The seventh season of this Football Manager 2021 save in Sweden with GAIS was the longest one. I mean in terms of the real-lifetime that took me to finish the season. But I enjoyed playing it thanks to several things which happened during the 2026 calendar year in the save universe. I had to say goodbye to one midfielder as he moved to China but we also welcomed back one of my favorite players of the save.
We continued with the 3-5-2 formation/tactical set-up. There were no changes to the formation as it still offers a lot in both offensive/defensive ways. And I'm happy to tweak it when I see something what can help for just next match or long term. It's just fun to follow it along.
I was able to convince the club board to improve our training & youth facilities, same as the youth recruitment or junior coaching. Our GAIS stadium was expanded up to 12k (10k seats + 2k for standing) and it reached the maximum of the possible expansion.
It's fun that we were able to play Champions League group stage matches here but the derby match against IFK Göteborg was moved to Gamla Ullevi because of the capacity and interest from both sides probably (Attendance: 18,400 - 9,200 away).
Current facilities, up to December 2026:
Training Facilities - Excellent
Youth Facilities - Great
Corporate Facilities - Adequate
Junior Coaching - Exceptional
Youth Recruitment - Excellent
My manager profile in December 2026
January/February
I wanted to keep the squad almost the same as in the previous year but it wasn't possible. It's not possible in countries like Sweden. Every quality player will be always wanted abroad. Our Finnish central defender Haris Hakansson (click to open his profile) was bought by PSG for €5M (up to €8M). We bought him for €600k a year ago. Another young player who will spend most of his time in the PSG 2 team instead of playing Swedish top tier or European cups.
My usual aim is to be prepared for a potential outgoing transfer of some key player. But sometimes it's not possible. Central midfielder Peter Magnusson wasn't wanted and there were no bids for him during last year. But Chinese Shandong Luneng came with a €10M bid. I rejected it firstly.
They offered €22M + €5,5M after 20 league appearances and the club board accepted it. Maybe they even took him to the airport and bought him some good place on the plane. If you consider fact that I signed Peter for free after his contract with Brondby expired in 2024 and he got €15,5K per month wage...
It's always annoying to lose a key player but it would happen sooner or later as he was too good to stay in Sweden.
March-May
The Svenska Cupen went well as we made it to the final for the 5th time in a row. The Final will be against Malmö at the end of May. We won both first league matches, Nikolaj Möller scored 4 in these two matches.
And entered the Europa League knock-outs in the second round as the group stage winners. GAIS got that German team and we were 2-0 up against in the first away leg. But they turned the score around and they won 3-2. But we beat them 1-0 at home and made it to the quarter-final.
We beat also Lazio at home but the 2nd leg in Rome was too much. It was 0-0 until the 59th minute when they got a penalty kick after a soft touch during the corner. We scored an own goal three minutes into the extra-time and they scored one more so we went out 1-3 on aggregate.
The time after the end in the Europa League went quite fast in the save. It was full of Allsvenskan matches as the whole June and a half of July was a summer break due to the World Cup 2026 hosted by USA, Canada and Mexico.
Four GAIS players (Strannegard, Möller, Blixt and Berens) made the squad! That's absolutely fantastic achievement for the club.
Btw. The USA won the tournament beating France on penalties in the final. After they beat Canada in the semi-final
Norwegian striker Oscar Aga scored his 100th and 101st goals in his 138th league appearance for the club during a 3-4 defeat at home against Kalmar FF. They were 1st in the table at that time and they were in a good form. But it didn't last for a long time. They didn't win since the match against us - 5 draws and 2 defeats and they moved down to 6th place (click to see their results in April and May).
Back to top
We recovered very well from the opening defeat of the league campaign. In comparison with Kalmar results, for sure. Nikolaj Möller and Oscar Aga were in a very solid form despite we switched from two advanced forwards back to AF+PF(A) combination so they had to get used to it to the new variation.
I also moved my wide players from MR/ML positions to WBs. The main reason was that I wanted to get the most from Anton Snibb and Victor Blixt who are both the best in these positions/roles.
We moved top of the table thanks to six wins and two draws before the summer break.
Dramatic Svenska Kupen final
The last match of this part of the season was the Svenska Cupen final. It was played at the Malmö Stadion so almost all pre-match press conference questions were about the possible advantage of playing at home. I didn't care about it at all.
Matches against Malmö are now part of our competitive rivalry and it's also interesting because both teams are using the 3-5-2 variations (I remember the match when there were four highlights despite playing with the comprehensive highlights. It's hard to surprise each other).
They started better this time and Anton Eriksson opened the score. Oscar Aga leveled the scored three minutes later and Anton Skipper scored from a corner kick (far post routine).
"Don't worry, he will be great"
But the very tight 1st half ended 2-2 as they scored also after a corner.
"Cronwall isn't playing well, I will replace him with Bjerkebo ten minutes into the second half if he will not improve. Bjerkebo is decent in PF(A) role and he is very good as a sub," I said myself during the break.
