Oliver Kahn Returns - A Bayern Munich Tale

[stupidmoose]

July, 2009.
​

*RING!*

My eyes flicked open and I groggily reached for the phone. Who calls at 7 in the morning? This better be important.

"Hello?"

"Mr Kahn?"

"Yes, hi. Who am I speaking to?"

Random fans who had gotten hold of my number on internet boards often called, some to hear my voice, some to invite me for tea. I had enjoyed this at first, but it quickly grew old - especially when an "Ultra" called at 4 am once. I did hope this wasn't one of those calls.

"Uli Hoeness."

I started. The Uli? But why?

"Mr. Hoeness, an honour. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"I hope you're well, Mr. Kahn. The board and I are wondering if you could drop by today or tomorrow? We'd like to discuss a proposition with you."
A proposition? Goalkeeping coach, perhaps? But surely Uli wouldn't call personally for a meagre coaching job? Maybe they needed me to endorse the kits or something. I guess I'd have to wait and see.

"Of course, Mr. Hoeness. I'll drop by the Headquarters around two if that's convenient?"

"We await your arrival, Mr. Kahn. See you soon."

*click*

I wonder what lies in wait for me at the meeting.

****************

2:00 PM - I entered the Allianz for my meeting with the board.

"Mr. Kahn - this way, sir. The board are waiting for you."

The pretty girl ushered me into a room where some of the most powerful people in German football sat.

Uli radiated sheer power. He was not as charismatic as the man he had succeeded - old Franz still dominated that department. But his shrewd eyes were calculating and I - the man who saved countless penalties without a hint of nervousness - was tense.

"Oliver, good of you to join us. Please, have a seat."

"I'll get straight to the point, Oliver. Bayern haven't been great this past season. Wolfsburg won the Bundesliga and Werder won the DFB-Pokal. We want that to change. This club has success in its blood and we expect more. We've been discussing a lot of propositions in the past few days, and we unanimously agree - we want you to be the new manager of Bayern Munich."

I was shell-shocked. Licking my dry lips I unclasped my clammy hands and opened my mouth...

****************

Please leave comments, good or bad.
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---------- Post added at 12:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:56 AM ----------

July, 2009. My first day on the job.
​

"... and a transfer budget of $29 million." Uli continued.

They expected me to win the Bundesliga and the DFB-Pokal, and get us to the Quarters in the Champions League. I'd have to look at the squad to make sure we could achieve that - I had even played with some of them not long ago!

********

Andries Jonker was to be my assistant manager
​

Andries Jonker, my assistant manager for the season, met me outside the board room.

"Mr. Kahn, a pleasure. Please, let me show you to the training area and we can go over the squad. You've joined us in the middle of our pre-season friendlies tour - we play the Urawa Reds in Japan tomorrow, so we'll need to get everything done fairly quickly."

I liked the man already. He was efficient and knowledgeable and I could see that he would prove to be an important companion in the coming season.

We made conversation as we made our way to the offices and sat down in Andries' office.

"We're pretty good in attack. Miroslav is getting on but he's still a lethal finisher. Ivica and Mario are good players and Muller plays well in a forward role."

I agreed. We could use one more game-changing striker if we were to challenge for the Champions League trophy but as things stood, we looked good.

"The midfield is one of the strongest in Europe. Franck, Arjen, Bastian, Thomas, Toni... the talent we have is fantastic. We should base our tactics around these players."

"We could strengthen the defense, especially this right-back area. The goalie Hans is also getting on in his years and if I'm honest, he doesn't cut it for Champions League football."

Hmm. The man made fair points. I could see we would need to make a few signings to be serious contenders in Europe - but $29 million is not enough to buy players of the highest calibre. Shouldering my nerve, I went to talk to Uli.

********

"Win the Champions League in two seasons?" Uli seemed doubtful.

"Yes, sir. With a few good signings and luck with injuries, we would be serious challengers.

