[FM12] 60% of the time, it works everytime

[markyosullivan]

Shortly after the season was over, I received the following good news.

More sponsorship money sounds good to me

[markyosullivan]

Stabæk Fotball - Norwegian Premier Division - 2025 (Review)

Norwegian Premier League

Overall I'm very pleased with how well we've done in the league this season, we've improved from last season and to finish 5th in my first full season with this club is something which I'm proud of. Normally the top 4 clubs are the teams that get to play European football in the next season but thankfully we had an amazing cup run and we ended up lifting the trophy. We had a very good start to the season and were unbeaten in our first 7 league games. Unfortunately we didn't have a great end to the season and it could be perhaps because my team was simply just running out of steam. Also had probably the biggest win of this save so far with a 7-2 win against Sarpsborg who ended up finishing in 11th.

Standings | Fixtures 1 | Fixtures 2

Norwegian Cup

Was hoping for a good cup run this season but I certainly wasn't expecting to win it. We struggled in the 1st round, needing penalties to see off Second Division side Jerv. We didn't really have any other problems in the cup however we needed extra time in the game against Stromsgodset in the Semi's.

The final saw us drawn against Valerenga, one of the strongest sides in Norway and who usually compete for the title every year along with Rosenborg. We took an early 2 goal lead, scoring 2 goals within 13 mins with Hristov scoring the first and then an OG being scored. They came back and scored in the 17th, putting pressure on us before Vladimir scored in the 19th minute to give us a 2 goal lead again nearly straight after they scored. Shortly after half time they scored again in the 49th minute 3-2. It was a nervy game and I was scared we wouldn't be able to hold on but on the 86th minute Vladimir popped up again to score his second and put us 4-2 up. Leaving me thinking that the cup was ours, that was until they scored in the 91st minute, 4-3. 2 minutes of added on time, all we had to do was hold on for 1 more minute and we had won the cup. The final whistle went and the Norwegian Cup became the first trophy that I had won with Stabæk Fotball, hopefully the first of many.

Fixtures

Transfers

IN: £0

Vladimir - I wanted an extra striker to help give us more strength in attack and Vladimir was a player might scouts found while in Brazil. Scored some vital goals and performed where it really mattered (e.g. Norwegian Cup final)

Walter Moller - Wanted another CM and LW, this guy could do both and he performed well wherever I played him.

Stéphane Picard - Wanted an extra CB just in case of injuries/ suspensions. Performed very well. When the season was over Bordeaux made me an offer that I couldn't refuse, thanks to a low release fee clause which was £1.3M, it's a good fee for him considering we got him for free and he wasn't a key player in our defence.

Also signed quite a number of youth players who went straight into my U19's squad, hopefully 1 or 2 of them will be good enough for the first team in a couple of seasons.

Summary

Finances

Would be looking a lot better if it wasn't for a recently announced stadium expansion of 5500 seats which is costing £10M.

Transfer Budget: £5,732,072

Wage Budget: £56,838 per week (currently spending £26,808 per week)

Balance: £1,196,236

Finance Summary

Key Players

Yavor Hristov - Unstoppable. Not one defender in this league can stop him from scoring. Been rumoured to be attracting interest from a whole bunch of clubs across Europe such as: Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, HSV, Lazio, Lille. Hope I'll be able to hold on to him for another season but if I receive a big offer it might be too hard to resist. 31(2) appearances, 36 goals, 12 assists and 10 Man of the Match awards and an average rating of 7.87 for this season.

Vladislavs Savalnieks - The most solid defender in the club, the vice captain did very well throughout the whole season and popped in with a couple of goals as well. Rumoured to have been attracting interest from the top teams in Greece. 34 starts, 5 goals, 2 assists and 3 Man of the Match awards and an average rating of 7.15 for this season.

Targets

Finish higher than 10th. Having finished 10th last season, I'm hoping we'll at least get higher than 10th this season.

Achieved. Didn't think we'd finish as high as 5th but I'm very happy that we did. Hopefully we'll be challenging for the title next season.

