DanWarnock Posted June 9 Author Share Posted June 9 Season 2026 / 27 - Bundesliga ___________________________________________________________________ August 2026 Predictions This might be a step too far for this team at the moment. We have the smallest budget in the league and Kiel and Greuther look like they'll struggle as much as we will based on their operating budgets. I'd take the 16th place relegation playoff in a heartbeat! My Prediction: 16th Place Media Prediction: 18th Place ___________________________________________________________________ August Results Ahead of the Bundesliga season opener we had the first round of the cup against minnows Auerbach - which was good as we didn't even have a full squad to field with the transfer efforts still in full flow! ___________________________________________________________________ DFB-Pokal First Round | Auerbach (A) Absolutely tore the non-league side apart and it was a good thing the gulf in class was so great as we were still filling our the squad desperately before the season opener. van Persie opened the scoring and then Dordevic tucked away two quality efforts before an Arrey-Mbi header sealed it 4-0 ___________________________________________________________________ Bundesliga | Hamburg (H) Our starting eleven and squad looked like this ahead of the opener. We'd be trying to stay competitive in games as much as possible this season with a bit of a direct game. Given most of the division would absolutely have more quality than us it would be counter attacking and caution most of the time but for the opener against Hamburg I did fancy our chances. We too a hammering in this one with a bit of a makeshift defense; Hamburg took the lead just before the half hour with a deserved opener. We made a few changes at half time and the introduction of Justo was pivotal. He allowed us to press on with a more attacking approach and after receiving the ball from Bergvall fired home under the keeper from just outside the box. They’d definitely been the better side but a draw on opening day was a great result. ___________________________________________________________________ Bundesliga | Eintracht Frankfurt (A) Absolute game of two halves. They absolutely tore us apart first half and we only had a Dordevic reply to their four first half strikes. We steadied it second half and Jovanovic scored on debut to make it 4-2 and Bergvall (who had set up out two earlier goals) struck a stunning third to make the last twenty minutes interesting. We pushed on but to no avail, still needed a bit of cover in the squad but the board weren’t keen on splashing the cash. ___________________________________________________________________ Bundesliga | FC Bayern (A) Welcome to the top flight. This one was fairly academic against our bigger city neighbours. We didn’t register a shot on target and the home side were absolutely dominant. Defensively we do need reinforcements but the budget still isn’t there frustratingly. On the positive side we did limit them to only 29 shots on goal. ___________________________________________________________________ Results Overview Hamburg and Eintracht were promising performances. Bayern - I mean what can you do. ___________________________________________________________________ Table ___________________________________________________________________ Remaining Transfers - August More Serbian kids, a half decent centre mid on a free and two dross keepers on loan. We really needed to be using some of the £35m that was sat in the bank right now but there wasn't a penny more to be spent at this stage. Permanent Deals Milos Samardzic (£625k) was our second Serbian youngster (again from Napredak) and looked like a future superstar but would be a first team starter here for sure. Jovan Jovanovic (£850k) was the final Serbian youngster we picked up in this window and similar to the other two looked to have loads of potential. He could play either as a right sided IF or as the lone striker. Lamine Camara (free) was the last permanent signing of the summer window and looked an extremely versatile and quality centre mid. Loan Deals Arnas Voitinovičius was simply a cheap loan to give us extra cover between the sticks. He was 3rd choice and hopefully we wouldn't need to call on him. Marvin Hubel (loan) was another panicked goalkeeper to come in and cover between the sticks. Not great but marginally 2nd choice. ___________________________________________________________________ End of the window - finances So much in the bank – we could have done with having a bit more of a bold strategy in the window. The commercial income comparison in the division showed the gap on where we just weren't at the level. Not sure it's really an 'interesting' report Manni. Equally the salary spend chart painted a painful picture: ___________________________________________________________________ Funny squad Given things weren't already difficult enough, the players decided to approach me kicking off about the lack of depth. Definitely a question for Manni, not me. ___________________________________________________________________ Up Next September and October. