[FM21] FC Kaiserslautern

[ajt]

Bundesliga Playoff 1st Leg

We were without 4 of our starters due to accumulated yellow cards & Thiego had stupidly gotten himself called up by the Brazil Under 20s (he would miss both legs).

It was a tight affair and Bialek had a couple of good chances but missed both of them. The Sultan did manage a very important away goal though.

 

Bundesliga Playoff 2nd Leg

The second leg was a bloody miracle. Mendy (one of the central midfielders I brought in this season) made a horror two footed challenge in the 11th minute and got himself sent off.

The only goal of the game was a very peculiar own goal in the 76th minute, and with that we are promoted on away goals to the Bundesliga, and taking Frankfurt down! 

Edited November 17, 2020 by ajt

[ajt]

2025/26 Results

As you can see we had a really awful stretch after the winter break. Had it not been for that then we would have achieved promotion much more comfortably. We did manage to beat Werder Bremen twice though, which we can hopefully do next season too 

I'm so happy that we finally managed to get promoted. It's been a huge struggle, which is kind of sad compared to everyone else winning leagues very easily but hey ho at least we made it 

 

2025/26 Squad

It says I used a 4-3-3 DM which is true, but I actually changed to a dirty 4-2-3-1 in an attempt to resurrect our season, and it obviously worked!

Bialek got 19 goals, but only 2 in the last half of the season.

Patrick Bardiro the Belgian regen was fantastic with his 17 assists and 7 goals.

The Sultan also improved his goal tally with 15 this season.

Thiego & Gozzi have been marvelous in central defence, Zefi & Ludwig the two new regen fullbacks played well, and The Great Dane continues his reign in goal - he has even made an appearance for Denmark now 

 

Interesting Youth

Ludwig is well on his way to becoming a quality left back

 

Zefi has improved his physicals like he needed, should have a little more potential left too

 

The lad now wants to leave the club and who can blame him? He's been called up to the Belgian squad for World Cup 2026 and already has 2 caps

 

Thiego got +1 to his positioning and improved slightly in other areas, I fear that he has nearly hit his potential. Still not a bad player even if he never gets anymore substantial increases to his attributes

 

The Kazakh reigns supreme on the right wing. I'm interested to see how many goals he can achieve in the proper Bundesliga

 

I don't think I've posted about young Stelios before. He's not exactly amazing, but I'm thinking of making him my starting AMC next season anyway for the hell of it. May as well try to get as much youth game time as possible right? 

 

Next Season Objectives

Stating the obvious it's to simply survive. There are 3 teams that I could possibly see finishing below us: St Pauli, Werder Bremen & Hannover.

The board just want us to "fight bravely" so hopefully they won't sack me if I fail.. right? 

I currently have a transfer budget of £5.3 million and a wage budget of £375k, so I will have to conjure up some magic in the transfer market

I plan to play all of my youth players still since I invested so much time in them, I think I mainly need a backup for my AMC & maybe a new DM/CM

Edited November 17, 2020 by ajt

[karanhsingh]

Just caught up with this, very well done getting promoted. There seems to be a lot of strong teams in the second division every season. I also like the look of your young signings 

[DavidBeckham]

Congrats on the promotion mate!  Bardiro looks excellent, hope you can keep him at the club!

[TheRobert]

Not another year in 2.Bundesliga. First year in Bundesliga!

[Lodi Lemmer]

Congratulations on the promotion to Bundesliga. Petsas looks worth giving at least a handful of games.

[ajt]

Cheers all for the congratulations!

Winter Break 2026/27

We've done really well so far. In contrast to our usual statistics we have one of the worst defences in the league, but also the second best attack in terms of goals scored.

The Worst result this season was a 6-1 loss to Bayern Munich, who are pretty damn good haha.

A top half finish would get us a nice amount of prize money so that's my aim for the rest of the season, although the Champions League would be a nice bonus.. 

 

This has been our best result so far I think, albeit against a shocking Freiburg team. They look like they could get relegated this season.

 

I have been turning down some decent fees for the Kazakh. I expect I'll get some very large bids soon since his form has been fantastic so far, 13 goals in 17 games.

 

Hopefully the board will increase our wage budget for next season 

[abulezz]

Stelios is the truth! Congrats on the promotion. 

[ajt]

33 minutes ago, abulezz said:

Stelios is the truth! Congrats on the promotion. 

Yes he seems pretty good! Unfortunately he's been injured so I haven't been able to give him as much game time as I'd like.

 

Kaiserslautern 2 - 1 Bayern Munich

This definitely takes the cake for best result of the save, a wonderful 2-1 victory against an uncharacteristically quiet Bayern Munich team.

 

Possibly sad times ahead as the wonderful Bardiro is wanted by Real Madrid, and he only has a minimum fee release clause of £26.5 million.

He also refuses to sign a new contract as we don't have enough "quality players" for him to play with 

 

Our form has been okay since the winter break, although we do play first place Borussia Dortmund next match.

10 games left to go... the champions league spot is still up for grabs 

[TheRobert]

Congratulasions!

[ajt]

2026/27 Competitions

Well I guess we did pretty damn well in the end  Nowhere close to Dortmund or Bayern but seeing as we were only supposed to avoid relegation I'll take it. Most importantly we will get a load of free money from the Champions League.

We received £75 million in prize money for our position, and yet the board have still only given me a transfer budget of £4.7 million and a barely increased wage budget for next season..

 

2026/27 Squad

Bardiro was by far the most important player, with his 14 assists & 11 goals.

The Sultan had a great time of it getting 17 goals.

Bialek repaid my trust in him with 14 goals and 8 assists (pressing forward attack).

The defence was solid although it would be nice to try and get some more assists from my full backs.

 

Data Analysis Report

I don't really understand all this xG stuff but it seems that we outperformed our xG quite a bit this season. I guess we were pretty lucky!

 

Player of the Season

This guy has been an absolute legend for the club since he joined. It's such a shame that he has a very low minimum release clause (£27.5 million) which is almost certainly going to be triggered this off season.

