Forza Napoli sempre! - Moving from France to Italy!

[Derek]

Brilliant mate that's a great achievement! Maja top scorer with 7 goals  I think defence was key and they deserve a pay rise.

Do you think you will stick with Bordeaux now that your in the Champions League?

[Tempelman]

I had two offers, of Lazio and Porto. I have rejected both because I'm building a team here, and proud of the achievements made. There's no reason at the moment for me to move on. Besides, I see no benefit in moving to clubs who are similar in stature.

I'm also active on the transfer market, thus far:

- Romain Perraud (DL) moved to Crystal Palace for a fee of 17M. Owen Wijndal is his replacement, coming over from Bayern for a fee of 9M (They spent 35M on him previously, so a big loss for them). Also signed Bernardo on a free from RB Salzburg as a backup, since Centelles is not improving at all, he is currently loaned out.
- Victor Chust (DC) has also been sold for 1,8M, surplus to requirements.
- Raoul Bellanova (DR) wasn't interested in renewing his contract, thus sold for 8,25M, which is a very nice fee. As a replacement I'm looking at Tibo Persyn as backup for a fee of 4,3M.
- Arthur Gomes wanted a new contract, which considering his bad form all year was totally uncalled for, he has been offered out to clubs with the highest offer being a 7,5M of Monterrey.
- Javairo Dilrosun extended his contract, with a more acceptable wage than he asked before. Phakmani Mahlambi also extended his contract. Tehobo Mokoena also agreed to an extended deal.
- Londono has been immediately loaned out to Atl. Nacional.

[Tempelman]

Transfer window is over and I'm fairly happy with strengthning our squad with some decent players.

 

Transfer overview:

 

I have already mentioned some transfers in the previous post, I had quite a bit of transfer money left, and was looking for a striker to replace Maja, but I think I may have overspent it on Dorgeles Nene. He is actually an AMC, but I bought him for the striker position, because I think his attributes are more suited for this position. He is already trained in this position as well. I think I was lucky enough to get Wijndal as cheap at the right moment, he surely is a step up from Perraud, and Bernardo will certainly provide decent backup. I have also received some bids on Dani Martin but I refused to sell him as he has been a machine in goal. There are now many players in the AMC position (Pejino, Juanpi and Thomas), I hope I will be able to sell at least one of them in the winter transfer window, there was no interest at the moment. In the end though, the squad as a whole has certainly improved in terms of quality.

I declined an interview from Valencia, not interested in joining them for the same reasons I rejected Porto and Lazio.

 

First XI:

 

This is my ideal starting eleven, there is decent backup on the bench as well. There's also enough players who can play in more positions so I am very happy with that as well.

 

Finances:

 

Financially we are in a very strong position, we also have some transfer budget left, I will continue looking for bargains and future wonderkids.

 

Schedule and results:

 

Competition overview:

 

We started the season against OM in the Throphee des Champions, we took our revenge for losing the Coupe de France and easily beat them 3-1, with two debut goals of Nene (Though playing AMC rather then ST). Against Clermont we had an easy game and won 3-0, the games after that we had trouble finding the net with one narrow win and two 0-0 draws, we should have won all these matches easily as we constantly dominated. Still unbeaten and I'm sure the goals will come.

As you can see we have a very difficult group in the Champions League, I am aiming for 3rd spot but I think all teams are better in terms of quality, it will be interesting to see how this will go.

 

David Rojas Cifuentes profile:

 

This lad keeps growing, and fast too, and still has a very low wage compared to his current ability.

[Derek]

I think you’ve had a great window mate by doing some clever business. The finances are looking nice too with a bit of room to breathe.

Im sure you would have liken more points but there’s nothing wrong with an unbeaten start and some revenge over OM! 
 

I think hanging on to Dani Martin was the best business you did.

[Tempelman]

Yeah, the bids of Dani Martin were a little dissappointing, his overall value is not high either, so that kind of explains the low bids.

 

Edit: Gladbach made a pretty high one of 24M, but I need to hold on to him because the transfer window has closed, and I don't want to spend all the money on a GK since I can only buy one player who is based in France now. That would just be a bad deal...

[Johno]

Wow, just wow, beat PSG by a point to win the league! Some great signings you have made especially those Colombian guys! Tough group you are in, 3rd place is definitely achievable 

[Tempelman]

Definitely! I was so afraid of having an offday against Monaco but we easily beat them to win the title!

