[FM20] It Gives Me Wings - A Red Bull Story

[itsMurph]

May 2020:

And with that the season comes to it's end and we are sat pretty at the top of the table with a dominating league win. Our aggressive brand of attacking football led to 84 goals being scored by us which is very good and in line with the clubs vision of playing attacking, high pressing football. Haaland kept up his goalscoring run and is now on a run of scoring in each of the 12 games played.

As you can see, Haaland comfortably leads the goalscoring charts by a difference of 20 goals. The interesting note is 2nd placed scorer, German striker Mergim Berisha is actually our player who was on loan to SCR Altach, our striking depth is absurd for this league going forward. Veteran midfield Zlatko Junuzovic also had a stellar season for us picking up 9 assist and the 2nd highest average rating of 7.75 only behind Haaland. The bad news of Haaland's excellent season is now he has a club interested in him, current Champions League finalist's Liverpool. We'll just have to wait to see where his loyalites will lie as he still has 3 years left on his current contract. It will take a massive bid to interest me in selling, but potentially we do have someone ready in Berisha to replace.
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[itsMurph]

Player Retirement:

Veteran Goalkeeper Alexander Walke as announced his retirement from football at the end of June. Walke, who has been at Red Bull Salzburg since 2010 and has made 158 appearances for the team, was only a backup goalkeeper for this years campaign, making only 3 appearances in all competitions this season. He is the team's tied highest wage earner who on £33,000 p/w, will allow more flexibilty with our finances in the forthcoming transfer window.


Fan's Player of the Season:

No surprises on who takes this one with striker Erling Haaland taking the majority of the fans vote.​

 

[itsMurph]

Club Visions:

Getting ready for the campaign the head, the board have outlines an updated Club Vision plan going forward. Gone are the favoured requirements of signing Ghanian and Malian based players but instead have been replaced with not signing players over the age of 30 (which is perfectly fine by me). Additionally, as part of an new 5 year plan package, the board want us to sell players to develop for profit and a minimum of 3 year contracts for first team players, which again both are acceptable for my own personal plans.

Finances and Transfer Budget:

The board have planned our new budgets for the season ahead with a transfer budget of £31mil. The club is also in healthy position with our overall balance of just over £55mil. Of course continued Champion League football should help with this. We do only have £10,000 of wage budget to play with but with Walke retiring soon (who takes £33,000 p/w) and potentially a few outgoings soon, we should be in a position going forward to have some room to play with in the wages and hopefully strengthen the team this transfer window, while keeping the budget under/around £400k (which is where I want the clubs wage budget to be at).​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

So the three main targets during the pre season....
1. Keep Erling Haaland
2. Keep Erling Haaland
3. Keep Erling Haaland

 

[Brane_Orsou]

So the three main targets during the pre season....
1. Keep Erling Haaland
2. Keep Erling Haaland
3. Keep Erling Haaland

Don't forget that as well as doing those, he must also try and keep hold of Erling Haaland

 

[itsMurph]

Job Interview Offer:

Spurs chairman Daniel Levy offered me an interview for the vacant Tottenham Hotspur job which I declined instantly. Tottenham finished 7th in the English Premier League last season and sacked previous manager Mauricio Pochettino.​

 

[itsMurph]

Transfer Failure:

After having a great season in the Austrian Bundesliga last year with having the 3rd highest average rating of any player, we found Michorl transfer listed for £2.6 million by rival club LASK, only for Marseille to make an offer with higher wages than the £16,000 p/w package we had in place. All-rounder Michorl would have been a potential first choice option for us in midfield along with the aging Junuzovic and Szoboszlai, while giving us the option to potential loan out one of young midfielders Maheed Ashimeru or Antonie Bernede for more game time.
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[itsMurph]

Transfer News:

Our first main signing of the transfer window has been successfully agreed on as Norwegian left back Birger Meling as agreed to sign from Rosenberg for a total fee of £2.1mil (£1.6mil upfront, with £550k in future installments) and on a 4 year contract of £7,500 p/w.

