FM17 Brexit Challenge

[yescomeon]

VfL Wolfsburg - German Bundesliga - 2033/34 Season
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January & February 2034

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So with the transfer window open, my first dip into the market sees me replace Gillhaus with the 'keeper I acutally had my eye on when I brought him in, but missed out on. Glad to get him in because lord knows I like a player called El Amrani.

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Next in is a player to better challenge at right back, and maybe eventually take over there. No jokes about his name please.

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No pre-season game, no problem. We were brilliant today, yes they had a man sent off early, but you can only play what’s in front of you.

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Very disappointing. Same old story, sat deep, took their chances. Bayern drew so we could have gone back top, instead we are down to 3rd​.

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We bounce back straight away with a Periera inspired victory, with a clean-sheet to boot.

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Another good win, although this one got off to a poor start. New boy El Amrani should have done a lot better getting his hands to the ball but letting it through. After that though Kose put them to the sword. Good news too as BMG and RBL were knocked out, surely making us the favourite to lift the trophy.

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The semi-final of the cup sees us take on Leverkusen, I side I think we can beat.

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We just about scraped through this one with a goal from Lainez. It really seemed it wasn’t going to be our day. Got there in the end though, not enough to move us up from 3rd​.

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We were wasteful in this game and should have won by a lot more. We also hit the post a few times. I may have ballsed up again with the Europa league. I sold both my ‘keepers and bought a cup tied ‘keeper, so we have a 20-year old between the sticks. We lost both Macho and Scholz to minor injuries in this game.

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We had to move Kose back to attacking midfield in this game, and he didn’t do too badly, bagging 2 goals. They caught us on a counter attack after going 424, but we held out for the win. Periera picked up a knock keeping him out of the next game.

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I’m absolutely livid at this. The most pathetic performance in my time as Wolfsburg manager. I fined everyone I could and criticised the rest. The bastards are lucky there’s no naked headbutt button, else there would have been plenty of them going around.

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I’m furious again, this is completely Gouveris fault. I fined him 2 weeks wages and he’s dropped for the foreseeable future. We missed a chance to win, and with Dortmund drawing and Bayern losing we miss the chance to move up to second and close the gap to Dortmund to 1.

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[yescomeon]

VfL Wolfsburg - German Bundesliga - 2033/34 Season
​

March 2034

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A season of such promise has just evaporated. With 10 points remaining we are 7 points behind top. We won't make that up, there’s far more chance of us dropping out of the Champions league places. I held a team meeting but half of the team didn’t respond well, luckily it was the lesser half.

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Between matches Macho broke his ankle and is out for the rest of the season. We managed to win without him, but only just, we did not play well. Hopefully now the monkey is off our back we can put a positive run together. Unfortunately we will have to do it without Mattner who damaged his Achillies tendon and will also miss the rest of the season.

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A scruffy performance from us, but also from BMG. We came out on top, two on the bounce now, hopefully we can build some momentum.

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A terrible mistake from De Luca to gift the lead to Bayern very early on. Russo scored a great free-kick to equalise, we couldn’t go on to win it, but we were the better side.

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A win against Bayern would have done wonders. Focus now should be to just finish in the Champions League places.

 

[yescomeon]

VfL Wolfsburg - German Bundesliga - 2033/34 Season
​

April & May 2034

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Kose missed a penalty and a sitter. We couldn’t find a way through, really annoyed. Bayern dropped points too.

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Livid. We’re a different team and have been since Anderlecht, perhaps I was too harsh, dished out a few too many naked headbutts. Absolutely pathetic today. We managed to go to penalties but then missed 4 of them. This was a fantastic chance of winning this competition, thrown away.

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After missing a penalty in the shootout I just don’t care.

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A good dominant win, it feels like we haven’t had a win like this in a while. Hopefully we can kick on from here and at least finish above Bayern.

