The Northern Lights - A Scandinavian Superleague Story

[FancyPantsCam]

They always say “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Never been one for tautologies. With me needing to crowbar Isak Johannesson into the starting line-up to justify his fee, our all-conquering system last year had to go.

Regarding players, as we’re now in our third season and the numbers of foreign players are creeping up, it time to implement a new rule. There must never be a majority of non-Nordic players on the pitch. Not just starters, but at no time shall there be six non-Nordic players out there.

I really wanted to make this stupid formation work. In theory, it should work well. It’s just a slightly more aggressive version of what we were rocking last year. I mean, if one Segundo volante works that well, having two just means twice the fun.

Despite some great score lines, it just wasn’t giving me the control that I was wanting in matches. Especially in the Champions League. The results might look great, but that’s more due to moments of brilliance from our forward and Dennis Seiman being in inspired form.

After more experimentation and crucially loosing our first match in over a season and a half against Copenhagen, I had to admit that this isn’t the one.

Time to go back to where it all began. Time to revive the 4-3-3 from the first half of season one. It’s dull and it’s ordinary on the tactics page, but it lets me get in all our star players and is crushingly effective.


We go on an absolute tear, ripping through our domestic opponents like a giddy child on Christmas morning. We’ve kept our lethality up front but have now become much, much more stable. One goal conceded in nine matches in the league are some full blown Mourinho level numbers.

The great thing though is that Copenhagen are matching us step by step. They’ve recruited really well and are finally getting back to the threat they should be. We win a match, they win a match. Kilicsoy or Berterame score a couple of goals, Donyell Malen scores a couple of goals for them.

This is what I want. A proper title race like in season one! They’ve even managed to go invincible at the halfway mark, which is a great achievement for them. I mean, ignore the goal difference for a moment, because that makes it look a little less even. We have a knack of our subs adding goals late on in matches as our opponents tire, so there is a touch of stat padding going on.

Despite us scoring over 3.6 goals a game, the main difference between us and the Danes is actually in defence, as they’ve not been able to properly close out the wins they need to beat us.

We’re also kicking all forms of bottom on the continental stage too.

Having been gifted with a more than favourable set of opponents for both the qualifiers and the league phase by the FM gods, we’ve been able to really lay a marker again. With two matches left of the league phase, we are already guaranteed at least a playoff spot and look set to make it through in the top eight once more. Only Lazio and Real Madrid are left to go, I’ll leave you to guess which one fills me with most trepidation.

That we can describe sides such as Olympiakos and PSV and Wolfsburg as easy opponents only three seasons into this run is beyond what I was hoping for. The game against the Greeks was also a fun one, as we both seemed to forget defending for a bit.

The extra depth we now have in the squad thanks to our acquisitions has made a huge difference.

Speaking of those new players, Kilicsoy, Johannesson and Jelert have all started like a house on fire. Although that might actually be a slight understatement.

Jelert is a constant menace down the right hand side, somehow laying on even more assists than Wenbangamo used to. Johannesson has been a great addition in the middle of pitch, a brilliant combo of bustling energy and creativity with a good eye for goals. And then there is Kilicsoy, who from his very first game has become an absolute menace to opposition defenders.

They all cost a pretty penny, but all have been major upgrades on who they replaced. Zero regrets. We may have lost our undefeated streak, but this is easily a better team than last year.

Let’s go survive January and I suppose go for the Youth Trofe that the board care so much about.

 

[MitchT94]

What a journey so far and some of the transfers you've been able to make (chefs kiss).

Can't wait to see how this develops going forward especially with the latest title race being so close.

 

[FancyPantsCam]

This is a weird feeling. I’m coming into a transfer window with no intention of entering the market. Is this squad happiness? Yes, I have my eyes of a couple of pre-contracts for next season, but I have no immediate wants or needs. Everything is rosy.

Which is very handy because we’re absolutely skint. Unlike Manchester City, who decide to treat themselves by breaking the transfer world record for Ansu Fati.

£384million.

Yep, that’s the sort of team we’re going to have to try and beat if we want to finish this challenge.

Our January is mainly made up of the Youth Trofe, which our new, younger squad can attack with real relish. It’s also time to introduce you to two of our youth graduates who will be hoping to make an impact this month.

These would be Carl Haaberg and Stefan Eilertsen, both of which I have real high hopes for. Haaberg is the heir apparent to Berg, a combative defensive midfielder, just needs to work a little on his passing ability. He will do very nicely indeed thank you very much.

I don’t know why though, but Eilertsen is the one I’m excited about. It’s probably just the mohawk the in-game model has, but both me and my staff think he’ll go far. Having come through the academy last year, he become the club’s youngest ever goal scorer in his debut last May. Since then, I have been using him very sparingly but now is his time for a month of game time.

As all my transfer dealings this month have been telling Europe’s elite to sod off in a variety of ways, we’ve been able to focus on the Youth Trofe and have massively capitalised. With a lot of our first team now able to play in this competition, it almost seemed unfair to unleash this lot against our opponents’ youngsters.

I hope they’re not too traumatized by Schjelderup, Kilicsoy, Johannesson and Larsson running at them.

We end the month with another trophy lofted over our heads for The Yellow Horde, thrashing Copenhagen in the final to win it for the second year in a row and making the board all sorts of happy.

Oh, and the remaining UCL fixtures? Well, we battered Lazio with precisely sod-all possession and tried to bore everyone to death with our game against the mighty Real Madrid at the temple of football that is the Bernabeau. Eeesh, were that rubbish that we even had to rope in their lads to get one past them.

We progress into the first knockout round right floating around the top of the table and once again feeling horribly smug about doing this on a budget lower than what Mbappe is earning on his own.

Now, let's go kick the rest of this season's behind.

 

[FancyPantsCam]

I know we all like to say that Football Manager is a cruel mistress, but it’s a really weird sensation when you get to see it also do that to the AI.

I genuinely feel sorry for Copenhagen. They have had an incredible season, almost going undefeated. With the only team to better them being us getting our revenge, they kept us honest every step of the way.

Their points total would easily be enough to win basically any other league in Europe. Having not challenge last year, I’m really glad to see them come back so strong. The best thing is that due to our success in Europe last year, we’ve been given an additional qualification spot for the Champions League.

They’ll need to get through a play-off or two, but I hope that they’re able to get through to the competition proper and be able to strengthen their squad accordingly. I want another proper fight from them next year.

Yes, as you can tell from those last few paragraphs, we have lifted the Goldliga for the third time in a row.

Going back to a tried and tested (aka boring) formation has given our players the platform to conquer all that fell before them. I’ll be honest, the football didn’t look as good as last year, but by-goodness it was effective.

All this has resulted in a frankly ridiculous looking goals table domestically. Over the course of the season, we're winning our matches by over 3.5 goals. That is silly. Serious kudos to BK Haken for keeping us out.

We also make it a domestic treble in the domestic cup. Not much to see here, we frankly cruise through to the final and then completely batter Stabaek to add some more silverware to our cabinet. Patrick Berg’s arms might be getting a little tired after this point.

