[FM18] Finns Can Only Get Better

[deltablue]

Winter 2023

After starting the season proper I decided to wait until a regular update point to catch up on earlier posts, which only means I've got a lot to do in one go now.

In the past I've not made signings until around the start of the group stage but as that risks leaving players cup tied I didn't hang around as much this year. The first order of business was the central defence, since the one I had brought in after promotion was already getting a bit old and in danger of being obsolete soon, so we needed new blood starting with pinching Veteli from rivals Inter. Manner came in later (and was indeed cup tied) as a player who had been on my radar for a couple of years after Leppala moved to Belgium at the end of January. It wasn't surprising that the best young defender in the country would attract attention but there hadn't been any speculation or desire to leave (well he had only recently arrived beforehand) but once faced with the offer I felt it was the sort of move I had to let players make.

Lautamaja's signing was a bit of an embarassment as it turned out he had been in our own youth intake a couple of years back but I hadn't given him a second glance (or a first one as it happens) and let HJK have him, which should have been a hint (and usually is) that he was potentially rather useful. The plus side is that they had offered a deal for 20% of the profit on our next sale so we got a bit of money back, which has happened to be a couple of times but this is probably the first for a player I discarded in the first place. 

There wasn't really any urgency in the rest of the signings but one point of note was that it was the first time I shelled out for the European scouting package (at least for pre-season) instead of just the Finnish one, and Varmanen was the first player I signed from elsewhere, soon followed by a deal for another. I also delight in scouting the international youth teams (even if those reports never seem to complete, at least when I assign them as a group) and taking the opportunity to take players from rivals even if there were still players out of reach unfortunately.

Signings

[deltablue]

Cup 2023

Dead easy. VPS were the only other Premier Division team in the group (though Ekenas has just been relegated), because of course we'd get them so soon after beating them in the last final, and after beating them away in the first match it wasn't hard to get a 100% record while VPS ended up a mere 4th. Vuorela scored in every match which was a sign of things to come.

[deltablue]

June 2023

Well that hasn't gone according to plan! The tone was set with the opening game against Lahti, a team that only stayed up last season through the playoffs after being adrift for months on end. We seemed to be doing a demonstration of how not to score while they hit us for not just one but two goals. A few better results followed while SJK struggled and it seemed like we coule potentially be part of a more open title race, but that didn't last long and things took a severe turn for the worst.

Suddenly nothing went right. It didn't help that an injury to the veteran Lahti exposed the lack of an alternative in the BPD position, though I did soon hit upon the idea of converting the recently-signed defensive midfielder Heinonen into the long-term replacement we'd soon need anyway, which will take a while to come about. Nor did it help to try have the younger and newer players replacing the old guard on either side, especially since there wouldn't be any dynamic partnership connection for the time being, not helped by a lack of consistency leading to regular changes. Not that we were necessarily that much better up front with Kallio failing to replicate his form of last season and only having the occasional good game, and he was far from alone in that. At least we managed to keep our unbeaten record against Inter intact.

I decided to switch things up during the June break, and while the defence still remained problematic we were at least firing again, and after a run of just 2 points from 7 games, 3 wins from 5 was definitely an improvement. In fact the table is still so close that while we haven't climbed much in terms of position, we're just 3 points of 3rd, so we can definitely keep up our qualification record for the Europa League. Speaking of which, we finally avoided one of the tough draws this year, getting Zimbru Chisinau.

It was with great regret that I feel we have to replace Pasanen, who never really developed (or made even a single youth appearance at international level) and while he's had some excellent games for us, maybe having a better keeper is what we need as there have been a bunch of 'should have done better' moments this year alone. The highlight (or lowlight) being Mariehamn's second goal where a shot bounced off a defender, then a forward and rolled very slowly towards a post. He still felt like making a spectacular dive for it, didn't actually get the ball, and after it rebounded off the post it was easy for the scorer to move in with the keeper stuck on the ground right in front of him. It doesn't look good that his clear upgrade was signed from Fylde, a team just relegated from the Bananarama National, but here he is...

His mentals are a little weaker but he's still enough of a decent all-rounder to otherwise be better than both Pasanen and the back-up (who the game, or at least the coaches still rates as our best keeper for some reason) in every category aside from being level with Pasanen on a couple of things. While looking up a few things I found out that his father was from the same town as Shefki Kuqi (who was also manager of Inter of all teams until recently).

[deltablue]

Former Player Watch

Askar

Jarvinen

Leppala

We have 3 now, which will be 4 at the end of the year when someone moves on the end of his contract to Ipswich. You're welcome.

Askar had a brief but successful loan spell for Molde late last year as they finished 2nd in the league. With Newcastle relegated to the Championship he has more of a chance of actually getting games for the club he signed for (and he is at least in the senior squad now), which would be a first.

Jarvinen at least got to taste a bit of Serie A action on loan at Cittadella (who survived) and score a couple of goals,even if he wasn't that good. I think we're seeing a pattern where players will have to spend quite a bit of time on loan to play after taking a big step up from Finland, though hopefully without causing too much career damage. It would be interesting to see more players move to the Championship or go to Denmark or Norway permanantly and get games straight away, maybe earn a bigger move once they're more ready for it even if the lower level might limit their development if they don't.

Not much on Leppala so far, but that's not surprising since as seen with Askar, players arriving mid-season don't tend to get loan moves until the following season, especially as in his case he arrived on their deadline day. However it'll be interesting to see where he goes this year. Moving to a lower level league than the others does leave him a bit more vulnerable to stagnating if he doesn't end up playing soon though, without as much to fall back on for training.

[deltablue]

Aug 2023

Having low mentals meant signing Jaaskelainen was a risk even though he otherwise looked like a clear cut No.1 but it seemed to pay off early on. When Hirvonen arrived shortly afterward (thanks to @DavidBeckham for reminding me about him) he had a good solid start that made a nice change from the struggles of the slightly older Manner and Veteli. There have still been a few weaker performances but having conceded 1.83 goals per game in the league before either arrived, that's down to 1.2 since the start of July. Not fantastic but still a reasonable improvement.

