A Capital Idea: Ending Regional Dominance in European Football - Hibernian

[shaunvamos]

March 2027

 

 

 

 

 

Kind of faltered a bit here, allowing Dortmund to catch up. But we beat Bayern again, and at least making the challenge somewhat interesting for the neutral.

 

 

 

 

 

We get another reasonably generous draw in the Europa League too, but there really are no weak teams when you get to this stage.

[shaunvamos]

April 2027

 

 

 

 

 

This month has taught me two things: we are expert chokers and Feyernoord are a legitimately excellent team. Suddenly Champions League qualification is under threat.

[shaunvamos]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We managed to right the ship enough to get 3rd place, and Champions League for next season. This has been a huge turnaround in only 4 seasons, and I'm nowhere near done.

 

 

 

Best XI

 

 

 

Samed Baždar  -  Pedro Malheiro  -  Elias Jelert

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress

 

 

[Rick87]

Just read through your career mate, well done on the constant improvement. Hopefully you will be Champions in a season or two. 

[shaunvamos]

2027 Summer Transfer Window

 

 

 

A pretty quiet window, our first team's pretty strong so there aren't too many players that can strengthen us. But we bring in Xhemalija permamently after a strong loan last season, as well as young French striker Lambourde from Rennes, who was meant to be a starter but other strikers had a better preseason and now rank above him in terms of ability. Not much to report on the outs, although I had to loan out Kerkez who was starting to turn the dressing room against me over playing time. Which is fair enough as he's good enough to start anywhere, but Jelert is the better option at LWB for now.

 

 

 

 

 

It's a perfect start domestically, as we are yet to concede a goal!

 

 

 

We get some really tough teams in the Champions League, I don't think we'll get results against either Manchester, PSG or Juventus.

[shaunvamos]

On 15/12/2023 at 00:19, Rick87 said:

Just read through your career mate, well done on the constant improvement. Hopefully you will be Champions in a season or two. 

Thanks Rick, we're certainly trending in the right direction!

[shaunvamos]

September 2027

 

 

 

 

 

Our unbeaten run in the Bundesliga doesn't last very long, but we still sit 3rd. Champions League has also gotten off to a brilliant start.

[shaunvamos]

October 2027

 

 

 

 

 

An unbeaten month, and a pretty dominant one at that as we go 3 points clear at the top of the Bundesliga. Even managed a draw against City! 

[shaunvamos]

November 2027

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We lose our first Champions League game, and although we look good we still have PSG and United left to play. We're also 6 points ahead of Bayern, but we have yet to play them, Dortmund, Leverkusen and Leipzig. We have the first 3 next month, and we're missing 3 starters because they're off playing the African Cup of Nations. I don't have high hopes.

[shaunvamos]

December 2027

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the first two games this month, I thought we were set to fall apart and I was prepared to curse the AFCON for stealing 3 of my starters. But we got through the rest of the month pretty unscathed, some academy products got some game time, and we sit in strong positions in both domestic and continental leagues.

[shaunvamos]

January 2028

 

Transfers Out

 

 

Kaufmann, a 140 game Union veteran who became 4th choice striker and was in real danger of disappearing completely leaves when Koln came calling. Also leaving is backup keeper Gasparini, who leaves after 72 games to sit on the bench at Spurs for 2.2m a year, and academy product Christoph Breuer, who didn't really develop well and is also injury prone and inconsistent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A busy month, but a productive one. We go top of the league, and we finish in the top 8 of the Champions League league phase. I have no idea how we got wins over United and PSG (4-0!). Maybe we're better than I think we are. I'm sure that comment won't age well  

[shaunvamos]

February 2028

 

 

 

 

 

And just like that, we've fallen apart, dropped to 4th and now 5 points behind Bayern 

 

 

 

To add insult to injury, we've drawn RB Leipzig in the Champions League, a team we don't know how to beat  

Edited December 17, 2023 by shaunvamos

[shaunvamos]

March 2028

 

 

 

 

We look like we've turned around our bad run of form, and slightly closed the gap at the top. If we all win our game in hand there will be 2 points between the top 4 with 6 games to go.

 

 

We finally shake our Leipzig demons and draw Real Madrid, who've won the last two Champions Leagues. But hey, making the quarters is huge for us.

[shaunvamos]

April 2028

 

 

 

 

Any hope of getting something from this season evaporated quickly this month, as a horror run puts us in danger of even returning to the Champions League. It's almost an exact replica of our collapse last season.

[shaunvamos]

 

 

 

 

 

 

A very disappointing back end of the season, but we're still overachieving so I can't be too mad. Just a little more consistency and we would've been at least top 2. Next season though, I think we're good enough to win the Europa League so that's the aim.