Yes, both seem to be very talented! And both players (especially Cifuentes) develop incredibly fast! Quite happy with me having found them, and cheaply 

I hope so, maybe the players surprise me and go the extra mile... You will never know

[Tempelman]

Time for a little update, we have had some difficult games ahead of us!

The first being Troyes which I always find a difficult team to play against, despite us having a better squad, we easily won this game 3-1 at home though.

It was then time for our first Champions League game away against Valencia. Much to my surprise we opened the score through a penalty early in the game and in the 35th minute Cifuentes made it 2-0, so far we had surprisingly dominated the match and Valencia found it hard to create chances against us. They had their first chance in the 41st minute and scored: 2-1. The second half went back and forth with us controlling the game most of the time, I was already celebrating a win, but in the 95th minute Valencia equalized, with a header which went over Dani Martin. Still happy with a draw, but still... So close.

After Valencia we met OGC Nice away and dominated our way to a deserved 2-0 win. Rennes at home was another great performance by the team: 2-0. Yet another difficult opponent, Monaco, who were at this point top of the league, Monaco dominated the first part of the match and deservedly took the lead, after this goal we took over control of the match fairly quickly, and before halftime it was 2-1 for us. We continued to control the match in the second half and calmly played it out and made another goal.

Our second CL match was home against Man Utd, the strongest team on paper in our group. We were the better team and took an early lead thanks to Dilrosun, Man Utd tried to take control of the match, but on several occassions (Thanks to a weak keeping Onana, who kept giving us the ball) we created some chances to extend our lead. Going into the second half we did just that, and Dilrosun quickly scored again: 2-0. After that Man Utd went into full attack mode and created chance after chance, but thanks to a commanding performance by Dani Martin, we only conceded just one goal in injury time.

Next was a tough home game against OL. Not surprising a lot of players were tired after the last game so I had to make full use of the bench, and then I still had some unfit players in the first XI... We were lucky here, and the scoreline should have been reversed, we were lucky to get an early penalty to open the score, and later score a goal from a counter. Poor OL, but that's the game of football sometimes... And again, Dani Martin was a terminator in goal stopping simply everything.

 

Schedule and results:

 

Competition overview:

 

Cifuentes, Nene and also Farias are slowly playing better and better (Farias didn't start well last year) in their (somewhat new) positions, though a little inconsistent at times. Still very happy with the progress they made. They occassionally score the odd goal and I expect that progress to continue.

PSG again not starting the season well in the league with 3 draws at home. Abel Ferreira of Porto is now manager but not doing much better...

[Derek]

That's a great start to the season mate. To be 7 points clear of PSG after 9 games played is incredible and hopefully you can continue this form into the season!

[Johno]

Superb start in Champions League Especially a win over Man utd!

[Tempelman]

Been playing a lot of FM today, we have been busy!

Strasbourg was no match for us as we beat them 5-1, easy win, no complaints.

Next match in the Champions League was the weakest team on paper, Eintracht Frankfurt. Frankfurt dominated the entire first half and we should be extremely happy Dani Martin had a good game again so it was only 1-0 at half time. In the second half we were playing a lot better and drove them back a little, scoring the equalizer in the 79th minute, and drawing the game.

Next was Nantes at home, again players were a little tired after European football and I had to rotate. Despite completely dominating the game we needed a penalty in extra time to get a draw: 2-2. Next was OM, who we beat earlier, this time we had a difficult game against them and despite us being equal, maybe even a little better, we lost the game 1-0.

Next was Frankfurt at home, and oh boy, were we lucky to win this! 1-0. Frankfurt was just a lot better, but by now you should know who had a very good game yet again.. At this point we had 8 points and were at least certain of a third place.

As this was a tiring and battling game we had to rotate again, we lost against St. Etienne at home. Frustrated with how the league games have been played the last few matches, and in the table we moved down to 5th... Away against Brest we found our form again: 3-0.

Time to face Man Utd again, and this time we just decided to gift them the ball at every opportunity. It was like my players were scared of the ball. United dominated the first half and we got a beating, 3-0 half time. In the second half we suddenly scored twice, and I hoped to get a draw, but United secured the match later on: 4-2. Despite losing though, we were through to the first knockout round with one game in hand! Obviously a magnificent surprise and I think we have mostly Dani Martin's commanding performances to thank for that.

