Rise from the Ashes - A Stuttgart Story

leckuno

leckuno

Member
Joined
Jan 26, 2017
Messages
1,786
Reaction score
2,913
Points
113

Year of foundation: 1893
Nickname: Der VfB
Stadium: Mercedes-Benz Arena (60,441 seats)
Division: Bundesliga
5 times Bundesliga champions - and 3 German Cups


Stuttgart have just been promoted to the Bundesliga again after being relegated and then winning the 2. Bundesliga. With a media prediction of 16th the club should finish well above that and maybe even push for a Europa League spot.

The club has some excellent players for a team that has just been promoted which brings me on nicely to the squad

Keepers

View attachment 43443
The signing of Ron-Robert Zieler is a great signing and should be the first team keeper for the next few seasons

View attachment 43441
For just coming into the top division again the defence is the strongest part of the team with Pavard, Baumgartl and Badstuber being 3 great defenders.

View attachment 43440
The midfield could be bit better but will get you through the first season with the midfield being built around Ascacibar for the next couple of seasons

View attachment 43439
Mario Gomez is still a class player and will easily lead the attack for the first season but a decent back up will be looked at who might be able to take over.


I will be looking at trimming the squad and looking to bring in another couple of players with the money made.

For my signing's I will be looking to buy young and develop players and then try and sell for a large profit if the are to leave. We will be putting an emphasise on youth and over the seasons try and develop our own players coming through the youth system






​
 
Transfers


So even though we are only half way through July I have concluded most of my transfers.

I have gone with young and exciting players who will develop at the club and turn into exciting players


Francsco Trincao
View attachment 43371

Trincao comes in from Braga for £250k and will play a supporting role down the left wing and hopefully develop and play a key role in the second season.

Xadas

View attachment 43370

Xadas comes in again from Braga for £750k. He will play a key role in AMC over the season and many more to come

Dario Maresic

View attachment 43369

Maresic comes in from Strum Graz for an initial 2.5 million with an extra 5 million slit over the next 3 seasons. He will be a great back up defender with looking at taking over from Badstuber in the next few years.

Lautaro Martinez

View attachment 43368
Martinez comes in from Racing for 7.5 million and will play a supporting role for Gomez with the view of taking over from him in the future.

Zeca

View attachment 43367
Finally we bring in Zeca who will be our main LB for the season who at 23 is the oldest player that we bring in.

Richard
View attachment 43366

We have also signed Richard who will be joining us from Internacional in January who will provide some cover in the AMC from Xadas.

We still have £3.71 million left to spend and £20k in wages so I will be keeping an eye out for other young exciting players I might be able to sign on the cheap.



For the outgoings we were quick to act and sold Daniel Ginczek to Hoffenheim for £7.5 million, Stefan Peric left for Parma for £150k, Marcin Kaminski went to Ingolstadt for £1 million and Samir Barjrami went to Servette FC for £52k.


I am currently happy with the look of the squad and looking forward to the coming season to see how we get on

​
 
August

So with August coming brings the start of the season where its a nice short month with only 3 games and also bring the end of the first transfer window.

I'll start off with my preferred formation for the season which is a standard 4-2-3-1 which was also the recommended formation from my assistant. This is also my starting 11 come the end of the transfer window. I feel this team should be capable of getting us a comfortable top half finish.

The board are only requiring me to reach the third round of the cup and avoid a relegation battle.

View attachment 43313

German Cup

View attachment 43312
This should of been a more comfortable win but we got away with it but I am pleased to have started with a win in my first competitive game.


View attachment 43309
Firsst league game and we got off to a flyer with Akolo getting on the score sheet in the 5th minute. I thought we were on for the win but a draw in the league opener is a decent result for a team supposedly fighting relegation.

View attachment 43308
What a win. I was no expecting this result at all. I thought we had thrown it away from 2-0 up when Lewandowski scored in the 91st minute but Akolo pops up again in the final minute of the game to score the winner.

League Table

View attachment 43306

So on deadline day there were a couple of last minute pieces of business.

Dennis Man

View attachment 43305
Man is our final signing of the window and will provide cover down the right wing for Akolo.

Zimmermann leaving on loan is the only other piece of business.​
 
September

So September was another short month with only 4 games in the league thanks to internationals taking place.

View attachment 43298

First up we came up against a strong Dortmund team and we took and early lead but were unable to take advantage of them going down to 10 men.

View attachment 43297

We did a bit of rotation here as even though we only had 4 games they all came really close together. Martinez came in for Gomez and got his first goal of the season.

View attachment 43295
Gomez what a man. He single-handedly managed to win us the game with the first hat-trick of the season all in the second half as well.

View attachment 43294

Mario Gomez is at it again adding another 2 goals to his tally. I did start to get really nervy though after they got it back to 3-2 as we just didn't turn up for the second half of the game.