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*sigh*… I know Koln are a decent side, and we were away from home, but we were very lucky to come out of this with a draw. The chance of going above Bayern isn’t even enough for these players. This season just can’t end quickly enough.

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God this was frustrating, ok I didn’t expect much but to give away 2 penalties late on is just not on, the team have just completely lost it.

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**** ‘em all, they’re all ****.

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Nothing to see here. None of them deserve anything.

 

[yescomeon]

VfL Wolfsburg - German Bundesliga - 2034/35 Season
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Pre-Season

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So this was a decision I really had to sleep on after such a disappointing end to the season. I’ve accepted the offer but a word on said offer first. E15k p/w is a good wage don’t get me wrong but, I had a look at what other managers in the division are earning:

• Didier Deschamps – RBL – E96k p/w,
• Carsten Jancker – BMG – E52k p/w,
• Ralph Hasenhüttl – Dortmund – E43k p/w,
• Miguel Moreira – Bayern – E37k p/w,
• Lukas Rupp – Hoffenheim – E32.5k p/w,
• Argirios Giannikis – Koln – E31.5k p/w,
• Roberto Hilbert – Schalke – E30.5k p/w,
• Andreas Luthe – Hamburg – E29k p/w,
• Manuel Baum – Leverkusen – E28.5k p/w,
• Sandro Wagner – Dusseldorf – E28k p/w,
• Florian Kohfeldt – Hertha – E25k p/w,
• Jens Härtel – Mainz – E20k p/w,
• Mark Zimmermann – Bremen – E18.25k p/w,

I’m 14th​ in the league in terms of wage, only the managers of Kaiserslautern, Frankfurt and München Lions are earning less (Stuttgart don’t have a manager at the moment but when they hire one I be he’ll earn more than me. Thomas Karg (Darmstadt – E17k p/w) and Marco Kurz (Hannover – E19.5k p/w) in the division below are both earning more than me, even the current Randers manager is on more than me. The club are the second richest in Germany and 10th​ in the world with a worth of nearly a billion Euro. With the top divisions in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Turkey and Ukraine, now active, I will accept any good offers that come my way. Perhaps I shouldn’t have accepted a 4 year contract.

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I don’t usually do this but here is the info on the whole squad:

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These are the 11 players I consider to be the first 11 come the end of last season, and how they did in that season. The average star rating for the side is 3.8, taking 4 to be world-class, as it appears to be, that is a strong first team.

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And here is the second string. The average star rating for this lot is 2.6, 3 is a leading Bundesliga player, 2.5 is a good player. Any of the second string should be able to deputise for a short time.

In my view I am a right back, a centre back and an ball winning central midfielder away from a world class first 11. The problem is I have a transfer budget of E44.5m and a wage budget of E2.4m.

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Last season we broke the record for average attendance, that’s getting close to the stadium capacity. I’d ask for it to be expanded, but all the clubs funds are going towards building a title winning side. The board aren’t even willing to keep the youth and training facilities up-to-date, which I view as more important.

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De Luca’s fine season was the best that Wolfsburg has ever seen.

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Available on a free transfer I had to bring Danilo in, at the very least we can make a tidy profit on him.

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What can I say about Scholfield that his stats don’t shout out. For E30m and the wages he’s on he is a bargain signing that no doubt English players will be paying at least twice that for him in a few years time.

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I had to do a bit of shuffling here as I ate into the money I had set aside for another player buying Schofield. To get E23.5m for a player I signed on a free and who hardly played is good business in my book. Especially when I have a replacement in the seconds.

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Here he is, the Marquis signing this window. Medina is a world class centre back I have brought in for E42m, he looks the business, let’s hope he lives up to the price tag.

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With the business I wanted done, done, the average star rating for the side is actually down to 3.6. It should be said that I have changed assistant managers over the summer, promoting my kick-*** u19s manager. I think the side is better, despite the lower star rating.

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Same story with the second string, the average down to 2.5, but I think it is about the same as before the window, which is fine for me.

