FC Augsburg: Germany's Old Guard

[WeArePalace]

FC Augsburg are a club which has been around for a number of years in Germany. They've climbed up the divisions steadily and have proven themselves as a consistent side since coming into the Bundesliga in the past decade. They are an old German team, who I'll look to continue their steady rise up the football pyramid.
THE CLUB
The team plays their football at the WWK Arena, previously known as the Augsburg Arena. It has quite a decent capacity, holding just over 30,000 people in the ground. Augsburg have had a fantastic rise up the football league and have consistently survived in the league ahead of their relegation rivals.
HONOURS

The club has won lower titles, so attaining some major trophies is my main aim at the club. Having only recently come into the Bundesliga, that's reasonable enough, but hopefully the quick transcendence can continue and we can get some silverware in the next few years with FC Augsburg in the Bundesliga.
MY AIMS
I'm hoping to finish mid-table first season as that's where Augsburg might finish. Within 3 seasons, I'd like some sort of European competition at the club. I'm thinking Europa League could be a realistic aim. As for the transfer window, a new CM might be helpful, but LW is the main area to improve as we practically have nowhere their.

 

[WeArePalace]

NEW BLOOD IN AND SOLID PRE-SEASON FOR AUGSBURG
We've had a wonderful transfer window bringing in some great talents which was much more than I'd expected. Our budget did increase via the board to around 22.5m, but we managed to get it up to around 29m via prize money being reduced a bit. The media have us down for 13th place for a prediction, which I would be ok with for a first season. The signings which we made were all available at a snip of their value as each one wanted to leave their respective clubs, aside from the final one which we made.

Our first arrival was Hertha BSC midfielder Arne Maier, who arrived for a minimal fee of 7.5m. The 19 year old slots straight in to our starting line-up to improve our midfield, which was the main focus area in the window this time around. A great pick-up and will be in my team for years to come, a great start to the window.

Next in was our cheapest signing considering value, 10m for Josip Brekalo to fill our LW spot, where we had absolutely no one in the team good enough to play. Delighted to have found him listed by request and I immediately took advantage of that situation and brought him into the club. Just look at that value already!

Next in was Marco Benassi, who joined from Fiorentina as Daniel Baier is aging and the 23 year old is over 10 years younger. He will start ahead of Baier as his ability is already greater than the man he's replacing. A great signing and our midfield has now become our strongest area with a few incomings.

Our final signing was well known Bundesliga ST Nils Petersen, who comes in for 7m from Freiburg. Finnbogason was going to leave for Leicester but surprisingly rejected a contract offer after begging me for a move. I thought Petersen would be the ST I'd be using, but now I have them both which is great.

So a great transfer window here. In the next update, we'll start the season. Thanks.

 

[WeArePalace]

MEDIOCRE START FOR AUGSBURG IN OPENING MONTHS
The Bundesliga has begun and we haven't started amazingly but not terribly either. We've only had a few wins but we're not doing too badly and sitting mid-table after 2 months worth of football. We have also made progress in the German Cup which means that we're living up to expectations in that competition.

So as you can we pick up around one win each month and a few points here and there. We haven't been consistent which is a bit disappointing however we've managed some good points, such as holding RB Leipzig and Borussia Dortmund. The most disappointing player so far has definitley been Alfred Finnbogason. I was delighted that he remained after massive transfer speculation, but he hasn't done much at all so far, with just the one goal in all competitions.

There weren't many exciting results during my time here, but this was one of the better ones. Nils Petersen scored the winner against his old club Freiburg in a game where we did dominate and deserve the three points. With the disappointment of Finnbogason, Petersen has stepped into the starting striker role and done rather well so far.

This was personally better than the draw with Dortmund, as they massively dominated us and missed a penalty to win it as well. However, against Leipzig, our performance was quite good and we fully deserved at least a point. The line-up has at times rotated heavily, as no one aside from Petersen has been consistent enough to warrant a consistent spot and all the players deserve a chance.

SUMMARY

We are pretty much sitting as expected so far in the Bundesliga, in just below mid table. Dortmund are the strugglers so far while Hannover are being called the surprise package so far. We just need to pick up our form a little and we'll survive easily. A top half finish is ideal but it won't make a huge difference. the table looks pretty insane right now though, with Hannover, Mainz and Werder all looking good.

There was really only one contender because Petersen has been quality for the team so far. He's won us some massive points by himself at times this season. Arne Maier has also been quite decent, and at 19 can certainly be excused for a little inconsistency at times. He is a bit of a hot head at times, with a bunch of bookings and a red card to his name so far.

 

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IMPROVING AUGSBURG BEGIN STEADY CLIMB UP TABLE
So we've progressed another 2 months and things are looking better. A wonderful December where we went unbeaten despite facing Bayer Leverkusen, VFL Wolfsburg and Schalke 04. We aren't top half but we are getting there and we'll keep getting better if we can keep our form up to scratch.

So quite a few draws but we've held our own against the bigger clubs while managing wins against the slightly smaller ones. I'm quite pleased and our strikers are starting to perform, with Petersen continuing to score and Cordova and Finnbogason finally notching a few themselves. Josip Brekalo has shown his quality as well, getting 3 assists in the 4-1 win against Nurnberg.

