FM_TNSSO
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Yea it would be an almost impossible task to get there with just Norwegian players and I think it will be a lot more fun for me having the whole of the world to go at
Build A Nation - Norway/Raufoss
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Yea it would be an almost impossible task to get there with just Norwegian players and I think it will be a lot more fun for me having the whole of the world to go at
FM_TNSSO
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Our 2nd placed finish earned us nearly £1.5 million in prize money, which was badly needed and cancels out a large part of the club's debt. However, we're still in the red by over £600k.
The club's stature is growing year on year and with that, our income is increasing. Not quite at the pace I would like, but we are going in the right direction.
But with top 3 finishes now in the bag for the past 3 seasons, we would really like to take the club forward with a stadium expansion, but the council are still hating on us! This is the 3rd season in a row now that they have blocked our plans and I really don't get what their problem is!
The best 11 for this season is all over the place and this definitely must be a bug in the game as it's never right. We have a striker missing from the team who scored 23 goals this season, Sander Werni who only played 5 times, Fremstad who left the club at the start of the season and Sander Christiansen who has been out on loan for half the season!
Talking of our 23 goal man, what a signing Jonas Aune turned out to be. I might have broke the bank (by our standards) to sign him but right now £250k is looking like an absolute steal after his first season at the club. At only 21 years old, he will only get better as well and I'm excited to see where he can go.
I was actually surprised that he didn't win any of the club awards, but I'm taking nothing away from our first choice centre backs who won the fan's player and young player respectively.
Aune was rewarded with the Norwegian Young Player of the Year award though, which has been won by some big names over the years.
And it was one of our main men at the back who actually lifted the Norwegian Player of the Year and the Player's Player of the Year awards for the entire division!
As we look over the squad's stats for the season, it's fair to say that the group again gave me a good return with most recording very respectable average ratings. The defence was solid throughout and is our strongest area on the pitch. Eirik Schulze has been brilliant for the past 3 seasons since I signed him from Start, but this year saw his best return for the club with 11 assists and goals. Teodor Haltvik was the surprise package...he's been here since the start but didn't feature as a first team regular for me in the first couple of seasons, but this year he broke through and grabbed 8 assists and 4 goals from the right wing. Markus Karlsbakk was again solid chipping in with both goals and assists and I simply love him! Outside of Jonas Aune, our other two strikers who tore it up last year were disappointing this year...Elsebutangen failed to reach double figures and Udahl was extremely poor virtually every time he played and will definitely be offloaded during the upcoming window (deal already confirmed). Sander Werni had an injury ravaged season and barely played for us.
You'll notice that we now have our first non Norwegian player in the squad in the shape of Australian right back, Liam Stephenson. He came through the youth system at the club and after I decided this year not to focus on just Norwegian players, he was promoted to the first team and made 3 appearances for us in the league.
I'm actually really excited about the upcoming transfer window as I open up my options to anyone in the world, even if I don't have the most amazing budgets to work with.
The club's stature is growing year on year and with that, our income is increasing. Not quite at the pace I would like, but we are going in the right direction.
But with top 3 finishes now in the bag for the past 3 seasons, we would really like to take the club forward with a stadium expansion, but the council are still hating on us! This is the 3rd season in a row now that they have blocked our plans and I really don't get what their problem is!
The best 11 for this season is all over the place and this definitely must be a bug in the game as it's never right. We have a striker missing from the team who scored 23 goals this season, Sander Werni who only played 5 times, Fremstad who left the club at the start of the season and Sander Christiansen who has been out on loan for half the season!
Talking of our 23 goal man, what a signing Jonas Aune turned out to be. I might have broke the bank (by our standards) to sign him but right now £250k is looking like an absolute steal after his first season at the club. At only 21 years old, he will only get better as well and I'm excited to see where he can go.
I was actually surprised that he didn't win any of the club awards, but I'm taking nothing away from our first choice centre backs who won the fan's player and young player respectively.
Aune was rewarded with the Norwegian Young Player of the Year award though, which has been won by some big names over the years.
And it was one of our main men at the back who actually lifted the Norwegian Player of the Year and the Player's Player of the Year awards for the entire division!