"I'll need to talk it over with the board. We're in a good financial position but can't afford to be too flippant. I'll be in touch, Oliver."

********

I had asked for a higher transfer budget - in return, I would deliver the Champions League to Bayern within two seasons. It was a tall order but I was confident of our ability. Would I come to regret this decision?

********

When I got home, a voicemail awaited.

"Oliver, this is Sarah. We met two weeks ago."

Sarah? Oh, that's right - the girl from that bar. Why is she calling?

"I really need to talk to you. It's important. Call me as soon as you can."

*click*

Eh? After my wife and I divorced I had been a frequent traverser of the local bars. I had met Sarah at one of them - routinely, we downed a few drinks then retired to her small studio apartment. I had left in the morning, but it seemed I had given her my number.

I slowly pressed the redial button and pressed the phone to my perspiring face.

​

 

[hellroker]

Nice I follow.Please comment on mine http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/f81/david-seaman-returns-a-dynamo-kyiv-story-t43903.html

 

[stupidmoose]

************
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Cheers Hellroker, will be having a look at yours shortly.


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[AussieOchoa]

this looks good, I just started a Bayern save aswell try and get Ochoa for keeper, classy and cheap!

 

[cfc12345]

good luck mate will follow

 

[stupidmoose]

*************
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Cheers Sv9D, he's part of the shortlist. Proper update soon.

 

[AussieOchoa]

just gotta say, i love that magazine cover

 

[stupidmoose]

10th July, 2009. My first friendly and my first press conference.
​

"Oliver, you have $75 million to work with in the transfer market now. We're giving you a pretty free reign over what you do with it, but Andries must agree with any signing you make and everything will have to go through me. Do not let us down."

Uli's sharp last words still echoed in my head as I boarded the plane - they had met my request for more funds, but I only had $200k of wave budget remaining to work with. It would be a difficult transfer session. I had met the lads already - they all said they were happy to see me back and looking forward to working with me. It couldn't have gone any better, but we now needed to face the Urawa Reds in Japan. I sat down in our first class cabin with Andries and started looking at tactics and a squad list.

A press conference has been scheduled for tonight. I guess I need to start getting used to facing the media once again.

*********

I decided to get going from the off and use a rather complicated tactic for a run-out.

We'd have four defenders - Lahm, Braahfhied, Badstuber, and Lell.
A defensive mid - Tymoschuk - would act as an anchorman.
We'd have two wide attacking mids - I was inclined to rotate Ribery/Robben and Muller/Schweinsteiger in the role.
Three forwards with the freedom to move around - Olic, Gomez, and Klose - would ensure that we had some attacking bite.

The lads walk out in preparation of their match

Everyone was tired and jet lagged, but once we started discussing tactics, we settled into a rythm and trained well. It was humid here - everyone was perspiring crazily. After a few basic training routines I explained the tactics for the game to everyone - they voiced their concern at the gap between the anchorman and the mids, but agreed that it wouldn't be a problem if the anchorman could make supporting runs on occasion.

I told the lads to get out there and show me what they had - so I could identify where we needed to improve. I told them everyone had a chance to show me they were capable of leading Germany's best club to European glory. Invigorated, they ran out.

Klose slammed in a Ribery cross to score our first. We went into half time with this slender lead - I knew we would need to be better in Europe. I told the lads they could do more - Urawa Reds were good, but we would be facing better. This seemed to work - My substitution Schweinsteiger for Robben quickly led to a goal, as a curling cross was met by the head of Klose. Klose notched up his third with a beautiful placed shot from the edge resulting from a Gomez assist. It was obvious that Klose, despite his advancing years, was deadly in front of goal. He is firmly in my first team plans. Schweinsteiger dribbled past three defenders to score a marvellous goal, and Muller (who came on for Ribery) added our fourth as he headed home a freekick from Bastian.


