Hamburg Review S23

Not much to write home about this season. We survived. We had the worst possible start (bottom with 4 points in 9 games), recovered with a great run to 9th scoring goals galore away from home, lost our keeper Szczesny to unexpected retirement (or so we thought), then went another nine games without a win before ending with 12 points from our final nine.

We replaced Szczesny with Bizot from external taking a -4 hit in ratings. I tried to compensate for that by signing Romagnoli to replace Kiwior (+2).

Harsh ratings reviews also saw a -2 for Casemiro and a -1 for Mount.

Our star player Muller wasn’t really producing the goals or assists I’d hoped for, so I decided to offload him to promotion chasing Schalke for Immobile (who guarantees goals, haha) and Depay (even though he’d just agreed an odd looking move to Corinthians in real life). -1 incoming (and just received), but Muller also likely to drop, and having two 89+ players is better than having one?

Also signed Bellegarde from Athletic Club as a utility player who can cover a few positions.

Came close to signing Goretzka from Spurs, but the deal fell through. Instead I got Forsberg and Silas for Banza.

Brought in Zielinski for Mount and Neco Williams. The speed and joy with which Greg accepted my offer tells me I overpaid, but Mount seems unable to play with injuries, and Zielinski could end up with a +1 at Inter further down the line. Neco obviously will rise, but Hamari is my right back (and might have got a +1 if it wasn’t for a serious injury).

Let Adli go to United for Ampadu (who of course then got seriously injured), and Calvin Ramsay.

At end of of season, I took a big short-term risk and ratings hit signing Tomas Araujo from Fenerbahce for Lucas Martinez Quarta and young Antal Yaakobishvili, but he’s due a rise….

Replaced Quarta short-term with Azpilicueta for Silas, and swapped Parisi and Malick Diouf for Renan Lodi at left back. Diouf is tearing it up in the Czech league and due a nice rise again, but hopefully Lodi will return to Europe next summer.

Starting XI at start of S23/24:

Szczesny 91 / Bizot 87

Hamari 89

Quarta 89 / Azpilicueta 89

Kiwior 88 / Romagnoli 90

Parisi 87 / Lodi 89

Casemiro 93 / 91

Adli 86 / Zielinski 91

Greenwood 88

Banza 88 / Immobile 90

Muller 92 / Depay 89

Mount 90 / Forsberg 88

Overall no difference in rating, but we do have the likes of Araujo and Ekitike coming through who should be in the first team by the new year. And I’ve accumulated a bunch of nice youths who are playing regularly or just starting to get minutes, or getting big moves. So reasons to be hopeful, as ever.