[FM22] Reviving die Roten Teufel

[KlaaZ]

Season 2025-2026: Season recap

Now that the disappointment from that final game has gone, I think we can look back on a very satisfying season. We consolidated our performances in the league, securing Champions League football for the second time in a row and cementing our place as 'best of the rest'. Dortmund and Bayern are very hard to catch, but we'll keep building brick by brick, and hopefully sooner or later, there will come a year where they falter and we profit.

We also can't complain about our European campaign. We were lucky to be seeded first in the group stage draw thanks to the Europa League win last season, but still progressed further than I originally imagined, knocking out Manchester United before succumbing to Bayern. This, combined with our quarter final in the Pokal, also showed our weakness: We had a lot of trouble dealing with the fixture congestion. I'd like to build up the squad so we can rotate more in the future, but I'll have to be very careful with player status promises as I already had a bit of a row with Radi when I rotated him out too much. 

For next year, we'll try and go with a 433 DM wide, as I see great potential in Cortés in the DM position and I have two very impressive midfielders in front of him with Telebar and Majoros (if he doesn't leave to the Premier League, as both Arsenal and Chelsea are sniffing now). I feel my current 4231 is limited as I can't get the AM to make the runs past the striker, which is something that I see more with the DM triangle. I think this would also suit youngster Richter more, as I don't really see him as an attacking midfielder but he could become an excellent holding midfielder. 

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I'm also already looking into strengthing our attacking flanks and striker position as I feel these were our weakest links this year. Beljo is a solid striker but if we want to progress further, we'll need someone better down the line. I'm hoping that our new academy product Atmaca will fill these shoes at some point, but he's not eligible yet due to his age. The same goes for 16-year old Iliopoulos, who has a lot of technical work to do but I do like his high flair. 

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Oh, and we're looking for a new backup goalkeeper, as Hiller will leave at the end of this season. 

[KlaaZ]

June 2026: Transfer news and squad building

It's July 1st and most of our homework is done. We bring in two young wing talents and one potentially established first team regular for the flanks, giving us plenty of options there. If the opportunity presents itself, we'd like to bring in another striker, but as we only have 9M left in the transfer bag, that may mean we need to cash on an outgoing first. I'm actually hoping someone will come knocking for Driouech again, but we'll see. 

Our first signing is a young Argentinian who had been on my radar for well over a year. Roberto Garcia moves to Europe from River for 9.75M and will prove to be a useful rotation option. May need to improve on his technique and dribbling though.

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Our second signing is a youth talent from Freiburg, who scored 10 goals last season in the Bundesliga and can only get better in time. Andreas Graf is signed for 16.75M, a record for the club but hopefully worth every penny. Fast, great dribbler with an excellent shot. Finally, we also bring in Aguibou Camara, a versatile attacking midfielder from relegated Hoffenheim. An improvement on Driouech, to be sure, although the latter has done excellent over the past three  seasons.

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We also, once again, missed out on a young Danish striker who signed for PSG instead. This is the third time that I identify a potential prospect to take over from Beljo but every time, we lose the battle against the big clubs.

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[KlaaZ]

July 2026: Preseason done and dusted

Just a small update this time. We just finished preseason and are seven days out from our first game, in the cup against the semi-pro's from Neustrelitz. It's been an excellent preseason where we refined out new 4-3-3 with a DM and only conceded one goal in six games, from a corner. More importantly, we have two very impressive wins in our last two games against Besiktas and Betis, who were midtable in La Liga last year. It's the first time for me, playing with a little bit of a lower block like this, but it's looking very solid.

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[KlaaZ]

August 2026: Start of the league

Here we go, this is what we've worked hard for. Three league games and a kind cup draw!

Bundesliga

We open the league away in Hamburg, who were champions in the Bundesliga 2 last year. We started off too slow, the low block not really doing it's thing but also being very solid at the back, and when we pushed up after half an hour of play it suddenly went fast. Driouech opened the score in the absence of the yellow suspended Carballo, assisted by new signing Camara. That same Camara opened his league tally with a brace in the 41st and 55th minute to make it 0-3. We kept control in the second half, despite Hamburg having a few attempts near the end. Very happy with this display!

