simoncoyne - Comments

Hard to say - I've tried downloading it three times now and it keeps failing on me.

March wasn't quite as all-conquering as previous months, indeed, we still seem to be struggling with fixture congestion. Despite our squad size, injuries to key players Benjamin Ferner and Pierre-Emile Hjobjerg haven't helped, either.

Technically, March started with our 2-1 loss to Frankfurt, but that was more an accident of the calendar as the majority of that matchday was on the Saturday, 29 February. Still, we bounced back from that disappointing loss to shut out Hamburg, 2-0 at home, with Adnan Januzaj scoring both goals. Unfortunately, our road struggles continued and we were shut out ourselves, losing to Hertha 1-0 in Berlin. Another home match, and another clean sheet as we destroyed Nurnberg 3-0 in the Bayern Derby. You know it's going to be your day when Stefano Denswil opens the scoring - the centre half scored off a corner kick, as is his custom. That result left us 20 points clear with seven matches to play, and a chance to wrap up the Bundesliga before the international break at the end of March.

From there, it was on to the one "must-win" fixture of the month - the second leg of our Champions League tie against Milan. You might recall the Rossoneri holding a one-goal margin from the first leg. Well, we overturned that in the 7th minute and never looked back:


A true team effort - even former Bayern player Riechedly Bazoer scored for us! It was nice to see Mario Gotze do well - his season was delayed by two months due to injury and he has never really gotten things started as a result. By the end, we were scoring for fun - Barbosa's second and Muller's goal both came as we were supposedly employing a defensive mentality. We were through in the best way possible, and then two days later, we got the draw for the quarter-finals:


It was never going to be an easy draw no matter what. In my seven seasons at the club, this is probably the most stacked Champions League final eight that I have seen. Should we progress, it won't get any easier, with the Manchester clubs, Barcelona, PSG and our bogey side Lyon all waiting for us. Thankfully, the first leg is scheduled for four days after Spain's match against England. As the Spain manager, and drawing heavily from Real Madrid for that squad, should I weaken my opponents by running them into the ground whilst they are in service for the national team?

Finally, our last Bundesliga match of the month, and disappointment as we continued our March trend of losing on the road and winning at home. While it's true that our opponents this time, Borussia Monchengladbach, are a good side and not either relegation fodder like Frankfurt or treading water like Hertha, it was particularly disappointing as we had the chance to clinch the Bundesliga title with a victory. Instead, we never looked like competing, and now find our coronation must wait until April. The current Bundesliga table:


Not a whole lot to say about Spain's friendly against England, so I'm not even putting it in its own post. The most exciting part, for me as a manager, is that I finally have a healthy side to choose from, with no major injuries for once. This gives me the opportunity to see how my first choice players can do against a quality opponent (England is ranked 4th in the world) on the road as we are now a mere three months out from Euro 2020.


Not bad, not bad at all. We actually fell behind to England and I was afraid it was Germany all over again. But I was proactive, made some tactical changes and was rewarded with an Alvaro Morata equaliser soon after. Being a friendly, and with six substitutions in my pocket, I wasn't afraid to pull off underperforming players and give others the chance to impress. Morata scored his second goal, an we went defensive about 10 minutes from time in order to keep our win and go into Euro 2020 preparations on a high.

That's it for Spain, the next time we'll meet is at the end of May for training camp. I'm under no illusions; with Belgium (9th), Austria (14th) and Sweden (35th) we're in the Group of Death, no doubt about it. I have set up pre-tournament friendlies against Holland, Poland and Norway (hmm, wonder why I picked those three?) in order to prepare thoroughly for the task ahead. I'm genuinely excited about leading Spain into Euro 2020, and only hope that I manage well and the team performs to expectations so that I'm asked to stay on and lead Spain to the 2022 World Cup in hot-as-hell Qatar.

Sorry for the delay, Christmas and all that. I'm still playing this game, and have a six-week update for you now. Thanks for reading!





A very busy six weeks as we play catch-up due to the matches rescheduled from our Club World Cup adventure. In that way, being dumped out of the DFB-Pokal in the third round was a blessing, as it doesn't add to an already crowded fixture list.

On an unrelated note, see if you can pick the spot where I was able to sign Adil Neqrouz to a new contract. Neqrouz, you might remember, was the wonderkid from my first academy intake at Bayern Munich. Now, after six years and some loan spells, he was finally ready to take the step up. Neqrouz played in the Pokal, of course, but also had relief appearances in the Champions League and the Club World Cup. Strangely, though, he hadn't yet played in the Bundesliga all season.

Neqrouz's contract expired at the end of the season, and there was no way I was going to lose him on a free. Unfortunately, he had an issue over his playing time and wanted to be loaned out. As such, I couldn't get him to enter talks on a new contract. I spent large chunks of the winter break trying, in vain, to work out a loan deal, and merely being listed for loan did nothing to improve his mood. I named him to the substitutes' bench for the first game back from the break, a 2-2 draw at Wolfsburg where we choked away the lead, but it wasn't until Neqrouz found himself in the starting XI for our 3-2 home victory over Kaiserslautern that he was willing to take contract - nothing like scoring the match-winner to get you in the mood for money.

