A Non-Swede Traverses the Continent (or How Not to Title a Career Thread)

[Mongrel]

Stuttgart appoint former Feyenoord coach Caspar Ek on four-year deal

1 June 2017

VfB Stuttgart have appointed former Feyenoord boss Caspar Ek as their new manager following former manager Zvonimir Soldo's departure to Chelsea.

Der VfB did not wait long following Soldo's long-anticipated departure to the Premier League, snatching up the 43-year old Swede who early last month ended a four-year long stint at De Kuip.

"Having the chance to manage in such a prestigious league is something I've always wanted," Ek said. "I'm very thankful to Stuttgart for giving me this chance."

Stuttgart enjoyed success under Soldo with a Champions League berth in 2015-16 and then a sixth placed finish last season, but Ek expressed his desire to take Stuttgart to its first Bundesliga title in ten years.

"This is a very proud club with a very proud history, and I hope to replicate that," Ek said.

Ek's departure from Feyenoord came as a surprise to many, with the Swede's resignation coming the day after his side's 1-4 loss to Roda JC on the final day of the season. Nevertheless, he remains no stranger to ending title droughts after leading Feyenoord to its first Eredivisie title in 17 years in 2015-16.

Despite a disappointing season that saw Feyenoord finish third and miss out on Champions League football, Ek's side made it to the quarter finals of the tournament last season before being thrashed being thrashed 8-1 on aggregate by Bayern Munich.

Stuttgart starts its season in August with an away Europa League qualifying fixture against Austrian Bundesliga team SV Ried.

---

Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V.

Nicknames: Die Roten; Die Schwaben

Ground: Mercedes-Benz-Arena, Stuttgart (capacity 60,100)

Corporate Facilities: Top notch

Training Facilities: Sensational

Youth Facilities: State of the Art

Estimated Value: €66,000,000

League: 2016-17 Fußball-Bundesliga

Media Prediction: 7th

---

This is a bit rare in one of these things in that I've already played a few years of a career. Hopefully you guys can manage.

[Mongrel]

Casper Ek to date

[TABLE]

[TR]

[TD]Season

[/TD]

[TD]Team[/TD]

[TD]League[/TD]

[TD]Pos[/TD]

[TD]Notes[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2011-12[/TD]

[TD]PEC Zwolle[/TD]

[TD]Eerste Divisie[/TD]

[TD]15th[/TD]

[TD]Appointed 2 February 2012.[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2012-13[/TD]

[TD]PEC Zwolle[/TD]

[TD]Eerste Divisie[/TD]

[TD]2nd[/TD]

[TD]Promoted. KNVB Cup winners. Qualified for Europa League.[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2013-14[/TD]

[TD]PEC Zwolle[/TD]

[TD]Eredivisie[/TD]

[TD]11th*[/TD]

[TD]Resigned 16 December 2013.[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2013-14[/TD]

[TD]Feyenoord[/TD]

[TD]Eredivisie[/TD]

[TD]10th[/TD]

[TD]Appointed 16 December 2013.[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2014-15[/TD]

[TD]Feyenoord[/TD]

[TD]Eredivisie[/TD]

[TD]3rd[/TD]

[TD]KNVB Cup winners. Qualified for Europa League.[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2015-16[/TD]

[TD]Feyenoord[/TD]

[TD]Eredivisie[/TD]

[TD]1st[/TD]

[TD]Champions. KNVB Cup winners.[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2016-17[/TD]

[TD]Feyenoord[/TD]

[TD]Eredivisie[/TD]

[TD]3rd[/TD]

[TD]Qualified for Europa League.[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2017-18[/TD]

[TD]Stuttgart[/TD]

[TD]1. Bundesliga[/TD]

[TD]6th[/TD]

[TD]Qualified for Europa League.

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2018-19

[/TD]

[TD]Stuttgart

[/TD]

[TD]1. Bundesliga

[/TD]

[TD]2nd

[/TD]

[TD]DFB-Pokal winners.

[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

Honours

PEC Zwolle

• KNVB Cup
  
  • Winner (1): 2013
    

  [*]Eerste Divisie

  • Runner-up (1): 2012-13
    

Feyenoord

• Eredivisie
  
  • Winner (1): 2015-16
    

  [*]KNVB Cup

  • Winner (2): 2015, 2016
    

VfB Stuttgart

• DFB-Pokal
  
  • Winner (1): 2019
    

[Mongrel]

2017-18 Season Preview

BOARD EXPECTATIONS:

Bundesliga: Qualify for the Europa League

Europa League: Reach the First Knockout Round

DFB-Pokal: Semi-Final

PRE-SEASON RESULTS:

An indifferent start to me career at Der VfB, really, as we went 3-2-2 with defeats to Anderlecht and AC Milan. There was a nice spread of goal scorers, but we conceded a few too many. Aside from the non-competitive fixtures, we had a first round DFB-Pokal fixture and a 3rd Qualifying Round against SV Ried to play. We were impressive with a 6-0 aggregate win over SV Ried, with Gómez scoring a brace in the first fixture and midfielder Christian Gentner a hat trick in the return leg. A half-strength side hammered Fortuna Chemnitz (who I think are fifth league) 10-0, with my new signing Stojcic scoring a hat trick and managing to break his arm while diving for a header to put his third goal away. Awesome.

FINANCES:

This is part of the reason why I turned down a job offer from Kaiserslauten, and accepted this offer. Finances look good, although my board are a bit stingy. Still, we started the season with around €28M in the bank and looking comfortable. A generous €7.88M budget was enough to be going on with. The wage budget is also like €200K a week which is far more than I had access to at De Kuip.

TRANSFERS:

My transfer strategy isn't great, to be honest, as I tend to top up with older players and look to stock up on good youths leaving me little in between. I fear I might have left Feyenoord in a bit of a hole, as although we had a great run to try to snatch Champions League football last season we were heavily reliant on the likes of Dirk Kuyt, Demy de Zeeuw, Arjen Robben and Ron Vlaar. Still, the opportunity to pick up Mario Gómez and Champions League winner Steve Mandanda on frees was too good an opportunity to give up, while I also brought along Neil Kilkenny from Feyenoord who was a steady hand for me at De Kuip. There's a bit of romance with Gómez who returns to Stuttgart for the first time since joining Bayern Munich in 2009-10. He scored 63 from 121 appearances for us last time, and went on to score 86 in 156 for Bayern.

Soldo left me with a pretty old squad, so I cleared out a lot more players than I would have expected to do. Thankfully I recouped a big whack of money on players I don't think were worth it (see, eg, Sburlea), and invested in the squad heavily. Engelmann and Stojcic were players who I chased at Feyenoord and could not capture. I probably paid a bit more for Stojcic than I could have, but my scouts here and, if I remember correctly, at De Kuip gave him huge wraps and I'm pretty confident in him. Dennis Praet has been very good at Anderlecht, and hopefully strengthens a pretty weak midfield.

TRANSFERS IN:

Stefan Stojcic - Borussia Dortmund, €6M

Dennis Praet - Anderlecht, €3M

Jan Engelmann - SV Mattersburg, €1.4M

Lorenzo Tassi - Internazionale, €400K

Fedorico Domenichioni - Hajduk, €200K

Mario Gómez - Bayern Munich, Free

Steve Mandanda - Marseille, Free

Neil Kilkenny - Feyenoord, Free

Serhiy Tovt - Dynamo Kyiv, Free

LOANS IN:

Saïf Abbas - A.C. Milan

TRANSFERS OUT:

Tomas Pekhart - Borussia Mönchengladbach, €2M (35 apps, 13 goals)

Sabrin Sburlea - FC Köln, €1.5M (1 app)

Jan Moravek - Eintracht Frankfurt, €1.4M (9 apps)

Stefano Celozzi - FC Kaiserslautern, €1M (99 apps)

Kevin Stöger - Lausanne, Free

RELEASED:

Georg Niedermeier (58 apps, 6 goals)

Milos Degenek

Raphael Holzhauser (33 apps)

Rani Khedira (3 apps)

Sven Mende

Jim Larsen (5 apps)

LOANS OUT: Yoni Buyens (Duisburg, €110K), Timuçin Simsek (Reutlingen), Serhiy Tovy (St. Gallen), Odisseas Vlachodimos (LASK Linz).

THE SQUAD:

KEY PLAYERS:

Julian Schieber: The new captain had a quiet year last year with 10 goals from 25 starts, but the year before was instrumental getting Stuttgart into the Champions League with 24 goals from 31. He's a very fine player and hopefully has a storming year.

