simoncoyne - Comments

I agree, that should be in the Hall of Fame. I spent a few days reading that one.

I hope you all "get the band back together"

Thanks Dan. I'm really happy about the defence because that was the area I really focused on in the close season so I'm glad my decision to get rid of Martins Indi and Ivanovic and bring in Zouma paid off. Not sure about the Champions League - this is three seasons out of four that we've made the final, only to lose to an English team. We'll see how we go.

Did you express interest in either of those jobs? I say you should have aimed to take over for Floop...

May 2017

Well, first the good news:


Our second straight DFB-Pokal, and the club's 18th overall. Wolfsburg was no match for Mario Gotze's hat trick and Bernard's brace. I really need to figure out a way to get Bernard into the lineup more often, he always seems to bag a brace whenever he does play. I used to think it was because I always played him against inferior competition, but as you can see by the final league table, Wolfsburg were no slouches:



I thought our defence would be better than last year's, and I was right as we allowed the least amount of goals in the league for the first time in my tenure as Bayern boss.

Now the bad news...we lost in the Champions League Final, again. 2-1 to Chelsea and I was so mad I didn't take any screenshots. Oh well, I suppose it's my own fault; I didn't put Bernard in until the 80th minute and by then we were already down 2-0. He did pull one back but it wasn't enough time to get an equaliser.

I've already played through to next season's transfer window, and will update that next. There is, shall we say, a controversial transfer on the horizon...

Well that the minor premiership done, now to win the actual title. Good luck in the A-League finals!

Stuff Bardejov. At least now you've got some money to spend. Good luck!

Thanks Dan, let's find out how April went, shall we?

April 2017

Our busiest and most important month so far began with a Bundesliga match against one of the two teams to have beaten us, Köln. From there, it was the Champions League quarter-finals against Arsenal and more matches against mid-table Bundesliga sides as we look to wrap up our fifth-straight league title (and my fourth):



The match was 2-1 in our favour, and we did in fact score two goals, but one of them one an own goal by Phillip Lahm. In actual fact, both teams' captains scored own goals in the match, as Mertesacker put one into his own net as well!


1-0 was good enough, thanks to Thomas Muller's strike five minutes before half-time and two away goals from the first leg. We tried to get a second, but after 75 minutes switched to defensive mode so as to not to throw away the tie. We'll face Valencia in the semi-finals.

Another Bundesliga win, but Dortmund kept pace so we wouldn't be able to clinch just yet. The longer this keeps up, the more I have to play some of my top players in both Champions League and Bundesliga matches each week.

A diappointing loss, to concede late in that fashion. However, we have two away goals in the bag, so we can afford to concede one (or worst case scenario two) at Allianz-Arena and still go through provided we win.

Our Bundesliga match against Wolfsburg was scheduled for a 18:30 kickoff, and Dortmund played at 15:30. With a 9 point lead and three matches left, we needed only to earn one point or have Dortmund drop a point. Before our match started, this message appeared in my inbox:


Welcome news because now I could change my teamsheet and second out a reserve side for the evening's match, resting key players for the return leg against Valencia. Unsurprisingly, this happened:


No worries, as the title was secure. On to more important matters then. I opted to start out quickly to get the goal I needed to claim the tie, then switch to a more balanced and standard mentality and take things as they come. I never expected for this to happen:


7-0, our best-ever Champions League performance and against a quality side to boot! After Lewandowski's penalty, I switched to a defensive mentality and we still scored four more goals! (Well, technically three as the seventh was an own goal by real-life Bayern man Juan Bernat). Valencia couldn't stop us, no matter what we did.

Looks like we'll be playing our old friends Chelsea in the Champions League final. Maybe the third time's the charm for me. This is at least a team we know we can beat.

Our final match of the month, and final Bundesliga home match of the year, extends our home winning streak to 36 matches.

With one match left in the season, I'll post the table next month.

Welcome to Oz! We're glad to have you here even if you are coaching in Victoria...

As far as competitions, we have the A-League (obviously) and the FFA Cup (which in real life started just this year). The A-League has a regular season and a Finals season (which is why the top six spaces are in green). The team at the top of the table also gets named as the "Minor Premiers" and the winner of the Finals is deemed to be the league champion. This is pretty much how the other two football codes (Aussie Rules and Rugby League) do their competitions, so the A-League used what was familiar to Aussie sport fans.

I would say that to tick off the country, you'd need to win the FFA Cup, the A-League finals and the minor premiership, but the fact that only the finals winners are considered A-League champions may mean that you decide you only need to do the first two.

Good luck Rick...I look forward to seeing how you go. This should be entertaining!