I pray that he changes his mind and decides to stay at the mighty Kaiserslautern but it's looking very doubtful. Farewell sweet prince 

He may well be the best regen I have in the whole of this damn save 

 

Interesting Youth

The Sultan is almost too old to be considered a youth player now! He had a fine season in the Bundesliga, in fact it was better than last year, which is most peculiar. I guess he just loves the bright lights of the top division.

I learn't from my Bardiro experience and have him tied to the club for the next six seasons, with no minimum release clause 

 

If the player rating stars are to be believed then Thiego has almost reached his potential. However his "Progress Chart" continues to show improvement so I'm not sure.

He's a very well rounded defender, and I have a feeling he might go for a huge fee one day to one of the top teams. His release clause is £73 million.

Not that it really matters though, due to my contract extension shenanigans he will be with the club until 2034!

 

It's kind of crazy to think that Ludwig and Zefi are both still under 19. I'm really glad that I decided to play them both in the first team last season, otherwise I'm not sure I would have had the balls to throw them straight in to the deep end this year.

 

I just realised that Zefi actually looks more like a DM than a full back. It's a good thing I kept him as a full back though as I mainly play a 4-2-3-1 now.

 

Next Season Objectives

At least the board aren't getting too carried away. This is very similar to what happened after our first season in Bundesliga 2.

I'm not taking anything for granted in this save after my previous flirt with being sacked. I'll be happy with a mid table finish next season.

It would be wonderful to have a little run in the Champions League. If we could make it out of the group stage or even get into the Europa League knockout stages then I would be delighted.

The biggest problem I will have is in replacing Bardiro, not sure what's going to happen!

[scarp]

Great job and good luck in next season! From my experience the second season is always the hardest after promotion. Looking forward for the transfer windows.. Bardiro is phenomenal, hopefully he won't leave.

[abulezz]

Wonderful update - very informative and well presented. 

[Earnie is God!]

On 10/11/2020 at 21:55, ajt said:

We start in the Liga 3, and have been given the aim of a top half finish. This seems a little strange as I had imagined that the board would want promotion

I'm just starting a save with them but in FM20 and the board want the playoffs at a minimum. I suspect that after a 2nd successive failure IRL, the expectations for FM21 have been toned down a little.

[ajt]

I took a bit of a break from the game after learning about the game breaking "regen" bug, so I'm back now that it's been fixed. Hopefully it hasn't impacted upon my save too much! Luckily I did already have a lot of leagues loaded as playable anyway.

 

Champions League Draw

Been handed what looks like a very tough group in the CL. Maybe we can finish ahead of Lyon for a Europa League spot though?

 

Transfers In/Out 2027

Sadly my young Belgian starlet Bardiro got poached by Real Madrid (they paid his £27.7 million release clause). It's a sad day for the club as I feel he could have been an all time great for us but ahh well!

I have reinvested the money in a couple of new players anyway 

 

Found this regen playing for Bodo Glimt in Norway. Now that he's joined a club with far superior facilities and in a much higher league I expect he should improve quite speedily. He was pretty expensive for a club of our size (£7.5 million rising to £20 million with addons) but I think he can be a real rock in our defence for a long time.

Either that or he'll be begging to leave in a few years time and I'll sell him for a massive profit anyway 

 

Andre was one of the best AMC's available who had interest in joining the club, costing £13 million from Internacional. He does earn a pretty disgusting wage (£55k p/w..) but he's a direct replacement for Bardiro and should provide three or four years of service for the club.

 

Mario is a bit of a strange player as his technical attributes aren't the best for either DL or AML, but he was a free transfer from Genoa and I figured he was worth a flutter. He does have absolutely immense physicals though so if I can improve his technicals a bit then he should work pretty well for the team.

[ajt]

Champions League

Well at the end of the day we got absolutely demolished 

We did somehow manage to get a win against Chelsea but lost both our games against Lyon which sealed our exit at the bottom of the group. Lyon have got Tammy Abraham playing for them and he scored three times against us 

 

We were so bad in our final match that the players decided to refund the fans tickets.. what a lovely bunch of lads 

 

Winter Break Table

A very strange season so far.. we're in 6th spot yet only eight points away from the relegation spot.

Incredibly twelve of the eighteen teams currently have a negative goal difference, seems that no one wants to win!

Still we are somehow in with a shout of making the Champions League again, although I'd be very happy to play in the Europa League if I'm honest. I reckon we could do some damage in that competition.

 

My first award as a manager I think.. French manager of the year! My manager reputation has jumped as well and I now sit at 70%.

Kaiserslautern have also given me a new four year contract until 2031. In fact my weekly wage is now so high that I think only Andre the Brazilian is currently earning more per week than me 

 

Winter Transfers

My scouts have been on an absolute tear lately and found this wonderful Colombian youngster. Managed to get him on a deal for £2.7 million (including addons).

The Sultan has been "jaded" all season due to playing so many games so it will be nice to have another real quality inside forward to rotate. I might even try and develop him as a striker maybe as he has pretty great well rounded attributes for either position 

I've also managed to swoop up some absolute gems who will be joining the club on free transfers next season too. Very pleased with how things are going overall.

Edited December 4, 2020 by ajt

[ajt]

2027/28 Competitions

Bit of a strange season really.. managed some great results against the big guns, beating Dortmund 5-0 and Bayern 4-0 but struggling to actually win many of our games, a lot of draws this season!

A bit of hilarity ensued when Bayer Leverkusen nearly got themselves relegated on the final day of the season 

All in all I guess I'm pleased enough, we've apparently qualified for the Europa League Conference competition next season, as Hoffenheim & Dortmund are playing in the DFB Pokal cup final and they've already qualified for European competitions themselves.

 

2027/28 Best Eleven

My polish forward Bialek (who now has a cap for his country) continues to carry the team with his goals.

 

2027/28 Transfers

Ahmed Ibrahim is an absolute gem of a centre back and Sergio Lugo scored 10 goals in his 16 games after joining in January.

