FM23 - Regional Save in Germany, only signing players from Saxony-Anhalt

[ToMexico!!]

Pre-Season - Expectations

Into season three in Germany and the 3. Liga and its much more of the same in my opinion, we're slowly intergrating to all Saxony-Anhalt team but the quality of the players compared to others who I could sign in those positions, is lacking somewhat. 

The Board

More of the same from the board, avoid relegation is required and after 11th and 10th placed finishes I feel we could achieve similar if we start on the right foot. 

The Supporters

The supporters are a little bit more pessimistic and feel we could go down. 

We also have a little bit more added spice for the season as rivals and Saxony-Anhalt based club Magdeburg have been relegated to the 3. Liga last season. The fans will be keeping an eye on fixture calender and gameweek 18 for the away game and gameweek 37 for the reverse home fixture. 

The Media

Predicted 11th, a bit of a leap up the prediction table but away from the relegation zone. Relegated Magdeburg predicted 6th. 17th placed team Jeddeloh are a new team to me, they're based in Edewecht which is in the region of Lower Saxony, nearby clubs are Bremen and Meppen. 

[Deisler26]

I think you can improve this season. Took me 4 seasons to get out of the division on 22

[ToMexico!!]

Transfers - Summer 2024

Three more players in. 

Nils Schatzle in first from Meuselwitz who are in non-league, born in Magdeburg and came through at the same club, he moved on Kaiserslautern before playing for Bayreuth, Rostocker and Halberstadt. He joins to play at DM in rotation with last seasons signing Schmitt. We then signed Tim Siersleben who was released by Wolfsburg, again he came through at Magdeburg in 2015/16 before joining Wolfsburg, he will be first choice at CB. Last to join was Theo Ogbidi, as a back up player for the wing. Another player who has turned out for Magdeburg but this time he came through at RB Leipzig, after playing at our rivals for four seasons he dropped down the pyramid to sign for Chemnitz and then Lokomotiv Leipzig. 

Another £82k spent which doesn't help the finances but its something we must do to try and improve the squad, this improving the performances and hopefully improving the league position. 

 The finances overall are dreadful but I'm going to ignore them for the most part, the board are providing us with a transfer budget and we're currently £8k under the weekly wage budget. Hopefully the board will provide some cash injections soon. 

[ToMexico!!]

9 minutes ago, Deisler26 said:

I think you can improve this season. Took me 4 seasons to get out of the division on 22

I think so too and hope so. However, I think it will take me more than four seasons due to the limitations I have imposed on myself. 

[ToMexico!!]

Youth Player International Call-Up

James Dzingai becomes the first youth player to receive a call up to a senior national side. The newgen technical progression bug has probably stopped him from making it to the first team but the improvements in mental and physicals are probably overcompensating for the lack of technical development, so more CA is being moved into those areas. 

[ToMexico!!]

Bragging Rights in Saxony-Anhalt

[keeper#1]

Same thing happened with the youth intake in my Aue save.

 

[ToMexico!!]

Attacking Analysis - Dec 2024

This is the first time we've featured in the defensive/attacking team analysis so its shows how far we've come. 

I'm not one for looking into stats too much but there are a couple of things to work on at least from this; shots on target ratio but at 41% thats two in five on target which is decent enough and pass completion ratio at under 80% which is less than the average. We already use much shorter passing within our tactic so we should be finding players more often than 80% of the time. Options to improve in midfielder are quite poor with the limitations we have in signing players from the region. 

[ToMexico!!]

2 minutes ago, keeper#1 said:

Same thing happened with the youth intake in my Aue save.

 

At least I'm not alone then. I had a reply on the bug and they know its an issue at least. 

[ToMexico!!]

Youth Intake Preview - Dec 2024

[keeper#1]

3 minutes ago, ToMexico!! said:

At least I'm not alone then. I had a reply on the bug and they know its an issue at least. 

It's not game breaking but it's damn annoying.  They could have, at least, thrown some realistic dual nationalities in there like USA or Turkey.

[ToMexico!!]

Elections - Dec 2024

Third elections in as many seasons brings a new board. 

But no new financial backing which is worrying. 

They have added new objectives though. 

Work towards repairing the clubs financial damage is unachievable in my eyes, we have no saleable assets to even attempt to. And the season after repair the clubs financial damage, I can that the board will impose reductions on the wage budget unless we can make some sort of attempt to get promoted. 

