[FM22] A Mercantile Approach IV: KAA Gent

[MarcxD]

September - December 2027

I'm quite surprised at how well we are doing, only having lost twice so far, including an expected loss against Bayern. We smashed the Conference League group as well.

Due to the amount of draws we are in fourth place, and quite far away from the top 2 (Bayern & Dortmund).

[MarcxD]

January 2028 Transfers

Sold for over 100M worth of players in January, preparing to totally renovate the squad even further to my liking. Most of these once again were initiated by the buying clubs. Valakari was an attacking player, Roerslev a right back, and Mantl was my goalkeeper...

With that amount of money coming in of course I did need to spend quite a bit myself to strengthen the team - with most of these players fitting my philosophy of buying young but capable. Nelson Henrique is a new GK, Kasius a new RB, and Jacquot a new midfielder, for whom I might have overspent slightly. Weah at 27 I don't expect to develop further, but I needed to add a first team player on the wings.

Edited June 27, 2022 by MarcxD

[MarcxD]

Intake

Pretty decent, although perhaps no players who are ever actually going to make the first team.

Liechtensteiner Eric Garcia, if ever there was a brand new sentence. 

[MarcxD]

January - May 2028

We continued to do well, only losing once in three months - again to Bayern, of course. Newcastle was probably the strongest team in the ECL, so while it was a tough draw now the road should be free to the final...

Which it was! Two Dutch opponents back to back to win the thing. A trophy in my first season and a European one at that!

Fantastic first season in the Bundesliga, as I did not only win my first European trophy, but also qualified for the Champions League groups next year. 

The team is already a mix of players who were here before I came and mostly younger players whom I've signed, most of which were pretty successful - although Jacquot is a worry with his 6.69 average rating.

As far as future business is concerned, there's interest for some of my most expensive players in Tzolis & Vranckx, so perhaps there will be more chances to remodel the squad further next season. I don't necessarily want to sell either though, so it'll take big bids.

Financially things are looking quite good, but the wages are eating up a lot of money, so we'll need to grab that competition prize money each year. Even though we made quite a profit in transfers this year, I am not given a huge transfer budget next season. With VVV it was easy to make profits quickly as I had been very vigilant with the wages I was paying, but here everyone was already on millions and new signings expect much the same.

The future is bright, however I do not necessarily expect quite as succesful a second season. Let's see what the transfer period brings first.

Edited June 28, 2022 by MarcxD

[MarcxD]

Summer 2028

It is a mercantile save...

Mostly talented players and some rotation options, with the biggest tranfer in midfielder Syver Aas really the only uncontested first team player coming in. 

Sadly, however, he won't be playing with Vranckx, who got pissy at me earlier for not letting him go so when the big bid came in I chose to accept it, even though it came from Bayern. However, if anything that is what life in the Bundesliga is probably like - losing your best players to Bayern. 

I did make a bit more money, as these were the outgoing transfers for the B team.

A nice pre-season run....

Champions League draw: pretty tough. Progressing in Europe should at least be possible, but I'm certainly not discounting the possibility of finishing above either Chelsea or Juventus (or both).

Well, still predicted to finish in sixth place. Honestly, that is pretty fair. Especially with the very young team now, I am expecting some inconsistencies, probably more than last year.

If we can combine a slightly less great season but at least qualifying for Europe with decent runs in the Cup and Europe, that would be fine with me. 

[MarcxD]

August - December 2028

We didn't have a great start to the league, some players are having quite poor seasons overall - but we did get better as the season went on. We especially were strong in the Champions League! 

If anything the CL knockouts are great for money - let's see how far we can go.

CL spots are going to be tough to make again... let's get that top 6 at least.

[deltablue]

Nice work in the CL.

[MarcxD]

On 01/07/2022 at 17:56, deltablue said:

Nice work in the CL.

Thanks!

[MarcxD]

Transfers & Intake 2029

I did once again sign quite a few players, but no huge fees. A bit of a mix between rotational options (like Lois Openda, Cuc & Lainez) and talents for the future. Efe was a player at VVV who had kind of a breakthrough season for me in my last season there, but sadly the AI has not given him much time. Maybe I can still salvage him somewhat.

Outgoing, however, there was a bit more going on. I referenced overpaying for Jacquot earlier, for whom I paid 18M. While he has developed, he performed quite poor on average, so I took the chance to sell him for a slight profit. I also sold another first team player in João Mário, who performed really poorly for me this season (like averaging under 6.5). Tzolis I did not necessarily want to get rid off, but the fee was good.