My expensive Brazilian Andre Anderson didn't end up having as much impact as I'd like, but he only missed six league games all season so I guess I can't complain too much, at least he's consistent at being average 

 

Season Data Report

Seems we got a bit lucky in terms of our points and goals haul this season yet again, although our xG against and conceded per game are quite far apart.

I think part of the blame has to go against our aging 33 year old goalkeeper The Great Dane, who after six long (and mostly great) seasons at the club will be replaced in the starting lineup.

I did tweak the formation a bit towards the end which seemed to help a bit, so I'm going to stick with my 4-3-3 DM going forward instead of the 4-2-3-1 of yesteryear because we were leaking goals and not creating many.

 

Player of the Season

Player of the season this year has to go to young Ahmed, boys only just turned 19 but is already putting in consistent performances.

 

Interesting Youth

Ludwig has developed into a right little terror, and has almost outgrown his stay on the interesting youth list. He won German Under 19 player of the year award this season 

 

Zefi still isn't the quickest but at least his physicals are now serviceable, maybe I can eek out another +1 to his pace/accel. Came 3rd in German Under 19 voting.

 

The Colombians an absolute demon, and has been used at both AMR and up front as my pressing forward. Not sure what position he'll end up playing in the future but it's nice to have a bit of utility. Currently being trained as a Complete Forward.

I haven't made the same mistake as I did with the young Belgian and have got him on a very high release clause.

 

I haven't actually had that many interesting regens enter from the Academy for the past couple of years but Florian is probably the best of a bad bunch. His tackling is too low to retrain him for my midfield, so I'm currently training him to be a striker as I don't use an AMC anymore.

 

Next Season Objectives

My main objective is to enjoy the Europa League Conference and see how far I can get in that  The club will finally get state of the art training/youth facilities next season too!

I have a number of good young players coming in on free transfers (including another Colombian!) so I think I'll spend any money I do get on a new DMC or MC.

I'm also about to put my faith in a 19 year old French wonderkid goalkeeper who conceded nearly 60 goals for Caen this season, so things could go downhill quickly 

Edited December 6, 2020 by ajt

[ajt]

All hail the newgen patch!! 

 

Europa Conference League Group Draw

Quite pleased with our draw.. Braga & Nantes must be fairly decent to have made it into the competition but I think AGF are going to get destroyed.

The board expect us to progress to the second knockout round so hopefully we can make it that far!

Surprisingly there are a few big teams in the Europa Conference - Lyon, PSV Eindhoven & Atalanta being the most reputable.

 

All hail the newgen patch!! 

 

Transfers 2028

It's been an extremely busy transfer window, with me bringing in a of a young players that will hopefully do a job in the first team this season.

I've spent quite a lot of money in comparison to previous seasons and the wage budget is sort of interesting now but I felt it was necessary so we could make our assault on the Europa Conference 

 

The first of two regens from River Plate who will be in and around the first team, he's been attrocious in his first few games but I have high hopes for the lad. cost me a cool £8 million.

 

The second argentinian. I badly needed a player who could play in central midfield and this guy fit the bill. Will be able to play at DL, DM, & MC for me! £5.75 million due to his release fee.

 

The goalkeeping Salah. This is the youngster I found playing for Caen who was refusing to sign a new deal for them. He conceded 65 goals last season, hopefully he does slightly better this year, though if the first few games are anything to go by then it could be a long old season 

 

I wanted another Colombian so that my striker Lugo could have a mate and poached this chap on a free. He's already started the season off on a flyer, long may it continue!

 

He was plying his trade for Odense in Denmark, I almost feel bad for taking him on a free transfer.. almost  Thinking of trying to retrain him as a left back so that he can provide cover at both LB & AML.

 

All in all I'm extremely happy with this transfer window, it was the first time that the board actually gave me a substantial amount of money to spend so I'd like to think I've repaid their faith.

The wage bill has full on rocketed though so hopefully they'll keep increasing it each season 

[ajt]

2029 Winter Break Update

Well it's been a bit of a mixed season so far, sitting mid table in the league but we have managed to get through our Conference League group!

 

We went into our last game needing a win against a high flying FC Nantes. They are having a spectacular season and currently sit second in Ligue 1.

Luckily they had already qualified and seemed to play a bit of a rotated side, and in the end we had no problem getting two goals in the second half.

I think it's a fair result as we were leading 1-0 vs Braga in both our games and ended up drawing both due to goals in the 80th+ minute.

 

A very close tussle to qualify for the latter stages. Braga certainly made it a very competitive group. AGF were woeful and didn't pick up a single point, though I suppose they did well to even make it into the competition.

 

The draw for the first knockout round was a bit favourable for us, as we managed to miss all the big teams that joined from the Europa League! We will travel to Romania for our ties.

I'm just glad that we won't have to play Thursday + Sunday as much now, those extra six games have really been stretching the limits of my already fairly small squad.

 

In other huge news our right back Zefi has picked up his first cap for Germany! I would never have guessed that he would turn into such a talent given how poor his physicals were to begin with, fair play to him 

 

Winter Break Table

Things haven't been going so well in the league, as we find ourselves sitting ten points off the European qualification spots. I am confident that we can still make a push for the Europa League though as I've managed to bring in a couple of new defenders which will help immensely with our squad rotation for the future.

 

We did manage a fabulous win against Bayern Munich though, the boys always seem to turn up for this game in particular.

 

January 2029 Transfers

I found two more wonderkids from South America to bring in, Kaiserslautern truly has a real Latin vibe!

I think it is safe to say that I have truly raided the mighty River Plate of their talent. They may as well be a feeder team for us at this point. Cost me his £6 million release clause but his jumping reach/heading is pretty legit. He's also a perfecionist.

 

Yet another Colombian, this time from Defensor Sporting. I signed him on a free transfer and I think his main purpose to begin with will be to provide rotation at DR/DL/DC.

I'm incredibly happy with the defence now, we have not only real quality young starters but also plenty of cover.

