Stuniverse

Thank you, @Carambau Although, to be fair, it wasn’t a case of deciding to stay, as such, because my previous contract ran until the end of this season (2031). The question was more a case of whether to extend it early and how long for? I did agree to extend and am now under contract with Viking until the end of the 2034 season.

Well done, @Punch Good luck 🍀⚽️🤞

Sunday 2nd February 2031 Until Next Time... ... when pre-season continues as the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 isn't until March. -- February's Fixtures -- Thoughts, comments, general feedback appreciated. Any questions, just ask and I'll answer them if I can. Thank you for reading and following. Until next time...

Episode 107 - Reached Champions League Knockout Phase | 2nd February 2031 "Monthly Review" -- Results -- Board Confidence -- Supporter Confidence -- Dynamics

Episode 107 - Reached Champions League Knockout Phase | 2nd February 2031 "Finances" --

Episode 107 - Reached Champions League Knockout Phase | 2nd February 2031 "Young Players Go Out On Loan" -- -- We've now reached our limit of eight players out on loan for the season. -- We tried very hard to loan out Brage Kvithyld but there were no takers.

Episode 107 - Reached Champions League Knockout Phase | 2nd February 2031 "Bondar Sold, New Vice-Captain Appointed" -- -- Amundsen Appointed Vice-Captain

Episode 107 - Reached Champions League Knockout Phase | 2nd February 2031 "Youth Development Facilities" -- Here's the update on Viking's 2031 Youth Intake: -- But at least the Board have agreed to improve our Youth Facilities.

This was your expectation, @Hootieleece... ... and you had more confidence in my Viking team than even I did, but: Won 5, Drew 1, Lost 2... and automatic qualification to the Knockout Round of 16 as well. Wow! What do you say to that, @Hootieleece ?

Wednesday 29th January 2031 Viking (Norway) v Napoli (Italy) UEFA Champions League -- -- -- This Viking team, and this group of players, keep finding new ways to surprise me. We've qualified for the Round of 16 Knockout Phase of the UEFA Champions League, avoiding the Playoffs. Two penalties were enough - Lasse Nordås in the first-half and new signing Anders Hartveit Ryste in the second after coming on as a substitute to make his debut. Oh and a big thank you to PAOK Salonika for their late equaliser at 3-3 to deny Sevilla. --

Wednesday 29th January 2031 -- -- -- -- We've already guaranteed ourselves a UEFA Champions League Playoff spot, which is great but if we can win against Napoli at home in our SR-Bank Arena, which will be a difficult ask, we could qualify automatically for the knockout stage depending on other results. But we have to win first... and then cross our fingers. We still have a few injury and fitness issues to deal with. -- Expected Line-up

Tuesday 28th January 2030 Viking Sell Two Players -- --

Saturday 25th January 2031 Viking Announce Hartveit Ryste Signing -- I'm delighted to finally sign Anders Hartveit Ryste as he's a player we've been tracking for a considerable time. This deal has been an ongoing saga if I'm honest with you and, at times, we thought Anders Hartveit Ryste would never become a Viking player. We first made an offer for him two years ago and Odd wanted far more than his market value. We continued to make offers every transfer window since then and each time the fee Odd wanted was more than we were willing to pay. We didn't get much encouragement from the players' agent either as he kept saying Anders wasn't interested in joining us. Then earlier this month, when we were trying to get some of our younger players out on loan, we got feedback that Odds were interested in loaning one of our players but needed to generate some income before they could make a bid. So we went back to Odd and made an offer, a reasonable offer I'd say, and our bid was accepted. We offered Anders a contract but the vibes we were getting from both the player and his agent, even at this advanced stage of negotiations, was less than encouraging. But Anders did sign and we're delighted to finally have him as part of the Viking squad. Anders will go straight into the first team squad and, after that, we'll see. We now have four, if not five very good strikers here. Anders has been capped by Norway at U21 level and, since the World Cup, has been part of Antonio Conte's senior Norway squad although Anders has still to make his senior debut for Norway. Hopefully we can help him get that first Norway cap and many more. I'm sure Anders will settle just fine. We're looking to sign good, young Norwegian players who can contribute to the first team straight away and develop into even better players in the future. Yes, absolutely, although we're always looking to improve the squad.

Barcelona were unbelievably good. Thank you, @warlock. Appreciate you saying that.

Very well done, @warlock If only you knew how Celta Vigo were doing it

Tuesday 21st January 2031 Barcelona (Spain) v Viking (Norway) UEFA Champions League -- We decided to go a bit more defensively solid so Isak Amundsen moved out to right-back, Aleksander Liland came in at centre-back for his Viking debut, and Brice Wembangomo went to the bench. -- -- Wow! Just, wow! You go into a match like this knowing Barcelona are a very good team but it's not until you see them close-up, in their own Spotify Camp Nou back yard that you realise just how good they are. What really impressed me was how hard they worked out of possession to get the ball back. Barcelona were all over us from the start and had already hit the post before they scored their first goal after only 13 minutes. They would go on to hit the woodwork three times in total as well as having a goal disallowed. We went more Cautious after that. 2-0 down at the break, we made a couple of substitutions and made a few changes to try and get some attacking momentum. Once it was clear the match had gone, I sent as many of our young players on as I could so that they could experience playing against Barcelona in the Spotify Camp Nou. --

