Nordic Nights | Chapter 9: Making KuPS Great Again - Part II

Hello again, and welcome to part II of this season's update. We left off with KuPS having qualified for the group stages of the Europa League which will accompany our fierce battle for the top spot in the league.

The journey so far...

• 2018 - started unemployed (Sunday League experience, no badges) before getting the job at Nosaby IF in the Swedish Second Division East on 3 August 2018. Took over with 9 games to go and secured a 9th placed finish.

• 2019 - finished runners up in the league, enough to make the playoffs which we went on to win to secure promotion to the Swedish First Division South. May MOTM Award winner

• 2020 - stormed the league and won the title against all odds to win automatic promotion to the Swedish First Division Elite. 2020 MOTY Award winner

• 2021 - after a terrible start and a struggle to sign the players needed, I resigned my post. Took the job at KuPS in the Finnish Premier League on 25 July 2021. Finished 7th in the league and reached Second Qualifying around of Europa League. They also won the Finnish Cup before I took over

• 2022 (present day) - Finnish Cup Winners for the second consecutive season, have qualified for the Europa League group stages, and currently lying in 3rd place in the Finnish Premier league. May MOTM Award winner. Season aims were to finish "around the top" of the Finnish Premier League, reach the Semi-final of the Finnish Cup and reach the Second Qualifying Round of the Europa League.

Premier League Performances

As we headed into September there were 8 more fixtures on the calendar. We sat comfortably in 3rd, trailing IFK Mariehamn and HJK by 1 and 2 points respectively. First up we were away to top of the table IFK Mariehamn and it didn't go well, eventually succumbing to them 5-2, our heaviest defeat in my tenure.

The rest of September's fixtures saw us win, draw then lose in what would prove to be the start of a slump. October served up 4 more fixtures where we managed 1 win against IFK Mariehamn, along with 2 bore-draws and a loss. Just 2 goals scored, and 1 conceded in those last 4 games - a pathetic effort!

KuPS 2022 - September and October results

We were comfortable in 3rd but those poor results towards the end cost us dearly. HJK held their nerve and eventually went on to win their 3rd consecutive league title, 4 points ahead of us.

Europa League Performances

Qualification to the groups saw us earn a massive £2.6M in TV money, an incredible achievement for us which took our bank balance from £800k up to a very healthy £3.6M.

KuPS 2022 - Europa League windfall

We were drawn in Group J against Sporting Lisbon, Atalanta and SC Freiburg. Looking at some of the other groups, I think things could have been a lot worse, but this was going to be a significant challenge for our boys.

My biggest issue with progressing this far was squad fitness. The team are really flagging having now played significantly more games than i had planned to at the start of the season. It's a constant rotation of players at the moment, and a few long term injuries to some key roles have really hit us hard.

The first game was a home tie to Sporting Lisbon. The aim here was to "not get beat by many" as i didn't see us getting close to their ability. In fact, we played really well, matching them at every turn before taking the lead in the first half. Their second half equaliser was enough to see them secure a draw but on another day, this would have been 3 points to us.

Next up was the return fixture, away to Sporting where they proved to be much too strong for us and ran out 2-0 winners. It could have been a lot worse and the boys did well to keep the score as it was. SC Freiburg were an even tougher opponent and despite an early goal, we would eventually lose 3-1. A well deserved draw followed by a disappointing defeat against Atalanta saw us knocked out of the competition with a game to go.

KuPS 2022 - Europa League Group J results

In the end, further progression wasn't to be this year. Reaching the groups was a surprise in itself, but qualifying to the next round was too big an ask. We may have crashed out of the group but we could be proud of the two draws against Sporting and Atalanta. Our final game would be away to SC Freiburg, but the match isn't scheduled until the New Year so I will include it in the next update and treat the game like a friendly instead.

End of Season Review

All things considered, this season's been a resounding success for us, as we achieved a reputable league position, reached the Europa League group stages and won the Finnish Cup.

KuPS 2022 - Season Review

Our loanee central defender won over the fans by winning the Player of the Season and Young Player of the Season Awards. He won't be returning for another year as his parent club want him in their First Team so we'll need to fill his shoes as well.

KuPS 2022 - End of Season Awards

Before the players went on their annual break, i did my usual review of the playing squad. If we want Europa League group stage football to be a regular thing then we will need to strengthen the squad, particularly the reserve 11, so we can fare better with squad rotation.

I also dabbled with the training schedules this year and now feel ready to take a more active role in changing how these work for the coming season.

Season Highlight

In end, we had a great season but after a rocky start in the league, coupled with some off the pitch issues, it could have been a lot worse. We had a fair few highlights, including the Finnish Cup win, our 14-0 aggregate demolition of St Joseph's in the Europa League and Montenegro joining the EU.

But my season highlight has to be reaching the Europa League group stages - an achievement that i thought we were still a few years away from reaching. The cash injection it provided is the start of what I hope is the "next level" for us as we attempt to put our stamp on the league, and further our successes in Europe.

Thanks for reading all the way to the bottom, you'll never get that time back you know! Until next time...

Nordic Nights | Chapter 8: Making KuPS Great Again - Part I

Welcome back to the most sparsely populated country in the European Union. It's Finland, where i'm currently in the role as Manager of Kuopion Palloseura, or KuPS for short.

I've freshened up the layout of this blog to hopefully make it easier to read, and have opted to split this update into two halves, this being the first instalment. I've also added a recap section in case you've missed any of the other save updates. Comments and feedback welcome.

The journey so far...

• 2018 - started unemployed (Sunday League experience, no badges) before getting the job at Nosaby IF in the Swedish Second Division East on 3 August 2018. Took over with 9 games to go and secured a 9th placed finish.