It has also come time to move on my striker of many years Bialek. It seems a shame to stop him playing first team football as Lugo has now taken over duties up front. He will be sold to Burnley for £14.75 million which is a fine price for a 27 year old imo.

I might attempt one more transfer if I can find a good midfielder to bring in, as that is the one area of the team where we really need to improve now.

[ajt]

Europa Conference League

We spanked Astra 10-0 over the two legs, but now we will come up against an in form Real Betis. They are currently 5th in La Liga and have multiple players valued above £35 million. Should be an interesting tie anyway.

Elsewhere there were two big surprises as Udinese lost to Molde and Feyenoord lost to KV Mechelen.

Our league form is still average as we occupy 11th place currently in late February.

[ajt]

A real shame, as we have been defeated on penalties by Real Betis. We were down 1-1 (away goals) after the first leg and did well to level it at 2-2. We just couldn't get the winning goal and then one of our new youngsters Cigno missed in the shoot out.

I'm still happy with how we battled against them. It was also nice to see Schalke get knocked out by FC Kobenhavn. Not surprising at all as they are possibly going to get relegated from the Bundesliga this season.

Hopefully we can strengthen our league form and put in a respectable finish, though European football seems like it won't be achievable now.

Edited December 18, 2020 by ajt

[ajt]

2028/29 Season

Woo what a ride it was!

 

After our exit from the Europa Conference League we went on a terrific run winning seven of our remaining nine matches, in fact we finished only one point behind Freiburg for a Europa League spot.

Still I'm incredibly impressed with the lads (and one imparticular, more on him later), and we will once again be in the Conference League next season  Hopefully our co-efficient will be improved as well so that we get a slightly easier group this time.

 

Competitions

Not a bad year at all, I had to sacrifice the DFB Pokal for player welfare reasons as there was no way we would be able to compete in that many competitions.

 

Best XI

Sergio Lugo our 19 year old Colombian striker scored 28 goals for me in the league, including four in a single game against St Pauli. I think i've finally got a tactic sorted out which suits him, his pace is insane at unlocking defences and he is a mean finisher even though his finishing attribute is "only" 14. He scored 38 goals overall this year. In fact we don't use a 4-3-3 anymore, but rather a 4-2-3-1.

Oscar Garcia had a great first season too, setting up many goals for Mr Lugo and getting a number himself.

The defence is completely solid now, with our centrebacks in particular impressing. My full backs don't get great ratings as they don't get many assists with the way I have my tactic set up but they are defensively solid - in fact we had the second best defence behind only RB Leipzig.

 

Transfers

Pretty much everyone that I brought in contributed, even if it was only as backup.

I think the best transfer should be Oscar Garcia, but really the young goalkeeper Ziani had a great season with some key saves.

 

Player of the Season

There can only be one, and this guy really is set to become a legend of world football I think. I'm pretty rubbish at making tactics so for this guy to get 28 league goals is really something else, he genuinely carried the team.

As you can see he won German footballer of the year, and has also set a new record for POTM in the Bundesliga (not for Kaiserslautern - for the whole of the Bundesliga ever!).

There is sad news however. He currently earns £50k p/w, but when I tried to offer him a new contract he wants £135k! Who can blame him really I suppose, the lad knows his worth 

He is currently wanted by a host of clubs - Barcelona, Liverpool, Juventus, Arsenal & Tottenham included. His current contract runs out in 2032 so I guess I have one or maybe two seasons to enjoy him before I have to sell him.

Still, to think that he only cost £1.2 million last season and is now valued at £46 million... this guy has to be one of the best transfers I have made on any FM ever. Praise be to Colombia.

 

Interesting Youth

Our youth intake has really dropped off in recent seasons, therefore all the interesting youth are actually players I've brought in myself.

 

Stepping into The Great Danes shoes was always going to be a tall order for a 19 year old, but he coped admirably. The French coach has actually been watching some of our games, so maybe he is the future French keeper?

 

Boy oh boy Ahmed has been a great player for the club in his first two seasons, I think my favourite thing about him is that he is just ultra consistent and rarely ever gets injured. I signed him to a bumper 70k p/w 5 year contract recently so he is tied down for the foreseeable.

 

A solid first season for the youngster, maybe it helps that he has some Argentinian compatriots alongside him. I am ashamed to say that he took over the starting role from The Sultan during the season. I still plan to keep our Kazakh regen though, he still does a great job off the bench.

 

Pablo is a funny one, he actually hasn't played centre back once due to Thiego & Ibrahim's partnership, and instead plays at CM (D). I'm not sure if it should work, but he seems to do a solid job.

 

Next Season Objectives

Club vision is getting a little scary now! They want Europa League qualification next season, and for us to reach the final of the ECL 2.

Then the next season they want Champions League football. I can see it all going horribly wrong if I can't keep hold of Lugo but hey ho I'll give it a go.

Luckily they have given me a transfer budget of £35 million and I have a spare £125k wage budget, so it could be a bumper transfer window in the summer.

I think I will try and get a new AMC (we never really replaced Badiro) and hmm, maybe a backup striker.

[ajt]

2029 Europa Conference League Draw

We moved up into the second co-efficient spot this year, and well.. I think we've been ridiculously unlucky here. AS Monaco are one of the strongest first seeds we could have had and Standard Liege are a decent team as well. At least it should be slightly easier than the draw with Nantes/Braga last year. I also forgot to mention but Real Betis who we lost to last year actually won the competition, so at least we went out to the eventual champions.

 

2029 Transfers

Huge news as one of our free signings from last season got sold to Hoffenheim for a cool £54 million! I think they might have overspent but I guess he is still young. Luckily I had also signed a Colombian left winger last season too or we'd be in serious trouble, not many quality AML's in the game currently 

 

I scouted a huge amount of players and was lucky to spot this guy playing for Talleres. He cost £7.75 million rising to £14 million, but I think he should be a good investment.

 

I did what may turn out to be a silly deal myself as I saw this young chap playing for AEK Athens in Greece. His buyout clause was £24 million.. and given that I had just got the Davidsen money I thought to hell with it and splashed the cash.

