Next up for us was bottom of the league Haugesund and I thought we were nailed on for another 3 points against a side that had only won 2 games so far this season. However, I was wrong and they showed a lot more spirit than I anticipated and were good value for their point if I'm honest!
In the quarter final of the cup, we'd been handed the hardest possible draw against Rosenborg. They were probably the better team on the day, so deserved the win, but again we gave a decent account of ourselves against one of the best in the country.
We only received £91k for our cup performances this year, which is a minimal amount.
However, everything is welcome as our financial situation is looking pretty bad! Despite being nearly £10k per week under our wage budget, we still seem to be losing around £200k per month this season!
We just simply aren't bringing in enough money to cover the bills. Sponsorship is in the couple of hundred thousand compared to some of the teams in the league that bring in well over £3 million.
And although we are bringing in 95% capacity attendance, when your stadium only holds 2500 people, it's not that much revenue!
Anyway, back to league action and we threw up some mixed results over our next 3 games. A disappointing result against Ranheim was followed up with an entertaining game for the fans, followed by a decent draw against the reigning champs.
Sander Werni is again impressing even at this higher level, as he continues to perform well above where his attributes suggest he should be! 6 goals and 5 assists in 13 games so far this season is a great achievement for the 22 year old! It still amazes me based on the fact I didn't even see him being a first team regular when I took over the club, and he is now becoming one of my favourite players of the save!
The last few games have come thick and fast and with some tired legs in the squad, it was good to have a 3 week break before we took on Odds. We were on top here for long periods, but our finishing let us down and we have to settle for a point.
I knew we'd have to be more clinical in front of goal against top of the league, Valerenga, and my attackers were told in the pre match team talk that I expected to see quality finishing from them! As it turned out, it was a game of very few chances, but Sander Werni took one of them and that was the difference between the sides as we beat the league leaders.
And that massive win brings us back in touch with the top 3. We're only just past the half way stage of the season, but if we could finish in a top 4 position and qualify for Europe, that would be an incredible achievement! At the moment, it's just a dream still but the longer the season goes on, and the longer we keep mixing it with the big boys, the closer to reality it becomes.
Before I close off this update, it's worth mentioning that the transfer window has just opened and I have confirmed two new deals. The first is a 19 year old striker who has been brought in on a free from Grorud, simply to boost the 2nd team for now, although he does have potential to improve.
The second is another striker, but this one if most definitely for the first team. In fact, Henrik Udahl has the potential to become our main man up top! He hasn't been getting any game time for Valerenga, so they have agreed to let him join us on loan for the rest of the season. If he turns out to be a success, I have pre agreed a fee of £89k to sign him which could turn out to be an absolute bargain if he bangs in the goals for us!
Our new striker had absolutely no impact in his first two games for the club, turning in very poor performances! One win from two is enough to keep us in the top 4 for now though.
I contemplated dropping him, but thought I'd give him one more chance to show me what he's all about. And the lad stepped right up, putting those two awful opening games behind him, by bagging a hat trcik as we battered relegation threatened Tromso.
And he only went and followed that up with another hat trick as we smashed 4 past Kristiansund. Amazing the contrast between his first 2 games and his last 2!
So naturally, just as he hits form, he gets injured for up to 2 months!!
On transfer deadline day I wasn't able to entice another striker to the club, but another loan signing did come through the door until the end of the season. Surprisingly, Bodo/Glimt who are in the running for a top 4 spot with us, have allowed centre back Sigurd Kvile to help us beat them to it! Kvile is a good addition to a back line that has been thin on the ground all season.
Rosenborg once again proved too strong for us as they beat us for the 3rd time this season and it's a result that probably ensures we won't be lifting the title in our first season in the Eliteserien (although that was never a realistic target anyway).
Lillestrom are another side that we have played 3 times this season now, but in contrast to Rosenborg, they haven't beaten us. This one was a rout as we hammered them for 90 whole minutes and was capped off with a debut goal from our new centre back.
We carried the momentum into our next game to record a fantastic win at Molde. We didn't steal a win here either - we were d4mn good value for it!
It was a win that put some nice distance between us and them in 5th and a couple more wins from our last 6 games should confirm a guaranteed top 4 spot for us. It's only really us or Bodo that can stop Valerenga lifting the title now, but it's definitely theirs to lose.
We've been in great form over the past month and it shows as two of our players fill the top two spots in the Player of the Month award for September.
