brod_104

Ah thank you, I must have overlooked that when making the change.

Carabao Cup review: The best match of the competition was a goalless draw in the first round? Really? Are you mad?? ... Oh... OK, carry on, sounds like was a pretty good 0-0 after all!

Not sure whether to be proud of this or not! In terms of players, Dennis Seimen kept 23 clean sheets in all competitions. His record of 17 in the league was second only to Daniel Peretz (who has taken over from Manuel Neuer at Bayern), and his average rating of 7.22 earned him the club's player of the season and signing of the season awards. Jhon Acurio, who turned 20 during the season, was our top goalscorer, with 16 in the league (putting him fourth in the scoring charts), and 20 in all competitions. Seimen came third in the German equivalent of the Players' Player of the Year award, which I think is impressive for a goalkeeper, which Calvin Ramsay was third in the Newcomer of the Season award (Ramsay's Liverpool contract expires in the summer, so I'm trying to make that a permanent deal). There appear to be two Team of the Year awards. Herold, Arrey-Mbi and Edwards all made it into the Players' Team of the Year, and also made it into the sponsors' team of the year alongside Can Uzun. (I'm a little disappointed Seimen didn't make it into either of these...) I'm a little disappointed to only come second in Manager of the Year, behind the Stuttgart manager (who led his team to third in the league).

I've rattled through the rest of the 2026-27 season, and have just played the final game of the season. January 2027 There wasn't any transfer budget left over from the summer, and the board didn't make any more funds available, so business in the winter transfer window was very quiet. Five players, all teenagers, arrived on deals that were agreed in the summer. These arrivals included Brazilian wing backs Oswaldo Ghisi (£72k) from Paysandu and Hélder (£97k) from Grêmio Novorizontino, Algerian centre-back Ali Hadji (£275k) from Guingamp, Colombian forward Jhon Maturana (free transfer) from Deportes Tolima, and Zambian striker Lameck Chilufya (£34k) from Zanaco. Hélder has the added bonus of being able to play in central defence and midfield as well. Outgoings were also limited. The notable exits were all loan deals for players unhappy with their playing time. Niklas Lang, André Boman and Julian Guttau all left on temporary deals. Lang and Guttau see their contracts expire at the end of the season, so have probably played their last games for the club, while Boman's loan deal lasts until December, as he has moved to Real Salt Lake in MLS. Chilufya also returned to Zanaco on loan, and goalkeeper Nathaniel Nwosu left for Bayelsa Utd on loan. In terms of results, the month started excellently with consecutive 4-1 wins away at Hamburg and at home to Union Berlin. This was followed by a trip to Manchester City in the Champions League, which we predictably lost, although our second half performance earned some credit in my opinion, getting a goal to reduce to half-time deficit from 3-0 to 3-1, which was how it finished. We then beat Heidenheim 2-0, before a deciding Champions League tie at home to Porto. We had to win in order to make the play-off round, and Can Uzun scored in the first minute to set us on our way to a 2-0 win, also helped by another impressive performance from Seimen in goal. The effort required seemed to have an effect in our next few games however, as we drew 0-0 against Freiburg to start a game of 5 league games without a win, which would run throughout February, February 2027 In the midst of poor league run, we had a few cup games to play. We started off with a narrow 1-0 win over Leverkusen in the cup quarter final, before home draws against Wolfsburg and Dortmund, 1-1 and 0-0 respectively. Our next league game was a real frustration, losing 1-0 away to Leverkusen, but the result could have been completely different, if not for a red card for Vesner Ticic given after only 15 seconds! Either side of the Leverkusen league game, we played our Champions League Play-Off tie, renewing acquaintances with Real Sociedad, one of our League Phase opponents. The first leg at home (in front of almost 51,000 at the Olympiastadion) was a narrow 1-0 win, thanks to a goal off the bench from Maturana. In the away leg, we found ourselves 2-0 down on the night after 72 minutes, and 2-1 down on aggregate. On 77 minutes though, we found an equaliser from an unlikely hero, Tunisian wing-back Karim Dhouib with his first goal for the club. We then took the game to penalties, where Dennis Seimen was the hero, saving one (while another hit the post), then scoring the winner! I wasn't taking the mick either, Seimen was actually my fourth highest rated penalty taker - although I put him on the fifth kick - with Composure of 13 and Penalty Tacking of 11! Our final game of the month