[FM19 Network] A Swedish Shift | Halmstads BK & Malmo FF | Seasons Complete: 12

[santy001]

Introduction

Hello to anyone who comes to have a little read of this. For FM19 myself and @oliscott are back with another network game. We've been going back and forth for a number of years, starting in the past with a Man City/Chelsea game. A Real/Barca game and various other takes on the big team battles in different leagues. Over time we sought out a greater challenge, and for FM17 we picked up with Crewe and Portsmouth in League Two. We rose quite quickly to the top, we spent an awful long time in that save just straight up fighting each other for supremacy so we wanted to go a little further for FM18. On FM18 we dropped down to the Vanarama North, with Salford and Harrogate. We managed a little over 50 years, but we encountered a number of issues and sort of lost the impetus to keep the thread updated.

Problems we had on FM18

On FM18 we started the game on the beta, which turned out to be a big mistake as numerous issues carried over. But we were new to the posting our career thread and a lot of the ideas we had and wanted to go with just were a lot more effort and impeding the flow of the game to keep up to date. In addition to this, we wanted to keep track of a head to head record between ourselves, but we discovered FM only keeps a head to head of the teams last 100 meetings. So unless we went and manually counted up 50 years of football we couldn't work it out. 

Season updates kind of just turned into a rather bland post without much narrative or explanation of what we were doing and how. So that's something we want to get on top of this year. We also want to be able to better upload clips to youtube and such of the games between us - partly for our own amusement when we come back. Furthermore, many of the standout players in the minds of myself and @oliscott we never made posts about the individuals and their journeys with the club. We had legends that of course we will remember but anyone reading the thread will know nothing about these players. So too much was getting lost.

So Sweden... Why?

In England, and many nations in fact, you tend to have a good place to build into a super team. A team that can become strong and dominant. It's not impossible for one team with a bit of success to elevate a league such as the Belgian or Dutch leagues into the top leagues and see more benefits as a result. Knowing that we can get 50+ years out of a save, we needed to start somewhere lower, where the challenge is greater.

Sweden are 22nd in the European Coefficients, but there are 0 squad restrictions and no work permits there (after 2 years of harsh Brexits in every game, we're a little jaded of the restrictions on players) which is a massive appeal. The top flight only has 30 league games, and the seasons typically run shorter. With the end of season being through the winter it means the peak transfer time is mid-season, and so as soon as we finish a season we won't be as engrossed in transfers and too busy with that to make adequate posts in this thread... or so the plan goes.

Start Dates & Teams

The teams are unconfirmed as of yet, but we will be starting in the second tier of Sweden with a July 2018 start date. This means we'll be dropping in mid-season in Sweden (doing this to preserve the financial side of the game which, in my experience, has gone a little weird when using earlier start dates) and picking up two teams from there to begin our journey. First we have to conquer Sweden. Then we have to uplift the nation through the coefficients and eventually turn the Swedish league into the dominant force in football. 

We will begin the save on Friday 2nd November.

What will be included

I can't speak for Oli but this year the aim is to try and standardise the posts to get them a bit easier and quicker to update. Rather than messing around with posts I may just use the direct links as they come from Gyazo than messing around to get the images full size in the thread. I'll be trying to put up posts more related to my own club in how I feel the last season went, what I'm after, and perhaps keeping track of a small group of players during their careers with me. Oli will contribute from his side as well I expect.

In addition we'll try to nail down something for youtube just so each of the games between us have their highlights.

[santy001]

Head to Head:

Halmstads Won: 12
Landskrona Won: 4 | Malmo Won: 1
Draws: 2

Longest Winning Streak: 1 (Halmstads / @oliscott)
Longest Unbeatean Run: 4 (Halmstads / @oliscott)

20/10/2018 | Landskrona 0 - 4 Halmstads
01/06/2019 | Landskrona 0 - 0 Halmstads
21/09/2019 | Halmstads 3 - 0 Landskrona
28/05/2022 | Halmstads 1 - 0 Landskrona
08/10/2022 | Landskrona 2 - 1 Halmstads
06/05/2023 | Landskrona 3 - 4 Halmstads
26/08/2023 | Halmstads 3 - 1 Landskrona
20/04/2024 | Halmstads 0 - 3 Landskrona (missed this one, added in and couldn't be bothered to re-adjust the colour scheme!)
03/08/2024 | Landskrona 2 - 4 Halmstads
18/04/2026 | Landskrona 3 - 3 Halmstads
08/08/2026 | Halmstads 3 - 1 Landskrona
06/03/2027 | Landskrona 4 - 2 Halmstads (missed this one added in)
24/04/2027| Halmstads 5 - 2 Landskrona
31/07/2027 | Landskrona 2 - 0 Halmstads
05/04/2028 | Halmstads 4 - 1 Landskrona
19/07/2028 | Landskrona 0 - 1 Halmstads
- - - - Santy moved to Malmo FF - - - - 
14/04/2029 | Halmstads 1 - 0 Malmo
09/05/2029 | Malmo 1 - 2 Halmstads * Swedish Cup Final
01/08/2029 | Malmo 3 - 2 Halmstads
Date | Score
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[santy001]

Landskrona Bois: An Introduction

The situation at Landskrona is less than ideal. I've come into a club £110k in debt. The club is currently spending £13,130pw out of £12,623 budget. So we're in debt, we're overbudget and the club has nothing in the transfer pot. This is something of a negative to say the least, but the good news is that its not a lost cause.