In fact that last line sums the summer up rather well. As expected we managed to get ourselves back in the European race (even briefly touching 3rd again) but losing to HJK (shortly after just managing to fight for a point against the same team) leaves us slightly behind. I'm still optimistic we can get back up into the European places and it wouldn't make a massive difference either way but given our chances of winning anything were snuffed out early on it would still allow us to end the season on a positive note, along with the surprise 7-1 hammering of SJK (where we were 5-0 up after 15 minutes).

[deltablue]

Oct 2023

We lost games we couldn't afford to against Mariehamn and KuPS. The really annoying thing about the latter was that two of their goals were scored by... Tommi Jarvinen. I finally added the ex-players to a shortlist and when I did so I noticed KuPS were interested, which should have clued me in that it was possible to get him back on loan instead of just thinking about how odd it was that he could return to Finland, especially as his previous loan spell had him stay in Serie A.

We still nearly turned the tide after a crucial win over Kemi, followed by a derby win against newly-crowned champions Inter, meaning I'm still undefeated against them. That put us in 4th heading to the final day but we struggled from the start at HIFK and even after we equalised, I struggled to get excited about the fact that a winner would give us the last European spot though we did actually have a lot of pressure and came very close to doing so.

Star Player: Definitely not who anyone would have expected but he was the main bright spot as we struggled early on. A mixture of an injury and the revival of the theoretical first-choice Kastrati-Holmqvist partnership sidelined him after a while but he was still our top scorer and set an average rating record.

Squad Stats

[deltablue]

Finland Update

Things went a lot better than expected for a while, though that was helped by the fixture list that had the Latvia games 2nd and 3rd, as well as home matches against Croatia and Turkey that allowed them to pull off draws, allowing them to be as high as second at the half-way point. It was a shame that the return games (as well as Portugal being too strong both times) meant they ended up in the 4th place I expected and quite a bit adrift of the other three but a bit of pride was restored after the low point of last year.

Ones To Watch (aka, 'Early Scouting')

World Ranking: 94th (up 10)

[deltablue]

Decision Time

It hasn't always been easy to keep track of when the national team vacancy, and even with news/social feed I prefer the FM13 system (and not just for this) of subscribing to a team so you can see in your inbox when a job is available. Casually making my way through the close season I dropped my focus and only noticed when doing the Finland update that the national team job was there for the taking. My predecessor (who resigned) has already proven that even with the International League the job security is great.

I had been planning on having a dual club/national team role in the style of some youth-only careers in tiny countries but I'm now reconsidering that as something that would mean there's a lot more to deal with and would be a lot tricker to balance. International games might be seen as getting in the way of the domestic season (especially as they'd take a lot longer to do) or club games would seem like a barrier to progressing to the next set of internationals. It would also be nice to progress a lot quicker from one international 'season' to another.

In some ways this was always going to be about the national team but with the intention that club management could act as a useful foil to that The fact that I haven't achieved that much in that department yet is helping make it harder to abandon TPS at this point, as well as the fact that it is interesting to have ex-players to follow once I've let them move on (and I forgot to mention one is just about to go to Ipswich).

[deltablue]

I've decided I'll continue with TPS. It may get rather slow and frustrating at times to manage both teams but I didn't join TPS and take them up to leave without a single league and just one cup win. There's also the experience of developing players myself at club level (not that I feel at this point it's going to make much difference, though I am working on improving our intakes), having the pool of ex-players to keep track of and a few other things I'd miss out on if I went international-only which I always intended to try for myself in this career.

[Jimbokav1971]

On 1/13/2018 at 19:24, deltablue said:

Askar departure

 

I knew I'd have to let players go to bigger leagues to help them develop (this career being at least as much about the fortunes about the national team as it is a one-club project) but I didn't expect it to happen so soon, nor one of the very top leagues (since when do Premier League clubs buy fringe 17-yr olds from Finland?), and certainly not Askar, a player whose appearances so far had been limited and average at best. He had already caused a lot of drama by wanting first team football. Annoyingly there didn't seem to be the option to say 'you're not in my plans at the moment but you'll get plenty of opportunities next year', especially as you can say that in FM13, and that's precisely what I was planning, releasing Virtanen to make way. I know 'x has been playing far too well' worked all the time in FM16 but here it doesn't seem to at all, even when arguably true so that blew up.

The first team to show an interest was... Norwich. Thankfully followed by Watford and Newcastle, along with Brugges and Gent in Belgium. I rejected bids for a while (since he already hated me anyway so it couldn't get much worse) before accepting the one from Newcastle, and even though the others followed up with far bigger fees (375k) all in one go rather than the smaller structured deal, I liked the idea of gambling on the 40% profit clause and the potentially big returns that could bring.

It will be interesting following his progress, and that of others who will no doubt soon follow to bigger leagues since even with the fact that he'll have to do well to become a Premier League first-teamer (and will probably be on loan a lot), he can still become much better than he would have here as well as the fact that it's beyond my control now. This is one of the things I was looking forward to doing in this save and now I'm getting my opportinity.

I know I'm late to the party, (sorry), but you might not be aware you can loan back players now after you have sold them as part of the selling deal. Sometimes you can get until the end of the following season which can be a right result. Not sure if you are aware of  that being stuck in FM09 or whatever. 

[deltablue]

6 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

I know I'm late to the party, (sorry), but you might not be aware you can loan back players now after you have sold them as part of the selling deal. Sometimes you can get until the end of the following season which can be a right result. Not sure if you are aware of  that being stuck in FM09 or whatever. 

I'm not that old! OK actually I am

I had actually forgotten about that but it probably wouldn't really do that anyway (aside from maybe with Jarvinen). Usually the players want to leave so it helps with squad harmony and it would also defeat the object of letting them to go a bigger league to help their development to hold them back in Finland a little longer.

