1. FC Union Berlin - Capital Domination


VfB Stuttgart
Mai - 2027

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Fixtures:

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Outside of our unfortunate Europa League exit against Benfica, May was a pretty successful month on the pitch. We progressed past Werder Bremen in the German Cup Semi Final to set up a Sud Derby final against Bayern and won our final 4 league games of the season to give ourselves a chance of the league title. Unfortunately, Union Berlin also won their last 4 games and so we had to settle for 2nd place. Hopefully this isn't a them for the coming seasons!

League Table:

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An amazing first season in charge. All that was expected of us by the board was a Europa League qualification yet we managed to qualify for the Champions League and in doing so pushed my ex club all the way in the title race. We improved on last years points tally by 39 points and improved our goal difference from last year by +69.

Player Stats:

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Bauer needs a goal in the cup final in order to reach 50 in all competitions for the season, whilst it is nice to see Bassi averaging above an 8 rating in his first season in Germany. It's nice to see my front 3 performing so well and I think it shows that it's probably the midfield and defensive areas which need strengthening over the summer if we are to challenge for the title again next year.


Next up will be a German Cup Final update, can we top off a successful season on the pitch by winning some silverware?​
 

VfB Stuttgart
German Cup Final - 2027

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Pre-Match:

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We head into the game as 4/6 favourites to win the match inside 90 minutes, which will be held in Berlin at the Olympiastadion. We haven't won the competition since 1997 and are 3 times winners, whilst 21 time winners Bayern last won it in 2024.

Line Ups:

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We are at near full strength with just centre back Lee Kelly not a regular first choice player, as he fills in for Catalan who broke his leg against Benfica. Bayern's team looks nothing special and I can see why they only finished 6th this season, their worst finish since 1995!

The Match:

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We could not have got off to much better of a start in the game as winger Bassi rose to head home a Bauer cross just 45 seconds into the game. Bayern did pull the scores level just 10 minutes later through their academy graduate striker Maliszewski and that is how the score remained until half time. However we started the second half just how we started the first and we back in front just 2 minutes into the second half when Lee Kelly, the man we signed from Shamrock for just £29,500 this summer, headed in a rebound from close range. The next goal was going to be the important one for us and we were the ones to get it when Cruz cut in from the left and slotted one into the bottom left hand corner of the Bayern goal in a Thierry Henry-esque manner to put us 3-1 up and bring the trophy back to Stuttgart.

That's the end of my 13th (I think) season in Germany, next update will be a pre-season update for my second whole season in charge of Stuttgart where we will play in the Champions League for the first time in 20 years...
​
 
That new striker for Union Berlin looks impressive! But you've done incredibly well, can see you winning the league next season!
 
Sign in and out of steam, says your offline :O

Nice story btw....
 

VfB Stuttgart
Pre-Season - 2027/2028


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Transfers:

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We've not been anywhere near as busy as last summer and to be honest I've been struggling to get genuine improvements to the first 11 with the budget we received. Starting with the departures, a few backup players in Grbic, Baumgartl and Stark left for small fees. Now, it says on the screenshot that we sold Baumgartl for £7,750,000 but I'm 99% sure that it was actually somewhere between £1,000,000 and £2,000,000, so I don't have a clue why it is showing as that much.

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On the incomings, we have brought in 4 players so far but one of those in Jansson was here last year so it's more like 3. Jansson's loan was converted for £2,500,000 from Marseille and he'll pick up from where he left off last year as first choice right back. We bought a new left back from Newell's Old Boys for £4,500,000 who will take Wittek's place. He's an Argentine under 20's international who is very good physically and is decent enough on the ball. I'd like to see a little improvement from him defensively though. The big signing for the summer was to bring in yet another South American defender as Brazilian centre back Ferreira joined from Flamengo for £12,500,000. I looked at him in January when I bought Pintado, however I knew I would need a new centre back because of Catalan's injury so I went back and brought him in. I think his game is solid all around without being particularly outstanding and he will hopefully strike up a good partnership with countryman Pintado. The final signing was Serbian centre back Savic on loan from Chelsea. He can cover 4 positions in our system and should prove to be a useful addition over the course of a long season.