• 2019 - finished runners up in the league, enough to make the playoffs which we went on to win to secure promotion to the Swedish First Division South. May MOTM Award winner

• 2020 - stormed the league and won the title against all odds to win automatic promotion to the Swedish First Division Elite. 2020 MOTY Award winner

• 2021 - after a terrible start and a struggle to sign the players needed, I resigned my post. Took the job at KuPS in the Finnish Premier League on 25 July 2021. Finished 7th in the league and reached Second Qualifying around of Europa League. They also won the Finnish Cup before I took over

• 2022 (present day) - season aims are to finish "around the top" of the Finnish Premier League and reach the Semi-final of the Finnish Cup. There's no Europa League aims at this stage as i didn't qualify via the league last year and so will need to win the Finnish Cup to qualify for this years competition.

Close-season

I covered most of our off-season dealings last time so not too much to add here. The squad is in place and I have my customary 22 players, 2 for each position, all in the door and being put through their paces in training.

My youth intake was nothing to shout about, just the one decent prospect but doubt he'll get near the first team unfortunately. Our Youth facilities leave a lot to be desired and so I've started scouting and signing my own potential stars for the future. I'm pleased with a couple of CDs and a CM that we now have on the books and I'll try and get them loaned out ASAP for some match experience.

The only other item of note is that I've successfully completed my training course and am now the proud owner of a National C Licence which is prominently hanging above my imaginary desk in my fictional office.

Pre-season

More off-the-field shenanigans marred our preseason training as my new captain, Karjalainen, our star RW from last year, decided I was a fool for selling Penalainen (the AMC I got rid of). Being the captain, he's turned out to be quite influential in the dressing room and he successfully managed to turn half the team against me. This is the group of players who think I can't cut the mustard as it is and so now things really have gone from bad to worse.

And just to add to my woes, I've made a huge mistake in my desperate attempt to sign a decent central midfielder. I'm only permitted to include 3 Non-EU players in the match day squad and so opted to only look at Europe based players for the role. Mandovic is Montenegrin so no issues there, except that with all this Brexit chat, i didn't realise that Montenegro weren't in the EU? So it turns out he won't be able to play alongside my Brazilian superstar who i have on loan for the season, and instead have had to settle for a mediocre Finnish lad who's only 2 stars according to my coaches.

Before i get on to our performances in the friendlies, i need to explain how the league and cup games work here, which is a bit different to any other country I've managed in before. The Finnish Cup has a qualifying round where teams are seeded into groups and the games are played in February and March, before the season proper gets under way in April. I realised too late that this meant my AssMan* scheduled all our friendlies to take place after the cup games, before the league fixtures began, so we had no match prep done beforehand!

*I don't think I've mentioned this before by the way, but my AM is none other than Jari Litmanen of former Liverpool fame and he's actually pretty good, usually anyway!

Performances

Friendlies
As i mentioned earlier, our friendlies actually took place after the Finnish Cup qualifying games, but at least that meant that we were well warmed up for the warm up matches!

We played really well in all of them. All told, 7 games, 27 goals scored, 3 conceded - a perfect record to set us up for the season ahead.

KuPS 2022 - Friendly results

Finnish Cup
Fresh from last year's resounding success in the competition, this seasons aim was to reach the semi-final. We were seeded into a six-team group alongside Honka, FC Inter, JJK, RoPS and TPS where we would each play against each other once. The top four teams in the group will proceed to the Second Round.

We managed victory in 4 of our 5 games, succumbing to a 1-0 away defeat to arch-rivals Honka whoa re becoming a bogey team for us. Despite the dip, we topped the group and drew NuPS from the division below in the Second Round. We were too strong for them and ran out 6-1 winners before meeting Gnistan in the Quarter Finals. Another comfortable, albeit not convincing, 2-1 win saw us into the Semi Final where we would play AC Oulu and win again, this time 3-1. Let's face it, this wasn't the hardest of cup runs but as they say, you can only beat what's in front of you, and we're now into the final, our second in consecutive years.

KuPS 2022 - Finnish Cup results

The Finnish Cup final saw us drawn against Premier League rivals Honka again and the game would be played at their ground giving us a slight disadvantage from the off. That said, I did my homework and was quietly confident as we headed into the match, especially after our disappointing defeat in the group stage.

They took an early lead from a soft penalty, which we cancelled out before the break and 6 minutes into the second half we took the lead, a second goal for our loanee striker Jesse Tuominen. We were playing brilliantly, dominating possession and getting some good shots on target. We hit the post twice as well as the cross bar and i knew it was only a matter of time before the next goal went in.

Imagine my shock then, when it was our net that the ball ended up in! 2-2 at 67 minutes and a tense end to the game ensued, i couldn't believe we were headed to extra time when we'd been so dominant. But then, on 91 minutes, salvation in the wake of a hat-trick for our hero Jesse, and surely a Cup win for us in the process.

But wait, there's more. An unexpected twist in the tale, a delightful equaliser from our opposition in the 92nd minute to snatch glory from our fingertips and completely ruin our afternoon! Extra time and of course now the momentum was with them, i dreaded the outcome.

2022 Finnish Cup Final result

It turns out I had nothing to fear, Tuominen wasn't about to roll over, and instead chose to hit them hard on the break with a stupendous winner in the 98th minute. They couldn't get close to us after that and in the end the best team won. Here we are celebrating our success, and my first piece of silverware for the club!

Wild scenes as stewards struggle to hold back the crowds

This guarantees us another go in the Europa League this year, but more on that later on.

Premier League
The board wanted a finish "around the top" of the league which i interpreted as 3rd or higher which are the Europe qualification spots. The media had us down as 2nd favourites to title rivals HJK who have won the league for two years running now.

With some solid friendly results just behind us, we headed in to the opening fixture with some cautious optimism, despite being up against title rivals HJK at home. We were hoping for a win but a disappointing 0-0 draw was what we got. The alarm bells didn't really go off until the second game of the season against JJK which also ended 0-0. What was going on with my tactic? Why couldn't we score any goals?! Worst of all, we picked up 2 points from what should have been at least 4 in my opinion.

