[FM24] 1860 München

[brod_104]

When playing Football Manager in the past, I've generally always done the same thing. With the exception of FM08 when I did a save with Palermo, I've always tended to focus on a save with my favourite club, Liverpool. Last year I decided to mix it up a bit and try someone else, and my project ended up being a save with St-Étienne, starting in Ligue 2 with the aim of getting them back into Europe. Over the course of a 4-season save, it was pretty successful - we were promoted in the first season, qualified for the Europa Conference League in the second season, won the Conference League in the third season, and then qualified for the Champions League in the fourth year. I did start a second project on FM23 as well, this time with 1860 München, but didn't get very far before FM24 came around. After upgrading to FM24, I decided to restart my 1860 save. I wasn't planning on doing a Career Update this time, but I've been enjoying this save again, so thought I'd share how it's going.

First, why 1860 München? The main reason is that when I first started getting into football management games in the form of Championship Manager 00/01, 1860 seemed to be one of the bigger clubs in Germany, at least in game, regularly qualifying for Europe. I'd seen that they had struggled in recent years though, getting relegated to the fourth tier of German football after going bust in 2017, and struggling to get out of the third tier for the past 5 or 6 years. In actual fact, after doing some further research, it seems like the 10 or so years falling either side of the turn of the millennium was actually the club's most successful period since the 1960s (when they won their one and only Bundesliga title), and they'd otherwise been bouncing around between the second tier and regional leagues...  Either way, I've decided to stick with it, and see if I can get the blue-and-white half of Munich back into the top flight, and maybe Europe. 

In my brief FM23 save, I'd built up a little bit of knowledge, but was saddened to see that 3 or 4 of the key players from that save had moved on in the summer, including Leandro Morgalla (a very promising teenage centre-back who's joined RB Salzburg), Erik Tallig (who became a key attacking midfielder for me, but left on a free transfer) and Montenegrin striker Meris Skenderovic (who was a goal machine for me, but joined divisional rivals Hallescher in the summer). There were some familiar faces though, with key players including goalkeeper Marco Hiller, Dutch centre-back Jesper Verlaat, and Kosovan winger Albion Vrenezi. Add to that summer arrivals in the form of attacking midfielders Julian Guttau and Namibian international Manfred Starke, and there were some decent foundations. Playing in Real World mode, there were still players to come too, with centre-back Leroy Kwadwo, midfielder Niklas Tarnat and forward Joël Zwarts. Unfortunately, there was still a gap at left-back, where the only real option in the senior squad was 30-year-old Phillipp Steinhart, who was unfortunately injured and would miss the start of the season. I also felt we were light in central midfield, with only Tarnat, Tim Rieder and Marlon Frey as natural options for the suggested 4-2-3-1 formation. I therefore two additional signings on free-transfers, 27-year-old Dominik Franke to come in at left-back, and 24-year-old Ghanian midfielder Nunoo Sarpei to provide an additional option in midfield.

This meant my main senior squad for the start of the season consisted of:

• Marco Hiller as first-choice keeper, with David Richter and Julius Schmid as back-up
• Kaan Kurt and on-loan Kilian Ludewig as right-back options
• Jesper Verlaat partnered with either Leroy Kwadwo or youngster Niklas Lang at centre-back, with Michael Glück as extra cover
• Dominik Franke and Phillipp Steinhart at left-back
• Tim Rieder, Nunoo Sarpei, Marlon Frey and Niklas Tarnat as defensive midfielders
• Morris Schröter, Albion Vrenezi, Fabian Greilinger, Milos Cocic, Julian Guttau, Manfred Starke and Eroll Zejnullahu as attacking midfield/wingers, with Devin Sür as a youth back-up
• Valmir Sulejmani, Fynn Lakenmacher, Joël Zwarts and Lorenz Knöferl as forwards.

There were a handful of other players around the senior squad as well, but were never really in my thoughts as they weren't any better than the players listed above.

As it turns out, none of my strikers were particularly great in the system I wanted to play either. Zwarts did score a hat-trick on his first start, but that and one goal from Knöferl the only goals scored by any of my nominated centre-forwards in the first 14 games of the season by the end of October. Knöferl did improve as the season went on, but we were carried by our attacking midfielders in that time, especially Starke and Guttau. I wouldn't have minded if the forwards were getting assists, but they weren't even doing that, regularly getting a 6.2 or 6.3 rating whilst everyone else was getting 7+. Fortunately, despite only having a scouting range of neighbouring leagues (not even Germany as a whole...) one of my scouts was able to suggest a 22-year-old striker playing for Defensa y Justicia in Argentina, Lautaro Fedele - I assume this was from prior knowledge as it was already quite extensive - and the report claimed that he would be a 4.5 star option in the squad. He would also be available as a free transfer for the January transfer window, and was keen to move, so I quickly confirmed his signing, and prayed my midfielders would continue to fire until then...

[brod_104]

As the team progressed through the first half of the season, as you can see from the results below, our form was excellent, and despite a media prediction for a mid-table finish, we found ourselves in a promotion race alongside Regensberg, Arminia Bielefeld and RW Essen. We also caused an upset in the first round of the cup, knocking out top-flight Werder Bremen, before unluckily losing to Köln in a 5-3 thriller.

Goals were generally fairly free-flowing, although there were a couple of spells were they briefly dried up in October and December, Other highlights included a 4-1 win over rivals Unterhaching and wins against promotion rivals Regensberg and RW Essen. By the end of December, Guttau was top scorer with 11, while Vrenezi, Starke and Knöferl had scored 7 each.

As the January transfer window rolled around, Lautaro Fedele finally arrived, and I realised I'd missed something in the scout report - he was only 5'5 (roughly 165cm)! He struggled in his first two games, with 6.3 and 6.1 ratings seeing him dropped as I worried that I'd picked up a dud. From February onwards though, he was a machine, scoring 7 goals in four games in February, and finishing off the season with 7 goals across his last 4 games of the season to finish as my top scorer on 16 goals, all in the league, and joint 6th in the league scoring charts (and of the 5 players ahead of him, three of those were tied on 17, and the other two only got 21 and 20).

There were further transfers. Kosovan Eroll Zejnullahu left on loan to Drita in his home country with an option to buy (which did not get taken up...). Meanwhile, with contracts expiring in the summer, veteran midfielder Tim Rieder agreed to join Volendam in the Netherlands and youngster Mansour Ouro-Tagba agreed to join Wehen Wiesbaden - these were both on free pre-contracts, but I was able to negotiate immediate transfers for £10k each (admittedly not big fees, and perhaps a little under their market value, but better than nothing). The departure of Rieder meant that I was again light in midfield and, to be honest, Tarnat and Frey hadn't really done anything to convince me that they deserved a regular spot. I therefore brought in two loans for the defensive midfield spots: Joseph Nduquidi from Metz and Julian Brandes from Ajax. Both would go on to play a key role in the remainder of the season, relegating the more senior midfielders to the bench.

I did have one falling out with the squad towards the end of November, when Morris Schröter complained about not playing enough - he was my second-choice right-winger, with Vrenezi my first choice for cutting inside. My initial plan had been to sell him when the transfer window opened, but then the rest of the squad also complained that I should play him more. I was starting to worry that this would destroy morale and sabotage our season, so reluctantly agreed, annoyed that I would have to drop one of Vrenezi, Guttau or Starke, who were all in form. The choice was made for me though, as an injury to Vrenezi meant he would miss the whole of December, which opened up an opportunity for Schröter - which annoyingly he took, with several goals and assists over the next few games...

[brod_104]

With the mutiny avoided, and new signings settling in, if our form in the first half of the season was good, the second half was even better, dropping only 5 points in our final 18 games after Christmas:

As the season went on, Arminia and RW Essen gradually faded, with Sandhausen, Dynamo Dresden and Viktoria Köln emerging as the other promotion contenders. In the end though, we proved to be too strong for the rest of the league, with promotion sealed with a 4-0 thumping of Viktoria Köln, and although we lost to Regensburg the following week, a win over Saarbrücken secured the title. Over the course of the remaining 5 four games, we also went on to set various league and club records, including most wins (30), goals scored (94) and points won (also 94).

Lautaro Fedele was voted as the signing of the season thanks to his return of 16 goals in 17 appearances, while Julian Guttau was winner of the Player of the Year award.

The rebuild for 2024-25 in 2.Bundesliga has already begun, starting with expired contracts: Steinhart, Tarnat and Lakenmacher have all been released, along with Tarsis Bonga (who was a new signing in real life, but never got a game for me) and third-choice keeper Julius Schmid. A further 16 players were also released from the youth and second teams, as they were never going to be good enough for the third tier, never mind the second tier. In addition, we've actually made some honest to goodness cash sales, with Valmir Sulejmani joining Dynamo Dresden for £52k, and Morris Schröter (who never got over that sulk before Christmas) leaving for Regensburg for £300k.

