BMG x2

Brilliant start to the season

Congratulations mate!! Fantastic!

Had a break from FM yesterday because it was my birthday, but we're back and the season is really starting to look good!

September - October Results
An amazing run of form has seen us remain unbeaten in all competitions for over 20 games! That run stratches back to the last few games of last season. As you can see, the CL hasn't been my main priority, but we have still managed to get 6 points from 4 games. Max Kruse has just started to hit top form with 8 goals in the last 4 games. The draws away at Dortmund and Bayern are quite pleasing.

(Accidently went into November but oh well.)


League Standings
As predicted, Bayern are no longer the force they were since Guardiola left. Dortmund, like us, have also remained unbeaten so far and sit in 2nd place 4 points behind us.



Champions League Group
3 draws and 1 win leave us on 6 points from 4 games. A win in the next game will see us through to the knockout stages. Its unlikely that we'll get top spot, but as i've said, the CL isn't my main priority this year.

Cracking run without defeat so far

You should aim for CL alongside Bundesliga

Happy birthday for yesterday

Happy birthday mate. Hope it was a good one.

Bayern should definitely hire a 43-year-old Dutchman who led them to four Bundesliga titles on the bounce in an alternate universe to pull them out of their funk.

Happy late birthday mate!
Great run you got going there! Mind asking you: who took over Bayern for Guardiola?

Well my initial goal was to win the Bundesliga, but a CL medal wouldn't be bad if we mess up in the league!


Maybe, although there is a 22 year old in charge of Monchengladbach thats apparently quite good, might be a tough challenge!


You would assume that they would go for another world class manager, but no...


Also thank you all for the birthday wishes

November - December Results
Our form in November and December has dipped slightly. We have finally suffered our first defeat of the season away at Hoffenheim. We also lost to Schalke in the last game before the winter break. But the good news is that we are still unbeaten in the cup competitions and have progressed to the next rounds despite playing a weakened team in both. Kruse is still going strong as he finished this half of the season with 7 in 7 and currently sits top of the Bundesliga scoring chart.



DFB-Pokal Quarter Final Draw
That win over Leverkusen put us in the hat for the quarter final. We drew Schalke at home. This seasons cup is looking exactly the same as last seasons so far. Bayern losing in round 2, Dortmund losing in round 3 and then us getting Schalke at home in the quarters, lets just hope it ends in another 5-0 win in the final for us!



League Standings
Despite suffering our first defeats of the season, we remain top of the table just ahead of Dortmund. Bayern have 3 games in hand due to their participation in the Club World Cup. They would have to win all 3 games to jump ahead of us, although 1 of them is against Dortmund.



Champions League Group
Like last season, we finished as the runner up in our group. But we did run Atletico Madrid close with a weakened team. Pleased to get into the next round, but i'm not expecting much from the CL this season.



Champions League Knockout Draw
We got the best possible draw in the first knockout round. A good chance to reach the quarter finals again and bring in some much needed reward money! Also Everton did really well to get through their group. They had Dortmund, Benfica and Fenerbahce and came out of it unbeaten.

Having a good season to date mate, shold beat porto too!

Thanks, i'm writing the next update as we speak. Porto tie has been played as well as a big game against Bayern!

BMG vs Bayern
I thought i'd start off with a clash against Bayern in the league. It turned out to be further proof that Bayern aren't that great now that Rodgers is in charge. I knew we had a good chance of winning, but I didn't expect this. Lewandowski gave Bayern the lead, but that was as good as it got for the reigning champions as Tom Cleverley equalised from kick off. From that moment on we had total control of the game and if it wasn't for Neuer being so good, we could've had about 8 or 9. In the end it finished 4-1 with further goals coming from Ayew, Pepe & Kruse.




January - February Results
Ok so I accidently went into march a bit, but at least that meant I got the 2nd leg of the Porto clash out of the way.

I was very pleased with our first half of the season form, but I am even happier with our start to the second half! We went on to win 8 out of the next 9 games, including that Bayern game, the DFB-Pokal quarter final against Schalke and the first leg against Porto. The only slight hiccup was a 0-0 draw away at Mainz. We lost the 2nd leg against Porto, but the scoreline from the 1st leg was enough to get us through to the quarter final for the 2nd season in a row.



Cup Draws
With no Bayern or Dortmund to trouble us, its looking likely that we could win a 2nd DFB-Pokal in a row! A semi final against Freiburg stands in our way of reaching the final.



