Matty Aqua

Not sure if this was picked up but Jordan Siebatchue for Union Berlin wears the number 45 not the number 9

Very annoying, thankfully I had a back up save from just before the transfer window, so I'll have to re-write some updates!

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I think it's worth updating the thread as you wish too!, maybe there isn't the discussion that once was around here on the forums (before my time), but a lot of people enjoy your writing and learn things from how you play. Think of yourself as the old veteran mentor with 20 Determination - and the rest of us like youth prospects who need to be improved!.

I really need to finish that book! 😅

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Not bad ideas there mate!

@SixPointerPatric Pfeiffer has been a good signing, I scouted him extensively. Ronnie Edwards is kinda new to my knowledge as I haven't done a Peterborough save since FM20!, his development will be key!. I honestly have no idea!, I think it may be a factor with Team Cohesion not being very strong. I will try and come up with a solution!

JANUARY 2023 We came out of the World Cup break firing on all cylinders, picking up five wins on the bounce and progressing through in DFB-Pokal and we're still in the Europa League, Jordan Siebatheu found incredible form scoring 6 goals in 3 games and picking up a hayrick against Hoffenheim. I also made some transfers looking to sure up the defence for the future. Unfortunately the squad is just to big and some players will have to be moved on this window or in the summer transfer window. TRANSFERS OUT TRANSFERS IN I feel pretty happy with the business we got done, Patric Pfeiffer was dominating the 2.bundesliga and Leandro Morgalla is an 18 year old Model Citizen from 1860 Munich and definitely one I will try to develop for the future, I did try and bid for Ronnie Edwards from Peterborough United but he joined Newcastle as they offered a larger transfer fee. We currently sit 7th in the league but I suspect Bayern, Dortmund and Leipzig will have strong finishes to the season. Jordan Siebatcheu has picked up 6 Man of the Match awards already!. That catches it up on the Project re-start, I'll hopefully be able to blog more consistently.

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Given the tactic, I'm very reliant on Becker and Siebatcheu, tho a few role adjustments in the next update will add some more threat from others! I'm fully invested!, I want this to be a long term save as there are objectives I want to achieve outside of Union Berlin, I would love to see other sides from Berlin start to rise up the ranks also!. Thank you kindly!.

Thanks, appreciate the support from everyone who has read the thread so far!

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@SixPointerthanks that's a very big compliment!, I spent a bit of time reading up on it and took a bit of time to write a piece like that!. Cheers @_Ben_ , now to try and incorporate some stats into the save to make it all come together! Appreciate you reading @FM EireI know what you mean, I've had my moments where I have felt a bit directionless with FM. I planned on this save for FM22 and never got around to it, so I had almost an extra 12 months of research into Berlin to make this all come together. @MattyLewis11 I hope so! Imagine a team from Eastern Berlin, given all the context of what the city has been through becoming a Champions League winner?...the power of fantasy in Football Manager hey? haha Seems readers have enjoyed some history incorporated into the writing, I'll punch out a few updates with the season kicking off now, but I'll try and add in some more fascinating and educational writing within the thread as I've enjoyed learning the history of the city too, and find writing about it cathartic!. Appreciate all the thumbs up and responses!

