The Challenge Wheel - Viking Quest

[misterioBean]

The Challege Wheel

So I guess it's time to start yet another career in FM23 after our journey with QPR ended before we got to achieve our ultimate goal.
This "new" idea is inspired by TNSSO's Wheel of Fortune but it has a little twist.

I decided to put some challenges I thought would be interesting to start. Some of them are very well known by every FM player, others not so much.

The wheel decided that we will be starting a Viking save.

For those who don't really know this challenge this is a brief explanation:

- There are 2 simple goals to this challenge:
1.Conquer our country;
2. Invade and conquer Europe.

- In terms of rules, there's only one: Only sign Escandinavian players.

For the teams we have 2 that fit our goals: the Norwegian side Viking and Vikingur from Iceland.

We are moving to Norway!

I have to say this wasn't really a challenge that I ever thought of trying out just because there are others that I enjoy more but this will definitely be a different and fun one!​

 

[misterioBean]

Arrival

Founded in 1899, Viking is one of the most successful teams in Norway, having 8 top division titles to their name, tha last one dating back to the year of 1991. This makes Viking the second team with the most first division trophies, only behind Rosenborg who has won it 26 times. We have quite a ride to take. They also won 6 Norwegian Cups, the last one being very recent in 2019, just one year after getting back to Norway's first division. Also, the club has played more top-flight league games than any other club in Norway.

We will be playing in the SR-Bank Arena, a stadium built in 2004 with a capacity for 16300 supporters, being the 3rd biggest stadium in the league.

Finances

Well we are definitely not in England anymore. The budgets are very tight and we currently have no wage budget at our disposal, so it won't be easy to bring in new players for the club.

At least there are no big debts to be payed. We are only 97k in debt but we will be paying 2.1k per month for another 4 years which is a bit dramatic for a club with 4M in the bank but oh well.

Expectations

The board's expectation are not very high for a club predicted to finish in 4th, only demanding a top half finish. They expect us to be challenging for the title in the next 3 seasons though.

The supporters don't demand much as well but I think we need to show them we are not here to be just another Norwegian club, we are here to be the best.

The Staff

Safe to say we need to bring in some new people for the club. Main point here is ALL of them must be Scandinavian, so it should be fun to search for.

The Squad

Looking at our team as a whole there are some positions I would like to strenghten. And of course we will be using a 433 like I do in every save I do because I just can't get enough of it and I lack the creativity to come with some other tactic.

(Before starting this I must appologize in advance for the crimes I will commit when writting some of this players names)

Goalkeepers

Gunnarsson

Ostbo

Rugland Ree

First off, our main GK is quite good but our backup is not nearly as good and made me think if it's even worth keeping him over our 3rd choice Rugland Ree. As you can see, Rugland Ree is almost as good as Ostbo and is only 17 years old. A subject to think on during the pre season...

Center Backs

Our main guy here is David Brekalo, very decent defender and is quite fast as well. He is also tall, heighting 1.87m and is a good aerial threat for our set pieces.

His partner will be Viljar Vevatne. His quality is clearly inferior to Brekalo's but he's still not that bad. We also don't have any left footed CB's so he will have to do.

Our backups are some younger options. Sondre Langás is only 21 years old and has some more potential in him. Djibril Diop can still get better but is already 23 years old so I don't expect as much of an improvement from him. They are both decent but I wouldn't mind bringing in someone better.

Right Back

Sondre Bjorshol will be our starter on the right side of defense and Herman Haugen will be his backup. We have a good mix of experience with youth here and to be honest if Haugen is able to improve his mentals slightly he will bench Bjorshol pretty fast.

Left Back

Another 2 man race for the left side of defense. Shayne Pattynama is the starter and Jost Urbancic is his backup. Similar to the opposite side, Urbancic can surpass Pattynama soon, The only difference is Pattynama is only 23 years old so he will get better too.

Defensive Midfield

Markus Solbakken is one of the best players of our team and will be the main reference for the DLP role in our midfield. On the other hand, Lars Erik Sodal is a decent youngster we have on our 2nd team (or B team). Ideally I would like to bring in another player for this position but if we can't I'll bring Sodal in.

B2B

We don't have many good options for the B2B position but Gianni Stensness is decent enough to cover it and Kristoffer Lokberg is a good backup for him.

