[FM21] A right Royal mess. Scandinavian Journeyman save starting in Faroe Islands. Very biased towards Youth Development. Possibly 100% #YouthOnly

[Jimbokav1971]

Aug 2059. 

Allsvanskan. We're doing really well in the league and with 9 games left we have a lead of 5 points at the top of the table and have a better goal difference. 

Champions League. In contrast to our league form, we were awful in Champions League Qualifying. We should have drawn the away leg and how we didn't win the home leg God only knows. 

We have dropped into the Europa League, where it must be said the draw has been pretty kind to us. Spurs will obviously be tough, but St Mirren and Astana should be winnable games. 

Scandi Royal League. We should be doing better in this competition, but our best youngsters are playing for the Senior team and until that's no longer the case I think we will continue to struggle. 

Transfers. Although I failed to find a centre-half, the DoF found one in Stefan Månsson (SWE) 6'4" and although the transfer fee was bigger than I would have paid ideally, and he demanded a higher wage than I wanted to pay too, I let the deal go through because we needed a centre-half. 

The DoF agreed a deal of £7M cash up front + £1.9M after 20 league games and then I think 20% of profit too. As well as that I had to pay him £11,500 pw which is a lot when you consider that we were only paying 1 player at the club more than £6,000 pw. I think I just have to accept that we are going to have to pay players more going forward. He's not exactly a giant, but he's no shorty either. 6'4" is a good size. I'm not sure about him knocking the ball past people though.....

[Jimbokav1971]

Sep 2059. Youth Intake Day. 

It doesn't say it's classed as a Golden Generation, but I quite like the look of this intake, (although I hope the PA's are better than indicated).

There are 3 players that have caught my eye. 

(59a) Westerberg 6'1" * is top of the list and when I saw him I immediately wondered about his height, (and was relieved to see that he wasn't a shorty). It will be interesting to see how much he grows from his 6'1" starting point. 

(59b) Bladh * looks decent and I will just have to work on his physicals. 

(59d) Buckley (IRL) * might be lower down the list; but I really like the look of him. Finishing obviously isn't great, and I need to work on his stamina, but he looks great as a DLF. I REALLY like the look of him and hope his PA is better than 3.5.

Edited April 23, 2021 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Sep 2059.

Allsvenskan. Our league form keeps right on trundling along and with 5 games remaining we're still 5 points clear at the top with a whopping great goal difference. We could be in line for our 1st Allsvenskan title since 2000.

Europa League. This is a good start to the campaign, but there will be tougher challenges ahead in the shape of Spurs. 

Scandi Royal League. We're really under-performing here, although a 2-1 away loss in København is not a disaster in itself. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Oct 2059. 

Allsvenskan. What a rubbish looking trophy! 

We won the title with 2 games to spare and in some style as we absolutely demolished our closest rivals IF Elfsborg 8-1. I thought I had blown it earlier in the month when the decision to start 16 year old (59a) Westerberg 6'1" * proved costly as we conceded 5 to lowly Dalkurd FF. Rotation works well for me, but I got it badly wrong here. Rather than picking the young centre-half in a strong side, I did so in a completely rotated side and we couldn't cope. Part of the problem is that the rotated side don't have good links to other players in the side due to them not playing regularly enough and because "partnerships" don't get generated and then transferred from the Youth sides.

Europa League. We did better against Spurs than I expected. 2nd in the Group is the aim and we are on track at this stage. 

Records. I didn't even know we were approaching this milestone. 

Finances. 

Hall of Fame. I don't usually play with a manager profile with English as primary Nationality so not used to seeing this screen.

Jesse Lingard is probably a better manager than he was a player, winning trophies with Arsenal, Dortmund, Juve and even France. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Nov 2059. 

Europa League. We qualified with 2 games to spare, so I selected a squad based on PA for the St Mirren game and will do the same in the last game against Spurs. It was a toss-up between chasing coefficient points and giving youngsters 1st team exposure and the youngsters won. The youngsters managed to eke out a well deserved draw against the Scots. 

Scandi Royal League. We're still under-performing in this competition but I think that now our facilities have been boosted, all we need is time to bring through a few improved intakes. Add to that our 1st league title since the save began and our reputation should take a healthy jump, giving us an improved chance of generating the best Swedish players. 

Job Offer. It's a very interesting offer, but I'm still not done with club football and don't want to muddy the waters by taking on an International role at this point. 

[Sonic Youth]

Funny how the youngsters did better in the Europa league than in the Scandi league 

Sweden doesn’t feel the right time for your save to me either.

