FM13: Borussia Dortmund - Echte Liebe.

[numero uno gunner]

@Ryknow - Great transfer dealings there! Maupay is really hitting form for me, so hope you have the same fortune with him. Also glad to see Kagawa coming home as well! I will post some screenshots at the end of the season of the newgens.

@batty1 - That's a brilliant turnaround! Well done, now you need to make sure that you finish the job off. Nothing like needing 4 wins to focus the mind...

@Sacfe - Interesting tactic there, and looks like you have had some really success with it. Its about time you came and rejoined the BVB revolution isn't it?

@tomtuck01 - Thiago is a quality player, so hope you manage to land him in the summer. I've just let him go (down to not being home-grown not because of his ability) but I highly recommend him.

Interesting discussion on tactics. I'm using a 4-2-3-1, with the following settings:

MC - BWM (D)

MC - B2B (S)

AMR - W (A)

AMC - AP (S)

AML - IF (A)

ST - P (A)

I'm finding that my amr is getting a fair few assists, and goals are coming from the striker, aml and amc, with the b2b chipping in with a few as well.

I often utilise a 4-3-3 to seal games off, essentially moving the amc to a dm anchor to add some defensive solidity. I guess that's the big advantage of having Bender, Rode and Goretzka within the squad, meaning there is that flexibility to change within a game.

I've just reached the winter break in my game (17/18). In Europe, we topped our group of Olympiakos, Rapid Wien and PSG with a game to go, which was pleasing. Barcelona, Chelsea and Juventus all finished runners-up in their respective groups, so no doubt the draw will not be kind to us.

Domestically, things are going well. Advanced to the third round in the DFB-Pokal with ease, and face Aue in round three.

However, it is the Bundesliga where we have been fantastic. 17 games gone, and we have already got 46 points, only dropping points away at Gladbach, who beat us 3-0 (and we were truly awful) and away at Hannover in a 2-2 draw. We are 12 points clear of both Bayern and Stuttgart.0 Its 8 from 8 at home, scoring 27 and conceding just 2. The highlight was most certainly this:

Pleased doesn't quite cover it

Players wise, Vukasinovic must've read my comment, after 1 assist in his first 8 games, his next 8 has yielded 10 assists. Glad he is finally stepping up. Maupay has 14 goals in 11 games, and his displaced Brendel (16 in 13) from the starting 11 at the moment. Volland (6 in 7) and Schurrle (5 in 11) are having their own personal duel to gain the first choice aml position, with Volland just about on top at the moment, but its safe to say the competition is bringing out the best in both of them. The same can probably be said for the keeper position as well. Sippel has come in and kept some clean sheets, which has made Kawashima work harder to keep the number 1 shirt, resulting in excellent displays.

In terms of the new signings, Sippel as mentioned has done well, and Rode has been steady and reliable. Plattenhardt, however, has been a revelation. Solid, dependable, and most importantly, less error-prone than Schmelzer. I think Schmelzer's time at Dortmund may come to an end in the summer if Plattenhardt can keep this level of performance up.

[tomtuck01]

Not bothering with full season reviews, etc. so this is my review of the second half of my first season with Dortmund. The first half season review is in post number 844. Enjoy.

--------------------------

Bundesliga

You know I could be disappointed about getting so close but just missing out, but really I'm not. We put in some great performances during the second half of the campaign, and earned more points than we did in the first half. At the end of the day though the Bayern monster were superb after christmas, winning fifteen of their seventeen matches, so fair enough.

On a plus point, Robert Lewandowski was the leagues top scorer with 26 goals, and Błaszczykowski the top assister with 14.

DFB-Pokal

So we won the domestic cup. We breezed through the quarters and semi's, even with rotating the side a bit. We struggled hugely in the final, twice falling behind. We won a penalty though in the 84th minute, which Lewandowski had saved, but thankfully he tapped in the rebound! Extra was played out, and in the end we won it 4-2 on penalties.

Fair play to Frankfurt, they played really well, defending tightly and counter attacking to great affect. However, I'm delighted to have lifted the trophy.

Champions League

After a terrific group stage, we ended up going all the way to the semi finals. We tightly got past Malaga without probably deserving it, but then coasted past Galatasary. Against United we were excellent in both legs, but they just had the slightly better of it and deserved to go through.

Still, I was delighted to go as far as we did and it was a great adventure throughout.

What Next

Well as you all have probably gathered from my other posts, Mario Goetze is leaving us. Real pity as he had a marvellous campaign, but we must move on, and the £32million we are to recieve for him will help us do that.

