'Descent...' - An FM15 Adventure

[Werrett]

'Descent...' - An FM15 Adventure

Hello and welcome to my newest Football Manager Thread! Since taking a reasonably small break I have decided to get right back into the swing of things with a new Thread that relates to me on a personal level as opposed to picking a random team.

For those who don't know (Might be all of you) I'm half German and half English. My Mothers' side are purely English while my Father and his side are from Germany, but to be more specific my Grandfather and Grandmother are German (My Dad is German by descent). I've been brought up a Liverpool fan all my life due to living in England but I wanted to take an approach where I imagine things from the alternate perspective, if I was born in Germany!

My Grandfather grew up in a German City known as Düsseldorf which is the Capital City of the German state of North-Rhine Westphalia. Despite living here he grew up as a die-hard fan of a German side you all know in Borussia Dortmund (Which is reasonably close to Düsseldorf) but still has strong feelings for his home-team. This is why I have a strong bond with Dortmund myself but starting there would simply be too easy and would get stale fast which is why I will be starting my save with Fortuna Düsseldorf.

...But who are Fortuna Düsseldorf?

Founded on May 5th,1895. Fortuna Düsseldorf are a German Football Team who currently find themselves in the 2. Bundesliga (The second tier of German Football). They share a fierce rivalry with FC Köln and are commonly known as 'Die Fortuna'.

Die Fortuna have been participating in the 2. Bundesliga since their relegation back in 2012/13 but missed out on an immediate return after finishing 6th during their last campaign. Düsseldorf have a strong looking side for the upcoming season with the likes of Jonathan Tah (On loan from Hamburg), Mathis Bolly, Charlison Benschop and many more key figures. The media have predicted a 5th placed finish but nothing is stopping the German side of returning to the top tier of domestic Football. A slight debt €3.8m means the club only have an allocated budget of €300,000 but the right signings could easily fire this team to glory in the upcoming season.

Düsseldorf currently play their Home Football at the ESPRIT Arena, a stadium with a capacity of 54,600, a closable roof and special heating for those cold months! The stadium itself was built between 2002-2004 but surprisingly wasn't a stadium used during the 2006 World Cup!

Düsseldorf themselves have a very varied history but enjoyed the majority of their success in the 1970s. Their only top division triumph to date was achieved way back in 1933, an astonishing 82 years ago!

They have also managed to win the German Cup on two occassions back in 1979 and 1980. These back to back wins helping to showcase the fine era for Die Fortuna between 1970-80, however they have since struggled to achieve promotion back to the top tier having only spent two of the last 18 years in the Bundesliga. (Relegated during 1996/97 and 2012/13)

For me personally this is where the challenge lies, helping to return Die Fortuna to past glory, hopefully top flight stability at the very least. But who knows, maybe I can be the man to break the barren spell of 35 years since their last major trophy.

For the purpose of the save I have made myself an Englishman but have selected German as my second nationality, which seems fair. I do speak fluent German and so realistically I think the information best suits my cause. I have however given myself some past experience and a Continental C License. Starting with no reputation here would simply injure my chances of keeping the squad under control and so I've decided to go with a mid-level Manager approach!

As for my attributes, well I slightly opted for the Tracksuit approach but overall they're all pretty even. Didn't want to risk taking a certain approach and so I kept myself as a balanced manager, better safe than sorry!

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I hope you'll enjoy reading this more personal thread. The updates may not be daily due to the large amount of College work I currently have to do but I'll be updating this thread whenever I possibly can! Updates are more likely to be monthly with a re-cap for the foreseeable future. Please like, comment and most of all enjoy the thread!

If you're new to FM-Base and haven't read my old thread, find it here: All Aboard! - The Managerial Rollercoaster

Join 'The FM Addicts Community' on FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/690798811032843/

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

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[Werrett]

Fortuna Düsseldorf - Tactics

Now, after arriving at Düsseldorf I had the task of finding a tactic that worked best with the players at my disposal. To my surprise we actually had a very good squad, a lot of strength in depth apart from two areas, down the right flank and down the left flank. With this in mind I opted for the 4-5-1 (4-1-2-3 DM Wide) as I liked the thought of protecting our back 4. We have a lot of good defensive midfielders meaning there is plenty of strength in this position with many of those capable of playing in a more central midfield role.