 

 

 

Best XI

 

 

 

Samed Baždar  -  Elias Jelert  -  Roberto Quintana

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress

 

[shaunvamos]

2028 Summer Transfer Window

 

 

Pretty quiet on the outs, with the only permanent deal being United's massive deal for Bazdar, for which I think they've grossly overpaid. But I won't complain, that's 90M extra to spend! And spend it we did...

 

 

I re-read the section in Soccernomics in relation to player recruitment, and saw that another key tip in successful recruitment is to replace first team players before they leave. Essentially I'm replicating this through this amended rule: 

On 26/11/2023 at 14:14, shaunvamos said:

2. Buy players for the first team as priority, but if no one is available to improve the first team then find cheap backups who can develop, also between ages 20-22. That way when first team players inevitably leave, we are replacing them before they even leave in theory. The academy players will mostly be used for development loans or backup the backups, and maybe a few of them can come good eventually. I'll start off by looking to improve our weakest position each transfer window, and then when that is strengthened move on to the next one.

 

So Saca, Onyegbule, Derksen, Stokes and Camara are all cheap backups, but I think they still have room to develop and will get the gametime to do so. But the big buy is Portuguese wonderkid Miguel Martins, our replacement for Bazdar. He looks amazing! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We got absolutely dumpstered by Hamburg in our Bundesliga opener, but won our next 2 to recover and finish the month in 4th.

 

 

We also qualified for the Champions League due to the coefficients, and we get a pretty favourable draw.

 

[shaunvamos]

September 2028

 

 

 

 

 

A predictable loss in Turin, but unbeaten otherwise. If we win our game in hand we go joint top  

[shaunvamos]

October 2028

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A congested but productive month, as we solidify our place in the upper echelon of the Bundesliga, and pulled off a huge win over Madrid in a game where we had 4 starters out due to injury, fatigue or suspension. The backup strategy seems to be working at this point  

[shaunvamos]

November 2028

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Damn, we really fell apart at the end of the month, and we still can't beat Leipzig. Might have to drop from Attacking to Positive, and see if that helps.

[shaunvamos]

December 2028

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Switching to a more conservative mentality seems to have worked so far, as we go undefeated for the rest of the year, including a win over Bayern and a playoff securing win in Turkey. We've also lost our starting CAM for the rest of the season due to a broken leg so we'll be looking at the January window for a replacement.

[shaunvamos]

January 2029

 

Transfers Out

 

An inconsequential loan for a youth player.

 

Transfers In

 

As mentioned earlier, we needed an AM replacement. And Leymarie is it. He is the perfect example to never fully trust the star rating, as he is allegedly worse than our backup AM by half a star, but he has an Enganche rating of 83.33 while Leymarie has an 86.27. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marseille certainly humbled us, but it was a strong month overall.

 

 

Despite being one of the first teams to qualify for the playoffs, we end up without the bye. We still get a winnable draw in Nice though.

[shaunvamos]

February 2029

 

 

 

Wolfsburg FM'd us quite badly, and we barely held on against PSG in Berlin so I think that'll be it for us in Europe. 

[shaunvamos]

March 2029

 

 

 

We kept PSG out for 180 minutes, and we would have gone to penalties if Mbappe hadn't scored in the 121st minute. We followed that up with a tired loss to Heidenhem, but we're still 3rd despite the loss to Dortmund. We have Bayern and Leipzig away in our last 6 games, so it's going to be super tough to stay 3rd I think.

[shaunvamos]

April 2029

 

 

 

 

Freiburg now joins my hated club list, as they've smashed us twice this season for no reason. They join Leipzig. It's the same old collapse at the end of the season again, I'm not sure why.

[shaunvamos]

 

 

 

 

We went from losing 5 of our last 7 last season to only 4 this season. So improvement?  Depth needs to be the priority for our recruitment, as it really hurts that Hertha denied us a guaranteed Champions League opportunity.

 

 

Best XI

 

 

Miguel Martins  -  Demir Xhemalija  -  Elias Jelert

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress

 

[shaunvamos]

2029 Summer Transfer Window

 

 

A couple of major transfers for big money, and I now know that player transfers when they're in the B team don't show. So now I have no-one in the B team anymore  But we make 45M profit on Lambourde, and about 37M on Quintana. We even profit on Onyegbule with a slight loss on Meupiyou. You better believe we made some good upgrades with all that cash though.