'THE HISTORY OF THE BERLINER DERBY' Perhaps the biggest match on our calendar is the Berliner Derby, which is when I will be making my official Bundesliga managerial debut, so it feels necessary to dive deeper into the origins of the Berliner Derby. I think it's important to give some context to the derby as there is just so much history within Berlin to go alongside the Football Manager aspect of this thread, so I hope you enjoy the history lesson and can learn a little more about football in Berlin, as in Berlin, politics is inextricably linked to football. The city of Berlin was the epicentre of not only one of the most venomous fascist uprisings in human history, but also the symbolic political division of West versus East, 'America versus the Soviet Union' or, 'capitalism versus communism'. The political history of Berlin has shaped the football culture of its people too. It’s evidenced in the vastly differing Hertha Berlin from the west, and Union Berlin from the east. During the Second World War, Hertha Berlin was the club endorsed by the Nazi party. The 74,000-seater Olympiastadion was built by Hitler’s chief architect Albert Speer in 1936, and the club’s president in the pre-war era was Hans Pfeifer who was a member of the Nazi party installed by Hitler to maintain ideology. Before the reunification of the East and West in 1989, Union and Hertha were effectively located in different countries, Hertha Berlin from West Germany and Union Berlin from East Germany, they were divided into East and West Germany by the Berlin Wall. The Berlin Wall ran through the heart of the city, splitting communities, families, friends and, of course, football clubs. The Berliner Derby doesn't just include Hertha Berlin, it also includes BFC Dynamo an East German football club who are currently playing in the fourth tier of German football. The rivalry between BFC Dynamo and Union Berlin began in the mid-1960s and intensified in the 1970s as players of Union Berlin would often insult BFC Dynamo players with slurs such as "Stasi-pigs", the Stasi was the Ministry of state security also known as the 'Stasi secret police'. The Stasi was a highly effective secret police organization within East Germany and it sought to infiltrate every institution of society and every aspect of the daily life of people in East Germany, including intimate, personal and familial relationships. The "Stasi" is short for the term Ministerium für Staatsicherheit and was one of the most hated and feared institutions of the East German communist government. Erich Mielke was the Head of State Security (The Stasi secret police) and also the president of BFC Dynamo. Between 1979 and 1988, the East German juggernauts BFC Dynamo won 10 straight league titles and twice reached the European Cup last eight, BFC Dynamo were the Bayern Munich of the East. During the 1970s, the best team in East Germany was Dynamo Dresden, who had won five Oberliga titles, so Erich Mielke forced their players to move to the capital and turned BFC Dynamo into an overnight success. Players weren’t transferred between teams in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) but delegated. You could leave your club at any time, but you’d need permission from the GDR to sign for a new one. BFC Dynamo always got the best players and if you were too good to play against them, you joined them, It was that simple. If a successful team hoovering up all the top talent from their rivals sounds familiar, it was small fry compared with BFC Dynamo's other alleged infringements. BFC Dynamo played all of their games at the same ground, it didn’t matter what the fixture list said – home or away, they played at Stadion der Weltjugend. Other teams would have to travel to Rostock, Magdeburg, and Dresden but everyone had to play at BFC’s ground of choice twice. And if they weren’t winning, the games were extended and referees were ordered to keep adding time on until BFC Dynamo scored. For a long time, Hertha Berlin and Union Berlin were not always fierce rivals, they were considered "friends behind barbed wire" as a lot of people on both sides longed for a united Germany while the Berlin Wall was standing and even used to show great support to one another on match days. Some Union fans even listened to Hertha’s matches on transistor radios and celebrated whenever a goal went in and there is still a fan friendship group called 'Hertha Union Fruende', as traditionally Union Berlin's rival is the other Eastern Berlin club BFC Dynamo. On 27 January 1990, just 79 days after the wall fell, Hertha played Union for the first time. It was only a friendly, at the Olympiastadion, but there was no hatred, no violence, no cross-town abuse. Instead, fans congregated communally, symbolically paying their entrance fees in different currencies, and singing songs of a reunified city. This was the start of a divided city uniting. Union Berlin and Hertha Berlin didn't actually play a competitive match against each other until the 2010/11 season after Hertha Berlin got relegated to the 2.Bundesliga, Union Berlin fans sang songs mocking the Hertha's relegation but they managed to get promoted that season. Sparking small signs of rivalry Hertha would again be relegated in the 2012/13 season which meant two more derby days!. If Berliners could point to a day when the friendship was destroyed forever, it might be September 3, 2012. That marked the third competitive clash between the teams. An early-season showdown at a full Försterei and the day Union Berlin midfielder Christopher Quiring decided to get personal. The winger notched Union Berlin's consolation goal in a 2-1 loss, and he then gave an explosive interview after the game. “They cheer in our stadium,” he spat at TV cameras post-defeat. “That makes me puke! I don’t give a s**t about my goal. When the Wessis cheer in our stadium, I get sick.” Christopher Quiring was born after the wall came down in a unified Berlin, so it was a change in the way the younger generation was starting to see the derby between the two clubs, no longer with the same global political view of we are fighting the same enemy but a politically football focused view of, you are from the West and we are from the East, and we are different!. He was also talking about ‘Wessis’ which is a semi-derogatory term for those who hail from West Germany and are deemed a step too far. As with everything in Berlin, the football culture is rapidly changing. Hertha and Union are the two big teams nowadays in the Bundesliga, but the clubs around them are consistently emerging. The number of teams founded by ethnic minorities is exceptional, there are Turkish clubs, Türkiyemspor Berlin and AK Berliner 07, a Jewish club, TuS Makkabi Berlin, a Polish club, FC Polonia Berlin, and a Croatian club, SD Croatia Berlin. Although some of these were founded nearly a hundred years ago, they add to the new face of Berlin, defined by the cohesive diverse ethnicities of a once-broken city. The football culture in Berlin is like no other city in the world, seemingly divided and united at the same time, where there are things more important than red versus blue it’s not everywhere that the games of a cross-city rivalry can be counted on one hand, but this is the uniqueness of Berlin. No city has been torn apart more than Berlin in the 20th century.