That transfer explains why I signed Lainez on loan for the second half of the season, since I did need another option for the wing right now.

Intake

If we're looking at the breadth of this intake it is excellent, however there does not appear to be any superstar potential here. 

Three of my players away on loan are among the top 50 wonderkids this year. Let's see if any of them can make the next step within one or two seasons

[MarcxD]

January - May 2029

While our league run hasn't been terrific, we did do very good in the CL and won my first trophy at Köln in the Cup! 

Quite some way behind the top 4, so it's going to be Europa League next season. That's a shame as we did so well in the CL and made a lot of money doing so. 

I am going to be given a large transfer budget next season so I am definitely thinking of retooling the squad quite a bit.

32-year old striker Wissa will be leaving, and some of the bench and rotation players probably will too. I am still looking for that real bright player(s) to play on the wings. Otherwise I could also definitely need more in defense and midfield, so it might be an interesting summer.

 

[MarcxD]

Summer 2029

They want me to spend 92.5M! Don't think I've seen that before, and at first I was a bit wary as obviously I try to make money in this save. 

I did decide however to take advantage of the money and try to do business that can be lucrative in the long run AND try to make a step forward - moving from the 4-7th best team in the league to competing with Dortmund to become the 'best of the rest' after Bayern.

First, let look at the sales...

Not only did I have 92M to spend, I sold for another 129M. Not entirely willingly, because Bayern once again paid limited fees for two of my best players. These were two players I signed myself and agents forced the fees on me, sadly. The life of a Bundesliga manager, losing your best players to Bayern...

Oliver Skipp was a player I did want to sell, as he was on 6M+ per year but was no longer a first team player. 

And some extra sales from the B team for another nice couple of million.

I went a bit further than the 92M... 

Some of the big signings - Musah a new player for central midfield; Antiste the rare player going the other way from Bayern, a new winger; Matt Carroll a new English central defender; Thiago a Brazilian striker, Rekik another central defender (more rotational); and Guerrero another midfielder (or AMR). Of course there is also the experienced Pavard who could do well for us for one season at least. The others don't necessarily go straight in the first team, depending.

Perhaps it will take a some time to gel with how much new players in the first team, but I do at the very least hope we can get top 4 in this season. That should be compulsory really.

Bayern just spent 120M more...

Decent pre-season against so-so opposition.

EL Group draw seems pretty kind to us, should not be a problem to progress.

Edited July 6, 2022 by MarcxD

[john1]

Decent transfers dealing there!   No surprise to see Bayern signing other clubs best players Decent pre season too. Should walk to next round in that group

[MarcxD]

3 hours ago, john1 said:

Decent transfers dealing there!   No surprise to see Bayern signing other clubs best players Decent pre season too. Should walk to next round in that group

Haha yeah I shocked myself. Thanks mate!

[MarcxD]

August - December 2029

A shame but no surprise to lose in the German Supercup. 

Not totally unexpected either: we had a bit of a mediocre start. I am expecting us get better and consistent throughout the season with hopefully a positive atmosphere/dynamics and aptitude with the tactic.

The last two months did go already much better, as we confidently did what we had to do in Europe as well.

Not quite top 4 yet, but we are definitely in the running. Behind Bayern who are untouchable, the 5 clubs between Hertha and Leipzig should compete throughout the season for those European spots.

[MarcxD]

January  2030

If you thought I would not be busy after the summer you thought wrong.

New signings: Thilo Kehrer is a German and experienced central defender who will be of use for 1,5 season probably. Gil is a rotational option for the wings, Pojuzina a very talented 18yo central defender from Serbia going straight into first team rotation, and Murray a rotational option for the midfield. 

Two slightly big transfers. Edílson was a very talented Brazilian striker who never really played in the first team here, but he is deemed to be quite inconsistent by scouts/trainers so 40M for him seems like a great sale. Pathway to the first team wasn't really there for him anyway with another young Brazilian striker Thiago hogging the minutes there.

I also sold Neubauer; I didn't necessarily want to as I alluded to before I really like him being Liechtensteiner, but it is getting tougher to give him minutes, so selling him for about double what I paid for him is pretty good overall. 

A couple of the bench players were also sold for almost another 15M in total.

