Bayern and Beyond

Cracking read, mate! Great success with Bayern, hopefully you can get those long awaited DFB-Pokal and Champions League titles!

Thanks for that!



We shall see....

Love this, great league season, fantastic games against chelsea and now to hopefully tie the cup for the first time and hopefully a surprise CL title!

Well Dan, now's the time to find out. First the DFB-Pokal:



And then, the Champions League final:



Finally, a personal accolade:



So I've got that going for me, which is nice.

Well this was bound to happen:



For a rich club, that's an awfully poxy transfer budget. And there isn't a lot of room in the wage budget to manoeuver. Plus, that salary they're offering me? For a point of comparison, I'm on 110,000 a week at Bayern. I know that manager salaries don't have an impact on the game, but that's insulting.

They're a good side, and they finished one point off of PSG this season, but I'm going to have to pass.

Well done on getting the cup win at last buddy! Just a shame your side started so slowly in the champions league final!

Great read, this! Finally some success in the Deutsche Pokal, shame about the CL final, but we've all had games where we just know we won't win!

Surprisingly poor wages and transfer budgets from Monaco, but fair play for rejecting the Riviera life in favour of another year in Munich!

Gutted to see you didn't win the Champions League

Quite small transfer budget

Thanks for the commiserations Johno. The transfer budget was probably the main reason I didn't take the Monaco job. Not to worry though. My transfer budget for 2017 at Bayern is a bit more...robust

Yeah, it really was an easy decision. I was a bit disappointed to see, I was hoping for a bigger budget than that. I guess they're having financial issues IRL too.

I'm happy at Bayern. I've been making all these signings for the future so I'd like to see how they turn out. Januzaj, Denswil and Thauvin are just the tip of the iceberg.

The close season begins for me in earnest on 1 July, but until then, here's a little June mini-update:

You already knew about the job offer from Monaco. I rejected that, of course, which meant I needed to sign a new assistant manager to replace the retiring Johan Neeskens. I tried looking at Dutch and German folks first, but whilst I found some promising candidates, I thought I could do better. That's when I found this guy, one of Rafa Benitez's backroom staff at Liverpool and Napoli who was cut loose when Buster Bluth got the sack. He wanted to be a HOYD, but it's amazing how offering him twice his asking price (which still ended up being less than I was paying Neeskens) will make a guy change his mind:



And here's the best of my youth intake. I must say, I'm very disappointed in this year's class. I've found that with Bayern, I've become a regen snob. I won't even consider signing regens unless they're 3 stars or more. Here's the only three that fit that bill:





Oh well, you can't have everything all the time I guess...

July hasn't even hit yet, but it's time for what has become my favourite tradition - Manchester City comes and pays a ridiculous amount for one of my midfielders:


And here's my Best XI for 2015-16, which I forgot to include in my last post:


I've done up a spreadsheet and I've got a plan for this year's transfer window. I know who I want to move on, who I want to re-sign, and who I want to loan out. Thankfully, I don't really need many more players, just another defender (ideally one who can play anywhere along the back) and maybe a striker. Any other signings I make will be loaned back to their old clubs for a year or two. Hopefully, I won't have to spend much of my €117 million (now €169 million) transfer budget.

I think I hit on something - I signed those three regens from my last post, and I did it as soon as they were "introduced". As a result, none of them had signed with an agent so I was able to get all three on very favourable (to me) pre-contracts that will take effect once they turn 17. I'm going to make this my standard procedure from now on - especially as two of them have already signed with agents in the past week!

City just love giving you money don't they! Unbelievable amount!

It's crazy. I've received €154 million from them for three players. And I may not be done. Toni Kroos is on the block, and I once accepted a €30 million bid for him from Real Madrid but he couldn't reach contract terms with them. If get anything close to that for him again (and he's rated at €28 million) that would push my transfer kitty past €200 million

(P.S. City have already offered me €27.5 million for Stefano Denswil but there's no way I'm selling him.)

My fourth season in charge of FC Bayern Munich started with a plan for the close season, a plan that started out perfectly and quickly went to shit. But before I get to that, in and amongst the pre-season friendlies were two matches that actually counted, the DFB-Supercup and the first round of the DFB-Pokal. Between our four straight Bundesliga titles and a cup victory the previous season, this is our fifth-straight appearance in the Supercup. And as we did the double, an opponent must be found for us. I hoped it would be against Stuttgart, cup runners-up, but the team chosen was the runner-up in the Bundesliga, our old rivals Borussia Dortmund.

Drama in Dortmund during the close season, as it looked for a while like manager Jürgen Klopp was going to let his contract expire. However, he signed a four-year extension at the last moment, so I'll be locking horns with "Floop" for a while yet. In other manager news, Joachim Löw was released from his position as coach of Die Nationalmannschaft after a disappointing appearance in Euro 2016. He's been replaced by Thomas Tuchel, the former Mainz manager who got that club into the Champions League for the second time in three seasons.