I know this sounds very cocky, but should I start only playing my rotated team in the cup? Give the rest of the league at least part of a chance and keep some of the fringe squad members happy?

Moving our gaze to the Champions League, it seems like we have decided to try and become everybody’s second favourite team by making every match have a rugby scoreline.

This starts with us unluckily drawing Jurgen Klopp’s Bayern Munich in the round of 16. Of course we get probably the toughest side from the playoff group, but hey, can’t grumble.

Less than half an hour in, it seems like there wasn’t any reason for us to grumble at all, with Semih putting us 4-0 up in Munich with a lovely strike past Nubel. They come back strongly in the second half, spurred into life it seems by Semih rounding off his hattrick. A late goal by Evjen helps stop their fightback and gives us a proper buffer going into the home leg.

This match proves a much more even contest, with us trading goals all the way until Johannesson strikes in injury time to give us a scarcely believable win in both legs. This is a proper European heavyweight that we have taken on and beaten. No flukey goals, no backs to the wall scrabbling, just a proper victory.

Our next stop is against Ajax, which might seem a bit of a come down after Bayern, but they give us just as much of a fight. Those score lines definitely flatter us, as the Dutch side gave us a proper tussle over the two games. The second leg in particular is a bit misleading, with two of our goals coming very late in the match. Emmanuel Emegha in particular proved a constant thorn in our side, if I didn’t have such good strikers of my own, I would be very tempted in bringing him with us.

Before our semi final with Liverpool though, I get what might be daftest preview message come through about the clash.

How in the heavens are we the rich kids and Liverpool the scrappy underdogs? Mo Salah and Alisson make up our entire wage bill. Not for the starting 11, nope, for the whole club!

In what might be the biggest game of the club’s recent history, we need to make full use of the home advantage first. It really would be awful if our front three all played a stinker. So naturally, that’s what happens, with all three of them not turning up at all.

Despite both our and Liverpool’s teams being full of attacking quality, it’s a drab, cautious affair that’s resolved by a set piece and Curtis Jones of all people snatching the win for the men in red in Norway. In the second leg, we gave a much better account of ourselves. Whenever Liverpool take the lead, we fight right back. We even level the tie as a whole when Johannesson grabs his second in three minutes, leading to all sorts of excitement. Pushing for that overall winner costs us dearly though, as Liverpool execute a nifty set play to level the game and have enough about them to see out their aggregate win.

That we were able to go toe-to-toe with Liverpool and not get embarrassed is incredibly vindicating of this project. With some more growth from the youngsters here and maybe an addition or two, perhaps this goal of Champions League glory isn’t impossible within the next couple of seasons.

I think it’s fair to say that this season has gone a bit well. A domestic treble and a champions league semi-final has kept the board nice and happy and filled the club’s coffers. Despite all the baubles, we’re still somehow only a 3.5 star club reputation wise. Boo.

Both Schjelderup and Semih have been absolutely devastating going forward, with the two youngsters racking up elite numbers in attack. Berg, Johanneson and Larsson have formed a great trio in the middle of the park and Jelert was an assist machine on the right flank. Harwood-Bellis and Kjelsen have really gelled as a defensive duo an Seimen has been mighty between the sticks.

Also, you might have noticed a singular goal against Denis Seimen's name. Turns out, he's actually not bad at penalties. To the point where in a match against rivals Rosenborg, he was the best taker on the pitch. Seemed rude not to.

So with all that said and done, bring on another summer of warding off the advances of Europe's giants for our stars and trying to somehow build on this wildly successful season.

 

[FancyPantsCam]

Given our goal scoring record over the last couple of seasons, we definitely don’t need another attacking player do we?

Given how many central midfielders we have, I definitely don’t need any more do I?

With that in mind, welcome the two first new signings for the season, Lazar Samardzic and Maurits Kjeargaard! Both central attacking midfield players!

Samardzic was playing hardball with Udinese about his contract, something that I have been able to take full advantage of. I’ll be honest, with that set of technical attributes and with age on his side, I have no idea why every half decent side weren’t in for him. Yet, there I was able to grab him for a pretty decent wage and no transfer fee.

The transfer fee was destined for the other of our early arrivals.

Kjaergaard is a player I’ve been after almost since the beginning of this challenge. A player with massive potential, an absolute physical powerhouse and accomplished all the pitch, he’s been just out of reach. I did almost sign him in season 1, but he signed a new contract instead with Salzburg. That same contract is what let us get him this time.

I don’t know how they did it, but they were able to put in a release clause that only activated when the bidding team was in European competition and Salzburg were no longer still in or qualified for next season. If you can sneak a bid in that tiny window, then he’s £15.75m. If not, then those Austrian fizzy drink merchants want upwards of £50m for him. Litle bit of a price difference there.

Also, after a bonkers good season last year for Kilicsoy up front, it only seems right to move him over to the right wing. Wait, what do you mean that’s the opposite of logical?

Yes, having found a formation that got us all the way to a champions league semi-final, I’ve scrapped it to go strikerless.
Why you might ask? Well, a few versions of the game ago, I had an AC Milan side that managed to make this sort of formation look like an art form. Players would interchange roles and positions at will and no defender could properly defend against the chaotic swarm of attacks.

Returning to Europe after his sojourn in Saudi Arabia, please welcome Aymeric Laporte to Bodo/Glimt. He may be getting on a bit, but he’s still more than capable of stepping into our backline for a year or two and those technical attributes are incredible. Four weeks ago he was wanting £250k a week, now he’s happy with £18k. That must be one **** of a humbling moment.

And this is where I committed a cardinal sin. I ask for forgiveness, for I have broken my own rule.

Having also run down his contract in Saudi Arabia, we’d been having FM legend and transfer rumour column mainstay Sergei Milinkovic-Savic in on trial for evaluation. I had been weighing up whether to go with him or Laporte, but when Lazio came in for him, that made up my mind and I signed the Spanish defender.

Imagine my surprise and dismay then when he turned down their advances.

I don’t know what his agent said, following those discussions with the Italians, no one else came in for him before deadline day. So I decided to. Yeah, he’s the wrong side of 30, but we all know that this guy is capable of going on at the top levels for at least another 5 years.

With this in mind, next season I shall be reduced to one non-Nordic player coming in.

We round off our incomings by bringing in a nice backup keeper in the form of Jasper Torkildsen. At £250k, it’s absolute peanuts for someone to sit on the bench and play in the local cups. He’s still got good potential too, so should I get a ridiculous offer for Sieman, I’m not too worried.

And now we make our way to the outs, with one of them being a victim of our change in formation.

He’s made a huge impact in the two years he’s been here, but German Berterame is the big headline departure. With me not able to give him the game time he wants, he wanted to go and who am I to deny this prince of a man. He starts a new chapter in England with Aston Villa and we recoup all the money that we spent on Kjaergaard.

I just hope that I don’t come to regret letting go of such a reliable goal scorer.

