Ice Ice Youth Intake (youth challenge with apologies to Vanilla Ice)

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I am a long time lurker who has been playing since the 90s. I feel like my saves are getting stale and, having never tried a youth challenge, I am up for a bit of a different game type. So here goes a new save. Housekeeping first. I am playing on FMT 21 and i am using instant results a fair bit. I have chosen to work Iceland because I wanted to try a league with only a couple of divisions.

So it is time to introduce recently retired Eidur Eidurson. He was a semi professional goalkeeper from Reykjavik who played with a couple of different top division sides, stands exactly two metres tall and seems to have a slight resemblance to a certain Liverpool manager.

Njar∂vik were a third tier side until recently but boast surprisingly good youth facilities (actually I feel a little like this was cheating but I hadn’t realised until after I started). They are based near the Keflavik International Airport not far from Reykjavik itself and wear a natty green shirt. They are predicted to finish 9th out of 12 and the chairman is happy to avoid relegation. The squad looks reasonably good though only one keeper might be dangerous.

So here goes a crazy Icelandic adventure.

 

 

Edited February 24, 2021 by The Silence Of The Allams

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Seasonal Performance:

season	league	cup	league cup
2022	3rd  1 Deild	2nd round	group stage

          2023.          4th 1 Deild          4th round.        group stage

          2024.          12th 1 Deild.       4th round.       group stage

 

Most Appearances by an Academy Graduate:

Aron Orn Sæversson.   29 appearances

 

Most Goals by an Academy Graduate:

Simon Logi Porsteinsson     5 goals

Edited March 3, 2021 by The Silence Of The Allams

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Andri Gudmundson (Reykjavik Post):

What do you make of the start of your management career?

 

Eidur Eidurson:

It’s a mixed bag really. Maybe the League Cup is a bit too early in my time for us to be completely ready. We held two top flight sides to draws with chances to win both games and then proceeded to surrender a lead to lose against two other 1 Deild sides. Those two displays showed us the difference between our best performances and what happens if our standards slip.

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2022 First Half

A cup run never happened. We just didn’t perform well enough in the first twenty minutes. I know we were missing key players such as Kenny Hogg through injury but we could have done better. The first half of the season saw us drop points from winning positions too many times. We started slowly but gradually improved up to the halfway point. Realistically, we won’t go up this season but I have seen enough to know that we are too good to go down. We just need to play better with a lead.

Edited February 25, 2021 by The Silence Of The Allams
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Exciting news. My youth intake has brought me six players who are all worth signing. Importantly, I now have a second goalkeeper in the squad and the top prospect, Hrannur Sigurjonsson, is already standing out in my reserve team after just one match. Most of these lads are going to get a couple of seasons of regular reserve football as the starting squad is actually quite decent.

 

The second half of the season began in a similar way with surrendering a two goal lead (via a terrible penalty decision) to promotion chasing IA. We showed our quality in the next match by beating leaders Selfoss but struggled to maintain consistency. In the end we finished third but a significant way off the top two. Those three defeats at the start of the season left us with too much to make up for on a late season run of form. However, optimism abounds for the new season.

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Our opening League Cup defeat wasn’t too disappointing because I deliberately blooded both Sigurjonsson and Marteinn Halfre∂son, with the latter becoming our youngest ever player. Leiknir scored two late goals after a passionless performance by us and so I experimented a little with personnel in the following games against the top flight sides including blooding Aron Orn Saeversson in goal and letting him take the new record for youngest ever player. Despite the woeful effort in the league cup, KA approached me to take on their vacant job in the Pepsi Deild but, of course, I rejected them. I couldn’t wait for the season proper to start so I couldn’t stop rejecting bids from Valur for Wiktorowicz but the most drama was that Aron Orn Sæversson received four bids on deadline day. Is this a sign that I have a good keeper on my hands or that Icelandic clubs stockpile young talent?

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We bossed Vestri in the opener after scoring an early penalty but failed to create quality chances and conceded a late equaliser to their fist shot on target. We scored ninety seconds in against Por but held on this time. The highlight of the early season was knocking out Pepsi Deild side IA in the cup in extra time. From there our form was too mixed with some good performances, particularly Wiktorowicz ’s thumping 30 yard strike against Leiknir, and a defeat to route one stuff against Fjölnir. We missed a great chance to go top when we drew with leaders Vikingur after having a two goal lead and come the halfway mark we were a promotion contender without convincing anyone that we were actually going to go up. Credit went to Helgason at right back, who suddenly morphed into Carlos Alberto with a couple of goals, and Sæversson, who had to play in goal at 16 when injury struck. The cup run ended with a narrow defeat to Pepsi Deild side Stjärnan but a creditable performance.