And I did it exactly as I said. Bjerkebo replaced Cronvall in the 55th minute and Oscar Aga moved to the Advanced Forward role. Bjerkebo did this four minutes later and he saw a straight red card...
Aga played as the lone striker in PF(A) role and all central midfielders tried to support him. All of them have traits like get further forward or gets gorward whenever possible so it was easier and I didn't have to change their duties.
But we had to defend mostly since the red card and Malmö had some very solid opportunities to score a winning goal. But they didn't. And Oscar Aga scored the winning goal from the penalty kick in the 114th minute.
The precise time-wasting, playing for set pieces and lower tempo with shorter passing took us to the final whistle and the trophy celebration despite we played the four additional minutes without injured Christophersen too.
It was our fourth domestic cup trophy in a row. "I think that's a fair point, I always look forward to these games." This press conference reply is a great way how to describe my relationship with domestic cups. I'm addicted to winning them rather than the league or European competitions. It's been for a long time. No special reason, I just love domestic cups.
Svenska Cupen Final 2026
Results January - May 2026
June/July: Welcome back, son!
I don't want to mention all the signed players but two of them deserve it. Firstly, David Moberg-Karlsson. He is 32 years old midfielder who spent the last 8 years in Prague with Sparta. I will be clear - he was one of the players I had in the shortlist almost from the benning of the save with a view to bring him back to Sweden.
I signed him for €62K and decided to play him as DLP(S) within the flat midfield trio. He is not able to play as wing-back due to his physical attributes. Maybe as DLF(S) if I would need it.
He made 9 assists in 10(3) appearances during the second part of the season. That sounds quite good.
The second signing I want to mention is the signing of the midfielder Matt O'Riley. I signed this guy in 2020 for free and he spent two and a half season with us before Burnley activated his transfer clause and he moved back to England for €1.8M.
One and a half season in the Premier League, one season in the Championship after Burnley was relegated in 2023/2024 and a season-long loan in France with Strasbourg playing Ligue 1 in 2025/2026. That was his previous four years.
And as his contract with Burnley (back in the Premier League) expired, I signed him for free. Again.
He still is a great player and I'm sure he will help us again. The things that changed - he didn't want to include transfer clause again and he decided to play for Norway instead of England as he is eliglible to play for three nations - Denmark too.
July - December
When I mentioned PSG 2 recently, one Slovenian promising youngster scored three goals during his trial with us in summer. But Ziga Zec rather signed for the club from Paris.
The game itself played with me again as all the coeficient tables and seeding tables told me that I will start in the Champions League qualifying phase. But we were already in the group stage despite the game says something different. Probably some issue with the calendar year based season format instead of a typical season.
Oscar Aga scored 23 league goals and became the best goalscorer of the season again. Anton Snibb, our captain, made 10 assists from WB(S) position/role. Btw. when I mentioned 9 assists by Moberg-Karlsson in 10(3) appearances, it was enough to make it to top 3 of the league.
We won the league by 10 points ahead of Malmö and 19 points ahead of Kalmar. We scored one corner goal every third match and it was enough to pass the make the most of set pieces in the club vision.
Champions League
We got Lokomotiv Moscow, Dortmund, and Lyon on the group stage. A very strong teams to play against. I'm sure you would not expect Ceballos, Bénes, Kluivert, or Bonazzoli in Moscow. But it's FM.
We drew away with Lyon and we beat Dortmund away at 3:2 after a hattrick by Oscar Aga. We also drew with Lokomotiv at home and we had 5 points after the first half of the group. Oscar Aga scored all our goals.
But we lost 0:3 in Moscow to Lokomotiv and drew with Lyon (1:1) and Dortmund (0:0). Both at home. All great results against these strong teams. We ended third in the group because of a worse goal difference in comparison with Lyon.
It's great to move to the Europa League knock-outs. It will give us more experience, some more money too.
Results July - December 2026
What next?
The aim is to play at least one more season within this save. But probably more if I will have time. I will try to improve the club facilities again.
There are 34 players wanted at the end of this season including the key players. I would like to keep Oscar Aga from some Chinese bids to make him the best goalscorer of the club history. He is missing 25 goals to the record so maybe one more season can be enough...
I'm also currently in the phase when I will probably let some other key players go abroad and will try to play with youngsters from the U19s team and with what I have now. It will give them some development and I will see if the formation is still as good as I think.
And most importantly, the mix of a couple of experienced players and youngsters is by far the best for me. My personal contract also ends at the end of the 2027 season. Maybe they won't give me another one.
One sad thing also happened within the save as Wayne Rooney left the club as he got the offer from Djurgardens to be their new manager. It was great to have him as a player and as a coach during almost the whole save (2021 - 2026).
Thanks for reading and take care.
It’s great to have the first post published on CoffeehouseFM.com. All about the move from fmrensie.net to this place is here.