A tough December but is it just mind games to concede that early

k1rups: We'll see .

Adnan Januzaj has today been announced as the winner of the European Golden boy award for the second year running. The Belgian was crowned as the best European player over the last calendar year, and fought off competition from ex-Gladbach player and former winner Will Hughes, as well as Leon Goretzka and Jean-Marie Dongou.

Januzaj has only further enhanced his reputation as one of Europe's top up and coming stars, and it won't be long before the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid come calling for the 21 year old. Januzaj, who plays for Belgium, is of Albanian, Turkish, English, Kosovan and Belgian descent. Having started his career as a 15 year old at Anderlecht, Januzaj was quickly snapped up by Manchester United for a price of £600k. He spent 4 years on the youth set up there, breaking into the first team in his third season under David Moyes. Januzaj then spent the next season making appearances here and there, but was by and large quite disappointing. He made 42 appearances for United, scoring on four occasions.

In the summer of 2015, however, Januzaj joined newly-crowned Bundesliga champions Borussia Monchengladbach. Januzaj had a stellar first season, earning himself the Golden Boy award for his first six months at the club. In his first season he played 49 times for Gladbach, scoring 21 and assisting 32 more at an average rating of 7.67, as he helped them retain their Bundesliga crown. Januzaj has been in brilliant form again this year, playing 27 times, and scoring and as siting 14 each on his way to retaining the Golden Boy award.

"I can't believe that I have been able to retain this award. It is a brilliant experience to be able to come and receive this award here at the Ballon D'Or gala in front of the likes of Messi and Ronaldo, as well as Beckenbauer and Pele. Some great players have won this award, like Messi, Aguero and Anderson, and I want to go on and become a future world star."

Arsenal have today announced that they have completed the signing of England international George Thorne. The defensive midfielder, who has just turned 24, joins Arsenal for £8.75M, after having spent half a season on loan there last year. The Englishman struggled to make a mark on a midfield that contains the likes of Lucas Romero, Gaston Gil Romero and Geoffrey Kondogbia, and only made two appearances for Die Fohlen, both in the Champions League.

"I would like to thank Borussia Monchengladbach for my time there. Despite it not really working out, I feel that I have grown as a footballer and as a person. Lucien Favre is a great guy, and I feel that he has the right setup there. Unfortunately for me, I could not break into that setup, and since I want to keep my England place, I have decided to find first-team football at another club."

Thorne, who joined Gladbach for £5M from Derby County in 2015, made his debut for England in the friendly against Israel last September, and has since gone on to make five caps.

Chelsea have today announced that former Liverpool winger Raheem Sterling will be joining the club. Sterling, who will join for £10M from Borussia Monchengladbach, leaves only a day after George Thorne joined London rivals Arsenal. Sterling, who has 15 caps for England, struggled to make an impact at Gladbach, and only made eight appearances. It became clear that he would not break into the team on the wing, and was said to be retraining himself as a wing-back, so as to challenge Brazilian Mayke.

Sterling joined from Premier League rivals Liverpool for £10M two summers ago. He had a brilliant season only a couple of years before joining Gladbach, where he played 37 times, scoring on 10 occasions as he helped Liverpool to 2nd place that year. However, a poor year the following season saw him leave Anfield for a cut price. Overall, he made 78 appearances, scoring 12 goals for Liverpool.

Today we start a new segment called One's to Watch. This will become a quarterly segment, as we try to document the up and coming stars of tomorrow at Gladbach.

We start our first ever edition with the French youngster Benoit Lucas. The 17 year old, who was born on the 4th August 1999, already has six France Under 21 caps to his name, along with two goals. He was voted as the best young player at this summer's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Born in Chantilly, just to the north of Paris but inside its metropolitan area, Lucas moved to Marseille at the age of 6. His father, who works as a wine maker, used to be a semi-professional footballer, and made it as high as the the Championat National division (France's 3rd tier). His mother works as a baker, and Lucas had to help out as a young boy. In between helping his parents, Benoit idolised Thierry Henry, and was born a year on from their 3-0 World Cup Final win.