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Squad:

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We're still a little short in midfield and I feel like we have to bring in either a defensive midfielder or centre midfielder before the window closes, although I have been struggling to find someone who is both affordable and of sufficient quality to improve the starting 11. Outside of that, the squad is probably a little stronger defensively and we haven't needed to add much in attacking areas. I wouldn't mind a new backup right winger but I think that will be a job for later windows when we have a bit more money to spend.

Other News:

1) We completed our purchase of the stadium and immediately decided to expand the stadium, and will be expanding the capacity by 5,000 to 65,000.

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2) My purchase last year of Asahina proved to be a great commercial success, as predicted!

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Next update will be a August update, including a Super Cup tie against Union Berlin. Hopefully we'll be able to add to the squad in the remaining time in the window as well.
​
 

VfB Stuttgart
August - 2027

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Transfers:

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I stated in the last update that I wanted a new centre midfielder in before the deadline and I did just that, however it was a signing that is nothing like my usual signings. With a minimal amount of my transfer budget left and not being able to find any cheap young stars available on the cheap, I decided to bring in 33 year old midfielder Gerhardt from Sampdoria for £2,500,000. He's got brilliant mental attributes and is very capable technically, so hopefully he won't decline too much through the course of the season. I also moved on backup winger Aydogan who was unhappy about his game time to Wolfsburg for £3,500,000 and replaced him with a young Brazilian on loan from Santos.

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German Super Cup:

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A capacity crowd of 60,000 flocked to the Mercedes Benz Arena to see us take on league champions Union Berlin in the German Super Cup, a competition we hadn't won since 1992. After fighting back from 1-0 down to lead 2-1 heading into the last 15 minutes, we had our hopes temporarily crushed by a Torsten Schroder equalizer which sent the game to penalties. I didn't have too much hope for the shoot out as we don't have the best penalty takers, however we scored all 5 of our penalties and Torsten Schroder missed the 5th penalty to hand us the trophy. I'm now 3 and 0 against Berlin since leaving.

Fixtures:

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We followed up that Super Cup win with a fantastic start to the league season, winning all 4 games, scoring 14 and conceding just 1 in the process. We started the season with a 2-0 win at Hoffenheim thanks to 2 goals in 3 minutes from Jovanovic and Cruz and followed that up with a comprehensive 6-0 home win over Hamburg, topped of by 4 goals from Cruz. Our toughest test of the month came up next away to Bayern, however we passed with flying colours with a 2-0 win thanks to Cruz and Bassi. We finished the month with another comfortable home win, this time with a scoreline of 4-1 over Schalke and we were led to the result by a Cruz hatrick.

Player of the Month - Armando Cruz

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The Portuguese man is now natural in that left wing role and it showed this month with 10 goals in 5 games, including at least 1 goal in every game.

Other News:

1) Our Champions League group was drawn and we have been pitted against Premier League holders Manchester United, Ligue 1 runners up Monaco and Austrian champions FK Austria Wien.

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Next up will be a September update...

​
 
Just re-read the whole thing from start to finish in about 3 hours! Honestly can say this is my favourite story on here! Reminds me of the fun I had with my De Graafschap save on FM15, those were the days.
 
Timmzeh said:
Just re-read the whole thing from start to finish in about 3 hours! Honestly can say this is my favourite story on here! Reminds me of the fun I had with my De Graafschap save on FM15, those were the days.
Click to expand...

Cheers mate, was a fun save!

Been tempted to start a new story with my current save, I created a club from Gibraltar playing the Spanish third tier and doing a San Marino challenge type save. Just don't trust myself at the moment with having my third year project to write up for Uni! May start it after I have handed that in though...

We did get this result against Barca in our first (and current) La Liga system though which I feel I must share...

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Safc-mad-scotty said:
Cheers mate, was a fun save!

Been tempted to start a new story with my current save, I created a club from Gibraltar playing the Spanish third tier and doing a San Marino challenge type save. Just don't trust myself at the moment with having my third year project to write up for Uni! May start it after I have handed that in though...

We did get this result against Barca in our first (and current) La Liga system though which I feel I must share...

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Click to expand...

Wow, thats awesome man! Yeah I dont have that issue as I am a first year ;)
 
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