Schalke 04 - The Recovery

[Sam91]

Schalke 04

A truly legendary German side responsible for recent world class players such as Manuel Neuer, Leroy Sane, Julian Draxler and Mesut Ozil to name a few. But one that has fallen from grace in recent years, and ultimately ended up relegated from the Bundesliga last season! Money worries off the pitch leaving the club in debt around £200m. I face an almighty task of restoring Schalke to former glory, first promotion and helping balance the books off the pitch. On the pitch I need to get the team playing some classy football again and entertain the fans, of which we have the seocnd largest fanbase in Germany and the fourth largest in terms of membership in the world.

Amazingly I discovered that Schalke haven't actually won a title since 1958 and haven't won the German Cup since 2011. Trophies were a must for this side if we were to restore some pride to the club.



Season 1


Transfers

Coming in I mainly had to deal in loans obviously with the clubs debt. Joe Gelhardt came in with Morgan Whittaker to add to our attacking forces. Nils Korber joined as our new number 1. Aaron Connolly came in during the January window along with Paul Seguin who is a versitile centre midfielder.

On the outs was a number of fringe players but notably long serving keeper Ralf Fahrmann sadly had to leave as his wages were way too high for us, same for Salif Sane who was injured until nearly Christmas being paid nearly £60k a week!


League Results

Looking at the league results I'm sure you can tell we had a great season in the second tier, scoring for fun at times and losing just 1 match! Aaron Connolly proved to be a great January signing, Malick Thiaw was a rock at the back and Morgan Whittaker was superb on the right wing for us. But how did we finish in the league?



Cup Results

In the German Cup we actually made it to the Quarter Finals before being knocked out on penalties to Monchengladbach on pens!! A good showing from us especially beating Bayer Leverkusan on the way




Table

Champions obviously with that kind of form. We breezed the league with Hamburg joining us and FC Heidenheim also coming up via the Play Off. We scored a whopping 81 goals and conceding just 18, both stats significantly better than anyone else in the league.


Best Eleven

I played a 4-2-3-1 this season but that's not always been the case(I am about 6 seasons in atm) and it worked very well. Latza and Zalazar were superb in the centre of midfield. Thiaw was immense at the back.

Thats it for Season 1. A great start to the save, like I stated previously I am about 6 seasons in at the moment so plenty to come. Not sure what else I could have posted without giving too much away to the future of the save. Season 2 shall be posted soon, anything else you'd like to see in these season updates let me know.​

 

[Sam91]

Season 2 - 2022/23

Transfers

Outs

It was still very much a case of balancing the books here at Schalke 04, Ozan Kabak the big departure but that was actually at the end of the season if you look at the date. Danny Latza was a big loss along with Wouters but I did some good business in replacing most of the outgoings!


Ins

Using my knowledge of the English leagues I hit up some fantastic transfers over there and worked mainly on free transfers. John Swift was a fantastic addition on a free, Troy Parrot was a steal for £800k as was Omar Richards in at left back from Bayern for such a tiny fee. Konigsdorffer was signed but instantly loaned back. Cole Palmer in on loan was also huge and you'll come to see the fantastic player he's become in my save now in future posts...



League Results

As the screenshots abover will tell you we done pretty alright in the league!! Cole Palmer was a huge player for us on the wing this season, Rransford-Yeboah was during the season and came in very strong at the end. Manuel Wintzheimer was fantastic at the CAM role and Troy Parrot chipped in with some goals too.

I wont even bother posting the cup results as we were knocked out in the second round this year.


Table

Superb and huge stuff for us getting top 4 in our first season back in the Bundesliga! It was very tight and decided on goal difference in the end. Surprising to me was Wolfsburg being so bad and being relegated, Heidenheim surviving quite comfortably and Hertha being very mediocre given how much money they have in the game!


Best Eleven

I said in the transfers bit just how happy I was to get John Swift in on a free and he didnt disappoint with an average rating of 7.54 which was absolutely huge for us. Omar Richards was also a superb addition at left back. Our whole back line in fact getting above a 7 average rating meant we could build on a solid defense in most games.



Thats it for season 2, I know its been a long time since my first post but I'm trying to space these out and do them when I have some spare time. I am now in the 2029/30 season so well into the future with plenty to post. Thanks for reading!​

 

[Sam91]

Season 3 - 2023/24

Transfers

Outs

Not a huge number of outs, notable ones being Amine Harit who was on huge wages and simply wasn't good enough last season. Charly Musonda left in January, he was a good squad player but I was happy to make some money off him. Nils Korber was a great keeper for the first two years but as you'll see on the Ins post I got a much better player in!


Ins

We ramped up the spending this summer after Champions League qualification. The big signing being in January with the signing of wonderkid Gavi!! He was listed and I had to pounce. Eggestein is a class centre mid and German. Koen Casteels joined from relegated Wolfsburg and was a world class keeper. Francisco Conceicao is a name a few might recognise as another wonderkid winger. I triggered the clause on the loan deal last season for Kik Pierie, Trevoh Chalobah joined on a free from Chelsea and is a real coup! Finally Cole Palmer joins for a second year on loan.



League Results

Again a pretty solid set of results with some huge wins over some teams including a stunning 5-1 win over Bayern at home! Trevoh Chalobah settled very quickly and was fantastic especially as he was a free signing. No real consistent goalscorer for us really but everyone chipped in a fair amount from all over the team. But how did this set of results leave us in the league this year....


Table

And we had to settle for a fourth place finish again, but a lot more comfortable this year. Hertha, Monchengladbach and Leverkusen all disappointed a bit this year. Our final day draw to Augsburg cost us a third place finish but it doesn't really matter. Bayern managed to knock in a stunning 100 goals this year helped by Mbappe who I forgot to mention joined them after the first season, so glad he decided to move to them and not go to Spain like he normally does...


Champions League Results

Some very interesting results for us in our first season back in the Champions League as we actually got out our group by winning just one game!! We knocked out Benfica in the first knockout round but Real Madrid proved too strong in the Quarters.


As for the DFB Pokal we were knocked out in the third round by Stuttgart as fixtures piled up I had to prioritise Europe and the League.



Best Eleven

Like I said our main issue was scoring goals this season, or I should say having a standout goalscorer. Ransford-Yeboah chipped in nicely with 15 goals. Trevoh Chalobah came in and was superb, John Swift also carried on his great form into this season. Gavi was great when he joined and allowed me to move Swift into the CAM role which I needed some help in as no-one really stood out for me there.​