_Ben_

Congratulations! Quite the rise and, even though the prize money pales into insignificance when compared to UCL money, it'll help!

I didn't know this was possible until you asked! Put my own little spin on this: EDIT: And also for national teams... Thanks! --- If only this could be built for all players in your own squad, as opposed to just key player/hot prospect etc! I'd love to have a scrolling area, on the all players panel, with info cards like these...

Statman24 v1.4 out now: https://www.mediafire.com/file/joqdgez0gkav43e/Statman_v1.4.rar/file Changes: - Slight alterations to colour scheme - New font - QoL changes - Loads of other stuff I've forgotten about... -- Enjoy!

This is absolutely something that I wouldn't have created myself, is it? Therefore - you can't assume that this is a skinning bug and is something wrong with your game or a small error that you can rectify by closing the popup and starting again. Also, I have recreated your focus and have no issue:

Some stutters but we roll on... Two thirds of the league season completed as well as some mileage as we visited Slovenia and Israel in our quest to conquer the Europa Conference League, thanks to the fourth placed finish last season. With the season coming to a head, there's a few things that need clearing up over the last ten games, such as the difference between our home record of 5-4-0, which puts us fourth and our away record of 8-3-0, which puts us nine points clear at the top.I need to rethink the game plan when playing at home and ensure that we are able to break down teams that are now sitter deeper and more compact than ever. Worryingly, our continental jaunts have impacted our recent form: our last five games saw us taken eleven points, the fourth best behind Hammarby, Djurgardens and Malmo, who've caught up to the front runners, somewhat. Elsewhere, Sundsvall have made a fantastic mid season recovery whereas Norrkoping - who, as a reminder, came second last year - are still floundering towards the bottom end. N.B - I've altered my writing style here as I have gone back and watched all the highlights from these games again rather than write as I go along. It's allowed me to see a snapshot of how things have panned out in more of a 'highlight reel' fashion. We finished May off with a slightly disappointing draw at home to Hammarby; Noor Ouma and Brusberg combined (I don't have the records for it but I'd say that either Noor Ouma or Okkels have provided 90% of the assists for Brusberg and I love their interplay) to put us ahead before a defensive mix up allowed them to equalise almost instantly.Jeng's poor aerial challenge allowed the visitors to steal a lead early in the second half before my Kenyan hero laid on Okkels to rescue a point at the end. Statistically, we dominated - nearly three times as many passes in the final third, nearly double the xG and a control of most of the match - but we succumbed, like many of our goals conceded, to switches off. I need to remedy that. Two in May, starting with Brommapojkarna where academy graduate Berndtsson nodded in his first career goal and Brusberg raced through from Okkels' through ball but, again, a sloppy error costs us the clean sheet. Paulo Vitor, in his Lib(s) role, is far too advanced and some relatively simple movement from their forward allows him acres of space to finish a low cross. Really basic. Kallander struck a low, sweet shot to get us started against Degerfors, before the famous Nour Ouma/Brusberg link up put us two ahead. The former of that pair unleashed a thunderbolt to make it three, moments before Mbacke decided to just 'not' defend, allowing the loss of another clean sheet. He did make amends with a bullet header but 2.90xG vs 0.33xG (their only shot of the game) should make for a much more comfortable scoreline than it really did. July started strongly with a demolition of Halmstads: Noor Ouma, Brusberg from the spot and a really well worked free kick tucked away by Bernhardsson amounted to 2.73xG, with us allowed three shots at a total of 0.29xGA. We then left it very late against GAIS as we underperformed, conceding 1.47xG - our highest total for some time. Brusberg was the hero as his goals sandwiched yet another low cross that found its way into the six yard box and was met not by one of our two defenders, but by an attacker to finish a really easy chance. Normal service was resumed with a dismantling of AIK despite going behind to a very tame effort from the edge of the area. Jeppe Okkels was sublime, with a fantastic hatrick and great link up play with Noor Ouma, before Eriksson netted his first for the club, climbing highest at the back post. A much rotated squad made the trip to Slovenia but Kallander showed his class from the right hand side, cutting in to score twice. We amassed 3.02xG but were very wasteful in front of goal, particularly Riasco, who hadn't scored since March. A dour draw was played out against our title rivals, with us accruing just 0.21xG - by far the lowest of my tenure here. Another bit of rotation saw Wester, the backup libero, score a wonderous curling strike from thirty yards and Brusberg and Noor Ouma also net in a convincing win. 2.07xG created against Norrkoping but, somehow, they held on for the draw as Baidoo seized on an error early on before Jeng clumsily gave away a penalty. Okkels accrued 1.12xG himself but failed to find the net. Fortunately, Djurgardens were unable to close the gap as they drew, too. Straightforward stuff in Israel as a thunderbolt from Ilunga came before a lovely worked goal finished by substitute Noor Ouma. Beitar didn't trouble Ronning - the backup keeper - at all. A much better performance post-Europe against Hacken as another twenty-five yarder from Ilunga sealed the win after a mazy Bernhardsson run and a glancing header from Paulo Vitor set us up well. Widespread changes for the Beitar game led to a slightly disjointed performance but Rapp got us off to a strong start before the Israeli's hit back thanks to a lovely passage of play that saw us on our heals. Ilunga went three-in-three for twenty-five yarders, somehow, and then Riasco and youngster Bashiru scored before Macagno was beaten far too easily at his near post from range, taking the shine off the win a little. I do wonder whether ten or eleven changes after these games is making us a little disjointed as we certainly were against old side Sundsvall, having Brusberg to thank with a double. Yet again though, we were carved open far too easily and Forsberg, my ex-full back, scored a goal from a shot that really should've been saved. Looking at our goal concessions and assist locations, I have two lines of enquiry: a) is Macagno good enough for this project? b) Is Paulo Vitor's role appropriate. Because of our slightly different league calendar, I've compared him to all other Scandinavian leagues of a similar stature (Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark) and have looked at keepers with over 1000 minutes, which, I think, rules Denmark out of it due to their adjusted season cycle. Interestingly, I brought up an issue with Johansson, my keeper at Sundsvall in regards to the amount of saves he does not hold - my findings had him ranked in the 100th percentile for the % of his saves that he'd parried or tipped. It wasn't a me problem! Somewhat unexpected for a team that are higher up the league, Macagno is making more saves than a lot of the other keepers, and is holding less than 40% of them. This is a lot - 0.95 saves held is in the ninety-fifth percentile for this value and, importantly, compares the number of them not the quality of them (i.e, a shot that a keeper has no right to hold on to). I think there are some concerns around him, if I'm being honest and I may look to see what I can do to improve this role. As for part b - I'm not actually sure whether Vitor is justifying this support role. A completed dribble every five games and the lowest defensive minded player for progressive passes, having laid on a quite impressed three assists, joint highest in my defensive area with Jeng. What he does do really well is hold a good position in our attack, ready to recycle the ball but I am still concerned that he's defensively quite weak and exposed here. Despite decent tackle and header success rates, he's barely attempting a tackle and a lot of his headers are offensive, partly to credit for his six goal return to date. Likewise, he's not making interceptions or winning and kind of duals - which kind of makes him a luxury player - which is not something I'd ever considered saying about a defender! Hopefully, I can address this little area for concern within the last ten league games at no cost to our title chances. --- Transfer business Full profiles can be accessed by clicking on the above thumbnails. The aforementioned signing of Eriksson was completed and I've been really impressed with the start he's made to the club, allowing Mbacke to move out wider and for us to penetrate a little more with our early transition. I was able to add one more signing to that over the summer window - that of Yasin Ayari. He is a player I am aware of as he currently plays for Brighton and has been tipped for big things, but, in FM, his chequered recent history had led to him being available on a free transfer. In the months before his contract expired, I looked at him but was put off by Premier League wage demands - however, once on trial, his agent negotiations were very reasonable. Another solid option for the middle of the park - a young, international level Swede returning home because first team chances were few and far between: a real area that we're trying to exploit in our recruitment process! I have hit a wall with my next bit of recruitment though: a nine and a half. Brusberg brought on the preface that he was tall and somewhat creative, rather than a true playmaker and a true finisher. The concept of a 'nine and a half' has been around for many years, with Marco Van Basten being one of the first. Essentially, I was hoping that the T(a) role would be perfect for that - someone to link play and also to score. My wonderkid has done that, but the role has come at the expense of Riasco really excelling there - 0 in 3(7) for the Venezuelan vs 13 in 16(3) for the man who usurped him during his injury layoff. Originally, I had my eyes on Hugo Bolin but, completely unknown to me, Elfsborg fan and forum member @JogaBonito sent me a message with some information about him... The narrative, for me, was all about a return to his hometown but, given this fantastic bit of real life connection, he's very much in the bin and won't be coming home! Last year, I found myself watching a documentary on Trabzonspor, but today I've delved into match footage of Elfsborg, with the 'oooh, I know him - he's playing for me!' comments every so often. It's interactions like this and knowledge acquisition like this that make FM so good for me! If anyone else knows anything about these players - please let me know... I did, however, allow some players to depart during this window: The sales of Barros Schelotto, Wilkman and Coumbassa came as part of my thinning of the first team squad. Even with a load of fixtures and - hopefully - more to come if we qualify for the group stages of the UECL, we had too many options and couldn't afford them the minutes that they desired. Part of my work with media and morale has also led to me paying more attention to a happy squad and therefore, these moves, bringing in just shy of €2m, offsetting the Eriksson deal, made sense to me. --- Developing youth: Given our u19 team performance, I took the opportunity to loan a few players out - mostly, to our feeder in the second tier, Skovde. By making Persson accountable for his performances - something I don't seem to be able to do with these forced moves to affiliates - I can put another layer of development there, after he was successful in maintaining a high training rating following a target set previous to this. The three departures are players who have all excelled at this level and, to kick on, need to experience first team football. I'm hoping that, by setting JBK's position to a left winger, he'll get some more experience in a role that, overall, I think he's probably more suited to. That left some holes in our youth sides so I filled them thanks to some clever, cost effective recruitment. Full profiles can be accessed by clicking on the the thumbnails. The four lads above cost a grand total of €43k and, for me, these types of players are just as exciting as the potential world class players. For such a cheap outlay and, for me, a chance to play with two Libyans, which I don't think I've ever done before, means I can put detailed training schedules together - for example, a push for Al-Ruwaili to become a nimble inverted winger, making the most of his ball control and agility. Whilst it is unlikely that these players will move on for eight figure sums to Europe's best, seeing them continue their fledgling international careers and, maybe, making a career for themselves here in northern Europe, is a great win for me! I won't, however, go overboard with these - either in costings or amounts as I want give chances to my own academy players and also not stifle results on the pitch by too much silly rotation of them! --- Ten league games to go plus, hopefully, a group stage set of fixtures in the Europa League should we overcome Farul, of Romania, in the next knockout round. There'll also be my youth intake and a lot more recruitment and player thoughts, too!

