PatrickLFC

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So this is my first attempt at a story, I’d like to thank Lippo255 for his advice, and for providing some inspiration, with his story http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/football-manager-2015-manager-stories/179631-get-india.html

This and his http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/football-manager-2015-manager-stories/260475-life-after-depor.html story are awesome!

I will be taking charge of Malmo FF, one of the top teams in Sweden and perhaps most famous for producing the legendary Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

As an Australian, I can't say I know too much about the Swedish leagues but have always loved the country, so here I am stepping into the unknown. Wish me luck!


Club Information:

 
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I have pretty broad objectives for this save, as I am still not really sure what to expect. I am hoping to turn Malmö into a genuine Champion’s League challenging team, if not win the tournament, and to improve the quality of the Swedish Premier Division. I hope to promote youth from within my academy and have them play a major part in my team’s progress. As far as taking other jobs that I may be offered goes, I am unlikely to leave Malmö unless I think that I’ve taken them as far as I can, it is no longer much of a challenge, or another challenge comes along that I’d like to take. That’s assuming I am successful and don’t get sacked early on in my tenure - a possibility, given my lack of any real lower league experience. The smallest team I’ve tried before was Wolves in FM14, and they made light work of the English League One, being a class above the other teams, so this should be much more challenging. Hopefully my learning curve isn’t too steep!


Malmö FF are one of the most successful teams in Swedish history:


Here are the budgets, and as you can see I have received some early support from the board with youth and training facilities being upgraded - I am hoping to get a parent club so I can loan players for free, fingers crossed for Liverpool, but it’s a long shot :p

 
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As an AIK supporter I'll say good luck, but not too much ;)
 
Im defo gonna follow this ! It seems to be a very interesting story !
 
Looks good Patrick Will be keeping an eye on this
 
Captaincy: I discovered upon my arrival that the incumbent captain, Guillermo Molins, had a “Leadership” attribute of just 5, and thus, despite being a great player and I’m sure, a top guy, was hardly an ideal skipper. Fortunately, after a private conversation, he had no objection to stepping aside for his vice captain, 31 year old striker Markus Rosenberg, to take the armband. Centre back Filip Helander was promoted to vice-captain.







On a side note, unfortunately my board failed to find me a parent club, so I will have to make do without one, at least for now.

Next I will discuss key players for the forthcoming season!
 
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Malmo is a great choice! Wonder if it might be possible to get Zlatan back in a couple of years?
 
Malmo is a great choice! Wonder if it might be possible to get Zlatan back in a couple of years?

That would be amazing! Trouble is his wage is something like 4 or 5 times my total wage budget I think :p Maybe as a coach...
 
As a Forest supporter I know about Malmo's ventures in European football and when they unluckily lost the European cup final in 1979 to my club Nottingham Forest. A way good luck with Malmo I will be following
 
As a Forest supporter I know about Malmo's ventures in European football and when they unluckily lost the European cup final in 1979 to my club Nottingham Forest. A way good luck with Malmo I will be following

You know a lot more about them than me my friend! Hopefully I can go even further than that! :D
 
So before any signings were made, I had to cast my eye over the current squad. Half a dozen players stood out to me as players we were going to rely on to push our team forwards in Sweden and in Europe. Let’s start with newly appointed captain, Markus Rosenberg:

Markus is undoubtedly going to be critical. An experienced and well rounded striker, his ability to find the back of the net should win us many points. We have a few talented young strikers at the club, but Rosenberg’s pedigree sees him begin preseason as my main talisman.



Guillermo Molins, despite not being a natural leader, is still a dangerous player in his own right. Very consistent all-round stats make him a dependable threat down the right wing, and I am hopeful he will be one of my main creative forces. A keen eye for goal complements his playmaking ability, and I’m sure he will be troubling the scorers with frequency.



Simon Thern is likely to be my key creative force in the middle of the park. A centre midfield playmaker who is also comfortable on the wings or in the hole behind the striker, Simon is a valuable, versatile asset for our title-challenging side. Interest from Swiss side Basel only goes to show what a talent the 21 year old is. I was quick to tie him down to a new long term contract to prevent further approaches for his services.



Magnus Eriksson will likely be Rosenberg’s first choice strike partner this season. A diligent, hard-working team player, I can foresee him playing as a deep-lying forward, linking play between the midfield and his strike partner. I will be expecting Magnus to find the back of the next with regularity too!