Neqrouz signed a three-year deal with a club option at financial terms that I though were favourable to the club. He sealed the deal with a hat-trick against relegation-threatened Bochum then, as if to prove it was not a fluke, repeated the trick in our demolition of second-place side Stuttgart. As a result of his torrid month, Neqrouz, who hadn't even made an appearance in the Bundesliga during the first half of the season, found himself rocketing up the goalscorers' chart to end the month in 5th place, with 11 goals. That total was just four off of league leader Shawn Parker's haul of 15 goals.

So despite a mediocre start to 2020, we took off, racing through the fixtures like crap through a goose. Our 3-0 home victory over Schalke (with Neqrouz scoring, natch) added more pressure to an already beleaguered Dan Petrescu; he would be sacked a week later and replaced with Andre Vilas-Boas. We did just enough to secure all three points in a 1-0 away victory against Mainz (Neqrouz didn't score because he didn't play). Finally, fatigue and the schedule caught up to us in the form of a lacklustre and disappointing 1-1 draw at Koln. The benefits of a full week's rest for the first time in a month showed as we were able to defeat Freiburg comprehensively at home with Neqrouz opening the scoring. Unfortunately, we would not be invincible - a shock loss to 17th-place Frankfurt saw to that. Things were bad from the off as Tomas Necid scored 19 seconds after the opening kickoff! He added a second in the second half, meaning that Neqrouz's strike in the 81st minute was a mere consolation goal and a valedictory for one of the best stretches of play I've see by a youngster.

In amongst the Bundesliga matches was our Champions League second round first leg in Milan. Disappointment as, after scoring before halftime when Gabigol beat Bayern oldboy Riechedly Bazoer to the ball, we conceded in first minute of the second half to substitute striker Facundo Ferreyra. Then, to make matters worse, we allowed an equaliser, again by Ferreyra, in stoppage time. As defeats go, 2-1 isn't the worst, as it does give us the away goal, but it takes the draw off the table and means we must win the second leg in two weeks' time if we hope to continue our defence of "Ol' Big Ears".

The Bundesliga table as of 1 March. As you can see, our five-match winning streak means the title is ours in all but mathematical certainty:


I've already played out March, and will type up that update during the second half of the Southampton v. Chelsea match.

Thanks gents! Now that school is over and the holidays are upon us I'll have more time to play. Speaking of which:



Six matches this month, as we travelled to South Africa in the middle of the December to play in the Club World Cup for the first time since 2013, my first year in charge at Bayern. This time, however, we earned our spot on my merits, instead of the Champions League that Pep Guardiola won.


Our first match was a wild 5-3 victory over Leverkusen. Gotze, returning from injury, netted a brace, while Thomas Muller scored yet another league goal to keep his defence of the goalscorer's title alive. The win keeps our six-point gap at the top intact, which is good for our designs on the Herbstmeister as Stuttgart will have two extra league contests than us at the end of the month.


Unfortunately, we followed that up with another three-goals-let-in performance; this time we could only score two and thus were dumped out of the DFB-Pokal by Bochum in the third round, our worst showing in my time in charge. I fielded a decidedly second-string side, as you can see by some of the names on the scoresheet, but still, to lose to a team in 16th in the table is inexcusable. Particularly inexcusable was the conduct of Facundo Cardozo, sent off in the 90th minute for his second yellow card. This is particularly galling as it marked the first time, ever in my time at Bayern that one of my players was sent off. I gave him an official warning for his unprofessional conduct, which he accepted.


The bad feelings carried over to our next match, a league encounter with Augsburg that we drew 2-2 at Allianz-Arena. Shahed Smith was in goal for us due to the rotation policy (and Timo Horn took charge in the cup match for the same reason). Manuel Neuer is due to start between the sticks in the next match. Let's hope we get things turned around quickly, because mid-week is a key Champions League encounter and while we're top of the table, we could still finish third in the group and fall through the Europa League trapdoor should we lose and Lyon win...


Thankfully, no such problems as Neuer was magnificent in goal against Porto and Barbosa and Ozil combined to finish the Portugese side off quickly. We went to Oporto and stuffed the home side comprehensively; it gave us the confidence boost we needed to travel to South Africa on a high. After Lyon crushed Galatasaray, the final group standings looked like this:


We ended up drawing AC Milan in the first knockout round. They weren't the easiest team available in the second place pot, but with Barcelona and PSG also possibilities, they weren't the hardest team, either.