This was the moment Karjalainen decided to make his move and despite my best effort to assuage his concerns, i ended up losing my temper at his stubbornness and agreed to sell him. I offered him to clubs without success and so instead offered him a chance to play in the third tier of Finnish football for one of my affiliates, which I thought was more than fair. He declined the offer and so I promptly relegated him to my U20's where he was too old to play anyway. Eventually he agreed to talk to some clubs, but not until the window had closed, and so he managed to secure a move away for when the transfer window reopened in July.

In the next game, we were back on it, securing a convincing 5-1 win, before notching up 2 more consecutive victories to see us comfortably secure 3rd place. By the end of May, we'd taken a bit of a dip in form with a couple of draws and 2 losses, one of which was a home defeat to IFK Mariehamn. We were pegged back in 3rd, 10 points behind league leaders IFK Mariehamn who had been predicted a 6th placed finish at the start of the season. I resigned myself to the fact we probably wouldn't catch them, and instead turned my attention to drawing in 2nd placed HJK who were only 4 points ahead of us and also seemed to be under-performing against expectations.

In the meantime, i had my scouts look for a replacement RW and they managed to find me a brilliant Finnish lad, Robert Taylor from Odd, who I was able to loan in for the rest of the season. Just as I'd agreed the deal, the scouts notified me of another RW who was available for next to nothing, currently languishing in Ipswich Town's reserve side. His name is Nathan Holland and he's a product of West Ham's academy so i knew he'd be good. After the initial Scout report they sent me, i had him scouted until full knowledge and saw him as an absolute steal at £20k. We got the paperwork signed and he would join later in the Summer.

Meanwhile in the league, our fortunes started to take an upward turn. We earnt ourselves 16 out of 18 points in June to see us leapfrog HJK and draw within 1 point of IFK Mariehamn. Our resounding success in the league saw me also earn the June MOTM Award which was an added bonus, but perhaps the real icing on the cake was the news update that Montenegro had joined the European Union. It seemed the gods were finally smiling down on us and my midfield maestro that had missed half of the games so far, could now take his rightful place as a permanent fixture in the starting XI.

Get Out of Jail Free - Montenegro join the European Union

Into July and we couldn't maintain our winning streak, first losing to FC Lahti, and then two more bore draws against VPS and then HJK. We wobbled, and fell back down to 3rd, but still within touching distance of 1st and 2nd.

August saw us compete in just three league fixtures but the fatigue was really starting to show. Despite winning two and drawing the other, none of the performances were overly convincing and we now had 3 long-term injuries to our 1st and 2nd choice LW, plus one of our CD.

We were really struggling now with fixtures coming thick and fast and limited time to recover, let alone train. Hopefully we can hang on as we head into the final few months of the season.

KuPS 2022 - Premier League results (April to August)

Europa League
Having won the Finnish Cup, we qualified for the Europa League and the board set us the target of reaching the Second Qualifying Round.

We entered the competition at the First Qualifying Round where we drawn against Gibraltan side St Joseph's. I didn't really know what to expect, although i assumed we would win, i still fielded my best XI just to be sure.

In fact, we absolutely demolished them, going 7-0 up in the first half and finishing the first leg 10-0, an incredible scoreline I thought. All but 3 of my players scored a rating of 9 or higher in the game and we took that momentum into the return leg, still a solid 4-0 win but slightly less emphatic than the first encounter.

A Perfect 10

Next up were Polish outfit Legia Warsaw, who without a doubt would prove to be a much tougher opponent. We'd already achieved our season aim of reaching the Second Qualifying Round so this was just for fun now. The team were already starting to tire from having two games every week so i rotated the squad as much as possible. Incredibly, we took a decisive 2-1 home win in the first leg, before settling for a 1-1 draw in the return, giving us a 3-2 aggregate victory.

The Third Qualifying Round threw us Derry City from Ireland and I was much more confident heading into this one. The away leg proved to be much tougher than i expected and we were lucky to come away with a 1-1 draw. We weren't much better on our patch either, but at least secured the win we needed to take us through to the 4th Qualifying Round.

By now, the team were exhausted, but with this round being the only thing standing between us and the Europa League Group Stages, we ploughed on. The team we'd been drawn against were Real San Sebastien from the Spanish La Liga. A much more superior opposition to any we'd faced to date, i was prepared for defeat and pleased we'd made it this far anyway. To my surprise, we outplayed them in both legs, securing a 2-0 win at home, followed by a 2-1 win in the return fixture.

Incredible stuff, we were into the group stages!

KuPS 2022 - Europa League Qualifying results

The squad are shattered, it's been 2 games a week for 4 months now, with the exception of 1 week where it was just the one game! I hadn't anticipated this amount of success at the start of the season and I'm worried we really don't have the depth in the squad to keep going like this. Nonetheless, i'm optimistic for our potential in the league and am excited for the Europa League group stages. You never know, we might just pull of an upset!

To be continued...

Tune in next time to see how we fared in the Europa League Group stages, read up on the finale to the 2022 Finnish Premier League title race, plus I reveal my season highlight. Until next time friends...

Random Ramble | My (Unnecessary) Opinion on a Few Hot Topics

If you saw the latest issue of Latte Quarterly, you'll know that FM Adventure partook in an exciting new fitness
I'll continue my update on KuPS progress next time, but for now I'd like to share some thoughts and key learnings that I've experienced in FM over the past few weeks. Consider this an ode to some brilliant content creators, along with some interpretation from me for good measure.

I've been inspired by reading some superb blog posts recently, including @JLAspey's updates from his Moneyball save, @accordingtofm's piece on Implementing a Recruitment and Squad Evaluating Method and the FM19 Training Module - How it Functions guide from Cleon,
Daljit and Herne79, which isn't new, but i missed when it got posted last year. I should also credit @FMSamo who has written his own piece on training, and is what originally inspired me to find out more about it, which is how i got to Cleon et al's post in the first place. I thoroughly recommend giving them all a read if you haven't already, I learnt a lot from each of them.