But onto the tactic, here's a look at what we have so far:

Ignore the players that have been selected as this screenshot was taken shortly after a game, but you get the basic idea. An inside-forward out wide who can come into the gap in the center while a marauding wing-back can suuply the width down the left flank. The right side is more bog-standard with a full-back and winger while the central midfield is all about winning back possession. Hopefully the lone striker can do a job for us as many teams in this league seem to have opted for a 4-4-2. Adaptions may be made in the future but I'm happy with the formation for now.

As for the instructions I'm hoping to play a fast-paced passing style of Football. Winning back and keeping possession will be vital in our hopes for promotion so that's why I'm trying to get the team to use the ball sensibly when in control of the ball. The wingers will be the most important players in our squad when it comes to scoring and setting up goals so it's important that these wide-men have a ticket to roam the pitch while running at the oppositions full-backs. It's 2nd tier football but we possess a lot of quality, so I'm hopeful of my tactics.

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[Werrett]

Fortuna Düsseldorf - Pre-Season

This was my first pre-season in charge of Die Fortuna and so I knew I had a big task ahead of me. I had plans to fully refurbish the club meaning I had to dispose of the old ways and develop the new. The lads adapted well to me, they were keen to see a new era and were hoping to start on a good note. My fluent German must have helped as almost everybody was able to understand me upon my arrival, but having introduced myself it was time to crack on.

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The first order of business was to strengthen some areas..With only €300,000 to spend I knew I had to rely on those bargain buys but our financial outlook for future years looks promising.

Here's an overall look at the transfers coming in and going out for the Summer window (2014/15):

As you can see we managed to bring in three-players, a defensive midfielder in Francis Coquelin, a right-back in Patric and a left-winger in former-Betis man Ezequiel.

Now let's look at each signing individually...

Francis Coquelin - Defensive Midfielder

Francis Coquelin is somebody you've all heard of, the Arsenal midfielder has recently been a frequent starter in the real life squad but on Football Manager he's still floating around on the loan-list, even after the update! With that being said I managed to bring him in for £0 a month which is fantastic when you think about it, I know I said we had a lot of strength in the DM position but I'll get to that later.

Patric - Right-Back

Barcelona B right-back Patric is a young Spanish full-back with plenty of potential. The Spaniard was transfer-listed for between 300,000 and 500,000 euros but our financial position made this move unfeasible. With that said I was able to bring him in on loan for a cheap monthly-fee with the possibility of a permenant deal at the end of the year (€375,00). His work-rate and stamina will prove to be extremely important as we look to stay strong at the back while developing a pass and move philosophy of play. I'm sure he'll be a fantastic signing for us!

Ezequiel - Left-Winger

Ezequiel is a man I found lurking in the free-agency, a reasonably young winger with plenty of potential although his 10,000 a week wages make him one of our highest paid players already! He's not the strongest player in the World but his trickery, pace and dribbling will surely aid in the goal-scoring statistics, he's a risky signing but I think he's a good one!

Going out was Christian Weber, the 32 year old right-back making way to free up some funds, a good move for all parties involved.

Not much else to be said, maybe we'll come across him again one day!

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With the transfers being made quickly we now headed into the actual pre-season matches where we would face sides from all over Germany, the majority of which were in the leagues below us.

You can see here that we faced a domestic pre-season but it's a good experience for us, lower league teams are certainly not easy to play against!

Here's how the pre-season went, overall it went quite well but we conceded in all five of our matches..3 wins and 2 losses as we progressed through the pre-season.

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Sadly we picked up a few injuries during the pre-season..3 of our defensive midfielders picked up injuries with two of them being severe ones, hence the signing of Francis Coquelin to help reinforce the center. Bolly and Lambertz should return to action after the first few weeks of the season which is good news for us.

