Die Königsblauen

So I've taken over the helm in Gelsenkirchen with Schalke 04. I'll start by introducing my personal information and the club's general info and what I've done up until now (July 2014).

First - my personal info (My reputation is semi-professional footballer):



Club info:



I also created three new kits for Schalke prior to starting the game:



When I took over the helms I kept most of the staff, but the front office was desperatly lacking coaches so I hired Gerald Ehlmann (GK coach), Andy Renshaw (fitness coach), Rene Meulensteen (coach), Dave Parnaby (coach), Philipp Laux (coach), promoted Seppo Eichkorn from chief scout to coach and hired a lot of scouts as well. I also hired Lieven Maesschalck as head physio and sacked the Director of Football as I like to have total control myself.

As for the economy of Schalke 04: The club is listed as rich, it has a wage budget of a little over £1.2M p/w, but the money available for transfers wasn't much so I knew I had to sell some players. Even though a hefty wage budget, most of it were already eaten up by high earners at the club so I decided that I was gonna focus on getting rid of the players with high salaries and try and bring in new, cheaper players.

The transfers up until now (18 Jul. 2014)

Players Out

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar --> Manchester City (£12.75M, which was the min.fee release clause in his contract). A hefty £150K p/w off my total wage bill, I'm satisfied with that.

Tim Hoogland --> AC Milan (£3.75M). £42K p/w off my wage bill.

Jefferson Farfan --> PSG (£21.5M). £86K p/w off my wage bill. Chelsea, Arsenal, PSG and Monaco all wanted the player, ended up with pressing the price further up, I'm very happy with this deal.

Kevin Prince-Boateng --> Monaco £25.5M, £110K p/w. Transfer-listed and offered the player around. Monaco, Man City, PSG and Juventus all wanted the player, ended up signing for Monaco.

Adam Szalai --> Valencia £9.25M, £40K p/w. He was brought in by the former manager, but he wasn't a player that I wanted to keep around so I offered him around.

Anthony Annan --> Rubin Kazan £2M, £32K p/w. He was just a surplus to requirements, wanted to get rid of him, even if it meant taking a loss.

Christian Fuchs --> Lazio, £8M, £60K p/w off my wage bill. Lazio made an offer, I accepted it.

Total income so far: £82.75M

Players In:

Mirko Vucinic <-- Juventus, £4M. Transfer-listed at Juve, perfect fit for me. Brought him in at £90K p/w

Stefan Savic <-- Fiorentina, £5.75M at £27K p/w

Lucas Romero <-- Vélez Sarsfield, £7M, at £23K p/w

Diego Contento <-- Bayern München, £2.9M, at £30K p/w

Sebastian Jung <-- Eintracht Frankfurt, £4M at £33K p/w

Nicolas Lodeiro <-- Botafogo, £5M at £27K p/w

Alexander Esswein <-- Augsburg, £2.5M at £18K p/w

Sebastian Rode <-- Eintracht Frankfurt, £5.75M at £50K p/w

Total outlays so far: £37M


Schalke 04 also has the possibility to qualify for the Champions League should we manage to win in the final stage of qualification (opponents not available yet).

I've played two friendlies so far; won the first game vs Boca Juniors at home 2-1. Created lots of chances but only managed to score two goals. In the second gamel vs Zenit St.Petersburg, I was lucky to escape with a 3-0 loss. Especially in the first half we were ran over and couldn't cope with their attack. I changed most of the starting-11 at the break, which helped, but it was still a poor performance from our part.

Alright, that's it for now, hope you liked the first post

Good luck mate! I have managed Schalke before it's a great challenge!

Thank you, mate




Alright, so I've now played through August - my first month at Schalke 04.

The tactics that I apply is a 4-2-3-1 that I always use, regardless of teams. Here's the tactic and my starting eleven:



As you might recognize, I've brought in some new players too. Italian goalkeeper Andrea Consigli was bought in from Atalanta for £3M. I needed a new goalkeeper as Timo Hildebrand got injured for 5 weeks and the only other goalkeepers available in my squad was two 18 year olds. I also wanted a new goalkeeper that could challenge for the #1 spot and I ended up with a shortlist of 4 keepers that wasn't too expensive in both transfer fee and wage demands (£27K p/w) which I then cut to two. Keylor Navas was the other one that I submitted an offer for (same price as Consigli), but because of his foreign-status, I ended up going all in on Consigli. The next one that was brought in to Schalke is german goalscoring legend Miroslav Klose from Lazio for £2.75M on a one-year deal at £65K p/w. Last new signing is RW Augustin Allione from Vélez Sarsfield for £3M + future incentives and percentages on a £8k p/w 2 year deal. Very happy with this one, I've had Allione on different savegames before and I know just how good he can be with time.

As for the games; last time around I had just been mauled by Zenit in a friendly. Next friendly was against French L2 side Metz. I went into the dressing room leading comfortably 0-2, but the second half was a disaster and we ended up losing 3-2. I was outraged in the locker-room after the game and both Denis Avidjaj and Roman Neüstadter ended up critisizing me in public afterwords because of my harsh team-talk after the game. I was downright furious. I got back on track in the next fixture against Reading, winning the game on penalties, but the lack of goals really worried me. We created -and still creates - a lot of chances but the players just can't seem to turn the chances into goals. Last friendly of the pre-season was against former affiliate Westerlo of Belgium. I cancelled all the links of affiliate clubs that Schalke had and sent in a board-request of a new feeder club. Of the teams that I had to chose from, I ended up choosing 2BL club Energie Cottbus as a feeder-club for loans. I sent out a team that were mostly U21 and reserve-team lads and they ended up winning the game comfortably.