Christian Landu-Landu has gone about his business quietly this season. Not setting the world alight, but he has been a rock in that DM role that I play, covering the defence well and chips in with the odd assist. I've been really impressed with him, again as another player that is performing above where his attributes suggest he should be. The tactic I've created to use in this save definitely seems to be getting the best out of my players and long may it continue.
Coming into the game against Stromsgodset off the back of two 4-0 wins, I think everyone feared the worst for our opponents. Within 58 seconds, we were in front as well and it looked like it might be a long afternoon for the home fans. However, their team showed great spirit and heart and gave us a good game and fully deserved their point. A disappointing result for us against a side in the bottom half though.
I know we're not going to win the title, but who'd have even thought we'd be involved in discussions like this with 5 games to go!!
Any slim, slim title hopes we might have had, have now vanished after we threw away a 2 goal lead against Stabaek.
We put the disappointment of that result quickly behind us with a solid 1-0 win over Ranheim.
But then we had a complete meltdown and were shocking against Aalesund who gave us a thrashing. We were never in this game and didn't show anything of what we are about! Probably our worst performance of the season.
Ironically, our worst performance of the season is the same one that guarantees us a European qualifying place.
Which is cause for celebration in itself. But on top of that, our 2nd team have won back to back league titles!
With 3rd place already assured in the division, our last two games were a formality really. What an incredible achievement it was to finish in a European qualification place in our first season in the top flight. To think as well that 56 points would have won the title last season! I'm so proud of this team and can't wait to see what we can do over the coming months to prepare for next season.
Our 3rd place finish this season was actually a new club record high!
Another £10k nearly was added to the weekly wage budget for next season. We have loads to play with as we are currently spending just over half of this! We'll also have just under quarter of a mil to spend on transfers.
The financial situation is now considerably better at the club thanks to a windfall in prize money from our 3rd place finish in the league.
Revenue in general is on it's way up, although I'd have expected nothing less after promotion last year.
Not quite sure where they got my best 11 from this season as players such as Hammer, Johnsgard, Westerlund and Haltvik who barely played have all been included?!
We're better off looking at the whole squad to get a proper feel for our best players. There were plenty of excellent performances from the lads again this season with lots of players finishing up with average ratings above 7.0. Sander Werni, the little legend, was brilliant and led the way for assists and goals! Thomas Elsebutangen matched him for goals and a return of 14 isn't too bad for the front man, although I'd have been interested to see how many Henrik Udahl would have got in the 2nd half of the season had he not picked up that injury. Markus Karlsbakk didn't shine as much as last season in the lower division, but he did well enough to justify the choice to bring him here on a permanent deal. Jonas Gronner proved to be a good addition at centre back and was solid for the most part, Simen Mikalsen also had a decent first season at left back, although I'd have liked to have seen more assists from him. Overall though, I have to be delighted! I've put a few of the weaker players up for sale including Hakon Hammer, Jakob Orsahl, Gard Simenstad and Markus Aanesland.
Sander Werni fully deserved his club awards! What a little legend he is turning out to be for the club!
As we look to grow the club, the board have included 'expand the stadium' into the vision. Despite finishing 3rd this season, they still only expect me to maintain our position in the top flight over the coming 5 years.
Although the local council have other ideas!
They can't stop us upgrading our junior coaching budget though!
Oh, and a Norwegian player is now officially the best in the world!
My first signing of pre season was the free transfer of attacker, Markus Naglestad. The 31 year old adds some experience to the first team and can play down either wing or through the middle, so his versatility will be crucial for us. I need players that can cover multiple roles on the pitch as we struggled a couple of times last season when we had to play 5-6 games in a 2 week period, with tired legs amongst the squad.
Naglestad has been plying his trade out in the USA for the past couple of years and it's fair to say he hasn't been struggling to find the back of the net. Hopefully, he can bring that to us.
Next up was a departure that I didn't want to happen. Edvard Race was one of the best players when I took over the club and has been a pretty solid starter for me over both my seasons at the club. However, his contract came to an end and he wanted me to guarantee him I would play him at centre back as a no nonsence defender. This is a position I do not like to play and goes against our quick passing game, so I refused and he wouldn't sign a new deal and so has left the club.
On the same day as Race leaving, we confirmed the permanent capture of loanee Henrik Udahl. He only managed a few appearances for us last season, but score 7 in 5, around getting injured and I couldn't ignore that and was intrigued to see what he might be able to do over the course of a whole season. He joins for a fee of £89,000 from Valerenga.
