[FM10] EINTRACHT FRANKFURT - We Hate Madrid

Welcome to my new career, at Eintracht Frankfurt. I’ll be here for the duration; that could be until I get bored with the save in 2067, or when I get sacked in the middle of 2012. Eintracht are a reasonably big club to start with but I have some things in mind to keep it challenging, and some specific targets to achieve; more about that later. Why did I choose Eintracht you might ask? Same as ever – I like the colours, badge and name.

A little about Eintracht. First of all what I knew already, which is very little. They were in one of the most talked about matches in the history of the game – the 1960 European Cup final v Real Madrid. Madrid ran out 7-3 winners at Hampden Park in front of 135,000. A superb win considering Eintracht had thrashed Rangers 12-4 on aggregate in the semi, and Scottish teams were much stiffer opposition in those days than they are now! The second thing I knew was a former player – Tony Yeboah. He was with Eintracht when he was at the peak of his powers and was a real treat to watch. He then moved to Leeds and blew hot and cold; but when he was hot he was still scorching! A summarised history shows Eintracht being formed in 1920, winning their only championship in 1959, the 1967 Intertoto Cup, 4 German cups between 1974 and '88, the UEFA cup in 1980, and for the last 15 years dwelling in the mid to lower echelons of the Bundesliga (with a few seasons in division 2). The home of Eintracht is the Waldstadion (or Commerzbank-Arena since 2005), and it’s a modern and impressive arena since being reconstructed for the 2006 World Cup.

Now my thoughts on the career. I have no intention of leaving Eintracht. Couldn’t that lead to it getting a bit stale? It could, but I hope to keep it interesting in certain ways. First I want to be at the helm as the board build a new stadium. We have a smashing new stadium as it is with a 52,000 capacity, so a new arena might not strike you as being a priority. I’m hoping to get one simply as I’ve never had it before! And the existing one is costing us £5m a year – not a crippling amount at all, but why not have our own! Now we’re not a massive club or playing in the Champions League every year, so finding the funds will be down to dealing on the transfer market. I plan to bring in players with their best years ahead of them, on long contracts, before moving them on for profit as their contract is due for renewal. This should also mean lots of action on the market which is never boring. I also plan to have a wage ceiling that mirrors an element of my revenue, therefore living within my means. This method of operating will mean I need to scout efficiently. My next long term objective is to cement Eintracht as the number 1 team in Germany and a European heavyweight. Once I’ve done this I’ll look for the team to provide a number of players to the national team on a regular basis, by generating my own or selectively buying. Lastly, I want to manage the national team for an extended period, hopefully lifting the world cup with some of my own players.

Now the database. I’ve made my usual changes – all clubs in my nation have debt removed, as do major clubs (rep =>6000) across Europe. The leagues have the normal format for Germany, but all the ‘II’ teams have been removed and replaced with the highest reputation clubs from the lower leagues. I’ve removed squad registration, simply because it’s a pain in the neck. I've got the top divisions in ITA, FRA, ENG and SPA as playable leagues, and I've got players from another 48 nations retained - 20 top divisions from major European countries and BRA and ARG; and 28 from the top clubs from the rest of the world (AFR, ASI, AME, and smaller Euro nations). I hope this will provide the players required for a long term save, without impacting too much on processing. Other than that, the actual data is unchanged - I've not altered reputations, player stats, etc; it's all legit! I think that’s everything.

I play my saves in the same way as most people in here - no player or staff searching (just scouts and job centre), no re-loading, I use my own tactics, etc. That gives me a nice level of immersion while still providing a good level of fun. I'm really just planning an end of season summary every year, and regular commenting other than that.

I hope this career thread gives you some interesting reading, and I welcome discussion.

Anyone want to rent some storage space?

2009/10

League Pos - 13th

Cup Round - 2nd

2010/11

League Pos - 5th

Cup Round - 2nd

2011/12

League Pos -

Cup Round -

Europa Cup -

Records screenshots.

Season 2009/10

League Pos - 13th

Media Pred - 12th

Board Expect -mid table

Cup Round - 2nd

Top Scorer - Lyberopoulos 11

Top Rating - Fahrmann 7.11

Most MoM - Teber 3

Most Assists - Mahdavikia 6

PoY - Teber

Wages/Budget - 313,765/353,904

Aver Attend - 47,992

Club Reputation - National

Manager Rep - National

Transfer +/- £10.95m

Profit/Loss - £21.5m

Largest Tansf - Ribery, Bayern > Man Utd £45.5m

World Cup - Argentina

African Nat - Ivory Coast

Europa Cup - Roma

Champs Leag - Arsenal

Club WC - Barcelona

Screenshots for this season.

