($375 p/w)
Iasonas Moumos - Greek - 15 yo - 3(silver) / 2.5 stars ($140 p/w)

Stark is better at the Deep-Lying Playmaker role that I use in my formation which is why he got the start at DM. As it so happened, Stahl is better at being a Ball-Winning Midfielder at the M(C) position. Wannenwetsch was the primary backup for both of them last year and that won't change this year.

Weigl can be a star, but he'll need more time. He went out on loan last year and I'll probably look to do the same this year.

Left Midfielders / Attacking Left Midfielders
Daniel Adlung - German - 26 yo - 3.5 / 3.5 stars ($12,000 p/w)
Marco - Spanish - 16 yo - 1 / 5 stars ($85 p/w)
Michael Schneider - German - 15 yo - 4.5(silver) / 4.5 stars ($140 p/w)

Right Midfielders / Attacking Right Midfielders
Moritz Stoppelkamp - German - 27 yo - 3.5 / 3.5 stars ($20,000 p/w)
Marin Tomasov - Croatian - 26 yo - 3 / 3 stars ($9.500 p/w)
Kodjovi Koussou - Togolese - 22 yo - 1.5 / 3 stars ($5,750 p/w)
Korbinian Vollmann - German - 20 yo - 1.5 / 3.5 stars ($3,100 p/w)
Daniel Hägler - German - 17 yo - 1 / 4 stars ($2,200 p/w)
Fotios Katidis - German - 17 yo - 1 / 4 stars ($500 p/w)
Metehan Subasi - Turkish - 15 yo - 4.5(silver) / 4 stars ($140 p/w)
Sebastian Wiesböck - German - 19 yo - 4/5(silver) / 2 stars ($375 p/w)
Marco Stolz - German - 15 yo - 4(silver) / 3.5 stars ($140 p/w)

Lots of potential. With the exceptional of only one or two, all players can play either side and can play with M(LR) or AM(LR).

Stoppelkamp and Adlung are the clear starters. Tomasov got some chances last year, didn't perform well and is now super pissed at me at not getting enough 1st team play time. I've been trying to sell him but I have no takers. He'll waste away on the reserve squad until I get a buyer or his contract runs out.

Koussou and Vollman will get some 1st team time (if they don't go out on loan), but Stoppelkamp and Adlung will play the majority of the time.

Adlung, Stark and Stahl are all going to want bit time raises soon. Stark's contract is up next year, but Adlung and Stahl are signed to June 2016.

[sabotai]

Attacking Central Midfielders / Strikers
Yuya Osako - Japanese - 24 yo - 4 / 4 stars ($16,500 p/w)
Stefan Maierhofer - Austrian - 31 yo - 3 / 3 stars ($11,500 p/w)
Stephan Hain - German - 25 yo - 2.5 / 2.5 stars ($12,500 p/w)
Benjamin Lauth - German - 32 yo - 2.5 / 2.5 stars ($29,000 p/w)
Bobby Shou Wood - American - 21 yo - 2 / 4 stars ($3,800 p/w)
Fejsal Mulic - Serbian - 19 yo - 1.5 / 2.5 stars ($4,200 p/w)
Chaka Ngu'Ewodo - German - 18 yo - 1 / 3 stars ($875 p/w)
Richard Neudecker - German - 17 yo - 4.5(silver) / 3 stars ($250 p/w)

Nuedecker is only one listed with the best position of AM(C), the rest are strikers. Neudecker can also play M(C).

Osako got off to a fast start last year, but struggled after his injury. Lauth was a star, but looks to have aged quite a bit. Maierhofer was lackluster in his appearances. Hain played decently with his chances.

Wood demanded I transfer him after not getting enough 1st team play, but I eventually found a loan for him. A few weeks ago, he asked to be taken off the transfer list.

Osako will be starting again as a Poacher, and Lauth, despite his age and declinging attributes, will start again as my Complete Forward (Support). It's a role that highlights more than 50% of a player's attributes, and Lauth is the only one that has decent attributes for most of them. Maierhofer has fantastic values in some of them, terrible values in others. Wood also has decent coverage. I guess it's time to give him a shot at it too.

[sabotai]

Agyün refused a mutual termination. I swallow the penalty and let him go.

