[FM19] The Journey of Bernd Beyer

[fmamerican]

For my first FM19 save, I am going with a journeyman save. I have a problem staying in a one place for a long period of time so a journeyman save kind of fits with how I play Football Manager. I have placed two rules on the save:


1. Must spend, at least, two full seasons or 75 games at the club before looking for a new club
2. Can not manage three straight clubs in the same country

This is will give me some impact on the club’s development while “scratching my itch” for new adventures at a new club. With that, let’s introduce the readers to my manager.





Bernd Beyer is a 31-year old born September 5, 1986 in Munich, Germany. He has Turkish citizenship on his mother’s side. His family spent a lot of time moving from place to place when he was a young boy and, as a result, he is fluent in Danish and Polish as well his native German and Turkish. He has earned his UEFA Continental A License The following leagues are loaded into the save (league ranking in parentheses).



La Liga (1), English Premier League (2), Serie A (3), Bundesliga (4), Ligue 1 (5), Premeira Liga (7), Belgian Pro League A (9), Austrian Bundesliga (11), Eredivisie (12), Danish Super Liga (16), English Championship Polish Ekstraklasa (21), Bundesliga 2 (24), Segunda Division (25), Serbian Super League (26), Serie B (32), Ligue 2 (34), Austrian Bundesliga 2 (36), Serbian 1st League (42), English League One (43), Portuguese Second Division (49), Belgian Pro League B (53), Dutch Eerste Divisie (54), Polish 1st Division (61), Danish 1st Division (62)



At the start of the game, the following five jobs were available:



SV Sandhausen – Bundesliga 2



Brentford – Championship



Zaglebie Sosnowiec – Ekstraklasa



Wisla Plock – Ekstraklasa



GKS Katowice – Polish 1st Division



Beyer’s Long Path to His 1st Job:



June 28, 2018 – Applied for the SV Sandhausen



July 5, 2018 – SV Sandhausen job application unsuccessful with no interview



July 8, 2018 – Applied for GKS Katowice job. Interview process over. Hired Ivan Prelec.



July 9, 2018 – SV Sandhausen hire Carsten Jancker from SV Horn. Applied for SV Horn job.



July 12, 2018 – SV Horn fans consider Beyer “leading candidate.”



July 19, 2018 – SV Horn offer job interview.



July 24, 2018 – SV Horn interview is unsuccessful. Gerhard Schweitzer hired as manager.



Many long months ensue.



November 11, 2018 – Applied for Javor, LKS Loda, FC Helsinger, Nykobing FC jobs.



November 15, 2018 – Nykobing FC fans consider Beyer “leading candidate.” FC Helsingor fans consider Beyer “leading candidate.”



November 17, 2018 – Applied for FK Borac and FK Metalac jobs



November 22, 2018 – FK Borac fans consider Beyer “leading candidate.”



November 23, 2018 – FC Helsingor offer job interview



November 24, 2018 – Applied for Bruk-Bet job.



November 25, 2018 – Nykobing FC offer job interview.



November 26, 2018 – FC Helsinor offer job €500 per week through 2020. Delayed one week.



November 27, 2018 – LKS Lodz offer job interview.



November 28, 2018 – Bruk-Bet consider Beyer “leading candidate.”



November 30, 2018 – FK Metalac offer job interview.



December 2, 2018 – LKS Lodz offer job €575 per week through 2020. Delayed one week.



December 4, 2018 – Nykobing FC job unsuccessful. Declined FC Helsingor job.



December 5, 2018 – FC Borac offer job interview. Viborg FF consider Beyer “leading candidate.”



December 6, 2018 – FC Metalac job interview unsuccessful. FC Helsingor hire John Jensen.



December 8, 2018 – Bruk-Bet offer job interview.



December 9, 2018 – LKS Loda grant another one week delay.



December 11, 2018 – Bruk-Bet offer job €600 per week through 2020.