Niko Kranjcar: 33 years old, but still a pretty good player. Hasn't been great since joining from PSG for €6.25M in 2013-14, but he's going to need to play very well for us to have some success this season.

SEASON'S PREDICTIONS:

I'm a little bit worried. In hindsight I've not gone about my transfers well and the team is a bit heavy at the front. I've really got like five or six strikers who are all about good enough at this level, but got greedy. The Gómez-Schieber combination is probably one of the best in the league, but outside of Kranjcar there's nothing on the left and I'll probably need to snaffle another loan signing before the window closes. We have a world class keeper, though, and some good players so hopefully Europa League is within reach again.

[Mongrel]

Because there's already been a few years of game time, every so often I'll do something like this on the big matches we've missed.

2013 KNVB Cup Final

2012-13 was my first full season in charge of PEC Zwolle having joined about half way through 2011-12. It was a completely unexpected run because, despite a good season in the league, we faced some incredibly tough opponents.

En route to the final, we started with a 2-1 victory over fellow Eerste Divisie team Sparta thanks to a brace to Armenian striker Norair Mamedov. Things really should have ended in the third round away at FC Twente, but amazingly we held them off for 120 minutes and won the match on penalties. On the cusp of the quarters, we accounted for another Eredivisie team at home as goals to Bram van Polen and struggling striker Chris Makiese, and an own goal from Lee Young-Pyo earned us a shock 3-0 win. That set up a home fixture against the then Eerste Divisie leaders NEC which we won 2-0.

In our first televised match of the tournament, we stunned a strong PSV side at PEC Zwolle Stadion thanks to an 82nd minute winner by veteran striker Jeroen Ketting.

The Final

Playing at De Kuip, we faced a mammoth task against Eredivisie side Vitesse who had accounted for Feyenoord in the semi finals. Nevertheless, inside the first minute, Mamedov got on the end of a van Polen cross to put us ahead 1-0. In the twelfth minute, despite Vitesse making all the play, Mamedov doubled our lead before veteran defender Ruud Knol made it three in the 44th minute. The game looked cooked then, before Wilfried Bony, now a striker at Arsenal, gave Vitesse a glimmer of hope but they couldn't score again giving us European football - amazingly.

It was certainly a bizarre match considering we scored three from just five shots on goal. The season turned out well as we were promoted to the Eredivisie, although Zwolle have since been relegated back to the Jupiler League. Mamedov scored a brace that game and was utterly immense that season as he led Zwolle to promotion with 25 league goals and 4 cup goals. Unfortunately that is form he has never looked like replicating - he's still at Zwolle but has only managed seven league goals in 78 appearances since.

It sums up how far above their ability Zwolle played in that run as none of the players have gone on to any greater heights. Three players from that squad now play first division football - but all were substitutes. Peter Leeuwenburgh is first choice keeper at Hertha BSC, Kevin Görtz plays in the Eredivisie with FC Den Bosch and Steven Berghuis plays with SPL side Kilmarnock.

[SRL88]

Love the Wiki layout .

[ManUTactician247]

Love the Wiki layout .

Yeah me too, how do you do that, do you just make a new Wiki page and then delete it?

[Mongrel]

Yeah me too, how do you do that, do you just make a new Wiki page and then delete it?

Thanks lads.

I use Wiki, but if you start an account you get your own "Sandbox". I just copy the templates there.

As an aside, Feyenoord have brutalised my replacement by sacking him a week-and-a-half before Christmas.

[Mongrel]

December 2017 Update

THE LEAGUE

Very indifferent first half of the season, but we sit OK in 6th just inside European qualification. Clearly we aren't having any troubles scoring, but poor old Mandanda has been given no hope in goals with a bunch of poor defensive performances. The hat trick of defeats to Wolfsburg, Leverkusen and BVB was easily the worst stretch of our season as we just produced some horrific performances and deserved to go down by more. The 3-0 win over Bayern Munich was easily our best performance of the year - they made the semis of the Champions League last season and their team includes Neuer, Lahm, Müller, Schweinsteiger, Aboubakar, Tevez and van Wolfswinkel. Ridiculous.

In fairness, we are beating the teams we should beat. But against those above us, we're getting cut up.

EUROPA LEAGUE

In contrast to our Bundesliga performances, we've had a great run in the Europa League. There were no troubles in our qualification matches, and we dropped just one match in the group stages en route to a top-placed finish. Gets tougher next with a showdown with PSV in the first knockout round, before possibly facing the winner of Besiktas or Luzern.

DFB-POKAL

Zero troubles in the first two rounds as we put a hurting on some lower ranked teams, but we have Frankfurt next and then Bayern in the quarters.

SUMMARY

It has been a bit of an indifferent season so far. We're clearly happy to be in with a chance of a top four finish, and are scoring goals consistently. The defence has been poor and there aren't enough options for me on the flanks. After those three heavy defeats to Wolfsburg, Leverkusen and Dortmund my job status was 'Insecure', but it is back to 'Stable' now after a couple of much-needed wins.

[Mongrel]

January 2018

A January break for the most part, with some pretty uninspiring football for the most part. We started the new year with a disastrous DFB-Pokal exit to Frankfurt. It wasn't my strongest side, but again we conceded goals for fun. A few friendlies to keep us fresh, but I was largely unimpressed with the squad during those matches, too. We finished off the month hosting Frankfurt again, and deserved to win by more as we dominated the match. In actual fact, we were lucky to take the points considering they had a penalty turned down and also had one disallowed (correctly).

I also made a couple of signings.

TRANSFERS IN

Jonathan Ruppen (Loan, Boca): Decent cover for Kranjcar and Francisco on the left. I got him on loan at the end of the first transfer window, but he's not featured heavily.

Jake McCarthy (Free, Portland): Promising young American whose contract had expired in the US.

Dmitry Shevchik (€45K, RGUOR Minsk): Strength a worry, among other things.

[Mongrel]

February 2018

Such a frustrating month! We bounced back from our disappointing exit in the DFB-Pokal with an away victory over Bayern Munich - our best win of the year. We went ahead twice only to see Bayern draw level in the 86th minute, before Sílvio put it into his own net to hand us a massive win in injury time. But we are so damn inconsistent, and we let it slip at home against Fürth in a game we should have won - we had 16 shots on goal to 4.

The trip to Hannover was an interesting one, as Mario Gómez got sent off with an ugly challenge (he copped three matches for it) and then they went ahead in the 59th minute. Right winger Ivan Tomecak scored a brace inside ten minutes to give us the win. And then we hit PSV. Less said about that the better. Didn't get any better as we dropped another home fixture we should have won - this time to Kaiserslautern. The only saving grace was Neil Kilkenny's first goal for the club.

Despite going 2-2 in the league, we move up to fifth place thanks to a poor month from Schalke. It's tight at the top with Leverkusen looking like a tough team, but Dortmund's attacking ability is fearsome. I'll have a chat about him later (he's a former Feyenoord lad), but their striker has rammed home a ridiculous 32 goals from 21 appearances in the league this season for BVB.

[Mongrel]

March 2018

The wheels are starting to come off now. We started the month at home to PSV, with next to no chance of overcoming the 0-6 deficit we notched up at Philips Stadion. Still, we played pretty well to pick up a 2-1 win thanks to goals to Praet and Tomecak. We followed that with a very frustrating defeat away at Köln where we produced a particularly disappointing performance, and Schieber missed a penalty in the 68th minute.

Our struggle for consistency continued as Tomecak continued his scoring run along with a rare Martin Harnik goal in a 2-1 win at home to Schalke. We followed that up with a 1-2 defeat to stragglers Freiburg in easily our most disappointing loss of the season. Schieber and Tasci then produced last ten minute goals for a 2-1 win over HSV, before we finished an awful month with a 0-1 loss away to the struggling Werder Bremen.

Somehow, despite going 2-3 for the month, we remain in European territory due to a pretty poor month from those around us. BVB and Bayern have fallen behind to trail Leverkusen and Wolfsburg in the race for the title, while Freiburg jump over the Berlin side Hertha BSC but still remain eight points adrift. April is a massive month for us: we play Hoffenheim, Gladbach, Wolfsburg, Leverkusen and Dortmund. Those last three games are killer.

In other news, our youth academy came through with two pretty good looking youngsters in Faruk Karic and Predrag Bosnjak.

[Lenzar]

Love the Wikipedia format of these.

Who took Germany's 4-berth CL slot?

[Mongrel]

Love the Wikipedia format of these.

Who took Germany's 4-berth CL slot?

