[FM18] Finns Can Only Get Better

[deltablue]

On 08/01/2018 at 10:54, Dexter_Morgan said:

Good work on promotion  Good to see you get through the group in the cup, hopefully a few games against top flight clubs will give an indication of how good you'll be in the league

Well, we were usually no match for top division clubs (with some painful defeats away from home) in previous cup games. Jaro was the exception but a) they had only just come up with us and b) the scoreline made us look a lot better than we were. Thankfully as you are about to see the actual season went quite a bit better

[deltablue]

May 2020

I knew we were capable of being much better than we were showing in the First Division, to the point that we're doing a lot better already in the Premier League! The defence has been upgraded quite a bit but aside from regular appearances by Oksanen this is much the same team as last season, hitting their stride in a way I wouldn't expect, especially not one with a 17-yr old keeper. Well ok, he's just turned 18. We've even enjoyed two big wins over local rivals Inter.

The strange thing is, it could be even better. Two penalties led us to lose the opening game, while another two cost us what would have been a great win over Mariehamn (who have reached the Europa League group stage for the last two years). Then came the idiocy that was going into full defensive/player resting mode too early in the second half against KuPS (bearing in mind using subs, especially with a few player already missing, involves throwing on youngsters) which I knew would backfire as I was doing it. We were even ahead at HJK (our only defeat since the opening day) but that was very much against the run of play and I can't complain about their turning it around. Still, even holding on to a draw would see us top now!

Early on we were helped by Jaro (who are really not having a good time and look doomed already) and Lahti (who did improve enough to be part of a pack fighting to avoid the playoff place) losing their opening 3 matches then drawing with each other in the 4th, already easing off the relegation-battling pressure with a handful of early points. We have already easily beaten Ekenas' total when they got relegated last season and aren't far off what VPS got for the whole season either. I'm not sure I have to worry about relegation

The cup didn't help what seemed to be an unpromising start, as it took penalties (8 rounds in total) to finally see of a VPS side who should have been beaten a lot more comfortably than that. We needed to score every time (the last one from Pasanen from all people, who isn't very good at penalties even by the standard of the team but is still better than some of the outfielders, including a few playing in this match) before they missed. Ilves was a good draw in the quarter-final won by an incredible Lahti volley setting us up to face HJK at home in the semis, which will be massive.

At the time the draw was made I was thinking 'tough but since we're at home we might have a chance', and I'm feeling a bit more optimistic about it now. I thought it was too early to compete with the stronger teams, and even if we do make it, SJK and KuPS won't be easy opponents but there is now a sense of 'maybe we can do it after all'. I was already wondering if we could get a top-half finish but there's definitely a chance of European qualification (though you can't do it as cup runner-up in Finland, even if the winner qualifies for the CL like the rule is in a lot of other countries), one way or the other.

[deltablue]

Euro 2020

Finland very nearly made this one after all. The frustrating thing about having International League related playoffs for a few Euro spots is that it's hard to tell whether a country can still qualify or not, especially since having played the International League you then have to wait for the qualifiers to even find out who will be in the playoffs, as that probably messes up the idea of all the group winners from each division taking part.

While I appreciate that it helps a couple of smaller nations join the party (and I'm all for that sort of thing), it does leave the fate of those nations frustatingly up in the air. In this case, Finland unsurprisingly finished second in their International League group 2 years ago to Norway, except the Norwegians went on to qualify by more conventional means, so the playoff spot from that group went to Finland, who otherwise looked to have missed out. They beat Bulgaria on penalties before losing to Hungary the same way. Close but no cigar.

Onto the tournament itself, there were two main shocks. The first was holders Portugal finishing bottom of their group, easily won by Austria but with the other three drawing against each other. The second involved reigning world champions England managing to overcome Croatia (the beaten finalists in Russia) again in the group but then falling to Serbia. The Dutch seemed to have revived, completing a strong semi-final line-up with no real surprises, with the French easily getting the better of the Germans in the final. Their only blip being needing penalties to beat Sweden in the last 16. Finland have the Swedes in their International League group this year, along with Scotland and Moldova. Ouch.

[deltablue]

Askar departure

 

I knew I'd have to let players go to bigger leagues to help them develop (this career being at least as much about the fortunes about the national team as it is a one-club project) but I didn't expect it to happen so soon, nor one of the very top leagues (since when do Premier League clubs buy fringe 17-yr olds from Finland?), and certainly not Askar, a player whose appearances so far had been limited and average at best. He had already caused a lot of drama by wanting first team football. Annoyingly there didn't seem to be the option to say 'you're not in my plans at the moment but you'll get plenty of opportunities next year', especially as you can say that in FM13, and that's precisely what I was planning, releasing Virtanen to make way. I know 'x has been playing far too well' worked all the time in FM16 but here it doesn't seem to at all, even when arguably true so that blew up.

The first team to show an interest was... Norwich. Thankfully followed by Watford and Newcastle, along with Brugges and Gent in Belgium. I rejected bids for a while (since he already hated me anyway so it couldn't get much worse) before accepting the one from Newcastle, and even though the others followed up with far bigger fees (375k) all in one go rather than the smaller structured deal, I liked the idea of gambling on the 40% profit clause and the potentially big returns that could bring.

It will be interesting following his progress, and that of others who will no doubt soon follow to bigger leagues since even with the fact that he'll have to do well to become a Premier League first-teamer (and will probably be on loan a lot), he can still become much better than he would have here as well as the fact that it's beyond my control now. This is one of the things I was looking forward to doing in this save and now I'm getting my opportinity.