Cleon's (see the article for other credits) in-depth assessment of training has been a revelation, not least because it starts off by telling you to forget everything you know about training, the best advice you can give anyone on this topic! FM19 was a Christmas present for me so I'm a bit later to the table this year and with the changes to training being so overwhelming to me, I've steered clear of it so far. @FMSamo admitted a similar reaction before taking the plunge and now I'm doing the same. I'm not sure how it will work out but my initial fear that i would screw it all up has been dispelled by the fact that changes take much longer to take affect anyway, which means you will soon spot anything that's going wrong, well before it becomes a big issue for you. That's the hope anyway! I'm also excited by the prospect of having more of a direct impact on a players development, assuming it goes well anyway.

As for player assessment, the more I've read of @accordingftofm's TBPCM approach and then @JLAspey's focus on player ratings, the more I've realised that somewhere along the road I forgot how to play the game. Before the days of star ratings from your scouts or coaches, you based your assessment of a player on their attributes, their stats and their form rating. Without ever meaning to, I've inadvertently replaced this process with an initial glance to the star rating, which when good enough, I follow up with a detailed view of their attributes to give me a holistic assessment of the player's credentials. Needless to say, this approach will see some success but truthfully I'm not sure of the "why" some things work and some don't, namely because it's missing that key component - actual performance rather than what they're theoretically capable of.

In real life I might ask a scout or coach for their opinion of a player and they'd tell me what they thought of them. I could also rank my players from 1-20 in certain key skills or attributes and both of these things would assist with assessing how good a player is, but none are more telling than rating a players actual performance in a game. Going forward i'll be putting much more emphasis on player ratings and key stats before deciding who to drop, or who i should sign.

Finally, a note on tactics. I read a lot of blogs on this topic, particularly as it seems to be something I've never quite got my head around. There's some great content out there but to be honest, i find most of it overwhelming and too intricately detailed. Most guides on tactic creation begin with
"how do you want the the team to play?". I realised this week that actually, most of the time, I haven't a clue how i want the team to play, other than the obvious of scoring more goals than the opposition while simultaneously stopping them from scoring themselves.

I often think back to first time I ever realised my ineptitude for tactics, and my subsequent discovery of wwfan's 12 Steps to Play FM. It's a great article, and I find it tremendously helpful, even now 5 years on, along with numerous other blog posts and articles written over the years. What I've really come to realise more recently is that I just don't have the real world knowledge and understanding of tactics. But that doesn't have to be a bad thing. In fact, if you create a template tactic and you win more games than you lose with it then you can call that success, at least I do anyway. I know this is obvious for most people but it's taken me a long time to get to that understanding, always frustrated that other manager's seem to have grasped this area of the game much better than me.

I'm a lifelong West Ham fan and we talk a lot about the West Ham Way as a desired playing style that we're aspiring to. I know a lot of fans from other clubs don't really get what we're on about and i think if you asked 100 Irons fans what they think it is, you'd probably get 100 different answers. I mention this because it makes me realise that FM is exactly the same in that we all play it differently, and no one person has the right way to do it.

My interpretation of the West Ham Way is best epitomised by a handful of West Ham players we've had playing for us in recent years - Matty Etherington, Carlos Tevez, Scott Parker and currently Mark Noble and Declan Rice to name a few. These players gave their heart and soul in (almost) every game - tirelessly running around the field, chasing the ball and genuinely trying their absolute hardest to succeed. I would happily watch West Ham lose week in week out if every player on the field was visibly giving everything they had, and that for me is the West Ham way.

Bringing this segway back to FM tactics, I interpret these traits as a combination of Work Rate and Teamwork, and rate these along with pace and first touch as the most desirable attributes for all of my players, wherever they are on the field. This is a much more stripped down version of what @accrdingtofm was talking about, but it lends itself to my very basic understanding of "how i want my team to play" which is 1. try your absolute hardest, 2. run faster than your opponents (I am FMathlete after all!) and, 3. use good ball control to stay out of trouble.

That's enough of a guiding principle for me. I'm sure it's no where near detailed enough for most people but as I've realised this week, there's a lot of detail in the game if you want to look for it, but there's also a lot of noise which can be distracting. For me, I want to get back to basics - get involved in training, put more emphasis on player performances and accept my tactical shortcomings, we all have strengths and weaknesses and this is definitely the latter for me - and I'm ok with that! Cheers for reading this far!

Nordic Nights | Chapter 7: Cause for Optimism

We left off with KuPS floundering in 10th place out of a total of 12 teams, and in desperate need of getting some points on the board. The media had predicted us to finish 5th so we were some way off the pace in the league. On the positive side, as mentioned previously, they had already emerged as League Cup winners and secured next season's European football so that was great news for me in terms of squad building, given the draw that European football should have on prospective new signings.

Before we get into that though, a quick reminder of this year's aims. A generous transfer and wage budget along with an achievable goal of mid-table finish in the league and second qualifying round in Europa League

Board expectations for remainder of the season

The team had already made the second qualifying round for the Europa League and so my main focus is going to be getting some points on the board in the league.

Squad Assessment

I went through my usual method of club and squad assessment - it's a fairly detailed process which i'll one day type up for others to look at. For now though, may assessment was we are short on good strikers, and have a serious imbalance of homegrown and foreign players.

The Finnish Premier League rules state i can't have more than 3 foreign players in my match day squad, and must have at least 9 home grown players in the squad, with 4 on the pitch at all times. This meant promoting a couple of Under 20 players and taking my loanee Brazilian centre back out of the match day squad to be used as a straight replacement for my other foreign centre back. Not ideal, but necessary to make things work.

I also got two 18 year old strikers in on a free, both with good attributes for the first team and with huge potential. With these additions I was confident of getting the results we needed to get out of the relegation battle and back to mid-table safety.

We had a good defensive minded midfielder in Gabriel who had been underutilised prior to my arrival, despite his attributes having him down as one of our best players. I decided to setup with a 4-1-2-2-1 formation so we could get he most of him, while simultaneously reducing the number of strikers we need on the field.

League Performances

When i took over we had 16 games left to play. We also had several games in hand due to our Europa League commitments - a few teams had played 4 more games than us which explained why we were so far down the league. Assuming we could win them all, 12 points would see us move up to top half, assuming the goal difference swung in our favour as well.