He is currently one of the best central midfield regens in the game from what I can see, and I did badly need a new backup as a few of my older players left the club on free transfers this season. His personality is only "fairly ambitious" but he will be put into my mentoring group so I can hopefully move it towards professional or resolute. I have really high hopes for him, hopefully he will develop into a real rock in my midfield.

 

After extensive scouting for a backup striker and finding virtually no one suitable, I came across another Uruguyan guy and decided to take a punt on him. He cost "only" £7.25 million and will rotate with Lugo where needed.

 

My attention then turned to getting my "youth conveyor belt" on the go, as I obviously now need to train players from a young age so they can take home grown spots in the European registration.

I won't show all of them (I actually managed to bring in five youngsters this window) but this guy deserves a mention I think. He looks fairly similar to Zefi and will provide backup/rotation for him when necessary.

[ajt]

Lugo News

The news that every Kaiserslautern fan has been praying for, as Lugo has decided to extend his stay with a new 5 year deal 

He is now earning a crazy amount (£115k p/w base + £42k appearance fee ) and there is a £110 million release clause, but I'm very happy not to have to sell him next season.

 

Lugo and the team celebrated his new contract by putting eleven goals past a tiny team from Finland. I felt quite sorry for them if I'm honest.

 

Winter Break Competitions

A very pleasing first half of the campaign! We're actually doing well in the league for once, although we did just lose 3-2 against RB Leipzig after my goalkeeper kicked the ball against their striker for a goal.. 

Apparently we get to skip the first knockout round of the Conference League which is great, so we won't have another match in that until the middle of March.

Dortmund look absolutely unstoppable at the moment, so I would be very happy with Champions League qualification, though the board want the Europa League still.

 

All in all we have been performing very well in comparison to the rest of the Bundesliga. Our defence in particular is the second best (only behind the magnificent Dortmund).

 

 

I got a news item telling me that a manager was unhappy with how little his guy had been playing whilst on loan with us. What made me chuckle was that it was none other than AC Milan Icon, and now Juventus manager, Andriy Shevchenko!

Edited December 20, 2020 by ajt

[ajt]

Apparently it's a "golden generation" which is cool.. but I seem to get fobbed off a lot when I get that distinction so it will be interesting to see who turns up.

 

The biggest job offer I've had so far!

 

2030 Winter Transfers

Bit of a strange one this. He was a free transfer last season and hadn't played a single game thus far this year, but Schalke came in out of nowhere and met his £18.25 million release clause. Very happy with that!

 

Focusing very much on bringing in young players now that I have the first team sorted. Decided to buy out his release clause for £7 million from Sevilla. Still has another year until he turns 18 so plenty of time to develop him, I think he can provide cover at both AMC & CM.

 

Cheeky free transfer from Linz in Austria. Could either become an ST or an AMR, think I will train him as a ST complete forward for now.

 

There's a rule that we need a certain number of german players in the squad for the league, so I thought young Daniel could turn into a fairly good right back in the future. He has great determination/workrate and is "driven". £2.5 rising to £8.25 million with some silly clauses.

[ajt]

Europa Conference League

A shameful display as the team goes out on away goals in the second round to Feyenoord.

The board don't particularly mind as they "understand why we lost to a team like Feyenoord". Not sure I do, they're 6th in the Eredivisie!

To be fair though we would have had to play Milan in the Semi Final if we got there anyway which I'm not sure we could have won, so maybe it's for the best that we go out now.

 

We lost the away leg 1-0, and then in the second leg they scored their winning goal in the 89th minute 

 

The league is going much better. We've just managed a 3-1 win against Dortmund, and we have two games in hand on the rest of the top six. We surely have to make it into the Champions League now, it would be a massive failure if we don't achieve that at least.

[ajt]

2029 Competitions

A great season overall, about as good as can be expected I think. We finish four points off the top spot after Bayern Munich went into on a crazy run of wins at the end of the season.

We made it to the German Cup final but delivered a miserable 4-1 loss against Dortmund, a bit of a shame since we beat them in our last league game.

I didn't realise but we also got a nice amount of money for playing in the Conference League, over £15 million from the TV money and bonus money. Kaiserslautern now has an overall balance of £122 million.

 

Easily our best result of the season.. Lugo got five goals as we notched up a rampant 7-0 win in our last game of the season against fourth place RB Leipzig.

 

Really pleased with our performances this season. We still have one of the best defences in the league and Lugo just won't stop scoring. Best of all is that virtually none of our first team are even over 22 years old yet, so we've got some good years ahead of us.

 

2029 Best XI

Really good performances across the team.

A special mention for the new AMC Santiago Rodriguez who delivered a vast number of assists and Hebert Rivas who really improved his play from last year. We didn't miss our old Danish AML Davidsen at all.

 

2029 Transfers

A pretty good return from our new transfers.. especially the young greek midfielder Botsis who played more games than I was expecting.

 

Player of the Season

I think when (or maybe if?) Lugo leaves the club I should rename the Player of the Season "The Lugo Award".

He really is just an exceptional striker, and finished only four goals short of the legendary Gerd Mullers Bundesliga goals in a season record (Gerd got 40 in 1971/72).

I'm not sure how many more seasons we can keep him as he now wants £200k p/w and the board will let me offer "only" £125k 

Maybe if we win the league the board will increase our maximum wage? who knows!

 

Interesting Youth

A special mention to the youth team overall who won their division beating Bayern Munich in the final, with a wonderful +117 goal difference.

 

Ziani has become a marvelous goalkeeper and is now the French number one goalkeeper.

 

Oscar may have developed close to his full potential now. He improved his scoring this season and got a fair number of assists too.

 

Botsis has been improving nicely, probably due to the amount of first team experience that he has been getting. I hope he will be become one of the worlds great central midfielders.

 

Next Season Goals

Win the Champions League!  Okay maybe not, but realistically it would be nice to make it out of our group and maybe go on a nice run in the knockout rounds? At the very least I expect us to finish third and qualify for the Europa League.