The club has managed just 3 wins, and had some negative results. But fortunately none of them have been particularly bad.

Landskrona Bois: The Squad

I plan on going with a gegenpress formation. It's not something the squad is particularly well set up for, but I feel like at this level, a high level of pressing and getting some workhorses in where possible can really prove dividends. However, as the screenshots below show, apparently I do have some good players for this level according to the assistant manager.

The assistant manager has provided this feedback on the ratings for players:

Landskrona Bois: Stand-out Players

Here's a few of my standout players that I will be hoping to build a team around.

Sadat Karim:  He's pretty quick, combined with good finishing, off the ball, anticipation and composure for this level. I will certainly be hoping he can get amongst the goals.

Edafe Egbedi: Generally speaking he's not good much that makes him really stand out as a winger, but great pace and acceleration will make him an ideal winger and that alone should serve to open up defences for Karim.

 

 

[oliscott]

So this year I've decided to take on HALMSTADS BK 

The club looks to have the facilities to push on for promotion this year and expand on the current facilities

The main players from the current squad will be

With a transfer budget of just 89k I'll be looking at loans and youngsters to step up this year before hopefully building a transfer kitty over the coming years.

Aim for the year has to be promotion at the first attempt as @santy001 will also be gunning for the exact same thing and I dont want to be left behind money wise.

HERE WE GO

 

[santy001]

Youtube Issues

We have tried to upload some videos from our first matches, just to test it out. Unfortunately it crashed the game. So we lost our first match. @oliscott is devastated as he won 2-1.

[oliscott]

Undefeated in my first four games and manager of the month, long may it continue.

[oliscott]

First meeting of the season between us due to the Sweden season already being underway when we started and already playing each other. Comfortable win for me which takes me to 4th and just outside the play offs with automatics in reach with just one game of the season remaining.

[santy001]

First Season Review: Oli's Bottlers Return

And so the first season comes to a close. At Landskrona I've really struggled to get to grips with the squad I've got. I rescued myself from potential relegation when things were looking bleak. Meanwhile, @oliscott and his Halmstads team were strong, but not quite strong enough. So once again, Oli bottled it late in the season, just not quite getting the results needed to move him into contention for promotion. It does mean next year we'll both be contending for promotion to the top flight in Sweden, and that is now the challenge we look to beginning in 4 months time after winter.

- - - - - - - - - - -

 

 

[oliscott]

End of Season 1

One more win would have seen me promoted as champions, a single loss in the season was ultimately the one that cost me after winning or drawing every other game I played. 

For next year Ill look to strengthen the wings and bring in a forward who can put the chances away, the defence remained strong conceding just 9 in eighteen games.

Best Eleven

Seasons transfers

Signing of the season

Final standings and cup competitions

 

[santy001]

First Season Review: Landskrona (Santy)

So my first season was a bit of a disaster. Despite there being some potential, a bad injury to Egbedi meant he missed a little over 2 months towards the end of the season. This was devastating as he was the only real creative force in my squad. With 3 goals and 7 assists in 20 games, he was a standout performer. 

Up front Sadat Karim managed 8 goals in 29 games. Really a quite poor return, missing many chances. I'm conflicted with Karim as I had hoped for more, but how much of his own performance was down to the rest of the team being weak and my tactics being weak?

The Big Name Signing

I brought a familiar name to Landskrona, on big wages:

Djibril Cisse clearly doesn't have the legs for it anymore, but the last thing to go is the technical abilities. Sadly however, I may have misjudged this. I signed Cisse on a deal until the end of next season, which means by then he will be 38 and he only managed a return of 3 goals in 15 appearances. His movement is good, as is his distribution, maybe its the same problem affecting Karim that is hampering Cisse. I am hopeful I can turn this around next season and have a useful player, as I've found good technical players still certainly play a role in the approach I've been using on FM19.

Tactical Problems

My primary concern was that the squad wasn't quite what I needed to play a gegenpress system. The players weren't overly physical, and there was no real technical prowess anywhere. I missed a playmaker, someone with good passing to sit deep. While I had players who could sit in that deep midfield role, they were not at all the right mould. In addition to this, the options through the rest of the midfield were dire. They had good attributes in places, but only Egbedi was of any real use to me and what I wanted to do. 

I feel like it was ultimately the midfield not being up to the job that lead to the massive defensive problems, not providing enough work rate and ability to retain the ball. 

The Season Ahead

The board have more than doubled my wage budget for next season, moving it from the 13k p/w it was this season up to 32k p/w next year. This provides some great liquidity. While there is nothing in the transfer budget in terms of cash, I will be able to look at more free transfers to bring in a whole new midfield.

I will likely be looking at full backs, as my current full backs were loan signings already at the squad. I need to pad the depth out in midfield as well, I feel like a good midfield engine is what is needed to take this league by storm next year. 

I don't plan on changing formation, I'm confident in the formation so I believe its a case of now building a squad in the way I need to begin chasing down success.

[styluz_05]

Look forward to following this, I love managing in Scandinavia. Had many good long saves.  