I also offered mutual termination to Grzegorz Wojtkowiak and he agreed. His salary would have cost me $625,000 for the year left on it, and he agreed to a mutual termination of $375,000. I figured Schwabl, Steinhert or Hertner can fill that role and he's not worth the $12k p/w.

Tactics and Starters

GK - Gábor Király (Goalkeeper - Defend)
DL - Markus Suttner (Fullback - Defend)
DC - Guillermo Vallori (Central Defender - Defend)
DC - Christopher Schindler (Central Defender - Defend)
DR - Markus Steinhöfer (Fullback - Defend)
DMC - Yannick Stark (Deep Lying Playmaker - Defend)
MC - Dominik Stahl (Ball-Winning Midfielder - Support)
AML - Daniel Adlung (Inside Forward - Attack)
AMR - Moritz Stoppelkamp (Inside Forward - Attack)
ST - Yayu Osako (Poacher - Attack)
ST - Benjamin Lauth (Complete Forward - Support)

[sabotai]

Vellori is super pissed that I replaced him as Captain. In fact, most of my team seems pissed about it. I transfer listed him and everyone else will get over it.

7/7/2014: Friendly (A): 1-5 Lose vs. Newcastle. That was rough.

World Cup news: Germany defeated Belgium 1-0 and Italy defeats Spain 1-0. Germany vs. Italy in the final.

7/13/2014: Friendly (H): Win 2-1 vs. Bochum

World Cup news: Germany lost to Italy 2-1 in the World Cup Final.

We fire a new Fitness Coach, Gian Nicola Bisciotti. $4,500 p/w and he has a 20 for Fitness.

We gave Yannick Stark a new contract. $28,500 p/w until 2017.

I might be getting myself into trouble here...

We sign a hot prospect Striker. 20 year old German Nils Quaschner. $850k transfer bid. We sign him for $9,250 p/w. He's scouted to be a 4 star potential player, currently 1.5 stars.

I moved some budget money over to transfer budget to make the deal. I better stop now.

7/20/2014: Friendly (H): Win 3-0 vs. FC Bayern II.

Vallori agrees to mutually terminate his contract for $250k, saving me a lot of money. He couldn't wait to get out of here. The guy was becoming a cancer. I was told that he was complaining to everyone about being removed as captain.

7/27/2014: Friendly (A): Tie 1-1 vs. Stuttgart.

[sabotai]

8/1/2014: German Cup (A): Win 6-0 vs. Lübeck. Pulled it back when we are up 3-0 at half time but we kept finding the net despite being completely defensive in the 2nd.

I hire two more coaches (forgot to replace a few that I decided not to resign.)

Richardo Moritz, Attacking: 18, Man Mg.: 16, Mental: 18, Technical: 20, Working With Youngsters: 20

Kurt Niedermayer: Mental: 15, Tactical: 16, Technical: 14, Working With Youngsters: 19

We draw 2. Bundesliga team Saarbrücken for round 2 of the German Cup.

[sabotai]

8/8/2014: Division (A): Lose 1-2 vs. Schalke. We lose our opener and we were never really in it. Steinhöfer showed that he is the weak link in the defensive line as the Schalke winger ran right by him for their first goal.

8/16/2014: Division (H): Draw 0-0 vs. Braunschweig. At least we get on board with a point.

I sign a new scout. Manfred Linzmaier - Ability 18 / Potential 17. Signed for $4,300 p/w

8/23/2014: Division (A): Lose 0-2 vs. Gladbach.

Going to switch back to my vanilla 4-4-2 for awhile.

[sabotai]

I've had a few Bundesliga teams interested in Steinhöfer, (even though I have not transfer listed him), but they come at me with offers of $500k or so. He's valued at $750k so I always counter with $1m, and then they walk.

8/29/2014: Division (H): Lose 0-2 vs. Wolfsburg. I am getting no offense.

Dominik Stahl was injured during practice and will be out for 5-6 weeks.

Tomasov has agreed to mutual termination for $200k, saving me a good bit of money and getting rid of a poor morale guy. I tried to unload him, but even at $400k, I couldn't hook any team, even though he's valued at $2.3m.