[deltablue]

Youth Intake 2020

In the previous couple of years I had been guilty of getting excited over a mass of high-potential youngers in both intakes, flooding the squad with them all when in reality only a standout couple or so really had a chance to get a look in. Pasanen (with up to a few others that have already dropped far down the pecking order) from 2018, Askar (at least that was the plan) along with Sanevuori and Malek (in the longer term anyway) from 2019, so having already decided to narrow my focus considerably I was delighted to have a single potentially exceptional player this time, especially as I was able to put him straight on the bench as a short term backup to Valakari and a genuine rival (maybe even a replacement) for him in the longer-term. If I get one player like this who I can think 'yep, I know what I can do with him' most years that'll do me nicely.

 

[deltablue]

Aug 2020

OK, back to the business at hand. After yesterday I was wondering if we could potentially snatch a shock title victory but that was very quickly out of our hands and HJK look like retaining their title in dominant fashion. We still looked good enough for a while to have a decent safety margin with the European places but soon that all went wrong. Jarvinen (and Askar, but he wasn't as much of a loss) went to the European U19 Championship for a few weeks. The Finland U19 team had already won a qualification group with their Spanish and Czech counterparts (and Welsh) and were only knocked out in the semi-final on penalties against the Germans (having drawn against the Dutch in the group, missing out on top by goal difference). A promising showing at youth level at least.

Anyway while last season (and in the earlier stages of this one) I often had to call upon Sjoroos to show the probie how it was done, he now proved incapable of replacing the absent 18yr old (who was also off-form when he returned), with Malek (the other forward in the squad) shaking off a bad injury and too unfit to act as an alternative, leaving me stuck with a seriously underperforming Sjoroos and Kastrati, though the whole team seemed to have lost their edge. That led to 4 defeats (more than doubling our total for the season in 5 matches but we did at least managed to make it 3 out of 3 against rivals Inter (despite going down to 10 men after 35 minutes) as the exception.

Things did not look good for the FA Cup semi against HJK but we started brightly enough that I briefly forgot who we were playing. Jarvinen gave us an early edge but they turned the heat up after the break. Disaster struck when Kastrati went off injured (and would be missing for almost a month, though thankfully we now have a 3-week gap in the league) and even then we only lost to a soft injury time own-goal. It was still a good effort (we still might have snatched a winner ourselves) and a good run.

Jarvinen had already returned to a bit of goalscoring form to beat HIFK but defeat to Mariehamn left us adrift in the top 3 struggle. Thankfully the top 2 are playing in the cup final so 4th should be enough and we have a 5-point lead (along with a goal difference advantage of 10) over Kemi and Honka with that many games left. However it looks fragile in our current form and we only have a single home game left. We do play 3 of the bottom 4 next and we'll need to make the most of those with the final two matches at KuPS! It obviously wouldn't be the end of the world to miss out on Europe just after promotion just as it isn't to fail to make the cup final but it would still be nice to achieve something from what will already be considered a very good season.

 

[raz4la]

Interesting choice of league!

[deltablue]

On 14/01/2018 at 09:45, raz4la said:

Interesting choice of league!

I think so too

[deltablue]

Oct 2020

]

Well we managed it, though not convincingly. We needed to take advantage of the first three games of the final 5 and got off to a bad start at Lahti. We could hardly fail at Jaro to get us back on track but after going behind at home to RoPS only managed a draw. As it happen it was still enough to give us a 5-point advantage over SJK but it was frustrating knowing a win would have sealed it. I wasn't sure it would be enough as we went to the top two while they faced the bottom two sides.

We somehow managed to grab a draw at title holders and champions-elect HJK, though with a few chances that would have snatched it ourselves, which looked enough to secure 4th with our clearly superior goal difference. Despite leading for a bit at KuPS I was still happy to come away with a point again while SJK could only draw at Jaro. However we only won 3 of our last 14 matches in the league and while we managed to sprinkle a few more draws in there near the end, we were reliant on being so strong in the first half or so of the season.

This close-season sees improvements to the youth and training facilities (at the cost of pretty much all the money we had in the bank, over £2M), though having gambled on trying to get in a better Ass Man, DoF and HOYD I didn't end up with much of an upgrade. I haven't been able to convince the board to agree to greater youth recruitment yet (though I'm so glad human managers can finally do that) but hopefully that will come at some point.

Star Player:  Perhaps I should have done what I did 2 years ago and made it Valakari instead of Kastrati on the grounds of consistency. The latter was actually the league's top scorer around the half-way point but in the end his goal on the final day was his only one after June! However aside from being top scorer, he also did a decent job on the assists as well so it would have been mean not to give it to him again. He now counts as properly Finnish but seems to have lost his youth caps on his profile (though those were for Finland up to U21 level, not Kosovo).

Squad Stats

[deltablue]

Finland Update 2020

World Ranking: 75th (down 15)

As mentioned before, Finland were in the Euro playoffs, beating Bulgaria (though benefitting from a last minute own-goal equalizer) and falling at the final hurdle to Hungary. There weren't really any big surprises in the International League as they beat Moldova twice, lost to Sweden twice, with a mix of a win and a loss against Scotland. Next year's World Cup Qualifying group won't be fun, with Italy, Austria (ranked 14th at the time the draw was made), Ukraine and Armenia. Ylatupa (the Ajax youngster from 2 years ago, now playing for Gent) is the first young player to make it in the senior squad in this save but he's decent at best. Having seen a lot of young talent already thet need a few of those to come good before too long.

Ones to Watch

I actually tried to sign Ali last year, but he was one of a bunch of players who wanted to see European qualification in a few years (though that wouldn't seem like as much of a dangerous gamble now). I avoided potentialy setting myself up for a lot of trouble further down the line though for some reason made an exception in his case. Unsurprisingly he still chose HJK instead but hopefully it won't be too long before signing the standout Finnish youngsters becomes realistic. As it happens with Sauso (already in the U19's) I got a player in the youth intake to potentially fill the role I wanted him for anyway.

[deltablue]

Goodbye Jarvinen?

