It’s time for another installment of my Football Manager 2021 journeyman series, as Shama Deadman’s quest for another league title with Basel continues.
In the previous chapter, Basel’s defence of their Super League crown encountered a few problems, not least when it came to scoring. But a mid-season epiphany has led Shama to a tactical revamp, which he hopes will get ‘Die Bebbi’ firing again in the new year.
And as you’re about to find out, Shama has also been fairly busy in the January transfer market. He is leaving no stone unturned as he tries to keep those pesky Young Boys away from his silverware…
JANUARY TRANSFER WINDOW
Last time out, I wrote about my plans to switch to a 4-2-3-1 formation, which would hopefully get the most of our attacking potential. I had an epiphany after a quick glance at Jesper Sjögren‘s attributes, which showed that he was much better-suited to playing in attacking midfield rather than out wide or up front.
That formation screen above showed what our theoretical best XI looked like as we headed into the January transfer window. I was after at least two players – a combative ball-winning midfielder and a quality right-winger. A left-back would also be on my shopping list if either of our Spaniards – first-choice José Emiliano Cruz or his younger backup Javier Murillo – got poached.
But before we look at the players who joined Basel this winter, let’s say farewell to those who left…
After only selling one player in the summer, I conducted a much more brutal January clearout. The first man out was 32-year-old right-back Jordan Lotomba, who made an unlikely late-career move to Argentina after losing his place in the team.
Experienced midfield creators Salifou Diarrassouba and Nicolas Janvier also left after I decided to let them go on the cheap. The fans were particularly shocked to see Janvier leave after over 200 league appearances in seven-and-a-half years, but he was 32 now, and his performances weren’t justifying an early stay. I only wanted players who I could consistently rely upon.
One player I would rather not have seen leave, though, was Murillo. Tottenham inflicted another big loss on us after invoking the Spaniard’s release clause, basically leaving us powerless. But as much as it hurt to lose a wonderkid who was intelligent beyond his years, we still made a huge transfer profit after only paying Villarreal £950,000 for him in September 2029.
Brazilian midfielder Matheus went on loan once again, heading to Paços de Ferreira in Portugal’s top flight. Staying closer to home was young right-winger Manuel Wolf, who would get his first taste of regular Super League action, having joined Servette on loan just after his 18th birthday.
Our first new arrival was Arbnor Shala – a tough-tackling Albanian midfielder with a strong team ethic. Shala only joined Anderlecht last summer from Atalanta but was hardly given a chance in Belgium, playing in only one cup game. A tenacious ball-winner like him will surely be more at home in my team.
Next through the door was the explosive Turkey Under-21s winger Hikmet Gökmen, who completed an £18million move from Beşiktaş on his 19th birthday. With excellent crossing ability and plenty of teamwork, Hikmet is a significant upgrade on the enigmatic but injury-prone Matteo Santarsiero. Yes, that transfer fee’s a bit steep, but if he fulfils his potential, nobody will complain.
I then mulled over several left-backs before pulling the trigger on Vålerenga’s Vegard Larsen. The 20-year-old reads the game well and should provide stiff competition for Cruz, who has silenced his doubters (in other words, me) to become one of our most dependable performers.
Speaking of promising wing-backs, we recalled David Bröker from his loan at Austria Lustenau. The 18-year-old right-back wasn’t starting as often as I’d hoped he would in his homeland, so I brought him back to Basel, where he will serve as Damiano Manzella‘s new deputy following Lotomba’s exit.
I used our rejigged 4-2-3-1 tactic throughout the mid-season friendlies, as we looked to find form again. We started off at a training camp in Tunisia, where we worrying underperformed our xG in both friendlies – particularly against ES Sahel, where Hikmet just spared us from an embarrassing 0-0 draw!
But then things really did click in our next game. I’m sure Mr Federer would’ve raised smile when his team won 15-love against an amateur team called Töss! ELEVEN different players got on the scoresheet, and captain Alessandro Buongiorno scored an unlikely first-half hat-trick! Not bad for a centre-back, eh?
We recorded one more easy clean-sheet win, and then we were raring to go once again. Following a steady but unspectacular first half to the season, it was time to show everyone what Basel really were all about!
FEBRUARY & MARCH 2031
Our new system tore apart Lausanne in our first league match of 2031, as we scored thrice in the first 26 minutes before our visitors pinched a late consolation. A slightly trickier 2-0 victory at Neuchâtel Xamax was then followed by three more matches in February that encapsulated both the joy and the frustration of managing Basel.
Firstly, we returned to our old wasteful ways against 3rd-placed St Gallen. A load of chances went begging before we fell 2-0 behind, and though loanee striker Max Oskarsson halved the deficit, I still suffered my first defeat to ‘Die Espen’ in seven meetings. After that… well…
…we went and smashed FIVE past Young Boys! We fearlessly took the game to our title rivals, taking the lead through an own goal before Hikmet hammered in his first league goal. Ibric then ran riot in the second half, scoring a hat-trick to send us SEVEN points clear – AND overturn YB’s goal difference advantage!
And then, seven days later, we NEARLY LOST to rock-bottom Thun – who’d won just ONE league match all season! After catching a complacent Basel defence napping in the first minute, they then raced into a 3-1 lead early in the second half. Ibric and Santarsiero managed to save us a draw late on, but this was still an appalling performance!
Thankfully, we made amends with a clean sweep of league wins in March. After making hard work of both Luzern and Sion, we then showed our fighting spirit to come from behind and beat Zürich and Servette by 2-1 scorelines. New boy Hikmet played a pivotal part in both comebacks – are you watching, Matteo?
