[FM21] - Nordic Wars

[Cuomo10]

I have found it difficult to fully immerse myself into a save so far in FM21. I had little trouble with hammering FM20 with a long stint with Dundalk and a 16 season marathon in San Marino. I have tried with Bilbao, Forest, San Marino Calcio and AZ but haven't been able to go more than a couple of seasons before getting bored and losing interest. I am also hoping that providing updates on my progression will keep me keen.

I have been desperate to get a new save going but have found it difficult to actually pick a team to start with so, I am going down the unemployed route. As the title may suggest, I am opting for a Nordic adventure (minus the Faroe's) and the aim is to win the League and Cup in each country.

I am not placing too many restrictions in terms of transfers but I would like to try and stick to a 'Region Grown' type of save, primarily looking to only bring in players who's nationality is within the region of Scandinavia*

I will be starting with no badges and Sunday league experience.

It took a little while to get a job but I have become the manager of Froso IF who are 15th (last) in the Swedish 2nd Division Norrland. Froso are 4 points from safety with just 6 games to play and have a thin squad to work with. If I can work a miracle and are able to stay up, great, if not it will be back to job centre...

 

*Subject to change depending on how I feel 

[Cuomo10]

So, after a couple of months with Froso it was back to the Job Centre. I was unable to muster the managerial powers strong enough to keep them up but we did give it a good crack. We had 6 games left and we won our first game which gave us some hope. Another win and 3 losses later meant that we had a final day showdown against Storfors AIK who we were level on points with us. The winner would play in the relegation play-off and the loser would ultimately end up getting the sack. We led twice during the game but ended up losing to an 88th minute goal. All is not lost though as I was able to get my first coaching badge completed.

A lot of jobs became available in Sweden as the season came to an end with teams looking to freshen things up. Many jobs were applied for, even at a team called Osterlen who have a certain Champ Man legend, Mr Freddy Adu, playing for them but we didnt get that one. Fortunately, we did get the highly sought after job at Kungsangens IF! They play in the Swedish 2nd Division (North Svealand) and finished 12th last season. The board wants me to avoid relegation, and though my track record isnt the best, I am quietly confident that we can at least mirror what my predecessor did.

I have reviewed the playing squad and it isnt too bad in terms of general quality for the level we are playing in but we do lack a DC and CM. We're £33k in debt and have a wage budget of £973, of which we are spending £786 of it. A couple of players will be let go which will free up some funds and they do have a couple of decent players that came in through the intake. 

Looking forward to this, lets hope it doesnt go to sh... you know what

[Cuomo10]

Season Review 2022 - Kungsangens IF

The £33k debt was immediately wiped out due to £31k coming from our Club Membership fee's, 2 new sponsors which generated a combined £30k and a very generous grant which saw us begin the season with almost £90k in the bank. The board decided to increase the wage budget to £1.2k per week and were also kind enough to give me a transfer budget of just under £9k. 

I had a full pre-season to work with the team and made some good signings to help bolster the quality in the squad. 8 new players arrived as I recruited a whole new back 4 and also added a new AP(A) and a couple of attackers. In terms of staff members, there was only me, the DoF, Chief Scout and the Head Physio so once I brought in the assistant I wanted, I then signed a couple of coaches and a scout.

I arranged no fewer than 11 friendlies against a range of sides within Sweden. I wanted to work on tactical familiarity and to also help the players gel. I also wanted to see how the side would fair against teams of a similar reputation or higher. The only 2 games we didnt win came against Atvidabergs, 2-2, and Premier League side, Degerfors, who we lost 4-3 against. This set us up nicely for the league campaign.

We won 6 of our first 7 games and everything looked rosy. We were scoring for fun (20) and kept 4 clean sheets but then didnt win for the next 3 games where we conceded 7. Not the type to panic over something like this however, I did decide to change my starting approach  to Positive and it worked a treat. We went unbeaten for the remainder of the season and won the league at a canter, finishing 12 points ahead of 2nd place.