At the end of the season Jarvinen declared his interest in wanting to move to a bigger club, though surprisingly there had been no interest up to that point. We had agreed an accepted price for him to leave (400k) but he didn't make a fuss when I rejected Brentford's previous offer. With 2 years left on his contract time is still on my side so if I do decide to keep him a little longer (especially as once he's unhappy it can't get much worse), especially as the Championship wasn't what I had in mind when it came to accepting I'd have to let players go. As it happens their manager is none other than Ryan Giggs.

He hasn't actually been anything special for us. He managed to hit goalscoring form when we played well (and still managed better than Kastrati when we started struggling) but was still outscored by his partner despite the latter only having half a good season. It was just as well Sjoroos failed to step in effectively or he'd have ended the season watching from the bench like when we got promoted. I already signed another young forward but in the short-term he's meant to compliment Jarvinen, not replace him immediately.

I'm tempted to bide my time on this one especially as depending on how well Malek develops we're not ready to lose him yet. If he continues to develop well (and we will have improved training facilities in the spring) he could have a much better destination in the summer (like Askar is about to enjoy with Newcastle). Giving these players the right move at the right time is crucial both for player and club. I'm still going to sleep on it and potentially see if anyone has any thoughts.

I'm not so bothered about the inital fee, but if we get a few more sales with big profit clauses (the Askar deal has a 40% clause as well) in the next couple of years that's a heck of a potential windfall we're setting up.

[deltablue]

Winter 2021

I decided to reject the offer for Jarvinen, which also allowed me to let Sjoroos go when he realized his time at the club was up without leaving us short on forwards in the squad. Another bid might gave forced my hand but none more came before the end of January. He will probably go in the summer, the end of the season at the latest but the time just didn't seem right yet. Holmqvist had already been signed in preparation and started his TPS career off in style, so maybe Jarvinen won't be such a big loss after all when the time comes.

I waited until the gap before the final cup group game to move again, signing the defender Mero from relegated Jaro, later raiding them for Andersson as well to provide a decent second choice left-back. He arrived about the same time as Nurmela, yet another defender from a relegated club (like Lahti and Voultilainen from VPS last year, which worked out well) but this time it was RoPS. His more natural roles are actually as a defensive midfielder but he's content to be a backup so he should serve to help our depth.

Signings

[deltablue]

Cup 2021

The draw was relatively kind to us, with just a single Premier Division opponent who we faced at home, though we also had to go to RoPS (just relegated) and Ekenas (who missed out on the playoff on goal difference. I was a little worried about facing Kemi (who had proved troublesome in the past) with a couple of selection issues in defence but Karjaleinen (the main beneficiary) proved to be the first of a few young players to grab their chance to shine, though he was still weak in CA terms so the final group game saw him dropped again to assemble my first choice defence.

The second emerging star arrived at half-time. Jarvinen was unsurprisingly off-form (though that was nothing new even before he wanted out so on came Holmqvist... who grabbed the first of 5 goals (and a couple of assists) in as many matches. Kastrati certainly seemed to enjoy his new partner, grabbing 11 goals (and 3 assists) in that time! For comparision, the promotion season is the only time he's hit 20 in all competitions with us, and he's already half-way to breaking that.

The third was Kallio. He was bumped up to Virtanen's backup and probable successor after Askar left, having taken quite a bit of time to be trained as a right-winger. Even though we were easily beating RoPS in the second match, Virtanen wasn't really impressing and like Holmqvist, Kallio earned the right to stay there for now with 4 assists in 3 matches, then scored to give us the lead as we went on to thrash Ekenas (after going behind) to seal the group, though after 4 big wins we only needed a draw to do so.

It may not have been the toughest draw in the world but we'd still did a lot better than we managed against similar (or even the same) opponents in the past, and it was hard not to impressed by how easily we crushed the others, ending up with a 100% record and a goal difference of 18 over just 5 matches. Kastrati's second goal against RoPS was especially impressive, as a defender made a very long and high clearance, Karjaleinen waited a few bounces to return with a similarly high ball and Kastrati (bang in the middle of the penalty area, pretty much) stretched high to volley in.

It's going to be tough to beat last season's 4th place, even with such a promising pre-season (as I consider it even with the cup providing competitive action) pointing to good times ahead, especially with some strong performances from a few younger players. Winning the group put us straight into the quarter finals and with half the Premier League teams already eliminated from the group stage (though it's impossible for us all to qualify) we faced VPS. Just as we did in the second round last year. And promotion playoffs just 4 months or so earlier. We really must stop meeting them like this, even if it gives us a good chance of another semi-final appearance at least.

[deltablue]

Taking a trip both back and forwards in time

OK so I've decided to do a little casual play of the FM13 save again (it'll always be my 'desert island' career, even if it's been parked for the time being) because I had been looking at Finland for the past season or two and noted TPS seemed to be doing very well. I decided to take a bit more of a look about how things had panned out on that save...

Having seen them win by 10 points a couple of years ago, they haven't been as dominant as I had believed but they're not doing too badly. Between them and Inter, Turku has really become the footballing capital, which is fitting as since I mentioned in the OP, it's the country's historical capital. HJK can only keep watching from 3rd place. It's interesting looking it up on that save having become a lot more familiar with the clubs on this one. Oh and look who I found...

He's Albanian on this one, probably due to being from before Kosovo became a footballing nation. It seems like a disappointingly average career given how well my version is doing, though it would be interesting to see what his playing attributes were like.

[Sheriff7]

It seems Inter Turku took HJK place in league....

[deltablue]

On 21/01/2018 at 15:46, Sheriff7 said:

It seems Inter Turku took HJK place in league....

