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Well, after a long time away from the forum I think it's time to get started again. The story is based on CM01/02 with the newest update from CM Sorted. I hope it doesn't crash. The next is what we pro's like to call a little teaser. Enjoy :cool:
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After finishing reading the letter for a third time Karl Franz looked up slowly. Turning to look at Fritz, his faithful companion for the last 30 years he smiled. “Do you know what this means, Fritz?” he asked slowly. “Uhm, no boss, me dunno”.
Fritz was the archetypical German. Tall, blond, muscular and not particular bright. Also, those were the very reasons why Karl liked keeping him around. He would always do as he was told without arguing it. Karl suspected this was also part of the reason that he had been chosen as his companion. “This means that we can finally leave this nation of small banana-eaters Fritz and return to the Motherland!” “Da Motherland boss?” “Yes Fritz. Germany… Deutschland! The land of our ancestors. The land they were forced to leave behind more than 50 years ago“.
Fritz scratched himself. “Uhm, what’s in the letter boss?”. “Well, listen up. Apparently some old documents have been found from before the….ehm… move down here. It appears that my grandfather was given a small football club called SF Siegen as a reward for something he did. The documents have been deemed valid and as sole descendent it is now mine. I’m going to take over and run it myself and you’re coming with me.” “Uhm, what am I to do boss?” “Well, I’m sure I can find something suitable for your skills…”
Some 20 hours later both Karl Franz and Fritz were onboard the Lufthansa plane from Buenos Aires to Frankfurt. A fax had arrived informing the new owner about the state of affairs.
“Hmm… it’s a rather small club Fritz.” Karl was getting increasingly annoyed as he read the papers. “They are almost 200,000 euros in debt and rising. The squad consists of just 26 players with an average age of less than 24. It’ll be your job to weed out the weak ones first.” “Yeah boss. What do you want to do with it?” “We’ll have to get out of that stupid regional division so we can get rich. This means we’ll have to win a lot.” “How do we do that boss?” “We’ll Blitz them. Just like grandfather. We’ll go around their central defences, get behind them and then destroy them with fast movement!” “You think that will work?” “Of course it will work you fool. I thought of it.” “But boss, won’t…”
Karl slapped Fritz with his clipboard. “Shut up and go to sleep. I’ve work to do.”
The squad wasn’t much. At least he had a good report on them from the old staff and he already knew they would play a 4-3-2-1 formation with two wingers doing the encirclement, the centre holding firm and defence supporting.
Looking closer at the squad he made some notes next to each player. He has no less than ten foreign nationals. Something would have to be done about that, but all in due time.
Goalkeepers
Three keepers on the books. An easy decision there. The Slovakian would have to go leaving Andreas Koch and Sven Eckhardt to battle it out. Both were decent keepers according to reports, but Koch was the most experienced and would start in.
Defence
The left side would be handled by Matthias Straub, a new acquisition from VfB Stuttgart with Christian Mehr staying as back-up. Both were Germans which was a good thing.
On the right he would use Sascha Bäcker. Another young German with great potential.
It would be more difficult to choose the central defenders. After thinking about it for 45 minutes, 2 beers and a bag of crisp he set marks next to Ousseynou Dione, a Senegalese player and Romas Cirba, a Lithuanian. He wasn’t too pleased about not using Germans, but they could always be replaced in due time.
Midfield
The wings would be occupied by Sven-Jörg Bleck and Eric Lukin, an American U-21 player. Given the tough job of holding fast in the centre was Tobias Zott and Jozef Kotula, yet another Slovakian. Jens Truckenbrod would also have midfield as his starting position, but was to make probing attacks at the enemy defence opening the way for the rest.
Attack
Plenty of choice here, but with only one player required it would be possible to make some money here. American John van Buskirk would play up front. Almost a new sort of Marshall help there with two Americans in the team. The old star striker, Til Bettenstaedt, would be listed as he could bring in a large amount of euros. That Bosnian player would also be kicked out as soon as possible.
They were to attack as fast as possible and defend vigorously. He could hardly wait. He might start small, but in time Europe would tremble!