So with that, we head to South Africa and our time in the Bundesliga for 2019 comes to an end. Despite our slip-up at home to Augsburg, Stuttgart fared even worse, losing that weekend and then drawing the next to keep our lead at six points, now with a match in hand. Der VfB did win their last match of 2019, which meant the mid-winter Bundesliga table looked like this:



Dortmund has managed to climb up to 7th (they were 11th when Klopp was sacked). Gladbach has struggled lately, while Schalke has pulled up to 12th and put some space between themselves and the relegation zone. Bochum has actually gotten worse since beating us in the cup, and Nurnberg has gone on a mini-run to get out of the relegation zone that they've occupied all season. But while all this has been going on...


We did it all at the Club World Cup, destroying African champs CS Tunis before shutting out Copa Libertadores holders Lanus of Argentina in the final. Benjamin Ferner was Man of the Match in the semi-final with his first two goals in a Bayern shirt, both came off of corner kicks. In the final, I took the bold move of changing formations, playing with two up top as I wanted to get Brian Martinez, one of my South American players, on the pitch. I played Gabigol as a False Nine and Martinez as an advanced forward. The result was a 4-4-2 with two central midfielders and two attacking wingers, like this:


It allowed me to get three of my four South Americans (Brazilian Gabigol and Argentinians Martinez and Joaquin Delgado) on the pitch from the start, with Cardozo coming on for Delgado in the second half. Given its success, I will try it out during our January friendlies with an eye towards using it in more competitive matches in 2020.


Confirmation that yes, we did win the Club World Cup and yes, we did shut out Lanus 3-0 to do it.

Finally, one last bit of housekeeping, the draw for the Euro 2020 groups was made, here's where Spain ended up:


The press called it an easy group, but I'm not so sure. Sweden was probably the hardest of the teams in Pot 4, and Austria played us tough in the qualifiers so I'm less than thrilled to see them again. Belgium isn't the team they were IRL in 2014, but still will go through to the knockout stages. I'm quite certain we'll go through, but I don't think we'll take maximum points. Still, it's something to look forward to in the off-season this year.

Thanks for reading, and I'll have a January/February update next. It figures to be a very quiet transfer window. Spending 95 million euros on one player in August tends to have that sort of suppressing effect!

Just like a pom, choosing Australia over Blackpool. He'll make some money, complain about the weather, get sunburned, and fuck off back to England.

DP91: Yes, our win against Stuttgart in the first match of the season is looking bigger and bigger. We know we'll have to face them to start the second half of the season after the winter break, too.

Dan: We always seem to have one match each season that's and absolute bloodbath. That was this season's

BMG033:





A perfect month is just what the doctor ordered as we try to tighten our grip on the Bundesliga whilst returning to the top (or at least securing qualification) in the Champions League. Our form, particularly against quality opponents, is exactly what I want to see heading into the Club World Cup next month


We let in more goals in this match than the other four matches combined, but I can't really be upset by a Julian Brandt hat trick. Gabigol and Muller each score their seventh league goal of the season, good enough for second place behind Gladbach's Shawn Parker.


After a frankly embarassing draw against Galatasaray at the Allianz-Arena, two weeks later we head to "Hell" to face Cim Bom in an absolutely vital match where three points in the only option. Muller got us off to a great start, but this time the shoe was on the other foot for once as it was us who instantly replied to an opponent's goal, with Gabigol scoring what proved to be the match winner two minutes after Gala scored. In the other Group E match, Porto defeated Lyon, which meant that we're still in second place but now level on seven points with Lyon, with Porto in third a further point back.


Back to the Bundesliga, and we travel to Bremen for the first Nord/Sud derby in two years following Werder's relegation in 2018 and subsequent promotion last season. Gotze and Brian Martinez both score as we win with ease to head into the international break on a high.


It wasn't easy on paper, with Dortmund and Lyon three days apart following the international break. The task was made even harder with the news that Gabigol was injured in training with Brazil. But the Argentinian Martinez deputised, and he didn't skip a beat, scoring a brace in yet another Der Klassiker victory for Bayern. The two goals puts Martinez on seven league goals as well, level with Gabigol and Muller but now three behind Shawn Parker, running away from the field with 10 for the year.

After the match, this happened. Quite frankly, I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner, given that in terms of trophies he had only won a single DFB-Supercup in the 6 1/2 years since I arrived at Allianz-Arena:



Our final match of a perfect month, and fitting that it should be a perfect match such as this. I was never worried, even though we were playing an Olympique Lyonnais team that had given us such fits at the start of the Champions League campaign. Januzaj was flawless, earning a 9.3 rating with two practically identical goals, and Adil Neqrouz came off the bench to score the first of what I hope will be many Champions League goals of his career. The win puts us top of the group with 10 points, Porto defeated Gala 2-0 to go second with 9 points. After leading the group from Matchday 1, Lyon now find themselves standing on top of the Europa League trapdoor - will they fall through? On 7 points, they must defeat Gala in the last match and hope we get a result at Porto, otherwise Thursday football beckons for the Lyonnais.

Here's the Bundesliga table heading into December. We have opened up a six-point gap over Stuttgart, but that could easily evaporate whilst we are in Morocco for the Club World Cup in mid-December:

Dan, I appreciate your optimism. I really wasn't happy with either of those displays as they were two teams we really should be beating more than 1-0. But a win's a win I guess, particularly in international play.