My first game in charge was against JJK, currently ranked 7th in the league. We played ok, but couldn't score and definitely weren't not good enough to win, and so we came away with a point - a bore draw. Better than nothing but even with my limited tactical knowledge, i could see the team hadn't fared well with the formation. My striker had next to no chances on goal and the defensive approach didn't really suit our stature over the other teams in the division.

League results

I changed the tactic to my usual 4-4-2 and in the next 5 games we were much better, notching up 3 wins and a draw which saw us climb a place in the table. In the remaining 10 games we were a bit hot and cold, but 4 wins, 2 draws and 4 losses were at least enough to finish a respectable 7th in the league. On the whole we had a few disappointing results against lesser opposition so we have some improvements to make for next season.

Europa League Performances

My second game in charge was a the first leg of the Europa League Second Qualifying Round where we were up against Rostov from Russia. We played well, delivering a solid 1-0 win to take with us to the second leg. Here we were outplayed and despite a first leg win, they overpowered us in the return fixture where we lost 2-0. I wasn't too disappointed in the end though, we achieved our goal and left plenty to build on next term.

Preparation for Next Season

With the season concluded i had a few administrative tasks to attend to while the players went on holiday. I had the usual in-depth assessment of the team, but I also had a number of disgruntled players. It seems my in-game reputation was too low for the players liking and so i had very poor backing from the team and therefore, a dressing room on the rocks.

My only real solution for this to wait it out, win more games and gradually prove that i know what i'm doing. However, this was further complicated by the fact that once i'd done my squad assessment for next season, one of the players that was surplus to requirements was the main complainant. He was eating up £1k p/w on wages so i really needed to move him on, despite the obvious backlash I'd get for it.

I managed to offload him and now have half a dozen players who think that was a mistake. Hopefully the board stick with me long enough for the new season to start so i can prove my worth.

Transfers - in and out

In terms of new signings, i resigned a couple of loanees that we'd had last season and apart from a few backups, i got a new central defender and a new central midfielder. My tactic was originally utilising a BBM-D but i was find in it very difficult to find a suitable player for this role and so have switched to a CM-D. Will be interesting to see what difference this makes.

Inspired by @JLAspey's Moneyball approach when scouting this player, i used player ratings and other stats as part of my decision to find the right player. Marko Merdovic is a 23 y/o from Grbalj in the Montenegrin league and whom i signed for 80k, and is now worth £130k which i'm quite happy about. His average ratings have been above 7 for the past two seasons, and he's contributed a few goals and assists too. Hopefully he can prove the difference for me.

Nordic Nights | Chapter 6: Over and Out

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!

Nordic Nights | Chapter 5: No Time for Losers

Pre-season review

Keeping with tradition, I holidayed through January, (somewhere hot I think!) and got back in time for pre-season. My Assistant Manager's contract expired and I took the chance to hire someone new with better coaching credentials. I also brought in another new coach, a new scout and and physio.

My new AM was much more organised than his predecessor and got us 6 friendlies sorted straight away. The step up to the First Division is quite a jump and given my bad start last year, I was keen to properly bed in my new recruits and create some squad harmony, while also testing ourselves against some decent opposition.

The teams we played were a mixed bag of similar and higher reputation and so I was pleased with our record of 3 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses, a particular highlight being the 6-1 drubbing away to Almhults IF. By this point, the team were well versed in our tactic and seemed to be making friends. It's fair to say i was optimistic we could survive a relegation battle and stay in the division.

In complete contrast to last season, we managed to take 7 points from our opening 3 games which rocketed us up to the dizzy heights of 4th in the league. Don't worry though, we were promptly brought back down to reality with 2 successive defeats which put us in mid table, albeit the bottom half.

These opening games sum up our season really. A couple of wins, marred by the occasional draw or loss. I became so centred in how we did game to game that I genuinely didn't notice our gradual rise up the league until mid-way through the season when we sat comfortably in 2nd place.

Barring 2 consecutive defeats in mid-July, the second half of the season would see us lose just once more alongside 3 draws and a staggering 9 wins. Despite our impressive form in a division where we were expecting to struggle, we entered the final game of the season on level points with 2nd placed Mjallby AIF, ahead only on goal difference.

Our final game had us pitted away against mid-table Skovde AIK while Mjallby would play away to 3rd placed FC Trollhattan. We played a blinder in the first half, and most of the second too with the score at 3-0 on the hour mark. A goal for them in the 63rd minute, followed by another in the 83rd made for a stressful end to the game but we hung on and ran out overall winners. Meanwhile, Mjallby ultimately lost 1-0 and so it was official, we were First Division South Winners and were going up to the big time, the First Division Elite!

We are the champions!

To round off an unexpectedly great year, i was also to be crowned Manager of the Year by my peers, and given the honour of managing the First Division South Rookie team in their annual friendly match again the First Division North Rookie team. I employed my usual tactics and was pleased to see a couple of familiar faces in the squad as my Poacher and Advanced Playmaker both made the side as well. Unfortunately though, it wasn't to be me and we succumbed to a lacklustre 1-0 defeat. Not my proudest day but not something I was too hung up about.

MOTY

Squad Rebuild

Like a ships sail tacking into the wind, I swung my attention to planning for next year. If i thought the step up from Second Division to First Division was big, the climb to the Elite League was a quantum leap. The only similarity i can really use to describe it is it feels like taking a League Two team straight into the Championship and bypassing League One.

The board granted another increase to my wage budget which gave me an extra £2k p/w to play with. For reference, most of my players earn less than £100 p/w with a handful on around £200 - £300 p/w. I immediately relegated 4 of my starting 11 to my reserve 11 as i didn't believe they would cut it week-in-week out at this level. I also had a couple of retirees and two backups unhappy at the lack of first team football.

All told, i was on the hunt for a new BWM, a left winger, striker and right wing back for the first team, along with a couple of reserves to ensure squad depth. It was important the new players complimented what i already have in place. For example, I've hung on to my star striker, who notched up 18 goals last season (more than anyone else int he division), and i wanted a big target man that he could play off as i'm sure it will lead to more chances.