I am looking forward to this TheMister, I had a save in German football a few seasons back and it was highly entertaining. I also like the idea that the League Cup is played and completed before the season actually starts! Good Luck

Things have changed since you managed here mate - the League Cup isn't played for any more

I hope it'll be interesting - Bayern, Dortmund and Schalke should keep giving me a hard time of it, considering their spending power in comparison with mine. And a few other clubs that should always be beating people if not challenging for the title (after a few seasons I mean, purely because of finances), like Bremen and Hamburg.

EDIT: who did you manage there?

Sounds very interesting, will be following this.

No League Cup, that's scandalous!

I managed Bayern TheMister when I managed in Germany. I finished third in my first season and suprisingly kept my job, won the title in the second season and then in a crazy moment of madness dropped down a division to manage FSV Frankfurt and almost got them promoted!

Would definately like to revisit German football in FM2010. Hopefully your thread will give me a few tips in terms of players, staff, teams etc

Sounds very interesting, will be following this.

Thank you PF, I hope it will be.

No League Cup, that's scandalous!

I managed Bayern TheMister when I managed in Germany. I finished third in my first season and suprisingly kept my job, won the title in the second season and then in a crazy moment of madness dropped down a division to manage FSV Frankfurt and almost got them promoted!

Would definately like to revisit German football in FM2010. Hopefully your thread will give me a few tips in terms of players, staff, teams etc

You might not get many staff because I think it'll mostly be regen coaches and scouts I sign. But it could be handy for teams and I've got down to the 3 regional divisions as playable if you want to know about the smaller clubs if you're tempted.

That's things pretty much up to date now. If you'd like to see something extra, or you think I've missed something out, in the season summaries just say so.

I'm planning brief pre-season outlooks, and short updates now and again, just with scores and a word or two if it merits, nothing extensive at all - I'd rather spend my time playing the game!

2010/11 Preview

The media have me at 16th and the board hope I escape relegation - both of which are lower than last year and both suit me as it's less pressure. Personally though, I'm targeting 10th, and hopefully a few rounds in the cup to get some cash.

So the transfer campaign was really consolodating the squad, strengthening it slightly, while keeping the wage structure rational. Things went pretty well. Offloaded the players that were surplus and got the ones I wanted in. The investments were the popular Henrique from Barca for around £2,5m, Digard from Middlesbrough for £7m (he may not increase much in value, but I was pushed to get a decent MCd and I'm sure he'll fill the slot), Jankovic from Genoa for about £3.2m (was shopping for a workmanlike MR here), and my biggest coup - Guilherme from Kiev for £7m. All my deals are over a number of years, and players could feasibly be moved on for profit before I've finished paying for them. I let 2 players, a DR and DC, I was planning to keep this season move on as I received good offers of £4m and £4.7m. And I let young SC Tsoumou go on loan to Karlsruhe as I don't think he's up to doing anything for me yet, although I hope he can in a season or two. With £40m in the bank and a transfer kitty of £11.5m/£43k pw there's plenty left to make moves in January if I want. Finally I completed the 22 man squad with about 4 season long loans.

Pre-season was uneventful and I'll be kicking off the season with just Djourou (Swiss DC from arsenal for about £1.7m) out for about 10 days. We do have a tough schedule of opposition to start with, then it eases after a game with Bayern to teams we should be competing with. The cup draw wasn't kind though - Koln. So the first 2 seasons we've benn drawn with mid-1st division sides in the 1st round of the cup

Lastly, after reading a few comments on forums here, I reckon we need around £200m to build our own stadium that compares in size to the present one. So that's the figure I'm initially aiming to accrue.

D1 h W. Bremen 2-2 two goals down and the super-sub levels with two to himself

D1 a Stuttgart 0-1

D1 h Wolfsburg 1-1

D1 a Hamburg 3-2 came back from 2-1 down

D1 a Schalke 0-3

D1 h Leverkusen 2-2 lost a bloody injury time leveller

D1 h Hoffenheim 1-1

D1 a Bayern 0-3

D1 h Aachen 1-0

D1 a Karlsruhe 0-2

After doing reasonably against good teams I was furious with the Karlsruhe result! A result I noticed in processing was in the qualifiers for the Euro Championship, Holland 1 Lichtestein 1 and Holland levelled in the 88th minute!

