Bringing Back the Glory Days - Borussia Mönchengladbach

[Werrett]

Bringing Back the Glory Days

Borussia Mönchengladbach

Hello everyone and welcome to my newest Football Manager 2015 thread 'Bringing Back the Glory Days', I've taken a short break from Football Manager in general and feel that I've finally found that long lost motivation I needed to get back into the game. I've decided to start this save with Bundesliga side Borussia Mönchengladbach, a team who many of you may regard as a mid-table side, but there's a lot of history behind this Club along with a very promising future...It should be a fun project nonetheless!

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So who exactly are Borussia Mönchengladbach?

Founded in 1900, 'Die Fohlen' (The Foals) are a German Football club based in the city of Mönchengladbach, which is located West of the River Rhein between Duesseldorf and the Dutch border. Gladbach currently play in the top tier of German Football which is known as the Bundesliga, a league they first made their appearance in way back in 1965-66. Over the next 15 years they went on to become on of Germany's best-supported clubs after winning 5 Bundesliga titles during the 1970s. The name 'Die Fohlen' was given to Gladbach in reference to their young, pacey and aggresive style of play in the 1970's, the mascot is known as Juenter(As seen above).

Since 2004, Borussia Mönchengladbach have played at the 54,057 capacity Borussia-Park, having previously played at the smaller Bökelbergstadion since 1919. Borussia-Park is famous for its "Nordkurve" (or North stand), a single-tiered stand. Borussia Mönchengladbach has over 60,000 members as of September 2013 and is the fifth largest club in Germany. Their main rivals are 1. FC Köln, however they also share rivalries with Borussia Dortmund and Fortuna Duesseldorf.

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Domestic and European Honours

Gladbach have a proud history with the Club having won 5 Bundesliga titles, which all came in the 1970's. They have also won the DFB-Pokal (German Cup) on 3 occasions with the most recent coming in 1995 following a 3-0 victory over VfL Wolfsburg. In terms of European endeavour the club have managed to win the UEFA Cup (Europa League) on two occassions, these also coming during their 'Golden decade', they have failed to win a single major trophy in the past two decades.

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What are my aims for this save?

With Borussia Mönchengladbach I hope to bring the Club back to glory as I attempt to reinstate another 'Golden decade', this will be no easy feat with the likes of Bayern, Dortmund, Wolfsburg, Schalke and Leverkusen all providing stern competition for those lucrative European positions. I'm also hoping to at the very least bring a trophy to Borussia-Park to break the barren spell without silverware, but it's hopefully going to be an enjoyable and exciting adventure. I'm not going to tie myself to one club but fingers crossed I'll be managing Die Fohlen for a while.

I've started as a Manager who holds a Continental Pro Licence along with a past Professional Footballer reputation, the attributes have been set to reflect my philosophies of being a fit and attacking young side who want to win every game. The reputation is purely there to help win the players over.

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Some Other Stuff...

If you're an expert on German Football please feel free to leave some advice down in the comments, along with feedback on the thread as a whole!

Also if anybody is able to make a header for the thread, please feel free to do so..I'm all over the presentation!

Add me on Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/id/DermicsAW/
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[Werrett]

Pre-Season

After arrived at Gladbach I was thrown straight into the deep-end as we entered a long and cngested pre-season schedule in a bid to build morale and fitness in the squad. The pre-season itself was a great success with the team picking up wins in 7 of the 9 matches while drawing the other two. Max Kruse, Raffael and Ibrahima Traoré all netted multiple times as our attacking unit look set to build an everlasting bond as we head into the competitive campaign.

The only set-back from the pre-season were the injuries to Martin Stranzl and young winger Patrick Hermann. Hermann is a big loss for us as we're a squad that has a lot of ability, but is rather lacking in depth and with a mediocre budget of £3m it's unlikely we'll be able to bring in a good enough replacement before the Bundesliga kicks-off.

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Player Transfers

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We did manage to add two players to the squad in Duván Zapata and the ever-versatile Leandro Bacuna. These transfers are season long loans due to the fact that we can't compete with other clubs on the spending front, but I'm happy with the business so far, although more may still take place.

Young Mario Rodríguez was the only player to depart the club with his move to MLS being approved for a sum of £100,000. The young striker doesn't look to have the potential or ability to fit in our current side and so a move to Seattle will be best for his career, a good move for all parties.

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Staff Changes

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When I arrived at Borussia-Park I noticed that the squad had a very large backroom staff with some being less capable than others. With this being taken into account I brought in my own Shooting coach in Jeffrey Talan while upgrading the Fitness/Youth development side with Damian Roden and Thomas Albeck. I feel it is important to bring in my own staff but I plan to do it at a steady pace as opposed to a large overhaul.

However, a large number of staff did leave due to the fact that we simply had too many people that weren't needed. Some poor physios and scouts departed alongside outgoing manager Lucien Favre.

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Europa League Draw

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Finally, to round off the pre-season we were drawn against Dutch side PEC Zwolle in the Play-Off round for the Europa League, a win here will guarantee us a place in the group stages as we possibly look to win another European Competition, but we'll take it one step at a time!

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August Preview

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Here's a look at how the first month of our competitive season will pan-out, I plan to post an update at the end of this month in which you'll find out if we've qualified for the group stages, the 2nd round of the cup and how we've started in the Bundesliga.​

 

[xJamieWilliams]

Glad to see you back my friend! This will be fun!

 

[PatrickLFC]

Good start, looking forward to this!

 

[SeanKeaney]

I've got a soft spot for Gladbach so will be following this closely!

 

[AJ0207]

Looking forward to this

 

[toddzy]

Layout is fantastic - best of luck.