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Finally, we were drawn against fellow 2. Bundesliga side Fußball Club Erzgebirge Aue in the DFB Pokal. Hopefully we can progress from this round but an away tie never makes things any easier. The board have set the expectation at reaching the second round.

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[Werrett]

Fortuna Düsseldorf - Goals & Objectives

Now, with the pre-season done and dusted it's time to set myself some targets for this save. The board have their own expectations but I think it'd be fun to set some for myself, maybe in a few seasons time I can come back and see how many I've completed.

Season One - 2014/15

For this season we're predicted to finish 5th. As much as I'd love to gain promotion at the first time of asking I don't see it happening, so I'm instead gonna say that I'd like us to finish in 5th place. Along with this I'd like to gain and understanding of my players both on and off the pitch while adding strength to the weaker positions. With the club in debt I'd be hoping to have a decent season, no major spending and hopefully I can bring in some revenue to help clear the red.

Season Two - 2015/16

Now, this year is going to bring a bit more amibition. Having become comfortable with my team I'd hope that by now we've added some good talent while disposing of the older players. This year is all about promotion. If the money is still an issue during the second season then promotion to the Bundesliga will certainly help us clear the debt. Maybe a little cup-run could be on the cards as well?

Season Three - 2016/17

Assuming we've been promoted, cleared the debt and built a capable side I'd be expecting this season to be all about survival. We need a big year to avoid the drop against some of the biggest sides in Europe, but if we've built a team that are capable then I don't see why we can't beat the drop. Years after this will go on to aim at top tier stability, something Die Fortuna have struggled with for many years now.

For now I'm only going to set my sights on the first three seasons, I'm not one for predicting the future and don't want to get ahead of myself. But these aims can build the foundation for what could be a fantastic journey.
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[Lippo255]

Good to see you back mate & to learn a bit more about you!

This looks & sounds very interesting.

 

[Werrett]

Good to see you back mate & to learn a bit more about you!

This looks & sounds very interesting.

Thanks buddy, appreciate it! Personal saves usually make stories easier to stick to so hopefully this one will live up the expectations I've placed on it.

 

[Werrett]

Fortuna Düsseldorf - The Start of the Season

Off the back of the pre-season we now headed into August, a month where we would begin our 2014/15 domestic campaign. Our pre-season saw the addition of some new players, as well as a change in the style and philosophy of play, but with that being said. Let's see how it went.

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In terms of League football we picked up 7/12 points in August, securing big away wins against Darmstadt and Union Berlin but failing to do so on our home-turf..The 93rd minute winner from Braunschweig cancelled out our chances of an unbeaten start but overall we played well..It's still early days!

As you can see we're sitting in 7th after the first 4 matches, not the ideal start but it's something to build on. After all, there's plenty of Football to be played!

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In terms of Cup football we managed to beat Aue to progress to the second round, a brilliant performance that was seen off by a 90th minute own goal by Aue player Rene Klingbell. A nightmare moment for the veteran defender but ultimately it's a goal that helps us to meet our board expectations.

Although we will meet Bundesliga side Hamburg in the second round. A tough challenge!

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Next month we once again play 4 matches, all of which are purely league based. Some big matches in there but hopefully we can come out on top and build on our current league position.

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[AndySams10]

Nice story and fantastic layout, makes it more appealing. Good luck. ??????

 

[cps100]

Nice to see a new story from you mate, really enjoyed the Paul Clement one! I really like German football and the league. I’ve got a save going on FM14 with Hoffenheim and loving it. Really competitive league and the finances aren’t too bad. Not overly familiar with the 2nd​ division but there are plenty of good teams in that division – Nurnberg, Bochum and Braunschweig will be up there but I’m sure you can get up with the big boys soon!

Good luck for the season, will be following. Great layout and format too!

 

[xJamieWilliams]

He's back!

 

[Werrett]

Nice to see a new story from you mate, really enjoyed the Paul Clement one! I really like German football and the league. I’ve got a save going on FM14 with Hoffenheim and loving it. Really competitive league and the finances aren’t too bad. Not overly familiar with the 2nd​ division but there are plenty of good teams in that division – Nurnberg, Bochum and Braunschweig will be up there but I’m sure you can get up with the big boys soon!