Not completely

[deltablue]

May 2021

Aside from the disapppointing cup exit to VPS (making it 2-2) we continued to look very bright indeed, with 4 wins and 2 draws from the first 2 matches. Unfortunately both Holmqvist and Jarvinen were called up to play in the U20 World Cup, during the time of the season where we play 2 matches each week. At just 17, Malek was never going to be the most reliable replacement in that position but that didn't explain the collapse in form that followed. We were establishing a strong defensive quintent that fell apart (admittedly disrupted by suspension for the hammering by HIFK) and we were just being completely outclassed.

A shock comeback to beat Lahti suggested that it might not be as bad as I feared but it didn't help that Kastrati went off injured in the defeat to then bottom JJK. Holding both Inter and HJK to away draws (the latter after a surprise equalizer given they outshot us 24 to 5!) managed to restore a bit of pride but by themselves aren't enough to turn things around. I was surprised that we somehow remained 4th with a game in hand until Mariehamn played another extra game to overtake us right at the end of the month. Runaway leaders SJK are next and that won't be fun but we will have our forwards back and maybe Kastrati potentially fit again thanks to a bit of a break.

On the international side of things, the Finnish U20's lost 1-0 to both Iran and Algeria with Holmqvist coming on for Jarvinen both times, the reverse of their current club situation. Jarvinen then got a brace in a 4-0 hammering of Papua New Guinea (meaning Holmqvist came on for the other forward in that one) which was enough to put them through as one of the 3rd placed teams and they face... Mexico. A Mexico U20 team who topped a group with Cameroon, Brazil and France despite being mostly made up of 17 and 18yr olds and with a star forward already worth 2.4M...

I look forward to seeing how good he becomes.

On a bit of a rambling point, it's interesting to see SI capture the ethnic mixes of nations now (particularly with refugee communities), which I think is a recent development. With Kastrati being a real life example of a Finnish-Kosovan, there was another in the youth intake I lost in 2019, along with a player of Somali origins, just like Askar who was in the replacement intake. Malek as someone of Iranian descent isn't too strange either. In the case of Holmqvist his Aland roots are clear in his Swedish name and the fact that he's listed as being fluent in the language, though he hasn't got it as a second nationality.

Askar Update

I'm going to make this a regular thing at this point of the season with young players who have moved on to bigger leagues. Askar is the only example so far and as expected he's not featured for the Newcastle first team, and might struggle to ever do so leaving him probably on loan quite a lot and taking a step down somewhere after a while. He is also in the Finnish U20 World Cup team, though has only played in one match.

[deltablue]

Aug 2021

Having our forwards back made a real difference, especially with Jarvinen stepping out of Holmqvist's shadow to form an interchangable trio with Kastrati and getting an opportunity to shine for the first time in a while. He became the first player of mine to get a senior Finland call-up for the September internationals. It didn't take long to get back up into 3rd at least and despite a minor blip before the European games started, a run of 6 wins in a row (including over HJK and rivals Inter, who I still haven't lost to yet) put us in a strong 2nd. Hopefully the Mariehamn defeat hasn't knocked us back too much and with just a handful of matches left we're probably still favourites to claim that position or 3rd at least,  giving us a return trip to Europe.

Djurgardens wasn't the easiest draw, or the most exotic, the two clubs only being about 166 miles apart. Holmqvist gave us an early lead though for most of the match it looked like we'd do well to hold on to it, so it was a relief to get a late second. It didn't take too long to for them to get a goal back in Sweden but we'd already  been narrowly denied by their keeper a couple of times and with an equalizer potentially killing the tie (as they'd then have to reach 4 goals on the night) we finally got the goal we felt we deserved.

I knew Slavia would be too strong for us (though oddly the draw was pushed back until the day the first leg was supposed to be played, turning it into a weekend match) and we did well to get a 2-2 draw at home after going behind, especially as they had a late penalty which Pasanen saved. We looked to be holding them to a narrow 1-0 defeat in Prague but as is often the way in these situations our resistance crumbled late on and they got a few more. It could have been even worse as Pasanen had another late penalty save to make. I was rather jealous of HJK's run to the group stage as though they dropped down from the CL qualifiers, their two Europa League opponents in the 3rd and 4th rounds were Coleraine and Qarabag. While there probably is a seeding difference, it shows we might have more luck with our draws and go a bit further in future.

 

[BoxToBox]

22 hours ago, deltablue said:

On a bit of a rambling point, it's interesting to see SI capture the ethnic mixes of nations now (particularly with refugee communities), which I think is a recent development. With Kastrati being a real life example of a Finnish-Kosovan, there was another in the youth intake I lost in 2019, along with a player of Somali origins, just like Askar who was in the replacement intake. Malek as someone of Iranian descent isn't too strange either. In the case of Holmqvist his Aland roots are clear in his Swedish name and the fact that he's listed as being fluent in the language, though he hasn't got it as a second nationality.

They're definitely getting better and better at it, that's for sure. Makes for far more interesting long term saves.

[deltablue]

20 hours ago, BoxToBox said:

They're definitely getting better and better at it, that's for sure. Makes for far more interesting long term saves.

Some examples have been around for a while, especially the Turkish community in Germany, as well as French players (sometimes Germans too) with an African second nationality. Plenty of those on FM13 though I remember examples on FM11 as well. 

[BoxToBox]

1 hour ago, deltablue said:

Some examples have been around for a while, especially the Turkish community in Germany, as well as French players (sometimes Germans too) with an African second nationality. Plenty of those on FM13 though I remember examples on FM11 as well. 

I know Assyriska in 16(IIRC) had a lot of players with second nationalities from the Assyrian countries.

[deltablue]

Youth Intake 2021

No standout star this time but a lack of a clear cut second choice right-back gave Nurmi a few games already. The first couple went well, the last one not so much. Siren could feature as an alternative to Kallio in the longer term (though it does mean altering the side the winger is on every time I swap them) but Uusitalo has a tougher path to being a regular, not just with Heinoleinen but Andersson proving to be good back-up already.

