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[FM15] Adventures of a journeyman


MTM1977

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***Season 7 (2020-2021) pre-season update***

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Season Expectations:

Liga NOS: Win the Liga NOS

UEFA Champions League: Reach First Knockout Round

Taca De Portugal: Win Taga De Portugal

Taga Da Liga: Not important

Supertaca Cândido de Oliveira: Not Important

Summer transfers:

In:

Deiver, a young goalkeeper to replace the released Vozinha. Signed from Nacional with fee of 3.5M€

Javairo Dilrosun, a young RW from Manchester City. His contract was running out on January, so we offered him a contract and got him on a free transfer.

Pablo Fuentes, a young central defender, signed from Coritiba with fee of 375k€. We only had 3 central defenders left, so needed a new one. Pablo has potential, so he could be good for us.

Out:

Vozinha, mutual termination

Tiago Dias, youth player not getting full contract

Flavio Silva, youth player not getting full contract

Ljubomir Fejsa, to Braga, fee 190k€

Carlos Bonifacio, loan to Apollon Limassol

Ruben, loan to Zwolle

Nicolas Gaitan, to Spartak Moscow, fee 2,5M€

Joao Pinto, loan to Farense

Pre-season friendlies:

We had a bit different pre-season than usual. Usually i have arranged friendlies against weak teams to boost morale, but this time we accepted friendly propositions from high profile clubs also to see where we stand in the footballing world and to make some euros in the process.

We did much better than i expected. Friendlies are of course only friendlies, but i think everyone wants to win those too.

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Supertaca Cândido de Oliveira:

We got our first chance for trophy right after the pre-season. We played the Super Cup match against our fierce rival Porto.

Matches against them have been a bit weird on my short time at Benfica. Either we beat them easily or the matches are really tight.

This time it was the first option, we didn't give them any chance, they got only two shots on goal. We were forced to play our new goalkeeper Deiver as our first choice Polaco was on international duty with Brazil U23 squad.

Luckily Deiver wasn't tested much in the match.

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We just had one of the craziest comebacks i have seen on my career.

We were playing away against Sporting and at 53 minutes Sporting scored and was leading 3-0. I think they were already counting the points at that point.

I took a chance and did all three of my substitutions at the same time and gave all the substitutes a very supportive talk.

This is how the game unfolded in the end:

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edit:

One thing to note, both Hector and Talisca came from the bench, so they really turned things around.

Third sub was our best DM Fernando. He was subbed in to give support to the defence.

I think it was initially my fault that we started so poorly. I started with my most inexperienced / less used XI to give them some game time. Obviously that didn't work out as planned.

Will need to remember rotate a bit more carefully in the future.

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This is a first time i see this high percentage on this info:

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We are currently 365k€/week under wage budget, so i guess it is pretty good wage management.

Now, if i only had someone i would actually want to sell... too bad i already sold the ones i decided to get rid off.

Well, hopefully we can retain this situation, so i can benefit from it later on.

edit:

I did find one player to offload after all.

Will be covering the transfer in the next season update.

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Champions League is about to start again, so here is a small update about how we stand up against the bigger teams and what kind of group we have this time.

So, we aren't exactly favorites, but we shouldn't be a total failure either (if the bookies know anything).

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Our group looks easier than last time, so we should have a fair chance to reach the Knockout Rounds.

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Nice win over Sporting.

It truly was. I must admit that even i thought that we have lost the match when they scored the 3-0 goal.

I still did what i could and thought that maybe we can get at least one goal. I never expected that we could get 6 goals at that point of the match.

I didn't have time to play much yesterday, so my season hasn't progressed much, hopefully i get some games played today, so i can post a new update.

We did start our CL group with win and a draw though.

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Now there is an important decision to make.

I am doing great with Benfica at the moment, but as this is a journeyman save and the offer is very good... what to do, what to do.

Will need to take a moment to think about this.

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How are Wolfsburg going at the moment? Tough choice but I'd probably stick with Benfica.

