Pentagon Pursuit | Part 41 | Huge Record Signing

VfB Stuttgart enjoyed a strong season but found themselves well short of a relentless Bayern, who’d now won 30 Bundesliga titles on the bounce. So Robaato Rasamu felt changes were needed to attempt to close the gap in his third season in Germany.

The best thing about managing in Germany was the huge finances available. Stuttgart began the 2042/43 campaign with £200m in the bank and a £90m transfer kitty, quadruple that available when Rasamu joined the club two years ago. That was boosted as 28-year-old midfielder Moriké Kanté, who wanted outrageous money to stay, joined Roma for £22.5m.

In his place came a couple of potential superstars as Rasamu shelled out a new club record £79m on Dutch centre back Lars Haasnoot from Feeyenoord and snapped up Ukrainian midfielder Serhiy Mazurenko for £17m from Dynamo Kyiv. Joining them were 18-year-old Brazilian midfielder Ricardo Mendes on a free from Ferroviária, centre back Brent Breukhoven for £10.5m from Utrecht and goalkeeper Milos Jorgic for £750k from Novi Pazar.

Rasamu initally continued with his 4-2-3-1 but had been working on a three at the back formation that allowed him to best utilise Marcus Johannson, Hashem Salari and Haasnoot.

Formation Change Sparks Fine Form

Rasamu’s transfers had enhanced the bookies’ expectations as they were named joint-third favourites to win Bundesliga at 25/1 with Leipzig. Bayern will win the league again and are 2/9 to do so with Dortmund second-favourites at a ludicrously long 15/1.

Star winger Ángel Galeano had been out for nine months with a cruciate injury but made his return in the season opener at home to Augsburg. And he did so in style, bagging a brace alongside Mazurenko scoring on his league debut in a 3-0 victory. He scored again then got injured in a 2-1 defeat in Stuttgart’s first away day at Leverkusen.

That coincided with an undulating start to the campaign that saw them already 10 points behind Bayern, who’d won nine out of nine, as they hosted them in early November. Stuttgart again caused the perennial champions problems with holding midfielder Pereira unleashing a 25-yarder inside four minutes. Bayern offered nothing in the first half but levelled up as Bracamonte teed up fellow former Paranaense man Saavedra. But that was enough to at least stop Bayern doing a 100% season and maintain Rasamu’s unbeaten record against the champions.

Rasamu first unleashed the three-man defence at Koln and it started superbly as striker Dejan Vujicic’s hat trick and Galeano’s assist treble led a 7-2 hammering. They didn’t look back from there with some really strong performances in the new shape, including a 4-1 win at Leipzig and a 5-1 victory at home to Kaiserslautern. That strong form saw them jump up to 2nd, still 10 points the absolutely relentless Bayern who’d won every game apart from the one they drew at Stuttgart. Galeano is the second-top scorer in Bundesliga with 10 goals in 12 games with Vujicic just behind him on eight in 11.

Champions League Qualification

Stuttgart’s run of lucky draws ended as they took on Ajax in the Champions League third qualifying round. Ajax got a nonsense penalty early in the first leg but Rasamu made half time tweaks that worked wonders as Mazurenko volleyed them level on his debut and Kenan Nuhic put them in front, only for Ajax to equalise in injury time. Back in Germany, the first half was dreadful but Salari headed Stuttgart in front thanks to some awful defending. And that was enough to edge a really low quality affair.

Next up was Shakhtar, starting with a trip to Ukraine. Stuttgart totally dominated the game but just couldn’t finish their chances until an unlikely goal from right back Armando Carrasco, who flicked a near post corner into the far top corner. A similar story was developing at home, as Shakhtar took the lead without having a shot on target. But winger Spasoje Kocic and his replacement Henrik Bek Hansen ensured comfortable progression to the league phase.

Their reward was an interesting set of fixtures that included trips to PSG and Barcelona and began with three must-win games. The league phase began with another pretty uninspiring performance as Stuttgart bossed the game against Kobenhavn but snuck a 1-0 through young striker Thomas Wieland. They weren’t much better as Vujicic nicked a 1-1 at PSV but played well in Serbia to beat Crvena Zvezda 2-0 with goals by Mazurenko and Galeano.

A few days after drawing with Bayern, Stuttgart faced a trip to a veteran PSG side. They played out a dreadful match devoid of any quality until substitute Bek Hansen popped up with a 92nd-minute winner. Another tough game saw them host Newcastle, who have the best player in the world Luismi Marrero up front. Stuttgart starred well, went behind against the run of play but levelled up as Haasnoot headed home a corner to earn a point.

That made a home game against Young Boys a must-win. Stuttgart made a bright start and got the breakthrough as Vujicic won and converted a pretty questionable penalty. They totally dominated only to allow Young Boys to score their first shot but finally got their reward as Wieland headed home Mendes’ wonderful cross in the 93rd minute. But how they didn’t win by four or five, Rasamu wasn’t sure. That win secured at least the playoff round and left Stuttgart 4th in the group with two tough games remaining.