[ToMexico!!]

Wage Budget - Jan 2025

I knew it was coming. It now means we're nearly £10k over the weekly wage budget. 

We have a 2nd team that aren't playing fixtures so I'm going to offer all of them out and try and reduce the wage expenditure that way first. 

 

[ToMexico!!]

2024/25 Season Review

With things becoming ever increasingly bad off the field I just wanted to get through the season as quickly as possible. 

We managed to match last seasons 10th place finish but improved on a couple of metrics; goals scored was 75 (+11 on last season) and points total of 55 (+2 on last season). However, we conceded more (74) which needs addressing, whether we go more cautious in our approach or we turn a blind eye and put it down to poor individual results against better teams like Bayern II who scored six against on the last day of the season, which saw them crowned as Champions as a result. 

I think the positives outweigh the negatives at this stage but we have to mindful that the board have already slashed the wage budget and probably could do so again. Things may get worse before they improve further. 

I managed to re-sign Benjamin Girth on a new deal which, despite his age, was necessary due to lack of options able to come into the club. He repaid my faith with 24 goals from 35 games which is a new club record in a season at Hallescher. Other players contributed too, Elias Loder (8), Timur Gayret (9) and Dominik Steczyk (7) the pick of the bunch. Two players reached double figures for assists too, Loder and Gayret both making 10. We have a small problem in that Loder, Gayret and left back Hackenthal are all opting to run down their contracts and see what available to them and with the limitations to the wage budget we could lose one or two of them if an offer comes their way. 

The youth intake was pretty poor, not worth even showing it as we didn't have a single elite talent and we only signed half a dozen of them for U19 depth purposes. 

Financially we're screwed and the club is starting to be affected in more ways that one now. 

[ToMexico!!]

New Budgets - June 2025

£55k per week wages is actually an increase on the reduction from last season and despite being £4m in the hole they've given me £80k to spend, which I probably will do. 

Some initial renewals has reduced the wage expenditure enough to drop us under the budget. 

[ToMexico!!]

Beginning of the End - July 2025

The contract end date rolled around and the below players all left, not even wanting to hang around, none of them, well the ones from Saxony-Anhalt want to renew which is understandable. 

We're really getting into a pickle, this is our first team, all 17 of them. We'll have to move youth players up to the first team to fill the voids left by the players that have left but they aren't good enough. Ideally we need a RB, a LB, a CM, and a LM to stand still. 

Fingers crossed everyone for a takeover. 

[keeper#1]

Promotion is going to be the best way out of the financial crisis but you can't keep the players you need to push for promotion.  And with no youth to make a profit on, you are kinda stuck in a mediocrity cycle where mid-table is the best you can hope for.

Any word from SI on the Africian 2nd nationality issue on the youth intakes?

[ToMexico!!]

1 hour ago, keeper#1 said:

Promotion is going to be the best way out of the financial crisis but you can't keep the players you need to push for promotion.  And with no youth to make a profit on, you are kinda stuck in a mediocrity cycle where mid-table is the best you can hope for.

Any word from SI on the Africian 2nd nationality issue on the youth intakes?

Its a real revolving problem. Although stop the league. 

Nothing else other than its a known issue at the moment. 

[ToMexico!!]

Cash Injection - Nov 2025

The board have finally acted and invested a sum of money into the club. However, it hasn't done much to improve the situation 

Looking at the expenditure; 

We're making repayments on a loan that doesn't exist, half a million so far this season and three quarters of a million last season. 

I can't find anything in the bug forum so will make a post. 

 

 

[ToMexico!!]

Transfers from Summer 2025

With so many players leaving we needed bodies through the door but choice and quality is starting to decline quicker now. 

Leon Schmokel was first through the door, born in Bitterfeld-Wolfen, he came through at the RB Leipzig academy before leaving after a year for our own U19s but then moved a season later for Magdeburg. He is more comfortable at CB but has been playing mainly at RB for us. I said we needed bodies and Marvin Temp epitomises that, whilst not a good player though he has made plenty of appearances so far this season from LW. He was born in Magdeburg and came through their academy in the 16/17 season, he dropped down the leagues in 22/23 season joining Fortuna Magdeburg.

