The redemption of Atvidabergs FF

[jt8604]

Atvidabergs FF: Club Overview​

So welcome to my new save. I have struggled quite a bit this year on FM21 to really stick to a save but after some real thought, I think I have found the save for me. So why here? Well I decided I wanted to build a nation up and win the Champions League and try to make that League the best league in Europe/World. So I needed to find the right league and well with it being FM21, I decided to pick the 21st ranked league by coefficient as the starting point and that so happened to be Sweden. From there, i scoured through the Swedish League system to find an interesting story, a story that i could invest in. Sure i could go with Malmo or AIK and really start building straight away but would that be as satisfying, well probably not. Then i found Atvidabergs FF, a two time Swedish League champion in the 1970's the club has fallen on hard times suffering 3 relegations in the last 5 years to find themselve in the 4th flight of Swedish Football. Perfect, A fallen giant of sorts and a story of redemption as I need to climb up the divisions before really tackling the job of becoming Champions League winners.

The aim of the save is to have fun but in reality it will end when i am crowned Champions League winners and potentially if I decide to, take Sweden to the World Cup Final and go one stage further and actually win the tournament.

Basic Info
Name: Atvidabergs Fotbollforening
Location:

Atvidaberg, Sweden
Club Status: Semi-Professional
Nickname: None
Founded: 1907
League: Division 2 Sodra Svealand (4th Tier)

Chairman:

Ingvar Gustafsson
Manager:

Justin Tyrrell

Club Facilities
Stadium:

Kopparvallen
Location:

Atvidaberg, Sweden
Owner: Council
Capacity: 6,100 (4,800 seats)
Under Soil Heating: Yes
Roof: No
Surface Type: Synthetic (New type - soft)
Stadium Condition: Average
Pitch Condition: Perfect

Corporate Facilities: Adequate
Training Facilities: Adequate
Youth Facilities: Adequate
Junior Coaching: Average
Youth Recruitment: Fairly Basic

Club Rivals
Derbies
Ostgota Derby (vs IFK Norrkoping)
Bruks Derby (vs Degerfors IF)

Fierce Rivals
IFK Norrkoping (Local)

Other Rivals
Degerfors IF (Competitive)

Last Five Seasons:
2019: Division 1 Sodra | 14th (Relegated)
2018: Division 1 Sodra | 11th
2017: Superettan | 16th (Relegated)
2016: Superettan | 6th
2015: Allsvenskan | 16th (Relegated)

Trophy Cabinet
Allsvenskan x2 (1972. 1973)
Superettan x1 (2011)
Svenska Cupen x2 (1970. 1971)
Division 2 Norra Gotaland x1 (2001)

Club Heroes
Legends
Kent Karlsson
Ralf Edstrom
Roland Sandberg
Benno Magnusson
Conny Torstensson
Thomas Wernersson
Roger Magnusson

Icons
Kristian Bergstrom
Henrik Gustavsson
Jan Olsson
Jorgen Augustsson
Lars-Goran “Knalin” Andersson
Ulf Blomberg

Fan Favourites
N/A

Club Records (based on FM)
Highest Attendance: 11,049 (Vs IFK Norrkoping, 5th May 1964)
Lowest Attendance: N/A

Biggest Win: 15-0 vs IK Ramunder, 1st July 1994
Biggest Defeat: 1-10 vs Malmo FF, 1st July 1951

Most League Apps: 529 - Henrik Gustavsson
Most League Goals: 118 - Kristian Bergstrom

Finances
Balance: (£ - 177,340)
Transfer Budget: £0
Wage Budget: £1.8k p/week. £0 Remaining

 

[jt8604]

Atvidabergs FF: Pre-season​

The Season ahead

The 2020 season is where we will kick things off with the club finding itself in the 4th tier of Swedish football having been relegated the season before. The 4th tier is made up of 6 regional divisions each with 14 teams making 84 sides at this level in total. Each league has one team automatically promoted with the remaining 6 going into some play-off that I haven't found the rules for yet. The Atvidabergs board are wanting a play-off position as minimum with the plan for the 2nd season to go up as Champions. Hopefully i can deliver that one season earlier. The media back the board and have instilled us as 2nd favourites for the title. Now with 14 teams in the league, many of you would have thought it would be a nice short 26 game season and I think normally you would be correct but to my surprise the League is even shorter with just 13 games deciding the league championship. It means there is no room for error this season as one small blip of form will cost you promotion. We have to get going quickly otherwise this could be a very short stint indeed