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanWarnock Posted June 13 Author Share Posted June 13 Season 2026 / 27 - Bundesliga ___________________________________________________________________ September 2026 September Results ___________________________________________________________________ Bundesliga | Leipzig (H) The first ten minutes of this one we pushed on, had an early chance and then won a penalty that Jovanovic dispatched to put us ahead. This was about as good as it got. Leipzig cut through us every time they came forward and it was a massacre. Defensively we’re just nowhere near good enough against the top teams but given the budget constraints we can’t do too much to resolve that. ___________________________________________________________________ Bundesliga | Borussia Monchengladbach (A) We were dominated again in this one, tried to set them up to soak up pressure but conceding two by the 12th minute ended any hopes of the pre match strategy. ___________________________________________________________________ Bundesliga | Greuther Furth (H) A deserved win but was a bit sketchy late on. Samardzic gave us the lead after a Bergvall cutback and we had further chances to put it to bed but van Persie and Dordevic missed good chances. Samardzic went from hero to villain when he picked up a second yellow card on 75 mins but we held out well. ___________________________________________________________________ September Results Overview First league win of the season in a game we should have won; the other two games went pretty much to script. ___________________________________________________________________ September Table Early doors but we're in touch still. Goal difference absolutely torn asunder by Leipzig though. ___________________________________________________________________ October 2026 October Results ___________________________________________________________________ Bundesliga | Mainz (A) We put in a good performance overall in this one despite the loss. Valencia headed his first for the club after coming on as a sub and Jovanovic could have levelled it late on but his header came back off the crossbar. ___________________________________________________________________ Bundesliga | Dortmund (H) Dortmund absolutely outclassed us and again defensively we’re just not good enough against these kind of teams. Reyna and Malen ran the show and we couldn’t do anything. ___________________________________________________________________ Bundesliga | Koln (A) Argh. We were brilliant in this one but switched off late on. Dordevic put us ahead and then they levelled up before half time. Persson and Justo linked up well to put us ahead and we tried put men behind the ball to see the game out but conceded two 90th minute strikers to end up with nothing. The winner was a shot going well wide until it hit Bentaleb and flew in to the corner. Heartbreak. ___________________________________________________________________ DFB-Pokal Second Round | Eintracht Frankfurt (H) Outclassed in the first half and Pepi was unplayable. He had a hat trick by half time and it was game over. Arrey-Mbi pulled one back second half but we were comfortably second best throughout this one. ___________________________________________________________________ Bundesliga | Bayer Leverkusen (H) We gave a good account of ourselves throughout but it was a silly penalty to give away. Unfortunately you get nothing for a decent performance and it was the final game of a dire month of results. ___________________________________________________________________ October Results Overview Dire. Four league losses and a comprehensive defeat in the cup game. ___________________________________________________________________ October Table This was going to be a long and difficult season. I mean I knew that anyway but October was evidence of it. That goal difference... ___________________________________________________________________ Up Next November and December. A win would be nice, I'll take one! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanWarnock Posted June 17 Author Share Posted June 17 Season 2026 / 27 - Bundesliga ___________________________________________________________________ November 2026 November Results ___________________________________________________________________ Bundesliga | Bochum (A) What a win this was. Justo put us ahead and then the home side looked to have got a point with a soft penalty. But up popped Milos Samardzic with two minutes to go to seal a crucial three points. ___________________________________________________________________ Bundesliga | Union Berlin (H) Back to back wins and an absolute rout against Union. Jovanovic was on fire in this one and got a 10, curling in a cracking opener and laying on goals for Moriera and Zeroli. Justo again popped up with a goal as well and we were absolutely brilliant throughout. ___________________________________________________________________ Bundesliga | Freiburg (A) Back to earth with a thud. The home side were sat in second place and absolutely destroyed us. Arrey-Mbi got sent off late on and generally a bad day at the office and a reality check after the two wins. ___________________________________________________________________ November Results Overview I asked for one win, we get two! Back to back and huge wins against teams in and amongst the relegation candidates. ___________________________________________________________________ November Table A couple of wins and suddenly everything feels a lot better. We're in 16th with dire goal difference but we'd got two big wins and that would hopefully give a bit of belief. ___________________________________________________________________ December 2026 December Results ___________________________________________________________________ Bundesliga | Kiel (H) We should have and needed to win this one really. Zeroli put us ahead early doors but they equalised minutes later. A few underwhelming performances from the likes of Samardzic, Justo and Jovanovic didn’t help here at all and after the positivity of November this one felt like a return to the form we had in October. ___________________________________________________________________ Bundesliga | Stuttgart (A) Well beaten. There was a moment in the second half after van Persies goal to give us hope but as we stepped on to try and get the leveller we were caught on the counter. ___________________________________________________________________ Bundesliga | Hoffenheim (H) Hoffenheim were flying high but I fancied us going into this one and set up to attack them. This was rewarded by going 2-0 down within ten minutes and we were up against it from