With Wings like Eagles

Hello all, and welcome to "With Wings like Eagles". It took me a few days before I could decide who I wanted to write a story with but I ended up going with Eintracht Frankfurt. I have finished a long save in England and wanted to try another country. It took me a while before I finally found that Frankfurt would be the team that I would want to go with. I am really excited to begin this and really hope people enjoy reading this!

I simmed the first season on FM because all the domestic leagues have already wrapped up their seasons. I like to begin fresh and interesting. This story will be slow but hopefully full of information. I'm hoping it can become a complete story hitting many different areas.

Goals
-Become dependent on the Youth I develop. I want to build a youth system that I can be almost totally dependent on, the oldest players I will sign will be 18-19(After 1st season)
-Become a constant contender in the Bundesliga. It will be tough will Bayern running the show, but I know it is possible.
-Become a constant contender in Europe. This may take a little longer but this is one of our main goals.
-Develop players to fit our system. We play a more aggressive style of tiki taka football, we will get more in depth later on this.

I am looking forward to this, and I hope you are too!

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Welcome to Frankfurt

In my stories, I like to research a little bit about the cities that the clubs are located in. I've never been to Frankfurt or have never been to Germany for the matter. After a quick search on google, Frankfurt looks absolutely beautiful. Settled in the heart of Germany, it is one of the main financial centers in not just Germany but in Europe. I have come to know that it is well known for their skyscrapers, but the whole city looks absolutely lovely.

Frankfurt is settled in the heart of Germany, and is located in the state of Hesse. The entire region of Frankfurt has around 2.5 million people. The entire city has historical figures and landmarks that are located all around the city. Which is a nice mix of the new modern age combined with the ideas of the old. That's enough words, people like to look at pictures, so that is what I will give!


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A very beautiful city! good luck!

Thanks mate! And it definitely is, it's on my list to visit one day now!

Time running out on Veh

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-Horizon Sports, Timo Savier
The 2013-14 season for Frankfurt is finally over, I think a deep sigh was felt throughout the entire club after the final whistle blew. I've watched this team for many years, but this year was a little different. We had our chance for European glory and I believe it hindered us to the point that supporters were looking at relegation like a car accident about to happen on the road. The worst part about playing in Europe is the destruction by the hands of a small team from Greece that left taste of failure in the mouths for months. The simplicity that came through when Europa league started completely showed that we were not ready for this season and it was shown by the results.

We started the first six weeks of the season off well, other than the two early defeats in the league, we were in good shape. Then the Europa League started and our form went all to hell. Frankfurt would go through a span of zero, I mean almost shutout no goals scored zero, from September to the 3rd week in December. That included a span of ten league games without a single goal scored. Then the winter break came, and it was much needed. The form started off well again and then dropped right off the mat when Europa League playoffs began. There is a distinct pattern here.

Armin Veh, great man, great coach, but I think he missed the boat here. He went for the Europa League, even though we all know that glory in this competition was as possible as us winning the league from Dortmund and Bayern. The depth of the squad was not nearly good enough to make these types of runs. The result of going for European Glory and facing relegation up unto the 2nd to last weekend was absolutely great. The results feel like we are starting over a little bit, considering that we were close to entering Champions League play the year before. The financial repercussions that will be felt is the tipping point for the future of the club. The question is, is it time for a new voice, new vision, and possibly new leadership? Only time will tell but time is running out quickly on Armin Veh.