Fixtures and results, July/August 2013:



The german season starts off with cup-ties and I won mine comfortably 3-0 away at Darmstadt. The BL-season kicked off with a home tie vs Wolfsburg. I ended up winning 3-1 comfortably. Could've been more, but failed to capitalize on the chances we had. Christian Clemens, my RW, ended up scoring a hattrick. Next one at Leverkusen away, Schalke was up 1-0 until the 92nd minute when Kie§ling found the equalizer. I've won the remaining games, but it hasn't been easy. I've had my share of chances, but for some reason they can't find a way to score more goals in close games with the chances created so I've had a few 1-0 games. I'm currently lying 3rd in the Bundesliga at the start of the month of September. Freiburg is 2nd, FC Bayern München is 1st. The top three teams all have 10p, but obviously Freiburg and Bayern have better goal difference.

I managed to qualify for the Champions League as well after eliminating Pacos Ferreira of Portugal with a hefty 8-1 on aggregate (4-0/4-1).

I was a bit lucky in the group-draw and ended up with this group:



I'm going all in on winning every home-game and hoping for a draw at Old Trafford and at least a draw at Amsterdam ArenA. I'm aiming for 6 points against Viktoria Plzen.

Now I have an international break coming up. Hoping to complete the month of September soon

The month of September 2013:



Like I mentioned in the last post; On deadline day 2013, I beat Braunschweig 1-0 away to go top of the Bundesliga. Hard fought battle but deserved in the end. Then came an international break. The timing couldn't have been better as I needed the players to freshen up a bit. First game after the break we beat Hoffenheim 5-2 at home. I swapped my stating-11 for my backup-11 and Maximilian Meyer had a massive game bagging a hattrick with Klose and Alex Esswein getting the other two goals.

Then came the first game of the Champions League, away at Ajax. To be honest with you, I'd be happy with a draw, but the boys went out strong and grabbed a 3-0 lead going into half-time. One goal each way in the second meant a massive 4-1 win away and top of the group after gameday 1.

Wins away to HSV and Freiburg at home and a cup-win vs Fortuna Dusseldorf at VELTINS-Arena meant that Schalke went through the month unbeaten.

The Bundesliga table is looking like this:



Player of the month:

Christian Clemens has excelled since the season got under way. He added another hattrick to his account against Ajax in the CL and have started magnificently with 4 assist to his credit.



Next: The month of October. Can this continue?

great start mate. nice work reducing the wage budget. I have always wanted to do Schalke but I find it too difficult. KIU.

Doing very well mate! keep it up

Thank you, Joe and Dan




The month of October 2013:



First of all, let's start with the Bundesliga. This month Schalke only had three league games, but the season's first big test was during the month of October; The Revier Derby vs Borussia Dortmund. Well, first things first; away at Mainz. We recorded a 2-1 win after Sebastian Rode and Mirko Vucinic sealed the deal. Mainz got a late goal, but it didn't mean anything, the winning streak was still on in Gelsenkirchen.

Then the Revier Derby at VELTINS-Arena in front of a packed 61.973 crowd. It pretty much had EVERYTHING you'd want from a derby game - 5 goals in total, yellow and red cards and a die-hard attitude. It was 1-1 for a while, but then Marco Reus managed to get a straight red card after two-footing Lucas Romero on the midfield and once Reus was off, we bagged two quick goals to go ahead 3-1, but then Dortmund managed to get one back a little later on and the game was still alive. In the end we managed to see them off and a 3-2 win was proving to be very popular amongst the Schalke 04 fanbase.



In the last game of this month, we won 2-0 away at Nürnberg after a Julian Draxler double. Another month unbetaten in the league. What is strange is that Bayern Münich and especially Dortmund have struggled early on with unexpected losses. Dortmund has gotten the worst of it, they're below mid-table. Augsburg, Nürnberg and Mainz however, is the surprises of the 2013/14 season so far:



In the Champions League however, it was a different story. After a very comfortable 4-1 win at Ajax, we went home to face what was expected to be the team in my CL-group with least chance of progressing. Well, Viktoria Plzen turned out to be a tough nut to crack. Thanks to a goal deep into injury-time, 93'mins to be exact, we won 1-0 at home. I wasn't happy with that at all, seeing how we'd controlled the game the way we had.

Then came time to face Manchester United, the mighty Reds, at Old Trafford. We took the lead after 20 mins of play, but they got one back just before half-time and then a Juan Mata-wonderstrike sealed the deal as United won 2-1. I was proud of the lads, though. We kept on track with United through almost the full 90 minutes, I couldn't fault a performance like that. We got a perfect opportunity for revenge at home early in November.