Absolutely. Whilst some things in the match engine continue to infuriate me and there are specific starts that I literally know we will concede from, I do love how the positional play works. However, it does feel a bit ‘forced’ - I am someone who has always wanted that fluidity but not everyone actually wants that. I have yet to experience the ME at a really low level but can’t imagine non-league centre backs having the intelligence to move into certain areas OOP, which are different to those in possession! But I am not going to moan. This, like pretty much every game before it, is on track to be my ‘most played FM’ and I’m completely addicted to my save, my ideology of the game and the principles I’m trying to instil to these computer generated dots!

I think you’re doing wonderfully Shrew, even though you’re a sucker for punishment! Not one, but two teams you’ve taken to their absolute ceiling but still you push on in tough conditions. I still love the ethos and well-considered nature of your signings; Volpato was on my radar last FM at Sassuolo and Atalanta, so I think he’ll do well for you. I would expect another European push based on the starting results but I do look forward to seeing how you bridge a potential style change, as that’s something I’ve never really been able to achieve, personally. I tend to stick to the same ethos throughout, at whichever club I move to - often choosing the club on style not merit.

Bit of a strange old start but nice to see that ‘you’ feel settled and happy. Looking forward to seeing what you can do here - the conveyor belt (to Europe) is something I’ve seen you utilise well before in the non-Top 5 leagues so expecting you to recruit well off the back of those inevitable sales.

I may have oversold a little with that description! Essentially, I didn't handle any media stuff at Sundsvall nor did I really interact with the players. I'm taking my time trying to create a media-persona that gives answers that provide the little 'Pr' symbol to say it's had a positive impact. I also talk to my players as often as I can - praising or criticising specifics from performances and their training, re-training and overall development. I'm at the point whereby the lowest training rating is over 7.00 and I'm able to criticise a 6.6/6.7 performance in a particular area with little to no comeback, but, on the same note, know when and who to push. It's a little time consuming but has really paid off. My next job is to create third man runs in different places and then to also create a striker role that doesn't use that, so I can effectively switch between styles and modes of game play when required. That is where my managerial money will be earned!