Good luck for the season, will be following. Great layout and format too!

Thanks man, means a lot to hear the kind words! Hoffenheim are a great side with very little history, I was actually considering playing as them before I chose to play with Fortuna! I've not really delved into the German leagues for a while so hopefully it should be a new experience for me! (Only managed in Serbia, Italy and England so far!)

He's back!

You know it! Had a little break and now I'm ready to play again. Been reading your save while at College, looks like it's going incredibly well, probably the best story going at the moment!

Nice story and fantastic layout, makes it more appealing. Good luck. ������

Thanks Andy, usually I'd add more pictures but I'm trying to keep it simple and concise so that everybody can enjoy the read. Thanks for the kind words.

 

[Werrett]

September 2014

Fortuna Düsseldorf - Something to Build on

After finishing August in 7th place we now moved into September where there was hope that we could build on our promising start, a tough month was ahead but we were confident. The fans have been out in full force this season with an average attendance of 34,000 in the home matches. They're simply brilliant!

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From our 4 matches we managed to pick up 7 points out of a possible 12. Basically an identical month to August in which we picked up two wins, a draw and a loss. Funnily we mirrored our previous month where we managed to only secure away wins, this time winning both of our home matches instead. (Scoring 9 goals at home as well!)

St. Pauli put up a good fight in the first match in which both teams failed to break down each others' defences, a fair result on the day given the way the game was played.

We then took on Nuernburg in a 'promotion' 6 pointer, both teams striving to return to the Bundesliga but on the day we were by far the better team. An Ezequiel hat-trick set the bar as we dominated our opposition to take a 5-0 lead heading into half-time. Joel Pohjanpalo bagged a brace having scored a goal in both halves but overall this was a fantastic performance and a crucial win.

But the momentum failed to continue as we crashed to a 3-1 defeat away against Ingolstadt, Avevor's red card set the tone early on as we could only grab one goal late on to give ourselves a dash of hope. A poor performance but I can't fault the 10 on the pitch..Up until that point we were playing well.

Finally we returned to the ESPRIT to take on RB Leipzig, another promotion taking team who currently sat in 7th place. Once again we put in a fantastic performance as we secured a 3-0 victory over our opponents, goals from Pohjanpalo, Halloran and Ezequiel securing the points on the day.

Having now sexured 14 points from our opening 8 matches we sit 5th in the table, a 2 place improvement over last month which delights me, I said we needed to build on our lead and so far we seem to be doing just that. Heidenheim are only two points above us meaning a good run of form can see us climb even higher in the table, remember it's only early days!​

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October see's us play 5 matches, 4 in the league as well as a trip to Hamburg for our DFB Pokal second round tie. We're getting to the stage in the season now where a good run of form would do us a World of good, so we'll be looking to continue our good start to the campaign in October.
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[Lippo255]

Loving the layout on this mate. Clean & simple, very nice to read. The little graphics for the fixtures etc. are a nice touch too, may well rip those off at some stage lol

Cant wait for more!

 

[Werrett]

Loving the layout on this mate. Clean & simple, very nice to read. The little graphics for the fixtures etc. are a nice touch too, may well rip those off at some stage lol

Cant wait for more!

Haha! Feel free to use them!

But thanks man, means a lot. The idea of this thread was definitely to keep it simple and 'to the point'..I'm pretty much just playing a couple of games a day now while doing College work so putting in a ton of detail like I did on my Managerial Rollercoaster thread isn't really viable..Maybe if I get into the Bundesliga I'll start adding more detail, but for now I think simple and clear is the way to go!

 

[Werrett]

October 2014

Fortuna Düsseldorf - Gaining Momentum

Having gained 7 points from each of our first two months we now moved into October where we hoped to build some momentum as the season progresses. Due to fixture changes we would only play 3 league matches this month with our fixture against Aalan being re-arranged for an October date, our Cup tie at Hamburg would now round off the month.​

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For the first time this season we failed to gain 7 points in a month (Haha), but two wins from three is no shabby return although the home loss to 1860 Munich was disappointing..However, on the other side of the spectrum we've been fantastic on our travels lately, picking up wins against Erzgebirge and Kaiserslautern.