Sebastien Kehl wants to go, and I will regrettably grant him his wish. And Oliver Kirch will more than likely move on despite me liking his personality.

Aside from that I can't imagine too much business being done. Well, there is the Robert Lewandowski conundrum, which I am still weighing up.

--------------------------

Well ta for reading, despite my updates been split in two rather than a big one at the end of the season, I hope you managed to follow.

[batty1]

Well like Tom, I'm only going to post what happened in the 2nd half of my 2nd season. You can see what happened in the first half of the season in post 869.

Bundesliga

Had I not have beaten Bayern, we'd have finished 2nd. Conceded to many goals for my liking and had to many draws again.

Champions League

German domination, but more importantly a win for me! Got so jammy with Gustavo picking up a 2nd yellow!

Next season

With Sahin going back to Madrid, I'm hopefully going to bring in Goretzka and Bender both transfer listed after me unsettling them \o/. Insigne didn't play that much for me so I might off load him with Kuba, Grosskreutz, Langerak and maybe Subotic. Roman will be leaving on a free transfer.

Will probably then shift Gotze out onto the right wing and bring in Eriksen for £13M (listed), Ter Stegen (unsettled), not sure on a CB.

EDIT: What a deal! Signed Insigne for £10.75M and a seasonn later shipping him off for £24M to chelsea!

[Ryknow]

Numero uno gunner: You use a BWM in a 4-2-3-1? Doesn't that leave you terribly exposed due to his high closing down. Much of the talk on the forums is to adopt a CM on support or defend instead, as he'll be much more positionally disciplined.

You might not notice it, or it gets cancelled out if your whole team presses I guess.

Marvin Plattenhardt? Or a newgen with same last name?

Great result v Bayern, totally dominated them.

Tomtuck: unlucky on missing out on the title, as seen in my last season, yours and batty1's Bayern really storm home in the 2nd half of the season.

Batty1: congrats on winning the title and UCL. Your amount conceded should decrease when Ter Stegen takes the number one spot.

By bringing in Lars Bender I've noticed Sven's been getting less game time, which annoys me considering he's one of my most solid players averaging around 7.8. Add my newgen Lepper to the mix and I'm kind of wishing I didn't get Lars in.

Truth be told I regret the Schürrle and Lars Bender deals. While they don't break the bank or anything they aren't certain to start every game so are getting wasted a bit in that regard. I think I work better with a smaller squad, and the huge promotion of youngsters has caused less game time for the senior guys. Some are 18 yrs old now, and HG so I will send a few out on loan for the remaining of the season, hopefully resulting in more consistent game time for the Bender bros and co.

Same has happened in defence. My HG LB rotates a lot with Schmelzer, and the Hummels/Sokratis partnership has been split by my German newgen DC, who is only 18. Even Gündogan is getting less game time as Kaufmann(newgen) is fantastic.

Further forward it's fine. I don't have any newgens capable of pushing the ST/AML/R players out just yet.

While blessed with incredibly talented newgens, they certainly have given me a selection headache. Hard not to play them.

[Safce]

@Sacfe - Interesting tactic there, and looks like you have had some really success with it. Its about time you came and rejoined the BVB revolution isn't it?

Tactic spawned from having a piszczek really, he's not exactly a full back and he suited a wing back roll more, he did great until i sold him to Bayern for ~£20 million and replaced him with a rather defensive minded dutch regen wingback. Focus of attack then switched more to the left side of the pitch with Alaba and Asamoah playing there. I'd love to come back to BVB but I think my squads made it to easy to be enjoyable now haha, currently in march and haven't lost or drew a game thus far in the league....

[tomtuck01]

Big problem with Wingbacks in the DM line, (as apposed to at the Defensive line), is that they don't behave properly and like they do in real life. Found that very annoying when creating a tactic with WB's on another save.

batty1 - Christ that was a close call in the league, but well done in getting over the line! Also it's always lovely to win a CL like that! The challenge now is retaining it. Good luck.

Ryknow - Just one of those things really, can't really moan when we match the previous record for points in the Bundesliga and someone betters it. Just got to hold your hands up and say "well played".

Also, I understand regretting the Schurrle deal just by looking at his PPM's - they are rotten and put me off straight away!

--------------------------

EDIT - On another note, what's the most anyone has managed to get for Lewandowski as a straight fee without any installments?