Striker Stefan Maierhofer was sold for $250k to an Austrian team. The deal wasn't finalized before the transfer window closed, however, so it won't go through until Jan 1st.

I decide to make Bobby Shou Wood the starter of Benjamin Lauth. We'll see if that sparks a bit of offense. Plus my coaches tell me that Wood will improve better if he gets more 1st team playing experience, and Lauth ain't gettin' any younger.

9/6/2014: Friendly (H): Win 2-0 vs. SV Reid. 14 days is too long to let my guys just sit around. I was without my GK Gábor Király as he was away playing in Hungary's European Championship Qualifying match vs. Malta so Vitus Eicher gets the job today. My guys needed this win, even if it was just a Friendly.

[sabotai]

9/12/2014: Division (A): Draw 0-0 vs. Augsburg. A scoreless draw vs. the early league leaders. We'll take it.

9/20/2014: Division (H): Draw 1-1 vs. Frankfurt. I thought a late goal by Frankfurt might have ended it, but Adlung comes through with a goal in the 90th minute to give us another draw.

9/24/2014: German Cup (A): Win 0-0p vs. Saarbrücken. We played all game like we didn't want to be there. I ripped them at the end of 90 minutes and they responded well. We had several chances in extra time but couldn't get a goal. We win the shootout 5-3 (we went first)

We drew Bundesliga team Freiburg for the 3rd round of the German Cup.

[sabotai]

9/27/2014: Division (A): Lose 0-3 vs. Leverkusen.

10/3/2014: Division (H): Win 1-0 vs. Stuttgart. We were expected to lose this one.

[sabotai]

10/10/2014: Division (H): Tied 2-2 vs. Zavrc. Suttner was away for international play. Stoppelkamp was back in form with 2 goals, but we weren't good enough in a game that we should have won.

Not sure if this is a compliment or not. FC Kaiserlautern asked me to come interview for their Head Coach job. They are a 2. Bundesliga team....that'd be a move down, not up! Not even a lateral move! Sie sind verrückt!

10/17/2014: Division (A): Lose 0-2 vs. FC Bayern. Honestly, I was just happy not to get killed.

[sabotai]

Players

11 Total Matches in, let's take a look at how the team is doing.

GK Gábor Király - 11 Games - Av. Rating: 6.78 - 5 shutouts, 12 goals allowed

DL Markus Suttner - 10 Games - Av Rating: 6.88 - 20/25 (80%) Tackles Won/Att. - 348/448 (77%) Passes Suc./Att.
DR Markus Steinhöfer - 9 Games - Av Rating: 6.80 - 23/28 (82%) Tackles Won/Att. - 326/391 (83%) Passes Suc./Att. (1 Yellow Card)
DCR Kai Bülow - 9(1) Games - Av Rating: 7.00 - 19/22 (86%) Tackles Won/Att - 281/356 (78%) Passes Suc/Att. (1 Yellow Card)
DCL Christopher Schindler - 10(1) Games - Av Rating 7.04 - 16/20 (80%) Tackles Won/Att. - 308/415 (74%) Passes Suc./Att

DM Yannick Stark - 11 Games - Av Rating: 6.98 - 19/27 (70%) Tackles Won/Att - 874/1019 (85%) Passes Suc/Att. - 1 Goal (5 Shots) (1 Yellow)
MC Dominik Stahl - 5(1) Games - Av Rating: 7.03 - 25/30 (83%) Tackles Won/Att - 287/355 (80%) Passes Suc/Att - 1 Goal (6 Shots)
MC Stefan Wannenwetsch - 6(2) Games - Av Rating: 6.78 - 27/33 (81%) Tackles Won/Att - 433/515 (84%) Passes Suc/Att (3 Yellows)

AMR Moritz Stoppelkamp - 11 Games - Av Rating: 6.96 - 10/108 (9%) Crosses Suc/Att - 447/585 (76%) Passes Suc/Att - 7/18 (38%) Shots On Target/Att - 3 Goals
AML Danial Adlung - 11 Games - Av Rating: 6.85 - 8/48 (16%) Crosses Suc/Att - 378/564 (67%) Passes Suc/Att - 7/10 (70%) Shots On Target/Att - 1 Goal