It depends on what you want to do. If you think you've gone as far as you can with BMG, let your contract run out and do the best you can in your last season. If you want to stay in Germany and knock off Bayern, try to get a job managing Dortmund or Schalke because those are probably going to be the two clubs that can do it. Your reputation, particularly after winning the Pokal and a UEFA Cup with a second place Bundesliga finish, should be good enough to get either of those jobs when they come available.

Or you could go to another country and try the same thing. Maybe France to take on PSG, or Spain and bust up the Barca/Real duopoly with a team like Atletico or Valencia.

But if you think you've got more to do with Gladbach, stick around. See how season #3 goes. They'll keep offering you contracts, particularly if you're doing well.

March 2017


A short month with only five matches, the biggest was the Champions League second leg against Manchester United. However, we had no less than three derby matches, the Süd derby, followed by the Bayern derby, and Der Klassiker against Dortmund.



Derby season kicked off with the Süd derby against Stuttgart. With most of the players from the Man Utd match getting a well-deserved rest, we were able to comfortably handle Stuttgart anyway. However, the Bayern derby was a different matter. Nürnberg was pumped up for a derby match at their place, and we twice gave away leads in the first half before settling in for the draw in the second half.


Braunschweig is quite poor this season, and at this point the best they can hope for is 16th, which would put them in the pro/rel playoff against the 3rd place team from 2.Bundesliga. We scored for fun, and Bernard continued to feast on lower-level opposition with a brace. Then, it was on to Der Klassiker:



Can't complain about a win against Dortmund. The result means that at the end of the month, we're sitting pretty, with a twelve point lead and six matches left:


April is a very busy month, much like February was. If we beat Arsenal in the quarters of the Champions League, we'll have two matches every week once again.

Funny, because not too much after I posted my comment, in my game I lost my starting striker and attacking centre mid in the two matches before a key CL match against Manchester Utd! I'm happy to see that we both managed to rise above the unfortunate injuries and progress

Congrats on making the group stages of the Europa League.

I think it's crazy that Oscar stayed at Chelsea until 2027. That's John Terry-type loyalty...

Good luck in all your many competitions this year. You're off to a great start!

4.5 star midfielders and a partnership with a club that regularly plays in Europe - you're already off to a great start. Good luck with this.

Looks like a good situation for you. Let's hope this one sticks.

Everyone keeps talking about it, and I went back and read some old threads. Seems like there's a laptop curse floating around this place

Wait until you see the player who I'm planning on nabbing on a free. I just keep watching his asking price drop and nobody else seems to be interested in him.

Tonny Trindade should end up being a good signing for you, as you said. Great that you nabbed him on a free, well done!

February 2017

A busy month to make up for the one match we had in January. Eight matches in the shortest month of the year ensured there would be two matches a week every week and squad rotation would be the order of the day.



We advance in the DFB-Pokal, although it was a bit nervy at the end. Lucas Podolski shows that he's still got it at the age of 78. From our perspective, Florian Thauvin has been a bit disappointing - but with the Olympics and other appearances for France, he didn't have much, if any, of a break this past summer. I'm just about to draw a line under this season for him and hope he bounces back next season with suitable rest.


Schalke's woes continue. Thankfully for them, it doesn't look like they'll fall below 15th place so they're safe from relegation. A nice performance by Pierre Hjobjerg, who is really starting to come on for us.


I'm pleased with this, and why wouldn't I be? Frankly, I was playing for a draw, preferably with an away goal or two, and that's exactly what I got. What would we do without Robert Lewandowski?


After a horrible start to the season, Leverkusen has started to come good after sacking Michael Laudrup and hiring Franck Foda from Dynamo Dresden. They were 9th when they played us and have since worked their way up to 7th position.


Massive hat-trick from Jonathan Tah! He's starting to get more responsibility as the season goes on, and is making me re-think both his and Kurt Zouma's role in the squad.


I thought this was kinda funny, since I play a 4-2-3-1 in every home match. Tactical surprise, indeed!


Hard to believe that we actually fell behind the team that has a stranglehold on 16th place, but we did. A dull first half suddenly came to life in the first ten minutes of the second half, with three goals scored, before settling back. Sadly, Lewandowski got hurt in this match, a cruel blow as he won't now be available for the Champions League second leg against Manchester United.


Last season's surprise package is still in the Europa League, but their league form is suffering and they find themselves in 13th place. Performances like this one, where we match our high score for the season, aren't going to help Hertha much, but they're not really in danger of relegation. Unfortunately for us, Mario Gotze landed funny in the match, damaging his elbow and ruling him out of the Man Utd match.


