FM21 | SC Verl: 2024/2025

August 26, 2021

(The following post is a two part series from the old Youth Intake site)

Hello there! SC Verl finished last season 2nd place and qualified for the Champions League.

Summer Transfer Window

Transfers In

Pre-Contracts:

Anthony Elanga joins from Manchester United. He will be our starting left winger.
Dylan Levitt joins fellow teammate from Manchester United. He was brought in to provide competition for Joe Hodge and Christian Frydek. He can also play a few different positions which is a plus.
Nuno Sarpei joins from SpVgg Greuther Fürth. He will provide cover and add depth to our midfield.

Loans:

Angelo Bruckner, Luca Netz and Sidi Sané are back for another season.

Youth Signings:

Aaron José joins from lower league Portuguese team Olímpico de Montijo. He looks like a better prosper than Andrè Franca.
Didier Leger joins from Serbian second division team Kaber.
Kalilou Kouakou joins from Serie C team Cesena. He looks quite the gem.

All three players will be sent out on loan.

Transfers Out

I made the mistake of having our Director of Football in charge of loans. I missed two offers that completely messed up our squad balance. Samuel Lengle was needed ahead of the long season, but he was upset about playing time so he's off to Hertha for the season. I messed up even more when I didn't see that ABT was off on a two-year loan to Freiburg, what's worse is that I can't terminate the loan, ffs. I've now taken over loans until I have a much more balanced team. Lesson learned!

We broke our transfer income record by bringing in over £15m in transfer fees from the sales of Roberto Massimo and Nicolas Kuhn.

Roberto Massimo had been injury prone these last two seasons so when Mainz came with a £7.5m (9.75m) offer, I could not refuse.
Nicolas Kuhn made a fuss over his wages and guarantee playing time. I did not want to sell him as we were already a bit short on the wings after the Massimo sale. Stuttgart came in with a few bids and were able to upset the player. He’s left for £7.5m.

Squad

As I mentioned above, the team was not balanced after a ton of outgoing loans. But it wasn’t until I began to type the first team squad for the upcoming season, when it hit me that I actually didn’t add any depth to the team. I now have less available players this season compared to last. I will look to either bring in a couple of players in the next transfer window or recall a couple of players from their loans. SICK 🤘!

Goalkeepers: Christian Früchl, Emil Hansen
Defenders: Angelo Brückner, Bahaa Abdelhalim, Kilian Senkbeil, Ian Robinson, Mamadou Doucouré, Jakob Šuver, Luca Netz, Jonathan Meier
Midfielders: Dylan Levitt, Christian Frydek, Joe Hodge, Nunoo Sarpei
Wingers: Mika Schroers, Tjas Begic, Billy Jones, Anthony Elanga
Forwards: Florian Krüger, Matthew Hoppe, Paul Glatzel

Preseason

The board wants us to avoid relegation although we finished in 2nd place last season, that gives us a lot of room just in case we collapse during the season. The bookies on the other hand have rated us to finish midtable.

We had another successful preseason starting a comfortable win against one of recent affiliates, Koln. We then jetted off to Italy for training camp and faced some decent competition, ending the trip with a 1-5 win against Udinese.

Finances

The last couple of years have been great for us financially. We have been able to accumulate over £100m in our overall balance. We’ve use our money wisely and the little spent has gone back into the infrastructure of the club. I’ve tried once again but our Chairman does not want to build a new stadium even though we have all that money sitting there, what shame.

In other news, we’ve moved one spot up in our Matchday and Ticket Revenue table to 17th, generating a little over £5m. In terms of Commercial Income, we’re still last with only being able to bring in £1.3m. Wages have now risen to £300k p/w but continue to be frugal regardless of our wage budget being £480k p/w.

DFB-Pokal

I’ll keep it short. DFB-Pokal was dead last in my list of priorities. I decided to only play squad and youth players. Unexpectedly, they took us far into the competition and into the semi-final, only to lose against RB Leipzig. Not bad for rotational and youth players.

Champions League

Our first Champions League campaign was off to a tough start drawning against Atletico Madrid, Tottenham and Shahktar in the group stages. My aim was third place, as long as we beat Shahktar twice then we were good.

We began with a 4-0 win against Shahktar in the opening game. Then we faced Atletico Madrid at home but that was too much for us, losing 3-1. Tottenham just about edged us losing 1-0. Things changed in the return fixture, Paul Glatzel and Matthew Hoppe proved to be a bit much for Tottenham, they teamed up on to finish this superb counter attack, winning the match 2-0. We brushed aside Shakhtar 0-2. A Krüger penalty was enough for us to beat Atletico and qualify for the knockout rounds.

We were drawn against the mighty Real Madrid in First Knockout Round. I’m not big believe in home advantage but somehow the team came together and surprised Real Madrid in a feisty 4-1 win. In the second leg, Madrid completely dominated us, we only were able to have four attempts on goal. Vinicious Junior and Jadon Sancho decided to come to play. By the beginning of the second half both had a scored a goal each and we were down 2-0. In the 73rd minute Sancho scored his second goal after catching our defense off guard. Tied 4-4 on aggregate and Madrid with the away goal advantage, we needed a miracle. Who would come to our rescue… none other than supersub Matthew Hoppe, scoring from close range after Elanga’s fantastic ball carrying. Helping us move to the next round.

Our trips to Spain were not finished as we were drawn against Barcelona. Once again, the first leg was played at our home. The players ran them selves to the ground and we were able to keep our hopes alive for one more game, tying 0-0. Unfortunately our luck had ran out. Barcelona wanted to avoid the mistake of their rivals. Goals from Coutinho and Greizmann sent us back to Germany.

Although our efforts didn’t pay off, it was great to see us go toe-to-toe against Europe elites. Let’s see how the rest of the season went.

Bundesliga

I knew that it was going to be hard to top last season’s achievement but with a smaller than expected squad plus the addition of the Champions League it became even harder. Maybe it was the thought of being in the CL but I smashed my space bar through more of the first half of the season.

We began the season with back to back wins against Mönchengladbach and Bayer Leverkusen, followed by back to back loses against Dortmund (1-4) and Stuttgart (0-2). That followed with a seven game unbeaten streak, which included FMing RB Leipzig 1-0. The last six games of the first half of the season is where the effects of the Champions League began to show. Winning two, tying two and losing two. We went into the winter break tied in 3rd place with RB Leipzig.

January Transfer Window

Transfers Out

January came and so did the offers from the big boys such as PSG and others. I was afraid that they would raid squad in the middle of the season. Fortunately, I rejected all offers that came for key players.

