In the first part of our attempt at the Sir Alex Ferguson Challenge, we took control of Nottingham Forest on 6 November 2022 and just about kept them in the Premier League in an exciting final-day relegation fight. Now a big rebuild was required to strengthen an under-par and bloated squad.
Relegation favourites SV Dessau 05 were performing above expectations to sit outside the drop zone of German Division North East - South. But Ruprecht Prusseit's young side were far from secure in the fifth tier, especially considering an increasingly concerning financial situation.
Ruprecht Prusseit came into the summer of 2024 unsure of whether to continue the work he'd started at SV Dessau 05 or seek pastures new. He'd worked wonders to keep Dessau in the fifth tier with a bunch of high-potential but low-current-ability teenagers and the club's finances were a huge concern.
With Football Manager 2023 nearly done and dusted, I was running out of save ideas having completed all my long-term series. But I took inspiration from a few of the lads on the FM Library, who'd all taken on the intriguing-looking challenge to emulate the achievements of arguably the greatest football manager of all time, Sir Alex Ferguson.
Newly promoted SV Dessau 05 found themselves locked in a tough battle to survive in tier five of German football. And survival looked a tough ask with just a three-point gap to the bottom three.
Ruprecht Prusseit had enjoyed unexpected success in his first season as a Football Manager, leading SV Dessau 05 to an unexpected promotion led by the incredible goalscoring exploits of star striker Branden Stelmak. But the hard work began now as his semi-professional side made the step up to tier five with his only three paid players departing the club, leaving him with a bunch of kids to work with.
Striker Branden Stelmak was proving far too good for the bottom tier of German football, and so it proved as he went on to plunder an incredible 69 goals for SC Dessau 05!
Ruprecht Prusseit – which translates to “Robert a Prussian” – fell into football management when he picked up a nasty ankle injury during a Sunday League match near his home in Dresden. And local success saw him chance his arm at becoming a real Football Manager.
In OstDeutscher Sieg (East German Victory) we can only manage football teams based in former East Germany. Our aim is to become the first-ever Bundesliga champion to hail from the former Soviet-ruled area by working our way from the bottom to the top of the German football system.
As the clock ticked over to 2042, Robinho Lazaró called off his time at Envigado, standing down as a true legend of the club. He'd taken a club from relegation favourites in 2021 to becoming one of the best teams in South America, purely using homegrown talents from the Envigado Wonderkid Factory.
Football Manager Addict 