A mixed bag of results, five matches played and a month that started out with such promise turned frustrating.


A key Champions League victory over joint-favourites Porto to start the month. We actually found ourselves in first place at one point in the match as all four teams were on 3 points. Then Lyon grabbed a late equaliser against Galatasaray to send them back top with 4 points.


A great way to keep momentum going heading into the international break! Brian Martinez comes up big with a hat-trick against bottom side Frankfurt, his first hat-trick for the club. Thomas Muller scores to keep pace with the league goalscoring leaders, and even Facundo Cardozo got in on the act!


We returned from the international break to play Hertha Berlin. As it was right before a Champions League match, Shahed Smith got the start and he responded with a second straight clean sheet which was the highlight of the match. It took Julian Brandt nearly 80 minutes to find a winner, a worrying lack of goals for the squad.


Two incredibly similar matches to wind up the month. In both, we played an inferior opponent that was at the foot of the table and had real difficulty finding the goal despite absolutely dominating the stat sheet. Then, we our breakthrough finally game, we were begged back nearly immediately. Particularly in the case of the Nurnberg match, you might say it's a case of "beware the derby opponent who is in a vunerable position." But I prefer to think of it as "beware the Football Manager AI who wants to fuck you over."

It should have been six points we took from these matches. Instead, it was two points, which is a travishamockery.



The table at the end of October. Stuttgart has taken over where Monchengladbach left off last season. Our victory over them at the start of the season is still the difference between the two sides.

Might want to start by becoming the best team in Sydney first!

I kid, I kid.

Our final two international qualifiers, coming on the heels of our qualification back in September. Don't expect any fireworks, particularly after four players have been ruled out due to injury after I had already made my squad announcements.



Still, I didn't want to lose, and we didn't, doing just enough to win. Our 1-0 victories at home against Romania and on the road to Azerbaijan clinched top spot in Group J, not that it really matters because seeding for the Euro 2020 draw is done by world rankings, and we're already No. 1 in the world. 21 of the 24 teams in the finals have now been determined, with three two-legged playoffs to come in November whilst we play friendlies at home against France and away to Germany.

The final standings in Group J. We qualify, along with Austria. Romania's nine-point, third-place performance was not enough to qualify them for the playoffs.



As I said, our next matches are friendlies against France and Germany, as we continue our tradition of scheduling tough opposition in friendlies to build up strategies and take notes on our rivals.

Like you said, it's worth the wait if it's for a job as big as this one! I'm no fan of Feyenoord personally (being an Ajaceid), but this is a job you can do some serious damage with, so good luck!

Good luck in your quest for back-to-back promotions, and the Johnstone's Paint Trophy. Leeds was a great situation, hopefully the chairman will remember what you've done should you have a blip in form when you get to the Championship. But probably not.

Thanks for the updates on the updates, as it were.

Good luck with uni

Okay, I must admit that when I signed Ferner, I didn't realise that this would happen in his first match for us:


That's awkward. In retrospect, maybe I should have played him, or at least started him. But after finally getting my man after two years of trying, there was no way I was going to wait another week just because of the fixture list. Besides:



Mesut Ozil got us off to a great start against Schalke, but unfortunately, Ferner was the one to concede the penalty. To be fair, it was an incredibly soft call, Ferner barely touched the Koenigsblauen player and he didn't even go down. I was hoping that Shahed Smith (starting in goal per the rotation policy) would make the save, but he didn't. Thankfully, Gabigol struck just before halftime with a lovely headed goal, and that was that. I subbed off Ferner at the hour mark, but it was a debut to forget - a 6.1 rating and a conceded penalty. There's nowhere to go but up. Maybe...



Fucking FMed. Utter bullshit. I can count on one hand the number of Champions League group stages losses I've had with Bayern (it's three now), and this loss to Lyon was absolutely egregious. Still, if we sweep our three matches at home, win at 4th-seeded Galatasaray and draw at 2nd-seeded Porto, we'll finish on 13 points and that will be enough to go through. Probably even win the group.

Typing this recap has just made me mad all over again. Let's move on:



Playing on the road (for the third straight match) against the surprise package of the league Freiburg, we well and truly ruined the surprise. Muller and Barbosa continue to keep up with each other, Muller scoring first and Gabigol following suit twenty minutes later. A solid bounce-back win that keeps us on top of the table. No rest for the weary, as it's time to get up for the cup or face an embarassing defeat. Good thing I have a deep squad:



It's fun to be in three competitions when you've got 25 high-quality players in your senior squad. We demolished Paderborn 5-0 to advance to the third round of the DFB-Pokal. Trinidade completed his brace after 22 minutes, then created Turgut's goal just before coming off. He and Turgut finished with identical 9.3 ratings, I was glad to see the youngster get his goal because he certainly tried all match. Got to keep up our young players' morale.



