Project Iceland: Shooting for the Silverware Six, Wowing the World

From Wikipedia:

Sextuple is a term in football that refers to a club winning six tournaments all within a single season or year. It is formed by analogy with similar terms such as Treble, Quadruple and Quintuple.[2]

FC Barcelona is the only club which won the sextuple by winning six titles out of six in a single year, including the:

2008–09 La Liga

2008–09 Copa del Rey

2009 Supercopa de España

2008–09 UEFA Champions League

2009 UEFA Super Cup

2009 FIFA Club World Cup.[3]

Yes, the elusive, glorious and incredibly difficult European sextuple. Only one club has ever achieved it, the mighty Barcelona, a club from the nation currently on top of the football world, Spain. Hopefully, however, that one club will soon become two, and I hope to lead that second club there. This won't be any club, though. I intend to bring to the pinnacle of European and world club football a club from the country currently lying 40th in the UEFA league coefficients, a country of just 320,000 people collected on fjords and coastline, a country certainly more renowned for its volcanoes than its footballers, a country that boasts the northernmost national capital in the world, a country that speaks a language derived from Old Norse whose closest linguistic relative is Faroese.

I'm talking about Iceland.

The chilly island republic on the cusp of the Arctic Circle is quite the fascinating place to visit in its own right, just not for its football.

Football is the most popular sport of the nation (the nation's top club on UEFA coefficient and historically most successful, KR Reykjavíc, attracts regular crowds of about 2,100 spectators, or about two thirds of 1% of the population of Iceland, per game.) The league system consists of 65 clubs across 4 divisions: 12 teams each for the top 3 divisions (2 relegated, 2 promoted per year) and the rest split into four groups, 3 groups of 8 and 1 group of 5, in division 4, with the two finalists of a promotion playoff going up to the third tier.

Undoubtedly the nation's most famous footballer is Eiður Guðjohnsen (commonly seen as Eidur Gudjohnsen), currently at AEK Athens, who played for Europe's top clubs and was, coincidentially enough for this particular challenge, part of the Barcelona team that won the sextuple in 2009 and was on the bench in that Champions League final. Other notable Icelandic footballers include former Fulham and Bolton and current Queens Park Rangers striker Heiðar Helguson, as well as all-time national team cap leader (with 106) Rúnar Kristinsson, who spent his career in Sweden and Norway after leaving his homeland's top side.

The Iceland men's national football team has never qualified for a major tournament, and no Icelandic club has made it past the 3rd qualifying round of the Europa League, or the 2nd qualifying round of the Champions League. Hopefully, I can change both of those statistics and turn Iceland into a major footballing power at club and international levels, one to be mentioned in the same breath as Spain, Germany, England and company. I won't be starting at the top, however. That would be no fun, to be partially there from the get-go.

Nope, it's the bottom for me and in FM2012 terms, that means the second tier: 1. deild karla, the Icelandic First Division. From there, I will assault the world.

Season-by-season review of competitions:

2011- 5th in Icelandic First Division, knocked out in group stages of Icelandic League Cup and 1st round of Icelandic Cup (before arrival)
2012- 3rd in Icelandic First Division, knocked out in group stages of Icelandic League Cup and quarterfinal of Icelandic Cup.

Not aiming low there heh! May this be a long, entertaining, successful thread - good luck.

Thanks noikeee, I've never attempted anything like this before, but I'm sure it'll be a fantastic journey. Glad to have you along

____________

RULES

Starting unemployed with Sunday League Experience, holiday and take first job offer from Icelandic First Division club that comes up.