The next signing if one for the future as we've managed to prize away 16 year old Steinar Haugstad from Ranheim on a free transfer. He looks to have a very big future in the game and could be a key part of our midfield for future years to come!
And there is every chance that Espen Bakkehoi could be playing alongside him. Another 16 year old that we steal away from a rival (Aalesund) on a free transfer and another youngster with huge potential!
Another youngster and another centre mid, but Sander Christiansen is a few years ahead at 21 years old and will have a part to play this season for sure. I forked out £54,000 to bring him in from German side, Borussia Monchengladbach.
Another departure now as I let Jakob Orsahl leave the club for a fee of £33,000. He played 16 times for me in my first season, but only managed 4 appearances in the upper tier and I was happy to let him leave as I don't think he has or will have the required standard to be a regular in my team.
I desperately needed a new right back and the man I've brought in is 20 year old, Thomas Vold. He's decent, if not amazing, and should be able to do a job for us. Plus, he's likely to improve with plenty of first team football, so could prove to be a good investment for just £24,000 from Jerv.
In amongst all the transfer activity, there was another 3 year contract on the table for me as well.
And we apparently take in another golden generation of youngsters in the youth intake. I'm not convinced myself, but there are a couple here who might go on to achieve big things with the club.
One of them is David Glenne, who has better finishing ability than anyone at the entire club even though he's only 15 years old. We'll keep a keen eye on him. My only concern with him is that he is 6ft 4" but has no strength?!
Our final signing (for this update anyway) is centre back, Sindre Austevoll, who joins from IFK Goteborg for a fee of £70,000. He'll be a strong asset at the back I'm sure and is a handy addition just before the season kicks off.
Another unbeaten pre season should set us up nicely for the league campaign. A training camp in Portugal was well received by the lads and we enjoyed a really comfortable win over Estoril out there too.
We've definitely got a better squad than last year, and despite us finishing 3rd last season, the bookies still only think we're better than 2 teams that have come up and again have us as one of the favourites to go down. Time to prove the doubters wrong again lads!
Or maybe the bookies are on to something as we lose the opening day game against newly promoted Jerv! A disappointing start!
Although the stats suggest that we should have got something out of the match, but our finishing seriously let us down!
So after a disappointing loss, you probably don't want to be playing the reigning champions next. Or, you could just see it as an opportunity for the ultimate bounce back! And bounce back we did, in the most elaborate of ways!
Our first venture into the cup this season saw us run out comfortable winners against lower league opposition. I rotated the squad heavily with 9 changes from our last league game, but it didn't effect the performance as we won easily.
Lower league teams simply can't live with us now and the early rounds of the cup are quickly becoming a formality for us, which was once again proven as we beat Steinkjer without ever being tested. The further cup progression came after two more wins in the league as well and we're starting to build up some momentum!
Most of the squad have made a decent enough start to the season, but one player that is really shining early on is Eirik Schulze, who's 2 goals and 4 assists are enough to secure him the first Player of the Month award of the campaign.
Kristiansund looked like they were going to bring that momentum to an abrupt end though as they took us in half time 2-0 down!! However, a few tweaks to the tactic and some inspired subs and we turned the game around in the 2nd period to seal another league win!
It means that despite losing our opening game of the season, we are top of the division after 5 games.
Our cup run has come to an early end as we crash out against Stromsgodset, who sit just behind us in the league. We always knew this would be a tough game, but it was a bad day at the office and we didn't play to anywhere near our full potential. Disappointing!
Back in the league though, it was business as usual as we took 13 points from a possible 15 in our next 5 games!
Which extends our unbeaten league run to 9 games! A run during which we have only conceded 5 goals as we look absolutely solid at the back!
And a huge part of that defence has been the emergence of 19 year old Tobias Sagstuen Andersen, a product of our youth academy who impressed for our 2nd team last year and has made an extremely impressive start for the seniors since his introduction this season.
He might even be more important to us now than I am even giving him credit for, as I left him out for the next game (rest) and we lost at home to Lillestrom!
Our first ever venture into European competition is getting ever closer and in a month's time we'll play Croatian opposition in our first qualifying game.
Back to the league for now though and we gained a good point against the champions of 2 years ago, before absolutely battering a Rosenborg side that seem to struggling for the past couple of years!
It keeps us at the top of the league for now, although it is extremely tight between the top 4 and looks like it will be a very competitibve season!
