Andrés The Giant - Comments

The month of October, 2014:



A very good month for us indeed in the Bundesliga. It all kicks off vs surprising Mainz 05 at home and Bacca's reliable as he scores the 1-0 goal. Another from Allione sees us going out as 2-0 winners. A hard fought 1-0 win away to bottom-strugglers Augsburg away, and again it's Bacca with the winner.

Then it's newly promoted FC Köln who awaits at VELTINS-Arena and in front of 62.000, we do not disappoint. A fantastic performance sees us going into half-time 4-0 up after a goal from Diego and a natural hattrick from; can you guess it? Carlos Bacca, of course. He had a fantastic game. Diego Contento fould a Köln player inside the 16 yards box and they get a goal on penalty, but a Xavi freekick sees us going out as clear winners; 5-1 and a magnificent three-pointer before the season's biggest game so far; The Revierderby:



The first meeting of the season between the two German giants takes place at Signal-Iduna Park in front of 81.000. Borussia Dortmund has been excellent so far this season and is leading the Bundesliga one point ahead of us. They've even scored more goals than us, but we've conceded less. Before the game I end up in a war of words with Jürgen Klopp, but it gives me extra point with our fans, so I don't mind.

The table going into the game:



The game gets underway and as expected; Borussia Dortmund march straight on the attack and provide very heavy pressure against Ralf Fährmann who's in net for us as Ron-Robert Zieler is currently injured and has been for two weeks now. 11 minutes in and Marco Reus finds the net for Dortmund who goes up 1-0. Dortmund keeps on with their high pressure and it pays off another time after 35 minutes as Mario Mandzukic adds to the tally; 2-0 Dortmund.

Half time and I'm fuming and giving it to my players. It works, the second half isn't as loopsided as the first and slowly we keep clawing our way back into it. 60 minutes and Maximilian Meyer finds the net for us and 2-1. Then Bacca, who started the game, gets tackled hard by Hummels and although he could shake it off, I decide to rest him and throw on Marco Vucinic instead and tell him that I have complete faith in him making a difference for us, and surely enough; 87 minutes and Vucinic pops up just at the right time and bags the equalizer. A 2-2 draw in the Revierderby. Ralf Fährmann had a solid game for us despite conceding 2 goals and Dortmund had a very good first half, so I'm happy with the result, for sure.





That leaves the Bundesliga table for this month looking like this:



Dortmund still at the top, 1 point ahead of us and 4 plus goals better. Freiburg has been this years positive surprise, they're on third. Bayern Münich isn't what they once were, they're really struggling. On the last day of the month, they drew 0-0 at Allianz ArenA vs bottom team FC Augsburg. I wonder if Guardiola is safe...

Leverkusen is still struggling, but they've gotten another win since last time around and are now on qualification. Poor Nürnberg really needs to do something to get out of the swamp they're in.

Champions League, gameday 2 & 3:

Swedish outsiders Elfsborg awaits in Borås on gameday two and without too much efford we stroll to a 2-0 win away. I'm satisfied with that:



Gameday three sees the two group-favorites playing each other; Schalke 04 vs Juventus at VELTINS-Arena:



A superb win and 9 points after 3 games. Next round we'll be heading to Turin to face Juventus at Juventus Stadium. It will be a much tougher battle, especially with us having just been up against Dortmund in the Bundesliga just 4 days earlier, but a draw or a win in Italy will probably see us through to the first knockout stages.

Other News:

Mounir El-Haddadi, the new boy from FC Barcelona, is finding it hard to adjust to life in Gelsenkirchen and after having a private talk, we decided to send him on a one-week leave of absence to see if it helps or not:



Also; another youngster will be coming in come January 1st. This time, I've trusted my best scouts as 15 year old Kostas Kalyvas is bought from my affiliate club Energie Cottbus. A promising talent:





Next month: CL and the battle for top-spot in the Bundesliga is on...

You're still top of the table, though...

Gaillard looks promising

You can, but what I experienced with Sheff Utd on FM14 seems to be a glitch of some sort, a bug. If they're naming the stadium after you, you'll know it straight away. If they only release plans of a new stadium, it's just that, a new stadium won't be built anytime soon, it's just plans afoot to build one that never comes

The month of September, 2014:



The first loss of the season comes on the first game of the month of September; Away at Borussia Mönchengladbach's Borussia Park.
We're literally run over in the first half and we're down 2-0 going into the half time break. Needless to say; I'm furious. The lads go out and get one goal back early in the 2nd, but Borussia MG gets their third not long after. A late consellation-goal from Carlos Bacca sees the game end at 3-2. We didn't play very well and it was a deserved loss.

We respond with a 2-0 home win vs Eintracht Frankfurt and a 1-0 away at Nürnberg.

That leaves the table in the Bundesliga looking like this:



Our fiercest rivals, Borussia Dortmund, are one point ahead of us in the standings. Their summer-aquicition of Mario Mandzukic has paid off big time as he's been very good for them. FC Bayern's already got three draws to their record this early on along with one loss and is placed in 4th. Freiburg, Borussia MG and newly promoted FC Köln are the biggest surprises early on of this season.

At the other end, appointing Felix Magath has proved to be disastrous for Bayer Leverkusen as they find themselves at the bottom of the Bundesliga. One of last years two biggest surprises in Nürnberg and Augsburg follow them. Nürnberg has been good and lost close matches, I'm sure they'll turn it around in time, but Augsburg hasn't been good at all. Nürnberg also have the EURO Cup to focus on.

Champions League:

Gameday one was played and we got off with a magnificent start at home vs Liverpool:



A superb hattrick by Mirko Vucinic and a goal from Christian Clemens sealed the deal. Especially delighted for Vucinic, who's started the season great. He's also wanted by Liverpool, so a hattrick against them should up the ante a bit on his part should they decide to come forward with a bid.