So after five pre-season friendlies, we travelled to Dortmund for the Supercup. How would it go? Quite well, in fact:



More silverware (my 10th since joining the club) to start the season. A great start as we showed early dominance, only for Dortmund to kick it into another gear after Januzaj's goal. However, we weathered the storm and then took back control of the match toward the end of the half, only for Schweinsteiger to get injured right on half time. We continued to be the better team in the second half, consistently searching for a second goal to wrap up the match but never managing to find one. We swapped to a more defensive posture toward the end, but they failed to get an equaliser and we celebrated in front of their supporters

The second, and last, competitive fixture in July was the first round of the DFB-Pokal, or German Cup. As is custom, the lower-rated side hosts the first round, and so we travelled to Saxony-Anhalt to face VfL Halle 96. This was actually the second time I've faced them, having beaten them 5-1 in the first round of the 2014/15 Cup. My squad depth is already starting to come in handy with injuries to Schweinsteiger, backup keeper Dejan Stojanovic and the abscene of Florian Thauvin, who's at the Olympics. Still, even a weakened XI was never going to be a problem against an Oberliga (fifth tier) side:



Here's the list of July fixtures. I sent out what was essentially a reserve team side against Newcastle, resting everyone who was going to be in my team for the Supercup three days later. I wouldn't even have accepted the friendly, but they offered us half a million euros to show up, and you can't turn down that kind of cash...


Tactically, I've been playing around with a formation that I can use with my "Plan B" defensive match plan, and I think I've got it. Instead of using a 3-5-2 with two DM, wings in the middle of the pitch and a lone AM, I've taken my favourite 4-2-3-1 formation and tweaked it, dropping down the two MF to become DMs and the attacking centre mid to become a more traditional CM. This now 4-3-2-1 keeps the wings closer to the attacking third along with the lone striker. The result is a formation that basically concedes the wings in the middle of the pitch whilst gumming up the centre and providing for distribution possibilities as the left and right backs and wings link up:

(The formation as used in our match against Halle 96)

I used this formation in combination with Plan B match plan for the first three matches, before switched back to "Plan A" (A for attacking) and the 4-2-3-1 for the last three friendlies. I'm pleased with the results and look forward to using it in some tricky away matches this season.

Well this post has gotten big, so I'll post my new players in a separate posting.

Eagle-eyed readers in my last post would have noticed that I actually signed a talented young German player for once, instead of buying Dutch as is my wont. He's Jonathan Tah, formerly from Hamburg, and he's the final piece of my defensive puzzle, joined by Kurt Zouma, signed last year but loaned out to Augsburg:




One more signing thus far, picking up goalkeeper Timo Horn from relegated Borussia Monchengladbach. He'll join us at the end of this season, after I decide what to do with Dejan Stojanovic:


Finally, a signing who I had and lost. My scouts unearthed this young Turkish regen at Trabonzspor and I had agreed to a €5.25 million deal as a sign-and-loan-back deal. Unfortunately, right after he agreed to contract terms he suffered a sports hernia and my board canceled the transfer after he failed a medical. This was ridiculous because he wasn't even going to join me for another year! Oh well, I just hope I can re-sign him for the same amount once he has healed.


I'll do a final review at the end of August. I don't anticipate signing any more players, but I do hope to sell a couple of more and loan some out. My squad has mostly been bolstered by the arrival of sign-and-loan-back players from previous seasons, which has allowed me to sell some big name players for huge profits. Now, it's off to play some matches!

August 2016 Update

As usual, I'll split my August recap into two posts, one for the action on the pitch and another for the transfer window and roundup. My fourth season in charge of FC Bayern started with a trip to newly promoted Eintracht Frankfurt, back in 1.Bundesliga at the first time of asking. From there, it was the home opener against traditional rivals Werder Bremen. It doesn't get any easier as we then have to travel to Gelsenkirchen to take on Schalke, before wrapping up the month at home against Bayer Leverkusen, a team we have had lots of problems with during my time in charge of Die Bayern.






A great way to start the season, even though we were on the road I used my traditional 4-2-3-1 formation against a weak team I wanted to go at early. The Nord/Süd Derby against Werder was particularly satisfying and a great way to start the home season - that's now 19 straight Bundesliga wins at Allianz-Arena going back to the 2014-15 season. Schalke was always going to be tough; they may have 16th when we played them, but the way they played against us shows they won't be there for long. That match gave me my first chance to break out the 4-3-2-1 for the first time in the league. Finally, a wonderful performance against a side that has caused us real problems, and the 20th-straight Bundesliga home victory to boot!

Here's the league table after August's matches. Dynamo Dresden is not enjoying life in the Bundesliga right now. Koln and Frankfurt are the other two new teams:


Also this month, in fact on the Thursday before the Leverkusen match, was the draw for the Champions League group stages:



I'm happy with that draw. None of those teams really worry me; even Atletico is a shadow of its former shelf.

