My three-year Leverkusen project on Championship Manager 99/00 has now reached its halfway point. Though I’ve yet to lift any trophies with the men in red-and-black, my second season at the BayArena has started brightly. Just don’t ask me what happened in the DFB-Ligapokal.
You can revisit Part 4 right here if you haven’t caught up yet. In that chapter, you’ll meet our big new signings for the first time and see how we got on in the opening fixtures.
This latest post will take us all the way up to the start of 2001. If our strikers continue to underperform, though, there’s a good chance I might delve back into the transfer market before 2000 is out…
OCTOBER 2000
After our efficient start to the Bundesliga season, it was inevitable that our best players would draw admirers. With money to burn and plenty of room for improvement, mid-table HSV offered us £10million for Carsten Ramelow. The midfielder had an average rating of 7.43 from his first seven games this season, so that clearly wasn’t going to be enough.
Undeterred, Hamburg put forward another £10million offer – this time for Robert Kovac. Seriously? £10million for one of Europe’s toughest and most energetic defenders? Get out.
Speaking of big-money transfers, our Champions League nemeses Celtic had lost their young hotshot Mark Burchill since beating us in Scotland. Burchill had accepted a £13.5million transfer to… ahem, Rangers. Just imagine how that went down on the green half of Glasgow!
So, how would John Barnes’ side cope with Burchill’s defection to the blue side when they arrived in Leverkusen for our rematch?
LEVERKUSEN 1-0 CELTIC (Champions League – Phase 1 Group E, Match 4)
Surprisingly well, it turned out. We had virtually a full squad to choose from after a recent injury crisis, and we dominated Celtic at the BayArena. However, the Bayer breakthrough didn’t come until six minutes from time. Captain Jens Nowotny was fouled in the Bhoys’ box by Johan Mjällby, and Oliver Neuville drove in the winning penalty.
At literally the same time Neuville celebrated his winner, Patrick Kluivert secured Barcelona a hard-fought 1-0 win of their own at Sparta Prague. That left Celtic, Barça and Leverkusen ALL on seven points going into the final two group fixtures.
WERDER BREMEN 2-1 LEVERKUSEN (Bundesliga – Match 8)
Next up in the Bundesliga were our old nemeses Werder Bremen, who came back from behind to continue their unbeaten start. We had led 1-0 at half-time, thanks in part to former Leverkusen midfielder Andreas Neuendorf, who gave away a penalty for backing into Ulf Kirsten. The ageless marksman quickly got up and dispatched the spot-kick.
Though weakened by an injury to Austrian playmaker Andreas Herzog, things got better for Werder after the break. More specifically, Frings got better, as Torsten Frings netted twice to propel Die Werderaner ahead of us into 2nd place. By Sunday evening, we had plummeted all the way down to 6th.
Back home we went for our next Champions League group game, at home to Barcelona. Ruud Hesp was suspended and José Manuel Reina injured, so Louis Van Gaal had to field a ‘grey’ in goal. How many times would we put the ball past poor Miguel Ángel Núñez?
LEVERKUSEN 0-0 BARCELONA (Champions League – Phase 1 Group E, Match 5)
Zero. We’d completely forgotten how to score from open play. Luckily for us, it appeared Barça had done the same, with the likes of Alessandro Del Piero, Patrick Kluivert and Jari Litmanen all misfiring shots like they were Thomas Brdaric. (Incidentally, Brdaric has made eight appearances on loan at Darmstadt, scoring precisely zero goals.)
Meanwhile, Celtic took a huge stride towards qualification by putting three past Sparta Prague without reply. The Bhoys thus only needed a draw at the Nou Camp the following week to qualify at their Spanish opponents’ expense. We had to win our final game in Prague to progress, otherwise we would be reliant on Celtic getting a result in Catalonia.
Just 48 hours later, we were back in action in Round 3 of the DFB-Pokal. If we could see off Nürnberg at home, we could look forward to a plum Round 4 tie at… erm, Trier, from the third division.
LEVERKUSEN 2-1 NÜRNBERG (aet) (DFB-Pokal – Round 3)
I feel like this team is determined to kill me, either through stress or just pure boredom. After a forgettable first half for a Neuville-less Bayer side, I brought Robson Ponte on from the bench, and he proceeded to score five minutes after the restart. That put us on course for yet another 1-0 win… until Nürnberg captain Tomasz Kos struck in the very last minute to force extra-time.
Thankfully for my health, Ponte helped put us back into the lead after 110 minutes. He drifted a corner into the box, where Michael Ballack unexpectedly turned up to head in his first ever Leverkusen goal.
And so, after another struggle, we made progress in one cup competition. What about the other?