[MarcxD]

January - March 2030

It's getting kind of funny how often I have faced PSV (and beat them) now also that I left the Eredivisie. Otherwise, mostly a good three months outside of the Frankfurt away loss.

Intake

Meh.

Nxgn

The stockpiling of talent, lol. 

Also now I think it's three years in a row that my former youth prospect Nino Warmelink has been named here among the top talents - he is worth around 100M now. 

[MarcxD]

April - May 2030

Wow, we did it in Europe again! Two years after winning the Conference League, now we won the EL. CL next?!

We couldn't do a repeat cup win, as beating Bayern remains a mammoth task!

I wanted to make the step to being 'best of the rest' in the league; we aren't quite there however with only one point more we would've been on the shared most points behind Bayern so it's not really a bad season in the league either. We have doubly qualified for the CL next season (as we've also won the Europa League), so all in all I have to be satisfied with how we've done. 

That 20 points gap to Bayern, however? Oof.

After the January transfers I only had a small squad remaining, but I quite like it like that, with all players actually getting some good game time. It is of course risky for injuries, but I can always recall one of the many players away on loan.

Most of the squad I can keep here for quite a few years I think, there won't be too much business in the summer if I can help it. (if a club and pays the limited fees... well that changes things)

With some movements and the players progressing further, I hope to challenge for the league title within a few seasons and if we can be close to Bayern we might also have a shot at the Champions League...

[MarcxD]

A new job?

I hadn't even really considered national management for this save, but I decided to take the job. The Dutch have just won the 2030 World Cup, so I'll try to do a repeat in four years time. After that I plan to resign.

It's obviously not anything to do with transfers or making money, so I won't put too much effort into it or go deeply into the national management side of things here.

[MarcxD]

Summer 2030

It turned out to be quite a busy summer afterall. The overload of young players at the club was getting a bit much, so I got rid of a large number of them.

The only players of these who were around the first team were Salinas, an AMR who I think I got a good deal for; and Cerri and Pelistri who had played in the first team at some point previously but weren't up to the level (anymore).

All the others were talents who I didn't see it making it here.

Incoming there were the usual new talents but also some first team players.

Jousse is a new rotational option for central defense and RB; Gür a back-up midfielder, Brandt a highly talented central defender and Rodrygo was signed as a replacement for Salinas - while he is quite a few years older than him, he is also better. Probably won't be selling him on with profit, however, since he is already in his late twenties.

Oh, I also managed to buy Doyle back from Bayern. They paid us 55M at the time, and he is more or less the best defender at the club again - so very happy with that deal.

I do have a bit too much players for the central defense position now, though. I had tried to sell Matt Carroll for around 20M but he rejected the contracts the bidding clubs offered him. Perhaps in January, as I don't foresee him playing much.

All in all pretty much a balanced summer - around 100M coming in and going out in transfer sums. I think we are definitely stronger than last year, and with multiple key players progressing further I hope to get closer to Bayern this season.

Not much to say about a short but decent pre-season..

We're facing VVV! They've remained as one of the top sides of the Eredivisie after I left, but haven't managed to win a title. Still, it should clearly be us and Atlético who should progress from the group.

[MarcxD]

August - December 2030

We had a pretty good start, only losing twice. Both games were against Bayern, to no surprise....

And we got even better in the last two months of the calendar year, including a fantastic December where we didn't concede any goals in the league!

It didn't turn out to be Atlético to progress with us but VVV! Nice.

Are we actually going to compete for the title??

It is interesting to see that now that we seem to have almost caught up to Bayern that Dortmund and Leipzig are having such bad seasons...

 

Edited July 13, 2022 by MarcxD

[MarcxD]

Netherlands NT 2030

Sure it's only Nations League, but in a group with both neighboring countries in Belgium and Germany is an insane group! We dominated, although most of the games were pretty tight tbh.

[MarcxD]

Transfers & Intake

Only a few more cheap talents coming in, as we are doing pretty great (and there were no obvious deals) I kept the first team the way it is.

I did however sell two defenders - Pavard who at 34 had half a year of contract remaining and Carroll who did not play much and now was willing to leave. He was signed for 31M so that was a bit of a misbuy. I might have preferred him to not stay in the Bundesliga and strengthen a rival team, but I really wanted to offload him.

With the increased level of players at the club, it will be a rare occurrence of us getting 5* PA talents through, but this is still not great.

