FM16 - From Rags to Riches......Hopefully!

[lewis999]

Thanks Unai mate.

[lewis999]

Schalke 04|November & December|2021/22

Sorry about the bi-monthly update instead of the usual monthly ones. After the Dortmund win I got a bit carried away and just kept playing on and on. As you can see we have done fantastically now our players have settled, especially defensively we look really solid. The best results of the lot were our 3-0 dismantling of Freiburg who are 2nd and having a brilliant season and the most recent one were we battered reigning champions Gladbach 5-2 which flatters them to be honest. It could and should of been more. Amiri hit another absolute belter in the 48th minute and here it is.....





Due to our brilliant form we are right up there with the other title challengers and surprise package Freiburg. A funny thing happened between Freiburg and Gladbach. Freiburg have a Swedish striker on loan from parent club Gladbach and when they played each other he scored to win the game for Freiburg in a 2-1 victory. After that, as you can see They haven't won in the last 5 games and are in real danger of not even getting in the Champions League spots. I doubt he will be welcomed back there at the end of the season if that's ends up been the case.



In the first knockout round we face Russian side Krasnodar which was one of the better draws we could have got.



If we get past the Russian outfit we will face either PSV or Dnipro which again is definitely one of the better draws. I know it's a lot of ifs, but should we play to our potential and get through those 4 matches we will be into the quarter final and then anyone can win it.

[deltablue]

Pumprla would be useful for my Czech national side

[lewis999]

Pumprla would be useful for my Czech national side

Haha he would mate, if it were possible I would gladly lend you him.

[Bedese]

Great work so far at Schalke!

[lewis999]

It's the 31st of January 2022 and a lot of bids have been made for our players. Annoyingly most of those bids are coming from the Spanish capital. No, not Atletico but Real. We all know about their pulling power and that's exactly how it played out. Jimmy Urban (Brilliant name I know) was the subject of tentative bids from both Real Madrid and Barcelona. I'm not sure he's 'that' good but nevertheless they bid and I rejected, naturally, as our performances were just hitting brilliant and I wanted to keep the squad intact. Upon rejecting he came to me did Jimmy and said he wanted to join them. I couldn't blame him but I stayed firm and said no. He didn't like it but I assumed when the window shut he would finally accept it and get on with his football. Alas, he didn't and delightfully decided to tell his team mates how much of a p**** I am. I understand his point of view to be honest, he was looking after his own interests and me, ours, Schalkes. 4 of my first team players came to me and expressed how Jimmy should be able to leave and I told them, okay yeah I don't want this derailing our season so if I get the offer i'm looking for he can go. Yeah you read that right, other first XI players wanting the manager to sell another member of the starting 11 which would make us worse. Clever these guys. Anyway, enough rambling, long stoy short I got up front from Real 'More money than sense' Madrid and off he went. Adios Jimmy!



This is Jimmy. He was on about a 1/4 of that wage here in Gelsenkirchen. He was good for us but not worth 30m and he didn't have much potential left really. I went to find a replacement.

So armed with money and seemingly no-one to spend it on in such a short space of time the FM gods were shining on me. Before I came here Schalke had sold one of our promising youngsters abroad to Chelsea for 18m in 2020. Over the course of 2 years he made a grand total of 11 starts and 17 sub appearances. He rightfully became very unhappy and Chelsea put him on the transfer list at a very generous and affordable 12m. In my opinion he is better than Jimmy and cost less than half the price. Here's Thilo.....



He has absolutely everything except maybe a low-ish level of concentration. Suppose you can't have everything and he is more than good with the ball at his feet and very very fast across the turf if needed. He likes to stay on his feet and has strength and composure in abundance. Glad he's back and took a pay cut as well. Very happy to have him.

So thinking our business was over those 'lovely people in Madrid' (Yes Real again) decided to upset another CB we had. He was my third choice CB and to be honest I was surprised they were interested and within a year I think he will look at himself and think what have I done, I have splinters in my arse and I miss home. I negotiated upto 20m and off he went. Goodbye Lukas, don't let the door hit you on the way out old mate.



He's very good to be honest just lacked composure and his distribution needed work but he was a fantastic back-up and always played fantastically so didn't really want him to leave but we move on. I played him CB although his natural position is RB. I decided not to replace him and just promote a younger player to be a back-up.



I did end up spending money on a young talented German defensive midfielder for 5m. He's been loaned back to his previous club until the end of the season and will join in the summer.