Patrick Yazbek is the 3rd option for the position but he is still fairly green and needs to develop a bit more before coming up.

Advanced Playmaker

Harald Tangen is one of our best youth prospects and is already our best player for this position. Our report say he is better suited as a winger but we do have some good players on those positions already but none for the midfield so he will be training to improve on this position.

Birkir Bjarnason (ex-Aston Villa) will be the backup for this position but Sondre Auklend is already looking to establish himself on the first team as a 18 year old.

Right Wing

Two good options here but I decided that Lanlay will start over Sandberg just because he looks more complete. Physically none of them are good though.

Letf Wing

Zlatko Tripic is classified as our key player by the press and is easy to see why. However, Kevin Kabran is also very good and will give Tripic some competition for his spot.

We also have Simen Kvia-Egeskog looking to break into the first team and is already showing signs of being a very good player.

Strikers

Sander Svendsen will be our main attacking reference even though his shooting is questionable.

Unfortunately, neither Lars-Jorgen Salvesen or Nick D'Agostino offer us better options for this position. Salvesen looks very decent but he can't run for his life and D'Agostino can only be described as "Meh".

​

 

[misterioBean]

4th April 2022

I have to say it's a bit weird writting this date and being at the beginning of the season but I guess I'll get used to it soon.

Transfer Window

We had a total of 1 month of transfer window so we had to act quick to bring some new players to the team. There were no players leaving our team so let's go straight to the signings.
​

Harmeet Singh - Free

The first player to join Viking in the club's new era was the Norwegian midfielder Harmeet Singh. I felt we needed more immediate options in the midfield because and Singh can play every role very well so I was happy to bring him in for free and on small wages.

Isak Amundsen - Loan

After Singh, we signed the central defender Isak Amundsen on a loan deal from Bodo. He is still 22 years of age and despite not having learn how to run during his life he is a good defender. We also have an option to buy him at the end of his loan spell for 2.5M€.

Isak Vadebu - Free

Lastly, we signed Isak Vadebu from Tromsdalen for a total fee of 0€. He was on an amateur contract so we didn't have to pay for anything. He ended up staying at Tromsdalen as a loanee. We have to make signings for the future as well because we need to assure we will have a good team for the next few decades. Yeah I'm not expecting to finish this challenge any time soon unless I get sacked again which would be a bit worrying.

Preseason

It's safe to say we had a good(ish) preseason. Our trip to Turkey wasn't that enjoyable but we were able to win against Valerenga when we got back.

As you can see that is more important when we look at the fact we are basically fighting against Valerenga for the 4th place according to the press. It won't be easy to break into the top 3 but if I can do it in Portugal I don't see why I wouldn't be able to do it in Norway.

Eliteserien
Matchday 1

I really can't say how mad I was at this game. 17 shots and only 4 on target against a team who's supposed to fight against relegation.
I really hope our strikers are able to do something otherwise I'll have to sign a new one on the next transfer window. Unfortunately this will only be opening in August so until then we will have to do with what we have.

League Table

Not really much to be said here since we are only 1 game into the season but let's see what we can do with the Vikings in the next couple of months.​

 

[misterioBean]

Eliteserien
Matchday 2

Another bad result on the 2nd game of the season but this one was expected so can't complain much about it. We did play well at least.

Eliteserien
Matchday 3

Strong performance on the next game and we got a 4-1 win. Tripic was incredible on this day.

Eliteserien
Matchday 4

Another win on the next game and we are starting to get a good form.

Eliteserien
Matchday 5

Well that didn't last long. To be fair we were the best team, we just couldn't score. Like I said our strikers are not delivering.

Eliteserien
Matchday 6

Very difficult game but we got the victory over Lillestrom after Tripic scored a very confusing goal but what's important is we got the 3 points.

Eliteserien
Matchday 7

We followed it with another game in which we controlled but we can't score. Starting to make a pettern here.

NM SAS Braathens Cup
First Round

Well I expected a win but not a 10-0 win. I started D'Agostino on this game and he banged 4.

Eliteserien
Matchday 8

Another good win against a tough side.

Eliteserien
Matchday 9

We couldn't get a win against Rosenborg unfortunately. We didn't play well at all and we desearved the loss.

Eliteserien
Matchday 10

Not a very good result here but to be fair Sarpsborg are doing an amazing campaign so far.