League Table

View attachment 43293

an outstanding second month for the team which leaves us third in the league. Lets see how long this run can last and how far I can push the big boys of the league.​
 
October

So yet we have another short month with only 5 games thanks to internationals taking place but its always good to see the players getting recognition by getting called up into the international squads.


View attachment 43024

First game of the month and it was a pretty even game neither team really deserved to win but it was good to see Man getting hon the score sheet again from the wing.


View attachment 43023
Martinez is GOD. So with 20 minutes remaining I brought Martinez on for Gomez. With 2 minutes left I had succumbed to a 2-0 defeat and then Martinez comes to the rescue and secures a point with 2 stoppage time goals and become a legend in my eyes .

View attachment 43022
Our first loss of the season has come and its a bitter pill to swallow with an extra time goal sealing our fate but it was always going to come.

German Cup

View attachment 43021

With a bit of rotation being done to help some players get a rest with the games all coming close together Gomez gets the winning goal

View attachment 43020
Glad to see us get back to winning ways in the league since we'd only picked up 2 points from our previous 3 games

League Table

View attachment 43019

To be sitting third after 10 games is a lot better than the media were thinking we would be doing. There are still a lot of games to go though so we will do our best to keep the points coming​
 
November

These short months are starting to give me the dear that we're going to be hit in the second half of the season with a lot of games. November we only have the 4 league games.

View attachment 43013
Augsburg sitting bottom of the league so we should really have won this but we were undone by a late goal again.

View attachment 43012
2 goals very close together and the result was probably the fairest as neither team really got going and a draw with Schalke was respectable

View attachment 43011
After 2 draws what a better way to get back to winning ways with a big win against Mainz. Mario Gomez showing there is still something in those old legs of his.

View attachment 43010
Badstuder getting a late goal to beat Hertha which equals out the late goal that cost us a win at the start of the month

League Table

View attachment 43009

So we are still beating all expectations with sitting 3rd in the league.

With December it see's me getting the scouts out in force to see who we can strengthen the team with in Jan to help us push on and help us compete in our second season​
 
December

December brings 3 league games and the third round of the German Cup along with a lot of scouting for some new players to join the club in January.

View attachment 42855

First game of the month we come up against the league leaders Leverkusen and Gomez once again comes up with the goods again.

View attachment 42854

A really disappointing result against HSV after the previous game but we did deserve to lose as we just didn't turn up.

View attachment 42853

Back to winning ways with Gomez scoring again to put him the leading goal scorer in the league on 12 goals.

German Cup

View attachment 42852


With coming up against Aue I decided to do a full rotation to give the back ups a game. They duly delivered with Martinez getting a hat trick to get us through to the quarter final

League table

View attachment 42851

4 points off of top spot. I would easily have taken this at the start of the save. We will only get stronger.

I've done a bit of wheeling and dealing this month so my next update will just be the January transfers to keep it separate​
 
Last edited:
January Transfers

So throughout December we did a fair bit of transfer business so we could hit the ground running in January and get the new lads integrated into the squad.

First up the outgoing transfers are as follows:

Dennis Aogo to Ajax for £3.5 million
Anastasios Donis to Stoke for £3.2 million
Christia Genter to Quanjian for £4.4 million
Ebenezer Ofori to Heerenveen for £1 million
Emiliano Insua to Valencia for £6 million


Players In


Christian TueView attachment 42850Chrtistia Tue comes in for £350k and will provide back up for cm and hopefully develop well and come a rotation option or sell him on

Predrag Rjkovic
View attachment 42849

Prdrag Rajkovic comes in for £6 million. He will be competing with Zieler for the number 1 spot with looking at taking over in the near future for the next 10 years

Orbelin Pineda
View attachment 42848

Pineda comes in for £7.5 million and will be the new playmaker in CM and will run the show for the next few seasons.


Jadon Sancho
View attachment 42843

This is a transfer I wasn't expecting. Jadon Sancho was on the transfer list for £9.25 million and at 17 has an excellent future in front of him so I was not going to pass this up and he will be competing for the first team.



We still have a further £7 million and 180k in wages left for transfers so will see who else might appear on the transfer list.​
 
January

We get broken back in easily after the winter break with only 3 games. Shame that is the only thing about it as 2 of the games are against Bayern and Dortmund

View attachment 42766
Everybody was raring to go after the winter break and it showed. Gladbach just didn't have any answers to our attacking play.

View attachment 42765

What a game against Bayern, we may have gone ahead 3 times during the game and thrown it away each time but at the start if I thought a point away to Bayern was an option I would bite your hand off.

View attachment 42764

Dortmund have been struggling this season and we took full advantage with Martinez getting a last minute winner.


League Table

View attachment 42763
We are sitting well above expectations still with only 4 points off from top spot and 9 points ahead of guaranteed Europa League football again.