That leaves my CL-group looking like this:



Player of the month:

Mirko Vucinic have started bagging them on a regurlarly basis after a slow-start since joining from Juventus this summer. Has scored 7 in 9 league games now, plus a few in the CL. Also a few assists to his name, which is pleasent



Next up; the month of November.

great win against Ajax. Should have flogged the nobodies though. You'll never beat United

I beg the differ, mate




The month of November 2013:



The first game of November in the Bundesliga was at home to bottom-team Stuttgart. They've had a terrible start to the season and I didn't plan on doing them any favors, neither did the players as they trashed them 6-0 at VELTINS-Arena. Miroslav Klose bagged a hattrick, Maximilian Meyer x2 and one goal by Augustin Allione sent them home with their biggest defeat of the season and their manager got the sack after that game as well. Tough luck!
Also, with that game I managed to complete something I rarely do on FM; the entire starting eleven, which by the way is my second XI, managed to grab all 11 spots on T.O.T.W:



Then surprise-team Augsburg waited away. I was blessed with all sorts of luck in that game, we came away with a 1-0 win, but to be honest I'm just glad we didn't lose. Chance-wise they outscored us 17-8, and after I went up 1-0 early (Julian Draxler), the rest of the game was Augsburg's. But brilliant goalkeeping from Andrea Consigli and great defensive performances by the entire team meant that we'd come away with 3 pts on the day.

Next home game another bottom team awaited, this time poor Eintracht Frankfurt who's dead last in the Bundesliga. They recently appointed Markus Babbel their new manager after sacking Veh, but the Frankfurt-team hasn't seen any effect yet from the change of managers. We ran out 3-0 and clear-cut winners. Could have and should've been more, but a win is a win.

Last Bundesliga game of the month was away to Borussia Mönchengladbach. Arango scored a wondergoal in the first half, but Nicolas Lodeiro got one back after 74'mins on a free kick to equalize for us. The game ran out 1-1, could in truth go either way, so I'll take the point that I got from that game.

That leaves the current Bundesliga table looking like this:



I got a 7pt lead on Bayern who actually lost away to Borussia Mönchengladbach. Augsburg have dropped as their loss against us set them off to a losing-streak that currently holds 3 games. Dortmund have gotten their act together and has climbed from 12th to 3rd. In the bottom Stuttgart and Eintracht Frankfurt really have to get their game together should they have any hopes of surviving.

Champions League, group D:

Well, I got my revenge against Manchester United as we overcame them 2-1 at home in the return leg, but it was a hard-fought one. We went up 1-0 after a goal from Draxler in the first half, then Rooney equalized in the 87th minute before Mirko Vucinic gave us the winner after 91' played minutes. Great entertainment.

Then Ajax at home also. I needed one point from the game to advance from my group, the lads did the job expected of them and won 3-1. I also caught a break because Manchester United screwed things up at home for themselves as Viktoria Plzen went up 1-0 early and the lead held until somewhere in the 80's when Valencia scored for United. A 1-1 draw means that I'm two points up on United before I head to Czech Rep. and they head to Amsterdam.



In other news, the board's so happy with my leadership and with the way I've got the team performing that they decided to offer me a contract extension which I gladly accepted after some negotiating. Usually, on other FM savegames, I get offered an extension some time after the new years but this one came already in November. I'll take that as a compliment. 2 year extension and a wage hike from £27K p/w to £32K p/w.



Also, I've managed to piss of Roman Neustädter slightly. He's gotten a few international matched handed to him by Jochen Löw and he wants more playing time at Schalke, but in my squad he's only a backup-member. He usually plays whenever I send my second XI out on the pitch, but that's it. As long as Marco Höger is healthy, he's preferred should Lucas Romero or Sebastian Rode be out for some reason. He's valued at £5.75M and I think I can get more out it than that should a club come forward and bid for him.



Kyriakos Papadoupolous is finally healthy from his injury and has gotten a few games as a sub for me since his return, and now Sevilla and Inter Milan is interested in him. With Joël Matip and Höwedes playing the way they are, with Stefan Savic and a few others ready to step it up, I wouldn't have a problem selling him should they start to bid for him. It would also help on my wage-budget as he's currently earning £49K p/w.

Player of the month:

Benedikt Höwedes. The captain has been phenomenal this month and was the man of the match vs Augsburg, a game that we should've lost to be honest.



Next time: December is upon us...

we had a weak squad on . Good win against stuttgart and in the Champions League.

Thanks, Joe



The month of December 2013:



In the Bundesliga we only had two games this month, both wins, but not very convincingly, though. 2-1 vs Hannover at VELTINS-Arena was a mediocre match. Hannover took the lead late in the first half before we managed to turn it around during the space of 4 minutes late in the second half. The game vs Werder Bremen ended 1-0, but it should've been more. We created a lot of chances, but the strikers let us down. Vucinic is back to struggling in front of the goal, Miro Klose is injured until the beginning of January (sports hernia), and Donis Avidjaj has scored his first league goal for the club, but he's only 17 and you can't expect him to deliver every weekend.

We head into the winter-break leading the Bundesliga:



We advanced in the German cup after beating Eintracht Braunschweig 1-0 at home after Avidjaj scored for us. The draw sees us going to Hoffenheim in the quarter-final.

Champions League:

We beat Viktoria Plzen 1-0 away in the final game of the group-stages after Vucinic scored early on. Could've been more but the team has got to find a way to start capitalizing on chances or it will come back to haunt us sooner rather than later. However, the win meant that we'd end up as winners of group D and the draw of the first knockout stages was kind to us:



Olympique Marseille is an opponent we should be able to overcome if we can get a good result at the Velodrome.