FC Köln activated Jens Castrop‘s £8.25m release clause to bring him back to his boyhood club. Castrop played 56 (21 sub) scoring 7 goals and providing 6 assists in the two and half years with us.

Transfers In

Thomas Amang was transfer listed for £1.8m by Sevilla but I had to remind myself that I’m not supposed to be buying any players so I figured I tried something different. Instead, I offered them £0 and 30% of the transfer fee when sold. Somehow that worked and Sevilla accepted the offer. Same story with Isak Hansen-Aarøen. He was transfer listed for £100k by Manchester United. I offered United the same that I did for Amang. United accepted and we were able to bring two versatile squad players. #FMHackz

As I mentioned in the transfers-out section, we were receiving a lot of bids for some of key players. I brought in these two young internationals on pre-contracts as a backup plan for rest of the season with the intention of playing them more next season. Iván Perera made his way from Peñarol, he refused to sign a contract unless he was a star player. Kentarô Azuma joined us from Sanfrecce.

Back to the league… a mixture of the Champions League, the rotation of players and two long term injuries kept us from staying consistent. Between January and February we only managed to win two games out of six, taking us from 3rd to 6th on the league table. In March, we recovered 12 points from four games helping us rise back to 3rd on the table.

April came around and so did the Champions League. The rotated squad was not good enough to guide us to a Top-4 finish. A 0-0 tie against RB Leipzig kept us in 3rd, followed by a 1-0 lost to Schalke then a 0-2 lost to Eintracht Frankfurt. These loses brought us back down to 6th place. We finished the month on a good note by beating Augsburg 1-3 rising to 5th place.

The last three games of the season were against Bayern (who had already qualified for CL), Hertha (who were two points behind us in 6th place) and Wolfsburg in 12th place. An early goal from new signing Iván Perera helped us get one over Zidane’s Bayern. Hertha were not going to give up their Champions League dreams and beat us 1-2 from by late goal by former Verl man Wang Zhijiang

It came down to the last game of the season, four teams having a chance to qualify for the last CL spot. We were leveled on points with Mönchengladbach at 60 points, only ahead on goal difference. We needed to beat Augsburg and we needed Mönchengladbach to tie or lose, thankfully for us they were playing against champions Dortmund.

We’re back in the Champions League!

Best of the Bunch

Matthew Hoppe finished the season with a 7.23 from 19 (10) games. He was also the team’s top scorer with 21 goals and 5 assists. He was outstanding when coming from the bench. He’s catching a lot of attention from clubs in Portugal, England and France. Supersub for sure.

Florian Krüger continues to be solid goalscorer and has now become Verl’s record goal scorer with 64 goals. He finished this season with 17 goals and 5 assists in 30 (6) games.

As you can below, our defense performed quite well even when rotating heavily throughout the season. Seven of the eight players with a 7.0 or higher avg rating were part of the defensive line.

Youth

Intake

Pascal Skibbe is this season’s only standout player from this season’s intake. He’ll be added to the list of youth players to keep an eye on.

Development

Ian Robinson continues to impress. The Ireland international finished the season with an average rating of 7.03 from 34 (2) games. Along with 1 goal and 2 assists.
Billy Jones our first “wonderkid” didn’t do so well averaging a 6.84. Jones played 17 (8) games with 3 goals and 3 assists.
Joshua Embers had an outstanding season on loan in the 3rd division with Viktoria Koln. He scored 8 goals from CB in 43 apps and averaged a 7.23 rating
Roald van de Bosch was loaned to 3rd division side Türkgükü. He scored 9 goals, assisted 6 and averaged a 7.03 rating in 42 apps.
Gabriel Sanclemente spent the season in the Bundesliga with Paderborn but was not able to help them in their relegation battle. He finished the season with 1 goal and 1 assist in the 24 games, mainly coming off the bench.
Sattar Mousavi spent half a season in the Bundesliga 2 with Dynamo Dresden scoring 2 goals in 5 games.

Infrastructure

Another year goes by without plans for a new Stadium. Even with £200m in the bank the Chairman doesn’t want to risk building a new stadium. At least the he is willing to invest in our youth. Our youth recruitment and youth coaching are now regarded as Exceptional. Upgrades for the training and youth facilities are also in the works.

With my silly little transfer restrictions coming into full effect this summer, I’ve been pushing the board to add a foreign recruitment affiliate. Finally, we’ve been able to add the first one in, PEC Zwolle. I will keep an eye out for future Dutch players in the upcoming intakes.

This is the last year that I can bring players from outside the club, I’ve gone ahead and signed a couple of players on pre-contract. Let’s hope they can make a difference moving forward.

I created a slack channel if you’d like to talk nonsense and see a bunch of screenshots that won’t make it on here. Thank you for following along.

Best,

José

FM21 | SC Verl: 2023/2024

August 10, 2021

(The following post is a two part series from the old Youth Intake site)

Hello!

Last season was a success for this young Verl side as they reached 9th place and well above the bottom three. Although the team is tipped for a relegation battle, I’m hoping that the squad can look to push for another mid-table finish or a Europa Conference spot.

Transfer Window

Transfers Out

Patrick Finger rejected a contract extension and joins Hamburger SV for free after playing 41 games (mainly off the bench) in the last three years.

Transfers In

Pre-Contracts:

Paul Glatzel, Nicolas Kühn, Jens Castrop, and Joe Hodge have come back to Verl after their contracts had expired with their respective clubs.
Jakov Suver joins for free from VfB Stuttgart. He will provide cover at Center Back.
Tjas Begic joins for £375k (compensation fee) from Slovenian side Gorica. He is an extremely versatile player who will be able to cover multiple positions.

Loans:

Sidi Sané, Luca Netz, and Angelo Brückner have extended their loans for one more year.

Youth Signings:

Gabriel Sanclemente will join the U19 team. He was a free agent and never joined a club. He has dual Colombian and German Citizenship.
Emil Hansen joins for free from FC København. He will train with first team and be available to play for the youth team.

Squad

Upfront, Florian Kruger and now permanent signing, Paul Glatzel will continue to lead the line with the help of Matthew Hoppe. Nicolas Kühn and Mika Schroers will provide cover if needed.

On the wings, Sidi Sané will split his time with fellow left wingers Mika Schroers and youngster Billy Jones. On the right, Nicolas Kühn will serve as out starter with Roberto Massimo and Tjas Begic providing cover.

The midfield is where the team has the most cover. Joe Hodge and Christian Frydek will continue to be our main midfield pairing. Jens Castrop and Samuel Lengle will step in when needed. Players such as Paul Glatzel, Nicolas Kühn and Tjas Begic can cover if any emergencies arise.