was another defeat, this time unusual in that it was at home, with Stuttgart taking away a deserved 1-0 win in a game summed up by a missed penalty by Can Uzun. In the end, our poor form in February would end up being costly... March 2027 In March we managed to rediscover our form. We started with a Champions League tie against Barcelona, the first leg of which admittedly was a 3-0 home defeat. We then squeezed out a 1-0 win away to Mainz before the return tie against Barcelona, which was a 2-0 defeat, which I considered a respectable resilt, given I played a lot of fringe players in that return tie, as we played a league game on the following Friday night. That game was a home tie against Bochum, which ended in a 2-0 win. Our final game of the month was possibly one of our best results of the season, a 2-0 win away at Leipzig, although it was a little fortunate. Seimen was unbeatable again in goal, as Leipzig dominated the chances, but we scored twice through Arrey-Mbi of all people - his first a fairly standard header from a corner, but the second was a 30-yard daisy cutter! April 2027 That result against Leipzig seemed to give us our confidence back, as we won our next two league games much more convincingly. We beat Köln 3-1 at home thanks to a first-half Acurio hat-trick, before winning 4-0 away at Werder Bremen. This run of results meant that we were now level on points with Bayern with only five games to go - unfortunately, Bayern would be gifted the advantage in our next game, which we somehow lost 1-0 at home to Augsburg, while Bayern beat Union Berlin. We put this setback behind us for our next game, which was the cup Semi-Final against Gladbach. We dominated the game, but had to wait until the 79th minute before getting the breakthrough from a Vesner Ticic goal, before Acurio sealed a 2-0 win. We therefore secured a first DFB-Pokal final since the club last won the competition in 1964! We rounded off the month with a 2-1 win away to Frankfurt, thanks to a last minute winner from Lautaro Fedele. May 2027 The month started with a top-of-the-table clash against Bayern. To have any chance of winning an unlikely title, we really needed to win this game. There is still a noticeable gulf in quality when you look at the two squads though, so I couldn't go too attacking. In the end, a second 0-0 draw against Bayern is a respectable result on the day, although it meant we were still three points adrift. We did go on to win our final two games away against Gladbach (1-0) and at home to Hamburg (4-0), but Bayern also won their games. We therefore missed out on the title, but an impressive second place does secure Champions League football for consecutive seasons! And so to our final game of the season, the DFB-Pokal Final, in which our opponents were Mainz. For this game, I restored Marco Hiller to the starting XI (as I had for all our cup games where he was fit). The rest of the starting line-up was as close to first choice as I could get though, with Vesner Ticic only fit for a place on the bench after picking up a knock against Hamburg. Our line-up therefore included Hiller in goal, a back three of Quansah, Jeltsch and Arrey-Mbi, Calvin Ramsay and David Herold at wing back (Herold just back from a month out injured), and Edwards and Finndell in the middle. Out front three was comprised of Can Uzun and Nestory Irankunda on the wings, and Jhon Acurio through the middle. In the end, the game was a poor game, with neither team registering double figures in terms of attempts. It was a game that would either go to penalties, or be decided by a single goal, and it turned out to be the latter, and even that was a bit fortunate! Happily, it went in our favour! In the 43rd minute, Uzun and Acurio combined to send Irankunda through on goal. Despite the defenders managing to get back, Irankunda was able to get a shot away, which took a deflection to find the bottom corner. We managed to close out the game in the second half, and secured the club's first piece of top-tier silverware in over 60 years!

I wonder what the quantitive amount is for "Cup Goalkeeper"? In my 1860 München save, I still have Marco Hiller who was first choice for the first three seasons, but has been replaced by Dennis Seimen in season 4. I reduced his playing time to "Cup Goalkeeper", and have played him in every DFB Pokal tie so far (we're into the semi finals). He complained about not starting enough in February, and I told him he would play cup games, which he accepted. He has since played the Pokal quarter final (which is the only game we've played in that competition since), and even played him in the Champions League against Barcelona (as I wasn't expecting to win that tie). He's now saying time running out to play in cup games. But I've literally played him in every single one! *Edit - and immediately after posting this, he gets injured for 5 weeks...