ST Yuya Osako - 10(1) Games - Av Rating: 6.78 - 254/332 (76%) Passes Suc/Att - 11/25 Shots on Target/Att - 1 Goal (ONE GOAL!)
ST Bobby Shou Wood - 6(4) Games - Av Rating 6.65 - 199/257 (77%) Passes Suc/Att - 6/12 (50%) Shots on Target/Att - 1 Goal
ST Benjamin Lauth - 6(3) Games - Av Rating: 6.80 - 202/260 (77%) Passes Suc/Att - 4/10 Shots on Target/Att - 1 Goal (1 Yellow)

First of all, I don't expect Osako to be a good passer. I don't pay him to do that (He's a "Poacher" for a reason). I pay him to do one thing, put the ball in the fucking net. He's getting his shots but just one goal so far. I'm not sure if there's anything I can do about that except just keeping him in and letting him work through his drought.

The other thing that sticks out to me is Adlung's passing. I DO pay him to pass well and he's not doing that. Honestly, I have no idea where these stats "should" be, but he's coming in 10% lower than everyone else. I'm pretty sure for someone that's supposed to be setting up my strikers, that's not good.

Stahl is just getting back to form after his injury and should be ready to go soon.


Team Record: 1-3-5 -9GD, 6 points
We are in 16th place out of 18. If the season ended today, we'd have to play to stay in the division.

[sabotai]

One thing I've largely neglected has been management of my coaches and scouts. I've mostly just kept what was given to me, except for adding a few new people.

I fired (mutually terminated) the contract of my Head of Youth Development. He had a 14 in Judging Potential and a 12 in Working with Youngsters. I saw several available coaches that had much better values in those attributes (18-19 range) and am going after them for the role.

And I'll be slowly remaking my coaching staff, letting contracts expire when possible but buying out the crappy coaches that were handed to me if they still have a few years left to go.


Volker Kersting - 45 years old - Head of Youth Development
Judging Potential: 18
Working with Youngsters: 19
(Judging Ability: 18, Man Management: 19, Motivating 16, Determination: 17)
$7.25k per week. until June 2017

10/25/2014: Division (H): Lose 1-3 vs. Dortmund. Our team played badly, but Dortmund is one of the best teams in the Bundesliga. I'm happy we didn't get shutout. Stoppelkamp found the net just after halftime to save us that embarrassment.

Erik Lukin - 35 years old - Coach
Defending: 19
$1k per week.

We didn't have a single coach with higher than a 12 for Defending, so I signed Erik Lukin to help us out in that department. I'm an idiot, though, I didn't realize (read: google before hand) that other attributes would be important for training defending and was a little surprised to see 3 stars when I assigned him Defending training. Tactical also matters and his, well, sucks. Oops...

Marcel Lucassen - 44 years old - Coach
Mental: 20
Technical: 19
$2.3k per week

He'll be our Ball Control coach.

11/1/2014: Division (A): Lose 1-4 vs. Hoffenheim. We get killed in another game. I don't think we were ready for Bundesliga play just yet. The good news, or the silver lining, or whatever, is that we are still ahead of Bochum and Werder Bremen in the standings.

11/8/2014: Division (H): Lose 0-4 vs. Freiburg. And they aren't even one of the top teams. My team is totally collapsing.

I talked to several players individually (the ones who have been stinking up the place) and told them I had faith in them improving, and I said the same in the team meeting. They all seemed to improve their morale so hopefully that does...something.

11/13/2014: Friendly (H): Win 6-0 vs. Eching.

11/21/2014: Division (A): Draw 3-3 vs. Bochum. Down 3-1 at the 70th minute, we fought back to get the draw.

[sabotai]

11/30/2014: Division (H): Lose 1-4 vs. Werner Bremen. Sat some starters in preparation for the German Cup game in a few days. I guess that was a mistake.

Stefan Wannenwetsch is belly aching for a new contract. He's only 22 years old, so it's no surprise that he's been inconsistent. He's third behind two other young DM/M players, though. I told him I would negotiate a new contract at the end of the year and he didn't like that answer.

12/3/2014: German Cup (H): Win 1-0 vs. Freiburg. A good win that puts us in the quarter-finals. Osako got us the lone goal in the 82nd minute.

We draw Augsburg for out quarter-final opponent.