League Table

We are currently in the 6th position so we are accomplishing our goals. We are also only 3 points behind the 1st place but it is a very fierce fight for the first places for now. Let's see hwo it looks in August.​

 

[misterioBean]

1st August 2022

Eliteserien
Matchday 11

Despite our last results, we came back strong with a 4-0 win against Stromsgodset. Top tier performance from us.

Eliteserien
Matchday 12

We followed it with another win against Jerv. Svendsen is finally starting to score us some goals.

NM SAS Braathens Cup
Second Round

We didn't beat Odds for the league, but we beat them for the cup. We are going through to the next phase.

Eliteserien
Matchday 13

Yet another win for the league, this time against Sandfjord using our 2nd line up.

NM SAS Braathens Cup
Third Round

We got a pretty easy draw here and we dominated the 2nd tier side of Skjervoy for the win.

Eliteserien
Matchday 14

Big win against Valerenga for the league here. They stood no chance.

NM SAS Braathens Cup
Fourth Round

Yet another team that stopped us in the league but thankfully Sandberg was on the right place on the right time to score a 88th minute winner. Also Sarpsborh shot a total of 0 times this game.

Eliteserien
Matchday 15

Our winning streak came to an end when we visited Molde and got humbled 3-1 but to be fair we player with 10 man from the 20th minute.

Eliteserien
Matchday 16

We went back to the winning ways against Kristiansund though so not everything is bad.

League Table

We are having a terrific season so far, currently sitting on the 2nd place just 2 points behind the 1st place but between us ant the 10th places there's only a difference of 11 points. Very competitive league in Norway but so far so good.

First Transfer Activity

There were 4 players leaving our team lately.

The first one was Isak Amundsen, who was recalled from his loan spell because he only played 2 games in 2 months. Talk about impatient.

Was unfortunate that this happened some days after Sondre Langas left on load himself so now we have 3 CB's but we are okay.

I decided to loan out Egell-Johnsen so he can have some more playing time. He also reinforced our Icelandic mates Vikingur so how can I say not to our fellow Vikings?

The last player to leave was Kristoffer Lokberg because I just didn't use him.

Transfers In
​

Kevin Egell-Johnsen - Free

Just realized I didn't told you we signed this youngster back in May on a free. At the time he had 4 star potential. Guess turning 22 didn't suit him well.

Solvi Snaer Gudbjargarson - Free

Jesus his name is not easy to spell. Another free signing who looks alright until you notice something interesting in his profile. No? Nothing? Let me show you.

Thanks a lot FM
​

Brandur Hendriksson - Free

​

The Nordic market is very weird. There are a lot of good players available on a free transfer so I snatched up Hendriksson to replace Lokberg. Sort of.

Kari Daniel Alexandersson - Free

Another good looking youngster for our B team. Another free transfer. Life's good.

Orjan Nyland - Free

A better GK available on a free transfer and on small wages? Don't mind if I do.

Ole Kristian Selnaes - Free

The amount of free players we are getting is getting ridiculous at this point but I can't help it.

Sebastian Stokke - 3k

I could say finally a player coming in for an actual fee but I mean... 3k is basically free.

Jarik Sundling - 70k

Finally a player that actually cost us something. Too bad that he immediatelly got injured as soon as he got into our training ground. Maybe it's time to improve them. Don't want my players to get injured just because they step into the training ground.

Finances​

Well I guess those improvements are not getting here any time soon.​

 

[misterioBean]

5th September 2022

We started August with very unfortunate news. Our best player got injured for 6 weeks.

And like I said our infrastructures seem to be in such a bad condition our new players get injured as soon as they step into them. And of course he got an hip injury as well.

Transfers

No more players joined our team after the last update, but we did have some other leaving.

Okay I may have overreacted to Stokke's injury because he actually got injured while on loan.
Leinebo and Brandser are 2 young players from the academy with no potential that ended up leaving us.

Nick D'Agostino joined Sydney on loan with an option to buy.

Lastly Alexandersson also left on loan.

Eliteserien
Matchday 17

We came back strong against HamKam who's real name is Hamarkameratene so I'm glad the game already tells us the correct abreviation for it.

Eliteserien
Matchday 18

Unfortunately we couldn't beat Bodo/Glimt even after scoring an equalizer on the 88th minute while being down one man. Luciano Vietto scored on the 91st to put us away.