I've now reached the winter break in 2026-27 and, at the not-quite-halfway mark (because we've played 16 out of our 17 possible opponents...), unbelievably we're top of the league! November 2026 Our first game of the month was in the Champions League, a tough trip to Spain to face Real Sociedad. In a topsy-turvy match, we took a first half lead, and were heading for a deserved win until the 78th minute. We then conceded twice and looked to be heading to an unfortunate defeat, but then Gabriel Veron popped up with a 95th minute equaliser to rescue a point. We then had to settle for a second 2-2 draw in the space of 4 days, twice throwing away a lead to draw away to Köln. This was followed by a dramatic win at home to Werder Bremen, in which we led from the second minute, conceded in the 94th minute, but then went straight down the other end for Irankunda to score a winner. Next up was a trip to Austria to face SK Sturm. This was a game I'd earmarked as a potentially winnable game, so I was disappointed that we squandered chance after chance to be held to a 1-1 draw. Our final game of the month was away to Augsburg, where we secured a 2-1 win thanks to goals from Can Uzun and Finn Jeltsch. December 2026 The month started with a trip to second-tier St Pauli in the cup. Despite taking an early lead, we were generally quite poor and conceded an injury time equaliser. We did eventually go through thanks to an injury time winner from David Herold with his first ever goal for the club. Our reward is a home tie in the Quarter Final against Leverkusen, who are in a relegation struggle this season. With Bayern already out of the cup and Dortmund and Leipzig drawn against each other, this suddenly becomes a winnable competition! After this, our next league game saw us eventually ease to a 3-0 win over Frankfurt through goals from Fedele, Herold and Sanogo. This game didn't see loads of chances, but we were fairly clinical with ours for once, and did well to frustrate the visitors. Our next game was another Champions League tie, this time at home to PSV, which was another game I though was winnable. Unfortunately we were very wasteful and were held to a 0-0 draw. This means we currently sit 25th in the league phase, just outside the playoff round qualification places. I'm particularly disappointed we didn't get a win from at least one of the four games we've drawn, particularly the trip to Sturm and our home ties against PSV and Monaco. I do wonder if we were disadvantaged in those two home games by playing at the Grünwalder, where our attendance was limited to less than 6,000, perhaps leading to a lack of atmosphere. Compare this to our other home game so far against Roma, played in front of 46,000 fans at the Olympiastadion, which we won 2-0. As it stands, we are now relying on getting a result somewhere from our final games away at Man City, or at home (at the Olympiastadion) against Porto, who are one place above us on the same points tally - that game could be huge! After the disappointment of the PSV game, we faced a daunting trip to city rivals Bayern. We had a first-half goal disallowed and managed only one other shot in the entire game, but Dennis Seimen was in outstanding form and somehow we came away from the match with a point, thanks to a goalless draw. This result gave us confidence going into the final game before Christmas, at home to Gladbach, who were struggling in the relegation zone after an impressive 5th place finish and cup win last season. We were clinical, and secured a 4-0 victory thanks to first half goals from Finndell, Arrey-Mbi and Acurio, and a second-half penalty from Acurio to wrap up the game. As mentioned at the start of this post, somehow this run of results means that we are top of the league for Christmas! We're a point ahead of Stuttgart, and three ahead of Bayern. In terms of stats, our teenage Ecuadorian striker Jhon Acurio is our top scorer with 9 goals from 15 league games (putting him second in that list), and 11 goals in all competitions. Standout performers overall though so far are goalkeeper Dennis Seimen, with 10 clean sheets in 22 appearances in all competitions and an average rating of 7.1, and wing-back David Herold with 8 assists, 5 man-of-the-match awards (one off the record for a whole season already) and an average rating of 7.24. I'm not sure how much business I will manage to conduct in January. There are five youngsters all due to arrive (plus the return of a couple of loans), but I don't currently have any spare transfer or wage budget. This means that there will have to be departures before any more senior arrivals. Right-wing-back André Boman has asked to leave as he has fallen behind Calvin Ramsay and youth academy product Serkan Uyar, so could be one to leave, so could bring in a fee of a couple of million if a permanent deal is found.