The next post will contain a review of the transfers for June, July and August. I'm not planning on making any more purchases, but if my players keep getting hurt, then who knows?

Brilliant start to the season Easy group but I'm sure Atletico could cause you problems?

Thanks Johno. I'm not as worried about "2016-17" Atletico as I would be about Atleti in real life. They haven't seemed to handle the transfer market very well and fallen behind Barca and Real. Having said that, they'll probably eat my lunch when we play them!

Love it when teams like Man City go mad with their money.

There was a new item saying a consortium may be planning a takeover of Man City so the good times may be coming to an end. #ohwell

Decent start to the new season and an easy european group that!

Great start to the season! And a nice champions league group!

Thanks Dan and George! Here's the transfer window update:

Summer 2016 Transfer Update

Despite my having a plan and then having it fall apart, I have to say that I'm happy with the results of my squad. I started with a €117 million transfer budget and finished with €160 million, all while actually signing some players, too:


There was, of course, the usual bevy of loan signings:


And remember Atilla Tuncer? The young Turkish regen who I thought I had a deal for only for him to get injured and the board scuttle the deal, even though he was due to be loaned back to Trazbonspor anyway? Well, I got a message pop up saying that AC Milan had put a bid in for him. The bid was €5.25 million, same as the one I agreed to, so I knew it would be accepted if I tried again. Problem was, he's still hurt, so even if he agrees terms with me, how am I going to get the board to approve the deal?

I finally thought of the idea of making it a delayed transfer instead of a loan back. That should satisfy the board whilst still allowing me to keep him at his old club for the year. Because of Milan's interest, my contract offer was a bit better than the one we agreed in July. Would it be enough?

(look under his photo)


Here's Tuncer and my other two delayed signings, adding up to a further €23.4 million. Horn you already knew about; Matheusao is a potential future No. 1 if he develops the way my scouts think he will. Since Paul Breitner has 20/20 ratings for judging, I'm going to predict that Matheusao will eventually replace Manuel Neuer between the sticks for us.

My three deadline day signings. All three are for the future, and I hope I'm around to see how they develop:




Just have to wait for the international break to end, then I'm back to playing matches. I wonder who will join these blokes on my injury list? (Lewandowski's injury came whilst he was with the Poland squad )

And the answer is...


FML

Seriously, what the hell? Yeah, I tried to get rid of him in the transfer window, but once I couldn't I decided it was good to keep him around as injury cover, and now I can't even do that!

Oh dear any more injuries to come?

I hope not, but the DFB didn't do me any favours by moving our Cup game against Kaiserlautern back one day to a Tuesday. Of course, this was the same week that we had to play our Bundesliga match on Sunday, leaving for a very short turn-around and a somewhat thin squad.

Thankfully Zouma should be ready for that match.

September/October 2016

The season began in earnest in September - the squad was settled, transfers were finished, and have my team was with the physio for some reason or another. Not really, but it seemed like it. Despite all that, we were able to play some good, attractive football:


First match after the break. Florian Thauvin finally makes an appearance for us (he was away at the Olympics and then scored a hat-trick for France) and immediately contributes. His emergence probably spells the end for countryman Franck Ribery, whose contract expires at the end of this year and, like Arjen Robben before him, wants too much money for a declining footballer.


First Champions League match of the season. Bernard scores a hat-trick. Not bad for a third-choice striker who's not really a striker to begin with.


Muller and Lewandowski keep the good times rolling.


We advance to the third round of the DFB-Pokal. The draw is absolutely brutal to everyone, and there's a very real chance that, going into the quarterfinals, there won't be any lower division teams left. We've drawn Leverkusen, who are struggling this season.


We fell behind to surprise package Hamburg at home, but BVB oldboys Lewandowski and Gotze save our bacon in this battle of the top two teams. The home winning streak survives!


Our first hiccup of the season. Absolutely gutted to concede that late at the bullet-ridden Donbass Arena. I know you should be happy to draw on the road, but it feels like two points dropped.


And the hangover continues as we lose to bogey side Stuttgart in a regional derby. Nothing good to say about this match.


Thankfully we bounced back in a big way in the Bayern-Derby against Nurnberg. The home league winning streak stands at 23.


Our Champions League campaign received a boost with this ding-dong battle against Atleti at the Vicente Calderon. Great work by Januzaj in particular - Manchester United's been sniffing around, looks like they want him back! We now top the group on 7 points, Atleti have 6 and Shaktar 4.


Everyone scores against an absolutely horrible Braunschweig team! Squad rotation and the midweek clash against Atleti ensure that I sent out essentially a second XI, including my back-up keeper who could use the work. That also gives my key players a good ten days rest for the home match against...that's right...

DORTMUND!!!



Here's the overview of our results for September and October, as well as the current Bungesliga table:



Next update will take us through to the winter break. Can we carry this momentum and become Herbstmeister for the third straight winter? Or will Wolfsburg spoil the party? We have yet to play them this season...

Reckon you'll get more points than last year. And maybe even more trophies!