They are doing well in UEFA Europa League, but not so good in Bundesliga. In Europa League they are 1st in the group, but in Bundesliga only 14th after 11 rounds.

The team is solid though, so after they learn the new tactics, i am positive that things will turn around. Will probably be tough for a while.

I think good decision to go: done well at Benfica, new challenge at Wolfsburg and Germany is a more reputable country.

Good luck.

That is exactly why i did the change :)

Only thing i didn't win with Benfica was UEFA Champions League, but i think that in the long run Wolfsburg is going to offer better chance of doing that.

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New team, new challenges, new expectations.

It was time to move again, Alfredo has already had a quite succesful career, even though he is only 33 years old.

It has been a long road from South Africa to Portugal and from Portugal to Germany.

It wasn't an easy decision to leave Benfica, but deep inside he knew that it is now or never. If he'd gotten too attached to life at Benfica, he might have never been able to leave.

"Die Wölfe" are in bit of a trouble in Bundesliga at the moment, so it was no wonder they approached Alfredo as he has made some kind of reputation to get the best out of teams he manages.

This will be a big challenge though, team moral is quite low as they have underperformed the whole season so far. It will take some careful man management to turn the boat around and start climbing higher in the league table.

This happens to be a special year for the club, so it would be very important to salvage the season.

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This is what has been achieved so far. Not much to show for, but that will hopefully change in the future.

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The expectations for this season are following:

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And this is what the situation actually looks like:

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The backroom staff was quite undermanned, so Alfredo has been doing a lot of hiring. Best to start from the foundations and build from there.

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***Season 7 (2020-2021) update1***

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General

First weeks in Wolfsburg have not been easy. Moving from Benfica to Wolfsburg was a difficult thing to do and it seems it will take some time to get things rolling full speed at the new club.

We have had some encouraging performances, but there is still a lot of work to do.

The team is now heading to a winter break camp in Spain. We will have a few friendly matches against local teams, hopefully that will give as good momentum for the 2nd half of the season.

I also had to do a new "trick" on my squad. As i again have a whole new squad to play with and lot of the players can play in multiple positions, i decided to give them "nicknames". Everyone has their best preferred playing position (in my opinion) after their name. Makes selection a lot easier.

January transfer window:

In:

We are getting only one new player, but he is a promising one.

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Out:

A lot of young players out for loan.

From first team we have sold two players who wanted to leave.

Experienced goalkeeper Diego Benaglia (37 years old) was sold to PSG with a lowly fee of 140k€. It was a hard decision, but it had to be made.

32 years old central defender Timm Klose wanted a transfer, so he was sold to Pohang with a fee of 300k€.

33 years old defensive midfielder Luiz Gustavo also wanted to leave, he will be joining Krasnodar with a fee of 1M€.

Domestic Cup:

We had the toughest possible opposition on third round. We did manage to put up a fight, but ended up losing by a small margin.

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Bundesliga:

We have managed to gain a few spots, but performance has been far from perfect. Tactics are getting fluid, so hopefully it will get better soon.

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UEFA Europa League:

We went through for the First Knockout Round. I only managed in two of the last matches, so the work was pretty much done already. We did win both matches though.

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It seems i forgot to post the squad i have at my disposal in Wolfsburg.

Some of the players are being trained for new position, so that is why my "nicname mark" for them is different from their actual (current) strongest position.

Senior squad:

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Muzo looks like a real capture!

Funny thing is that in the "new signing press conference" i was getting questions like "don't you think you paid way too much for this kind of player" and so on :D

We paid 12.5M€ (which will eventually rise to 13.75M€) and now he is worth 17.25M€... and will probably be much more in the future. At least i hope so. Although, i didn't buy him to make profit, but to get a reliable striker for a long time.

He just made his debut (from the bench at halftime) and he already scored his first goal.

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***Season 7 (2020-2021) January-February update***

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General

Things still haven't gone as well as Alfredo would have hoped. Taking a look in to Portuguese football makes him think if it was a bad decision to join Wolfsburg.

Well, he is there now and he must do what he can to make the team perform in the level it is supposed to.