Italy. They are a fair bit ahead in third, and we're fighting for fourth with France who next year move within a point of the Bundesliga - helped mainly by Marseille winning in 2016 after finishing second in 2015. England and Spain are uncatchable in 1st and 2nd, though.

[Mongrel]

April 2018

Well, in a month where we had to face the top three, there was only really one properly shocking result. We started away at Hoffenhein, where captain Julian Schieber cemented his spot as the second best striker in the league with a great hat trick to begin the month well. Yet again, though, we dropped valuable points - this time at home to Borussia Mönchengladbach - in a match we controlled. That started the horror two weeks that pitted us against all three title contenders. We started by putting a nail in Wolfsburg's coffin away in a tremendously lucky win. They had 21 shots on goal to 10, but Fernando Francisco's strike just after the half gave us all three points.

We needed them, too, as Bayer Leverkusen nabbed an away victory and it should have been more than 1-0. That set up arguably are most inept performance of the year as we went down 0-3 to Borussia Dortmund before Raúl Lolli saw red in the 29th minute. Francisco gave us a shot with his goal before the half, but we still conceded two more again a ten-man BVB outfit who embarrassed us.

Not looking good at all for European football. Köln only need a victory to prevent us from making fifth, so its a shootout between us and Schalke, really, for that final European place. Our run home should see us win both of our matches - at home to Hertha BSC and then away to Augsburg. Unfortunately Köln have Hannover and Kaiserslautern, and Schalke have Fürth and Hannover, so we really need to rely on Schalke dropping points somehow.

At the top of the table, Dortmund won all five matches in April and surge two points ahead of Bayer Leverkusen. They face Gladbach and then Wolfsburg who seem to have thrown away their chances in a poor April. Defending champions Bayern Munich had a horror April - not only did they exit in the quarter finals of the Champions League to Manchester United (despite winning the first leg 3-1), they were hammered by Hannover of all teams 7-0. This is a team that includes Schweinsteiger, Lahm, Tevez, Neuer, Müller and Walcott...

At the bottom of the table, Hertha BSC go straight back down to 2. Bundesliga along with Fürth. Werder Bremen could play second division football for the first time in about 40 years, and their next fixture at home to Augsburg could have a huge part to play in that.

[Mongrel]

May 2018

Last two matches of the season!

Stuttgart 7-0 Hertha BSC (Bundesliga)

Needing a victory, and boy did we deliver. Julian Schieber scored in the first minute, and from there we pummeled the sorry Berliners who are already relegated. Schieber had his hat trick within 38 minutes, and added a fourth in the second half. Also on the scoresheet: Kranjcar, Francisco and, finally, Stojcic.

Unfortunately, Köln beat Hannover 1-0 to rule out fifth and Schalke came from a goal down to beat Fürth.

Augsburg 1-4 Stuttgart (Bundesliga)

Saïf Abbas was a great young signing for us on loan from AC Milan, but went and broke his leg in December and made his first appearance for us in this match - and his last for the loan period. He scored three. He's valued at €3.6M and I'd very much like to make the signing permanent or, at least, get another season out of him because he's amazing.

Elsewhere, Schalke lost to Hannover 0-3 to give us sixth!

Yep! Just snuck home (although nearly missed out thanks to the DFB-Pokal) and its enough to give me some security at the end of my first season in charge of Der VfB. Very much an up-and-down and hilariously inconsistent ride.

Dortmund... wow. They blew it. Lolli, who got sent off in my match against BVB, was suspended for their final two matches and it cruelly might have cost them the title. They lost to both Borussia Mönchengladbach and Wolfsburg, while Bayer Leverkusen won their second Bundesliga title by beating Wolfsburg and then Hoffenheim.

Augsburg stayed up by beating RB Leipzig 2-0 on aggregate. Therefore Bundesliga 2018-19 will be joined by Mainz and Aachen.

EDIT: After all that, we were allocated an extra Europa League place in the Fair Play draw so Schalke make it anyway!

[Mongrel]

Bayern Munich 3-1 VfL Osnabrück

A half-strength Bayern Munich outfit spoiled the dream run of second division side Osnabrück to win the DFB Cup for a seventeenth time.

The Bayern Munich team, without a swathe of internationals including Manuel Neuer, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Carlos Tevez, Holger Badstuber, Thomas Muller and Theo Walcott, were outplayed for most of the match by the 2. Bundesliga side, but walked out 3-1 winners.

Osnabrück, who were one of two teams to be relegated from Germany's second division, had enjoyed an amazing run that saw them oust Bundesliga sides Dortmund, Freiburg and Wolfsburg.

While Dutch 20-year old Jordi Mulder put Bayern ahead in the 22nd minute, the Lower Saxon side hit back through former Polish international Pawel Wojciechowski ten minutes later.

But 19-year old local Klaus Esser scored his first ever first team goal for Bayern in the 41st minute, and Portuguese international Sílvio capped off a man of the match performance to secure victory in the 67th minute.

The win is Bayern's first victory in Germany's FA Cup equivalent since 2013. Osnabrück's failure to win means Germany's final Europa League spot goes to VfB Stuttgart.

---

Tottenham 3-1 Barcelona

A sensational performance from winger Gareth Bale helped Tottenham Hotspur stun Barcelona to win their first Champions League in Istanbul.

After Lucas Moura gave the Spanish side a brief glimmer of hope with an 81st minute strike, the Welshman secured the title for Spurs in injury time as he got on the end of a cross from Phil Jagielka.

Spurs, who finished second in this year's Premier League, got off to a perfect start as midfielder Sandro scored just his third goal of the season.

Deep into the second half, former Manchester United striker Danny Welbeck doubled Spurs' lead with his third Champions League goal of the season to make it 2-0.

Despite 25-year old Moura's first Champions League goal, Barcelona's chances of sending the match to injury time were dealt a blow in the 89th minute as Pantera was sent off for a second bookable offence.

[Mongrel]

World Cup 2018

Clearly Group A is the "group of death" and it'll be tremendously hard for the hosts to get out of it. Germany have it tough to finish first with Denmark in their pool, but Morocco and Australia are two of the lesser teams going around. European Champions France have been given a great start in a group including the struggling Holland who just lost a Friendly to Bosnia & Herzegovina.

[Mongrel]

Unfortunately most of the stats have been wiped with the start of the next season, so I didn't get screenies of these.

Stuttgart 2017-18 Review

Bundesliga - 6th

A frustrating season overall where I only just met the expectations of the board. On a bright note, I managed to clear out a big chunk of my team with younger players and not lose any ground on last season where we also finished sixth. We certainly showed at times that we have the ability to match it with the best in the league, we just lacked consistency and conceded far too many goals for my liking.

Europa League - 1st Knockout Round

I certainly didn't meet the board's expectations here with a thrashing against PSV, but it was really the only poor match we played. The highlight was definitely the 6-1 win over Rangers at Mercedes Arena, while obviously the 0-6 result against PSV was a disaster.

DFB Pokal - Third Round

We started off well by handing out a couple of thrashings, but it was a very disappointing end at home to Frankfurt where I didn't play my best team and was punished for it.

Key Players:

Julian Schieber - The best season of Schieber's career and he was rewarded with a World Cup spot for Germany. The team's captain scored 25 league goals and four on the continent to lead the strike force brilliantly. One criticism is his ability to go missing, as a huge chunk of these goals came when he just went ballistic and scored three or four.

Saïf Abbas - Such a massive shame he was injured when he was, and I'd love to have him stay on next year (but I don't have the budget to make it permanent). Still, he made fourteen league appearances for his six goals, and knocked in another five in the Europa League. Tomecak was good as a replacement, but we weren't the same without the Tunisian.

Niko Kranjcar - Also affected by injury, but a great force on the left when he played. He's getting on and may soon be replaced by the Swiss winger Francisco, but he scored five league goals and was really consistent throughout the year.

Best XI - 2017-18

[Mongrel]

Former Clubs

PEC Zwolle

Frustration again for Zwolle, but they were even further away from promotion as they lost to AGOVV Apeldoorn in the second round of the play-offs.

[TABLE=class: grid]

[TR]

[TD]Season

[/TD]

[TD]League

[/TD]

[TD]Position

[/TD]

[TD]Notes

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2011-12*

[/TD]

[TD]Eerste Divisie

[/TD]

[TD]15th

[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2012-13*

[/TD]

[TD]Eerste Divisie

[/TD]

[TD]2nd

[/TD]

[TD]Promoted. KNVB Cup Winners. Qualified for Europa League.