Last match of the month and our first league home match of September (on the 28th). Brian Martinez scored in his second straight game, almost at the same time (16th minute against Paderborn, 15th minute against Koln). Ozil literally finishes the month the same way he started it; he scored only twice this month, one was our first goal of September, the other was the last. There's a certainly poetry in those bookends.

The Bundesliga table as of 30 September:



Borussia Monchengladbach has made their way back up near the top again, trying to prove last season wasn't a fluke. Stuttgart put aside their season-opening loss to us to come up to 2nd; that first match is the only difference between us and them. You'll have to look further down in the table to see Dortmund (11th) and really far down to find Schalke (15th). Werder Bremem and Nurnberg are finding that a year out of the top flight may have damaged their fortunes more that you would think; both bounced back up last year but are in the relegation spots again after seven matches.

Finally, a word on my goalkeeper rotations. With Smith refusing to go on loan, I need to find a way to keep all three of my top-flight goalkeepers happy (or at least not pissed). Here's my rotation:

• Manuel Neuer starts all Champions League matches
• Timo Horn starts all DFB-Pokal matches
• Shahed Smith starts all Bundesliga matches on the weekend before Champions League matches, Neuer starts all other Bundesliga contests.

I'm not convinced it will work, but I'm going to give it a try. I also have FC Bayern II as a way to keep my goalies' match fitness up.

It's safe to say that the European Qualifier away to Austria is the biggest match of my young international management career. Win, and we are in the driver's seat for Group J. Lose, and we find ourselves in second, three points behind this Austrians and facing the third-place team, Romania, next month.

I was furious with the LFP for scheduling La Liga matches, including Real Madrid, on the Monday before the tournament. The result was that my starting right winger, Isco, was only at 84% by kickoff. Screw it, though - I need to win, so I'm starting him. Fitting, then that it was the man who replaced him at halftime, good ol' Diego Costa, who headed home the only goal of the match, a match we ultimately controlled:



In the end it was Carles, a regen right back who actually was my backup plan should I be unable to sign Benjamin Ferner, who represented my rock-solid defence as Man of the Match. Looking at those stats, what in the world was I worried about. Here's the table after the match:



If you've done the math, you probably figured this out:



Success! We have qualified for the European Championship finals this summer in Turkey. When I took the job I was told the RFEF's expectations were to qualify easily for the finals. We are the first team to qualify, and we do so with two matches to spare. If that's not qualifying easily, I don't know what is!

Our next match is a friendly against Italy. I tried to arrange friendlies either with countries similar to the ones we play in our group, or with high-quality, high-calibre, high-rated opponents. That's what the second match is. Unfortunately, we'll be without Isco - he pulled up lame in training and has been ruled out. He probably was overworked from too many matches close together!

We win, 3-2, in a match that we controlled, yet fell behind twice. David De Gea got hurt in training, so I had to start his deputy at Manchester United and Spain, Joel. To be the best, you need to test yourself against the best, but what happens when you're already ranked No. 1? This is why I'm scheduling friendlies with teams like Italy, France and Germany - these are teams we're likely to face in the later rounds of international tournaments, and we need to gain the experience of playing them. Here's how we did - one of the goalscorers, Javier Merino is a regen, and our Man of the Match, Alex Grimaldo, earned just his second cap for Spain in the match:



I'm excited about the future with Spain. And I'm enjoying coaching Javi Martinez and Thiago again, although I wouldn't want to bring them back to Bayern. They're Pep's boys, and it's better than they moved on. After six seasons, I've well and truly put my stamp on Bayern and I'm managing the team I want to manage. Sure, there's holdovers, but they're there for a reason: Lahm and Schweinsteiger are my captain and vice-captain, and Thomas Muller will take over that role when they retire. Mario Gotze is an incredible talent, and Manuel Neuer is a club legend. The final holdover is Pierre Hjobjerg, who was a youngster with bags of potential on loan when I came on board and has blossomed into a 4.5-star midfielder, one of the finest in Europe. All six fit into my scheme, and importantly, with the exception of Hjobjerg and Gotze, they are homegrown talents. Even so, nothing last forever, and it wouldn't surprise me if two, three or even four of them aren't here this time next season.

We won all our friendlies, heading into the DFB-Supercup match against Dortmund that would serve as trophy #4 for 2019. It took some doing, but we managed to secure the cup, winning on penalties for the third time in my career I believe. Down 2-0 at the hour mark, first captain Philipp Lahm scored off of a corner when the original shooter, Jonathan Tah, had the ball nipped away. It fell to Lahm and he put it in the back of the net. In the 75th minute, Julian Brandt was sprung by a Thomas Muller through ball to slot home the equaliser, then we won in a penalty shootout that went eight rounds and resulted in Lahm scoring the winning PK. It wasn't all good news, as the reason Brandt was on the pitch was because he came in for Mario Gotze, who suffered a hamstring tear and is out for at least 2 months, probably 3.

