“I got my first real Swiss team! Took the offer just in time! Now I’m with the blue and red! Twas the summer of ’29!”
Welcome back to my Football Manager 2021 journeyman series with Shama Deadman! In the last chapter, we saw Shama lead his Győr team into the final stages of an epic battle for the Hungarian league title.
Now, he’s decided to leave Hungary behind (which is probably a wise decision given recent events) and pursue a new challenge in Switzerland! Today, we’ll have our first look at the challenge awaiting him at Basel. Is he in heaven… or has he been reckless?
CLUB 4: BASEL
My career has taken me to the Welsh valleys, the Portuguese coast, and industrial Hungary… but now I’m in the picturesque surroundings of north-west Switzerland. Situated on the River Rhone, the city of Basel is right on the borders with France and Germany. This is home to around 175,000 people (who mostly speak German), including the 20-time Grand Slam tennis champion Roger Federer.
FC Basel 1893 was founded in… well, you can guess the year. One of their first players was a businessman named Hans Max Gamper-Haessig, also known as Joan Gamper. He later moved to Catalonia and started a little club named FC Barcelona, who adopted the same red-and-blue kit colours as Basel in honour of his old team. Or so the legend goes.
Basel won their first Swiss Cup in 1933 by defeating Grasshoppers Zürich, with whom they would form a long-standing rivalry. A first Swiss league championship followed exactly two decades later in 1953, and ‘Die Bebbi’ would go on to celebrate their first domestic Double in 1966/1967.
Basel were the outstanding Swiss team of the following decade, winning six more league championships between 1969 and 1980 under their long-serving coach Helmut Benthaus. However, the German’s departure two years later sparked a steady decline, which ended in relegation to the second division in 1988. They wouldn’t return to the top flight until 1994.
The club’s fortunes turned around in the late 1990s, when they received significant financial investment and then appointed Christian Gross as manager. Gross lasted rather longer and enjoyed more success at Basel than he had at Tottenham – they regained the league title in 2002 and would soon establish themselves as the best team in the country.
Gross left in 2009, just before Basel entered an unprecedented spell of domestic dominance. They won EIGHT consecutive Swiss Super League titles between 2010 and 2017 – a run that was eventually broken by Young Boys in 2018.
Hailing from the capital city of Bern, Young Boys have since bettered that streak by winning 11 titles out of the last 12. That monopoly was briefly broken in 2025/2026, when former Leicester left-back Bruno Berner led Basel to their 21st league championship. (Berner left Basel a year later to manage Köln.)
The last three seasons have seen Basel drop off the pace – finishing 4th, 2nd and then 4th again. They were a whopping 17 points adrift of Young Boys last season, which led to Miralem Ibrahimovic losing his job, despite leading them to victory against Servette in the Swiss Cup Final. And that’s where I come in!
Our home is St Jakob-Park – or ‘Joggeli’, as the locals call it. With a capacity of 38,512, it is the largest football stadium in Switzerland and is often used by the national team for their matches.
We also have some of the very best training facilities and youth systems the country has to offer. Several outstanding players have emerged from the Basel academy this century, including Ivan Rakitić, Xherdan Shaqiri and, er, Granit Xhaka. More recently, the club has made huge money through developing and selling wonderkids such as Benfica striker Edon Bunjaki (19) and Atlético Madrid playmaker Patrício Agualusa (20).
So… how much money do Basel have now?
Bucketloads! With over £100million in the bank, we surely have more than enough to get ourselves back to the top. Young Boys are pretty filthy rich themselves and have built a formidable dynasty, but there aren’t many other clubs who can realistically compete with Switzerland’s current ‘big two’.
BACKROOM STAFF
Unsurprisingly, I inherited a club that already had one of the strongest backroom set-ups in the Super League. Even so, I still wanted to stamp my own mark on Basel by bringing over several of my colleagues from Győr.
Obviously, I had to keep the Welsh Modfather himself – ‘Captain’ Ceri Morgan – as my assistant. Sadly, none of my other Cambrian old boys (or girl) were quite as ready to follow us to Switzerland, and decided to stay at Győr instead. In fact, Jarrad Wright was promoted to assistant manager by my successor at ETO Park, so he’s clearly going places!