Away game against Lens who were (like last season) surprisingly leading Ligue 1. We managed to salvage a draw. Home against Lorient we easily won: 2-0

Last Champions League match against Valencia, didn't really interest me anymore, 0-0, just a dull match.

Then it was that time again to face off against PSG, away. I'd like to think we put up a good fight against them, despite them being the obvious better team. I was going to be happy with a draw, but then in extra time something amazing happened, Ivan Jaime got to the ball, blindly dropkicked the ball in front of goal, and there was Nene, who passed it back into the net! WTF just happened??  After this we were totally back in the league title challenge, and our good form continued. 

In the Champions League we have drawn games against Bayern for the first knockout round.

Two Coupe de France games next, against Bourg en Bresse, we had some trouble breaking their defences but ultimately won 4-0. Rivals Toulouse was also an easy win as we smashed them in the second half with 3 goals in 5 minutes.

Next were some lower team opponents in the league, Montpellier, Angers and again Toulouse, we won all of these with ease, though Toulouse tried to put up a decent fight.

Then in the eleventh round of the Coupe de France we faced off against OL. Despite being the better team here, we eventually won the game on penalties, where our new goalkeeper (More on that later) managed to stop 3 penalties.

 

Schedule and results:

 

Competition overview:

 

Oh yes, the transfer period, always fun isn't it? Well, as I mentioned before we have a new goalkeeper...

- Newcastle made a 12M offer for Dani Martin which I obviously rejected after which Dani Martin wanted to leave. In the end I managed to get 23,5M for him which is, taking his 8,5M value in mind, a great offer. I have replaced him with French goalie Illan Meslier, coming over from Leeds for a fee of 11,5M.
- On my search for potential wonderkids I managed to sign 16 year old Jeronimo Munoz (DC) for a massive fee of 3,5K, who was immediately loaned back, and 18 year old Maxi Molina, a wonderkid, Argentinian/French winger for 5,5M.
- I wanted to strenghten the defence because Nastasic has proved to be fairly injury prone, Mattia Viti has signed for 12M.
- Sold Tehobo Mokoena for 5,5M because Londono has come back from his loan, and he simply has not improved, so had to move Mokoena on.
- Billy Gilmour will be coming in the summer as his contract expires at Chelsea. Not sure about this one, we will see...

- I received a bid of 20M on Mahlambi from Fulham, but he did not want to leave, and snubbed their contract offer.
- Juanpi also had a nice offer of 5,75M, but was angry at me for forcing him out of the club. No, I want to save your career, asshole... Eventually he moved on loan to Valenciennes (Who by the way relegated last year) and was still angry.

- I have tried to sign Giovanni Reyna on a free since his contract also expired, he chose to go to Bayern, logically.
- I also tried to sign another Argentinian wonderkid, but he chose Man City.

Next year we can only register 2 non-EU players for Ligue 1. At the moment I have 4: Cifuentes, Londono, Bernardo and Farias... I'm going to have to choose which I want to keep and who to move on. Bernardo is the easiest choice here, but the other three are all (potential) key players. What is weird though is that South African player Mahlambi (and Mokoena earlier) don't count as non-EU...

 

Transfer overview:

 

The first eleven hasn't changed that much. Financially we are also still doing fine, although the wage budget rocketed up quite a bit. Still compared to what other teams are paying players, I think we're doing quite well. 

Farias, Nene and Cifuentes are training really well and improving quite a bit, very happy how they are developing and I hope Molina will too.

 

On a side note: I was curiously looking what Bordeaux is doing in real life, bottom Ligue 1..

[Derek]

You're doing great mate. I'm very curious how Meslier will do for you as he's a great keeper in my opinion and you got him fairly cheap if you ask me.

I think Gilmour will do ok in Ligue 1 when you eventually get him in.

[Tempelman]

So, yeah, I hope he will do well, the midfield needs strengthning... 

Anyway, little update. Away against Troyes we narrowly won, we were kinda lucky there. Next was the quarter final of the Coupe de France away against St. Etienne. At this point Monaco was the only big team still in, the rest should be easy to beat in theory, so I was hoping to lift the Coupe de France at the end of the season, I gave us good chances! We lost 2-0 against St. Etienne and we're out............ Damnit. Oh well, let's concentrate on the league then. At home OGC Nice was our next prey, although we beat them narrowly 3-2, they barely had chances. At this point we took the lead in the Ligue 1 as OL lost their game. Next were some difficult games against Rennes and Monaco, again these were narrow wins, but at the same time we were never going to lose these games. Then OL, who were trailing in second place, 3 points behind, I desperately wanted to win this away game and the boys did not dissappoint me at all: 4-0, we absolutely trashed them!