[Sheriff7]

On 8/3/2018 at 15:23, deltablue said:

Decision Time

It hasn't always been easy to keep track of when the national team vacancy, and even with news/social feed I prefer the FM13 system (and not just for this) of subscribing to a team so you can see in your inbox when a job is available. Casually making my way through the close season I dropped my focus and only noticed when doing the Finland update that the national team job was there for the taking. My predecessor (who resigned) has already proven that even with the International League the job security is great.

I had been planning on having a dual club/national team role in the style of some youth-only careers in tiny countries but I'm now reconsidering that as something that would mean there's a lot more to deal with and would be a lot tricker to balance. International games might be seen as getting in the way of the domestic season (especially as they'd take a lot longer to do) or club games would seem like a barrier to progressing to the next set of internationals. It would also be nice to progress a lot quicker from one international 'season' to another.

In some ways this was always going to be about the national team but with the intention that club management could act as a useful foil to that The fact that I haven't achieved that much in that department yet is helping make it harder to abandon TPS at this point, as well as the fact that it is interesting to have ex-players to follow once I've let them move on (and I forgot to mention one is just about to go to Ipswich).

Good i would like to see some Finland games and squad under your control....

[deltablue]

4 hours ago, Sheriff7 said:

Good i would like to see some Finland games and squad under your control....

You might have to wait a bit, since next autumn's International League is going to be when I take over my first competitive games and I have pretty much an entire domestic season to get through first

I did get my first draw however, for the next World Cup qualifiers (though they're quite a way off yet), and it's an interesting one...

I suspect that the recent European Championship qualifiers are why Denmark and Slovenia are ranked so highly. In the case of the Danes it will help that Eriksen will be 33 by the time the group actually starts, though Christensen and Dolberg will still be at their peak. In the very least I hope we can grab a couple of results against teams other than San Marino, and along with the fact that we'll be in Division D of the International League first and hoping to get promoted (though I don't know the draw for that yet) it looks like I'll be starting off in the relatively shallow end at Finland.

[deltablue]

Winter 2024

On paper our squad seems to be roughly as good as I can make it right now, though aside from foreigners there are still a few established stars at rival players out of reach to keep them at least as good as we are. That meant wasn't really anyone exciting on the radar this year and improvement on last year's poor 6th will have to come from the existing players stepping up, in fact if it wasn't for the loss of Pulkkainen to Ipswich meaning we needed a new full-back I might have kept the squad as it is for the sake of boosted player familiarity.

When I did decide to go fishing I caught a few players in my net, each with a role to play even if we were more keeping the squad at the current level than improving it. Nylund was the new second-choice left back (Heinolainen being a hard player to unseat, hence why we lost Nylund's predecessor). Edman provides the replacement for the veteran Lahti we really needed. Malolo slightly beats Oksanen as our best central midfielder, which is just as well as I decided to re-train the previous second choice as another long-term option in Lahti's position instead. Jantti already looks as promising as the older Vallia (signed last year) though even withhis potential, Paavola will be a tough one to unseat.

There's a chance there'll be more as I decided it was worth doing this before the cup started (having signed everyone just in time) rather than after but at the moment I'm satisfied that I don't really need to look for anyone else right now.

Signings

 

[deltablue]

Cup 2024

Like last year, we started off with a trip to the other Premier Division team in the group. Unlike last year, we lost. We had 4 suspensions allowing 3 of the newcomers to play straight away. Malolo would have played anyway, Edman was worryingly poor in his first audition as the Lahti replacement we'd soon sorely need and Nylund surprisingly proved to be very good, sidelining Heinoleinen until the start of the league season.

We easily brushed aside the other teams in the group (despite a poor defensive start against KTP) with the 9-0 win over Kufu being a club and competition record. With Kemi Kings having only drawn against Gnistan, they only denied us top spot in the group with a late winner in the final game. That meant we faced a second round game, inevitably against VPS, which we narrowly won to set up a quarter-final with HJK.

Kemi aside (and the start of KTP), we look very good. The usual qualifications about the the standard of the opposition apply (and it's sort of pre-season) but Vuorela (de-throning Kastrati for this season) and Holmqvist are making a good partnership, Kallio looks like recovering from a relatively disappointing 2023, while at the back we have a full year of Jaaskelainen in goal with Hirvonen in front of him. Manner seemed to have improved as the other conventional central defender before I signed one more player for 40k from Sundsvall to step in as a solid and experienced first choice ahead of the 'has-beens' and younger defenders who struggled to find their feet last year. In midfield Malolo has already formed a strong partnership with Paavola, showing why he was first choice at HJK as well. Given the mess we were in for a while last season we should hopefully be much improved this year.

A few Norwegian clubs decided to try late bids for Nurmi, Holmqvist (over 200k) and Lautamaja and I might have accepted at least one of those (surely giving them a gentle enough step up to have them play, unlike the previous players sold) if it wasn't for the timing. I've been gradually getting rid of the 'excess' players in the squad and while we technically had a few weeks, it also seemed like slim pickings out there (and I'd already bought in the players who interested me) so the squad was pretty much locked in for the time being as far as I was concerned and I didn't want to suddenly have to scramble for replacements.

[Dexter_Morgan]

Do you think you're better than last years 6th in reality? Lahti seems a big loss to you too and obviously it's too early to say if Edman or Nylund will be the successor especially as you say with Edman not starting well, though in fairness at least in the cup you've got a chance to try things out before the league season starts which is something I like the idea of as it gives you a chance to try things in a competitive nature but not risking points while you work it out

[deltablue]

11 hours ago, Dexter_Morgan said:

Do you think you're better than last years 6th in reality? Lahti seems a big loss to you too and obviously it's too early to say if Edman or Nylund will be the successor especially as you say with Edman not starting well, though in fairness at least in the cup you've got a chance to try things out before the league season starts which is something I like the idea of as it gives you a chance to try things in a competitive nature but not risking points while you work it out

Oh I think we're definitely better than 6th, especially as it's the lowest we've been since getting promoted and we were 2nd the previous two years. I was looking up at a title challenge, not down at having to fight for a top-half finish. The new young defenders really weren't working out at the start (not helped by a Lahti injury but he wasn't always that good even when he returned) and Pasanen was looking out of his depth in goal so we soon left trying to salvage what we could from the season. That still could have meant European qualification but a few too many dropped points cost us. With Jaaskelainen Jr  being a clear upgrade in goal, Hirvonen having made a much better first impression, PirttiJoki as a better defensive partner and Manner looking better anyway before the latter arrived I feel we're much more solid defensively now, especially with Malolo improving the midfield.