NOVEMBER 2000
It’s worth summing up our Champions League situation again before we go into the final group game. Win at Sparta Prague, and we’d be through to the second phase. Anything else, and I’d need to hope that John Barnes was a better manager than Louis Van Gaal, otherwise Leverkusen would drop down into the UEFA Cup – again.
SPARTA PRAGUE 0-3 LEVERKUSEN (Champions League – Phase 1 Group E, Match 6)
Talk about coming big at just the right time! We did have a few scares in the first half, but once Kirsten broke the deadlock in the 26th minute, the match was in our control. We just needed to keep control of our nerves.
When Horst Siegl hit the post for Sparta early in the second half, I started to doubt whether we could hold on. Thankfully, Frankie Hejduk settled my nerves with an excellent finish in the 74th minute from Zé Roberto’s cross. A third Bayer goal – from Ramelow in injury time – made absolutely certain of our place in the next round.
The other group match wasn’t even a contest. Barcelona put FIVE goals past Celtic without reply, and so it was the Catalans who qualified at the expense of the Bhoys, who were relegated to Thursday nights on Channel 5.
Meanwhile, we would stay on ITV for Phase 2 of the Champions League. We were drawn into Group A along with Arsenal, Feyenoord… and seven-time winners Real Madrid. Oof.
Our European adventure was continuing, but Zoran Mamic‘s time in Leverkusen was over. After spending recent weeks moaning about wanting a new contract, the Croatian utility man finally got his wish – and was sold to Rostock for £500,000.
Kovac was also in line for a new contract – one which would see him stay at Bayer for another five seasons. That would keep the big boys away from Croatian Bob for a while, so they instead set their sights on ‘Swiss’ Oli.
GREUTHER FÜRTH 0-4 LEVERKUSEN (Bundesliga – Match 9)
After rejecting all five offers, I started Neuville against newly-promoted Greuther Fürth. Oli didn’t score, but Andri Sigþórsson did, deputising wonderfully for an injured Kirsten. His 73rd-minute drive followed an 18th-minute opener from Emerson, who also netted a couple of late penalties to seal an unlikely hat-trick. Greuther might have had Nii Lamptey on the wing, but the rest of their team was full of numpties!
There was more disappointing news a few days later, when Boris Zivkovic picked up a calf strain that ruled him out for the rest of 2000. But there’s something else I want to talk about…
I got a news article in my inbox saying that Vasco had signed the former Leverkusen forward Paulo Rink from Santos for £10,750,000. I thought, “Hang on… didn’t I sell him to Blackburn in the summer?” Then I remembered that the player I’d sold was actually Paulo Roberto Rink.
Turns out there are TWO Paulo Rinks in the CM99/00 database – both with the same positions, birthdays and nationalities!
[Insert Spiderman meme here.]
LEVERKUSEN 1-0 SCHALKE 04 (Bundesliga – Match 10)
I think we had two Robson Pontes on the pitch against Schalke, such was the young Brazilian’s performance. Ponte constantly tormented the visiting defence, especially so in the 31st minute, when he dribbled from his own half to score what proved to be the winner. Goalkeeper Sander Boschker single-handedly kept the scoreline down, but this latest win moved us into the top four – with games in hand.
The second round of our Champions League campaign kicked off in midweek, starting at home to Real Madrid. Neuville had run himself into the ground, so our top scorer was only fit enough for the bench. I therefore switched to a 4-4-1-1 formation, with Bernd Schneider sitting in the hole behind Sigþórsson.
LEVERKUSEN 0-2 REAL MADRID (Champions League – Phase 2 Group A, Match 1)
Turns out Real Madrid have some handy players at their disposal. A furious 10th-minute strike from Raúl was followed eight minutes later by an equally clinical header from Iván Campo.
Siggi thought he’d halved our deficit from a direct free-kick in the 27th minute, but the referee ordered a retake, which Bodo Illgner tipped behind. That would be the story of our game, as Illgner consistently saved everything we threw his way. Not even Neuville could bring about a comeback after coming off the bench.
1.FC KÖLN 0-1 LEVERKUSEN (Bundesliga – Match 11)
Robert Enke isn’t a bad goalkeeper either. The 23-year-old custodian at Köln – sitting comfortably in mid-table after being promoted last season – made SEVEN saves before finally being beaten by Zé Roberto in the 52nd minute. That’s the 52nd minute of the FIRST half.
We continued our dominance well into the second half, but the Billy Goats were determined not to concede again. Even the 80th-minute dismissal of sweeper Hilmar Weilandt didn’t weaken their resolve, and we left the Müngersdorfer Stadion still wondering how we’d only won 1-0. Indeed, this felt more like a defeat than a win, because…
Hey, Croatian Bob! What is ze French for “va va voom”?