Preview -- -- -- -- We've been discussing all week how to approach this UEFA Champions League match and, you know what, we've decided to go to the Spotify Camp Nou and try and play our game. We know we're a good team, we know our style of play brings the best out of our players, so let's go and test ourselves against one of the best club teams in Europe. If Barcelona get away from us early then we may have to make changes but let's see how we get on. Unfortunately we have quite a few injuries to important players so we won't be anywhere close to full strength. -- Expected Line-up

Friday 17th January 2031 -- -- It's always good to go back to Høddvoll to play my former club Hødd. They finished 7th in OBOS-ligaen last season which is where the Season Preview predicts them to finish in the 2031 Season as well. I really enjoyed my time at Høddvoll. The match today is very much preparation for Barcelona away on Tuesday in the UEFA Champions League. We have a few injury and fitness concerns so we won't be taking any risks today, we'll probably look to give 22 players 45 minutes each. -- -- A friendly match where we looked impressive going forward and certainly had our shooting boots on. Seven goals, plus Edvin Austbø hit the post before he got on the scoresheet. Defensively, we could've defended set-pieces better in the first-half. El Hadji Malick Diouf mistimed a header at the far post, gifting them a second minute lead. We should've done better to defend their second goal as well. I thought our two new centre-back signings, Aleksander Liland and Jan Rune Hansen did well second-half and showed promising signs. Unfortunately, we did pick up one injury but it doesn't look too serious.

Monday 13th January 2031 Eliteserien Squad Registration -- -- I always think this is very early as our Eliteserien season doesn't kick-off until April.

Monday 13th January 2031 2031 Season Expectations -- Board Expectations -- Season Preview

Monday 13th January 2031 Eliteserien Fixtures - Viking --

Friday 10th January 2031 Eliteserien Review -- --

Ouch! But you did beat them in Supercopa (whatever that is?) so fingers crossed...

Yeah, I think it’ll be Squad Player next time I offer them out. I think you’re probably right, @Hootieleece

Thanks, @Hootieleece... yeah, I think that's what I ended up doing last season as I virtually gave some of the young players away on loan by agreeing to o% wage contribution. It's early days in this window at the moment as we're only at... ... and the transfer window doesn't close until... ... and there's stringent limits on how many loan players can be loaned out... -- Currently we only have one player out on loan, Sindre Gronvold who we agreed to loan back to Sarpsborg as part of his transfer because (a) they've played him regularly over the last two seasons and I think he'll get good playing time there again this season and (b) whilst I see him as my longer-term solution at right-back, I have Brice Wembangomo and Jasper Robertsen who can play there this season and Isak Amundsen can cover. With nobody close to Sindre's ability in my Academy set-up right now, I think he'll get more playing time at Sarpsborg than he would here with us at the moment. There is a recall clause in Sindre's loan agreement so I will be monitoring the situation. -- As for the other seven loan out slots there's two types of loans I'm looking at: Jesper Robertsen and Anders Hiim are both senior first team players who are unhappy with their playing time and I've promised to try and find them loans out. Both players figure in my plans for this season so they won't be going anywhere unless a club will pay 100% Playing Wage and 100% Unused Wage as well as agreeing to a recall clause. Their situations are slightly different though. Jesper Robertsen probably has more chance of playing. After his scintillating form last season, Brice Wembangomo will continue as my first-choice right-back but, at 34 I'm not sure how long he can keep going for, plus he's out-of-contract at the end of the season and I'm not sure I'll renew it, so Jesper is the back-up. I have looked for better right-backs I can sign and I haven't found any. I expect Jasper will get plenty of playing time this season and, hopefully, he'll become happy again but he does need to step-up as he only averaged 6.60 in seven Eliteserien appearances last season. It will be more difficult for Anders Hiim to get the playing time he wants this season I think. David Møller Wolfe is my first-choice left-back as he was sensational last season and Anders will find himself competing with El Hadji Malick Diouf as David's back-up. On the plus side, as Anders started his career at Viking he counts as HGC but, on the downside, he has become upset when I played him FB-Su (the default in my 4-4-2 diamond system) and wants to play WB-Su although I haven't promised him that. We are training him at FB-Su but I'd say Anders's future at Viking is uncertain at the moment. -- And then there's my Academy System where our 2nd Team and U19s are lagging behind where they need to be and require work, especially our U19s who finished rock-bottom of their division and were relegated last season. I have more young players with potential I would like to loan out than the rules will allow so I'm kind of offering them out in phases as it's another way to guage their ability and potential based on how other football clubs rate my younger players. Here's where I'm currently at in terms (pardon the pun) of loan terms: I've offered all the young players I'd like to send on loan out on these terms and had no takers. I'll keep trying for a bit and then I'll start to lower the Agreed Playing Time and / or Unused Wage %, in an attempt to get the maximum number of loans permitted out of the building temporarily. -- We do also have an affiliation with OBOS-ligaen Vidar (who were promoted from Tier 3 via the playoffs last season) so I'll look to make use of that affiliation this season as well.