The funds generated from these sales, and what transfer budget we have been given, have all been pumped into the wage budget, and arrivals so far have all been free transfers. Four players were youth players released by Bundesliga clubs in the form of midfielder Aaron Riedel (Union Berlin), striker Raoul Petak and left-back Karim Dhouib (both Leverkusen) and goalkeeper Luka Janosch (RB Leipzig). With no EU-player restrictions to worry about, I've also brought in two promising Nigerian goalkeepers on free transfers, Nathaniel Nwosu and Mustapha Lawal, and a Brazilian attacking midfielder, 27-year-old Juan Alano, formerly of Gamba Osaka. I'm currently still looking for some reinforcements in central midfield to replace the departed loanees and released Tarnat, as well as the transfer listed Frey, and I'll also be looking for a right-back to compete with Kaan Kurt, At the time of writing though, the transfer window has only just opened on 1 July, so there's plenty of time before the season starts!

[brod_104]

Two weeks into the transfer window so far, and a mixed bag so far...

We have successfully offloaded three more players who either hadn't played much last season (Joël Zwarts, Eroll Zejnullahu) or I didn't think were likely to play as much in the coming season (Manfred Starke). Some of these were slightly cut-price due to their contracts also only having 12 months left to run, but we've managed to bring in a further £400k in transfer fees on these three. I still haven't paid any transfer fees either, so we've made a net profit of £750k so far this summer.

On the downside, we've had four potential players, who would have been big upgrades to the squad, and all available on free transfers, all turn us down.  Chilean international defensive midfielder Ignacio Saavedra and attacking midfielder Theo Zidane (yes, one of Zinedine's sons) both opted to join Greuther Fürth. Norway-born Philippines international full-back Simen Lyngbø signed for Hamburg, and German centre-back Jakob Lewald opted for a higher wage at Sandhausen.

To complete the good-news-bad-news sandwich though, we have made two more signings, both at full back. Brazilian Patryck Lanza has joined on loan from São Paulo to compete with Franke, and Ghanaian Frank Ronstadt has signed on a free transfer to cover the right-hand side along with Kurt.

I've got another 5 contracts currently being considered by other midfielders (although my current top target, Mexican international Jonathan González, also has offers from top-flight clubs, so I suspect that one won't go through).

[brod_104]

OK, so now that I've caught up in-game, I can use a similar format to what I ended up doing with my St-Étienne updates, and give updates at slightly more regular intervals. First up:

July 2024

The summer transfer window is now a month old, and I think I'm almost done in terms of business. I've already given some details of this, but to summarise, 21 players were released at the end of their contract, the most notable being veteran left-back Phillipp Steinhart, midfielder Niklas Tarnat, winger Tarsis Bonga, young goalkeeper Julius Schmid and target man Fynn Lakenmacher. Also leaving the club, for a combined total of £750k, were forwards Valmir Sulejmani (Dynamo Dresden) and Joël Zwarts (Osnabrück) and attaking midfielders Morris Schröter (Regensburg), Manfred Starke (Paços de Ferreira) and Eroll Zejnullahu (Erfurt).

14 players have joined the club, 11 of which were free transfers. The first four of those free signings were released by top-flight clubs: Aaron Riedel (Union Berlin), Raoul Petak and Karim Dhouib (Bayer Leverkusen) and Luca Janosch (RB Leipzig). They were joined on 1 July by Nathaniel Nwosu (Water FC [NGA]), Mustapha Lawal (Sunshine Stars) and Juan Alano (formerly of Gamba Osaka). Patryck Lanza then joined on loan from São Paulo, before four more free transfers were eventually secured: Frank Ronstadt (ex-Darmstadt), attacking midfielder Matija Marsenic (ex-Leverkusen), Chilean midfielder Bryan Soto (ex-Colo Colo) and Dutch midfielder Tom van de Looi (ex-Brescia). Marsenic would then go out on loan to Jedinstvo in his home country of Montenegro. There were then two more arrivals before our first league game of the season: Ivorian centre-back Ismaïla Sanogo joined from AFAD Plateau in Côte d'Ivoire for £215k, and German midfielder Samuele di Benedetto arrived on loan from Stuttgart.

We then kicked off our 2.Bundesliga campaign, a Friday night game away at Greuther Fürth. This was a little bit of a grudge match for me, as they had beaten us to two signings during the window. Happily, we were able to secure a well-deserved 3-1 win, courtesy of an opening goal from Fabian Greilinger, followed by first ever goals for right-back Kaan Kurt and debutant Petak.

The first round of the cup has also been drawn and we have been drawn at home as one of the teams from the lower half of the draw, and we've been given a winnable tie against fellow 2.Bundesliga side Wehen Wiesbaden, which will be played in August.

[brod_104]

August 2024

August saw a little bit of a mixed bag of form. We drew our first home game of the season 0-0 against Paderborn before our first-round cup tie against Wehen Wiesbaden, which we won 3-2 thanks to goals from Verlaat, Lanza and Fedele. We followed this up with a comfortable 3-1 win over fellow promoted side Regensburg with goals from Greilinger, Alano and van de Looi. We then suffered our first defeat of the season away at our recent cup opponents Wiesbaden, going down 2-0.

There were a few more transfers done throughout the month as well, with three arrivals and three departures. The arrivals were led by a relatively big money signing in the form of 18-year-old Tanzanian international Nestory Irankunda (who recently agreed a move to Bayern in real life), arriving from Adelaide United for £1.3m. He was followed by Senegalese centre-back Momo Mbaye on a free transfer and 18-year-old Serbian striker Niksa Delibasic on loan from Cukaricki.

The departures saw Devin Sür and Milos Cocic leave on loan for regular first-team football (each attracting a loan fee too), while the arrival of Mbaye resulted in the sale of Leroy Kwadwo for £325k to Estrela Amadora in Portugal.

September 2024

September saw us start to struggle a bit more for results, although we were very unlucky in some of these games. We started the month well enough, coming from behind to win 2-1 against St Pauli. We then lost a dramatic game against Fortuna Düsseldorf, losing 4-3 after a 96th minute winner, having previously equalised three times including making it 3-3 in the 93rd minute. We then also lost to a late winner against Elversberg with a 2-1 away defeat, before a 1-1 draw at home to Nürnberg.

This run of form led me to try something a little different, ditching my usual 4-2-3-1 formation for a 3-4-3 line-up. We deployed this in the last game of the month against league leaders Hannover, and the change in system worked wonders, with a stunning 2-0 win thanks to goals from Mbaye and Delibasic.

At this point, nine games into the season, we find ourselves 7th in the league on 14 points, 8 points behind Hannover and Mönchengladbach in the top two, but only two points of Schalke in third (there's a few big clubs in the second tier this season!). Looking in the other direction, bearing in mind the board objective of fighting relegation, we're 7 points clear of 16th-placed Augsburg in the relegation play-off spot. All things considered, it's been a pretty decent start to the season.

[brod_104]

Well... at the half-way stage of the season, I think it's fair to say the switch of formation to a 3-4-3 has been a success!

October 2024

After our shock win away at table-topping Hannover, we followed this up with a 2-1 home win against Kaiserslautern with goals from Greilinger and Fedele. This was followed by a trip to Borussia Mönchengladbach, where we took the lead and actually created more chances, but ended up falling to a 2-1 defeat following a dubious penalty. We bounced back with a narrow 1-0 home win over Magdeburg, before advancing in the cup, beating St Pauli 2-0 at home.

November 2024

We started the month with another away trip against one of the big three in the division, paying a visit to Schalke. We were impressive again, winning the xG battle 3.3-0.5, so we were disappointed to come away with only a 2-2 draw, conceding an 83rd minute equaliser in the form of of a 25-yard screamer. We got over this disappointment by beating Augsburg 3-1 at home in what is billed as a local derby. We then began to let rip in the league, dismantling bottom club Osnabrück 3-1 away, and smashing Karlsruche 4-0 at home.

December 2024

Only two games were played in December before the winter break. We started in the cup against Osnabrück, in which we again dominated, but this time we didn't take our chances and conceded another long-range equaliser with only 10 minutes to go. This was Osnabrück's first shot of the game, and was enough to take us to penalties where we eventually lost 7-6. Given this was against a team struggling in the league, I was very disappointed to miss out on a quarter-final tie that would have given us £1.2m just for playing. We still had one more league game to play, at home to Sandhausen and, oh boy, did we take out our anger on them; a devastating first half set us on the way to a 5-0 win.

Half-term report

At the half-way stage of the season, we've certainly outperformed our pre-season expectations. The club vision was to simply avoid relegation, but as things stand we are third, in the promotion play-off spot. Our recent excellent form has moved us to within two points of Mönchengladbach and Hannover, and one point ahead of Schalke.

In terms of player performance, Albion Vrenezi has hit a purple patch in front of goal lately, and is now our top scorer for the season with 10 goals in the league, which is joint second in the division's scoring charts, only one off the leader. Julian Guttau has also hit form, picking up several assists, while Momo Mbaye has overcome a difficult start to his time in Munich and has been crucial in our recent clean sheets. On the downside, Lautaro Fedele is our second top scorer on 6 but has been inconsistent, while our big-money signing Nestory Irankunda has shown flashes of potential but hasn't done so often enough so far (but he is still only 18, so has plenty of time to come good).