Primary Objective: Take a team from the Icelandic First Division (second tier) and, all in the same season, win the:

-Icelandic Premier Division (Úrvalsdeild)

-Icelandic FA Cup (VISA-bikar)

-Icelandic League Cup (Deildabikar)

-European Super Cup

-Champions League

-Club World Cup

This might be a bit more complex than it looks, unfortunately. The Icelandic season runs from May to September to avoid harsh Icelandic winters, and the winner of, say, the 2011 competition, would get the resultant place in the 2012-2013 Champions League. Then, the Deildabikar (League Cup) runs from February to May. So, the "same season" for winning the sextuple, if I were to make the Champions League with the 2012 domestic season:

-2013 Icelandic Premier Division title (May to September 2013)

-2013 Icelandic FA Cup (May to September 2013)

-2013 Icelandic League Cup (February to May 2013)

-2013-2014 Champions League (July 2013 to June 2014)

-2014 Euro Super Cup (August 2014)

-2014 Club World Cup (December 2014)

Stupidly complex thanks to winter, the Club World Cup to complete the sextuple would happen in December 2014 AFTER the 2014 domestic season, the season after the one that would count. Hopefully that makes some sense, at least more than it does to me.

Secondary objective: Win a major tournament with the Iceland national team.

This is much more straightforward. Either win EUROs or the World Cup as manager of the Iceland national team. If I don't, however, it's not that big of a problem. The main target is the club silverware.

_______

Homegrown rule: Iceland's domestic league has only one restriction on foreigners: no more than 3 non-EU nationals in a squad. That being said, if I'm going to win international honors with Iceland then I'm going to need some quality Icelandic talent, and that's currently lacking a bit. Seems like I'm going to have to develop it myself.

Therefore I will impose this rule on this campaign:

There can not be greater than a one to one ratio of foreigners to Icelandic natives in any matchday squad.

Basically, no more than 8 players of foreign nations in a standard starting 11 and 5 substitutes. This will make it more of a triumph for Iceland when I eventually reach my goal and make the game slightly more youth-focused, as well as assisting the national team, while still allowing me to fight for promotion and earlier rewards through transfers and loans.

Starting Date: Iceland, December 2010

FM 2012, Comp performance 4*, Expected game speed 3*

Leagues loaded: Iceland, Norway, Finland, England (all leagues), Sweden (to First Division), large database (26k players) Látum það byrjar- Let it begin.

Looking forward to seeing how this one goes! Good luck - I'll be following.

Looks like a really interesting premise. Good luck!

Best of luck. Nice easy challenge this one then

This'll be a great journey.

Subscribed! Sounds fun, good luck.

Thank you, all of you guys! Let's do this. @Ron: Oh yeah, nice and relaxing.

After holidaying for 7 months, a post opens up midway through the season in July, and I successfully apply!

Íþróttabandalag Akranes (ÍA Akranes)

Founded: 1946

Operating status: Semi-Pro

Nickname: Skagamenn

Icelandic Championships: 18 (most recently 1997), 12 runners-up finishes

Icelandic Cups: 9 (most recently 2003), 9 finals losses

Icelandic League Cups: 3 (most recently 2003)

Corporate Facilities: Very basic

Training facilities: Average

Youth facilities: Adequate

Junior coaching: Average

Youth recruitment: Average

Founded in 1946 in the town of Akranes on Iceland's southwest coast and fierce rivals of current Icelandic giants KR Reykjavik, ÍA Akranes have definitely been one of Iceland's more notable football clubs but have suffered a fall from grace, enduring relegation to the second tier in 2008. Looks like it'll fall to me to take them back to the top and higher than ever before.

I take over the club to find them in 11th place (second from bottom) in the Icelandic First Division, with 6 points from 10 games, 6 points off of safety with 12 games to play. Media prediction at start of season: 1st. Well then...

Finances

Financial Status: Okay

Transfer Budget: £0

Wage Budget: £1,626

Current wage expenses: £1,519

Bank account: -£144,428

Ugh. Debt. Will be looking to turn that around as I attempt to rescue the team from relegation and go forward.

Facilities

Stadium Name: Akranesvöllur

Capacity: 6,000 (772 seated)

Owned by: Club

Stadium Condition: Average

Under-soil heating: No

Surface: Grass

Pitch condition: Very Poor

Alright, not too bad on the stadium, pitch is in dire need of some work though.

Staff

Assistant Manager

Coach

Physio

Scout

Well, I start with an assistant manager, a coach, a physio and a scout. Better than nothing, so hooray! I'm also permitted to scout Scandinavia and England. Looks like the leagues I loaded paid off.