[MarcxD]

January - March

Quite a good player  

One loss to.... Bayern.

Ajax was a pretty tough challenge for us, but we did manage to survive. Taking it one match at a time... as long as we don't need to face Bayern!

We are drawing a bit too much to keep up with Bayern in race for the title, if that was a race at all with us also losing to them every chance we get.

[MarcxD]

April - May 2031

Insane!

We had to play Bayern in both the semi's of the cup and the champions league - which I thought was the end of our hopes at a trophy this season... but in the cup we were very lucky and we were actually the stronger side in the Champions League games!

After beating Bayern Hoffenheim was easy prey in the cup final and then came the CL final...

We were lucky to get away with that win. Not a great game for the neutrals, that's for sure. But I'll take it!

a header by Callum Doyle from a corner got us the win.

As I alluded to in my previous post, the draws were too much and Bayern had an insane season.

225M in prize money

My contract runs until 2034, and my plan right now is to stay here for those three years and seek a new team when that contract ends. I hope to be able to win the Bundesliga at least once in those years...

I have now won three European trophies and multiple cups but still no league title except for the second tier in the Netherlands with VVV!

After Köln, I have not decided yet whether I will go to England or take a step down and manage in one of the smaller countries left in the Hanseatic League - for instance Denmark or Poland. I could also join another team in Germany based in a relevant Hanseatic city and try to build up a second club in the Bundesliga. I guess it all depends mostly on what is available at that time.

Edited July 15, 2022 by MarcxD

[MarcxD]

The Squad

The CL-winning squad, once again only around 20 players, with many multi-positional players as well. Of course the two young Brazilians are most eye-catching and luckily I have managed to tie them down for quite a few more years on okay salaries for now a top tier European side. 

My only real worry for squad management is the age of my wingers, with Bryan Gil and Rodrygo at 30 years old, Timothy Weah at 31 and Janis Antiste at 28. Them being all around the same age and nearing the later stages of their careers, I will need to see if younger players at the club can replace them or if I need to spend big within a season or two.

Otherwise, I am generally happy with the squad and only remarkable deals will be struck for new first team players if a chance arrives.

With us winning the CL the player values are somewhat higher than normal, so it will be interesting to see whether any bids come in from the super rich elite clubs this summer.

Some of the key players (Pojuzina is a few posts higher in the thread):

Might be the best GK I've ever managed in an fm.

Of course limited by his size and jumping reach, but in his role as pressing forward and his insane work rate he is still insane.

Edited July 15, 2022 by MarcxD

[MarcxD]

Summer 2031

Only one player who was with us last year around the first team is leaving: Jousse, whom I had signed for 25M is sold for a nice profit to Barcelona. He was back-up central defender and right back. The other big sell in Muller was a player who had been on loan a few times. I was considering him as a back-up player for this coming season, but the offer was too good for me to reject.

Incoming there are a couple of players of note. Brahim Díaz at 32 will have a short stay here, but he is the best AML at the club now. Good free signing for one or two seasons at least. The other notable signings are Maïga and Jorgensen. Maïga is a very talented left back who can also play on the other side, and thanks to his limited fee at Schalke he was affordable for us. After the transfer went through the game has given him a transfer value of over 100M. Jorgensen should play quite a few games in midfield. At 29 he is here to strengthen the squad in the short term.

Pre-season including the super cup games went well. We drew in both Supercup games, losing and winning one on penalties. At least it shows we still got what it takes to compete.

Pretty straightforward group - should go through with Barcelona.

[MarcxD]

August - December 2031

Not the strongest start in the league imaginable, but we did have a really hard start facing Bayern, Hertha, Leipzig & Dortmund in a row - and we managed to beat Bayern! After the surprising loss to Frankfurt we had pretty much three months of straight league wins. 

In the CL we did okay, however we were bested by Barcelona.

Really strong stuff in the league so far. I hope we can keep this up, we probably need to, to win the league with Bayern and Leipzig closely behind.

[MarcxD]

Netherlands NT 2031

Apart from a surprise loss to Iceland it was a comfortable year all around and there is also the first international trophy, albeit the Nations League.

[MarcxD]

Transfers & Intake 2032

Two big sales: Murray was a rotational midfielder whom I had signed for 10.5M from Ajax a few years back, so that's great profit for a player I can do without. Rodrygo I had signed for 27M and was decent for us but no worldbeater, and as he's in his thirties I was very fine with selling him for a slight profit.