Add more players to the squad. We could really do with a couple of CM's and CB's as backup because if one of our starter CM's or CB's gets injured we'll be in a very tricky situation.

Achieved. I added a couple more players which is what I wanted to do: Vladimir, Moller and Picard helped give the team more depth.

Former Club Watch

Assi IF Finish in 12th place in the Swedish First Division North, which meant they got relegated. Had they finished 11th they would of avoided relegation.

Nordvärmlands FF Still yet to return to Swedish Second Division football

Kållered SK Finished in 10th place for the 2nd year in a row.

AC Oulu A season to forget. Finished in 5th place and missed out on European football. Surprisingly they were 21 points behind the team in 1st place, FC Inter. Didn't win any Cups either. Wouldn't be surprised if their manager gets the sack soon.

Other

I was named Manager of the Year and strangely enough my assist was named runner up. Shortly afterwards I was offered a new contract as my existing one was expiring in 2026, I negotiated with the board and we came to an agreement of a 3 year deal with me getting a wage of £6,750 p/w.

Hristov won Norwegian Player of the Year and was also Norwegian Premier Division Top Goalscorer with 29 league goals.

Helland won Norwegian Player's Young Player of the Year.

Moustapha won African Young Footballer of the Year award.

Andreassen was selected in the Norwegian Players' Dream Team of the Year 1st XI.

Fans' Player of the Year: Yavor Hristov

Norwegian Premier League: 5th (14-8-8)

Norwegian Cup: Winners

[markyosullivan]

Stabæk Fotball - Norwegian Premier Division - 2026 (Preview)

Norwegian Premier League

Board expects us to finish in the top 4 and I think we should be able to do that. We should have done it last year in the league but we played badly towards the end of the season and slid into 5th place. So far we've managed to keep a hold of Hristov though I fear that if he leaves, it will be a real struggle to replace him and we won't do as well in the league.

Board Expectation: Qualify for Euro Cup via league

Media Prediction: 5th

Norwegian Cup

We should really at least be getting into the Semi's this year but I'll be hoping for the lads to defend this Cup and win it again this year. It really depends on the luck of the draw though.

Board Expectation: Semi-Finals

Transfers

Haven't really signed any new players, only signed 2 so far, both of which look to have great potential. Currently looking at a couple more youngsters, nearly certain 1 more will join before the transfer window shuts. Also looking at a couple of GKs just in case Manuel Gordien leaves.

IN: £0

Gustav Nilsen - After instructing my scouts to find me all the best upcoming talent in Norway, one of my scouts found this guy. He was still on a youth contract at Fredrikstad and had yet to agree to a pro deal and so I offered him a contract ASAP which he accepted a couple of days later. I'm sure they won't be pleased that I've poached one of the best Norwegian youngsters from them. He actually made his debut for them last season, so they clearly knew that he had potential but they were foolish not to offer him a pro deal sooner. He should get a couple of games in the First Team but will probably let him play in the 2nd Team, getting him experience of playing in the Norwegian Second Division.

Allan Peterson - Another youngster my scouts found while scouting Scandinavia, was found playing for one of my feeder clubs, Lyngby in the Danish Superliga. Still only 16. Didn't have to pay anything for him thanks to him only being on a Youth contract and hadn't agreed a pro deal. Will most likely be in my U19's squad but the 2nd Team manager may end up using him for a couple of games.

OUT: £1.3M

Stéphane Picard (£1.3M) - Left at the end of last season, hope he does well with Bordeaux. It's nice to see that he's joined one of the top French teams. He has already played quite a lot of games for them already since leaving.

Kim André Kvamme - Loan (End of Season) - He has joined Norwegian First Division side Asker and should benefit from playing a full season in the First Division. They've said that he'll be a first team player so I'll be pretty pissed if they don't use him.

Transfer Summary

Squad

I'm happy with the squad, there is a few areas where we are weak but hopefully some of the youngsters at the club will develop and strengthen those areas. There's been a number of youngsters that have been promoted to the First Team already and some were playing quite a few games last season.