Man of the Match - Miroslav Klose, for his stunning hat-trick.
Media Prediction - The media agreed it would be a close match, but Bayern ran out comfortable winners against Urawa. Even for a run-out, the performance was passionate and beautiful to watch,

*************
​

All in all, I was proud and happy. It was obvious that we had a lot of talent, though we could still improve. I decided to wait till after the next friendly to delve into the transfer market.

I told the lads to go enjoy themselves then meet back at our hotel at 10. Meanwhile, I had a press conference to attend.

*************

********

I still hadn't forgotten that fateful phone call with Sarah.

​

 

[toddzy]

You can tell straight away this is going to be a great story mate I love bayern so keep this up and i'll be sure to follow it

 

[stupidmoose]

Really appreciate it toddzy! Comments are great motivation

---------- Post added at 05:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:58 PM ----------

14th July - My first defeat

On the 13th, we travelled to Lorient and stayed in a quaint hotel. The journeys on these pre-season friendlies can be tiring and I told the players to enjoy themselves, as long as they were up at 8 for breakfast tomorrow. They all cheerily broke away and decided to explore the charms of France.

Meanwhile, I read that same **** text for the millionth time today...

****.

****************

I kept the same tactics and formation for this game. The lineup was mostly the same - Schweinsteiger started instead of Arjen Robben today.

In the dressing room, I told the players to show me what they had against, frankly, sub-par opposition. I told them I wanted to see some fireworks - I could see they were complacent.

​

Coquelin, who was on loan from Arsenal, put the first goal past us. Our goalkeeper - **** - was shoddy. He made poor mistakes and never instilled confidence in the defence. At half-time, we were 1-0 down and I told the squad we could win the game, and to get out there and do there best. It didn't seem to work. Schweinsteiger showed a spark of inspiration to slip a ball through the defence, which Klose passed into the back of the net, but Coquelin soon put Lorient in front once again. Our team looked broken and there was no passion in them. At full-time I sympathised with them - the Lorient fans had not been kind to us - and told them we had time to find form before the season.

Man of the Match: Fran Coquelin, 2 goals
Media Prediction: An upset - no other word for it. We expected Bayern to win comfortably but complacency seems to have taken its toll. Can Kahn turn this around?
​

But inside, I was worried. I had seen several weaknesses in the team, and on the plane I chalked up a rough list of players I thought would help solve our issues.

******************************

Andries agreed we desperately needed a RB and a new goalie to perform in the Champions League. I really wanted a cutting edge striker, so I decided to watch Dzeko in action. I pulled up an online video site and set down to watch Dzeko, playing for Wolfsburg and Bosnia. He was a classy player - no doubt. His size meant I could play him as a very effective target man, but his superior finishing and placement also meant he could easily put those through balls form the likes of Muller into the back of the net. I was determined to follow up on this - I asked Andries to put our best three scouts on these players and find out which ones would be available.

**************

I had just coaxed myself to sleep battling the drone of the Boeing 777's powerful GE-90 engines, when the shrill sound of the aircraft's in-built first class phone rang.

Who would call me while I was in a plane?

"Oliver - it's Uli. I heard we lost. No matter. You have time to turn this around. Keep our expectations in mind... we would be extremely disappointed if we were let down."

"Of course, Mr. Hoeness. I have already identified some weaknesses and I'm in the process of remedying any issues we have. I have no doubt that we will deliver come the end of the season."

"Very well. Air France overcharges hideously for these in-air phone calls, I'll talk to you back at the Allianz."

"Take care, Mr. Hoeness."

************
​

As the plane inched closer to the ground, a baby starting crying.

Oh **** - the baby.
​

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---------- Post added at 07:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:58 PM ----------

Wow, no interest?

Another update...