 

 

 

 

We actually couldn't make any backup upgrades, which maybe means we have decent depth? But these three signings improve the first team, and I'm super happy with them. Rik van der Har was a player I'd spotted since he was 17 at Groningen, but before he turned 20 Leipzig snapped him up (did I mention I hate Leipzig?). But he popped up on my shortlist as a possible improvement, and ended up getting him for 10M more than I would had he not left Groningen. I think that's an excellent bargain, and so is Ismael Toure. Dolan also has tonnes of room for improvement, but we had to pay the Brexit tax for him, although I don't think he'll end up costing us money in the long term.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An unbeaten preseason, and an unbeaten start to the Bundesliga. We've always gotten off to a decent start though so I won't hold my breath.

 

 

 

No unexpected Champions League appearance this season, and I'll be very disappointed if we don't at least make the Europa League semis. No one here should give us a challenge except maybe Benfica.

[shaunvamos]

September 2029

 

Transfers (Out)

 

We lost Romero on deadline day, which meant we had to scramble for a replacement. At least we made 16M in profit off him.

 

Transfers (In)

 

 

Dauble is more than sufficient as a replacement, and a lot of room to grow too. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I started watching the games this month instead of instant result, and I like to think it made a positive result. Just disregard the St Pauli result, and the Holstein result where we dominated the game but couldn't score. Where we could score though was in the Europa League, where we scored 19 goals in 2 games to go top of the League Phase. We also came back against Leipzig to draw  

[shaunvamos]

October 2029

 

 

 

We appear to have forgotten how to win in the Bundesliga, it's been a very frustrating watch.

[shaunvamos]

November 2029

 

 

 

 

I got sick and tired of watching the team squander all the chances we're creating (we're 5th in the xG table) so I went back to instant result against Kobnhavn, and lo and behold we won again. I know it's a game we should be winning, but we should've won every game this month except the Bayern one and didn't so I'm going back to IR. Job's on the line as a result.

[shaunvamos]

December 2029

 

 

 

We've recovered well, thanks to the power of instant result. I trust my ass man more than me in game management  Hopefully we can maintain it and not fall apart at the end like normal, because we can't afford that this season.

[shaunvamos]

January 2030

 

 

 

 

 

A loss to Hannover because of course we did, but we're in range of 5th place. We also secure a bye in the Europa League, through to the last 16.

[shaunvamos]

February 2030

 

 

 

We seem to be back to our normal strong form, and we're now knocking on the door of the top 6. And we beat Leipzig  

[shaunvamos]

March 2030

 

 

 

A difficult month, but not one I'm too mad about. Dortmund are 2nd, played an entire 2nd team against Hoffenheim due to fatigue.

 

 

We get extremely lucky against Gent, and then get even luckier to be drawn against Rakow. There's also a bit of luck that the two biggest contenders are draw against each other in Liverpool and Atletico, but the luck ends there as we'll play the winner of that tie should we win our one.

[shaunvamos]

April 2030

 

 

Injuries and fixture congestion were the stories of our April, as I've basically given up on the league and really look to win the Europa League, where we face Atletico in the semis.

[shaunvamos]

 

The trophy is a definite spoiler, but we went and did a thing:

 

 

 

We were frustrating again (just look at that xG) but we pulled it off in the end. My first trophy in this game!

 

 

 

 

It was a very strong end to the season for us, but imagine how it could have turned out if we were as clinical as we should have been. I think I'll be looking at changing the tactic to something a little more conventional for next season, and see how that goes.

 

Best XI

 

Miguel Martins  -  Ismaël Touré  -  Elias Jelert

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress

 

[shaunvamos]

2030 Summer Transfer Window

 

 

Our academy seems to be hitting that sweet spot as we secure a decent amount of loans. We also sell Kerkez for a loss - he was considering his options for his expiring contract and had to cash in while we could. We made profit on Stokes though, getting 5M after buying him for 800k. 

We had 173M to spend, and a new tactic to buy players for. So what did we do?

 

 

This is the new tactic, essentially what the game thought suited our squad. I think I'll be doing this from now on, it'll be cool to try different tactics as I drop down into leagues where players can't realistically Gegenpress.

 

 

We spent a LOT of money this window. Two release clauses for genuine world class players, ones I had known about for a while. Schulz will also start, while Morrone and van Erp are immediate backup options.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tactic seems to be going well so far, as we pick up the Euro/SAM challenge and the UEFA Super Cup while getting off to a strong start in the Bundesliga. The loss to Hertha is annoying, but they broke our best CB's leg which contributed.

 

 

It's a tough draw, finishing off with a trip to my mortal enemy Leipzig.

