[FM16] The Eagles

[nastymiller]

Sportclub Preußen 1906 e.V. Münster ........tha what?

My agent advised me he had landed me the gaffers job of The Eagles.....Palace, what a great first gig.......yeah right.

The starting point for me was Germany and Münster of the 3. Fußball-Liga, I know nothing about German lower league football, so god knows what is going to happen. What I do know is 20 teams play each other twice with the top two teams promoted and a third gets to play in some type of promotion play off game, whilst the bottom three clubs go down. Looking at the next divison above, the prize money is great with even the club finishing bottom getting £3,730,000!!!

As always when taking over a new club, its jibber, jabber time with the board etc....After speaking with the chairman I decided to stroke his ego and advise him I would be playing an English style 4-4-2 and all back room staff had to buy into that vision. He hugged me advising that was his dream style of football!!! Who would have known it eh!

Three players have been sent back to their clubs as I wanted to bring the players in that I wanted, with a transfer kitty of £0 and wages spare of £2,910 a week (which would go up a little with the on loan players leaving), it would be a case of raiding the free transfer market.

[nastymiller]

Week 1:

The first team meeting was all about advising the players I hoped for us to finish in a top half postion. Knowing no German, I did the usual thing which was SHOUT AS LOUD AS POSSIBLE AND MAKE SURE ONE....WORD....WAS.....SAID....BEFORE....THE....OTHER. And each sentance ending with "Understand" whilst waving my hands about. I didn't know about the players, but I was buzzing my tits off and couldn't wait to start bringing my own people in.

Pre-Season and a chance to drill into the players what 4-4-2 is really all about, its about plan a, b, c, d in fact I don't have any other plan apart from 4-4-2. The chairman decided a training camp was a must and with that the players and I packed our bags to go paint-balling, and train in the woods, time to get the Rocky music out.

Back-room signings:

Stefan Wolters as a Physio, lives by the 4-4-2 formation and is an excellant addition to the club, also joining as a Physio is Sven Rinke a superb physio and completes my need for medical care at the club.
Hilmar Weilandt as a Scout, a superb scout and will focus on players that slot into our 4-4-2 vision.
Roman Dabrowski as a Coach, capped 5 times by Poland a superb coach.

Signings:

In on a freebie is 33 year old Mario Licka, capped at U21 level for the Czech's he will play in midfield. With over 300 games to his name he comes with plenty of experiance, English fans will know him from his 2 seasons in the Championship with Southampton. A journeyman midfielder that won't pull any trees up, but will play his part no doubt.

 

[nastymiller]

Week 2:

Pre-Season matches don't you just love them, match tactics, the smiles on the fans faces and injuries!!! Philipp Hoffmann who can play either side of midfield only went and damaged his achilles and will be out for around 6 months.

2,890 season tickets sold so far with maybe another 300 to go and at £119 a pop a few squid into the bank for the club. £11 is the match day ticket price and with the stadium holding 15,050 we have plenty of space in case we do well.

A local bookmaker offered me odds of 33-1 to win the league, massive outside chance then yeah!?

Results:

2-2 away draw at FSV Wacker Nordhausen.

Back-room signings:

Ex England International Colin Cooper joins as coach, a superb appointment.
Arthur Albiston comes to the club, ex Scottish player and another superb addition to the staff.
Manfred Ruhl is a very good coach joining the U19 Squad.
Neil Murray is yet another jock coming over to help out, superb again!

Signings:

Another old head coming in, 34 year old journeyman midfielder and 62 times capped Burkiabe right sided midfielder Alassane Ouédraogo. Over 200 games to his name with the majority coming in Germany. Not a great signing, but fills a slot for now out on the right and was for freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

[nastymiller]

Week 3:

Got to love the local media, trying to shit stir saying I needed to sell players....I hardly have any....knobbers! Let's see if they have anything to say about my amazing parent club I have brought onboard, none other than Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Not only do I get a few players on loan but they also pay us £49,830 a year! Wow, just wow!