We also lose Daniel Bassi after he gets a grump on for a decent fee. We accept bids from a couple of our league rivals, but try hard as I could, he chose to go out to Germany instead. That who ‘make our rivals better’ goal is proving to be the hardest one to achieve.

That’s also the case with Egil Selvik, who turns down a move to AGF to go to Swansea City. I mean, the accountants are happy as Swansea were offering double what the Danes were, but c’mon Egil, think of the league! We also leave another one of our original team with Odin Bjortuft going to Rangers for a cut price fee. His contract was expiring, and he had no interest in extending, so a little cash is better than none.

After this round of transfers I am absolutely made up with this squad. We have good to great depth everywhere in the squad, are very flexible tactically and have a great mix of youth and experience. We have definitely made a big step forward, but let’s see if it’s enough to go give Europe’s best a fright. Also, let’s see if I completely mess this up with my tactical shift.

 

[FancyPantsCam]

This whole strikerless thing might have started as an act of hubris, but goshdangit we might actually be on to something here.

After much tinkering in pre-season and a couple of games where we were very much bailed out by an inspired Dennis Seiman, we’ve come across two different systems. One is just our formation from last year, with the striker dropped a little deeper. The other is my continued quest to shove as many segundo volantes into a side as possible.

And if we go just off of player instructions, this might be the most aggressive I’ve ever set a team up. With seven of the outfielders set to attack, you would think that this is a bit suicidal, so naturally that’s the one that we use against more illustrious opponents.

So far in the league, we have been imperious. It doesn’t matter if it’s our starters or backups, we have been cutting through our opponents with almost relentless aggression. An unexpected benefit of this hyper-aggression is that we’re hardly ever conceding goals. We seem to be operating on a ‘they can’t attack if they are busy defending’ idea that has led to us only conceding a frankly ridiculous three goals in the first half of the league season.

It also helps that we have massively improved just about everywhere on the pitch. Laporte has been a rock at the back, SMS has been doing, well, just SMS things and Kjergaard has been absolutely monstrous. The Dane has taken to leading the line with gusto, scoring at a scary rate of around every 60 minutes. Not bad for someone with 11 finishing.

This has all led to a perfect domestic record come the mid-season break. Heck, the only game we haven’t been able to win was when Bukayo Saka and his fellow Gunners came to town. And even that was a draw.

In Europe we’ve had an absolutely lovely time. Beating Chelsea with a last minute winner was a great start, but has then been quickly overshadowed with some incredible results. Smashing Inter Milan 5-0 at their place was incredible, especially as it was the first time with our triple-DM lineup. We definitely got lucky with the streak of games we got to play in a row at Aspmyra, allowing us to wrack up a trio of wins with an aggregate scoreline of 15-1.

Going into January, we’ve only got a couple of games left in the league phase, but Marseille and Celtic are not the banana skins they once might have been.

I feel confident about this season. Dangerously confident. Let’s see what the January transfer window can do to shake that.

P.S. Sorry for not posting in a while, but should be able to catch everyone up with a couple of these in quick succession.

 

[FancyPantsCam]

I knew this was all going far too well.

January is always a dangerous time for us in this team. Not because of fixture congestion or anything like that. No, it’s because January gives the AI teams 31 days to mess around our players, flex their financial muscles and ruin our lovely Nordic atmosphere.

Doesn’t matter how many lovely saunas we have and how often the northern lights are overhead, the allure of dark rainy evenings in Liverpool and Manchester and the shirtless and heavily tattooed supporters of Newcastle are too tempting for our team to resist.

Whilst I was able to placate Jelert, Johannesson and Seimen with promises and sweet talk, nothing worked with our young defender Hammer Kjelsen when Manchester City came calling.

He threw a hissy fit about us rejecting Man City’s advances and the lad couldn’t be satisfied with anything I had to say on the matter. That five of his teammates then came to me complaining he wasn’t sold also didn’t help with that all important squad harmony. That two of them were Harwood-Bellis and Laporte, both ex-City players, makes me think this was an inside job all along.

So with teddies promptly thrown out the pram, I just needed to make sure I got the best price for our young defender. He becomes our new record sale, with us getting £47m for him and keeping him until the end of the season. Gives us time to scour the market for a replacement.

And scour we did, for about 4 minutes.

Because that’s how long it took me to notice that Jan Paul van Hecke wasn’t signing a new deal at Brighton. Only just getting into his prime, the Dutchman is better in basically every single way that Kjelsen. Fast, strong, aggressive and with all the technical attributes you could want, he’s wanted by basically the entire top 6 of the premier league, none of which we can compete with financially.

As I’m sure you’re aware though, they can’t sign him on a pre-contract. But we can, snaffling him ahead of a late offer from Roma. Reader, I actually cheered when I could confirm this deal. Like in real life. How am I still married?

On the pitch, it’s all gone very well. We won our last two Champions League fixtures in order to qualify from the league stage in an excellent second place. Last years defeated finalists and conquerors of us Liverpool managed to win every single one of their eight matches, so look like they will be hard to beat.

In the Youth Trofe, to say it has been going rather smashingly would be an understatement. We absolutely blast our way through the competition, only conceding in one match on our way to the cup once again. With a fair amount of my first teamers still being young enough to compete in this competition and the youngsters joining them being so good, what else is there to say?

We go into the second half of the season with a massive wave of confidence. I don't know if we can better our Champions League semi-final appearance from last year, but this vicious strikerless system looks like it might give us a half decent shot at giving the big boys of the continent a black eye.

 

[FancyPantsCam]

I believe this is what the kids call “Doing a madness”.

With these players, with this system, this team from an Arctic town has become a behemoth.

Not only do we go undefeated this season in the league, but we complete the Goldliga with a perfect record. Not a single point dropped. 38 games, 38 wins. An average of over 4 goals per game.

I am genuinely stunned. I know that we were imperious in the first half of the campaign, but I thought that the sheer build-up of matches would lead to us messing up at some point. Brondby came oh so close to spoiling the record in the penultimate match, but Vetlesen rescued the points with an injury time screamer.

Weirdly enough though, this isn’t the last time that I’ve been able to pull this off in a season of FM. Even weirder, it was with the strikerless Milan side that I modelled this one after. Are forwards overrated?

Kjaergaard set a record for both goals and for highest average rating, ending the season continuing the bonkers stat of hitting the back of the net every 60 minutes. Our front(ish) three were the highest three scorers. As you’d expect with nothing but wins, we dominate the average ratings chart, with 14 of the 16 best rated players in the league.

It’s not even just in the league, as we go perfect in the cup as well. Yes, we had an easy run through the rounds, but it proves a great runout for our rotation players. The tighter than usual score in the final flatters Rosenborg, they managed one shot on target during the whole game. Football Manager eh?

Another season, another domestic treble. Wait, am I the bad guys?

Now, let’s cut to the chase, how did we do on the biggest stage of all, the Champions League?