If he could jump he would of been Lukas' replacement but he's a lot more suited to the role in front of the defence. Especially with his positioning and teamwork, he will be very reliable. Looking forward to seeing him develop and 5m is a bargain.

[lewis999]

Great work so far at Schalke!

Thanks mate glad you're following. I will be reading your new updates before I get some sleep and will leave a comment. On a side note remember the Finnish player I put in the thread and you commented? I have just seen this....

He's improved even more and is now worth 42m which is fantastic to see. I'm hoping he becomes unhappy in Manchester because i'm going to bring him to Schalke at the first opportunity.

[lewis999]

January and February 2021/2022





Another month where we have improved, especially performance wise. The one blot against Bayern where we just simply got outplayed. Ancelotti is still there and he plays a narrow diamond that just steamrolls you and you can't get out. The news item said Bayern strike lucky but that's a bit unfair on them really, their quality of chances were a lot better. The Koln game was a very tight one and a draw was about the right outcome. Everything else we showed incredible consistency and won them all. Including both legs against Russian side Krasnodar. Our defence has been brilliant throughout with new boy Kehrer coming back home and slotting in perfectly alongside Brazilian Moreira.



This is the league table and finally us top 3 are pulling away from Freiburg and I think Wolfsburg and Gladbach, except from an almighty collapse aren't going to be challenging for the top 3 spots. Bayern rarely lose as you can see and i'm not far behind them, Dortmund the same. I'm just hoping they slip up somehow against a team near the bottom that park the bus or indeed if Dortmund themselves can do something and avenge that 6-1 loss BAyern gave them earlier in the season. I targeted the top 3 in my first season and so far, so good.



A look towards March and April and we have a lot of games now the DFB-Pokal and Europa League competitions are reaching conclusions. An away trip to Dortmund being the stand out match at the start of April. I hope to get a draw out of that really. If we win like the home match I will be unbelievably happy. Gladbach is another challenging game and gives us a place in the final which would be great to win in my first season. RB Leipzig and Leverkusen are in the other semi final so it is 100% winnable and we are probably the favourites on current form. PSV will be tricky and i'm going to need to rotate a lot. Hope the squad can handle it. Wish me luck.

[Bedese]

Reckon you can catch Bayern?

[lewis999]

Reckon you can catch Bayern?

Ermm.. does this count?

I'm 2 mins in to my next game and just scored a penalty.

No, but seriously I don't think so mate, they do literally seem unstoppable and have back ups that would walk into almost every other side.

[lewis999]

Pressures on you now Bayern. They're away to Heidenheim who are in 17th so not looking hopeful.

EDIT :



Back down to 2nd for now.

[lewis999]

Schalke Youth Intake 2021/2022

Lukas Eckel

Sven Abeln

Viktor Peitz

Emre Dikmen



Daniel Kaminski

Very happy with this intake. Especially with the personalities of the guys I have chosen to offer contracts to. I think Sven Abeln is going to be the best, not simply because of his star rating or his current ability but because he has been given such a high rating in a position that I have very good players in. I think he will become world class. We have some very talented young players at the club now and I am going to be extremely harsh in the close season and sell whoever I think may not make it so it doesn't hamper the progress of the young guys.

[lewis999]

We got off to a nightmare start in the 1st leg where PSV dominated us. Everything I seemed to do just didn't work and I couldn't get us a foothold on the game and we were lucky to escape with just a 1-0 loss. In the 2nd leg though we were fantastic from start to finish and Szimayer in particular as you can see scored a fantastic hat trick with two of the goals being absolute belters.



The best draw of the lot. Salernitana aren't big boys in Italiy they just won the domestic cup despite being 3/4 of the way down the league and to be honest they have got this far so are obviously good but out of all the teams we have the best draw.



Now this one was the worst draw. Stoke are a really good team and have a lot of brilliant players. 7 of them are worth 20m+ which just shows you their strength. Monaco in my opinion are the best team in the competition alongside probably Valencia. So either team are going to be very hard to beat. We have beat Dortmund this season and they have a better team than all these teams so we can draw optimism from that.

[Bedese]

I'm optimistic you'll be able to beat Salernitana and then Stoke/Monaco

[lewis999]

They were just better than us which is extremely annoying. I'm annoyed at myself even though they have better players. I should be able to change the game in our favour but I couldn't do anything, same with the Bayern match. It doesn't help when we were playing against my old striker Bruno Leandro who is hands down the best striker in the world and is absolutely clinical. Gutted he's joined them. I need to scour Brazil for the next Bruno Leandro.