We have also picked up a couple of additional free transfers in midfield, very much as ones for the future, as they are both only 18. Lucio Saric joined after his contract with Leipzig expired in the summer, while Macedonian midfielder Martin Jovanovikj is a former player for FK Makedonika in his homeland.

I am looking to try and strengthen over the winter to try and help our surprise promotion push. I'd like some stronger options in midfield. The signings of Bryan Soto, Tom van de Looi and Samuele di Benedetto in the summer were not my first choices if I'm honest, but were the best I could find. My coaches are rating them at around 2.5-3 stars at the moment, which is fine, but they also don't think Soto or van de Looi will improve. I'm also looking for more consistency in attack, and have made a contract offer to former Arsenal youth striker Tyreece John-Jules. All this does mean I am a little over my wage budget, with no spare transfer budget, so I may need to try and move a couple of players on too.

*Edit - and just after I posted this, di Benedetto has been recalled because after my change in formation, he wasn't being played in the exact role that had been agreed. So definitely need a replacement there...

Edited December 1, 2023 by brod_104

[brod_104]

It's now 1 April 2025, and I think the fans are starting to get excited (even if they are only giving me a C+ so far this season...)

We had a little bit of a set back in January, as São Paulo decided to recall Patryck Lanza because I'd said he'd play as a left-back in a Complete Wing-Back role, but since my change in system, he was playing as an actual wing-back... FM logic for you there! By this time though, Tyreece John-Jules had completed his signing as an extra option up front, and I'd brought in an upgrade in midfield in the form of Slovenian youth international Luka Vesner Ticic. At this point I was seriously over my wage budget, so to try and ease the strain, I allowed 7 players to go out on loan, mostly youngsters, but Lorenz Knöferl joined Arminia Bielefeld to try and get some regular football, and Juan Alano joined Desportivo Chaves in Portugal because I don't really use a central attacking midfielder any more with my current system. I'm still over budget though, so all this meant I couldn't bring in a replacement for Lanza, which would present more opportunities for Franke, Grielinger and even teenage prospect Dhouib to play at wing-back.

January 2025

After a couple of winter friendlies to get some fitness back after Christmas, we had two league games. In the first of these, we secured a narrow 2-1 win away to Paderborn thanks to goals from Guttau and debutant John-Jules. Sadly that's the only goal that "JJ" has managed to score in three months, and he hasn't even registered an assist, so might not be at the club for very long... In our next game, at home to Greuther Fürth, we were very disappointing and found ourselves 2-0 after 84 minutes. We somehow managed to snatch a draw though, through a penalty from Vrenezi and a 90th-minute equaliser from Vesner Ticic on his debut.

February 2025

We continued our unbeaten run into February, with a pair of home wins and a pair of away draws. Grielinger and Franke both scored to secure a narrow 2-1 win against high-flying Fortuna Düsseldorf, before a disappointing performance against bottom side Regensburg saw us come back from 2-0 down again to save a 2-2 draw thanks to two goals from Fedele, with the equaliser coming in the 6th minute of injury time. We had to come from behind in our next game as well, but eventually ran out 4-1 winners over Wehen Wiesbaden, before Vrenezi's 13th goal of the season secured a 1-1 draw at St Pauli.

March 2025

Moving into March, we began the month with a comfortable 3-0 win over Elversberg, with a brace from Vesner Ticic and an absolute screamer from Vrenezi. Our next game was a tough away trip to Nürburg who had won their previous 5 games to move into 5th, and the chase for promotion; we went a goal down in the first half again, but showed resilience to hang in and eventually stole a point through a 94th minute penalty, scored by Vesner Ticic. The games didn't get easier either. By this point, we were still third in the table, three points behind Gladbach, and 5 behind Hannover and we played the league leaders next. We got off to an amazing start, thanks to an early long-range strike from Soto, and wrapped up a huge three points thanks to yet another stunning goal from Vesner Ticic, his fourth goal in three games. We then had a two-week break for an international window before our final game of the month away against Kaiserslautern. We weren't at our best in this game, but took another win thanks to a goal from Greilinger just before half-time. We were never comfortable though, and were grateful to see a late equaliser for the hosts ruled out for offside. Interestingly, while we played Kaiserlautern, the top two also faced each other, with Hannover hosting Gladbach. Hannover won 2-1, so now only two points separate the top three, and we play Gladbach at home next...

It's all very close between the top three in terms of goal difference and goals scored as well (which are the first two criteria in terms of tie-breakers). After this, it comes down to head-to-head. We have already secured the advantage in that duel with Hannover thanks to a pair of 2-0 wins, but it could be just as important to beat Gladbach, given we lost 2-1 in the reverse fixture.

In other news, the Kaiserslautern win at the end of March saw us set a new club record of 18 games unbeaten, and we're closing in on two years unbeaten at home in the league (our only competitive defeat being that cup game against Köln last season).

In also realised that I didn't mention our 2024 youth intake. In truth, there weren't too many exciting players in our class of '24, with only central midfielder Francis Mohammed, and wingers Marcus Fülling and Frank Otto being the three bright sparks. However, looking back, it appears Bayern have snapped up three of the players I didn't keep from that intake, so maybe my coaches have missed something!

Our Class of '25 looks to have a bit more potential, perhaps reflecting an improvement to youth recruitment that was approved at the start of the season. Two of the three players marked as elite talents are more of an attacking midfielder, so may need retraining, but I think there could be some potential here:

Of these players, I'm particularly intrigued by Serkan Uyar, although his personality and determination definitely need work:

[brod_104]

Mini-update: I was going to wait until the end of the season, but... after two more games in April, and only 5 games remaining, the top three are level on points, with only a 7-goal swing in goal difference separating them:

We lost our game at home to Gladbach: we were 2-0 down after only 15 minutes through a brace from former Celtic winger Jota, and despite ending up with a slightly better xG over the whole game from the same number of attempts, our finishing was wasteful. On the same day, Hannover could only manage a draw with Schalke, and at that point the gap was three points.

In the most recent matchday however, both of our immediate promotion rivals conspired to lose at home: Gladbach to Schalke and Hannover to relegation battlers Osnabrück. Meanwhile, we raced into a 3-0 lead against Magdeburg, but almost managed to throw that away, in the end just about hanging on to a 3-2 win.

Head-to-head isn't particularly clear cut either, if we all end up tied on goal difference and goals scored. We beat Hannover home (2-0) and away (0-2), Gladbach beat us home (2-1) and away (0-2), and Hannover beat Gladbach home (2-1) and away (1-2). There's no goal difference in head-to-head, it goes straight to away goals in those games, which I think is three each for us and Gladbach and two for Hannover. It then goes down to total away goals, which we currently lead with 25, ahead of Gladbach with 23 and Hannover with 21.

This could be a ridiculously tight title and promotion race! Schalke and Düsseldorf could still get involved in yet as well!

[brod_104]

I'm starting the entry at, in-game, 15:30 on 18 May 2025, and we are about to start the final day of the season...

April 2025

As mentioned above, April started off with a pair of mixed results. We lost 2-0 at home to Gladbach (our first home defeat in the league in almost two seasons), but then beat Madgeburg 3-2 away. Combined with other results for Gladbach and Hannover, this led to all three teams being level on points, with similar goal difference, goals scored, head-to-head records, and away goals.

Following the Magdeburg game, we beat Schalke at home 2-1, with all three goals coming in the last 12 minutes. Tyreece John-Jules finally got on the scoresheet again, only for Schalke to equalise within three minutes, before Lautaro Fedele scored the winner in the 89th minute. Elsewhere, Gladbach and Hannover also both won. Our final game of the month was a trip to Augsburg, our local rivals, it was hear that we were the first of the top three to slip up. Despite a dominant performance, we were wasteful in front of goal and only managed a single goal, and of course we were punished, conceding an 86th minute equaliser, while our promotion rivals both won. We ended the month 2 points adrift.

May 2025

Our first two games of the month were both against relegation-threatened teams, Osnabrück and Karlsruhe. We eased to a comfortable 3-0 win in the first game, thanks to a brace from centre-back Ismaïla Sanogo and a late strike from Vesner Ticic. Our visit to Karlsruhe was slightly less straightforward as we fell behind to a late first-half penalty, but hit back in the second half with another goal from Sanogo and two from substitute Niksa Delibasic. Unfortunately, Gladbach and Hannover also both won, so going into the final day, we still stand two points outside automatic promotion or even the title. However, results for Schalke, Düsseldorf and St Pauli below us meant we did guarantee at least a play-off spot with two games to spare.

So, going into the final day of the season, the table looks like this:

If we win our final game and either of Gladbach or Hannover drop points, we will go up automatically thanks to a superior goal difference. We could even win the league if both of them slip up. Given the board's expectations at the start of the season was to merely avoid relegation, and the media had us joint third-favourites for relegation, I think this is a stupendous achievement for the squad, regardless of what happens. 