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Veh Sacked, New Visions for Frankfurt

http://www.smev.de/flags/images/13-168.jpg

-Horizon Sports, Timo Savier

We knew the time was coming and it finally came, Armin Veh was officially released by Eintracht Frankfurt. The question now is the direction that the club will head after the sacking of a fairly popular manager. Club press director answered a few questions we had concerning not only the release of Veh but the direction of the club. "We wish the best for Armin, he was a great fellow to work with and is very credible for the job that he did at our club. It will not be long before he gets a new position at another club. The past two years that Armin has been with us have brought us great wins and great memories for not only the players but also are many great supporters." Of course this is what any press director is going to say when times are in turmoil and facing of new leadership. "Mr. Bruchhagen is looking for a more financially secure future that will also bring greater success over the long term to the club. With a new Director of Football operations and managerial positions becoming open recently. The plans that Mr. Bruchhagen had are now pushed to the forefront. We should see progress within the next couple of days of how it will all come out." With all the change going on at the club currently, the future is either going to look bright or very dim for the many supporters of the club. The decisions about to be made will be the main decider in what direction the club is going to go.

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First Meeting

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Hello Mr. McCarry and Mr. van Kempen , I hoped you enjoyed the flight. The spring has been quite marvelous and has really brought out the best of the city.
- Ah, such it has. The flight was nice, and everything seems to be going well. How’s things been since our last chat on the phone?
It has been going great, life’s been good, we’ve been feeling good and really looking forward to seeing what you two have brought to us.
- We’re excited too Mr. Bruchhagen, we’ve been putting this together for years and we feel this is the right opportunity to put our plan into action.
Well let’s not waste any more time let’s get this thing going!
- Wonderful, well to begin, I, myself will handle the managerial duties while Mr. Van Kempen will run the Directors office.
We have plenty of time gentlemen; I want you to go as in depth as you feel and then some. Like I said, we have plenty of time; I want to know everything that you are waiting to do with the club to the very smallest detail.
- Of course, of course. I guess the best way to start is with the product on the field. We want to put on an attacking performance every game that we play. We want to show the skills and the class that our players will have. Now this will take time and effort to get the team to play the way we want, but once we do, it’s going to be beautiful. Imagine total football, with the class of Barcelona, with threat of a quick strike from wherever, whenever on the field. It’s going to quite magnificent. We feel with the system that we put together, we are going to be able to achieve this.

This whole premise of this system is to have all eleven players be able to pass the ball and pass the effectively. We look to impose three main play makers onto the field. Whether the play makers are in the midfield and one a forward dropping into the center of the field or having a wide player dropping into the midfield, our goal is to have three play makers in the side.

Now with our three main tactics, we have the ability to adjust and move our players around to put the opposition into positions that stress them out on both offense and defense. Whether it is sliding an inside forward into a deeper wide midfield position, or moving him into almost a striker role. We look to be able to have players that are flexible enough to move around the entire pitch while staying in the base principals of our system.



Here’s the first tactic that we will look to implore. As you can tell it includes an Advanced Playmaker on the left wing, sort of an idea I got while watching Manchester City play and seeing David Silva slide into the middle of the pitch on offense and slide to the wing on defense. With a deep lying forward coming into the midfield to help link up, it will allow the inside forward on the right wing more room to play with. Imploring a box to box midfielder will give us a wild card in the midfield. With the Ball Winning mid we want him to push up just a little and break up attacks before they happen. Then put us onto the counter ourselves quickly. With both fullbacks being aggressive in their movements, it will give us the proper width we need to keep from teams from packing the midfield area.




The second tactic is quite similar to the first one; the only exception is that the AP is going to be in the midfield rather than on the wing. This will offer a little better balance in possession while protecting ourselves in the wide areas as well. The basics here are the same as well, just that we will look to hold more possession in these situations rather than hitting more directly.



This is our change up formation, it’s a straight diamond midfield formation but it doesn’t really change our style too much. We are still asking are fullbacks to push forward and the midfield really doesn’t change that much. Instead of having wingers slice in from the outside, we will just position to strikers in the proper areas to give us a different look. As you can tell, we positioned the BWM little more forward and the Deep Lying Playmaker in more of a defensive midfield area. We did this because we want the BWM making more plays up the pitch. He can be a little more aggressive because he has the DLP and B2B falling back into defense. This allows him more freedom to make those plays that might break open when our fullbacks are up the pitch.This will also allow us to put in another midfielder if we want to. This is also part of our long term vision for the club is to develop players that are flexible enough to play different positions on the pitch and we will jump more into that later.