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2013-14*

[/TD]

[TD]Eredivisie

[/TD]

[TD]15th

[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2014-15

[/TD]

[TD]Eredivisie

[/TD]

[TD]16th

[/TD]

[TD]Relegated.

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2015-16

[/TD]

[TD]Eerste Divisie

[/TD]

[TD]4th

[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2016-17

[/TD]

[TD]Eerste Divisie

[/TD]

[TD]2nd

[/TD]

[TD]Lost in Playoffs - 3rd Round.

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2017-18

[/TD]

[TD]Eerste Divisie

[/TD]

[TD]2nd

[/TD]

[TD]Lost in Playoffs - 2nd Round.

[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

Feyenoord

Great comeback after sacking their manager during the season. They finished five points behind Ajax, with Federico Santander, one of my signings, leading the way with 13 league goals and 8 in the Europa League. Rick ten Voorde, a new signing from NEC, did very well in his first season with 11 goals.

[TABLE=class: grid]

[TR=class: px"wysiwyg_cms_table_grid]

[TD]Season

[/TD]

[TD]League

[/TD]

[TD]Position

[/TD]

[TD]Notes

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2013-14*

[/TD]

[TD]Eredivisie

[/TD]

[TD]10th

[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2014-15*

[/TD]

[TD]Eredivisie

[/TD]

[TD]3rd

[/TD]

[TD]KNVB Cup Winners. Qualified for the Europa League.

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2015-16*

[/TD]

[TD]Eredivisie

[/TD]

[TD]1st

[/TD]

[TD]Champions. KNVB Cup Winners. Qualified for the Champions League.

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2016-17*

[/TD]

[TD]Eredivisie

[/TD]

[TD]3rd

[/TD]

[TD]Champions League Quarterfinals.

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2017-18

[/TD]

[TD]Eredivisie

[/TD]

[TD]2nd

[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

[Mongrel]

World Cup 2018

A largely surprise-free group stage here, with most of the underdogs bowing out before the knockout stage. By far the biggest upset was Zimbabwe's victory over the Netherlands, but Oranje did just enough to qualify with four points ahead of the African side and Honduras. England had a great time of it in the Group of Death as they qualified first ahead of defending champions Brazil and hosts Russia. Russia looked great to start with a 4-0 thrashing of Egypt, but lost against the two bigger nations en route to a Group Stage exit. In all of the groups except Group B the higher ranked sides made it through in a disappointingly predictable group stage, but no doubt that'll make for a higher quality set of knockout fixtures.

Some great fixtures will kick off with England taking on Portugal in a round of 16 clash, but the pick of the action is at Samara with top ten sides Italy and Denmark squaring off. Defending champions Brazil finished second in their group, but face the United States who qualified top of Group B ahead of the Portuguese.

[Mongrel]

World Cup 2018

England 1-0 Portugal

Portugal could have done with Manchester City winger Cristiano Ronaldo who retired from international football following Euro 2016 - a bizarre choice from one of the best players in the world. Portugal were frustrated as they wasted their 21 shots on goal before Spurs striker Danny Welbeck got on the end of a Sturridge cross to secure the win in extra time.

Brazil 2-0 United States

No dice for the 2014 quarter-finalists who failed to get past the defending champions. After an average tournament so far, Brazil went ahead early through Neymar and went on to dominate the Americans who managed just one shot on target. In the 78th minute, Milan defender Thiago Silva scored his fourth international goal to secure the win.

Turkey 4-0 France

Holy moly - talk about the upset of the tournament. The world's top ranked team went unbeaten in Group D, but were hammered by the Turks 4-0. Trabzonspor striker Burak Yilmaz scored two in his two group stage appearances, and at 32 made a name for himself with a stunning hat trick.

Netherlands 0-1 Uruguay

Another disappointing World Cup display for the Dutch as Mathias Guzman secured the victory for the Uruguay team 1-0 in a match they dominated. The win sets up a replay of the 2014 final against Brazil.

Poland 0-1 Argentina

Argentina were the better side for most of the match in Yubileiny but failed to score in regular time. Record-breaking Borussia Dortmund striker Raul Lolli played the whole match, and proved the difference with his seventh international goal coming in the 114th minute.

Spain 3-1 Mexico

Veteran Chelsea striker Fernando Torres made his first appearance of the World Cup after missing out on all of Spain's group games. He made sure that Spain were the team to watch as he scored a brace in the first fifteen minutes. Mexico had 17 shots on goal to 11, but were only rewarded with a 22nd minute strike from Bayern Munich striker Santiago Perez. There was no chance of victory as Madrid midfielder Xabi Prieto scored in the 36th minute.

Denmark 0-2 Italy

Italy remained undefeated in the World Cup with a less-than-impressive 2-0 win over Denmark. The Italians scored twice in the first half thanks to Roberto Pereyra and Mario Balotelli, but had just 42% of the possession and five less shots on goal than their Scandinavian opponents. Chelsea midfielder Nicolai Jørgensen had seven shots on goal - none of which were on target.

Cameroon 1-3 Germany

A confident performance from the Germans who scored twice in the first half thanks to Stuttgart striker Julian Schieber and André Schürrle. Bayern Munich forward Vincent Aboubakar made the most of one of the rare Cameroon chances in the 70th minute, before Mario Götze scored the winner in the 82nd minute. Schieber's second World Cup goal may be his last as he suffered a damaged elbow in the win. He joins Bastian Schweinsteiger on the sidelines in a huge blow to Germany's chances.

Just one true shock with the world number one side France being pummeled by an impressive Turkey. Maybe a let-off for England, but if they can do that again it is going to be a tough ask for the English side to make the semis. By far the most anticipated contest is the Brazil-Uruguay showdown - they last met in WC football in the final of the 2014 tournament.

[Mongrel]

World Cup 2018

Brazil 2-1 Uruguay

Heartbreak again for Uruguay, as they were given their marching orders by Brazil for the second consecutive World Cup. This time, though, Brazil dominated the match with 61 per cent possession and 19 shots on goal to 2. It took the world champions 42 minutes to score as Flamengo left back Álvaro Pereira put the ball into his own net. Leandro Damiao doubled the lead in the 54th minute, before Thiago Silva gave Uruguay a slight sniff as he also scored an own goal.

England 2-0 Turkey

Spurs frontman Danny Welbeck scored a brace to lead England to a 2-0 win over Turkey. The Turks didn't produce the firepower they managed in their win over France as Welbeck moved to five goals for the tournament with an impressive performance.

Argentina 1-0 Germany

In a tight contest, superstar Lionel Messi's 49th minute strike proved the difference between Argentina and Germany in Moscow. Having exited at the quarterfinal stage last World Cup, Argentina avoided a repeat to set up a showdown with the old enemy England. Manuel Neuer was man of the match in goals despite conceding the winner.

Spain 0-0 Italy (Spain win 4-2 on penalties)

Italian goalkeeper Emiliano Viviano was best afield despite his side's loss to a wasteful Spain. The Spanish had 26 shots on goal but just 7 on target as they failed to find the net in 120 minutes. Iker Munain was particularly wasteful with his failure to score from ten attempts.

In the first semi-final, England and Argentina meet for the first time in nearly thirteen years. Both teams will be without key players - Tom Huddlestone and Javier Mascherano out with suspension. In other semi, Brazil face Spain. Milan's Pato faces a race against time to recover from a bruised rib, while Chelsea winger Juan Mata should be fit despite suffering a twisted knee.

[Mongrel]

World Cup 2018

England 2-1 Argentina

After Raul Lolli missed a sitter early, Danny Welbeck added to his tally with his sixth goal of the tournament - fed by Rooney and rounding Sergio Romero to put England up in the third minute. Argentina dominated the first half, but it was only in the 37th minute that they were rewarded as £18.5M Chelsea signing Ryan Bennett put the ball into his own net. Argentina probably should have won in normal time, but extra time was all England as they continued to test Romero. In the 120th minute and with just seconds before penalties, Manchester United left back Leighton Baines scored his third - and most important - international goal to put England into the final.

Brazil 2-0 Spain

Spurs midfielder Sandro is fast showing why he's one of the world's top midfielders. Not content with leading Tottenham to the Champions League title, he scored a brace to give Brazil an upset of sorts against Spain. Sandro got on the end of an early cross to cooly slot it past De Gea, but it was the winner that turned heads - a 30 yard thunderbolt to give the South Americans a chance at back-to-back titles.

Brazil will look for a record seventh World Cup title in the final, while England makes its first appearance in the final since they won it in 1966. England will regain Tom Huddlestone for the final

[Spav]

Great work so far.