The top-flight has already finished its season, so we even know who our opponents would be in a play-off - we would face Hertha Berlin.

But, here is the situation on the final day:

We face Sandausen, currently in the relegation zone, three points from the relegation play-off spot, or even safety altogether. They are on a horrible run of form though, with only one win and one draw in their last 14 games. On paper, it should be an easy three points, but almost all of those games have been very low scoring, 1-0 or 2-1 results, with the occasional 3-2, so this should not be considered a formality.

Hannover face a trip to Nürnberg, who are mid-table with nothing to play for and mixed form. Could the lack of pressure for a result help them cause an upset? Or what about Gladbach, who on paper have the toughest assignment with a trip to St Pauli, who were on a run of 6 straight wins, until they lost to Hannover in their penultimate game - they also have no pressure on a getting a result, and were arguably the form team until the last game.

Let's head out onto the pitch, and see what happens...

[brod_104]

...and with that, the final game of the season is over. Here's how the final day unfolded:

5 mins: News of an early goal in Hamburg. Unfortunately for us it's an away goal as Gladbach take an early lead at St Pauli.

30 mins: Now news of a goal from Nürberg as Hannover have the ball in the net, but it's disallowed.

32 mins: This goal stands though, and Hannover do now take the lead. Meanwhile, we're making hard work of our match against Sandhausen, with no shots on target.

43 mins: Gladbach double their lead at St Pauli. If we're going to get the favour we need, it doesn't look like it'll be from there...

HT: As it stands, we're staying third. We've struggled to create any opportunities, and even if we were winning, it didn't matter because the other two were winning.

50 mins: Hope from Hamburg! St Pauli have got a goal, and now it's only 2-1 to Gladbach. Now if only we could score...

53 mins: ... and that's just what we've done! Delibasic finally gets the opener in our game against Sandhausen.

57 mins:  We double our lead, with Delibasic getting his second of the game, and his sixth of the season (4 of those in the last two games). We're doing our part, now we just need a goal in one of the other two games...

75 mins: We're still waiting for a goal elsewhere... and... no, not like that... There's another goal in Hamburg between St Pauli and Gladbach, but the visitors regain their two goal cushion. We're now relying on news from Nürnberg.

86 mins: There's a big chance for Nürnberg! But they can't take it and actually hit the woodwork, and Hannover are hanging on.

90+ mins: Gladbach ease to their 3-1 win over St Pauli, in what was actually a very even game. We secure a 2-0 win, which also confirms Sandhausen's relegation. But what about the game involving Hannover? There are 10 minutes of added time... but despite lots of pressure from Nürnberg, Hannover hang on to secure automatic promotion - missing out on the title to Gladbach.

So there you have it. Considered favourites for relegation, we were in the mix for automatic promotion right up until the final whistle of the regular season. We still have a chance of going up, with a two legged tie against Hertha Berlin, who finished 16th in the Bundesliga.

In terms of stats, we were league leaders in terms of goals scored, with 70, and were joint-fourth for the best defence, with only 35 conceded. In terms of goals, Albion Vrenezi was our top scorer in the league with 16 goals, which was tied for second place in the goalscoring charts, two behind the eventual winner (Düsseldorf's Felix Platte).

[brod_104]

And so into the play-offs (I'm updating as I'm playing tonight...)

As mentioned, we play Hertha Berlin for a place in the 2025-26 Bundesliga. The first leg is away from home, at the almost-75,000 capacity Olympiastadion. Somewhat disappointingly, out of the 53,000 people who turned up, only 794 were 1860 München fans. Not sure if that's down to dodgy ticket allocation, or just inexplicably poor attendance from our lot. 

Despite the lack of away support, we were actually the better side in the first leg. We had almost twice as much possession as the hosts, and created much better chances. In the end, our pressure paid off, and in the 87th minute, Lautaro Fedele got on the end of a low cross from Kaan Kurt to tuck home from close range. Unfortunately, the players must have gotten a little carried away with the celebrations, because immediately from the kick-off, Hertha went straight down the other end and snatched an equaliser. Despite a couple of further opportunities for our side, that's how the first leg finished: 1-1. Interestingly, the play-offs still use away goals, so in fact we have the advantage going into the return leg four days later.

So to the return leg, at the 15,000 capacity Grünwalder, where in contrast to our measly 794 away fans in the first leg (not even 1.5% of the crowd), Hertha were able to bring 1500 away fans - almost double our away attendance, and a full 10% of the sell-out crowd for the second leg! Again, we dominated the first half, creating more, and better, chances. At half-time it was still goalless on the night, but we held the away goal advantage. That last until just after the hour mark, when the Hertha full-back found Diego Demme on the edge of the area, and he struck a powerful left-footed shot into the far corner. We were now behind, and had to go for it. John-Jules and van de Looi were sent on in place of Vrenezi and Sarpei on 67 minutes, and two minutes later, the change paid off: Fabian Greilinger was found in space on the left wing, he sent a low cross into the 6-yard box, where Tyreece John-Jules arrived to steer the ball home. Less than 5 minutes later, John-Jules turned provided, sending in an inch-perfect cross that found the head of 5'5'' Lautaro Fedele, who found the bottom corner. From 1-0 to 2-1 up on the night, we just had to hold on...

...and hold on we did! The final whistle blew, and we had secured a 3-2 win on aggregate, to complete back-to-back promotions! There will be a proper Munich derby again next season! We're coming for you Harry Kane! (Although to be honest, I expect we'll get smashed...)

To give an indication of how much of a struggle it could be next season, this year our wage bill has been just under £6m for the year, and our budget has been increased to around £10m for next season (some of which will be taken up with promotion wage rises). The lowest wage bill in the Bundesliga just finished was Darmstadt's £18m, and they were relegated! Hertha's bill was £25m, while Bayern's is £185m! I could potentially free up another £3m by moving all of my transfer budget into my wage budget, but it'll still be difficult!

[brod_104]

July 2025

As we prepare for our first season back in the top flight since 2003/04, I've been as busy as I can be, bearing in mind the small wage budget, compared to the rest of the league. I was initially given a £2m transfer budget, but reallocated almost all of that to the wage budget (which currently stands at £233k p/w) in order to cope with the promotion wage rises, and all the requests for new contracts that also followed.

Five players (Marlon Frey, Lorenz Knöferl, Daniel Winkler, Michael Glück and Nunoo Sarpei) have all been allowed to leave on free transfers. I also went through the squad and identified a handful of players who were amongst the top earners at the club, but didn't appear to have the quality required to step up to the Bundesliga. Some of these were key players over the last two seasons, but the coach reports suggested they were starting to decline. I therefore cashed in and raised £7m from the sales of Juan Alano (£3m to Al-Raed), Albion Vrenezi (£1.4m to Ipswich) and captain Jesper Verlaat (£2.7m to Al-Hazem). Youngster Emre Erdogan also left for Turkey for a few thousand pounds.

Despite the sales, we're still scratching around for free transfers if we want to make permanent additions - I've only been allowed to retain around £1.4m of those incoming fees. With that in mind, arrivals started on 1 July with Burundi international Bienvenue Kanakimana as an option on the right wing; he joins from Vyskov in the Czech league, where his contract had expired, but they hadn't released him so that deal somehow cost £54k in compensation. Also joining the club was Swedish midfielder Hampus Finndell, formerly of Djurgårdens, and represents a serious midfield upgrade according to my scouts and coaches. 17-year-old Iranian newgen goalkeeper Hesam Khanban also joined on a free transfer from Ranheim.

Four more free transfers have joined since, including three teenagers: German wing-back Jan Bürger, centre-back Ferdinand Pohl, and goalkeeper Jesper Schlich. The fourth arrival was a replacement for Verlaat, former Hamburg defender Jonas David. The final summer signing for now is 19-year-old Senegalese Alpha Touré, who can play in defensive midfield; he arrived from Génération Foot for an actual transfer fee, costing £180k.

I do think there have been a couple of upgrades to the squad this summer, but the media prediction would appear to be that this is still nowhere near enough, and we appear to be clear favourites for relegation. The season preview shows us as 700-1 for the title, compared with Bochum at 350-1.

[Deisler26]

Best of luck in the Bundesliga this season!

[TheJanitor]

Congrats on the back to back promotions! KUTGW

[brod_104]

August 2025

The transfer window has now shut, and there are few more deals that have been done, and the first few games of the season have been played. Before the opening game of the season in the cup, we confirmed three more arrivals. Jarell Quansah was first through the door on a no-fee loan from Liverpool but with an option to buy for £325k; he was brought in to provide more competition for places in my three-man central defence. Next was the arrival of 19-year-old German youth international Finn Jeltsch from Nürnberg, who would be an upgrade in either central defence or midfield, and it is midfield where he has started the season. Jeltsch is only the fourth player that I've paid an actual transfer fee for (five if you include the compensation fee for Kanakimana), and this one actually broke the club transfer record - a whopping £3.1m, rising to £3.6m, spread over multiple instalments. The final signing of the summer was 22-year-old wing back David Herold on loan from city rivals Bayern.