[dan_simmonds]

Looking good for the Semi's at least there.

[lewis999]

I'm optimistic you'll be able to beat Salernitana and then Stoke/Monaco

I love the confidence you have in us mate. Hope we don't disappoint.

Looking good for the Semi's at least there.

It is Dan, thanks for the comment. I don't usually get good draws, historically so I suppose it's nice when one goes your way.

[lewis999]

So we made it through with wins in both legs, albeit narrow ones. I never delt in doubt even though they got a late consolation at their ground when in hindsight I probably should have a little more. Stoke got past Monaco so we play them and they have a good, good team. In the other semi-final it is Ajax vs. Lyon and both those teams, on paper at least, aren't as good as us or Stoke in my opinion.



Our semi final was going fantastically against the Bundesliga title holders until Embolo popped up with a nice half volley inside the area at the death and I felt we were robbed. We couldn't find a winner in injury time so off we went to penalties and they missed there first 2 and we scored both ours. I felt very confident and then the exact reverse happened and they scored their next 2 and we missed both of ours. It was sudden death on the 5th penalty and Mario Probst pulled off a brilliant save from Simon Tibbling which left Johannes Eggestein with a lot of pressure on his shoulders. He duly delivered and into the final we go where we will play Bayer Leverkusen who are a very tough opponent.

[lewis999]

March & April|Schalke 04|2021/22

Just the 2 defeats in 13 games is a very good return. Especially when both defeats were deserved. The 2nd leg vs. PSV was brilliant and so were we. The penalty shoot out win over Gladbach was another highlight. An injury time equaliser against Werder Bremen was deserved too. It was a boring game but neither team deserved to lose or win really. We struggled against Mainz who probably feel they should have won after dominating for much of the match. We have just this second finished playing Stoke away and here's the stats and stuff.



We just couldn't get that important, but elusive away goal we needed to make it slightly comfortable. Not sure if this is a good result or not. I'll be able to tell you in a weeks time. Here's what happened in the other semi-final....



2 very tight games as you would expect at this stage of such a competition.



The loss to Dortmund and the draws to both Mainz and Werder Bremen have ultimately cost us in pursuit of the title as Bayern don't seem to lose much. They have been the best team by far. We still may finish 2nd which is my new aim. Maybe ambitious but you have to reach for the stars or was that something S Club 7 did? I forget.



We have 5, but hopefully, 6 games left with a possible European Final to look forward to and our remaining Bundesliga games are very, very difficult and if we finish 2nd we will deserve it by beating these other European teams around us. Every single game will be a grind and difficult. Let's see what happens eh?

[lewis999]

Very close game again where we just did what was needed. It was an own goal but Eller down the left hand side did absolutely brilliantly to dart past the right back and into the box where he was met by the LB covering defender who he hit a shot off and went in at the near post. I think it was going in anyway as it was that close but we'll take it and into the Champions League we go. 27.5m is a good budget to get and we are already 300k underneath our 1.5m budget so plenty of room there.

[lewis999]

A game of not many chances was settled by one of our own, it's definitely worth a look.....



It was an absolute rocket that gave the keeper no chance. They didn't threaten our goal really so a tight win over 2 legs and off into the final we go.



Ajax won the second leg against Lyon 3-0 so it was a lot more comfortable than ours. They are top of their domestic league and have some good players. Let's hope our players show their quality and get us the cup.

[Bedese]

in-Sane goal!

... I'll leave now.

Congrats on making it to the final!

[lewis999]

A very dominant win and a very important one too. Freiburg are in 4th place and as Dortmund and Bayern both drew their last match the league looks like this with 1 game left.



We play title holders Gladbach away who are in 6th place.

Bayern play Leverkusen away who are in 10th.

Dortmund play Mainz at home who are in 8th. We have a small chance of the title and 2nd spot and a place above our fierce rivals is in our own hands.

[lewis999]

in-Sane goal!

... I'll leave now.

Congrats on making it to the final!

Haha I enjoyed that one. Thanks mate, hope we don't do throw it all away. Is it sad that i'm actually physically nervous? Haha!

[Bedese]

Haha I enjoyed that one. Thanks mate, hope we don't do throw it all away. Is it sad that i'm actually physically nervous? Haha!

I've never actually got to a final on FM (not counting the Championship Playoff final, which I lost 3 years running...) so I couldn't tell you, but I've definitely been nervous for some games over the years!