Meanwhile, a couple of slip-ups from YB meant we now had a clear TEN-point lead at the top – with just eight games to play. Surely a second title was now ours to lose?
We also made it through the first knockout round in the Europa League. After resolutely shutting out Real Sociedad 3-0 on aggregate (despite having Shala sent off late in the second leg), we set up an intriguing Round of 16 tie against Brendan Rodgers’ Lille.
‘Les Dogues’ dominated our home leg and scored early on, but our defence stayed pretty firm to ensure they only took a 1-0 lead back to France. Sjögren then levelled the aggregate scores before Lille missed a penalty, giving us hope of completing an unlikely comeback.
Unfortunately, our hosts were just too strong in extra-time. They grabbed a 92nd-minute winner to reach the Quarter Finals and end our fairytale.
Our Swiss Cup Quarter Final at home to Zürich was again played in the middle of the March internationals, leaving both teams short-staffed. 36-year-old Yvon Mvogo kept a clean sheet for Basel, as Ertan scored from a Hikmet cross to set up a Semi Final against Servette.
Hikmet had hit the ground running for ‘Die Bebbi’, providing four goals and EIGHT assists in his first 11 matches for an average rating of 7.45. The fans were already loving him… but the board were still crying about his transfer fee. Well, you can’t please everyone, I guess!
APRIL 2031
We needed to show our fighting spirit again in April. Things looked like going haywire when we fell behind at Lausanne early in the second half, thanks to his goal…
Captain Buongiorno made the perfect response, heading in a swift equaliser before Oskarsson came off the bench to complete another 2-1 comeback win. We then repeated the trick for a FOURTH time a fortnight later, recovering from a slow start to defeat St Gallen and eliminate them from title contention.
In between those results, we finally realised our full attacking potential. Neuchâtel Xamax had a player sent off shortly after Ibric’s 7th-minute opener, and though they kept the half-time scoreline down to 1-0, we blew them apart after the break. Five more goals from five different players completed a 6-1 demolition, which was my biggest league win with Basel…
…until our final game of the month, when we thumped Thun 6-0 to condemn them to relegation. Ibric scored twice, and the much-maligned Jean-Pierre Bodin was also on the scoresheet, but they were both upstaged by a hat-trick from Hikmet! The young Turk was now on FIFTEEN goal contributions in just 12 league matches!
We were now only three points away from retaining our title. Young Boys were on an impressive winning run themselves to keep their chances alive – but if we simply avoided defeat in our next match at the Wankdorf, we would be crowned champions with three games to spare!
That wouldn’t be our last visit to Bern this season, though. Two goals from Oskarsson saw off Servette in the Swiss Cup Semi Final…
…and set up a Final showdown with last year’s runners-up Lausanne on 14 May. As long as we didn’t leave our defence wide open again, ‘Die Bebbi’ would surely win a first domestic double since 2017!
YOUTH UPDATE
Before finishing this chapter, I just want to give you a quick little update on how some of Basel’s best young players are progressing. We’ve just had our latest youth intake, and there are a couple of promising wingers who stand out.
Our hottest prospect from the class of ’31 is Granit Kiqina – an athletic wideman who’s got great technical ability with either foot and also has a high work rate. Marvin Schelhorn is more of an out-and-out winger who’s got good dribbling skills and an excellent first touch, even if his mental ability doesn’t look too impressive yet.
Meanwhile, the most exciting talents from last year’s intake have made strong progress. Left-back Srđan Petrović, has made four substitute appearances in the league this term, and according to my assistant is already “operating at Super League level”. It probably won’t be too long before Petrović is seriously pushing both Cruz and Larsen for regular action.
And while Stefanos Arsenidis‘ attributes haven’t shot up quite as quickly as Srđan’s, he’s still impressed me as a selfless ball-winner. The German-Greek has played in nine senior games this season, making his first starts in our home games against Zürich in March. I just want to see him work on his physical strength before he takes that next step.
Worryingly, some of our best prospects in the Under-21s have not really kicked on. Perfectionist forward Theofanis Fortounis (17) has barely improved, while playmaker Dragutin Ljubicic (18) has actually regressed slightly. I think it’s because the Under-21s team don’t have any league matches and play exclusively in friendlies. In hindsight, they would probably have been better off either staying in the Under-18s or going out on loan.
Lastly, here’s how our top loanees are doing. You might’ve noticed straight away that Alex Rácz has had an excellent season with Győr, who are right in the thick of a title battle. Rácz has also been capped by Hungary and probably looks like an even better right-back prospect than Bröker.
Wolf has had a stop-start half-season at Servette, scoring three goals before being forced to miss a month with a broken arm. Sadly, the talented winger has been constantly disrupted by injuries, which have stunted his development and also shattered his Bravery attribute. As a result, Wolfman now has the resolute fearlessness of Ulrika Jonsson.
As for our other two Super League loanees, Sam Lee and Matthias Wagner have been solid if not spectacular for Xamax. Meanwhile, Noah Micha Liechti has struggled to shore up a leaky Thun defence that has conceded at a rate of over two goals per game.
By contrast, Kosovo playmaker Fatmir Halili has been one of the top performers in Germany’s second division, shining in midfield for relegation-threatened Rostock. I’ve also been impressed by Dennis Zaugg, who’s netted 10 goals in Belgium’s top tier and has helped Sint-Truiden into the European play-offs.
Can Basel wrap up a second consecutive Super League title and lift the Swiss Cup to complete a domestic double? Please come back on Thursday for the 2030/2031 season finale – and possibly the final chapter of the series!
Thanks for reading!
Fuller FM 
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