There were also two more departures. Tom van de Looi left for Greuther Fürth for a deal worth up to £850k, and Greek youth team player Georgios Genidis left for Panionios on loan.

When reviewing the transfer window, I think we've definitely upgraded the defence and midfield, which is where we needed to strengthen, and we've done so whilst making a profit: £3.3m spent, and £7.75m raised.

So to the first games of the season. After a winless pre-season - two disappointing draws and a narrow defeat against Aston Villa - we started of with a first-round cup tie away against regional-league side Halberstadt. We avoided any potential upset with a resounding 5-1 win, kicked off by Quansah scoring within 3 minutes of his debut, followed up by further goals from Sanogo, a brace from Fedele, and one off the bench from John-Jules. A reward in the second round is an away game against Wolfsburg.

Then came the league games. We opened with a home game against fellow promoted side Gladbach, who we lost 2-0 home and away against last season. This time, we took advantage of opening day rustiness and were 2-0 up within 20 minutes through goals from Milos Cocic and Fedele. However, our task was made much harder when Momo Mbaye was sent off for an elbow on 30 minutes. We dug in and, despite Gladbach pulling a goal back in the second half, we hung on for a 2-1 win. 

Our first away game of the season was at Hamburg, who finished 12th in the Bundesliga last season. Their extra year of top-flight experience showed, and they probably should have won, but Marco Hiller was in inspired form in goal, and we came away with a point from a 0-0 draw. Our final game of the month was at home to the other promoted side, Hannover. We started this game the better of the two sides, but fell behind to a bizarre goal as a clearance from Hiller ricocheted off a team-mate and fell to the opposition striker for an open goal. We responded well though and took the lead through goals from Jeltsch and Quansah. Hannover equalised midway through the second half, but we secured a deserved win thanks to Tyreece John-Jules' first league goal of the season.

After the opening three games of the season, this all means we sit in the Champions League spots, with 7 points from a possible 9. However, these points have come from home games against the other promoted sides and an away game against another potential relegation rival. It's going to get a lot harder from now on, and it doesn't get any more difficult than our next game, which is away to Bayern after the international break.

As if further indication was needed as to how tough this season could be, considering the struggles 1860 München have had over the past 20 years or so, just check out this commercial income graphic I've just received towards the end of the month, and the wage expenditure charts I received a week later:

Bayern generate more than FIFTY-THREE times more revenue, and even Bochum make three times more! Meanwhile my wage budget is less than half that of Hannover and Bochum, who have the next smallest, and almost EIGHTEEN times smaller than Bayern. This is going to be a tough season, which means those early points on the board could be vital!

[brod_104]

We're now just over a third of the way into the season, so it's probably a good time to see how we're shaping up.

September 2025

After a wonderful start to the season with 7 points from our first three games, we had a reality check in our first game of the month, away to Bayern. We were very poor, while Bayern fully deserved their 3-0 win, although weirdly, their goals all had an element of fortune: an own-goal, a poor back-pass to send Kane through 1-on-1 with the keeper, and a dodgy penalty. We showed some character though in our next game, a 1-1 draw with Frankfurt, which we should have won but for some poor finishing, with the point rescued by a penalty from Frank Ronstadt, his first goal for the club. Our final game of the month was much better: a 2-1 win away at Union Berlin through goals from Fedele and John-Jules.

October 2025

In was a case of one more of each result in our three league games in October, which started with a 1-1 home draw with Stuttgart. This was followed by an unfortunate 2-1 defeat away at Wolfsburg, where Fedele scored the opening goal midway through the first half, only for Wolfsburg to turn it around before half-time. A red card for Kaan Kurt in the second half killed off any hopes of a recovery. Our final league game of the season was arguably our biggest result of the season so far, a stunning 2-0 win at home against Dortmund thanks to goals from Jeltsch and Greilinger.

We finished the month with our second round cup tie, which was a second trip to Wolfsburg in the space of 10 days. Despite rotating a few players, including an appearance in goal for Mustapha Lawal, and starts for youngsters Alpha Touré and Devin Sür, we secured a deserved 1-0 thanks to an unbelievable 30-yard volley from Fedele.

November 2025

Our good form continued into November, starting with a 2-1 comeback win against fierce local rivals Bochum. This game was notable for a winner from Matija Marsenic, a 20-year-old Montenegrin attacking midfielder, making only his second substitute appearance, and in an unfamiliar role as a striker. I don't really play with an attacking midfielder in the tactic, but Marsenic has the attributes to suggest he could be retrained as a striker. Our next game was a home game against another big hitter in the form of Bayer Leverkusen, and we replicated our Dortmund performance and result, with another 2-0 win. This game had another notable first-time scorer, with Nestory Irankunda finally scoring his first goal after an inconsistent 14 months or so.

Our rhythm seemed to be disrupted by two weeks off for an international break, as our next game was probably our worst performance of the season so far, a 3-0 defeat at Mainz. We recovered somewhat with a slightly unconvincing 2-0 win over bottom club Hoffenheim in our final game of the month - not the best performance, but another three points.

All this means that, going into December, we're still in the cup (and play Frankfurt in the third round next) but unbelievably, we're THIRD in the league! We're only five points behind league leaders Leipzig and three behind Bayern (who are unbeaten but have dropped a lot of points in draws). We're three points clear of Dortmund in fourth, although they have a game in hand, and we're seven points clear of Leverkusen and Mainz, who are just outside the European spots.

If we can avoid too many more injuries (Swedish midfielder Finndell has just returned from 3 months out with a broken ankle suffered against Hamburg in August, and Fedele has just been ruled out for a month) who knows what we could achieve? I think we should be safe from relegation, which was the aim, and I think even if we finish mid-table that would still be a success, but could Europe be on the cards?

[brod_104]

I'm now at the end of February 2025 and we haven't collapsed yet, despite some mixed form, so somehow we're still very much in the running for European qualification! In fairness though, I think some of our results haven't been too bad given who we've played.

December 2025

Form in December (and January, to be honest) was a little disappointing, as goals started to dry up a bit.

We started the month by going out of the cup in a dramatic game against Frankfurt. We were fortunate to be only 1-0 down at half-time, with reserve goalkeeper Mustapha Lawal saving a penalty, but we managed to improve in the second half and find an equaliser. The game ended up going to penalties, and despite Lawal saving two more in the shoot-out, Ronstadt and loanee Herold also saw their efforts saved before Ismaïla Sanogo hit the underside of the bar, with Frankfurt then scoring to go through.

In the league, we drew 0-0 away to Freiburg before a disappointing 2-0 defeat away to then-leaders Leipzig. We did go into the winter break on the back of a win though after Julian Guttau's first goal of the season was enough to secure a 1-0 victory against Köln.

January 2026

We did all of our transfer business early in January. Frank Ronstadt has been a little disappointing over the course of the season a right wing-back, with missed penalties not helping his case, so our main signing was 24-year-old Swede André Boman for £1.9m from Elfsborg. We also signed 17-year-old midfielder Sonay Çimen on a free transfer from Wattenscheid, who is one for the future.

We also signed an 18-year-old Ecuadorian striker on a free transfer, who could turn out to be a gem when he can be registered. Jhon Acurio is already a full international who was unattached after his contract with Barcelona in his home country expired, but he couldn't be registered for the second half of the German season because he had played for both Barcelona and Platense of Argentina on loan. I still wanted to get the signing done though, because he was drawing interest from the likes of PSG and Chelsea. I can't play him until next season, but he has gone straight in as my most valuable player, with a market value of around £20m!

Leaving the club to make room for these signings were Bryan Soto, who returned to Chile with Universidad de Chile for £225k, and Momo Mbaye who signed for Saint-Étienne for £400k.

I did also make a late move for Tommy Doyle who'd been released by Man City, but he elected to join Augsburg in the second division, as they had offered a higher wage.

Eventually the football got back underway, starting with an away game against the one team we hadn't played so far, Werder Bremen. A Jarell Quansah goal gave us a 1-0 win, a result that was repeated in our home game with Hamburg with the goal this time being a rare strike from Dominik Franke.

We then lost our two return games against our fellow promoted sides, Gladbach and Hannover. We first lost a forgettable match 1-0 to Gladbach through an early goal from Manu Koné, before losing an even game by the odd goal in three at Hannover.

February 2026

February has been a more positive month. We did start the month with our third defeat on the bounce, losing 1-0 at home to Bayern, but I felt we could take a lot of heart from the performance, as we had more opportunities, and prevented them from having a single shot in the first half. Eventually we succumbed to an 81st minute winner from Brahim Díaz.