[batty1]

Cheers Tom and Ryknow

Ryknow You're right about Bender, but Schurrle did the biz for me tbf with 18 goals and 8 assists in 29 apps on the LW.

Been a slight deviation in the players I'm hoping to bring in (Jerome Boateng £8M?) Oh and my beloved Man United came offered me a job with a £110M warchest.

[tomtuck01]

Got an offer from PSG of £34million straight cash for Lewandowski. Anyone managed to get more without installments?

[batty1]

Yep, £45M from Barca all up front!

[tomtuck01]

Yep, £45M from Barca all up front!

Can't seem to get anymore upfront at the minute, (maybe because Spanish window isn't open yet?). Got an offer of £46 million from Chelsea, but a boat load of that was over 48months.

Might just have to take the £34million.

Also regaridng Boateng, I'd only play him at FB myself due to his appalling "Concentration" attribute - it's shocking for a CB. But £8million for FB who can play either side I'd be happy to pay.

[Ryknow]

Try negotiating to include a sum after league goals. He'll score about 20 first season and you'll have some extra budget to deal with later on. However, I wouldn't accept anything less than £40mil, but all depends on who is interested tbh.

Batty1: Yeah, Schürrle just has the disadvantage of having to compete with Reus for the LW spot. Having said that, I've loaned out 3 newgen wonder kids for 6 months so they'll be more chances for the senior lads now. Monitoring them each game, and one of them has 2 goals and an assist in 3 games, not bad.

[tomtuck01]

Try negotiating to include a sum after league goals. He'll score about 20 first season and you'll have some extra budget to deal with later on. However, I wouldn't accept anything less than £40mil, but all depends on who is interested tbh.

Non negotiable. Haven't had an offer that is negotiable yet.

[batty1]

Think I may have to play a slightly narrow formation this year as I'm innundated with AMC talent (Gotze, Eriksen, Halilovic, Leitner, Bittencourt) not all would get game time in my wider 4-2-3-1.

[Ryknow]

Non negotiable. Haven't had an offer that is negotiable yet.

If in early July, list him at £40mil and wait. Someone will come in with a negotiable offer. Offer out mid August if noones made a bid. That's how I did it, PSG, Chelsea and Barca made negotiable bids but kept withdrawing. Eventually struck one up with Barca.

[Safce]

I've gave in to the lure of this amazing team and started a fresh, early stages so I've just sorted the back room staff and put a bid in for Strandberg and Timo Werner, scouting capari as well as I've fallen in FM love with him at Pescara haha

[batty1]

Erm yeah, thats screwed me up royally. Leno now Ter Stegen injured just before the German Super cup

[numero uno gunner]

@Ryknow - I'm playing a pressing game with fairly aggressive tackling so this is probably counter acting the BWM being out of position occasionally. I've only conceded 11 from 17 games in the league, scoring 48. I'm still toying with changing the amc to a dm for challenging away fixtures though.

@batty1 - Ignore Utd and stay with BVB!

@Sacfe - Knew you wouldn't be able to resist!

Time to load up my game. FM + Jeff Stelling and the Soccer Saturday gang = A good afternoon!

[batty1]

Have done numero uno gunner, especially since I have pinched a couple of players of Bayern for pretty reasonable prices

[Ryknow]

March 2016

A win away against a strong 2nd place Schalke puts us 37 games unbeaten in the league. They are playing really well, Valdes has been fantastic with them only shipping 17 goals so far! Wolfsburg are similar, solid defence they're 4th.

In Europe it's a different story. Finished 3rd in the UCL group as we lost 2 and drew 1. Man Utd and Shakhtar went through. Meant Europa League for us, yay! Struggled past PSV winning 2-1 on agg, then got Real Sociedad and beat them 2-0 at home, away is my next game. Haven't been great in Europe this season, as the focus is on the league, but should have done far better. An early loss to Shakhtar messed us up, then away to Man Utd was always going to be hard. Their front line is crazy. I hate Neymar.

Got an average intake bar a good DC. My current loaned out youth are doing well, so might send a few more out next season. Finally seeing other Bundesliga clubs play some of their newgens.

Got a few players to offload with the aim to sell to Bundesliga clubs. Leverkusen have been dreadful, from top 4 last season to 16th at March. Klopp got fired months ago, so that makes two jobs he's been fired from.

[batty1]

Summer 14 transfers

Lovemore, Hutchinson and Ngoy are all newgens. Lovemore and Hutchinson were found by my scouts

[tomtuck01]

So, been offered £25million for Neven Subotic ahead of the second season. Already got Toby Alderweireld at the club. Deal or no deal?