December 12, 2018 – Viborg FF offer job interview. FC Borac job interview unsuccessful.



December 16, 2018 – Declined LKS Lodz job.



December 17, 2018 – Accepted Viborg FF job offer €1,000 per week through 2020.

[fmamerican]

The journey of Bernd Beyer has finished the first season with Viborg FF. This season was a partial season as he took the job in December after the majority of the season was completed. Viborg were looking for a manager who could pull the club out of the mid-table funk they were in. The problem was only 14 games remained and there was a large gap separating all of the clubs from the top 3 who resided in the playoff and automatic promotion places. Because of the large winter break in Denmark, Beyer went 2.5 months before he managed his first official match with Viborg.





The club has a lot of philosophies that it imposed on my managerial stint at the club: Play direct & defensive football, make the most of set pieces, and develop players from the youth academy. These are philosophies that normally don’t fit my personal philosophies and how I like to play. But I’m going outside my comfort zone with this one. As a result, Beyer is going with following formation to make the board happy.



The goal of the my 4-1-4-1 formation is absorb the opposition’s pressure and then spring a long pass to lone centre forward. He’s very pacey and can out run the defensive line when he gets behind them. I’ve got two ball-winners in the central midfield to create turnovers and catch the opposition before they can set up. Our defensive transitions is set to regroup so we can get players behind the ball and frustrate the opposition’s first attack forcing them to recycle possession and hopefully pull their defensive line forward so we can hit a long ball behind them.



We didn’t have a lot of time to practice the formation in game action before the start of the second half of the season. Just a pair of friendlies in February. We drew against IFK Goteburg, 1-1, in Sweden then came home and put a 4-1 pounding on lower division B93.





We went undefeated in March and six matches in total before HB Koge knocked us off 2-1. From there, we had a decent run of form with two straight wins before struggling with only two points from nine. That series of games ensured that we would not get into the promotion playoffs. With the pressure off, we won our last two games which locked up a 4th place finish for us.





Silkeborg won promotion to the Superliga on goal difference over Lyngby (+24 to +22). Lyngby, then, fell in the promotion playoff to FC Frederica so they will be back for the 2019-20 season. Hvidovre and Naestved have been relegated to the 2nd Division for the 2019-20 season.



Kun Temenuzkhov was the best player for the season and was the only player who finished the season with an average rating above 7. He led the team with 13 goals in all competitions. Our anchor man at the base of the midfield triangle, Jepper Gronning, was our next best player with an average rating of 6.85. He finished the season as the best passer with a completion rate of 76%. The rest of the team was at 75% or below. Oof. Definitely not the way I like to play. I like to keep the ball. If the other team doesn’t have the ball, then they can’t score is my philosophy. But this doesn’t jibe with how the board wants to play so as I said earlier, I want to play nice with the board so their brand of football wins out.



The biggest problem for the club going forward is the massive financial hole that the club is in. It is over 2 million euros in the red and it’s not getting any better. The wage budget has been reduced by the board from 32k per week down to 25k so a couple more good players will need to get moved at some point during the season. Beyer lined up a couple of free transfers during the season. Other than those moves, I doubt Beyer will be very active in the transfer market since he doesn’t a lot of wage budget to play with. He will be active in the loan market especially if he can bring those players in for zero wages. A couple of players from the 2nd team and quality players from the youth team will be called up to fill out the roster as well.

[fmamerican]

Bernd Beyer has spend a full year at Viborg and it has been a very successful year for him. The club is winning. The board is happy (mostly). The players are enjoying themselves on and off the field. Beyer is laying down the first building block of what will, hopefully, be a successful managerial career. The only negative has been the club finances which have been a drain on everybody. If Viborg does not win promotion to the Superliga this year, then the club will be in deep financial trouble which will put a lot of jobs (including Beyer’s in jeopardy). Beyer has not asked the board to get this UEFA Pro License because the club just does not have the funds to do it. Beyer’s staff has not asked for further coaching licenses as well. Now with that out of the way, let’s get into the meat of the first year.