In defense, Luca Netz will continue to be our main left back with Jonathan Meier as backup. Angelo Brücker will start on the right. He will be helped by Bahaa Abdelhaim and Andre Franca. At center back Mamadou Doucouré and Kilian Senbeil will be our starters. Ian Robinson (who is now Irish once again, make up your mind up kid) and Jakov Suver are their designated backups. Joshua Embers is still too young but he will be able to be registered for the first team during the winter break.

Lastly, on goal. Christian Früchtl will be our first-choice keeper. Tobias Leclerc and Emil Hansen will battle it out to be the cup and backup keeper. One of them will be sent out on loan to gain more playing time.

The team looks a bit more complete compared to last season. The additions of Jakov Süver and Tjas Begic will give depth to our small squad. The scouting team and myself will be doing a lot of scouting to get ready for the winter break. I want to add another striker and possibly a young midfielder for the future.

Preseason

The team begins preseason with £44m in the bank, this is almost three times more than where we started last season. Matchday & season tickets accumulated to £4.2m with 9.1k season tickets sold. Another £1.3m came from commercial revenue which is 198 times more than what Bayern Munich was able to generate (I’m not sure I will ever catch up to them, sighhh). In terms of wages, Verl’s dead last at £175k p/w.

Italy was the setting for this year’s preseason. The range of competition was quite wide to say the least. Aside from the two blowout wins, the team faced some decent competition to prep us for the coming season. One of the highlights of pre-season was seeing a 33 y/o Mario Balotelli score two penalties in the 14-2 win against Serie C/A side Pro Vercelli, he has not aged well.

DFB-Pokal

For the first time in three years we finally managed to make it pass the first round of the Pokal. An easy 4-0 win against lower league side Nöttingen was then met with chaos in the second round when we faced Stuttgart. Seventeen minutes into the game Jens Castrop decided his night was over when he lunged towards his opponent with a two-footed tackle. Rightback Bahaa Abdelhaim put us on the front foot two minutes into the second half. Twenty-seven minutes later Bahaa tackles someone inside the box to give away a penalty, tying the game. The team managed to hold on to the tie and made it to penalties where we lost 5-4, Frydek missing the penalty.

Bundesliga

Something that I did not pay too much attention to last season was how often the players were giving the ball away in the final third while trying to “work the ball into box.” Due to my stubbornness to stick with the same tactic, I let the team continue to make the same mistakes. Those mistakes allowed our opponents continue to score against us when counter attacking.

So after losing the first two games of the season due to the mistakes stated above, I decided to tweak the tactic/s a bit. I gave the players a bit more freedom in the final third by removing “work ball into box.” While the amount of chances created increased, the shot conversation rate was poor. The only positive was that we stopped giving the ball away in the final third and we avoided getting scored on during counter attacks.

The tactical changes helped Verl go unbeaten for eleven Bundesliga games (breaking the streak in a 0-1 loss to Stuttgart). We were able to out score our opponents 28-8. The team was performing well above expectations and by end of the December we were sitting 3rd on the league table. Ending the first half a season with a 1-1 tie against the mighty Bayern Munich.

January Transfer Window

Transfers Out

André Franca and Tobias Leclerc will be sent to out on loan to our new affiliate Viktoria Köln for the remainder of the season. They will try and help them avoid relegation into the lower leagues.

Transfers In

Albert Braut Tjåland (aka ABT, aka Mr. FM21) joins on for free after his contract with Molde expired. He will stay in the first team and be our fourth striker until the end of the season. Hoping for some Samo magic.
Lukas Avci joins from Fenerbahçe, his contract was up at the end of the season but was available for zero to bring him in in the winter. He will go back out on loan to Super League Gençlerbirliği.
Thomas Kerner makes his way from across the pond by way of NYFC, he will operate as an emergency striker but will mainly play in our B team.

We came back from the winter break a bit sluggish, giving away a 0-1 lead to RB Leipzig for them to tie us in the 86th minute. The next five matches saw us win three games and losing two, a 2-0 lost to Wolfsburg and a 5-1 thumping by Dortmund brought us to 5th place by the end of February.

That 5-1 lost to Dortmund most of done something to the players. From March until the of the season we managed to win eight out of ten games. During this great run, the defense finally had clicked, keeping five clean sheets. The small tactical shift had also helped the attackers, scoring 29 goals in 10 games. Our new signings Albert Braut Tjåland and Thomas Kerner in their respective debuts, with Kerner coming off the bench to score two goals in a 0-4 win against Hoffenheim.

The great run of games even had us “battling” for the title against Dortmund. Two games later we secured our first European outing by qualifying to the Champions League. This season was definitely not what I was expecting. The cherry on top was beating Bayern 2-0 in the last match of the season with a heavily rotated squad, after we securing 2nd place. Both goals were scored by none other than ABT himself.

This season was outstanding. We finished the league with the best defense, only allowing 32 goals. We also broke our average attendance record once again. I’m hoping for more of the same next season as long as we continue to perform above expectations.

Champions League here we come!

Best of the Bunch

Defense:

This year’s standout player was Angelo Brückner. He was named in both the Bundesliga “Players’ Team of the Year” and “Team of the Year.” The fightback registered 7 assists from the right flank. I’ve yet to secure another loan for him for next season. Luca Netz continues to perform great as a LCWB, he recorded 5 assists in the 28 games he played. He finished the season with an average rating of 7.07. Due to his consistency we’ve loaned in for another season.

Offense:

Matthew Hoppe & Paul Glatzel finished as joint top scorers with 14 goals each. Hoppe played 19 (7) games and added 6 assists to his name. He finished with the highest average rating at 7.24 in the team. Florian Krüger scored 13 goals and 6 assists in 23 (4) games played. He is extremely versatile being able to play in all attacking positions.

Midfield:

The workload was split between our two starters, Joe Hodge & Christian Frydek and their backups, Samuel Lengle & Jens Castrop. No one truly stood out but were solid enough to remain in the team.

Youth

Intake

This year’s intake only had a couple of decent players but only one of them stood out. Our first decent homegrown striker, Sattar Mousavi. Attributes wise, he looks more like a winger and normal I would retrain such player to what’s more favorable but at the moment we’re quite stacked with wingers. I will try to improve his shooting attributes so that he can develop as a proper striker. He is one that I will be keeping an eye out for.