First up, for the second time in three years, was OGC Nice. In this universe at least, they have remained the apple of Ineos’s eye and have been funded appropriately enough to become a consistent member at the top table. We however make sure that they have to leave after the first course, putting four past them without reply on the French Riviera. The return leg saw us put another quartet of goals past them, but this time getting a little sloppier at the back, conceding twice once the tie was far beyond losing.

That set us up once again against the German champions Bayern Munich. Jurgen Klopp’s men are on a bit of a tear themselves, looking to earn their approximately 482nd straight Bundesliga and re-establish themselves as a continental powerhouse after being dumped out of last year competition at the first knockout round by some random Norwegians.

Oh wait, that was us!

After these two games, I am now very much not on the Christmas card list of any diehard Bayern fan. It all started so well for the Bavarians when Mathys Tel put them 1-0 up after quarter of an hour, but a quickfire double from us right before the break completely changed the match. Another goal from our Danish powerhouse settled the match deservedly in our favour.

The return leg started much like the first, with Mathys Tel again bamboozling our defenders and opening the scoring. Everything after that though came down to two things. The first was us our three defensive midfielders doing a brilliant job of containment and counter attacking. The second? Denis Seiman putting in a great performance in the second half when the German champs came out swinging. Yes, we may not have had the possession we usually enjoy, but Mannswerk, Larsson and Milinkovic-Savic absolutely bossed the centre of the park, with all three deservedly ending up on the scoresheet.

Sane may have scored a second for Bayern after an incredible jinking run, but Alphonso Davies unfortunately getting in the way of a cross put the tie beyond all reasonable doubt. Sorry Bayern, not your year again.

To the semi-finals we go, where we meet the reigning champs Real Madrid.

The Bernabeu is as intimidating a pace to come as any in Europe. Real Madrid are as intimidating a side as you could hope to face. I mean, come on, those front six players are ridiculously good. And yet, we not only hold our own against them, but consistently look the more threatening. Our high press brings great rewards before the half hour, Semih jumping on a sloppy pass from Badiashile and breaking through to put us ahead. Our second comes from Samardzic spanking home a free kick that would make any highlight reel. Yes, Vinicius finally got a goal Real’s late game pressure deserved, but the advantage lies with us.

This might not look like it from the stats, but this second leg was perhaps the performance I am the most proud of during this run. Ok, Courtois was injured, but Real Madrid still had the quality to come along and ruin our day. There was only the single goal in the tie after all, and this is the team that makes a habit of massive midweek comebacks.

We however absolutely bullied them in this match. Schjelderup missing an early penalty only seemed to gee us on. We should have scored more, but we were never out of control of this match. Larsson in particular was immaculate, but I couldn’t fault any of the lads on the night. This was their moment to shine, Vini’s late goal nothing more than a “Thank you for coming all this way” present.

And with that, we are through to the Champions League final! Our opponents? Another domestic dominant force in PSG. The French champs are now under the tutelage of everyone's favourite crazed, bald, tactics weirdo Pep Guardiola and still have Kylian Mbappe leading the line for them.

They may not have been spending mega bucks like they used to, but have created an incredibly balanced team that we will need to be at our very best to beat. Let's see if the Johan Cruyff Arena can be the site of our biggest triumph.

Time and time again we tried to break the deadlock, but time and again we are thwarted by the giant Italian in the Parisian’s net. And when it’s not Donnarumma in the way, its one of their four centrebacks making a decisive and well timed tackle.
And then, in the first few minutes of the second half, came the big chance in a cagey game.

PSG’s homegrown midfield maestro Zaire-Emery takes on and beats Larsson, Lovik and Laporte before Seiman could only weakly parry his shot back into danger. There, it met the one person I wanted it to fall to the least. One tap later and Mbappe wheeled away, scoring once more on the biggest of occasions.

Despite all our trying through the second half, it looked as if the air had been taken out of our sails and we just simply didn’t have enough to get back on level terms. None of our forwards have the games they need to break down an opponent of such quality and experience, in a game where needed them the most.

The final whistle goes, PSG win their second Champions League and whilst these runners up medals are a massive disappointment, we once more have to look at this objectively. Yes, our wage bill is creeping up, but we are still nowhere near the likes of the teams we’ve bested to get here, let alone the Petro-State billions of our eventual conquerors.

We will go again next season. This run has bumped our reputation up that little bit more that hopefully we can both keep our stars happy and bring in the last few pieces of the puzzle. Thanks to Kjelsen's sale, we have a proper big budget of £75m, so let's so make some questionable purchases!

 

[FancyPantsCam]

Having come so far in such a short space of time, I was finally able to achieve something I’ve not been able to do before. A summer with less than five new faces coming through the door.

Whilst that might not sound like much, it’s a far cry from the revolving door recruitment policy we’ve had to enact so far. Even better, we were able to get the first three done before the start of July.

As we don’t seem to have much difficulty scoring goals, it was a trio of defensive reinforcements who came in to the club.
The first, one that was signposted in a previous post, was our only allowed non-Scandi player Jan Paul Van Hecke. The Dutchman is coming in to lead our defensive line and for a fee of absolutely nothing, he is a brilliant deal. He just has everything in the locker you could want from a ball playing defender.

He’s going to be joined in defence by the towering Dane Joachim Anderson. With Crystal Palace getting relegated, he wanted out and a nice £20m relegation release clause finally made him affordable. Six months ago they wanted £60m, so that's a massive discount for a short wait. Ok, he’s the wrong side of 30, but he’s still one of the better Scandinavian defenders around.

The second Dane joining the club is the big one though. He has absolutely destroyed our wage structure and becomes our new record signing, but I am so very, very happy to bring Morten Hjulmand in to the club. An absolute mainstay of the Danish national team, I was somehow able to beat Inter Milan to his signing, with Sporting strangely happy to discuss a deal of him.

Despite all the restrictions I’ve put on this season, by far the most frustrating factor for this transfer window is actually keeping a hold of everyone. Despite us getting to the pointy end of the Champions League for the last two years, we still don’t have the reputation to stop other teams unsettling our players.

And while I’m totally ok with bigger teams like Liverpool, PSG and Real Madrid making our players want to leave, when West Ham and Brighton are the disruptive forces at play, it does annoy me. Not only that, but each season my player’s valuations seem to be reset to a much lower figure than they should be. Whilst teams in the Eredivisie can demand over £50m to £60m for their stars, I am lucky if I get teams offering half that for my (considerably better) players. £19m for Kjaergaard? £9m for Milinkovic-Savic? £23m for Kilicsoy? Absolutely not on your nelly!

With that in mind, I did all the begging, promises and wage rises I could to keep my best players at our Nordic home. There were some departures though, but none that would weaken the starting lineup.

My very first signing Eric Smith now leaves the club for Strasbourg in France, and having played a grand total of two league games, we make a nice profit on Gustav Christensen. We also sort out loans for Pontus Dahbo, Hugo Vetlesen and Dennis Gjengaar to make sure they’re happy and playing regularly.