Meling is a Norwegian international with a very professional attitude. Signed to be our first choice left back with now veteran full back Andreas Ulmer being 34 years old, we'll be looking for his high work rate to be a key factor getting up and down the left side of the pitch.

In terms of outgoings, we've arranged an agreement with German side Borussia Dortmund for young striker Sekou Koita. A solid backup option for us, but with him being 4th choice for the previous season and with Mergim Berisha coming back from loan after a very successful spell at SCR Altach last season, it was probably the best decision to move him on as I don't see him getting many games for us in the forthcoming campaign. A fee of £6mil outright plus a 25% fee from profit of next sale was agreed.

By no means a bad striker and when called upon last season, scored goals when required, it probably would be best for him to move on and continue to develop elsewhere as his still only 20 years old.​

 

[itsMurph]

Job Offer Interview:

Another offer made for my services, this time from La Liga side Atletico Madrid. Despite finishing 3rd in La Liga and losing out in last seasons Champions League final 2-0 to Liverpool, Atletico felt the need to sack previous manager Diego Siemone for underperformance in competitions. Like previously with Spurs, the offer was kindly rejected.

Transfer News:

With the retirement of veteran goalkeeper Walke in the last month, we moved quickly to find a replacement back-up goalkeeper and have signed 30 year old Austrian Jorg Siebenhandl for a fee of an initial £1.7 million with an extra £600k in future installments. Signed from fellow Austrian side, Siebenhandl will provide competition for our keep current number 1 goalkeeper Ciran Stankovic.

A capable deputy for the goalkeeping position in our squad, we'll be looking for his experience and professionalism to be called upon when tasked.​

 

[itsMurph]

Season Preview 2020/21:

No surprises in that the bookies have made us favourites to retain our crown, followed by Rapid Wien, LASK and Austria Wien as our main competition. Newly promoted SV Horn are favourites to go straight back down.

The media have also backed the bookies claim for us to be favourites by picking 9 out of the starting players our own. Also midfielder Ousame Diakite is one of our own, but it's continuing his loan this year at SCR Altach.

Transfer News:

We have decided to cash-in on Brazilian central defender Andre Ramalho after falling down the pecking order at the club. Previously our 4th choice center back, we had transfer listed him back at the start of the window where offers from French side Caen for £2.1mil was offered. Having rejected that offer and the player becoming unhappy, Portugese side Famalicao have offered £4.3mil upfront which was accepted. Previously on £21,000 p/w and taking up a non-EU slot in our squad, I felt the time was right for him to leave.

A capable defender with the ability to play in more forward roles, due to falling down behind Onguene, Wober and Pongracic, it was probably the best for his career to move on. Also the club originally signed him for £700k, so the club and board are happy to make profit on the transfer.
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[itsMurph]

Pre Season/July 2020:

Here we go, another campaign and the squad is ready, raring to go. We had a decent pre season as a whole apart from the home defeat to Celtic (I consider that their payback for us knocking them out of the Europa League last year). We comfortably won our game in the 1st round of the OFB Cup with a rotated side and we're off the mark in the league with Haaland carrying on from where he left off last season. Interestingly no club as made an offer all transfer window so far for him, there's interest from Liverpool, Chelsea and Napoli but no bids..... but there's still time.

Champions League - Champion's Playoff Draw:

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Also our European campaign will kick off in the Champion's Playoff with either a trip to BATE in Belarus or FC Vitorul of Romania.

 

[itsMurph]

Contract News:

South Korean striker Hwang Hee-Chan has accepted a new 4 year contract with the club. With only just 11 months left on his existing contract, the club have managed to get him to sign a new deal with the same wage as his previous contract of £25,000 p/w.

An important member of the first team squad, 24 year old Hwang Hee-Chan is an aggressive, hard working striker, never to give an opposition's defence a rest. Also quick off the mark, Hee-Chan has formed an exceptional partnership with striker Haaland in the team's 2-man strikeforce.​

 

[itsMurph]

Trouble Ahead?...