Got smashed at home to premeriship Aston Villa, we even took the lead infront of a very poor crowd of 2,869, I would have thought we would have had more through the gates, but hay ho.

With the training camp over the coaching staff advised me it had been a waste of time, half the team don't like each other and pretty much spending so much time with each other means there won't be a need for a Christmas party this year.

Here come the loan signings from our parent club...incooooooooming!!

Results:

1-1 away draw at 1.FC Nürnberg II.
5-1 home defeat to Aston Villa

Back-room signings:

A very good scout joined the gang, Thomas Cichon wants to be a gaffer but also has an eye for a player, we agreed if a gaffer job came up he can do one. He signed for us...good choice.
Colin Dobson has joined as a scout, 75 years old and has names coming out of every hole of his body, a very good choice to bring in.

Signings:

First of what will be a shed load of loan signings from my parent club is 21 year old keeper Niklas Lomb, as all incoming loanees here for the season and will be my number 1.
Second in is 19 year old midfield lad Marlon Frey, he can play in the centre and will get plenty of game time if he stays fit.
Robin Tim Becker becomes the third loan signing from Leverkusen, can play left and right back and will be cover for injuries.
Next in is Patrik Dzalto, 18 year old striker who will just be cover and the forth lad to join on loan.
The fith signing this week is the free transfer of 32 year old experianced midfielder Janez Zavri. Playing central midfield, he will be useful for cover and with 277 games and 29 goals to his name, will no doubt do a decent job when called upon.
Sixth signing and another loan and another keeper, 18 year old Patrick Bade joins his team-mates and will be cover.
Seven, yes a seventh signing and sixth from parent club. 18 year old centre back Ole Päffgen will be cover for the squad.
Eigth and final loan signing sees Lukas Boeder join as an 18 year old midfield player, won't play much, but he cost nothing, so I got him....I thank you.

[nastymiller]

Week 4:

Decided to get the lads in and advise them THEY....WOULD....GET....525,000...SHARED....BETWEEN...THEM....IF....THEY....WIN....THE....LEAGUE". One day my German will be ok so I don't have to shout!

And we lost again in pre-season, it's all about confidence building lol. 10,977 came to watch the away side and I doubt many will be back to watch that shower!!

Results:

0-4 home defeat to Bayer 04 Leverkusen

Back-room signings:

Peter Mead comes to the club as a scout, very good at what he does.
Another scout named Norman Wittekopf joins the team and is classed as a very good scout.
Felix Spann comes in as U19s coach and will be a decent addition to the back-room gang.

Signings:

Unless I move players on, my signings for the season are over and done with. 35 year old veteran winger Matthias Dollinger has joined on a free. Will look to play on the left of midfield and has 77 goals in 337 games and should get a few games this season.

Coming Up:

Opening day fixture against FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt at home.

[nastymiller]

Week 5:

Walking into the stadium on match day, I head for my office and see this nice reminder stuck on my office door.

So it's the start of the season and we are 5-4(Fav) to win, the papers reckon we will scrape it 1-0.

Therefore a 0-0 is the result, these 3rd Divison German players have no idea where the net is, both sides were utter shite when it came to scoring. Decided to assertively tell them I was far from pleased from the shite that had just been served up and 8,203 people should not see that type of finishing again.

The following day I was sent a memo stating 3,600 season tickets were sold in total.

Breaking news from the club gym "Janez Zavrl was pissing about doing dead-lifts and pulled his back" he will be out for 5 weeks the knob.

Bitter sweet news with the fact my assistant manager has been sent on a Continental A Coaching Licence. Sweet for him, but bitter for me as I am replacing him when his contract runs out, he is not a 4-4-2 believer.

Results:

0-0 home draw with FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt

Back-room signings:

Niall Bolder comes to the team as an U19s coach and will be a good addition to the coaching team.
U19s have an assistant manager, his name is Christian Akandu, average at best but he fills a slot for now.
Final signing is for the U19s again and is Carl Wurm is a good physio.