Juve's also off to a strong start as they beat the biggest underdogs of Group B, swedish side Elfsborg, 3-0 at home.

Transfers:

I've signed another youngster. He will join from Basel in January:





Player of the Month:

This time, there's actually two - both have been crucial for me and they're both strikers; Mirko Vucinic and Carlos Bacca.

I usually rotate my team by having one set of players play the BL-games and one set of players the CL-games. Bacca's been playing the BL-games, while Vucinic, although bagging a hattrick on gameday 1 of the BL; will be preferred in the CL. Both have been delivering and they're both equally deserving of this accolade



Next time: Will we be able to go top of the table again? And how will Schalke fare in the CL?

Tell you the truth;

I only started a savegame with Sheff Utd because I managed them on FM12 and I got a stadium named after me. I only started the game with the aim of getting a new stadium named after me, but the board only released plans on building a new stadium after 6 years, which means that it isn't going to get named after me, so I quit the game. Got tired of it...

Started with Schalke instead

Haha! They certainly were at that time. Took them from League One to CL in 4 years

Probably helped that I won the CL and that Barcelona still have Sergi Roberto at their squad. I'm thrilled with him signing with me, though. Even if it is at a hefty £275K p/w

Yes, I have. Real Madrid came after me when I managed Sheff. Utd (6th season or so), but I declined them

I'm sure you'll nail it

Thank you

What do you mean?

Clubs without a manager approaches other managers already employed all the time. I've personally never seen a club with a manager approach for another manager, employed or not, and then sacked the current manager to make space for the manager they've approached.

Great job on going top of the table. Promotion is close

The month of August 2014:



The 2014 season kicks off with a tie in the German Cup away to third-leaguers Fürstenwalde. Without impressing anyone we win 5-1, just a comfortable win right there. The second round drew us away vs Hoffenheim, which obviously will be alot tougher.

Then it's time for the Bundesliga 2014/15 season to kick off and we're facing Bayer Leverkusen at home. Leverkusen ended in a disappointing place in the Bundesliga last season and lost the German Cup Final 3-0 vs us and Sami Hyypiä got the sack. His replacement is Felix Magath, and to be honest; I'm not so sure he's a trade-up from Hyypiä.

Anyways, we go out all attacking and we end up as clear-cut 3-0 winners in front of a fully packed VELTINS-Arena. Mirko Vucinic is the man of the match bagging two goals.

Then we head to Hamburg to face HSV away. We go in to the half-time break with the score being 0-0, but I tell the boys that I'm not very pleased with the performance up until then. It must've worked wonders, because in the second half there's only one team on the pitch. We score 4 goals, HSV 0 - a great win that sees us go top of the table on goal difference.

Then comes the biggest test so far this season; Bayern Münich away at Allianz ArenA:



Bayern had most of the chances in the first half, but thanks to a very good Ron-Robert Zieler, we held out until half-time. In the second we had our chances, but it ended 0-0. A point away at Bayern; I'd take that any day of the week.

We return home to face Hertha Berlin and after two goals from Xavi and Carlos Bacca, we win 2-0, and we're still joint leaders of the Bundesliga:



European Super Cup Final:

Napoli won last years EURO Cup after a 1-0 result vs Tottenham. Higuain, of course, scored the game winner and he bags one against us also:



Thanks to a late goal from Julian Draxler, we get the win. Another own-developed player; Maximilian Meyer scores the equalizer after Higuain gave Napoli the lead. Another trophy in our cabinet!

Champions League Draw:

According to this, we're handed an easy group. Somehow, I fail to share their confidence:







In my opinion, with the exception of Elfsborg, we couldn't have been handed a harder group. Liverpool and Juventus is going to be tough, but I'm going in with the same mentality as I had last year: Win at VELTINS-Arena, a draw away at least, and then we'll see where that takes us...

Transfers In & Out + Deadline Day:

Xavi accepted my offer of a contract and I signed him from FC Barcelona for £2.1M:



Another former Barcelona player found its way to Schalke as Mounir El Haddadi was signed for £1M. He hadn't signed a proffesional contract with FCB, and that allowed me to offer him a contract. I'm sending him on loan as soon as I can find a deal for him.



Then some young talent for the future was signed from Austria Vienna for a very low fee - he was also available because of not having signed a proffesional contract:





And because Lewis Holtby, one of my summer signings, is out injured with a torn hamstring for the next 2-3 months, I really need an AMC. The only options that I have within my squad are all youth-players and not ready to come in and play first team football over a long period of time. I have two players that I could've used out on loan, but I didn't want to recall them.

On deadline day I struck a deal with Atletico Madrid to loan Diego until the end of the season. I'm paying half his wage and £100k p/m to loan him:



On DLD I also had bids from Real Madrid on Christian Clemens who's currently valued at £10.75M. Real's offer was around £9M, but that's unacceptable. Clemens is staying put and so is Mirko Vucinic after Liverpool, who is interested in him, didn't come forward with a formal bid. Jöel Matip is also wanted abroad, by Juventus, Barcelona and Manchester City, but same story there; no official bids made. To tell you the truth, it'd be more likely to let Matip go than Vucinic. I've got plenty of cover on defense and players that can come in and make a difference for us.

Next time: Can we keep up our good form in the Bundesliga and the CL gets going

Mercier is going to be a beast, I can tell. What's his best position? Attacking forward? Poacher?

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

1860 München - Oktoberfest shirt:

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.

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

Nice going, Joe!

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?

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 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.

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 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.

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?

Congrats on going up, mate! Massive away-win in the first leg, there!

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

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

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...