I don’t want to do any more business, but, Utd. And Arsenal are sniffing around Periera and Kose. I had replacements lined up for both, but Dortmund have signed one of them, so only one of the two will be allowed to leave.

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Dortmund unsettled Poirier, I would have rathered kept him, especially with the vultures circling Kose and Periera (Dortmund have unsettled Kose, but he is not going to anyone else in this division), but he isn’t important enough to keep around unhappy, especially with Lainez still here.

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I swear Dortmund are just trying to unsettle my whole squad. I managed to talk the rebels around. I’m off to make offers for Dortmund whole first team.

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Well I managed to unsettle one of them a little bit.

 

[yescomeon]

VfL Wolfsburg - German Bundesliga - 2034/35 Season
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August & September 2034

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Our season is underway (kind of) with the first round of the German cup. A minnow was offered up for sacrifice and dispatched. Macho back to his best.

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Not the worst draw, but certainly not the easiest either. I am very confident of finishing at least 3rd​ though.

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Thank god for that, the window is shut and we kept hold of our best players, with only El Amrani really unhappy. Dortmund went big this window despite quite easily winning the league last season.

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Oh boy, Schofield was excellent today, scoring an incredible goal on his debut, and all round looking lively. Gouveris is going to have a fight on for the first team this season.

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I think in the past I have been too quick to bow to player pressure, from now on I will be taking a firmer approach.

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Mattner couldn’t make it to half time without picking up 2 yellows. With such fierce competition for places in midfield he will be out of the side now for a while. We were dominant up to the sending off, and still, but to a lesser degree, following it. I’m please to win with only 10 men.

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Well I certainly didn’t see this result coming, we were lethal in front of goal. It was Gilhaus who was in said goal, he didn’t have the best of returns to the Reitmaier Arena. A small measure of revenge for the Europa League final defeat.

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Another good result in a real tough run of games. We dominated the game again against a good side. It could have been a lot more comfortable, we missed a penalty, Kose had a bad game, and we gave away a penalty.

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We started very well and took the lead. Before the match I raised an eyebrow at their choice to put Filipe Renan up front, he got the equaliser. I decided to drop a bit deeper, we saw it out and I’m pleased with the result.

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City are paying very close attention to Periera, if they think they will get him for E46.5m then they have another thing coming, if they want him E80m or go elsewhere.

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A good win, and a brace from corners from De Luca. We score a lot of set plays, and the board love it. City were here again watching Pereira, who, as usual, had a fantastic game. I have offered him a new contract though.

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That win takes us top. We saw last season exactly how little that means at this stage. Nonetheless, we have made a fantastic start to the season.

 

[yescomeon]

VfL Wolfsburg - German Bundesliga - 2034/35 Season
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October 2034

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We absolutely hammered Fenerbahce, just blew them away. You’ll notice a new name on the scoresheet. The right winger we promoted from the seconds scored on his debut. He’ll be getting more of a chance now with Russo out for a month.

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One in the eye for City. Pereria signs a new deal with a substantial wage rise. Unfortunately his minimum release clause goes down from E99m to E69m, one that could realistically be met.

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A great win again here, Leverkusen were second best right from the off. The scoring started with Virvilis who makes it 2 in his first 2 starts.

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Virvilis was fantastic again, 3 goals in 3 games now. Outshadowed by Macho who was just out of this world.

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We were very poor in this game. Luckily Periera bailed us out with a late goal.

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A poor performance again. Bailed out by Pereria again. I’m going to drop Kose for a few games, he’s gone off the boil a bit the last few games.

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Just like last month, I wont be getting carried away.

 

[issteo]

Decent start to the season, hopefully no one will come sniffing around in January. Are you gonna jump ship if the opportunity arises with the low wages?

 

[yescomeon]

Thanks Issteo, I'm pretty happy so far but after last season I won't be counting my chickens just yet. I will be keeping an eye out for jobs, in truth I have been for most of my time here. Whilst I really like the team I've built I never really settled here, and that was before wage-gate. The problem is there aren't many teams that are a step up from Wolfsburg, and other leagues don't have the cash the Bundesliga does.