September 2026 September was a mixed bag of results, but in fairness was a very tough run of fixtures. We started the month well with a 2-1 win away at Wolfsburg, although we were reliant on a 95th minute winner in that game. We then played our first game back in the Champions League, at home to Monaco - in all honesty, we were pretty poor and were lucky to escape with a goalless draw. This game also set an attendance record: a record low of under 5,500, purely because we played this game in our regular Grünwalder stadium, which only has 5,941 seats. (I actually did a quick bit of reading, and according to Wikipedia, the stadium might not even meet 2.Bundesliga requirements, never mind Champions League, so I think we should have moved out already!) Our next game was away at Dortmund, and we put in a pretty good performance. Dennis Seimen was forced into 9 saves, but none of their efforts were particularly clear-cut. Unfortunately we couldn't quite hold on for a draw, and lost 1-0 through a 95th minute own goal. We then played our next European tie, and were ripped apart in Amsterdam as Ajax ran out comfortable 3-0 winners. We finished off the month by getting back to winning ways, coming back from behind thanks to a brace from Can Uzun to beat Leverkusen 2-1. October 2026 There was a three-week break after the Leverkusen game due to an international window with the new fixture calendar. I think that resulted in a bit of rustiness in our first game back, away at Stuttgart; despite taking the lead early in the second half, we capitulated and fell to a 3-1 loss. Results have picked up since then though. We bounced back with a 1-0 win against Mainz, thanks to Can Uzun again, before our first Champions League "home" tie at the Olympiastadion against Roma. We were helped by a first half red card for the Italian side, but almost 46,000 fans were in attendance for a well-deserved 2-0 win, Uzun and Acurio on the scoresheet. We followed this with a 2-0 away win against local rivals Bochum thanks to an Acurio double. Next was a domestic cup tie against second-tier side Wehen Wiesbaden and, despite a rotated side absolutely dominated, we were wasteful and were forced to a penalty shoot-out. Fortunately we won the shoot-out 4-2 to progress to the third round where we face a trip to St Pauli. Our final game of the month was against Leipzig and produced a remarkable 3-1 win (admittedly, again helped by an early red card for our opponents). All this means that as we head into November, with 10 league games played, we are currently joint-league leaders, alongside Bayern! We're also currently in 19th place in the Champions League league phase on four points, level with Inter, Atlético, Tottenham and Man Utd.

August 2026 The transfer window has now closed, and there were a couple of additional deals completed. I did find a loan option at right wing-back in the form of Calvin Ramsay from Liverpool. He's a possible gamble with his injury record, but offers competition with Boman and Uyar. The second incoming deal was completely unexpected, but my scouts turned up an 18-year-old Iraqi international with Norwegian citizenship playing for Strømsgodset. He's a model citizen, has amazing mental and physical stats for his age, and was available for just £4.5m. Say hello to Ahmed Hassan: The arrival of Hassan meant that game time for Alpha Touré would probably be more limited, so he has joined Nürnberg on loan. The arrival of Seimen in goal, with Hiller as backup and two decent teenage prospects meant Mustapha Lawal has also become surplus to requirements, and he has joined Heartland on loan, heading back to Nigeria. All in all, very happy with the transfer business. We've had a pretty good start to the season in terms of results too. We were admittedly fortunate in our opening cup game against Karlsruhe though. We fell behind twice and needed them to go down to 10 men after their goalkeeper got injured with no subs left available, before scoring three times after the 80th minute to record a 4-2 win. I was a bit concerned about the performance overall, but Can Uzun had an excellent debut, scoring twice, while Gabriel Veron got two assists off the bench. Quansah and Greilinger got the other goals. In the league, we began with a home game against newly-promoted Heidenheim. I'm not sure if it was rustiness or complacency, but we struggled a bit in this match, but did manage to come away with a 1-0 win courtesy of a Ronnie Edwards goal. Next was a trip to Union Berlin, a team we seem to play well against, and this was no different, with a 2-0 win secured by goals from Quansah and Vesner Ticic. Our next game was at home to Freiburg, and the result maybe flattered us a little. On paper, it was a dominant 4-1 victory, but Freiburg two goals (at least) disallowed. Highlights in this game though were a hat-trick for Jhon Acurio to open his account and a first goal for 17-year-old Serkan Uyar on his first start after several substitute appearances, which also made him the club's youngest ever goalscorer. This leaves us second in the league after three games with a 100% record. Our Champions League games have also been drawn, and it's a tough draw. We have home games against Monaco, Roma, PSV and Porto, plus away games against Ajax, Real Sociedad, SK Sturm and, of all teams, Man City. I'm not sure we'll make it into the play-off round! On the upside, it looks like we might be playing the games against Roma and Porto in Munich's 69,250 capacity Olympiastadion, rather than our 15,000 capacity stadium, so hopefully we'll get some good gate receipts from those. Speaking of the stadium, I think I forgot to mention this previously, but the club are in the process of building a new stadium, known as the 1860 München Stadium (how original). This will have a capacity of 25,599 (could they not squeeze in one more seat?), and we're due to move in in June 2029. Whether my save will last that long, who knows!