Emil Forsberg is my first choice left wing, though chances are he will play as an inside forward rather than a traditional winger. Whilst his finishing ability may need some fine tuning, his other attributes are impressive, and at 22, he has plenty of room to grow. He can play anywhere across the attacking midfield strata too, and is likely to get plenty of game time.



Ricardinho is a 29 year old Brazilian left back. With wonderful all-round stats, and impressive set-piece ability, Ricardinho will be a threat down the left, as well as solid at the back. Hopefully his crosses can find his teammates, and he can net a handful of free kicks too! Ricardinho has a handful of Brazilian clubs, including Coritiba and Botafogo sniffing around, so hopefully I can hold onto him and avoid unsettling him and the squad this early in my tenure. Unfortunately I forgot to take a screenshot earlier so had to take a more recent one, about a month later, and his attributes have declined slightly :(
 
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Preseason Part 1:

We enjoyed a mixed preseason. For most matches, barring knocks and injuries, the starters would play about 55-70 minutes, before they were all subbed off. A comfortable 3-1 win over our reserves, where first team striker Pawel Cibicki impressed for the opposition, was followed by a 2-0 win over Landskrona, where a brace from substitute striker Agon Mehmeti got us out of jail after a pretty disappointing display. The disjointed performance led to me changing my starting strikers for the next match (Mehmeti in place of Eriksson), and my decision was vindicated when we flew out of the blocks, both Mehmeti and Rosenberg scoring within 3 minutes. Sadly, our second half performance was shambolic, and 2-0 turned into 2-3, then 3-3 following a wonder-strike from substitute and new signing Matthias Lepiller, before a late winner from third-tier Swedish side Örgryte condemned us to an embarrassing defeat.
 
Preseason Part 2:

Our next friendly was against another third division side in Trollhätten, and you can imagine my frustration as our poor performance looked to carry over, as the first half ended scoreless. However, we turned it around completely as the starters scored 3 goals in the 20 minutes after the break, before the substitutes wrapped up the convincing win with a couple of late goals from Pawel Cibicki. Hopefully, a corner had been turned!
Our final friendly was scheduled just 3 days before our first competitive fixture, so a second string side took the field against another third division Swedish team, Halmia, and despite probably having the better of the match, were undone by 3 set piece goals, and some very poor finishing. My first choice team came on for the last 15 or so, with Molins grabbing a consolation goal in injury time, but I was still less than impressed with the teams display against a lower tier side. It might be worth noting that the commentators pointed out that Halmia could scarcely believe how in their favour the referee was :p


Player of the preseason: Agon Mehmeti (Apps: 2(3) - 3G, 1A, AR 7.22)


 
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Transfers Part One:

Having consulted with my good friend and fellow manager Manuel Pablo (http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/football-manager-2015-manager-stories/260475-life-after-depor.html), I decided to pursue the signings of Spanish wonderkid Jesús Vallejo and Serbian sensation Luka Jovic. I had an offer of 600k accepted for Jovic and met Vallejo’s release clause of 675k. Unfortunately, so did about 12 other clubs, including the likes of Barcelona, Juventus, Liverpool, Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal. I was desperately hoping my offer of Key Player status would be more convincing than the wages and reputation of the larger clubs, but unfortunately, it wasn’t to be. Atletico Madrid signed him, to join at the opening of the summer transfer window (the Swedish season begins in February/March - thus this is the game date).


My pursuit of Luka Jovic, on the other hand, was a resounding success. Beating off competition from Metalist and Dynamo Kyiv, Jovic signed on the dotted line and will be joining us in December 2014, at the end of the season. Sadly, he picked up an injury a couple of days later but hopefully he develops well and proves to be a valuable addition to our squad for next season.


29 year old Finnish centre back Markus Halsti was subject to a bid from Rubin Kazan of around 200k, which I flat out rejected. However, they came back with a new offer worth around 420k, which I negotiated to 500k + 50% of the next sale, and Rubin were happy to oblige. Contract terms were agreed and the deal went through. His sale means that I really only have two front line centre backs in Filip Helander and Erik Johansson, and unless I sign another one, backup will be provided by precocious but inexperienced youngsters Johan Hammar and Alexander Blomqvist.


 
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