Part Two Coming soon.

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Part Two

Now, let's look at some these in action. Here is a match between Soton and Manchester United in September of 2013. We'll start at the beginning of the play.

Image #1 - Boruc starts of the play from the back, passing it to the Central defender. The wing players for Manchester United are playing close to our fullbacks, the striker and attacking mid is playing on Wanyama and the DLP(Ward-Prowse) is on the other side of the formation with the B2B player(Schneiderlin) pushing forward. The central defender takes a long pass to the AP on the wing.


Image #2-
Gaston Ramirez now has many options and there is a lot going on with this play. The RB is not coming up the pitch, so Ramirez has plenty of time. The RB is playing narrow for United as well, a result of the AP sliding into a more narrow position. Now with the RB narrow and the Right winger not marking tightly, Luke Shaw pushes forward into the space. Rickie Lambert is playing the DLF position and notices space that Phil Jones(DM) is leaving when he goes to mark Schneiderlin(The B2B). With Schneiderlin pushing forward in his role, it drags the DM out of position. Also, the Center half is playing tight on Lambert and is going to be dragged out of position, with this the LB has to replace. This leaves a sticky situation for the LB, either stay wide for the IF or replace to stop the DLP who is pushing forward into space. He will choose to replace, which leaves huge spaces on the right side of the pitch. Wanyama and Clyne will replace the two areas that were left open.


Image #3-
Lambert receives the pass from Ramirez and plays it quick to the feet of Schneiderlin, who will send a beautiful pass to Rodriguez who will open up Manchester United quickly.


Image #4-
A Clear Cut Chance but De Gea will make a great save to keep us off the scoreboard.


Video Clip #2 -
We were sort of stumped on this attack, United has a very solid defense and they started a more defensive lineup. Rickie Lambert was pushed wide and we didn't really have an answer. Rickie Lambert ends up throwing a cross in and trying to make something happen. I probably would have liked him to play the ball to the FB(Image #1, example 2) but this is where we start with the clips.

Image #1 -
We see Phil Jones head out the cross from Lambert, we now see Wanyama moving forward to win the ball back. Luckily we have a huge advantage in this match up because the ball is headed to Juan Mata. We will take that match up. Also notice the positioning of our other players, our fullbacks are pushed far up the pitch, which we want. This forces United down into their own box to defend. Also look at Schneiderlin drifting into the holes in the defense.


Image #2-
Wanyama easily wins the header and gets it to James Ward Prowse who is sitting on the edge of the box. He will play a ball right back to Lambert who is loads of space. Rodriguez has continually pulled the FB inside from his position and Carrick is sort of lost in the motion. If you notice, this puts the Winger(Valencia) in a contradiction. He can't drop down on Lambert or mark Clyne, what he ends up doing his try to close down Prowse but it's too late.


Image #3-
Lambert has a choice here, he can either throw in another cross or pull it back to Schneiderlin. The movement of the ball causes the Center halfs to reorganize and get in front of goal. What happens is that it Rodriguez will find loads of space due to the FB having to close down on Lambert and the Center half closing down the space that was left open.(Not the best organized line either here by United, lots of space. Could be from our movement and winning the ball back quickly or just a poor movement). Lambert picks out Schneiderlin. The choices that Lambert had puts Carrick in a tough position, he ends up drifting back thinking it's going to be a cross to Ramirez. This gives just enough space for Schneiderlin.


Image #4-
Rodriguez is wide open without anyone marking him about 8 yards from the goal. Schneiderlin who has a decent first touch pass picks him out perfectly.


Image #5-
Rodriguez has another Clear Cut Chance on goal but De Gea makes another great save. We actually don't score in this match even though we have over 4 CCCs and 3 half chances. A terrible back pass from our Center Halfs allow Rooney a 1 on 1 and United wins the match 1-0, even though we played a very good game. It was just one of those games.