We're dominating the stats in the division so far, leading the way on ppg, most goals, most shots, most dribbles, fewest shots against and fewest conceded!
We finish this update with the announcement of a new signing as well. And what a signing it is!! Omar Elabdellaoui has nearly 50 caps for the national side and will immediately slot in as our number 1 right back! He is easily one of our best players right away and to get him on a freebie after his release from Galatassaray is an absolute steal!
Our next game would see us take on 3rd placed Stromsgodset and we were looking for some revenge for that cup defeat! We didn't quite get revenge, but we didn't lose and a point isn't the end of the world.
And a point against Molde is probably a decent one as well, despite the fact that they are lingering down in a mid table position at the moment.
Mid table is clearly not good enough for Molde and having recently sacked their manager, it's me they are looking at to get them back on top. However, I'm committed to Raufoss and won't be attending their invited interview.
Our run of difficult league games continued next as we went away to the reigning champions, who are very much in the running to defend their title this season. However, we'd beaten them 4-0 earlier in the season, so had every right to feel confident we could take another 3 points. Although it was a much closer game than last time out, we again scored 4 goals to ensure we got back to winning ways...and a massive win it was in the grand scheme of things.
With our first European qualifier just around the corner, it's worth noting that we will now have 4 sides trying to get to the group stages of the Conference League, after Valerenga fell at the first hurdle in their Champions League qualifying campaign, losing to Hungarian opposition on pens. They will now drop into the Champions Path of qualifying for the Conference League.
Barring a complete meltdown in the second leg, we won't be falling at our first hurdle after a very comfortable home win against Osijek in the 1st leg of our 2nd round qualifying game.
No meltdown. Just another easy win out in Croatia. All 4 Norwegian sides qualified for the next round (Rosenborg, Bodo and Valerenga alongside us).
Back to domestic action now and we had a game against Jerv, who are 2nd bottom of the league. However, we haven't beaten them in 3 games, so this wasn't necessarily going to be a guaranteed win by any means! But we did get the victory in good style and put a bad little run against Jerv behind us.
In the first leg of our 3rd round qualifying game for the Conference League, we went away to Latvian side, Riga, and we dominated the stats. It's really hard to understand how we have come away from this game with a 2-0 defeat (after having 61% of possession and 21 shots on their goal) and we now have it all to do at home in the 2nd leg if we are to progress.
In the second leg, we'd reduced the deficity within the opening 10 minutes and went on to win the tie comfortably in the end. A scary moment away from home, but we reacted in the best possible way and are now only one qualification round away from the group stages of the competition! Again, all 4 Norwegian teams made it through and how fantastic would it be if all 4 of us could make it to the groups!
It wasn't all good news though as between the two European games, we lost a league game to Aalesund, which see's us lose top spot in the Eliteserien.
In our final Conference League qualifier, we have drawn Russian side, Krasnodar, who will put up a much bigger challenge than our previous two opponents. An immediate comparison between the two clubs shows their worth to be in excess of £65 million, where as ours is just over £5 mil! Whilst their average salary is £28k compared to our £475!!
They're certainly a much tougher prospect than Ranheim who we thrashed in the league as a warm up for the big boys from Russia!
With the amount of games we are playing at the moment, squad rotation is key, so I decided to add another midfielder to the mix to help us out until the end of the season. Magnus Rissnaes isn't getting game time at Valerenga but looks good enough to play a bit part role for us, so he comes in on loan for the rest of the campaign.
Although we might not be playing quite so many games for much longer as our European adventure looks set to come to an end after an incredibly poor first half out in Russia gives us a mountain to climb in the second leg! A virtually impossible task!
We didn't carry a European hangover back to Norway though as we beat Kristiansund with relative ease.
Which leads us back to the Conference League and welcoming Krasnodar back to Norway for the 2nd leg. We gave them a much closer game (and even knicked the win late on) but unfortunately the damage was already done from the first leg and we simply couldn't over turn it. Bodo and Rosenborg also crashed out to Leeds and Rangers, but Valerenga will go on to represent Norway in the group stages.
With the disappointment of not making it through in Europe still firmly in our minds, it was hard to tell how we'd react as we were back in league action with a tough fixture against Bodo up next. Fair to say we reacted pretty well though...
...so it was even more disappointing that we followed it up with a really bad performance against Stabaek.
But we bounced back immediately with a solid showing against Odds. Our form seems to be a bit up and down at the moment and we'll need to find some more consistency in the run in.
