Arrival
Founded in 1899, Viking is one of the most successful teams in Norway, having 8 top division titles to their name, tha last one dating back to the year of 1991. This makes Viking the second team with the most first division trophies, only behind Rosenborg who has won it 26 times. We have quite a ride to take. They also won 6 Norwegian Cups, the last one being very recent in 2019, just one year after getting back to Norway's first division. Also, the club has played more top-flight league games than any other club in Norway.
We will be playing in the SR-Bank Arena, a stadium built in 2004 with a capacity for 16300 supporters, being the 3rd biggest stadium in the league.
Finances
Well we are definitely not in England anymore. The budgets are very tight and we currently have no wage budget at our disposal, so it won't be easy to bring in new players for the club.
At least there are no big debts to be payed. We are only 97k in debt but we will be paying 2.1k per month for another 4 years which is a bit dramatic for a club with 4M in the bank but oh well.
Expectations
The board's expectation are not very high for a club predicted to finish in 4th, only demanding a top half finish. They expect us to be challenging for the title in the next 3 seasons though.
The supporters don't demand much as well but I think we need to show them we are not here to be just another Norwegian club, we are here to be the best.
The Staff
Safe to say we need to bring in some new people for the club. Main point here is ALL of them must be Scandinavian, so it should be fun to search for.
The Squad
Looking at our team as a whole there are some positions I would like to strenghten. And of course we will be using a 433 like I do in every save I do because I just can't get enough of it and I lack the creativity to come with some other tactic.
(Before starting this I must appologize in advance for the crimes I will commit when writting some of this players names)
Goalkeepers
Gunnarsson
Ostbo
Rugland Ree
First off, our main GK is quite good but our backup is not nearly as good and made me think if it's even worth keeping him over our 3rd choice Rugland Ree. As you can see, Rugland Ree is almost as good as Ostbo and is only 17 years old. A subject to think on during the pre season...
Center Backs
Our main guy here is
David Brekalo, very decent defender and is quite fast as well. He is also tall, heighting 1.87m and is a good aerial threat for our set pieces.
His partner will be
Viljar Vevatne. His quality is clearly inferior to Brekalo's but he's still not that bad. We also don't have any left footed CB's so he will have to do.
Our backups are some younger options.
Sondre Langás is only 21 years old and has some more potential in him. Djibril Diop can still get better but is already 23 years old so I don't expect as much of an improvement from him. They are both decent but I wouldn't mind bringing in someone better.
Right Back
Sondre Bjorshol will be our starter on the right side of defense and
Herman Haugen will be his backup. We have a good mix of experience with youth here and to be honest if Haugen is able to improve his mentals slightly he will bench Bjorshol pretty fast.
Left Back
Another 2 man race for the left side of defense.
Shayne Pattynama is the starter and
Jost Urbancic is his backup. Similar to the opposite side, Urbancic can surpass Pattynama soon, The only difference is Pattynama is only 23 years old so he will get better too.
Defensive Midfield
Markus Solbakken is one of the best players of our team and will be the main reference for the DLP role in our midfield. On the other hand,
Lars Erik Sodal is a decent youngster we have on our 2nd team (or B team). Ideally I would like to bring in another player for this position but if we can't I'll bring Sodal in.
B2B
We don't have many good options for the B2B position but
Gianni Stensness is decent enough to cover it and
Kristoffer Lokberg is a good backup for him.
Patrick Yazbek is the 3rd option for the position but he is still fairly green and needs to develop a bit more before coming up.
Advanced Playmaker
Harald Tangen is one of our best youth prospects and is already our best player for this position. Our report say he is better suited as a winger but we do have some good players on those positions already but none for the midfield so he will be training to improve on this position.
Birkir Bjarnason (ex-Aston Villa) will be the backup for this position but
Sondre Auklend is already looking to establish himself on the first team as a 18 year old.
Right Wing
Two good options here but I decided that
Lanlay will start over
Sandberg just because he looks more complete. Physically none of them are good though.
Letf Wing
Zlatko Tripic is classified as our key player by the press and is easy to see why. However,
Kevin Kabran is also very good and will give Tripic some competition for his spot.
We also have
Simen Kvia-Egeskog looking to break into the first team and is already showing signs of being a very good player.
Strikers
Sander Svendsen will be our main attacking reference even though his shooting is questionable.
Unfortunately, neither
Lars-Jorgen Salvesen or
Nick D'Agostino offer us better options for this position. Salvesen looks very decent but he can't run for his life and D'Agostino can only be described as "Meh".