Top: Excellent league debut by Camara, two goals and an assist. Also a very solid defensive performance.
Flop: A quiet game from my central midfield, but not too bad all in all.

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Next up is our first home game against Bielefeld, another promotion team. It's the same scenario as against Hamburg, making me think that the low block might actually not work in the league.. When we push up, things to fast again and Telebar opens the score after an excellent infiltration, with Camara providing the assist again. We refuse to make the second goal and nearly get punished near the end of the game when Kastenmeier saves the day.

Top: Telebar with the winner, Kastenmeier for keeping a clean sheet.
Flop: Nobody really.

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Final game away in Mainz. They're winless so far and it shows in the second half when we score twice from a corner. They also had their chances though, the biggest one being their goal when Alidou has a way too easy tap in to pull on back in added time. That's as far as they get, but I'm not that happy with the performance here.

Top: Camara with two set piece assists again, taking his league tally to two scored and four assisted in three games. Not a bad start for him! Also a great Richter in midfield, although he should have scored at least once.
Flop: Quiet Carballo on the right.

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Top of the league, trailing Dortmund by goal difference and a perfect score so far. Good start, long may it last!

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DFB Pokal

An easy first round win over over Neustrelitz, with Camara scoring a hattrick on his debut!

And once again, the draw is not kind on us. Dortmund away in the second round.

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Champions League draw

A tough group this time as we're not seeded first anymore. We'll have to overcome Sociedad (again!), Inter and Newcastle. I may aim for the third place but if results in our first games aren't good, I may just give up on Europe to focus on the league instead.

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Transfer news

Quite a bit of news. First up, we sign a new young potential goalkeeper, a Greek joining us from PAOK who will go straight out on loan to Dresden to get some football under his belt.

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On the outgoing side, Hiller leaves on a free to PSV. Apart from that, we have a lot of loan dealings, with Morschel, Frost and Neumann being the most illustrous ones.

[KlaaZ]

2026: Made it to the winter break

It's been a while, as I've had very little time to play, let alone write updates. But I've made it to the winter break, so I think I can write another chapter at least! 

Bundesliga

We left off with three games played and won. It's fair to say that we've done very well, although it could still have been better. With 17 games played, we lost two and drew another two. This includes an excellent away win over Bayern and a home win over Dortmund!

That said, although Bayern is struggling (slightly), Dortmund is very dominant this year and leading the league with 46 points. We have to hope that someone signs Moukoko during the winter break as he's got 25 goals in 17 appearances so far..

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Champions League

A very tough draw and when we lost our first two games (unjustified at home against Inter and in Newcastle), I figured we were done for. But 4/6 against Sociedad including a very slick 3-0 away win, and a win over Newcastle meant we had everything to play for in the final game. We took revenge on Inter in a 3-1 victory, finishing second after the Italians with 10 points. We'll play Real Madrid in the first knockout so we'll see how that goes.

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DFB Pokal

Not much to say here, we were unlucky in the draw again. A confident victory over amateurs Neustrelitz, only to be knocked out by Dortmund in the second round.

 

Transfer news

Two new signings at the winter break. We bring in a young Ivorian striker and also sign a very promising Dutch midfielder, who will finish the season at his club, PEC Zwolle. On the outgoing side, Handwerker was unhappy and leaves for Union Berlin in a 4.3M deal.

 

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[KlaaZ]

Get. In.

[KlaaZ]

Gutted. I'll write an update when I feel like playing again, because this really is sucking the enjoyment right out of it.

Edited March 30, 2023 by KlaaZ

[KlaaZ]

Just noticed that it should have been 2027 and 2028 in the last million updates, no idea how that got there.

[KlaaZ]

2027-2028: Season recap

Transfer news

Most of the transfer news from the winter break was already announced, but we signed another deal halfway through January. Kenneth Laursen comes over from Kobenhavn for 7.75M to strengthen the defense. He'll probably turn out as a decent rotation option. On the outgoing side, the most important piece of work was Graf leaving on loan to Galatasaray.

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We also arranged two deals for the next season. First off, we bring in a young Swedish left back from Elfsborg for 2.8M. And more importantly, we spend big on Mamady Dramé, a left footed central defender from Rennes who will probably be first choice next to Opoku in the heart of our defense. He comes at a hefty price though, we pay 46.5M for his services.

