[FM19] It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

[Captain_al]

🎅It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! 🎅

WELCOME TO  Gällivare


Gällivare is the small Arctic town 100 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle!
Better known for hosting the "Santa Winter Games" and mining, Gällivare is a remote town in the northernmost part of the province of Lapland, Sweden.
With the exception of Kiruna it is the most northern significant Swedish settlement.

The CLUB
After many years of discussion the football team of Gällivare Sportklubb was merged with Malmbergets Allmänna Idrottsförening at the end of the 2005 season and the new club is now called Gällivare-Malmbergets Fotbollsförening. Since their foundation in 2005 they have participated in the Swedish football league system.

In real life, they have just been relegated to Divison 3 Norrland. But I pick them up here in game during December 2018. Just in time for CHRISTMAS! near Santa's adopted home! We will be competing in division 2 Norrland (the 5th tier of Swedish football).



THE MANAGER

The 30 year old Scottish manager is within his first year in the senior game. Having relocated to Denmark in January 2018, amateurs TPI (Tarup-Paarup Idrætsforening) of the danish div 2 gave him an entry into the game. With only sunday league experience to draw upon, this first season would've been a valuable learning curve. Leaving the Danes just off foot of the table. The manager is currently studying for a National B License.

[Deego619]

Good luck, hopefully you can make Lapland a fortress! Any key players?

[HoldiiiFM]

Good luck, this is a unique challenge!

[Captain_al]

14 minutes ago, JDeeguain said:

Good luck, hopefully you can make Lapland a fortress! Any key players?

Thanks, not yet. Still finding my feet in the lower Scandinavian divisions. Once season gets going i'll do an overview of squad and any transfers.

I'm unlikely to most too many heavy updates but I hope my career will be varied and interesting enough to keep people checking back.

The location and timing (both in game and IRL) seemed deserving of a thread. I'm basically doing the unemployed challenge and landed in Lapland near Christmas!

[Captain_al]

SEASON ONE (2019)

Ok so first things first, the squad is poor. The expectations are for us to go down battling relegation. The bookies have us at a whopping 200-1 for the pipe dream of winning the league.
Secondly, NO ONE wants to sign for us! Pretty realistically I'd assume but with the exception of a handful of players from small clubs within my region there is no one remotely decent willing to sign.
Add to this i ran an advert for an assistant manager for 3 months without a single applicant! You can see I had my work cut out from the start. I remedied that particular issue by offering the highly paid youth coach a cheaper contract as my assistant.

TRANSFERS
I brought a 16 year old scottish newgen, Jamie Paterson from my Danih side TPI. He wasn't particularly good but he was the only player willing to move and I liked the idea of a bit familiarity. I also added two loan players of average ability for the league. I badly needed to bolster the squad so these were somewhat desperate signings.

I did however land a bit of a coup. A current U19 Northern Ireland international. Again he's not impressive but being involved in the international set up of a sizeable nation has to count for something right? I've not been able to check but he is possibly the first active international to play for Gallivare. !7 year old midfielder Jim Johnstone.

Finally the "marquee signing". Versatile forward Rogvi Poulsen. Not the best player in my squad but he can play anywhere across midfield and upfront which will certainly be useful. He has 4 full international caps for Faroe Islands and at 29 years old his experience could be invaluable at this level.



FIXTURES
So we were fortunate with the draw of fixtures. Playing some of the teams of similar standard to start, we picked up a few ok results. When we met the tougher teams mid season there was some lengthy runs without points but it picked up again with an easier end to the season.

No stand out performers. Gallivare stalward Mikael Jannok, in his seventh season with the club, did managed to land 11 goals. Utility man Rogvi Poulsen added 5 from midfield. However it was difficult to find a settled formation or to get my forwards to score. I'd love to have signed a striker but outwith a few picks for the youth team I couldnt find any signings worthwhile so soldiered on. My first team consistent of 15 part-time contracts supplemented by youth.

True to expectations there was always a question mark over us regarding relegation but in the end we managed to go the entire season without once falling int the relegation spots. It was getting a little tight as the season drew to a close and i needed a final few points to reach safety.

That is when a month before the swedish season ends in September I got my new youth intake. An intake my assistant reckons could be a "golden generation" first time ive saw that in FM! So I was pretty excited but I guess its all relative as my youth facilities are terrible and it wouldnt be too hard to improve upon my current squad.

Anyway up steps this guy. Meet Richard Tagesson! The tall, 16 year old striker all the coaching staff had high hopes for.



Struggling for strikers and with nothing to lose I gave him his debut. 16 years old, getting your chance for your hometown club, fighting a relegation battle he only goes and does this!!



Smashes in a screamer on his debut  to secure safety! Instant hero status! You'll read plenty of careers on here with extravagant successes and winning multiple titles but for me its moment like this that is the real FM! Unbelievable scenes!

He didnt stop there either. He followed it up with 2 goals in 2 games by scoring in the following match. I really hope he lives up to potential.

We finished the season in 9th place. Comfortably above expectation. It wasn't glamorous but it was well deserved and im hoping maybe a few more signings will now be wiling to sign to bolster the squad next season.