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> ************************************************** ********************************************** Sportfreunde Siegen - Saturday 30th June 2001********************************************** ************************************************** ================================================== ============================================== Squad============================================= ================================================== =No Name Position(s) Nat Born Age Caps Gls Wages Expires Value------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bäcker, Sascha D/DM R GER 1.8.79 21 - - ¤2.8K 30.6.03 ¤130K - Balaz, Michal GK SVK 28.8.70 30 - - ¤2.2K 30.6.03 ¤190K - Bettenstaedt, Til F RC GER 20.1.76 25 - - ¤6.25K 30.6.03 ¤500K - Bleck, Sven-Jörg M RL GER 27.12.74 26 - - ¤1.1K 30.6.03 ¤35K - Cirba, Romas D/DM C LTU 4.3.69 32 - - ¤5.5K 30.6.03 ¤160K - Custos, Bruno DM RC FRA 29.4.77 24 - - ¤3.9K 30.6.03 ¤190K - Dione, Ousseynou D C SEN 25.3.73 28 - - ¤3.1K 30.6.03 ¤130K - Eckhardt, Sven GK GER 22.1.76 25 - - ¤1.2K 30.6.04 ¤65K - Islamoglu, Cem D C TUR 4.9.80 20 - - ¤2.3K 30.6.03 ¤95K - Klein, Martin M LC GER 22.12.80 20 - - ¤325 30.6.03 ¤40K - Koch, Andreas GK GER 13.7.71 29 - - ¤2.5K 30.6.03 ¤80K - Kotula, Jozef DM RC SVK 20.9.76 24 - - ¤4.9K 30.6.03 ¤325K - Kresovic, Slobodan D C YUG 27.8.75 25 - - ¤2.1K 30.6.03 ¤180K - Lukin, Eric M LC USA 14.6.79 22 - - ¤2.8K 30.6.04 ¤150K - Maser, Marco S C GER 7.11.79 21 - - ¤350 30.6.03 ¤120K - Mehr, Christian D/DM L GER 28.4.81 20 - - ¤775 30.6.03 ¤90K - Mujakic, Nihad M R BOS 28.1.77 24 - - ¤2.9K 30.6.03 ¤120K - Mujakic, Senad S C BOS 23.12.81 19 - - ¤2.8K 30.6.03 ¤100K - Nauroth, Andreas DM LC GER 26.2.76 25 - - ¤5K 30.6.03 ¤325K - Schlabach, Timo S C GER 5.12.80 20 - - ¤325 30.6.03 ¤95K - Schöler, Tobias F LC GER 3.10.81 19 - - ¤2.1K 30.6.03 ¤60K - Straub, Matthias D L GER 24.11.80 20 - - ¤2.9K 30.6.03 ¤150K - Truckenbrod, Jens AM C GER 18.1.80 21 - - ¤4.2K 30.6.03 ¤210K - Wurm, Tobias D RC GER 31.3.82 19 - - ¤1.2K 30.6.03 ¤65K - Zott, Tobias DM C GER 12.8.77 23 - - ¤3.2K 30.6.03 ¤140K - van Buskirk, John S C USA 13.4.72 29 - - ¤6.25K 30.6.03 ¤350K </pre>
For more info on SF Siegen then go to SF Siegen but make sure to have turned the sound on. You can also see a map at Siegen/Germany
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With the start of the league looming it was time to evaluate the pre-season. No matches had been played and only one new player had arrived. The French winger Mounar Jailitti joined on a free transfer and would be in hard contention for a place on the right wing. Three players had left the club for a combined fee of €1m leaving the treasury with a positive number. None of the money was made available for transfer though. Not that it was needed with the poor players available. Instead they would be used on salaries, not least for Karl Franz himself. Satisfied with this result he decided to take a short holiday at Harzen.
The plan almost worked brilliantly at the first match away to Saarbrücken. The strong midfield and aggressive backs shut down the homeside and instead the wingers created loads of chances. Twice van Buskirk hit the post and a penalty appeal was also turned down before he finally found the net. It was only seven minutes before time that defence collapsed when the inexperienced Wurm mistimed a tackle after having replaced the injured Dione. A draw was a good enough result though.
Impressively enough Saliso Lassissi, an Ivory Coast international, then signed with us despite interest from Nice. It was probably thanks to the persuasive work from Fritz that convinced him that it would be a good idea to sign with us lest accidents should happen.