It seems that teams confidence is really affecting things, rarely you see so many scoring chances wasted on misses or woodwork.

January transfer window:

In:

No new players in at the last days of transfer window.

Out:

One more out. We got an offer for our backup keeper and we decided to sell him as he seemed to want to go.

That is a bit of risk, but we do have a few youth keepers for backup just in case.

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Domestic Cup:

We had the toughest possible opposition on third round. We did manage to put up a fight, but ended up losing by a small margin.

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Bundesliga:

Still not performing on a good level. We have lost a lot of points because of the earlier mentioned poor finishing.

This is how our year has started:

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UEFA Europa League:

Next match will be against Man Utd as we start the Europa League 2nd Knockout Round.

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Near future plans:

It is clear that our current performance isn't good enough. Teams confidence was pretty much crushed when Alfredo joined and although he has made some improvements on that front, the results just aren't good enough.

It is safe to say that this is the biggest challenge he has faced so far. The goal for the rest of the season is clear, start winning games and get the team at least to Europa League spot.

ManUtd will be a tough ask on the 2nd Knockout Round, but who knows, maybe we get lucky.

edit:

Some positive news for a change.

We got our youth intake and it seems there is one real gem in there.

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Coaching staff seems to think that he has potential to be a World Class player in the future.

And at least early signs show that he shouldn't be prone to injuries, so he could have a big future in the game

.

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We will have a rather interesting match in Manchester.

The bad thing is that we really can't afford to concede any goals, but as our defence has been a bit shaky, that will be hard to avoid.

The report from first leg:

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edit:

Second leg has been played already, but to keep things interesting, i will save the result for the next update ;)

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***Season 7 (2020-2021) March-April update***

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General

Finally the form is starting to turn for the better. As we have racked some important results, the confidence has grown and the team is starting to play on the level it is capable of.

There is still a few matches to play this season and if we can continue the good run we started on March-April period, we can be quite happy at the end of the season.

It looked like a disastrous season still on January, so there is a lot to be happy about.

Domestic Cup:

We had the toughest possible opposition on third round. We did manage to put up a fight, but ended up losing by a small margin.

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Bundesliga:

As mentioned on the general speech, we have been doing a lot better. We are getting results and that is slowly pulling us up on the league table.

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UEFA Europa League:

We did really well against Man Utd, especially in the away match. Then the draw was unkind for us and we got Bayern for the next round.

So far we have lost all matches against them, so it didn't look good. However, all runs must come to an end, even the bad ones...

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***Season 7 (2020-2021) final update***

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General

Season started at Benfica and even though things were going really well, when offer came from Wolfsburg, Alfredo decided to take the leap.

For a few months it looked like it was a really bad move. The team struggled to find any consistent form and nothing seemed to help.

However, at the end of winter, things finally fall in to place and positive things started to happen on the pitch.

Wolfsburg finished the season with unexpected success.

Domestic Cup:

We had the toughest possible opposition on third round. We did manage to put up a fight, but ended up losing by a small margin.

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Bundesliga:

Last leg of the season was really strong and as other results also went our way, we found ourselves in a rather respectable position.

Not a bad accomplishment concidering that team was on 14th position when Alfredo took over.

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UEFA Europa League:

This competition made our season. No other way to describe it.

It also was the first time that Alfredo won a continental competition on his career. Hopefully not the last.

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Who scored our goals?

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Final thoughts of the season:

This season was a good learning experience. Last years at Witbank and the time at Benfica maybe made Alfredo a bit complacent. It was almost like everything he touched turned in to gold.

The hard struggle to get Wolfsburg team in to form was maybe exactly what he needed.

Now is time to head for the summer and bring a few new players in. Board has handed Alfredo about 30M€ to spend, now he must spend the money wisely. Scouts are already tracking a few potential players.

Then main positions to reinforce are GK, DC and ML.

Alfredo can't complete any more coaching courses, but luckily he seems to be learning on the job. This is how his stats look like now.

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And to think you were worried just a couple of months ago in January!