[Jimbokav1971]

End of Season Summary. Dec 2059. 

Allsvenskan. Really happy to finally secure the clubs 1st Allsvenskan title since the start of the save. 

Europa League. We might have completely bottled Champions League qualifying, but we've done well in the Group Stage of the Europa Cup with 3 wins and a draw from the non-Spurs games. 

Scandi Royal League. As I've already mentioned, we were poor in this competition and we really shouldn't be finishing below a Faroese team. 

Squad by Appearances.

Finances. 

Transfers. 

Facilities. 

Tracker. 

[Jimbokav1971]

8 minutes ago, Sonic Youth said:

Funny how the youngsters did better in the Europa league than in the Scandi league 

Sweden doesn’t feel the right time for your save to me either.

I'm really not 100% sure what's going on in the Scandi Royal league. We really should be doing better than recent performances. 

I played a few games rather than IR'ing them after I started playing again, but I IR'd the Scandi games. Maybe I have to have a look and see what's going on there because something isn't right. 

[Pompeyboyz]

Do you think with that league win now, you might be getting close to your time in Sweden and looking at Norway next?

[Jimbokav1971]

Reputation. Dec 2059. 

We're getting there and slowly reeling in  IFK Göteborg. A league & Cup double will hopefully be enough to get us top rank a year from now and that should help our Intakes no end.

6,625 IFK Göteborg
6,418 Halmstads BK
6.262 Djurgårdens IF

[Jimbokav1971]

1 minute ago, Pompeyboyz said:

Do you think with that league win now, you might be getting close to your time in Sweden and looking at Norway next?

You know I hadn't even considered that but it is a good question. 

I think the truth is I need to stay on a bit and win a few on the bounce and also make some real significant progress in Europe. I'm hoping that we should really start to see some youngsters coming through over the next few years so the way I'm thinking now I think I might do another 3-5 years here*, (*subject to change). 

[Jimbokav1971]

Poached. Jan 2060. 

It's typical. There is only 1 Swedish club with a higher reputation than us and we are STILL seeing out Youth Players poached. 

Luckily he's not very good, but that's really not the point. When are we going to start poaching other clubs players? 

Related to that, I currently have a "Middle Tier" scouting package, but I can't seem to find the Youth Package. Has it been removed? 

 

[Pompeyboyz]

I think the Youth Package is combined now with the main one.  Unless it is unique to Sweden

[Jimbokav1971]

12 minutes ago, Pompeyboyz said:

I think the Youth Package is combined now with the main one.  Unless it is unique to Sweden

Oh, I didn't realise that. I thought it was always separate. 

[Pompeyboyz]

38 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Oh, I didn't realise that. I thought it was always separate. 

It used to be.  I double checked my saves over a few nations and all have a single package now. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Feb 2060. 

I've just released 22 players who's contracts had expired. I wonder if this was having an impact on the performances of our youngsters in the Scandi Royal League? 

[Sonic Youth]

2 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Feb 2060. 

I've just released 22 players who's contracts had expired. I wonder if this was having an impact on the performances of our youngsters in the Scandi Royal League? 

How many players do you have left?

[Jimbokav1971]

35 minutes ago, Sonic Youth said:

How many players do you have left?

6x 5.0 PA players, (all 21 or under).

10x 4.5 PA players, (9 of which are 21 or under).

13x 4.0 PA players, (10 of whom are 21 or under). 

10x 3.5 PA players, (7 of whom are 21 or under).

16x 3.0 players, (10 of whom are 21 or under). 

17x 2.5 PA players, (7 of whom are 21 or under).

16x 2.0 players, (13 of whom are 21 or under).

6x 1.5 PA players, (all of whom are 19 or under). 

So I think that brings the total of contracted players to..... 94 players. 

It sounds a lot but I basically need the following...

2 match squads for the 1st team, (we will call that 2x14 = 28)
1 squad for U21 games = 16 players. 
1 squad for Scandi Royal League = 16 players. 
1 squad for U19 games = 16 players. 

So that gives us 76 players and is the bare minimum and doesn't count for players out on loan, (9 players), and obviously 16 year olds are not going to be fully developed when they play in U19 or U21 games. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jan, Feb & Mar 2050. 

Friendlies. I don't care about the results of these games. They are just being shown here because I wanted to show you the attendances and all will become clear as we move on. e

Most games were created specifically as a result of us selling a player to the club in question with a "friendly" clause inserted. At a glance, the Eintracht Braunschweig and Levski games didn't have friendly games so we will ignore them. The combined attendances of the other 11 games come to 90,925.