The news at the club we all feared that might happen, Haaland is starting to let his feelings known in that he wants to play for a bigger club...

Spoiler

Fortunately club captain Andreas Ulmer put him in check and has agreed to stay... for now.

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[itsMurph]

Champions League Progress:

We've managed to comfortably beat BATE from Belarus comfortably with a 6-0 aggregate win. A comfortable 3-0 win in the 1st leg meant we fielded a weaker side and still managed an convincing victory.

Champions League Group Draw:

Again we find ourselves in the Champions League Group Stage this season and yet again find ourselves in a tricky group if we want progress into the knockout phase. Real Madrid are currently La Liga champions, Chelsea have had a transfer spree in the summer so far with signings of wingers Federico Chiesa & Leroy Sane, aswell as defender Milan Skriniar and a long trip to Russia with Krasnodar.​

 

[Brane_Orsou]

*****SPOILER***** Good news about Haaland being "persuaded" to stay. Another tricky group but fingers crossed!

 

[itsMurph]

End of Summer Transfer Window:

Overall I've felt we had a solid transfer window in that we've managed to hold the key players in our squad without upsetting anyone (Haaland didn't recieve any bids, Szoboszlai had a bid from Dortmund of a package deal worth £48mil refused). We added depth for the first team squad (I personally would of liked 1 more winger but nothing was out there for us that I felt was reasonable) and we've managed to bring in 2 Austrian youngster who I believe will have a key future here.

Future prospects we've signed this window are Austrian midfielders Johannes Schwartz and Lukas Meyer. Both with fantastic personalities I can see them development a partnership in the middle of the pitch for many years to come. Meyer has a higher potential ceiling of the two, though Schwartz's model citizen personality, I believe will help with his development in his younger years. Schwartz was bought for an initial £675k with a package deal in place going up to £1.4mil while Meyer was bought for £1.2mil with £800k in installments plus a potential package of an extra £2.4 mil after various appearance fees.​

 

[itsMurph]

World Transfers 2020:

Here are the leading transfers for 2020 so far. Koke signed by PSG is currently holding the largest transfer fee of £120mil while the English Premier Teams have notably flashed the cash and hit the Italian Serie A hard by bringing in players like Paulo Dybala, Milan Skriniar, Allan and Federico Chiesa.​

 

[itsMurph]

August 2020:

An unbeaten month and start to the season so far but it is not us who are leading the way in the league for the moment. Rapid Wien have managed to make a 100% start so far with 6 wins in 6 games. We started off well but some poor draw performances against teams we should be beating have meant for the first time in this save, we don't lead the table at the end of a monthly report.

Red Bull Salzburg Player of the Month - Birger Meling

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New signing, norwegian left back Birger Meling has made and exceptional start to his Red Bull career with a series of strong performances. Even coming up with a few goals, the left back as been all action since he has arrived at the club.

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[itsMurph]

The Squad:

Now with the transfer window closed, I feel it'll be a good time to show the squad we have currently for the campaign ahead. Overall I think we've got more than a good enough to retain our title. In regards to the main aim of becoming a force in Europe, we're still looking to improve in certain areas which will hopefully come in due time.​

 

[itsMurph]

September 2020:

Not good enough. A succession of draws this month means we've let current league leaders Rapid Wien pull a 8 point gap this early in the season. I honesty have no idea on how this run of draws came to be but after the Austria Wien game, I let the team know how i felt and they seems to respond in empathic fashion with a 3-0 victory away at Chelsea in the Champions League (probably our most important win to date, especially after dropping points to Krasnodar at Home).

Red Bull Salzburg Player of the Month - Zlatko Junuzovic:

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The veteran midfielder is proving there's still life in the tank yet as in a poor month his been a bright spark in the team. He may not be as fast as what he used to be, but his experience has been valuable.