One, two, skip a few has never been so apt. It’s been a while since I’ve updated with my progress at Freiburg but I’ve been plodding along in the background creating a comeback story that Disney+ would snaffle up the rights to within mere seconds of the pitch.
My second season ended so strangely. The loss of Kevin Schade hit hard but we pressed on securing a DFB Pokal final and an appearance in the UEFA Europa Conference League final. Having finished the Bundesliga season a disappointing 7th (meaning no league based qualification for Europe for the next season), the deflation continued with an embarrassing 6-0 loss to Wolfsburg in the DFB Pokal and a disappointing 1-0 loss to Southampton in Europe.
No Europe for Season Three but reaching two finals would surely be an incredible springboard for success. Or not..
A £60m transfer outlay on Gabriel Vidovic (£30m), Lovro Zvonarek (£11.5m), Bright Arrey-Mbi (£700k), Sergio Busquets (£240k), Odin Thiago Holm (loan fee £900k), Dan-Axel Zagadou (£11m) and Juan Sorriano (£5.75m) promised a lot but delivered too little. After 20 games which accounted for just 5 wins, 4 draws and 11 losses leaving Freiburg in 13th - I was sacked on 31st January 2025. A curious time to sack a manager, I feel.
Where did it go wrong?
The players for a start. I’d signed Matteo Ruggeri in a previous season and added Vidovic and Zvonarek - all players who had done well for me on FM22. It’s not a solid scouting strategy to be relied on. While they were all very capable players - they just weren’t what I needed.
The tactics. I just couldn’t find what I wanted. I aimlessly switched and swapped between 4-3-3DM WIDE, 4-2-3-1 DM AM WIDE and 4-2-3-1 WIDE. I didn’t know how I wanted to play or how I aimed to control a game. I was desperately hoping for something to click and it didn’t.
ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME
I bided my time. Started a new save playing with my local club and enjoyed taking them up a few levels of the amateur footballing pyramid. The call to redeem myself was too loud though and I loaded back up from being sacked by Freiburg. I waited it out until the summer when the perfect job came calling - Capitoline. That is AS Roma to those of a real name fixing persuasion.
Without going into a season by season run down, I went back to basics. What I, and most other FM players, love best - I bought low and sold high. I scouted and spent wisely on young players with high potential. Developing them while they pushed the club to higher levels.
I was almost sacked again and given the ultimatum of reaching a seemingly unachievable points tally in my next five games which spanned the end of one season and beginning of another - surviving by scrapping the exact number of points needed in the final of the five games.
And then… JUST LIKE THAT (shoutout to the Carrie Bradshaws of the world), it clicked. I found it. The way I wanted to play. The tactic that suited exactly the way I want FM (and football in general) to be! A positive 4-4-1-1, heavily dependent on creating chances for a capable striker. Football would be played at a fast paced frenzy, defending was seemingly optional but it mattered little as long as I outscored the opposition - channelling my inner Kevin Keegan.
The biggest problem I encountered was that my striker would be great for a season or two - scoring 20-30 goals a campaign - before hitting a wall. And so, started a routine of replacing the striker every other season with someone who would hit even higher hits culminating in a Dutch regen by the name of Ronald Stam who scored 32, 49 then 51 league goals in three successive seasons.
Two Italian Cups, An Italian Super Cup and a Serie A win in 13 seasons may not be considered an incredible success by most but that’s exactly how I saw it. Three German Manager of the Year awards in my last four seasons confirmed my right to be happy.
I was enjoying the save so much that I added in a second manager who took over Stade Lavallois - a junior affiliate of my Capitoline side. Utilising the limited loans available, I brought in some youth players I knew would be capable and played them in my same 4-4-1-1 tactic to great effect. Managing to win the league (French National) in the first season and narrowly missing out on a playoff promotion play from Ligue 2 in my second season.
DIFFICULT DECISIONS
What to do next was the big decision… go again with Roma and Laval, hoping to win a second Serie A title and taste European success with Roma while returning the French side to the top tier for the first time since the late 1980s?
Then the perfect opportunity presented itself. SC Freiburg had been relegated to Bundesliga 2 for the second time in three seasons (having won promotion by finishing 2nd in between). The manager had been relieved of his duties. I had a conversation with Tony (FMGrasshopper). What if I could take everything I had learned at Roma and make a glorious return to Freiburg and earn redemption? It had to be attempted. 2038 - the return to Freiburg.