Edman only played in the first game (Lahti was just suspended, though at 33 this might be his last good season), away to a decent Premier League side who we don't have a great record against and the other defenders weren't that good either. On top of all that he was just a little disappointing rather than actually terrible, so I knew not to make any hasty conclusions. He'll probably have the occasional appearance (especially from the bench) to help find his feet as well. I do have a Plan B (not Nylund who plays in a different position) as last year I started to train Heinonen as a defender to potentially give me another option in that position.

 

[kingjericho]

Nice save so far. Too bad about last season which did nothing to improve.

Have you been able to upgrade any of the club's facilities? I usually try to push the board for junior coaching and youth recruitment as often as possible, as it doesn't take too much money from the finances and it helps with the youth intakes.

[deltablue]

40 minutes ago, kingjericho said:

Nice save so far. Too bad about last season which did nothing to improve.

Have you been able to upgrade any of the club's facilities? I usually try to push the board for junior coaching and youth recruitment as often as possible, as it doesn't take too much money from the finances and it helps with the youth intakes.

 I have done a bit of upgrading. After the first season in the Premier Division I upgraded both the training facilities (which were already 'good' and are now 'great' and training facilities. The board seemed a little more reluctant to expand youth recruitment (which started off 'above average') but after pushing further it's just been upgraded twice in as many years and it's now 'well established'. I'm also upgrading the youth facilities again but that won't be finished until June. Looking at the facilities page it's still 'below average' so that's definitely something that needs upgrading a few times more.

[deltablue]

May 2024

It's been chaotic to say the least, with the defence not quite living up to expectations and only two teams in the league have conceded more, alongside a hammering in the cup to an HJK team running away with the title. However we've been giving as good as we get and have managed to get enough wins to keep us 2nd/3rd all season so far, which marks a considerable improvement on last year as I hoped. Essentially we're the Finnish Liverpool, which is fun to watch but doesn't win league titles, not for 28 years and counting anyway.

From the start we've often had at least one player injured at one point or another (starting with Malolo after the very first game, but also including top scorer Holmqvist) not helped by suspensions as well (I had forgotten how much of a card-magnet Heinoleinen was) leaving us short on full-back options for a while. It was especially frustrating losing to Inter (not exactly making an impressive title defence) for the first time, especially conceding a penalty for their winner.

[deltablue]

International League Draw 2024

My Finland reign begins in the International League and I now know who it will be against. Finland could only draw in Latvia during their last Euro qualifying group (with Luxembourg coming up in the World Cup qualifiers next year) and while I hope to avoid a repeat, it wouldn't be the end of the world. I didn't care too much for the competition the previous time I tried it with the Czechs on FM16 but I do like the idea from the perspective of a smaller nation of being able to have more opportunity to face teams on a similar level.

[deltablue]

Former Player Watch 2024

Askar

Jarvinen

Leppala

Pulkkinen

This is an interesting little side experiment by itself, even if the results haven't quite been what I'd hoped as players seem to really struggle to get a chance at a much higher level, often ending up in youth teams and on loan.

Askar is clearly the main story. Last year I wondered if he'd get to play more for Newcastle after they were relegated. The answer was 'No' but he did get a pretty good season at a similar level in Spain as a regular as they got promoted to the playoffs. He has a year left on his Newcastle contract and it would be a shame to see him cast adrift for nothing as he's starting to prove himself at what might be more his level.

Jarvinen had a short but strong spell back in Finland with KuPS in the autumn (much to our disadvantage) then managed to get a few little Lazio appearances on his return to Italy. Leppala beat him earlier in the season to be the first player to feature for the club he actually signed for but that was all he got. Pulkkinen went to Ipswich, who only narrowly escaped relegation to League 1. He went immediately on loan to Denmark but only got a single late season appearance there.

It will be interesting to see what happens to players who will get more of a chance at international level, surely there'll be more interest from the right sort of clubs. The situation when I took over was 'one up front' with Jarvinen second in the pecking order, and Holmqvist 3rd. I'll have to properly review my options but it's likely Jarvinen will be part of a first choice front two. Askar doesn't seem to be too far off Ylatupa of Galatasaray, my first choice on the right, so might at least feature a bit off the bench. Otherwise the bar is higher than expected (and the development rate lower, probably due to lack of opportunities after making the big moves I thought would be crucial) so TPS so far unfortunately isn't turning into the school for future internationals as I hoped.

[deltablue]

Euro 2024 - Scotland/Wales

In some ways it's a good thing Finland don't qualify for tournaments otherwise things would have gotten very complicated in the past month or so. England have won the two World Cups so far but haven't made a dent in the Euro's, a quarter-final exit to Germany being a lot more like it, aside from the fact that it wasn't on penalties. The French were holders but went out in the first round after only drawing their 3 group matches, including to Slovenia who we face next year. Instead it was the beaten Germans who went on to claim victory this time, thumping Spain in extra-time. They have a few very good 20yr old newgens emerging in the team, including the keeper.

The Russians made it out of the group stage, which is great for me because HJK's success this season was strongly based on a brilliant 18yr old Russian forward they have on loan (and was top scorer as of the last regular update, slightly ahead of Holmqvist though our boy is leaving him in the dust now) though his absence didn't really slow them down much. Croatia often do well in tournaments both in this and FM13 (unless they have a top quality midfielder playing for Milan who didn't get make a single World Cup appearance) and managed a place in the semi. Also of note was an Iberian quarter-final, Belgium beating the Netherlands, and co-hosts Scotland crashing out without a single point.