Development

Ian Robinson has made strides even at such young age. He scored 1 goal in the 22 (2) games that he played in. His avg rating was a decent 6.90. In his first two seasons with the first team he has played 47 (2) games, 4 goals, 1 assist with an avg rating of 6.88. To top it all off, he also made his debut with the Irish national team. Not bad for an 18 y/o.
Billy Jones is somehow now a wonderkid? I might be off, but I don’t think his attributes reflect it.
Joshua Embers and Roald van de Bosch turned 17 but they both spent the season with the B team. They will be loaned out next season.
Bahaa Abdelhaim played 11 (3) and contributed to the team with 2 goals and 1 assist with an avg rating of 7.00. I might have him be our first team right-back depending on whether or not I can bring in Angelo Brückner.

Infrastructure

I was able to convince the board to invest in our youth recruitment and youth coaching. Youth recruitment is now seen as a Good and youth couch has now moved up to Excellent. The board has yet accept my requests for a new stadium so we will continue to play at SchücoArena for at least one more season.

It will be Verl’s first time playing in the Champions League. I’ll be taking a look at our coaching staff to see where we can upgrade. I’ve also negotiated a couple of pre-contract signings ahead of the new season as we are lacking depth in certain positions.

Best,
José

FM21 | SC Verl: 2022/2023

July 13, 2021

(The following post is a two part series from the old Youth Intake site)

Hello there, Glad to have you back!

After being promoted to the Bundesliga, it meant that we needed to improve the team in several areas and prep for a difficult season ahead.

Transfer Window

Transfers Out

We were able recoup £625k in player sales, Julian Schwermann to Burnley for £150K, Berken Taz to VfL Bochum for £300K, and Phillip Sander to 1. FCN for £165K. Frederik Lach & Lars Ritzka were set for release after their contracts experired. We’ve also seen a few of our favorites players, such as Justin Eilers, Nico Hecker, Robin Brüseke, Zlatko Janjic and Lasse Jürgensen, demoted to the B team.

Transfers In

Pre-contracts:

Christian Früchtl: Früchtl joins us from Bayern München and will be our new no1. Basel did not want to renew Gebhart’s loan and Tobias Leclerc is not ready to be our no1.
Jonathan Meier: Another pick up from Bayern, Meier will come in as our backup left back.
Roberto Massimo: A product of the Stuttgart academy, Roberto will help cover in multiple positions when needed.
Matthew Hoppe: I have to admit, the only reason I signed him is because of his display IRL. Although his in-game stats are not bad. He will provide cover as our third striker.
Mika Schroers: He joins us from Borussia Mönchengladbach, he will provide cover in different positions with the intention of becoming a starter.

Loans:

Sidi Sane, Luca Netz, and Angelo Brückner are all back for another season. Joe Hodge, Paul Glatzel are also back, with both of their contracts ending at the of the season I will be making moves for them come January.
Jens Castrop: Jens joins us from Koln and will be staying us for the next season. His contract ends in 2023, depending on how he does this year then we’ll try and get him on a free.

Youth Signings:

André Franca: He joins us from Portuguese side Aves 1930. He will be train as a CWB-A and spent time with the first team but will play with Verl II as he is not quite ready.

Squad

Florian Krüger and Paul Glatzel will lead the team up front with Matthew Hoppe serving as their backup, Mika Schroers can also cover up front if needed. Sidi Sané will transition to be our IW out on the right, with Roberto Massimo providing cover, although not his best position we won’t have a natural right wing. Mika will take over Sidi’s role on the left and provide width, our young Irish Billy Jones will provide cover on both wings.

In the middle of the park, Cristian Frydek & Joe Hodge will be our go to midfielders for the rest of the season with Jens Castrop, Samuel Lengle and Patrick Finger providing cover. Cristian & Joe played a lot of games last season and have already bonded well.

If I have one worry in the team, it would be our young defense. Our oldest players being Mamadou Doucoure – 24 y/o, Kilian Senkbeil – 23 y/o and Jonathan Meier – 22 y/o. Luca Netz & Brückner are under 19. Our backups are only 17 y/o. Our youngsters are developing well but they are nowhere near Bundesliga standards.

Preseason

Not to my surprise, the pattern continues this year as the bookies have us destined to be relegated. I find it interesting the way the AI calculates the odds, given that we dominated the Bundesliga 2 yet Wolfsburg and Bochum ahead of us. I guess the team reputation has a lot to do with that and maybe the summer signings are not as good as I believe to help us stay in the Bundesliga.

As per the last two years; we’ve had the lowest wage – £95k p/w, transfer spending – £0, commercial income – £37k and match-day income – £2m.

The board put together a preseason tour in Austria where we faced some fairly decent competition to prep us for the upcoming Bundesliga season. We were able to heavily rotate the squad to gain familiarity with the tactics and to one another.

Due to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, we were handed a super crammed schedule (seventeen games in three months!). A lot of rotation was going to be needed throughout the first half of the season. Injuries would put a ton of pressure and needed to stay focused if we were going to be meet our goal of avoiding relegation.

DFB-Pokal

Verl’s journey in the DFB-Pokal ends in the first round. Where they faced Bundesliga 2 side – Würzburger Kickers. I rotated the starting line-up quite heavily this time around, giving 17 y/o Tobias Leclerc his first game. Unfortunately that was a mistake. They hit us with three great counterattacks, two that could have been stopped if not for the young GK. This meant the team was down 3-0 by the 55′ minute. The second-half changes were not enough to help us get back in the game with the match ending 3-2.

Bundesliga

The season started in full rollercoaster mode, a long long ride ahead. We drew 0-0 against Paderborn on opening day. Mika Schroers broke the record for “goals in a single game” when scored four goals in a huge 6-2 away win against Hannover. A 2-2 draw against Wolfsburg was followed by a 3-2 win against our fellow promoted side Bochum. Another round of draws and wins continued until we finally were beaten 0-2 against Schalke at the end of August.

The month of September was a nightmare for the physios. Mamadou Doucoure damaged his Achilles – out for 4 months, Luca Netz followed suit with a broken ankle – out for 5 months, Paul Glatzel twisted his ankle – out for 2 months. We finally were able to get back-to-back wins in the Bundesliga against Stuttgart & Freiburg. The injuries to Doucoure and Netz came back to haunt us as we could not stop letting goals in. We gave away two early goals against Hoffenheim, with young 17 y/o Ian Robinson saving us in the 80th minute to salvage a draw (breaking the youngest goalscorer in the Bundesliga!). We were not good enough against Bayern, only managing four shots and zero on target for the night.

Three long-term injuries to three of our starting eleven wasn’t bad enough for me so let’s even things out and make it four out of eleven starters. Roberto Massimo damaged his cruciate ligament and will be out for the rest of the season, leaving us to find a short-term replacement in the upcoming transfer window. Due to Massimo’s injuries, I called up veteran Justin Eilers from our B team to provide cover on the wings.