We made one final signing right at the end of the transfer window to help with the depth of the attackers.

Florinel Coman
View attachment 42762
Coman comes in for £5million from FCSB and will play along side his international team mate Dennis Man. Coman will push both Gomez and Martinez for the starting position and be an excellent back up if they get injured.​
 
February

February is always a good month as with it sometimes comes the youth intake which is everybody's favourite art of the game as you always want that next big star to come through.

View attachment 42734

3 goals in the opening 7 minutes I thought this was going to be an easy game but it all changes. It was a nerve wracking final 40 minutes as I thought we were going to throw it all away.

German Cup

View attachment 42733

This was a hard fought game but my emphasis on fitness training during the winter break meant my players had the edge when it came to extra time. We are now through to the semi final of the cup

View attachment 42732
Mario Gomez. Nothing else needs to be said about this result

View attachment 42731
Sadly we didn't have extra time this time against Koln so we had to settle for the 1-1 draw.

League table
View attachment 42730

So we have managed to move up to second and only 3 points away from Bayern. Can we win the league in our first season back up?


So from the youth intake we got one very promising player who will hopefully make the cut in 3 years time when he will be able to make his first team debut.

Let me introduce you to Manfred Faltermeier

View attachment 42729​
 
March​

A mixed month here with only 4 games thanks to the international call ups where a few of our players got their first caps for their respective countries.

View attachment 42728

First game of the month we just didn't turn up at all and we didn't even improve at all when playing against 10 men. Leipzig just ran us off the park and were far too much for us today

View attachment 42727
The lads had a point to prove here and they duly delivered with an outstanding game against Hoffenheim. Martinez showing now why he is being played a head of Gomez.

View attachment 42726

Frankfurt didn't really put up much of fight in the second half and my midfielders took full advantage with Richard at 18 showing his talents

View attachment 42725
Augsburg just blew us away and we just couldn't cope with it at all.

League table
http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/atta...rise-ashes-stuttgart-story-league-febuary.png

View attachment 42724

Even with this being our worst month we still sit in second position. We will keep fighting until the last game to gain the highest position possible in the league​
 
April

April comes round which means the season is now nearly over and because of our points we are guaranteed to finish well above the media prediction of 16th. Now just got to hope we can hold onto a European place

View attachment 42719

Not much to say on this game as we were really poor and Schalke deserved the win

View attachment 42718
We struggled here again against Mainz but we got the 3 points which is all that matters.

German Cup
View attachment 42717
We needed extra time here to beat Augsburg but we manage to get them back after them hammering us the last time we played them and we have managed to make it to the final of the cup.

View attachment 42716
Another poor game here against Hertha and we just couldn't get going at all.

View attachment 42715
I was surprised this was as close as it was in the end as I really expected it to get away from us at one point but Leverkusen ran out deserved winners.

League table
View attachment 42714
So what we realised here was that we really missed Ascacibar when he was out injured for the month as we just didn't have another player to try and win the ball in midfield so I will be looking to get somebody in during the next transfer window to play backup to him​
 
May

The final month of the season and we have two remaining league games along with the cup final.

View attachment 42599
A relatively easy game for the start of the month and we run out 2-0 winners against HSV with Pineda scoring an absolute cracker of a goal from 30 yards

View attachment 42598
Final game of the league and we are unable to get the win against Freiburg but a 2-2 draw we will take as it secures us a top 3 finish in the league.



German Cup

View attachment 42597
A tough fought final against Hertha and I thought we were on to win it until they got an equaliser. The game stayed stuck at 1-1 through extra time and went to penalties. The lads did their best but Hertha were too strong and ran out winners.


League table



View attachment 42596

A very positive season here and there will be a season overview up next.​
 
Season Overview

We had a very positive season finishing well above our predicted 16th spot. But I couldn't of got that without being allowed to bring in the players I brought in. They have all been in and out of the first team and will be permanent members of it going forward.



End of Season Awards
View attachment 42590
Lautaro Martinez took a clean sweep of all of the awards going but he was the stand out performer and will be my main striker going forward now as Gomez is just getting a bit old and not fitting into my plans of having a young team.

Season Review
View attachment 42589



For next season we will be looking to sign a couple of new players for some extra depth and challenge the current players for the starting 11. The only problem is since we were in the red when we got guaranteed champions league football the board have only give me £12million to spend even though after prize money we now have over £70 million in the bank so we will see if I am given a bit more during pre-season
​
 
Doing really well with this so far mate, CL place in the first season would be a result.
 
Season 2 Preview

Transfers

So with the board only giving me £12 million for transfers this season we really needed to do our homework on players to sign to make sure they were going to help with the team and provide good back up. For the players out we had to look at who was going to be important first team players and shift the dead wood to free up cash and wages. The transfers cover right up to the end of the transfer window.