Especially as we find ourselves in a 3 way battle for the title with 7 games remaining.
We have some tough league games coming up in our final few games so winning the ones against those teams nearer the bottom than the top is absolutely essential if we want to stay in this title race. So this one was very satisyfing.
But our title rivals keep winning too. A massive, massive game against Lillestrom up next!!
Made even more massive by the fact it will be my 100th game in charge. Come on boys, give me a reason to celebrate!
Massive game...massive, massive win!! This could turn out to be a huge result in the race for the title!
A man of the match performance from this young man and what an impact he has made since joining us on loan a few weeks ago! He has forced his way into my starting lineup and has become one of our most consistent players in the last few matches!
After such a big win over Lillestrom, I can't even begin to explain the level of disappointment in going out and losing the bottom of the league Viking next!
We desperately needed to beat 4th placed Brann in our next game and thanks to two late goals we just about managed the victory to keep us in the title race with just 3 games remaining!
Our next game could even be a title decider! It's 1st vs 2nd as we go away to Stromsgodset and a win for them would put them just one victory away from winning the championship. A win for us would put the title in our hands with 2 games remaining! It doesn't get any bigger than this guys!
****! Although I'm gutted to lose this game and with it, most probably the title, I can't really have any complaints as the best team won on the day. We really didn't show up and only actually managed 3 shots at their goal and should have lost by more than the single goal we did.
On the plus side, yet another excellent youth intake is predicted.
But it was a rather underwhelming finish to the season for us as we end with a thrashing from Rosenborg before taking a point from our final game against Molde.
Which landed us with a 3rd placed finish for the 2nd season in a row and 7 points off the title in the end which was lifted by Stromsgodset. Although this is another amazing result for us after again being tipped for relegation, I can't help but feel slightly disappointed after coming so close to potentially winning the league. On the plus side though, we have finished with an extra 3 points on last season, so we are continuing to improve and with some good youngsters coming through this season, the future looks promising.
With back to back 3rd placed finishes, comes a new level of expectation from the board. Our previous vision had been to simply maintain our place in the division for the next 5 years, where as they're now looking for us to become the 'best of the rest' within the next few years.
Our league finish puts another million in the bank, which was badly needed as even with that prize money, we're in the red by nearly £800k!!
Because of the club's precarious financial situation, the available transfer budget doesn't give us much to play with. Although there has been a nice boost to the wage budget and we have £20k to play with there, so we might be able to juggle some things about a bit.
If the sponsorship continues to rise year on year, that will help though.
What we really need is to expand the stadium to enable us to bring in a lot more revenue and grow the club, but the local council hates us.
Another season of all round good performances from most of the squad again! We continue to overachieve and with a couple more good additions before next year's campaign, I'm convinced we can be up there challenging for the title again. Sander Werni wasn't as immense as he has been in previous seasons, but still managed to get into double figures on goals and bagged a handful of assists as well. It was Markus Karlsbakk who really shone again this season as he set a new club record for assists in one season with 16 and hammered home 8 goals as well. Both our strikers did well, scoring 34 goals between them in all competitions, whilst our defence was solid enough all round. I expect better of Elabdellaoui next season and we may need to get a better keeper in. Finally, a special mention for Sander Christiansen who was our most improved player throughout the season and was solid in central midfield and has become a really important member of the team!
It was no surprise to see Markus Karlsbakk taking the club awards for both Fan's and Young Player of the Season.
I'm still not entirely sure where the best 11 comes from as again I don't agree with several positions here. Sander Christiansen, Thomas Vold and Sindre Austevoll should not be missing from this team!
It's going to be an interesting few months before the new season begins and I might have to be shrewd in the transfer market to improve the squad, but even if I can't bring many new faces in, our future looks bright with some of the youngsters coming through. This was backed up by the fact two of our players were named as the best two Young Players of the Year in the division!
We do have one player that has been out on loan this season, who looks to have a promising future and he will be promoted to the senior team and introduced to first team football over the next year.
Before we sign off from this end of season update, I decided to check in and see how Valerenga were doing in the Conference League and I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had qualified from their group, which can only be goods for Norwegian football as a whole. We really need to bump the reputation of our competitions in the next few years and give ourselves better coefficient rankings and qualification prospects.
First bit of business during this window was to tie down Magnus Bech Riisnaes to another year on loan from Valerenga. The 19 year old did will for us in the last few games of the season and convinced me that he deserves to stay for a bit longer to develop with us. Hopefully this season, he can do even better.