We then paid £60k for Lennart Jauck from Carl Zeiss Jena, born in Merseburg he joined the Jena academy in 2019/20. Primarily he has been playing centre back for us but can also play at RB and DM. We were then struck by the 6 month lay-off of talisman Benjamin Girth who damaged his achilles tendon in the fourth game of the season so we opted to loan in Julius Hoffman from Dynamo Dresden. The young striker was on my shortlist anyway but previously hadn't been available for loan to us and too expensive to buy. Hopefully he can replicate the goals we will lose from Benjamin. 

[ToMexico!!]

Another Wage Reduction

This reduction puts us £8k over the weekly wage budget. We're already in a position where if we lose any more players then youth players will have to be promoted to fill the gaps. 

 

[ToMexico!!]

Youth Intake Preview - Dec 2025

Lets hope for a better intake than last season. 

[ToMexico!!]

Mid-Season Break - Dec 2025

We've reached the mid-season break in the dizzying heights of 3rd place. No I don't know how either. 

We've reverted back to a 4-2-4 formation but kept it more simple; shorter passing, higher tempo, countering and with a high press. 

We're creating an average xG of 1.88 per game and scoring an average of 1.90 goals per game, which means we're taking our chances. We're taking more shots and having more shots on target which is reflecting in the goals scored. We're actually the top scorers in the league with 40 goals (Wurzurger are 2nd with 36 and Saarbrucken have 33 goals) and we've lost to both of those sides. 

Defensively we could still do better, we're conceding on avergae 1.29 goals per game, that needs to be nearer 1.00 pg. 

Player wise, Leon Damer is the standout on the wing, his 9 goals in 20 games is a team high whilst on loan striker Hoffman has 6 goals in 12 games. 

The finances continue to worsen  I wonder at what point the board inject more cash, it was at -£5m last time. 

[ToMexico!!]

Youth Intake Review - Arpil 2026

I wasn't expecting much from this intake due to the prior ones being so poor but I was pleasantly surprised when it popped up with two elite talents. 

• Ferdinand Frerichmann looks the most likely of the two to get a first team appearance. A central midfield by trade, if we can get his physicals up, we will work on his endurance then we have a decent player on our hands. 
• Oyay Kenyi opertates best as a deep lying forward but its a role we never use. Not quick enough for me but has some attributes in right places to become a bench player. 

Full Intake | Map

I've noticed a lot more clubs are now having the African 2nd nationality "bug" - Magdeburg, Leipzig, Aue, Dresden and Erfurt just in my U19s league alone.  

[ToMexico!!]

Poached - April 2026

Our first poaching. 

I always guage poachings as a sign that the players coming through the intakes are becoming increasingly better. 

[oche balboa]

Good work so far

 

As for the DFB Pokal - Its all the top 2 divisions & top 4 of the 3.Liga plus all the regional cup winners (Which are not in the game) 

[ToMexico!!]

31 minutes ago, oche balboa said:

Good work so far

 

As for the DFB Pokal - Its all the top 2 divisions & top 4 of the 3.Liga plus all the regional cup winners (Which are not in the game) 

Thanks! 

Yeah I realised that in season two, I didn't know that was the case until I googled it. Always thought it was like the FA Cup. 

[ToMexico!!]

2025/26 Season Review

Having sat in the nosebleed teritory of 3rd place at the mid-season break I wasn't sure what to expect in the remainder of the season. 

Up until the last half dozen games of the season we remained in the top three, never really able to take second but comfortably above 4th place unless form took a nosedive. Well, then it did; 

Dortmund weren't the same beast as previous seasons but stuck four past us thanks to Jhon Duran, the Colombia prospect who was signed from Chicago. Wurzburger (finished 3rd) smashed us, we beat relegated Berliner which was expected then Essen (10th), 1860 (5th) and Duisburg beat us heavily to put a real sour note on a decent season overall. 

We finished in 6th place which at the beginning of the season would have been totally unexpected. We scored 71 goals which was second highest in the league behind Wurzburger and conceded 59 goals which was way too many for 6th place but that figure was heavily distorted by the above form, 18 goals conceded in the last six games. 

We had a pretty settled side through the course of the season which I think helped for the majority of the season. Leon Damer top scored from right wing with 11 goals and also contributed eight assists, we also had two other players notch double figures for goals as both Julius Schock and Julius Hoffmann bagged 10 apiece with the latter fracturing his leg in March. Banjamin Girth came back from injury to play 22 games this season and scoring nine goals, a good return for the 34 year old. Marvin Temp made the most assists from left wing with nine. 