I can say all sorts of things about the CL games against Bayern, but in the end we didn't stand a chance... At home we lost 2-0 despite not playing bad at all, away we were totally outplayed but managed to snatch a draw: 2-2.

 

Schedule and results:

Competition overview:

 

With 9 games to go we are in good shape. I am also beginning to think about maybe moving to another club after this season... I'm not going to resign though (obviously). I have built a great team here, and I hope I can leave with a second title!

[Derek]

You look like you've a great chance and winning the league again mate. PSG are not doing great are they?

Only two defeats with 9 to go is great too.

You were unlucky to draw Bayern in the CL but I'm sure next year you will be more of a match for them.

[Tempelman]

(I'm writing this live while playing the matches, and editing this post as we go)

Last nine games, with the first being Strasbourg, never any troubles with this opponent, and we beat them easily: 3-1. The match itself was fairly equal, we just finished the chances we got better. OL lost their game again, and Lens took over second place, and we are now 9 points in the clear... Up next is Nantes away, which I always find a tricky team to play against. Despite an error by goalie Meslier we ran out winners, with again a 3-1 victory. I didn't know this yet, but we have won 12 games in a row now!

Cifuentes has become NxGen number 1! Little break before we take on OM next. Marseille started off well until they were red carded at the end of the first half, in the second half the tables were turned and we turned our dominance into a narrow 1-0 win. St. Etienne was up next, surely this time we beat them? I mean, we have to take revenge for our earlier loss... We didn't play a good game, but St. Etienne didn't look like they wanted to win the game either. Their goalie did it well, until Viti scored with a header from a corner. Fourteen straight wins now, meanwhile PSG has mounted, well, some sort of challenge to catch up to us, they have taken over second place from Lens, but they are 11 points behind us with 5 games in hand, surely we can't lose this now, can we?

Next is Brest at home. We played a very nervy game (My fault, I gave the wrong team talk, and put a lot of pressure on the players), and the VAR was used 3 times in our favour... After a spectacular first half the score was 3-3. In the second half we finally took the lead, and it stayed this way: 4-3. Next is Lens for the title! We're making it a lot more exciting, this was I think one of the worst matches this season, a 1-0 loss is totally unacceptable....

Still 8 points ahead as we travel to Lorient. We took an early lead with Cifuentes scoring, but then Lorient scored the equalizer. The half time score was 2-2 and despite playing a great second half, we just could not force the winning goal, which is only going to make the next match more exciting, because it will be against PSG, who are really in a good form now. They have a better goal difference, we are six points ahead, two matches to go. (Putting on Rammstein really loud now lol).

Dominating the first half but it is still all square... BORDEAUX OPEN THE SCORE FROM THE PENALTY SPOT!! FARIAS COOLLY SLOTS IT AWAY! 1-0! Cifuentes misses a huge opportunity in the 79th minute, still ahead, PSG is nowhere. Both Molina and Nene fail eye to eye with the goalkeeper! (83rd minute). THAT'S THE FINAL WHISTLE, WE WON THE TITLE FOR THE SECOND TIME IN A ROW!

The last game of the season was against Clermont Foot, and we easily won this: 3-0.

 

Schedule and results:

 

Final standings:

 

Wow, that was kinda fun! Writing those updates and editing my post was pretty nerve wrecking lol... But we did it again! Now onto the next season, will I stay at Bordeaux and build the team further up? Or will I get another nice challenge? I'm not really sure what I'm going to do next...

[Derek]

Brilliant stuff mate! You've absolutely walked it there. 

The only thing left to accomplish if you stay is to win the CL really isn't it? Two great seasons in a row (three really )

[Tempelman]

That will probably take me a couple of more seasons to even get that far... We'll see, maybe I get a nice interview, at the moment I really don't know haha

Edit: Crazy CL final...