Then we had two players leave the club that are worth giving a mention to. Markus Aanesland and Gard Simenstad both played a fair part in our title winning season at the lower level 3 years ago and we thank them for their service, but I just don't feel either of them are up to this level.
Another departure, but a more significant one, was that of Nicolai Fremstad. He has been a regular feature for me in my first team squad since I took over at the club and if I'm honest, I wanted to keep him here. However, I have always played him at centre back and he wanted assurances he would be played as a ball winning midfielder to sign a new contract and it's something I wasn't willing to agree to, so let him leave on a free.
Another significant departure from the club was that of Markus Johnsgard. Again, he has been a big part of my time at the club, playing more than half of the games in every season I have been here and giving me a good return in terms of his average ratings. However, he was becoming disgruntled with the competition for places and the fact he wasn't getting played as regularly or in the position he wanted to play, and ultimately he was become more of a hinderance than a help, so he had to go. We raked in an impressive £125k from Degerfors IF for him as he moves to Sweden and this will help with our own investment back into the squad hopefully.
I'm realistic that we're not going to be able to bring in many (if any) players to improve the starting 11 during this window, so instead turned my immediate attention to having the right backup players in place. Both Halvor Opsahl and Helge Sandvik fit that bill perfectly. Neither will set the world alight, but they will be there to step in and cover tiredness and injuries when required....Opsahl may even go back out on loan for a season to focus on his development being only 21 years old.
Although I was able to bring in my own personal transfer record with a little jiggle of the wage and transfer budget. Jonas Aune has come in for a fee of £250,000 from Sandnes IF where he has scored 22 goals in 71 appearances. At 20 years old, I see plenty of potential in him and he could be here as one of our key attackers for years to come and I'm confident the investment will prove to be money well spent. I'll be incorporating the youngster into the first team right away and look forward to managing his career for the years ahead.
The youth intake is very good again, with a couple of real prospects this season who could and likely will play for us in the future.
Markus Ruud is the most promising of the lot. With his current attributes, I will be looking to retrain him as an attacking full back though...if he can pull this off, I fancy him to become a first team regular in a few years time.
Our pre season campaign was largely successful barring a defeat against Brugge which can be forgiven. Plenty of goals scored, not many conceeded - here's hoping we can kick off the league campaign with a win this year.
Although we're still not getting any credit with the bookies. Despite us finishing 3rd two seasons in a row, we're still predicted to finish in the bottom 3 and one of the favourites to go down again!
ha I feel your pain beating 1st and then losing to bottom of the table straight after - good luck for the new season, crazy how you're still predicted to finish near the bottom despite the 3rd place finishes!
ha I feel your pain beating 1st and then losing to bottom of the table straight after - good luck for the new season, crazy how you're still predicted to finish near the bottom despite the 3rd place finishes!
Before we do kick off the league campaign for the 4th time under my management, the board send me a quick reminder that their expectations for this season are no longer to just stay in the league and they want a mid table finish at least.
Last year, we started the season with a disappointing defeat. However, there was no repeat of that this season as we cruised to an easy victory against the champions of 3 seasons ago. Statement sent out on the opening day to the rest of the league to say we're here to challenge again!
Valerenga gave a good account on behalf of the Norwegian sides, in the Europa Conference League this year, but their run is now over after defeat to Spartak Moscow in the first knockout round. Fair play to them though as I for one, didn't expect them to get this far.
An early injury setback for Sander Werni will see him out for nearly 2 months. This might have an effect on his ability to reach double figures on the goals front for the 4th season running.
Our second league game was as easy a win as our first. We really have hit the ground running at the start of this campaign!
A very closely fought game between us and Molde up next. Molde dominated us in the first 45 minutes, but just couldn't find the back of the net. However, we were a lot better in the 2nd period and Ibrahim came off the bench to curl in a beautiful effort from 20 yards for us to nick the points.
As we look at the best wonderkids in world football, Norway is represented twice in the top 50, with the 2nd best rated wonderkid in the world being Fiorentina's Andreas Schjelderup.
On transfer deadline day, we added another attacking player to the squad to help bolster the numbers. Filip Brattbakk wasn't getting much game time at Genoa, so they have allowed him to come to us on loan for the remainder of the season. He should be able to make some impact here and adds a little pace up top, which we have been lacking.
I'd recently stated in a press conference that I felt Tromso were my favourites for the drop this season, so I really hoped my lads weren't going to embarass me when we took them on next...
