Stuniverse

Saturday 23rd November 2030 Bodø/Glimt (1st) v Viking (2nd) Eliteserien -- -- -- --

Saturday 23rd November 2030 Team Meeting -- Aside: How does everybody else get on with Team Meetings? I must admit, I don't have a great track record of getting results after team meetings. -- - - -- Jakob Napoleon Romsaas was the only player who didn't appear motivated. As Jakob is ruled out any way with a torn hamstring, I'm not going to worry about that. --

Preview -- -- Bodø/Glimt have some very good players... but we have very good players as well. This is as big a game as you get in Eliteserien. It truly is winner takes all. Win and we're Eliteserien Champions, lose and they are. And if it's a draw, well then Bodø/Glimt are Champions... but that's ok, I don't believe in playing for a draw in any case. Jasper Torkildsen is looking the part now in goal for us. We definitely missed him against Brann last time out when he was away with Norway. Look the Brann game is gone now. We can't change the result. We gave the players a few days off, told them to sulk if they needed to but, basically, enjoy their day's off, get the Brann game out of their system, and come back raring to give it one last shot against Bodø/Glimt for the Eliteserien Title. I'm nervous, yes, but confident in my players and their abilities. Win, lose or draw, this group of players are all winners for me. Bodø/Glimt will start as favourites because they are top of Eliteserien and at home. We've played them twice already this season, in consecutive games end of June beginning of July. At Aspmyra they smashed us 4-1 in Cupen but back at our SR-Bank Arena we scraped a 3-2 Eliteserien victory. -- Our appeal against David Brekalo's red card wasn't successful, as we expected to be fair, so we'll be without David and David Møller Wolfe due to suspension. Julian Faye Lund came down with a virus, and schoolboy Roger Vestgøte is out with a neck injury, so Martin Børsheim will again be our back-up goalkeeper on the bench. Other than longer-term injury Jakob Napoleon Romsaas, everybody else is fit and available. -- Expected Line-up -- You know Egil, this time you might be right. Let's hold a Team Meeting.

Very well done, @Punch

It sure is, @warlock. Would it have made any difference if my two internationals Preslav Borukov, and Jasper Torkildsen had played? I dunno. The red mist of our captain, David Brekalo, certainly didn't help but, in truth, Brann played very well and were probably the better side, slightly better... even when it was 11 v 11 but we had more chance of knicking something then. Yeah, I don't believe in playing for a draw - that tactic has jeopardy written all over it - but we have given the draw advantage to Bodø/Glimt. Looks like I might have to go with my assistant Egil Ulfstein and do the team meeting this time. Thank you. As the home team, Bodø/Glimt will go into this Title Showdown as clear favourites to lift the Eliteserien crown.

Wow! Even Real Sociedad, 4th in that table, have almost double the salary you do, and the top three are way out of sight... Going to be tough to dislodge those two juggernauts but you did finish in between them once, so... ... overachieving is always a possibility though... OK, apologies I'm not familiar with Spanish football and La Liga, so why are so many clubs spending over that salary cap limit?

Great first two seasons, @warlock but Real Madrid and Barcelona are juggernauts that are going to take some overhauling. Good luck 🍀⚽️🤞

Sunday 17th November 2030 Viking (1st) v Brann (4th) Eliteserien -- -- -- -- It's disappointing, of course it is, to lose the Best i vest derby at home to Brann but, in the overall scheme of things, it doesn't change too much. We've lost the top spot and dropped to 2nd in Eliteserien but we go to Aspmyra next Saturday and if we can beat Tite's Bodø/Glimt we'll be crowned Eliteserien Champions. Any other result and Tite's Bodø/Glimt will be crowned Champions. It promises to be quite a job. I don't like it, but Brann came into our SR-Bank Arena and won the Best i vest derby. Emre Belözoğlu and his Brann team, and their supporters, are entitled to enjoy it. David Brekalo will be a big miss when we go to play Bodø/Glimt. We've appealed the red card because even if their's only a slim chance of having it overturned, it's worth the risk as having our captain, David Brekalo, on the pitch improves our chances of winning. We had to change our shape after the sending off. We were so close to getting a nil-nil draw but Brann's late goal was a real kick in the teeth. We went Attacking and changed our shape for the final few minutes but it was difficult with 10-men and time ran out on us. We'll also be without David Møller Wolfe for the title showdown away at Bodø/Glimt after he picked up another yellow card. At least we'll have our internationals Preslav Borukov, and Jasper Torkildsen back. --

Preview -- -- I know you think we need a team meeting, Egil, but Lasse Nordås has already rallied the troops so let's try and treat the Brann match as much like a normal Eliteserien game as we can, shall we? -- We'll be doing everything we can to win the Best i vest derby for our wonderful supporters, not to mention maintaining our Eliteserien top spot. It's disappointing though that for such a big game against 4th placed Brann that we're missing Preslav Borukov, and Jasper Torkildsen because of international duty. With Jasper Torkildsen away with Norway, and Roger Vestgøte injured, we've had to call up Martin Børsheim from the 2nd Team and register him so that Martin can go on the bench today. Fortunately we don't have any other fitness issues. -- Expected Line-up

Sunday 10th November 2030 Eliteserien Evening Result --

Sunday 10th November 2030 Sandefjord (12th) v Viking (1st) Eliteserien -- -- -- There's a lot of pressure on the players when they're chasing an Eliteserien title with not many matches left to play. It's a real credit to them, their spirit and character, that they were able to produce such a fantastic performance under that intense pressure. Once again, I find myself swelling with pride for this group of players. --

Preview -- -- We have a few injury concerns. Brice Wembangomo is suspended for our visit to Sandefjord. We gave the players two days well-deserved rest after the Salzburg match and we have no fitness concerns. -- Expected Line-up