I will spare any player screenshots but special mentions go to Lukas Quist and Linus Sjoberg. They formed a formidable partnership in attack as Quist scored 22 in 26 and achieved a 7.40 average rating. Sjoberg however would be my player of the season as he managed 15 goals and assists with an average rating of 7.67.

I will be spending some time reviewing the average quality of players in the Swedish First Division as I want to gauge how competitive my current squad could potentially be prior to making any decisions on which areas I need to improve in. The quality of training and coaching is having a negative effect in a sense that some of my players are decreasing in ability. I cant really do much about this as we are semi-pro.

I have gained my National B Licence and I am currently working towards my C Licence. I have also applied for the managers position at an Icelandic 1st Division team...

[Cuomo10]

3 hours ago, Cuomo10 said:

I have also applied for the managers position at an Icelandic 1st Division team...

We'll be remaining in Sweden for the foreseeable 

[Cuomo10]

Season Review 2023 - Kungsangens IF

This was the clubs first ever season outside of the Swedish Second Division and we needed to bring in some additional quality to compete. We needed a better DM and a good attacker to compliment the rest of the team. We were given a wage budget of £3.4k which helped bring in 6 new players who all added some extra quality to the team. An 18 year old keeper arrived with 2 new full backs who have the potential to be star players along with our new DM enforcer. I was torn between 2 for the role so decided to bring both in as one could play at CB where we did lack some cover. Our star signing was a lad called Olakunle Olusegun. The 21 year old Nigerian was absolutely incredible throughout the season scoring 32 goals in 28 league games. One of the problems with having a player who is scoring for fun is attracting interest from other teams, especially when you're unable to tie them down to anything but a non-contract. 3 Nigerian clubs came calling and despite my best efforts, we were resigned to losing him at the end of the season.

Olusegun's goals helped us dominate the league and finish the season top of the league, 7 points clear of 2nd place. This was well beyond my expectations and also that of the game itself as they predicted us to finish 13th out of 16; I'd have happily taken that to be fair!

I always try to make sure we are tight at the back with any save I do; if you dont concede, you dont lose. We only shipped 24 goals across 28 games and with the goals of Olusegun up front, the victories kept on stacking up, 19 to be precise. We scored 75 goals in total with my, soon to be gone, lethal Nigerian getting 32 of those and our next highest scorer got 10. This leaves a big gap to be filled before we start our campaign in the First Division Elite.

We move up a league and will probably remain semi-professional as we don't have the funds to take the leap to become professional. Having looked through the teams in the First Division Elite for the season that has just finished, all but one of the sides are professional. The only semi-pro side struggled and finished 2nd bottom...

I will see what the board can offer me in terms of a wage budget as there are a number of my players who are declining in ability, mainly due to the fact that we are unable to train full time. I think it will be difficult next season, but I am always optimistic and if I can find another Olusegun then you never know. One thing is for sure and my scouting and player targeting needs to be on point. I like to export my player searches into a spreadsheet to review their attribute spreads across the role that I will be playing them. I also need to do similar to what I did last season and look for the average attribute spreads across the league so I know what the benchmark is. I do feel that I am going to struggle to attract the better quality players.

All that aside, I am now studying for my Continental B Licence having made very good progress in obtaining the badges so far. My reputation has grown and I had an interview at GIF Sundsvall during the season, who finished 9th in the FD Elite, but I was unsuccessful. Although I am quite enjoying my time with Kungsangens, I am wanting to move to a higher rep team to invest more time with developing players and having better scope when recruiting potential targets. I now have a relegation and 2 League titles under my belt so surely that appeals to someone! There are some jobs available in Iceland and Norway which I have applied for and will see if anything comes from them.

I will leave you with boy wonder in all his glory...

Thanks for reading

[Cuomo10]

Farewell Kungsangens...