They didn't let me down! A fine performance rounded off by Jonas Aune's first goal for the club.
And we followed that up with a 2nd half turnaround against Valerenga to make it 5 wins from 5, which leaves us at the top of the league with our 100% record.
We've had good success in the early rounds of the cup against lower league opposition over the last couple of years, and this year looks to be no different as we record our biggest competitive win in the first round.
Before our next cup game, we had two more league games to take care of, and we took care of them in perfect fashion and maintain our 100% start to the season!
We made it 15 goals in two cup games scored with our 8-0 win at Agotnes! I heavily rotated the squad and the lads that came in really took advantage of their opportunity to get some good game time under their belts.
Our stand out player of the season so far has been Markus Naglestad by far! In 7 league games, he has 8 goals and 3 assists and is setting this division alight!
He's achieved something that not many do as well, winning back to back Player of the Month awards.
Back to the league and we suffer our first defeat of the season at the hands of the reigning champions. They were much better than us here and we didn't deserve anything from the game. Easily our worst performance of the season by a country mile!
Our next victory in the cup wasn't as emphatic as the previous two, even though it probably should have been with the amount of shots we had!
Despite playing only 3 games in this year's cup competition so far, we have still set a new record for the amount of goals scored in the competition in a single season!
Meanwhile, our league form has taken a right dip! Back to back defeats to Bodo and Aalesund makes it 3 losses in a row in the Eliteserien and we need to sort it out and quick!
It's seen us drop down to 4th in the league after 10 games, although a single point seperates the top 6 in an incredible tight division!
We got back to winning ways against Stabaek, albeit we weren't at our best! But we needed to stop the rut and we did!
But then followed that up with two really poor draws against teams struggling in the bottom half of the table! Goals are proving hard to come by for us at the moment and we've now failed to score in 4 of our last 7 games!
Certainly not the best form to carry into two games back to back against arguably the best team in the country.
The first game was in the cup and we absolutely trounced them! It was a relatively close first half, but in that second period we dominated, took our chances well and fully deserve to be in that quarter final!
However, back in the league, it was Rosenborg who triumphed as we looked half the team that we had done in the cup! It's times like this when I find my team so frustrating...how can we go out and score 5 and then immediately after go out and fail to score and lose!
Good news for Norwegian football as the Eliteserien has risen two placed in the European competition rankings to 20th.
Although at the moment, that has very little bearing on the European qualification places. It only means that the winner of the division will have to play one less Champions League qualifying game.
If our league form continues to be so inconsistent, then the domestic cup competition might be my best route to Europe next season and we are now in the semi final after a wonderful away win at Aalesund who had beaten us in the league only a few games ago.
A 2-0 win over Ranheim is much better in the league! Eirik Schulze scored a blinder as he bagged his 7th goal of the season.
It's that time of the season when our qualifying campaign for the European Conference League begins and we got through the second qualifying round by the skin of our teeth over Swiss side, Vaduz. Sandwiched between the two games we a draw with Brann in the league...not the worst result as they were sitting 2nd at kick off.
The transfer window is once again open and with it being that time of the season when we have to play a lot of games, I wanted to add another centre back to the squad. Valerenga haven't given a single league start to Jonatan Nation all season, so they were more than happy to let us take him off them on loan for the remainder of the season.
Another draw in the league leaves us outside of the top 4 and falling away from the leaders. We need to string some wins together to get back in the mix for the title challenge.
AEK Athens were our next opponents in our quest to qualify for the group stages of the Europa Conference League, but after losing the home leg, we've left ourselves with a lot to do out in Greece to get through now!
It really wasn't ideal that between our two qualifiers, the league game we had was against Molde. I rested about 7 players that I definitely wanted to play against AEK just 4 days later, so this was possibly our best 3 points of the entire season so far!
Which led us on to our trip to Greece! And what a f***ing turn around this was! GET IN!!
Omar Elabdellaoui joined us on a free last season and I was excited about his arrival at the time. However, he has been extremely underwhelming when he has played and with the emergence of Thomas Vold at right back, he has become second string anyway. This upset him and he's been causing trouble for a while now, so it was time to offload him! We managed to get £450,000 from Turkis side, Gaziantep, which is a great return on a player who wasn't in my first starting 11 anyway!
Tromso came into our next league game, bottom of the table with just 8 points. We dominated them like a team at the bottom of the table with 22 shots at their goal and 61% possession, so it was a little gutting to only win by a single goal.