[deltablue]

Oct 2021

It was a bit of a disappointing crawl to the finish line, as we only won 2 out of our last 7 league matches. Given aside from when the U20 World Cup was on we otherwise looked very strong throughout I was thinking we might have a shot at a title challenge, especially with HJK doing poorly this year, though they still amost caught us (and we only stayed second thanks to a late goal from Inter of all teams to deny HJK final day win). As we easily cast them aside in a match that was definitely the one of the right ones to win, I've already lost my fear of them. SJK romping to the title was strange as they were 5th last year and 7th both seasons before that.

Having thought last year we'd to well to match our 4th placed finish, it's good to see us potentially getting regular Europa League football already, and despite draining the bank account to improve the youth and training facilities (the latter ranked 'great') we had almost 1M in the bank again at the end of this season. The Dynamics situation looks excellent as well, along with board confidence. The latter is helped by the fact that a couple of years ago I decided to add the 'play young players' philosophy to my contract, knowing that wouldn't be hard to excel at

Star Player: It was hard to decide between the top 5 in terms of ratings, especially not wanting it to be Kastrati yet again. Seriously if you're starting in Finland he's a potentially amazing pick-up on a free, though that was with the Dec 2018 start so I'm not sure how available he'd be otherwise. I went for the 'runner-up' Holmqvist in the end, even though his form faded later on and allowed Jarvinen to reclaim his place. He still made an impact I wasn't expecting, scored in the U20 World Cup against Mexico and is now an U21 fixture, as well as winning Rookie of the Year so I think I chose well.

Squad Stats

[deltablue]

Finland 2021

World Ranking: 88th (down 13)

First up, Jarvinen becomes our first player (or ex-player) in the senior squad, though he hasn't picked up a cap yet. The year didn't start too well with a draw in Armenia, easily the weakest team in the group especially with Mikhtaryen having retired from international football two years ago. They didn't seem to have much fun against the other teams either which wasn't too surprising and even though they managed to draw with Ukraine and Italy later on, it didn't stop them from taking another World Ranking hit (and that's having jumped a few places at the end of the year).

Ones to Watch

[deltablue]

Winter 2022

If we want to challenge for the title we can't stand still, which is bad news for Valakari. In some ways he's my favourite player but last summer something changed. Jami Sauso was already set as back-up and after a little bust up where he wanted more first team football I did a comparision and he was already close to Valakari's equal. I decided I would promote him this season though he came within a whisker of leaving for Brentford, like Jarvinen last winter, and in near repeat of what happened with Askar the previous year.

In September a serious spinal injury ruled him out until the Spring (thankfully only really missing a handful of league games and this year's early cup stages), widening the door for another player in that position to potentialy squeeze out Valakari altogether when he returned. Paavola's signing perhaps being the first where I've managed to grab one of the top young talents in the country, not counting Jarvinen who was plucked from a very small side, as he had to be in order to get him in the First Division.

Young players who needed more patience also lost out. Malek was dropped from 4th to 5th forward (with the others forming a very competitive quartet) by the arrival of Vuorela on a free, who added something different by being our only forward who didn't have 'poacher' as his best role, and like Paavola made a quick impact in the cup (even benching Kastrati temporarily). Pulkkinen already beat Andersson to be the better second-choice left-back while Voultilainen has a clear head start over Siren to chare the winger spot with Kallio.

It's tough but when I'm spoit for choice with young players, I set the bar very high indeed. We already have Pasanen and Kallio as genuine youth products in our first choice side (in my past experience it can take years to even get one), with Sauso and Nurmi probably not far behind which is a decent record as it is especially after just 4 years. It's just a shame the board aren't interesting in upgrading youth recruitment though 'above average' is still good enough right now.

Signings

[Deisler26]

Good signings. It can be tough to give everyone gametime, I'm struggling myself

[deltablue]

Cup 2022

Have I mentioned how much I dislike VPS? We were already building up a bit of history with them, first with the promotion playoff, then beating them again in the cup the following season before they paid us back last year. We were already set to face them in the league the first time this year before we got them in the cup group. They beat us to give us our only blip, which was enough to let them snatch top spot and go straight to the quarter-finals, though after we beat Inter our own qualification wasn't really in any danger. It's not too big a problem though, as it just gives us an extra match at Honka to potentially join them. It's not too bad a draw, even if it isn't necessarily 'easy'.

[deltablue]

6 minutes ago, Deisler26 said:

Good signings. It can be tough to give everyone gametime, I'm struggling myself

True, especially when you have players wanting first-team football less than a year after arriving in the youth intake. Since I'm going to be more willing to let players move on this time that will create opportunities every so often. There has only been one major sale so far (though I came within a whisker of agreeing to a couple more) but a young fringe player will likely end up as a winner every time I do. In fact, having potential replacements already who might benefit might ease the passage of players out of the door.

[Dexter_Morgan]

I feel your pain with leagues such as this as i'm forever moaning about players wanting to leave or getting ahead of themselves  my trick is obviously as long a contract as possible and if they have a locked release clause make sure they go for no lower in the transfer status part and if they don't then put 40-50M so 9 times out 10 it'll scare teams off putting a bid in and eventually sign a new contract  

[deltablue]

16 hours ago, Dexter_Morgan said:

I feel your pain with leagues such as this as i'm forever moaning about players wanting to leave or getting ahead of themselves  my trick is obviously as long a contract as possible and if they have a locked release clause make sure they go for no lower in the transfer status part and if they don't then put 40-50M so 9 times out 10 it'll scare teams off putting a bid in and eventually sign a new contract  

Actually I want my players to move to bigger leagues and help reach their potential for the sake of the national team. Plus it's not like the olden days when you could get away with being really stubborn about keeping players, and they really don't like it when you set a target value higher than they think is fair, which at this level seems to be 300-400k. It's annoying when they want to move so early and when I feel we can't cover from their loss but that's not so much of a problem now than a year or two ago.