@Vico Vito Pep Thanks!, the tactic is mostly focused on defensive shape, there's not a need for a lot of instructions - I recently actually made a change to the tactic and wanted to see more attacking threat from the midfielders, so I changed the CM to CM-Att for more attacking threat!, so maybe you were onto a good thing all along!. @SixPointerthanks for reading as always!, I have a write up coming up next on the Derby!. @Jogo Bonito maybe a bit long, but I wanted readers to understand the club for what it is!, and once you understand Union Berlin you cannot help but be passionate and give the ultimate attention to detail! - thanks for reading and bring on the Derby!.

Some nice humour added in!, Interesting to see how this goes as the MLS is a tricky league

Preparing Union Berlin for the Season! So you've received the job, shaking hands with the chairman, posed for your announcement photos, and done your media duties, now you're in the driver's seat and ready to guide the club to success! but where do you start? Football Manager sometimes isn't the clearest for instructions - how to actually play Football Manager!, this isn't a 'what you should' and 'shouldn't do' blog, but more, how I will handle my first day on the job at Union Berlin, after all, you can leave majority of this stuff to your backroom staff and spam that space bar if you choose to do so, but running a well run club requires attention from top to bottom and as the saying goes - "failure to prepare, is preparing to fail". COACHES Luckily, I have a small but decent backroom staff to get me started, it feels like a necessary place to introduce some key backroom staff members who will be helping me for the upcoming season. Long-serving staff member Sebastian Bönig is my assistant manager and will be my right-hand man throughout the season. The backroom team is an area I will look to expand when the finances are in better shape, I know some FM players brutally wield the axe and immediately terminate members of the backroom team, but I do not! The first thing I want to do is gain the support of the playing group and supporters and firing staff can lead to upset and disgruntled players before I have even played the first match! Also, amortization! there's a financial aspect most people don't consider, and that's amortization, mutual termination fees are very costly, and replacing them with new staff on potentially higher wages, means you're paying both old and new staff members to do the same job, so amortization is something to consider especially if you're managing a club with debt!. I personally let contracts expire if the staff member isn't someone I deem useful for the long-term plans, as most likely there will be a changing of squad players after the first few seasons anyway, so why pay more to train players who might not be here in the future? just food for thought. I want to focus on helping veteran players transition into life after football by becoming part of the club as a backroom staff. There's nothing more satisfying than having a player join the backroom team and then go on to forge his own managerial career in your universe. Just as players have current ability and potential ability so do your coaching staff and often you will receive an inbox message notifying you that a member of staff is studying for a coaching course, this will increase their attributes as a staff member. Occasionally a player will make a start on gaining his coaching badges while he is still active as a player. Christopher Trimmel is the perfect candidate for a future staff role, and you can even have the conversation gauging a player's interest in a role for the future. I don't have any evidence as to what makes a coach's attributes improve over time, perhaps a combination of coaching courses and potentially allowing the coach to manage academy matches is all the knowledge have, but I figure it's a great place to document the Union Berlin backroom staff development as the save progresses as we can now see the attributes development of coaches.

@SixPointer @Chris_ANZFM @vara thanks!, such a great club with incredible history it's almost impossible to not appreciate Union Berlin! next update should be added on the weekend!. thanks all for reading so far!

Love the fact Joe Royal is on board!

Just standard FM isn't it!...

Thanks, I did read it you did about 14 seasons with Viktoria Berlin, will be trying to take care of clubs in Berlin in this save - I just scheduled an away friendly against them to help their finances Thank you kindly, more to come! - Incredible club on and off the field!

Some incredible names in this save - Sydney van Hooijdonk and Jizz Hornkamp! Petar Cirkovic has some good stats he must be playing way above his 'attributes' if the game only recognises him as a 2nd division player. How long did you scout him?, and are your scouts decent quality?

Good finish @MattyLewis11 you must have done some homework and have some players lined up for the transfer window? So no take over in the end?