Sales from the B team...

It seems Bayern really doesn't want us to win the league this year. 

Similar to recent years - some okay players I'll likely be able to sell for some extra money in a few years, but no real prospects to make the first team here.

Edited July 19, 2022 by MarcxD

[MarcxD]

January - March 2032

Damn, we did not keep it together in January and February. Losing to both our title rivals in January and then dropping points in back to back league games in February, just a little too much when you're competing with Bayern just behind.

However, we are once again doing well in the cup and the CL, so not all is lost. We do need Bayern to slip up in the last two months to win the title though. And I'm not very hopeful about that.

After one more win in April, this is now the situation. We do have the kindest run in. Perhaps if we win all games we have a chance.

The draw for Euro 2032 has also happened. Group of death would be understating things! 

[MarcxD]

April - May 2032

Two sales to Middle Eastern clubs - players I could lose and they always want to go for those money moves.

It was always going to be tough to compete in the CL, the Cup and having to win all league games. We couldn't quite do that, but we did win the cup again and made it to a second straight CL final which just went the wrong way for us in the end.

So yeah - another second place. Less points than the previous season, and apart from Bayern we also had a real competitor in RBL this year.

Disappointed because I definitely felt like we had a chance this year, but on we go for another try. Bayern has won 20 championships in a row and spends ridiculous amounts of money, so it was never going to be easy to topple them.

Brahim Diaz definitely outperformed my expectations as a 32 year old attacker, but he still had it in him, being pretty much the best player of the year. Another surprise was Agu, who had been on loan previously but made huge developments and played really well in the center of defense. Also very pleased with newcomer Maïga, who has overtaken Gabriel as first choice left back (although both will continue to play quite the amount of game time)

Less ideal were performances from new signing Jorgensen who will probably leave and young central defender Niels Brandt, who didn't turn out to be really ready for this level yet.

There will probably be some players sold, and I will have quite a bit of money to play with. 

Financially things are going incredibly well for the club. If we can continue to rake in the prize money I could leave the club with a balance over half a billion in the green.

Edited July 20, 2022 by MarcxD

[MarcxD]

Euro 2032

Decent run to the tournament although not that convincing as we are presumed to be one of the favorites.

The squad is pretty old, mostly consisting of players who were already in the game at the start.

We did make it through the group of death, albeit very close.

We scraped through the knockout rounds, until we had to face France again in the final. Sadly, it was not to be. 

[MarcxD]

Summer 2032

Before it even got started in Germany I lost pretty much my best player. I decided to sell him for a couple of reasons, mostly because I think in the spirit of this save I can't really reject offers of this magnitude - I signed for 18M so a nice profit. I also had a replacement in mind...

There were a lot of other sales though, in total almost selling worth of 400M in players.

Jorgensen kind of flopped and got pissed at me for not giving him a new contract, so I sold him for a slight profit to our title rivals Bayern. Not the ideal buying club obviously, but okay.

They also bought Eyüp Aydin from me for 50M. That's 10 times the amount I had paid to them several seasons ago when I signed him for 5M. A decent midfielder for us, but not worth rejecting that kind of money. A similar case was Tommaso Cuc, another rotational option in central midfield who went to Hoffenheim; and Vanderson, a right-back and AMR who went to Real Madrid for another big sum.

The only other real first team player who left was Timothy Weah who was getting up there in age and not really getting much playtime anymore. 

The other big sales in Urrutia, Eliseo Calle, Alberto Guerra, Paulo Briceño and Manel Segarra never really even played for my first team but were on loan previously. 

Of course this all meant I had to spend some money myself. I already had a transfer budget of over 100M before the madness started, so I certainly could have spent more than the 250m pictured above.

The logical replacement for Nelson Henrique just had to be Nino Warmelink, who came through at VVV when I managed there. He is also my goalkeeper for the Dutch NT. He is slightly cheaper, and about as good as Nelson. One of my regrets about leaving VVV was that I had barely been able to manage him, so now all is right in the world again...

Most of the other signings were actually talents, some of whom I am very excited about (like AMR Urgurcan Isci), but they won't feature in the next season. Quite a few I sent back on loan to the clubs I bought them from.

The two signings from PSG however are first team players. Cherkaoui is mostly a replacement for Timothy Weah. At 26 he should have a good amount of years at the club. He is very useful as he can play on both wings and in central midfield.