Player of the month for October has to be Ben Halloran, the Australian winger has been in inspiring form lately, picking up two goals against Erzgebirge and an assist in the goal that helped us to beat Kaiserslautern. Halloran now has 4 goals and 5 assists from his 10 appearances this season.

Performances from the likes of Halloran have now helped us climb to 4th in the table, the momentum is suddenly starting to build and the team is playing with swagger and confidence. We still remain within a couple of points of the top 2 and with the season now approaching the half-way point we will certainly be looking to climb into those promotion places.​

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Astonishing scenes from the Imtech Arena as we managed to pick up a shock win over Bundesliga side Hamburger SV in the DFB Pokal 2nd round, a strong defensive performance saw us keep our opponents from finding the net for the full 120 minutes with Hamburg themselves going down to 10 men following the sending off of Heiko Westermann after only 46 minutes. Despite the numerical advantage we were unable to crete any clear cut chances but were able to pick up the 4-2 win in the penalty shoot-out. Funnily enough Jonathan Tah (On loan from Hamburg) scored the winning penalty! Crazy stuff!

With the progression to the 3rd round confirmed, we were drawn against fellow 2. Bundesliga side RB Leipzig, a team we've already beaten during the current campaign, but can we do it again in the cup competition?

Should we progress we stand a good chance of going on an amazing cup-run with big boys Bayern Munich and Wolfsburg being drawn against each other, we have the belief that we can beat anybody at the moment. I'm also very happy to see Third Division side Cottbus still in the competition!​

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Here's a look at our fixture list for November, a couple of big home ties against Karlsruhe, Aalen and Sandhausen, all games that we'll need to win as we face the difficult challenge of playing Fuerth and Heidenheim away from home. It doesn't get much harder than that!​

 

[Werrett]

November 2014

Fortuna Düsseldorf - At The Top

October saw us climb into the top 4 in the table, only 2 points shy of the promotion places..With a solid run in November we could be at the top of the table come the mid-way stage of the campaign..It's a big month for us.​

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4 wins out of 5...A fantastic month for the club. All 4 of our victories resulted in clean sheets with the team scoring 13 as well. The loss to Greuther Fuerth was unlucky, we did well to come back from being 1-0 down but a superb strike from Przybylko won it for last year's promotion play-off losers.

Our best player for this month was Joel Pohjanpalo, the Finnish striker who's on loan from Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen has seen his goal tally rise to 14 in 15 games after netting 7 times in the 5 games, including a hat-trick against Heidenheim. He's been fantastic!

You can see the dominance in our players from this screenshot, Pohjanpalo and Ezequiel topping the scoring charts with 23 goals between them while Pinto, Pohjanpalo and Avevor all rank inside the top 4 for average rating..It's not on screen but Halloran, Pinto and Liendl are all in the top 4 for league assists with 6, 5 and 5 respectively. Fantastic stuff!

That's right! Just under a half of a season completed and we now sit at the top of the mountain, 3 points ahead of 2nd place Nuernburg, it's truly been a fantastic period for us as we look to press on with aspirations of promotion. 6 points now separate us from the non-promotion spots, hopefully this great run can continue!

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It may not look like it, but December is a big month for us..We take on 3 sides all positioned towards the bottom of the table before heading into an 8 week Winter break, 9 points here would be enough to see us stay top of the league with ambitions of strengthening our squad in the Winter window..A lot of interest has come from bigger clubs in regards to Halloran, it'll be tough to keep hold of him!

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[Zlatan Lumic]

Hey... another half German around these corners... what are the odds? (Half Spaniard, half German in my case with blood from Darmstadt (grandmother), but unlike you my proficiency in German language is veeeeery basic... which ashames me ^^U).