[Rikulec]

Good luck there, hopefully you can get at least one trophy.

[lewis999]

I've never actually got to a final on FM (not counting the Championship Playoff final, which I lost 3 years running...) so I couldn't tell you, but I've definitely been nervous for some games over the years!

You will be in the Champions League final with San Giovanni.

[lewis999]

At half time we are leading comfortably but what are Dortmund and more importantly, Bayern doing?



Well, my old friend Bruno has won the game for Dortmund so to stay in second we need a draw at least which is looking good. Bayern are drawing which makes the table look like this...



We just need a Leverkusen goal and then to park the bus and frustrate. I will be checking that result every 2-3 minutes haha!

EDIT :



We could actually do this, hold on Chicharito at co. PLEASE!!!!



Disaster!!! Bayern equalise and are on their way to the title. One last push Bayer!



It wasn't to be and Bayern, deservedly really re-claim their dominance on German football.

[lewis999]

One of our young stars Lukas Eckel has just started a Germany U19 game at 15 years of age. I'm hoping he will become world class and stay with us all his career.

[Rikulec]

Shame about the league, that was really close. Eckel looks class though.

[lewis999]

Absolutely ******** fuming! We were awful, nothing else to say!

[lewis999]

Shame about the league, that was really close. Eckel looks class though.

Yeah he does doesn't he? Thanks for the comment Rikulec, we just threw away the Europa too which i'm incensed about.

[Bedese]

Losing the title on the last day and Europa to an own goal. Ouch

[lewis999]

Losing the title on the last day and Europa to an own goal. Ouch

Haha honestly mate I was absolutely fuming, I had to go and shoot a few people on COD. I'm back now and i've played the DFB-Pokal final.

[lewis999]

Delighted with this after our massive disappointment. It was never in doubt really even though Balotelli banged one in from miles out. Been a good season in all really and we finished above our fierce rivals Dortmund.





This was nice to see. I think i'm 7th or 8th in the list of English managers. Above Roy Hodgson so why aren't I on the touchline in France? Pffftt, no justice!

[lewis999]

Leroy was the standout player and was voted so by the fans, RB Mayke was in second and our driving force in midfield Amiri came 3rd. The team on the right isn't actually representative of how we played this season. The formation is but Amiri was CM alongside Henrichs with another player in DM. Ferati was mostly used off the bench along the midfield 4.

Amiri has scored a few wonder goals this season so no surprise that he won this. 10m for someone like Leroy Sane is an absolute steal. He was consistently brilliant throughout the season. Easily our best player. Eller on the other wing was good but I would of given the young player to our striker Szimayer. The 6ft 6' giant is brilliant with the ball at his feet and scored 20+ goals this season for us.



The stats here speak for themselves. Mayke has the best average rating but in my opinion didn't play the best. I think there may be an issue with the full backs ratings. Szimayer got 25 goals and led the line brilliantly. No red cards all season is very impressive. Sane with the most player of the match awards is definitely accurate. He won us a few games.



Our stadium was full nearly all the time which is a very good sign. If we want to make ourselves into a European force and win trophies we will need that expanding to the size of an Old Trafford or a Bernabeu.



The board have took it upon themselves to upgrade both training and youth facilities which is a sign of ambition that I hadn't seen before. Elections are coming up so i'd rather the current board stay really.



Look who are in the Champions League final, well done Lille. They may have sold the best striker in the world to Dortmund but they kept the rest of the team and came 2nd to a resurgent PSG in Ligue 1 but knocked out Juventus and Real Madrid in the Champions League. I really hope they win.

[lewis999]

Apparently when this award is translated it is the award voted by the fellow players so that's a brilliant award for Sane to win.



3rd in the German coach of the year award is probably fair. Freiburg had a fantastic season to finish 4th and Bayern won the league so no complaints.



Another award for Leroy getting into the team of the year which is full of brilliant players. That midfield and strike force would win any game guaranteed.

[lewis999]

Schalke 04 Season 2021/2022 Squad Stats

The squad performed brilliantly in all competitions this season except the Europa League final which I am totally not bothered about....much! Top scorer was the giant Szimayer, top performer was Sane if we discount the full back rating issue. I need to negotiate a new contract with Sane as he insisted on a fairly low one as he took a pay cut to join. With my new budget and prize money for finishing 2nd i'm hoping we don't need to add many players next year as we look to introduce some of our brilliant youth players into the first team squad. I may have to offload a few fringe players to make room.