[batty1]

DEAL! Could get Zouma for £17M-£20M, hes solid as a rock with Hummels. We're scoring a good amount and conceding less than last season but we're still fecking drawing to many (played 6, won 3, drew 3)

[tomtuck01]

DEAL! Could get Zouma for £17M-£20M, hes solid as a rock with Hummels. We're scoring a good amount and conceding less than last season but we're still fecking drawing to many (played 6, won 3, drew 3)

Well as I already said I have Toby Alderweireld so I don't need to sign anyone new, espcecially not just for the sake of it.

[Ryknow]

Tomtuck: I'd take it tbh. He isn't that great in this version unfortunately. Or, just doesn't play well for me. If you use him, don't sell him, but if you plan on using Alderweireld instead then I'd take it. If you wait and don't use him his value will drop considerably.

Batty1: Some of your dealings are fantastic, mainly selling Subotic for £40mil and getting Kirchhoff and Shaqiri for £18.75mil. Great business. Unfortunately now you have Zouma, Kirchhoff won't get as much game time. He develops into quite a top DC if a regular.

You didn't rate Günter enough to loan him out?

[tomtuck01]

Tomtuck: I'd take it tbh. He isn't that great in this version unfortunately. Or, just doesn't play well for me. If you use him, don't sell him, but if you plan on using Alderweireld instead then I'd take it. If you wait and don't use him his value will drop considerably.

Well i just rotated between the three of them last season, (Hummels, Alderweireld, and Subotic), and this summer I've brought in another two on free's, (Bruno Martin Indi and Santiago Vergini), who will be more than adequate back-ups for Hummels and Alderweireld, So yeah, going to sell.

Also decided to take PSG's offer for Lewandowski. Not getting any better offers that are all upfront unfortunately, (had another £44million bid, but was only £15million upfront), and he's now started kicking up a fuss about me turning down offers.

[batty1]

Batty1: Some of your dealings are fantastic, mainly selling Subotic for £40mil and getting Kirchhoff and Shaqiri for £18.75mil. Great business. Unfortunately now you have Zouma, Kirchhoff won't get as much game time. He develops into quite a top DC if a regular.

You didn't rate Günter enough to loan him out?

Cheers, been rotating my defence, so Hummels, Marquinhos, Zouma and Kirchhoff have all been getting game time. Shaqiri has been fantastic as has Zouma, Kirchhoff too. Not really, he'd gone down to 2 stars potential

[tomtuck01]

Not really, he'd gone down to 2 stars potential

That's merely because of the quality of your other CB's. The star ratings, in essence, have very little to do with how great a player can become. It's just a barometer for measuring them against other players at your club/in the league you are in and you're better off actually reading what the coaches say about them.

For instance, I have Erik Durm rated at just two stars for potential, and on the face of it there's little reason in persisting with him. Yet my coaches say he could turn into "a good Bundesliga fullback in future". You'd usually expect a player to have three stars to be given that description, I'd imagine.

[Ryknow]

Exactly what tomtuck said. Having Götze, ter Stegen and Hummels in in my team in 2016, means the star ratings are irrelevant due to their high ability. If a newgen is rated 2.5 stars you kind of think that you'll bin him, but tbh they will still become good Bundesliga type players. Also, comes down to the attributes in the specific areas. I've had 2 star CA/PA players out perform 4-5 star players. I tend to ignore them, only use as a rough guide. For instance nearly every top CB is rated 2.5/3 stars due to being compared to Hummels, yet these are UCL standard CBs.

Not matter what star rating (unless bad injuries) Günter is, he will be a good Bundesliga CB if given game time.

[Ryknow]

2015/16 End of Season Review - Die Unbesiegbaren (The Invincibles)

We ended up maintaining our unbeaten run. Solid season with the kids getting a good run out. Möhrle (newgen) displacing Schmelzer at LB, and Kristijan Cvek (newgen) playing a great deal at CB. Bassong wasn't really needed as Cvek stepped up. Used Sokratis more nearer the end of the season though as his experience helped us over the mark. Currently 48 games unbeaten. Conceded more for my liking but it's due to our attacking nature bombing forward. Will try and tweak the balance next season.

Then we won the DFB Pokal to make it the treble, or triple in Germany. Albeit the treble included the Super Cup

I was rewarded with this aswell...