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VfL Wolfsburg - German Bundesliga - 2034/35 Season
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November 2034​

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Good god this is a bad result. We played pretty much our first team but with Ditterle on the left wing, Pereria up front, but Pereria pulled a hamstring and is out for 3 weeks.

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Mattner came on to replace Gouveris who was on a yellow, but he managed to pick up a straight red. He’s back out of the side. Luckily we managed to hold on for the win.

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For the most part a good performance here. That said Russo was poor again, he has been for a while. Virvilis came off the bench and got an assist, I can hardly believe it myself but Russo is dropped.

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A nice win this. We were able to dominate the game, but struggled to find a way through. Leider scored a wonderful goal and our new young striker Lyng cam of the bench to set up the goal for Schofield.

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A tough match, it took a header from Ibanez from a corner for us to get through. El Amrani was awesome in goal today, and has been for a while now. Well worth the fight I put up to keep him in the summer.

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Madrid got revenge for the hammering we gave them. We had already qualified for the next round before the match, so I played some players in need of match fitness. We wasted chances and they pounced on any sniff they had.

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Still top, still undefeated, but it’s still early in the season.

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We lose top spot with the defeat to Madrid, it’s still possible to win it back but it is out of our hands.

 

[yescomeon]

So it's been a really long hiatus. My game broke down, I have no idea why, but in the end I fixed it by deleting the preferences folder. Checking the boxes that allow the logo packs to be used causes the game to break, so now I am stuck with naked football manager. Despite that, it's good to be playing FM again.
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VfL Wolfsburg - German Bundesliga - 2034/35 Season
​

December 2034​

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We went a goal down with El Amrani conceding at his near post. In the second half I changed it to 433 and Kose bagged two goals against his old side to win us the match.

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The side was heavily rotated to see some of the players who missed out last time. Scholtz in attacking midfield (position changed from trequartista) really impressed and was man of the match, he was the player I was most keen to see as Macho was very poor in the last match. Two goals and an assist for Scholtz, two assists and a goal for Kose, Kok with his second assist in as many games for Ditterle.

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This was one of those games. We had a load of chances but missed them all but one of them. Luckily we came away with the win thanks to De Luca, who won player of the week.

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We really struggled to break down Koln in what was a dull game. Kose managed to grab the points late on after we went 3 up top.

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A real kick in the nuts this game. It was fairly open all match with us perhaps just edging it. We took the lead with a great Russo free-kick. From around 60 mins I decided to keep it tight and it looked like we would hold out quite comfortably, but they scored a 35 yard hit and hoper late in the game to gain a point.

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A tough draw for the first knock out round of the champions league.

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I thought we were going to balls this up. The same happened here that has happened in the last few games, we weren’t taking our chances and the opposition managed to level the match late. Luckily Leider bailed us out right at the end despite us being a man down.

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A great win here to going into the winter break. Scholtz was in fine form with 2 goals and 2 assists.

Forgot the screenshot for the league table, but we’re top.

 

[yescomeon]

VfL Wolfsburg - German Bundesliga - 2034/35 Season
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January & February 2035​

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It’s was a bit of a nightmare of a winter break. First day of the transfer window my director of football decided to sell Macho for £25m, I could have easy got £30-40m for him so I was really ****** about that and he was sacked the next day.

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I also lost Pereira to Barcelona, but luckily I had a contingency plan for either him or Kose leaving…

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…and here he is. He ended up costing more than I expected but world-class winger Juarez comes in to replace Pereira on the left wing.

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With the extra money I brought in Italian wonderkid Fillippazzo for £10m up-front and £17m over 48 months. He’ll provide stiffer competition to Kose than any of the reamaining strikers not Pereira has gone. This being needed all the more with Kose pulling a hamstring in the one friendly we played over the winter break, keeping him out for 2 months.