To try and avoid any heads dropping, we won a hastily arranged friendly against a local non-league side, and immediately saw a benefit, getting revenge for our cup defeat by beating Frankfurt 2-0 away, with goals from Quansah and John-Jules. A 3-1 home over Union Berlin followed, thanks to goals from John-Jules, Jeltsch and Marsenic, and we wrapped up the month with a 1-1 draw at Stuttgart, to make it 7 points from the last 9 available.

All this means that with only 10 games to go, we're still in the Champions League places, sitting fourth, only three points of Leipzig in second (Bayern have finally started to click and run away with the title again). We are only point ahead of fifth-placed Gladbach, who've shot up the table in recent months, and only seven points clear of Wolfsburg and Leverkusen below that. So whilst we're looking good for Europe, we don't want to drop too many points!

[brod_104]

Finn Jeltsch has been awarded second place in the NXGN:2026 award, behind only Lamine Yamal! He's been an excellent signing, well worth breaking the club record for!

[brod_104]

"Ils sont les meilleurs
Sie sind die Besten
These are the champions

Die Meister
Die Besten
Les grandes équipes
The champioooooooooons!!!!!!"

We did our best to throw it away, with four straight defeats in the run-in before the final day, but 1860 München are back in the Champions League!!!

More detailed update from the run-in to follow next time I'm online.

[brod_104]

Time for the breakdown of the final three months of the season, that resulted in 1860 München's return to the top table of European football...

March 2026

We started the month well, with a 3-0 win at home over Wolfsburg. We actually dominated this game, but only had a 1-0 lead for most of it, and almost conceded late on, but two goals in stoppage time gave a score-line that more accurately reflected the flow of the match. We then travelled to Dortmund in a game I honestly wasn't expecting anything from, and my fears appeared to be realised after they scored within 40 seconds. For the rest of the first half though the game was fairly even, and it was only after a red card for Jonas David that Dortmund were able to finish us off, resulting in a 3-0 defeat. Our final game of the month was at home against local rivals Bochum, who were fighting relegation. The game was closer than it should have been, and we were twice pegged back. Eventually we did secure a 3-2 win thanks to an 81st minute winner from 18-year-old Lucio Saric on only his third competitive appearance.

April 2026

We had another tricky game to start the month, away at Leverkusen. We actually defended quite well in this game, and created just as many chances as they did, despite having less than 40% possession, with the game eventually finishing in a 0-0 draw. Next up was Mainz at home, which was again a fairly even game, but we were actually clinical with our chances for a change, and a Fedele brace helped us to a 3-0 win.

Unfortunately, our form fell off a cliff after this, and we lost four games on the bounce, which almost cost us our top four finish. First we lost 2-1 away to soon-to-be-relegated Hoffenheim, before a topsy-turvy game at home to Freiburg ended in a 3-2 defeat. We were the better team against Freiburg, conceding an early goal against the run of play, before turning it around to lead 2-1 with 20 minutes to go. We then conceded an equaliser and then suffered heartbreak with a 92nd minute winner for the visitors...

May 2026

Our run of defeats continued into May, with a 2-0 home defeat to Leipzig (easily our worst home performance of the season), and a narrow 1-0 defeat away to Köln. This run of form had been enough to allow Gladbach to draw on points, and we were fortunate that they had also dropped points with away defeats to Dortmund and Leverkusen in their last four games. It was also apparently sufficient for the dreaded "unwilling to experiment" email.

Not through an unwillingness to experiment, but more from the perspective I didn't think it would be worth changing tactic for a single game, I instead arranged a morale booster for midweek - a 13-1 against a local side win is normally enough to perk up most players spirits - and we headed into our final day game at home to Werder Bremen just needing to match whatever Gladbach could manage against Hoffenheim. We eased into a 2-0 lead by half time thanks to goals from Fedele and Irankunda and, despite conceding a late goal that set off a few nerves, held on for the win required. Gladbach meanwhile were held to a goalless draw by Hoffenheim.

And so, Champions League qualification was secured! 

In terms of stats, goals were much harder to come by this season, with Lautaro Fedele top scorer with 11 overall (8 in the league). Finn Jeltsch and Tyreece John-Jules got 7 each (not bad for Jeltsch, considering he played the season half in midfield, half in defence), with Jarell Quansah helping himself to 6 from set pieces.

Top performers of the regular players were goalkeeper Marco Hiller, as the only player with an average rating above 7, followed by Quansah and Jeltsch with high 6.9s.

The squad will be in need of a bit of a rebuild over the summer, but I'll need to be mindful of Champions League squad registration rules. I do have seven players currently in my squad who count as home-grown at club, but of these only one is (currently) a regular starter, in the form of Hiller. Fabian Greilinger and Niklas Lang have been regulars over the past three seasons, but I'm not sure they are Champions League standard, while the other four are youngsters.

I have already got some transfers lined up and confirmed, including the permanent signing of left wing-back David Herold on a free transfer from Bayern when his contract runs expires. Also confirmed is the free signing of Ronnie Edwards from Peterborough, which I'm quite excited about - I just need to decide whether to use him in midfield or defence (any recommendations welcome!). There are also three teenagers confirmed on free transfers with big potential: Brazilian wing-back Oswaldo Ghisi from Paysandu, Brazilian midfielder Santos from Sousa, and Belgian winger Gaëtan Boli from Olympic Charleroi.

I've also been given a transfer budget of £21m. I've started the spending by activating the option to sign Quansah on a permanent deal for £325k. I'm also planning to bring Leandro Morgalla back to the club from Salzburg - his agent has already indicated he would be interested, and he would count towards that home-grown quota.

There are a few players I want to move on (Ronstadt, Kanakinama, Kurt and Cocic have already been ear-marked for attempted sales. The likes of Dominik Franke, Jonas David, Julian Guttau may also be on the way out if I can find any takers.

Edit: OK, so Morgalla might be a no-go. It must have been the January transfer window when I asked, and he has since signed a new contract, resulting in his asking price being double what it was, and his wage demands being double that of my highest earner...

Edited December 19, 2023 by brod_104

[brod_104]

Summer Transfer Window 2026

The 2026/27 season is about to start, beginning with a trip to Karlsruhe in the first round of the cup. I'm doing an update now as it's been a busy transfer window so far, and unless anyone else leaves for a big fee, I'm unlikely to do any more deals. We were given a budget of £21m to spend, and the one of the board vision objectives was to spend it. We've made big use of this money with that in mind, bringing in 10 players (including three youth players) with three more players to join in January, while 6 players have left (in addition to 6 youth team players released on free transfers).

Let's deal with the outgoings first. The youth players released were Philip Kuhn, Moritz Rem, Lukas Reich, Samuel Althaus, Jakub Schurz and Dardan Mehmeti, none of which made a competitive appearance for the club during my time.

The more notable outgoings started with Devin Sür, who joined Wrexham for a tiny £67k fee. Dominik Franke was next to leave, joining Groningen for £600k, before we got our first bit of Saudi money as Jonas David joined Al-Wehda for £2.6m. Bienvenue Kanakimana joined Sporting Farense on loan for a £105k fee, which an optional future fee of £300k. After a taking a long time to consider the contract offer, Tyreece John-Jules also left the club, joining Watford for a deal reaching £4m. Finally, newgen Iranian youth international goalkeeper Hesam Khanban joined Hamburg for an initial fee of £275k, rising to £325k with a 40% sell-on clause - I didn't want to accept this one, and spent a lot of July turning down offers until the player eventually got the hump and handed in a transfer request, so I reluctantly allowed the deal. In total, these deals brought in an extra £7m.

Now to the exciting bit - the incomings. Before the window started, I'd already agreed the signings of teenagers Santos and Gaëtan Boli on free transfers (Santos has re-joined Sousa on loan until December). I also confirmed the permanent signings of Jarell Quansah (£325k) and David Herold (free), who were here on loan last season. The other pre-contract signing was Ronnie Edwards from Peterborough.

With budgets announced, I set about spending some of the £21m with the signing of a new goalkeeper and a defender. In goal, I was able to bring in none other than Dennis Seimen from Stuttgart for £8m. He'd been second choice at Stuttgart for the past three seasons, but is an immediate upgrade on Marco Hiller. In defence, I activated a relegation release clause of £1.4m for Bright Arrey-Mbi from Hannover, another upgrade in defence which enabled the sales of Franke and David.

A few days later we confirmed the signing of a 17-year-old Danish winger, Lars Skolnik, who my scouts had spotted at AB Gladsaxe, and he cost £400k. On the same day, we also confirmed the signing of 20-year-old German youth international Can Uzun for the right-wing. He cost a release clause of £8.25m from Nürnberg and has agreed to terms as a squad player, but looks to be potentially our best player in that position. We were still lacking a little bit of quality on the wings, especially if we wanted to play Fedele primarily as a striker, so we also brought in Brazilian winger Gabriel Veron from Porto for a further £8.25m.

I think this gives us a lot more quality, and decent strength in depth whilst also giving opportunities to play youth team players occasionally. We're perhaps a little light a right wing-back, but André Boman generally played quite well after joining last season. That might be an area to upgrade in January, if we are given a bit more budget. Alternatively, I might seek out a loan deal.