As we look over the squad's stats for the season, it's fair to say that the group again gave me a good return with most recording very respectable average ratings. The defence was solid throughout and is our strongest area on the pitch. Eirik Schulze has been brilliant for the past 3 seasons since I signed him from Start, but this year saw his best return for the club with 11 assists and goals. Teodor Haltvik was the surprise package...he's been here since the start but didn't feature as a first team regular for me in the first couple of seasons, but this year he broke through and grabbed 8 assists and 4 goals from the right wing. Markus Karlsbakk was again solid chipping in with both goals and assists and I simply love him! Outside of Jonas Aune, our other two strikers who tore it up last year were disappointing this year...Elsebutangen failed to reach double figures and Udahl was extremely poor virtually every time he played and will definitely be offloaded during the upcoming window (deal already confirmed). Sander Werni had an injury ravaged season and barely played for us.
You'll notice that we now have our first non Norwegian player in the squad in the shape of Australian right back, Liam Stephenson. He came through the youth system at the club and after I decided this year not to focus on just Norwegian players, he was promoted to the first team and made 3 appearances for us in the league.
I'm actually really excited about the upcoming transfer window as I open up my options to anyone in the world, even if I don't have the most amazing budgets to work with.
FM_TNSSO
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Our first departure of this window saw Markus Naglestad leave the club at the end of his contract. Although he had a decent season last year, he'll be 34 this year and was one of our highest earners at the club and I felt the money could be better spent elsewhere.
Next out the door was striker Henrik Udahl. £425,000 is a great return on a player we only paid £89k for a couple of seasons ago and who has not exactly set the world alight with his performances either. Happy to let him go and that money will be a welcome boost to the club's precarious financial situation.
Now, even though I have a whole world of nationalities open to me now, my first signing for the club this window is a Norwegian. I wanted to improve the goalkeeper position and am delighted that we have managed to prize Jacob Karlstrom away from Lillestrom on a free transfer. He was their number 1 keeper and will immediately become ours!
Our next signing is one for the future as Truls Tversland joins on a free from Start. He looks like a very solid prospect at just 17 years old and he could potentially break into the first team over the next couple of seasons for sure.
I plan to mix up our tactics a little next year and build a 4-2-3-1 as opposed to the 4-1-2-3 that we have used for the past 4 years. As part of that, I will need players that can play an attacking midfield role and for that reason I have signed Odin Holm on loan from Valerenga for the season ahead.
Our next loan signing for this window is a player that could potentially be our best this season! Luciano Napoletano is an 18 year old attacker who joins us from Roma for the season ahead. He has the skills to set this league alight and is the kind of player who could make the difference between us finishing 2nd/3rd and finally getting over the line to become Norwegian champions.
He is even amongst the favourites to be the best player in the league this season.
My final loan signing of the window was right back, Kilian Fischer, who comes in for the season from Nurnberg. He will provide competition for Thomas Vold, but can also provide cover in midfield and his versatility will be useful this season.
Meanwhile, the youth intake this season is our worst since I've been at the club and I can't see any of these coming through into the first team.
There was also a new 3 year contract on the table for me.
Pre season saw us take a bit of time to adjust to the new formation and tactical approach, with a couple of early defeats. But we'd got our act together in the end and yes I'm still sniggering at the fact there is a team out there called Fart.
You'll notice a few goals scored by a new name...Albert Braut Tjaland is the young striker I signed 3 years ago from Molde for £90k...he's now coming good at the age of 21 and I've promoted him to the first team with the aim to give him some game time this season!
Finally, the bookies are taking us a little more seriously and no longer are we predicted to finish in the bottom 3. This year, we're actually fancied for a top 10 finish, although I have to say I'm still convinced we're being underestimated.
Next out the door was striker Henrik Udahl. £425,000 is a great return on a player we only paid £89k for a couple of seasons ago and who has not exactly set the world alight with his performances either. Happy to let him go and that money will be a welcome boost to the club's precarious financial situation.
Now, even though I have a whole world of nationalities open to me now, my first signing for the club this window is a Norwegian. I wanted to improve the goalkeeper position and am delighted that we have managed to prize Jacob Karlstrom away from Lillestrom on a free transfer. He was their number 1 keeper and will immediately become ours!
Our next signing is one for the future as Truls Tversland joins on a free from Start. He looks like a very solid prospect at just 17 years old and he could potentially break into the first team over the next couple of seasons for sure.
I plan to mix up our tactics a little next year and build a 4-2-3-1 as opposed to the 4-1-2-3 that we have used for the past 4 years. As part of that, I will need players that can play an attacking midfield role and for that reason I have signed Odin Holm on loan from Valerenga for the season ahead.