Other news:

I've made a signing for the future as we bought Kenneth Hansen from Rosenborg Ballklub of Norway for a mere £12K. My scandinavian scout found him when trawling scandinavia for new talents and he seems promising to me.





Also, with the year turning, the board has given me an option to raise the expectations of the season. I've told the board that I believe we can win the Bundesliga so both the wage budget and transfer budget has been raised:



It seems to come in handy, because I most likely need to strenghten the squad with one or two players in order to keep the lead in the BL when it starts back up. Miroslav Klose refuse to sign a new deal unless he's given at least £70K p/w (or £90K p/w as a rotation-option). I can't give him that as I feel that would be way too much. Chances are that he'll be released when his contract runs out this summer. I do need another striker in the squad and I'm very unsure on who to bring in.

I've been aware of a striker named Yannick N'Djeng - a Cameroonian international who currently plays in Tunisia for ES Tunis. 23 years of age and has scored 16 goals in 19 matches so far this season. He seems to come in cheap as well as his value is only £650K at the moment. He was named African Striker of the Year recently. If anyone in here has any experience with him, I'd love to hear about it.

Also Sevilla offered me £8.25M for Kyriakos Papadoupolous. I refused, I want at least £10M for him. Will be interesting to see if they up their bid with the transfer-window open again.

Next time: January

Fantastic form mate, running away in the league with some superb results over Dortmund and Stuttgart! Nice to see you qualify through the Champions League and pick up a very winnable tie with OM thats a bonus! Hansen looks like he could be a rather cheap gem that you'll cash in with plenty of profit a long way down the future. Nice to see so much more money made available to you too! spend it wisely chap!

Thanks, Dan I'm tight with money, but should the right player come up, I'll probably take it.

If anyone has any suggestions to cheap strikers that score regurlarly in a 4-2-3-1 tactic, I'd be very happy to hear them

Hansen looks like a weapon! He'll be great for you in the long run. Good work getting the extra funds.

Cracking results in league and Europe

Was expecting Hansen to be Scottish nationally

The month of January 2014:



The winter-break is upon us and I've arranged three friendlies to play; Duisburg away, Dynamo Dresden away and affiliate club Energie Cottbus away.

I've determined to give everyone a chance so I decide to mix the teams up a bit, players from my starting XI with my backup XI and so forth. Two wins, one draw - it is what it is. My main objective was to keep everyone up to shape and ready for what could potentially be the best season in the club's history.

Then the Bundesliga kicks off again, we're facing Bayer Leverkusen at home and a very confident performance we're clear winners; 4-1 after goals from J.Draxler, C.Clemens, J.Matip and M.Vucinic.

Then the next 4 games comes in pretty close including 3 away: first Wolfsburg away, Hertha BSC away before we got mighty Bayern away.

The Wolfsburg game was surprisingly pleasant. To be honest with you, I figured our first loss of the season would come in this match. I start with what I consider my backup-XI, but they play a very diciplined game and ends up as winners; 2-0. A very good match indeed.

That leaves the table looking like this before the games of February:



Bayern lost to Hertha BSC away, which is my next opponent. I've got a massive lead in Bundesliga so even if I should lose to both Hertha and Bayern away, I would still lead the BL.

Deadline Day, January 2014:

I've been in the market for a striker as Vucinic's performance has been varying and Klose's was out injured for 5 weeks plus his contract running out after the season - and with his wage demands og £70k p/w being too much.

I had a short-list of three strikers: Victor Ibarbo from Cagliari (9 goals in 15 games for Cagliari this season), Carlos Bacca of Sevilla (oddly enough he's not getting much playingtime in Spain even though a new purchase) and Aleksandar Mitrovic, Anderlecht (Wonderkid, but could prove to be too expensive).

I submitted bids for all three and I ended up buying:



I'm happy with the money I spent on him, could've been so much worse. 5 year deal at £42K p/w.

Players out:

Sead Kolasinac (LB) - Loan move ---> Freiburg (Rest of season)

Player of the Month:



Had some very good friendlies and got the chance against Wolfsburg on behalf of Clemens. Duly delivered. I have big hopes for the future for Allione.

Next time: How will we fare in the Bundesliga with such tight match program and will we progress in the CL?

The month of February 2014:



The month starts with a draw away at Hertha BSC who had just beaten Bayern Münich at home. We could've gotten more out of the game, but our efficiency wasn't good enough, so 1-1 it is...

Then the well-awaited game vs Bayern Münich was up. Because of Bayern's participation in the World Club Cup Championship, the game before new-years was postponed. This is the first meeting between the two giants of the Bundesliga; an undefeated Schalke 04 team vs the mighty Bavarians:



Despite having the better position in the game, our first loss of the season is a fact. Debutant Carlos Bacca with the goal for us. I think we at least deserved a draw, but I'm still very proud of the fact that we managed to go half a season without losing.

Then a comfortable 3-0 win at home vs Eintracht Braunschweig at home, a cup-win at Hoffenheim away 3-2 to ensure our place in the semi-finals before another game at Hoffenheim in the league. We're up 3-1 away until the 80'th minute. Two late goals from the home-team ensures a draw for them. I am not happy to say the least, but these things happens in football.

Last league-game of February sees us winning deservedly 2-0 at home to Hamburger Sports Verein. That leaves us with this table:



With 23 games played, we're 5 points clear to Bayern at the top of Bundesliga. The two of us have also scored more than any other, but we're 10 goals up in total. That could prove to be very valuable later on...