Viborg and Beyer were not busy in the transfer market but lots of other clubs around the world were very busy wheeling and dealing. Here’s the Top 10 Summer Transfers:



1. CF Harry Kane from Tottenham to Manchester United for €120,000,000

2. CM Saul from Atletico Madrid to Liverpool for €98,000,000

3. RW Sadio Mane from Liverpool to Barcelona for €85,000,000

4. RW Leon Bailey from Leverkusen to Bayern Munich for €71,000,000 (clauses to €81,000,000)

5. CM Sergei Milinkovic from Lazio to Manchester City for €60,000,000

6. DCM Casemiro from Real Madrid to Manchester United for €59,000,000 (clauses to €67,000,000)

7. LW Ryan Sessegon from Fulham to Manchester City for €59,000,000 (clauses to €95,000,000)

8. RW Christian Pulisic from Dortmund to Arsenal for €57,000,000

9. LW Wilfred Zaha from Crystal Palace to Manchester City for €57,000,000 (clauses to €84,000,000)

10. CF Ciro Immobile from Lazio to Real Madrid for €56,000,000 (clauses to €81,000,000)


The biggest sale of a defender was CB Jan Vertongen from Tottenham to Liverpool for €39,000,000 with clauses to €48,500,000.



Here’s Viborg’s contribution to the global transfer market:



We spent €0 in the transfer market while taking in €170,000. Not earth shattering numbers by any stretch. The players sold will be easily replaced with one exception Emil Scheel. Scheel was our team captain and starting central midfielder. Losing him in the center of the field will be a big loss. He wanted to move on and I wasn’t going to disrupt team harmony by keeping around a team leader who wasn’t interested in staying at the club. He moves on to Holland and Liam McCormick comes in as a last minute loanee from Chelsea to help stem the loss and boost the club’s midfield depth. Viborg’s biggest signings were in attack where Andre Bjerregaard comes over from Hvidore and Liam Miller leaves the Liverpool U23 team for a starting role in Viborg. Bjerregaard can play the right wing in addition to the central forward role while Miller can play on the left side in addition to the central forward role. They also add depth to one-man attack last season and that man was recalled by his parent club for the 2019-20 season. I hit the loan market hard over the summer and brought in a bunch of midfielders from U23 sides in the Premier League as well as Kieran O’Hara in goal. Our starting goalie wants a lot of money to resign and his contract expires in December. O’Hara gives us as nice insurance policy should our starter walk away from the club.



The media have us as heavy favorites to win the First Division and move into the Superliga for the 2020-21 season. We will be pushed by three recently relegated sides, Esbjerg, Vendsyssel, and Lyngby (who’s first year down was last season). The bottom of the table is well established, in the media’s mind, with three teams Middlefart, Fermad, and Skive, all facing long odds this season and four clubs get relegated down to the 2nd division at the end of the year.



I expected a slow start to the season with the new faces coming into the club. Three draws from our first four matches and then a very tough 2nd round cup draw against Superliga side, AGF. Two of our first three matches were against the newly relegated clubs too. So, I was happy to get draws from those matches. Once the calendar turned to September, we started winning and winning a lot. Only dropping points in a road loss to Esbjerg, 1-0, and a 0-0 draw against a Fremad Amager side who just parked the bus and had no interest in trying to score. We just couldn’t break down their 11 men behind the ball tactic.



Our record has put us five points clear of everybody at the top of the table. Esbjerg is pushing us for the promotion spot. We have one game remaining with them which gives us one chance to really put so distance between the two clubs in the table. HB Koge is pushing Esbjerg with Lyngby and Helsingor not too far behind. After that, the gap really opens up between clubs with Vendsyssel a distant 12 points behind Helsingor in 6th place.