The team continued to drop points for most of October, managing one win, one loss and three draws out of 5 games. Dortmund thumped us 4-1, their new signing Pedro (wonderkid from Fiorentina, ex-Fluminense) scored a hat-trick in the first half and we were not able to recover. Ian Robinson found the back of the net with a lovely header from a corner against Mainz to give us the only win of the month.

We hit the halfway mark of the season in 7th place after 16 games with the second-best goals scored – 34, fifth-worst goals conceded – 28, worst disciplinary record – 51 yellow cards / 3 red cards, lastly the second-worst average attendance – 19k per match.

January Transfer Window

The team was fortunate to not have anyone leave during this transfer window. Most of the players wanted by other clubs were (un)luckily injured.

Transfers – In

Nicolas Kühn (on-loan from Bayern Münich): Nicolas joins us on-loan and will slot in as our right winger for the rest of the season. His contract runs out at the end of the season and will try to sign him during the off-season.

During the off-season, I was offered jobs at Arminia Bielefeld, Union Berlin, Eintracht Frankfurt, and Hoffenheim. I, of course, declined all interviews. The board was delighted to hear that I was focused solely on Verl.

The team headed into January in great spirit after winning four out of five games during our mid-season friendlies. Then the long-term injury to right-back Angelo Brückner dampened our mood and saw us lose three games in January. One of them being against Hannover, who got their revenge on the return leg by ending the 32-match unbeaten league home run in a 0-1 loss.

After ending our unbeaten home run, the team was not able to replicate the great home form that we’ve had throughout the last two seasons. We lost three more home games after the Hannover defeat, with four ties and only two wins at home for the rest of the season. The away form was a tad better, winning four out of eight games, tying once, and losing three more times before we ended the season. A brighter note was seeing Roberto Massimo be involved in the last few matches of the season after his nasty injury.

The rollercoaster ride finally ended. We finished in 9th place, way above what was expected of us. The team is very young, the youngest in the league averaging at 22.5 y/o. I’m expecting the team to be in a better place come next season.

The Average of the Bunch

This season the team was pretty average, with only Paul Glatzel finishing the season with an average rating just over seven, at 7.01. He helped the team with 12 goals and 3 assists. Due to his midseason injury, he only managed to start 19 games and playing 7 more off the bench during his rehab. Let’s hope he stays fit next year so we can see his numbers improve.

Christian Fruchtl was in my opinion the player of the season. The 6’4″ GK made some incredible saves through the campaign. The twelve ties we had were all thanks to him. He went above and beyond to keep us in games. He was also able to get 5 clean sheets, it may not sound impressive but it’s a great achievement if you take into consideration that he plays in a team where a 17 y/o CB started the majority of games and the constant rotation of the backline due injuries suffered earlier in the year.

Florian Krüger was not able to adapt to the Bundesliga as great as I thought he would. He finished the season with 10 goals and 5 assists. He missed more than a few sitters that could have changed a lot of our results. I will be switching his individual training from Shooting to Final Third with the hopes he improves his composure and decision-making. His 6.88 avg rating was the worst but there’s a ton of room for improvement there.

Youth

This year’s youth intake was a tad better than last year’s. The standouts are Roald van de Bosch and Joshua Embers. They had the highest potential and were highly regarded by our Head of Youth. They will play for the U19 for about a year. Once they turn 17 y/o, they will either be loaned out or be moved to train with the first team while they play for our B team (Verl II).

Ian Robinson: Our young now English man (Ian has switched allegiance, but has not declared for England) had a great debut season. After Doucoure’s injury, He managed to play 25 games all while scoring 3 goals and a single assist.

Billy Jones: Billy was part of the rotating wingers and was decent went called. In the 20 games (including 9 as a substitute) that he played, he got himself a man of the match award, and 3 goals to his name with the perfect 6.66 avg rating.
Bahaa Abdelhaim: Bahaa stepped in during Angele Brückner’s injury and managed to play 11 (7) games and providing 2 assists with a 6.79 avg rating.
Tobias Leclerc: Tobias was only able to manage 1 app this season and it was the defeat in the DFB-Pokal. His injury saw him out for a long time. If able to, I’ll send him out on loan next season, maybe he can fill up a bit more.

Infrastructure

After receiving £51.27m for achieving 9th place, the board decided to upgrade both the club’s training and youth facilities costing £3.3m. Also, the attendance record more than doubled this season going from an average of 7,597 to an average of 19,290 fans. This gives me hope that we might be approaching the time for a new stadium.

The board added £15.78m to the transfer budget and has increased our wage budget to £475k a week. I will move around some of the transfer budget to increase player wages and staff wages so that the club can attract better staff members.

Since one of the goals of the save is to do my best to not spend money on transfers, I will look into bringing in some familiar and new faces this summer, for free. The team’s cohesion is excellent right now and I do not want to take a step backward even if I have to bring players back on loan.

This has definitely been my favorite season that I’ve played on FM21 and possibly in any of the older versions. There were a lot of ups and downs, sometimes the AI is having just as much fun as you.

This is it, for now. See you soon!
Best,
José

FM21 | SC Verl: 2021/2022

May 27, 2021

(This blogpost was originally a two part post taken from the old Youth Intake site)

Hello! Welcome back to my second season at SC Verl. Let’s take a look at the 2021/2022 season.

Summer Transfer Window

Compared to any previous saves, this has been one of the busiest transfer windows that I’ve ever done. With no money, we resorted to free transfers and loans. We also had to released and sell players as our finances were not in a great place.

Let’s take a look.

Transfers Out

In total we sold 12 players, 10 from the first team and 2 from Verl II for a total of £150K. Most of the players above did not want to stay at the club due to the lack of playing time. It only felt right for them to move to greener pastures. Julian Stockner, Nico Hecker, and Matthias Haeder were move to Verl II since their abilities had declined. We also released Steffen Lang and Aygün Yildirim.

I treated this massive clear out as a fresh start…

Transfers In

It was the perfect time to rebuild a squad for the future. With room in the wage bill, and barely any players left in the squad, I worked tirelessly with our DoF Bertels and the scouting team. Per our Club Vision, we were told to focus on signing players under the age of 23. Let’s take a look at the 13 players that were able to snatch.