Squad & Transfers

So looking through the squad, the first thing to note it is that the squad is tiny. Just 19 players in total which when you have a 13 game season is fair enough. The wage budget was maxed out and with no transfer budget there was simply nothing to work with. I tried to get a few of the U19's and U20's loaned out but there were no takers and it means i went the whole transfer window without making a single transfer - in or out. So the squad going into the season looked like this

​

It is an incredibly young squad with the oldest player just 28 years of age and the bulk of the squad under the age of 23, which isnt to be unexpected when the side has become the Swedish equivalent of Bolton and dropped down the leagues quickly. However, there is some real quality here, Adrian Pettersson is a top centre half for the division. Solid in pretty much every area without any glaring weakness he will be the rock that our defence is built around. In the midfield, Daniel Rambin is a solid midfielder with a high determination which i like. If we can get all of them 9's to 10's or 11's he will look just as good as Pettersson and with youth on his side, there is every chance it is possible. Rambin will be the captain this year with Pettersson the vice captain.

However, in the attacking areas we are also well stocked. On-loan Erik Grandeluis is the best player at the club and will be a starter on the left wing. Again he is good in the places you need for a winger, his work rate could be better but that dribbling with pace should be enough to make him a tricky winger this season. Up top we have the Swedish/Colombian Jose Segura Bonilla who was on fire in pre-season scoring 11 goals across 9 matches and should flourish as the advanced forward this year. His pace should be more than enough for this division. Alongside him, we have Theodor Skarp who in the pressing forward role was able to get goals but also assists and should form a deadly partnership with Bonilla.

Even though, this window we were unable to improve on the squad, things should hopefully be different in future windows as the board allowed me to get a senior affiliate and I managed to snap up Malmo as that affilliate. I tried to loan a couple during the window but Malmo were not playing ball at that time either wanting the players to remain at the club or wanting me to pay their wages which I wasn't in a position to do. Hopefully though, this affiliate should help me power up the leagues in the future.

The main activity, for the window was to bulk out the staff as we added a new coach and a head of youth development as well as building out a scouting team from scratch. For now they will be based in Sweden looking at talent but they are headed up by One time ex -Arsenal keeper Rami Shaaban with ex-Leicester City defender Pontus Kamark also on the scouting team.

Pre-season and Tactics

Our pre-season was 9 games long which when you think about it is almost the length of our actual season but it gave me a good opportunity to play around with the squad, promote a couple of youth players in and work out where people can fit in but also where they could be used in times of need. To keep things simple, we have gone with a standard 4-4-2 with the aim of the game to get the ball wide and put in low crosses for the two strikers to get on the end of. We want to move it quickly from back to front to make use of the decent pace we have as we want to keep teams on the backfoot wherever possible. It is a simple but effective tactic and one I have used in another save this year that saw me get promoted back to back. The same again here would be a nice way to start the save.

In terms of teams, we played a complete mixed bag starting with our Second XI but also taking in teams in the 3rd tier, 2nd tier and even one in the Top tier with a smattering of clubs in the lower echelons of Sweden mixed in. What was immediately obvious, is we can score goals with 30 goals scored in the 9 games. We at times played scintillating football and when we are beating teams in the 3rd tier (4-0) you know you are doing well. Even against Halmstadts we lost just 1-0 whilst the result against GAIS of the 2nd tier saw us win 4-3 .

Now I appreciate the friendlies but I think this is a good sign that this team has a real chance of promotion this year but also that we are not a million miles away from being able to compete in the 3rd tier and even possibly in the 2nd tier meaning back to back promotions with the right acquisitions could be very much possible. We have some weak areas for sure, our full backs are a little shaky and we dont have a natural RM whilst our squad depth is almost non existent in places but we have a good nucleus that the League seems to think is better than most of the rest. Now its time to go show it, in possibly the shortest league campaign of all time. Another way you can tell its short is the fact I got my Youth Intake Preview before the season even kicked off!