I couldn’t find any replacement for Macho for a deal I could afford. The plan is to have Scholtz no. 1 for the rest of the season with Schofield filling in when needed.

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First game back and it was hardly a classic, but we got the win we wanted, and with Dortmund losing to BMG it extends our lead at the top.

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Debuts for the 2 new signings in this match, and one to remember for Fillipazzo. Russo was world-class in this match, he made two incredible runs down the right and crossing to put it on a plate for Fillipazzo to give him 2 goals on his debut. Russo bagged a lovely free-kick, and Fillipazzo returned Russo's previous favours nodding down for Russo to fire home his second.

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Although they aren’t having a good season Bayern away is always going to be a tough fixture. Still it was a disappointing performance and result, the first defeat in the league this season. El Amrani was disappointing for the first goal, and has been disappointing full-stop, it was a mistake to get rid of Gillhaus for him.

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Good performance here in another big game. Fantastic performance for Juarez, bagging 2 goals and an assist for fellow new boy Fillipazzo, winning him player of the week. What an impact those two have made since arriving. A dodgy performance from Medinia who missed two headers leading to two goals, El Amrani wasn’t convincing either.

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What a run of fixtures, Bayern-Dortmund-Real. Another mistake from El Amrani for them to score early on. We were under a lot of pressure and I dropped it to a counter system. We held on to keep it 1-0 but we didn’t have a shot on target. We’re still in the tie but we have to be much better at home.

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Terrible defensive performance from a slightly rotated side. Fillipazzo continues his great start to his time at Wolfsburg. He’s a long way from the finished article but he’s a natural goal-scorer.

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Dortmund have dropped away and it is now Leipzig chasing us. We have a 9 point lead with 2/3 of the season gone.

 

[Sammuthegreat]

Loving this story.

 

[TheBattman]

good to see you back

 

[Brane_Orsou]

Just caught up and it's been an eventful few seasons in Germany! Hopefully you'll land the title this season after a few heartbreaks recently

 

[yescomeon]

VfL Wolfsburg - German Bundesliga - 2034/35 Season
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March 2035​

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The month starts with a milestone game for me, my 600th​. Ottl made some nice comments in the press article, I’ve not seen that before.

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Russo scored one of his free-kicks, which was the only goal of the game. We had plenty of chances and limited them to not a shot on target. Some top draw saves from their keeper late on kept it down to 1-0.

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A great win here but unfortunately at the price of Scholtz breaking his leg, keeping him out for the rest of the season. Meaning Schofield will have to move forward for the remainder.

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Much better performance but they scored early meaning we needed 3. It was always going to be tough. Donaruma in their goal and the post proved too hard to beat. This level seems a little too much for Fillipazzo at this stage but we had no one better fit.

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A good, dominant win here with 2 assists and a goal from Russo. Frankfurt weren’t able to manage a shot on target.

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Kose comes back into the side with a bang grabbing a hat-trick.

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Almost there now, 3 more wins would guarantee it.

 

[Sammuthegreat]

Wow, bit of a cakewalk this year... shame about your bad luck in knockout draws

 

[yescomeon]

Hey guys, glad there is still interest after such a long break.

Sammuthegreat its been like a knife through hot butter since I've been back, nice way to reel me back in, although, we may be up to our old tricks again...
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VfL Wolfsburg - German Bundesliga - 2034/35 Season
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April 2035​

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A disappointing result here, we were very wasteful, especially Fillipazzo (Kose picked up a knock on international duty). I decided to keep him on and go 433, he managed to get a goal to draw the game but still disappointing not to get all three points.

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Another very disappointing performance, this time it was Kose’s turn to be wasteful. The 433 couldn’t bail us out this time. Between the last match we lost Leider for the season. I can just feel the bottle job coming. The lead is down to 11 points. These last two side have been bottom half sides and we have found it really tough.