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Bundesliga

Well, I've already given away the final league standing and the fact that I was disappointed. We were in second place for most of the season, at one point even seven or eight points ahead of Bayern but threw it away in the final stretch of the season. We were one point behind the giants from Münich before the final game but didn't capitalize on them losing in Karlsruher, giving away a lead twice in Köln ourselves. Finished level but ended up third because of goals scored.

Dortmund were unstoppable in their ridiculous narrow 4312. Moukoko scored 45 (!) league goals. Meanwhile, Beljo scored four as my leading striker. Needless to say, we'll be in the market for a new player to lead the line.

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DFB Pokal

Already mentioned, went out in the second round to an unstoppable Dortmund.

 

Champions League

We survived our group in second place to be pitted against Real Madrid. A very confident 3-0 home victory cemented our place in the quarter final, where we met Chelsea. We lost 2-1 at Stamford Bridge and despite being the better team at home, failed to convert that into a win. Despite that, I'm very happy with how we did.

 

Finances and facilities

Another third place means a good bit of cash, so we sit on a healthy 89M at the beginning of June. It's possible that we'll make a big money outgoing move, with Majoros or Carballo being a likely candidate. Telebar is on the verge of signing a new deal, and so far I'm happy that there is no interest in Opoku.

We've been filling out the stadium quite well, so there's an expansion planned. 12k new seats for a whopping 71M, might as well have built a new temple. What I would really like is some better sponsorship deals because we're still only getting 7M yearly, putting us right at the bottom of the league with Arminia.

 

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[KlaaZ]

Transfer news

It's July first, so the transfer window opens. And there will be some movement. I already touched on the subject of our new left back and central defender, who now officially join the club. Arsenal bid 74M for Majoros, which meets his release clause. He's agreed a deal and we're just waiting for his work permit to be granted before it's official. 74M will be a club record, obviously, and we'll use the money wisely.

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This means that Richter will get more playing time, and with young Dutchman Lubbers joining us after finishing his season at Zwolle, I think we can fill the gap the Croatian will leave behind.

 

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Up front, we've had an offer accepted from Inter for Lucca, but his wage demands were far over the top (240k per week and would not go lower). Our backup plan is a young Colombian who's currently active in Brazil, but I'm unsure if he's ready to lead the line. We could also promote from within, but I don't feel Atmaca is ready yet (although he's getting closer). 

 

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[KlaaZ]

More transfer news

Majoros is officially gone in a record deal for 74M. On top of that, Adli and Bernard both leave the club for Mönchengladbach, in deals worth respectively 18.25M and 15.5M. Adli pretty much didn't feature last season so he won't be missed, Bernard was a useful rotation option. Man City also moved for Carballo, meeting his release clause of 57M. He had a pretty average season but was still my number one choice on the right and with Adli gone as well, we'll need to dive into the transfer market for a replacement. The good news is that we have the cash now.

[KlaaZ]

Stop the clock please, thank you.

[KlaaZ]

Transfer window roundup

So, the 31st of August has passed. Majoros and Carballo made big money moves to top clubs in England. Majoros isn't the biggest problem, with Richer being promoted to a starting spot and Lubbers joining from PEC Zwolle, but the loss of Carballo (and Adli) will be felt. Our first option, Orsolini, was too expensive with Bologna asking over 100M. We then tried signing Bakayoko from Lyon but his wage demands were out of our league. Finally, we made a deadline day move for Harvey Elliot but he opted for Tottenham instead of us. Driouech will probably be our main starter for now, and Neco Williams (currently at right back) will cover for him. Worst case scenario, Camara can also play on the right. 

Two more players on the incoming side: A young Brazilian midfielder who will spend the remainder of the season at his current club and a Chilean right back from LA Galaxy. 

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[KlaaZ]

Not sure if I want this to happen, although it would make my life a lot easier I think. Takeover rumours have been going on for over a year, by the way, always with someone from the board wanting to step in but the deal blowing up in the end.

[KlaaZ]

It is happening?

[KlaaZ]

It's done, no sugar daddy.