[oliscott]

Not used to the chairman going over my head but here we are

 

[oliscott]

Seems like you just cant please these Swedish Chairmen, top of the league just isn't good enough.

[santy001]

Second Season Review: Diverging Paths

The second season came to a close, and this year our fates have lead us down different paths. For @oliscott the title beckoned, and with that he will move up into the Swedish top flight next year. My own fate at Landskrona was one heavily weighed down by the late race to avoid dropping into the relegation play-off once more. Halmstads had a solid attack that yielded a great many results, along with a tight defence. Despite having quality strikers at Landskrona I was unable to find any kind of working combination up at the top end of the pitch.

While our fates were so drastically different, this season I had a much higher wage budget (relatively speaking) than Oli did at Halmstads. It was certainly a season of failure on my behalf. 

In addition to this, Halmstads made it through to the Swedish cup final, only for Oli to have his hopes cruelly dashed and ultimately finished runners up. 

[santy001]

Second Season Review: Landskrona (Santy)

This year was a complete catastrophe. I decided to stick with my gegenpress 4-1-2-3 formation, it had created chances all year previously. I just needed more depth and a quality midfield - or so I thought. I brought in a number of players, to pad out the squad and to bring more technical ability, as well as stamina. Of course at this level of football you have to compromise in areas and I compromised in perhaps far too many areas I normally would not.

After 4 consecutive defeats at the start of the season I began to make changes, and spent the majority of the season trying to chase some semblance of working formation for the players. Ultimately though, I signed around a system I could not make work. Now I need to let these players go and rebuild around a new system. The fluid counter-attack yielded some successes, it was hard to tell if the crippling morale issues that had already set in held this back or if the squad just was not up to that with the players I had.

The Season Ahead

Last year the board more than doubled my wage bill, but this was a critical error on their behalf. The club has plunged into massive debts, and has needed nearly a million pounds in cash injections to keep the club ticking over. Mid-season the wage budget got cut by 20% and this has made renewing contracts an all but impossible task. 

A dramatic rebuild job awaits me. Further to the initial 20% cut, the board has then cut the wage budget even further going into the next season. 

The Big Players?

Cisse has turned out to be a complete flop. Just one goal in 21 games, sadly it just didn't happen but he is retiring. This was one of many signings that backfired.

Sadat Karim only managed 7 goals in 32 games. An awful return for a player of his ability, chances were there... he just wasn't taking them. He is one of the few under contract, hopefully interest will materialise to bring some money in. Although it is unlikely. 

Egbedi did have a fairly decent contribution on the right, but signing him on a new deal was looking tough to budget for even before the cuts came through. With the cuts its very unlikely I can keep him going into next season.

[oliscott]

End of season 2

A season of success for myself, I won the league after taking over GIF Sundsvall in the final few weeks and then beating them on the final day to cement my title. A great season overall with 20 wins, 5 losses and 5 draws with a solid defensive record and scoring. A run to the Swedish Cup final which ultimately ended in disappointment was a high for the season, just showing I can mix it with the big boys, Hopefully next season I will be able to attract a little bit a better calibre of players to properly sure up the defence. A new right back and possibly left back are on the agenda this year. The forward I mentioned needing in last years review came in the form of denni Avdic a free signing in the summer who meshed with Kosuke Kinoshita to bang in 17 a piece. I also scoured for a left winger as back up which turned into my first choice as my young left winger was poached by Brentford for 200k rising to 900k with clauses, Dahl Abelsen stepped in at what proved a bargain 3.4k to keep things ticking over nicely.

Going to try and aim to stabilise myself next year and then make a push for the title within five years hopefully getting into the Europe push and earning some money from that to fund the next phase of the squad

This years best 11

This years transfers

Star Striker Denni Avdic

Left wing signing Dahl Abelsen

Disappointment in the final of the Swedish cup

[santy001]

Early Third Season: Landskrona (Santy) - A Club Record Signing!

Well the third season has definitely been the toughest in some regards at Landskrona. Having to axe my wage bill from 30k per week down to below 20k has proven tough. Numerous players released on a free, the squad tumbled in size down to around 18 players. A couple of free agent signings, and a couple more loans have given me a small squad that's thin on the ground. 

I decided to part ways with Karim Sadat, I did say I was open to letting him go after a disappointing season. A second tier Turkish side offered me £230,000 for the player, which I accepted happily. 

Here is the man brought in on a free to replace him, having started well (8 goals in 6 games):

The Record Signing

In a true anti-climax, my record signing has been £7,000 for a new assistant manager. 

[oliscott]

Halfway through the second season and things are going well, top of the league and coasting really, its only on the occasion Ive been worried this year about losing. I had my scouting reach extended so I can scout anywhere in the world and its really helping choosing what players to bring in. The decision to loan players rather than buy this year (not that i could afford anyone anyway) was a good as my wage budget is 20k under and now im able to take punts on players that are coming to the end of there contracts abroad that will come in on July 1st. At the moment were on a month break due to the Euros taking place so once they've ended ill have some new players in and the rest will be refreshed ready to kick on hopefully for the title and stint in the champions league next year.