Champions League First Knockout Stage:



We manage to get a draw in Marseille. Lodeiro gave us the lead after 24 minutes, but an equalizer sees the home side save a draw. Still, it leaves us in a commanding place before the second leg at VELTINS-Arena.

Player of the Month:



Since joining from Sevilla at Deadline Day, Carlos Bacca's been phenomenal for us, scoring goals. With Klose back from injury and Vucinic fully fit and Bacca scoring, it'll be an interesting spring to see how this turns out. On the plus side, I've got a lot of strikers to rotate now in such a busy season. Avidjaj's been playing in the cup-ties.

Unlucky with the league defeat mate, it was always going to come at some point and I'd say it was better to lose the unbeaten run to a side like Bayern than a side say sitting bottom of the table. Great to see Bacca is scoring already!

Fantastic signing in Bacca Shame you suffered first defeat against Bayern

Thanks boys! And I agree, Dan; it's a little easier to take when it comes to your closest rivals on the table instead of a bottom-team, but meh - still feel we could've gotten a draw out of that game. Anyways...



The month of March 2014:



The month starts with back-to-back 3-0 wins, first away at Freiburg and then at home vs Mainz 05. Could've been more, but a win is a win. Then it's time for the Revierderby, this time at Signal Iduna Park. We take the lead early as we're given a penalty that Aogo converts, however, Dortmund keeps pressing, but we manage to come out of the high pressure of Dortmund still leading when the first half whistle sounds. In all honesty, it wouldn't be undeserving on Dortmund's part if they went in with an equalizer, but despite us creating a few good chances in the second, the inevitable happens; Dortmund find the equalizer and the game ends in a one-all draw.



We get back on track with another comfortable 3-0 win, this time at home vs the surprise-team of this years Bundesliga; Nürnberg. Last game of the month sees us travel to Stuttgart to face a desperate home team who fights with their backs against the wall, they're sitting tight in the relegation-zone and needs every point they can get their hands on. A 5-goal thriller sees us winning 3-2 in the end after a Mirko Vucinic double. With that win, we're guaranteed a spot in next years Champions League:



That leaves us with this table for this month:



We're still ahead in the race for the Bundesliga title. I've had a team-meeting telling my players to keep it up and we'll be crowned champs. I firmly believe that, according to my asst.manager we need 18 points in the remaining games to ensure the title is ours. That's doable.

Champions League:

The return leg vs Marseille sees us coming out as winners. A 1-0 win at home means we've won 2-1 on aggregate. Not the best of games, but we advance which is the most important thing. Once again; it's Carlos Bacca with the game-winner. Proving to be worth every penny of the £7M we paid.



The draw is once again VERY kind to us as we head back to France to face Olympique Lyon in the quarter-finals:



Youth Intake:

The annual youth intake of clubs around Europe is upon us, and I've actually gotten quite few talents in this years pool. I've signed 6 players to pre-contracts and all of them are ranked 4 stars or more by my scouts. Looks promising



Transfer Updates:

I've signed some new talent after the deadline passed. Andrija Zivkovic from Partizan Belgrade is a player I'm always aware at, huge potential. But since I brought in Augustin Allione, I haven't persued him at all, but the chance came up and I took it. He'll join after the season:



And my scouts are all around the world looking for young and future talents and one of them came back with this guy from St. Mirren in Scotland. At 15 years of age, I signed him to a pre-contract, will also be joining us in July:





And Sevilla finally met my asking price on Kyriakos Papadoupolous. They got £7M from me in the Bacca-deal, guess the money's burning a hole in their pocket:



Very happy with the price they ended up paying. Papadoupolous is a very good player, but he's been injured half the season, Jöel Matip, Benedikt Höwedes and Stefan Savic is all in front of him in the line of the centre-defence, and two very talented youngsters on loan to my affiliate-clubs to get valuable playing-time under their belts. I'm planning on giving them a shot next season so I'm okay with this deal.

Player of the month:



Matip's been a beast this year along with Höwedes in the defence. Key player. I brought in Savic thinking I'd pair him with Höwedes as the two main guys at my defensive core, but Matip's made it impossible for me to change him.

Next time: Can we keep our lead in the Bundesliga and can we manage to qualify for the semi-finals in the Champions League?

The month of April, 2014:



What would start out as an incredible month for Schalke 04 started in Europe vs Lyon in the quarter finals of the Champions League. More about that a little further down.

In the Bundesliga, wins against Augsburg (4-2) and Frankfurt (1-0) meant that we only needed 3 more points to mathematically and theoretically secure the Bundesliga-title. The chance for those points came against Borussia Mönchengladbach at home in front of 62.000 cheerful fans at VELTINS-Arena:



Which obviously meant:





A great feeling. We've worked really hard for this and we've been lucky enough to avoid major injuries to key players. I'm so proud of the team!!

The month ends with a hard-fought 3-2 away win at bottom-team and relegation-threatned Hannover. Marko Vucinic proves his worth to the team and bags two goals to see us go home with the three points.

The table looks like this going into the month of May:



Champions League:

We were quite lucky in the draw for the quarter finals; with all due respect to Lyon, the draw could've been so much trickier. In the first leg we go down 2-0 to an aggresive home side and we fail to find the net before the ref blows for half-time. During the break I slam my players, telling them how they're letting everyone including themselves down and that I expect them to perform much better in the second.