Wang Zhiqiang was a player I had been looking at all summer. I tried earlier in the summer, but he wouldn't go down enough in his wage demands for me to feel comfortable signing him. On deadline day I tried again, and he was a bit more flexible. He is still very much the best-paid player at the club, but he is also very much the best player at the club. He is a midfielder but can also play as AMR if needed.

It was Köln's summer allright.

We lost another supercup after some rousing victories in pre-season...

[MarcxD]

August - December 2032

Incredible  run in the first half of the season! Not a single loss in the league, and only lost once in the CL when rotating a bit too much.

Surely this has to be our year!

[MarcxD]

Netherlands NT 2032 Nations League

A weaker group but not a great performance, we still have a chance to win the Nations League again.

[MarcxD]

End of the Year awards

A lot of my players got awards after the incredible performance in the previous months.

Warmelink

Ebenezer

Jamiu Agu

Wang Zhiqiang

[MarcxD]

Transfers & Intake 2033

I did not sign any players, but there were some departures, albeit nothing too important.

Best intake at Köln yet, perhaps. Although I am not sure if I'll still be here when they are good enough to make the step up to the first team.

[MarcxD]

January - March 2033

We continued to do well but oh my March is getting us into trouble... and after winning the first game of April this is the run.

We definitely have the tougher set of games and I expect we need to win all 5 games. Including the final day of the season against Leipzig!

[_Ben_]

Good luck on the run in! I've been following this from afar and, as someone who one day will hopefully be making the move from Holland to Germany, I'm envious of your achievements.

[MarcxD]

16 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

Good luck on the run in! I've been following this from afar and, as someone who one day will hopefully be making the move from Holland to Germany, I'm envious of your achievements.

Thanks man! Much appreciated. Good luck with your endeavors too. I shall keep an eye on your thread for that  

[MarcxD]

April 2033

Well, we did win all the games in April - and I was right that we needed to as Bayern is annoyingly strong still.

We are also in with a good chance at making a third straight CL final, which is kind of crazy.

Now it all comes down to that last final match of the season, and we play RB Leipzig who aren't having a shabby run either....

Edited July 25, 2022 by MarcxD

[MarcxD]

May 2033

Hahaha yes! Not only did we beat Leipzig, we did so in style.

After winning the second tier in the Netherlands with VVV it took me 11 more seasons to finally win a league title in the highest tier! And what a way to do it, unbeaten and followed by an insanely strong Bayern.

Who did manage to beat us in the CL final, a third in a row for Köln, because they would not let me have all the fun.

And yes, that finally means I'm an icon here. They weren't quite satisfied with me winning the CL before.

 

[MarcxD]

Post-season overview 2033

A great team, made up of quite a nice mix of ages. Quite a few players are wanted now (as you can see for instance I set Pojuzina's transfer price at 135m to ward off clubs but you never know what's gonna happen...), so I am curious to see what next summer will bring. 

Big bids will probably have to be accepted, so I might have to spend big myself to replace some players. I do not necessarily plan to splash the cash besides that apart from another player like Wang Zhiqiang coming along for anything that comes close to a reasonable price. (I am not going to spend over 100M, that's for sure.)

Bayern will be out for revenge next season, and I will go for the hard task of repeating the title and going for another CL run, hopefully a fourth straight CL final? After having lost twice in a row there it would be nice to win it again! 

However, I am also thinking about the end of my stay at Köln. I think I had previously said I was going to quit here in 2034, and that might still be a good plan. That would mean one more season here. Hoping to win some more trophies and to leave the club with massive wealth.

That summer will also have the World Cup after which I will resign as NT manager, so a good fresh start on all accounts.

After that, I am now more seriously thinking of making a step down to a smaller league. Perhaps Poland or Denmark would be nice - countries within the scope of this save. We'll see what comes available then.

But first, another season here at Köln.

It helps to sign a Chinese player!

Especially if he's playing like this.

A nice stadium expansion for which we do not pay! (Because we do not own the stadium, tbf.)

[SixPointer]

6 hours ago, MarcxD said:

May 2033

Hahaha yes! Not only did we beat Leipzig, we did so in style.

After winning the second tier in the Netherlands with VVV it took me 11 more seasons to finally win a league title in the highest tier! And what a way to do it, unbeaten and followed by an insanely strong Bayern.