Fantastic :applause:

It was looking rather bad, but turned out really well in the end.

Not sure why it went so poorly at the beginning, i guess the disastrous start for the season was so tough on team morale that it took a long time to recover.

I am hoping that next season we get right on to form and can challenge Bayern for the title. Bundesliga has been quite dull during my save, Bayern has won it every year.

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***Season 8 (2021-2022) Pre-season update***

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General

First full season at Wolfsburg is about to start. We had a 7 week pre-season and played a bunch of friendlies. We saw a lot of players depart the club, although most of them are just season long loans.

We also managed to get new players to the positions where we needed them, so it would seem we had a good summer. Now we must get to a good start in the competitive matches too.

We are playing UEFA Champions League this season, our Bundesliga performance would have only gotten us Europa League spot, but as we won the Europa League last season, we got a place to this seasons CL.

Expectations:

We have pretty realistic expectations. Should be doable and with any luck, we can exceed at least some of those.

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Transfers:

In:

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GK Fleitas and ST Casado are young players, both described as wonderkids. We actually have four such players in our main squad now (two ST, one GK and one DLR).

So, assuming they develop as predicted and we can keep them, we have those positions covered for a long time.

CD Bruno Leonardo is a bit more experienced, he is 25 years old. Coaches think that he is our best CD, so should help our defence quite a bit. That was one of the problem areas last season.

Winger Jonas Hofmann joined us for free (well, almost free, of course we had to pay agent fee etc.). He was released from Dortmund and we decided to take him as he can play both left and right midfield which is great for us.

Out:

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The only notable transfer is Maximilian Meyer. He would have been otherwise ok for our team, but his attitude was something that we couldn't tolerate.

He was always demanding to be on the starting XI (even though he played a lot and was on rotation status) and if he wasn't demanding that, he was demanding transfer to team x which seemed to be somewhat interested about him.

He can now whine somewhere else.

Pre-season friendlies:

A bunch of friendlies with rather good results. Team is looking ready for the new season.

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Great win against Champions League Champions :thup:

It was, especially considering that they had players like Christiano Ronaldo and Harry Kane and we still managed to keep them from scoring :)

Season has started really well, i am currently on November, planning to put the next update when i get to December.

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[

***Season 8 (2021-2022) August-November***

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General

We have had a great start to the season. If we can keep this up, it will be a very good season.

UEFA Supercup:

We were clear underdogs for the match, but we decided to prove everyone wrong. And that we did with style.

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DFB-Pokal:

So far we have met only lower division opponents, but we have done a professional job. Not exactly convincing in all matches, but we got the results and that's what matters.

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Bundesliga

We have had a very strong start. We started to look unbeatable, but then we went and lost a game. I hope it is not a start of a poor run.

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UEFA Champions League

Our group wasn't too bad so we have already made sure that we get to the knockouts.

Still one tough match left, away against Man City. At home it was all even and ended in draw, away might be a bit more tricky.

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Storming the league & got through what could have been a banana skin group with trips to Fenerbache and Rosenberg.

What league are Furth in as they took out Schalke in the cup?

They are in 2. Bundesliga, so it was a big surprise for sure.

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Muzo defiinitely looks like he was a great deal to me.

I have to agree, he is only 21, but is easily the best striker in our squad. Luckily i just got him to sign a long deal.

Other young players we have bought recently are also developing nicely, for example Fleitas is already our nro 1 keeper although i originally thought he'd be backup for this season at least.

However, he has developed a lot and deserves to get most of the responsibility now.

I have really paid attention to scouting now and i only sign players that i am sure about (well, as sure as you can be). It means that we must have 100% knowledge of the player and an opinion from a few different scouts.

So far that approach seems to be working well.

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***Season 8 (2021-2022) December-February***

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General

Still going really well, we have a chance for a very good season. Now we must maintain the form for the last leg of the season and players can go to the summer holiday in very positive mood.

Transfers:

In:

Winger Christian Espinoza joined us from Flamengo with a fee of 14.75M€. We had only one good option to the right wing, so he is a welcome addition to the squad.