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The second half of the season began with a creditable draw with Por in which both sides had late winners ruled out for offside. We followed this with a goalless draw against leaders Fram, that one fan described as dross. They weren’t moaning went same eleven brushed Vestri aside. The biggest decision was whether to keep Sæversson in goal when Hli∂dal was fit again. Normally I wouldn’t keep someone so young in net but he single handedly won us a point against Grindavik and was the focus of a lot of press attention after keeping multiple consecutive clean sheets. I decided to roll with the younger man for now but he needed to earn his place, which he began to do by saving a penalty against Fjòlnir (though it was in vain as we gave away a last minute equaliser. From there the season sorted off drifted away from us.

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The youth intake looks particularly good again with three five star potential players. I disagree with the HOYD as to which I think has the most promise with Reynisson looking like a decent finisher already. Again a good keeper prospect and some guys who can get seasoned in the reserves. It looks like more opportunities for Hrannur Sigurjonsson next term as my AssMan Marc MacAusland is retiring from playing….let’s hope he is up to it.

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Preseason was relatively unremarkable results-wise with our usual exit in the group stages from the league cup. However the big news was financial. I had tuned out the money problems as I wasn’t spending any fees and my wages were miles below the budget but the cumulation of two years of losses meant the debt was now up to €900k. As a result my wage budget was cut by 70%. Fortunately, my bigger earners are gradually being replaced by youth players so it should be ok.

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Our season began disappointingly with a poor performance against IBV followed by a 95th minute winner conceded from a deep free kick against Vestri. After the defeat to Por, when supporters used words such as ‘poor’ and ‘unacceptable’ we needed to change things up and rely less on the youngsters who had started the season. We finally picked up a point in our fifth game but it was clear we were in real relegation trouble. Despite our inability to win in the league we edged our way to the quarter final of the cup before Stjarnan put us in our place. There followed our best chance of a league win when a late goal was ruled out for offside against Keflavik. We reached the halfway mark in a whole world of trouble.

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A recall for Hli∂dal in goal along with a change in shape almost got that elusive first win against Vestri with only a 25 yard strike in injury time denying me. Eight points from safety, we had mountain to climb. However, we followed that with a really solid game against Selfoss to finally bag a win. Of course, we then shot ourselves in the foot losing 1-0 to a 92nd minute goal from a terrible Hlidal goalkeeping howler.  After dropping him again, we lined up against Por with rumours of the sack swirling around and produced our best performance of the season. Simon Logi Porsteinsson looked very sharp in grabbing the key goal and was unlucky in the goalless draw that followed. IA was definitely a must win game and, when Logi Porsteinsson (or SLP) scored after just fifteen seconds, morale was visibly rising among the younger players. Sadly we couldn’t hold on and drew leaving us five points adrift of Haukar with four to play. As it happens we faced Haukar next. We pushed hard but just couldn’t make the breakthrough. Knowing we needed a win, we threw everyone forward at the end and conceded a late goal to leave us all but relegated. After that the sack was inevitable and the challenge was over prematurely.

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I am absolutely gutted to be ending my challenge this early but it has given me a real taste for Icelandic management. I am tempted to start my big save this year in Iceland as a result (those 22 game seasons are really intense but fun).

I don't know how many of you have followed this and I hope you are not feeling too much like my mis-management has wasted your time. I would like to round things off by following some of the youth players and see how they got on. So lets fast forward five years and let’s track what happened to our academy graduates since Njar∂vid’s relegation. Sadly seven of the twelve are no longer in the database(presumably having quit)

 

Hrannur Sigurjonsson continued his growth for a season of first team football with Njar∂vik before leaving on a free transfer to IA. He has shown he can play in the PepsiDeild and still counts me as his favourite staff member.

 

Marteinn Halfredsson became a top flight regular with two different clubs. Most interestingly, he still listed Marc MacAusland as a favourite staff member but doesn’t want to play for Njar∂vik in his future plans.

 

Winger Arnar Gudmun∂sson eventually joined Fram and struggled at first in the top flight but eventually established himself as a 1 Deild regular.

 

Arnar Reynisson stayed loyal to the club but did not establish himself as the goal threat that we hoped he might become.

 

Da∂I Snorrasson became the first choice keeper after I left, which was a surprise to me. After two season in the third tier, he earned a move to Grotta as their back up before earning another move to become a top flight back up. He also lists avoiding Njar∂vik in his future plans.

 

Thanks again to anybody who followed this brief journey.