Our next loan signing for this window is a player that could potentially be our best this season! Luciano Napoletano is an 18 year old attacker who joins us from Roma for the season ahead. He has the skills to set this league alight and is the kind of player who could make the difference between us finishing 2nd/3rd and finally getting over the line to become Norwegian champions.
He is even amongst the favourites to be the best player in the league this season.
My final loan signing of the window was right back, Kilian Fischer, who comes in for the season from Nurnberg. He will provide competition for Thomas Vold, but can also provide cover in midfield and his versatility will be useful this season.
Meanwhile, the youth intake this season is our worst since I've been at the club and I can't see any of these coming through into the first team.
There was also a new 3 year contract on the table for me.
Pre season saw us take a bit of time to adjust to the new formation and tactical approach, with a couple of early defeats. But we'd got our act together in the end and yes I'm still sniggering at the fact there is a team out there called Fart.
You'll notice a few goals scored by a new name...Albert Braut Tjaland is the young striker I signed 3 years ago from Molde for £90k...he's now coming good at the age of 21 and I've promoted him to the first team with the aim to give him some game time this season!
Finally, the bookies are taking us a little more seriously and no longer are we predicted to finish in the bottom 3. This year, we're actually fancied for a top 10 finish, although I have to say I'm still convinced we're being underestimated.
FM_TNSSO
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Now I have a better side, I feel like we can go more on the front foot with a slightly more attacking formation and tactical setup this year. Here's what I have come up with. The only individual instructions I have given to these players is that the wide attackers are told to sit narrow, whilst the wing backs are told to stay wide. All defensive players are asked to tackle harder, whilst any attacking player with poor shooting is asked not to shoot too often. Also, any player with a poor passing attribute is asked to take less risks, whilst our best passers are asked to take more.
The new formation seemed to do the trick in the first instance as we kicked off the season with back to back 2-0 victories over Lillestrom and Brann respectively. Two teams that we have had mixed results against in previous seasons so this was an encouraging start.
That was before an easy win away at Hodd in our first cup game of the season.
That's when our season hit it's first stumbling block as we suffered two defeats in our next three league games. The one against Bodo can be forgiven as they are the reigning champions after all, and it was a close game, but the Ranheim result is an absolute disgrace.
Although we only have ourselves to blame for the Ranheim result as we were leading 2-1 in this game...then two sending offs in two minutes pretty much handed the game to our opponents on a silver platter!
I thought for a minute, in our next game, that another sending off was going to cost us points. However, this time we were playing one of the weakest teams in the league and still managed to maintain our dominance even with 10 men and nicked the win with a headed goal from Jonas Gronner early in the 2nd half. It did do us a favour that Viking decided to even the playing field with 20 minutes remaining with one of their own also seeing red.
Two more wins in the cup against teams from the lower divisions ensures our passage through to the 4th round. I'd love to go on and win the cup this year and am setting it out as one of my own personal aims of the season!
Back in the league, a fantastic comeback saw us defeat Molde on their own turf and pick up a huge 3 points!
In all fairness, we actually have a really good record against one of the biggest sides in the country. We've now gone 6 games without defeat to them!
After 7 games, we sit 2nd in the division with only Stromsgodset above us. Molde and Rosenborg have again made really disappointing starts to their season and their continued underachievement is probably the biggest surprise of this entire save for me so far. Rosenborg's last 4 league positions have been 3rd, 8th, 5th and 9th, whilst Molde have finished 2nd, 4th, 10th and 7th!
The new formation seemed to do the trick in the first instance as we kicked off the season with back to back 2-0 victories over Lillestrom and Brann respectively. Two teams that we have had mixed results against in previous seasons so this was an encouraging start.
That was before an easy win away at Hodd in our first cup game of the season.
That's when our season hit it's first stumbling block as we suffered two defeats in our next three league games. The one against Bodo can be forgiven as they are the reigning champions after all, and it was a close game, but the Ranheim result is an absolute disgrace.
Although we only have ourselves to blame for the Ranheim result as we were leading 2-1 in this game...then two sending offs in two minutes pretty much handed the game to our opponents on a silver platter!
I thought for a minute, in our next game, that another sending off was going to cost us points. However, this time we were playing one of the weakest teams in the league and still managed to maintain our dominance even with 10 men and nicked the win with a headed goal from Jonas Gronner early in the 2nd half. It did do us a favour that Viking decided to even the playing field with 20 minutes remaining with one of their own also seeing red.
Two more wins in the cup against teams from the lower divisions ensures our passage through to the 4th round. I'd love to go on and win the cup this year and am setting it out as one of my own personal aims of the season!