I had my first major save of FM12 as Stuttgart and it was most enjoyable. Schieber was a beast for me - he scored no less than 20 league goals a season for at least ten years.

[Mongrel]

World Cup 2018

Argentina 1-1 Spain (Spain won 3-2 on penalties)

Spain produced a great rearguard effort to take their third place match against Argentina to penalties, before edging the resulting shootout 3-2. The 2010 World Cup champions went ahead early as Málaga defender Juan Manuel converted from the spot in the 25th minute, before Athletico Madrid's Uriel Almiron gave Argentina their sole goal in the 36th minute. That was all she wrote on the scoreboard, and when Nicolás Otamendi missed from the spot Spain secured third.

England 1-2 Brazil

Brazil became just the third team to win back-to-back World Cups with a 2-1 win over England in St. Petersburg. Internacional striker Leandro Damião put the world champions ahead in the 5th minute before Neymar doubled their lead in the 33rd. Man of the match Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain of Valencia gave England a sniff in the 39th minute with his goal, but the South Americans held on to win their seventh world title.

[Mongrel]

2017-18 Season Preview

BOARD EXPECTATIONS:

Bundesliga - Qualify for Europa League

Europa League - 1st Knockout Round

DFB-Pokal - Semi-finals

FINANCES:

Not as great as last season, but that has to go down to my board. They set me a massive wage budget which I stayed inside of comfortably, but we just shed money. I don't think we could sustain that for another season, so I was rewarded with a transfer budget of just under €4M.

PRE-SEASON:

An odd pre-season. We started with an away win over Gent, before traveling to Craven Cottage and losing 0-2 to Fulham. Had a good couple of matches with a 3-1 win over FC Nantes and a 5-0 win over Ahlerstedt. We had our last friendly against Stuttgart II... and lost.

Also had 3rd round qualifying in the Europa League, and had it a lot tougher against Polish side Jagiellonia. We drew the first leg 1-1 away with ten men, but won the return fixture 2-0 with ten men.

TRANSFERS IN:

Nika Khutsishvili - Tavria, €2.8M. Managed to get him down after some haggling. He's young and plays two positions well. Tavria will be happy to double their investment on the kid after signing him a year ago for €1.2M.

Gonzalo Castro - Leverkusen, €550K. Long time veteran of Bayer Leverkusen with 338 appearances under his belt. Was loaned out to Benfica last season, and will be a valuable addition to the side.

Omar Wade - Apollon Limassol, €425K. A pure back-up striker. The Senegal striker isn't great, but he's better than Harnik and hasn't had a bad season for his Cypriot team. Not a high standard by any means, but a cheap addition.

Yudai Funayama - Galatasaray, Free. Great free signing for a really fine midfielder. Should be able to displace Kranjcar early, or at least send Niko into the centre. Brilliantly, he succeeded in getting himself sent off in his first competitive appearance for the club.

Sébastien Pocognoli - Schalke, Free. Had a great year for Schalke last season. Getting on a bit, but has played top flight football in Belgium, Holland and Germany for nearly 20 years now.

LOANS IN:

Saïf Abbas - AC Milan, €550K. He's back and I'm very happy to see him. This time I slapped a future fee on him just in case we can afford him at the end of the season.

Vlasis Themopoulos - Porto. Will act as cover.

João Santos - Porto. Cover.

TRANSFERS OUT:

Maor Buzaglo - Brescia, €1.3M (32 apps, 1 goal). Sold him at a loss, but he didn't feature in my plans anymore and was whinging about it.

Lorenzo Tassi - Bologna, €1.2M (1 app). Only a season at the club, but continually struggled to settle in. I think he'll be a good player, but we made a tidy €600K profit on his which can be invested elsewhere.

RELEASED:

Silvestre Varela - 6 apps, 1 goal

Shinji Okazaki - 118 apps, 22 goals

Neil Kilkenny - 2 apps, 1 goal

Christian Gentner - 204 apps, 15 goals (I feel a bit bad about this, but he was asking way too much for his ability. He's ended up with Hoffenheim anyway.)

Vaclav Pilar - 6 apps

Marvin Weiss

Andreas Krause

LOANS OUT:

Jan Engelman (Dortmund, €350K), Odisseas Vlachodimos (LASK Linz), Fedorico Domenichioni (LASC Linz), Serhiy Tovt (Augsburg)

THE SQUAD:

Should work out to:

Mandanda

Castro - Rutar - Douglas - Oczipka

Abbas - Kayal - Praet - Funayama

Gómez - Schieber

KEY PLAYERS:

Julian Schieber - The club captain had his best season yet for the club last year, and needs to produce more of the same this year.

Steve Mandanda - Despite conceding a heap, Mandanda was voted third in the Bundesliga Goalkeeper of the Year award. With a better defence this year, hopefully he'll have less to do.

Damjan Rutar - The young Slovenian is a good player, and hopefully will produce the goods in leading the defence.

[Mongrel]

August 2018

Successful start to the season as we went undefeated in all of our competitive matches. We started the Bundesliga with a bang as we tore through Fürth 5-0, before an understrength side took an unimpressive win over non-league side Ulm. Polish side Legia Warzawa were our opponents in the Europa League, and we handily beat them 5-0 on aggregate to advance to the group stages. The Hannover match was unimpressive as we went down early, before hitting back with a couple of late goals to win.

No point showing the league table at this point, but we sit second. Dortmund are first with 9 in their first two games. In case they didn't score enough already, they spent €14.5M on two new strikers.

TRANSFERS IN:

Janusz Dziewulski (Bochum, €450K) - Never appeared for Bochum, but spent last season on loan with third division side Wehen and played pretty well.

LOANS OUT:

Martin Harnik (HSV, €160K) - A long time veteran of the club, but he's never gone beyond 10 goals in a season. His contract expires at the end of the season, and HSV have a future fee attached to this that I can only hope they fall for.

Jake McCarthy (Rapid Bucharest)

[Mongrel]

September 2018

Just the one Europa League fixture this month, and completely unimpressive with a 1-1 draw at home against Wisla Krakow. Considering Marseille is also in our group, I'm guessing it'll be a shootout for second with Wisla so it's not a game we could afford to drop points in. The team wasn't at full strength with Stojcic and Wade up front, and paid for it.

The league, however, has been awesome as we won all of our matches to sit outright first with a perfect 7 from 7. The best win was clearly the 3-1 win away against defending league champions Bayer Leverkusen. Our main issue last season was our defence, so I'm ecstatic with the way we are performing now - Gonzalo Castro has been a great signing while Rutar and Douglas have been solid in the centre. We finished the month strongly against FC Augsburg who are having an absolute mare of a year. Six individual goal scorers was nice to see - including Stuttgart product Holger Fleck who scored his first goal for the first team.

[Mongrel]

October 2018

Another frustrating month in the Europa League, as we missed out away at Rosenborg and were then thumped by Marseille at home. Gómez continued to be the the European king with his fourth goal on the continent this season, while Kranjcar pulled us clear 2-1 in the 34th minute. They got a late equaliser after Oczipka became the third Stuttgart player to be sent off this season in the Europa League. Marseille might not have been able to break the Lyon run of Ligue 1 titles, but they are a force in Europe. We were flogged and deserved to lose by more, and picked up seven yellow cards in the process.

We started the month with our first loss of the Bundesliga campaign as we were hammered by Kaiserslautern only to nearly escape with a draw. Ariel Borysuik scored his first goal in two years in injury time, but couldn't stop Mandanda winning Man of the Match after a great goalkeeping effort that also saw him save a penalty. We were better outside of that fixture against Borussia Mönchengladbach and Frankfurt. We put five past Gladbach (including one from Omar Wade - his first for the club), while pulling from a goal down to overcome Frankfurt 2-1. That match also saw another red card, as Damjan Rutar was sent off for the first time in Stuttgart colours.

The month ended as an understrengthed Stuttgart side beat 2. Bundesliga side St. Pauli 3-1 thanks to a Stojcic brace. He hasn't got much of a run in the Bundesliga, but in two seasons he's notched up ten DFB-Pokal goals in five appearances. Third round fixtures have been drawn, and we meet Borussia Mönchengladbach in a match we should win.

For the record, I've turned down jobs with the United States and Zenit Saint Petersburg. The US job was easy to turn down, but the Zenit job took some thinking.

[Mongrel]

Dual month update as there was not a lot happening throughout November.

November-December 2018

Great, great month in the Europa League as we atoned for our home defeat against Marseille by travelling to the Stade Vélodrome and picking up three points. Stefan Stojcic, still not turning it on in the Bundesliga, is proving his worth elsewhere as he scored a brace to give us the win over OM. Marseille were down to ten men, but Sissoko was sent off after we went up 2-0 so it was a great win.