12/7/2014: Division (A): Draw 1-1 vs. Nürnberg. We were big underdogs in this game so a draw is a good result.

Our team and Bochum have fallen quite a bit behind the rest of the division in the points standings. Bochum has 7 points, we have 8. The next team has 15. Not an insurmountable difference, there's still 19 games left to play but we need to start putting together wins. So far, we only have 1 win in the league.

Team Record: 1-5-9 -21GD, 8 points

[bbgunn]

Don't worry... I'm sure change is just around the corner. (And I'm not talking about your job!)

[sabotai]

We'll see. I hope the German Cup win and the draw with Nürnberg will give my guys a decent morale boost.

Decided to start talking with Wannenwetsch's agent on a new deal. The guy wants what Stark makes (he started at $28k per week). Stark is the star of our team, Stahl is the starting over Wannenwetsch (Stahl has played much better). He's not getting $28k a week.

Me and his agent got nowhere close to each other and I walked away for now.

I do add two more years to Stoppelkamp's contract. His contract was up in June, so I decided to get this out of the way (maybe he gets a morale boost from having his contract situation dealt with.

His new deal: $400k loyalty bonus, $35k per week (the max my board would allow), $6k appearance, $4k goal, and a match highest earner clause.

I have an issue, though. Lauth has a "match highest earner" clause as well. His contract is due up at the end of this year too (in June). His not the same player he was, even last year. The bump in opposition talent was too much, I think. He could use his technical ability to out perform more physically gifted players in 2.Bundesliga. In Bundesliga, however, they are just as technically skilled as he is, but also much better physically. 13 appearances, 6.65 av.rating, 1 goal, 1 assist...not worth the money. I'll have to swallow the wage hike for the rest of the year, but I'm thinking, unless he takes a pay cut...he'll be gone.

12/13/2014: Division (H): Draw 3-3 vs. Mainz. We jumped out ahead, they tied it up 2-2 in the 75th minute, we get another goal right away, they tie it up again. Mainz is the team directly ahead of us in the standings. We need to win these games.

12/20/2014: Division (A): Draw 2-2 vs. HSV. Up 2-0, they score in the 84th minute, and then scored the tying goal at 93:43 (even though only 2 minutes of injury time was added, grrrrr).

Bülow picked up an injury that will keep him out for 3 weeks, but we are hitting the mid season break so he'll be back by the time division games start up again.

12/29/2014: Friendly (H): Win 4-0 vs. Markt Schwaben.

I did some researching (googling) on some tactics. I have a very fast, not very strong, striker in Osako, so with his role still as Poacher - Attack, I've also given him the instructions "Move Into Channels" and "Hold Position". The other role, my Complete Forward role which I had on Support I changed to Attack, but also gave the player instruction "Roam From Position".

I also took off the team instructions "Deep Defensive Line" (because of the talent disparity, I'm always in Counter these days) and "Shorter Passing" and added in "Drill Crosses" because I have no big men to win in the air (on offense), and I want them to drill the pass to Osako so he can out run his opponents, and also "Play Wider" to encourage play to my two AM wingers and to stretch the field wider to hopefully open up more 1 on 1 chances for Osako.

I offer Gábor Király a contract that will keep him on the team until 2016 at $20k per week. He's 38 so this will probably be his last extension. A few of his attributes have started to decline.

Vitus Eicher also gets extended until 2017 at $8.25k per week.

Maierhofer is now officially gone.

A Turkish team is offering me $1.2M for 15 year old prospect Metehan Subasi. At the beginning of the year, he was a 4.5(silver) player and 4 gold star prospect. Now, he's 5(silver) and 4.5 gold star prospect. Volker Kersting is my best evaluator or talent, and he says Sabusi is a 1 gold star player right now and a 4.5 start prospect. A few others on my staff put him at 5 stars.

At this point, $1.2M won't boost my team enough for me to get another star to add to my squad and win right now. And Sabusi is progressing quickly, although at 15 there's no guarantees. I'm going to roll the dice and keep Sabusi.

So far, the board is still satisfied with me as their head coach. I hope they still feel that way after we get booted back to 2.Bundesliga.