[shaunvamos]

September 2030

 

 

Injuries are killing us, we haven't fielded our ideal first XI all season, and won't for at least another 3 months  

[shaunvamos]

October 2030

 

 

Our injury laden team managed to navigate a tough month quite well. I think every point counts here, as Bayern seem to have gotten off to a slow start.

[shaunvamos]

November 2030

 

 

We're winning the matches we need to, which is a nice change. But Bayern as well, and for some reason Mainz too, who are still undefeated 12-13 games in. I don't have high hopes for the Champions League either, we sit 24th and have Juventus, Barcelona and Leipzig to go. Not looking good.

[shaunvamos]

December 2030

 

 

We end the year on a strong note, heading into the 2nd half of the season in a good position. Mainz of all teams leads the league, with their loss to us being the only blemish on their record.

[shaunvamos]

January 2031

 

Transfers (Out)

The first two here were sold without my input, which was weird, I just got the notification that they were sold. Weird. No one joins us either.

 

 

 

 

We continue our run of form to rise to 2nd as a party of four teams aim to reign in Mainz pulling a Leicester. We also scrape into the Champions League playoffs, where Lech Poznan put in a huge effort to finish 14th. I want them in the playoff.

Edited December 29, 2023 by shaunvamos

[shaunvamos]

February 2031

 

 

Another unbeaten month, we've really hit out groove now. We've closed the gap to Mainz by 3 points, and the chasing pack has shrunk from 4 to 2.5, as Leipzig get 1 point in the Bundesliga this month (HA!) and Dortmund slip slightly as well.

 

 

We dominated Poznan on the stats side of things with only 2 goals to show for it, but we go through. We now face PSG, a team we've faced 3 times and gone 1-1-1. We're in the kind of form to beat them, but I want the Bundesliga as priority I think.

[shaunvamos]

March 2031

 

 

A tough month shatters our aura, and although we still have a shot at the league we need to rely on Bayern slipping up, which I don't think is possible. We have Mainz next month in Mainz too, so we'll need a result there to make things interesting.  

[shaunvamos]

April 2031

 

 

We missed our opportunity against Mainz, and with 3 games to go we can still get there. Oh, and we also made my first cup final, but that's secondary right now.

[shaunvamos]

 

 

 

We more than did our part in the league (just ignore the cup final like I did). But how did Mainz go?

 

 

 

Mainz had a ridiculously easy run home and didn't choke, becoming the first club not named Dortmund or Bayern to win the Bundesliga in 22 seasons. We finished above Bayern though which I'm happy with, but we still need to win the Bundesliga, Champions League and become the most reputable club in Germany before I can move on. With the team we have and some suitable additions I think we could push that next season.

 

Best XI

Torben Däuble  -  Miguel Martins  -  Ousmane Diomande

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress

 

[shaunvamos]

2031 Summer Transfer Window

 

We have a bit of an academy loan farm now  But these guys have potential and aren't first team ready right now. We also lose our backup CB and LW in Saca and Leymarie, both for small profits, but the big loss is Schulz. United hit his release clause, helping our bank account, but he's virtually irreplaceable. But we did try.

 

As expected, I couldn't find a replacement for Schulz, but Demir Xhemalija steps up internally for now. In fact, we only bought one player for the first team - Japanese BWM Hiroki Yoshikawa from the J-League. What I did focus on was bringing in German backups to help home grown quotas in the Champions League, and they're all pretty decent and will likely get plenty of game time. The one with huge for improvement is definitely Summer though, if he develops well 29.5 could be a steal. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A bit of a lopsided preseason  But off to a decent start in the league, we were unlucky against Dortmund but it's still early.

 

 

We get a nicely structured Champions League draw, getting all the difficult teams out the way before playing the "easier" ones. It actually looks like the fixtures decrease in difficulty as the tournament goes on!

[shaunvamos]

September 2031

 

 

An amazing month, as we punish Mainz for beating us to the league title, and we really get lucky with having two home games in the Champions League, but we took full advantage and are 2 for 2 to start off with.

[shaunvamos]

October 2031

 

 

 

Another loss to Dortmund, in the cup this time. But the important thing is we beat Bayern, who have had an awful start and are already 13 points behind. 

[shaunvamos]

November 2031

 

 

We have games in hand, but it's kinda scary how quickly Bayern bridged the gap. It very much looks like it'll be a 5 team race for the foreseeable future, it's just a matter of who holds their nerve. 

 

 

We've gotten through all our theoretically difficult games with 8 points, so if all goes well we should be in a strong position for the knockouts.

[bestbrother]

Great read, is there any reason behind the rise of Mainz? Love seeing the AI put together a team thats unfancied.