D1 a Nurnberg 3-1

D1 h Kaiserslautern 2-0

DP h Koln 1-2 capacity crowd watched visitors rob the home side! 2nd round exit again!

D1 a Hannover 2-2

D1 h Koln 3-1 HA! eat that! Adriano (not the famous one!) ends 11 hour goal drought for me

I'm developing a real hatred for Koln, in case you didn't guess. We've risen to 9th in the league, but we're in need of a ML at the winter break; I bought a back-up player in the summer and had to go with him because I couldn't find a suitable 1st choice, but I'll need to come up with one in January. Fergies position at United is 'very insecure!'

D1 a Dortmund 1-1

D1 h Gladbach 1-2

D1 h Stuttgart 3-3 Teber scores with 2 direct free-kicks

D1 a Hertha 2-1

D1 a W. Bremen 3-0 the result flattered me here, and Bremen scored the most bizarre OG too!

In the ECC Espanyol win 2-1 away to Milan! Surprise exits at the group stage are Juventus, Ajax, Sporting Lisbon, Bordeaux, Lyon and Porto. My back-up ML is out for the season making it essential I now get a good first choice. Zaki (SC) will hopefully be moving to Hull - he was bought last year as a starter (on £20k pw) but the purchase of Guilherme has seen him move to the bench. He's played well, but £4.5m against the £1.5m I paid is a no brainer. And the club are letting me choose the type of affiliate club they look for. I've chosen a commercial link as I'm going to very active in the transfer market, which will see the most benefit from that type. Oh....and we're up to 8th in the Bundesliga at the winter break! TBH I can't see us retaining a slot that high though.

A couple of games after the winter break I had drawn with top of the league Schalke and was then drawing away to Hoffenheim when I had a crash dump (the game I mean; I wasn't running to the toilet with alarms going off).

I decided, because I was scunnered with it happening after a good result and in the process of another good one, that I'd just go on with whatever result turned up after reloading - rather than keep reloading until I got the same results.

We got the same draw against Schalke but Guilherme, my star striker, got whacked and put out for 3-4 weeks

Against The Hoff we won 4-0!!! with my back-up striker, in for Guilherme, bagging 2!

All's well that ends well

D1 Wolfsburg a 0-2 it was 2, going on 5

D1 Hamburg h 3-0

D1 Leverkusen a 1-2

D1 Schalke h 0-0

D1 Hoffenheim a 4-0 quality of finishing was difference here. new ML Valente makes 3 assists!

OK, during January we got the commercial affiliate I asked for. Clubs from Japan and China were offered, but I settled on Austin from the US at about £1m pa. We're up to about 8th in the league but I can't see us rising further to the Euro slots; anyway, in the summer my target was 10th and that remains. The board are pleased with things too, despite the yearly cup exit.

On the personnel front I've already got 3 back-up players signed on Bosmans for next season. I bought Vossen (FC) to replace outgoing Zaki, lowering the wage bill in the process; Lopez (MR) from Bilbao as another replacement; Valente (ML) from Braga as Archubi simply isn't cutting it and will be moved on in the summer; and lastly Biglia from Anderlecht - he becomes Eintrachts new record signing at £10m. My current MCa is being sold on in the summer because of his age and the back-up (Diop) is out for a few months - so although we're temporarily over my notional wage budget, it was necessary to bring him in now. An added bonus is he'll be integrated in the squad ready for next season.

In the rest of the news Serie A is seeing a real title race. Inter, Napoli, Milan and Udinese are slugging it out after 24 games.

Question.

I've got good youth and training facilities as well as an academy. I'm not desperate to upgrade the youth facilities; but I've got a small problem with the training ones.

I'm not seeing many changes to players attributes despite individual training schedules, so I'm putting that down to the training facilities. The problem is I can't make up my mind if I should upgrade them or not, considering I want to move stadium as soon as possible - it would just be money down the drain once I move.

What do you guys think?? Should I spend the probable £8m or so, just to redistribute a few skill numbers? Or should I save the cash; after all senior players won't have their existing distribution decline any?

Nobody going to give me their thoughts on what they'd do here ^^^^^ ?

I would leave it personally, maybe its your coaches ?

I would leave it personally, maybe its your coaches ?

I'm inclined to leave it, as you suggest - I just wasn't sure; I was in two minds (and one's hard enough work for me!).

I don't think it's the coaches but I'll have another look later just to confirm. If it is them I'll probably need to live with it, as I only hire from the job centre and it's unusual for anything decent to show up there this early in my save (because of the club reputation).

Cheers MLFM.