League so far

Fixtures so far

[santy001]

Third Season Review: Halmstads Champions & Landskronian Austerity

This year proved to be a tremendous year of success for @oliscott winning the title in his first season in the premier league. A large number of loan signings bolstered the squad, and he seems to have done well in the free transfer market to bring in good players who have added to his squad. Sweden on the whole has begun to tumble a bit in the coefficients and is down to 26th. It doesn't affect much for Oli and his side though, the only way qualifying could get harder is if Sweden dropped down to 52nd for the Champions League.

Meanwhile in the division below, two games from the end of the season my hopes of promotion were ended. It's strange, this year I've gotten the team largely functioning better after the major clear out of last summer with the huge budget cut. However, the chairman has kept cutting, it's only been another couple of thousand a week but that still amounted to around a 10% wage cut mid-season. I offloaded some more players I would've ideally kept and have had to negotiate aggressively with other players. Anyone who won't take a wage cut has been moved to raise any funds possible.  

A huge worry is this early advantage Halmstads will have when I do eventually get promoted myself. Hopefully from a selfish perspective, he bombs in the champions league and doesn't get to benefit from the huge amounts of cash.

[santy001]

Third Season Review: Landskrona (Santy)

Despite the more stringent budget put in place this year was actually a strong year for my side. There had largely been wholesale changes, 8 new players came in and although the squad size was around 19 players for most of the season I was able to cut enough wages to bring a couple more in during the mid-season window. 

What cost me in the end was perhaps just a sheer lack of depth in midfield. I was hamstrung by 2 long term injuries of players on big wages. So I couldn't get them out of the club, and they weren't of any use either during that time. 

I managed to bring in £300,000 in total last season though, raising funds through the sale of 4 players. 

The Season Ahead

More budget cuts.

Since the current chairman came to the position he has cut the clubs wage budget continuously. The club is struggling, now nearly £1.5m in debt and the squeeze is being acutely felt on the playing front. My wage budget now is around half what it was two years ago. Last season I supplemented the squad with loan signings to make up for the missing bodies, and will no doubt have to do it even more this season. However, Bodo/Glimt have already refused to loan me one player for another year, who was my midfield driving force.

It's reaching the point where I'm looking more seriously at amateur players who will be on £200 p/w contracts rather than released players from the league above and other leagues around me. 

Key Players

Edafe Egbedi is still around and one of the key players, primarily because I couldn't replace him for the £600 p/w he picks up.

Alex, who just finished his second season with me has become a lynchpin of the attack with 15 goals.

His strike partner Geir Andre Herrem who picked up 18 this season.

And finally, Gunnar Thorsteinsson who after a disappointing first season came strong last year with 9 goals and 4 assists.

[oliscott]

End of Season 3

So this is what I've been working towards, I can now say I have done something Roy Hodgson has also done and Im not taking the ****ing ****! The league really felt like a bit of a walk this year however the table would probably not say it as such. At one point four teams were within two points of top and It looked like I might start one of my classic bottle jobs, despite a late 6-3 loss in the fourth to last game of the season the remaining three were pretty simple and saw me coast home to the title.

Whilst I still don't have the funds to sign players for fees the loan market has been kind to me and the squad has been supplemented by free transfers. Most notable this year the arrival of Eddy Salcedo to play up top was the one that probably carried me to the title knocking in 30 goals in 35 games. Alexander Munksgaard another loan signing strengthened up my defence at right back along with Marco Carnesecchi in the net who despite conceding more than he played provided a solid base for the rest of the team.

For next season I need to sign a striker who can replace Salcedo as his club wont allow him to return on loan, I'd like a quality DMC to shore up the defence further and maybe another left winger for competition, again this will be done by free transfers and loans. The squad could use a little more depth due to the upcoming Europe commitments depending on how far I get.

This years best eleven

Final League Table

Transfers 

Eddy Salcedo

Alexander Munksgaard

Marco Carnesecchi

[oliscott]

Orgryte doing a what is commonly known as a Derby

[santy001]

Fourth Season Review: Halmstads Capitulation & Landskrona Promoted

Well this was the season the first European campaign was involved for either of us. @oliscott went out in the 3rd round of the Champions League qualifies to Dynamo. However, he has since gotten into the Europa League group stages, and at the time of the 4th season ending has 2 games left in which he could qualify for the knockout stages.

It'll get a little weird with European campaigns straddling two seasons. But we'll figure it out.

Meanwhile, down in division one elite my chairman continued hacking away at the budget like a Tory on disability benefits. The budget was cut down further to around 15k p/w this year, it was a struggle and again required letting some more players go but I scraped through with loans and amateurs signing for the club which made ends meet. I went up as champions, getting 69 points in the process, the highest amount to win the league so far. 

In the division above, Halmstads needed to win 2 of their final 3 games to secure the title. Unfortunately an old tendency of @oliscott the bottle-job returned and his side lost all 3 of their run in league games.

[oliscott]

End Of Season 4

A mixed season for Halmstads, our first chance to reach the Champions League proper was scuppered by Dinamo. Going out on away goals after a 2-2 draw at home before drawing 0-0 in a dominant second leg but alas I couldn't find the goal needed to reach the next stage. Into the Euro Cup qualifications were i managed to get into the group stages in a group that consisted of Fiorentina, Partizan and Basel. Two loses against Fiorentina bookended the other results needed against the other two to finish second and qualify for the next round, the money earned from these games is really pushing me up the ladder in our league and has meant I have been given 2.8 million budget for the coming season. As of right now I'm still waiting for the next round draw to see were the competition will take me next.