Having made all those deals, I then didn’t think about what might happen if say, for example, Schjelderup, Gronbeak and Eilertsen got injured within the same week. All of them for more than three weeks. Two days before deadline day.

So now I have a bit of an issue. I need a quality, Scandinavian attacking midfielder for not a lot of money. The solution was so much better than I could think it would be.

Despite being a regular starter for them since a big money move from Manchester City, Spurs had decided to put Oscar Bobb on sale. Ok, the £55m transfer fee is a bit rich for us, but loaning him for the season, that could work. By offering good gametime and a massive optional fee that will never be activated, we secure a loan only paying 40% of his wages.

With that absolute coup, we close off our transfer dealings for the summer. Honestly, that has gone really blinking well if I say so myself. Now we just have the small task of bettering a season where we went undefeated domestically and made the final of the Champions League. No sweat.

 

[FancyPantsCam]

OK, little bit of something different for this update.

Whilst the progress of my Bodo/Glimt side has been brilliant, the league itself has been struggling a little. The reason why? Apart from a couple of instances, the recruitment by the AI managers has been atrocious.

This league has been able to give a lot of these teams the financial muscle power they just wouldn’t have, but they haven’t made the most of it at all.

With this in mind, I have an idea, although it’s a bit of a controversial one.

The job for one of our biggest rivals has become available, with the FC Midtjylland board deciding a new face is needed in the dugout.

Whilst I have no interest in leaving my Norwegian lads for them, there is an opportunity here for another manager to take them over. One who, say, would be able to take advantage of the plethora of wonderkids knocking around. One who could make use of the Danish team's considerable budget and reputation

With the caveats that there is no transferring of players from one club to another, and all results between the two being auto resolved, would you fine folks here be up in arms if one of Bluetooth’s buddies was to take over the role?

I shall pop a poll on to this thread, but let me know what you guys and gals think.

 

[FancyPantsCam]

With a policy of not buying any players over the age of 21, and prioritizing their development on the pitch, the new era for Midtjylland has begun. This shall come under the stewardship of Ole Kirk Christiansen, who shares a striking resemblance name and birthplace as the original founder of a certain Danish construction toy.

In the few games before the January window, one thing became clear. Rayan Bounida is easily the best player at the club and absolutely must be protected at all costs. The young Belgian, who can play in basically any role north of central midfield, is one of the few players here that will survive the culling over the summer.

The rest of the squad couldn’t be described as bad by any stretch, but it’s not particularly inspiring either. It’s a lot of guys in their late 20s who will never be more than 3 star players. There are some of the older folks we’ll keep around, especially captain and star defender Bech Sorensen and the well-rounded Uruguayan Martinez in defensive midfield.

First things first though, let’s stabilize the ship. This is a team that shouldn’t be mid-table. Thanks to implementing a simple 4231 and a few nice words, we’re able to get the team firing again. Ok, the defence is a little leaky and Bounida is basically carrying the team on his back, but a few high scoring matches have the team smiling.

I’ve decided to run this team more like a director of football. Partially for the interests of impartiality, but mostly so this save doesn’t take until FM27. I’ve found a half decent assistant manager in Joao Mario and will ‘instant result’ most of their games now that the dressing room atmosphere is not on the floor.

Time to ruin all that lovely team cohesion the first chance we get. Moves to rejuvenate the squad have begun in earnest. Over the January window, it would probably best to do this nice and slowly, blood in a few youngsters at a time. Build this team brick by brick if you will.

So obviously, we’re not going to do that.

 

[FancyPantsCam]

For the first time in this save, I’m not going to change tactic going into a new season. I have gone too far down this strikerless road to turn back now. I mean, I could do some meddling and make something weird, but that would be silly.
Also, y’know, we went perfect in the league last season, but no big deal.

Having splashed a whole load of cash in the summer, the improvements can definitely be felt. We’ve been able to get players in their absolute prime for once. Van Hecke and Anderson have already formed a formidable partnership at the heart of defence, with Hjulmand providing just that little boost of aggression in midfield I was looking for. Bobb has been lovely too. A natural all across the front line of our team, he’s been massively helpful, especially off the bench. That extra quality has been very much appreciated so far.

Despite the new faces, this has absolutely become the Kjaergaard show. The giant Dane has continued his riotous record from last year and is a constant menace in attack. Again, I’m still amazed by how well he performs with such pretty average attributes.
In the league, we’ve kept the ball rolling and am still rocking a perfect record. Going into the winter break, we’re on a report card of 17 wins, 81 goals scored, 2 conceded. Yep, that’s right, 2 conceded. I suppose it’s not surprising considering we use a trio of defensive midfielders, but this is anything but a conservative team in motion.

We’ve also been pretty mighty In the Champions League too. Despite a series of fixtures that included matches against Liverpool, Spurs and both big Madrid sides back to back, we’ve only dropped points to Los Blancos. That was in disappointing circumstances too, a last-minute banger from their right back helping complete a 30 minute comeback from them. The victory against Liverpool was especially satisfying, mainly just because they keep trying to steal my midfielders.

Going into the January window, there is nothing I can add to this squad right now. Especially with our added restriction of no more foreign players this season. All the biggest and best talent from the region is now a combination of exorbitantly priced, wanting massive wages or completely uninterested in joining us.

I like it here, I don’t know Martin Odegaard won’t return my calls!

I’m totally going to do something weird tactically soon. The same formation for two years in a row? Positively banal.

 

[FancyPantsCam]

Now I’ll usually do each club having it’s own individual update, but with this January, there’s not much point to be honest. Absolutely nowt happened with Bodo/Glimt over this period transfer wise, with all our activity being re-buffing various approaches from bigger teams for our stars. Same story, different window.

For FC Midtjylland, that could not be further from the truth.

Now, what are the key aspects of Lego, the brainchild of our namesake? Simplicity and creativity. With that in mind, at least for now, we’re now going to be using a 4 triple 2 formation. It’s simple, easy to recruit for, gives us lots of flexibility with roles and instructions and lets the players express themselves. It also looks a bit like a tower, which I’m sure we’ve all made using those little plastic bricks.

As to who we’re going to bring in? Well, we need to decide on an age limit. And, to quote Taylor Swift, I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling 22. With that glass ceiling set, let’s get to work.

I have to admit, this is a very freeing experience. Where before my searches were filled with filters and conditions, now there’s just the one. And there are a lot of very exciting players that fall into our crosshairs, in every available position.
So let’s go through the new kids on the block, front to back.

Our first signing to mention is also our oldest. At the practically geriatric age of 22, Will Lankshear comes in from Spurs to lead our line. Transfer listed for a trifling £1.7 million, he looks like a classic advanced forward. To partner him upfront, we’re brought in French youth international Giovanni Imira from St Etienne, who looks like much more of a technical player. He costs a much heftier fee at £9m, but my scouts can’t get enough of him. That's a proper old-school little and large partnership right there!