Out:

Young right midfielder Dennis Baum was sold to Gladbach with a fee of 350k. I originally wanted to develop him in to a good option on the right wing, but he was too injury prone and it proved very difficult.

That is why Espinoza was bought and Baum sold.

UEFA Supercup:

We were clear underdogs for the match, but we decided to prove everyone wrong. And that we did with style.

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DFB-Pokal:

Although this competition isn't a priority, we are still in it. And we have a good chance of winning it, all the toughest opponents have already been eliminated from the competition.

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Bundesliga

League title is a very realistic goal at this point. We can even afford to drop a few points and still come up on top.

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UEFA Champions League

We started our first knockout round against Roma. First match was our home match and it was looking like it's going to be 0-0.

However, at the very last moments of the match we got a corner and our reliable and experienced centre back Sokratis scored a header. He almost never scores, so it was a very pleasant surprise and saved us the "home advantage".

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Youth intake:

We have a few promising and one very promising player in our new youth intake.

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I mentioned earlier that our young goalkeeper Fleitas has improved a lot.

Still, this came as a surprise to me:

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This is how his attributes look like now:

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We paid 10.25M€ of him, it is starting to look like another excellent deal for us.

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Perfect season had the perfect ending.

These are the statistics of UEFA Champions League final against Chelsea:

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I think we were lucky to get them in the final (although they were favorites, just like in the Super Cup at the beginning of season) as we had already beaten them once.

So, i was confident we can do it again.

Full update from the last part of the season coming a bit later when i have the time to get it done. Have to go outdoors in the real life for a while ;)

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***Season 8 (2021-2022) March-May***

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General

To put it short, best season on Alfredos career. Easily.

UEFA Supercup:

We were clear underdogs for the match, but we decided to prove everyone wrong. And that we did with style.

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DFB-Pokal:

Rather easy competition to win this time around. None of the opponents were actually tough and we only conceded one goal during the entire cup.

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Bundesliga

We had a few chances to cement our league title, but we were not taking them. In the end we did win by a safe(ish) margin though.

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UEFA Champions League

Getting to the final was much harder than winning it. The final itself was actually quite relaxing, Chelsea never looked like winning it.

Before the match Alfredo got the opportunity to name the weakest link on Chelsea squad. He usually doesn't resort to that, but this time it proved an opportunity too good to be passed.

He noticed that Harry Kane actually has a quite low determination, so he named Kane as the weak link.

Kane was in the Chelsea starting XI, but after a quiet first half he was substituted at 45mins. So it seems the pressure got to him.

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Goal scorers:

Muzo was the top scorer, which doesn't come as a surprise, he has developed in to a very fine young striker.

The best part is that we had several other players who managed to get respectable amount of goals and assists. Nothing better than having a wide front of players capable of winning matches.

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End of season thoughts:

After a season as good as this, Alfredo is considering his options. He does have one more year on his contract, but as he really can't win anything new with Wolfsburg anymore, he is thinking about resigning and finding a new challenge.

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Fleitas was selected for the Argentina final world cup squad also. Not bad for a 20yrs old keeper :)

He developed huge amounts during the season, when he came here he was ranked clearly worse than our last seasons nro 1 Loris Karius. However, now he is ranked clearly better.

I think we will need to sell Karius, he is still worth something and probably won't sit back as a happy backup for a very long time.

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Very good move after a sensational season, always good to leave on a high.

Yes and i think Spain is another interesting opportunity + now there is a chance to build a team which isn't quite ready for glory yet.

Wolfsburg was maybe a bit too easy, they had quite large budgets and already a solid squad so there wasn't that much to do to get it working.

I have also decided what the final goal for this save is.

As Alfredo is Italian, his ultimate goal is to get a job from a good Serie A club and then stay there until the end of his career.

He has gotten some offers from Serie A during his career (Roma being the most notable), but so far he hasn't taken them.

Next time such opportunity presents itself, he will take it. The best one would be Napoli as Alfredo is from Naples and Napoli is his favorite club.

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