Squad

Depth Chart

Current Forced Tactic That I In No Way Plan On Using When Everyone Is Healthy And/Or Not Suspended

The squad I've inherited is not at all terrible, really, but it does have a few problems. It's been hard hit by injuries, I can tell:

-My first-choice goalkeeper, first-choice center-back and a handful of substitutes are at very low fitness and condition.

-My first-choice right back/defensive midfielder has a pulled hamstring and will be back to full fitness in a couple of days. Also, he's leaving at the end of the season. He's also one of the team's weaker starters if everyone's healthy. Well, this needs improving all around, doesn't it?

-My second-choice striker/first-choice attacking midfielder has a sprained ankle and is 2+ weeks away from light training.

On top of those, my 36-year-old, first-choice striker is on a three-match ban and there's deadwood that needs trimming. Thanks to the lack of strikers and injuries for the next few games I'm going to run 5-4-1 from the start.

I'm debating between 4-4-2, 4-5-1, 4-1-3-1-1 and 4-4-1-1 when everyone's healthy. 4-4-1-1 looks the best when squad health is at 100% to me.

First match, first win! 38-year old English winger Dean Martin with the brace.

But then... for crying out loud... HAD to be in my first match, of course, with the way this squad's going.

Best center midfielder goes down for a month. This might be even harder than I'd anticipated.

Great start to the career and the thread Certainly a hefty challenge!

Hardly the greatest position to start in, but you should be able to turn the club around to avoid relegation this season, and then once that's done and once you get rid of the debt (the toughest part), IA should have a little potential. Well, at least compared to the other minnow icelandic teams.

An interesting challenge, good luck with this

@noikeee, yeah I wish there hadn't been that debt. It should be alright, though, attendances will go up with form and I got 40k for a fifth-place finish. @AK and abulezz, thank you guys I'll be trying my hardest to make this happen. Give it time.

End Of Season Review: 2011

To have taken over with the club in 11th place, the relegation zone, and have them fight for promotion and end with a finish in 5th with all the problems they had... Dang. Good to see most of the problems clear up and a couple of my younger players got Iceland U-21 call ups! REALLY optimistic about next season, if we can keep this second-half form next year the title's ours for sure:

That's all of the matches in the domestic season, I took over after the loss to KA. And I finished only 7 points off of promotion! And every fixture that I played was winnable, I beat the second-place team 5-0 and the champions 3-1 but drew against a relegated side at home (on a bad penalty) and lost two games that I should've won. Bit of a blip at the end but it happens to everyone.

Regardless, I'll regard not being promoted next year as a spectacular disappointment. This is a side that belongs in the Premier Division, and I'm going to make it happen. We just need one or two signings due to age and we'll be golden.

Player of the Year: Dean Martin

Appearances- 12 (0)

Goals- 9

Assists- 3

Average Rating- 7.60

Funny that one of my two foreigners ended up being the best player for my side. The 39 year old English winger scored twice in my first game and went on to star for the rest of the season, even getting a hat trick against a side that ended up promoted. My only regret with him is that he probably won't play much of a role next year. I'm definitely going to hunt for a right midfielder in the off-season, but even though he's pushing 40, Dean will definitely see some sub appearances.

End of First Season

Good read for now .. Tough challenge indeed

Am actually playing with Prottur .. and just want to share cup finals screen if you don't mind against your team IA

http://i.imgur.com/VjZw7.png

Thrilling encounter

Hope you enjoy in Iceland as much as I do .. And success of course

I will follow ...

Looks like both of us should look into new goalkeepers. Very thrilling indeed, nice one.

Mid-Offseason update: It's now November, and both my scout and my coach went out of contract and left. They were making a combined £225 a week... I took that and went and got the following to fill their shoes:

Coach 1

Coach 2

Scout 1

Scout 2

...for a combined £130 a week. Bit of an improvement if you ask me

I also got a youth intake in late September while everyone was on holiday. Nothing at all notable except for these two, both with 5-star potential:

I don't want to move in the transfer market thanks to the debt, which I'd like to get rid of, and the fact that the squad is good enough already. Interesting thing about the Icelandic transfer window: it's open from October 15th to May 15th, and then for two weeks in August from the 15th to the 31st. Odd.