Ladies and gentlemen… Thierry Henry. The lightning-quick World Cup-winning centre-forward had endured a nightmare season-and-a-half at Arsenal, being used almost exclusively as a substitute by Arsène Wenger. Henry desperately wanted out of north London, and so he was available on the cheap at £7.25million. How could I say no?
Four days after becoming a Leverkusen debut, Henry made his debut in the exotic surroundings of… the 15,200-capacity Moselstadion in Trier. Could he hit the ground running in our cup match against Die Blauen, who were 5th in their regional league?
TRIER 0-5 LEVERKUSEN (DFB-Pokal – Round 4)
Well… Titi needed less than four minutes to head a Darioush Yasdani cross home, so I guess you could say so! Hejduk doubled our lead only five minutes later, with Yasdani and Nowotny also scoring to make it 4-0 at half-time. Centre-back Torben Hoffmann completed the rout early in the second half, and we progressed serenely to a Quarter Final tie at home to SC Freiburg.
DECEMBER 2000
After an excellent month, Kaiserslautern had hit the front in the Bundesliga title race. The Red Devils would provide formidable opposition in our next league game at the BayArena, where a home victory would really send out a message about our intentions.
LEVERKUSEN 2-1 KAISERSLAUTERN (Bundesliga – Match 12)
Watch out, everybody! Henry was quick off the mark again, driving an Emerson pass into the net 14 minutes into his Bundesliga debut. Emerson was also the architect of our second goal four minutes later for Sigþórsson. Kaiserslautern launched a few counter-attacks in the second half and eventually pulled one goal back through Swiss sweeper Ciriaco Sforza, but it was too late.
What a result, and just have a look at the table!
FEYENOORD 0-1 LEVERKUSEN (Champions League – Phase 2 Group A, Match 2)
We then got into a pickle in Rotterdam, where the football wasn’t dull or dutiful, but it was still far from beautiful (south). Even so, we came away with three valuable points, courtesy of Ponte’s 31st-minute finish from a Ronaldinho centre.
Less than a minute after that, however, Ronaldinho mistook Feyenoord midfielder Jean-Paul Van Gastel for Danny Mills and sent him crashing to the turf. Ron was already on a booking, so he was sent to the dressing room with a red card. He also received a one-match ban – as did Emerson, for he received his third booking of the competition.
(Naturally, Emerson strained his groin a few days later in training, putting him out for the next two months anyway. Cheers, mate.)
Another six players also wound up with yellow cards in the ‘Battle of De Kuip’. Despite having half an hour with a man advantage, Feyenoord couldn’t get back in the game, partly because Taibi played a blinder in our goal.
HSV 2-1 LEVERKUSEN (Bundesliga – Match 13)
If only Taibi had put in a similar performance against our bogey team. Hamburg trailed by a Zé Roberto long-ranger to nil at half-time, but they turned it around after the break to beat us for the third time in four meetings.
Vratislav Gresko took most of the blame for our collapse, as his clumsy challenge on Mahmut Yilmaz in the 57th minute gave away a costly penalty. Danish midfielder Thomas Gravesen’s shot selection was as brilliant as his future business decisions, and he also played the perfect pass to set up Anthony Yeboah on 75 minutes.
With that third defeat of our league campaign, we went back to trailing Kaiserslautern by three points, though we still had two games in hand on the frontrunners. Could we now bounce back at home to mid-table VfB Stuttgart?
LEVERKUSEN 0-1 VFB STUTTGART (Bundesliga – Match 14)
Tonight on “100 Ways To Lose A Football Match”… it’s number 21!
Seven minutes after kick-off, Hoffmann tripped Stuttgart’s Spanish hotshot Manel 20 yards from our goal. Up stepped the visitors’ Hungarian playmaker (and Scrabble players’ dream) Krisztian Lisztes, who proceeded to whip it right into the top bins. Taibi was looking the other way, because… well, maybe he decided to stop being good.
We couldn’t respond. For one thing, Henry had started to tire after such a promising opening to his Leverkusen career. For another, his replacement Sigþórsson spent the final 20 minutes collecting knocks like they were Panini stickers.
All in all, it was a miserable afternoon, softened by the fact that Kaiserslautern had lost 2-1 at Nürnberg. That allowed both Frankfurt and Bayern München to catch up with the Red Devils on 31 points, while Dortmund moved up to 30 and we stayed on 28.
Kaiserslautern did restore their three-point advantage a few days after defeating Dortmund 2-1. We spent our weekend resting up ahead of a midweek cup Quarter Final against Freiburg.
LEVERKUSEN 2-2 SC FREIBURG (3-5 PSO) (DFB-Pokal – Quarter Final)
This pitted 4-4-2 diamond vs 4-4-2 diamond. Ours was more Anne than Neil in the first half, but the home fans were singing “Sweet Caroline” when captain Nowotny broke the deadlock in the 55th minute.