A strong start: Through ten games of the regular season now and I must admit that I am quite happy with the progress we are making. Each game provides an opportunity to learn and to develop our style and the players at the club - some of whom are detailed below. The league is shaping up nicely, with a bit of a gap opening at the top between the four of us back to Malmo in fifth, who can score but also concede at a highly concerning rate. Further down, AIK are seemingly settling for mid table obscurity, just four years after winning the title - with a ninth placed finish from last year not looking too much worse than where they'll be this season. At the bottom, it's almost a credit - to me - to see the job that I'd done with Sundsvall, given their current plight. They spent quite a bit of money (in context) over the summer but have failed to score anywhere near enough goals to get points on the board. We got off to a strong start against Djurgardens as Paulo Vitor nodded before Okkels took full advantage of a third man run - complete with shocking full back play - to put us two up just after the break. A horrific mistake by Macagno, passing directly to their forward, who slotted it into the empty net made a more nervy last twenty than I wanted and, with only 39% of the ball, I possibly would've wanted a more controlled start to the season than this. 1.35xG vs 0.71xGA - with a huge proportion of that coming from their goal - was a decent starting point though. We then visited AIK where Vitor, again, netted from set pieces, sandwiching a goal for Brusberg. He wasn't intended to be thrust into the team so early but an injury for Riasco left me no choice. I always try to use penalties as a way of improving games for new players, particularly those - like Isak - who are on scoring droughts. If the player has good body language and is doing ok, I'll choose them - which, in this instance, worked really well as the record signing opened his account for us in an easy win where we only allowed 0.22xGA. Concerningly, our match momentum, from three nil up, shows us absorbing a lot of pressure, albeit not shots, and, in future, I'd like us to be able to find a way to exploit these numbers thrown forward. Okkels' wonder goal opened the scoring before his shot, that cannoned off the post, was tucked away by Kenyan Noor Ouma, who had enjoyed a strong start to the season. In the last minute, we conceded from a corner but that was no more than a consolation. Brusberg, again, from the penalty spot, opened the scoring before substitute Rapp doubled the lead with a drive and low finish from a half cleared corner but, again, another lapse in concentration - like from he corner in the Norrkoping game - saw Hacken score in the last minute from a cross headed into the net. Macagno had been barely tested before the high xG chance that took away a second clean sheet in the space of eight days. The winning run was ended by a tough Sundsvall team, who registered just one shot on target to our three. A problem, again, of a deep, resolute defence that I can't break down - that is aside from a fluke from Brusberg, as he converted a clearance that was smashed, literally, into his head from six yards out. April was wrapped up with a much more convincing win over Varnamo, with that man Vitor rising highest at the back post, Bernhardsson beating three men before unleashing a powerful left footed strike and young subs Wallgren and Kallander combining with the winger placing a lovely shot into the bottom corner from the edge of the area. Another resolute defensive display cost us two points as we started May with a draw against Sirius, despite creating 2.17xG from our seventeen shots. We controlled every element of the game, restricting the visitors to just three shots and, unsurprisingly, it was their goalkeeper who walked away with the player of the match award. Back to winning ways away at bottom of the table Mjallby - even though we, again, created more xG than our total goal count. Okkels converted a rebound from a nice move that had left Brusberg in the open and, honestly, in a position where it was easier to score. He did, however, convert when Okkels' cross found him on the penalty spot. Our third corner concession of the season came before a cross was tapped in by Nour Ouma as we sealed the win late on. Brusberg converted from close range as we dominated the first half against Malmo, not letting them even attempt a shot. Their reply, to their credit, was a lovely worked goal as their left back cut in and unleashed a powerful shot into the corner in what proved to be their only shot on target all game. Sadly, our impetus slowed as the game went on and we weren't able to capitalise further. My first major final ended in defeat thanks, partly, to a red card. Kallander had opened the scoring from the penalty spot, again, utilising the choice of confident players to take kicks, before Baidoo was sent off on thirty five minutes for a rash tackle. It forced me into pessimist mode and we went in our shells a bit, with Hammarby getting level just after the hour. They too had a man sent off in extra time but, at that point, given that the timing of this wasn't ideal for either club, meant that neither of us really had the legs to go for it. For the shoot out, I choose my five - based on confidence, performance and then penalty taking, before speaking to them. I wanted to instill some passion into my first taker, Ilunga, but - sadly - that made him anxious. What followed was the tamest penalty I've ever seen. Going one down on the first spot kick is difficult and we never recovered. An even showing in the big derby away at Goteborg, where Okkels had us off to a strong start before Jeng's first mistake (quite literally) of the season allowed their right winger in to finish from inside the box. 0.72xG vs 0.80xG is a fair representation of the equality shown within this game, so, for me, it was a good point. A little bit disjointed in May and a set of very close expected to actual performances but we doing well. Credit must go to Bakayoko, my set piece coach, for our goals from corners but we must also factor in more time to work on the defensive ones as we still do look frail, at times. This, along with some work to do in central defensive areas, means I'm going to be a very busy coach over the next portion of the season! --- Developing the 'third man run': I have been loving the progress of Isak, who is statistically performing wonderfully and has just recently become known as a Wonderkid, my first within this save. However, both a low involvement within the game and some passing examples that aren't quite what I want leads me to some thoughts about what comes next. The quote below from Coaches' Voice explains, in more detail than I can write, what I want one of his key jobs to be: Whilst the progression of his ability to learn the striker role has been fantastic, I feel that the next job is to develop him to be able to do this and continue his fine record of five goals in nine appearances at 0.64 per 90. At just 0.77 key passes, some 4% of his total passes are key - not bad but could be much better (Okkels, for example, has 11% for this measure) and I think that comes not from being more creative but just being on the ball, more. I'm currently asking him to learn how to play killer balls and then may go as far as asking him to play with his back to goal, in a way for him to link play then use his other trait (Gets forward whenever possible) to break into the box. His breakthrough, thanks to an injury to Riasco, has meant that I was able to hire an intermediary to complete the sale of Guilavogui - who would've been able to leave for a free in June anyway. He's off to Turkey for a fee that could bring me around €650k. Whilst I do now have two quality strikers fighting for this role, I am realistic and know that a wonderkid aged twenty and a Venezuelan of just twenty-three are both going to attract attention and also not want to spend their career here. Sadly, our own recruitment, so far, has been tough. High wages are the issue, with both Sulemana and Datro Fofana, interested, for example but unwilling to go below €50k per week, some €45k more than my next highest earner. I have looked at one lad in a bit more detail though: Hugo Bolin would be a signing based way more on traits than anything else. He likes the ball played into his feet and then will play killer balls from that including one twos and will then move into the box before placing his shot. Granted, he's not actually a striker - but neither was Brusberg - and he's a little limited to only his right foot. But this season, he's assisted more (0.22 per 90 to 0.13), created more open play key passes (0.88 to 0.51), dribbled more (2.21 to 2.04) and - as expected for a player playing deeper, has more progressive passes too. Whilst I don't necessarily see him as the striker that can take us to the next level, he could be a perfectly good stop gap for right now should I lose either of my current forwards and will really give me a great insight into how this role would play out. --- Building stronger 'early-transition' foundations: We currently are averaging 55% possession, the fourth best in the league, but the perfectionist in me wants a bit more quality rather than this quantity. I feel that we are still too safe in our early transition, the parts where we have won the ball back within our own half. With the eye test, I could see why but wanted some numbers to back things up. The above shows our three players and one Anton Eriksson (but more on him later) compared against all players capable of playing as a centre back this season and having played more than five hundred Allsvenskan minutes. I am delighted to not be having an issues with my heading and still have nightmares of my centre backs inside the first percentiles at Sundsvall! It's clear to see the difference in roles here - Vitor is aggressive on the ball and doesn't progress is that much through passes, more with dribbles. He's also more risky and, thanks to his Libero role, loses the ball higher up the pitch trying to make those key passes. Compare that to his partner, Mbacke, who is so much safer in possession yet makes a lot of clearances (in my mind, these are not safe passes) and, game by game, has high passing numbers. Enter, this: My plan is to introduce the aforementioned Eriksson, currently of Norrkoping and shift Mbacke out to the right back slot. His safety in passing and his lack of an eye for a progressive pass (78% percentile vs 50th and 34th vs 60th) when compared to Anton is telling. Likewise, Eriksson is far more composed when in possession, clearing the ball much less. It is my hope that, as we build up in a three, and can be exposed with long balls into the channels immediately after losing the ball, that the height of now Jeng and Mbacke will counteract this as well as helping us from set pieces. Current right back Barros Schelotto has done little wrong but may be a useful bit of income for further changes in the summer. WIth Mbacke already competent, retraining -shouldn't be an issue. I couldn't think of a way to demonstrate the process of this bit of potential recruitment without posting that table twice, therefore, introduced my signing before explaining my process. I've had my scouts out for some time looking for a player in the mould and had shortlisted the following: Rekik and Eriksson were the top two choices - players in their peak at reputable clubs who could come in and improve my team. Also added to the list for the DoF was Samir, a player who I feel could hold down the spot for the next ten years and then the bargain option of Sutalo, who is available on a free, but very much a left field option as a man who has spent more time as a wing back or in a three this season rather than where I want him to be. Concerned with Rekik's wage demands, I handed over authority but was pleasantly surprised when my DoF negotiated a great deal with his contract and transfer fee. In terms of leading transfers, he's among the biggest but we are still a level below the top spenders here, although this will be the third highest deal between Allsvenskan teams, and we also hold the second! However, I feel that this is imperative to help us take those next steps and build better from the back. He'll join in July and I will look to settle him in and then really dig into what he brings to the team. --- Things are feeling really good at the moment - hopefully we can continue to push but leave enough in our tank for a push in the Conference League, which we'll be entering in September.