Moving back a line, we’ve brought in a trio of attacking midfielders. The first is Theodor, who came up in a report for the grand price of absolutely nowt. So naturally he’ll come in and add to our numbers. Yes, he’s a winger and might not set the world on fire immediately, but tactical flexibility is always good and once again I'm trusting the scouts. The second is the sensationally named Fabio Pitbull from Brazil. Everyone loves a creative wonderkid from the land of Samba, and whilst at least 50% of the decision to buy him was because of the name, he should make for a grand addition to our team.

Now comes by far the most well known and exciting arrival, the River Plate superstar in waiting, Franco Mastantuono. Somehow still plying his trade in Argentina, he comes in as an absolute superstar for the team and a real coup. I have no idea how he’s not been snapped up by someone much bigger, but their error is our gain. Yes, he's cost us a whole boat load of cash, smashing the club transfer record but I look forward to fighting off much bigger bids for him in 12 months' time as well all know what this lad can turn into.

In defence was where we brought in the most numbers. Whilst the backline we inherited was good enough, it was also getting on the older side. For the fullbacks, I’ve brought in Santiago Amador from Mexico and Javier Mato from the Spanish second division for each side. Amador had a whole list of suitors after him, ranging from us all the way up to Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund, and physically at least looks the bee’s knees. Mato looks nicely accomplished too at his age. Not the absolute fastest, but well rounded. Although I did only notice he was right footed after signing him. Oh well, seemed to work for Philip Lahm.

Moving to the centre of defence and Obradovic and Adams look like absolute steals at less than a combined £4m. The Serb is already capable of leading a defence in any top league even at this tender age and the Scot looks like he should have excellent potential.

Despite initially being happy with our situation in net, Ladislav Hartig popped up on a scout report and proved too good of an offer to turn down. For a minimal fee of £400k, we’ve been able to bring in a decent number one who’s not even out of his teens yet.

We did have to make some sales to fuel all these changes, none of which I had any hesitation doing. Thanks to SH Port, we were able to make a lovely sum off of our South Korean forward and getting rid of four players never getting in the first team and just kicking up a fuss for another £11m was exactly what we needed.

So, there we go. Four weeks and the entire team has a whole new coat of paint. The back account is looking a whole lot worse, but this should be the biggest concentrated spending that’s needed for a while.

Now, let’s go and see if it works.

 

[FancyPantsCam]

Whilst all that transfer business was occurring for Midtjylland, both teams still had matches to play in January with the final two Champions League ties and the Youth Trofe. Again, I’d usually split these two up, but January is only little.

For the Danes, the Champions League situation could not be rescued. The last two games they had to face were against continental giants Liverpool and Milan, no easy feat for the best of groups let alone a conglomerate of children and completely middling elders. Despite a creditable draw with Milan and a narrow loss to the Scousers, they weren’t able to scrape out of the drop zone in the table. Probably for the best, this team is not ready for this level of competition.

For the boys in yellow, the results just kept pouring on in. Another two wins against Monaco and Salzburg put Bodo Glimt once more at the summit of the Champions League table, showing that even a tougher draw couldn’t stop this momentum.

Momentum was something both teams were absolutely making the most of, as they quite happily cruise through to the semi finals of the Youth Trofe. With Midtjylland in particular, it’s an odd experience as each new game sees a new face make their debut. Usually with quite a splash too, which is always nice.

This is where the new collection of talents fall short, as they are bested by fellow hipster favourite Danish brood Nordsjaeland in a display that shows that throwing a team together on the fly might not be the best for cohesion. #

Despite perhaps having a weaker team than previous attempts the boys from Bodo do manage to make the final, as they look to make it a three-peat of this cup.

This Youth Trofe final was actually a collapse for the ages. A bottle job of grand proportions. Or a rousing fightback from the underdog against adversity. Depending on your point of view.

After we blasted away to a three goal lead early in the first half, this looked like another cricket score game for Bodo. Maybe it was hubris? Maybe it was complacency? Or maybe we just really ****** our opponents off, because that third goal would eventually be our downfall as a new main character entered the story. Having spent the first half being fairly anonymous, Aaron Stoch Rydell decided to take fate into his own hands.

With two assists either side of a brace of goals, he won this game through sheer force of will. No matter what tweaks I make, nothing seems to stop this newly galvanised team from completing their fightback and securing a well-won Youth Trofe.

Oh well, this is gonna **** off the board.

 

[FancyPantsCam]

So let’s get the simpler stuff done right off the bat. This league season has been just as fortuitous as the last, with Bodo/Glimt continuing this mind-boggling run of form and going 38 played, 38 won.

More time and better players in this tactic has led to it becoming even more effective. Whilst we actually score a very similar amount of goals to last year (just the paltry 4.2 per game), the big difference is in defence. Last season, we were miserly in defence. This season we made pre-ghost Ebenezer Scrooge look like a soft touch.

Over an entire league campaign, we give up 6 goals! This is a tactic set to ‘attack’ permanently. It has most of its players set to ‘attack’ on their roles. And yet, this all conspires to an utterly impenetrable fortress of a side. I don’t think I’ve ever had such a dominant league season in all my (far too many) years of Football Manager.

Every single member of this squad has shown up majorly, be that the starters or the rotation players like Gronbaek and Johannesson. Eilertsen has progressed massively, chipping in with 20 goals despite still only being 18. Ok, it's usually against the slightly lesser opponents, but the kid's got a real bright future. Kudos to Samardzic as well, he's become this sides Solskjaer, coming off the bench and regularly hitting absolute bangers.

Also yes, Dennis Seimen got his customary penalty goal.

We have the top three goal scorers. Whilst you might expect that from Kjaergaard and Schjelderup, Milinkovic-Savic has been doing this from defensive midfield! My goodness Segundo Volantes are brilliant. Hats off to Will Lankshear though for really hitting the ground running with the Danes.

We also possess five of the top six assist makers (shout out Lovro Zvonarek for doing a dozen assists with a very middling IFK Goteborg side) and of the top 16 players in the league, all but 2 wear the yellow of Bodo/Glimt.

The Trofe though? We didn’t even make the final. Even our rotation team is usually far too strong for our domestic competition, but a bad day at the office and an opponent in good form is all that’s needed to put an end to another domestic double.
Once more, the board are far from happy with this. Won’t somebody please think of the shareholders?!

Our slayers AGF are the ones to lift the trophy as well, although they actually ‘do a Wigan’ and manage to relegated too. Poor Thomas Frank, fired despite making Europe. What a contrast this is to our real timeline.

Thanks to FC Midtjylland flubbing all their other competitions before our arrival, they can just focus on the league. As rotation isn’t required and we can fully evaluate how this team looks in its formative stage and get this new lovely bunch of lads familiar with each other’s game

Short answer? It looks good. Long answer? Oh it looks reeeaaaallll gooood.

Ok, the defence is still a little leaky, but that front four look fearsome already, even with an average age of less than 21. While he’s not hit the ground running to the same extent of the front two, the occasional blast of quality he shows gives me confidence in the lad.