Finances

Have improved since the end of last season and should continue to improve thanks to the new sponsorship deals and European football this season.

Transfer Budget: £5,732,072

Wage Budget: £28,737 per week (currently spending £29,958 per week)

Balance: £3,955,737

Finance Summary

Targets

Finish in the Top 4. I think this is a perfectly realistic target for this upcoming season. We'll be in the Euro Cup this season because we won the Norwegian Cup last year and I'll be hoping that we'll be playing European football next season as well.

[deltablue]

Nilsen could come to something good.

[iHeadHunta x]

A good season on the cards!

[cerud]

Great year! Odd that your assistant was named 2nd Manager of the Year. Is that normal?

[markyosullivan]

Stabæk Fotball Building For The Future?

In his first full season at the club in 2005, Stabæk Fotball manager Dean Wakefield made the decision to try and introduce more of the Stabæk Fotball youngsters into his side. Fans were nervous that their manager had taken such a gamble but of course were happy to see some of the local youngsters given the chance in the first team. The gamble seems to have paid off, with many of the players performing well and some are now considered squad players in the club. Two of the youngsters who were promoted to the first team was Jens Berg and Martin Groven, both of these players are now in the Norwegian U19's squad and perhaps could be potential stars in the Norway senior side.

Both did well when they came into Stabæk Fotball's U19's squad towards the end of the 2024 season and actually managed to pick up a couple of games in the 2nd Team. Having trained with the First Team during pre-season for the 2025 season, both were given game time during friendlies and they must of impressed Dean Wakefield as he decided to include them in a couple of games last season.

Martin Groven was very impressive last year, he started 15 games and made an appearance as sub in 8 games, the majority of these games being league games and he managed to put the ball in the back of the net 4 times and set up 5 assists for his team mates - impressive for a right winger! Jens Berg didn't get as many games as Groven, but did look solid in his 4 appearances for the First Team at left back.Wakefield is said to have high hopes for both youngsters and certainly rates them highly having used them a few times already with 4 games of the season already having been played.

Wakefield also decided to sign a couple more youngsters during the transfer window. Young midfielder Gustav Nilson came in from Fredrikstad on a free and has featured already for the First Team. 16 year old midfielder Allan Petersen was brought in from feeder club Lyngby, also on a free and has reportedly joined up with Stabæk Fotball's U19's squad, the future looks bright for this young player as he has already featured for Denmark's U19's squad despite being the tender age of 16. The last signing which was made a couple of days before the end of the transfer window was Andreas Känsäkoski. The 17 year old right back was signed for £300k from TPS, a big fee for a young player, surely seen as a gamble by many but with Känsäkoski already having made his debut for Finland's U21's squad it looks like this deal will prove to be a bargin. It is rumoured that Känsäkoski will make his debut for Stabæk Fotball before the end of the season.

When asked about the youngsters at Stabæk Fotball, Dean Wakefield had this to say:

I've always been a fan of bringing in young players, developing them and using them to help lead my clubs to glory. Why should we spend big money on foreign players when we could develop the next top talent here? Of course I'll sign players when we need to but if there's a player who's impressing while playing for the clubs 2nd team or U19's, then I think they should be given a chance. Some are comparing me to Arsenal legend Arsene Wenger which is nice because Arsenal have developed some of the top players in football but unlike Arsene, I win trophies.[/Quote]

With so many top youngsters coming into the squad, the future at Stabæk Fotball is looking bright and it looks like they'll be filling up their trophy cabinet very fast in the next couple of years.

Jens Berg | Martin Groven | Andreas Känsäkoski | Allan Petersen | Gustav Nilson

[markyosullivan]

Nilsen could come to something good.

I hope so. He looks good atm but hopefully will continue to develop.

A good season on the cards!

Hope you're right. Would be nice to do well in Europe.

Great year! Odd that your assistant was named 2nd Manager of the Year. Is that normal?

I'm not sure if it is cerud first time it's happened to me