[deltablue]

Youth Intake 2024

I didn't do it last year because I was starting to doubt whether we'd get anyone good enough that often. However last year saw an upgrade to both the youth recruitment and youth facilities (with more work set for the end of the season) among other things and got a bit of a reward. Even high stars aren't enough to get excited about by itself but Karjanlahti definitely has the best chance of making it since Marko Nurmi (now first choice right-back) a few years ago. It helps that he had decent determination, sadly not something in abundance.

[deltablue]

Aug 2024

After the decent but messy start to the season, we really hit our stride in the summer, despite having Will Jaaskelainen (whose name I keep thinking is Adam for some reason) out for almost the whole of June and July. Thankfully Pasanen returned to being the solid keeper of old rather than someone who couldn't be replaced quickly enough, as he was when we were waiting for Jaaskelainen to arrive last year.

We soon found ourselves in a position of being unlikely to catch HJK (which wasn't news anyway) but being comfortably clear not only in the top 3 but in 2nd specifically, helped by the most recent win over Lahti. Holmqvist (still the league's top scorer by 7 goals) has lost form dramatically but we still seem to be cruising along at a reasonable enough pace with just 5 matches left. No idea how Jaro was 0-0 as we had 36 shots (14 on target) between us.

This is where things are going to get interesting as it's time for my first matches as Finland manager. The format of the Finnish season means that June will be the only time where we'll really have much of a clash. The first half of the season is crammed into a couple of months or so, but the last 5 matches cover almost two months (and we only had 3 in August), because Finnish logic, creating autumnal gaps for internationals, and the March games will be before the start of the league season but after the cup group stage. It's a bit like in 'International Footballing Rescue' where I was comfortably able to manage both Ghana and Michalovce because the AFCON was during the long Slovak winter break.

[deltablue]

September 2024 International Update

Squad

In hindsight it was pretty comfortable but going into it things didn't feel that way. We do have few decent players (though a few of our key players are 30+) but the lack of depth was exposed by the fact that as I was carefully going through the squad and any potential replacements (only making a minor changes in the end) there were a few TPS players who came close to selection. There was also the complete lack of tactical familiarity that I felt might make things a little messy even against our weak opponents, who we didn't have that massive an advantage over on paper in the first place. That wasn't helped by one of our first choice midfield duo getting injured just after the selection and the other after the first game.

As it happened we managed to utterly dominate in San Marino, though we actually struggled for a while at home to Luxembourg (even after going ahead) before finally putting them to the sword. We'll likely be lambs to the slaughter against anyone decent but at least we can deal with the easier games comfortably enough. Unsurprisingly the main star was Ylatupa (thankfully he's just turned 25) but with Jarvinen (who was supposed to spearhead the attack) struggling, on came Holmqvist to pick up the slack (just like old times) and mark his first two senior internationals with a goal in each. He even set up another familiar face in Leppala against Luxembourg.

Getting promoted to back to Division C was always going to be the aim and at the moment it doesn't seem like that'll be too much of a challenge, unlike pretty much everything else that will come.

 

[deltablue]

October 2024 International Update

After the last international week I had been hoping to give Holmqvist his first international starts but he got injured in a league game in September (where he finally broke his dry run as well) so that had to wait. The trip to Latvia was the one I was most worried about and we ended up being poor at both ends (since a couple of first choice defenders weren't fit to play either), chasing the game and escaping with a 2-2 draw partly thanks to Jarvinen getting his first senior international goal.

Thankfully Luxembourg was more comfortable thanks to Jokelainen, a forward who narrowly missed out in my first squad but got in in Holmqvist's place this time. The fact that they scored a couple of goals made it the first time I've seen a 5-2 win described as unconvincing. The other thing to note was Askar got his debut in place of the injured Ylatupa (since we've had had at least one injury both shortly after the squad was confirmed and in between the two matches)

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November 2024 International Update

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Holmqvist got his big chance against San Marino and along with Ylatupa really went to town on them, capping a great year for him as he set a new Finnish record for goals in a match with 4. I don't want to overdo the celebrations at easily beating Luxembourg and San Marino twice but we haven't been bad at all even considering.

Latvia seemed to go much better than the earlier match, even if we seemed stuck on just a single goal with Holmqvist having his first poor game despite being alongside his admittedly rusty former partner Jarvinen (who has played just 19 games at club level in over 2 years) for this one after Jokelainen (rewarded for his Luxembourg exploits with a place as Holmqvist's partner against San Marino) became the latest injury of the week. Things got worrying when the equalised as a winner would take them up ahead of us but we if we should have had all 3 points, we at least managed the one we needed and I could feel confidence from the performance, if not the result.

In the middle of the year we dropped to a record low 124th due to inactivity, but even against low-ranking opposition and the failure to beat Latvia either time we did enough to jump up quite a bit to 86th, up 8 from this time last year, which is how I'm measuring it. I hope we can get the occasional result against more middling teams as that would help a lot and the upcoming World Cup Qualifying group with Denmark, Iceland, Slovenia, Northern Ireland and San Marino (again) provides an opportunity to do test ourselves against such opponents, stronger but not so much that we don't have much chance.

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Nov 2024

It's just as well there's international football now because there was never likely to be much of interest on the TPS side of things, and given Holmqvist straddles both worlds I'm putting this after November update even though the domestic season ended a few weeks before. We already looked set to finish a distant 2nd for the third time in four seasons which was just as well as we didn't end well at all. It didn't help that Holmqvist got back to goalscoring form with a brace against Honka only to get injured that same match as aside from Kallio regaining form (and setting a new assist record) no one else has really shone. I reckon we'll be settling for the silver medal at least a couple more times before we get our hands on the gold.

Star Player: Holmqvist is the reason this is coming after the international updates instead of the other way around. Despite multiple spells out injured and a poor run of form before the second, he easily aced the scoring charts and as you've already seen had a very successful first few appearances for Finland to cap off a very good year.

Squad Stats

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I'll be alternating a season on each career for the time being so I'll be getting another year at Gillingham under my belt before returning to this.