Lankshear and Imira have very quickly formed a formidable partnership, combining to provide 40 goal involvements in just half a season. It’s almost like this whole little and large thing kind of works. I hate it when Harry Redknapp’s proved right. The star of the show is still Bounida. This lad has been a machine both before and after we took over The Wolves, and still remains the key part of this team.

The league form has been incredible since the new tactics and players have come in. In fact, the only team in better form than the Wolves in red are the lads in yellow we started this journey with. Of note, the first meeting between the two sides happened during this fine run for both sides, and in order to maintain neutrality, was ‘Instant Result’ed as stipulated. A healthy 3-0 win for Bodo means that the status quo is preserved for now.

That loss might have been the start of it all coming just a little bit unstuck. Whilst still a massive step up from where the club had previously been, a few dropped points and a couple of losses mean that this side doesn’t quite make the cut for the Champions League spots. Losing out to Copenhagen might be painful now, and the money would have been lovely, but this squad isn’t ready for that big a stage yet.

The Europa League is exactly the right level for this young team of players to prove themselves first.

With a couple more deals already in the pipeline, this is super encouraging stuff from the Danes and shows that with just a little more coherent planning, they can join Bodo/Glimt and become a proper force on the continental stage. As long as no one shakes anything shiny and distracts all these babies.

Might even be able to give them proper team in this save a bit of headache next year.

Much like other teams in Bodo’s situation domestically, most of our season success depends on our travails in Europe. And while last year’s trip to the final remains a lofty bar to get to, this year's continental escapades deserve its own entry.

 

[FancyPantsCam]

Following us cruising through the league potion of the contest, we once again have the delight of looking over the playoff rounds determining who we might like to get in the next round.

Trouble is though, I’m starting to think that this game has pre-planned adversaries for me.
For the third season in a row, we have been drawn against Bayern Munich. We’ve also beaten then three years in a row, so the Bavarian bruisers must be absolutely sick of the sight of us. Or at least of the chilly night that Jurgen Klopp’s lads get up in the arctic circle.

First off though, the first leg in Bavaria. And to say that we turned up in combative mood is a little bit of an understatement. But whilst we did rock up a handful of yellow cards, everything else would seem to indicate that it was worth the aggression. While the first forty minutes are even, the other fifty are anything but.

In part, that’s due to us breaking with real speed on the German champs, but it’s also due to an absolutely awful time for Andriy Lunin. Every time the ball is crossed at him, he looks shaky. It might be the sheer physicality of Kjaergaard, but the giant Dane consistently beats him to the ball. That he appears to have wrists of celery on compounds both his and Bayern’s misery.

The second leg is a much more controlled affair. Whilst the first leg was a basketball game, this is more of a chess match. Is it a thriller? Oh goodness no. But it’s exactly what we wanted this to be. BTW, I have no idea how Torkildsen got the MotM award. Maybe just the novelty of him getting some game time thanks to a little injury to Denis?

Next up comes Manchester City. Which is apparently, according to FM at least, a David and Goliath fight in the opposite direction! Poor little Manchester City, scraping together coppers to pay their Terminator striker each week. How will they cope with just their meagre little oil fund?

What. Just. Happened?

We don’t just scrape a result against Haaland and co, we absolutely batter them. All of these incredible players in City colours, and they all play an absolute stinker. Apart from Kieran Tierney, who gets a pat on the head after clearing a goal off the line.
The chances we create aren’t just good, they’re excellent. As is our finishing of them. Our midfield completely smothers any attempts to play in the Mancunian forwards and our front three dropping deep proves far too much for them to handle.

The second match of this tie is where the real Manchester City turn up, and I have no idea how we keep them out. From kick off to full time whistle, they dominate the match, as it’s our turn to turn out a bad performance. The only difference is that Denis Seimen has decided he’s not going to loose this match. After a chaotic set piece and a massive defection give us an improbable lead, the German shot stopper makes it his mission to keep his clean sheet. Ansu Fati especially is going to be seeing him in his nightmares for days.

Now that we’ve slain one petro-state giant, let’s see if we can run that one more time against the team that ended our dream last year and reigning champs PSG.

Kylian who? Mbappe what? Oh, that guy on the wing? Yeah, don’t know what you’re on about, he ain’t anything special. But still don’t pass him the ball or anything, that would be silly. In this first leg, the Parisian speedster was almost completely contained by our defence. Without him running the show, PSG never quite had the venom they usually do.

Despite Manuel Ugarte being shown his marching orders for trying to forcibly remove Hugo Larsson’s tendons, it was the PSG equaliser that sparked us into life. We’d been dominant but profligate. Step up Albert Gronbaek, here from the very start and off the bench to cut inside and smash the ball into the net. A penalty with the very last kick of the game put the bow on a brilliant night in Norway.

For the second round in a row, the away leg of a Champions League knockout round turns into an exhibition for Denis Seimen. This time, he’s in a one-on-one contest against Kylian Mbappe. A contest that against expectations, he wins, stopping him on three separate occasions from getting on the scoresheet.

Whilst our lofty German just about keeps the Parisians at bay after Ramos makes the tie a little closer than I’d like, a speculative strike from our veteran Serb gives us our buffer back again and takes the wind right out of PSG’s sails. The last half hour passes by without incident and we have booked our passage to the promised land!

All of that brings us to this. Our second final in two years. This time, we have the might of Barcelona standing in our way. This isn’t the debt riddled Barca of a few years ago, this is once again a La Masia powered monolith.

To get here for a second time is incredible. To have done it having had to take on and defeat Bayern Munich, Manchester City and PSG makes this the end of an incredible gauntlet.

In a match of this importance, the easy thing to do would be to take the first quarter of an hour to settle into the game and go from there. But we've been here before 12 months ago, and that didn't work. So this time, we're going for it from the very first moment.

Our breakthrough comes in an almost trademark style of goal. Quick passes between our volantes and Kjaergaard sees a ball being popped over the top of the fullback for Kilicsoy to run on to. The Turk uses his pace to break away and then calmly fires the ball into the net across the keeper.

A catastrophic mistake from Ter Stegen comes 18 minutes later and it might be the defining moment of the match. The experienced German took too long to deal with a back pass and pinged the ball right into the chest of Maurits Kjaergaard, who slammed the ball home to give us a precious two goal margin and have our fans in dreamland.

Over the next period, we look evenly matched. Noah Darvich and Lamine Yamal are both absolutely terrifying out wide for Barcelona, but our front three look equally potent going forward. Both Seiman and Ter Stegen both make good saves and Barcelona have to clear a Van Hecke header off the line to stay in the match. Despite all that, the match soon becomes a game of control. Barca control the ball, we control the pitch.

La Blaugrana attack time and again, but they just can’t break through, can’t get that one moment to make the end few minutes as uncomfortable as possible.

And then the whistle blows. Officially, we are the Champions of Europe! The bench explodes, the squad and staff sprinting on to the pitch in ecstasy. How the **** did we do this? How is this group of (mostly) Nordic players, lifting the most prestigious trophy in club football? This is a club with a stadium capacity lower than most League One sides!