The fee the players go for isn't much of an issue, the one sale I've made was about 100k initially (but with decent add ons to make it potentially worth a few times as much) and I nearly made a couple more, both to Brentford as it happens. The big attraction is when they throw in 40% of the profit from the next sale, which is potentially worth so much more than any short-term income (which we dont' need at all), even with all the add-ons

What is interesting is that I'm not getting the interest I thought I would for most players. The one player I'd sold had barely played yet (though I was planning to make him a regular the following year), and the two I've kept so far (and I did manage to recently tie them down for longer contracts to help them leave on my terms) only had Championship Brentford interested in both cases (compared to the other guy going to Newcastle and being wanted by Norwich, Gent and Brugge as well), with no recent active interest, and none at all for quite a few players I was prepared to lose sooner or later. It would be great if I could keep more of a strong core together than I thought was possible, while still getting the potential benefits of letting some players move on and those 40% profit clauses, which looks like a pretty standard deal to be offered.

[noikeee]

Looks like you've adapted to the top league in no time, just missing the final step now.

Also I get the impression that as the season goes on the results go down, this could be because teams adapt and start playing more defensively against you and the tactical setup is better when given space to play in (the more the AI is wary of you, the less space they'll give you). You still using the 1-winger formation?

[deltablue]

4 hours ago, noikeee said:

Looks like you've adapted to the top league in no time, just missing the final step now.

Also I get the impression that as the season goes on the results go down, this could be because teams adapt and start playing more defensively against you and the tactical setup is better when given space to play in (the more the AI is wary of you, the less space they'll give you). You still using the 1-winger formation?

I'm trying not to get ahead of myself, and it'll probably be a while before we win our first title. I was still happy with our form over the course of the season as a whole (especially given how badly things went without our forwards during the U20 World Cup) and accepting a little inconsistency as part of having a bunch of young players in the team rather than feel disappointed that we couldn't quite keep it up to the end.

I am still using that formation but sometimes the roles switch depending on whose playing , and the full-backs get pretty attacking so he's not easily being isolated if that's what you're thinking, especially not with Kallio's 'chances created' numbers (which admittedly I only really noticed for the first time last season). My observations have been when things haven't gone well that other factors have been to blame, weak defensive performances, forwards not quite being good enough with a number of opportunities (usually having quite a few to fail with)... far simpler things than the system itself that will always happen sometimes. No individual thing is happening that often to be a fundamental flaw, since I like to think I'm at least capable of spotting a consistent problem.

[deltablue]

May 2022

The league season started the way last year ended, at Lahti, and we managed to get our revenge for that defeat. Losing the following two, including to a VPS side making a surprisingly strong start (*shakes fist*) didn't look good but we've been much better since. It's a shame a few recent dropped points were enough to fall far behind SJK and allow HJK to sneak into 2nd but we're still looking at least as good a before, having worried it would be hard to keep that up in the short-term. Unfortunately we really drew the short straw this year in terms of the teams we had 2 away games against so this probably won't be our year to really challenge for the title.

One thing I had noticed was that a main source of missed chances was Holmqvist (and I keep having to remember not to call him Sundqvist) on the left of the front two being on the other end of a lot of crosses from the right and messing up the headers. I'm used to the more deep-lying of midfield and forward pair being on the right and the more attacking on the left but I've swapped them around so hopefully a better header gets those chances. Ironically against Honka (the first game I started like this) Holmqvist actually succeeded with a header, delivered by Vuorela who I'd specifically brought in (in the absence of the injured Jarvinen) to be the one to face them, not deliver them.

We had previously beaten Honka in the cup then faced consecutive away games to SJK, which didn't look promising. We FMed them in the first game, becoming the first team to take points off them in the league this season, and managed to squeak past the quarter-final as well, though that was a more even game. During that quarter-final I randomly decided to look at the defender whose own-goal gave us the lead (and later got their equalizer) and realized that I had already picked him out as 'one to watch' among the best young players a couple of years back. Having decided that I wasn't messing around with SJK enough, I decided to try and sign him on the spot (yep, I conducted the transfer negotiations before resuming the game), only just about being able to attract him.

[deltablue]

Former Player Watch

Askar

As expected, Askar spent his first full season at Newcastle on loan, interestingly enough going abroad to Denmark instead of dropping down the English leagues. He had a reasonable (though unexceptional) season and Nordsjaelland, who finished 7th in the 'regular' season, narrowly missing out on the championship playoff, though they also reached the cup final. Instead they eased the 'relegation playoff' and entered the European playoff. They're clearly a big fan of the Belgian system over there. They actually won that but might not be in Europe after all.

There are 5 European places and AaB look to have claimed the last one instead as 2-0 victors over Nordsjaelland in the cup final. The fact that they were also 5th in the league (well, the championship playoff section anyway) not helping clear things up at all, and therefore it's the top 5 (though not necessarily for the same reasons) that have the ECC/EC mark, leaving no room for Nordsjaelland whose European playoff victory seems to be conditional (on the winner of the cup I assume). I feel an 'Obelix' moment coming on here.

Back to Askar, and while he did noticably develop with his first season of regular first-term football it'll be interesting to see where he goes from here. He'll probably be on loan at least one season more than maybe have to step down before too long. Newcastle was a surpisingly big step up, probably too big. I kind of wish I'd accepted an offer from Brentford after all for one of the others because it would be interesting to see them grab an immediate opportunity to play and maybe take another smaller step up afterwards, in contrast with Askar's path.