With one eye on the mid-week match against Man United, I sent out an essentially second-choice side for this match against Hamburg. It looked like a good choice anyway when van Ginkel and Bernard staked us to a 2-0 lead in the first ten minutes. But 2-0 is my least favourite scoreline to defend. At halftime, I took off Januzaj, again because I wanted him to be fresh for the vitally important Man U match. Then, in the 57th minute, Ribery got hurt, further weakening the lineup and making him the third player ruled out of the Manchester United match. Unfortunately, we couldn't hold the lead, and they scored their two goals in the last 13 minutes of the match, a virtual bookend to our early strikes. Still, a point on the road is decent enough, particularly as Dortmund also drew.

The current Bundesliga table:


Special bonus March 1st fixture:
We went into the second leg of our match against Manchester United level at 1-1 and with an away goal in our pocket. However, as much as I wanted to, I didn't really expect for that to hold up, not with Lewandowski, Gotze and Ribery all ruled out of the match. The only consolation is that our back line was in excellent shape, so maybe a defensive strategy would be the way to go.

We were playing at home, and the supporters wouldn't have wanted to see that. I decided to field our customary 4-2-3-1 home formation; we were going to win with glory or die trying. Muller gave us a dream start and the lead in the tie when he finished off a cheeky backheel from Jonathan Tah. Sadly, Juan Mata's moment of individual brilliance leveled the scores and had me planning at halftime about substitutions with regards to my better penalty takers.

Marco van Ginkel made sure that wasn't an issue anymore, but three minutes later, Manuel Neuer saw fit to punch the ball away (which he hardly ever does), only for it to fall to Fellani just outside the box. He, of course, powered a shot that beat a still-out-of-position Neuer and gave them the lead on away goals.

We had ex-Man Utd starlet Adnan Januzaj, and they had our oldboy Xherdan Shaqiri. Who would strick a decisive blow against their old team?



Next up will be a combined March and April roundup.

The Capital One Cup is rubbish. Be glad you're out of that.

Now to hold on to top 4...

Oh no! That's horrible timing.

Congrats on qualifying for Europe and the draw against Anderlecht. Good luck getting into the group stages.

So true, so true...

Between you and Dan, I'm starting to fear for my laptop.

Good luck in Norway. Hope you get that finished off Kvik-ly.

January 2017
Transfer Window update

A bit of a quiet transfer window I'm afraid. There wasn't much for me to do, other then send some youngsters out on loan. Surprisingly, I only had one approach for a player - Real Madrid wanted to sign Lewandowski, issued a frankly insulting offer, and then improved that offer only slightly.

Holder Badstuber has done a very good job for me as a rotational option at centre half, but during contract talks with his agent on a renewal, we could not agree on either a length (I wanted two years, he wanted four) or the squad status. Badstuber wanted to be recognised as a first-team memeber, not I was only prepared to have him continue as a rotational player. After one last attempt to sign him at the start of the year, he ended up signing a pre-contract with Mainz.

I still have to decide what to do about Franck Ribery's contract, which expires at the end of the season. At least, unlike Arjen Robben, Ribery's agent has lowered his demands as the months have gone on. However, even though Ribery would now be taking a paycut, I've been planning for the future and it doesn't really include him.

I've already lined up a new centre-half to replace Badstuber, going back once again to my old stomping grounds of Ajax:


Here's the month's results. Not the best start, drawing to Werder Bremen, but still top of the league. We'll play Werder again in the German Cup semi-finals in April.

No, it's a DFB thing - advertising in team names is strictly forbidden. Leipzig had to do a bit of lingual gymnastics to even find a word that fit the "RB" acronym. The one they came up with, RasenBallsport, means "game you play on the grass with a ball" or some such nonsense.

(Bayer and Carl Zeiss are obviously grandfathered in)

At least you beat crushed Feyenoord. That's what really matters!

BMG - yeah, I suppose that's true, although now Chelsea and Milan have been popping up from time to time

Dan - Wonder team? That's the plan, although events seem to conspire against us in the Champions League (such as our draw this season)

Johno - I agree, I'm staying at Bayern. We're really building something here, and I want to see what happens, particularly as some of my first class of youth players are going to break into the squad next season...

Good work getting Zouma, he's doing the business for me, too.

I see that RB Leipzig (do NOT call them "Red Bull Leipzig" under penalty of death) got promoted in your save. Interesting to see how they will do.

Oh dear, the fruit and veg just doesn't seem to be working. May I suggest switching to vodka and borscht?

This is exciting! What to do, what to do.

I think your reputation would probably increase quicker at Videoton as it is a bigger club.