Wilkommen
Spoiler alert – we are the champions of Germany! After winning the Bundesliga in our tenth season in charge at FC St. Pauli, I decided I wanted to slow down and just take stock of how we got here, and just throw some of my thoughts out there as to how I built this squad, and this club. It won’t be revolutionary, but will just provide an insight as to why it took too long/the right amount of time/not long enough (delete as appropriate) to take an upper-mid-table side in 2.Bundesliga, to the dizzy heights of Bundesliga champions.
My progressive-liberal romance
I mentioned at the start of this save that I’ve always admired FC St. Pauli from afar, and I’d be looking to keep to their core principles, as much as it’s kind of hard to implement basic things like liberalism within the confines of Football Manager. Cenk Sahin was our first casualty – mimicking kiezkicker’s IRL move of releasing him from his contract due to his support for Turkish forces during last October’s conflict with Syria. I have moderately publicised (like, every single blog?) that I’m looking to bring in players from geographical backgrounds akin to those receiving asylum in Germany, such as Syrians, Iraqis, and Iranians. There are a few other nations on the list, however I never really took Nigerians, Turks, and Russians seriously as they have a pedigree of producing top-class talent within Football Manager, and the other nations on the list (such as Eritrea) have yet to produce anyone who’d ever get anywhere near FC St. Pauli II in 3.Liga.
In order to make progress off the pitch, though, I’ve needed to make progress on the pitch:
From our starting season of 2019/20, you’ll see that we’ve increased our points total in 9/10 seasons (ignoring the fact that we got less points in the Bundesliga for a few seasons, but it was a higher division), which to me seems like the perfect sign of progress. Yes, you may find a more/less competitive division in season ‘x’ versus season ‘y’, however if your points are going up every single season, then that probably removes some of these outliers as well.
In terms of cup competitions, we were robbed of a Euro Cup final place in 2028/29 due to some heroic red card antics by our players, and we lost out in a DFB-Pokal quarter final, but that’s as close as we’ve come to knockout success. Must do better, much better.
As mentioned above, we’ve been trying to bring in players whom (#narrative incoming) may have looked for asylum if my Football Manager save were reality. I’d like to think progress has been made during my time at FC St. Pauli in terms of signing these players (usually for around 50% more than the transfer value needed, as it’s still pretty darn cheap), even though not many of them have had an incredible impact on the side (here I will include Nigerians because otherwise it makes me look awful for not playing that many players from these areas, despite my best effforts):
Overall, it’s not the greatest viewing ever for a manager who has decided to try and give opportunities to specific nationalities. It’s not a great excuse to say that we’ve made decent progress between the years of the first five signings and beyond, however we have proof that we are making greater strides now we’re hoping to challenge for the league every season, as well as continental acclaim. Farshad Golzari has played an average of 20 games over the last two seasons, and the 20-year-old, centre mid wonderkid should be around the squad for years to come, thanks to his versatility and quality. He’s well rounded for a few different roles but doesn’t particularly excel at any that we do use, but he’s always solid, and I can rely on him.
There have been countless others from the nationalities listed to have made transfers to the club, been here a number of years, make loan moves, make 3.Liga appearances for FC St. Pauli II, and then move off around Europe, and some even back home. The above players genuinely have been in and around the first-team squad a lot during their time here, and I tried to give them opportunities, but it didn’t always pan out. Abdul Zahra scored a winning goal against Erzgibirge Aue in Season One (which was highlighted in the blog); Gassid made some horrific errors in Season Two (which I also highlighted in the blog…); Williams was a mainstay for us for three seasons, despite never really playing to his full ability; Majrashi and Hejazi were on the cusp of the squad for many seasons, but only made it to be backups by the time they’d got close to their Current Ability. All fondly remembered, and they, among others, still occasionally feature against us in Bundesliga football. I feel like we’ve been a force for good on this front.
I’ve also been hoping for one of my players to come out as gay, which I can now say has happened to me on every edition of Football Manager since its inclusion, and I was delighted to see that it was centre-back powerhouse Joshua Schilder that announced it. As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t think the sexuality of footballers should matter enough for an announcement, ever, however I am aware that I live in a time where it requires this sort of attention for it to become the norm, and thus for people to not care at some point in the future. Maybe one day. Here’s my boy, anyway:
Home brew
As with almost every other Football Manager save I’ve had for the last eight years, the oldest player I’ve signed has been 22, aside from that I tend to get them when they’re 18 or younger, so practically every player that ever plays for me over the age of 21 counts as homegrown. In Football Manager 2019, with Nazareth, I found it easy to force youth intake players into my squad due to foreigner limits within the Israeli football pyramid. Our youngsters ended up being some of the best Israeli players around, albeit they were nowhere near the standard of newgens in Germany. This save is the first time in a long time I’ve had players consistently through the intake who can, will, and have done a job for a title chasing (and winning) side in the top tier of world football.
I’ll start at the end, as it were, by announcing that in our final game of the title winning season, we actually fielded an XI fully made up of players to come through our youth intakes:
- And this was with three options out injured/suspended, including regular starters Ipek and Beck
I won’t claim the 0-0 that ensued was anything but boring – I’m a key highlights man unless things are going drastically wrong, and there was a total of one highlight, which was a chance headed over from one of our corners. The joy of this line-up is that only three of those starting (Schwabe, Camba, and Rieckhof) had proper first-team experience. Todt’s made a few appearances, as has Rodas and Toboll. The others could arguably come in and do us a job as a backup, despite being 17/18 years old, and a couple of them look amazing prospects for the future (Carolus and Reuter). The future is bright. Those above join the other FC St. Pauli home brew heroes Jonas Beck and Aykut Ipek to make what looks like a great future for the side.