The league looked to be a right off this year after a few early loses and draws but I went on a 26 match unbeaten run from may up until a first loss to Fiorentina in the Euros in October. However that wasn't enough as the last three games of the season saw me lose all three in which just two wins would have seen me retain the league, I still think with one or two more acquisitions in the winter i should be able to win the title back next season however with @santy001 back in the league I may be ran close depending on how he fares.

Stand out signings this year were the returning Kun Temenuzhkov who was on loan last year but didn't get a look in due to Salcedo's dominance, this year he slotted in 26 in 41 games that really propelled me forward. Theo Walcott was a June signing who added some more quality to the right wing, his stats seem to have faded over the years but he can still cut it in the league so offers a great option on the wing. One stand out performer from within the squad was Andreas Bengtsson who at left back has been progressing every season and who this year provided 19 assists from his left back berth.

League table

Best eleven

Transfers

Kun Temenuzhkov

Theo Walcott

[oliscott]

My run in the Euro Cup last year has raised our rank in the world standings, hopefully Sant can get a good run too and we can start raising the profile of the league.

[WillHoward42]

Following this! 

[Nobby_McDonald]

On 04/11/2018 at 20:30, santy001 said:

The Record Signing

In a true anti-climax, my record signing has been £7,000 for a new assistant manager. 

I was expecting you to have paid a tenner.

[santy001]

Fifth Season Review: Landskronian Larceny.

For the first time in a couple of years we were back in the same league, rekindling that old rivalry to out-do one another. @oliscott now had his european riches coming in to line his coffers, meanwhile down at Landskrona I was still living the peasant life. My wage budget to stay in the league was 29k. This is still less than the budget I was given going into the second season, which is just absurd. I managed to bring in numerous players on as cheap a deal as possible. We're dealing in very different pools of players however, while Oli is still restricted in just how much he can offer - at least failed or ageing players from higher leagues will take a look in his direction. For me I'm still scouring the European lower-leagues looking for my players.

On the second to last game of the season it was Landskrona at home to Halmstads, and Oli was sitting top of the table. A red card in the 28th minute left him down to 10 men, and from there his team slipped. Their early domination continued no further and Landskrona became the more dominant force in the game. The harsh part for Halmstads is the eventual 2-1 loss against me ultimately left him in a precarious situation in the title race, and then failing to win the final game of the season meant another title slipped away from Halmstads.

Not too much to my season, it was very middle-of-the-road. With such a small budget we did well to hold our own, and in the end were about as far from Europe as we were relegation. With a reinforced budget for next season (wage budget up to 45k p/w) I hope to be in a much better position.

[oliscott]

End of season 5

A crushing season really, knocked out of the qualifying rounds by the best team Ive played yet in Bournemouth. The gulf in class was evident really and shows theres a long way to go in making Sweden top in the world rankings. However onto the league, again a familiar situation, three games left and if I won them all the title would be mine. Didn't go to plan as I won the first, lost the second to @santy001 after having a man sent off in the 26th minute and the third? Well I drew 1-1 allowing Djurgardens to slip in and beat me to the title by a point level on goal difference. GUTTED!

Quite a few signings made this year weighing in at a total of 11, I couldn't really get the players I wanted at Christmas and struggled to replace the goals from last year early on however did start the league fairly well despite that. Konishita stepped up and was almost at the ten goal mark before a long term injury ruled him out for the season, in his place Gribbin stepped up and despite being a bit part player the last season went on to be joint top scorer with 16. Once July hit I was able to poach the free transfer market for quite a few players I had been waiting for to really strengthen the squad. I brought in Niall Ennis from Wolves on a free who joined Gribbin as top scorer with 16 in 19 games, his acceleration and pace really helped him get past the last man to score. I decided to spend 100k on bringing in Perr Schuurs from ajax as I had been tracking him for a while for my centre back and didn't want to risk him negotiating with other teams, I hope in December to bring someone else in to partner him at the back to make the defence stronger. 

Aims for next year are to strengthen at the back again to shore up games and to get a bit of luck in the Euro Cup to hopefully progress to the group stages again as its a real money maker at this level. Last but not least I need to secure the league as Sant will be gunning for it now.

Best 11

Final league table

Transfers

Niall Ennis

Perr Schuurs

Callum Gribbin

[santy001]

Fifth Season Review: Landskrona (Santy)

I had some serious worries coming into this season. My squad was threadbare, but there was money in the budget. The problem was next to no one of worth was interested. I hunkered down until the summer window, and was positioned quite comfortably in midtable at that time and some of the players released from England as a result were interested.

Some of the early signings I got were players who had been unattached for a long time, Ike Ugbo from Chelsea, and Xande previously of West Ham (a 1.4m signing they played once) were my early doors signings of note. While not carrying the same prestige as ex-Chelsea, the real signing of the season was Tyler Walker from Nottingham Forest. With a haul of 18 goals in 30 games he was the standout player.

Key Players

Molberg has come in superbly and is attracting interest from a few mid-range European clubs. I was extremely tempted by a £600k bid from Turkey, but I didn't feel I could replace him as only 5% of sales will go to the budget.