Back in the league, a fantastic comeback saw us defeat Molde on their own turf and pick up a huge 3 points!
In all fairness, we actually have a really good record against one of the biggest sides in the country. We've now gone 6 games without defeat to them!
After 7 games, we sit 2nd in the division with only Stromsgodset above us. Molde and Rosenborg have again made really disappointing starts to their season and their continued underachievement is probably the biggest surprise of this entire save for me so far. Rosenborg's last 4 league positions have been 3rd, 8th, 5th and 9th, whilst Molde have finished 2nd, 4th, 10th and 7th!
FM_TNSSO
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One of our biggest rivals is HamKam, but we haven't had the opportunity to play them since my first season in charge when we recorded a double over them in the division below. However, they came up as league winners last year and we will have the opportunity to renew our rivalry in our next game.
And we made it 3 wins from 3 meetings as comfortably as you like! HamKam were simply no match for us and we send our fans home with all the bragging rights!
Surprisingly, we found things just as easy in our next game away to Rosenborg. We were brilliant here and this could possibly be one of my results of the entire save so far!
A 2-0 win over Stabaek in our next match made it 5 straight wins on the bounce in the league.
Things are going from strength to strength as we progress to the quarter finals of the cup as well. Haugesund were in this up until the break and actually had the best chance of the game in the 1st half. However, after the break we looked like a different team and pushed on to get a comfortable win in the end.
Which brings us to the big league fixture...1st vs 2nd...Stromsgodset vs Raufoss.
And although we're on one of the best runs of my career, we won't go into this with huge amounts of confidence as we've only beaten Stromsgodset once in seven meetings and have failed to score past them in our last 5!
Although we edged the possession side of things, Stromsgodset were relentless as they attacked our goal again and again, mustering up 18 shots to our 8!
But it was us who took our chances on the day and we become the first team to beat Stromgsgodset this season! What a result that is!
Good news for Norwegian football as well, as the Eliteserien rises another 2 places in the European competition rankings. We are now officially more prestigious than the English Championship.
Back to the Norwegian Cup now and we have made it to the semi finals for the 2nd season in a row after beating Sandefjord in the quarters.
And another league win over 4th placed Haugesund leaves us at the top of the division with a 3 point buffer. At the moment, Stromsgodset are the only side who can keep up with us and we are opening up a very healthy gap to the rest!
And we made it 3 wins from 3 meetings as comfortably as you like! HamKam were simply no match for us and we send our fans home with all the bragging rights!
Surprisingly, we found things just as easy in our next game away to Rosenborg. We were brilliant here and this could possibly be one of my results of the entire save so far!
A 2-0 win over Stabaek in our next match made it 5 straight wins on the bounce in the league.
Things are going from strength to strength as we progress to the quarter finals of the cup as well. Haugesund were in this up until the break and actually had the best chance of the game in the 1st half. However, after the break we looked like a different team and pushed on to get a comfortable win in the end.
Which brings us to the big league fixture...1st vs 2nd...Stromsgodset vs Raufoss.
And although we're on one of the best runs of my career, we won't go into this with huge amounts of confidence as we've only beaten Stromsgodset once in seven meetings and have failed to score past them in our last 5!
Although we edged the possession side of things, Stromsgodset were relentless as they attacked our goal again and again, mustering up 18 shots to our 8!
But it was us who took our chances on the day and we become the first team to beat Stromgsgodset this season! What a result that is!
Good news for Norwegian football as well, as the Eliteserien rises another 2 places in the European competition rankings. We are now officially more prestigious than the English Championship.
Back to the Norwegian Cup now and we have made it to the semi finals for the 2nd season in a row after beating Sandefjord in the quarters.
And another league win over 4th placed Haugesund leaves us at the top of the division with a 3 point buffer. At the moment, Stromsgodset are the only side who can keep up with us and we are opening up a very healthy gap to the rest!
FM_TNSSO
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Sarpsborg are in a pretty sorry state and came into our game with just 3 points from their opening 12 games, so it would have been a huge shock had we been beaten here. We maintained our professionalism, didn't lose focus, and stuck another 3 points on our tally.
A great win against Valerenga next and another double for Jonas Aune as he takes his tally for the season to 13 goals in 15 appearances!
What an amazing piece of business this is looking like now. We signed this lad for £250k two seasons ago and he has 24 league goals for the club in 38 league appearances. His value is now somewhere in the region of £2 million and he's still only 21 years old!
