Schalke 04 - Forever Blue

Schalke, Die Königsblauen, arguably Germany’s third biggest club. I’ve had a soft spot for them ever since Huntelaar had that phenomenal season when he scored 49 in 47 matches. The third highest in Europe’s top leagues behind Messi and Ronaldo.

From then on I came to like the club, I watch matches pretty regularly and of course, Julian Draxler is my non-Liverpool favourite player. I’ve personally touted him the new Kaka as their playing styles are scarily similar. So that’s my copyright don’t touch it.

So I thought “Hey, maybe I should do a story with the because ya know, I have nothing to do with my life until October.” So here I am. I’m aiming to keep this story running until FM15 with bi-daily updates until I’m whisked away to the big world of university and grown ups when I’ll still play but not as much. But for now this will be my main venture. Enough about me, onto what you all came here for.





I always thought I’d have a break before returning to football when my playing days were over. I thought I’d settle down for 10 or so years in my villa just outside Seville with my wife and four beautiful children, perhaps I envisioned myself back at Madrid. The city I love. I had things planned, maybe not carefully but I thought I knew where I was heading roughly. This wasn’t even in my wildest imaginations, let alone part of my plans. But here I am, back in Gelsenkirchen after 2 years. To be quite honest, it’s without a shadow of a doubt better than Qatar. To anyone reading, I advise you against going. It’s hot, barren and hot. Did I mention it’s hot? It’s polar opposites to west Germany.

I’m deleighted to be back though. I spent 2 great years here, we had a great run in the Champions League which was my last shot at it. I have an affinity with that competition. I love it and it loves me. Let’s hope that trend continues now I’ve taken the jump to becoming a manager.

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Raúl González Blanco. Former Real Madrid and Schalke 04 player. You know all the first chapter of my life, but not even I know what’s awaiting me in the next.

Raul...what a legend

Quick point before I go any further, I gave myself a transfer budget of £15m and I took away Papadopolous's long term injury becuase I like him in real life. Just so no one gets confused.

I’m impressed with the squad here. Not much has changed since I left, however Kevin Prince is a player of immense quality who I admired very much at his time at Milan. I’m looking forward to having him in the center of the park, his sheer presence and power can flip a football match on it’s head.

I’m particularly impressed with how quickly some of the youngster have developed. Draxler was still only 17 when I left and was very much a fringe player, now he can become a worldwide superstar. Max Meyer is a player I’m astounded by, his technical ability is frightening for someone at the tender age of 17. I’ll be looking to build my team around these two as I want them to become the ‘Totti and De Rossi’ of this football club. It is important to have a loyal backbone of 4 or so players, and I can see these two, Howedes and, the 2 midfielders, Hoger and Neustader being that backbone which we build around over the next 3 or 4 seasons. Other notable youngsters include 18 year old Ayhan the turkish center back who is brilliantly gifted for his age. I can see him have a big future ahead of him partnering Howedes. 16 year old Avdijaj is our replacement for Huntelaar, no questions asked. I wouldn’t hesitate to start him if there was an injury crisis. In 3 or 4 years when Klaas is looking to retire, Avdijaj can step up seamlessly. They are very similar players, I loved playing with Klaas. He is one of the great finishers of our generation and in my opinion is greatly underrated and has been his whole career.

Transfer-wise I can see a few changes. Farfan seems to be on his way to PSG, I’d have like to have kept him but an offer of €22m was too good to turn down for the 27 year old. I’m looking at several replacements, with Sidney Sam arriving next summer I’d prefer it to be a verstatile player who can play anywhere across the front 4. Kevin Volland is a player I think would do well and with a buy out clause of €15m he comes at a fair price for the 20 year old.

I’m looking for a keeper too. Hildebrand is 36 and realistically we have no young up and coming keepers from the under 19s. I am a fan of both Michel Vorm and Tim Krul from the Premiership. With us playing a relatively high line this year I want a mobile keeper who can sweep up any long balls but also is superior in one on one situations as I can see us being beaten by the long ball on the off chance sometimes. With attacking football you have to accept that it will happen every now and then.

I’m looking at several formations currently, one for when we are clear favourites, one for when it can go either way and one for when we play big teams in Europe, probably Bayern too. However I will go into more depth later on when the squad is finalised and the season is about to start.

Great start to this story mate! Lovely idea, and I really enjoy the depth you write with.

In a recent flurry of transfer activity out of Gelsenkirchen, we have seen Jefferson Farfan leave the club for €22m to French giants PSG. The fans questioned why the club was letting one of their star players go but their worries were quickly answered as Hoffenheim striker Kevin Volland joined only a matter of days later as the club matched his buyout clause of €15m. With Klaas Jan Huntelaar being the clubs main striker it is thought Volland is likely to play most of his time out on the right wing for Schalke.

Dutch goalkeeper Tim Krul has also made the switch to the Bundesliga side from Newcastle for a fee within the €7m region. The club now has Ralf Fahrmann and Hildebrand as back up keepers but the latter is getting on in age at a ripe 36 and the German keeper is leaving on a free at the end of the season.