15th July, 2009 - Transfer Market

Together with the scouts and my assistant, I had narrowed the list down to a few players -

We would approach Leverkusen for Rene Adler. We all agreed he would mature into an even better goalkeeper, and he would be significantly cheaper than Manuel Neuer or Buffon. Buffon had replied positively when I mentioned Bayern may be interested in his services - but Juventus wanted at least $49,800,000 for him and I don' want to spend excessively on just one player - even if it is the best goalkeeper in the world. Hopefully once we hired some good goalkeeping staff, Rene would grow into an even better player.

We enquired about the availability of Darijo Srna and Gregory van der Wiel from their clubs - Shakhtar Donetsk and Ajax, respectively. We told them we would like an answer within the next few days - I was anxious to get some players in so we had the friendlies for them to get some cohesive gelling in done.

I was keeping an eye on young talent Romelu Lukaku, but for the time being we need an impact striker. We decided to scout Dzeko for one more game before launching a formal bid.

Now, the waiting began. That baby still weighed on my mind... but I had other things to attend to.

*************

Negotiating with the clubs

For all these transfers, I had to keep in mind the wage budget only had working space of $250k per week. I would have to be somewhat cheap in some of our negotiations.

Leverkusen told us they wanted $35 million for Rene Adler. I still felt this was a bit too much - I decided to place a single offer for them - $28.5 million, take it or leave it. I hoped it would pay off.

Shakhtar and Ajax both said they are not interested in selling those players. After some time, though, I decided I liked the look of van der Wiel more - and I decided to place a formal bid - $15.5 million. Ajax aren't in the strongest financial position, so I do think they'll accept.

Now for the talisman of our new squad - Edin Dzeko. I must admit I have a personal penchant for Dzeko, I really like his teamwork and style and his Bundesliga partnership with Grafite has shown he is very devastating. However, I knew Wolfsburg would be stubborn - they had already quoted $45 million to clubs like Manchester United. I decided I would publically declare interest in Dzeko and see if he might help prod along the negotiations. I would later place a formal bid, providing everything went to plan.

***********
​

I took these prospective signings to the board - Uli, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, and Karl Hopfner agreed to meet me within the hour. I handed them a file and they asked me to exit the room for 15 minutes while they conferred amongst themselves. After what seemed like an eternity, I was ushered back in -

"28.5 million for Adler and nearly 16 for van der Wiel? Are you sure this is a good decision, Oliver?"

"Yes, sir. Andries agrees. Juventus paid $73 million for Buffon... world class players come with heavy price tags. I and the scouts agree that these players will mature to become even better."

"And then there is the small matter of signing Dzeko. We think it is a good move, yes. The boy is talented and will grow and mature. But be warned, Wolfsburg will be stubborn. If Manchester United failed to sign him, we may not have too much hope."

"However, we agree that you have made fine choices. We hope the ploy to unsettle Dzeko works in our favour and doesn't turn him against us. If we get him, you'll weaken Wolfsburg a great deal, too. Proceed with your plans, and we'll see how things pan out. Good luck, Mr. Kahn."

Almost trembling, I walked out of the board room. Phew - that was over. I now did as I planned and waited for events to unfold.

*********
​

16th July, 2009 - Progress

I was delighted with this piece of news. Thus, I proceeded to ask Uli to file three official bids -

• $28.5 million to be paid upfront to Leverkusen, with no other bonuses for Rene Adler.
• $15.5 million to be paid upfront to Ajax, with no other bonuses for Gregory van der Wiel.
  
• $30 million initial offer, with a further $8.5 million to be paid to Wolfsburg for Edin Dzeko.
  

I asked Andries to handle any other demands, but we would not be going over these amounts of money. Even as it was, we would be left with nothing in the transfer kitty - a precarious position but a risk I was willing to take.

I guess we'll have to wait and see where this takes us...

****************
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[Dan]

I lve the layout mate and the writing, really nice! I will be following.

 

[stupidmoose]

I lve the layout mate and the writing, really nice! I will be following.

Glad to hear that Dan, cheers!

Your story title just convinced me to read it, very well done indeed, haha!