Saturday 9th November 2030 Eliteserien --

Tuesday 5th November 2030 RB Salzburg (Austria) v Viking (Norway) UEFA Champions League -- -- -- I'd hoped we'd be able to put Lasse Nordås on the bench and not need him so that he'd be well rested to face Sandefjord in our next Eliteserien match... but we did need Lasse, as it turned out, and he put in a big performance for us. All of us were up off the bench, me, my coaching staff, the substitutes. It was an incredible, euphoric moment. No. Not at all. RB Salzburg made life very difficult for us, as we expected, and they had the better of the first half, though I thought we were competitive and gave them a run for their money. Our captain, David Breckalo, conceded a penalty. I didn't agree with the decision but VAR upheld the referee's decision. Then up stepped Jasper Torkildsen, throwing himself full length to save the penalty. Only Salzburg did score, five minutes before the break. We made four substitutions at half-time, sending on four of the big names we'd rested. Then a fifth on 62 minutes. Preslav Borukov hit the post and you do begin to think it isn't going to be your day. Then Lasse Nordås equalised on 74 minutes and put us 2-1 up six minutes later. We then weren't sure whether to go defensive or stay as we were. Salzburg thought they'd equalised on 84 minutes but the goal was ruled out for offside. And then we did decide to go defensive and we managed the game out for a less-than-comfortable 2-1 away win. This group of players are always surprising me. I'm so proud of them. --

Thanks, @JaytheGreat. I'll be honest, I was expecting Chelsea to smash us. I can honestly say, in all my years playing FM, I've never felt so at home at a football club as I do at Viking.

Preview -- -- Jakob Napoleon Romsaas will be out for a while and Steinar Braathen is suspended after his two yellow cards equals a red in our last UEFA Champions League match against Chelsea. We don't play Sandefjord in Eliteserien until Sunday so we don't have to worry too much about match fitness, although we will be making a few changes. We've included 15 years old goalkeeper Roger Vestgøte on the bench, although he's unlikely to play as we have three goalkeepers on the bench.. -- Expected Line-up

Thank you, @samboing I agree... hence why I signed At the moment, I feel like Viking is my club... although I blame @I have nothing to say for bringing me back a Viking cap and scarf from his recent visit to Stavanger. You do? I think Domestic Dominance is still a big ask for Viking... I wish I felt the same. Getting used to newgens is going to be a challenge for me. I'm trying, honestly I'm trying... suggestions on a post card please...

Yes indeed. With three games left, I can see Bodo/Glimt winning both their games before the last match of the season showdown at Bodo/Glimt’s Aspmyra Stadium. That means we’ll have to win both our games to go into that last game of the season still ahead by one point. Thank you, @Muttley84

Friday 1st November 2030 Until Next Time... ... when the 2030 Eliteserien season concludes, and... ... we play two more UEFA Champions League matches. -- November'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 103 - Title Run-in | 1st November 2030 "Monthly Review" -- Results -- Board Confidence -- Supporter Confidence -- Finances -- Dynamics

Episode 103 - Title Run-in | 1st November 2030 "Monthly Awards" -- Manedens Trener -- Manedens Spiller

Episode 103 - Title Run-in | 1st November 2030 "Viking First Team Squad" -- Appearances -- Reports -- Players Out on Loan

Sunday 27th October 2030 Viking (1st) v Rosenborg (5th) Eliteserien -- Yesterday's Results -- -- -- The pressure was on today against a Rosenborg team who completely outplayed us at their place earlier in the season when they won 4-2 at Lerkendal. But today, in our own SR-Bank Arena, we outplayed them, defensively restricting them to only one shot on target which Jasper Torkildsen saved. For once we didn't have to be overly patient as Otto Rosengren gave us the lead on 26 minutes and David Møller Wolfe settled our nerves when he doubled our lead on 65 minutes. It was, but it was a great team goal, a good attack down the right wing, the ball was played to Martin Palumbo in the 'D' of the penalty area, Martin back-heeled the ball into the penalty area, where Otto Rosengren hit the ball first time, with the outside of his right foot, and curled it into the far corner. --

Preview -- -- I'm sorry, Egil, but I don't agree. We have four matches to play, and bigger fish to fry than UEFA Europa League Qualification to play for, so let's not turn this match against Rosenborg into anything other than a normal Eliteserien match. -- Rosenborg beat us 4-2 in the reverse fixture at Lerkendal so we know this will be a difficult match for us. Hopefully, at our SR-Bank Arena, with our fans behind us, we can get the win we believe we're capable of. It's great to have Oscar Bobb back but we'll need to be careful with him. -- Expected Line-up

Tuesday 22nd October 2030 Viking (Norway) v Chelsea (England) UEFA Champions League -- -- -- There's no doubting the quality Chelsea possess and we saw that close-up tonight. I'm immensely proud of the players, they worked tremendously hard and gave it their all. We knew we were up against it and went with our normal shape but switched to a Cautious mentality and played at a lower tempo than normal. We were always on the back-foot but we defended magnificently and it took a wonder goal on 64 minutes to break us down. In the last 15 minutes we went back to our normal shape and mentality and created a couple of chances. I'm disappointed for Steinar Braathen rather than disappointed with him. Both yellow cards were soft, in Eliteserien I'm sure they would've just been free-kicks with no card issued. After the first one, we told Steinar to ease off tackles and I really thought the referee would use his common sense for the second one on 90+3 minutes but no, instead of just telling him to calm down which would've been the common sense thing to do, out came a second yellow card. The young lad is devastated, but he'll learn from this and be stronger for it. We do need our strikers to start scoring goals again though. --