We need to ignore the following deals which didn't include a friendly clause.

£3.6M Jacobsson 6'4" Augsberg.
£1.0M Haraldur Freyr Sævarsson Brann.

The others are so small that I don't really care if we added a friendly clause or not, (although there are 12 but I haven't worked out which one is the odd one out). (It's GAIS). 

So £6.25M - £4.6M leaves us with £1.65M generated from sales which include a friendly clause. 

The average ticket price at the club is £32 so we will use that for calculations. 

90,925 x £32 = £2,909,600.

11 games scheduled as a result of selling 11 players for £1.65M generate £2.9M in ticket sales. 

Europa League. We choked in the 2nd leg against Rosenborg and lost. We choked badly. 

Svenska Cupen. I rested players for the Dalkurd FF game to focus on the European games, but it cost us. 

Edited April 25, 2021 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Apr 2060. 

Allsvenskan. It's frustrating to lose a league game so early in the season, (when you still hold delusions of an unbeaten domestic season), but 5 wins from 6 is decent and means that we are ahead of IFK Göteborg who have 5 wins from 5 and look to be more of a domestic force this season. 

Transfers. I finally brought in a centre-half, but he's not the finished article so not sure you will see much of him anytime soon. 

[Jimbokav1971]

May 2060.

Allsvenskan. We might have had another loss in the league, but we have still managed 5 wins and a draw from 7 league games.

The last game of the month saw us hammer IFK Göteborg 4-1, which leaves them a whole 10 points behind us u the league.  

Transfers. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Swedish National Team production. Jun 2060. 

Both ourselves and IFK Göteborg have been responsible for the development of 4 players in the National side, but strangely this doesn't include (54a) Ollikainen (FIN) *, who at 21 years old already has 5 Swedish Caps and 6 International goals to his name. I can only think that the regular rotation of our wide players has caused him to be left out of the International squad and this is something I'm going to have to look at. 

[Jimbokav1971]

European rankings. Jun 2060. 

European Competition rankings. 

European Club rankings. 

National Coefficients table. I'm surprised to see us move up to 9th, but when you look at the table below you will see that last season Swedish clubs amassed a total of 16.000 coefficient points when our previous best was 10,500 four years previously. 

IFK Göteborg got to the Semi Finals of the Euro Conference. 
Halmstads BK got to the 2nd Knockout Round of the Europa League. 
Djurgårdens IF got to the Quarter Finals of the Europa League. 
IF Elfsborg got to the 1st Knockout Round of the Europa League. 
IFK Norrköping FK won 3 games in the group stage without getting out of their Euro Conference Group. 

So it was very much a "National" effort, rather than us being carried by 1 club as is often the case. 

Qualification places. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jun 2060. 

Allsvenskan. Really annoyed about this loss. Really annoyed. 

Scandi Royal League. We did ok but once again fell a little short.

[Jimbokav1971]

Allsvenskan Youth Development. Jul 2060. 

This is the full list. 

[Sheriff7]

9 places up is a huge step up for the nations coefficients.

[Jimbokav1971]

3 minutes ago, Sheriff7 said:

9 places up is a huge step up for the nations coefficients.

We didn't move up 9 places as a Nation. We moved up 1 place to 9th. 

[Sheriff7]

2 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

We didn't move up 9 places as a Nation. We moved up 1 place to 9th. 

Sorry then.

[Sonic Youth]

[Sonic Youth]

10 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Allsvenskan Youth Development. Jul 2060. 

This is the full list. 

Number 1 talent promoter confirmed!

[Sonic Youth]

19 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

So it was very much a "National" effort, rather than us being carried by 1 club as is often the case. 

That’s pretty awesome actually, and shows that winning the league is not just a pushover. Shows in the losses your getting that are annoying you 

[Thebaker]

well done on the league win,  that last youth intake looked very good especially buckley

[Jimbokav1971]

7 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

Number 1 talent promoter confirmed!

Yeah. It's been a while coming but the level of facilities, (and reputation), we have been up against in Sweden is tough so it's been a slog to get here but we should start to reap the benefits now. 

[Jimbokav1971]

7 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

That’s pretty awesome actually, and shows that winning the league is not just a pushover. Shows in the losses your getting that are annoying you 

That's what I was thinking actually. I'm used to managing in smaller Nations where I don't really get much help in building the coefficient, or if I do it's from just 1 other club, but this is completely different. It will be interesting to see how the Swedish National side do over the next few years because I think they have some decent players coming through. I haven't taken much of an interest in their results at all as yet. 