Pre-Contracts:

Florian Krüger joins us from Erzgebie Aue. He will be our new starting forward. (In IRL, he has been putting great numbers for Erzgebie, 8 goals and 5 assists in 17 games so far this (20/21) season. He’s mainly played up top or on the left wing) Makes me happy to have picked him on for free.
Mamadou Doucouré joins us from Borussia Mönchengladbach. He’s a product of the PSG academy. He will slot in at CD(L). He’s highly susceptible to injuries, but solid when able to play.
Kilian Senkbeil joins us from Bayern II. He will partner with Mamadou Doucouré as a BPD(R). He can also cover as RB.
Philipp Sander joins us from Holstein Kiel after showing some decent performances last season. He comes in as a squad player.
Cristian Frydek joins us from Sparta Prague and will be a starter.

Loans

Joe Hodge comes back to us, this time on a year loan from Man City.
Paul Glatzel, joins from Liverpool. He will partner with Florian Kruger when using our 442 and will rotate when needed.
Sidi Sané (Leroy Sané’s little brother) joins from Schalke. He caught my eye last year while on loan at 1860 München.
Angelo Brückner joins from Bayern II. He will start at right back.
Luca Netz joins Hertha Berlin. He will start at left back.
Felix Gebhardt joins from Basel. He will be our first-choice keeper.

Youth

Bahaa Abdelhaim joins our U19 team after being released by Norwegian club øygarden. He will be training as a CWB(A).
Wang Zhijiang joins our U19 team after being released by Spanish side 26 de Febrero. He will be training as a Complete Forward (A).

Squad

Paul Glatzel, Florian Krüger and Zlatko Janjic will lead the line this season, all three are capable of covering in multiple positions when needed. Our wings are looking much better with the arrival of Sidi Sané. If Justin Eilers performs nearly as good as he did last year then we’re in decent place to call up young Billy Jones into the team. Midfield has been strengthen with more depth and quality. We’re missing a center back but we’re hoping to we can register young Ian Robinson once he turns 17yo.

This might be Nico Hecker‘s and Sergej Schmik‘s last season with the first team. I’m trying to move them as backroom staff but no budging. Robin Brüseke will now be our backup keeper. I will be scouting through the first half of the season for some young German keepers to bring in on a pre-contract.

Here’s a look at our first team squad for the season:

Preseason

Something that I have to remind myself is that club reputation works more realistic this season than previous versions of the game. Even though we won the 3. Liga, the bookies see us coming straight back down.

Once again, we have smallest wage budget and smallest fan base. On a positive note, we’ve been able to more than double our season tickets with 1,768 tickets sold, compared to last year’s 580. The chairman also injected 625k, anything helps, thanks Mr. Dieck.

Even with 10 new players coming into the team, we were able to continue our form from last year. We won all 6 of our preseason matches, albeit against lower league teams. I hope these wins help the team bond as we get ready for the season.

I’m looking forward to playing our rivals, Arminia Bielefeld. It will be first time they play a competitive match since the Westphalian Cup semifinal in 2015, which SC Verl won 2-1.

First Half – 21/22

DFB-Pokal

Goals from new boys Christian Frydek & Florian Krüger saw us go pass Bundesliga side Hertha Berlin and into the second round. A 1-0 win in the second round against St. Pauli came in a timely manner after Florian Krüger slotted a goal in the dying minutes of extra time. More on this in a bit…

Bundesliga 2

After our preseason overhaul in which we saw 13 players came in. With the board only asking us to fight bravely against relegation, the only worry I had was whether or not the team would gel. Thankfully, there was nothing to worry about.

A 14-game unbeaten streak helped us make the top of the table our own. I would attribute the great performances to the constant rotation of players, mentoring and social groups. The social groups becomes smaller as the season went on, at the time of writing, we went from having 3 groups to 2, one containing 18 of the 22 players.

Florian Krüger has scored 13 goals in 17 matches (not to mention 3 goals in the DFB-Pokal). Including a hat-trick in a 3-1 win against 1. FCN. A pair of braces against Wolfsburg and Greuther Fürth. He has been more than consistent. Billy Jones made his debut and becoming the youngest player to play for Verl (a record I hope we continue to break).

January Transfer Window

Transfers – Out

Philipp Sander wasn’t getting enough playing time so he was sent to FSV Frankfurt on loan for the rest of the year.
Wang Zhijiang was constantly pursued by Bundesliga teams. On deadline day, RB Leipzig & Hertha Berlin battled it out for his signature as £5m bids were accepted by the board. In the end, he decided to join Hertha Berlin.

Transfers – In

Tobias Leclerc comes as free transfer from League 2 side CS Sedan Ardennes. He will train with the first team and will serve as backup goalkeeper once he’s ready.

Second Half – 21/22

Our monthlong winter break was over and so was our unbeaten run (in all competitions) after losing in the 3rd round of the DFB-Pokal against FC Koln. Luckily, we did not skip a beat in the league. We carried our league form from the first half of the season and took our unbeaten run to 24 games. In the 10 games between January and March, we outscored our opponents 23-3.

A 3-0 win against Erzgebirge Aue helped us secure a playoff spot, our main man Krüger came to haunt his old team with a brace. Six days later we secured promotion to the Bundesliga with a 2-1 win against Wolfsburg. A win against Bochum would have secured the title but a late goal from Tom Weilandt haltered our celebration, we were able to create any chances and the game ended 1-1. The title was within reach and what’s better than to celebrate at “home,” right? Sandhausen came to SchücoArena (more on this later) and gifted us the title. The next three wins against Jahn, Osnabrück, and Greuther Furth helped Florian Kruger and Christian Frydek top the league charts in Goals and Assists, respectively.

We ended 17 points ahead of Bochum and 24 points ahead of 3rd place Wolfsburg. We also had the best defense and offense in the league. We’re received £16.12m for winning the Bundesliga 2. We’ve been given £95K a week, which is more than double our wage this year, plus, £666k to the transfer budget.

Best of the Bunch

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Christian Frydek: He was the creative force in the team, he shinned weather as a mezzala and especially as a SS when playing a 4231. He led the league in assists, key passes and chances created. He finished the season with a 7.18 average rating after scoring 6 goals and providing 14 assists from 32 (1) appereances.

Florian Krüger: Not only was Florian Bundesliga 2 top goalscorer, but he also won Play of the Year. He was a beast all season, joy to watch. He finished the season with a 7.26 average rating. He scored 30 goals and provided 6 assists from 37 appereances.

Luca Netz: Although his numbers may not reflect it he was the most consistent player this year. He made the left-wing his own. He finished with a 7.29 and provided 6 assists from 28 (1) appereances.

Youth

Our two Irish youngsters were a huge surprise. Billy Jones & Ian Robinson coming through our youth intake last year, I was excited to see how this year’s intake would be. To my disappointment, 21/22 was complete blah. Although no one was rated more than 3 stars, I decided to sign all of them. Maybe there’s a hidden gem in there.