The squad I inherited had potential but was also fraught with issues. They were an aging squad and, owing to their relegation, plenty wanted to leave.
The best player, Yuji Yoshida, had his release clause activated and moved on to Wolves for £12m. The club had already signed a 31 Spanish striker by the name of Miguel Angel from Dusseldorf for £2.6m - at 6’5” and relatively athletic he was the perfect choice to lead the line of my 4-4-1-1. He required a capable supporting cast and so I returned to Roma to reap what I could from the youth I had bought and brought through the academy. Wide players Fabio Cerezo and Giordano Turra, wing back Marco Rossi, central midfielders Francesco Pala and Cedric Mpondo were brought in on loan. A promising playmaker Gerald Laurence was my next loan acquisition from Lyon. Young goalkeeper Robert Niechial was my first permanent signing (£1.1m from Wisla Krakow) followed by William Haro, a 25 year old Mexican striker (£875k from At. Madrid).
With my summer transfer business done, it was time to begin the season. Not quite the start I’d hoped for as we picked up just 2 points from our opening 5 fixtures separated by a 5-1 win over lower league opposition in the DFB Pokal. It was a disaster and we were rooted to the bottom of the league having been billed as title contenders at the season’s start.
As we entered September, it happened again. Things just clicked. The months of September and October were unbeaten for Freiburg including a DFB Pokal Second Round win over fellow Bundesliga 2 side Greuther Furth. November yielded our last loss of the calendar year despite Miguel Angel’s brace. Two wins in December took us to the winter break, finishing off in style with a five-goal victory over Heidenhem.
January always gives a chance to strengthen the squad but first we had to put up with a Gennaro Gattuso strop. The Italian hardman was my successor at Roma but was constantly in my inbox about the lack of game time for Giordano Turra and Cedric Mpondo along with the fact I wasn’t playing Francesco Pala in the role he insisted I should. Gattuso made the decision to recall all through - Turra and Mpondo I wasn’t overly concerned about but Pala had become an important player for me with 4 goals and 7 assists in his 16 games. I set to work instantly and agreed a fee of £12m for Pala to become a permanent Freiburg signing. After selling a few fringe and 2nd team players we added £3m to our available transfer funds and used that toward the signing of another young prospect in Kosovan midfielder Idriz Munishi (£3.5m from Wolfsberger AC). The last signing of the window was to bring in Vladimir Lukov on loan (£900k loan fee from PSG) - I couldn’t resist a move for the labelled Wonderkid when he appeared on my radar.
We opened January with a win the DFB Pokal against another fellow Bundesliga 2 side Mainz - William Haro’s 93rd minute winner the difference. Disappointingly we let a 3-0 lead slip against Braunschweig in the next game before Mainz exacted their revenge on us with a 2-0 win. Three wins from the next four games set us up for our DFB Pokal Quarter Final against top-tier Borussia Monchengladbach but we were unable to successfully overturn their two early goals. In our next league game we gave up a one goal lead to draw with Kaiserslautern after going down to 10 men.
Seven points from nine in the month of March had been thinking for the first time about a possible title challenge - completely unthinkable after our start to the league season. A mostly successful April propelled us to the top of league, just two games from glory - the draw against Hannover secured a top two finish and automatic promotion back to the Bundesliga.
Idriz Munishi’s hattrick against Cottbus meant that a win from our final game was all that was required. Goalless at half time, I was starting to get a bit concerned before Francesco Pala’s opener had one hand on the title for us. Within 7 minutes Heidenheim had us pinned back to level pegging - Heidenheim needing a win to stand any chance of avoiding automatic relegation. Almost instantly after Heidenheim’s equaliser, the update came through that Ingolstadt (another relegation battler) had equalised against Paderborn! Ever-cautious, I still wouldn’t feel safe until we had secured the result we needed and lo and behold up popped William Haro with a winning goal on the 85th minute!
Freiburg were Bundesliga 2 champions!
Vindication to some degree. I have now returned Freiburg to the top flight and started the process of creating a young, attacking team with lots of potential.
FM24 is almost knocking on the door, I may or may not get another season played with Freiburg but even if I don’t… I feel like I have tied things up nicely after such a promising start to this save.