Yes. I've loved the positional play elements of this match engine. It's something that I feel I'll have even more fun with once I can get to a point of being creative with how I make that 3-4-3 shape, or even a 3-3-4 or 3-2-5! I agree. Early minutes this season have shown me that the squad is bloated in certain areas, so I'm looking forward to addressing that.

I agree that it's too small! I changed the ratio of those panels in a recent update to my (unreleased skin) but never cracked how to get it to show full screen!

Very excited for this! I know that things outside of your control have limited your game time and depth of writing, but I really hope to be reading some tactical stuff from you soon!

With the first couple of games secured and the season ticking over into the 2027 season, I was able to ease expectations by choosing the lowest targets that I could. As time goes on, I’ll push these as my demands for excellence are clearer but, in the meantime, I’d rather not be sacked! My jobs for the pre-season revolved around setting up our longer-term vision for training and development pathways, with a new found love of the target system acquired. I have been able to create widespread accountability through training targets, which, on review, has created some fantastic training outcomes across the squad. I've also expanded our scouting scope and am looking at youth tournaments in Africa as a feasible place to scout youngsters. With a couple of months of working with the players, I decided to dip into the transfer market. By that, I mean, instruct my recruitment squad to do so. Initially, the plans were to just replace, and improve the quality, of a couple of players in my squad. For each signing, the recruitment team narrowed in on the target before my DoF submitted a transfer bid. First in, and hopefully synonymous with my transfer ideology, is young Swede Di Pievre Ilunga. It’s important that I am able to attract the best domestic players and Di Pievre had just been made available to us. With Thomas Boateng, the outgoing midfielder, wanting a new challenge, I felt that this was – at the cost of just €600k (€800k for Ilunga with a recouped €200k for Boateng) – the perfect time to solidify this area for the coming years. Di Pievre is possibly not an upgrade yet but hopefully will grow to be one. The second upgrade is returning Swede, Mayckel Lahdo, who my DoF was able to secure on a free, even though he was still in contract at AZ until June. Replacing Thomas Amang, I may have lost a bit of endurance and sheer physicality, but I’ve gained a winger with far better ability on the ball as well as a €525k profit. Lahdo fits another one of the recruitment areas I have – bringing back Swedes who haven’t set the world alight when moving abroad. Mainly restricted to just Jong AZ football, at 24, Mayckel is entering his prime and could turn into a shrewd acquisition for us. My last signing and a deadline day deal – so arriving after all of the matches I’ll detail below – is our record signing, Isak Brusberg. In 2005, the club paid €1.5m to bring back Anders Svensson from Southampton – or, at least, that is how the game tells it, even though my research leads to news articles that state he returned for a nominal fee- and I've bettered that with the €1.7m that Isakc ost us from local rivals BK Hacken. Despite the cost, Isak is not a signing for now – even with him actually being one of the best players we have here. Whilst he has some flaws in his game – one footed and not the greatest in the air – he is potentially the answer to the striker role that I’ve been looking for. Currently, I’m using a T(a) role (again, more on that a little later) and want a creative hub who can also score goals. In comparison with Morgan Guilavogui, he’s that bit more technical and actually a better attacker and is fast, agile and creative with a decent eye for goal. My plan is to work on his development this season, using him a little more off the bench and it easier ties before looking to build an attacking fulcrum around him in years to come.That leaves my squad looking complete, as you can see in the image below. This 'X' thread by forum user @Ö-zil to the Arsenal! really piqued my interest and something that I guess I have inadvertently tried to do over the past few years, without the ability to put into words my thoughts. This squad is too big and by that I mean positions can be covered by the following players: Full Back: Barros Schelotto, Karlsson, Rapp, Wallgren, Jeng Centre Back: Mbacke, Jeng, Wester, Paulo Vitor Defensive Midfielder: Paulo Vitor, Wester, Soderberg, Wilkman, Coumbassa, Ilunga 8/10: Wester, Wallgren, Baidoo, Soderberg, Wilkman, Coumbassa, Illunga, Brusberg, Ouma Wingers: Rapp, Brusberg, Ouma, Okkels, Bernhardsson, Lahdo, Guilavogui, Kallander Forwards: Brusberg, Guilavogui, Kallander, Riasco This, if my counting is correct, gives us thirty-five options and a lot more than the 16-18 players who are good enough, rotating well around the roles. Granted - Kallander and Wallgren are both youth layers and, to be fair, neither of them are quite up to scratch just yet but I am possibly a little heavy in the central mid area and the striker area - with the likelihood that Guilavogui may not earn a new deal, should Brusberg's retraining work. Likewise, in the middle, Coumbassa feels like my weakest option. Some time will need to be put into the next few transfer windows as I will require some more cover defensively as well as having to slowly upgrade the quality of those who are already at the club. --- I have played eleven competitive games and a spattering of friendlies such the last update: Overall, I'm pretty happy with the direction that we're moving in. Despite two losses, including an annoying loss to a Gent team really struggling at home, we made the playoff round for the knockout part of the Europa League. Obviously, our biggest weakness here is that it's our off-season and it is mid-season for virtually every other team. That being said, we were really great away in Denmark against a strong Midtylland side, only conceding from the most annoying last minute concentration lapse. To settle the tie with a strong performance at home, sandwiched between some heavily-rotated cup performances was great, too. The Juventus line-up demonstrated the gulf in quality between the teams but a resolute home performance, utilising a very restrictive 4-2-3-1 (with all three midfielders not in the AM strata), we nullifying their attacking box and really should have come away with more. Sadly, in Italy, they had too much for us and ended our great run. This is the kind of problem that I want to be solving here, every year. As for the domestic cup, we kept up our scoring record and clean sheet record despite heavy rotation - with two goals from youngster JBK and two assists in two games from Collins Persson, the young midfielder. So far, three players have really stood out to me: Riasco has 0.56 goals per 90 from 0.52xG/90 so, in my opinion, I think he can kick on even more. However, it is his creativity - 0.30xA/90 and 1.24 open play key passes per 90 which are the real victory here for my striker role, which I've detailed below. Jeng has been a rock at the back - 72% header success rate and 83% tackle success, with good progressive passing, too. I would actually love to create a carbon copy of him to uplevel the centre back role: Mbacke doe it well but is far more limited in his passing range than Malcolm, who has, so far, played the most minutes of any player. Lahdo has been great and is completing over eight progressive actions per game, when combining passes and dribbles. He's nippy and direct and, even though his sits in the bottom 20% of possession lost stats, isn't afraid to try something with the ball from the wing - which is exactly what I want in this slightly tweaked shape: Again - I am a minimalist with instructions. We're now pressing a little bit more than previously, given our weakness on the flanks in early transitions but the main changes come from the attacking fulcrum, Riasco. I'd previously employed a RPM(s) on the left side of the midfield duo but felt that, still, it attracted the ball further away from the goal in less dangerous areas. Using a Trequartista, importantly with the Hold Up Ball instruction - which I saw in @MattyLewis11's thread - gives me an opportunity for an attacking pivot high up the pitch, allowing so many third man runs from midfield and, even, the Libero (Paulo Vitor has two assists and Jeng scored whilst playing in this role from a move that involved him being that third man). As always, it's a work in progress but it's done us well in the first few competitive matches of the season and I look forward to further analysing. --- I am very much lost in the game at the moment - taking in every sight and every opportunity to learn. I've no idea whether we're title material or not but I'm going to enjoy the ride!