One of the joys of getting so many players through who can not only do a job, but take the club forward, is that it also helps on the financial side of things. I sign them up for as long as possible, and quite frequently (provided their wage demands aren’t sky rocketing). Our wage expenditure (on players) is only 16% of our turnover, and the total €k per week is the third lowest in the division at €715k p/w. I have no doubt that this will change over the next few seasons when contracts start to run out for our top-bill players, who will now value themselves higher due to Bundesliga win(s?), among other trophies, hopefully. Jonas Beck’s €45k per week contract is due to expire in 2032, when he’s 23-years-old. Chances are he’ll be asking for at least four times that amount, probably more. These next couple of seasons could be the last at the original #DerKult, as I feel like we’ve kept quite true to club values, and respect for our supporters – soon we’ll need to be spending big just to stay at the top table. I’ll try to avert it, but no doubt it’ll be to no avail.
What to expect when you’re expecting
Linked to the home brew part, I’ve recently been thinking a lot more critically of my players when it comes to transfers. I’m very much a romantic with my newgen horde – I get very attached to them, and am always determined to give the youngsters plenty of game time in order to progress them. Sometimes they don’t turn out quite as good as you hope, sometimes they’re fine, and occasionally you get surprised. A recent example of replacement is goalkeeper Jair, whom I covered in the transfers section in the first part of my Season 10 brace. He hadn’t put a foot wrong, particularly, and was worth the €70k+ that I was spending on him per week (in retrospect the new deal was a mistake, but he only had it for around six months before we replaced him, thankfully). I saw an opportunity to sign a 100 scout rated goalkeeper, who already looked better than Jair, and apparently could still improve. It hurt, but I replaced someone in the spine of my team.
I have a similar, ongoing situation with Ryan Kerfoot and Luca Rieckhof. They’re as adept as anyone, and are rated as good players for Bundesliga sides, with the addition of having a Perfectionist/Resolute personality respectively. The issue, as you can guess, is that I CAN do better:
They’re two parts of my tri-pronged centre midfield package. They don’t start every game, but they do more often than not. Rieckhof is a bit of an all-rounder and covers both the DLP(S) and MEZ(A) roles adequately (gaining a 7.01 over 20 league appearances, with 2 goals and 2 assists this season), and Kerfoot is a reliable option as AMC(A); I know what I’ll get from him, which is little in the way of assists these days (since the switch from AP(S)), but he’ll be involved in the buildup with a ball sprayed wide, and he’s actually not a bad goalscorer (7 goals, 1 assist in 27 league games this season, 6.99 average rating). I don’t want to do them a dirty – they’re good players, and would be valuable squad players for any other team in our position, however I know that I can do better when it comes to starters. Is it the roles? Is it the personnel? Is it the tactic that doesn’t suit them as well as my flying wingbacks? Perhaps I’ve set it up as such that I just need two solid options that I can rely on in the middle, and that they help others perform. Perhaps, they can be upgraded. Rieckhof came through the academy, so that thought hurts me. Kerfoot has been around for four seasons now, and due to his personality and dynamics, feels pretty irreplaceable.
I suppose my word vomit here is trying to find that line where sentiment is actively harming your efforts within your Football Manager save. I’ve won the league, hurray, I clearly can’t improve (/s). We can earn more points in the league, we can win the Pokal, Champions League, anything, really. The tactics seem to work, but I’ll only really find that out when I replace as many of the players I’m attached to sentimentally with world class players. At that point, I’ll know if they’re actually carrying me, or if I’ve made them better. Am I willing to do that, though? I replaced Tristan Ruck with a like-for-like (albeit younger model) striker in Yannick Jurgensen. I’m investing heavily(ish) in young centre backs from across the world in the hope that one of them will be the missing BPD(C) piece (as Cinti is great, especially as a retrained fullback, but again, we CAN do better). Perhaps this Football Manager has opened me up to the fact that I need to be more ruthless to achieve my goals. I hope I find a middle ground, as I don’t just want to win everything with a group of players I bring in over a season or two. I’d rather win nothing else now than go down that route. Who knows, maybe one year on Football Manager I’ll sign someone beyond Season Three that isn’t a newgen. Baby steps.
Facilitating success
As per, our facilities are maxed out, and I feel like we do a pretty good job on coaching across our various levels, too, seeing as we’re top averaging over 4 stars for every training category across all levels.
Of course, our staff alumni is pretty fun to look at. It’s constantly rotating and evolving, as we are constantly getting U-18 staff pinched, like Patrick Vieria, Steven Gerrard, and…Darren O’Dea. I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to ensure that the only thing that can fuck up a player’s development is me (although perhaps setting general training to the assistant/age group managers doesn’t help, but I won’t hide).
Our stadium is probably the last item on the list – unlikely to get any expansions or new stadia for the next 6 years (Millentor-Stadion was re-built in 2010, currently we’re in 2029), I find myself both pleased and disappointed. The extra revenue would help when those agents come circling in 2031/2032, but equally I like to think of the stadium as belonging to the supporters. It shouldn’t be changed. I don’t want an all-seater. I suppose deep down I’m hoping that the save might reach a natural end before we reach a point of being able to/being forced to expand.
My dream in every Football Manager save I start is to have my former newgen players become staff members, and eventually take over the club one day. I’ve never reached that point in any save. At Nazareth I had one of my first youth intake players reach 30, and I was desperate for him to retire. Does this save have the legs to get me through to beyond that point? I suppose it depends. I’m determined to win big in Europe, at least once, but hopefully a few times, before I decide to call it a day with FC St. Pauli.
See you all soon for the Season Eleven review, and perhaps a little sooner, maybe.
Tchuss!
TedRedwood 
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