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I gambled to try get the win, it backfired. Another poor performance. Luckily RBL only drew so the gap is 10 points, 4 games to go. We might just scrape over the line, we do play RBL in the run-in though.

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Perhaps with this monkey off our back we can play with some more freedom and actually get a result. This only came through because of other results. We should be home and hosed by now, champions with games to spare.

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A great result here, and we really needed it. RBL played first and won so it would have really been squeaky *** time if we lost. The lead stays at 10 points

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One more win will be enough to clinch the title.

 

[Sammuthegreat]

I've noticed that my teams frequently have major wobbles when they need just a few more points to secure the title. Especially at lower levels. Perhaps something to do with low Professionalism/Ambition/Determination throughout the squad? Who knows.

****** irritating, whatever it is...

 

[yescomeon]

I never played FM16 but I've noticed it is considerably harder to win things on this game. It was at Randers and it has been in the Bundesliga so far. My thinking now is you need the experienced players who have won things in the squad to bring the younger players through it.


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VfL Wolfsburg - German Bundesliga - 2034/35 Season
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May 2035​

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We lost Juarez for the rest of the season before this match, but who needs forward players when you have centre-backs that score hat-tricks. This result sealed the title for us, in front of our own fans too.

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Confirmation of our league win.

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It was good to go into this game not needing a win, disappointing performance and result though nonetheless.

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Another poor performance, the side was rotated to give some fringe players playing time and youth players debut. But there was still enough in the side to win, or there should have been.

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Slightly better in this match but still disappointing. Only 8 points in the last 8 games of the season is disappointing form.

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With our poor end to the season our lead was cut to only 2 points. We were only able to equal our record number of wins, but we still bagged the title at the end of the day.

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A nice slice of prize money for finishing top of the pile.

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Russo ended player of the season 8 goals and 20 assist was a good return for the winger. Fillipazzo got signing of the season, I think he might go on to be a big player for this club.

Russo also came 2nd​ in Footballer of the year and 3rd​ in Player’s Player of the year. I fared better, winning Manager of the year and Player’s Manager of the year. We had 3 players in the team of the year, Russo on the right, De Luca at the back and Leider left full back. The same players also made it to the Player’s team of the year.

Despite our success, my eyes wandered elsewhere. My wage is poor, and I worried about keeping the team together. Dortumnd sacked their manager and the Chealsea job came up. I applied for both, was unsuccessful with the Chealsea application, but got the Dortmund job. Maybe a bit of a strange move as they finished 5th​ last season, but they are a bigger club and the task of trying to make them Germany’s most successful club is an interesting one.

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[yescomeon]

Borussia Dortmund - German Bundesliga - 2035/36 Season
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Pre-Season

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So I’ve made the short 3 hour journey from Wolfsburg to Dortmund, despite league placings last season, I think it’s a step up. Since the 21/22 season Dortmund have won the league 9 out of 14 times. From the outset of this save I wanted to manage in the Bundesliga, as I never have, and the team I wanted to manage was Dortmund. Now it’s here it doesn’t feel like it should, I built a great side at Wolfsburg, I wonder I leaving was the right decision.

I’ve moved to a modern place on the edge of town, more spacious than the apartment back in Wolfsburg, but not as convenient for training.

Financially, well personally at least, there is no question the decision was the right one, I’ve doubled my wage to E30k a week, more in line with my peers.

The squad I have inherited here is really good, and I hope to be challenging for the title this season. The main weaknesses are that the team lacks an attacking midfielder, ball winning midfielder, is short on the left wing, and is weak in the goalkeeping department. Not all of these can be properly addressed with the £30m budget I was given, but the players brought in are the following:

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The Polish wonderkid was brought in for E7.5m which is a bargain really. He will provide competition at attacking midfield.

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I do love an Argentinian winger. Grassi comes in for E26.5m from Monaco to challenge for the left wing place. I think he is the best player in this position at the club. It’s a little more than I wanted to pay for him but he’s here now.