there! Bergvall pulled one back late on and despite getting a lot of shots on target we didn’t show enough here. ___________________________________________________________________ December Results Overview Well it was fun whilst it lasted. Should have got a win against Kiel here, that felt like a huge missed opportunity. ___________________________________________________________________ December Table Well we were still in 16th but a further four points adrift from safety. Luckily Bochum and Kiel were in absolutely rancid form which meant we had a couple of teams worse than us at the moment in the division. ___________________________________________________________________ Other News Christmas gifts Manni. What have you done! The chairman has boosted the transfer budget by £4.7m! It wasn't a lot but it was something and hopefully we could get a few loans / permanent deals in to bolster the side in the window. I had no real targets in mind as it's still so hand to mouth with who we actually get in; it's throwing bodies into the squad more than it is targeting specific players. ___________________________________________________________________ Up Next January. Results and transfer news. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SixPointer Posted June 18 Share Posted June 18 Extra funds will be useful. But it’s crucial to not panic buy. You’re doing as you expected in the league. So one or two new players could well be enough to secure your top flight status. Massive win against Freiburg who are doing very good, a nightmare result against Bochum, them and Kiel are now Sixpointers. 😛 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanWarnock Posted July 2 Author Share Posted July 2 Season 2026 / 27 - Bundesliga ___________________________________________________________________ January 2027 Transfers The raid of Serbia continues. New bodies in all over the pitch, not as many as I'd like but hopefully this would help us battle against the drop. Players out - Delaney hadn't really done it for us (I should learn from the Kouyate / Mangala incidents) and Turkmen wasn't going to get up to standard. Permanent Deals Nikola Petrovic (£625k) looked absolutely first class. With plenty of room for development as well, already walks into our starting eleven as a DLP. Noah Katterbach (£750k) from Kiel would provide us with a bit of depth and quality at left back. He's not quite the player he was in FM22 but he'd do a job. Facundo Gonzalez (£3m) was a strong option for centre back, given that our defence was rather busy at the best of times he looked like a reliable type. Loan Deals Petar Stojanovic was a bit of a punt to get a right back in, he was again a decent option but not a preferred transfer by any means. Tyrese Campbell was a deadline day punt; taking a chance he can supplement some goals and help us get some points on the board. Again not the player we ideally wanted but it was competition. January Results ___________________________________________________________________ Bundesliga | Wolfsburg (A) We battled hard in this one but came to nothing. Solid performance and defensively held up well for the first half but game was sealed on the hour when Jonas Wind headed home a cross from Archie Brown. We go again. ___________________________________________________________________ Bundesliga | Eintracht Frankfurt (H) This was a hard one to take, we started so well; Justo picking up a ball from emergency right back Katterbach before driving into the box and slotting across Trapp. We performed well as a unit throughout but it was just that lack of quality throughout; the penalty was sloppy for their equaliser and then a minute later Petrovic lost possession on the middle of the pitch and Abada ran straight into the box and powered the visitors ahead. We toiled in the second half and the game was done when Ljubicic got the third. ___________________________________________________________________ Bundesliga | Hamburg (A) Under par. No real threat and the home side took the lead early on through Benes. It was hard to work attacking opportunities when we've not quite got the cutting edge or quality (other than the likes of Bergvall, Justo and Zeroli). Another loss. ___________________________________________________________________ Bundesliga | Bayern (H) A superb showing but on paper it's zero points and another loss. They went ahead through Tel on the half hour and when Sane got the second on the hour we changed it up to press on and have a go. Moriera gave us hope after a long crossfield ball from Fabiano found him, a jink to the right and he smashed home from 18 yards. Then with ten minutes to go, Fabiano picked the ball up from Zeroli and beat three men coming in off the left flank before flicking it past Peretz! Alas, minutes later Sane and Musiala combined for a quick one two after we'd failed to clear our lines from a corner and the latter smashed in from close range. ___________________________________________________________________ January Results Overview Despite a heroic effort against Bayern, it was four wins and four losses. ___________________________________________________________________ January Table The gap to safety was now six points and I doubt our goal difference would improve dramatically either over the teams above us. Looks like we're battling for 16th place at best and we'd have to really try and win the crunch games between now and the season end. ___________________________________________________________________ Other News Staff updates Three top class international quality staff have joined! Robin van Persie has joined for two reasons; firstly he's class and secondly I want him to encourage his son that he has a future at Unterhaching. Fellow Dutchman Michael Reiziger joined and Kolo (Kolo Kolo... Kolo Kolo... Kolo Ko-lo) Toure adds his experience and quality to the backroom staff. ___________________________________________________________________ Up Next February and March. