[FM24] Hansa Rostock Revival

Michaelinho · Tuesday at 05:02

Hansa Rostock Revival - René Rydlewicz | Part 1

Hi all! I'm quite the unknown here, because I don't post that often. However, I'm very active (posting wise) on a Dutch Football Manager forum (Managers United). I'm playing Football Manager since Championship Manager 03/04 and every once in a while I'm also creating Football Manager stories on the forum. While playing my Hansa Rostock Game i felt the urge to share my progress, so that's the reason for creating this thread.

This first post will differ a bit from the posts that will follow. The club choice is of course already obvious, Hansa Rostock. I stepped into the shoes of a former Hansa Rostock legend; René Rydlewicz. I'm already on my 5th season in the save. During this save I have also rediscovered making my own tactics and also switched from instant result to playing the matches myself (from season 4 onwards). In this first part I will briefly summarize the first 4 seasons through some screens. Then in the following updates we can just continue in the present. Before I do that, I will take you through the objectives for this save.

Save objectives

Promote to 1. Bundesliga
Become an established 1. Bundesliga club
Win 1. Bundesliga
Win DFB Pokal
Win European silverware (Conference / Europa / Champions League)

Season 2023 - 2024 | 2. Bundesliga & DFB Pokal

Our first season in the 2. Bundesliga went a lot more smoothly than previously thought. The whole season we were a stable team and it soon became clear that we would have a chance at promotion. In the end we made it very exciting, because the title battle was only decided in the last game. In round 33 we lost to Schalke 04 and that meant we had to win the last match. We fortunately did and so our first prize of this save was a fact. Winning that prize was nice, but promotion was of course much more important.

Our season in the DFB Pokal took an extraordinarily special turn. Completely contrary to expectations, we met favorable opponents and reached the final. Leipzig was an unbeatable hurdle, or so I thought. Completely against expectations and totally undeserved, we eventually won the cup. So we can tick off the first save objective, but much earlier than I had thought.

Season 2024 - 2025 | 1. Bundesliga - DFB Pokal - Europa League

In our second season, we had an insanely good season. Of course, we were the number one relegation candidate. But nothing could be further from the truth. In the end we competed for the Champions League places until the last round. We ended up in 5th place and I was actually happy with that. Both for the realism and the fun of the game.

I forgot to make screens of the DFB pokal and the Europa League , but I can be pretty short about that. Our adventure in the cup already ended in the 2nd round and in the Europa League we made it to the last 16.

Season 2025 - 2026 | 1. Bundesliga - DFB Pokal - Europa League

In our second season at the highest level, we had a bit more difficulty. We were far from being a relegation candidate. But we certainly weren't going to compete for a spot in the top 4 either. The first half of the season was truly awful, at the winter break we were closer to the relegation line than we were to European soccer. Fortunately, we managed to turn that around in the second half of the season and eventually made it to 7th place. Because of the coefficients, the 7th place entitled us to the Conference League.

Again, unfortunately I don't have screens from the cup and the Europa League, but in the Europa League we repeated last season. Once again we made it to the last 16, but found our Waterloo there. In the cup this season we did a lot better and made it to the semifinals.

Season 2026 - 2027 | 1. Bundesliga - DFB Pokal - Conference League

In the fourth season, we changed to our own tactics and switched from instant result to playing the games ourselves. The real love for the game returned. We ended up having a particularly good season. Again, our board assumed that we would fight against relegation, but it didn't look like that for a moment. It became clear very quickly that Bayern and Leverkusen were way stronger than the rest. For us it meant fighting for spots 3 and 7. On the penultimate match day we lost our chances of spot 3, but secured spot 4. On the last match day we had to go to Munich and that match we weren't going to win.

In the cup we again did not have a special season, in the third round it was over this season.

In the Conference League, on the other hand, we really had a good season. In the League Phase we finished on top and with favorable draws and good football we even reached the final. With Tottenham as our opponent, this seemed an impossible task beforehand. And that turned out to be the case. We got a nice lead and came back to 2-2, but then Tottenham showed its class. We were completely outplayed and unfortunately had to acknowledge their superiority.

Closure

That brings us to the end of this first part. In a nutshell, we have summarized the first four seasons. The next updates will be even more brief and concise in nature. I have no set posting rhythm in mind, updates just follow when I feel like it and have time for it.

Until the next one!

Edited Tuesday at 05:54 by Michaelinho

Michaelinho · Tuesday at 12:20

Hansa Rostock Revival - René Rydlewicz | Part 2

Season 2027-2028 | Pre-season

You should be fully up to speed with all of our activities in the last four seasons. In this update I will tell you more about the transfers, squad and tactics for season 5.

Transfers

We're an healthy club financially. Mainly due to the big amount of prize money in the Bundesliga. That allows us to spend more on incoming transfers than we're making with player sales.

Squad

We managed to improve the squad this season again. Our key players have improved over the last year, while we managed to bring in a couple of players that will strengthen us in terms of width. There's one downside to the massive amount of incoming and outgoing transfers; we need to gel them together again. And I expect that this will take some time.

Goalkeepers

Defenders

Midfielders

Attackers

Tactics

We'll try to be succesful with a asymetric 4-2-3-1 formations this season. We should comfortably finish in the top half this season, so a more positive approach should be expected from us as well.

Closure

In the next update I will show you the results untill the end of December.

Michaelinho · Wednesday at 12:44

Hansa Rostock Revival - René Rydlewicz | Part 3

Season 2027-2028 | August - December

It's time to focus on the results. In this update we'll focus on the first season half between August & December.

Bundesliga

Our run of form in the Bundesliga isn't amazing so far. We started the season quite well, with the match againts Leverkusen as a major positive. However, we can't really get a winning streak going. We win some matches with a lot of goals, to then go and lose or draw the next one. There's still a lot of work to be done in the 2nd half of the season.

DFB - Pokal

Our cup form is quite strong so far. We've bagged some easy wins without conceding too much. Our draw against Augburg in the quarter final gives us a chance to reach the semi's.

Europa League (+ qualification for Champions League)

Due to finishing 4th in the league last year, we we entered the Champions League in the qualification rounds. We drew Porto, which was always going to be a tough one for us. We came close, but weren't able to get the win eventually. We got an okay draw in the Europa League league phase in which we perform to our standards. We should've won againts Salzburg, but I'm satisfied with all the other results so far.

Club status

Below is a screenshot with the current status of the club.

Ending

In the next update we will focus on the months January & February.

Michaelinho · Friday at 18:29

Hansa Rostock Revival - René Rydlewicz | Part 4

Season 2027-2028 | January - February

We have now landed in 2028. After a volatile first six months, how will we move on?

Fixtures

Well, what can I say. January in itself was a good month. In the Bundesliga we took enough points and only against Stuttgart we unjustly spilled 3 points. But well, if you don't score you can't win. In the Europa League Betis was really too much for us, but luckily we won against Omonoia. And then onto February, which started very hopeful. Augsburg was completely wiped out in the cup and we seemed to be growing towards a really good form. But nothing could be further from the truth. In both the Bundesliga and Europa League we completely failed. Against Dortmund we looked like we were going to win, but in the last 5 minutes we gave it away (again). Extremely frustrating. Against Nordsjaelland we should have at least held them to a draw in the away game, but at home we were completely destroyed. The draw against Leverkusen was a boost, but against Gladbach it didn't look like we were on the way up. Only in the last game of the month did I get a glimmer of hope. We finally showed resilience and turned a 0-2 deficit into a victory just before the 90 minute mark. Will this be the turning point?