A Golden Generation! Im excited now but watch my disappointment when it actually comes through!

 

[jt8604]

Atvidabergs FF: June & July 2020​

The Season starts

So I am now 6 games in out of a 13 game league campaign and so i guess as we are at the half way mark, it is as good a time as any to let you know how we are getting on. I am to be honest still half expecting there to be a surprise post-season tournament that actually extends the season but I can't seem to find anything. So perhaps it really is this short.

Our season kicked off at home to Tyreso FF, a side that is more famous for its very good Womens team than its lower league Mens side. They were predicted to come bottom of the table and the class difference was evident to see. Jose Segura Bonilla was particurly unplayable as he bagged a brace within 15 minutes to set the tone for the tie. He was through again in the 36th minute and his strike beat the keeper only to come off the post and then rebound off the hapless goalkeeper into the back of the net to put us 3-1 up after Tyreso got a goal against the run of play. In the 2nd half he became provider as he whipped in a cross from deep on the left for sub Yousef to slot home to seal a 4-1 victory on the opening day.

Next up we went away to Newroz FC. one of a number of teams in this league that was formed by immigrants from the middle east. This side was formed in 2008 from Kurdish Immigrants and again they were no match for us. The game killed off in a ruthless 7 minute spell in the first half as we won the game 3-0 with goals from winger Grandeluis, a long range effort from Englishman Josh Bragg before Theodor Skarp slotted hom a penalty. The month of June finished with a 2nd home game this time against IFK Kumla. Another mid to lower table Swedish side with no real history, but do hail from the same town as Sweden's largest Prison which also houses the Swede's most dangerous criminals. However, there was nothing to fear from the football side as again they were brushed aside 3-0 in fairly comfortable fashion. They put up some resiliance in the first half and we failed to score but two goals in two minutes just after the break from Bonilla and Grandeluis put us ahead before centre half Adrian Pettersson powered home a header at the near post from a corner to seal our 3rd victory. At this point, we were flying in the league, free scoring and solid at the back, the exact start we needed.

Moving into July, things have been a bit trickier but most importantly, we have got the results we needed. The first game up was against Rynninge IK and we eventually took the lead just before half time with Theodor Skarp slotting home his 2nd goal of the season and his second from the spot. At this point, i thought here we go again but there was to be a sting in the tail as Dutch centre half Bram van Dongen got a straight Red Card in injury time in the first half. It didn't look that bad and the commentary explained it as both reckless and not a foul confusing the matters somewhat. In response, I took off one of the strikers and put in the back up centre half and looked to keep it safe and hang on. Just 4 minutes into the 2nd half, things went from bad to worse as the other centre half Adrian Pettersson inexplicably jumped up in the middle of the pitch and handled the ball to secure a 2nd yellow card and put us down to 9 Men! So it was to no one's surprise that just 2 minutes later August Holmberg scored an equaliser for them. We had to take our only other striker off and luckily on the bench I had a 4th centre back so we played a 4-4-0. We hung on for the rest of the 2nd half but we were looking toothless so i moved both wingers up to AM slots to at least try and give us an outlet and by miracle it worked as Erik Grandeluis got the ball from their corner and ran pretty much the length of the pitch before driving in a low cross for Supersub Mohammed Yousif to score an unlikely winner as we won 2-1 and kept our 100% record up. At this point, I was feeling genuinely invincible and I still can't believe I won a game with 9 men!

Varmbols FC were visitors in Matchday 5 and with both our centre backs suspended we had to play our 3rd and 4th choice pair who to be honest are a whole step down to what we have been using and it showed. Defensively we gave away more shots then we had in the first 4 games combined and we just couldn't build a momentum up. The game looked destined to end 0-0 until Casper Creutz swung in a free kick from deep with Theodor Skarp getting in on the end of it in the 94th minute to seal a 5th straight win. 5 wins from 5 and we were looking unstoppable. I said at the beginning a bad run of form with such a short campaign could stop a title chase dead but equally a blistering run of form like this can almost seal the title.