After dispatching Porto in the previous round, I had hoped to get Everton in the quarter final draw. But it wasn't to be as we have been drawn against Juventus. Tough, but not impossible!



League Standings
Our brilliant form has seen us pull clear at the top of the Bundesliga. But it is a bit of a fake lead as Bayern and Dortmund have games in hand and can close the gap right up. Our next game is at home to Dortmund, so a win in that one could see them out of the title race as I can't see them pulling back a 10 point gap.

Good results bar few loss. Good CL draw

Yeah, I think thats put Dortmund out of it now...

Champions League Quarter Final
So our next opponent in Europe was Juventus. I expected them to be our toughest test in Europe this season and they were. But despite us failing to create a clear cut chance and them creating 4, we managed to get a 1-1 draw to take to Turin. Had they been a bit more clinical, they could've won the 1st leg easily.



The 2nd leg looked like it was going to be a nightmare when Berardi and Marchisio put Juve 2-0 up on the night and 3-1 up on aggregate. That looked to be it for our CL campaign this season, but then in the second half we sprung to life and pulled a goal back through Vilhena. That goal rocked the Juve players and just 7 minutes later Kruse equalised to make it 3-3 in the tie! Both teams had a couple more chances to seal the game, but neither could and the game ended 2-2. That meant we had beaten Juventus on away goals and now progress to the CL semi finals! What the hell!



After that hugely unexpected win, the draw for the semis took place. I highly doubt we'll be going much further to be honest, but you never know. We shall go to Barcelona with no fear and play to win!



March - April Results
Our Bundesliga form is still going, although a surprise 0-2 defeat at home to Wolfsburg has handed Bayern a bit of hope. We also lost in the cup semi to Freiburg. Our hopes of 2 consecutive cup wins are gone



League Standings
We remain top of the league, but 1 loss could see Bayern take top spot from us. It would be so cruel if we lose the title this late in the season. Dortmund though have imploded and are out of it. They lost to both BMG and Bayern earlier in March before getting thumped by Koln 5-2. Must keep Kruse fit!

Cracking job in the league and CL! Barça, no doubt, are going to give you a tough time, but I believe you can fend them off for a final berth. And it looks like it's just you and Bayern for the league title; keep it up!

Great run in the CL even if it does end here in the Semis, barca are a great team to lose to thats for sure! we'll see though!

Great work there mate! Hopefully you can hold onto top spot

1st leg is at the Nou Camp so we desperatly need to come away from it with some kind of hope that we can beat them in the 2nd leg. Preferably avoiding a spanking would be nice.


It'll be tough, but as we found out in the Europa League, we can upset the odds!


Hopefully, we face our fierce local rivals Koln in one of the last couple of games. I'm sure they'll be up for giving us a tough time.

Tough draw against Barca but you can beat them

I've just played the 2nd leg against them, will update everything in a bit!

I just spent about half an hour, maybe more writing the end of season update, pressed submit and then I got an error message saying "Oops something went wrong". Brilliant. Now I have to do all that again, I had written an absolute shit load as well

Big End of Season Update

Going to make it a lot shorter, don't want to lose it all again!

Champions League Semi Final
The first leg was a good game. We went there to win, but in all honesty I just hoped that we would take back a scoreline that would give us a chance of beating them at our place. We did just that with a 1-1 draw. Ayew had given us the lead before Messi equalised. Pique would miss the return leg through suspension and although Johnson went off injured, he would be fine as he played our next league game just 3 days later.

So with the score level, it was all to play for at Borussia Park. We took the lead through Tonny Vilhena but once again they equalised just before half time through Piques replacement Marc Bartra. We battered their defence for the rest of the game but couldn't find a way through. Extra time it is. 2 knackered sets of players produced next to nothing in the additional 30 minutes, so the dreaded penalties had to make an appearence.

Barcelona went first with Messi. We were without Kruse who had to go off, Angelo Henriquez took his place.

FCB 1: Messi scores (1-0)
BMG 1: Herrera misses (1-0)
FCB 2: Neymar scores (2-0)
BMG 2: Henriquez scores (2-1)
FCB 3: Iniesta scores (3-1)
BMG 3: Vilhena scores (3-2)
FCB 4: Samper misses (3-2)
BMG 4: Johnson misses (3-2)
FCB 5: Bartra scores (4-2)

Barcelona win 4-2 on penalties




It was an amazing journey, I never expected to get this far. But we can be very proud of ourselves because despite the wealth and superior talent of the other teams, our spirit and determination helped us surprise everyone. I guess it just wasn't meant to be this time.