Talking of business, we've dipped into the transfer market to bring in 34 year old Vegar Hedenstad. I wanted a backup right back as Thomas Vold has been proper throwing his dummy out and has copped a right strop as he has become second choice in the RB position. I'm not standing for it and he has now agreed a deal to join Lillestrom at the end of the season when his contract expires and I've relegated him to the 2nd team until that time comes around. Hedenstad can come in and do a job for us though until a more longer term replacement comes in.
Back to league action and we've now strung together 13 straight wins in all competitions and the last time we were beaten was only really because we had 2 players sent off. That's not likely to happen again any time soon though...
Lost for words! However, nothing better than giving someone a good thrashing to recover from defeat! The unlucky side that suffered our backlash was Icelandic side, Breidablik, in the first leg of our Europa Conference League qualifier.
In the return leg, I rotated everyone and a complete second string played, including a couple of 17 year olds from our 2nd team. We suffered a defeat, although this doesn't tell the whole story as we still managed 65% of possession and 20 shots to their 6, but couldn't find the back of the net. The job was done from the first leg though and we're comfortably through to the next round.
The transfer window is once again open and we have two new arrivals to announce. These deals were both wrapped up a few months ago as they both join on free transfers as their previous contracts came to an end. Charlie Goode joins to bolster our defence and his experience could be extremely valuable...he's been at Birmingham for the past 3 seasons and in the 2023/24 season, played Premier League football for them making 24 appearances.
The second player through the door is Mattia Sprocati who gives us further cover on either wing. He's unlikely to break straight into the first team, but he can provide essential cover in these positions, especially if we manage to qualify for the group stages of the Conference League. He has been playing for Ascoli for the past 2 seasons and has 8 goals and 10 assists to his name for them in Italy.
Both the new boys were handed a start against Lillestrom and did their bit as we earned a hard fought win.
It was a win that saw us open up an 8 point lead at the top of the league!
And we are through to the final qualifying round for the Europa Conference League after overcoming Basel on a penalty shootout!
But we'll have to be at our absolute best to make the group stage as we have a very difficult tie against Atalanta to overcome!
A great win against Valerenga next and another double for Jonas Aune as he takes his tally for the season to 13 goals in 15 appearances!
What an amazing piece of business this is looking like now. We signed this lad for £250k two seasons ago and he has 24 league goals for the club in 38 league appearances. His value is now somewhere in the region of £2 million and he's still only 21 years old!
Talking of business, we've dipped into the transfer market to bring in 34 year old Vegar Hedenstad. I wanted a backup right back as Thomas Vold has been proper throwing his dummy out and has copped a right strop as he has become second choice in the RB position. I'm not standing for it and he has now agreed a deal to join Lillestrom at the end of the season when his contract expires and I've relegated him to the 2nd team until that time comes around. Hedenstad can come in and do a job for us though until a more longer term replacement comes in.
Back to league action and we've now strung together 13 straight wins in all competitions and the last time we were beaten was only really because we had 2 players sent off. That's not likely to happen again any time soon though...
Lost for words! However, nothing better than giving someone a good thrashing to recover from defeat! The unlucky side that suffered our backlash was Icelandic side, Breidablik, in the first leg of our Europa Conference League qualifier.
In the return leg, I rotated everyone and a complete second string played, including a couple of 17 year olds from our 2nd team. We suffered a defeat, although this doesn't tell the whole story as we still managed 65% of possession and 20 shots to their 6, but couldn't find the back of the net. The job was done from the first leg though and we're comfortably through to the next round.
The transfer window is once again open and we have two new arrivals to announce. These deals were both wrapped up a few months ago as they both join on free transfers as their previous contracts came to an end. Charlie Goode joins to bolster our defence and his experience could be extremely valuable...he's been at Birmingham for the past 3 seasons and in the 2023/24 season, played Premier League football for them making 24 appearances.
The second player through the door is Mattia Sprocati who gives us further cover on either wing. He's unlikely to break straight into the first team, but he can provide essential cover in these positions, especially if we manage to qualify for the group stages of the Conference League. He has been playing for Ascoli for the past 2 seasons and has 8 goals and 10 assists to his name for them in Italy.
Both the new boys were handed a start against Lillestrom and did their bit as we earned a hard fought win.
It was a win that saw us open up an 8 point lead at the top of the league!
And we are through to the final qualifying round for the Europa Conference League after overcoming Basel on a penalty shootout!