Coming Up:

VfR Aalen away from home, they won 3-1 away from home first game of the season.

 

[deltablue]

Was I the only person who had 'Hotel California' playing in my head?

[nastymiller]

Depends on how old you are Deltablue

Weeks 6 and 7:

7/4 to win the match and the papers reckon a draw, i'd take a draw at this moment in time with the home team being on a high after their opening day away win. Just 6 minutes into the game and a free kick from the left hand side is vollyed in, 1 down. Things got worse on 19 minutes when Björn Kopplin got a straight red for a 2 footed challenge, this could be a cricket score. Corner from the right and 2-0 down, seems set pieces could be a weakness for us, not happy, not happy at all. Second half was attack against defense as we worked hard to keep the score down to 2-0. It's going to be a long season, shite up top again.

Another week, and another injury, this time Lukas Boedar suffers a calf strain in training, 4 weeks out, great!

Results:

2-0 away defeat at VfR Aalen

Back-room signings:

Brought in Colin McLelland as fitness coach after a conversation with the board and advising I needed on. A superb addition to the set up.

Coming Up:

SG Dynamo Dresden at home, drew their last game 1-1.

 

[nastymiller]

Week 8:

5/4 fav to win the match, with the papers saying a draw. As long as we don't lose and we score a goal, that will be a result for me after a shocking opening 2 games to the season.

24 minutes into the game and a cracking cross from the right is headed in at the back post, a right goal!!! However it means we go 1-0 down. 36 mins and 2 down, a free kick from the right and a simple tap in, oh dear! Ripped into them at half time and.....nothing, the team showed me nothing apart from in the 86th minute we had a free-kick. A crap delivery meant they broke and we gave away a pen....toss this team, I think I need already to start looking for another job. A 3-0 home defeat and still not looking like scoring. I don't know how many ways I can say I was not not happy! This is shocking, 8,896 had to watch that!!! Shocking.

Couple of players came to me the day after the match and advised they wanted to leave the club, they had out-grown us. Fair enough, 3 defeats from 3 tell me you don't have the fight for it. So hopefully teams will give me the asking price for Amaury Bischoff and Mehmet Kara.

Results:

3-0 home defeat to SG Dynamo Dresden

Coming Up:

VfL Osnabrück away in Westfalen Derby, sat 2nd in the table and unbeaten!

[nastymiller]

Week 9:

Papers say a draw, which will mean home win and we are 7/4 to win...Derby day defeat?? Let's see.

14 mins in and a throw in deep inside the home sides half, our midfield hold off, hold off, hold off, the balls pinged to the right, then into the middle and boom 1-0 down. here we go again!

To be fair, we had our chances and were unlucky to go into the dressing room 1 down and within 2 minutes of the 2nd half we were level. A free kick swung in from the right by Mehmek Kara saw a towering header by Reichwein, game on! On top of the play and we shoot ourselves in the foot, twice we won the ball back, and twice we were caught in position, down the right, swung in and 2-1 to the home side. Gutted, starting to think it's actually my back 4, they had 2 shots on target and scored them both. That result has hurt, and hurt bad even though no-one expected us to win.

Mehmet Kara moves on a free transfer to Swiss Raiffeisen Super League side FC Thun meaning I now have a few quid to hit the free transfer market. Also going out, for a season long loan is Amaury Bischoff, joining Portuguese side Paços Ferreira and a return to Liga NOS football. Moving these 2 players out means I now have just short of £8,000 a week to invest in a few players.

International time and 2 players called up for their nations, Robin Tim Becker is called up for the German U19s and Cihan Özkara for the Azerbaijan national team - good luck lads.    

Results:

2-1 away defeat to VfL Osnabrück

Signings:

27 year old right sided midfield player Sebastian Zielinsky joins the club, a good player with 9 goals in 147 games to his name, should see some game time for the club this season.

Coming Up:

SC Fortuna Köln at home, they are the only club on 0 points and the only team below us, a must win game already this season.

SV Stuttgarter Kickers away.