It must've helped, because we manage to go back to Germany with a 2-2 draw which puts us in the drivers seat for the return leg:



At home, the game is very much a formality. We're in total control and ends up as clear 2-0 winners and 4-2 on aggregate. The victory could've been so much higher as we fail to put on all of our chances, but we're through to the semis...



When the draw is made, it's clear that our luck might've run out on us; we're up against City who overcomes a home-defeat in their first leg vs arch-rivals Manchester United:



In the first leg at City of Manchester Stadium, we play a diciplined and defensive game although we're handed a loss. 1-0 away is definitely an acceptable result and at home we can allow ourselves to be much more aggressive in our attacking style.

But the big shock of the semis is to be found at The Emirates where Arsenal trashes Barcelona:



Back at Gelsenkirchen for the return leg, I tell the players rather assertively that they owe Man City for what happened to them in the first leg, we've got nothing to lose, go out and attack from the first minute etc...

It seems to have helped because we play arguably our best game of the season. Even though Marco Höger misses on a penalty after only 1min32sec in, we still get the early goal and we continue to push for another which comes not far after which, in its turn, leads to another and another. I'm breathtaken by our performance and I could hardly believe my eyes when it was all said and done:



I guess it was our turn to shock the world of football - we're in the Champions League Final 2014 vs Arsenal who loses 2-0 in Barcelona, but wins 5-2 on aggregate. What a fairytale season for us!!

The German Cup:

Bayer Leverkusen shocks Bayern Münich and wins on penalties in the first semi-finals. The next day it's our turn vs Freiburg at Mage-Solar Arena. In an epic thriller for the neutral viewer, we end up winning 5-4. I'm not the least bit happy with our defending in that game, but we're in the finals so I'm willing to see through my fingers on the result:





That means that we have the possibility to end up with three major trophies if everything goes our way! Who would've thought that prior to the season?

Player(s) of the month:

With the team performing so very well it's hard to chose, but Vucinic's goals this month in the Bundesliga along with Bacca's in the CL would see them get the joint accolades.

The month of April 2014 - The promised land:



First game of the month is at home vs Bayern, a chance for revenge. They handed us our first loss of the season and thanks to two Maximilian Meyer goals, the second coming in the 87th minute of the game, we come away with a 2-1 win. Last game of the season is away to Werder Bremen who's struggled against relegation all season long, but is on firm ground just prior to the last round of Bundesliga football 2013/14 season. Mirko Vucinic scores the lone goal to secure a 1-0 win for us, we end the season on a high.

Here's the final table of the Bundesliga:



Us, Bayern Münich, surprise-team Mainz 05 and Borussia Dortmund are qualified for next years Champions League. Two other positive surprises of the season; Nürnberg and Augsburg are qualified for the EURO Cup along with Wolfsburg.

At the bottom end of the table, it's two of Bundesliga's most classic teams that will have to take the step down to 2.Bundesliga for the 2014/15 season as Stuttgart and Hannover are relegated. Eintracht Braunschweig ends up on qualification and faces Greuther Fürth and wins that battle 6-2 on aggregate to stay up for next year also. Eintracht Frankfurt and Werder Bremen were both fighting relegation all season long, but thanks to strong wins in the second half of the season both team secure their place in the Bundesliga for next season also. Frankfurt sacked Armin Veh and replaced him with Markus Babbel - a change that proved to be very successful in the end.

I even manage to get one player in the German Team of the Year 11:



I still think I had several players deserving to be part of the team, but it is what it is. At least I was voted Manager of the Year:



Schalke Player of the Year:



German Cup Final:

A cup final in Berlin vs Bayer Leverkusen was awaiting me as a build up to the biggest finals of them all; The Champions League Final. But a German Cup win would also be something to savour:



It was always going to be a tough game, but we scored first and thanks to Ömer Toprak's two yellow cards for Leverkusen, we managed to push on to grab a comfortable 3-0 win in Berlin:



Champions League Final 2014:

Schalke 04 vs Arsenal - two teams who had recently won their respective league titles; Bundesliga and Premier League. Both teams had humiliated what on paper had been a much stronger opponent in the semi-finals (Barcelona and Manchester City). At the Estadio da Luz in Lisbon it was made for a very entertaining night of Champions League football and the game itself truly delivered:





What an incredible game!!! I didn't make any substitutions until the 87th minute of the game when I substituted a drenched Jöel Matip for Kyriakos Papadoupolous. Just before half-time of extra time; Vucinic (on for Bacca) and Meyer (on for Lodeiro), the last two subs were made.

During the penalty shootout, I couldn't look; I had my hands covering my face throughout and I have to admit that I was dancing around in my livingroom when I saw that we won. Consigli with the matchwinning save!! What a fantastic season this proved to be for us!!!!!

I even had a few of my players making the Dream Team:



And Draxler was named the best player of the tournament:



Schalke 04 U19 team:

I have to give a shoutout to my U19 team as well, just as the senior squad, they too swept the table and won both the U19 league and U19 cup. Very promising for the future:





Transfers In & Out:

I've bought some young talent to Schalke this month, starting with another young Scot:





..then a youngster coming in from Duisburg:





Those two are going straight to my U19-squad to develop there. This guy however is going to compete at senior level:





Jonathan Tah is one of the biggest talents in Germany and I'm glad I could secure his signature. With Papadoupolous leaving for Sevilla and Jan Kirchoff's loan deal soon to end with him returning to Bayern Münich, this is a good signing and a good investment for the future not at least.

