Jedd Leaves Hibs
Schalke FC announce Hibernian manager Jedd joins the club on a 4-year-contract worth £28,000 a month. The move was said to be motivated from a fall-out between manager and player over financial issues, and no promised transfer funds.
Schalke 2014/15
So, Hibernian was great fun, but the financial issues surrounding the club made it almost impossible for me to take them forward. We were leaking money with no end in sight - I was well within my budgets and sold players to help them out, the board just had no idea what it was doing with its financial model.
That's when Schalke offered me an interview, and after that was a success they gave me the job. I took over just after the end of the season and was offered a £8m transfer budget. I liked the main fabric of the squad but decided lots of players would need to leave as they wouldn't fit my style of play.
The club has finished 9th in the past two seasons but I want Champions League football next season. Here's how I went about my business, first off the sales;
Huntelaar was old, slow and useless... not to mention the wages on that man! Having been injured all season and on the transfer market by request, he accepted my contract termination for a small fee. Players like Clemens and Sam were no use to me, seeing as they play as wingers. Boateng had something about him I didn't like and was pushing on and the rest were just good offers for players that weren't first team.
Obviously apart from Draxler, who I would of loved to have kept at the club. However, he had a £38m buy out clause (and I managed to get City to pay £2m over that), so he had to leave the club. Big shame for such a talent that would have thrived under my management and tactic.
And now for the signings incoming;
Roberto and Viergever were available to sign after their contracts expired from Barcelona and AZ respectively. They will immediately add to this squad, and still progress well over the coming years. Plattenhardt was on the transfer list and I managed to snap him up for a very low price. He will be occupying my Left-wingback spot, fantastic player!
Powell, Schweinsteiger and Henriquez were all brought in as I felt there wasn't much value in the transfer market at the time, and I needed three players in those positions. I feel very happy with the deals and hope to be able to make the Henriquez one permanent, and maybe even Powell.
Innocenti is a player like Manuel Gavilan and Fran Merida whom I signed at Hibs. They are mid 20's and faltering in the progress and being looked past for their careers. I like to sign them up and try to get them back on track. Worked well with Gav & Merida (best player in team) and hoping to do the same with Innocenti.
Vidic was available on a free after his contract expired at Inter, and with no clubs interested, I pounced with a heavy performance based contract, meaning my wage budget wasn't affected too much as he will be back-up. Kevin Trapp was bought to the club, for £2.4m, as a new first choice keeper as I sold the current one for £5.25m as I didn't think he was good enough.
All in all some great deals in my opinion. We aren't in the Champions League this year so we don't need to much depth, and we now have a very healthy bank account with profits of near £86m through transfers that I can spend next season.
Brilliant start to my Schalke career. The team have gelled into my tactic very quickly and efficiently. Couldn't of asked for a harder start, eg. vs Bayern, but we recovered from that and now go into the Christmas break on an unbeaten record of 16 games and only having conceded 8 goals.
Doing brilliantly, especially as we have sold a lot of the squad from last year, and only really added 3 important players! Really enjoying this team and looking forward to maybe adding to the squad in January and in the summer. I plan to stay here for a couple years, maybe even 5 before moving onto a new country.
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