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[FM18] A FM Journey Starts in Bath

goblue96

Disney and Curling Expert
Summer 2023 Transfer Update
Another busy summer in the transfer market as I attempt to upgrade the Augsburg roster.

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In fact, we were the most active in the transfer market bringing in 13 players though not all of 13 will be put into the first team right away. But first, Bayern Munich pulled up the Brinks truck to PSG and spent 112 million squiggles on a 22-year Dutch centre back. This is what 112 million squiggles buys you.

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Just an absolute beast. 15+ across most of the important categories for a centre back. His only "negatives" are aggression (11) and concentration (13). He's only 22 so he's got another five or so years of development left so his game will only get better.

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I'm going to focus on five of these 13 transfers into the club. The five players who I think will have the biggest impact to our club. Upon closer inspection of these five players, three of them are deemed to be "wonderkids," or players with high potential ability who are 20 years old or less.

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CB Joaquin Rojas: Our first wonderkid brought in to improve the centre back position. While he is not in the class of the centre back that Bayern Munich brought in, Rojas does have significant potential. He's a beast of a man already at 6'6" and 196 lbs and his fast for his size so little twink centre forwards aren't going to be able to run circles around him. His passing could use some work but I can work around that for a season or two with some personalized instructions to play shorter passes. Only 19 years old and he has seven caps for the Chilean National Team.

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CM Lukas Koloziej: Not in the class of Novotny who decided to play for Inter over Augsburg, Koloziej is still a very capable centre midfielder. He's a pure passer in the midfield. 15 passing and 15 vision. Another determined player like Rojas. His composure can use some work but that should develop with first team experience and his first touch needs some serious work. That lead foot could lead to a lot of turnovers in the midfield if he is not careful. The tools are there. He needs to round out his game to become a quality Bundesliga centre midfielder.

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CM Petr Kucera: Kucera is wonderkid number 2 of the signing window. His mental stats are off the charts for 19 year old. He can run for days (natural fitness=18). He has great vision (16) for the position and the first touch that his countryman is lacking. He could work on his passing some to become a better player as well as his finishing especially with the shoots from distance player trait. My scouts searched the Czech Republic hard and found three gems. Thankfully, we were able to sign two of the three even though the brightest gem took his talents to Italy.

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RB Sebastian Robayo: Our South American scout also put in some serious work and found us a second wonderkid from South America and our third overall for the window. Robayo, from Columbia, will move right into the starting right back position. He does have a lot of things to work on in his game so he will learn by doing. He's not the best at marking or positioning. He makes up for those negatives with his speed. He can provide service from the right wing as we tweak our 4123 and 4231 formations for this season to have an inside forward on the right side. So, I need a right back who can get up and down the wing to provide width and service on the right side. Robayo does that.

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CM Rene Larsen: My centre midfield signing after Novotny went to Inter. Larsen has the best vision of the three and can run for days. He does have some deficiencies like all of the young players in this class. He can't dribble. He isn't brave and is a little slow in anticipating situations which really don't fit his player traits of "dictates tempo" and "comes deep to get ball." He looks best suited as a defensive midfielder who will start the play from the back with long probing balls to attacking players.



 

goblue96

Disney and Curling Expert
2024 Augsburg Youth Development
I completely blew past the mid-season update and the next thing I knew it was the 2024 youth intake. So, I'll do a big youth development post and then a post on the end of the season which has already happened as well.

New Players

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A decent intake but one that was filled was bad personalities. Many balanced personalities and only one fairly professional. Come June, I'll be in the market for a new Head of Youth Development. One that will bring in better players or, at least, players with better personalities.

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GK Pascal Boog: I love getting a good goalkeeper in a youth intake. It's an easy way to bring in a homegrown player into the senior team even if they are just a back up. Boog has the potential to be a starter at some point during his career. I'm not a fan of his casual personality and poor determination. Those things can be improved with many years of tutoring and development. My goal is to always have a professional goalie in the senior team even if they are just a backup or third stringer (see: Fraser Forester).

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DMC Korbinian Bach: Another good player with a terrible personality. This time, it's that unambitious personality. His determination is a little better than Boog but that's not saying much. He's a brave defensive midfielder and one who is already willing to put in some hard WORK WORK. His other stats need some help (marking, tackling, strength). He's a tall guy and, hopefully, as he gets older, he fills out that 6'2" frame.

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LB Peter Merkel: One of the better players from the intake, in terms of personality, as he is light-hearted. This is another personality that should be easy to sway with some tutoring. His mentals are great for a 15 year old. Needs to work on his concentration but the others (aggression, anticipation, and bravery) are all already there. Appears to be more of a stay-at-home defenseman since his offensive skills are way behind his defensive skills.

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RB Patricio de Stefano: A dual citizen of Germany and Italy. Another good player in terms of mentals but poor in personality (Unambitious, again). His mentals are the best in the academy class. His technical skills are already goo for a 14 year old. I'd like to see his physical skills develop and catch up with the rest of his game. He looks to be more of an all-around defenseman compared to Merkel.

2023 Academy Class

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DMC Marek Hanzel: Hanzel has been promoted to the U23 team. He has seen a bit of development over the year. His technical skills have improved by four overall, his mental skills by six, and his physical skills by five. Even though, he has not grown, he has put on six pounds. He's kept his determined personality. He will have to spend another year in the U23 team before I can loan him out to 2.Bundesliga and 3.Liga teams so he can get first team football and develop even further.