He made his debut with a goal in the next match at home to the Kaiserslautern Amateurs with a goal. Once again Siegen dominated with their superior tactics, but it wasn’t until van Buskirk made it 2-0 that we really started creating chances due to the defence Kaiserslautern line-up. Still, we kept a clean sheet and have gotten off to a good start.
The winning streak continued against Offenbach where we made a brilliant recovery despite going one down early. Truckenbrod equalised before half time and thanks to spiking their drinks during the halftime break we took control and started to dominate in second half. Yet again van Buskirk proved his worth by becoming matchwinner after pouncing on a loose ball and blasting it past the hapless Luis in the Offenbach goal.
The unbeaten run then came to an end in Darmstadt thanks in part to poor goalkeeping, but also thanks to a fluke penalty awarded by a horrible referee who failed to see it was a dive. After having gained the lead Darmstadt retreated and though we were the best team we slumped to an undeserved defeat. After a quick phonecall to the DFB they agreed that the standard of refereeing was poor and they would make sure it didn’t happen again.
Another poor match by Koch saw Siegen lose yet again, this time to Erfurt. Of course, having two goals ruled out while the opposition keeper stood a blinder was no help either. Having Lassissi injured proved to be costly as his experience was sorely missed. Still, it has been a good first month considering that we aren’t pushing for promotion yet. I still made sure though that Fritz pulled him aside for a little inspirational talk.
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">29.7.01 Saarbrücken A Regional Division South 1:1 8086 van Buskirk5.8.01 K'lautern (A) H Regional Division South 3:0 5334 Truckenbrod, van Buskirk, Lassissi12.8.01 Offenbach H Regional Division South 2:1 8383 Truckenbrod, van Buskirk19.8.01 Darmstadt A Regional Division South 2:3 3442 Kotula, van Buskirk26.8.01 Erfurt H Regional Division South 1:3 6623 Jailliti </pre>
The fortunes turned again when Lassissi returned with a MoM game against Pfullendorf. His steady presence in defence was enough to hold the visitors off and with the rear secured the sole goal from Custos proved enough to edge out a small 1-0 victory.
We looked to build on that win away to high-flying Schweinfurt, but it would be a hard task, especially as captain Kotula had been injured against Pfullendorf. Still, we hoped to surprise them. Both teams came out seeking the opening goal and only brilliant play by Koch kept them away in the first half. For the first forty minutes we were under heavy siege until Lassissi got a wonderful goal on a fast counter. Having conquered the ball himself he spread it out to Lukin and continued his run forward latching on to the cross from Lukin and barrelling it home to give us the lead just before the break. The goal gave us the moral higher ground and it wasn’t until Lassissi had to limp off with a gashed leg that they started threatening again. We held on though, but for the next two weeks we will again be without our best defender.
Riding high on the backs of two narrow wins we sought to make it three in a row as Stuttgarter Kickers came to visit Leimbachstadion. Nowhere near as good as VfB Stuttgart we should be able to take them, though the presence of the Iranian Bagheri troubled me. As feared he proved a handful scoring a goal, but a brace from van Buskirk and two more goals gave us the vital win in front of an enthusiastic crowd of more than 9200 fans.
We rounded the month off against the Fc Bayern amateurs, but luckily they are no where near the standard of their first team lying deep in the relegation mire. Still we had also lost Truckenbrod again and were seriously weakened. After some early scares we finally found our footing and turned our fortunes around clinching a hard fought win. Up until van Buskirks goal we were really struggling, but that goal deflated the home side and we managed to complete an excellent month.
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">9.9.01 Pfullendorf H Regional Division South 1:0 6683 Custos16.9.01 Schweinfurt A Regional Division South 1:0 4568 Lassissi23.9.01 Stuttgarter K. H Regional Division South 4:1 9226 van Buskirk 2, M.Klein, Lukin pen30.9.01 FC Bayern (A) A Regional Division South 2:1 3044 Lukin, van Buskirk </pre>
Frustration and delight was both abundant in our next game. Within three minutes we had a goal ruled out and the Unterhaching went in front a few minutes later. The frustration got worse when van Buskirk was injured only to subside when his replacement, Tobias Schöler, equlised. Schöler found the net once more, but again it was ruled out. Two goals disallowed and our striker out for 2 weeks. All in all a poor game. Once again I had to send my personal envoy to the DFB to inform them about my displeasure with the referee.