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Winter 2025

This was a relatively low key pre-season, at least the early parts. Varmanen was the latest young star I could get for nothing from a lower division club, maybe as a replacement in the squad for Kastrati (whose time has pretty much passed) even though he has to make his way through a crowded field to play much, especially given later events. Peltola's low determination was a worry but otherwise he had a lot going for him and we needed a good backup to Nurmi (who was starting to  make noises about wanting to leave, though I've been able to keep him in check for now).

I couple of years ago I was a complete idiot when KuPS went in to bring Jarvinen back to Finland on loan and I didn't take the hint that I should maybe try myself. I didn't make the same mistake again when Inter tried for Pulkkinen from Ipswich so I threw our hat into the ring and he chose to return to us for his loan instead. For some reason his bond with me was cited as a factor despite the circumstances in which he left at the end of his contract just a year before after a falling out over first team opportunities.

However Jarvinen himself was the big story. His Lazio contract was running out and he was at least slightly open to a pre-contract deal. I knew it would have to be a big one to pull it off (especially as the max wage I could offer him was 20% short of his existing 3kpw) but thankfully I managed it. It will be wonderful to have him back in the summer, especially as that loan spell with KuPS produced 6 goals in as many games (including 2 against us!) so he should certainly flourish at this level and having failed to impress (especially given the weak opposition) in my first matches in charge of Finland, the national team may be able to benefit from his getting regular club action again just a handful of appearances in the past few years.

Signings

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Cup 2025

There's not much to see here. The only match that really mattered was VPS, and it was slightly disappointing to only get a home draw. Otherwise aside from surprisingly going behind at Ekenas and only just scraping a win, we had a comfortable time beating the others and securing top spot in the group, meaning we go straight into the quarter-finals. There'll be the first couple of World Cup qualifiers before the league season starts.

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March 2025 International Update

No points from the first two matches isn't surprising but it could have been different. After the easier International League opponents I needed to try and find the underdog's approach from this point on and it seemed to work at first in Iceland (who already have a decent pair of newgen forwards I'm a bit jealous of) when Ylatupa won and scored an early penalty. It was only brief but we kept on going and forced a few good saves from the Iceland keeper. They were similarly busy at our end (and we're going to be in serious trouble when Hradecky retires with no potential replacement who is even half-decent) but it still felt a little cruel to lose it right at the end.

Denmark was a different matter entirely as they walked all over us in the first half, to the point that I could have just let Jarvinen and Pohjanpalo (having remembered during the Iceland match that despite Holmqvist's form last year, he's not part of our best forward partnership, especially as he takes up Jarvinen's best role) have a night off to tour the bars of Helsinki, so little did they see of the ball. Things actually improved quite a bit after the break once Askar came on for a tired Ylatupa (who would have been rested altogether if this had been at club level). He scored his first international goal before setting up Kauko. The latter (pictured below) is easily the best Finnish newgen I've seen so far and while he's still not that good I wouldn't mind a few more like him.

Thankfully we have a relatively forgiving group, with Denmark (ranked 8th going into this) being the toughest team. From what I saw in previous qualifying groups, Finland tend to be a 'second from bottom' team, easily overcoming the minnows of the group, maybe getting the odd home draw against others but not enough. We couldn't do it again Iceland (though maybe we can at home), clearly weren't going to do it against Denmark but we have the trip to San Marino next to hopefully get a win on the board, and we'll see if we can do anything against Northern Ireland or Slovenia (who have no quality whatsoever beyond Oblak).

Expectations were always going to be low but at least we're not losing 4 or 5-0 on a regular basis and can at least give better teams a game (or half in the case of the Danes) though there certainly will be some teams we'll encounter before too long (and it could happen in Copenhagen as well) who will walk right through us.

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Apr 2025

Starting the league season on a Monday meant we genuinely had 3 matches in a week to kick off with, but it hasn't been too bad so far to the point that we somehow managed to be top after 4 matches. We won both home matches and drew the away games, neither of them easy but it was still disappointing given all 3 goals in those matches gave us the lead. Despite feasting on goals against Honka (having actually gone behind for the only time so far) I got the sense that an in-form Jarvinen would really help us kill games off.

There isn't much you can gather this early, aside from the fact that Mariehamn aren't doing well (and we're about to face them in the cup), and I'm not getting too excited yet that this might be our year. It doesn't help that we have two trips to HJK this season (leagues where you play everyone 3 times can be a little unbalanced like that) with the first one coming in a couple of league matches time, not helped by Kallio being out injured for a few weeks.

One bright spot was provided by the 16yr old Karjanlahti, the most recent promising youngster we produced, warranting an early opportunity in the first team which he's already repaying. We may not have the money to upgrade the youth facilities again this year (I'll have to see about youth recruitment) but it's still good to see the occasional player worth getting excited about. The most recent 'graduate', Nurmi, is on the verge making the Finland squad albeit just as the very narrow 'winner' in the contest to be second-choice right back.

[Deisler26]

Fine work, considering the state of your facilities

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On 20/04/2018 at 09:11, Deisler26 said:

Fine work, considering the state of your facilities

They're not too bad actually. Great training facilities, Average youth facilities (after 3 upgrades), Good junior coaching and Well-established youth recruitment.

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June 2025 International Update

After two narrow defeats in the first matches of the qualifying campaign I looked to the San Marino game to give us a comfortable win and we managed it easily enough, looking in a strong enough position to take a few players off for a rest at the start of the second half (bringing on a few familiar names) and to sit back later on. Jarvinen even managed a hat-trick, which may not be much of an achievement against such weak opposition but he only got a couple total (his only previous international goals) during the whole International League campaign so he might be able to grab himself a decent international haul.

Slovenia would be a trickier trip. Oblak in goal remained their only good player but they were up in 20th in the rankings (we were in the 90's) after reaching the second round of the Euros last year, only losing to Portugal on penalties. That made it feel satisfying to get a hard-fought draw which helps our chances of getting something from the return as well, along with Northern Ireland at home which is next. We're definitely not going to Mexico but we still might have a respectable campaign.