So Matchday 6 saw our hardest task yet as we went up against Assyriska FF, a side from just outside Stockholm who are made up of Assyrian Immigrants and are one of the most famous sides in Sweden due to their mass following in the Middle East. This side had also been in the top flight not that long ago, gracing the Allsvenkan for one season in 2005. It definitely was one of our toughest ties, with their attack being the only attack to outscore us so far this season but it was us who broke the deadlock in the 40th minute with Bonilla bagging his 4th of the season. However, straight after the 2nd half kicked off we were pegged back to 1-1 with Ike getting a goal before he did it for a 2nd time in the 70th minute to put us behind for the first time this season. That feeling lasted just 60 seconds though as Yousif squared the ball for Erik Grandeluis who came off the wing and slotted home a 71st minute equaliser. The game ended 2-2 as we dropped our first points of the season but we remain undefeated.

Squad / Results​

An exceptional start to the season and we have a 4 point gap already. Next up is Eskilstuna, who interestingly are the only other side in this division to have won the Swedish top flight having done so all the way back in 1921. If we can win that game then I see no reason why we won't get the play-off spot at a minimum and from there the title should be within our grasps. A defeat and things will get interesting but already with 7 games to go, It looks like we will be in the top 4 at worst. The Transfer window has opened again and I will spend the whole window scouring Malmo's reserve and U18 sides to find some new faces who can come in on loan for the rest of the season and help us in that promotion bid.

On a side note, the Svenska Cupen 1st Round has been drawn and we will play Enskede IK away from home. They too are in the 4th tier but play in the Norra Svaeland group which if my Swedish geography is on point is the area that is North of Stockholm.

 

[jt8604]

Atvidabergs FF: August 2020​

Goals Goals Goals

Three more league games to cover plus our Svenska Cupen 1st Round tie as the season already starts to move into the latter stages. First up were IFK Eskilstuna who were 4 points behind us and are also a former Swedish champion. They won their first 4 games of the season but two defeats in the last two league games means we have our lead. A victory here and we would almost certainly stop them from being able to beat us for the title.

We took the lead on the half hour mark with Bonilla scoring with his left foot but that lead lasted just 5 minutes before they equalised taking the game to 1-1 going in at half time. The first half was cagey but the second half was explosive as 7 goals went in, including 4 goals in 9 second half minutes. It was like two boxers taking their gloves off and just swinging for the trees trying to hit that killer knock out blow.

This time we were the fighter who could hit that blow as Bonilla completed the perfect hat-trick with goals from Grandeluis, Skarp and Sandholm securing us the 6-3 victory. It was a massive win for the title race and it set us up nicely for Match day 8. Here were were against Assyriska Norrkoping, another side formed by Assyrian immigrants but this time hailing from nearby Norrkoping. In fact, this game is probably the nearest to a derby for us in terms of team location. It wasn't a fiery derby though as Theodor Skarp scored twice in the first 15 minutes before Adrian Pettersson scored a 2nd goal of the season from a corner to seal a very comfortable 3-0 win.

Next up, we had a little Svenska Cupen action against Enskede IK from the Division 2 Norra Svaeland. They are a side from Southern Stockholm so only just outside our leagues location and they too are top of their league, albeit having just lost their first league game of the season. I decided to rotate the team a little to make sure that the back up's had a little more match fitness but it backfired a little. We went behind but managed to get it back to 1-1 just after the break with Theodor Skarp scoring again but we lost Bonilla to injury for what looks like a season ending injury too. We then got a penalty late in the game only to see Anders Eriksson step up and miss sending the game to extra time. Again we had chances buy we couldn't score meaning penalties decided the tie. This time, the luck was not on our side as Theodor Skarp missed the first penalty and out we went at the first hurdle.