And I also have the expectations for next year: win the First Division, reach the Quarterfinal in the Icelandic Cup and learn from the experience in the Icelandic League Cup. Strangely enough, the board won't be judging me on any of it. I guess I'll just have to judge myself.

EDIT: Oh dear... Nothing else major has happened since, just a couple of friendlies, but I HAD to take a "Scum-bin" on trial... hehe...

Good winning start. By the way, how would you interpret that letter that looks between 'p' and 'b'? The one the league leaders start with.

Deltablue, that letter (þ) is "thorn" (þorn) which sounds as "th" with a heavier emphasis (as in "thick," but not like "the") in words, therefore the team that were league winners would be pronounced "thrótter."

That softer "th" sound, like in "the," is actually represented by the other weird Icelandic letter, ð, or "eth (eð)" which somehow always becomes a D when names are anglicised, like Heiðar Helguson vs. Heidar Helguson. Hope that helps!

Well, the Upper League Cup has gotten around to kick-off (a week late, following my first match being cancelled on account of heavy snow) with this unfortunate defeat away from home, which I'm going to put down to everybody being between 50 and 70% match fitness level, a pre-match training injury to my only good left midfielder forcing me into an unfamiliar narrow 4-1-2-1-2 formation, and an early injury to my best striker.

Any action over the break apart from the staffing changes and an encounter with a Macedonian "scum bin" who wanted 300 quid a week plus extras? Yep.

Transfers

I said I wouldn't go out and sign anyone during the transfer window, but I had a couple of players leave on free transfers, so that left some wiggle room on the wage budget, I'm slowly creeping towards the black anyway on finances (by creeping, I mean I made a total profit last year of about £20k overall, leaving me with £120k to go) and I'm banking on promotion this year which will of course help out the finances greatly. A couple of new additions should make life easier:

Helgi Hafstiensson (DM)- Last year, I noted we looked the most solid and performed at our best when operating in a 4-1-4-1 formation that featured a defensive midfielder as a shield. My starting (and only good) defensive midfielder took off on a free at the end of the season that had already been prearranged, so I felt it necessary to go out and sign a replacement and this was the best I could find for a lower wage. Unfortunately for me, a player in the same role, slightly higher wage but all-around better popped up on a free a few days after I'd signed this guy but it was too late. Oh well. I got my man, at least, who if he stays healthy will probably play a key role.

Gary Martin (ST)- Oh, hello there! This wasn't a transfer, this was a loanee returning home, which begs the question: WHY did the previous manager send him out in the first place? Instant 4.5 star striker with 5 star potential and only 21, which is a big improvement on my current situation. He'll be fantastic up front on his own... if I can just get him to calm down, he's currently a bit unhappy after I turned down a transfer request that he put in after I promised him first-team football at the end of January and then we as a team didn't play a game for all of February. Weird.

After his moaning and groaning he gets injured 13 minutes into his first game and is out for a few weeks. Serves him right but it still sucks and it reminds me once again of the first thing on the list once the debt is clear: RELAY THE PITCH.

I had four people leave on free transfers which freed up space, but the board reduced the budget on me so now I'm 37 pounds per week over. Must fix that.

Bring on the League Cup!

Gary Martin looks capable, indeed.

Yeah, when he handed in the transfer request Brentford and Bury wanted him instantaneously. Bit of a jump if you ask me, which shows his quality.

Speaking of him... Maybe this is why he got loaned out. Naught for brains off the pitch.

YOUR LEG WAS GASHED SO BADLY THAT YOU ARE OUT OF EVEN LIGHT TRAINING FOR TWO WEEKS OR MORE. SHUT YOUR GOB YOU IDIOT. Have a nice day.

LOL - Hes a handful

Thats the problem with players, in my first season on FM11, I put a couple of players in for the last 2 games to try and get them happy, and they still complained about a lack of playing time. Granted 2 games isn't much but as they were the only 2 games available... Gave up almost immediately on interaction for that game, though now I will sometimes if I'm confident about a positive outcome.