Summer Transfer Window 2026 The 2026/27 season is about to start, beginning with a trip to Karlsruhe in the first round of the cup. I'm doing an update now as it's been a busy transfer window so far, and unless anyone else leaves for a big fee, I'm unlikely to do any more deals. We were given a budget of £21m to spend, and the one of the board vision objectives was to spend it. We've made big use of this money with that in mind, bringing in 10 players (including three youth players) with three more players to join in January, while 6 players have left (in addition to 6 youth team players released on free transfers). Let's deal with the outgoings first. The youth players released were Philip Kuhn, Moritz Rem, Lukas Reich, Samuel Althaus, Jakub Schurz and Dardan Mehmeti, none of which made a competitive appearance for the club during my time. The more notable outgoings started with Devin Sür, who joined Wrexham for a tiny £67k fee. Dominik Franke was next to leave, joining Groningen for £600k, before we got our first bit of Saudi money as Jonas David joined Al-Wehda for £2.6m. Bienvenue Kanakimana joined Sporting Farense on loan for a £105k fee, which an optional future fee of £300k. After a taking a long time to consider the contract offer, Tyreece John-Jules also left the club, joining Watford for a deal reaching £4m. Finally, newgen Iranian youth international goalkeeper Hesam Khanban joined Hamburg for an initial fee of £275k, rising to £325k with a 40% sell-on clause - I didn't want to accept this one, and spent a lot of July turning down offers until the player eventually got the hump and handed in a transfer request, so I reluctantly allowed the deal. In total, these deals brought in an extra £7m. Now to the exciting bit - the incomings. Before the window started, I'd already agreed the signings of teenagers Santos and Gaëtan Boli on free transfers (Santos has re-joined Sousa on loan until December). I also confirmed the permanent signings of Jarell Quansah (£325k) and David Herold (free), who were here on loan last season. The other pre-contract signing was Ronnie Edwards from Peterborough. With budgets announced, I set about spending some of the £21m with the signing of a new goalkeeper and a defender. In goal, I was able to bring in none other than Dennis Seimen from Stuttgart for £8m. He'd been second choice at Stuttgart for the past three seasons, but is an immediate upgrade on Marco Hiller. In defence, I activated a relegation release clause of £1.4m for Bright Arrey-Mbi from Hannover, another upgrade in defence which enabled the sales of Franke and David. A few days later we confirmed the signing of a 17-year-old Danish winger, Lars Skolnik, who my scouts had spotted at AB Gladsaxe, and he cost £400k. On the same day, we also confirmed the signing of 20-year-old German youth international Can Uzun for the right-wing. He cost a release clause of £8.25m from Nürnberg and has agreed to terms as a squad player, but looks to be potentially our best player in that position. We were still lacking a little bit of quality on the wings, especially if we wanted to play Fedele primarily as a striker, so we also brought in Brazilian winger Gabriel Veron from Porto for a further £8.25m. I think this gives us a lot more quality, and decent strength in depth whilst also giving opportunities to play youth team players occasionally. We're perhaps a little light a right wing-back, but André Boman generally played quite well after joining last season. That might be an area to upgrade in January, if we are given a bit more budget. Alternatively, I might seek out a loan deal. I mentioned three future transfers confirmed for January. This includes Oswaldo Ghisi mentioned previously, but also an Algerian centre-back Ali Hadji from Guingamp for £275k, and Colombian striker Jhon Maturana on a free from Deportes Tolima. For now though, our squad looks a little bit like this in terms of options: Goalkeepers: Dennis Seimen, Marco Hiller, Mustapha Lawal, Nathaniel Nwosu, Miran Qela Central Defenders (3 from): Finn Jeltsch, Jarell Quansah, Bright Arrey-Mbi, Niklas Lang, Ismaïla Sanogo, Ferdinand Pohl Right Wing-Back: André Boman, Serkan Uyar, Ante Banden Left Wing-Back: David Herold, Fabian Greilinger, Karim Dhouib Defensive Midfield (2 from): Ronnie Edwards, Luka Vesner Ticic, Hampus Finndell, Alpha Touré, Lucio Saric, Martin Jovanovikj Right Wing: Can Uzun, Nestory Irankunda* Left Wing: Gabriel Veron*, Julian Guttau Striker: Lautaro Fedele, Jhon Acurio, Matija Marsenic *Can play either wing