Who did manage to beat us in the CL final, a third in a row for Köln, because they would not let me have all the fun.

And yes, that finally means I'm an icon here. They weren't quite satisfied with me winning the CL before.

 

Just catching up here. What a sublime season!! No wonder Bayern have become Rivals title battles and ucl finals. 
 

great save I’ve really enjoyed your stuff! Long may it continue 

[john1]

Superb season, just a shame Bayern decided to ruin it a tad by beating you in Champions League Final

Surprised to see Bayern Leverkusen, almost went down

[deltablue]

Typical Bayern being spoilsports

[MarcxD]

15 hours ago, SixPointer said:

Just catching up here. What a sublime season!! No wonder Bayern have become Rivals title battles and ucl finals. 
 

great save I’ve really enjoyed your stuff! Long may it continue 

Thanks! I definitely felt Bayern as rivals myself so it's fun to see the game set that in stone. 

I will definitely continue the save, although perhaps not so long at Köln now.

14 hours ago, john1 said:

Superb season, just a shame Bayern decided to ruin it a tad by beating you in Champions League Final

Surprised to see Bayern Leverkusen, almost went down

Thanks mate! That's Bayern for you. 

Leverkusen actually went down a couple of seasons ago, so yeah they've definitely had a big drop off. 

31 minutes ago, deltablue said:

Typical Bayern being spoilsports

I know right! Why can't they just let me win.

[MarcxD]

2033 Club World Cup

Before the summer business, or actually more like at the same concurrent time, we also had to play the new format CWC. I hadn't really thought about it that we hadn't played yet after being in several CL finals, but of course now it's only once every four years with a ton of clubs competing.

It was a weird one, because for parts of it some of my players were on international duty. FIFA, fix your scheduling! Actually, for one game I did not have any GK's and the game bugged and wouldn't let me play with a greyed-out one so I had to holiday that just to continue (when the greyed out GK did play). No harm done in the end.

But anyway, we did win the thing! Of course somewhere along the way we did have to face Bayern, and this time it wasn't a close call at all. 

Apart from the German supercup we have now won every possible trophy!

[MarcxD]

Summer 2033

Well I did not know what I was expecting but not what ended up happening...

Almost 400M worth of sales....

Especially in the spirit of this save there were just too many bids I could impossibly refuse.

Ebenezer was a talented central midfielder whom I had signed for free from Volendam and after a season on loan and only one season here in the first team he is gone to Man Utd for almost 100M. 

Brahim Diaz was very good for us but at 34 and him wanting to go to Atlético the money was fine so he is leaving too. I have plenty of young and coming wingers, so I am not too shaken up about that.

I was however shaken up when Real Madrid accepted my renegotiated price of 164M for Pojuzina! Holy. I definitely did not want to sell him but that is just insane money.

Blasiak was my back-up striker who did very well when he was called on, but Real Madrid came along again and paid big money. 

And finally a transfer I doubted on, but Antiste was definitely getting up there in age and getting a possible 60M for a 30 year old who wasn't first choice anymore, I'll take it. He'll probably still be a very good player for Leipzig however.

Of course I had to do some targeted business to keep the squad strong. Petrovic is a direct replacement for Pojuzina, another strong (and Serbian!) young central defender. 75M might have been overpaying slightly, but he is close to the level of Pojuzina so it was necessary. Carrasco is a direct replacement for Blasiak and Antiste as a back-up striker and back-up AMR. He is 24 and with some good mental stats (20 determination yes please) I think he should be great for the club in the long-term. 

Alhassan is a new midfielder who will strenghten our core there even more who I could pick up for a relatively cheap price.

As an aside, this is how the market ended up....

Not unexpected of course, but that contrast is hilarious.

Especially in the context of this.

Another German supercup lost. I have accepted that I will not win that ever. The friendlies paint another picture...

Pretty tough CL group, but right now we should be able to handle anything.

[MarcxD]

August - December 2033

Continuing the way we were last season. It was definitely not a fluke, we are just really strong. 

Just a few highlights: beating Bayern 4-1; beating Dortmund in the cup 7-1 (!); beating Milan 4-1 AND 6-0 in the CL...

Just two draws, however, and Bayern has caught up with us. A repeat of last season incoming? I have a feeling it will be another tense title run, that's for sure.

Pretty straightforward in the end.

Edited July 29, 2022 by MarcxD