[Derek]

Noooooo anyone but United 

[Tempelman]

Before the start of the season I have already made some new transfers:

- Bernardo will leave the club for AEK for a massive fee of 21,5M (!!!!), way too high but, he hardly played, was worth around 10M, but obviously I'm totally not complaining. As a replacement I've added Rayan Aït-Nouri to the squad for a fee of 6M from Wolves, he will be backup for Owen Wijndal, and an improvement over Bernardo for sure.
- Signed Reinier from Real Madrid as backup for Facundo Farias, he's is a bit of a gamble, I know he has a lot of potential, but for his low fee of 3M I just could not resist.
- Signed Italian striker Giorgio Valia, a 17 year old potential wonderkid from Cosenza, his fee at 5,5M is a bit on the high side though.
- Paul Pogba is on the transfer list, I've made a bid for him, but his salary demands of 230K per week are just way too high, especially since he seems to have declined a lot. I will take a look at the end of the transfer period to see if he has lowered it to a more acceptable level, because I probably would not pay him more than 60-70K...

- Juanpi, Alex Centelles, Ryan Thomas and Josh Maja have all left the club for 2,3M, 1,8M, 2,7M and 9,25M respectively. All players were surplus to requirements, happy to have gotten some decent fees for them.

- Facundo Farias and Valentin Antov have signed new contracts with the club, both players did not demand exhorbitant salaries, so happy with that.

 

Before the season started I got a friendly reminder that I can only register 2 non-EU players, turns out I can still register 4. Think it's a bug... And there is no interest at the moment whatsoever for my key players, like Farias, Cifuentes and Nene, which surprises me...

[Tempelman]

Starting season 4 with Bordeaux and the opener is the Trophee des Champions against Coupe de France winners St. Etienne. It was an entirely different match than when we played against them (and lost) in the Coupe de France, we easily ran out 3-0 winners. Next is an away game against Rennes. Rennes had the better of us in the first minutes of the game, but then we got a penalty... Though Farias missed it this time. We were getting more control over the match though. Despite completely dominating, we lost the first match of the season 1-0. The second game against Monaco at home was more of the same, dominating, not scoring: 0-0. What a great start of the new season so far. Next against Nice we really need to turn this around, and luckily we finally found the net again, although we again missed loads of chances... 2-0 still. Next was a game at home again against St. Etienne. We had no troubles with them and again beat them 3-0. Starting to find our rhythm again but worried about Nene because he misses a lot of chances in front of goal.

In the Champions League we have drawn with Borussia Dortmund, Ajax and Sigma Olomouc (I have never heard of this club).

 

Schedule and results:

 

Competition overview:

 

- Potential Portuguese wonderkid Antonio Oliveira has signed for the club for a fee of 275K, he has been loaned back to his former club Benfica.

- Pejino's contract has been mutually terminated. His contract was expiring next year, there simply was no interest, I decided to just let him leave on a free.
- Brayan Londono has been loaned out once again, to St. Etienne.
- Giorgio Valia has been loaned out to Red Star FC.
- Tibo Persyn has been loaned out because he wanted to play more games, to Mouscron.

- Received an offer of 33,5M on Owen Wijndal of Napoli, this offer was rejected. Later Tottenham made an offer of 47,5M, and this time Wijndal wanted to leave. Ended up in a 58M deal. Quite happy with the fee, not happy with him leaving, good leftbacks are rare as always in the game. As I am writing this though, the transfer deadline has passed and there is no way in hell I'm letting him go now. I have cancelled the transfer. If he still wants to leave he can leave in the winter, and luckily he was happy with that. Crisis averted... Riccardo Calafiori was going to be his replacement, and I had to splash the cash too, agreed to a deal of 47,5M (combined fee), obviously this was cancelled as well. After the deal was cancelled however, Tottenham increased their bid to 63M, and Borussia and Man City joined to make (lower) bids (The window closes one day later there). I rejected all of them.

Obviously I was looking for more players to improve upon, but either players want too much salary, or the transfer fee is really high compared to their current abilities, or both. I have had some decent recommendations by my scouts, but most of the time these were older players who under normal circumstances I would not sign, unless they greatly improve the position they play in.

I haven't received any offers or interviews from other clubs, so I'm happy to stay for the time being. I still have a contract until 2028 though...

Financially we have certainly stepped up again, we're doing fine.

 

Transfers:

 

Finances:

 

The first XI hasn't changed much since last season... Except for the inclusion of Billy Gilmour in midfield. The player values are insanely high too... 

 

Ideal first XI:

 

Player overview:

 

That's it for now, hoping for a good season again, the board want a title challenge, semi-final of Coupe de France, and group stage of Champions League.

[Johno]

Decent money for your players! Mixed feeling on how your season start in the league.