Time for the breakdown of the final three months of the season, that resulted in 1860 München's return to the top table of European football... March 2026 We started the month well, with a 3-0 win at home over Wolfsburg. We actually dominated this game, but only had a 1-0 lead for most of it, and almost conceded late on, but two goals in stoppage time gave a score-line that more accurately reflected the flow of the match. We then travelled to Dortmund in a game I honestly wasn't expecting anything from, and my fears appeared to be realised after they scored within 40 seconds. For the rest of the first half though the game was fairly even, and it was only after a red card for Jonas David that Dortmund were able to finish us off, resulting in a 3-0 defeat. Our final game of the month was at home against local rivals Bochum, who were fighting relegation. The game was closer than it should have been, and we were twice pegged back. Eventually we did secure a 3-2 win thanks to an 81st minute winner from 18-year-old Lucio Saric on only his third competitive appearance. April 2026 We had another tricky game to start the month, away at Leverkusen. We actually defended quite well in this game, and created just as many chances as they did, despite having less than 40% possession, with the game eventually finishing in a 0-0 draw. Next up was Mainz at home, which was again a fairly even game, but we were actually clinical with our chances for a change, and a Fedele brace helped us to a 3-0 win. Unfortunately, our form fell off a cliff after this, and we lost four games on the bounce, which almost cost us our top four finish. First we lost 2-1 away to soon-to-be-relegated Hoffenheim, before a topsy-turvy game at home to Freiburg ended in a 3-2 defeat. We were the better team against Freiburg, conceding an early goal against the run of play, before turning it around to lead 2-1 with 20 minutes to go. We then conceded an equaliser and then suffered heartbreak with a 92nd minute winner for the visitors... May 2026 Our run of defeats continued into May, with a 2-0 home defeat to Leipzig (easily our worst home performance of the season), and a narrow 1-0 defeat away to Köln. This run of form had been enough to allow Gladbach to draw on points, and we were fortunate that they had also dropped points with away defeats to Dortmund and Leverkusen in their last four games. It was also apparently sufficient for the dreaded "unwilling to experiment" email. Not through an unwillingness to experiment, but more from the perspective I didn't think it would be worth changing tactic for a single game, I instead arranged a morale booster for midweek - a 13-1 against a local side win is normally enough to perk up most players spirits - and we headed into our final day game at home to Werder Bremen just needing to match whatever Gladbach could manage against Hoffenheim. We eased into a 2-0 lead by half time thanks to goals from Fedele and Irankunda and, despite conceding a late goal that set off a few nerves, held on for the win required. Gladbach meanwhile were held to a goalless draw by Hoffenheim. And so, Champions League qualification was secured! In terms of stats, goals were much harder to come by this season, with Lautaro Fedele top scorer with 11 overall (8 in the league). Finn Jeltsch and Tyreece John-Jules got 7 each (not bad for Jeltsch, considering he played the season half in midfield, half in defence), with Jarell Quansah helping himself to 6 from set pieces. Top performers of the regular players were goalkeeper Marco Hiller, as the only player with an average rating above 7, followed by Quansah and Jeltsch with high 6.9s. The squad will be in need of a bit of a rebuild over the summer, but I'll need to be mindful of Champions League squad registration rules. I do have seven players currently in my squad who count as home-grown at club, but of these only one is (currently) a regular starter, in the form of Hiller. Fabian Greilinger and Niklas Lang have been regulars over the past three seasons, but I'm not sure they are Champions League standard, while the other four are youngsters. I have already got some transfers lined up and confirmed, including the permanent signing of left wing-back David Herold on a free transfer from Bayern when his contract runs expires. Also confirmed is the free signing of Ronnie Edwards from Peterborough, which I'm quite excited about - I just need to decide whether to use him in midfield or defence (any recommendations welcome!). There are also three teenagers confirmed on free transfers with big potential: Brazilian wing-back Oswaldo Ghisi from Paysandu, Brazilian midfielder Santos from Sousa, and Belgian winger Gaëtan Boli from Olympic Charleroi. I've also been given a transfer budget of £21m. I've started the spending by activating the option to sign Quansah on a permanent deal for £325k. I'm also planning to bring Leandro Morgalla back to the club from Salzburg - his agent has already indicated he would be interested, and he would count towards that home-grown quota. There are a few players I want to move on (Ronstadt, Kanakinama, Kurt and Cocic have already been ear-marked for attempted sales. The likes of Dominik Franke, Jonas David, Julian Guttau may also be on the way out if I can find any takers. Edit: OK, so Morgalla might be a no-go. It must have been the January transfer window when I asked, and he has since signed a new contract, resulting in his asking price being double what it was, and his wage demands being double that of my highest earner...