The music was quickly cut short when Alexander Iashvili thundered in a leveller for Freiburg a minute later. Our brief joy turned into total despair in the 75th minute, when a speculative effort from young Swiss defender Oumar Kondé put the visitors on the brink of victory.
However, Kondé went from hero to villain in stoppage time. A clumsy interception of Zé Roberto’s centre turned it into his own net. That stroke of luck forced extra-time, and later penalties.
Unfortunately, the man whose cross helped saved us in normal time was the same man who brought about our elimination. Zé Roberto put our second penalty wide, while Freiburg scored all five of theirs to end our DFB-Pokal hopes. The winning penalty was despatched by Florian Bruns, which – to be honest – sounds like Bart Simpson misreading his dad’s boss’s name.
After three straight defeats, we finished the year off with a home game against… Krankfurt? I… bad want… win now. Me sick.
LEVERKUSEN 2-0 FRANKFURT (Bundesliga – Match 15)
There we go. Kirsten might now be nearer his 40th birthday than his 30th, but he’s still got plenty about him. After being selflessly set up by his fresh-faced strike partner Henry, Old Man Ulf drove a neat finish past goalkeeper Oka Nikolov. The Macedonian gifted us a second goal shortly after the break, when his parry from Sigþórsson’s shot left Ponte with a simple finish.
Having snapped out of our pre-season rut, we were now back to within touching distance of the frontrunners. We were also back level on points with Frankfurt. (“IT’S KRANKFURT, STUPID!”)
So we finished 2000 just outside the Champions League places. And who would provide our first opponents in 2001?
JANUARY 2001
That’s right. Bayern, at home. And we had to play Ottmar Hitzfeld’s superstars without Nowotny, who’s suspended. This could be painful.
LEVERKUSEN 0-1 BAYERN MÜNCHEN (Bundesliga – Match 16)
This was painful, but not for the reasons I was expecting. Bayern started sluggishly and we had several chances to take the lead. Alas, Henry and stand-in skipper Kirsten were thwarted by visiting goalkeeper Oliver Kahn… no, sorry, I meant Jens Mustermann. Can’t be doing with having his lawyers on my back, now, can we?
At the other end, Giovane Elber was a pale shadow of the 34-goal beast he had been last season. Instead, the role of Leverkusen’s heartbreaker went to Bayern captain Stefan Effenberg, who drove in a jammy winner after 88 minutes.
Effenberg was one of the heroes of my CM Italia series with Fiorentina, and now he does this to me?! I thought you loved me, Stefan!
Normally, this stage of the season would see the Bundesliga break up for its winter break. However, we still had one more game left to play before reaching the halfway point. And so, two weeks later, we headed off to Wolfgang Wolf’s Wolfsburg, knowing that victory would lift us back into the top four.
WOLFSBURG 0-2 LEVERKUSEN (Bundesliga – Match 17)
This match saw a welcome return to action for Nowotny – and for some of our previously injured stars, including Neuville. It was an exhausting affair for both sides, but our Brazilian flair eventually won the day. Zé Roberto netted a fabulous free-kick in the 59th minute, about 11 minutes before Ronaldinho finally broke his Bayer duck.
Wolfsburg’s struggles against relegation continued, and a knee injury to defender Detlev Dammeier certainly didn’t do them any good. As far as we were concerned, we moved up to 3rd, thanks in part to another late win for Bayern against fellow high-flyers Frankfurt.
Hmm… we haven’t had any major injuries for at least three weeks. That can’t be right.
Oh, and the transfer window slammed shut, with no more new signings or departures to report. Bayern did try to prise Zé Roberto away for £15.5million – because they’re Bayern, obviously – but I’d sooner sell my grandmother to Uli Hoeneß. Forget it, Uli.
One player who looks like he’ll be leaving Leverkusen soon is Hejduk, whose contract expires in the summer. The American has rejected every contract offer I’ve given him so far, as Frankie wants £18,000-per-week wages that his performances – frankly – don’t warrant.
Hejduk won’t get the chance to change that any time soon, though, having twisted his ankle in training to set him back another month or two. How convenient.
Now let’s end this chapter with some surprising news regarding Zivkovic. For one thing, Boris hasn’t been injured, but also, he has won the Bundesliga’s Player of the Month award for January…
I told Hertha’s director of football Dieter Hoeneß that I wouldn’t accept any less than £10million to sell Boris to them in the summer. Dieter hasn’t responded yet. Those Hoeneß brothers… you’ve gotta love ’em.
So the DFB-Pokal has gone, but Leverkusen are still battling on two fronts. Can we reach the Champions League Quarter Finals and/or close the gap on Bayern in the Bundesliga? Please come back next week to see how we get on in the second half of the season.
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