For the first time since taking over at Nosaby, I've failed in having my squad assembled by the end of the year. I'm still missing a key piece to the puzzle: a Ball Winning Midfielder. I'm keen to find the right player for this role, someone with good strength and stamina, who has the ability to disrupt attacking play and pass his way out of danger and into an attack of our own.
Needless to say this is proving quite challenging, made harder by the fact my club reputation is impacting my ability to sign anyone decent. We're also still a part time club with a limited scouting range of just Sweden which doesn't help. I'm starting to wonder if I've already taken Nosaby as far as they can go, but i'm determined to at least go through this season and see how they fare against the big(ish) boys.
I kicked off my pre-season friendlies with a home game to world famous IF Elfsborg, where we ran out 5-3 winners. I made the mistake of starting to think this season might not be as hard as i thought, but i was swiftly brought back down to earth with 6 successive defeats, scoring just 3 and conceding 15! Still, having been a lifelong West ham fan, i know that pre-season mean very little compared to playing competitive fixtures.
Somewhere in the midst of those losses, i signed my BWM, a 30-year old Swede with good but not great attributes. I was happy enough with him, but he's not exactly what i was looking for.
So with my team in place and pre-season training complete, the new season beckoned. The bookies had us predicted to finish bottom of the league, with 300-1 odds of winning it. As expected, we were in for a tough season. By the midway point we'd notched up 3 wins, 3 draws and 9 defeats - 6 of them consecutive, and including a 7-2 loss at home, a particular low point.
My 17th game of the season took saw us play at home to league leaders Sirius IF. By this point i'd made so many tweaks to my tactic that i barely recognised it anymore. I reverted to how i'd played last year and was pleased to see us lead for most of the game, conceding an equaliser in the 91st minute - gutting!
Despite what was still a positive result, I knew that the bubble had burst and my time at Nosaby IF was coming to an end. After a few more days hesitation, i decided to resign. There were still enough games left in the season that a new manager might be able to save them, but my patience had worn out. Our inability to sign the players we needed (and I wanted) had started to take it's toll and i didn't have the energy to go down and rebuild again.
I promptly began applying for some vacant posts in England, Scotland, Belgium, Finland and Norway and awaited their response of a chance to interview. A couple of interviews went well but ultimately ended with them going in another direction, until finally a job offer came through from Kuopion Palloseura, better known as KuPS, in the Finnish Premier League. Currently languishingly in 14th place, one place above the relegation zone, but with 4 games in hand, they were expected to finish in the top 3 at the start of the season.
A fresh start
They have already won the League Cup earlier this year, and as such have qualified for Europe next year, not to mention currently being in the 2nd qualifying round for the Europa League this year too. The club want a mid-table finish which i think is an easy ask with 9 games to go, and have thrown in £250k transfer kitty to get me started.
I'll get to work on assessing the squad and will report my progress next time. Thanks for reading!