But we'll have to be at our absolute best to make the group stage as we have a very difficult tie against Atalanta to overcome!
FM_TNSSO
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Brann and Bodo have both won this division within the last few seasons, so this was a good 4 points to put up on the board.
We were off to Italy for the first leg of our qualifier against Atalanta. I didn't expect us to win out there, but I definitely thought if we could keep the score respectable and nick a goal, we'd be in with a shot. That's exactly what we did and on the balance of play, we were probably the better side, so I feel confident we can beat them at our place.
Between the Atalanta games, we had a really disappointing result against Aalesund and this was not a good confidence builder for us!
Next up - Atalanta at home and for the 3rd season in a row, we fail to qualify for the group stages of the Europa Conference League. Our opponents proved to be just too strong for us and I have to admit I'm gutted! I genuinely thought this was going to be our year to have a little taste of European competition (not just the qualifiers).
One thing that definitely isn't helping our cause in Europe is that we don't get to play our home games at our own stadium as it doesn't meet the requirements. I do wonder how we will ever be able to grow to compete in Europe as well when the f***ing council keep blocking our stadium expansion plans every year!
Viking are struggling and find themselves battling hard against relegation, so this was very nearly a really bad result as we threw away a 2-0 lead against them! However, a late goal from our young Italian loanee ensured we took all 3 points in the end!
We made it back to back wins as we narrowly beat 4th placed Ranheim in our next game. It was nice to get the victory here after they smashed 5 past us early in the season (although we did have 2 men sent off in that game)!
Molde were up next and we had to play them just 3 days before our semi final game in the cup. Based on that, I took the decision to rest most of the players I knew I wanted to start in the cup and ultimately it cost us as we fell to defeat. We didn't really deserve to lose in all fairness, but they took their chances and we didn't...no excuses.
Despite that defeat though, we remain top of the league with a 5 point buffer back to Stromsgodset in 2nd. With only 8 games remaining, they look like the only team that will challenge us for the title.
BOOOOM!! My decision to rest a whole host of players against Molde (and suffer defeat as a consequence), was fully justified as we were able to field a full strength side and thrash Lillestrom in the semi final of the cup! We are on our way to our first cup final under my management!!!
And we'll take on Brann in the final...the side that knocked us out in the semi final last year!
We were off to Italy for the first leg of our qualifier against Atalanta. I didn't expect us to win out there, but I definitely thought if we could keep the score respectable and nick a goal, we'd be in with a shot. That's exactly what we did and on the balance of play, we were probably the better side, so I feel confident we can beat them at our place.
Between the Atalanta games, we had a really disappointing result against Aalesund and this was not a good confidence builder for us!
Next up - Atalanta at home and for the 3rd season in a row, we fail to qualify for the group stages of the Europa Conference League. Our opponents proved to be just too strong for us and I have to admit I'm gutted! I genuinely thought this was going to be our year to have a little taste of European competition (not just the qualifiers).
One thing that definitely isn't helping our cause in Europe is that we don't get to play our home games at our own stadium as it doesn't meet the requirements. I do wonder how we will ever be able to grow to compete in Europe as well when the f***ing council keep blocking our stadium expansion plans every year!
Viking are struggling and find themselves battling hard against relegation, so this was very nearly a really bad result as we threw away a 2-0 lead against them! However, a late goal from our young Italian loanee ensured we took all 3 points in the end!
We made it back to back wins as we narrowly beat 4th placed Ranheim in our next game. It was nice to get the victory here after they smashed 5 past us early in the season (although we did have 2 men sent off in that game)!
Molde were up next and we had to play them just 3 days before our semi final game in the cup. Based on that, I took the decision to rest most of the players I knew I wanted to start in the cup and ultimately it cost us as we fell to defeat. We didn't really deserve to lose in all fairness, but they took their chances and we didn't...no excuses.
Despite that defeat though, we remain top of the league with a 5 point buffer back to Stromsgodset in 2nd. With only 8 games remaining, they look like the only team that will challenge us for the title.
BOOOOM!! My decision to rest a whole host of players against Molde (and suffer defeat as a consequence), was fully justified as we were able to field a full strength side and thrash Lillestrom in the semi final of the cup! We are on our way to our first cup final under my management!!!
And we'll take on Brann in the final...the side that knocked us out in the semi final last year!
FM_TNSSO
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- May 10, 2018
- Messages
- 2,912
- Reaction score
- 3,625
- Points
- 113
Dropped points in two of our next three games really wasn't ideal in our attempt to asert our dominance at the top of the league.
