Last season tuned into an injury loaded nightmare with the extra work load of Europe proving too much for a squad built on our budget.
With that distraction gone for this season I was keen to avoid another relegation battle.
We return our focus back to solidifying in the Bundesliga and building the clubs facilities and resources up. Its a hugely important season!
Club Improvements
The First one is a BIG one......
This has been in the works since our promotion and the board have finally found a suitable place for the new stadium. A huge improvement on our current 17,400 capacity stadium.
With a new stadium on the way it was a good time to press for some more facility improvements and we received a nice little upgrade to the training facilities too.
The next improvement will hopefully start us on the right road for producing the next set of stars to represent the club.
This obviously still needs improving but its moving in the right direction.
Budgets
As you can imagine, with the above announcements I was not expecting much in the form of a war chest for transfers.
Ouch, not much wiggle room in this department. Another bargain hunt is on the horizon.
Transfers
Out
I have started with the departing players first as it has a massive impact on the budgets for the players I want to bring in.
Nothing ground breaking here. Some squad players leave for nominal fees. But then we get rocked......
A.C Milan have activated Tomas Medina's release clause of £42mil
I had tried in the summer to offer him a contract which raised or removed this clause but he wasn't interested, the sale was confirmed shortly afterwards.
This was a player we picked up FOR FREE 2 season ago from his home land of Argentina. In that time he scored 42 goals in 62 games in the Bundesliga, won the European Golden Boy and fired us to our first major trophy in the clubs history.
A true legend of the Dream and we wish him well.
Some more players also departed as I cleared some squad space out. Few good loan deals and some good money back for Angel Gomes.
Ins
With the sale going through the board allotted us the full £42mil for the transfer budget.
Time to go shopping.
There is a lot of future building going on here with Patrone, Basilio and Brito headed straight for affiliates or the U19's.
Some of the key signings are below.
Martin Vitek - Signed as a solid option in the centre of midfield and one we are hoping to see improve.
Goran Jevtic - We have our new starting Right Back, With the decline of the first two choice right backs during last season I was delighted to get this over the line.
Dragos Burtic - An additional option at centre back. One with current ability and promise to improve massively. Game time looks like it will help realise this high potential.
We had some more players join too.
With the departure of Medina, there was huge pressure on Mara to have a break out season, but he was going to need back up.
Enter Ransford Konigsdorffer, who after a big money move to Man City from Dynamo Dresden has decided to return to Germany.
Ivan Biciste - Is another strong option in the centre of the park and will battle for one of three places.
Rayan Ait-Nouri - A familiar face I am sure and one that we will see regularly in the Left Back role this season. A huge improvement on the current options.
Lastly a quick dip into the loan market as well as Stipe Biuk joins on loan from Liverpool. A tricky left winger who drifts off from the wing just like Chong on the other side. Hopefully proves to be a shrewd signing.
New Affiliate
We have also announced a new affiliate with Suwon Bluewing.
A south Korean Premier side with fantastic facilities.
Tactics
I decided to make some small changes to the tactics for this season
Dropping the advance wingers back to into the midfield left and right positions will see a little more defensive solidity.
They are both set as inverted winger on Attack so will still support the loan striker and will also offer space for the new more attacking full backs to overlap.
Season Preview
Predicted just outside of the top half is a very sensible prediction.
Pre Season
An ok pre season as we played well on our tour of Italy. Expected losses to Milan, Real Madrid, Barcelona and PSG to end were fine as the tactic got a good run out and brough some nice financial rewards as they were all at home.
August
As usual we start the season in the first round of the DFB-Pokal cup.
A slightly tougher than usual draw as Kaiserslautern are on their own Journey back up the leagues after recent financial issues.
Goals from Chong, Mara and Gomez Saw us through.
Lets check on the start of the league campaign.
Not great, Defeat to Bayern is a given and we ran them close, maybe a sign that the tactic is slight more defensively sound.
Disappointing defeat to Koln and am equally disappointing draw away at Arminia Bielefeld ended the month.
September
September was a a three game month with the first Hessen Derby of the season.
Its another poor run of games. We lose it late against Wolfsburg as they score in the 94th minute. Eintracht Frankfurt scored a soft first half penalty and held on for the win.