We might soon get the chance with Jarvinen, as I've sensed for a while the upcoming summer window will be when he leaves, now he's grabbed a bit of interest. Lazio were showing 'minor' interest along with a Chinese club, with AIK and... Leuven in Belgium I think as the major interested parties. Only the Swedes are now out of the four/ I'm not sure whether his injury is causing a reduction in interest (though it will be clear by late June which shouldn't affect anyone's window) but I'd be surprised if teams didn't soon start coming calling.

He'd be more likely to be sold on (with a sweet % of profit clause for us) if he doesn't step up too far immediately and leaves plenty of room for another than if he goes to somewhere big enough to decide they don't want him before long and release him, which I'm worried would happen with Askar and Newcastle.

[deltablue]

This is my latest facebook post...

"The downside of having an FM career thread titled 'Finns Can Only Get Better' is having the song stuck in my head often. Especially a version sung by Jeremy Hardy (don't ask) for some reason which is both brilliant and bizarre if you know what his singing sounds like. Thankfully this didn't happen with 'Got 99 Problems But Norwich Ain't One'."

[Dexter_Morgan]

Holding your own by the look of it, top 3 would be great for you 

[deltablue]

On 05/02/2018 at 22:29, Dexter_Morgan said:

Holding your own by the look of it, top 3 would be great for you 

Top 3? Easy

[deltablue]

World Cup 2022 - Australia

England OP! They managed to win the World Cup again, though at least having Kane and Rashford as scorers makes more sense than Welbeck and Wilshere last time. Berahino coming on with enough time to miss a penalty rather less so especially having just spent a season (admittedly successful) in the Championship with Stoke. The fact that they actually beat Portugal (winners of an Iberian derby quarter-final) on penalties in their semi-final adds to how bizarre this feels. Still at least we finally get an England team winning in Melbourne.

Elsewhere Croatia (beaten finalists 4 years ago) went out in the group stage. Mexico won their group again but were rewarded with a match against Brazil which ensured yet another second round exit. Syria qualified and managed to get a point against Nigeria while the Dutch won perhaps the easiest group in World Cup history. European Champions France had a super tough knockout run to the semi-finals, beating Argentina and Germany before going out to Brazil.

[deltablue]

Aug 2022

I hadn't really touched FM for a while before yesterday but I'm very much back in the groove now. I still remember the first SJK game as having managed to pull off two wins against the odds (and the run of play) against them already, we looked set for a 3rd when we went 3-0 up. I guess we couldn't keep doing it every time and they somehow managed to deny us with two stoppage time goals, clearly being managed by Daniel Farke.

Otherwise things were going pretty smoothly for us, at least domestically as we drew another short straw in Europe with Teplice and despite a surprise home win, predictably lost out in the return. By the end of July we managed to match our points tally from last season and have already sealed a top 3 finish, with 2nd looking likely. We never got closer to 3 points of SJK so I wasn't really thinking of a title race, with a disappointing showing in our 3rd and final league game against the champions and league leaders pretty much ending any chance of making a late challenge. 

Having gone out in the semi-final of the cup two years ago we managed to overcome Mariehamn this time to set up a final with VPS, because of course it would be the team we seem to be facing a lot in big matches like this. Unfortunately the match is scheduled in the September international break which leaves us without Holmqvist (suddenly a lot more important), Paavola and Sauso (both options for the same position) compounded by Kastrati being a fitness doubt. Summer signing Leppala (it's a sign of the how long it had been since I last played that at first I'd forgotten who he was and why he was due to arrive in July) is cup tied as well.

The semi-final win was a parting gift from Jarvinen. I had a feeling this would be the window he left but interest (aside from a few Greek clubs) was in short supply and he seemed more settled so for a while it looked like he'd stick around after all. Then Lazio (who had been interested before) came in again, for 375k. I wanted a 40% profit from next sale clause (which seems to be a regular feature in bids already) which I clearly over-valued in asking for just 250k instead in return but the exact sum isn't important given we're a strong financial state, especially as the initial 100k for Askar was the previous record.

Hopefully he'll do a lot better in Italy than Askar has done at Newcastle (he's on loan in Scandinavia again this season, this time in Norway with Molde) and it'll be the key to international caps. He's been a regular in the squad for a year or so but hadn't played. From a national team point of view it'll be good for players like him to take a step up (as long as it's to the right level. Askar took too big a leap, especially so early, and it's a shame with hindsight I didn't accept the bids from Brentford for Jarvinen and Sauso because that would have been a different and potentially more productive path) as well as being interesting for me to follow (and see what sort of a windfall the profit clauses give us). 

 

[deltablue]

Youth Intake 2022

Unfortunately I wasn't being very observant and skipped over youth intake day, but while there will always be some highly rated players, Nissinen was the only real pick of the bunch this time, and even then he'd need Sauso or Paavola to move on to be anything more than 3rd choice. Still he's not that far off the former even with a couple of years age gap. With both first team options away for the cup final he'll actually make the bench (though thankfully I don't have to start him for such a key match).

It would be great to finally have the board agree to an expansion of youth recruitment so more players have a serious chance, especially now I'm in a position to potentially get the very best Finnish youngsters from other clubs which will make it tough for our own to compete.

[deltablue]

Cup Final 2022

It wasn't exactly a classic, despite the extra-time goals. Thankfully we weren't that weakened even if we were still calling on a couple of players a bit lower down the pecking order who didn't have great match sharpness, with Oksanen and Kastrati (thankfully just about fit again after a minor training injury) in slightly unfamiliar roles and a lighter bench. Interestingly enough all 3 players I brought on came from the youth system. The fact that for some reason we were playing at their ground rather than a neutral venue didn't help my confidence.

They easily had more chances from the start but thankfully their accuracy was awful. By half-time they didn't have a single shot on target out of 9. On the other hand we were doing a lot better with our chances, at least statistically, but they weren't really that threatening. You got the feeling that if one team scored the other would struggle to respond. It was with dread that with Vuorela struggling to perform I brought on Malek instead, which would at least allow me the chance to change things up a little up front in terms of roles.