Luxembourg international Nakache came in last season more as a placeholder, but he has excelled in midfield. With 5 goals and 3 assists in 21 games. Age is not on his side however.

Tyler Walker, the spearhead of the frontline, taking over from Gerrem (who deteriorated awfully during the lengthy off-season and I dropped to the reserves to see out his contract)

My Best XI:

Clearly showing that the team is heavily, heavily dependant upon one player to get goals. I really need to remedy this.

[santy001]

@Nobby_McDonald he hasn't arrived yet, but there will be a new record signing coming in soon enough. It will be the regen version of myself signed from Preston!

Sadly, I don't think I even had that much hair at 17.

Naturally I had to make the move to sign him before @oliscott tried to sink his claws into him.

[santy001]

Sixth Season Review: Contrasting fates.

The sixth season has proven to be a real divergence in the realities facing each of our clubs. While @oliscott won the title by 16 points I was floundering at the other end trying to scrape together the points to avoid relegation. In any other season I would have been relegated with my meagre points total of just 27. While Halmstads set a record number of points with the title picking up 71. 

While he did take the title comfortably, for another year Halmstads failed to reach the euro cup group stages. The coefficients are still slowly ticking upwards, although some much improved performances on my behalf could expedite this greatly.

[santy001]

Sixth Season Review: Landskrona (Santy001)

The day the goals dried up.

Despite adding to the squad and bringing some strength to the team, the biggest issue I had was scoring goals. For the longest time I was the lowest goalscorers in the league, despite boasting a very competent forward line. In fact, the issues would have made more sense if it was just me being outscored because the defensive side was far weaker than attacking. 

I had brought in Tyrese Campbell as the hopeful partner up top to Walker to bring in more goals. The season actually started quite well, in the pre-season cup games the team was quite freescoring. But then it stopped, and it just stopped completely. 

The big issue is morale/squad harmony.

The squad harmony goes terrible constantly, win 4-5 games and lose 1? Well that's <20% squad harmony. Get promoted but then the season finishes? That's <20% squad harmony. Even last season, I ended the year with it above 60% after a decent finish in mid-table. By the time I came to start this disaster season, it was below 20%. 

I need to find my team some anti-depressants.

[birkelse]

[oliscott]

End of Season 6

An opening day loss despite being 2-0 up had me wondering if this year was going to be a struggle, however from there on I only lost five games scoring 92 over the season (A joint league record) and conceding 35 (the lowest in the league). A record points total of 71, 16 clear of 2nd place saw me storm the league and bring home the title. Apart from a few silly loses even when battering the other team it was a great season and hopefully something that will see me build upon and cement my place at the top and with champions league football.

Things didn't go so well in the cup as I was knocked out in Quarters to Falkenbergs in a game I really should have had in the bag, they just took there chances and I didn't simply put. I'm yet to win the cup and its on my hit list for next season to tick it off the list.

The Euro cup campaign was going fine until I went up against Fiorentina, two goals in the first leg from Ennis in the first leg gave me a 2-0 lead to take back to Fiorentina however they crushed me 3-0 to end my European dreams, this year however I will be challenging for the champions league qualification so should I fail at that I should enter later in the qualification stages. As sant has said the aim is to raise the standings so Sweden automatically gets a spot without the need to go through qualifiers.

Not too many transfers in this year, just the permanent arrival of Carnesecchi after spending the last two years with me on loan and Guveli a signing from Fenerbache to shore up the defence. Departures this year included Falk who Roma poached for his minimum fee release clause of 2.5 million, I really wish I could have kept him as he had great potential to develop into something special. Dodi Lukebako was also poached by Lille for his minimum fee, another player who I would have kept. The minimum fees are normally put in there to entice players to join as a compromise for the low wages.

Standout players this year were both Callum Gribbin and Niall Ennis who knocked in 51 between them this year upfront, both are pretty young so I hope they'll keep on there upward trajectory. Abdou Diakhate was another standout performer in the DMC role contributing 15 goals to the cause and setting a new average rating record of 7.86, I do need to tie him down to a new contract soon though. Luka Adzic managed to knock n 15 goals from the left wing this year, If I could only find someone for the right wing to compliment him for next year.

So next year, hopefully another league title, the cup in the bag and qualification for the Champions League. The squad doesn't need much just another CB, MR and a ST then ill be happy.

League table

Transfers

Best Eleven

Abdou Diakhate

Callum Gribbin

Luka Adzic

Niall Ennis

Hakon Falks exit to Roma

Dodi Lukebakio exit to Lille

 

[oliscott]

Stage 1, Swedish Cup in the bag

[oliscott]

Qualified for the Champions League group stages and im GOD DAMN RICH!

[oliscott]

Piece of **** group as well.

[santy001]

Seventh Season Review: The Peaks and Troughs of Management.

Halmstads were crowned champions once more, but my battles with morale continued on their terminal decline. My season culminated in relegation. Meanwhile, as the season comes to a close @oliscott is in the champions league group stage with a chance of getting to the knockout rounds as his group sits very tight with all options still there. Anywhere from 1st - 4th is up for grabs in his group, which promises a bounty of wealth if it goes his way.

The question hangs over what I do at Landskrona now in the game. Morale has been in a rut since I joined and its no longer even the same team of players but the morale issue persists. 