Eliteserien
Matchday 19

We got back to the wins against Aalesund at SR-Bank with a very good performance.

Eliteserien
Matchday 20

Unfortunately it wasn't our day against Haugesund and despite having 15 shots, 5 of which on target, their keeper just defended everything.

NM SAS Braathens Cup
Quarter Final

We say goodbye to the cup. Our second team couldn't score 1 goal even shooting 9 times on target while Brann shot 7 times in total.

Eliteserien
Matchday 21

We finally beat the Odds and got another league win. This was a very balanced game though and we could have easily lost it.

League Table

We are still 2nd behind Bodo/Glimt and still 1 point off the 1st place. With only 9 games left in the season we still are pursuing the dream of winning the first championship for the Vikings since 1991 on the first try. What an amazing season we are having for a team expected to finish 5th and whose board expected a top half finish.

Like I said, we came to Norway to show them we didn't come to play.​

 

[misterioBean]

14th November 2022

Last update of this first season in Norway and let me tell you in advance, what a season it was for the Vikings.

We started September with our request to improve our youth recruitment being accepted which will increase the abilty of the players coming through our academy. Since we can only sign Escandinavian players that will be huge. Also I was thinking about the youth intake because I know sometimes there are players coming through who are not from that certain nationality. There's a chance we have some good players from other countries joining our academy.

Due to the fact that they are joining our club between the ages of 15 and 16 there's a very good chance they will get the Norwegian second nationality and become home grown players. With that said, we can only sign non-Escandinavian players who come from our academy. We can't sign young players from other team's academies though.

Eliteserien
Matchday 22

We drew the next game against Lillestrom with a 93th minute own goal scored by our CB. What a bummer.

Eliteserien
Matchday 23

We had to fight a lot but in the end we were able to defeat Tromso.

This win put us in 1st after Bodo/Glimt drew their last 2 games...

Eliteserien
Matchday 24

However, a 1-1 draw against the 3rd spot Sarpsborg could have made us go down to 2nd again.

Fortunately for us Haugesund beat Bodo/Glimt which made us remain at the 1st spot for one more week.

Eliteserien
Matchday 25

Very difficult game away at Rosenborg in which we could only get another draw.

But once again Bodo/Glimt lost points away against Aalesund so we are still top of the table.

The title challenge is crazy at the moment with a total of 6 teams who can still make it to become Norwegian champions.
I must say this is a very fun league.

Eliteserien
Matchday 26

Another win against Stromsgodset helped us retain the 1st place for yet another week.

Bodo/Glimt keeps losing points and now the main threat became Sarpsborg. We just need to make it through this last 4 games.

Eliteserien
Matchday 27

One down, 3 more to go.

Eliteserien
Matchday 28

20 shots and no goals scored. That hurts.

Thankfully we probably only need a draw on the last game because even if any of the teams behind us win both games they will equal our points and our goal difference is quite higher so we should be okay.

Eliteserien
Matchday 29

Well this sucks. Terrible performance and now we must win or draw the last game against Molde who beat us earlier in the season...

Eliteserien
Matchday 30

And the tile is coming to Stavanger for the first time since 1991!!!

Salvesen was an absolute hero scoring a 91st minute header to give us the win after we let Molde equalize from a 2-0 disadvantage.

What a game and what a way to win our first title in Norway!

With this win we will be getting Champions League football next season. That should be very fun.

League Table

This is the final table for the first season and like I said before, what a season it was for the Vikings. We got very lucky but there's a common saying in Portugal which barely translates to "Luck is made". I promise it sounds better in Portuguese.​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Nice title win in the first season mate! Bodo totally collapsed at the end there, but taking nothing away from a great achievement in your first season in charge! Onwards and upwards!

 

[misterioBean]

Nice title win in the first season mate! Bodo totally collapsed at the end there, but taking nothing away from a great achievement in your first season in charge! Onwards and upwards!

Thanks mate! Like I said we got lucky they dropped so many points but we did our job. Now let's hope we have a decent enough team to keep the winning streak going. I don't expect to be winning a champions league any time soon but at least be an usual team there would be great!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Thanks mate! Like I said we got lucky they dropped so many points but we did our job. Now let's hope we have a decent enough team to keep the winning streak going. I don't expect to be winning a champions league any time soon but at least be an usual team there would be great!

