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Pickard: Club Brugge — Season 2 (Pre-Season)
Hello everyone! My name is Martin, Darren and Johnny have kindly given me the opportunity to write for FootballManagerStory. I’ve been writing my Club Brugge story in the forums for roughly a month but, have been reading and commenting on the site since the merge with allthatisfootballmanager. I have since seen the site grow and grow and hopefully my story will help the site branch out. If you haven’t heard of my story before, I’ll give you a brief rundown of events in my first season, but you can check all what’s happened by clicking the link > https://footballmanagerstory.com/forum/index.php?topic=251.0
Season 1 – We started off the season sluggish and end August in 6th place. We then started to pick up the pace and managed to move from 6th to 2nd in the league between the months of September and October, we also managed to pick up 4 points out of 9 in a very difficult Euro Cup Group which contained Napoli, FC Porto and FR. We ended the year with us still 2nd in the Pro League but, the most impressive part was that with wins against KR and Napoli and a dramatic draw against FC Porto we’d managed to qualify for the Knockouts of the Euro Cup. January was difficult, we only managed to pick up 1 win in 4 matches and we slumped to 4th in the League. I brought in a couple of new faces to freshen up the team and managed to secure 3rd in the League and also knocked PSV out of the Euro Cup. Having qualified for the Playoffs to battle it out with 5 other quality Belgian teams, we decided to nearly blow our chance of the title with two draw and a defeat, we also crashed out of the Euro Cup to German outfit Bayer Leverkusen. April was the turning point, we managed 5 victories which rocked us up to top of the league and we we’re 1 point from the title…we could taste the champagne. What happen next was torture to me and the followers of the story, we lose the last two games of the playoff campaign…had we thrown it away? No was the answer, Anderlecht couldn’t find the net and Genk couldn’t score enough, we we’re Champions and in my first season of Belgian football.
Now on with the story…
Before I start with the transfer in and out, let me show you this screenshot
WHAT! You sold him…I here you say well, I didn’t…but my trusty board did, they felt that 6.5m was just too much to turn down. I was furious, Leftback was a position I wasen’t looking to improve (additional back-up maybe) but now I need a new key player…cheers board!
Transfers IN/OUT
As you can see I went a tad crazy, bringing in 17 new players (well 16 because Thomas Meunier was joining before I joined Brugge) and letting 15 leave the club (well 14 because Masilela wasn’t my choice). I also spent 3.75m more than what was brought into the club, reason was because I was rebelling against the board for selling Masilela. So let me introduce you to the new members of Club Brugge…
Jonathan
Absolute demon! His stats are fantastic and getting him on a free is magic. He’ll be amazing in the Pro League (Assistant rates his as 3.5/4 stars). He’ll rotate with current rightback Thanduyise Khuboni who, I have re-trained to play Leftback if we become desperate. One of my best signings.
Levan Mchedlidze
With Lerato Chabangu and Danny Koevermams nearly spending more time of the physio bench then on the pitch and Katlego Mphela taking an age to getting into a scoring mood I decided to take the plunge and sign another striker, on a free Levan fit the bill well. With stats that resemble those of Wayne Rooney (maybe not as high, but the same pattern lol) and age on his side, he’ll be a hit in the Pro League.
Marcelo Barovero
His guy was lined up way back in January of the first season (along with Levan and Jonathan and a few more), I knew that neither of my backup keepers were up to much and swooped for his services. Turns out that now with Stijn Stijnen handing in a transfer request and joining Inter, he’s now my first choice. Very decent stats for a keeper and signed on a Free…what can I say…Bargin!
Erik Lamela
My first real signing of the transfer window and an expensive one. Signed to replace Vargas and later Tshabalala (due to his appauling fitness), Erik possess very good stats and with him only being 19, I can only see him getting better.
Luciano Nieto
Like Lamela, Nieto is a Left Winger and possess similar stats. Also 19, he’ll too become a better player if not, I’ll make decent cash from him as he too was free.
Hao Junmin
Hao was on loan with us for January onwards and make a massive impact to the team. Just before the season ended, Schalke 04 offered him to us for 375k, I snapped their hands off. He truly took the Pro League by storm and I strongly believe he’ll do the same this season.
Boldizsar Bodor
With the board selling Peter Masilela (b******s), I needed to sign a new leftback. Bodor has decent stats for a Leftback, not a good as the person he’ll be replacing but decent. I can’t complain about the fee either and he’s also played in Belgium for 3 years before his 21st birthday which is the only rule in Belgium (need 6 in the match squad if you didn’t know).
Cani
No sure why Villarreal released him but I quick to the wheels in motion to sign him. Cani bring experience to the squad and brilliant playmaker stats.
Timmy Simons
Now you might be wondering why I brought him to the club, well I’m looking to him for the future, he’s a fans favourite and he’s near retirement age plus he wants to be a coach when he retires, so as he signed I sat down to talk to him about the future and he jumped at the coaching chance, I can now see his coaching attributes.
Bart Buysse
Bart Buysse is a Belgium lad, he and Bodor will be rotated throughout the season as they are very similar to each other. 675k was a little expensive but he’s one of the best Belgium Leftbacks I could realistically sign.
Juanito
With Jordan Spence returning to West Ham after his loan, I decided that I could do with a backup centreback. Juanito was my man, fairly decent stats from heading to speed, he will be able to fill in when either Donk or Hoefkens are fatigued. Free as well, cant complain really.
Paul-Jose M’Poku
Young Belgian Winger, I have this chap lined up for the future, my Scouts and Assistant have him down to have 3.5 star rating in the future so fingers crossed.
Eric
My scout Simon Hunt came up with his guy after scouting the Brazilian leagues. His stats are amazing and he cost 10k, I would have been stupid to turn this one down, if it doesn’t work out I’ll definitely be able to make some money from selling him.
Phillipp Klement
Signed just before the transfer window closed, due to Vadis Odjidja talking about leaving the club (and just incase the board pulled a fast one again). Phillipp has the potential to be a world class midfielder/defensive midfield. Signed when he was 17 in also means that if I manage to keep him until he’s 21 he’ll qualify for the Belgium for 3 years before his 21st birthday rule. His current ability level means he’s more than ready to play first team football, which he will be doing during this season.
Simon Mignolet
With Stijn Stijnen wanting to move on and having no other keeper this was a 23:59PM transfer on deadly day, right up until the last minute it was a toss up between him and Logan Bailly (both had played in Belgium for 3 years before his 21st birthday), I chose Mignolet due to his 3.5 star rating. 2.8m was expensive but it was a must.
There are nearly one more piece of transfer activity during August…
I held my breath, rejected the transfer and clicked continue…The Board didn’t act and Lerato Chabangu is still a Club Brugge player.
Pre-Season Results
Not needing a tour of Belgium this season I decided to let my Assistant Manager arrange our matches. Knowing that we would have a Champions Cups Qualifier not that far away, I chose to handle the friendlies and get the majority of the first teamers up to fitness. Some returned tired and they we’re give extra leave. Levan Mchedlidze and Erik Lamela we’re the stars of pre-season with both getting goals, 4 and 3 respectively. Going into a new season unbeaten surely must give the lads a boost.
Requests
After the shenanigans with the sale of Peter Masilela, I confronted the Board and made some requests…well demands really lol. They agreed that in future I would receive 80% of transfer revenue and also the below…
Well that’s it for my first post on the main site…what do you think? Let me know, comments are always welcome and I’ll respond to them as quickly as I can.
Thank you for reading
Martin