Our final hurdle to try to overcome to make the group stages of the Europa Conference League was Swedish side, IFK Goteborg. The home leg was up first and we take a very important victory over to Sweden with us. That away goal might prove costly but it's in our hands now...go to Sweden and avoid defeat and we're in the group stages!
But it wasn't to be. Goteborg proved too strong for us at home and we couldn't match them as they dominated us for 90 minutes without us having a single clear cut chance at their goal. On a positive note (for Norwegian football) though, both Ranheim and Lillestrom did qualify for the group stages this season (overcoming Hadjuk Split and Bordeaux in their final qualifiers).
RULE CHANGE: I've been thinking about this for most of the season, but our failure to make the group stages of this competition for the 2nd year in a row confirms it. It's going to be ridiculously tough to compete on the European stage (ever) with just Norwegian players. Even Goteborg who are not exactly one of Europe's elite clubs, were represented by 5 different nations in their first 11 against us. If we also look at Bodo's squad below (who currently lead our division and are the title favourites this year), they were represented by 6 different nations in their matchday squad in their last league game. I have also noticed that at my scouting meetings over the past year, all of the Norwegian recommended players are only rated 2.5-3.5 stars maximum on current ability, so now I have built a good base of Norwegian players, we are struggling to improve the squad by sticking to our home nation only. I've also noticed that it's really hard to build a big enough squad of (decent) Norwegian players to compete in multiple competitions when we have to play a lot of games in a short time period. Naturally, as we move forward I will always have a focus to look at Norwegian players and we will continue to develop youngsters through the club etc....but from this moment, I am going to open up our transfer market to players of any nationality.
Goteborg first 11 against us in our last game
Bodo first 11 for their last game
We also desperately need to explore the transfer market to make more money for the club with our transfer dealings as the club is over £1.5 million in debt (despite bringing in over £1 million in European Conference League participation money this month). Norwegian players simply don't have the value of some other nations so it's near on impossible to compete financially with the other teams in the league if we continue to limit ourselves to just Norwegians.
With a squad of tired players, we were unable to get a result against Valerenga in the league and we are very quickly dropping out of this season's title race.
Although a late goal against Odds secured us a big win that moved us back into the top 4.
A disappointing draw against struggling Kongsvinger was followed up by a win over the league leaders. Good to see we're as inconsistent as ever!
And our cup dream is over for this season after an enthralling encounter with Brann in the semi final! It was a real end to end game for the full 120 minutes.
Aleksandar Trajovski was the hat trick hero for Brann in our semi final and he was the difference between the sides as his finishing was absolutely spot on! He's turning out to be a problem for us as he now has 5 against us in our last 3 matches against Brann.
Our cup exit meant that we would be back reliant on our league position if we want to make European competition again next season and our next game would be a huge one as we took on the reigning champions...a match that saw 2nd take on 3rd!
So it was bitterly disappointing that we never turned up and put up no sort of fight as we suffer a bad defeat.
We got our act together though and recorded 3 straight wins on the bounce with 3 clean sheets as well. Could we be making one last push for that league title after all?
Unfortunately for us, the teams ahead of us kept winning too and with 3 games left, we've probably hit a good vein of form a little too late as we're unlikely to catch the leading pair, and it may be a case of doing our best to finish 3rd again and grab that European qualification spot again.
A massively frustrating game against Lillestrom up next as we could only manage a draw despite having complete dominance throughout.
A win over Ranheim in our penultimate game keeps us in 3rd place, but it means that we need a result against Rosenborg in our final game to ensure we finish in the top 3...we could drop to 4th or we could still nick 2nd!
And we did our bit, with a good performance against Rosenborg and an impressive victory to finish the season off. It ensures we will again be in the qualification rounds for the Europa Conference League next season.
It was the pre season favourites, Bodo, who finished as champions just as they did 4 seasons ago. We leapfrogged Stromsgodset on the final day into 2nd for our highest ever finish and last year's champions dropped all the way down to 4th and will miss out on European competition next year!
Just a quick update before I sign off for this entry - Erling Haaland is still seen as the best player in the world. Lionel Messe and Cristiano Ronaldo have both hung up their boots and are now registered as manager (Messi) and *** Manager (Ronaldo), although neither have jobs yet.
Think it's the right call to ditch the Norweigan-only players rule especially given the financial situation, will definitely make the save more enjoyable for you. I did it about 4 years too late on my Sparta save last year!
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