[Jimbokav1971]

4 hours ago, Thebaker said:

well done on the league win,  that last youth intake looked very good especially buckley

Thanks. Yeah, I really like Buckley too. I just hope that his 3.5 PA turns out to be better than that in the long run. 

Actually, I've just checked and it's gone up to 4.0 now and he has also been capped by (SWE) at U19 level. 

I'm training him on Endurance at the moment, (low stamina), and will just let him play with the U19's (5 goals and 3 assists in 5 games so far), and will then move him up when I think he can cope. He just needs a little physical development before I chuck him in at the deep end though. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Job Offers. Jul 2060. 

I haven't even managed in Denmark yet so there is no way this is the right time for this job. 

I have managed in Finland, and I think I would prefer to manage the smaller Scandi Nations 1st, (if I manage them), but now is not the right time. 

Edited April 26, 2021 by Jimbokav1971

[Sonic Youth]

And the International jobs keep coming!

[Jimbokav1971]

1 hour ago, Sonic Youth said:

And the International jobs keep coming!

I think I want to at least get through Sweden and Norway and be in Denmark before I take an International job. Then I think I want to start with the Faroese or Icelandic National job and go from there. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jul 2060.

Allsvenskan. A decent month in the league sees us top the table by 2 points. 

Scandi Royal League. 

Transfers.

The DoF signed Patrik Jonsson * 3 years ago. It looked like a good deal so I let it go through despite the fact that we have to pay them 15% of any future profit. He wasn't really featuring for the 1st team, (until recently), so I was happy to let him go when we started getting bids of up to £4M for him. I negotiated these to include 50% re-sale  and a friendly clause. Although I was playing him on the left flank, it really wasn't a good fit so I am happy to move him on. 

While I was looking for a left winger to replace Patrik Jonsson *, I ended up signing Martti Hoffren (FIN) * simply because he looked like a bargain at £375k and indeed this proved to be the case as he is valued at £2.4M after signing. The only problem is that he is a right winger rather than a left winger. 

[kandersson]

Fantastic career and a great idea for a save! I also enjoy managing in nordic leagues, though I'm usually a bit discouraged by the long winter break at the end of the season. The revived Royal League does help a lot with this - at least the one made by Zangelmi which runs from November through April (like the original RL a few years ago). Your thread and experience with this competition actually helped me to choose this particular file . I started a save in Finland with SJK (mainly because they're the only club having their B team in a playable division), hopefully I can turn them into the most powerful club in the North!

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Aug 2060. 

Allsvenskan. Another unbeaten month in the league is great, and it comes at a perfect time where our closest rivals all drop points. We now have a gap of 11 points to 2nd place BK Häcken, who were 5th just 1 month ago as Djurgårdens IF, IF Elfsborg and Malmö FF dropped loads of points this month. 

It's interesting to note that our big rivals IFK Göteborg are 7th in the league, not even in the European places, but they do have games in hand. 

Svenska Cupen. I thought we might be in for a GK hat-trick when Bubacar (GAM) had scored 2 goals after 19 minutes, but it wasn't to be. 

Scandi Royal League. We seem to be doing just a little better in the Scandi League now and I think this just a knock-on effect of our improved intakes over the last couple of seasons. It's not simply a matter of the better players in the intake being of a higher quality. It's more about the average players being better. 

[Jimbokav1971]

20 hours ago, kandersson said:

Fantastic career and a great idea for a save! I also enjoy managing in nordic leagues, though I'm usually a bit discouraged by the long winter break at the end of the season. The revived Royal League does help a lot with this - at least the one made by Zangelmi which runs from November through April (like the original RL a few years ago). Your thread and experience with this competition actually helped me to choose this particular file . I started a save in Finland with SJK (mainly because they're the only club having their B team in a playable division), hopefully I can turn them into the most powerful club in the North!

 

Thanks very much. 

I haven't really felt the long winter breaks, largely because we are often playing European football in that time and you are right the Scandi League does help too. 

In my save SJK have been ever present in the Veikkausliiga but 2nd in 2027 was their best finish, although they have finished 3rd on 4 occasions, (including last season). 

I have enjoyed all of this save, but I particularly like the period in Finland at AC Oulu because of the development from starting point to finish point. They are in our Champions League Group Stage again this season so it will be interesting to compare ourselves to them again. We are still very much the poor relation despite being the domestic Champions at what is a bigger Nation.