Absolutely! Part of the deal, for me, was to make sure that the squad would - at worst - be mouldable to what I want them to be. We've made a decent start and I'm enjoying the football that we're playing. I am, at last, taking each game as a 'learning experience' and really creating a style of football that is building on my previous learning.. I'm still deep into exploring the in-game management but, that is really not fun to write about! Thanks - my writing is just an extension of my thinking and I'm certainly a procrastinator! I've found that, over the festive season, I've been far too immersed in this game! For my own (edit: my families) sanity, I'd say this amount needs to decrease!

This whole update is fantastic - I'm loving the way you're building and it's something that I really need to sit up and take notice of with the team I've inherited in my save. However, the bit above hit home just a little bit harder! As you've seen and we've spoken about, I'm very much of the school of less is more when it comes to team instructions but I'd never actually sat and thought that these computer generated people, running around on my screen, are coded to know how to play football and, therefore, will make a sensible choice - where they can - to stop the ball from going into the net. In the same way that I removed 'Dribble More' because, actually, the roles dictate that, I've now removed 'Trap Outside' because, when you have full backs that defend that zone and when you have wingers that do track (when they can be bothered), you're naturally occupying spaces that push players outside. It feels so simple but those few sentences above really made me think - so thanks! I think you'll be ok! It's one of those where those marginal gains add up and add up and I expect you to come out all guns blazing this year! How have Feyenoord and PSV faired this summer in the transfer market?

Thanks - I appreciate the kind words. I've been following along with this and really think you've done a great job. The most recent intake looks fruitful and, hopefully, playing at a higher level will allow you to develop and sell on, for the benefit of the national team more than the club team in the shorter term.

Personally, I think you do your best work outside of the top leagues - you're much like me in terms of recruitment and that certainly helps with that. I'll be following wherever you end up though!