Goalkeeping coach Zsolt Sebők and defensive coach Lajos Szekeres were among those who did make the move. They aren’t world-class by any means, but I know them very well and trust them to do good jobs at Basel. I also kept several staff members from the old regime, including Luis Suàrez – a Spanish fitness coach who has never bitten another person, as far as I know.
I still had some spots left to fill, so I brought in former Valencia winger Vicente as a scout. He has a wide knowledge of football, having won the UEFA Cup with ‘Los Murciélagos’, represented Spain at Euro 2004, and played alongside Ashley Barnes at Brighton!
Vicente came to us from Slovakia, as did Milan Suchomel, who looks like an incredible technical coach. And as someone who always likes to give opportunities to female staff members, I was delighted to welcome Czech coach Helena Blahova to our Under-21s set-up from Slovan Liberec.
TRANSFER WINDOW
After settling into my new job, I had a mini-clearout of the youth teams – selling a few youngsters who didn’t have enough potential, and loaning out some of our more exciting prospects. I also made £6million off Young Boys through selling a backup striker who didn’t fit into my tactical plans.
Those sales sent my transfer budget over £50million, but I wasn’t ready to throw my money around like a reality TV star at Harrods. There were a couple of complications that meant I had to hold fire.
Firstly, team dynamics. The previous Basel manager signed seven new players in January, which meant that Team Cohesion was barely at a ‘Good’ level. The last thing this team needed was yet more upheaval. I’ve been there before; NEVER again!
Also, homegrown rules are a major issue when it comes to Europe. We currently only have ONE first-team player who counts as being ‘trained at club’, though three others are due to become fully homegrown next year. In order to meet the registration rules, I’ve had to leave two senior players out of our European squad, and I’m hoping to find new clubs for them soon.
Anyway, my first signing was obviously going to come from my former club. We needed a backup covering centre-half, and Eduard Ciubotaru fitted the bill nicely. He’s quick, mentally strong, still young enough to improve… and his Győr contract had a release clause of just £575,000. (Sorry, guys.)
I am considering signing one or two more of my younger Győr stars in the near future. Midfielder Vitaly Botvinjev and winger Csaba Katona are on my radar… but as much as I’d love to sign Simão Rocha for a third time, I fear that the popular Portuguese left-back will be completely out of his depth at this level.
I also looked to Hungary for my second purchase. 17-year-old Alex Rácz is a ‘driven’ right-back from Honvéd who was already on my shortlist. I’m very excited about this lad’s potential and will be following his progress closely in the Under-21s.
There’s still a good six weeks left in the transfer window, and I’m planning to bring in several more high-potential youngsters before it shuts. In terms of senior players, I’m still searching for a left-back and a centre-forward. I tried to bring a 32-year-old Breel Embolo back home to Basel after his contract at Bologna expired… but he signed for Real Zaragoza instead. Dagnabbit.
SQUAD REPORT
If you’ve read this story before, you know the drill. It’s time to meet my new squad…
I’ve got two reliable goalkeepers to choose from. Yvon Mvogo has vast experience and is technically very skilled, but he’s a bit slow and eccentric, so I’ll likely prefer the agility and spirit of Philipp Köhn. This is perhaps an area that we could upgrade in the future, but I’m happy to stick with these two for now. Then again, I did go through about seven different keepers in four years at Győr, so never say never!
Left-back José Emiliano Cruz is one of the Young Boys old boys who defected to Basel earlier this year. The 23-year-old Spaniard is rapid, resolute and would be captaincy material… except that he “doesn’t feel comfortable playing in big matches”.
At right-back, we have a couple of Swiss internationals. Stéphane Bahi is younger and more defensive-minded, while the more experienced Jordan Lotomba is very potent going forward and can also play on the left. Backup David Ranzoni is some way behind them in the pecking order.
Though their reports say that they are full-backs, Alessandro Buongiorno and Jan Bamert are a long-standing central defensive partnership. Buongiorno has played nearly 250 league games for Basel since 2021 and was appointed captain in 2027. Bamert arrived two years after his partner and is very similar in most departments, except that he is much less determined.
Regular readers will already know about Ciubotaru, who will provide defensive cover alongside United States international Ilan Sauter. Ilan is a competent ball-playing defender who has spent his entire career in Switzerland, but he also lacks determination and could be sold if a good offer arrives.