However, Stromsgodset weren't on their best form either and only managed to close the gap on us by a single point.
And our next game would be against our title rivals. A huge fixture for both clubs as a win for us would very much put the championship in our hands to lose...a win for them would bring them right back into it with 4 games left! It's fair to say it was probably more important for us to win it, as we have the harder run in out of the two of us, playing 4 of the top 6 in our last 5 games!
As it stood, neither team gained the upper hand, although the draw is better for us than them, especially when you consider that we were down to 10 men and twice losing in the game! Great resilience from my lads and we maintain our 4 point lead with just 4 games left.
We only managed a draw against Haugesund in our next game as well and I started to question whether we really wanted this title or not...
...but the same question could be asked of Stromsgodset who only managed a draw themselves. Still 4 points clear with just 3 remaining now!
And a narrow 1-0 victory over Valerenga in our next match could well be the best 1-0 we'll have in my whole career as it edges us oh so closer to that league title! Stromsgodset did win as well, so there is still a 4 point gap with 2 games remaining, but it does now mean we are a single victory away!!
Just one win was needed from our final two games to secure the title. Surely we couldn't throw it from here...surely!
Think again!! Unbelievably, we just can't get the win to get us over the line and with Stromsgodset winning both their final games, they pip us to the title by a single point. I genuinely don't think I've ever been so gutted in an FM save in all my life!
Never seen a complete meltdown like it. We only managed 2 wins from our last 8 games of the season as we completely bottled it!
We did still have one final opportunity for silverware though. Could we make amends for throwing away the league title, by lifting the cup for the first time in the club's history?
After dominating the first half but failing to score, it only took us 4 minutes of the second half to get our noses in front. The all important goal was scored by Thomas Elsebutangen with a tap in after excellent work from Napoletano running into the box and laying it on a plate for him!
On 76 minutes, we doubled our lead as Sander Christiansen tidily finished in the bottom corner to put one hand firmly on the trophy!
So it was a bitter sweet ending to the season as we lift the cup for the first time ever in Raufoss's history! I'm absolutely delighted to take some silverware this year and really hope we can build on this and lift that league title next season!
However, Stromsgodset weren't on their best form either and only managed to close the gap on us by a single point.
And our next game would be against our title rivals. A huge fixture for both clubs as a win for us would very much put the championship in our hands to lose...a win for them would bring them right back into it with 4 games left! It's fair to say it was probably more important for us to win it, as we have the harder run in out of the two of us, playing 4 of the top 6 in our last 5 games!
As it stood, neither team gained the upper hand, although the draw is better for us than them, especially when you consider that we were down to 10 men and twice losing in the game! Great resilience from my lads and we maintain our 4 point lead with just 4 games left.
We only managed a draw against Haugesund in our next game as well and I started to question whether we really wanted this title or not...
...but the same question could be asked of Stromsgodset who only managed a draw themselves. Still 4 points clear with just 3 remaining now!
And a narrow 1-0 victory over Valerenga in our next match could well be the best 1-0 we'll have in my whole career as it edges us oh so closer to that league title! Stromsgodset did win as well, so there is still a 4 point gap with 2 games remaining, but it does now mean we are a single victory away!!
Just one win was needed from our final two games to secure the title. Surely we couldn't throw it from here...surely!
Think again!! Unbelievably, we just can't get the win to get us over the line and with Stromsgodset winning both their final games, they pip us to the title by a single point. I genuinely don't think I've ever been so gutted in an FM save in all my life!
Never seen a complete meltdown like it. We only managed 2 wins from our last 8 games of the season as we completely bottled it!
We did still have one final opportunity for silverware though. Could we make amends for throwing away the league title, by lifting the cup for the first time in the club's history?
After dominating the first half but failing to score, it only took us 4 minutes of the second half to get our noses in front. The all important goal was scored by Thomas Elsebutangen with a tap in after excellent work from Napoletano running into the box and laying it on a plate for him!
On 76 minutes, we doubled our lead as Sander Christiansen tidily finished in the bottom corner to put one hand firmly on the trophy!
So it was a bitter sweet ending to the season as we lift the cup for the first time ever in Raufoss's history! I'm absolutely delighted to take some silverware this year and really hope we can build on this and lift that league title next season!