It makes it all the more special to still have two original boys from Bodo not only in the squad, but on the pitch at the final whistle. Berg and Bjorkan might no longer be the stars of the team, but their contribution throughout this run cannot be understated. They’re not the only mainstays from the first squad we inherited, but for this tiny Arctic town to have two of its sons facing down the might of Barcelona is magnificent. For Berg in particular, this is the culmination of three generations of his family playing for this tiny diamond of a club.

So, where do we go from here? What’s left for us to do in this challenge?

Well, there’s a club world cup to win now, isn’t there?

 

[MesReyBec]

View attachment 696274

Following us cruising through the league potion of the contest, we once again have the delight of looking over the playoff rounds determining who we might like to get in the next round.

Trouble is though, I’m starting to think that this game has pre-planned adversaries for me.
For the third season in a row, we have been drawn against Bayern Munich. We’ve also beaten then three years in a row, so the Bavarian bruisers must be absolutely sick of the sight of us. Or at least of the chilly night that Jurgen Klopp’s lads get up in the arctic circle.

First off though, the first leg in Bavaria. And to say that we turned up in combative mood is a little bit of an understatement. But whilst we did rock up a handful of yellow cards, everything else would seem to indicate that it was worth the aggression. While the first forty minutes are even, the other fifty are anything but.

View attachment 696283

In part, that’s due to us breaking with real speed on the German champs, but it’s also due to an absolutely awful time for Andriy Lunin. Every time the ball is crossed at him, he looks shaky. It might be the sheer physicality of Kjaergaard, but the giant Dane consistently beats him to the ball. That he appears to have wrists of celery on compounds both his and Bayern’s misery.

The second leg is a much more controlled affair. Whilst the first leg was a basketball game, this is more of a chess match. Is it a thriller? Oh goodness no. But it’s exactly what we wanted this to be. BTW, I have no idea how Torkildsen got the MotM award. Maybe just the novelty of him getting some game time thanks to a little injury to Denis?

View attachment 696284

Next up comes Manchester City. Which is apparently, according to FM at least, a David and Goliath fight in the opposite direction! Poor little Manchester City, scraping together coppers to pay their Terminator striker each week. How will they cope with just their meagre little oil fund?

View attachment 696278

What. Just. Happened?

We don’t just scrape a result against Haaland and co, we absolutely batter them. All of these incredible players in City colours, and they all play an absolute stinker. Apart from Kieran Tierney, who gets a pat on the head after clearing a goal off the line.
The chances we create aren’t just good, they’re excellent. As is our finishing of them. Our midfield completely smothers any attempts to play in the Mancunian forwards and our front three dropping deep proves far too much for them to handle.

View attachment 696285

The second match of this tie is where the real Manchester City turn up, and I have no idea how we keep them out. From kick off to full time whistle, they dominate the match, as it’s our turn to turn out a bad performance. The only difference is that Denis Seimen has decided he’s not going to loose this match. After a chaotic set piece and a massive defection give us an improbable lead, the German shot stopper makes it his mission to keep his clean sheet. Ansu Fati especially is going to be seeing him in his nightmares for days.

View attachment 696286

Now that we’ve slain one petro-state giant, let’s see if we can run that one more time against the team that ended our dream last year and reigning champs PSG.

Kylian who? Mbappe what? Oh, that guy on the wing? Yeah, don’t know what you’re on about, he ain’t anything special. But still don’t pass him the ball or anything, that would be silly. In this first leg, the Parisian speedster was almost completely contained by our defence. Without him running the show, PSG never quite had the venom they usually do.

View attachment 696281

Despite Manuel Ugarte being shown his marching orders for trying to forcibly remove Hugo Larsson’s tendons, it was the PSG equaliser that sparked us into life. We’d been dominant but profligate. Step up Albert Gronbaek, here from the very start and off the bench to cut inside and smash the ball into the net. A penalty with the very last kick of the game put the bow on a brilliant night in Norway.

For the second round in a row, the away leg of a Champions League knockout round turns into an exhibition for Denis Seimen. This time, he’s in a one-on-one contest against Kylian Mbappe. A contest that against expectations, he wins, stopping him on three separate occasions from getting on the scoresheet.

View attachment 696282

Whilst our lofty German just about keeps the Parisians at bay after Ramos makes the tie a little closer than I’d like, a speculative strike from our veteran Serb gives us our buffer back again and takes the wind right out of PSG’s sails. The last half hour passes by without incident and we have booked our passage to the promised land!

View attachment 696275

All of that brings us to this. Our second final in two years. This time, we have the might of Barcelona standing in our way. This isn’t the debt riddled Barca of a few years ago, this is once again a La Masia powered monolith.

To get here for a second time is incredible. To have done it having had to take on and defeat Bayern Munich, Manchester City and PSG makes this the end of an incredible gauntlet.

View attachment 696292

In a match of this importance, the easy thing to do would be to take the first quarter of an hour to settle into the game and go from there. But we've been here before 12 months ago, and that didn't work. So this time, we're going for it from the very first moment.

Our breakthrough comes in an almost trademark style of goal. Quick passes between our volantes and Kjaergaard sees a ball being popped over the top of the fullback for Kilicsoy to run on to. The Turk uses his pace to break away and then calmly fires the ball into the net across the keeper.

View attachment 696287

View attachment 696288

A catastrophic mistake from Ter Stegen comes 18 minutes later and it might be the defining moment of the match. The experienced German took too long to deal with a back pass and pinged the ball right into the chest of Maurits Kjaergaard, who slammed the ball home to give us a precious two goal margin and have our fans in dreamland.

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Over the next period, we look evenly matched. Noah Darvich and Lamine Yamal are both absolutely terrifying out wide for Barcelona, but our front three look equally potent going forward. Both Seiman and Ter Stegen both make good saves and Barcelona have to clear a Van Hecke header off the line to stay in the match. Despite all that, the match soon becomes a game of control. Barca control the ball, we control the pitch.

La Blaugrana attack time and again, but they just can’t break through, can’t get that one moment to make the end few minutes as uncomfortable as possible.

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And then the whistle blows. Officially, we are the Champions of Europe! The bench explodes, the squad and staff sprinting on to the pitch in ecstasy. How the **** did we do this? How is this group of (mostly) Nordic players, lifting the most prestigious trophy in club football? This is a club with a stadium capacity lower than most League One sides!

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It makes it all the more special to still have two original boys from Bodo not only in the squad, but on the pitch at the final whistle. Berg and Bjorkan might no longer be the stars of the team, but their contribution throughout this run cannot be understated. They’re not the only mainstays from the first squad we inherited, but for this tiny Arctic town to have two of its sons facing down the might of Barcelona is magnificent. For Berg in particular, this is the culmination of three generations of his family playing for this tiny diamond of a club.

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So, where do we go from here? What’s left for us to do in this challenge?

Well, there’s a club world cup to win now, isn’t there?

Great stuff!