Remaining fixtures -

D1 h Karlsruhe 2-1

D1 h Bayern 2-1

D1 a Aachen 2-2

D1 h Nurnberg 0-1

D1 a Kaiserslautern 2-2

D1 h Hannover 3-2 came back from 0-2 down!

D1 a Koln 1-0

D1 h Dortmund 3-1

D1 h Hertha 4-0

D1 a Gladbach 3-1

Amazingly, we finished 5th!! If you'd told me that at the start of the season I'd have said you were mad! More details in the season review.

A couple of results I noticed in processing were = Ajax 1-5 Napoli (hattrick for Hernanes) and Arsenal 6-0 Milan in the ECC semi!

2010/11 Preview

So the first 2 seasons we've benn drawn with mid-1st division sides in the 1st round of the cup

That would be a bug though

Irl you can only be drawn against clubs from 3rd division or lower or one of the promoters to second division.

Question.

I've got good youth and training facilities as well as an academy. I'm not desperate to upgrade the youth facilities; but I've got a small problem with the training ones.

I'm not seeing many changes to players attributes despite individual training schedules, so I'm putting that down to the training facilities. The problem is I can't make up my mind if I should upgrade them or not, considering I want to move stadium as soon as possible - it would just be money down the drain once I move.

What do you guys think?? Should I spend the probable £8m or so, just to redistribute a few skill numbers? Or should I save the cash; after all senior players won't have their existing distribution decline any?

Recently there was a thread about player development. One of the results from the research carried out by some nice users was that neither training facilities nor schedules or coaches matter all that much. rather, besides age obviously, it's the personality of your players which is paramount for their development, with professionalism being the most important stat, but also ambition and workrate being important. Thus, you should aim to get players with high values in those areas into your squad. Those are also great for tutoring youngsters who will then develop along the lines of their tutors. So check the scout reports you get on possible signings for the player personality section.

And save the money for the facility improvement.

hth

That would be a bug though

Irl you can only be drawn against clubs from 3rd division or lower or one of the promoters to second division.

Really?!? I didn't know that LOL - I'll now need to post in the GD forum that FM is 'broke' and cheats me!

Seriously though, thanks. Maybe patch 10.2 will fix that.

Recently there was a thread about player development. One of the results from the research carried out by some nice users was that neither training facilities nor schedules or coaches matter all that much. rather, besides age obviously, it's the personality of your players which is paramount for their development, with professionalism being the most important stat, but also ambition and workrate being important. Thus, you should aim to get players with high values in those areas into your squad. Those are also great for tutoring youngsters who will then develop along the lines of their tutors. So check the scout reports you get on possible signings for the player personality section.

And save the money for the facility improvement.

hth

I do look at personality when considering players, but maybe I should be giving it more weight than I currently do.

Regarding schedules/facilities/coaches - maybe I'm wrong but I think you're looking at it as regards to youth development? I'm really just meaning attribute re-distribution on the first team squad. In that respect I have faith in individual schedules (and by that I mean individual, not generic ones like Tug, etc). However I do agree that the benefits of facilities and coaches maybe negligible here. Anyway, thanks for swapping ideas Jayahr.

Facility upgrades - due to concensus between you both, I'm keeping the money!

I'll be doing the 2010/11 summary today or tomorrow.

But are people OK with the format like post 4, just with details and a link to the album? Or would you rather have details linked to the image?

Apart from just being lazy, the reason I did it like that is I'll upload way more images - and some people like the detail. What do you think?

Season 2010/11

League Pos - 5th

Media Pred - 16th

Board Expect - avoid relegation

Cup Round - 2nd

Top Scorer - Adriano 11

Top Rating - Djourou 7.09

Most MoM - Teber 5

Most Assists - Valente 8

PoY - Jankovic

Wages/Budget - 344,263/354,184

Aver Attend - 50,106

Club Reputation - National

Manager Rep - National

Transfer +/- £15m

Profit/Loss - £19.14m

Largest Tansf - Walcott, Arsenal > Madrid £40m

Copa America - Brazil

4 Associations - Scotland

Europa Cup - Arsenal

Champs Leag - Barcelona

Club WC - New York

Screenshots for this season.

Inter on an exciting Serie A on head to head results with Genoa; Fergie kept his job despite dropping to 'precarious' status; Jankovic made it onto the favoured personnel list; Frankfurt were named as the seasons over-achievers; and we qualify for Europe!

As well as the commercial link, we've also got a nice balance to the domestic affiliates; I (Falkenmeyer) got awarded a longer contract; we've now won more than we've lost under my stewardship!