Lucas became known as a talented footballer, and showed this when he scored 71 goals in a 20 game season at Under 12 level. Lucas quickly became noticed on the internet, and was on the radar of many of France's top clubs, notably the nearby Marseille. However, Lucas began his footballing career at CREPS in Aix en Provence, about 15 miles north of Marseille. He played here for a year, before joining his first professional club.

He was drafted as part of Rennes' intake in 2015. Rennes, in Brittany (Northern France), immediately realised they had a brilliant player in the making, but before they could sign him, Borussia Monchengladbach, who had just secured the Bundesliga crown, swooped in and offered the youngster a contract he couldn't refuse.

Benoit joined Gladbach later that summer, and starred for the B team in his first year, scoring 17 times in 24 appearances and picking up eight man of the match awards. All this was done at an 7.85 rating, before at the start of this season he was registered for Gladbach's Bundesliga season. Despite only making one appearance, Lucas scored on his debut against Stuttgart in August, making him the club's youngest goalscorer. He then scored 13 times in as many games after being moved back to the B team, and this January announced that he would be joining struggling Koln, in an effort to keep them up.

Borussia Monchengladbach have announced that two of their players, Amin Younes and Danny Cabezas, will be joining Zenit St Petersburg in Russia. Amin Younes joined Gladbach as a trainee at the age of 13. He made his Bundesliga debut at the age of 16, and spent time on loan at Stuttgart last season. He will join Zenit for £5M.

Danny Cabezas, the Ecuadorian international winger, has left for Zenit as well for £3.7M. Cabezas, formerly of Velez and Liga De Quito, joined for £235k. The 24 year old struggled to cement a place at Gladbach, where it took him two and a half years to make his debut. He also spent time at Leverkusen, where he scored four times in 17 games.

Gladbach began their winter break friendlies with a friendly against local side Beeck. The game ended 3-0 after goals from Kurt and Murru, as well as an own goal from the Beeck keeper.



Gladbach's next game was away at another local side. This time, much more comprehensive in victory. Goals from Balanta, Ewandro, Quintero and a hat trick from Benoit Lucas rounded up a 6-0 victory.



Gladbach played the last non-league club in the break away at Paderborn. In the sleet of January, Balanta and Rodriguez bagged goals, as well as doubles from Denswil and Januzaj. Gladbach dominated possession, with 79% possession over the 90 minutes.



In a harder friendly against Bundesliga 2 side Dusseldorf, Gladbach ran out 5-0 winners after a stellar performance from Gabriel Barbosa. Gabigol scored a first half hat trick, as Murru and Januzaj scored the other goals.



Another friendly saw Gladbach this time play at home, against the tougher opposition of Atletico Mineiro, who finished as runners up in Brazil. Goals from Murru, Batshuayi and a Romero penalty gave Die Fohlen a 3-0 lead, before ex-City striker Jo scored two late strikes.

Borussia Monchengladbach, who have won the Bundesliga title consecutively in the last two years, have today announced that they have began preparation on a planned expansion of their stadium, Borussia Park.

Borussia Park, which was only built in 2004, can currently hold 54,057 people, with 37,912 of that space seated. The planned upgrade will see the capacity upgraded to 60,000, although it remains to be seen whether these will be standing or seated spaces. Borussia Park can also bast under soil heating, as well as one of the largest pitches in the Bundesliga, at a length of 105M by 68M.

The news comes as Gladbach chase down league leaders Bayern Munich, who have a stadium that seats 58,041, and can hold a further 13,000 people.

Hi guys!

I have been really enjoying this story so far, but unfortunately I am starting to lose the drive to help write the updates. This means that this story will be updated slower, maybe once every few days. I am hoping to start a new more interesting story, but I go away for a week on Sunday morning. I will hopefully start this new story later today/tomorrow.

Hopefully I will want to write this story again soon, but in the mean time I will start a new one!

what a shame, i really enjoyed your story!