It proved so important as we staggeringly gave up a 3-0 lead against Wisla Krakow to keep Rosenborg in with a sniff. It didn't matter, though, as Schieber scored a brace in our win at home to see us advance to the knockout rounds.

We've been given an OK draw: In February we meet Sporting CP, but that'll be tough considering they are topping the Liga ZON SAGRES. If we get through that, we play the winner of Birmingham and Bologna which is very winnable.

Far more fixed results in the Bundesliga as we retain top spot, but go 4-1-2 over the two months. The losses were tough - Hoffenheim were too good for us in their 1-0 win, but the slaughter at Wolfsburg was our worst game of the year. We had more shots that the home team, but still conceded five.

The top of the table clash was a home fixture against Dortmund, and there were 38 shots between the two teams. We went up early, and then came from behind to snatch a draw which is an improvement on our 1-10 aggregate from last season. Our lead was as much as four points, but its been cut back to one with Bayer Leverkusen close behind!

In the DFB-Pokal, we easily beat Borussia Mönchengladbach and host FC Kaiserslautern in the quarters.

Overall, the January break comes at the perfect time and I'll look to offload a couple of players who are taking up huge wages (Tasci and Weis occupy €70,000 a week between them, and aren't making appearances). That would potentially give me about €4M to play with if I mess around with the wage budget, and hopefully will allow me to bring in some cover in the middle.

Unfortunately, I'm looking like I might lose Yudai Funayama already! Man Utd were snooping around, and I found out that he had a €2.9M minimum release clause. I offered him a new contract with a €20.5M clause that he's mulling over, but Utd came in with a bid anyway. Thankfully they offered us €12M - well in excess of what they could have - but I'd prefer to keep him because he's a gem. That being said, turning a €12M profit in six months...

[SRL88]

Going along very nicely in the league.

[Mongrel]

Going along very nicely in the league.

Yeah been much better than last season, but don't think we'll hang on with Dortmund and, more ominously, Bayer Leverkusen in the hunt. Hoping to finish top 3 though and get a CL spot.

I'll have a January update, but I got rid of Serdar Tasçi. I tried everything to get a club to sign him - offered him for a free - but ultimately he offered to terminate his contract for €400K. It was tough to handle, but it saves us about €800K in wages with his ridiculous €59K p/w contract.

He immediately signed with Borussia Mönchengladbach who lost 1-6 in Tasçi's debut. Tasçi got a 2.7 rating.

[Mongrel]

January 2019

Not a big month of action, with just two competitive fixtures after a month of friendlies. A 0-0 draw away at Fürth was our only Bundesliga fixture - a match we should have really won as we dominated possession, and continually hit the crossbar. We redeemed ourselves at home to Kaiserslautern with a 2-0 win in the DFB-Pokal, setting up a semi-final meeting with Fürth. The other semi pits Borussia Dortmund against FC Augsburg.

The real action was on the transfer front, as Yudai Funayama accepted Manchester United's offer and got a work permit. He leaves a big hole on the left having scored four and created six in his twelve league appearances for the club. As noted, Serdar Tasçi also departed Stuttgart to Borussia Mönchengladbach and had a mare in his debut against Hannover. He was a great servant of the club and it was disappointing to depart in pretty acrimonious circumstances.

With the €14.5M we received from the Funayama deal, we quickly set about investing in some new players. First to join was German international Ilkay Gündogan. After more than seven seasons at Dortmund, he's fallen out of favour in recent years with just three appearances in 2017-18. He made 10 league appearances in the first half of this season at Dortmund and did well, though, so I'm not sure why they wanted to get rid of him. Yohann Thuram-Ulien joins as my No. 2 goalkeeper on a free as understudy for Mandanda. Not sure how long he'll last here, and he's seemingly played this role at his last two clubs Genoa and Napoli.

The bigger two signings came later in the transfer period. First, Freiburg youth product Julian Petersen joins for €8.75M from PSV Eindhoven. He's played his last few seasons in the Eredivisie with some great success, and IIRC he was a player I tried to sign at Feyenoord. Good to have another German player in the side, and a player of his quality back in the Bundesliga. Secondly, Saïf Abbas joins for €1.7M from AC Milan on a three year deal. I tried to sign him for a free with his contract expiring, but was too late as Milan got him again. They put him straight back on the transfer list for a lot less than he was worth. He and Petersen should prove great players for this club for years to come. In his two loan spells, Abbas has made 31 league appearances with 13 goals and 8 assists.

TRANSFERS IN:

Julian Petersen - €8.75M, PSV Eindhoven

Saïf Abbas - €1.7M, AC Milan

Ilkay Gündogan - €1M, Borussia Dortmund

Yoyann Thuram-Ulien - Free, Genoa

TRANSFERS OUT:

Yudai Funayama - €14.5M, Manchester United (13 apps, 6 goals)

RELEASED:

Serdar Tasçi (324 apps, 10 goals)

LOANS OUT:

Timuçin Simsek - Fenerbahçe

Alexander Teinart - Saarbrücken

[SRL88]

Julian Petersen ticks the boxes in all the right areas for a winger.

[Mongrel]

February 2019

Well Stojcic has finally arrived. Unfortunately it wasn't enough to get us any further in the Europa League as we crashed out in the round of 32 again. It was always going to be tough as we lost 1-2 at home in the first leg to Sporting CP in a match we really shouldn't have lost considering that we made more chances than the Portuguese league leaders. Ridiculously, we found ourselves ahead 2-0 after twenty minutes in the second leg and winning on aggregate, before we conceded another three to crash out 5-3. Disappointing, but not quite as bad as the 7-2 trouncing against PSV Eindhoven last season.

The Bundesliga was a far better month as we went unbeaten in our four matches. We edged a tight contest against Hannover to start the month as Stefan Stojcic broke a few hour drought to score. We were then lucky to get past Aachen as we put in one of our least impressive performances of the year. Not the greatest team going around, Aachen doubled our shots and edged possession. We had to rely on two own goals from Ratko Samardzic and a first goal from Gündogan to win.

Other than that, we drew 2-2 with Werder Bremen as former Hoffenheim striker Kevin Volland scored a brace. Pretty disappointing, really, as he had only scored three goals this season beforehand. Schalke really should have beaten us with the amount of chances they created, but Stojcic and Wade proved the difference as against Klaas-Jan Hunterlaar's third minute strike for the home side. Damjan Rutar was sent off again.

[SRL88]

Shame on getting knocked out in Europe but you are having a cracking league campaign.

[Mongrel]

March 2019

We might not have a chance of European glory, but we could claim our first DFB-Pokal since 2015 after hammering Fürth 5-0 in the semi-final. Stefan Stojcic notched up another domestic cup hat trick in one of our most comprehensive wins of the season. We meet fellow title contenders Borussia Dortmund in the final.

Other than that, though, it was an indifferent month. The fixture against Augsburg was actually tight early at 2-2, but we picked up the pace considerably and put four more past them. Ilkay Gündogan is settling in very quickly in the centre, and found himself on the scoresheet again. But in what could cost us the title, we were nicked at home by Bayer Leverkusen in the biggest fixture of our season so far. Leverkusen drew back from a goal down twice, and were reduced to ten in the 72nd minute as Bojan Maric brought down a player as the last man. Nevertheless, André Schürrle showed why he's basically the best player in the Bundesliga with the winner.

After that, another disappointing display against Kaiserslautern and a 3-1 win over Gladbach. The goals keep coming, but the defence is starting to leak.

A tough month, but we hold onto first on goal difference. Leverkusen are really breathing down or necks, while I hope Dortmund might drop off with their Champions League quarter final against Chelsea coming up. Bayern Munich are looking in danger of missing European football with Schalke's rise, but Oliver Kahn's job is naturally safe as houses. With eight to play, I'd like to think we'll play Champions League football. It's just a question of which round we qualify for.

Youth intake came and was not impressive. Hamit Aydın the only player to write home about, and even then he's not fantastic (and not what we need).

Also I was offered a job with Nigeria, and it was the first time I had to seriously consider leaving Stuttgart. Nigeria won nine on the trot to start 2019 - including the African Cup of Nations. Unfinished business here, though, before I move into international management.