The first round of the DFB-Pokal was a comfortable victory over Sixth Division side Union Nettetal; I sent out a second choice XI and academy product Halil Turgut responded by opening the scoring. Turgut is an exciting young player - 4.5-star-rated potential who I'm going to try to get some first-time experience. Our Bundesliga opener for 2019-20 featured a "can you top this" exhibition between Muller and Barbosa, as both players picked up the goalscoring form they left off and bagged a brace each in a 4-1 win over Stuttgart. Our home opener saw both players score again, but the defence wasn't a credit and we were lucky to escape with a 3-2 victory over Wolfsburg.

The chickens came home to roost away to Kaiserslautern, as Januzaj scored a very late equaliser to spare our blushes and secure one point. We bounced back in our midweek game against newly-promoted Bochum, with Trindade getting on the scoresheet for the first time in the league and Muller scoring a league-leading 4th goal of the season in the 2-0 win, the first clean sheet for the defence this season. That set us up for the UEFA Super Cup against Southampton; nightmare as we conceded in the 5th minute before Januzaj's wicked shot beat the keeper for an equaliser. The match went into extra time, but unfortunately Southampton scored first, then grabbed a third whilst we were playing forward frantically looking for an equaliser. So the dream of the six trophies is over with the 3-1 loss, but we currently hold four (all three German competitons plus the Champions League) and there's no reason we can't snag the Club World Championship come December, too!

Here's the Bundesliga table after Matchday 4. I'm pleased to say we're back on top with Leverkusen. Dortmund has some early struggles and Freiburg is the surprise package so far this season.



Also, here's the Champions League draw. I'm happy with it, I don't anticipate too many problems. It should be a fairly straightforward group:

Haha Dan, no pressure then. I did notice you said without defeat so I guess that means I can draw a few games!

Oh DP91, you'll probably be mad at me, because after some sales I actually got the transfer budget up around €320 million at one point! Then I spent some of it, as you'll see. As for my future, the plan is to play this game through to Christmas, then re-evaluate



What if I told you I spent €95 million on a player and still made a profit for the transfer window?

That eye-staggering sum (plus additional clauses and a 50% sell-on clause that is irrelevant because I will never, ever sell him) is what I ended up having to pay Schalke to get my man, Benjamin Ferner, the heir apparent to Phillipp Lahm.

Going into this close season, as you know, I had three main objectives. I'm pleased to say that I acheived two of them, signing Ferner and clearing out what was becoming a bloated staff, particularly in midfield. I actually had worked out a season-long loan for Shahed Smith as well, but he rejected moving, and there's nothing I can do about that. We'll just have to make do.

First, confirmation of Ferner's capture. He'll wear the No. 5 shirt, same as he did at Schalke:


I played the "long con" with my capture of Ferner. I started making offers in June, and every rejected offer was met with a new one just a little bit more. They were designed to be rejected, but I hoped to unsettle Ferner, getting him angry at Schalke for their constant rejections of the biggest team in the country. Unfortunately, that didn't really work, as the most I could change his mood was to "considering his options" and he stayed that way for 2 months!

Finally, with the transfer window days away and my bids approaching €50 million, I decided to act. Instead of submitting a bid, I negotiated. I hadn't done that yet because, a) I wanted Schalke to blink first, and b) previous negotiations resulted in Schalke coming back with ridiculous quotes that were north of €200 million. With days left in the window, though, it was time for action. When Schalke countered with something around €160 million, I knew there was an opening. Eventually, we reached an agreement: €75 million upfront, €20 million in installments and another €20 million in incentives. I know it seems like a lot (because it is). But remember a couple of things:

• This takes place in 2019 so, you know, inflation and stuff
• It's not the largest transfer in world history
• Ferner is 20 years old and has already been capped 12 times for his country. He's a beast.

Of course, there was the nasty bit of negotiating a contract with his agent. I had him down to a wage comparable with my other defenders, but I couldn't get him up to a four-year deal with that wage (not even a club option). In order to get the option, I had to agree to a €100,000-per-week wage, which puts him ahead of Zouma, Denswil and Tah (though barely, and I don't think they'll be asking for wage parity). I also had to pay out more than €7 million in agent fees (!) - he's a nasty piece of work, and I've had run-ins with him in the past. But that's just the cost of doing business when you're the gaffer of a club worth €1.26 billion.

As for my other transfers - how did I manage to turn a profit in this window? Here's how:



As mentioned before, €55 million for Bernard went a long way toward filling our coffers. James Wilson signed a pre-contract with Leeds, while Didier Aka'a and Sadik Smajovic were youth intake players that had no future at our club as they were less than 3-stars-rated potential. Smajovic is the second academy cast-off that Dortmund has taken off our hands - I negotiated to just under €5 million to make it more attractive, and they threw in a sell-on clause.

Casper van Zanten is an 18-year-old young stud that I signed as my future left back. He'll play in the first team right away and once he signed, Emre Can became expendable, so off he went to Arsenal for €29 million. The return of one of the Argentinian "Wonder Twins", Joaquin Delgado, from three years loan in Argentina necessitated the sale of Riechedly Bazoer - I negotiated Milan up to €20 million. The Wonder Twins have turned out to be a great piece of business for me - not only are Delgado and Brian Martinez awesome players, but I made a combined €75 million in transfer fees on the players I sold to make room for them on the squad!