Thats the problem with players, in my first season on FM10, I put a couple of players in for the last 2 games to try and get them happy, and they still complained about a lack of playing time. Granted 2 games isn't much but as they were the only 2 games available... Gave up almost immediately on interaction for that game, though now I will sometimes if I'm confident about a positive outcome.

I had something similar and posted it as a bug on the bug forum - An SI employee responded stating it is a known bug and one they are looking into.

Well, in any case he finally came around. This makes sense!

On the other hand, this makes none...

I'm going to say it's the general lack of fitness and congested schedule thanks to heavy snow, I'm not really bothered with the cup and neither is the board. Hopefully, with any luck at all, the season ahead is much, much better...

What was I worried about again?

A brace by Gary Martin in his league debut for me (he scored in his actual debut, in the League Cup) and my other Martin, old Dean, got in too. And away from home? Promising indeed. We are top of the league, say we are top of the league!...

...oh so THAT's what I was worried about.

Injury in the Icelandic Cup game. Same one. Again. And right after another match-winning brace, too... What is it with people sticking their spikes deep into my striker's leg? :confused:

EDIT: For whom it may concern, the English Premier League has a new face cracking the top 6. Also, City have sacked Mancini and brought in Louis van Gaal.

Mid-season Report!

Well, I was going to talk about how our season was going first but then I saw how ridiculously Euros went...

EURO 2012

Group Stage

Group A
| Pos   | Inf   | Team    |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1st   | Q     | Croatia |       | 3     | 2     | 0     | 1     | 5     | 5     | 0     | 6     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 2nd   | Q     | Ukraine |       | 3     | 1     | 1     | 1     | 4     | 4     | 0     | 4     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   |       | Belgium |       | 3     | 1     | 1     | 1     | 5     | 4     | +1    | 4     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 4th   |       | Italy   |       | 3     | 0     | 2     | 1     | 3     | 4     | -1    | 2     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 


Group B
| Pos   | Inf   | Team    |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1st   | Q     | Poland  |       | 3     | 1     | 2     | 0     | 4     | 3     | +1    | 5     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 2nd   | Q     | Denmark |       | 3     | 1     | 1     | 1     | 3     | 2     | +1    | 4     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   |       | Russia  |       | 3     | 1     | 1     | 1     | 6     | 4     | +2    | 4     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 4th   |       | Hungary |       | 3     | 0     | 2     | 1     | 2     | 6     | -4    | 2     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 


Group C
| Pos   | Inf   | Team     |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1st   | Q     | England  |       | 3     | 2     | 1     | 0     | 4     | 2     | +2    | 7     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 2nd   | Q     | Holland  |       | 3     | 2     | 0     | 1     | 7     | 2     | +5    | 6     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   |       | Scotland |       | 3     | 1     | 0     | 2     | 2     | 6     | -4    | 3     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 4th   |       | France   |       | 3     | 0     | 1     | 2     | 2     | 5     | -3    | 1     | 
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 


Group D
| Pos   | Inf   | Team    |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1st   | Q     | Germany |       | 3     | 3     | 0     | 0     | 12    | 2     | +10   | 9     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 2nd   | Q     | Serbia  |       | 3     | 1     | 1     | 1     | 2     | 6     | -4    | 4     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   |       | Belarus |       | 3     | 0     | 2     | 1     | 4     | 5     | -1    | 2     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 4th   |       | Spain   |       | 3     | 0     | 1     | 2     | 3     | 8     | -5    | 1     | 
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 

Quarterfinals

Croatia 2:1 Denmark

Poland 0:2 Ukraine

Serbia 0:1 England

Holland 4:0 Germany

Semifinals

Croatia 2:1 Holland

Ukraine 2:0 England

Final

Croatia 1:1p Ukraine

So host nation Ukraine won out in penalties over Croatia, England went out in the semis, Poland topped Group B and Spain, France and Italy each finished bottom of their groups. You each get three guesses as to what three international vacancies opened up afterward! As for Iceland, they had finished fourth in their 5-nation qualifying group of Denmark, Norway, Portugal and Cyprus; won both their games against Cyprus and stole a point in Oslo.