Then to the players who's leaving us so far this summer:



I bought Rode from Frankfurt prior to this season and he's been ruling our midfield along with Lucas Romero. He's gotten his Germany-debut as well and he's been really good. Real Madrid sacked Ancelotti after a disappointing season and hired Unai Emery who immediatly bid for Rode. I can't afford to say "no thanks" to £20M, so I wished him well for the future and accepted the deal.

The player who I'm looking to replace Sebastian Rode with is Bayer Leverkusen's Lars Bender. With Leverkusen showing interest in Felipe Santana, a player who's been transferlisted at Schalke all season long almost, I've offered up a part-exchange deal which I'm hoping they will accept. I don't really have a backup-plan should the Bender-transfer not go through.



Losing Andrea Consigli was not something I wanted at all. He's been playing very well for me ever since joining from Atalanta prior to the season, he's part of Italy's WC-squad and just got his debut in a friendly vs Jamaica and his value has increased over time from £5M to £18.25M. Manchester City offered £18M, but I sent a counter offer of £18.75M which they accepted so it's fine by me. He'll become one of the most expensive GK's in the world and Schalke will be making a lot of money on him.

I decided to bring in this fella to replace him:



Hannover being relegated is not Ron-Robert Zieler's fault. He's actually been good for them and he's a world-class goalkeeper who happened to have a release-clause in his contract for £5.5M it was really a no-brainer.



Nicolas Lodeiro wanted a new contract I told him in a private meeting that he had sufficient time left on his current deal and that he would have to wait. He didn't take that too well and what was initially a professional talk ended up being a unprofessional rant with the result of him being transfer listed. Chelsea wanted him and they choked up the asking price. I have Maximilian Meyer who's going to be getting lots of playing time next year in his position so it was okay. I'm gonna have to bring in a replacement, but I'm not sure who it will be yet.

Other Transfers:

Miroslav Klose --> Leaving on Bosman ruling, couldn't agree on a new contract (He wanted £75K p/w for a year extra and he's not even a starter)
Chinedu Obasi --> Spartak Moscow for £2.75M (His hefty wage of £49K p/w is just good riddance, didn't play a game for me)
Tranquillo Barnetta --> Eintracht Frankfurt for £2.75M (Was on a season-long loan to Frankfurt, they wanted him and bought him. He was never in my first team plans, anyway)

European Club Rankings and Reputations:



My Champions League victory takes me up to 8th position of the europeian club ranking. Barca and Bayern are still the top-two teams. On the club-reputations front, however:



A great season see me overtake Barcelona as the world's most reputable club.

Next seasons budget:



Then a mere week later I'm asked by the board on what kind of season I'm projecting:



The final budget sees me getting more money to spend on the transfer-market due to my success in the Bundesliga, German Cup and Champions League. I'm however very happy with my current squad and I'm not gonna spend much money just for the sake of it; I'm gonna replace the players leaving and that's about it since we're not in dire need of strenghtening the squad remarkably.

Around Europe:

How did it go in the other major leagues of Europe, you might ask?

English Premier League:

Winners: Arsenal FC
CL: Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City
EURO Cup: Manchester United (Yes, Moyes got the sack, they've hired O.G.Solskjær), Newcastle & Aston Villa
Relegated: Sunderland, Hull & Crystal Palace

La Liga:

Winners: FC Barcelona
CL: Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Athletic Bilbao
EURO Cup: Valencia, Malaga & Elche
Relegated: Real Sociedad, Almeria & Rayo Vallecano

Serie A:

Winners: Fiorentina
CL: AC Milan, Juventus & Roma
EURO Cup: Inter, Napoli & Lazio
Relegated: Atalanta, Livorno & Hellas Verona

Ligue 1:

Winners: Paris Saint-Germain
CL: Monaco & Montpellier
EURO Cup: Bordeaux & Stade Rennais
Relegated: Ajaccio, Nantes & Guingamp

Eresdivisie:

Winners: PSV
CL: Feyenoord & Ajax
EURO Cup: Vitesse, NEC Nijmegen & Heerenveen
Relegated: Groningen & GA Eagles

Liga Zon Zagres:

Winners: FC Porto
CL: Benfica & Sporting Lisbon
EURO Cup: Olhanense & Nacional Madeira
Relegated: Vit. Setubal & Estoril

Scottish Premier League:

Winners: Celtic FC
EURO Cup: Aberdeen & Dundee Utd.
Relegated: Hibs & Hearts (Both Edinburgh teams, that's sad)

In the EURO Cup Napoli beat Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 in the finals, so next years Super Cup will be beween Schalke 04 and Napoli.

The month of June & July, 2014:



The World Cup is upon us and with the team returning on June 28th for the pre-season, there's a lot of tired legs in the squad, even after the break. I have to send people on 2 and 3 weeks vacations so I'm suffering in the first three pre-season games; I lose two on tour in the U.S. Then I win comfortably 3-0 away to Fortuna Sittard with half my team back from vacation. I lead 2-0 to half-time at home vs Brazilian side F.C. Santos, but changing my entire team at half-time leaves its mark as they come back and draw 2-2. I play most of my youngsters and reserves at Offenbach away, the last friendly before the season starts and I'm happy to say that I win 4-0.