Luckily Schöler proved to be a more than decent replacement as he sealed a hattrick in the next match against Neunkirchen. Good, German reliability in that guy. It was a match we had full control of from the get go and with the points we underlined our desire to go up and play at a higher level. Nothing at all to be displeased off here with a good, solid performance.
I couldn’t help but be impressed when Schöler got another brace the week after giving us a two goal lead, but sadly it wasn’t enough as poor defending saw our unbeaten run come to an end in a 3-2 defeat. I’m very displeased with the way things were at the back, but sadly I don’t have any way to improve on it as we have no funds available and the free players are even worse.
I have a tough decision before the visit of second-placed Augsburg as van Buskirk is fit again. Nevertheless I decide to go with Schöler again though he never makes much of an impact as we’re hamstrung by the early dismissal of Koch in goal. This upsets us greatly and we’re lucky to only go down 1-2. A disappointment though.
My faith in Schöler was rewarded when he clinched another brace in the final game of the month away to Regional leaders Elversburg. It didn’t look like we would win though when they got a penalty after four minutes, but Eckhardt saved it. Later we went 0-1 down, but the two goals were enough to give us a surprising win and move us up to third.
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">3.10.01 Unterhaching A Regional Division South 1:1 7022 Schöler7.10.01 Neunkirchen H Regional Division South 3:0 7256 Schöler 314.10.01 Hoffenheim A Regional Division South 2:3 3427 Schöler 221.10.01 Augsburg H Regional Division South 1:2 7748 Jailliti28.10.01 Elversberg A Regional Division South 2:1 3027 Schöler 2 </pre>
The Sun
November 1st, 2003
NAZI TAKES CONTROL OF GERMAN FOOTBALL CLUB
Trouble is stirring in Germany after the grandson of a high ranking nazi official has taken control of the Regional Division club SF Siegen. After discovering some old papers from the war it was revealed that the club had been given to a good friend of the nazi architect, Albert Speer. After being examined by several lawyers it was concluded that the documents were valid and that they had no choice but to turn the club over to the grandson of the unnamed official, a Karl Franz von Mannstein. Returning from his estates in Argentina this 33-year old have seized control of the old club and installed himself as manager leaving only a small part of the old board to help him out with the duller aspects of managerial life.
Rather surprisingly he has guided his team to third place using what he calls his blitz tactics based on exploiting the “enemy’s” weak flanks and then pushing with a major thrust. Even more disgusting is his claim that eventually the squad will be build up by German purebloods. At the moment they haven’t been able to do much about this upstart who has right on his side, but it is said that the Reichstag is looking for some way to nullify the papers as it might be considered some sort of illegal spoils of war. The process could take months though.
Grudging respect has risen though due to his results, but he shouldn’t expect to stay in business too long. read more on page 17
Our push for glory continued against Wehen where we were three up after half an hour thanks to goals from Zott, Lassissi and Jailitti. With a three-goal cushion we could afford to take it easy for the rest of the match and even though they managed to pull one back there was never any doubt as to the outcome. Eckhardt did well in goal once again, but I’m going back to the more experienced Koch when he returns from his suspension.
At this point of time several chairmen started getting triggerhappy with about ten regional managers sacked. Rather surprising actually as we’re not even half-way through the season. With my aim of just improving the squad I could only laugh. Even so… they couldn’t fire me. I own the bloody club.
Aalen proved to be little more than a speedbump as we repeated the 3-1 win from the week before once again going three up before allowing them a consolation goal. I’m pretty unhappy about the lapse in concentration though as the goal came deep into injury time. Still, it was nice to see that the players have really adapted to this tactic and learned how to do what I want them to do. If we can keep the style up we might actually have a shot at promotion.
Frustrating though the bad press meant that we were having some unexpected problems. All the other clubs loaned players left and right, but every time we tried to bring someone in on loan the player rejected us. I don’t get it. I’m not that harsh and what is wrong with SF Siegen.