[oliscott]

End of Season 7

So my aims for this season were to win the league, win the cup and qualify for the Champions League. CHECK, CHECK AND CHECK!

The league was won at a canter finishing 10 points clear of 2nd, a few loses along the way including an early season 3-0 drumming by @santy001 but it never really looked in doubt. Even when we go behind im confident well turn it around, the lads have a great bond with each other and really playing as a team.

The league cup was wrapped up with ease this year, an easy group of lower league teams meant I progressed to the quarters and from there I was home safe.

The Champions league, the main aim to be honest this year. I knew that getting there would change my finances for the better and allow me to really push on and compete. Wins against Kairat, Partizan and Basel meant I qualified for the group stages for the first time. Only to be met with a group that consisted of Barcelona, Inter and Lyon. I managed to get wins against Inter and Lyon, a fight back from 3-0 down against Barca gave me a draw and two loses against Lyon and Barca meant my final game would decide wether I qualified for the next round, qualify for the Euro Cup or drop out entirely. Onto the final game and to be honest Inter wiped the floor with me, the quality isnt there overall for me to make a sustained push against the big teams. However I did finish 3rd so that means Euro Cup football.

Only a few transfers in this year, a backup keeper in Matteo Soncin, a backup striker in John Karlsson who was third top scorer in the league last year after my two forwards. Karlsson ended up being a great bit of business for 450k as he started a lot of games due to injury to Gribbin and Ennis and plundered 18 goals in the process. Gacaliso Mohammed arrived for 12k to play in my DMC role as I was worried Diakhate would leave due to a minimum fee in his contract but has since signed a new deal, Mohammed has gone on to cement his place in the team and will hopefully be there for years to come. Felice D'Amico came in to play in the ML and MR spots but can also play upfront should I have the need.

Stand out players again this year were Gribbin and Ennis who when playing together just smash them in. Diakhate is popping up with 15+ a year from the DMC position and is really anchoring the midfield to. Last but not least is Karlsson who is popping in with the goals when the front two are injured.

The aim for next year is again the league title, cup win and to progress further in the Champions League to keep the money flowing and hopefully get Sweden to the point where champions league qualification is automatic and no qualifying rounds are necessary. Still need to look at signing a CB and MR to provide options for the squad too and Ive been given a 9 million budget this year so it be easier to bring players in.

Me and @santy001 will be going our separate ways this year as he was relegated in a bottle job of a season. However with morale issues looking to be on the turn it wont be long until he's back and asserts his dominance.

Final League Table

Transfer Activity

Best Eleven

Overall squad details

A fight back against Barca

[oliscott]

So I managed to stage a spirited comeback in the first leg of the Euro Cup against Kobenhavn to win 6-5 in the first leg, then beating them 2-0 in the second leg to advance a face Atletico Madrid who twonked me 4-0 in the first leg. I then managed to beat them 3-2 in the second leg but it wasn't enough. Hopefully my travels this year can take us further up the rankings and get that automatic qualification spot for the champions league.

[santy001]

Eighth Season Review: Rags (Landskrona) & Riches (Halmstads)

During the eighth season the one division gap had reappeared between myself and @oliscott. It took a long time on my front (and openly saying if a team in the division above offered me a job I would take it) to try and get the morale/squad harmony situation to turn around. It did eventually turn above around 50%, coming into the final 6/7 games of the season. Then it skyrocketed and ended up at 92% which seemed to come from nowhere.

On the other hand, largely uncontested Halmstads claimed another premier division title, and once again offered a strong hand in the champions league group stage. Sweden has risen to 15th in the coefficients, largely off the work of Halmstads as I've contributed nothing at all thus far. The country now has 2 CL spots and 3 EL spots. 

[Nobby_McDonald]

It all looks familiar for Oli. Win loads.

[santy001]

It's often the way it goes, I tend to focus an awful lot more on building my own squad whereas Oli is very happy to loan players in which is probably something I ought to do more of. I have made a bug post though because strangely my squad harmony is on a continual downward trajectory, between the end of the season (early November) and the beginning of January it dropped over 40% (from 92% to 51%) despite us being promoted as champions and just 2 defeats. 

I'm not sure if its an assistant manager issue (he does have low man management, but has high motivating) or perhaps a player attribute issue down to something like teamwork. 

It's all a part of the fun though, because Oli builds up this lead then he starts having to worry about me chasing him down. It works a lot better than our top tier team games have recently, I don't think we can ever fairly go back to those all the time spent doing research for FM and reading all the literature around it that SI provides makes it too easy for me to judge players. In the end last year there were a lot of players where Oli would say "I don't see it myself" only to bemoan the fact he pulled out of the deal for the player. 

[oliscott]

Ill always get the lead and then its for Sant to chase, I think the last two games have gone that way actually.

Currently I don't have a loan player in my squad as I've been give ok budgets to go out and buy what I need however I'm not adverse to loaning at any point if someone can improve the team and I cant fill the role permanently.

[oliscott]

End of season 8

Just a quick roundup of season 8 as the game continued before I could get many screenshots due to it continuing past its normal season end date because of my champions league continuation.