13 BVB players called up to the preliminary EURO squad for Germany. Both Möhrle (17) and Cvek (18) rewarded for their form. Hopefully they make the cut. Lepper missed out due to the depth at DM for Germany.

Update on the BVB 'kids'

Probably my favourite newgen atm due to him pushing out Schmelzer for the LB spot. Fantastic at 17 years old, made 29 appearances in all comps. Deserves his Germany call up.

Played really well alongside Hummels, but I used Sokratis later in the season more so. Still he made 23(2) appearances in all comps. Competition for CB spot in the Germany preliminary squad is strong.

Lepper is kinda crazy, but I favoured using the Bender bros later on, mainly because they deserve to be playing. Not sure if I'll have to loan Lepper out next season to a Bundesliga club. Only made 10(7) apps, all comps. Got his strength up a bit though.

Becoming a very well rounded player for us. Used mainly as a sub, but started 13(18) games, all comps.

On to the real players it goes to Ter Stegen, Hummels, Volland and Lukaku for stealing the show. Lukaku finished with 37 goals in 34 games, all comps. Volland was around the same, *will edit in next time I'm on*.

[tomtuck01]

Ryknow - a terrific achievment to go unbeaten throughut the league campaign, well done indeed. Also you have some corking regens there. The future, and present, looks very promising.

--------------------------

I must say I do love how young the regens come through are in Germany. Can develop them greatly before they are eligible to play. Got some great young players through the system myself in my first season;

Horst Lehmann

Horst Uhl

Talal Al-Qahtani

Looking forward to watching their development.

[batty1]

Fantastic season Ryknow. Yeah I see you and Tom are right now Oh well you live and learn. I've been starting wonderkid Maupay quite a lot lately and hes doing really well (4 goals in 3 apps).

A newgen AMC who came in a season a go but I never noticed until this season (huge facepalm)

And now my favourite newgen:

[john1]

Both looks promising Wonder if the 2nd regen is any relation to Jack Robinson (Liverpool player)

[john1]

People who trying or getting rid of Gunter are absolutely crazy to do it. Fantastic centre back partnership with Hummels. And gets handful of MOTM.

Here he is in 2016.

[batty1]

FFS rub it in Hopefully I can get him back after hes had a season at Frankfurt

[john1]

Sorry I would hang on to him. He was a decent back up in first 2 seasons.

[batty1]

Kirchhoff, Hummels, Zouma and Marquinhos are absolute tanks, especially with Ter stegen or Leno behind them.

[tomtuck01]

I've also got CB's coming out of my ears after the latest transfer window;

Mats Hummels

Toby Alderweireld

Santiago Vergini

Bruno Martins Indi

Koray Gunter

Marian Sarr

David Domej

Looking forward to developing the latter three. Fair to say, with Hummels been the oldest at 24, that we're set for some time!

[Ryknow]

I keep my CBs to 3 top players and 1-2 proposing youth. Hummels always first on the team sheet.

I approached Real Madrid about Kirchhoff, they asked for €18.25m, I made a bid of €10mil, they negotiated to €24mil. I worked my way up from €10mil with non negotiable offers to €15mil. They declined. I made a bid for €15mil negotiable, they came back asking for €15mil...haha. Great signing considering he was valued at €17mil and wasn't listed.

Sokratis form caused some interested. Due to Kirchhoff's arrival and Cvek I reluctantly sold him. Got €30mil out of tycoon owned Valencia.

Cvek and Möhrle made the final 23 for the EUROs. Möhrle is now the first choice LB for Germany, at 17 years old. He became the youngest player ever to play at the EUROs. Both their values shot up to over €10mil and I had immediate bids of around €30mil each for them. Turned down obviously.

10 of my players made the 23 man squad with Leitner, Sven Bender and Götze not making it. Yes, Götze. No idea why.

Löw left the Germany position after getting knocked out in the Semi's, I applied but got laughed at, and Tuchel was hired. So annoying, Tuchel is a great manager though.

Still undertaking preseason so will do a transfer update when I'm finished.

EDIT: Tomtuck and Batty, you both have some great newgens. Get them tutored ASAP, as its unbelievable how quick they develop with the right tutelage. Benders bros, Gündogan, Hummels and Schmelzer, ter Stegen are fantastic at tutoring. Definitely use Sven/Gündogan or both, on your young DMs that you both have.