 

[dazdazdaz]

nice story pal

 

[stupidmoose]

nice story pal

Cheers

---------- Post added at 08:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:04 PM ----------

17th August, 2009 - Contract Negotiations

Things were going well for us.

Ajax accepted our offer for Gregory van der Wiel. I was nothing short of delighted, we needed his quality at right back.

Leverkusen, after some debate, said they would accept the offer for Rene Adler as long as the price was not made public. I was a bit surprised at the request, but, of course, agreed to honour their request. Again, this was a great turn of events and the fans would be delighted to have some quality between the posts.

But the biggest news reached me in the evening - Wolfsburg had agreed to the offer for Dzeko. I was ecstatic... he really would prove essential in our Champions League campaign.

Now, however, I had to negotiate a contract with these players using my tiny wage budget. I had already asked the board for a change in wage structure, but they admitted it simply wasn't possible and I would have to work with what I had. That... would be a challenge.

*********************

Contract Offers and Arguing...

I contacted van der Wiel's agent first. He wanted $55k per week - an entirely reasonable request which I agreed to. Provided there were no hitches, he would soon be part of our squad.

Rene Adler was next on the list - I met with him and his agent personally and agreed to his $92k per week demands. I did not want to risk this deal falling through, **** (our current goalie) had been even more disappointing in recent training.

Dzeko was next, and the biggest challenge. I could only offer him $82k per week - I was fairly certain he was on a contract worth more at Wolfsburg.

***************

"Edin would like $130,000 per week. He is not asking for a goal bonus and feels this request is reasonable." said the man's agent.

"This is an entirely reasonable request, Edin." I said.

"However, due to wage limitations I am not allowed to offer you more than $82k per week. Now, I agree that you have been reasonable with your demands. However, before you say no, I would like to tell you this. Bayern will win the Bundesliga this season - no question about it. You will thus earn a substantial bonus on our pro-rata bonus system. Depending on our feats in the DFB-Pokal and Champions League, this will be an even higher amount. Next season, I vow to give you a newer and better contract - our financial position will improve dramatically by then. To compensate, I'm willing to offer your $6m as a signing-on fee rather than the $6m fee you've requested."

His agent chimed in before Edin could get a word in - "We will have to consider your offer, Mr. Kahn. Thank you very much for visiting."

I hoped everyone would agree to a deal - it would help us immensely. I guess I'll have to wait. Now, I need to decide what to do about the baby... I don't quite think I'm ready to be a father just yet.

*********************

*********************

I was delighted at what we had accomplished. These signings patched up weaknesses in the squads and that is always a bonus. However, we were now $58k over our wage budget with a big round zero in the transfer kitty; and though I had told the press otherwise, a few players would need to leave. For the next few days, I would need to pore over the squad list and decide who is surplus to requirements.

But in the mean time, I sat back with a glass of wine and drank to our new signings.

*********************

I made a list of players I considered fairly disposable and placed it on Andries' desk. We would need to discuss this further and then place some players on the transfer list.

The board, unfortunately, are only making 14% of the transfer revenue available to us, so we have some work to do if we want to reduce the wage bill. Uli has already been in touch about that.

*****************

Meanwhile, Sarah had texted again. I still hadn't worked up the nerve to call her and I hadn't gone out all week.

With a friendly fast approaching, I needed this off my mind.

What I would read in the newspaper the next morning nearly destroyed my career.

 

[Trophy_Whorder]

like the lay out when will some fm picture be added great work though.

 

[stupidmoose]

like the lay out when will some fm picture be added great work though.

I was thinking I wouldn't add any FM pictures unless proof was needed... I might add some for the transfers though.

IMO it takes away from the realism of the story.

---------- Post added at 11:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:02 PM ----------

Guys, my save game just crashed :S First time I haven't saved a rolling game alongside and this happens... I won't be able to continue!

 

[toddzy]

Bummer :S

 

[AussieOchoa]

that sucks , maybe you can start a new one sometime?