[Tempelman]

Well, I will have to admit these weren't the easiest opponents either. Maybe I need to tweak with the tactics a little since we have some troubles finding the net, or, just find a replacement for Nene. Will see about that though, Nene is training really well and improving a lot since he arrived.

I am also surprised by the high values of some players, Molina was bought for 1,8M, since he arrived he's worth 80M or something. Gilmour 50M, Cifuentes over 70M... Actually, the whole first XI is totally and ridiculously overvalued... I am wondering how the game mechanics work with these kind of things. In my opinion it should't work this way.

[Derek]

€50m for Gilmour already? I'm very interested to see how he works out mate. I suppose it kind of works that way in real life too that when you at a big club the value does go up but that's a bit too much 

[Tempelman]

Finally I have found some time to continue playing (Little busy (Mostly in my head) with my upcoming transfer to my new job).

Anyway, starting against Lille away, again (especially Farias) we didn't take the most of our chances, but we won 1-0 quite easily, total control over the match and Lille didn't create much at all.

Next is our first Champions League game against Borussia Dortmund, exciting and I think the most difficult opponent in the group stage. The opening stage of the game was ours and we were soon rewarded with a penalty, which Farias coolly slotted away. Early in the second half Cifuentes extended the lead further to 2-0. Was the first half slighty even with us having slightly an edge, in the second half we totally took over control, creating a load of chances... Only in the final 10 minutes Dortmund started to play football, but it stayed 2-0. A great start to our campaign!

Next up is Nantes where goalie LaFont had the game of his life, but he alone could not save the game for them: 2-0. PSG away was next and as always it's a difficult game. They were everywhere and we were simply outplayed, despite them making two extremely costly mistakes at the back, 2-0 was the right result and maybe it should have been more. A more dominating performance against Clermont Foot saw us ran out easy 2-0 winners next. 

Our next CL game is against fierce rivals Ajax. Well, my rivals in real life off course, doesn't matter what club I'm playing with, always want to beat them, and believe me, it feels so satisfying when you actually do so. It's not 'Lucky Ajax' (one of their cute nicknames) this time, but lucky Bordeaux, Ajax was, as is expected of them, dominating the game, but we had Meslier who was absolutely brilliant, stopping everything left, right, center, and everything in between. Nene scored with a tap-in in the middle of the first half, and that would be the final score: 1-0. Six points in the CL, AND an away win against Ajax, happy, happy, joy, joy!

Angers away was going to be next, and it actually was an easy game, we deservedly lead the game 3-0 but Meslier made two costly mistakes and cost us two goals, which I was fuming about because these goals were so not needed. These were Angers' only shots as well... So my mood went from  to  in a few minutes time. Still a win nonetheless... 3-2. Up next is OL at home. Despite being slightly better we drew the game in the last minutes of the game. Was a boring game though.

Onto the opponent I've never heard of: Sigma Olomouc... An easy 2-0 win, no problem at all.

Montpellier away was the following game and neither team managed to impress, a header of Jaime made the difference: 1-0. The next game against was a flattering 5-1 victory against Strasbourg, with Cifuentes bagging 4 goals. The game itself was fairly even, we were only slightly better.

Next is the away game against Sigma Olomouc (Where the hell are they from anyway? *Looks* Ah, Czech Republic..). Dominating performance from the lads, 3-0 at half time with a brace from Cifuentes. In the second half something weird happened, we scored but at the same time there was a push as well. In real life the goal should count, but instead we were given a penalty, which Cifuentes subsequently missed, and right after that they scored the 3-1. Furious with this, though we won despite this.

Despite the loss against PSG, happy with how we are doing, but PSG decided to not start the league bad this year, and are 8 points ahead of us...

 

Schedule and results:

 

Competition overview:

 

Transfer news: David Rojas Cifuentes has asked me to move to a bigger club. After some attempts to convince him to stay, I told him he can leave if the price is right, not actively pursueing to sell him though... So his price is set at 156M which no club is going to do at the moment, so I think he'll stay for the time being. At the moment there is no interest in him either.

Thanks to our strong financial position, both the wage and transfer budgets have increased to a little over 1M and 24,5M respectively.

I have also made American player Brenden Aaronson (25) of RB Salzburg our top target via the media, as he is a player who is able to improve the team quite significantly, and at around 21M he is reasonably priced. PSG is also interested. I offered him a contract, but his agent snubbed my (generous) offer.

[Tempelman]

Soon...