Billy Jones was able to contribute 3 assists in 13(5) games to finish the season with a 6.75 avgr. Bahaa Abdelhalim also made his debut this season after turning 17yo in January. He went on to play 8(2) games and finished the season with a 6.86 avgr.

I was not able to register Ian Robinson so we were down a CD throughout the season. Luckily, Samuel Lengle was able to provide cover when needed. I’m not sure if this is a bug or not, but does anyone know what the exact age rule is in Germany? I’ve seen players irl such as Youssoufa Moukoko playing at age 16. It seems FM’s AI has taken the age rule very seriously and does not allow you to register a player unless they are 17 years old.

There were no major trophies won this season by either youth team.

Infrastructure

Stadium: We were told that once promoted we would have to move stadiums since our stadium wasn’t not up to Bundesliga standards. With no money in the bank, our only option was to share stadiums with Armenia Bielefeld for the 21/22 season. I’m not sure why the thought of sharing stadiums with another team bothers me so much. I’m hoping for us to survive the Bundesliga so we can make enough money for a new stadium. I will harass whomever our managing director is.

Facilities: With the sale of Wang Zhijiang, we were able to balance our books after being in the red for almost two years. We used some of that money and invested it into our youth and training facilities. We are nowhere near the state-of-the-art facilities that would require us to have the best academy in Germany.

Winning the league year made me feel kind of numb. I can’t help but wish to have stayed a season or two. The only excitement about being promoted is the idea of being relegated or being stuck in a relegation battle.

Promotion to the Bundesliga will have us add all of our transfer budget into the wages, there’s a lot of raises coming this preseason. Let’s see what the next transfer window has in store for us, most of the first-team players are wanted by clubs all over Europe and Asia.

Once again, thank you for sticking around until the end!
Cheers, José.

FM21 | SC Verl: 2020/2021

January 21, 2021

(The following post is a three part series from the old Youth Intake site)

Hello everyone! Welcome to my first season at SC Verl.

We will be taking a look at squad, tactics and how well we fared in our first season back into professional football.

Squad

With the first transfer window disabled, I had to rely on what I was given and wait to see where I needed to reinforce in January. With no transfer budget and 2.7k in wages, there’s not much I’ll be able to do.

As mentioned in my intro, I enjoy having a small first team, and one of the goals of the save is to maintain the first team squad at 22 players who are ready for first team action. The team I inherited had some decent players for the 3. Liga, including a mixture of youth, veterans, and club legends.

Matthias Haeder, Julian Stockner, Robin Bruseke, and Nico Hecker have been at the club for years. They will be the players that I rely on, and if possible, I would like to keep them at the club until they retire, with the idea of adding them to the coaching staff.

The club also brought in a couple of experienced players such as Justin Eilers and Zlatko Janjic. They will be slotting right into the starting lineup and hopefully be able to use their professional personalities to mentor some of the younger players.

They also brought in a great amount of young players such as Berkan Taz, Julian Schwermann, and Lasse Jurgensen. Some of these young players will be sent out on loan if I can't find a place for them as they are not ready for the first team.

Further down, the youth teams have no depth. Our U19s has no players, I will have to wait until April for our youth intake. Verl II (2nd team) has two players, with some decent potential and I will be sending anyone that needs game time here.

With all that said… in terms of natural playing positions, the team itself is not as balanced as I would have liked. A lot of the players are incredibly versatile, every player can able to cover at least 2 or 3 positions. This is probably the most versatile team that I’ve ever managed in FM.

Versatility may be helpful at times, but at the moment we don’t have much depth in a couple of positions. The immediate problem is midfield, with only one natural central midfield player (Philipp Sander, on loan from Holstein Keil), I am currently scouting the free market for a couple of young midfielders, hoping to bring one of two the second the transfer window is over. In the meantime, our DMs will provide cover in the midfield. In extreme circumstances, Berkan Taz & Zlatko Janjic are able to give a bit of cover in midfield if playing a more attacking role. Left-wing isn’t much of an issue since most of our wingers & forwards being able to provide decent cover down both wings.

Below is the first team depth chart based on natural positions in order of current ability and possible starting lineup.

Preseason

With only £99k in the bank at the start of the game, I decided to take a look at the league rules, and of course, I had a rude awakening. There’s no prize money for winning the 3. Liga. Knowing this, I don’t see how we are going to be able to stay in the green this season and possibly next season, depending on how things go. Especially since the club was only able to sell a whopping 580 season tickets for the season, and the only sponsorship money we’re receiving is from a 4-year deal worth a total of £175k.

I can see why the bookies have no faith in us staying up this season, along with our financial difficulties and having the lowest wage budget in the 3. Liga. My focus during the preseason is always to get the players used to our tactic, regardless of results. I typically rotate the team during halftime so that every player has a chance to play in every game. Not only do I rotate players, but I switch the tactics as well.

Because of the virus, we had a short preseason of 4 games. After two back-to-back home defeats against Sassuolo and Groningen, the team began to pick up form with back-to-back wins against lower league teams Bonn & Aachen.

2020/2021 - First Half

September

Ties against 7th place favorite Wiesbaden proved that we could go head to head against some of the bigger teams. The win against Bayern II came from 91′ minute winner banger from veteran defender Julian Stöckner, so much for 9 long shots and 4 finishing.

October

As I mentioned earlier, we were short on natural midfielders. I sent my two scouts on a hunt all of the summer all the way through the end of the transfer market in September. After going through 10’s of options, I gave the instruction to our DoF Raimund Bertels to sign the following young midfielders.

Both midfielders join us on a 1-year contract with a 1-year option to extend at the end of the season. Samuel Lengle will come in straight to first team, although not a natural midfielder, he can do the job as our DLP or BBM when asked. He was the best option that the scouts could find (well… the only one that wanted to join us). Patrick Finger will play for the second team, Verl II. I will keep track on Finger’s development and see if he’s able to join the first team later on in the season.

During the month of October the team started to gel really well. With great performances from Nico Hecker, Matthias Haeder, and Justin Eilers, we were able to take 15/18 points. The defeat against promotion candidates Ingolstadt was disappointing since we dominated most of the game.

November

November saw us carry on some of the work that we did in previous month but no thanks to my stubbornness, I thought to continue developing our 4-3-3 tactic instead of following my gut and switch tactics depending on what formation we faced. We finished the month with back-to-back defeats agains 1860 München & Uerdingen.

December

In December, we turned things around and managed to finish the month undefeated. Eilers, Haeder, and Hecker continued their fine form. These three have truly carried the team so far this season. In the process, Matthias Haeder became our all time leading scorer with 55 league goals to his name.