Vincent Barbier can also play at centre-half, but his aggression, stamina and ball-playing skills are better-served in defensive midfield. His main rival in that role is 20-year-old Raul Quevedo, who came from the academy and looks like gifted deep-lying playmaker.
One of our star men is Alexandre Jankewitz. Now in his fifth season at ‘Joggeli’, Alex can play pretty much anywhere in midfield (and even up front) and has many of the attributes I want in a box-to-box midfielder. Simon Sohm and Burak Alili are adequate alternatives, but I might try to sell one of them to make space for Brazilian-born academy boy Matheus.
I have a big dilemma in attacking midfield – should Nicolas Janvier or Salifou Diarrassouba start? Janvier has incredible technique and is another club stalwart, having signed from Fulham six years ago. But Salifou is our vice-captain and was in sensational form last season, providing 26 goals and 20 assists in 55 matches!
Inverted left-winger Sead Hakšabanović is a flamboyant wind-up merchant who Basel fans love… and rival supporters love to hate. He faces stiff competition from rising star Jean-Pierre Bodin, who has a deft first touch and can cross to devastating effect.
Out on the right wing, we have 23-year-old Pierfrancesco Landi, whose pace, vision and resilience have attracted interest from some big clubs. If Landi leaves in the near future, we have a ready-made replacement in Matteo Santarsiero, who apparently has the potential to become even better if he can overcome his injury demons.
And lastly, we have a couple of 19-year-olds leading the attack. Lifelong Basel boy Ertan Yalçın is a strong deep-lying forward who shows composure and intelligence beyond his years – a genuinely exciting talent! Meanwhile, out-and-out striker Dennis Zaugg could be a menace with his explosive pace and dribbling skills.
I’m slowly getting to grips with my team’s strengths and weaknesses, but based on our technical skills, I believe Basel are more suited to a possession-based style of play than my usual counter-attacking approach.
With that in mind, these are the basic tactics I’ll be using during the early stages of my Basel tenure. The 4-2-3-1 will probably be our main system for those matches where we are the favourites (so most of our league games). The 4-3-3 will likely come out for those trickier matches in Europe and against Young Boys, where our defence will need a little more protection.
Having spent nine years working in weaker leagues where no-frills direct football is king, I’m still a bit of a novice when it comes to building more… sophisticated tactics. Please feel free to rip my tactics apart if I’m doing anything that obviously won’t work.
PRE-SEASON & EXPECTATIONS
Things have started positively, as we went through an unbeaten pre-season, even after playing some pretty tough opponents. It began with us comfortably beating rivals Grasshoppers, who were relegated to the Challenge League last season. After that was a hard-fought draw at Spartak Moscow, who really tested our defence before finally cancelling out Zaugg’s opener.
Our best performance, though, was definitely the 4-0 home win over Rennes. Yeah, they left out many of their best players, but we still dominated the 9th-best team in Ligue 1 and sliced through their defence like it was nothing!
There are 10 teams in the Swiss Super League, who play each other four times for a total of 36 games. The top two teams will enter the Champions League qualifiers, and 3rd place will go into the Europa League – IF either of the sides above them win the Swiss Cup.
Basel have been priced at 4-1 to win the title, while Young Boys are unsurprisingly the odds-on favourites at 10-11. FC Zürich and St Gallen finished 2nd and 3rd last season respectively and are perhaps the only other teams who can consistently challenge the big boys.
We enter the Europa League in Qualifying Round 3, where I believe we will face either AEK Athens, PAOK Salonika or FC Nordsjælland. Defeat in the early rounds would relegate us into the Europa Conference League, where Basel got to the Round of 16 last season.
Bearing all that in mind, meeting our objectives might not be that easy, even with a Scrooge McDuck-esque money vault to swim in. I’m well aware that this job is “high risk, high reward” – making Basel champions again would give me a huge reputation boost, but failure could put me out of work very quickly.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this 2029/2030 season review. I’ll be back next week, as Shama’s new life with Basel officially begins in Part 40, which will cover the first half of the campaign. (I cannot promise there’ll be no more Bryan Adams parodies, but I’ll try my best!)
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Thanks for reading!
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