The point of this images is that we aren't necessarily looking to win possession, we're looking to pass the ball around and get great chances on goal while looking good doing it. We want to win the ball quickly and force a move on goal quick. This is a quick strike offense, while we can win the possession battle, it's almost non stop. The defensive side of it looks better than what it sounds, but the basis of the defense is not allowing the back four including the keeper time to relax on the ball, then believing that we can win the midfield battle.

Since we have gone over the tactics, I believe it's time to talk about the players, staff, and the most important thing we want to do, and that's the youth system.

Part Three- coming soon

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First Meeting Part 3

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- Well, I like the ideas you have for the tactics, but I want to see the full picture. I want to see how you two will build this. I am wanting to put you guys in charge but I have to know that you guys have a total plan for everything. I figure this is where Mr. Van Kempen will come into place?

Yes sir, this is where I will step in, as you have already seen, I have been around some top notch clubs around Europe and I have seen how they operate their business. I believe from those experiences and my ideas that I have on my own. I can put together something special in my end of the operation.

The first thing is that we must buy smart, we have to find the guys that slipped through the cracks. As you have stated already, we won't have the opportunity to contend with the Bayern's, Dortmunds of the league. The key here is that I want to bring in a brand new, fresh scouting staff. I want to bring in guys that I trust that they can find those guys that fall through. I also have three main areas that I want to find players. The first area is our own, we can't miss on guys in our own backyard, we must grab those guys. The second area is Eastern Europe areas of Croatia, Serbia, and basically the old Yugoslavia area. There are many great players from those areas and we can find those guys and get them into our club. The final area is South America, this one is obvious because of the great talent in the area, but if we can find some players there, it will give us an advantage. Just the shear amount of talent in South America is enough for us to search those areas.

The second thing is that when we find these players, they have to fit our system. We can't take a player that is incredibly talented and possibly better than the guy that is playing his same position. We must stick to finding guys that will fit our system, if we do that, we will succeed because we believe in the system.

The third thing is that our wage structure has to be spot on. We must be paying the guys that deserve the cash an appropriate amount of cash, and they have to perform. We can't dead beat contracts on our roster. It will be bad for us on the long term and through that we won't be able to proceed as a club.

Now it's time to get into the meat of the structuring and how to proceed.
Each team(Frankfurt Senior Squad, Frankfurt II, Frankfurt U-19s) will stick to this roster development. Through this, there will be a constant influx of talent coming and going. We are also looking to win in every competition, so full squads will be necessary to compete on all those fronts.
Squad Size: 25
GK:2
FB:4
CB:5
DM:2
CM:6
AM:4
ST:2
This is just the base for each team, obviously the more flexible the player is the better. For example, we expect our deep lying playmakers to be able to drop into a defensive mid area. Having our AM be able to play on either the right or left wing. This is where player development comes into play when we are raising these players, we will train them in different areas that will allow them to succeed for the club and for themselves.

Concerning transfers, we will only for the first two or three seasons, sign players that are over the age of 20. Due to departures from the club and glaring needs that need to be addressed, we need to find short term replacements. After the first couple of seasons we will then move toward signing players specifically under the age of 19. The soft age is 19, as if we feel the player is good enough to come into the club. However, we would like to sign the player before the age of 17. This way we can mold the player to the way we want to play.

As you can see where this is going, the main focus is going to be around the youth program. We feel that for us to succeed long term, we must have the best youth program in Germany. For the setup that we have put above, we feel like we can accomplish this. We are going to put a bigger emphasis on the coaching for the youth rather than the senior players. The entire project is based on how we can be productive on the youth levels.

-Well guys, I really liked what I have heard today. I'll get back to you two in a couple of days. Thanks for coming!

The pleasure is ours.

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I'm really enjoying this story so far, it has a lot of detail and you seem to know a hell of a lot about what you're preaching. I'm loving the updates and I'm craving more, This story has a hell of a lot of potential mate!