That's exactly my thinking right now with Antwerp...aim to become the dominant side domestically in the first 5 seasons and hopefully with regular appearances in the Champions League and building the facilities/finances at the club, we can compete properly in Europe after that.

 

[misterioBean]

Start of Season 2023

We started the season with a nice message from our board telling us our budget got a good increase of 2M€.

Even though we are at the start of the season, the actual games only start in April so we have 3 months of preseason. I guess it is to compensate the month we had in our first season.

Also in the last post I said we would get Champions League football this year and I completely forgot our season calendar is different, which means we will only have UCL fixtures in the end of our calendar season. At least we will be fully rested for most of the games...

Transfers Out

In terms of players leaving there were quite a few.

I decided to sell some player entering the last year of their contracts and I didn't want to renew them.

The first was Shayne Pattynama. Our former LB left for 300k. I decided to sell him not only because of his contract running out but also because Urbancic already caught up to him and was starting the last games of the season.

Birkir Bjarnason had to leave. He was the highest paid player in our squad by 20k/m and was only getting worse with his age. The value we got from him wasn't the best but I just wanted him gone.

Yann-Erik de Lanlay was our starting RW but is already 30 years old and he actual came to me and said he would consider his options at the end of the season, so I decided to get some money from him now rather than having him leave for free.

We also sold both our backup RBs. Herman Haugen was not good enough and wouldn't develop much more and Kevin Egell-Johnsen contract's was terminating this season and he also told me he would be considering his options.

Arild Ostbo was getting old and doesn't have space in our squad.

Transfers In
​

Adrian Pereira - 1M

​

​

The most expensive transfer ever from our club is Pattynama's replacement for the LB position. He is considerably better than Pattynama so I was happy splashing the cash.

Peder Meen Johansen - 30k

Decent looking youngster for our team for a cheap price.

Leo Walta - 850k

Close to being as expensive as Pereira, Walta comes for the AP role in our midfield.

Lars Ranger - 500k

With both our backup RB's leaving, we had to find a replacement fot them and that replacement was Lars Ranger who looks decent enough for the role.

The Squad

There were some changes to our player's roles.

Mainly Harald Tangen who's moving from the midfield to the LW position and Tripic going to play on the other side. Selnaes will be picking the AP spot for now.​

 

[misterioBean]

2nd April 2023

It's the end of the preseason and the new season is right around the corner.

Youth Intake

We had our first round of players coming from our academy. Unfortunately I forgot to take a screenshot of the youth intake preview but here are the players we got.

Erik Kjorsvik comes as the biggest prospect and he looks awful. He is still 15 years old so let's wait and see if he's able to improve as much as our staff predicts.

Mikkel Poulsen is a GK and once again not really good but also 15 years old. His potential is not that high though.

Roger Larsen however looks to be the best out of every player that came through this year. I just hate the low determination.

Andreas Rosvold is a CB but yet again nothing really pops up on this kid.

David Carreon is just awful too but I signed him because he seems like he has the potential to improve a lot so it may be even higher (it won't though but the guy is only getting 275/m so whatever). He is Phillippeanean but he has Norway as his second nationality so he will be home grown in a few years as well if he ever becomes good enough to actually play for us.

Trond Peterson is also bad, specially physically but it is what it is.

Transfers Out

A couple more players left us during the preseason.

The first was Vebjorn Hagen. He was a player in our B team with not much potential and as you can see he left on a player exchange.

The other was Lars Erik Sodal who left on loan to join Ull/Kisa to have more playing time.

Transfer In

The only player joining us was the CB Ole Martin Kolskogen from Aalesund. He joined us for a fee of 1.7M€ + Hagen who was worth around 50k so whatever let them have him.

We needed a new CB and this was the best we could find and afford.

This leaves our squad this way. I'm really considering making Brekalo a RB since he does have some good traits for the position and he's better at it than both our RB's. Definitely something to consider.

Schedule

We had a pretty positive preseason with only 2 bad results including a 5-0 win against Lillestrom. We went against a lot of teams in our league and won the games so it is a very good sign for the season to come.

In terms of first games of the season it won't be easy. We will go against Bodo/Glimt, Sarpsbotg and Molde, all teams that gave us hard times last season. Stabaek just got promoted and we will either get an easy win or have a very hard time against them as well.