As I've discovered in the past, the vast majority of players believe our rapid rise up the leagues will be short lived and it won't take long for us to slide our way back down again. As a result, convincing quality players to join has proved extremely difficult which is frustrating to say the least. I have the budget to buy them and to pay them well but they won't give me a chance to even negotiate with them!

This conundrum has led me to two solutions. The first, i will hire good quality (as opposed to exceptional quality), hard working players for the first team - think 3 starts rather than 5. The second, is i need to invest in some youth prospects. My thinking is if (or 'when' hopefully) i stay up, i'll likely continue to have the same problem, but with some good young players coming through, hopefully i can blood my own superstars instead.

I manged to secure the services of a good quality left winger, a decent target man reserve centre back, reserve BWM, and best of all, a highly rated 19 y/o full back. My only gap that needed filling was my starting BWM. My new reserve player was ok and will come good for future years, but for now i need something that can compete at this level.

Now that the team is starting to settle, i don't see the point in signing someone unless they're exactly what i need so i'm biding my time and waiting for the right man. The search is still on, with every recommendation coming from my scouts turning out to be lower league level, or severely lacking in the key attributes i need. I'm sure he's there, skulking in the shadows, waiting to be discovered!

Staff changes

Unfortunately for me, my AM got offered a managers position at Hogaborgs BK in the Swedish Second Division and who am i to stand in the way of his career progression. I sent him on his way with my good graces and promptly began searching for a replacement. Unlike the rest of my staff hires, my new Assman came by way of recommendation from one of the coaches, and he's proven to be quite the upgrade. Defensive coaching attribute at 15, good with the kids and JCA and JPA both at a respectable 7 (which is good for my regional reputation team!).

With most of the squad assembled and my new staff in place, i noticed the days shortening as the nights drew in and before i new it, another Christmas morning dawned and i was relishing my annual holiday in January...

Nordic Nights | Chapter 4: Taking the Scenic Route

Back from a nice break and straight into pre-season. The team reported back in top condition, most likely a result of having 4 months to do nothing but relax, or maybe work out at the gym.

I had hoped the Board would show some willing and increase my wage budget but they opted to keep it the same which meant i was spending £300 over the budget each week. I should point out that this is a significant amount for Nosaby who's total wage budget is around £1200p/w. Despite my best efforts i could not offload my 6 veterans that were surplus to requirements and so i focused my energy on other things, hoping the Board would give me some patience of results were good.

They asked for a top half finish but given the discontent of some of my players, i instead opted for the target of reaching the playoffs. I didn't get any more money for it but my squad were much happier with our ambition.

I had a few affairs to get in order before the season started, beginning with squad registration and short number allocation.

I'm a big fan of reallocating shirt numbers to match the position the player is suited to. For example, 2 and 3 are for the full backs while 9 and 10 are the strikers etc. I then apply the same logic to the reserve 11 as well so 13 and 14 are given to the back up full backs and 20 and 21 to the reserve strikers.

I find this particularly useful when in the lower leagues as you're far less likely to know the players you're working with. Therefore it's hard to remember which position, role and duty they're supposed to be playing in, but more importantly, which one is the first choice and which one is the backup. Because I will know my formation and tactic quite well, I can use the shirt numbers to tell me the position, role, duty and comparative ability of each player.

Squad List

Next on my to do list is to look through what my assistant had the team working on in training. Given my in-game experience on the training pitch, I think I'm better off leaving the bulk of it to my Assistant, but i did want to review the individual positional training. He had some of the players working on positions that they were highly unlikely to play in, while their familiarity of the position i did want them in was still quite low. I made this adjustment for the next month and will check back again to see if any others need changing in the future. I, like many other FMers, tend to focus on the players attributes for the position, rather than their familiarity with the role as this will improve the more he plays there anyway.

The next thing I notice is my assistant hasn't set up any pre-season friendlies despite me asking him to organise it. With time already against us I schedule half a dozen games against similar and higher reputation teams. and am delighted to see we win all 6 comfortably which gives me tremendous optimism for the coming season.

Unfortunately for me, my optimism was short lived. I took a pitiful 1 point from my opening three games and by which point was fearing the worst. With the number of new signings I had made, I was sure that squad harmony was to blame for my poor start, but since that's beyond my control at this point, I ploughed ahead regardless.

In the two previous games where I had lost, the scores were 3-2 and 4-3 which proved my tactics were ok from a goal threat stand point, but I needed to shore up my leaky defence. I made a few changes and tweaked the tactic slightly to get stuck in and close down more. To say that it worked is a huge understatement. I would go on to win all of my next 9 games, including the home fixtures against both of my local rivals, and best of all we conceded just 3 goals in the process.

We rocketed to the top of the league and stayed there for most of the season. With a handful of games remaining, and an 8 point gap at the top I was confident we would secure promotion with ease. Of course the God of Sod with his crazy laws had other ideas. Not only did we let our lead slip, but we dropped down to second with 2 games left and ended up finishing there.We would have to contend the playoffs to get promoted.

I was expecting a playoff with one of the relegated teams for the First Division but in fact we were drawn into a group with two other teams, that then progresses to a knockout semi final and final.

A lot of hoops to jump through but I accepted our fate and got stuck in. We lost the first group game, but one the other one comfortably and progressed in goal difference. We won our semi final across two legs as well and made it to the final where we ran out comfortable winners.

We were up! Promoted to the Swedish First Division South for the first time in our history. A proud day for all and a nice achievement so early in my career.

End of Season Awards

Thanks to the massively over complicated playoff system, we finished the season almost at the start of the Transfer Window and so I only had a little time to assess our needs.

The board showed their true colours and immediately doubled my wage budget ready for the new season. If anything, I had too much money now! I quickly learnt that my top targets that we'd been scouting throughout the season still saw me as a low level team. I had some luck getting transfer fees agreed but before I could negotiate a contract, the players were telling me they had no interest in signing.