In terms of the league I expect Dortmund, Bayern & Leipzig to strengthen their squads once again so it would be nice to become an established Champions League club for that sweet TV moolah.

In terms of transfers I'm pretty damn pleased with the first team I've assembled. AML is the only position I may try to strengthen but when I last checked there weren't any decent players available for a fair wage.

I'll continue to hoover up the youngsters though!

[TheRobert]

Congratulations for UCL qualify!

[ajt]

3 hours ago, TheRobert said:

Congratulations for UCL qualify!

Cheers mate!

 

Champions League Draw

Damn we've had a tough draw. PSG are obviously extremely strong, Benfica are still a big club and Norwich have turned themselves into something of a Premier League powerhouse. Most of their players are worth 50 million+ 

I'll be extremely pleased to finish third in this group but who knows, maybe we can put Benfica & Norwich to the sword! really need Lugo to bang in the goals though.

I think our league form may suffer as I have to rotate the squad so much for the big midweek games.

 

2030 Summer Transfers

Poached him on a free from Zwolle in the Netherlands. Should get quite a lot of game time as I need to play Lugo more in the Champions League.

I also got very scared as Barcelona made a bid that was only £20 million under Lugo's release clause, so this guy better do the business incase the legendary Colombian leaves 

 

I couldn't find another AML, but I did find yet another AMC/MC!

Cost £15.5 million from Corinthians. I've been starting him as CM (s) but I imagine he will soon move to AMC to rotate with my young Argentinian prodigy.

I'm now pretty overloaded in terms of central midfielders but I think it's good to have lots of them since I play the 4-2-3-1.

[ajt]

Champions League

We started off our Champions League campaign with a 4-1 loss to the weakest team in the group. They were incredibly clinical in front of goal, can't believe they scored four tbh.

We then had a decent run of results. 1-1 draw vs PSG, 2-1 win vs Norwich.

We lost the second game against Norwich 2-1 which put them top of the group, but then got a resounding 2-0 win at home to Benfica.

We were level on points with PSG with a worse goal difference, meaning we would need a win in the final game to see us through.

 

And we managed it! PSG unluckily got a player sent off in the first half after our first goal, but we managed to hold on and the new wonderkid striker even got a second in the 87th minute.

 

The result meant that PSG got sent to the Europa League, and as Norwich beat Benfica we would finish second.

I'm absolutely delighted that we somehow managed to make it through this group, it really was the group of death imo.

 

Despite finishing second we have been handed an extremely favourable draw, as we will play against another Portuguese side, Sporting.

I expect it to be an exciting match as they are currently top of Liga Nos, but it's about as easy a draw as could be imagined.

Funnily enough they have signed a now 37 year old Harry Kane! although he has only had five substitute appearances for them.

 

League Form

A fabulous first half of the campaign sees us top at the half way stage, including a recent 2-0 win against previously first placed RB Leipzig.

Dortmund are having a woeful season so far, no idea why as they didn't get rid of any of their key players.

As you can see only the top three clubs now qualify for the Champions League, this is due to the co-efficient changing, Portugal now have four spots instead of Germany!

I have a feeling it might switch around again soon though as we have four teams in the CL first knockout round, and they only have two.

 

Despite having to play a lot of matches and the squad being stretched rather thin (in fact Lugo has even been injured for about 2 months of the league so far) we continue to put in good performances.

Would be nice to be Aggressive, Clincal though, we do miss a lot of chances.

[ajt]

Champions League First Knockout Round

We beat Sporting 3-0 at home in the first leg so I decided to rest as many players as possible for the return fixture. Luckily we did okay anyway and have made it to the quarter final for the first time.

 

We've been handed a pretty tough draw, having to take on Real Madrid who are currently second in La Liga.

We might end up playing against our old legend Patrick Bardiro! However he is mainly being used as a sub by Real Madrid as their team is incredible.

 

League Form

We're quickly moving into April now, and with seven games remaining we are one point away from RB leipzig.

The key fixture will likely be the second to last match, which sees us take on Leipzig away from home.

Unfortunately they will have the fixture advantage during the run in as they lost 11-4 over their two legs against Liverpool.. 

[ajt]

Champions League Quarter Final

The first leg was a cagey 2-2 draw, but we got two away goals so I felt pretty confident. We totally dominated the second game in terms of shots on goal and ran out comfortable 4-2 winners in the end.

 

Sergio Lugo hasn't been having a great season for what is expected from him, but he did score this outrageous chip goal 

 

Our longest run in the Champions League by far, and we now have to play against Liverpool!

Edited December 22, 2020 by ajt

[ajt]

Champions League Semi Final 1st Leg

What a game! It was 2-2 early in the first half, and I was sure it would end that way. Then in the 96th minute Benali was pushed by one of Liverpools defenders.

 

And he slotted away the penalty himself! We go into the second leg with three away goals, surely this is our chance to make the final.

[ajt]

Champions League Semi Final 2nd Leg

This goal just about sums up the game! We utterly dominated Liverpool and end up winning 8-3 on aggregate.

Our reward will be a final against Man City! Our first ever cup final and it comes in our second ever champions league campaign.

 

The League..

Utter capitulation from RB Leipzig who will likely end the season in third. And with that we have clinched our first ever Bundesliga win!

It took me longer than I expected, but the squad I've assembled really is filled to the brim with young talent, should be a very bright future for Kaiserslautern.

[ajt]

Champions League Final

A very demoralising result  My young wonderkid Brazilian AMC and the star man Lugo both got injuries during the game and had to come off.

Man City were by far the better team and deserved to win, they also won the Premier League with 92 points.

Still we had a good run, and with all the main squad being under 24 I'm sure we will have another chance to lift the trophy.

[TheRobert]

Congratulations, however, on winning the title and the UCL final. I know what it's like to lose a UEFA Champions League final.

[ajt]

11 hours ago, TheRobert said:

Congratulations, however, on winning the title and the UCL final. I know what it's like to lose a UEFA Champions League final.

Cheers Robert! Yes it sucks doesn't it.