____________________________

Looking closer to home...

At the midway point of the season (11 of 22 league games played), this is how things stand for me:

Icelandic First Division

The halfway point finds us top of the table! It may only be on goals scored, but it's still top of the table! An interesting thing to note is how close it is; after 11 games (if that team with the game in hand win) the top 5 are separated by just 3 points. And yes, that is a team with 0 points at the bottom.

A forced switch in tactics (thanks AGAIN, injury bug) to 4-2-3-1 at the beginning of June produced decidedly mixed results at first but as the team settled in we went on a run to the top and are currently still there, still using the 4-2-3-1. As a bit of an aside, I'm surprised at the amount of Icelandic clubs that use this system! Almost everyone in the second tier runs 4-2-3-1, that or vanilla 4-4-2 by a few clubs as well.

Key Fixture: Fylkir 0-3 IA

-We were 2nd at the time, went to the league leader's place and came away with a fantastic result that put us top. Haven't looked back since.

-----

Icelandic Cup

Knocked out in the quarterfinals but we can hold our heads high. We went to a mid-table Premier Division side and kept a clean sheet for the full 120 minutes while getting the much better chances from our possession, but their goalkeeper was fantastic and our finishing less so. What followed was perhaps the most heartbreakingly ridiculous penalty shootout in FM history, made all the worse by who missed the first and last for me. We also got a bit of a payday, 1.7k is not much but we'll take it and I'll call the cup run a success.

-----

Icelandic League Cup

The less said or shown about this one, the better. Past is past.

____

Transfers

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Out:

Gary Martin:

Always unfortunate when a player is stolen on a free when you don't want them to be, but when it's your best player, your in-form striker, who snubs your contract offer to move to Exeter of all places ... I can't fault him, though, he's going home and they probably offered well over what I could. Look at the massive interest in him too! Brentford manager came to Iceland to watch a second-division club? Must be a good player. I offered a contract before any of them did but he didn't decide before Exeter came in. He was going to be the team centerpiece for a few years too...

I have a feeling he's going to rip League 2 apart and I'll wish him well at the end of the season but right now, he's still here in Akranes. And scoring for fun. Sweet.

I have a whole host of other players who are going to be out of contract, it's just a question of who to sign and who to let go (there's a couple that might as well already be gone), and that will come later once I know exactly how the finances will look next season.

In:

Illuigi Gunnarsson:

Well, Dean Martin hit 40. He also dropped from a 2.5 star rating by ass man in February to 1 star in July. He's also out of contract come October. Time for a replacement? Yes. And while we're at it, can we make it someone good and getting better by team standards (3.5 star current rating, 4.5 potential) who can play just about anywhere? Check. On top of that, he'll be on the same wage that Martin and Doninger were both on, and no promotion raise. Excellent all-around pickup, joining at the end of the year.

_____

So far, a successful season in my eyes. On the home stretch now towards promotion, hopefully!

"Think about how you're going to f**k up... and then don't." -Malcolm Chanaiwah, dormmate

Good luck for the second half of the season, interesting updates so far!

Thanks Brizza, good to have you along with this

Just a mini-update... friggin' Exeter stealing this away shortly...

6 in a game's impressive.

Yeah and he's only 21... He'll probably end up tearing apart the lower English leagues, I might keep tabs on him.

Current league table...

Next fixture?

Win this, I go top. Win this, promotion is secured...

Exciting fixture.

GAH

We threw away a two-goal lead. Can't believe it. In fairness to my team, my starting left winger and right back were suspended on yellow cards... If either of them had been in this would've been a victory for sure but my backups, my left winger especially, just couldn't quite seal it... I just need a draw to secure promotion now though, as a consolation.

--------

Edit:

The next day, as an extra consolation, the game gave me my youth intake! Here was the best one:

Spectacular collapse, gentlemen. Spectacular.

Final table.

Season review in a bit. Forget smashing teacups, I have to go smash the whole teapot. With a sledgehammer.

I can imagine.