I picked up some good free agents, including a new front line, a Croatian midfielder and a new full back. In the end the squad were looking really good just before the Christmas break.

My only worry was the sharp decline of my no. 1 keeper. My promising young reserve goalie isn't ready for first team football so I picked up an established keeper from the first division for the astronomical fee of £1k.

Nordic Nights | Chapter 3: Upwards and Onwards

Uh oh! The transfer deadline is in 1 week! Worse still is the fact that I don’t have a scout in place to help identify some transfer targets and it will likely take me all week to find one anyway. My Assistant Manager (with a score of 1 for JCA and 1 for JPA) does his best to help and suggests half a dozen youth prospects. I sign them all up to a trial so I can assess them better over the coming week.

Meanwhile, I have my first game in charge later today - away against Osterlen FF - and in the absence of a scout (did I mention I don't have one!), I can’t get an opposition report to look at. Instead I look at what the media can give me which isn’t much to go on. They were predicted a mid table finish and are punching above their weight in 4th. They are unbeaten in 4 games and have only lost 3 all season– this will be tough.

I set the team up using the default templates, but switching the wide midfielders to supporting wingers and the two striker roles to a Pressing Forward and a Poacher as these better suit the players I have. I have a solid back 4, a good goalkeeper and two decent strikers so am hopeful of a good result.

First game in charge

After going down a goal in the 3rd minute, I thought I was in for a hiding, but I stuck with the tactic and trusted the team to rally. They left it late but with 2 goals of our own in the 73rd and 81st minute I was delighted to see us recover.

As it turns out, the win against Osterlen FF would prove to be the start of us going unbeaten for the rest of the season. A total of 5 wins and 4 draws saw us climb from 12th up to 9th place in the league, closing the gap to our target of 7th to just 3 points in the end. I was surprised to see such a quick upturn in our performances. Prior to me taking the job, Nosaby had managed a meagre 3 wins in 17 games.

First season remaining fixtures

End of season overview

With the first season completed I turn my attention to rebuilding the squad for next term. Out of the youth prospects my assistant suggested, I signed four of them up as cover for the first team before the window closed.

Our last game was end of September and the window doesn't reopen until end of November. With no money, and nothing but time on my hands I set about assessing the the team and identifying the areas that needed strengthening. The key area that needs improvement was in central midfield, but I also wanted a backup DR, GK and ST.

Meanwhile, some of my key players were becoming frustrated with our underachievement and were threatening to go elsewhere so I had that to contend with too. I also had some staff vacancies that needed filling.

My assistant continued to suggest potential signings which i was able to give trials to. I eventually got myself a scout and filled the other open staff roles as well. This helped a lot, particularly on the recruitment and training side of things. I was able to scout some of the players who were set to be released by other clubs and managed to utilise the free transfer market to make some good signings.

A couple of goal keepers, a few central midfielders and a reserve full back all came in, but the one that really excited me was my new central defender, Joakim Hall, a young and talented defender with great mental attributes. He was a perfect replacement for my ageing veteran centre back.

Incredibly, i had the team assembled a month before the window reopened. I had half a dozen players that I wanted to move on and so promptly put them on the Transfer List and offered them out to clubs. They were taking me over my wage budget but i knew once they were gone things would be back under control.

Before i knew it, the Christmas festivities were upon us and then a New Year dawned. My first match of the season wouldn't come until 17 April so i took January off, ready to come back and get the team in shape and ready to go again. Let's hope for a continuation from last season this year.

Nordic Nights | Chapter 2: First Day of School

Day one of a new club is always an exciting prospect, but much like the first day at school, you usually don't know anyone and there's a lot to take in as you get into the role. It can be overwhelming but i always focus on the mountain of admin that needs doing before I can cycle to the next day. First up, I take closer a look at the club I’ve just inherited.

Club Overview

They were founded in 1956 and operate at semi-pro status with a ½ star local reputation. Finances are ok, some wiggle room in the wage budget but no transfer budget, and despite the Chairman telling me the club has a rich history, it’s clear to see we don’t, having never won any silverware and never having been promoted above Division 2. In fact the Nosaby IF have only spent two years in Division 2, the 2014 and 2015 seasons and were promoted last term once more.

On the positive side, the club were predicted to finish 4th in the league which suggests a fairly strong team, despite our current placing of 12th. The Swedish Division 2 East Gotaland is the 4th tier of Swedish football and has 14 teams in it with the bottom two facing instant relegation and the 12th placed team going through a playoff to survive. Nosaby IF haven’t gotten above 11th all season.

The Board have asked me to secure a top-half finish so I’m looking at 7th and above, a big ask with only 9 games left, just 14 points on the board and a massive 12 point gap to 7th placed Assyriska Turabdin IK. Among the remaining fixtures, I will play away to one of our local rivals, IFO Bromolla IF, which I’ll look forward to.

Next on today’s agenda is a SWOT analysis and I’ll begin with comparing the team to the rest of the division. I know the media already predicted us to finish 4th so I assume we have a fairly strong squad.

In the week between my interview and taking the job, Nosaby secured a much needed three points at home to fellow relegation strugglers Asarums IF. A closer look at the match report shows we used a 4-4-2 formation and judging by the stats, we dominated possession for the 90 minutes. I’ll likely use the first 11 for this game as a starting point within the squad so as to encourage somecontinuity and momentum.

But before addressing the squad needs, first I’ll look at the staff. I’m short in a few roles, namely a Coach, Head of Youth Development, Chief Scout, Scout, Head Physio and Physio. I immediately place adverts for all of those roles and will have to wait for some applicants before I can start to fill the vacancies*.

Current Staff

I’ll also use this time to assess where I might need to make changes later in the season as staff contracts start to expire. One thing is for sure though, I’m happy with my Assistant Manager and feel I can trust his judgement as we start looking at the squad and our tactics.