Nothing too crazy on the tactics front. An advanced forward up top with two supporting wingers and then two central midfielders with attacking mentality in the middle of the pitch. The supporting wingers and attack-minded central midfielders act like a “line of four” behind the central forward. Behind these five is a ball-winning midfielder with two wing-backs and two “stay at home” center backs. We are set to counter attack with long balls to the central forward. Just keeping it simple down in the lower leagues. No need to get fancy with a bunch of individual instructions which could confuse the shape of the formation.



We’ve got a pretty good attacking three with Millar, Bjerregaard, and Mikkel Vestergaard. After some experimentation, I settled on Vestergaard (in the middle), Bjerregarrd (on the right), and Millar (on the left). The three players have combined for 19 goals in all competitions. Off the bench is spark plug Park Jung-bin who has four goals. Our passing isn’t the greatest with just two field players, Ben Stevenson (83%) and Yang Ming-Yang (80%) with passing rates in the eighties. We do make up for our “poor” passing with rock solid defense. Nikko Boxall wins 92% of his tackles with Ming-Yang winning 90% and team captain Jeppe Gronning winning 91%. We smother you, get the ball up the field quickly, and score goals. A simple formula.



If only the budget was that easy. Last season, we had a wage budget of €30,000 per week. We saw that number slashed to €25,000 per week to start the season and then in December, the board slashed it down to €20,000 per week. This is a make or break year for the club. It needs to win promotion to stay afloat. It needs the money from increased TV revenue, prize money, and sponsorship. If we don’t get promotion, I don’t know how the club will survive and Beyer may need to make an exit or be stuck managing a team full of youth and amateur players.




Beyer’s first full season in charge as gone very well. He has managed 35 matches (33 league plus 2 cup matches) and compiled a record of 21 wins, 9 draws, and 5 losses while racking up a +36 goal differential. The board is pleased with his defensive style of play allowing just 30 goals in those 35 matches (0.86/game). If he keeps this up, he could be in line for a promotion to a bigger Danish club or a more financially stable club outside of Denmark. He really wants that UEFA Pro License and can’t get one at present due to Viborg’s financial instability.

[fmamerican]

Viborg had a successful and restful winter break. The scouts, for the most, got to take the winter since the wage budget was slashed to €20k per week from the €25k per week at the start of the season. The players got to sun themselves someplace warm and away from the harsh Danish winter. They returned to Viborg in February for the start of winter training camp. The club traveled over to Sweden for a friendly against Malmo which ended in a successful 1-1 tie. They returned back to Denmark and beat AB 1-0 before returning to league play in March.





The club took care of business in March and April to set up the title clinching game which game in a 1-1 road draw with HB Koge. The title earned Viborg a return to the Danish Superliga. The remaining three games saw a lot of youngster getting some well deserved starts after spending most of the season playing a reserve games since Danish First Division allow for only a three-person bench and one of those three players must be a goalkeeper. Not many chances to get young players “mop-up” time in games that get out of hand.



Viborg finished the season with the second best offense in the league with 59 goals and by far the best defense in the league allowing just 20 goals all season. Next best defense was FC Helsingor, who allowed 30 goals. The best offense was 2nd place HB Koge who scored 61 goals on the season. The 2019-20 season saw just the league champion get promotion into the SuperLiga. There was no promotion playoff and the bottom four teams were relegation. Not sure why this changed from the previous season. Perhaps one of the readers know the answer to this question.



The club had one major subtraction to the squad over the winter break. Leeds came in and bought center forward/left winger Liam Miller. He was a big loss to our offense. We brought in Keyendrah Simmons on loan to fill the void. Andre Bjerregaard was the team’s leading goal scorer with 14 goals. Ben Stevenson led the squad with eight assists. The defense was rock solid with three players winning 90% of their tackles. Nikko Boxall led with 92% tackle rate. Two midfielders Jeppe Gronning and loanee Yang Ming-Yang had 90% tackle rates. I was able to keep the goalkeeper rotation going for the entire season as I was able to re-sign Ingvar Jonsson in December before the board dropped the wage hammer on me again. Some of the younger players who saw a decent amount of playing time this season were LW Tobias Bech who was from last season’s youth intake. Bech saw action 21 matches. CB Jacob Mikkelsen, who saw action in 12 games, as a rotational center back. Lastly there was 16-year old Lasse Rasmussen who got his first senior side appearance in the last game of the season.