A few days later Sven Eckhardt turned up, unsatisfied with a place on the bench. Even though he did well when called upon I let him know that I considered Koch as my number one and that he would remain as a backup. He didn’t look too happy about this, but I made sure that Fritz would go and have a little talk with him. That should settle things.
We had a massive scare when Saarbrücken visited as they forced Koch into superb saves twice in the first five minutes. Having failed to score early they instead set about trying to kill off our passing game and almost succeeded when they managed to force Lukin off with an injured knee keeping him out for three weeks. Gradually our confidence asserted itself and once we got the first goal it was just another day in the park setting us up for our fourth win in a row. This was our second game against Saarbrücken while we still hadn’t played Regensburg. What an odd schedule.
It also meant that we took the title of Herbstmeister as we lay in first place after the first half of the season.
An away trip to the hopeless Kaiserslautern amateurs wasn’t really something to make our blood boil, but it should prove an easy three points, points that we could need at the end of the season so our strongest possible side took to the pitch. Imagine my shock then when Toppmöller and Teber put them 2-0 up within ten minutes leaving us with a lot of work Truckenbrod pulled one back only for Teber to restore the lead to two goals. Late on we were finally awarded for our hard work when Truckenbrod got his second and Schöler also found the net to earn us a hard-fought point.
SSV Reuthlingen 05 then came in with a surprise bid for Lithuanian Romas Cirba, one of the players I’m looking to get rid off. While their initial offer was tempting I thought it better to send Fritz to try and convince them to up their bid just a little. Sadly he failed me this time as they pulled out of the deal. Perhaps I should send him to diplomacy school.
We ended November on a cold and wet day against Regensburg in a incredibly dramatic match that saw seven goals scored in the first half. Luckily four of them came from my players, but conceding three goals at home in one half is just not good enough. The second half was more quiet with only Custos scoring what proved to be his second of the game and clinching a 5-3 win.
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">4.11.01 Wehen A Regional Division South 3:1 2183 Zott, Lassissi, Jailliti11.11.01 Aalen H Regional Division South 3:1 8153 Kotula, Schöler, Truckenbrod18.11.01 Saarbrücken H Regional Division South 2:0 10234 Jailliti, Truckenbrod25.11.01 K'lautern (A) A Regional Division South 3:3 2170 Truckenbrod 2, Schöler28.11.01 Regensburg H Regional Division South 5:3 9016 Dione, Schöler, Truckenbrod, Custos 2 </pre>
And the table as we're just over halfway through the season:
The game away to Offenbach got off to an odd start. First we lost Klein in the first minute to an injury and then Truckenbrod scored directly from the resulting free kick. The match quieted down after that and we strolled to a 3-2 lead. Then the referee had a brain injury of some sort and sent off both Bleck and Wurm. With nine against eleven we were unable to hold on to our lead and had to see Offenbach equalise two minutes into injurytime. Bummer.
Contract negotiations were going slowly as there was no money available for sign-on fees meaning that most of the squad was quite upset with the offers given them. A little talk by Fritz got a few to sign on, but it looked like a major exodus was in the works.
Our last game before the winter break was at home to Darmstadt and we wanted to give our fans a win to keep them warm over winter as well as making sure that we would stay in first place before the season resumed. A brace from Schöler and a single from Lassissi was enough to give us the points as the visitors only scored twice.
Now, it was time for some rough work. With no money then we would need to look for players coming out of contract and the scouts were sent out all over Europe to see what could be found. I estimate that we will lose about 5-8 players in the close season, including the unsettled Custos who will have to be replaced. It will be hard work, but I’m confident that we can do it.
While we had little luck in the market for players coming out of contract we did manage to convince Thorsten Buckhardt of Greuther Fürth to spend the rest of the season on loan at us. He plays on both the left and right wing and should prove a valuable boost for us.
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">2.12.01 Offenbach A Regional Division South 3:3 10869 Truckenbrod, Custos, Schöler9.12.01 Darmstadt H Regional Division South 3:2 8517 Lassissi, Schöler 2 </pre>
Deutschland über alles - The Return 
Truckenbrod pulled one back only for Teber to restore the lead to two goals. Late on we were finally awarded for our hard work when Truckenbrod got his second and Schöler also found the net to earn us a hard-fought point.
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