I like to play possession-based football and am a big fan of a 4-4-2 with pacy wingers, a big target man and a whippet of a poacher. My central midfield needs a defence minded disruptor as well as a forward thinking playmaker and in defence I like to see as much pace as possible across the back.With all that in mind I use the template tactic for Control Possession and adjust the formation to 4-4-2. I’ll likely amend some of the roles and duties as I delve into the individual capabilities of the players but for now I’ll leave them as is.

I start by populating the positions with the 11 that started the last game and then go position-by-position to compare the attributes for players available (I try and avoid the star ratings to begin with since I often find these misleading when working out your best 11). It’s a small squad so this doesn’t take too long. My DR wing back has no back up and we’re currently playing our best striker in central midfield, plus his partner in the middle has low ratings. I also have no back up wingers in the side which could be an issue given the amount of running they will be doing in the games. Beyond that I’m happy enough with the quality of players in the other positions and am pleased to see 2 or 3 decent prospects in around the first team.

Now I’ve identified the immediate requirements I would usually set some scout assignments up but since I’ve no recruitment staff that will have to wait for now*. In terms of a longer term plan, I will attempt to build a 23 man squad with 2 players for each position and 3 for the Goalkeeper. This will be made up of 12-15 key and first team players who will be supported by some backups and young prospects. I expect that to take me a couple of seasons to get it how I want it.

Next up is Training which I’ll leave with my Assistant for now since he knows the squad better than I do. Over the next couple of weeks I’ll look into this a bit more and start making adjustments as I see fit.

At this point I’m ready to click continue and start getting to know my squad a little better.

*NOTE: you will notice I don't use the Player and Staff search feature. This has to do with how I like to play the game. For many years i enjoyed the benefit of the searching for stars but in recent times, I've found it much more enjoyable (and probably more realistic) to rely on my staff to pick out players to look at. Try it if you haven't already!

Nordic Nights | Chapter 1: Interview Practice

Despite it usually taking several months before jobs start becoming available, I had an interview offer within a day of going on holiday. I quickly realised that the Nordic leagues start much earlier in the calendar year and play through the Summer months to make the most of the daylight hours, and so of course they were already nearing the end of their seasons by this point.

The club in question was Gällivare Malmbergets FF, playing in the Swedish Division 2 North league. As with most clubs at this level, they are Semi-Professional with only a Local reputation but a quick glance at the squad and there were some obvious issues. A very small squad of just 18 players, plus a significant shortage of defenders and wide midfielders, had central midfielders filling the vacant positions. Despite the obvious opportunity to rebuild the team, the absence of financial backing was clear to see and I knew this challenge would be one too far for me. I politely declined the interview and returned to my holiday.

The next interview offer took a week and a half to come in, this time from Kotkan Työväen Palloilijat or KTP for short, playing in the Finnish First Division. Unlike Gällivare, KTP had a large squad which usually means there’s opportunity to sell and save on wages, plus the players were of a much higher value and the club had some money too. I completed the interview, committing to watching the finances and to signing young players for the first team, a philosophy that both the board and I were keen on. The job seemed too good to be true for my first manger role so I wasn’t overly optimistic about getting it. While I waited on their decision, I carried on with my holiday.

Another two days and three interview offers came in from the Swedish Division 2. IFK Uddevalla in the North league, Nosaby IF in the East league and then Newroz FC in the South league. All three clubs were in the relegation zone of their respective leagues but a quick assessment of their club stature and potential and only Nosaby IF gave me any sense of appeal. In particular, they hadn’t ventured far up the league structure having only been formed in 1956 and so I attended the interview, which went well, and now I await my fate.

I’m still hoping for KTP but Nosaby IF will still be an interesting prospect. It took another week before KTP confirmed they had gone in another direction, and another few days before Nosaby IF came in with a job offer on an 18-month contract. I accepted the offer and by 12:02pm on 3rd August it had reached the local press. I have my first job in football management.

Nordic Nights | Prologue

This blog will centre around my journey from an unknown English manager to the fame and fortune of continental success on Football Manager 2019.

Creating an alternate reality

In previous versions of the game I’ve successfully been hired for my first job by clubs in National League and National League North/South which are ranked in the game with 1 ½ and 1 stars respectively. As such I looked at other 1 and 1 ½ star ranked leagues and found Denmark, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Iceland, Norway, Romania, Scotland, Slovakia, Sweden and Turkey all offer playable leagues at this level.

The appeal of a Northern Europe save was too much to resist with all of the Nordic leagues being available alongside most of the UK and Ireland, plus France. However, I omitted Ireland, along with Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Turkey as I really didn’t fancy starting in any of those leagues.

I usually always end up taking my first job in England but I’m up for a new challenge this time so have chosen to load Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden as Playable, with England, Scotland and France as View Only for now while I get my career off the ground. Keeping up with news and updates from the latter three might come in handy in a few years time if I’m looking for my next opportunity, at which point I will look to switch them to Playable and load some more nations as View Only for the same reason.

Finally, I’ve customised the database to include all but the Players Based in Nation and Players of Nationality for Europe, North America, South America and Asia and then opted for Large which gives me around 95,000 players in the game. I’ve also left attribute masking on as real-life managers wouldn’t have instant access to unknown players without the help of their scouting network.

A (future) star is born

Now that we have the game world established, it’s time to create our manager profile. He’s English, in his early 30’s, born in my hometown of Braintree and is a lifelong fan of West Ham United.

I’ve never played football to a standard beyond Sunday League and I don’t have any professional qualifications yet so these settings are adjusted accordingly. This gives us limited scope in terms of attribute levels with only 4 extra points available to allocate under each of the Coaching and Mental skills. I’ve stuck to my personal strengths of Fitness and Mental for Coaching, and then Adaptability and Man Management for Mental.

As mentioned previously, I’ll be starting as unemployed and will immediately take a holiday while my assistant applies for jobs on my behalf at all lower league clubs. Since I don’t have a club yet I'm not worried when we start start the game and so have opted to begin in Sweden at the latest date possible which is 9th July 2018.

And away we go! Thanks for reading so far, I hope to have an update for you shortly with an interview offer or two.