Just caught up on your progress. Very unlucky on the end of season collapse. Best of luck for next season

Bad luck, so close to promotion. Better luck next season

Thanks guys, yeah it wasn't pleasant and I ended up driving home (14 hours) and spending some time with family before starting up again...

End of Season Review: 2012

_________________

Icelandic First Division (3rd):

Well, I don't think I could have come up with a more devious way of losing a title and promotion race. We were six minutes plus stoppage from securing promotion AND going top with one game to play, but it was not to be. Then, when we only needed to draw our next game, we proceeded to lose though we had more chances, Selfoss won and that was that. So, once again my season next year will be spent toiling in the second tier. How pleasant...

There it is. We had our rough patches just like everyone else but ours were just bad enough. One spot in particular stands out where we lost 1-3 for 3 out of 4 games, two of those to teams that finished in the bottom half. I'm guessing the boys took losing that ridiculous penalty shootout in the cup quarterfinal just as hard as I did.

Icelandic Cup (Knocked out in Quarterfinal):

See mid-season report. Ditto for the League Cup.

Player of the Year: Gary Martin

Appearances: 28 (0)

Goals: 27

Assists:7

Average Rating: 7.52

Who else could it be? The English star of the show single-handedly made sure that we weren't in mid-table obscurity. I just wished I'd managed to tie him down here for a few years. He's going to be next to impossible to replace. Good for him though, seeing as he's in his home country now, with a 2500% higher wage.

_________________

Like I said, I regard it as a massive letdown that we didn't go up this year. I was banking on it too, and a lot of the squad is leaving or out of contract. Now for the offseason, which is sure to be a flurry of free transfers, friendlies, finance worries and retirees.

So bit of a challenge to go up.

Shame about the leiknir result, promotion next season?

Thanks, I certainly think (and hope) we'll go up next season! Anything else is stagnation or a step backwards...

Meanwhile, any money is good money, especially when you don't have to do any cutting to get it!

Not entirely sure why Bulgarians would want to come to Iceland in January to play a match, but I'm not complaining!

Progress has been slow-going the last few days as I've been spending a lot of time with family and friends on my week's break home from my university. Just now got through the offseason with some good friendlies and a revamped squad:

Start of Season 3: Overview

Transfers

------

OUT:

Gary Martin (ST, free)

Helgi Hafstiensson (DM/MC, free)

Ragnar Gunnarson (MC, free)

Eggert Karlsson (MC, free)

Christopher Anderiman (MC, free)

Andri Alexandersson (DC, free)

Páll Jónsson (GK, free)

-

Bjarki Freyr Guðmundsson (GK, retiring)

Dean Martin (RM/AMR, retiring)

Hjörtur Hjtarsson (ST, retiring)

Lots of people on their way out, so what to do? Rebuild!

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IN

Jóhann Sigurðsson (GK, unattached, free)- 2 keepers out, 2 keepers in. Here's the first.

Helgi Már Helgason (GK, unattached, free)- Here's the second. Probable backup, like the retiree was.

Nakhi Wells (ST, unattached, free)- I'm hoping the Bermudan international can replace Gary Martin. It'll be a bit of a long shot but hey, he's only 22... Here's hoping. In hindsight, maybe it wasn't quite worth making him the highest-paid player at the club... for only a year...

Kristján Björnsson (DL, Haukar, free)- Quality was lacking at left back, so in came this fellow. Should be good veteran help.

Andri Hermannsson (ST, unattached, free)- 19, 4.5 star potential and 15 quid a week. S'bout it. Decent young pickup.

Illugi Gunnarsson (RM etc, Fjolnir, free)- See midseason report for that one.

So a new striker, left back, right midfielder, a pair of goalkeepers and a prospect. Good enough.

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Friendlies:

Well, the loss to Levski was expected but do I care? Not really. It's the extra money that's on my mind. That and the good showing against KR Reykjavík in both friendlies, a draw was a fair result for both and this was the biggest team in Iceland, not to mention my deadly rivals.

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Decent enough preseason preparations, I guess. Maybe I'll see some success in the League Cup this time around...