Feet under the desk. Hard work begins. With just twelve days before I would be encountering my first set of games as Elfsborg manager and, also, my first ever foray into European football - a home tie against Famalicao in the Europa League, I had a lot to do. All of the admin stuff was completed, for example, a home kit and away kit was created, with a focus on giving the club a sponsor that tied in with their current sponsors or built upon something I've been reading about and will endeavour to implement further as my time here goes on: charity ties with Africa - namely Kenya. In the end, I settled for some nice kits that are sponsored by Effektiv, one of their current sponsors, with Unibet as a their shirt sleeve sponsor, again, a real-life official partner. Furthermore, I added newgen faces to all of my promising youngsters and built in training and development pathways for them. Some of these players feature further down in my first team squad analysis. Now, a slightly contentious part. In my interview, I was told that I needed to improve my media handling skills as, clearly, the board didn't like that I'd delegated everything. Therefore, I've gone down a slightly different route with the ideology that I can improve both that and my player interactions. I already group attributes based loosely on their numerical value and, in the past, have spent hours and hours working through what the combinations of personality and media handling bring - solving to the single attribute for what each hidden attribute shows. I simply don't have the want for that any more but still want to be able to most effectively talk and interact with them. Therefore, I have utilised a similar route that I have done with attributes - banded (1-5 shows a silver star and 15-20 shows a gold star) each hidden attribute with the focus, in my first team, being on Temperament, Sportsmanship and ability to handle Pressure. I recently listened to the Stuart Broad podcast on the High Performance Podcast and his views on mental ability and mental stability hit quite hard. If I can create a squad that, whilst still showing as balanced, can handle pressure - we can surely invoke those marginal gains and get the best out of the squad. For clarity - I won't be sharing (and don't know) any single hidden attribute values and these stars are only used on the Team Squad panel, as you will see below, but you can always look away if that's not your cup of tea! For those unaware of Elfsborg, they have won seven Allsvenskan titles but, 2025 aside, last tasted league success in 2012 but have been an ever-present in the Swedish top flight since its inception in the last nineteen-twenties. We are now chasing our fourth successive Svenska Cup title to add to some previous success at the turn of the century. In game, the club has struggled to compete with Europe's best, having not won a two-legged playoff tie and have only succeeded in making the group stage this year thanks to 'dropping down' from the Champions League. However, league phase wins over APOEL and Slavia Prague, as well as a draw at Besiktas and a narrow loss at home to Juventus mean we are placed well to build past Christmas as we faced Famalicao and Dinamo Zagreb at home before a trip to Rome and then a home tie versus Gent. With good youth facilities and youth recruitment and great training facilities and a 16,200 seater stadium in their home town of Boras - Elfsborg are a club perfect club for my ambitions. One of the key things that required work on was the backroom team. Precisely zero of my staff at Sundsvall wanted to make the move to Boras, so I was left with picking through what I already had and supplementing it with what was available to me. With such a rush to finalise before the first tie, I utilised the Staff Search area but added parameters to ensure that it felt like a fair and realistic recruitment process. Below is the backroom team that I have quickly assembled, in far from its final form: The desire to add experienced pros and those who can already speak Swedish or have playing history in this area was paramount to this recruitment drive. Managing to snag both Toure brothers feels like a purposeful move to build up knowledge in Cote D'Ivoire and being able to bring in ex-Arsenal player Marcus Svensson, who spent time at ASPIRE academy, brings up our Middle Eastern knowledge, too. Rasmus Elm and the one and only Zlatan Ibrahimovic join Bakayoko, Hyden and Jorgensen, who were here before my arrival but are solid staff members. The recruitment area is not hugely changed - with Bob Bradley (and his son Michael, who joins the youth coaching setup) coming in following a previous scouting job in Scandinavia. A linguist and a man with as much knowledge as you'll ever find, he's a great coup. Swedish record holder with 148 caps and Elfsborg legend Anders Svensson, who was already at the club, leads the scouting department that does, honestly, still feel a little light. However, with the Toure's knowledge, as well as the half Congolese Ibrahim and the half Eritrean Nicklasson, we have secured some extra free knowledge into Africa. I've currently got adverts out for a Performance Analysis team as well as another Recruitment Analyst as I look to ensure that we can identify and track statistical behaviours as best as we can. --- The squad I have inherited is so many steps above the one I'd left at Sundsvall that it is barely believable. We have talent in the reserve team that'd make an important player where I came from, showing the fact that both teams were at the wrong ends of the performance scale. I have spent a fair bit of time assessing the players, looking at their suitability to fit into my tactical ideology - safe in the knowledge that I'm not precious over it and will need to adapt to meet the demands of a largely better squad and also setting up all individual training. My aim, from the off, is to develop positions that they play in, especially if they are past the developmental phase - anchoring that with additional foci of either defensive or offensive positioning as these train the core mental attributes I value so highly. At present, there is some leeway with my youngsters as I want to take in as many games as possible to understand their style and ability before I decide permanently where they should play. Already announced are a lot of player departures, so I've been able to replace these squad players with youngsters. Below are my top four players as well as three youngsters involved in the first team and three from the youth team that I like the look of. Full profiles can be accessed by clicking each thumbnail. Malcolm Jeng could be the answer to the full back position for a number of years. His height and his ability on the ball, combined with his want to always stay back means that he, in my eyes, is the perfect Inverted Full Back - making a back three when we attack. He'll play next to Paulo Vitor, the man who has amassed the highest average rating across the entire league this season. I see him to be in the same mould and Haliti from Sundsvall and he could be quite potent in the Libero role as he looks to bring the ball out of the defence. At 25, there still may be time to further hone his game here. Jeppe is, for some reason, a Swedish player despite Transfermarkt and other sources telling me he's Danish as he was born there, played there and has represented them at youth level. However, he's a strong winger and a team leader and I'll look to build our attacks around him. Soderberg is a strong holding midfielder and the club captain will form the fulcrum of our attacking box. I've been lucky enough to be able to promote these three youngsters to the first team: Rahm, an exciting winger, Kallander, an inside forward and Wallgren, potentially a nice left back. In Rahm, we have a winger very much in the Palsson mould, who is direct and will run at players. He's a little rough around the edges and isn't as mentally strong as I'd like but I'll look to give him minutes where possible. Kallander has wonderful flair and technique, meaning he could be a real threat unlocking defences and driving forward with the ball. He needs some work on the final product but looks strong. I think Wallgren could use his height to his advantage as an inverted full back who could really assist us in the initial transitional phase. Lacking a little in his positioning skills - but, for a man who can also be a winger, understandably so - he is technical, brave and decent in the air. I look forward to his development. Elias could become a great keeper, which is a good focus for me as I've been historically poor at developing them. There's no real weak area within his goalkeeping abilities and he's got a decent frame to build it on, too. I feel like Junior may be known as 'JBK' if he ever makes the first team but the young dual-Congolese national is a little fox in the box: agile and nimble as well as being quick off the mark. I'll need to develop his intelligence and mentality but there is promise in there. The second persson on this list is Collins, a half-Kenyan midfielder who, solely down to the fact they share a nationality, reminds me a little of VIctor Wanyama. He can run all day and, if I can channel that into progressive carries, he's not weak offensively or defensively. I'll need to have a little look at his fickle personality but, again, there is a player in there somewhere. After a good look at the squad, I set about naming a provisional first team for the Famalicao game. This isn't necessarily my strongest team nor the permanent first choice, but players who I've decided are good enough. As you can see, the hidden attributes are on show and we are lacking players who are really great under pressure but, at least, only have one player with questionable traits, and that is keeper Macagno's temperament. I'll need to look at how I talk to him and will need to get him on side as soon as possible so that I am able to have those tough conversations with him, should his performances not be up to standard. As I learn more and more about the players and the first team squad, I will start to look at ways in which I can mitigate areas of weakness - either personality driven or attribute driven - but, first, I need to navigate two European ties... --- Full match reports can be found by clicking on each thumbnail. Two wins from two against some decent European sides is a great introduction to the club and means we've qualified for, at minimum, the playoff into the knockout round.Conscious of our attacking issues last year and, given that Sundsvall's average possession sat joint highest - with a team that really does not having the passing quality that other teams have - meant that I felt we'd have even more of the ball and, potentially, be even less clinical going forward. This was made even more of a difficult thing to work around in these first two games, so quickly into my reign and without any kind of time to work a new system, simply because of the tactics used before my tenure started. For the previous twenty games, Jimmy Thelin lined up with a 442; sure, it wasn't a 442 with the ball as he too utilised an inverted full back and an aggressive player - mind, he was wider and I'll do that centrally - and we just don't do that. As you can see, I tinkered a little in the two games, moving between a 4231 and 433 with even a hint of a 4141 in the dying minutes against Dinamo so I must concede that familiarity isn't where I wanted it to be. Nevertheless, a header from Riasco and then two nicely worked goals from the midfield duo gave us two wins. As I alluded to, my worry is the passiveness in defence and how we don't get the ball forward. I've never been a 'possession for possession sake' manager but, by using a 3-2 build up, we almost always have spare players at the back and are finding ourselves more and more passing it between us. Against Famalicao, 63% of all completed passes came from our back five, as you can see below. For context, I'm looking at forward passes from the match engine rather than progressive passes but I'm delighted with how often Mbacke played it forward, although feel that a BPD(d) still acts as a ball magnet and, as such, could be changed to avoid reliance on finding him. To try and put the emphasis on a ball magnet further forward, Baidoo moved to be an RPM(s) but the biggest changes I made were to remove Dribble More. I've watched and watched and watched and I genuinely now think that these dribbles are becoming a little more forced than they need to be, and, as we're not actually that good at them, we're often losing the ball and recovering it in the defence, adding more passes to those numbers. Also, the addition of Focus Play Through The Middle was intended to bring the ball to those midfielders with Play out of Defence another instruction intended to increase passing numbers in a shape that still heavily relies on dribbling-focused roles. The changes against Zagreb were promising. 66% of the ball feels too much and too safe, if I'm honest but those increase in passes also came further too, with the exception of Okkels, who had a torrid game (of which I'll try and dig into). The biggest change, despite the intended removal of Play out of Defence in future, was the huge increase in the amount that Soderberg got on the ball. It's clear that I need to get the ball to the progressive midfielders more and more and then, rather than just dribbling and - often - losing it, watching them progress the ball with passes. Both goals came from through balls in which the two midfielders got on the end of - with surely a link to their increased mentality that comes with the central play instruction. We're down three percent in terms of cumulative passes for defenders, which I'll look to decrease further and hope that Play out of Defence does that. --- So, two games, two thousand five hundred words! I write all of this in a Word Document before I post and I've surpassed the thirty-thousand work mark inside five seasons, which, for those who don't like reading, is insane! I feel like this one could stick: I know the team, I know what I want to achieve on and off the pitch. I spent a year or so more than I expected at Sundsvall but, should this go well, it could be my ticket to the bigger leagues, with my eyes on the end goal of the Bundesliga!

Yeah - true. I think this one has landed though! Little things like using custom faces for my most promising youngsters means I can click through, see the kind of image below, and be like 'yeah - I need to check in on his progress' etc. For me - the place that I lose it is when I decide that I must utilise the transfer market and that scouring comes for any players and that happens before I've even analysed my own squad. I have found myself going down rabbit holes looking for the next big bargain when, realistically, I already have two or three players in that area. I'm through ten days at Elfsborg now and have remodeled the backroom staff, set up the training calendar, added all of the individual training work, tweaked the tactic that I've brought over from Sundsvall and prepped for our first game - which is a Europa League tie, despite the domestic league already being finished. I have, as of now, not even entered the player search area. That - for me - is a really big thing as I'm going to deeply analyse what I have here before adding to the squad and that feels like a realistic and not 'game breaking' entry to a club for me.