[Mongrel]

April 2019

Well Bayer Leverkusen's chase got off to a rocky start as they were hammered 5-1 by Borussia Dortmund who emerged as the new title contender. We, meanwhile, did what was needed in the early parts of April as we started with a 4-0 win over Frankfurt thanks to a brace from Omar Wade, and then beat Hoffenheim 3-0 five days later. The Hoffenheim win could have been far greater, but their goalkeeper had a stormer in a man of the match display (where he still conceded three). Away at HSV we made our first slip as we unlucky came away with a 1-1 draw, before hammering Mainz 5-0.

The big match that could prove fatal to our title run was away at Borussia Dortmund. The 3-1 result really flattered us as Dortmund had 25 shots on goal to 3. We probably don't deserve the title after that. Thankfully, much like Leverkusen earlier in the month, Dortmund followed up that win with a 1-4 loss to Borussia Mönchengladbach while we maintained our two point buffer at home against Köln.

With two games left we sit two points clear of Dortmund and cannot finish lower than second with Leverkusen tumbling. Our run home, however, must make us underdogs for the title.

4 May - Bayern Munich vs. VfB Stuttgart

11 May - VfB Stuttgart vs. VfL Wolfsburg

On the other hand, Dortmund have winnable matches at home to HSV and away to Mainz. Our only hope is that they'll struggle with fatigue - the second leg of their Champions League semi-final against Arsenal comes between those two matches.

The biggest fall from grace this month was Kaiserslautern who fell from fourth to seventh with six losses from six matches. Oof.

EDIT: Also, in our last game Damjan Rutar got sent off for the third time this season and copped a three match ban. Not great, because he's been so so good at centre-back and will be a difficult hole to fill.

[Mongrel]

May 2018

This is what it comes down to.

Bayern Munich 1-0 VfB Stuttgart

Man, talk about a missed opportunity to steal at least a point. Vincent Aboubakar scored the winner in a match where I thought we did well on the counter but couldn't score. Mario Gómez and Gonzalo Castro picked up yellows to earn suspensions for the final match of the season. Elsewhere, Dortmund put four past HSV to skip to the top of the table.

Also, Dortmund trailed Arsenal 0-1 on aggregate heading into the second leg at Emirates. There, Bundesliga top scorer Rául Lolli put five past Arsenal as they won 7-2. Ridiculous. Dortmund play Man City in the Champions League final.

Vfb Stuttgart 3-4 VfL Wolfsburg

Needing a win here and Mainz to somehow hold out at home against Dortmund, we got off to a great start with Schieber scoring in the thirteenth minute. Then we watched as, in seven minutes, Cortelezzi, Yanev and Collison all scored screamers to put us in a world of trouble at 1-3. Mainz and Dortmund was still 0-0. Abbes pulled one back in the 55th minute, and then, against all odds, Julian Petersen equalised in the 57th to give us a real sniff of winning the league.

Unfortunately, I made a tactical error and played too aggressively - conceding another in the 65th minute. Despite having 23 shots on goal to 10, we lost 3-4. To add insult to those wounds, Borussia Dortmund went down to Mainz 0-1.

Heart. Breaker.

A total choke, really, with the Mainz win giving us a huge chance of winning the title. Our final match of the season is the DFB-Pokal final against Borussia Dortmund as we hope to stop them from doing the treble. We'll have a full squad to choose from apart from Damjan Rutar and Vlasis Thomopoulos. I can't help but thinking that Rutar's suspension might have cost us the title like Lolli's cost Dortmund last season.

[Mongrel]

Stuttgart 3-1 Dortmund

Borussia Dortmund have suffered a minor setback ahead of its Champions League final next week after falling to defeat in the final of the DFB-Pokal in Berlin.

In front of 74,244 fans, Stuttgart secured an impressive 3-1 win against the German champions to lift the cup for the fifth time.

German international Julian Petersen got things started for Stuttgart with his strike in the fourth minute. The former PSV Eindhoven midfielder's goal was the only time either side troubled the scorers in the first half with Die Roten ahead 1-0.

But in the 55th minute, Dutch midfielder Leroy Fer scored his tenth goal in all competitions for the season. Fer got on the end of a fine throughball from Carlos Vitoria, and clammy tucked away the equaliser.

Five minutes later, though, promising young German striker Stefan Stojcic put Stuttgart ahead again as he got in behind the defence and put the ball past Roman Weidenfeller. He soon doubled the lead as he got on the end of a cross from Petersen to head in his second.

Perhaps the difference between the two teams was in goals as French international Steve Mandanda earned the Man of the Match award for a fantastic performance between the sticks. In contrast, Dortmund were forced to play Weidenfeller instead of number one choice Jan Engelman who, thanks to a condition of a loan agreement, could not play against his own club.

The Austrian will be back for the June 1 showdown against Manchester City in the Champions League, but Stuttgart's 3-1 tops off a fine year for a team that fell just short of winning the Bundesliga.

[Mongrel]

Stuttgart 2017-18 Review

Bundesliga - 2nd

While the final result is a great success for the side, I can't help but thinking it could have been so much more. We led the way pretty much all season, but fell away when we had the chance to win. The most disappointing part was throwing it away on the final day.

Europa League - 1st Knockout Round

Not as bad as the exit to PSV Eindhoven last season, but frustrating to exit at the same stage. We had a real chance when we pulled ahead in the second leg, but again gave away a lead.

DFB Pokal - Champions

After the disappointment of last season, we went through virtually unscathed by finishing all of our matches inside time.

Key Players:

Julian Schieber - Another top quality season from the Stuttgart captain as he scored 22 league goals to take his tally to 33 for the season. He became Stuttgart's all time leading goalscorer, and sits at 137 league goals for the club.

Steve Mandanda - After an indifferent season last year, it all came together for the Frenchman who was voted the best keeper in the Bundesliga. He's still finding himself nudged out by Hugo Lloris for the national team, but hopefully he can put forward his credentials in the Champions League this season.

Douglas - A supremely underrated footballer, the Brazilian barely missed a match and was a rock at centre-half. At 31 it seems unlikely he'll add to his five Brazilian appearances, but he's so consistent and has accumulated an average rating over 7 for his past three seasons.

Best XI - 2018-19

[Mongrel]

Former Clubs

PEC Zwolle

No where near it this season.

[TABLE]

[TR]

[TD]Season

[/TD]

[TD]League[/TD]

[TD]Position[/TD]

[TD]Notes[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2011-12*[/TD]

[TD]Eerste Divisie[/TD]

[TD]15th[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2012-13*[/TD]

[TD]Eerste Divisie[/TD]

[TD]2nd[/TD]

[TD]Promoted. KNVB Cup Winners. Qualified for Europa League.[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2013-14*[/TD]

[TD]Eredivisie[/TD]

[TD]15th[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2014-15[/TD]

[TD]Eredivisie[/TD]

[TD]16th[/TD]

[TD]Relegated.[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2015-16[/TD]

[TD]Eerste Divisie[/TD]

[TD]4th[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2016-17[/TD]

[TD]Eerste Divisie[/TD]

[TD]2nd[/TD]

[TD]Lost in Playoffs - 3rd Round.[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2017-18[/TD]

[TD]Eerste Divisie[/TD]

[TD]2nd[/TD]

[TD]Lost in Playoffs - 2nd Round.

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2018-19

[/TD]

[TD]Eerste Divisie

[/TD]

[TD]10th

[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

Feyenoord

Lost to Vitesse by two points in the league to again fall short of the Eredivisie title. They were level with Vitesse on points and goal difference heading into the final matchday, but only managed a draw. A poor Champions League campaign saw them collect just one point in a group including Atlético Madrid, Tottenham and Anji Makhachkala.

[TABLE]

[TR]

[TD]Season

[/TD]

[TD]League[/TD]

[TD]Position[/TD]

[TD]Notes[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2013-14*[/TD]

[TD]Eredivisie[/TD]

[TD]10th[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2014-15*[/TD]

[TD]Eredivisie[/TD]

[TD]3rd[/TD]

[TD]KNVB Cup Winners. Qualified for the Europa League.[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2015-16*[/TD]

[TD]Eredivisie[/TD]

[TD]1st[/TD]

[TD]Champions. KNVB Cup Winners. Qualified for the Champions League.[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2016-17*[/TD]

[TD]Eredivisie[/TD]

[TD]3rd[/TD]

[TD]Champions League Quarterfinals.[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2017-18[/TD]

[TD]Eredivisie[/TD]

[TD]2nd[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2018-19

[/TD]

[TD]Eredivisie

[/TD]

[TD]2nd

[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

[Spav]

A great campaign, but such a shame to lose the title on those results in the final two rounds. At least you have the consolation of the Pokal for your efforts.