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SixPointer Posted July 6 Share Posted July 6 Petrovic looks like a star in the making. hows Van Persie’s son looking now? He much improved? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanWarnock Posted July 8 Author Share Posted July 8 Season 2026 / 27 - Bundesliga ___________________________________________________________________ February 2027 February Results ___________________________________________________________________ Bundesliga | LB Leipzig (A) World class players are a problem. Todays one was Lois Openda. It was a better showing than the 6-1 drubbing we took at home earlier in the season but the Belgian striker had put us to the sword by half time in this one with a hat trick. Dani Olmo ran the midfield and we didn't get close. ___________________________________________________________________ Bundesliga | Borussia Monchengladbach (H) We were under pressure the whole game in this one and hardly had a sniff of a chance ourselves but managed to keep the visitors at bay. Ronning performed heroics (and a man of the match display) to keep out Frigan and Dietz to ensure we got a point from this one. ___________________________________________________________________ Bundesliga | Gruether Furth (A) Another point but should have and could have been more. We were under pressure again throughout and Ronning (again man of the match) kept the scores level right up until the 82nd minute when Fabiano cut in off the left flank and fired one into the top corner to put us ahead. Five minutes later though we conceded a penalty when Petrovic brought down Hrgota and Schmidt sent Ronning the wrong way to see us walk away with a point. ___________________________________________________________________ Bundesliga | Mainz (H) Huge win against the mid table side. van Persie put us ahead with a snap shot from 12 yards after being found by Fabiano. We were looking in control but then on 40 minutes Samardzic threw an elbow at Richter whilst defending an aerial ball and we were down to ten men. Despite this, just before half time we scored a crucial second. Petrovic carried the ball forward just inside the Mainz half on the left hand side and found Fabiano, he shifted the ball to Zeroli and the Italian blasted the ball in from 18 yards. Ronning again put in a huge performance in goal to keep them from scoring and we'd picked up our first win in over three months. ___________________________________________________________________ February Results Overview Excellent set of results here, topped off by that brilliant win against Mainz. ___________________________________________________________________ February Table We finished the month two clear of the automatic relegation spots. As we'd thought end of Jan, it was definitely a case of the battle for 16th place now as we were 8 points adrift of guaranteed safety in 15th. ___________________________________________________________________ March 2027 March Results ___________________________________________________________________ Bundesliga | Borussia Dortmund (A) Yeah we'll take a point! SvP put us ahead; crashing one in off the bar from an Osho cross on 7 minutes to stun the home side. Tim Ronning had continued to play like Thomas Ravelli reborn and we went in at half time ahead. But this was Dortmund and they did finally break us down on 51 minutes; Hugo Larsson dragging home a Ryerson cutback. Then on 65 mins an Adeyemi corner was met by a bullet header from Schlotterbeck to give the home side the lead. They pressed on for a third but with fifteen minutes left a loose pass from Ozcan was picked up by Persson; he shifted the ball through to the edge of the box where Bentaleb found van Persie and the Dutchman swept the ball past Kobel and we were level! ___________________________________________________________________ Bundesliga | Koln (H) The four game run was over and despite Koln flying high in the league it felt disappointing to lose this. Moreira had one disallowed early on for a marginal offside but the visitors went ahead on 20 minutes. Zeroli equalised on the half hour with another trademark effort from 18 yards and we went in level at the break. Despite looking the better side throughout, we conceeded just after the restart when a long throw was flicked on and Selke headed home from close range. As we tried to step on to get the equaliser, Koln grabbed the crucial third through Ajorque on the hour. ___________________________________________________________________ Bundesliga | Bayer Leverkusen (A) Didn't expect to get anything from this one but it was another huge performance away from home and we came so close. We packed men behind the ball and really stifled their attacking intent in this one and the breakthrough came in the 74th minute when Wirtz danced across our 18 yard box and swept the ball past Ronning. We then stunned the home side by pulling level on 86 mins, a front post corner from Bergvall was headed down past Verbruggen by Arrey-Mbi to level things up. But just as we crept into injury time, Candelaria fouled Gnonto inside the box and Boniface hammered the spot kick down the middle to given Leverkusen the win. ___________________________________________________________________ March Results Overview I mean this was a hard set of games, no points could have been quite a realistic eventuality so a point somehow from the most difficult one of them all is acceptable! ___________________________________________________________________ March Table We'd slipped into 17th on goal difference with Bochum picking up a win against Hoffenheim. Our first fixture of April is home to Bochum as well. Big one that. ___________________________________________________________________ Up Next April and May. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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