The only signing who didn't work out was Archubi (ML, £2.2m from River); his ratings were acceptable but in the first half of the season he didn't contribute a goal or an assist. Valente was brought in to provide more and he obliged. Vossen was picked up for buttons off Genk and he could turn out to be a good player in time. Tsoumou, a young German striker was loaned to newly promoted Karlsruhe. He's one for the future, and he grabbed 9 on loan - pretty good for a young lad in a low quality team.

2011/12 Preview

The board are getting cocky now and want a top-half finish, and the media tip us to do it with 8th slot. The bookies too agree, quoting us at 40-1. Personally, 8th wouldn't be a disaster but I'll be chasing 5th to retain the Europa slot. Cup paranoia is creeping in and we really want to win a couple of games this year - some regional or 3rd division cannon fodder would do just fine! As for the Europa, I'll be happy reaching the groups - as long as we win the 2 qualifying rounds that'll do me.

At the moment we're allowed 9 scouts and I've spent some time settling on an effective schedule; I just need one more scout to complete the staffing level. You should be seeing a pattern in the transfer strategy now; signing players who can take the club forward for the spell they're here before being sold for profit, and bosmans and loans who can provide adequate cover for a fraction of the wage bill. Going into this season the wage budget from the board is about £410k, but my own budget is about £385k with a maximum player budget of £45k; that's risen from £330k and £40k due to European revenue we'll receive.

Really, we've qualified for Europe a season earlier than I expected - and that gave me a problem or two. First was the homegrown numbers - I had to sign a German for a start, so I found one who was OK to cover the DR slot. Next, and linked to same thing, was Tsoumou - I wanted him to go on loan for one more season, but now I need to keep him; that's not a great hindrance but now I need to give him playing time in my team for him to develop; I could let him rot and just act as cover, but he does have potential and it'd be wrong to leave him out.

Neumann (GK) is this seasons young hope (if last seasons was the best of his generation I fear for the future!). He does look as if he may have a career ahead of him. Cale was brought in at DL to replace Petkovic as he was more suited to a wingback role. Yazalde replaces Adriano in the SC position and hopefully he'll be more consistent. Schwegler (MCd) goes out as his renewal demands were a bit steep for a back-up; Diop exits as he was a pretty short term signing and he'll be going to the African Nations this winter; Peruvian Rodriguez (DC) completed the exits.

Its quite clever to have your own wage structure as the boards can be idiotic.

Its quite clever to have your own wage structure as the boards can be idiotic.

Yeah. They base it on overall revenue, so if you want to make a healthy profit you need to slash it. It would probably be more sensible to leave it as was until I qualify for Europe pretty regularly - but I'm well under my budget anyway, I'm at around £320k IIRC.

Cup Round - 2nd

Seeing this now, it's probably not a bug. What I said, only applies to the first round which earlier you stated it was. From the seond round onwards there is only one draw rule left, which is that teams from 3rd division or lower always play at home when drawn against a team from 1st or 2nd level.

Ah OK mate - got Osnabruck this year (thank heavens) and it's away like you say it should be.

Here's my squad to start the season - I wouldn't put too much faith in my assistants verdict on the players ability if I was you!

EC3q a OFK Beograd 2-2

EC3q h OFK Beograd 2-1

I was worried about the 1st leg because of lack of fitness.

D1 h Bayern 0-0

D1 a Wolfsburg 0-3

EC4q a Petach-Tikva 3-1

D1 h Nurnberg 1-2

EC4q h Petach-Tikva 3-1

D1 a Karlsruhe 0-2

D1 a Gladbach 2-0

ECg h Levski S. 0-1

D1 h Koln 4-1

D1 a Dortmund 3-3

D1 h Hamburg 4-0

ECg a Espanyol 3-4

A very poor start in the Bundesliga (0/1/3), but to be honest we were distracted by the European ties and the form has now taken a turn for the better - 11th with a game in hand after 10.

You'll see from the squad image that teams are after my players now; they can go, but it'll be on my terms. And I'll be 'keeping it real' - it's quite easy to move players now, and for big sums; I'll be looking for realistic prices to keep the game at least a bit realistic. In other words I won't be selling a £2m player for £8m which could probably be done.

