Stuniverse

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.

Thanks, @samboing, that sounds sensible. At the moment I’m trying to assess the young players who were out on loan last season, plus the best prospects who played 2nd Team and U19s last season. The limit of eight loans out is quite challenging and hardly anybody wants to pay wages or loan fees. Probably not surprising when you look at how many Eliteserien teams have insecure finances and I imagine it’s even more challenging further down the pyramid.

Friday 10th January 2031 Viking Snap-up Warholm Signing --

Thursday 9th January 2031 Transfer Window Open -- -- -- -- Daniel Gjerde Sætren -- Aleksander Liland -- Sean Nilsen-Modebe -- Sindre Gronvold - loaned back to Sarpsborg for the 2031 season. --

Wednesday 8th January 2031 -- -- Unfortunately Krzysztof Krysiak picked up an injury in training and will be out for a few weeks. Otherwise we're fit and ready to go. The plan will be the same against Portimonense Sporting Clube as our other friendlies. Look to give the goalkeeper, Jasper Torkildsen the full match and the other players around half an hour. -- This was a good work out for us against Portimonense. I thought we had the better of it, we had more possession, we created the better chances, but Portimonense were more ruthless in front of goal. Twice we fell behind and came back to equalise. When we went 2-3 down we had a great chance to equalise but Oscar Aga had his penalty saved. We also had a good chance late on but Steinar Braathen put his shot over the bar. Overall, I thought we generally played well but looked a little rusty.

Wednesday 8th January 2031 Viking Sign Hansen --

Sunday 5th January 2031 -- -- -- The plan for this match against Casa Pia Atlético Clube is to start first team players from last year, give goalkeeper Julian Faye Lund the full match, and everybody else about half an hour. We'll also try and give our two trialists some playing time. -- In terms of playing time, things went according to plan and we didn't, as far as I know, pick up any injuries. It was a fairly even match, with nothing much to pick between the teams, and a 1-1 draw was probably a fair result.

Sunday 5th January 2031 Aarhus Gymnastikforening Sign Rugland Ree -- We had offered Magnus Rugland Ree a new contract to play for our 2nd Team but I can understand why he opted for AGF.

Thursday 2nd January 2031 Viking Take Karlsson on Trial --

Thursday 2nd January 2031 -- My medical team advises me that we pretty much have a clean bill of health, although we won't be rushing Jakob Napoleon Romsaas back after his torn hamstring. -- -- This match against Louletano Desportos Clube was mainly for the benefit of the younger players and our trialist. The plan was to try and give the starters around an hour and the young goalkeeper, Roger Vestgøte the full game if we could. That plan pretty much worked and Roger impressed in goal, making some fine saves. None of the youngsters let themselves down which was pleasing as the majority of them were out on loan last season at clubs lower down the pyramid. Ironically, it was just after we made a shedload of substitutions that Louletano took the lead after a mix-up between our two central defenders and goalkeeper. But then, with more experienced outfield players on the pitch, we showed our class to score three good goals and win comfortably in the end.

Wednesday 1st January 2031 Until Next Time... ... when our pre-season for the coming season begins, and... ... our UEFA Champions League campaign from last season continues... -- January'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 106 - End-of-Season Break| 1st January 2031 "Monthly Review" -- Results -- Board Confidence -- Supporter Confidence -- Finances -- Dynamics

Episode 106 - End-of-Season Break| 31st December 2030 "Former Viking Player Returns on Trial" --

Episode 106 - End-of-Season Break| 31st December 2030 "Møller Wolfe Signs New Contract" --

Episode 106 - End-of-Season Break| 31st December 2030 "Vestvik Released" --

Episode 106 - End-of-Season Break| 30th December 2030 "Training Camp Underway" --

Episode 106 - End-of-Season Break| 27th December 2030 "Hoibraten Hangs Up His Boots" -- Marius has had a brilliant playing career and has been a fantastic servant to Viking. I wanted to offer him a job as coach or scout or something but he's only interested in being a Head of Youth Development and we don't have a vacancy here. I shook his hand and wished him all the very best for the future. I told Marius he is welcome back at the SR-Bank Arena any time.

Good plan...

Thanks, @Punch I'll do that. What I could really do with is a good Youth Intake. I haven't had one yet on this save, not even at Viking, which is why I haven't posted about them. Think I'll be asking my scouts to focus on U19 Norwegian players, starting with the national team squads

Yeah, Barcelona away and Napoli at home. 😂⚽️🤣

Episode 106 - End-of-Season Break| 23rd December 2030 "Players Report Back for Pre-season" -- The Viking players have reported back for pre-season training after a short break of 12 days since they played Celtic in the UEFA Champions League. I don't get why the Board wanted the players to report back the day before Christmas Eve so, as soon as the Medical Team had finished assessing the players, I sent them home to be with their families until the 30th December when we fly out to Portugal for our Training Camp. We are in negotiations for three friendly matches during our training camp. And then we have two very difficult UEFA Champions League fixtures. -- Three of our younger players will have an increased playing time expectation for the 2031 season.

Episode 106 - End-of-Season Break| 22nd December 2030 "Viking Make Fourth and Fifth New Signings" -- I'm delighted that two more players have agreed to join Viking in January. -- Aleksander Liland We're thrilled that current Norway International Aleksander Liland has agreed to join us from Molde. -- Sindre Grønvold Norway U21 International Sindre Grønvold has also agreed to join Viking although, as part of the deal, we've agreed to loan Sindre back to OBOS-ligaen Sarpsborg for the season. -- We're looking forward to meeting all five of our new signings in January when they officially join Viking.