Managers Top 3 Players of the Year

1. Leroy Sané - He has to get it, he went past players for fun all year, every game. He's a cut above and I hope I can give him a contract good enough for him to stay here for years to come. His average rating of 7.81 in 44(4) games says it all.

2. Marvin Szimayer - 'Gifted Giant' as I like to call him, stands at 6ft 6' and has the skill to make him a formiddable opponent for any defence. He can take you on, play a defence splitting through ball, out run you or out jump you. He really does have it all and was fantastic all season with 25 goals in 46(5) games. Hopefully next season he can hit 30 goals.

3. Moreira - Not often you get a no nonsense Brazilian but that is exactly what he is and he's bloody good at it too. He made the defence so much tighter this season with a lot of clean sheets and is only 21. He plays like a veteran 35 year old with more pace.

The final league table looks like this :

That's some turnover. Greedy directors, what about the fans!

[lewis999]

Get in there, that narrow diamond he played was just relentless. Interesting to see who comes in, the favourites to take over are Luis Enrique who is unemployed after being sacked by Man City for leading them to 7th place in the Premier League. Marcelinho who is currently in charge of Monaco. They have just finished 4th in Ligue 1 behind PSG, Lille and Marseille. Finally Rafa who is in charge of Porto, rather surprisingly.



I forgot to look out for Lilles Champions League final but they lost on penalties. The young Danish lad Mortensen that I bought missed the deciding one.

[lewis999]

They have hired Luis Enrique so let's hope we can start off with a win against him and try and get this title off them.



Get in, only a 10k increase and a new minimum realease clause of 33.5m. It's what he wanted and made it non-negotiable so I have to accept it. The last one was 19.5m so a lot, lot more.



This is a big one, the highest upgrade for youth recruitment. I'm looking forward to the next youth intake. Watch it be p*** poor now.



The new clan join us. Emerson is going straight into the first team and the rest will be in the reserve team and U19's. They will be on the bench a few times to see if they can impress and improve.



Oliver Apitz



Ayhan Ekinci

Morten Pedersen

David Pumpurla

Achim Sievers

and the best while last....Emerson.



Not sure how you show ambition in FM but I do try and he recognised it so nice touch SI.

[lewis999]

I didn't want to sell to them but he isn't German and he is stopping the development of some of my young talented players who play in DM so I had to let him go. 40m is a lot of money. Especially when I only bought him for....



That's a lot of profit from 1 season. We have a very healthy budget now if needs be.



I'm hoping this means he pushes Goretzka or Hojbjerg out of the team so they become unhappy and join us at Schalke.

[deltablue]

At least you got the cup as some sort of consolation.

[lewis999]

At least you got the cup as some sort of consolation.

That's how it felt rather than being very happy about it. Ah well like you say I suppose it's something.

[lewis999]

With Senegal there weren't many matches and even then I was itching to manage a European nation so when the chance came to resurrect the Swiss' fading hopes after 3 defeats in the group stages at the 2022 World Cup, I answered their call.

We are in a nations group with France and Czech Republic. Two teams that have better squads than us so i'm hoping to not get relegated.

[lewis999]

What a great win and we deserved it. 4 clear cut chances to their 1 and we defended brilliantly. One cup down, i'm after that league title.

[lewis999]

This is how we start our season. We have beaten reigning Champions Bayern in the Supercup and non-league Luckenwalde with our talented youngsters. We play Koln next and have 2 Champions League fixtures in the next 2 months. We don't know the groups yet as the playoff games are still to get underway.

We have brought in two players that were with me in Lille for a short time. Firstly we have a winger who we loaned from Barcelona, who played back up to Corchia on the right hand side of our midfield 5.



It cost 3.9m to bring him back to Germany and we don't need him but i'm hoping he can force his way in. I may have to sell Brandt in order to accomodate him as he is 26 now and is at his potential.

The second is a full back I signed for 800k at Lille but then out of the blue we ended up playing with a back 3 so I had no place for him and let him join Crystal Palace. He is originally from Schalkes academy and he cost 12.75m which is more than he is worth currently but has a lot of potential according to my best coaches.

[lewis999]

Not the best Champions League group to be in. We were third seeds so it was always going to be hard but Porto and Man Utd have very, very good teams in 2022. It will be a challenge that's for sure.

[lewis999]

Got your number Bayern. 2 games and 2 wins this season.

[lewis999]

Glad we are at the top of this list but I need to get more in the national team.

[Bedese]

Good stuff against Bayern. I reckon you can get at least second in that CL group.