We will also have the first cup game between those games and I'm hoping we can at least reach the finals this year after being eliminated by a 2nd tier team last season.​

 

[misterioBean]

30th May 2023

Eliteserien
Matchday 1

Was a good game from our team on teh first match of the season. It was against a recently promoted Stabaek so it was expected.

Eliteserien
Matchday 2

Someone just got FM'ed and it wasn't us. It happens. You'll get us next time!

NM SAS Braathens Cup
First Round

22 shots and only one goal. That hurts.

Eliteserien
Matchday 3

Another good game and if you haven't noticed Salvesen has been playing over Svendsen this year because Svendsen got injured and Salvesen just kept playing well.

Eliteserien
Matchday 4

First game of the season in which we didn't win after Tangen got our hopes up on the 1st minute...

NM SAS Braathens Cup
Second Round

Another easy game on the cup but we let them score twice after being 4 goals ahead.

Eliteserien
Matchday 5

Salvesen just keeps banging goals for us and we can only thank him.

NM SAS Braathen Cup
Third Round

Well we can't complain about the teams we have been drawing for the cup this year. To be fair last year we were eliminated on the Quarter Finals so let's not get cocky.

Eliteserien
Matchday 6 and 7

Two boring games gave us two boring draws.

Eliteserien
Matchday 8

Back to the winning ways and once again Salvesen gives us the win with 2 goals scored in 3 minutes.

League Table and Schedule

Like last year the league is super competitive with the first 10 teams being 1st place candidates for now. Being unbeatable for now is giving us the extra point so we can't really slip much if we want to keep it.

June is looking kinda hard but July is looking juicy. Let's see what happens.​

 

[misterioBean]

23rd July 2023

Eliteserien Fixtures

We are now midway through the season and we are still unbeaten. Pretty good performances all around, sad to draw against Fredrikstad though.

NM SAS Braathens Cup Fixtures

We did beat them for the cup though and we reached the Semi Finals this year. We'll be facing Sarpsborg who we beat for the league back in April and will face again very soon.

Schedule

I'm putting this here because I decided I'll be doing smaller updates from now on. It's basically only league games andthe Semi Final (hopefully the Final will be there too).

We do have something different coming up though.

We will have Champions League football this month. We are currently on the Second Qualifying rounds, which means that if we win we still have the Third Round and the Playoffs if we want to be in the Champions League Group Stage.

If we end up losing to Ludogorets we will go straight to the Europa League Third Qualifying Round. If we beat them but lose against whichever team comes in the next round we will drop to Europa League Playoffs. If we are beaten in the Playoffs we will be dropping to the Europa League Group Stage.

Basically, it would be good if we qualified for the Champions League Group Stage but if we can't the Europa League could be a nice stage too.

League Table

Still 1st but still followed by a lot of teams. I would say every team up to the 6th position is on our tail so we need to keep our focus and keep winning games.

Transfers

So, out of the oblivion, our first starter CB came to me and said he would be considering his options next season and refused to sign a new contract. So we sold him for a fee of 800k to Denmark. His value went up to 1M but no one wanted to pay that so we got close but not quite.

Nick D'Agostino came back from his loan spell an Sydney FC who didn't pay his buy clause. However, we agreed a transfer of 500k to Aalesund who currently plays in the 2nd tier. Not a bad value for him since we are trying to sell him since last season.

Random Stuff

Pretty important news coming from the European committee:

We went up 2 places in the coefficient which grants our league more European places for the 2024/2025 season. So if I'm thinking correctly, right now we are already on the 2023/2024 season so we should have more places for next season already.

The league rules explain this a bit better. So now we have 2 Champions League places, 1 Europa League place and 2 Conference League places.

I would really like to get this even higher but this means we will be going for a certain kind of "Build a Nation" save which we probably wouldn't be able to do only signing Scandinavian players. We will see how it goes but now I kinda want to try it.​

 

[misterioBean]

1st September 2023

Just a quick update on our current situation.

Our league position got a slight throwback as we were only able to draw agaist Bodo/Glimt which made us fall to 2nd place as Valerenga got over us. However the win against Molde and Valerenga's loss against Stabaek saw us go up once again.

On the other hand we couldn't get the job done on the UCL. We got dropped into the UEL and after beating Inter Turku and Dinamo Minsk, we drew Club Brugge, Olympiakos and Aston Villa on the group stage.