I mentioned three future transfers confirmed for January. This includes Oswaldo Ghisi mentioned previously, but also an Algerian centre-back Ali Hadji from Guingamp for £275k, and Colombian striker Jhon Maturana on a free from Deportes Tolima.

For now though, our squad looks a little bit like this in terms of options:

Goalkeepers: Dennis Seimen, Marco Hiller, Mustapha Lawal, Nathaniel Nwosu, Miran Qela

Central Defenders (3 from): Finn Jeltsch, Jarell Quansah, Bright Arrey-Mbi, Niklas Lang, Ismaïla Sanogo, Ferdinand Pohl

Right Wing-Back: André Boman, Serkan Uyar, Ante Banden

Left Wing-Back: David Herold, Fabian Greilinger, Karim Dhouib

Defensive Midfield (2 from): Ronnie Edwards, Luka Vesner Ticic, Hampus Finndell, Alpha Touré, Lucio Saric, Martin Jovanovikj

Right Wing: Can Uzun, Nestory Irankunda*

Left Wing: Gabriel Veron*, Julian Guttau

Striker: Lautaro Fedele, Jhon Acurio, Matija Marsenic

*Can play either wing

[brod_104]

August 2026

The transfer window has now closed, and there were a couple of additional deals completed. I did find a loan option at right wing-back in the form of Calvin Ramsay from Liverpool. He's a possible gamble with his injury record, but offers competition with Boman and Uyar. The second incoming deal was completely unexpected, but my scouts turned up an 18-year-old Iraqi international with Norwegian citizenship playing for Strømsgodset. He's a model citizen, has amazing mental and physical stats for his age, and was available for just £4.5m. Say hello to Ahmed Hassan:

The arrival of Hassan meant that game time for Alpha Touré would probably be more limited, so he has joined Nürnberg on loan. The arrival of Seimen in goal, with Hiller as backup and two decent teenage prospects meant Mustapha Lawal has also become surplus to requirements, and he has joined Heartland on loan, heading back to Nigeria.

All in all, very happy with the transfer business.

We've had a pretty good start to the season in terms of results too. We were admittedly fortunate in our opening cup game against Karlsruhe though. We fell behind twice and needed them to go down to 10 men after their goalkeeper got injured with no subs left available, before scoring three times after the 80th minute to record a 4-2 win. I was a bit concerned about the performance overall, but Can Uzun had an excellent debut, scoring twice, while Gabriel Veron got two assists off the bench. Quansah and Greilinger got the other goals.

In the league, we began with a home game against newly-promoted Heidenheim. I'm not sure if it was rustiness or complacency, but we struggled a bit in this match, but did manage to come away with a 1-0 win courtesy of a Ronnie Edwards goal. Next was a trip to Union Berlin, a team we seem to play well against, and this was no different, with a 2-0 win secured by goals from Quansah and Vesner Ticic.

Our next game was at home to Freiburg, and the result maybe flattered us a little. On paper, it was a dominant 4-1 victory, but Freiburg two goals (at least) disallowed. Highlights in this game though were a hat-trick for Jhon Acurio to open his account and a first goal for 17-year-old Serkan Uyar on his first start after several substitute appearances, which also made him the club's youngest ever goalscorer.

This leaves us second in the league after three games with a 100% record.

Our Champions League games have also been drawn, and it's a tough draw. We have home games against Monaco, Roma, PSV and Porto, plus away games against Ajax, Real Sociedad, SK Sturm and, of all teams, Man City. I'm not sure we'll make it into the play-off round! On the upside, it looks like we might be playing the games against Roma and Porto in Munich's 69,250 capacity Olympiastadion, rather than our 15,000 capacity stadium, so hopefully we'll get some good gate receipts from those.

Speaking of the stadium, I think I forgot to mention this previously, but the club are in the process of building a new stadium, known as the 1860 München Stadium (how original). This will have a capacity of 25,599 (could they not squeeze in one more seat?), and we're due to move in in June 2029. Whether my save will last that long, who knows!

[brod_104]

September 2026

September was a mixed bag of results, but in fairness was a very tough run of fixtures.

We started the month well with a 2-1 win away at Wolfsburg, although we were reliant on a 95th minute winner in that game. We then played our first game back in the Champions League, at home to Monaco - in all honesty, we were pretty poor and were lucky to escape with a goalless draw. This game also set an attendance record: a record low of under 5,500, purely because we played this game in our regular Grünwalder stadium, which only has 5,941 seats. (I actually did a quick bit of reading, and according to Wikipedia, the stadium might not even meet 2.Bundesliga requirements, never mind Champions League, so I think we should have moved out already!)

Our next game was away at Dortmund, and we put in a pretty good performance. Dennis Seimen was forced into 9 saves, but none of their efforts were particularly clear-cut. Unfortunately we couldn't quite hold on for a draw, and lost 1-0 through a 95th minute own goal. We then played our next European tie, and were ripped apart in Amsterdam as Ajax ran out comfortable 3-0 winners. We finished off the month by getting back to winning ways, coming back from behind thanks to a brace from Can Uzun to beat Leverkusen 2-1.

October 2026

There was a three-week break after the Leverkusen game due to an international window with the new fixture calendar. I think that resulted in a bit of rustiness in our first game back, away at Stuttgart; despite taking the lead early in the second half, we capitulated and fell to a 3-1 loss. Results have picked up since then though.

We bounced back with a 1-0 win against Mainz, thanks to Can Uzun again, before our first Champions League "home" tie at the Olympiastadion against Roma. We were helped by a first half red card for the Italian side, but almost 46,000 fans were in attendance for a well-deserved 2-0 win, Uzun and Acurio on the scoresheet. We followed this with a 2-0 away win against local rivals Bochum thanks to an Acurio double.

Next was a domestic cup tie against second-tier side Wehen Wiesbaden and, despite a rotated side absolutely dominated, we were wasteful and were forced to a penalty shoot-out. Fortunately we won the shoot-out 4-2 to progress to the third round where we face a trip to St Pauli. Our final game of the month was against Leipzig and produced a remarkable 3-1 win (admittedly, again helped by an early red card for our opponents).

All this means that as we head into November, with 10 league games played, we are currently joint-league leaders, alongside Bayern!

We're also currently in 19th place in the Champions League league phase on four points, level with Inter, Atlético, Tottenham and Man Utd.

[brod_104]

I've now reached the winter break in 2026-27 and, at the not-quite-halfway mark (because we've played 16 out of our 17 possible opponents...), unbelievably we're top of the league!

November 2026

Our first game of the month was in the Champions League, a tough trip to Spain to face Real Sociedad. In a topsy-turvy match, we took a first half lead, and were heading for a deserved win until the 78th minute. We then conceded twice and looked to be heading to an unfortunate defeat, but then Gabriel Veron popped up with a 95th minute equaliser to rescue a point.

We then had to settle for a second 2-2 draw in the space of 4 days, twice throwing away a lead to draw away to Köln. This was followed by a dramatic win at home to Werder Bremen, in which we led from the second minute, conceded in the 94th minute, but then went straight down the other end for Irankunda to score a winner.

Next up was a trip to Austria to face SK Sturm. This was a game I'd earmarked as a potentially winnable game, so I was disappointed that we squandered chance after chance to be held to a 1-1 draw.

Our final game of the month was away to Augsburg, where we secured a 2-1 win thanks to goals from Can Uzun and Finn Jeltsch.

December 2026

The month started with a trip to second-tier St Pauli in the cup. Despite taking an early lead, we were generally quite poor and conceded an injury time equaliser. We did eventually go through thanks to an injury time winner from David Herold with his first ever goal for the club. Our reward is a home tie in the Quarter Final against Leverkusen, who are in a relegation struggle this season. With Bayern already out of the cup and Dortmund and Leipzig drawn against each other, this suddenly becomes a winnable competition! After this, our next league game saw us eventually ease to a 3-0 win over Frankfurt through goals from Fedele, Herold and Sanogo. This game didn't see loads of chances, but we were fairly clinical with ours for once, and did well to frustrate the visitors.

Our next game was another Champions League tie, this time at home to PSV, which was another game I though was winnable. Unfortunately we were very wasteful and were held to a 0-0 draw. This means we currently sit 25th in the league phase, just outside the playoff round qualification places. I'm particularly disappointed we didn't get a win from at least one of the four games we've drawn, particularly the trip to Sturm and our home ties against PSV and Monaco. I do wonder if we were disadvantaged in those two home games by playing at the Grünwalder, where our attendance was limited to less than 6,000, perhaps leading to a lack of atmosphere. Compare this to our other home game so far against Roma, played in front of 46,000 fans at the Olympiastadion, which we won 2-0. As it stands, we are now relying on getting a result somewhere from our final games away at Man City, or at home (at the Olympiastadion) against Porto, who are one place above us on the same points tally - that game could be huge!