We will start with the main outgoings:

Andreas Beck joins Celtic for £2.7 million
Julian Green joins Hannover for £3.2 million
Jerome Onguene joins Tottenham for £3.6 million
Mario Gomez joins Newcastle for £7 million
Ron-Robert Zieler joins Newcaastle for £12.25 million
Chadrac Akolo joins Hoffenheim for £14 million
The rest for £9.7 million

So from transfers we bring in £52 million.

It was a tough decision to let Gomez go but at 33 he was only falling down the pecking order and he was on £77,000 a week which was better utilised elsewhere. Zieler was also a tough decision but we managed to bring in new number 2 for a lot less and the money could be used elsewhere again.

Akolo really wanted to leave as he had fallen out of the first team by the end of the season so when Hoffenheim came in with their bid it was a bit daft to turn it down when it was nearly twice his value.

Now the Incoming Transfers

Antonio Marin
View attachment 42456
Marin joins for a free transfer to help provide a bit of cover at RB.

Erick Cabaco
View attachment 42455
Cabaco joined to provide a bit of cover at CB but in the end was loaned out s we managed to bring in somebody else

Marcos Llorente
View attachment 42454
Llorente also joins on a free transfer to cover in the CM role and may even push for a first team role. A Real Madrid graduate was just too good to pass up on a free transfer

Marc-Oliver Kempf
View attachment 42453
Kempf comes in to provide cover in the CB role and also increases the nation trained players for the champions league.

Marivaldo
View attachment 42452Marivaldo is the reason Zieler was sold as for being only 19 he looks a great prospect and he came in for £35,000 from Sport Club Do Recife in Brazil thanks to a release clause.

Alex Centelles
View attachment 42451
Centelles joins from Valencia after we triggered his release clause of £3.4 million and he will push Zec for the LB position.

Fiete Arp
View attachment 42450
Arp comes in to fill the void by by Gomez and will push Martinez to keep his game up and again help with the Nation players for the champions league. We triggered his release clause of £13 million from HSV

Mario Pasalic
View attachment 42449
Pasalic joins from Chelsea for £9.25 million and will provide a challenge for the CM's and might break in to the starting 11

Samu Castillejo
View attachment 42447
Samu comes in from Villareal for £15 million to make the AMR position his own and will push Man on to the bench and hopefully he can continue to develop at the club.

Squad Thoughts

So I am really happy with my squad this season we have plenty of depth in the squad now. The only issue will be with experience as we only have 1 player in the squad over the age of 24. But in a couple of years this team will be a real force.

Starting XI

So this will be my preferred starting 11

View attachment 42446
Team Instructions

View attachment 42445


So this season we will be pushing for a champions league spot again in the league and will be doing our best to get through the group stages of the champions league.


Wish me luck

​
 
Last edited:
August

So a really shot month with only 2 games to get our season underway. We have the first round of the Cup and once game in the league.

German Cup
View attachment 42420
What a start to a cup campaign. I no they are a non-league team but 8 goals in the first 45 minutes is the most I've seen. A wee bit disappointed that the team eased off in the second half and didn't add to it.


View attachment 42419

A good start to the league campaign with a comfortable win against new boys Kaiserslautern. Martinez showing why he is going to be the min man this season.

We were the only teams to play a league game in August so not going to post the league table.



We made one final signing in August who is going to have a massive impact on shaping the team in the future. I would like to welcome Bernhard Peters from Hamburg as the new Head of Youth Development. Really hoping he will be able to bring through some great players over the next few years.

View attachment 42416​
 
Didn't realise I had only read the first page when I posted on this last night haha! Great first season there and really liking the look of a fair few of your signings there!! That striker seems to have really paid off for you as well.
 
September

The season really starts here as we get our first full month out the way

View attachment 42377
A slow start to the game against Frankfurt but Ascacibar pops up with a goal from 30 yards out to get us the 3 points

Champions League
View attachment 42376
A great start to our champions league journey with a great draw away to Juventus

View attachment 42375
Back to league action against Augsburg and we were unbelievably lucky to get a draw here considering we played the final half hour with 9 men. There was a full rotation for this game with it coming so soon after the Juventus game.

View attachment 42374
Another sending of here nearly costing us against Hoffenheim but luckily we had already done most of the damage in the first half hour.

View attachment 42373
A full rotation again here against Koln with games coming thick and fast. It was really good to make it through the game with 11 men still on the park at the end.

League Table
View attachment 42372
A great start to the season. If my defence can stop conceding goals and I can keep 11 men on the pitch more often then we can really make a shot of getting a champions league spot again.

Already starting to notice the difference with the amount of games with the European games added in so glad I have added a bit more depth to the squad to allow me to rotate the team a bit more to keep players for the big games

​
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

FMBase

Beta

Resources

Top