"Ils sont les meilleurs Sie sind die Besten These are the champions Die Meister Die Besten Les grandes équipes The champioooooooooons!!!!!!" We did our best to throw it away, with four straight defeats in the run-in before the final day, but 1860 München are back in the Champions League!!! More detailed update from the run-in to follow next time I'm online.

Finn Jeltsch has been awarded second place in the NXGN:2026 award, behind only Lamine Yamal! He's been an excellent signing, well worth breaking the club record for!

I'm now at the end of February 2025 and we haven't collapsed yet, despite some mixed form, so somehow we're still very much in the running for European qualification! In fairness though, I think some of our results haven't been too bad given who we've played. December 2025 Form in December (and January, to be honest) was a little disappointing, as goals started to dry up a bit. We started the month by going out of the cup in a dramatic game against Frankfurt. We were fortunate to be only 1-0 down at half-time, with reserve goalkeeper Mustapha Lawal saving a penalty, but we managed to improve in the second half and find an equaliser. The game ended up going to penalties, and despite Lawal saving two more in the shoot-out, Ronstadt and loanee Herold also saw their efforts saved before Ismaïla Sanogo hit the underside of the bar, with Frankfurt then scoring to go through. In the league, we drew 0-0 away to Freiburg before a disappointing 2-0 defeat away to then-leaders Leipzig. We did go into the winter break on the back of a win though after Julian Guttau's first goal of the season was enough to secure a 1-0 victory against Köln. January 2026 We did all of our transfer business early in January. Frank Ronstadt has been a little disappointing over the course of the season a right wing-back, with missed penalties not helping his case, so our main signing was 24-year-old Swede André Boman for £1.9m from Elfsborg. We also signed 17-year-old midfielder Sonay Çimen on a free transfer from Wattenscheid, who is one for the future. We also signed an 18-year-old Ecuadorian striker on a free transfer, who could turn out to be a gem when he can be registered. Jhon Acurio is already a full international who was unattached after his contract with Barcelona in his home country expired, but he couldn't be registered for the second half of the German season because he had played for both Barcelona and Platense of Argentina on loan. I still wanted to get the signing done though, because he was drawing interest from the likes of PSG and Chelsea. I can't play him until next season, but he has gone straight in as my most valuable player, with a market value of around £20m! Leaving the club to make room for these signings were Bryan Soto, who returned to Chile with Universidad de Chile for £225k, and Momo Mbaye who signed for Saint-Étienne for £400k. I did also make a late move for Tommy Doyle who'd been released by Man City, but he elected to join Augsburg in the second division, as they had offered a higher wage. Eventually the football got back underway, starting with an away game against the one team we hadn't played so far, Werder Bremen. A Jarell Quansah goal gave us a 1-0 win, a result that was repeated in our home game with Hamburg with the goal this time being a rare strike from Dominik Franke. We then lost our two return games against our fellow promoted sides, Gladbach and Hannover. We first lost a forgettable match 1-0 to Gladbach through an early goal from Manu Koné, before losing an even game by the odd goal in three at Hannover. February 2026 February has been a more positive month. We did start the month with our third defeat on the bounce, losing 1-0 at home to Bayern, but I felt we could take a lot of heart from the performance, as we had more opportunities, and prevented them from having a single shot in the first half. Eventually we succumbed to an 81st minute winner from Brahim Díaz. To try and avoid any heads dropping, we won a hastily arranged friendly against a local non-league side, and immediately saw a benefit, getting revenge for our cup defeat by beating Frankfurt 2-0 away, with goals from Quansah and John-Jules. A 3-1 home over Union Berlin followed, thanks to goals from John-Jules, Jeltsch and Marsenic, and we wrapped up the month with a 1-1 draw at Stuttgart, to make it 7 points from the last 9 available. All this means that with only 10 games to go, we're still in the Champions League places, sitting fourth, only three points of Leipzig in second (Bayern have finally started to click and run away with the title again). We are only point ahead of fifth-placed Gladbach, who've shot up the table in recent months, and only seven points clear of Wolfsburg and Leverkusen below that. So whilst we're looking good for Europe, we don't want to drop too many points!