Here is Viborg’s financial state after the club received the sponsorship money for the 2020-21 season. It’s not any good. The wage budget has increased from €20k per week to €37k per week. But there is no money in the transfer budget and the scouting budget is not enough to broaden my scouting scope beyond Denmark. But, “in the board’s infinite wisdom,” there was enough money to make this transaction.



The board could find €750,000 to increase the stadium capacity by a whopping 500 seats. The capacity also sees the club’s debt load increase by €375,000. As a result, Beyer asked the board to see if the money was there for him to go out and obtain his UEFA Pro License. The board responded that he could not given the club’s poor financial state. This was the straw that broke Beyer’s back and he resigned his position as Viborg’s manager.



Beyer managed 49 matches for Viborg over the last 1.5 seasons.



2018-19 Season: 7-4-3: 4th place finish in Danish First Division



2019-20 Season: 23-8-4: Danish First Division Champions; Danish Cup 2nd Round



Total: 30-12-7 89 goals scored (1.82/game) 38 goals allowed (0.78/game) +51 goal difference 40 FM19 Hall of Fame Points



Time spent at club: 539 days

Interview With Bernd Beyer

Raphael Hohmann (sports editor for Die Welt): You had a very successful spell with Viborg. What caused you to resign?



Bernd Beyer: It was the continued poor financial conditions at the club. A man can only manage for so long with their hands tied behind their back. I could get away with that in the First Division. We were a big fish in a small pond. Now in the Superliga, we will be a smaller fish in a much larger pond. I don’t want to be eaten so I stepped aside.



Hohmann: Can you give me some examples of this mis-management?



Beyer: I could never get a firm sense of the wage budget. When I started, it was €30k per week. When we finished this past season, it was down to €20k per week. They increased to €37k for our promotion to the Superliga but what’s not to say that they won’t start slashing it again. They add money to the bottom line but not enough to make the club solvent. €700,000 isn’t going to help when the club is almost €3,000,000 in the red. Spending money that they don’t have to expand the stadium by only 500 seasons. How is that going to help the club?!?!?!



Hohmann: Do you have another job already lined up or are you back searching the world trying to find the right opportunity?



Beyer: I have an application already in at two clubs. The first is Wacker Innsbruck in the Austrian Bundesliga and the second is with English League One side Doncaster. My preference is to go to Austria with Wacker Innsbruck since it would bring me closer to my German roots and give me the opportunity to manage a top-tier side. Yes, I could have been with a top-tier side at Viborg but it could have easily been a one and done. I want a chance to be at side that was more financially stable and I think Wacker Innsbruck does that. The application to Doncaster is a back-up plan in case things don’t pan out in Austria.



Hohmann: Do you think the players and fans at Viborg think you are jumping ship and getting out while the getting is good?



Beyer: I hope not. I hope they see my reasoning and see how the board is running the club and ask serious questions about their leadership. It looks on face value but there are many cracks in foundation which could only be exposed with a season in the Superliga.



Hohmann: What are your plans if both Innsbruck and Doncaster fall through? And thoughts about returning to Germany?



Beyer: There is no Plan C at the moment. I will need to see what jobs will open up over the summer and react accordingly. I can’t spent a lot of time on the sidelines. I’m a new manager. I don’t have name recognition. I need to have a job to stay front and center in the minds of the board’s around the Europe.



Hohmann: Thank you for your time, Bernd.



Beyer: Thank you for your time, Raphael.