Finally, two midfielders who no longer figured in my plans. The €8.5 million transfer of Lorenzo Insigne puts an end to that sad, sorry chapter; one of my worst pieces of transfer business (along with, incidentally, James Wilson, also gone in this window). At one point, I could have gotten €33 million for Insigne but I didn't take it - he ended up being surpassed in the depth chart by a resurgent Thomas Muller as well as Julian Brandt. Meanwhile, when clubs came sniffing around for Youri Tielemans, much like Bernard, I welcomed the attention. I know that he's a popular player around here, and a lot of you probably think I'm mad for getting rid of him, but the fact is, on this save, my scouts only rate him as a 3-star player with 3-star potential. By contrast, on my roster, I already have Ozil, Hjobjerg, Gotze and Trinidade as centre midfielders who are already 4 stars or better. Not to mention a regen, Adil Neqrouz, who is 2 stars with 4.5-star potential and who I want to get significant playing time. Three interested clubs meant a bidding war which resulted in a €25 million fee - €5 million more than my asking price.

Finally, the signings. You've already seen Ferner's profile, here's the other three signings, two of which will remain at their old clubs for the rest of the year.



I've already discussed van Zenten, signed from AZ Alkmaar. I'll probably come in for some criticism by certain quarters for signing another Dutchman, but come on - look at those stats!



This cheap young Turkish regen already has a 17 finishing rating. I've signed youngsters from Besiktas, Fenerbahce and now Galatasaray, so nobody can accuse me of bias. He's been loaned back to Gala for the season and will join us next year.



My first Swiss signing! I had originally agreed a fee of €17.5 million with a loan-back agreement, only for him to refuse to enter into contract discussions as he didn't want to be loaned back. So I had to re-agree for a transfer that would go through at the end of the season to get around that, but in the meantime, Milan popped up with a €20 million bid that I had to match. In the end, it cost me a little more, but I'm sure he'll be worth it. Between him and Ferner, I'll be looking to move Jonathan Tah on, at the end of the season if not in the January window.

Handed a fairly easy (but cold) group for World Cup 2022 qualification.



Then there's this. Whoo-hoo!

Made good progress on off-season goal #3, but sweet FA on goals 1 and 2...

Will post screenshots later. Friendlies are nearly finished, now it's time to face Dortmund in the DFB-Supercup for trophy #4 of 2019!

Going into the offseason for the 2019-20 season, I have three main objectives:

1. Find a season-long loan for Shahed Smith with a club that plays in Europe, a la Thibault Courtois and Atletico Madrid
2. Sign Benjamin Ferner from Schalke
3. Clear out the dead wood in my squad to make room for young guns coming back from loan and the reserve team

One of the players on my list, as much as it pains me to say it, is Bernard. His super-sub power seems to have waned the past few years, and we have exciting youngster Brian Martinez coming across from three years loaned in Argentina, as well as Halil Turgit possibly coming up from the reserves (although he'll probably be loaned out). About a week after the Champions League final, out of the blue, I got an offer from Chelsea for Bernard: value - €47 million. I negotiated them up to €55 million. That took my transfer budget up to €271 million - plenty of money to sign Ferner and pay agents during contract renegotiations.

Farewell Bernard, and thanks for your service. You'll be missed, but we got four good years and made a €32 million profit, so I'm very happy.

More transfers to come in my next post.

I know that you can't sign Ortega, but will you be able to get him on a loan deal? Or will the two non-EU transfers rule scupper that, too?

Glad to see you wrapped up your playoff spot early.

Congrats on the trophy. Now on to the 2nd division!

Thanks for the kind words guys, I hope you keep reading and commenting!



Only one match for us this time, our main rivals Austria, meanwhile, had two. We faced weak opposition in Iceland and, I must admit, I took my eyes off the ball on this one:

When was the last time you saw someone complain about winning a match 5-2? When it should have been 5-0, that's when. As you can see, we clearly dominated the match, and Fabregas was outstanding, pulling the strings in midfield and getting two goals in the process. It wouldn't surprise me, though, if he were to retire after Euro 2020.

Isco, Thiago and of course Alvaro Morata also scored for us. Still, up 5-0 with five minutes to go, we let in not one but two crap goals by Gylfi Sigurdsson, the second coming practically off of the kickoff from the first. The implications of this?



We find ourselves behind Austria on goal difference, a fact directly attributable to those two goals. While, with three matches left, both of us half for all intents and purposes already qualfied for Euro 2020 (and we can make it an actuality with a win in our next match), I want to top the group, and I want to do that in style. You can't do that by letting in two soft goals in garbage time...

Good luck mate. Hopefully you'll be able to expand your reputation and eventually land one of those top-class Belgium managerial jobs...