We still had a good deal of budget available, so I adjusted it to give me some transfer money. I threw out a $850k offer to a team for a 3.5 star D(R) (but can play on the left side too) to help me bolster my defensive line. He's an Italian player named Mattia Cassani. He's 31 years old so he's not a long term acquisition, I'm just going to get the best player I can afford that my scouts say can be gotten to help stop the bleeding that's going on with my defense. We are tied with Bochum for worst team in goals allowed (36).

Cassani agrees to a $19.75k per week contract.

And nevermind. I gave myself a $100k cushion in the transfer budget and it still wasn't enough. I need $1.1M and have $950k, and the board won't let me change it so I'll have to cancel the transfer.....

[sabotai]

1/5/2015: Friendly (H) Win 3-1 vs. Heimstetten.

[sabotai]

1/12/2015: Friendly (H): Win 3-1 vs. SV Gödig.

1/18/2015: Friendly (H): Win 5-0 vs. Ismaning.

Because the last transfer fell through, I went out and got a prospect who can contribute right away. A 19 year old D(C) from Ghana named Isaac Donkor who we bought from Inter. Right now he's a 2 star player but a 4 star prospect and we're paying him $5.25k per week.

1/24/2014: Division (A): Draw 1-1 vs. Braunschweig. Back to the grind.

1/27/2014: Division (H): Draw 2-2 vs. Gladbach. It was 1-1 within 5 minutes, 2-2 within 20 and then a stalemate from then on.

I started practicing a 4-2-3-1 tactic ("AM Triangle"). Lauth is capable of playing the AMC role, so my thoughts are that I can switch between this tactic (when I have Lauth start) and go back to my 4-1DM-1-2-2 tactic with Bobby Shou Wood starting. I'm hoping switching between tactics like this might throw off my opponents....doubt it, but it's worth a shot. It's going to take awhile training the tactic though so it won't happen soon.

1/31/2014: Division (A): Draw 1-1 vs. Wolfsburg. Grinding out the draws. At least Bochum is grinding out loses.

That fact the team from Turkey that I turned down keeps trying to lure Sabusi away (they are up to $2M now) tells me that I really should just keep him.

And now they are up to $2.5M....these guys aren't giving up. I counter with a $5M offer. They come back with $2.7M now, I got them up to $4M, $1M over 12 months and 30% of the next sale.....

I couldn't pull the trigger. That's screaming to me that he's going to be a star. I hope I don't regret turning down all that money...

And now they are offering $6M upfront with 30% of the profit of the next sale...

Then they offered $7M.....I think they got tired of negotiating, though. I countered with $10M and they walked. Again...I really hope I don't regret turning down that money. In fact, I'm suffering from non-seller's remorse right now. What was I thinking? $7M for a 15 year old! Damn it!

2/4/2014: Division (H): Lose 1-3 vs. Schalke. I decided to just try my new tactic against Schalke since I figured we'd lose to them anyway. Despite the score, I think we played better than I expected.

2/8/2014: Division (H): Lose 1-4 vs. Augsburg. And we played much worse than I expected in this one.

[sabotai]

Andreas Geipl is gone. He bitched about first team playing time and he has not potential to be a starter so he agreed to a mutual termination.

2/14/2015: Division (A): Lose 0-2 vs. Frankfurt.

2/22:2015: Division (H): Draw 1-1 vs. Leverkusen. They had played a game 3 days prior and most of their players were in the high 80s/low 90s for condition, so I upped the tempo and told my guys to hassle them and it seemingly worked. I had a 1-0 lead at half time and while they tied it up by the 75th minute, they had used all 3 subs and were running on fumes. My guys couldn't finish them off but Leverkusen were heavy favorites so it was good to get the draw.

2/27/2015: Division (A): Draw 0-0 vs. Stuttgart. Took the opposite approach, I lowered tempo, retained possession and used shorter passing, because I had a German Cup game in a fer days and didn't want my guys to go into it tired. Was surprised to get the draw, although we should have had a penalty kick late in the game and I said as much in the post game interview.

I was warned not to do that.

3/3/2015: German Cup (A): Lose 0-2 vs. Augsburg. And our run the German Cup comes to an end. Was honestly happy to just make it to the quarter-finals. It'll be our silver lining for the year after getting relegated back to 2.Bundesliga at the end of the season.