Schalke fans aren't expecting to see a significant amount more movement in the transfer window apart from a few players who have been transfer listed, Santana and Annan are both expected to leave. However as of yet no clubs have made formal bids for the players.

Good signings there, especially Volland who is a star!

Getting Krul! That's awesome. He's a beast in the sticks.

Good signings!

Schalke 04 is a great team, two potential world class players (Draxler and Meyer) and a decent squad (Except the full backs, you should replace them) and the goalkeeper is atrocious :P. Tim Krul will be a good replacement.

Great start! I did a save on Schalke 04 where I managed them for 4 seasons before moving on to Real Madrid.

Replacing the right full back and goalkeeper was the first thing I did along with bringing Kevin Volland in. That guy is a gem of a player.

Christian Fuchs is brilliant on the set pieces but would need a backup. The attacking three of Drax, Max and Kev is gonna be deadly.

@Jordan - I think Fuchs is a decent player, and with Aogo and Kolasinac are good back ups. Kolasinac has bags of potential being just 19, I expect him to be my #1 left back for many years. Uchida is average and nothing more sadly, hopefully I can get rid of some of the deadwood like Satana, Matip (I don't like him, I prefer Kirchoff and Ayhan) and Annan to build up some funds but if not I'll wait until January.

@Kashnish They are always a fun team to do a save with, some immense youth talents. Like I've just said, I need some funds for a right back but I think Hoogland and Uchida can do a job.

Early August didn’t go to plan at all. I mean, yes, we got 2 wins but they were much harder fought than I expected them to be. Then we got our draws for the Champions League Qualifier and the DFB-Pokal. A tough draw against away to Bayer Leverkusen in the domestic competition and a potential banana skin against Austrian side Red Bull Salzburg in Europe. I’m not that fussed about the DFB-Pokal, sure it’d be nice to go on a cup run but we have bigger fish to fry.

Saarbrücken 3-4 Schalke 04
Clemmens x2, Fuchs, Neustadter.

Well, we were awful at the back with the German Third Division side putting 3 away against us. I was furious at our lapses in concentration in defence. If we play like that in Europe we’ll end up with minus double figures in goal difference. Nonetheless, it let’s us progress to the next stage.

Nürnberg 0-1 Schalke 04
Huntelaar

Again, I wasn’t particularly impressed with the lads out there. We squandered too many opportunities and were lucky to keep a clean sheet due to some poor finishing. Huntelaar’s late goal in the 85th was brilliant however with Volland cutting in off the wing, beating his man before popping the ball up to Klaas 10 yards out who hit a stinging volley on the turn into the far corner. Nice for him to get off with a goal, hopefully it can give us a boost of confidence in front of goal that we need.

The rest of August has gone well, we were outplayed by a stubborn Hannover side which took their chances whilst we didn’t but other than that I’m deleighted. Getting through our qualifier was a relief, it always is. There is a lot of potential for embarrassment and I want the supporters on my side from the off and this is the first step to doing well in Europe.

Onto the results -


Schalke 04 1-0 HSV
Volland

We dominated but just couldn’t score against them. Volland scored a brilliant header, towering above their full back and rifling the header into the top corner. All in all, 3 good points won. Our defence looked very solid too with the captain, Howedes, getting man of the match.


Schalke 04 2-1 Red Bull Salzburg
Huntelaar, Draxler

A good win, shame about conceding the away goal but it gives us a lead we can go to Austria with to try and defend. Huntelaar scored a proper poachers effort smuggling the ball in from about 3 yards out. They made it 1-1 after the break but in the 89th minute Draxler pounced upon a spilled shot by the Salzburg keeper, Gulacsi, and gave us that important one goal lead.

Hannover 2-0 Schalke 04

It was a game we didn’t deserve to win. We couldn’t break down their defence and they hit us on the counter brilliantly. Not much more to say about it really, everyone had a poor game.


Red Bull Salzburg 1-2 Schalke 04
Szalai, Boateng (Pen)

I brought Adam Szalai into the team in place of Klaas to give us a target man figure who could bully their defence. I set up far more defensively and looked to hit them on the break, very much like Hannover did to us. Clemens came into the team in place of Volland with the intent to beat his full back and cross whenever he could. On the 45th+2 minute it paid off as Szalai broke free of his marker and stabbed home a Clemens cross into the front post. We the defended for our lives with almost no attacking potency in the second half. They stole a goal on the hour mark but the game was put to bed as Boateng dispatched a late penalty.

The Champions League draw wasn’t kind to us but I wouldn’t say it was harsh either. One giant, one mediocre club and another Austrian team.

Barcelona, PSV Eindhoven and FK Austria Wein.

There is potential there to take 12 points and then we’ll just hedge our bets against Barcelona. But I have confidence in this squad, we will get out of this group and surprise a few people in the knockouts.

Great signings and a great start mate. That group is definitely doable!