With the season 22 just finished, I decided to look back at my time in Bayer till today and write short story about it.

I joined Bayern in the middle of the season 11. In second half of the season, we managed to get club to Top 3 after disaster that happened in season 10, when they finished record low at 9th place. After this season I had to decide how to progress with the club. Bayern had done, in seasons before, some of the deals that they were not ideal for a manager who is thinking in long term and see club like a project and not just temporary step in career. Club had a lot of players that they were in late 20s and beginning of 30s. Slowly we started to buy players with lower age and began with systematic scouting for potential future stars that could help Bayern in long term development. At the same time we had to be really smart and also careful. There was contracts/goals to achieve set by bosses of GW. Most of the contracts that we signed had goal set at minimum Top6 or one of the Cup wins. How hard was the system of contracts, having always in mind present and future, can tell us just a quick look where we can nowadays find some of the big names in football. Is just few clubs that they are still there in top 10 if we compare it with the beginning of Top100 GW. On the other side there are some big clubs, institutions in world of football, that we can see today in lower divisions or having hard time in D1.

Even with this challenging task we managed to finish in next ten full seasons three times in Top 4, managed to win Top100 Cup in first full season in charge (season 12) and again in season 17. In following season 18, we managed to win Charity Shield and season later, 19, we won Top100 Shield. In all season under my work here in Bayern we always finished in Top7 (1x 3rd, 3x 4th, 2x 5th, 2x 6th and 4x 7th). Some may call me “Mister Consistency” but I would rather call myself “Mister Stability” which is hard job to achieve in Top100 GW.

This season, 22, we managed to finish 7th. We were hoping for something more, but I can be satisfied with performance and results of the team after Turn 21. Just short statistic input: till end of Turn 21 Bayern had in average 1,476 points per game (31 points). From this Turn till the end, we managed to achieve (next 17 Turns) 2.0 average points per game, 34 points (small input info – title winner this season, Verona, had 2.05 point in average per game in 38 Turns). This significant difference in average points came when we changed our tactic and arrival of Harry Kane, who will be instrumental in next seasons.

Future of Bayern looks bright. This season we said goodbye to Muller and Griezmann – will be big job to replaced them in starting 11. Loosing 92 and 94 player is bad for now but for the future is right decision. Next season will be last one for our servant Kroos so we are preparing that our young players will get more chances and more responsibility in seasons ahead.

Our attack for next season will lead our new captain Harry Kane (30 years), Kroos (34) will be our co-captain. On RW will start Kubo (23) and on LW Doku (22), which goes hand in hand with our policy of development young players and get them ready for future. Substitutions for those three positions will be CF Evanilson (24 years), LW Gibbs-White (24) and RW Brennan Johnson (23).

In midfield will be our wizard Kroos together with Onana (22) and Goretzka (29). Behind are waiting for opportunity three players that we’re really looking forward how they develop in next reviews. Bilal El Khannouss (20), Habib Diarra (20) and Marlon Gomes (20).

In defence experience is always a key factor of stability. Tomiyasu (25) on RB and Robertson (30) on LB will assist our attackers and beside on CB positions we will see Rudiger (31) and Le Normand (27). For the cup games there will be ready players like Dedic (21), Gabbia (24), Lacroix (24) and Mauro Junior (25).

In GK position we are trusting that Onana (28) can keep his head on right place and continue with performance from last two season.

As seen there is a lot of young players that will get a chance in first team in following seasons. But this not all talent that we have in youth team. Amazing youth development department and scouting department managed to bring in some names that are already well know in world of football. Names like Camarda (16), De Cat (15), Cocchi (17), Lewis-Skelly (17), Zeze (18), Guiu (18), Guilherme (18), Uzun (18), Goes (19), Kumbedi (19), De Winter (21) and Rohl (21) are just some of the biggest stars of our youth squad that will represent us in youth competitions in next season and hopefully one day replaced players like Kroos or Kane.

I am proud of story that I managed to do in 519 games in charge. Future of the club is looking bright, and the potential of the team is much higher than when I came to the club. Hopefully our project will develop in right direction and that one day we will be proud on this team when they win Division 1 title – with me being in charge or someone else. It’s a long shot, but we seen already that some of this project, like Verona for example, are working when you give them time. Stability is a key to success in Top100.

Mia san mia (We are who we are)

 

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