Thanks all! I was sceptical about it - at first - but I have grown to agree with my decision, particularly after they failed to win the league. It feels like there is a bit more scope for developmental stuff now that this is the case, although the board have expressed their desire for a top two finish next year. What I'm most impressed at though is the infrastructure - everything is just better. Our youth prospects are better for their age with higher ceilings and our backups are, more than likely, better than the starters at Sundsvall. I'm in the process of putting together a backroom team that is also really strong and will allow me to make the most of player development. It's always exciting (now that I've incorporated it into how I play) to move clubs as you have the 'starting again' feeling: training, mentoring, tactical ideas and then even the graphical stuff like newgen faces and kits.

The season has come to an end here in Sundsvall and we have achieved something that has never been done before in the club's history. We have equalled our best ever finish, joint with the 1988 season and, with the Svenska Cup final to be held next summer, may even have secured a route into European football. Yet, once again, the league table and the round of fixtures doesn't feel too inspiring: Five wins from ten is on a par with what we've achieved across the year but, again, goalscoring haunts us. To end the season with just over a goal per game and an xG underperformance of over seven goals is only kind of ok by the fact we've had, by far, the best defence in the league, conceding at a goal every other game and overperforming our xGa by a mammoth fourteen goals. We endured a bit of a tricky run against Hacken, then above us, and Norrkoping, who completely bottled the title at the last and, including our loss at home to Goteborg too, suggest we cannot yet quite mix it with the big boys. Malmo, in this equation do not count - we've won all four games against them in my two years in the to flight and we also overcame huge underperformers Djurgardens. The issue comes, and has been aware in pretty much every game other than the Varnamo tie, when we just don't kill the game off. Creating an average xG of just 1.53 with 72 chances (2.4 per game - 14th in the league) means that we need to ensure that, when playing like this, each and every shot goes in. Our 9% conversion rate puts us dead last in the league, some eight percent below joint-top scorers Sirius, who lead the way on this metric. Second in dribbles per game and fifth in cross completion would suggest that we are doing the build up right, but sixty-three box passes per game, tenth best in the league, still suggests that the final ball and final moments aren't quite right. In terms of players, the first team put in some decent showings, but my best performers were Palsson and Johansson, below: The former is my standout winger but he, himself, has found goals hard to come by - netting once this year, some six less than last time out. I changed the role from IW(a) to W(a) after the Nilsson signing, looking to utilise his aerial threat but, realistically, I should've favoured Palsson strengths, which lie in his ball carrying and not his delivery. The surprise man on the list is seventeen year old Johansson, who I hadn't even considered to have played over half of the minutes available to him. As the youngest player in the setup, I've been delighted to see how he's linked with Ilaix Moriba, Yaya Kader Fofana and Ludvig Navik, becoming one of the most valuable outfield players. Five goals and an assist actually put him as my second top scorer, a real signal of these offensive woes but one which builds a huge foundation for him to work from. Sadly, the youth intake this year doesn't appear to be able to create more of these graduates who can slot into my first team soon. But... I signed the contract and my time at GIF will come to an end in a matter of days. My time here concludes with fifty-seven wins and forty-one draws from my 117 games, scoring 196 times and conceding 85. In that time, I've reshaped the club, creating a brand new style for the level we were at, winning the Superettan in my first full season and then recording two top half top flight finishes in the two seasons that followed. At the club, I've been able to bring through youngsters from the academy: Palsson, Aberg, Rosenborg, Begovic, Svensson, Johansson and a number of now-released youngsters have made their senior bows under my tenure; one of my core principles as a manager. Furthermore, I've recruited well - yes there have been almighty flops but Yaya Kader Fofana, Manasse Kusu and Marko Johansson are all quality players, plus, I've managed to convince Ilaix Moriba and Emil Forsberg, two heavyweights of the European game, to spend time at the club. With over €4m in the bank, we're now considerably more financially stable and have a strong backroom team that the next manager can look to build upon. Realistically, our glass ceiling had been hit and there was no way that I'd be able to smash through it in the next couple of years. Any further success at Sundsvall would still have been classed as a giant-killing. But now, now that I have a foothold in Swedish football, I - Torbjorn - must push on in search of league titles and European success. To do that, I need to be here:

The transfer window: As we entered the summer window, I was conscious that we had several areas that I really needed to work on, and work on immediately. However, money struggles meant that I would have to sell before being able to increase my scouting package, let alone sign new players. However, my prayers were answered when – after identifying one of Bah or Carstrom to be my most sellable asset and utilising an intermediary – I saw that there was Saudi interest in my wingers. I rejected the immediate offers and offered Saidou out, to which Al-Fateh’s bid met my expectations. A huge deal for a man who came in on a free and really hasn’t impressed as I had intended. Just a few days later, Newcastle came in for Lofberg and, at four times our previous record, I couldn’t say no. Again, a lad who came in on a free and, whilst he has led the line, hasn’t quite been the player I wanted – plus, he returns on loan for the remainder of the season. €4.4m for a club of our stature is absolutely groundbreaking: improvements to structures across the entirety of the club as well as improvements on the pitch can happen and we are now predicted to be over €2.5m in the black at the end of this season, before any performance related income is factored in. With that in mind, my first intention was to improve our scouting package from our current knowledge of just Sweden to something more extensive. However, before I did that, I wanted to develop the scouting team and claim as many free bits of knowledge as I could – through staff knowledge. Under Cedergren, a man who can motivate other staff, we have a full knowledge of Scandinavian countries, which is probably a given for anyone with these nationalities. He’s quite vanilla with what he does but leads the team for me. As time progresses, I will look to employ a chief scout who can specialise in those final reports - whereby I fully trust his judgement to make the final call after those who work beneath him have uncovered him. My process is laborious at the best of times with an insistence for me to actually take in as many minutes of a player's performance as I can during the recruitment phase but he will be needed to see the things that I can't see - namely the potential ability of the player and whether what I see is just a flash in the pan or is a consistent determiner of their current ability. Ethiopian Tuji brings us widespread knowledge of Eastern Africa. Not exactly a hotbed of talent but there are the likes of Ghana, Nigeria and Ivory Coast which he has, at least, good knowledge of. His attributes are quite similar to what the other three have – and are more here for their identification rather than true judgements. Zamble, a player who has spent his career between Africa and Norway brings me more knowledge of Western Africa, with places such as Burkina Faso and Togo on his list. Blaise has spent his entire career in Sweden but, given his US citizenship, comes with a huge knowledge bank of strong nations such as Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Costa Rica; all three of these nations way overperform with youngsters given their overall quality within the game. Lastly, Marcus Bring comes with a little bit of central European knowledge. Not a priority right now, if I’m honest, but the best of the remaining bunch from my ongoing applicant search. With any further increases to staff sizes, I’ll look to recruit someone with knowledge of Eastern Europe and this, along with the other identified nations, provides us with cheap, young quality who see Sweden as a stepping stone and who we see as an opportunity for financial gain. As my scouting team grows, I will continue to place adverts that allow me to bring through realistic applicants - i.e. these are all players who have played in the country and speak the language - and gain that free knowledge, eventually, hopefully, leading me to create strong working relationships with teams in these countries, cherry picking promising youngsters and having a core of, for example, Kosovan, Ivorian and Burkinabe players alongside my Swedes, who have either been developed at the club or procured based on their statistical outputs. Yet, even with that long term thinking in place - my recruitment still came very close to home. These projects will take time and I don't feel that I'll be truly in a position to raid these low cost players for another twelve months or so. In the meantime, shortlists will be created with those players they do find so that I have a database ready for when I analyse and look at areas where we need to grow and develop. Gustaf is a signing who really intrigues me because he is just so different from what we've had before. Fresh from a spell at USG in Belgium, he's scored quite prolifically, at nearly one in three games and put up some good stats last season - particularly in front of goal. Before that, he's played in the 3.Liga in Germany - slightly lower than the level I'd like to pick up talent from but that move did come from the Danish top tier, where his performances had been rewarded with a national team call up. He is a typical target man - 6'6" tall, good in the air and powerful with his shot. However, for this level, he's pretty mobile too and has good technique on the ball. He's not the forever forward but is so different from Lofberg that it'll be a really nice experiment in terms of seeing what he brings to the style of play we have. Another player joining on a free following a spell in Belgium is Tolinsson, a centre back I've been tracking for some time. He moved from Goteborg to Belgium for €2.5m so obviously has some quality, even if he's found his time there quite tough. In both 2023 and 2024, he spent time back on loan in this league at Norrkoping, where he did much better of the course of twenty five games. He was a mainstay in the Lommel team that finished sixth last year in the Belgian league - which may indicate the relative low amount of defending he's done. Sitting at just under 70% for both tackling and heading outputs, it scores lowly on the overall comparison but sits just below the league average here in Sweden from last year. Combine that with a nice report whilst on trial and he feels like the perfect choice as a Fringe Player - sitting behind Haliti, Rapp and Frej in the pecking order with Deen Haruna now fighting for a permanent deal to stay here. Originally a trialist, I was already shocked enough when Ilaix would even talk to us following his agent, Jesus Toribio, reaching out to the club. For him to then accept the contract and become a fully fledged member of my project here is beyond belief. I am conscious that his wage sits at €1.7k p/w higher than anyone else and that this could quite easily lead to an influx of requests but, given the income already across July, this becomes more feasible and forms part of the bigger picture here. Despite all my excitement, however, this is not the Ilaix of the real world. I've seen this lad go on to achieve world domination in the heart of the elite midfields but, this time around, for whatever reason, he's accrued just sixteen appearances at Leipzig, with only one as a starter. After nearly a year unemployed, following the ending of what must have been a lucrative contract, it appears he has been desperate to get back into the game and agreed a move which, given the €1.6m release clause inserted by his agent, will surely be a short term affair. However, within that deal, I've got myself a dynamic, box to box player who is definitely good enough for this level and, judging by the potential he has been known to have, one who could really improve quickly once he's playing first team football. I envisage that, in the short term, he'll provide competition with Yaya Fofana, both of whom share a striking footballing resemblance to Yaya Toure, which I detailed previously, before taking the reigns and, almost inevitably, attracting interest from more suitable places. --- The league: We are, to put it bluntly, not the most exciting of teams at the moment. Worryingly, we have only scored more than once in a match on three occasions this season. Granted, our defensive form is great - just four conceded in this block of ten games and we've not conceded more than once all season: a meteoric rise from the instability we had at times last season. Our position is solid and I really fancy us to improve on the eighth place finish that we recorded last year. Whilst we have seen drastic improvements in the quality of player we have: Moriba, Forsberg, Nilsson, Palsson, Fofana and Navik are all strong for this level - I still feel that there are tweaks to be made to our setup. We are scoring below our expected goals and still rank within the bottom four with our 9% conversion rate. These, for me, are short term things that will ebb and flow and, one day, we'll hit that purple patch. However, that purple patch is impacted by our overall chances created metric, which sits well in the bottom half. Until we can create at an above average rate, we're never going to be breaking scoring records. The last ten games of the season will see this being a deeper focus for me. --- At the end of the day though, FM sometimes likes to throw curveballs at you... Aston Villa jumped to appoint Copenhagen's manager, which prompted them into poaching Jimmy Thelin, the then Elfsborg manager. This is an opportunity to interview for a team who, should they win both games in hand, be top of the league, reigning Champions and, at the time of writing, one leg away from featuring in the Champions League group stage. My plan has never been to stay in Sweden, especially at Sundsvall, for a long time but I've kind of fallen in love with my team. However, I am acutely aware that there is a glass ceiling that we are pretty much at; regardless of the €4.4m we've just brought in, poor facilities and a really small fanbase will mean that, for the years to come, we'll always be punching above our weight to achieve what we are doing now. I have, however, built so much and enjoy this building phase immensely. Yet, Elfsborg are a big side at this level - albeit with only one title in the last fourteen years. Whilst their infrastructure is significantly better, that comes with the added pressure - no longer will I be able to be as experimental in my methods or replace seasoned pros with untested youngsters - success will have to be ingrained and start immediately. Would I have that time to get to know everyone, build scouting networks, bring in some of my own players and still be in a job if things don't go to plan or, conversely, would I find joy if things go too well and we walk the league with a squad that I've not touched? Then comes the next issue. Should I get this - do I want to taste Champions League football now and, somewhat undeservedly, take over a team with about ten games to go and, maybe, win the league. Or, do I take the job at the end of the season and run the risk that their interim boss may not do a great job and they may, actually, miss out on Europe all together. Part of me sees the name Elfsborg and, as I'm playing this on Christmas day, just hours after the household Elf has returned, feel like this is somewhere close to fate...

Thanks mate! I am absolutely loving it. Each year, I've been able to find something new to dig into and, with the development of my own skin - built to my specifications - I've been able to share that over the past three years in better and better ways. My time at GIF has been remarkable - mainly because I had intended on a short stay to kick start my career before moving to what I'd assume would've been greener pastures. However, I'm nearing three years at the helm and love the club from top to bottom. There are, of course, things that need to be developed but we have built a brand new style of football and, as is always my mantra and goal, improved a lot of players we had at the club. I think you've got a fair point here Shrew. My demand for utility backup players has probably caught me out a little. The chart below show our attributes that, in my eyes, are vital for seeing out late pressure and the box indicates whether it is above the league average or not, with the three players circled being the most commonly used late-game subs - as Pichkah is a 'safer' option in the DM role and Kalley and Ceesay are attacking full backs, but, by nature, are defensive wide men if needed. You can see that all three struggle there. However, possibly more importantly at this point is that Kalley and Ceesay are new to the club so haven't got the tactical familiarity of Pichkah either and, as you say, they probably aren't quite of the desired quality overall. That being said - the teams are stronger than us and I'm not entirely sure my tactical changes are the most appropriate because it removes an outball and, essentially, any threat of a counter. But that's to delve into further as time goes on...

One start in three years and not kicked a football since his Leipzig contract ended nearly a year ago! For the narrative, I'd love to say that Emile Forsberg - also ex-Leipzig - encouraged him. He won't be around for long but it's still a massive coup!