Trebor Mahtal led Hannover 96 clear of any relegation concerns as he returned to Germany for the first time in 24 years. But, going into the summer of 2070, the experienced Zambian manager knew he was under pressure to propel Hannover to the upper reaches of 2. Bundesliga.
Indeed, he’d already signed several players who demanded the club gain promotion in the 2070/71 season, and more new signings would do the same. Mahtal sold several backup players for £16m, including backup striker Manuel Merino to Celta for £10m, giving him a transfer kitty of £50m.
Mahtal moved quickly to nail down a few targets led by centre back/defensive midfielder Finn-Patrick Menkhaus, who was available for just £6m due to St. Pauli’s relegation, left back Nicoló Pellegrini for £7m from Como and highly rated striker Daniel Ríos for up to £9m from Argentinos. He also brought in right back Adrian Sobon for £3m from Lech, centre back Pedro Bolivar for £2m from Alianza, goalkeeper Mads Jensen Kastrup for £1.1m from Bohemians and brilliantly named midfielder Oskar Hammer for £1m from Haugesund.
Mahtal hadn’t been fully comfortable with last season’s 4-2-3-1 approach, so it should come as no surprise that he had a change of approach in mind. And, considering they had three of the best centre backs in the league, he decided to plug in the 3-5-2 approach that worked so nicely at Gamba, with a few subtle tweaks. Menkhaus was ideal for the libero that Mahtal hankered for at Gamba, so he slots in alongside Bolivar and Hiroshi Nagai with 16-year-old starlet Werner Esters anchoring the midfield in front of them. Winger Pelle Neuwirt will retrain to play alongside Kevin Sanz in midfield with Yanis Hardy ideal for the deep-lying forward role alongside Jorge González.
Tough Start to First Full Season at Hannover
The German bookies rated Mahtal’s summer transfer business, predicting Hannover to finish 3rd with 7/2 title odds. Relgated Schalke are 1/16 favourites along with Fortuna Dusseldorf (10/3), relegated Karlsruhe (11/2), Nurnberg (7/1), Rot-Weiss Essen (17/2) and Holstein Kiel (18/1). And Menkhaus and González are among the media dream 11.
Mahtal faced a tough start in his first full season, playing all the top seven favourites for the league in the first ten games. They started well as young midfielder Leandro Gudra’s first senior goal secured a 2-0 win at home to Kaiserslautern. González and Sanz nicked a 2-2 at Karlsruhe, Nagai and Sobón’s first goals for the club earned a 1-1 at home to Kiel and a 1-0 at Union Berlin before Sanz’s assist hat trick and a brace by young midfielder Munayaradzi Musikiri, who sadly then broke his leg in training, nicked a 4-3 thriller at home to Osnabruck. González’s first-half strike nicked another 1-0 away win at Nurnberg before welcoming favourites Schalke and falling to a narrow 1-0 defeat.
González got them back on track with a brace leading a 4-2 win at Ingolstadt, and Menkhaus’ penalty, Gudra and Sobon led an impressive 3-1 win over Düsseldorf to take Hannover top of the table for the first time after 10 games. Jensen Kastrup was MOTM on debut in a 1-0 win over Darmstadt, and Hannover continued to fly in the new system, only losing 3-1 at Hamburg. That took them into the winter break level at the top on 39 points with Schalke, with a 9-point gap back to Düsseldorf in 3rd.
Promotion Push Continues
Mahtal strengthened his midfield in January, bringing in wonderkid Jonny Menabó for £2.9m from Napoli and 18-year-old Shigeharu Shimada for £4.5m from Albirex Niigata.
Hannover began 2071 with Hardy’s brace and Rios’ first league goal ensuring a dominant 3-1 win at home to Karlsruhe. Menabó bagged a debut goal to nick a late win at Kaiserslautern, before three successive draws oddly took them top as Schalke drew two and lost one. That teed up a big trip to Schalke in late February, but Hannover didn’t show up and were lucky to only lose 3-1.
Rios and Nagai got them back on track with a win over Ingolstadt before a González brace off the bench earned a 3-1 victory over Paderborn, managed by Mahtal’s former Valencia defender Jason Bettenstaedt, to take Hannover top and 3 points clear of Schalke. Next up was a trip to 3rd-place Düsseldorf and a dull 0-0 kept Hannover 7 points clear of them with seven games remaining. Menkhaus and González earned a comfortable 2-0 win over struggling Sandhausen and Pelle Neuwirt nicked a point at Darmstadt. That left Hannover top of the league going into the final five games, 2 points clear of Schalke, 8 clear of Düsseldorf and 11 clear of Hamburg.
Game 1 – VfL Bochum (18th, home): Hannover began the run-in with the strikeforce of Ríos and González earning an easy 2-0 victory. Schalke drew 3-3 at home to Essen and Hamburg lost 1-0 at 5th place Nurnberg, which saw Hannover open up a 4-point gap at the top.
Game 2 – Rot-Weiss Essen (12th, away): Hannover confirmed at least a top-three finish as a rare goal by Sanz, who was learning to play at right wing back, and an own goal secured another 2-0 win. Schalke drew at Hamburg, Düsseldorf lost 4-3 at Darmstadt, and Nürnberg won 1-0 at Heidenheim, to take Hannover 6 points clear with three to play.
Game 3 – Hamburg (5th, home): They could confirm promotion and the league title with a point against Hamburg, who’d fallen apart at the end of the season. The two teams played out a dire 0-0 but Schalke also drew 1-1 before Düsseldorf thumped Bochum 5-0.
Game 4 – Heidenheim (7th, away): Hannover just needed a point from their final two games to secure the title. Another edgy game followed and looked destined for another 0-0 until a pretty dodgy penalty decision, only for Maksim Boromisa to make a huge save. The goalkeeper’s exceptional performance seemed to be earning the title, which was confirmed as a deep corner was powered home by Bolívar to secure an undeserved victory. And, fittingly, Boromisa went on to lift the league trophy.
Hannover won 2. Bundesliga!
Hannover won the title by 3 points from Schalke, finishing on 72 points after 21 wins, 9 draws and 4 defeats, scoring just 55, which was 29 fewer than Schalke, and only conceding 26. Boromisa kept a league-high 17 clean sheets, 4 more than anyone else, but none of their attackers threatened the leaderboards.
Preparing Hannover for Bundesliga
Mahtal was delighted to have secured promotion but was concerned by the side’s lack of goals. Indeed, González led the way with 14 in 31 and was the only player to reach double figures, with Ríos scoring 7 in 29 and right wing back Sobon 6 in 28. Hardy led the way with 14 assists, but was poor at the end of the season and was also the only player to reach double figures.
One thing they certainly had in abundance at Hannover was potential, with 10 players of 4.5-star potential or more. That was recognised as Esters came 21st in NxGn 2071 followed by Menkhaus 27th and Sobon 34th, and Mahtal moved quickly to bring in more exciting new additions in the summer.
But would those new additions be good enough to keep Hannover in Bundesliga? Join us on Monday to find out!
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