 

2030/31 Competitions

Pretty obvious how we did from my last posts  Very pleased to win the league for the first time since 1998, but the Champions League FInal loss does leave a sour taste.

 

Damn good on the season analysis front. Probably about as good as we're going to get (unless we score even more goals, our defending effort is brilliant already).

 

Best XI

A raft of fine performances, especially from Da Silva with a massive 23 assists.

Benali was this seasons top scorer, although that might be because Lugo was rotated a lot and mainly played at AMR.

 

The "Sergio Lugo" Player of the Season

Sergio is finally displaced this season as MVP. Benali joined on a free and has been sensational, and is now worth a cool £68 million, I also got him tied into a new five year deal so he has to stick around a while 

 

Interesting Youth

We had a real poor youth intake once again, so yet more foreigners to highlight.

 

Not sure how much further Botsis can climb attribute wise, but he has developed into a nice central midfielder already.

 

From rotational backup to a mainstay in the defence, Sosa has done very well and is likely one of the best young defenders in the world.

 

Da Silva has grown quite nicely over the season and obviously contributed a lot of assists from AMC. The nice thing is he can play any of my three midfield positions so he's always around the team.

 

Mr Bojangles is very much one for the future, but I think he will start getting a lot more first team game time as I need another AML badly. He did actually score a goal in the Champions League this season though!

 

Next Season Objectives

Obviously winning the league again would be nice, but I really want that damn Champions League trophy. If I need to sacrifice the league for a chance in it next season then I probably will.

The board still only want Champions League qualification anyway, so it won't make them angry.

I don't really need to sign anyone.. the big problem is trying to keep hold of the players I already have as I can only offer £145k p/w and some of the players want £175k+ , a few of them like Lugo also have minimum release clauses so hopefully I have the same team again by the time the transfer window shuts.

[Jellico73]

I'm doing a Kaiserslautern save.  Spalvis was totally off the chains for me in Liga 3, 35+ goals, Ritter had 20 Assists, Redondo was good as well.  In Bundesliga 2 Spalvis fell of, but Roser stepped up, and 2nd season I made it into the Bundesliga.  Was able to sign Willem Geubbels for 500K, he's been doing wonders for us.  Aiming for midseason finish, will see how that turns out.

 

Keep up the good work!
 

Jellico

[ajt]

On 24/12/2020 at 04:08, Jellico73 said:

I'm doing a Kaiserslautern save.  Spalvis was totally off the chains for me in Liga 3, 35+ goals, Ritter had 20 Assists, Redondo was good as well.  In Bundesliga 2 Spalvis fell of, but Roser stepped up, and 2nd season I made it into the Bundesliga.  Was able to sign Willem Geubbels for 500K, he's been doing wonders for us.  Aiming for midseason finish, will see how that turns out.

 

Keep up the good work!
 

Jellico

Cheers mate, and yes its a fun club to manage isn't it. Roser was a bit of a legend, but once I got that free dutch striker he fell out of the team, sadly I just couldn't get Spalvis to do that well for me. You must have made a great tactic to get that many goals out of him!

 

Champions League Draw 2031

Finishing first in the Bundesliga last season put us into the first seed group, which is great! A much easier draw this year with Inter, Celtic, and a small Swedish team (who managed to qualify for the main draw by eliminating Shakhtar).

Group F & G look like the most interesting, especially group F with three really good teams in it.

 

Inter have some pretty damn good players, including this guy who looks like a great midfielder. I wouldn't mind him in my team actually 

 

There haven't been many new transfers at all, but the Sergio Lugo contract drama is finally over.

He wanted £245k per week, but I managed to sway him over by offering an £8 million loyalty bonus and 10% sell on fee percentage. If it's down to me then he'll never be sold, so we now have four or five years to increase the wage limit enough that we can cover his next contract demand.

[ajt]

Champions League Group

I decided to rest most of the squad for our final match against Celtic, which turned out to not be a good decision as they beat us 3-1 

Celtic did surprisingly well actually, and together we managed to knock Internazionale into the Europa League.

 

The draw wasn't kind for us or Celtic. They got Liverpool and we have got a matchup against last seasons nemesis Man City!

If we can manage to get the better of the Sky Blues then I think there's a real shot of us winning it this time around.

It will be a big if though, they have an embarassment of riches and currently sit six points clear at the top of the Prem.

 

Winter Break Table

The team has been stellar so far. I'm very pleased that we aren't drawing games, and this has been achieved despite my new star striker Benali being injured for 3 months.

I'm pretty sure we should walk a Champions League spot and I'll be pretty annoyed if the league isn't won convincingly.

 

New Affiliate

I've finally managed to get a "young player" affiliate, so we might get some players in our youth intake from the fabulous Brondby!

I also made a commercial affiliate with FC Tokyo last season, but I'm not sure how much it helps our finances as we don't have any Japanese players. I just wanted to be affiliated with Tokyo really 

 

The Pan Piper

I also wanted to mention my young Peruvian striker Claudio, who has been banging in the goals for bottom of the league St Pauli. Very impressive for the young chap.

He will also be homegrown in nation by the time he is 21, as long as he stays in Germany until 2033. I think I might loan him out again next season as I can't give him the game time he needs right now, but nice to see him doing well and developing.

[ajt]

Just got a very nice message, I didn't realise we'd done so well at home for quite such a long period 

[ajt]

Champions League First Knockout Round 1st Leg

A defensive effort if ever I saw one, Ziani the keeper was inspired pulling off some excellent saves, though he only got a 6.9 rating.

 

Lugo got a nice finish for the 4th goal after yet another assists from Da Silva the Brazilian.

[ajt]

Champions League First Knockout Round 2nd Leg

It was a good thing that we got that win at home, because the away leg was far too close for comfort.

 

The goalkeeper Ziani let in a very stupid first goal.. lets hope he doesn't do it again in the next round.

 

Champions League Quarter/Semi-final draws

Some interesting draws, Chelsea have quite a good squad, but not on the same level as Man City so I will be disappointed if we don't beat them.

