THE SCENARIO: It is July 2016. Thomas Tuchel has stunningly resigned his position as Borussia Dortmund coach after just one season, reportedly in frustration at the club’s decision to allow Mats Hummels, Ilkay Gundogan, and Henrikh Mkhitaryan to leave this summer. German coach Dirk Lieber has been appointed as his successor but will he be able to challenge Bayern Munich’s supremacy in German football, or will the team from Westphalia have to settle for second place yet again?

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1 July 2016

Aki Watzke and Michael Zorc have summoned me for a meeting to discuss their objectives for this season. Needless to say, I hope they are realistic because my predecessor did have a point when he said it would be impossible to challenge Bayern this season after losing three key players. The fact that Bayern themselves received one of those key players (our captain, no less) merely emphasises the difficulty.

Zorc explains that they want us to win the league this season, and I laugh nervously, hoping this is a joke. The lack of laughter from anyone else tells me that it is not. So much for being realistic. They also want us to make the last four of the Champions League and the last eight of the DFB Pokal. I ask half-jokingly if they have that the wrong way around, because surely it’s easier to make the last four of the Cup than the Champions League right? The lack of laughter from anyone else tells me that no, they haven’t got this the wrong way around.

The transfer budget is about €80 million, but with so many new signings already I’ll only spend the money if there is an urgent need to.

Borussia Dortmund Squad

(*) indicates new signing

Goalkeepers: Hendrik Bonmann, Roman Burki, Roman Weidenfeller

Defenders: Marc Bartra*, Sven Bender, Matthias Ginter, Erik Durm, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Felix Passlack, Lukasz Piszczek, Marcel Schmelzer

Midfielders: Gonzalo Castro, Ousmane Dembele*, Mario Gotze*, Raphael Guerreiro*, Shinji Kagawa, Mikel Merino*, Emre Mor*, Christian Pulisic, Marco Reus, Sebastian Rode*, Nuri Sahin, Andre Schurrle*, Julian Weigl

Forwards: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang,

Loaned Out: Adrian Ramos, Pascal Stenzel, Neven Subotic

Available for Loan: Jacob Bruun Larsen, Dzenis Burnic, Patrick Fritsch, Alexander Isak, Dominik Reimann, David Sauerland

Transfer Listed: Park Joo Ho

With only one specialist striker in the squad, I need to sign another to take some of the burden off Aubameyang. Whoever we end up signing will need to be good enough to play in place of the Gabon striker, but also be humble enough to sit on the bench at times.

As for outgoings, I decide to transfer list defender Park Joo Ho to create more opportunities for the promising Felix Passlack. I have nothing against the Korean, but I want to encourage the development of my younger players.

7 July 2016

Russian side FC Tom Tomsk make on offer to take young defender Patrick Fritsch on loan for the season, and we accept.

13 July 2016

This year, we’re travelling down under to Australia for pre-season to take part in the somewhat generically named Invitational Cup. I’m not sure if German clubs have a strong following over there, but this is a great opportunity to build our presence there and get the players fit for the start of the new season. We’ll play French champions PSG, local team Western Sydney Wanderers, and Manchester City in our three group matches. If we finish in the top two in the group, we’ll move on to the semi-finals.

Meanwhile, we’ve identified Leverkusen’s Javier Hernandez as our number one target for the other striker’s role. The Mexican scored 26 goals last season, showing he can do the business in the Bundesliga. He’s also a low ego, team first player judging from his time at Manchester United and Real Madrid. An initial bid of €25 million is rejected by Leverkusen who want €34 million, so we submit a counter offer of €32 million for him.

16 July 2016

Borussia Dortmund vs PSG

Our first match of the tournament against PSG ends in a draw, despite PSG playing with ten men after Presnel Kimpembe is somewhat harshly sent off in the first half. Schürrle gives us the lead shortly after his dismissal, beating Kevin Trapp at his near post. In the second half, PSG grab an equaliser as Angel Di Maria pounces on Sokratis’ miscued clearance to score. Despite having an extra man, we don’t really look like scoring the winner and in the end a draw is probably a fair result.

FIFA 17 Borussia Dortmund Opponent Lineup

FIFA 17 Borussia Dortmund Player Ratings

19 July 2016

Western Sydney Wanderers vs Borussia Dortmund

Our next match is against Australian side Western Sydney Wanderers. We make our superiority count in this one, creating plenty of chances and not giving them a single shot on goal. Guerreiro gives us an early lead, sweeping home a lay-off by Aubameyang before Reus doubles the advantage in the 22nd minute. Substitute Schürrle helps himself to a brace in the last ten minutes to round off the scoring.

21 July 2016

Leverkusen have finally responded to our offer for Hernandez, and they’ve accepted it. Ultimately, €32 million for a striker approaching 30 was too good to turn down. After a few discussions, both the player and his agent agree to wages of €100k per week. It’s a lot of money, but I’m confident that we’ll reap the benefits. Wilkommen in Dortmund, Chicharito!

As we announce the signing of the Mexican striker, we also announce that young goalkeeper Dominik Reimann will join English team Exeter City on a season-long loan.

22 July 2016

Borussia Dortmund vs Manchester City

Our last group game is against Manchester City, now managed by former Bayern coach Pep Guardiola. He names plenty of young players in his lineup including goalkeeper Angus Gunn. He frustrates us with some fine saves before Kagawa makes the breakthrough in the 27th minute. The Japanese adds another goal in the second half, sliding home after great play from Dembele on the right hand side. Aubameyang makes it 3-0 shortly after that to give us a comfortable win which means we qualify for the semi-finals as group winners. Our opponents will be another English team, Arsenal, while the other semi-final will be contested by PSG and Italian champions Juventus.

24 July 2016

Borussia Dortmund vs Arsenal

We start the semi-final brightly and take the lead through Sahin following a corner from Reus. Arsenal almost equalise but Weidenfeller makes a good double save from Theo Walcott. We score a second goal on the stroke of half-time as Götze outjumps Walcott to score a header from Reus’ corner. In the second half, Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny heads into his own net after Sven Bender hits the bar from, you guessed it, a Reus corner. It finishes 3-0, and we now play Juventus in the final after they defeated PSG on penalties in their semi-final.

26 July 2016

Borussia Dortmund vs Juventus

So far in pre-season, we’ve been playing well, creating lots of chances, and winning most of our matches. One major worry is that Aubameyang hasn’t looked sharp in front of goal. He finally comes to life in the final against Juventus, scoring a hat-trick as we defeat them 4-1. First he taps in a cross from Piszczek and is unlucky not to be credited with our second goal when his header crashes off the underside of the bar and goes in via Juve defender Alex Sandro. The Italians then pull one back on the stroke of half-time through Gonzalo Higuain. Aubameyang restores our two goal advantage with a header in the 53rd minute, and completes his hat-trick in injury time with another header. Overall, this has been a great pre-season and we make the long trip home in good spirits.