FM_TNSSO
Member
- Joined
- May 10, 2018
- Messages
- 2,912
- Reaction score
- 3,625
- Points
- 113
Despite receiving £1.5 million for our final league position, we are still deep in the red with the club's overall finances.
It means that there still isn't huge amounts in the transfer budget, although we can do some shifting around as we are currently only spending £38k of a £65k wage budget.
We continue to improve our status and the club's reputation has moved to a 3 star rating following another competitive season in the league and a cup win!
As we continue to try to grow the status of the club, our sh1th0use of a council finally approve a stadium expansion after 5 years of putting a block on it. It may only be 500 additional capacity but it is at least as step in the right direction.
On awards night, it was a repeat of last season's winners as Austevoll and Andersen took the fan's player and young player of the season.
Andersen also lifted the Eliteserien's Norwegian Young Player of the Year for the second time.
Both the centre backs are approaching 100 appearances for the club and are firmly cemented in our overall best eleven now. Markus Karlsbakk is my most used player through 5 seasons as he has 149 appearances to his name now and becoming a bit of a legend of this save.
Especially as this season he was our joint top goalscorer alongside Jonas Aune, hitting the back of the net 17 times. Only Odin Holm managed more assists than him as well. Thomas Elsebutangen had another decent season up front, bagging 15 goals for himself, whilst the defence all put in a shift.
Karlsbakk also became our first player to work his way into the Norwegian Player's Dream Team of the Year, alongside the elite Norwegian players from across the world.
I want to give a special mention to 21 year old Albert Tjaland who was promoted to the first team this season and made an impact as he scored 9 league goals for the club. Hopefully, he can push on and continue to develop next season.
Another youngster who made a decent impact in his first full season was Espen Bakkehoi. We may struggle to keep hold of him during the next transfer window though as there is strong interest from the likes of Udinese and Werder Bremen for his signature. If he does go though, he could potentially bring in enough money for the club to balance the books.
With the transfer window about to open and a couple of months of wheeling a dealing in the market, it's worth noting that two defenders who have played a significant role for me during my time here, have left the club at the end of their contracts. I just felt that with them both being in their early thirties and not being amongst our best players at the club anymore, we could replace them during the upcoming window with better options.
It means that there still isn't huge amounts in the transfer budget, although we can do some shifting around as we are currently only spending £38k of a £65k wage budget.
We continue to improve our status and the club's reputation has moved to a 3 star rating following another competitive season in the league and a cup win!
As we continue to try to grow the status of the club, our sh1th0use of a council finally approve a stadium expansion after 5 years of putting a block on it. It may only be 500 additional capacity but it is at least as step in the right direction.
On awards night, it was a repeat of last season's winners as Austevoll and Andersen took the fan's player and young player of the season.
Andersen also lifted the Eliteserien's Norwegian Young Player of the Year for the second time.
Both the centre backs are approaching 100 appearances for the club and are firmly cemented in our overall best eleven now. Markus Karlsbakk is my most used player through 5 seasons as he has 149 appearances to his name now and becoming a bit of a legend of this save.
Especially as this season he was our joint top goalscorer alongside Jonas Aune, hitting the back of the net 17 times. Only Odin Holm managed more assists than him as well. Thomas Elsebutangen had another decent season up front, bagging 15 goals for himself, whilst the defence all put in a shift.
Karlsbakk also became our first player to work his way into the Norwegian Player's Dream Team of the Year, alongside the elite Norwegian players from across the world.
I want to give a special mention to 21 year old Albert Tjaland who was promoted to the first team this season and made an impact as he scored 9 league goals for the club. Hopefully, he can push on and continue to develop next season.
Another youngster who made a decent impact in his first full season was Espen Bakkehoi. We may struggle to keep hold of him during the next transfer window though as there is strong interest from the likes of Udinese and Werder Bremen for his signature. If he does go though, he could potentially bring in enough money for the club to balance the books.
With the transfer window about to open and a couple of months of wheeling a dealing in the market, it's worth noting that two defenders who have played a significant role for me during my time here, have left the club at the end of their contracts. I just felt that with them both being in their early thirties and not being amongst our best players at the club anymore, we could replace them during the upcoming window with better options.
FM_TNSSO
Member
- Joined
- May 10, 2018
- Messages
- 2,912
- Reaction score
- 3,625
- Points
- 113
Going to put this save on the back burner for a bit guys. The 4-5 month gaps between seasons is proving pretty tedious and I'm getting a bit bored with the save. I'm going to start something in England I think, where I can keep up my enthusiasm and interest in the save for a longer period.