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Intake Day. Sep 2060. 

It's not a Golden Generation, but I think the reason behind that is because the standard of player at the club has really improved in the last few years as our young stars develop. 

Although it's not a Golden Generation, there are a group of 3x 4.0 PA players at the top of the list who would seem to be our best chance of producing 1st teamers in the future. 

(60a) Torbjörn Melander * looks ok, however he has a fair bit of physical developing to do before we can consider him for the senior squad. In my view physical players have such an advantage over mental and technical players. 

(60b) Filip Ekström * is probably the pick of the bunch and has the base physicality that might just allow him to be thrown in to senior games before his time. 

(60c) Olli Mäkilä (CHI)(FIN) * is a South American GK, (with Finnish as a 2nd Nationality) and it will be interesting to see how he develops as he is starting from a very reasonable point. 6'3" is a good size for a 16 year old but the only negative is the strange PPM for a keeper. 

[kandersson]

1 hour ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Thanks very much. 

I haven't really felt the long winter breaks, largely because we are often playing European football in that time and you are right the Scandi League does help too. 

In my save SJK have been ever present in the Veikkausliiga but 2nd in 2027 was their best finish, although they have finished 3rd on 4 occasions, (including last season). 

I have enjoyed all of this save, but I particularly like the period in Finland at AC Oulu because of the development from starting point to finish point. They are in our Champions League Group Stage again this season so it will be interesting to compare ourselves to them again. We are still very much the poor relation despite being the domestic Champions at what is a bigger Nation.

Yeah your time at AC Oulu (and the quality of players produced in the country) also inspired me to choose Finland for my save. I considered Norway (Fredrikstad FK in third division looked very interesting) but the fact that B teams cannot go higher than third division made me choose Finland (I also like that it's a relatively weak national team compared to fellow Scandinavia teams Sweden, Denmark and Norway). Finland Cup starting in January also makes the winter break less painful, I imagine Royal League and european competitions will really fill that schedule in the future!

SJK are pretty cool because they have their Akatemia/B team in second division, and even have an affiliated third team in lower leagues (a Finland file down to 5th level would have been great but like you I prefer not to use edited DB if possible )

[Jimbokav1971]

10 minutes ago, kandersson said:

Yeah your time at AC Oulu (and the quality of players produced in the country) also inspired me to choose Finland for my save. I considered Norway (Fredrikstad FK in third division looked very interesting) but the fact that B teams cannot go higher than third division made me choose Finland (I also like that it's a relatively weak national team compared to fellow Scandinavia teams Sweden, Denmark and Norway). Finland Cup starting in January also makes the winter break less painful, I imagine Royal League and european competitions will really fill that schedule in the future!

SJK are pretty cool because they have their Akatemia/B team in second division, and even have an affiliated third team in lower leagues (a Finland file down to 5th level would have been great but like you I prefer not to use edited DB if possible )

Finland are ranked 15th in the World currently. 

They are an ageing squad though and I wonder if their production line is coming to a halt? 

[Sonic Youth]

Nice youth intake. I also like the look of professional D/M(C) Mattias Jansson, what with 14 DET and 15 WOR. Might develop ok with those starting points.

[Sonic Youth]

1 hour ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Finland are ranked 15th in the World currently. 

They are an ageing squad though and I wonder if their production line is coming to a halt? 

Time for Sweden to overtake them? 🤔

[Jimbokav1971]

6 minutes ago, Sonic Youth said:

Nice youth intake. I also like the look of professional D/M(C) Mattias Jansson, what with 14 DET and 15 WOR. Might develop ok with those starting points.

With a PA of only 3.0, I think it's unlikely that he will develop to the required level, (unless his PA changes). His personality certainly gives him a chance of reaching his potential though. 

[Jimbokav1971]

6 minutes ago, Sonic Youth said:

Time for Sweden to overtake them? 🤔

Sweden are currently ranked 33rd, but I would expect that to change significantly in the next few years. Our youngsters are just starting to break into the National side and I think they will really propel Sweden onto improved performances and results at the very least. 

This shows the last 10 years rankings. 

[Sonic Youth]

Thanks for putting up a pic of Jansson

Looks like he’ll need to be developed into a specialist to get the most out of his potential.

Some not expected player traits in this intake. Is this influenced by your HoYD?

Edited April 28, 2021 by Sonic Youth
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