Anyway, great choice to start a story. German's 2.Bundesliga is actually (IMHO of course) one of the most even and funnier leagues in the whole game (and series). It's so evenly-matched that you're always bound to see unexpected yet nice surprises here and there (like in this case Union Berlin near promotion spots or teams like Ingolstadt, Heidenheim and Sandhausen faring way better than they should).

Things are looking good so far, the boys are preforming well and the team is commanding 2.Bundesliga even if it's tightly.
Nice reinforcements so far, you've even brought the mastermind behind the Ezequinha (It's a shame Ezequiel never managed to reach his full potential... We had quite the expectations placed on him back in the day.), by the way do you plan in reinforce the squad in January?.

Good luck with "die Fortuna", I'll try to drop by and check how things are going every now and then.

.P.S.: Just out of curiosity... Why aren't you using the real name fix?

 

[Werrett]

Hey... another half German around these corners... what are the odds? (Half Spaniard, half German in my case with blood from Darmstadt (grandmother), but unlike you my proficiency in German language is veeeeery basic... which ashames me ^^U).

Anyway, great choice to start a story. German's 2.Bundesliga is actually (IMHO of course) one of the most even and funnier leagues in the whole game (and series). It's so evenly-matched that you're always bound to see unexpected yet nice surprises here and there (like in this case Union Berlin near promotion spots or teams like Ingolstadt, Heidenheim and Sandhausen faring way better than they should).

Things are looking good so far, the boys are preforming well and the team is commanding 2.Bundesliga even if it's tightly.
Nice reinforcements so far, you've even brought the mastermind behind the Ezequinha (It's a shame Ezequiel never managed to reach his full potential... We had quite the expectations placed on him back in the day.), by the way do you plan in reinforce the squad in January?.

Good luck with "die Fortuna", I'll try to drop by and check how things are going every now and then.

.P.S.: Just out of curiosity... Why aren't you using the real name fix?

Hey buddy, awesome to see that you're Half German as well! I love German Football but have never really given it a go in recent FM titles, so it feels good to be back in the swing of it! The 2. Bundesliga is fantastic for a 2nd division!

Ezequiel was a great pick-up but you're right, it's a shame he never lived up to the hype. Not that I'm complaining! I'm not sure who I'll be buying in January yet, only £200k in the transfer kitty so I'll have to sell before I can buy!

I'm not sure why I'm not using the game fix..It's silly because I should have at least activated the German National Team..But I don't mind too much! Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Werrett]

Fortuna Düsseldorf - Approaching the Winter Break

Having finally reached the top of the league we now looked to finish the first half of the season on a high as the 8 week winter break quickly approaches..These last few games will be vital in seeing who will remain at Die Fortuna, and who will be leaving the club.​

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We ended the calendar year on a high, 3 wins and 3 clean sheets against Frankfurt, Darmstadt and Bochum. We played fantastically well in these matches and thoroughly deserved the victories. The team is beginning to play some really exciting Football and with the likes of Ezequiel and Pohjanpalo leading the line, anything is possible.

We have now only conceded 2 goals in 9 league matches while keeping 8 clean sheets, a superb statistic when you consider how even and difficult the 2. Bundesliga can be, up the other end we managed to score 21 goals from those 9 matches.

things are beginning to look bright as we head into the transfer window 5 points ahead of 2nd placed RB Leipzig while sitting 7 points above the non-promotion places, our goal difference shows just how dominant we have been over the course of the season, promotion will certainly be the aim for this season!

Pohjanpalo and Ezequiel have maintained their fantastic goal-scoring form as the two played now have 26 goals between them from the opening 19 matches, they've been fantastic this season.​

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Expiring Contracts...

A couple of big names are possibly going to leaving the club in Erwin Hoffer and Lambertz..Rensing has been fantastic for us this season and I'm hoping to tie him to a new deal, but the financial position of the club makes it difficult for me, if not I'm sure we can find a suitable replacement in the Summer should we receive as hefty budget.

As for who I'll be signing, we'll have to wait and see. The priority is to keep my star players at the club as we look to build a serious promotion push.​

 

[Bullardinho]

Great story, really enjoying the read. Hopefully you will be in the BundesLiga next season! Good luck!