2023 Skills:

Technical: 119
Mental: 141
Physical: 86


2024 Skills:

Technical: 123 (+4)
Mental: 147 (+6)
Physical: 91 (+5)


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LW Franz Uphoff: Uphoff has seen a lot of development over the past year but even with that development, he will spend another season with the U19 team. He's grown an inch and now 5'11" but has not put on any weight. All told, his technical skills have increased by 15 points, his mental and physical by 11 points which is great year-to-year development for a player.

2023 Skills:

Technical: 80
Mental: 107
Physical: 78


2024 Skills:

Technical: 95 (+15)
Mental: 118 (+11)
Physical: 89 (+11)


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RW Sebastian Killer: Killer joins Hanzel as a player from the Class of 2023 promoted to the U23 team. We have a weak spot at right wing so his good development earned him a call to the U23 team to see if development only gets better. Like Hanzel, he has a full season in the U23 team before he can loaned out to get first team football.

2023 Skills:

Technical: 71
Mental: 84
Physical: 78


2024 Skills:

Technical: 77 (+6)
Mental: 94 (+10)
Physical: 88 (+10)


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CB Fabian Bitterich: Bitterich has shown development but not enough development to earn a call-up to the U23 team at this time. He still needs a lot of work with the technical side of his game. The mental and physical tools are there and developing nicely but needs a lot of work on the technical side to earn that U23 callup.

2023 Skills:

Technical: 70
Mental: 111
Physical: 74


2024 Skills:

Technical: 75 (+5)
Mental: 122 (+11)
Physical: 81 (+7)
 

goblue96

Disney and Curling Expert
2023-24 Augsburg Year in Review
It was an exciting year for Augsburg. We dropped our 41221 formation in favor of a more attack minded 4231 that I used at Dundalk. We have a very young defense and we had problems absorbing pressure so I decided to flip things on the opposition and put the pressure on them. We had some early struggles but in the second half of the season we took off and had a great campaign.

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We pushed up the table and finished a very strong fifth place on goal difference. It was a very odd year for German clubs who are usually known for their fiscal responsibility. The Bundesliga saw not one but two clubs fail Financial Fair Play and declared ineligible for Champions League/Europa League competition. The first club was Leverkusen who finished in 4th place and were denied entry into the Champions League. We took their spot in the Champions League as the 5th place finisher in the league. Wolfsburg finished in 6th place and got denied entry in the Europa League. The beneficiaries of these denials were 7th place Mainz and 8th place Hoffenheim who took spots in the Europa League. 10th place Stuttgart won the DFB-Pokal and enter the Europa League as cup champions. The top three will enter the Champions League as expected. The Bundesliga says goodbye to Werder Bremen and Karlsruler as well as Braunschweig who lost to Union Berlin in the Bundesliga/2.Bundesliga playoff.

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Bronze Medal Performance of the Season - CF Jamie Butt: Butt joined us on loan from Manchester United and took over the starting lone striker role for the season. He led the team with 20 goals and got 50% of his shots on target. He averaged just under one chance per 90 minute and just under two key passes per 90 minutes. Gaal still saw his fair share of starts but Butt was the best center forward we had on the roster this year.

Silver Medal Performance of the Season - LW Petr Dobrovolny: Another player who started the season on the bench and then took over a starting role. Dobrovolny took the starting left wing spot from Benjamin Moreno who had a great 2022-23 season. Petr has the pace and vision that Moreno does not. Petr can make something out of nothing. He was the second leading scorer with 11 goals in all competitions and third on the team with seven assists.

Gold Medal Performance of the Season - AMC Christoph Baumgartner: Baumgartner kick started our offense when we switched to the 4231 formation. He made great decisions for our attack as a player that I had pegged as a rotation/back-up player when the season began. He led the squad in key passes/90 (2.85), 2nd in assists (8), and tied for the team lead with Player of Match honors (5).

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We did not see our wage budget increase for the coming season but the transfer budget has increased significantly. It's a budget that should allow me to make some upgrades to the roster.

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goblue96

Disney and Curling Expert
Yep. I fired my HoYD at the end of the season and replaced him with this fella.

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Fairly Determined is a better personality plus he's good at talent evaluation and his preferred formation closely matches what I'm trying to play.
 
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goblue96

Disney and Curling Expert
Club Movement Update
After 111 matches in charge of Augsburg, my time has come to end as I have been head-hunted by a larger German club.

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Who came after my services?

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Leverkusen, the club whose financial problems, provided Augsburg access to the Champions League. They are "struggling" in 6th place in the Bundesliga just one place below my team as Augsburg.

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I was surprised to see that they have never won the Bundesliga title. For a good as they are, it was surprising to me. According to wiki, their best ever Bundesliga finish is 2nd place. They have two DFB-Pokal wins (1993 and 2023) and the Europa League titles (1988, 2021, and 2024).

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It seems that their finances have improved greatly since last year.


Looking forward to the challenge of managing my first big club!
 

DeadMan

aka spiker or DeadMong
They were called Neverkusen for a reason.

I'm surprised you didn't stay at Augsburg. Leverkusen isn't that big of a step up.
 

DeadMan

aka spiker or DeadMong
Damn.

I do like how your head of youth development takes great pride in developing a guy that you probably won't even sign :laughing:
 

goblue96

Disney and Curling Expert
Damn.

I do like how your head of youth development takes great pride in developing a guy that you probably won't even sign :laughing:

I signed him. Maybe in a couple years, he develops to the point where some stupid 3.Liga wants to spend 50-100k squiggles in a transfer fee.
 

DeadMan

aka spiker or DeadMong
Got damn. The only minor negative is that he's short and can't jump, but damn. He's going to be a terror on the break.
 

goblue96

Disney and Curling Expert
Yup. AFCON in the summer. My scout found an 18-year old peach of a goalie that I could sign for £500k but he wanted £20k/week for a wage.
 
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