Things go from bad to worse as our net debt has nearly hit £6m. I just don't know what to do, we're over the wage budget which I can do something about. 

The above players' contracts are due for renewal which if all of them leave, we could save just under £12k per week on wages. Reddemann wants more wage to renew so he's definately off, as are the three players opting to leave. Lindenhahn is 35 years old and his legs have gone. Those five players leaving will get us back on tract with the wage budget. 

[ToMexico!!]

Loan - May 2026

The board are clearly unhappy with state of the finances but they could have done something so much earlier. 

A 25 year loan taken out at £26k per month repayments. I'm pleased they've done something finally. 

[ToMexico!!]

Saxony-Anhalt Players in Intakes

• Philipp Alsleben & Carsten Peters at Hertha Berlin - Two good defensive options if they become available at the end of their youth contracts
• Abu Sesay & Jamel Chahad at Magdeburg - Two midfielders with the latter the better option. 
• Ibrahim Coulibaly and Abraham Coulibaly at RB Leipzig - I had hoped they were brothers as they came in the same intake. Ibrahim has a year left on his youth contract. 
• Clement Udeh at Hamburg - Clement has a year left on his deal. 
• Oliver Michael at Hoffenheim - a decent looking LB but has signed a professional deal at Hoffenheim. 

[ToMexico!!]

Transfers - Summer 2026

Firstly, the outs; 

Six players left from the ones who's contracts were due to end, we actually wiped £12k off the weekly wage expenditure because I'd dropped Ogbidi to the 2nd team and he was costing us £2.6k p/w. 

Two players joined. Michel Niemeyer was a player we'd looked at before but couldn't afford his transfer fee but despite being 30 I opted to bring him in as first choice LB, which his predecessor Reddemann being on £1.6k p/w more than him. With Ruhlemann leaving we needed a back up left winger and we found one in Richard Meier who was playing at non-league side Pampow, the modest fee of up to £16k is fine to spend. 

These movements have reduced the wage expenditure greatly; 

The only problem we have now is that the majority of my squads contracts are due to expire in June 2027. I don't want to offer new deals too far in advance and incur extra wage expenditure just yet. 

[ToMexico!!]

Youth Intake Preview - Dec 2026

The drop off is dreadful.

[ToMexico!!]

Winter Break - Dec 2026

We flew through the first half of the season and reach the winter break in the same position as last season, in 3rd place. It could have been better as we spent a proportion of the season in 1st place, dropping down after a couple of poor results against Chemnitzer and first placed Wiesbaden. 

We're scoring on average 2.1 goals per game and at one point of the season we scored five goals, three games in a row (against Wurzburger, Illertissen and Sandhausen). On average we're also conceding less, down at 1.29 which is just below the league average by 0.04 although we are expected to concede more per game at 1.7 xG. 

The evergreen Girth has scored 10 goals already this season whilst Bierschenk has nine as his striker partner. Damer and new signer Meier both have six goals apiece. 

Financially we're back in the red but I'm more happy about the way things are panning out with the finances. We've renewed the contract one player who was asking for a new deal and I didn't want to lose him so as things stand we're just over £11k under the weekly wage budget. 

[keeper#1]

Close the deal and win promotion.

[ToMexico!!]

17 minutes ago, keeper#1 said:

Close the deal and win promotion.

I'm trying!! 

[ToMexico!!]

Youth Intake Review - April 2027

It remains a good intake. 

Two elite talents in Issam Maaloul and Moussa Toure but this is a poor intake overall, beyond these two theres not much quality here. 

Full Intake | Map

 

[ToMexico!!]

2026/27 Season Review

Having sat 3rd at the winter break again this season, last seasons last 6 games were on my mind as we fell away to 6th place. Whist the form in those last six games was a little better than last season we did still struggle as we dropped down to finish 4th but we did pick up a play-off place for the Bundesliga 2 Relegation/Promotion. We would play Heidenheim over two legs for the chance to be promoted. 

At home played well enough but only managed a draw against the Bundesliga 2 side with Meron Heftezgi getting his first goal of the season from off the bench. 

A few days later we travelled the 216 miles south to Bavaria but were toothless in attack, we created chances yet didn't have a shot on target, we didn't deserve to go up.

78 goals scored was the highest in the league again and was seven more than last season, defensively it felt like we did better as we conceded 51 goals this season compared to 59 last season, we need to try and break into the 40s next season as many teams around us fell into that bracket. 