[sabotai]

Contract Extensions

There really isn't any hope left. Unless we put together a string of wins (not draws), we will get relegated. I thought it best not to go into next year with a bunch of my best talent in a contract year where they'd might think it best to pursue other options (by demanding a salary my board would not approve as a 2.Bundesliga team).

Wannenwetsch got a $24k per week contract. Stahl gets a $26k per week contract. Christopher Schindler gets a $25k per week deal. Benajmin Lauth agrees to a pay cut. He was getting $35k because of his "match highest earner" clause. He agrees to a deal for $23k per week, but only to 2016 with a clause to extend it 1 year after playing in 10 league games (I guess he was worried he'd be riding the bench?). Daniel Adlung signs for $24k per week until 2017.

That should give me a team that will do very well next year in 2.Bundesliga, regain promotion and then in 2016, again, look for upgrades for whoever doesn't pull their weight.

Except I went over the budget. Oops. The Board will just have to deal with it.

I'm still looking for a D(R) though. Steinhöfer and Volz have both utterly failed me this year. (Not that everyone else hasn't....but I think the team's performance, or lack of performance, is probably more of me not doing good enough with tactics than the players bad performances).

3/7/2014: Division (H): Lose 1-3 vs. FC Bayern. Backup GK Eicher is in for Kiraly due to injury.

[sabotai]

New Players

Received an influx of youth players.

(Name - Pos - Age - Stars)
Uros Dimitrijevic - S(C), M(R), AM(LC) - 15yo - 1 / 5
Daniel Langer - D(RC), DM, M(C) - 14yo - 4 / 4.5
Emmanuel Adjel - M/AM(C), ST(C) - 14yo - 4 / 4
Janik Herberger - D(R) - 15yo - 4 / 3.5
Yannick Pavlov - M(R) - 15yo - 3.5 / 3.5
Alexander Wagner - D(C), DM - 15yo - 3.5 / 3.5

The rest have a Potential star rating of 3 or lower.

Head of Youth Development, Volker Kersting, singled out Uros Dimitrijevic as possibly one of the best players of his generation.

I didn't waste any time and immediately gave him a Youth Contract. Did the same for Langer and the rest of the 3.5 potential or better players.

[sabotai]

3/14/2015: Division (A): Lose 2-6 vs. Dortmund. At least we didn't get shut out.

3/21/2015: Division (H): Lose 0-3 vs. Hoffenheim.

Bochum is officially relegated. I'm about to be.

Hannover 96 is offering me an interview for their head coaching job. They are a 2.Bundesliga team (currently in 5th position), but even so they have a budget of $550k per week ($150k more than 1860 Münich) and some really good players. I'm turning it down, though.

4/4/2015: Division (A): Win 1-0 vs. Freiburg. We hold off official relegation for a bit...

4/12/2015: Division (H): Lose 1-2 vs. Bochum. And we are relegated.

Stark is asking to be moved to a bigger club. I guess even though I locked these guys up, they're going to force jumping the ship. He wasn't very happy after our talk and I'm thinking I'll be having the same talk with several of the guys.

I have some great prospects and young players....maybe it wouldn't be the worst thing to implode the team, make millions on selling them, and use that to buy more young talent....it's not like Stark and most of the guys on the team were really lighting it up this year anyway.

Suddenly, everyone'se getting injured too. Bobby Wood and Stoppelkamp are out for a few weeks.

4/18/2015: Division (A): Lose 3-6 vs. Werner Bremen.

4/24/2015: Division (H): Draw 1-1 vs. Nürnberg.

5/2/2015: Division (A): Draw 0-0 vs. Mainz

5/9/2015: Division (H): Draw 1-1 vs. HSV

And so ends our season. We were given a little over $30M for finishing 17th so that's not too bad I guess.

Final 2014-15 Record: 2-15-17 | -40GD | 21 Points

[sabotai]

In the end of season meeting with my team, I told them I thought we could come right back if we all stuck together. Adlung, Stoppelkamp and Stark said that they weren't sure, with Stark saying explicitly that he might look to move off the team next year.

Then I had a meeting with the Board....

They made it clear that they pretty much want me gone...

They told me that I needed to pick up 9 points in the next 5 games.....did they forget the season was over?