In the World Cup, Germany reaches the final and ends up playing the biggest surprise of the tournament; Ivory Coast. I attended the game at Maracana and a defensive minded Ivory Coast manages to hold the giants from Germany to 0-0 throughout. The game will be decided on penalties and thanks to two penalty misses from German players, Ivory Coast wins the 2014 World Cup on penalties:



The German Super Cup:

So it's Schalke 04 vs Bayern Münich at Allianz ArenA in Münich. A very good defensive approach sees us shutting down their offensive threats. Just once were they a real threat and that chance ended in a penalty that Thomas Müller blastered as he saw Zieler save it for me. Neither Bacca, Draxler, Clemens, Holtby or Vucinic manages to find the net for me, so the game ends in a penalty shootout which we win thanks to Ron-Robert Zieler:



Transfers:



The part-exchange deal that I offered Leverkusen was accepted, so Lars Bender is now a Schalke player with Felipe Santana going the other way plus cash. The Revierderby will be interesting this year with each Bender-twin ruling their respective midfield for Schalke and Dortmund!



With Nicolas Lodeiro sold to Chelsea, I needed another player to complete Max Meyer at the offensive midfield-position. Lewis Holtby was available from Tottenham and I ended up paying them £7.5M plus £1.5M in future incentives to bring him back to Schalke.



Roman Neustädter was only a backup to the midfielders last year, but did fairly well whenever he was given a chance. But he was transfer listed by request after he wanted to leave to get more playing time under his belt. Wolfsburg seemed the likely destination having had two bids accepted in June, but the player couldn't agree on wage with the club. Leverkusen offered £5M and I accepted and off he went.

With Neustädter gone I need a new midfielder to come in. I'm in talks with FC Barcelonain regards of Xavi to come to Gelsenkirchen. His wage demands is pretty steep, but I adjusted the budget to have more wages available. If he ends up accepting my offer, he'll come on a one year deal with an extension after 15 played games as a clause. His routine should really help us.

Sidney Sam was also a player that had already agreed upon a transfer from Leverkusen to Schalke prior to my arrival at Schalke. He is not the kind of player that I see fit in my plans so I transferlisted him immediatly upon his arrival on July 1st. I've offered him off to clubs for a spot-fee and HSV ended up bidding for him when the price had hit £1.4M (His fee when bought to Schalke was £6M). I just wanted to get rid of him so off he went.

The following players have been loaned out for the season to either my affiliate clubs (Energie Cottbus/Fortuna Düsseldorf) or other clubs:

Aristote Ndogala (LW, new from Nantes on free transfer/Bosman) -> Düsseldorf
Pascal Itter (RB, own product) -> Düsseldorf
Esad Morina (S, own product) -> Düsseldorf

Kenneth Hansen (DC, bought from Rosenborg in January) -> Energie Cottbus
Thilo Kherer (DM, own product) -> Energie Cottbus
Sebastian Starke Hedlund (DC, own product) -> Energie Cottbus. He was at loan there last year as well.

Sead Kolasinac (DL, been with the club for the past 4 years) -> Freiburg. He was at loan there from January 2014, spending another year at loan.
Tim Bodenröder (S, own product) -> Osnabruck

Next time: The new season kicks off, European Super Cup, CL-draw and perhaps some new players in?

Top notch season Great to see you win the league, CL and cup

Surprised you sold alot of players for crazy amount of money

Thanks Johnjo! Well, I better cash in while I can.

Lodeiro had a great season for me last year but his wage demands was ludacris. He asked for a transfer and got it. Didn't want to sell Consigli, but for what City offered, I'd be foolish not to. Rode the same, Real Madrid are crazy spenders and £20M is good money

What a tremendous season for you -- and the future looks bright. I like to see that you're not going crazy despite your huge transfer budget as well; not sure I wouldn't submit to the temptation.

The future's very bright. I want to try and implement as many youngsters into the first-team as possible, but not everyone's ready yet, probably won't be for another year or two.

Wayne Rooney's been a.w.o.l. at Manchester United and he's crying to the press that he wants to leave because he wants to play CL-football. I'm honestly contemplating bringing him in, he wants to come to Schalke, but he's got a hefty wage. That's pretty much what's stopping me. Manchester United wants £23.5M for him, which is very fair, I'd say.

And yes, Ryan; A very tremendous year indeed Could barely watch the CL-final, was so nervous.

Great job Andres..
The fact that you won Bundesliga, German Cup and Champions league in the first season is amazing.

I wouldn't get Rooney imo

I ended up deciding against it in the end, Johnjo. I want to use Max Meyer and Lewis Holtby on AMC and Bacca and Vucinic + Avidjaj as strikers with the tactic I'm applying. Rooney's wage demands is just ridiculous, I don't wanna spend that much a week (what he's asking).

But deadline day is fast approaching and Mirko Vucinic is wanted by Liverpool after bagging 17 goals in 25 league games (7 goals in CL). If the offer's good enough, I'll let him go and bring in a younger face. Bacca's 27 years old, Vucinic is 30 years old, Avidjaj is 18 years old. Will be interesting to see what happens in the next few days and I'll tell you all about it in my next update