Bundesliga Title Push
So that CL exit allowed us to 100% concentrate on league matters.

First up was a home game against Hannover. They had been awful all season and had recently been beaten 8-0 by Bayern. Bayern were at Dortmund and if they lost and we won, the title would pretty much be ours. We completed our side of the deal with a convincing 5-0 win and a Kruse treble, but Bayern survived an almighty battering at Dortmund and came away with a 0-0 draw to keep the title race going.




Our next game was away at our fierce rivals Koln. A win here would give us the title, what an opportunity this is. It turned out to be a typical derby game which had more cards than shots on target. In fact there was only 3 clear cut chances all game, but all of them went in. First up was Max Kruse to give us the lead. Shortly afterwards, Bayern took the lead against Hertha in their game. But then Koln hit back and we went in at half time 1-1. Into the last 45 and we heard news that Bayern goalscorer Alonso had been sent off. Just as that was happening, mighty Max did what he does best and put us 2-1 up. The Koln players decided to spent the rest of the game practicing their kickboxing moves. Its dangerous but as long as they don't try and score, I don't care what they do because this scoreline is what we need. In the end, it was also what we got as we claimed the league title in the back yard of our rivals! Bayern had won 2-0 in the end, but it didn't matter as they could no longer catch us!





Pretty much my reaction!


The season finished off with a 2-1 home win agaisnt Schalke. Its looking like it may well be my last game as BMG boss, so I thought i'd give Europa League final 2015 hero, Janis Blaswich, a game in goal. In the end, Dortmund were lucky to hang on to 3rd place from Leverkusen.



One last look at that glorious league table!

Mighty Max Kruse
(So good he deserves his own post)

The legend that is Max Kruse finished as the leagues top scorer. In fact, he got as many as Bayerns Robert Lewandowski and Jackson Martinez put together!


Overall look at his stats this season. Superb stuff.

Seasonal Awards - 2015-16
Bold indicates BMG player or manager.

Player of The Year - 1st David Alaba, 2nd Phillip Lahm, 3rd Max Kruse
Players Player of The Year - 1st Andre Ayew, 2nd Andre Hahn, 3rd Robert Lewandowski
Top Scorer - 1st Max Kruse, 2nd Josip Drmic, 3rd Robert Lewandowski
German Players Newcomer of The Year - 1st Jetro Willems, 2nd Tonny Vilhena, 3rd Matti Steinmann
Coach of the year - 1st Christian Streich, 2nd Ben Griffiths, 3rd Adi Hutter
Players Coach of The Year - 1st Christian Streich, 2nd Ben Griffiths, 3rd Adi Hutter

Sorensen, Hahn, Ayew and Kruse made it into the team of the year and players team of the year, while Pepe was included in just the team of the year.

Well done on the league title mate, great CL run, just a step to far this year around it seems!

Thanks! To get to the semi final was above expectation so i'm pleased with that.

Borussia Monchengladbach Fans Player of The Year
Surprisingly it didn't go to Kruse this year. Johnson was fantastic though and had been attracting interest from Manchester United and Real Madrid.



Best Eleven
Pepe and Sorensen should switch places and so should Herrera and Cleverley. But at least it picked the right players this time.

Only one .gif can describe your title winning season with Gladbach.



Massive 'grats and it's a shame you couldn't dump out Barcelona despite seemingly dominating (going by the match stats) the second leg at home, shame. Oh and Max Kruse is awesome, get him signed him long term so he can end his career at the club and then build a statue of him outside the ground - you know that last part makes sense.

Thanks I had originally set out to just win the Bundesliga, but I didn't think it would only take 3 seasons.

Yeah, it was close but Barcelonas defending was just too good in the end. We never really split them open so a lot of those shots were from distance. Max Kruse is now 29 and he will be 32 when his current deal expires. There were moments when I thought an incoming transfer request was imminent, but in the end I got him to commit until 2020.

At the start of the season just gone, there was a bit of a disagreement between me and the board over transfer funds. My contract also only had 1 year left and they kept asking me to extend my deal. In the end I decided not to sign the new contract they had offered and went all out to win the league as a last hurrah before moving on. Thankfully I achieved that and had a very good run in the CL too. I didn't expect to complete it so soon, I thought maybe it would take at least 5 years due to the presence of Bayern.

So my contract expired on 30th June 2017, not being renewed. Was good times! May come back to this at a later date and continue on in another country, but until then, i'll have a crack at a harder challenge.

Hope there is more to this story and not just the end!