[tomtuck01]

I only go for certain personality types when tutoring;

Leader

Perfectionist

Model/Fairly/Pofessional

Spirited

Resolute

Also tutoring doesn't directly impact on how a player develops. The only visible attribute it directly impacts is "Determination", an attribute that people put far too much emphasis on.

Personaliy > Determination

[Ryknow]

Yeah I'm aware of that but I can't explain their increase in CA when they are tutored. They normally have good personalities to start with so it can't be the sharp change in personality.

There is a massive CA change between my newgens who have been tutored and those who haven't. All they are playing is U19 football, my BVBII is not in an active league, and being U17 they wouldn't be able to play in tier 3 anyway.

[tomtuck01]

The more professional the player is, the better he trains. That in turn means he will develop better/more quickly.

[Ryknow]

I've tutored youngsters with 'Professional' as their beginning trait, so they'd only have a meniscal increase. Then those youngsters with professional personalities have a small increase overall, until they start being tutored. Not sure why they increase so much, but I'm just going to continue doing what I'm doing as its working well.

Klopp's returned to Mainz in my game, lets see if he gets sacked from there too.

[john1]

On mine, He went to Real Madrid then left for Leverkusen and then got sacked and just recently took over Wolfsburg.

[john1]

January 2016

Good run out in pre season before back to business in the league. Good win over Koln and Gladbach. Nice to see the gap beginning to open up between us and Bayern.

Table

[Ryknow]

Got Ron-Robert Zieler in as my 2nd keeper due to loaning out my Argentinean newgen to Inter.

Only cost me €8.5mil, quality backup option. He'll play more than other backup keepers I've had due to being German. Want to make sure he stays at a top level for international chances.

Anyone find contract demands to be kind of crazy? Being in 2016 I had many due to expire in 2017 and 2018. I made sure to tie down ter Stegen and Lukaku but their demands were €100,000pw, €125,000pw respectively. Come to think of it, it's quite realistic. We won the title back to back with last season being unbeatable. It just incredibly hard to negotiate down to a prefer figure sometimes. Negotiations are near non existent with some agents.

So we now have 5 players on €100,000-€125,000pw with Volland asking for €93k 2years left on contract. Luckily they are the key players. Wage bill is still easily manageable due to the huge income from transfers, TV rev, prize money, season tickets and gate receipts. Made a profit of €50mil last season and have €185mil in the bank. Making around €4-5mil a month from player sales. I sell players over 24 months. Buy them up front.

Going to have to sell Günter, he looks class but only has a year left and wants €30,000pw with €12k appearance bonus. He's just returned from a season long loan, and is still 4th choice. Agent won't let for much negotiating. Bit steep for a 4th choice CB.

[john1]

I think it's also realistic too Depends if they have improved a lot. I finding Reus asking for 175K p/w is outrageous, Nowhere near that level yet.

I also tends to find regens asking for ridiculous wages even they are young

[Ryknow]

The newgen situation is crazy sometimes. I just gave Möhrle €34,000pw and he just turned 18 years old. But I never even baulked at it, because he's a first team regular and a national team regular now. It's the ones that haven't even played a competitive match that annoy me.

Normally I'd just sell them if they ask for too much, but this save is all about using German players, and eventually only academy and 'HG club' German players, so I have to suck it up and just pay them, if not then I lose out.

Yeah, last time I checked Reus wanted heaps. I'll be selling him if I can't get him to reduce demands. My limit is €125k, and I'm going to stay at that. With the plan to keep the wage bill at no more than €1.5mil pw. Hopefully lower but it's hard atm as I can't/don't won't to replace the real German players. Want to keep the BVB identity for as long as possible.

[batty1]

Half way through my 3rd season and I'm really happy so far. Won the Euro Super Cup and the World Club Championship and I'm a point clear of Bayern with 2 games in hand!

In the first knockout round of the champions league we drew Celtic while Bayern drew Barca! Talking of which Barca are languishing in 8th place in La Liga so might be potential to welcome home Lewy, providing the fee and wages are sensible.

[john1]

Febuary 2016

Decent month for us, especially our cracking 6-0 win Could have been 7 if Hummels penalty wasn't saved. Jovetic is out for 6-7 weeks after twisting his knee Shame we didn't beat Klopp's Wolfsburg to extend our gap between us and Bayern.

Will play CSKA Moscow in Europa League 2nd Round knock out, first leg in Moscow.

Table

As we just hit March, I'm hoping to get a decent youth intakes

[Ryknow]

You still let Hummels take the penalties or was he on a hat-trick?

Nice results batty1 and john1!