So I wrapped up the league and cup double this year but the biggest success was qualifying from my Champions League that included Bayern, Benfica and Juventus. Going into the las game of the group I needed to beat Bayern to qualify for the next round, a late winner saw me do just that and draw Manchester United in the next round which as of right now is yet to be played.

Quite a good season for a few players, 3 players managed to get above the 25 goals scored mark uncluding my DMC Diakhate, my LM D'amico and my ST Ennis so a good return for them. Another honourable  mention to Bengtsson my LB who notched up 27 assists this year!

So for next year the aims are to do the double again progress further in the Champions League providing I don't surprise everyone this year.

I have been given a 15 million budget this year, although I do feel my squad whilst lacking against the teams faced in the champions league this year for outright quality can still match them for team spirit and resilience. With that being said if something pops up that will improve the squad I will take the plunge. I like to buy as young as possible and develop players for the long haul so Ive already brought in two 17 year old defenders for record amounts who I hope will improve as the season goes on.

[oliscott]

Hardly the Leeds jobs is it

[Nobby_McDonald]

I think you should have a save where Santy manages Port Vale and Oli manages Manchester United.

[santy001]

I understand what you're going for there, but Manchester United are actually Oli's second team. Which would undermine it.

Meanwhile despite having grown up through the time when there was a Stoke-Vale rivalry in like 95-03 time it's not really a rivalry is it? If I remember my history right, most games between Stoke & Vale have been friendlies and local/regional cup competitions way back when. I dislike Crewe more than Port Vale (listening to Radio Stoke who seemed to bang on about them incessantly in the 90's), although I do think Vale should just be scrapped off. More to do with the fact that the local council would be much better off without football being a political thing within the city and of course it would be much better if resources were just in support of one team that could then arguably help bring more revenue and such to the area. Also revenues would be better for just 1 club as well, attendances etc would generally just be better. 

Since we weren't going to start our main game on the beta this year, we did start a Stoke-Leeds game. That ended up with me being promoted first season and Oli in the second, but then the full release was upon us so it got put to one side.

 

[santy001]

Eighth Season Review: Landskrona - Finally Turning the Corner

After a meek and embarrassing relegation during the seventh season I was having to really re-assess the way I was approaching the game. Morale issues were endemic, and while it feels the tide can be very, very difficult to turn on FM I considered perhaps my approach to signing players was letting me down. Generally I know what to look for in terms of good players, but you can't get the optimum players at this level - particularly when your board keeps serving up wage budgets of 30-40k per week or less.

I had spent a lot of my time trying to pick up younger players, who were physically strong in an area or technically strong. The hope would be to get a few who would over-perform, attract attention from the leagues above, sell them and get the money to buy better players. The problem was that despite selling players for good money, raising several hundred thousand a year. I was seeing 5% or even more likely, 0% added to my budget. I was bringing in players on frees, selling for a profit and seeing nothing back on my end which meant I was just worse off player wise. In addition to this, these players would typically not have the best mental attributes, and not the best hidden attributes either according to their reports. This was problematic.

When things then got hard due to the loss of the best/established players, a couple of adverse results would send the team morale into a nosedive. 

So back a tier lower I decided I needed some players less likely to be targeted, and perhaps reinforce the squad with numerous players who were strong down the mental column of attributes. 

Building a new Spine

First through the door was Kolbeinn Sigthorsson, of Ajax/Nantes. He's a tricky player to get much out of, but I've had effective performances out of him before in the premier league. He was 35, his legs were gone but mentally he was strong. Mostly used as a sub to help see out games with pressuring (albeit slowly) opponents he was extremely effective for what the club needed. 

Brazilian goalkeeper Weverton. Formerly of Atletico Paranaense he was 37, but mentally he was strong. He was also in general superior to the goalkeepers at the club. Unfortunately an injury hit him around mid-season, and he declined quite harshly during that time which meant he was of no real use in the second half of the campaign. However, he came in strong at a demoralised team and got us going from the back during that time.

Magnus Wolf Eikrem was the third, he had no pace but he had good technical and mental attributes. He offered something a bit different on the flanks, more measured passing, deeper crosses than the young pacey wide-men I had offered. With 7 assists in 20 games and 3 goals he proved to be very useful and utilitarian within the side.

Finally the crowning jewel of these old names. Benedikt Howedes, with more than 40 caps for Germany this was a signing I was really surprised to pull off. He'd been unattached since the summer of 2024. He had announced his retirement, and it was set for May 2025. But nevertheless, I thought I'd chance my arm, give him a contract and even if I only got 3 months out of him it would be a good start for my defence. As we rolled around to May he delayed his retirement by a week, then as we got towards that point he delayed it for a further 2 weeks. As this new date in June was coming up the announcement came his retirement was delayed until November - the end of the season. 

Howedes formed a rock solid partnership, I had to partner him with someone who had some pace so as not to leave him overly exposed but more often than not his tremendous reading of the game attributes compensated for the lack of pace. It was a shame that I never got the "reconsider retirement" option. I would have loved to have gotten one more year out of him and had what he brought to the table in the top flight. 

All in all it resulted in a very strong season, although the amount of draws were high the one problem with ageing players is of course the full 90 minutes. 5 of the 7 draws came down to goals in the last 10 minutes of games.

With all of the players deciding to call it quits by the end of their first season with me however, I was getting promoted without this experienced group. It presents some considerable worries for next year.