We're now just over a third of the way into the season, so it's probably a good time to see how we're shaping up. September 2025 After a wonderful start to the season with 7 points from our first three games, we had a reality check in our first game of the month, away to Bayern. We were very poor, while Bayern fully deserved their 3-0 win, although weirdly, their goals all had an element of fortune: an own-goal, a poor back-pass to send Kane through 1-on-1 with the keeper, and a dodgy penalty. We showed some character though in our next game, a 1-1 draw with Frankfurt, which we should have won but for some poor finishing, with the point rescued by a penalty from Frank Ronstadt, his first goal for the club. Our final game of the month was much better: a 2-1 win away at Union Berlin through goals from Fedele and John-Jules. October 2025 In was a case of one more of each result in our three league games in October, which started with a 1-1 home draw with Stuttgart. This was followed by an unfortunate 2-1 defeat away at Wolfsburg, where Fedele scored the opening goal midway through the first half, only for Wolfsburg to turn it around before half-time. A red card for Kaan Kurt in the second half killed off any hopes of a recovery. Our final league game of the season was arguably our biggest result of the season so far, a stunning 2-0 win at home against Dortmund thanks to goals from Jeltsch and Greilinger. We finished the month with our second round cup tie, which was a second trip to Wolfsburg in the space of 10 days. Despite rotating a few players, including an appearance in goal for Mustapha Lawal, and starts for youngsters Alpha Touré and Devin Sür, we secured a deserved 1-0 thanks to an unbelievable 30-yard volley from Fedele. November 2025 Our good form continued into November, starting with a 2-1 comeback win against fierce local rivals Bochum. This game was notable for a winner from Matija Marsenic, a 20-year-old Montenegrin attacking midfielder, making only his second substitute appearance, and in an unfamiliar role as a striker. I don't really play with an attacking midfielder in the tactic, but Marsenic has the attributes to suggest he could be retrained as a striker. Our next game was a home game against another big hitter in the form of Bayer Leverkusen, and we replicated our Dortmund performance and result, with another 2-0 win. This game had another notable first-time scorer, with Nestory Irankunda finally scoring his first goal after an inconsistent 14 months or so. Our rhythm seemed to be disrupted by two weeks off for an international break, as our next game was probably our worst performance of the season so far, a 3-0 defeat at Mainz. We recovered somewhat with a slightly unconvincing 2-0 win over bottom club Hoffenheim in our final game of the month - not the best performance, but another three points. All this means that, going into December, we're still in the cup (and play Frankfurt in the third round next) but unbelievably, we're THIRD in the league! We're only five points behind league leaders Leipzig and three behind Bayern (who are unbeaten but have dropped a lot of points in draws). We're three points clear of Dortmund in fourth, although they have a game in hand, and we're seven points clear of Leverkusen and Mainz, who are just outside the European spots. If we can avoid too many more injuries (Swedish midfielder Finndell has just returned from 3 months out with a broken ankle suffered against Hamburg in August, and Fedele has just been ruled out for a month) who knows what we could achieve? I think we should be safe from relegation, which was the aim, and I think even if we finish mid-table that would still be a success, but could Europe be on the cards?