Gotta be honest, this won't be easy.

Thankfully, UEL money saw us go up to positive finacial balance once again. Hopefully we don't have to wait another year to get good money.​

 

[misterioBean]

15th December 2023

Eliteserien Schedule

Despite our good form all season, our end of season was very inconsistent and we drew 3 of the last 4 games, including games against teams way down in the table.

League Table

Thankfully for us, we weren't the only team dropping points on the last games and we were able to retain the title for the second time!

This table also gives away some spoilers.

NM SAS Braathens Cup

Even though we are 2 time champions, we still couldn't get the cup to come to Stavanger. Molde beat us in the extra time and secured an UEL and threw Bodo/Glimt to the UECL together with Lillestrom.

UEFA Europa League

Well we can say this didn't go too well for us. 2 wins in 6 games is not good.

Even with those results, we got a 3rd place over Club Brugge so all things considered it wasn't terrible.

In fact, this 3rd place gave us access to the UECL playoffs so we are still in European competitions this season.

On the other hand, we were able to get from the UCL all the way down to the UECL which is kind of incredible to think about.

Random Stuff

With the league campaign successfully over, the board accepted to improve the training facilities and both the youth recruitment and the junior coaching budget which are essential to ensure the club's long term success.

They also improved our transfer budget for next season which is awesome because nwo we can actually buy some good players.

Youth Intake Preview

This year's youth intake looks way better than the one we got last year but we will discover in March when we actually get it.​

 

[misterioBean]

18th January 2024 - Start of 3rd Season
(Kind of)

Schedule

This year's season will start in March and not in April which is okay, just one less month of friendlies I guess.

We also know our opponents for the UECL Knock Out Playoffs. We will be facing the Swedish AIK for the spot.

Transfers Out

Of course we already have some players leaving and some other joining us because it's never too early to prepare the new season.

The first player to leave was actually Singh who ran out of contract so we didn't make any money with him.

So in terms of who left us, we sold the backup keeper Nyland to Viborg for 160k. His contract was due to expire at the end of the season and we do have Rugland Ree for the position so I was happy to send him out.

Sander Svendsen didn't get too much time last season and I wasn't seeing it becoming better for him this season so he left to Molde for 2.3M.

Kevin Kabran didn't play much and was only getting worse so 1.8M is good for a player like him.

There are 2 more deals that will happen (most likely) soon.

The only one confirmed until now is the sale of Mai Traoré to Halmstads BK for 115k.

The last player who's close to leaving us is our other striker Salvesen. Yes he was good this year but he is not good enough anymore and will likely be sold to Kristiansund for 2M.

Pretty good money coming into our bank.

Transfers In
​

Emmanuel Patut - Free

The first player to join us this year was Emmanuel Patut. The youngster comes in with some potential to his name and some decent(ish) attributes. Hopefully he develops well.
​

Anders Hartveit Ryste - 2.6M

I just couldn't help myself. If you followed my Youth2Gold save this guy has been a nightmare for our opponents for around 3 seasons already and he is just a beast. I had to get him before any of the big teams could even think about him.
​

Isak Aalberg - 1.2M

Very good young CB. Not sure why I never found him before but he looks very nice and actually comes in as a first team player even though he is only 18 years old.
​

Vetle Walle Egeli - 1.3M

For Singh's replacement I decided to take a shot on youth and signed this guy. Looks good and is only 19 years old so hopefully he will develop soon.

There are 2 more possible signings right now but they haven't been confirmed yet.​

 

[misterioBean]

6th March 2024

Transfers Out

Since the last update we lost some more players.

Like I said before, Salvesen was on talks to leave and so he did for 2M€.

Traoré's deal finally took place and we also sold Bjorshol for 525k. Didn't have space for him as I prefer Ranger over him.

We also included Langas on a transfer deal since Sogndal requested it and since I was trying to sell him since last year I was happy to accept.

Auklend and Sodal were once again loaned out.

Transfers In
​

Kristoffer Steinset - 850k + Langas

I would say this was a terrific signing. He is very good and is still 18 years old. We got him for a farily cheap price and he will be in the main 11 soon if he develops well.

Lasse Nordas - 2.5M

We paid a bit more than I wanted for this lad but we needed a decent enough striker to be Ryste's backup and believe it or not this was the best we could afford and was willing to come to us. I set him to train on his speed so maybe he can still get faster.