[Mongrel]

2018-19 Season Preview

BOARD EXPECTATIONS:

Bundesliga - Title challenge (board expected to qualify for the Europa League, but I think we can challenge again)

UEFA Champions League - Group Stage (cannot let them down!)

DFB-Pokal - Semi-finals

FINANCES:

Last year was a bit of a financial success as we made a €6M profit to finish the season with €22M in the bank. I was given a €9M transfer budget which was handy.

PRE-SEASON:

A very unimpressive pre-season as we won two matches and lost four. We started with a 0-1 defeat at home to Tottenham, before being stunned 0-2 by low league side Großaspach. We hammered Aalen 8-0, but were then beaten 2-4 by Borussia Dortmund in the Supercup in another poor performance. The one saving grace there was a brace on debut from Simon Madsen. We had an easier time in the DFB-Pokal; starting our title defence with a 9-0 win over Dorsten Hardt thanks to five from Stefan Stojcic.

TRANSFERS IN:

Ivan Golubev (€4.1M, Shakhtar Donetsk). Paid over the odds based on his stats, I guess, but I'm pretty confident he'll come good provided he gets quicker. Played a full season for Shakhtar last season and was a stand-out. He also made eight Champions League appearances.

Vlasis Thomopoulos (€3M, Porto). Fought of Dortmund and a few others to sign him. He made fifteen appearances for us on loan last season, and I think he's the best right back in the squad. €3M for him is a steal, too, as he fell out of favour in Portgugal.

Jonny Lyng (€1.3M, Rosenborg). Physically quite good, and already had a taste of first team football in the Norwegian Tippeligaen. I sent him out on loan to Romania immediately.

Albin Ekdal (€700K, Fiorentina). Really happy with this signing. The Swede

Raphael Stolz (€500K, Werder Bremen). Never made a league appearance for Bremen, and will need some work. Still young.

Simon Madsen (Free, Feirense). This kid is pretty great, I reckon. Already has four goals in cup football after braces against Dortmund and Dorsten Hardt, and is still so young. He's quick, too, and is pretty versatile. He'll probably displace Omar Wade as my fourth choice striker and is likely to jump ahead of Mario Gómez, too.

Jiri Maly (Free, Norwich City). Made eleven Premier League appearances for Norwich over three seasons, and never impressed. A bit of a cheap signing who I might loan out near the end of the season.

Daniel Agger (Free, Aston Villa). He's 34 now and his best football is clearly behind him, but I think he's a handy bit of back up. He's still quite decent technically and provides some leadership, but is painfully slow. Not on a huge contract which is a bonus.

LOANS IN:

Walid Mejri (Lyon). Handy cover at left back who has had first team experience at Lyon and Toulouse in Ligue 1. Very cheap as we didn't pay a fee and he's only on about €300 a week.

TRANSFERS OUT:

Thorsten Stolz (7 apps) - €5.5M, Werder Bremen. Pretty sad about him leaving, but this offer was too good to pass up. A youth team prospect, but Bremen were very keen (and I don't know why they took Fedetskyi as well).

Artem Fedetskyi (37 apps, 1 goal) - €100K, Werder Bremen

RELEASED:

Yoni Buyens (35 apps, 1 goal)

Martin Harnik (172 apps, 47 goals)

André Weis (92 apps)

RETIRED:

Niko Kranjcar (128 apps, 24 goals). Wasn't going to be re-signed anyway, and called it a day instead of looking elsewhere. Great servant of the club.

LOANS OUT:

Fernando Francisco (Köln, €2.8M), Jan Engelmann (Wolfsburg, €625K), Fraser Johnson (Duisburg), Oliver Hoeneß (St. Gallen), Fedorico Domenichioni (Duisburg), Jonny Lyng (Rapid Bucharest)

THE SQUAD:

SUMMARY:

I'm feeling a bit uneasy about this season, but I feel we have a squad that can contend and hopefully make it out of the Champions League group stages. The question, as always, will be to see how Julian Schieber holds up, but if he can go close to his output from last season I'll be ecstatic. The guys I expect to drop off are Douglas, Gomez and Pocognoli, but I'm confident I've got cover for them.

[Mongrel]

Thanks man! Yeah, if we'd been beaten by BVB I'd have been gutted considering how much they've dominated us.

As far as the rest of the Bundesliga is concerned, I suspect Bayern Munich will be making another charge at the title. They've had a couple of bad years by their standards with a fourth and a fifth, so they've spent €37.5M on four players. Their biggest signing was 21-year old Paraguayan striker Jorge Ayala who will hope to follow the lead of fellow South American Raul Lolli. He cost Bayern €20M. Borussia Mönchengladbach, on the other hand, have taken in €7.5M in transfer fees more than they've spent. Their big loss was Uruguay's Fabián Lago who went to Wolfsburg for €7.25M. In his three seasons at the club, he scored 25 goals from 63 league appearances in probably the biggest transfer within the Bundesliga so far.

[Mongrel]

August 2019

First a couple of transfers:

LOANS IN:

Milos Krasic (Tottenham, €180K). A pretty good loan signing in the Spurs veteran. The Croat is getting on, but has really been great for a number of years for a Champions League side in Tottenham, and isn't on massive coin. After joining the North London side for €18.25M back in 2012-13, Krasic has made 193 appearances for 40 goals on the wing.

LOANS OUT:

Serhiy Tovt (Fenerbahçe, €250K). Tovt has a pretty big future, but I think he'll be better suited playing for the Turkish champions (he might even get Champions League football) than being my sixth choice striker. He had a full season on loan at Augsburg last season, and his fourteen goals in 26 league appearances was one of the few shining lights in a team who were relegated.

Dmitry Shevchik (Saarbrücken).

The season got off to a shocking start as we lost our first match to Kaiserslautern 0-2 in a game where nothing clicked. Only one new player - Mejri at left-back - started and we really failed to do anything in a bad loss. We managed just four shots all game, while Israeli forward Itay Shechter converted from the spot and also added a second to secure the 2-0 win for Kaiserslautern.

It has been a heap better since then: we came from a goal down to beat an unimpressive Frankfurt side 3-1, while Stefan Stojcic scored his first Bundesliga hat trick in a 6-0 thumping over Aachen who already look set to struggle this season. Stojcic moved to six goals for the season (to go with his five in the DFB-Pokal) with a brace in our win over Fürth - impressively doing it in just 45 minutes after Saïf Abbes was sent off. It was a hell of a first half as all six goals were scored, but we ultimately did enough with ten men.

Unfortunately Dennis Praet did his Achilles in the only really bad part of a pretty good first month.

As expected, Bayern Munich are back with a rampant month where they conceded just once. They did, however, shed long-time veteran Toni Kroos to Spurs for €32.5M after 257 appearances with the club.

Our Champions League group could have been a lot worse. We drew Europa League finalists Marseille who we actually managed to beat away from home last season, and Spanish side Sevilla. Georgian side Metalurgi Rustavi round out the group having qualified for the group stage for the first time in their history.

Group E is the "Group of Death" with Manchester United, Barcelona, Fenerbahçe and Zürich.

[Mongrel]

Well that could have gone better.

[Mongrel]

September 2019

Things weren't quite so bad after Borussia Dortmund hammered us 8-2 in a match where everything went wrong. In a slow month due to internationals, we comfortably won our other two matches as Stojcic scored in the games against Köln and Borussia Mönchengladbach and was helped out by Wade, Ekdal and Petersen.

Bayern Munich are looking unstoppable as they continue their perfect start to the season. Our goal difference cops a bit of a hammering after the loss to BVB, but we do enough to kick it back up with two other victories. There's no real surprises elsewhere except for newly promoted Freiburg who sit in ninth.

In the Champions League, we had an expected victory away from home over the Georgian side Metalurgi Rustavi. It was a hat trick from the captain Scheiber that did most of the damage, along with a brace from Stojcic. In the other match, Sevilla beat Marseille.

[SRL88]

Tough result against Dortmund.

[Mongrel]

Tough result against Dortmund.

Easily the worst defeat I've had, and we just simply cannot cut it against BVB. They have insane attacking power and seem to just keep adding to it without selling anyone. I go on about their striker Raúl Lolli a lot, but he's just so insanely good and probably one of the best signings in the game.

As a story with Lolli - Dortmund signed him for €3.5M from River Plate back in 2014 and in the season I won the title with Feyenoord he was on loan. He scored 26 goals in the Eredivisie that season and I wanted to make it permanent. Dortmund wouldn't go any lower than €6M, and I just couldn't afford it. Five years on, and he's now worth €27M.