Atletico in the semi final could be tricky though as they won La Liga in style last year. Juventus are currently fourth in Serie A so I don't expect them to put much up of a fight.

At least we dodged PSG 

Edited December 27, 2020 by ajt

[ajt]

Champions League Quarter Final 1st Leg

We went down 1-2 in the first half, but managed to come back get the win at home.

 

Some beautiful play in the build up for Lugo's second goal.

 

Champions League Quarter Final 2nd Leg

Another second leg rearguard display secured the win.

Juventus beat Atletico 4-2 on aggregate, so it shall be a German - Italian affair.

It will be PSG vs Liverpool in the other semi-final.

[ajt]

 

 

 

 

 

I've gone gif crazy for our second Bundesliga win  Lugo got a couple of great goals as we beat second place Dortmund 2-1 at their place to wrap up the division with four games to go.

[ajt]

Champions League Semi-final 1st Leg

 

A wonderful placed finish from our young left winger Bojang has salvaged a 2-2 draw at home.

I do hope the away goals don't come back to bite us..

[ajt]

Champions League Semi-final 2nd Leg

What a moment!! 85 minutes in, down 2-3 and about to go out, we were handed a penalty by the glorious VAR 

Benali slotted it home and we hung on for the away goals win.

 

I think we were more than lucky to beat Juventus.. they played far better than I thought they could.

They have still got some non-regens playing for them including De Ligt, Aouar and a now 34 year old Enrico Chiesa 

Their team is very old now, they have many 30+ year olds, whereas we are the complete opposite with our youthful presence.

We will play against Liverpool in the final, who we thumped last season in the semi-final.

[ajt]

Champions League Final (Second Attempt)

 

 

Lugo goal one

 

 

Lugo goal two

 

 

Da Silva goal one

 

 

Lugo hat trick

 

 

We didn't have that much of the posession but our counter attacking football was sublime, Kaiserslautern finally get the big trophy! 

I brought on some of the oldschool players at the end of the match so that they could get their Champions League medal, including The Sultan and a 31 year old Paolo Gozzi.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm now finally an icon of the club! (before the final I wasn't even on the favoured personnel list.. )

 

Nice to see myself join an esteemed list, though it might take a while to catch a 59 year old Zinedine Zidane.. 

 

 

The finances are in a great position, and the club has finally reached the £1 billion valuation. We're now the 4th highest valued Bundesliga club, behind Bayern, Dortmund & RB Leipzig.

 

A special shout out to the now 37 year old Great Dane, who is plying his trade in the Danish second division. He was instrumental in getting the team up the leagues so I'm happy he's still enjoying some football 

[TheRobert]

Congratulations!

[ajt]

On 27/12/2020 at 18:34, TheRobert said:

Congratulations!

Cheers Robert!

 

2031/32 Competitions

Finally the Champions League has been secured, though it is a shame we couldn't win every competition this year. I played a majorly rotated team for the semi-final in the cup vs Wolfsburg to our downfall.

 

Best XI

A familiar group of players now with the first team being established. My norwegian defender Ibrahim is missing however. He got annoyed that I turned down a £60 million bid from Chelsea so I turfed him out of the team (he only started 21 games this season).

Da Silva has turned into a real assist machine and Benali & Lugo continue to be our leading scorers. Lugo has now taken up position in the AMR position, perfect for him as he is left footed.

 

Season Performance Data

Our average xG is excellent and the tactic seems to be working really well now that I have the players for it.

 

The Sergio Lugo Player of the season Award

Sergio returns to the summit of Kaiserslautern. It was a tight race between him and Benali but I think Lugo just edges it given his 3 goals in the Champions League final.

I'm not sure how much room there is left in terms of player development for him as he will turn 23 later in the year but he's incredibly proficient being that he has "only" 15 finishing.

I taught him the "likes to round keeper" PPM a few years ago and it seems to work well for him.

 

Interesting Youth

Diego has matured into a really good defender (especially since he was a free transfer from Defensor Sporting many moons ago).

I think I had to offer him a 50k p/w wage when I first signed him but boy did that turn out to be a good decision. He can play all across the defensive line but I have mainly been using him as a central defender.

 

I signed Gorka for £7.5 million from Sociedad, mainly because of his determination / teamwork / work rate. His determination and work rate should mean that he develops nicely in the coming years.

He hasn't been playing well, but I think that's mainly due to how poorly this version of FM rates full backs performances (in direct contrast to last years game now that I come to think about it).

 

I found Lennart available on a free from Austria Vienna and decided he'd be worth a chance in the youth academy (which has grown in recent years and now has a huge amount of talent within it).

He's not the fastest player but then neither was Zefi and look how he turned out! Just a shame about his low determination and overall personality (which I'm trying to fix with mentoring).

 

Claudio had a brilliant first Bundesliga season with St Pauli scoring 21 goals and literally single handedly keeping them in the top flight for next season (their next best player scored 4 goals..).

Doesn't have the greatest attributes for his age, but he seems pretty well rounded in general. In a few years time I imagine he could be a good rotational striker for Benali.

 

I wanted to try and develop a young goalkeeper to take up one of the "home grown" spots in the Champions League squad and Fabrice was the best youngster I could find.

He was signed from Montpellier last season and has definitely developed well, even picking up a cap for the Cameroon team at age 17!

I've been training his positiioning and it's slowly getting better so we should be safe if our star goalkeeper gets an injury.

 

Next Season Goals

I guess the only real goal left to achieve is to win all domestic competitions + Champions League in the same season, as well as the Club World Cup (if that still exists).

I think that it is definitely achieveable given Bayern's decline. It would be nice to overtake them as being the most highly valued club in Bundesliga too.

 

A special mention to my favourite "real player" of this save. Paolo is now held high as an Icon by the Kaiserslautern faithful and who can blame them!

I even bought him on as a substitute in the Champions League final to make sure he got a medal (I couldn't remember if he'd played a game or not).

He constantly badgers me about wanting to have a new challenge but come on Paolo you've got to stick around!