Yazalde, my new Portuguese goalscorer had a poor start to the season but after giving him a few games out he's found his feet. Tsoumou came in for him and banged in a few which is heartening - it'd be nice to have a good young German player. I was putting my faith in GK Fahrmann to be 1st choice for many years, but he's not been convincing at all since the start of the save. His GK attributes are very good and he gets OK ratings but we're shipping a lot of goals; although it's the first save I've ever used 442 I'm quite confident with the set-up and I'm putting the goals down to him. He does have low determination which is partly my fault for not tutoring him. I'll be looking for a new goalie soon, and maybe even tutoring Fahrmann too if not's too late.

D1 a Stuttgart 1-0 a real smash and grab here - Stuttgart would've been gutted

D1 h Hertha 3-2 top of the league visits us. we come from behind twice to win!

Threatening the top 1/3 of the table now. I've had Henrique, my best DC, out for quite a few games too - another 6 or 7 weeks until he's back. Bayern, Hertha and Schalke are doing well every season, and I expect Dortmund to make that top bracket too once their finances from huge crowds kick in (I removed all the debt remember). Bremen and Hamburg have been toiling a bit.

ECg h Nice 2-0

DP a Osnabruck 2-1

D1 h Mainz 3-0

D1 a Bremen 0-1

Ligue 1 has an upside-down look to it - Lyon are in 19th on 9 points and Marseille are in 17th on 10 points!

NUTS! Went out the Europa in the group stage. Drew with Espanyol in the last game when we needed to win Ach well, the group stage was the target at the start of the season - Europe isn't Frankfurts usual habitat. Onwards and upwards (hopefully).

Hristo Stoichkov has been appointed manager of Dortmund! Anyone else had him turn up in their save? First time for me.

Big changes!! Although I reached my personal targets in the Europa and German cup I'm having a poor season in the league - 12th at the start of February; I can rule out the Euro slots, it's all about the top half and dignity now. I'm putting this down to 2 things; one with hindsight and one through experience.

1. (experience) This is the first time I've ever tried my current formation and it just so happens that in Germany there's a shape that gets used a lot that my one struggles to adapt to! I don't want to change too much, but I'll need to look at alterations here - so things may get worse before they get better.

2. (hindsight) My specific transfer startegy was to fast-track funds for a new stadium, hopefully. But such a high turnaround in players is not benefiting the team. So instead of targeting loans and Bosmans (they'll still be brought in, just not specifically targeted) I'll be looking to sign young players and develop them; this will still deliver a good profit but it'll be longer term. It should also steady team morale and maybe even improve things further by youngsters forming bonds with the club and other staff. Anyway, it should be a better strategy over time.

Just noticed we're the only German team not in Europe after Christmas :o

We haven't won in the last 12 league games :o:o

Those mad fools at Ghana and Nigeria want me to get them to the World Cup!! Have they looked at the Bundesliga table recently? :confused: There have been a few National jobs available that I thought I could get, but I didn't bother applying because I either didn't want the distraction or I've done nothing to earn them. I've taken the Nigeria job though, for a few reasons - they invited me, I'd welcome the distraction because we won't be in Europe next season, and they've fallen to 36th in the world.

I've been enjoying reading this, looks like your taking a step backward this year but hopefully you can turn it around to a certain extent. Good luck with your new strategy too - any youngsters in your team now worth mentioning? or will it involve a good youth intake and scouting the world for promising youngsters?

I've been enjoying reading this

Thank you mate. I know we get silent readers here, but it's nice to generate some discussion too.

looks like your taking a step backward this year but hopefully you can turn it around to a certain extent.

Definately a step back

any youngsters in your team now worth mentioning? or will it involve a good youth intake and scouting the world for promising youngsters?

The 2 goalies you've seen the links to (Pele {around £11m from Toulouse} tutoring Fahrmann now, to try and get his determination above 7! The guys got such good attributes apart from that too), and I invested £5m in a 17yo forward from Bielefeld who looks good; I'll maybe link him later.

In all honesty I feel I've mucked this save up and that it'd take a couple of seasons to turn around - I'm considering starting it again actually. I've not played many games the last couple of days because I've had to admit to myself that my tactical plans are not suitable for Germany, and obviously my squad is built for a particular set-up. Added to that, I've tried to grow the club too quickly and it's kinda blown up in my face. I'm loving Germany, because there's so many good teams, and I definately won't be managing anywhere else.

I'll sleep on it for another night I think, but don't be surprised if I start afresh.

EDIT: regarding scouting and youths - I like to be quite thorough without being too anal about it. I have 1 scout who looks at the youth leagues in the other 4 playable countries (ita, fra, eng, spa) as well as Germany; he gives each a couple of months. And I have another 8 scouts searching regions across Europe - guys as young as 15 turn up in these reports.