 After the disappointment of the PSV game, we faced a daunting trip to city rivals Bayern. We had a first-half goal disallowed and managed only one other shot in the entire game, but Dennis Seimen was in outstanding form and somehow we came away from the match with a point, thanks to a goalless draw. This result gave us confidence going into the final game before Christmas, at home to Gladbach, who were struggling in the relegation zone after an impressive 5th place finish and cup win last season. We were clinical, and secured a 4-0 victory thanks to first half goals from Finndell, Arrey-Mbi and Acurio, and a second-half penalty from Acurio to wrap up the game.

As mentioned at the start of this post, somehow this run of results means that we are top of the league for Christmas! We're a point ahead of Stuttgart, and three ahead of Bayern.

In terms of stats, our teenage Ecuadorian striker Jhon Acurio is our top scorer with 9 goals from 15 league games (putting him second in that list), and 11 goals in all competitions. Standout performers overall though so far are goalkeeper Dennis Seimen, with 10 clean sheets in 22 appearances in all competitions and an average rating of 7.1, and wing-back David Herold with 8 assists, 5 man-of-the-match awards (one off the record for a whole season already) and an average rating of 7.24.

I'm not sure how much business I will manage to conduct in January. There are five youngsters all due to arrive (plus the return of a couple of loans), but I don't currently have any spare transfer or wage budget. This means that there will have to be departures before any more senior arrivals. Right-wing-back André Boman has asked to leave as he has fallen behind Calvin Ramsay and youth academy product Serkan Uyar, so could be one to leave, so could bring in a fee of a couple of million if a permanent deal is found. 

[brod_104]

I've rattled through the rest of the 2026-27 season, and have just played the final game of the season.

January 2027

There wasn't any transfer budget left over from the summer, and the board didn't make any more funds available, so business in the winter transfer window was very quiet. Five players, all teenagers, arrived on deals that were agreed in the summer. These arrivals included Brazilian wing backs Oswaldo Ghisi (£72k) from Paysandu and Hélder (£97k) from Grêmio Novorizontino, Algerian centre-back Ali Hadji (£275k) from Guingamp, Colombian forward Jhon Maturana (free transfer) from Deportes Tolima, and Zambian striker Lameck Chilufya (£34k) from Zanaco. Hélder has the added bonus of being able to play in central defence and midfield as well.

Outgoings were also limited. The notable exits were all loan deals for players unhappy with their playing time. Niklas Lang, André Boman and Julian Guttau all left on temporary deals. Lang and Guttau see their contracts expire at the end of the season, so have probably played their last games for the club, while Boman's loan deal lasts until December, as he has moved to Real Salt Lake in MLS. Chilufya also returned to Zanaco on loan, and goalkeeper Nathaniel Nwosu left for Bayelsa Utd on loan.

In terms of results, the month started excellently with consecutive 4-1 wins away at Hamburg and at home to Union Berlin. This was followed by a trip to Manchester City in the Champions League, which we predictably lost, although our second half performance earned some credit in my opinion, getting a goal to reduce to half-time deficit from 3-0 to 3-1, which was how it finished. We then beat Heidenheim 2-0, before a deciding Champions League tie at home to Porto. We had to win in order to make the play-off round, and Can Uzun scored in the first minute to set us on our way to a 2-0 win, also helped by another impressive performance from Seimen in goal. The effort required seemed to have an effect in our next few games however, as we drew 0-0 against Freiburg to start a game of 5 league games without a win, which would run throughout February,

February 2027

In the midst of poor league run, we had a few cup games to play. We started off with a narrow 1-0 win over Leverkusen in the cup quarter final, before home draws against Wolfsburg and Dortmund, 1-1 and 0-0 respectively. Our next league game was a real frustration, losing 1-0 away to Leverkusen, but the result could have been completely different, if not for a red card for Vesner Ticic given after only 15 seconds!

Either side of the Leverkusen league game, we played our Champions League Play-Off tie, renewing acquaintances with Real Sociedad, one of our League Phase opponents. The first leg at home (in front of almost 51,000 at the Olympiastadion) was a narrow 1-0 win, thanks to a goal off the bench from Maturana. In the away leg, we found ourselves 2-0 down on the night after 72 minutes, and 2-1 down on aggregate. On 77 minutes though, we found an equaliser from an unlikely hero, Tunisian wing-back Karim Dhouib with his first goal for the club. We then took the game to penalties, where Dennis Seimen was the hero, saving one (while another hit the post), then scoring the winner! I wasn't taking the mick either, Seimen was actually my fourth highest rated penalty taker - although I put him on the fifth kick - with Composure of 13 and Penalty Tacking of 11!

Our final game of the month was another defeat, this time unusual in that it was at home, with Stuttgart taking away a deserved 1-0 win in a game summed up by a missed penalty by Can Uzun. In the end, our poor form in February would end up being costly...

March 2027

In March we managed to rediscover our form. We started with a Champions League tie against Barcelona, the first leg of which admittedly was a 3-0 home defeat. We then squeezed out a 1-0 win away to Mainz before the return tie against Barcelona, which was a 2-0 defeat, which I considered a respectable resilt, given I played a lot of fringe players in that return tie, as we played a league game on the following Friday night. That game was a home tie against Bochum, which ended in a 2-0 win.

Our final game of the month was possibly one of our best results of the season, a 2-0 win away at Leipzig, although it was a little fortunate. Seimen was unbeatable again in goal, as Leipzig dominated the chances, but we scored twice through Arrey-Mbi of all people - his first a fairly standard header from a corner, but the second was a 30-yard daisy cutter!

April 2027

That result against Leipzig seemed to give us our confidence back, as we won our next two league games much more convincingly. We beat Köln 3-1 at home thanks to a first-half Acurio hat-trick, before winning 4-0 away at Werder Bremen. This run of results meant that we were now level on points with Bayern with only five games to go - unfortunately, Bayern would be gifted the advantage in our next game, which we somehow lost 1-0 at home to Augsburg, while Bayern beat Union Berlin.

We put this setback behind us for our next game, which was the cup Semi-Final against Gladbach. We dominated the game, but had to wait until the 79th minute before getting the breakthrough from a Vesner Ticic goal, before Acurio sealed a 2-0 win. We therefore secured a first DFB-Pokal final since the club last won the competition in 1964!

We rounded off the month with a 2-1 win away to Frankfurt, thanks to a last minute winner from Lautaro Fedele.

May 2027

The month started with a top-of-the-table clash against Bayern. To have any chance of winning an unlikely title, we really needed to win this game. There is still a noticeable gulf in quality when you look at the two squads though, so I couldn't go too attacking. In the end, a second 0-0 draw against Bayern is a respectable result on the day, although it meant we were still three points adrift.

We did go on to win our final two games away against Gladbach (1-0) and at home to Hamburg (4-0), but Bayern also won their games. We therefore missed out on the title, but an impressive second place does secure Champions League football for consecutive seasons!

And so to our final game of the season, the DFB-Pokal Final, in which our opponents were Mainz. For this game, I restored Marco Hiller to the starting XI (as I had for all our cup games where he was fit). The rest of the starting line-up was as close to first choice as I could get though, with Vesner Ticic only fit for a place on the bench after picking up a knock against Hamburg. Our line-up therefore included Hiller in goal, a back three of Quansah, Jeltsch and Arrey-Mbi, Calvin Ramsay and David Herold at wing back (Herold just back from a month out injured), and Edwards and Finndell in the middle. Out front three was comprised of Can Uzun and Nestory Irankunda on the wings, and Jhon Acurio through the middle.

In the end, the game was a poor game, with neither team registering double figures in terms of attempts. It was a game that would either go to penalties, or be decided by a single goal, and it turned out to be the latter, and even that was a bit fortunate! Happily, it went in our favour! In the 43rd minute, Uzun and Acurio combined to send Irankunda through on goal. Despite the defenders managing to get back, Irankunda was able to get a shot away, which took a deflection to find the bottom corner.

We managed to close out the game in the second half, and secured the club's first piece of top-tier silverware in over 60 years!

[brod_104]

Not sure whether to be proud of this or not!

In terms of players, Dennis Seimen kept 23 clean sheets in all competitions. His record of 17 in the league was second only to Daniel Peretz (who has taken over from Manuel Neuer at Bayern), and his average rating of 7.22 earned him the club's player of the season and signing of the season awards. Jhon Acurio, who turned 20 during the season, was our top goalscorer, with 16 in the league (putting him fourth in the scoring charts), and 20 in all competitions.

Seimen came third in the German equivalent of the Players' Player of the Year award, which I think is impressive for a goalkeeper, which Calvin Ramsay was third in the Newcomer of the Season award (Ramsay's Liverpool contract expires in the summer, so I'm trying to make that a permanent deal).

There appear to be two Team of the Year awards. Herold, Arrey-Mbi and Edwards all made it into the Players' Team of the Year, and also made it into the sponsors' team of the year alongside Can Uzun. (I'm a little disappointed Seimen didn't make it into either of these...)

I'm a little disappointed to only come second in Manager of the Year, behind the Stuttgart manager (who led his team to third in the league).