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June 2025

As expected we were hit by Kallio's injury at the end of April, and despite getting an assist on his return against Mariehamn he didn't seem to be making much difference when he returned. That seemed to be fixed after the Kemi defeat as I fixed his role and with a game in hand we seemed to be in the mix going into the June international break but seemed to be stumbling since. SJK was admittedly a tough trip but HJK were struggling and would be even more so if it wasn't for our generosity. They've won 2 out of 2 so far, accounting for a third of their league wins so far this season and half our defeats.

VPS was a 'did everything but score' match which we really should have won but 'consistency' really hasn't been in our forwards' dictionary this year. Hopefully Jarvinen can help be the solution to those problems as he returns to the club at the end of his Lazio contract but maybe I'm setting my expectations a little high. He certainly can't hurt.

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Former Player Watch 2025

Askar

Leppala

This is a slightly smaller version as Jarvinen is our player again now, as is Pulkkinen though only on a season-long loan. Askar followed up the best season of his career so far on loan in Spain with being able to get a load of league appearances for Newcastle (which I really wasn't expecting), even if most of them are as a sub. He's also had a decent time at international level as well and while he's hardly a star at either level, we at least finally get to see someone starting to succeed.

Leppala is a different story. He has just moved to FC Eindhoven where he'll hopefully get the first team-action he couldn't get at Charleroi, though it gives him an inaccurate player history page (which acts as if he arrived at the start of last season, not the end) and that was already missing the half-season in Belgium after we sold him. He's a Finland squad player I sometimes feel the need to call upon so he probably needs more club action to be more reliable on that front. He didn't even look that good as a sub against San Marino. 

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Youth Intake (sort of) 2025

Once again I overlooked the notificiation about youth intake day but there were still a couple worth noting, helped by managing to improve the youth recruitment, though we don't have enough to improve the youth facilities again next year. Jantti could be very useful, especially given Pulkkinen is just on loan and given another development I'll touch upon in the update. Pennanen is less certain especially with fairly low development but he could play a role, especially again given what happened elsewhere.

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Aug 2025

Guess who's back, back again. Tommi's back, tell a friend. In some ways Jarvinen could be the poster boy for this career and while it's a shame his big move really didn't work out it's great to be re-united at club level. It took a few games for him to start to click but 5 goals and 4 assists isn't too bad a return already, already making him more consistent than any of the forwards managed this season before his arrival. It may not be a coincidence either that Holmqvist has returned to form as well. If the latter was a bit stronger they might well have been a viable international partnership as well. I mentioned before how a lack of playing time may have left him rusty for Finland and with his 5 international goals coming against Latvia, Luxembourg (one each) and San Marino (the hat-trick in June) he has the opportinity in the upcoming games to prove he can get the occasional goal against stronger opponents.

However the summer also saw the departure of Marko Nurmi. I had rejected bids at the start of the summer as he wasn't going to make a fuss if I did, not wanting to let players go and weaken us otherwise, especially since it was unlikely to work out on the evidence to far. Then someone actually triggered his 600k release clause but once that happened (followed by a few more bids) I accepted a lower one from Karlsruhe as well which thankfully was the move he chose to make. This is partly due to the sell-on clause but also because as a second division team it's a level he's likely to play at (and already is) unlike all the others, setting himself up very well for develop and then potentially take another step up, and potentially putting him in a far better position than his predecessors.

Annoyingly he left while we were still in Europe. Dila Gori of Georgia were easy first round opponents and we beat them 6-0 even after sitting back for the whole away leg. Steaua Bucharest would be much tougher but we managed to narrowly squeak past on away goals after a 1-1 aggregate draw. Norkopping were a relatively favourable draw on paper but we failed to make the most if it. They have a Finnish forward who I selected a few times early on and I had a feeling he'd be motivated to do well against us. So it proved as he gave them the lead, on the way to a 2-0 defeat. Having just lost Nurmi, Pulkkinen was injured as well (with Heinoleinen about to be briefly out as well) and that didn't help as we struggled to do much at home.

We're going to be slightly short in defence as well. Lahti (now 35) managed to defy the years until early this season, which was perfect as it meant being able to promise Edman first team football when he asked. Unfortunatly I soon got tired of taking him off every single match and with the promise still in effect, I thought it was just easier to get rid of him completely before that potential time bomb exploded. We're still fine in terms of depth but it does help open a door or two, especially when Lahti goes at the end of the season.

 

[Dexter_Morgan]

Shame the GD screwed you over for a Europa spot  I'd have done exactly the same with Nurmi if he gets a bigger move or the buyout becomes available later you could easily double or more on the fee so it's always worth taking that risk as it's rare long term you don't do well out of the clauses.

Now Edman has gone and Lahti on his last legs i'm taking it you'll look to improve there?

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3 hours ago, Dexter_Morgan said:

Shame the GD screwed you over for a Europa spot  I'd have done exactly the same with Nurmi if he gets a bigger move or the buyout becomes available later you could easily double or more on the fee so it's always worth taking that risk as it's rare long term you don't do well out of the clauses.

Now Edman has gone and Lahti on his last legs i'm taking it you'll look to improve there?

There are still 5 matches left. Aside from Pulkkinen who left at the end of his contract, all the big sales have prioritised the clause (40%, aside from Nurmi's which is 30%) over a bigger initial fee, and even though even the full amount would be barely over half the max 600k I know the potential is so much larger, especially as he's been thrown in straight as a regular in their team unlike the others who were and mostly remain sidelined, hence Jarvinen's return.

None have actually triggered so far. Askar is still at Newcastle and as I mentioned before, actually getting regular sub appearances but that's the best he can probably expect so I wouldn't be surprised to see him make a decent move somewhere and as he's worth 9M that could net a nice sum if it happens. Leppala went on to the Netherlands at a slight loss and Jarvinen's was obviously made obsolete by his free move back to us. It's obviously too early to see what Nurmi's potential prospects are.