League Table

12 wins, 2 draws, and only 3 loses. We find ourselves top of the league midway through the season. Only 4 points separate us from 3. Liga favorites Kaiserslautern and 6 points from Ingolstadt.

The team has finally gotten used to our three tactics and I’m confident on how the rest of the season will play out. With no depth in the team, I’ve decided to rotate constantly to avoid any serious injuries. Moral is high, with most players in favor of the coach. A couple of players are moaning for playing time, I might look to either loan or sell whoever doesn’t want to be here. Our finances have only gotten worse and we’re getting closer to -£500k in debt, so selling a player or two may come in handy.

We’re still short in two key positions, midfield and left wing. I will dive into loan market to find some cover during the January window

January Transfer Window

Without wiggle room in our wage budget, I found it extremely challenging to sign any decent German midfielders on loan. The teams in Bundesliga 2 and Bundesliga were demanding high wage percentages and fees, making it difficult for us to bring in the players we wanted. As a result, I had to resort to signing Joe Hodge, a player who was one of my favorites in last year’s game when I managed Eibar.

I had signed Joe Hodge on a free transfer in FM20, and he proved to be a fantastic addition to my team. He perfectly fit into my tactic as a Deep-Lying Playmaker (Defend) and consistently delivered outstanding performances. He ended up playing over 300 games for Eibar before deciding to return to England. If he can replicate anywhere near the level he achieved in FM20, we should be in a good position.

Additionally, we have Philipp Sander set to join us for free next summer. His contract with Holstein Kiel will expire at the end of the season, allowing us to secure his services without any transfer fee. So far this season, Sander has been decent, with a rating of 6.8, and we hope he will continue to contribute positively to the team.

In terms of outgoing transfers, Mehmet Kurt will be going on loan to Duisburg until the end of the year. This loan move will help us financially, as we will receive a loan fee of £1.1k per month. We hope this arrangement will benefit both the player and the club.

2020/2021 - Second Half

January - March

Sad news – Our dear Chairman, Director of Football, and club icon Raimund Bertels decided not to run for re-election. Thankfully, Bertels will now move to full time Director of Football. On the other hand, Mr. Marcel Dieck ended up winning elections so let’s welcome him as our new Chairman. He immediately injected £120k into the club, bringing our balance to around -£420k 🙄. Let’s see how we get along in the next few seasons.

Back to the football. I normally don’t like bringing in key players during January because it can sometimes disrupt the way your team plays. In my case, Joe Hodge came into the team and did exactly what I was hoping for. He went on to score a banger in his debut against Manheim, helping the team win the game 3-2. We managed to win four out of five games.

We dropped points against Rostock & Magdeburg with a couple of last minute goals. Thankfully we went on to win in-style against Insgolstadt(sweet sweet revenge). We continued with four great wins, including three clean sheets. We finished March with a comeback against Lübeck after going down 2-0 in the first half.

April - May

Kaiserslautern have been neck to neck with us through the season. Midseason, they were four points behind us. Fast forward to April, nothing has changed. The Die Roten Teufel were still on our toes. Someone was going to let up, it was make it or break it.

We need to win four out of five games in April to gain promotion to Bundesliga 2. Continuing our nine game winning streak, we followed with five more wins in April, including three clean sheets in three away games. Our 0-4 away win against Halle sent us to Bundesliga 2!!

On the other hand Kaiserslautern tied against Halle 2-2 and lost 0-3 at home against Underhaching, a team they previously beat 5-0 in first half of the season (gotta love FM). This gave us a nine point lead heading to May.

The title race was on. With a possible title defining game at the end of the season we headed into May full of confidence. With promotion secured, we needed two wins to snatch the title from Kaiserslautern. Two games later, it’s MADNESS at the Stadion an der Grünwalder Straße as we managed to beat Türkgücü 0-3 to win the 3. Liga title!!!

Best of the Bunch

After an excellent season, where we broke numerous defensive and offensive records, it comes as no surprise that the 3. Liga Team of the Year features some of our exceptional players.

Joe Hodge and Samuel Lengle were instrumental in the midfield, showcasing their exceptional break-up play and passing range. Their contributions greatly supported our attacking players throughout the campaign. Justin Eilers, our star striker, ended the season as the top goalscorer in the 3. Liga and deservedly won the Player of the Year award. Eilers' ability to link up with Matthias Haeder, Nico Hecker, and Zlatko Janjic was truly remarkable, resulting in some breathtaking goals. The chemistry and understanding between these players were evident, with most of their goals being assisted by one another.

It is also worth mentioning the outstanding performances of Robin Brüseke, Julian Stöckner, and Lars Riska. These three players were phenomenal throughout the entire season, as evidenced by our remarkable achievement of keeping twenty-two clean sheets in thirty-eight games. Their contributions played a crucial role in our defensive solidity and overall success.

Youth

FM can be a silly game. My favorite save last year was MaddFM’s May The Fürth Be With You with Greuther Fürth. In this save, Madd did an Irish takeover of the club, from chairman to coaching staff. One of his aims of the save was to produce an Irish newgen, hoping to groom to them for the Irish national team. Spoiler Alert – If you haven’t read it, Madd doesn’t see an Irishman come through his academy until the last season of his save.

Fast forward to my save with SC Verl and I’m gifted two Irish newgens by the FM Gods. This is almost unfair since our academy is crap. These two were the only players who were decent enough to highlight. At first glance, they seem to have a high enough potential to maybe sneak into the first team, but we all know how these little stars work.

I will monitor the growth and development of not only these two players but also numerous promising youngsters emerging from our youth system. It is important to acknowledge that our academy, at present, falls short of being exceptional, and it will be some time before we witness any truly remarkable talent emerging from its ranks. Nevertheless, I retain hope that once we ascend to the heights of the Bundesliga, our chairman will grant us the financial means to enhance the infrastructure and facilities of our club.

Remarkably, our U-19 squad initially lacked any actual players until the arrival of our latest Youth Intake. The kids were able to help our U-19 team win their division in the last game of the season.

Finances

As we embark on our journey in the 2. Bundesliga, we find ourselves facing a significant financial hurdle. Our bank balance of -£1,627,759 has hinder the wage and transfers budgets, with the chairman providing us with a wage budget of £46.5K per week and a transfer budget of £0.

With such limited resources at our disposal, our primary objective becomes clear: avoiding relegation. If we can secure our position in the 2. Bundesliga and earn additional financial rewards, we will be able to alleviate the strain on our bank balance.

Wish me luck !

If you made it this far, thank you for sticking with me. Next up is a busy summer transfer window and the 2021/2022 season.

Best,
José