Schedule

We had a pretty nice preseason but we still drew one of our games against a team in our division. The season is about to start and the next couple of months can be hard as we will face Bodo/Glimt and Lillestrom who are always difficult to beat. Let's see what we can do this year. Obviously the goal is to retain the title once again.

UECL

The first leg was awful. We dominated the game but they scored 2 of the 3 shots they did the whole game. Ryste was able to secure the draw at least. We also had Brekalo and Ranger getting injured in this game which put us with no RB. Thankfully Kolskogen can also play in that position.

The second half was better though. We dominated the game once again and Tangen gave us the win right before the halftime.

Our next opponents are the Spanish Celta de Vigo, which are undoubtedly stronger than us so it won't be easy.

Youth Intake

Our youth intake this year wasn't that good after all. Out of them all we only signed 4. Weird that both the full bakcs are not really full backs. They are CB's.

I'll be back in May with more updates.​

 

[misterioBean]

1st May 2024

Schedule

Very good couple of months, only one game in which we lost points but we did defeat Bodo/Glimt. We also won the first few rounds of the NM SAS Braathens Cup which was to be expected.

Overall good performances in every game so we are looking good for now.

League Table

We are currently 2 points ahead and 1 game behind.

UECL

We kept our good league form in the UECL and beat Celta de Vigo at our home.

And what a game we had in Spain, Tangen was absolutely amazing for us and gave us the late win.

Off to the Quarter Finals we went...

We got drafted against Ollympique Marseille and we started quite well in France. We were actually ahead for most of the game but Aubameyang scored in a very well constructed counter-attack.

And we ended beating them at Stavanger. They just couldn't get to our keeper with real danger and we scored 2 out of 4 shots we had on target. The game as a whole only had 15 (10 - 5) shots and 6 (4 - 2) on target. Kind of a boring game but still a good win and that threw us into the Semi Finals of the Conference League on our first European competition (sort of).

Our Semi Finals opponent will be the English side West Ham United and we will be visiting them first.

In my game experience they usually end up winning this competition at some point. Last year's winner was Aston Villa but my hopes aren't very high up for this next fixture.

Next Fixtures

I don't even want to think about this next few months. We have 9 games in May but only 5 in the next 2 months.

Good luck for the Vikings I guess.​

 

[misterioBean]

1st August 2024

Schedule

These were 3 hard months for the Vikings...

We started May being eliminated from the UECL Semi Finals, which was to be expected and to be honest we did way better than anyone would have predicted.

After 2 wins and 1 draw in the league we were eliminated from the NM SAS Braathens Cup by no ther then Bodo/Glimt with a goal scored in the 8th minute.

After that game, we won the next 3 league games but then everything went wrong. We haven't one any of the last 4 games we played and even loss against Lillestrom.

League Table

We are still 1st in the league though but Bodo and Molde are right behind us. Also don't look to the fact that we drew 1-1 against the team currently sitting in the 16th position please...

Transfer Business

As usual, there were already moves in Stavenger.

We sold Niklas Sandberg for 2.2M because he was getting older and was not that good anymore.

Ole Kristian Selnaes said he was considering his options at the end of his contract next year, so off he goes for 1.1M.
​

Jeppe Kjaer - 2M

The first signing was Sandberg's replacement in the 20 year old Danish winger. Very good player and still has the ability to become better.

Albert Gronbaek - 5.25M

And on the same day we also signed the Danish midfielder Gronbaek, also from Bodo/Glimt. He was a bit expensive but he adds so much quality to our midfield I don't even care. He becomes our main AP and Walta will be his backup from now on.

Next Fixtures

The end of the season is approaching quickly and between our next games we will be playing on the Champions League Playoffs. Hopefully we have a better time this year.

Random Stuff

Bad news for the Norwegian league as we dropped 1 place in the rankings. This doesn't affect the European slots but is also not a very good indication.

The clubs reputation however went up by 205 places all the way to the 113th position. Soon enough we will be in the top 100 most reputable clubs worldwide.

Not sure why the board is not willing to give me more coaches but at least they gave me more physios and scouts so that's something.

Finances

After the latest transfers our balance took a bit of a beating but we should get some more money soon if we are able to get to an European competition once again. Unfortunately winning the league only gives us 2M so we can't rely only on that.​