This is probably our best win to date because we practically turned into Barcelona and were simply untouchable as we destroyed Nurnberg. Two goals did come in stoppage time but I was a little worried that we hadn't put it to bed earlier. If we'd put all our good chances away we would've won about 7-1. However, we didn't show any defensive vulnerability and managed to finish off the match with a very respectable scoreline.

Another very solid win as we show our finishing touch here to overcome Hertha. Defender Jonathan Schmid also got a goal which was one of the first our defenders have gotten this entire season. Another stoppage goal to confirm the win this time from Andre Hahn, however I would like to think that we'd have won anyway.

SUMMARY

The League Table looks pretty good as begin to cement our mid-table spot in the league. Hannover are currently winning the league as well! Although I have to say I don't think that'll last but I certainly hope that they can go all the way and win the league, considering that they've just been relegated in real life.

The best player for us this time around was Josip Brekalo was definitley the best. While Petersen continued to get the goals, Brekalo showed his potential and destroyed defences at times. He's topping the assist charts at the moment as well and his crossing has really improved during the past few months.

 

[WeArePalace]

EUROPEAN DREAM FOR FC AUGSBURG?
So after another couple of months, including some January deals, the club has entered some great form. We are now right in the midst of European contention. I did more than expected in January, with Alfred Finnbogason finally getting the move he's wanted, Leicester signing him for just shy of 9m.

So the results look really good. The narrow win against Bayern summed it up wonderfully. The side is quite competent with big teams and beginning to show signs of an ability to match them. Overall, the months went very well, and I can only hope that our great patch of form continues. Reece Oxford, our CB, has entered goalscoring form, scoring 4 goals in the entirety of the games played here!

Despite also beating Bayern, this may just be my best win yet. Although, Borussia Monchengladbach are contending at the wrong end of the table. However, they still possess a very strong side and we were able to rip through their defence to get a comfortable victory. We haven't had too many big wins this season, so this was a great result.

We progress to the German Cup Quarter-Final, with an extra time win against Mainz. We should've won it in the 90 however, being 2-0 up after 90 minutes. They scored on right on the last minute of normal time and in the last minute of stoppage time. Thankfully however, it didn't cost us and the young Arne Maier scored the deserved winner.

And then we grabbed a resilient win against Bayern. They may have dominated but it was all about Reece Oxford, who defended so well across the 90 minutes, and grabbed the winner, heading home from a well delivered corner. Fabian Giefer also made several decent saves to keep us in the game and in the lead.

SUMMARY
You may have seen some of the January deals in the line-ups, but I'll show them in depth below.

Our first deal was to loan in Alphonso Davies from FC Bayern. We needed back-up at the LM spot and he fits the bill perfectly. He can just about play on the other wing as well, and will fill in there while Andre Hahn recovers from a slight injury.

After both Finnbogason and Koo left the team, a new rotational striker was required. Once again, Luca Waldschmidt was perfect for that role. Young and with some great stats, he should be a great acquisition.

Our final signing was a CDM replacement for the aging Daniel Baier on the bench. Lucas Torro was available on the cheap, so I snapped him up and he'll be a decent rotational player for us.

There is confirmation of the Alfred Finnbogason departure to Leicester. I was happy he stayed earlier but it got the point where he brought down the team morale, so he had to go.

The League standings look good for us, we sit top half! Reece Oxford was our standout and I'll try to make his loan deal a permanent one when it expires at the end of the season.

 

[WeArePalace]

BUNDESLIGA FORM TAKES DIP BUT GERMAN CUP FINAL AWAITS AUGSBURG
As you can see from the title, we've dropped off the Europa League spots slightly but have made the German Cup Final! The team has saved its form to beat Bayern against, this time on penalties. Our new signings were mostly rotational, so no one has stood out, however Davies has been decent, Torro has hardly played and Waldschmidt picked up an injury unfortunately.

So as you can see we've picked up towards the end after losing to some bigger sides earlier on. Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig dealt with us pretty easily but we've been resilient and got a vital win to take us back on track.

One of our biggest defeats so far as Dortmund crush us. We didn't play too badly, but committed too many numbers forward and they took care of us in attack. Overall, they were better though and we didn't deserve a result.

We get an unexpected great win here against Bayer 04. Nils Petersen has been a great buy for us, consistently getting us vital points and goals. It was thanks to Finnbogason's constant complaints that he arrived, so I've got to thank him for something.

Confirmation of our penalty win to take us to the final! I thought we'd almost won it in normal time, but we conceded late again, like against Mainz earlier, but thankfully we won on penalties and our glorious journey continues to the final!

The player of the month was Brekalo again.....apologies for the short update, I wanted to get it out and the next one will be better! Thanks!

 

[WeArePalace]

And my story ends in frustration again!!! I am fuming with the way which I was sacked, for the 3rd time this year (a new record). I finished 10th with Augsburg, won them the German Cup, but the board then tells me, that they've no other decision but to terminate my contract because I failed to improve the coaching team. The COACHING TEAM! This is so frustrating...nothing like this has ever happened to me before, I've never seen it before either. Really sorry about this guys, a bitter end yet again.