Malek has always been an ugly duckling among our forwards. He hadn't played since Jarvinen and Holmqvist were both away at the U20 World Cup over a year ago and didn't do much to convince me that he was anything but a 'last-choice' option, dropping from 4th to 5th with Vuorela's arrival and remaining the odd one out while the others were on relatively equal terms with each other. I was glad I didn't need to start him but always knew he was decent enough (and being a little older) that he was at least still worth a shot.

Early in extra-time we finally started to show more life. Joel Mero pumped a massively long ball out of defence and I wondered if Malek was offside as he didn't seem to be rushing to get to it, nor did the VPS defenders. However he wasn't, and he beat them to it to calmly slot home and break the deadlock at last. They still had enough chances to keep me worried (though their accuracy thankfully left a lot to be desired) until Kastrati broke out of a bad spell to set up Oksanen for the second. Kallio set up Malek to finish it off with a 3rd, completing a great day for a very unlikely hero. He's not likely to feature much again, at least not at this club but at least he still managed to have a moment of glory.

[deltablue]

It's so sweet to FM a rival like that Bonus points from our goal being a penalty after they had two saved early on. Oh and they had a late goal disallowed as well to complete their frustration. I'm definitely nicknaming Pasanen the Finnish David De Gea now

[deltablue]

Oct 2022

I didn't imagine us being in a title race with a 7 point gap with 5 games remaining, especially after a draw at Mariehamn meant it stayed that way with just 4 left. Much to my surprise after a couple of wins we were just 2 points off and suddenly it seemed possible after all. That made it cruel that it was decided after that as a Gabrielsson red card probably contributed to failing to hold on to a 2-1 lead against KuPS while SJK went back to winning ways.

They lost their final game but I sort of wish they had won as it meant that there was nothing we could have done. 2 wins (which arguably we should have got) would have seen us be champions and even after 2 draws instead, I thought back to their 2 stoppage time goals to snatch a draw when we played them at home. Had we held on to win that, we'd win on goal difference. It didn't help that Oksanen was injured for the final two matches (which was the only reason Gabrielsson was playing to be sent off against KuPS in the first place) and Sanevuori didn't do that well as the only available option left for the Inter game.

SJK admittedly deserved it as they'd been top all year long, leaving us as a chasing side that could never do quite enough to catch them. It didn't feel like it was our time yet anyway and we might be a 'there or thereabouts' team a little longer but I do believe the title is now a realistic ambition. It helps to have taken Leppala (potentially the best young defender in the country) from them mid-season and with the exception of Kallio (at least in the short-term) we have the depth to survive the potential loss of any individual player. The cup win could be considered a warning shot about what we might soon be capable of.

Star Player: No contest here. Kallio had a good breakthrough season last year but was merely one of a few players who did pretty well but weren't that spectacular. This season he really stepped up a few notches to achieve a genuinely fantastic year and was head and shoulders ahead of the others, who weren't necessarily slouches themselves either.

Squad Stats

[deltablue]

Finland 2022

World Ranking: 104th (down 16)

It was another bad year, not helped by a relative lack of games. When I saw the international league draw I knew Greece would run away with it but also that there was a possibility that Cyprus might prove to be superior as well and relegate Finland. Those fears seemed to be unfounded when Finland beat Cyprus but defeat in the return coupled with a Cypriot draw with Greece meant it happened anyway. I had sort of hoped it would happen since it would potentially open up the national team job along with it being good timing to take over at a low point but the current manager is still safe. At least that points to good job security even with the international league, though it looks like a much longer wait.

The plus side is a far greater chance to make the next Euro's through the playoffs, having just missed out on penalties to Hungary in the Division C playoffs last time. That in itself wouldn't seem like enough of an achievement, only doing it by the back door. Qualification through the groups or even for the World Cup would be a lot more momentous. That's unlikely to happen this time. A group with Portugal, Turkey, Croatia and Latvia sounds pretty interesting though beating the Latvians to 4th seems like the limit of Finland's ambitions.

As expected the move to Lazio enabled Jarvinen to get his first senior cap, though more interesting was Leppala managing to get international games as well (and a goal) while still playing for us, along with Holmqvist also being in the squad but with just one forward playing up front he's 3rd in the pecking order behind Jarvinen so I doubt he'll get much of an opportunity.

Ones to Watch

[deltablue]

Had something to do this evening so I couldn't quite post the pre-season and cup updates (which often go together) but what I can say is that in the summer we're signing the son of a Premier League legend

[ManUtd1]

11 minutes ago, deltablue said:

Had something to do this evening so I couldn't quite post the pre-season and cup updates (which often go together) but what I can say is that in the summer we're signing the son of a Premier League legend

I don't know that I'd describe Massimo Taibi as a "legend," though...

[deltablue]

9 hours ago, ManUtd1 said:

I don't know that I'd describe Massimo Taibi as a "legend," though...

Damn your eyes. Guards, seize him!

[DavidBeckham]

Hirvonen has potential to grow into a decent center back! KUTGW mate 

[Sheriff7]

Greece and Cyprus even in Fm have good relationships.. Indeed in next nations league they will have many hopes to win their group and fight for one Euro ticket...

[deltablue]

11 hours ago, DavidBeckham said:

Hirvonen has potential to grow into a decent center back! KUTGW mate 

You know you actually reminded me of him to the point that the first thing I did in the game today was go and sign him (for nothing as well!) even if he won't arrive until the summer transfer window

10 hours ago, Sheriff7 said:

Greece and Cyprus even in Fm have good relationships.. Indeed in next nations league they will have many hopes to win their group and fight for one Euro ticket...

I was thinking just the same, like how they give each other 12 points in Eurovision