The first win of the season saw us prevail against Augsburg as Blanco grabbed two first half goals from midfield .
October
October saw us return to Cup action as we faced off against Karlsruher in the 2nd round.
Goals galore as Gomez, Cortijo, Blanco and finally Cayuman with the goals so send us through.
Nice easy draw in the 3rd round...
Back to the league and we need to capitalize on the win last time out.
Well thats alot better. A win against Leipzig is always a bonus. Gomez getting his third goal in three games winning it for us late on.
Another 1-0 win over Schalke, again with a late winner, this time from Chong.
Then out of nowhere a shocker 0-3 loss to Union berlin who deserved the points.
November
Traditionally this is where we go through our usual slump in form. I have yet to pin point what it is about November onwards but I was keen to not see a repeat of that form this season
Well its an unbeaten month. Few too many draws and also not a massive amount of goals. Especially from our strikers, Biuk chipping in with his first goals for the club.
December
December brings some down time for the players but not before some massive games against some big teams.
Ok so not unbeaten but there are some wins to discuss.
Defeats to Hamburg and Dortmund were split by wins against Mainz and Hertha. Good to see Konigsdorffer getting on the scoresheet in both of those wins.
January
We will cover the action first before going through some ins and outs in the transfer market.
Another mixed bag of results with us again being very goal shy. We really are missing the class of Medina up top.
I will be looking for a s striker this month for sure.
January Ins
Lots of youth here.
Renato Augusto is a young Goalkeeper signed very much for the future.
Ignacio Silva is another young prospect. This time a winger who we will look to retrain as a Inverted winger.
Cedomir Arsic is the striker i was looking for. Hes probably not going to be ready for this season but he has some great potential and has every chance of being the next Medina.
January Outs
Couple of youth prospects out on loan and some unhappy former first team players either sold or loaned out as they were surplus to requirements.
Half Way Table
Sitting around half way. Third lowest scorers so far tells you everything you need to know about what is going wrong.
February
We start February with the simple task of Bayern Munich in the DFB-Pokal cup.
I think we know what is coming.
Yep. Another season sees out in the 3rd round. Just the league left to focus on.
Focus is the key word. Once again the month has an even split of wins and losses. We have a huge result in the 2nd Hessen Derby as we beat Eintracht Frankfurt at home.
One to please the fans.
Another with at Augsburg is follwed by a humbling defeat at home to Leipzig and a close away defeat to Schalke.
March
We start March with our youth intake preview. It was poor last year and although we have changed some things in the backroom staff and upgraded the facilities i fear these may take a year or so to take effect.
Better than last year, but that really isn't hard.
Now back to the action.
Finally a perfect month. Strong results with no goals conceded and our new striker, Arsic getting on the scoresheet. All very positive through March
April
Just like March we begin with some focus on the youth side of the club.
The intake preview wasn't fantastic so there are little hopes of finding a gem this year.
Same again this year. Most will not be signed.
Now for the league action during April. We were well clear of the relegation battle but were in touching distance of a top half finish.
Only the one defeat as we continue to improve. A strong win against Monchengladbach was the highlight of the month, two goals from Chong sealing the points.
May
With survival secured and top half all we can aim for the last two games were almost dead rubbers.
Luckily they were, as we were poor in both. Holiday thoughts had clearly settled in.
A sluggish end to the season.
Final Table
We finished a few places above our season prediction. But just look at the goals scored column. 33 league goals all season is the second lowest in the league. Tells its own story.
Season Review
All in all I am going to describe that season as a transition season. We suffered a massive loss when Medina left. But the finances raised will help the club long term.
We need to start seeing some improvement on the field next season.
Cheers for reading all the way through.
Panda
If you have enjoyed this episode and want to see some of our adventures from FM21 you can see them below.
You can start on our Wycombe Wanderers Journey way back at the beginning here - The Wycombe Wanderers Journey sadpanda333.co.uk
We also recently had our turn in a joint save with other FM creators called "The Far East Express. Please check out our episodes with the link below. One hell of a journey going on in that save.
We also have an fascinating International save going as we attempt to take Jamaica to Gold Cup and World Cup glory after acquiring some new recruits who have been ignored repeatedly by England