Well gents, that's the big question, isn't it? The short answer is that my Spain team has a Euro 2020 qualifier in two weeks, haha.

Seriously though, that's what I've been asking myself. Obviously, we've now qualified for the Club World Championship on our own merits, unlike my first year when it was a legacy of Pep's team winning the Champions League IRL. I'd like to manage the team in that, and the UEFA Super Cup, maybe try to match Pep's famous "Year of the Six Trophies" at Barca.

After that, well, I'm not sure. Part of the fun of this year was that the Bundesliga race was so tight. It is getting kind of boring winning the league all the time. However, some of my first regens, such as Neqrouz, are starting to have an impact in the first team now, and I am looking forward to seeing how my youth players will do.

On the other hand, I'm still on FM14 and so FM15 is just sitting there on my computer, waiting to be used. There's three ideas for saves that I have, but my focus is on this one. I'm a bit concerned about all the reports of crash dumps still on FM 15 so part of me wants to wait for a patch before I get too involved in the new version. Maybe I'll keep playing the Bayern game until say, Christmas, and then focus on a new challenge?

One thing is for sure - as I said before, this is my most favourite FM career now. At six seasons, it's also my longest (I have a short attention span!). A large part of the reason for both those things is the comments and encouragement that everyone leaves - playing (and writing) for an audience has inspired me to keep going when I might have otherwise lost interest (and now, after having won all the trophies I wanted to win, is definitely one of those times). So thanks for all your support, everyone!

Franck, this is an epic story and I really feel like you have created something very special that changes the game. This is apparent by the other people who have been inspired by your Lens save and are taking your player development and scouting approach to play (and the others who I suspect are planning to do something similar once they finish their current saves.)

You have done nothing short of revolutionising how to play the game. I think this will eventually prove to be big as the introduction of LLaMA was all those years ago. I certainly hope to see this thread in the Hall of Fame when all is said and done.

Instead of my original plan, I thought it would be more "poetic" if I did a post for the last three matches of the season, all finals in their own right: the now-pointless Matchday 34 against Dynamo Dresden, the DFB-Pokal final two weeks later against the same team, and the Champions League final against Arsenal.

First Matchday 34, and with nothing for either side to play for (we have been confirmed champions and Dresden have been relegated), I decided to start a different starting XI, and drew heavily from the reserves for my substitutes. This would be a good test on the progress of some of them - how will they do against a side that is on the cusp between 1. Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga?



You can see for yourself, the make-shift side made good! All the players with squad numbers in the 30s are reserve-team players, all five of them on the teamsheet saw action with the least-highly regarded by my staff, Spanish right back Igor, being named man of the match! Bernard getting injured wasn't the worst thing to happen as it allowed me to give Adil Neqrouz more of a run-out; the startlet finished the season as he began it, with a goal in a senior match (he scored a hat trick in the DFB-Pokal first round match at the start of the season). Look for Atilla Tuncer to have more of a substantial role next season as the eventual replacement for Gotze and Ozil; it was nice to see Tonny Trinidade have a solid performance as well.

The final Bundesliga table, then:


After all the drama, it's the usual Bayern/Dortmund 1-2 finish, with Monchengladbach hanging on to claim 3rd spot and automatic Champions League group stage qualification. I'm glad for that, it's the least Die Fohlen deserved. Dresden and Hannover go straight back down to 2. Bundesliga, while Werder Bremen goes straight back up, joined by Bochum. Hoffenheim would eventually lose the pro/rel playoff to Nurnberg, ending their 11-season stint in the top flight and putting Pep Guardiola on the hot seat.

Next up is the Final of the DFB-Pokal, once again versus Dresden. If a decidedly second-choice XI could smash Dresden 4-1, then surely my first teamers would have no problems, right?



Well we won, but it wasn't pretty. As you can see, Dynamo was certainly "up for the Cup" as it were, and we had to work hard to get our hands on the domestic double. Gabigol scored the game winner, but not until nearly the hour mark. The longer the match went scoreless, the more worried I got that Dresden would somehow sneak one and our season's work would all come undone. But the back line held firm, lead by captain and man of the match Phillipp Lahm, and we win the Pokal for the third time in my career.

From there, it was on to the Champions League final. My fourth attempt at trying to grab the brass ring, each against English competition. We failed against Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea. How would we fair against Arsenal, a team that for some odd reason has been made 3-5 favourites against us despite finishing 4th in the Premiership in 2019?

Looks like a great squad you're building there. I hope the board give you the time to let it mature and succeed!

Great job getting Tuchel onto your staff. In my save he did such a good job at Mainz that he's now managing Germany!

Everyone loves to play a 4-2-3-1 nowadays (myself included) but I think in the lower leagues you still can't go wrong with a 4-4-2...

Good month in the league, KIU

Congrats on vanquishing Barca and PSG to win the Champions League again! Still looking for my first but at least I've also beaten PSG and Barca this season - maybe an omen?

Bonne chance in Monaco!