We still have a good pool of defenders, the question is if anyone can perform in the BPD role. Edman's replacement has been underwhelming as a starter as opposed to being a more solid sub. Might just make that position a 3rd central defender if it proves hard to find and only if I wanted a 'specialist' would I need to bring anyone in as a specific replacement.

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September 2025 International Update

Northern Ireland was a bit of a missed opportunity, and not for the last time either. I had wondered whether we could get a win from that one and while our lead didn't last, it was still within reach. Unfortunately Jarvinen has to carry the can for that with a few terrible misses, even though the match was otherwise even with 1-1 being a fair result. They were far better with shot accuracy but Hradecky was thankfully on top of things enough to deny them the win instead.

Iceland was far more underwhelming. They were on their way to winning the group (especially as Denmark were about to lose to Slovenia) but it was still disappointing to be outclassed so completely.

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October 2025 International Update

The trip to Copenhagen easily looked like the toughest match we'd face in the autumn qualifiers and at first we seemed on the ropes. However no matter how bad things look, at 1-0 you always have a chance and I was surprised when Holmqvist gave us the lead, and with a header as well. He managed to repeat the feat in the second half with a fabulous goal and while I wondered if we might just defy the odds and get a draw. That made it disappointing when they got the job done late on.

San Marino at home was a nailed on win by contrast but it wasn't as comfortable a margin as before. It still allowed Holmqvist (ably assisted by Askar) to continue to show Jarvinen how it's done, a hat-trick taking him to 11 goals in 9 international appearances. He has San Marino to thank for a majority of those admittedly but there's still his brace in Denmark and it's still a very good record for a player with one of the weaker European teams.

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November 2025 International Update

This was so close to being so wonderful! We had a couple of injuries just after the squad was announced and the national pool was so shallow that I decided that my TPS players Paavola and Kallio seemed as good as any other potential replacements. That gave me club 5 players in the squad (and Nurmi would have made 6 if he hadn't left in the summer) which I hoped didn't look too much like club favouritism.

After the hard-fought draw in Slovenia I wondered whether that meant we had a chance in the return. That seemed a bit optimistic after they beat Denmark and actually took 2nd spot in the group briefly before the Danes beat us late on so I didn't expect what happened. I decided to keep Holmqvist and Jarvinen up front from last time and while I don't think the dynamics of their club partnership translates to the national team (though it should), it paid off. We took a surprise lead thanks to them both. Jarvinen played a ball to Holmqvist that the latter had to chase, taking him out of a goalscoring position, but he still got to it and was able to play it back to Jarvinen, who had ran into the penalty area to fire home. Beautiful stuff.

After a penalty allowed us to extend the lead I started to feel like we could really do this but even after Jarvinen made it 3-0, I still didn't feel at ease enough to sit back. I did at least feel able to take off a few players for a rest, and with Askar being one of the absentees, that meant Kallio would get a rare international opportunity. He had just won the award for most assists in the league and added another on a far different stage just a couple of minutes after coming on when he set up Holmqvist for a 4th! With Pulkkinen (sadly about to return to Ipswich) as another sub, that meant there were 4 TPS players on the pitch now and it was hard to tell which team I was managing

We were already guaranteed to be ahead of Northern Ireland which took the pressure off ahead of a wet November evening in Belfast (is there any other kind?) and again it was a missed opportunity, though for very different reasons. It took longer to take the lead this time, and it stayed that way late enough that it was disappointing just to concede an equaliser when a shot deflected in off a defender, so you can imagine my reaction when it happened again 5 minutes later. I feel a lot of things playing FM, but this is a rare occasion when I felt furious at my team, especially given the state of positivity it ruined. If that match was a film script the ending would have been rejected for feeling too contrived.

Worst of all the first own-goal was from the Roma defender Vaisanen (one of our few decent players) who then declared his international retirement, making it an awful way to go out. The other was from Leppala who is thankfully getting regular club matches at last at FC Eindhoven (though I do wonder if I can bring him back sometime) and was moving up the Finland pecking order as well. You can imagine the tongue-lashing they got from Hradecky in Slovak-accented Finnish. 

It was still a respectable showing overall. Finland looked like a team that finishes 5th out of 6th in qualifying groups, and we managed 4th despite those few 'what might have been' matches, mainly against Northern Ireland but also the almost-draw in Denmark. Oddly enough there was speculation about my future before the last match though my job security sat (and still does) at a finely-balanced but secure 50%, which didn't stop an addition to the confidence review of 'of performances don't improve we might look to bring someone else in' which I don't get. My predecessor didn't get fired for only finishing above the minnows and getting relegated in the International League (which I've already reversed)!

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Nov 2025

I must admit to not having much motivation for this save right now, and I didn't even pay much attention to the race to qualify for Europe that we were very much still in, not helped by the fact that it didn't go well. This year has almost felt like a chore to get through to progress with the other save so I might put it on hold for a bit (having done the reverse to great effect at the start of the year) or go International-only, though there's still a lot I'd miss doing that.

We didn't have the best fixtures left, especially given even as a mid-table side HJK were too good for us and made it 3 out of 3 against us for the season. However even against 1st and 3rd I perhaps expected better at home. We came to life again at VPS, helped by the fact that this was just after Holmqvist's 5-goal showing against Denmark and San Marino so he was able to bring that form back to the club. He was also the hero against Kemi, which should have been a comfortable win but we found ourselves in serious trouble a 2-0 down. He got it back to 2-2, and rescued a point after we conceeded yet again.

 

Star Player: It would have been Holmqvist but he only had half a good season. Kallio was good almost throughout (certainly once I took more care with the role he was playing, making sure he wasn't set as winger), returning to his form of a few years ago, though with more assists in place of fewer goals. As mentioned above he made a great international cameo against Slovenia as well. It's a pity he didn't get stronger than this, but he's still a good player at this level and I can't complain about his performances.

Squad Stats

[chaos_z3]

Hey.Where to download a good Finnish update for FM 18?