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A good signing this, Cantu comes in on a free transfer, for tiny wages, and will be the number 1 keeper at the club.

The first 11 I think will look something like this:

Cantu in goal.

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The Greek beast Veidamenidis at right back, a player I wanted at Wolfsburg but was never going to be able to prise him away from Dortmund.

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A familiar face here with Vieira, at centre back. One of my first duties as Wolfsburg manager was to wave goodbye to this guy who is now, or soon will be, one of, if not the best centre back in the world.

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There are a few good centre-backs behind Vieira, but obviously a long way off him. Probably just about the best of the bunch is Benner, but at 34, he will be on the slide.

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Another fantastic defender in Loureiro at left back, possibly the best left back in the world.

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At deep-lying playmaker we have Angel Peruzzo, another real world class talent.

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This is a bit of a problem position here, and almost everywhere it seems, with good ball wining midfielders being very rare, and therefore very expensive. Tim von Ahlen will probably remain first choice for now.

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Yet another absolute top quality player at right win in Alves, and whats more I have another right winger who is just as good in reserve.

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Another familiar face, this time a player I signed and had to let go at Wolfsburg. Filipe Renan isn’t really an attacking midfielder but will play there for now this season at least.

Grassi on the left wing.

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Up front we have last seasons top scorer (I think) Alduante.

In terms of tactics I will be starting off with the same system that won me the title with Wolfsburg.

In terms of expectations, the board are asking me to reach the final of the Europa league and the cup, and to qualify for the champions league. All reasonable requests imo. My main task will be keeping the squad together without champions league football this season.

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The press fancy us to make the champions league, and push for the title this season.

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That’s the difference at a club like Dortmund, they have more season ticket holders than we could fit in our stadium at Wolfsburg.

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A decent pre-season, harder than usual but I didn’t arrange these. Some suspect defending and goalkeeping towards the start but we saw less of it towards the end. We played in a testimonial game for Daniel Thuller, the main man between the stick during my time as Austria manager.

 

[yescomeon]

Borussia Dortmund - German Bundesliga - 2035/36 Season
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August & September 2035

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The first official game of the season, but unofficially part of pre-season in my eyes. Still, Grassi made his competitive debut and bagged 2 goals and an assist.

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The league officially kicked off with a game against Koln, and a win. We should have scored more but we were wasteful.

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A disappointing game, we failed to put away our chances and they punished us for it late on and with a man disadvantage.

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Another signing and it looks like a good one. Miranda comes in for E850k and looks like he could be a star.

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A nice draw for the Europa league group stage, Zenit our hardest game, but all will be winnable.

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My first derby as Dortmund boss and we got the result, just about. With Aldunate being wasteful I gave Poirier (who I had at Wolfsburg) a chance and he scored 2 and looked very lively. We were terrible at the back today with an awful mistake from the keeper for their second.

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More dropped points and it’s becoming a familiar story. We aren’t taking our chances and are making mistakes at the back. Already I feel the title will be beyond us this season and we will do well to qualify for the champions league.

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Our first game of the Europa league and it starts well. A nice big win against Linz with a bit of rotation too.

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Back to the league and it is a good performance and result but we were a little wasteful again.

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Yet more disappointment, and 3 draws in 3 is very disappointing. Aldunate started as Poirier picked up a knock. He was dreadful and was subbed half time. I will be looking to sell him in January, he doesn’t look able to play up front on his own, I have a replacement in mind.

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My first taste of defeat as Dortmund boss and it’s in Der Klassiker against Bayern. It started well with a goal from Poirier but he went off with a twisted ankle just on half-time. Without him we barely threatened. It worries me that we are so reliant on a player that wasn’t really good enough for my Wolfsburg team.

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A terrible start to the season has seen us drop 7 points in the first 7 games. If we have title ambitions we can’t really drop any more points this season which just isn’t going to happen.

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Slightly better viewing, but who really cares, in the Europa league.