Player wise 35 year old Benjamin Girth netted 21 goals in 35(1) games whilst his strike partner this season Tom Bierschenk netted 15 in 36(1). Leon Damer was the only other player to reach double figures for goals with 10. Damer was also the only player to reach double figures for assists with 10 also, four players ended the season with seven assists. 

Just shy of negative one million in the bank again but I'm doing my bit as we're under the wage budget by £10k p/w. I managed to renew the contracts of Girth and Schmitt but reducing their wage by around £1500 between them which helps. 

[ToMexico!!]

Poached - July 2027

[ToMexico!!]

DFB Pokal 1st Round Draw - July 2027

Saarbrucken are in Bundesliga 2 and finished 13th last season, hopefully we can cause an upset. 

[ToMexico!!]

Poached - Aug 2027

[DaneBramage]

Slowly but surely improving each season. With the rules in place it was never going to be an easy task, so it's pretty good going.

[WhiteCat33]

Enjoying your region challenge! I will be following along and have to say that youth bug is actually pretty neat.

[Deisler26]

Good work so far. 3.Liga is a ***** to get out of. I never had the issues with poaching that you've had however!

[Cheez3y]

14 minutes ago, Deisler26 said:

 3.Liga is a ***** to get out of.

And thats even to nice, the 3. Liga is an absolut horror.

And if you make it into the 2. BL, you pretty much always get relegated since the quality different is massive.

[ToMexico!!]

16 hours ago, DaneBramage said:

Slowly but surely improving each season. With the rules in place it was never going to be an easy task, so it's pretty good going.

We are improving season on season, with the self imposed rules we've largely kept the same group of players and its helped with tactical familiarity and cohesion. 

14 hours ago, WhiteCat33 said:

Enjoying your region challenge! I will be following along and have to say that youth bug is actually pretty neat.

Thanks! It is and it isn't, I love a second nationality, especially the obscurer the better but when 95%-100% of the intake has one, its annoying. 

12 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

Good work so far. 3.Liga is a ***** to get out of. I never had the issues with poaching that you've had however!

Thanks! Yeah it seems that way, I mean we got play-offs last season and failed, we'll probably need automatic promotion but theres some big clubs down here still 1860 Munich, Dynamo Dresden and Sandhausen to name a few. I like the poaching, I just wish it was also the other way round too, news items saying we've poached "player x" from such and such club. 

11 hours ago, Cheez3y said:

And thats even to nice, the 3. Liga is an absolut horror.

And if you make it into the 2. BL, you pretty much always get relegated since the quality different is massive.

That worries me, the gulf in quality, I mean if I played the game normally I may already be there and have a better chance of staying up but with these rules its going to be a lot tougher but I'm up for a challenge. 

[ToMexico!!]

Transfers

I won't put a date stamp on this as we're well beyond the summer transfer deadline day but I did want to briefly show what we did in the window. 

That's it, just one player in and that was Julius Hoffmann who was released by Dresden, he was with us on loan in the 2025/26 season scoring 10 goals in 17 games before getting injured. He's had a good start to the season and is top scorer at the club this season so far. 

[ToMexico!!]

Youth Intake Preview - Dec 2027

A golden generation? Believe it when we see it. 

[ToMexico!!]

Mid-Season Break - Dec 2027

We reach the mid-season break of season 6 in another good position. 

We have the same record as rivals Magdeburg but have a slightly better goal difference to see us sit in 3rd place behind a strong Dresden side. Dortmund II occupy top spot but they can't be promoted. Of the five losses we've had so far this season, both teams ahead of us have beaten us and Sandhausen who are just behind but we disappointly lost to Osnabruck (16th) and Braunschweig (9th). 

We're still by far outscoring the league average and outscoring our xG but conceding far too many goals still but as long as we win games I'm happy. Hoffmann is top scorer with 13 so far and Damer continues to excel on the right wing with eight goals but also 15 assists. 

We've had a few more interview offers which I've kept track of but not announced. 

Most recently Paderborn offered me an interview as Dan Petrescu their former manager left for the Montenegro national job. 

[ToMexico!!]

Cash Injection - April 2028

[ToMexico!!]

Youth Intake Review - April 2028

It remained an excellent intake and a golden generation. 

Two elite talents in Aboubacar Sow and Mohamed Sow. The latter Sow has more to him and looks like he could feature and unfortunately, they are not brothers. 

Full Intake | Map 1 | Map 2