Our first real taste of defeat so far and just 3 days later we had a league tie and against Arameisk-Syrianska, who you guessed it are another side formed by Immigrants. This time from Syrian immigrants and they hail from Southern Stockholm just like Enskede. We scored early through Adrian Pettersson who is becoming a set-piece threat at the near post before being pegged back by the opposition. The game was looking destined for a draw before a 4 goal burst in the last 10 minutes saw us run away with the tie 5-1. So with 4 league games to go, the table looked like this

Squad / Results​

Bar the Cup result a great month as we really put our stranglehold on the league and with 4 games to go, having a 6 point lead means we really need to bottle to lose our promotion spot. The games we have left are well spaced out and against sides in the bottom half of the table so i fully expect to put them away. The loss of Bonilla does hurt though and is an area of concern. I was unable to get a striker in despite that being my top priority during the transfer window but I did secure one loan deal as Melker Roslin joins from Parent Club Malmo for the rest of the season. We are too be honest fairly well stocked in central midfield but an extra body for no wages is no harm done. Hopefully next season we can get more luck out of this affiliation as so far its only been good for the little bit of money we make.

Which does lead me onto the main problem. The club is losing money month after month and we are going to have to sell one or two to balance the books which will hurt unless we get a windfall of cash. There are club elections taking place at some point and that might give us the cash boost we need, but right now it looks like I am going to have to operate with no money next season. Here is hoping that Golden Generations delivers!

 

[jt8604]

Atvidabergs FF: 2020 End of Season​

Youth Intake day

So the first youth intake of the save is here and we get our first glimpse into the Golden Generation.

I mean its not bad to be honest. A Golden Generation.... probably not but certainly one with some promise. There are definitley a handful of players here who would make the 1st team squad as back up's but no one who looks like they can be an immediate starter or even a starter in a year or two. It does seem a little winger heavy and considering our best youth players that already existed at the club are also wingers it means we are stocked with potential back up options. Edvin Sward is the best player to come through. He has blistering pace, great agility and balance which means as a right winger he is going to be dangerous. His technique (4) lets him down somewhat but with crossing, dribbling and passing all around the 8's and 9's there is no reason with some game time / training he could get these into double figures and probably do a job in the 3rd tier and maybe even the 2nd tier if he progresses well.

Emil Stenlund is the other potential 5* player and being a left winger, he almost has the opposite challenge to Sward. He has good crossing, technque and off the ball but lacks a little on the pace department. Again the key physicals are all at 9's meaning they could all flick over to solid 11 /12's and all of a sudden we have another solid player on our hands. The last player I will show off at this stage is Simon Persson who looks pretty similar to Stenlund but is left footed but plays on the right wing. Now we don't play with inverted wingers at all, so he will need to be retained to play on the left as a more traditional left winger but he sits somewhere inbetween the Stenlund and Sward for me.

The Title Run in

Across September and October, we had just 4 league games to play as we looked to clinch the title, gain promotion and secure an Invincible season. First up was Huddinge IF at home. It looked an easy game on paper but it was a game we struggled in as we really seemed to lack the killer instinct that has seen us blow teams away before but we still found the back of the net with Erik Grandeluis sliding the ball across the box for Theodor Skarp to score the only goal of the game in a 1-0 win. That victory put us 9 points clear with 3 games to go and only the biggest bottle job of all time would stop us moving to the 3rd tier.

I had to play the importance of the game down to the team and the press as they were mounting the pressure on but 1 points from the last 3 games is all we needed and that was only if the other teams could pick up all 3 which wasn't a certainty either. Trosa-Vagnharad were the opposition for this match and they had the league's joint top scorer Bjorklund on the pitch who was being touted as a danger man. They were dangerous, we actually were out xG'd for the first time this season as at times we had to pull off heroic blocks and saves to keep our clean sheet. A clean sheet we did keep which was enough by its own but Theodor Skarp and a returning Jose Segura Bonilla scored the two goals to win us the game 2-0 and clinch the title.

So with 2 dead rubbers to go, we only had an invincible season to play for but i saw the games as the perfect opportunity to play some of the youngsters and I gave Sward, Stenlund and Torasen their debuts for the final home game of the season againt Gute FC. Torasen has been in the U19's all season and he has scored 28 goals in 18 league games for the U19's meaning i couldn't ignore him any longer. Gute FC are the only side in the division who don't play on the main land and they probably regretted taking the ferry over as we smashed them 4-1 with Skarp (2), Bragg and debutant Torasen scoring the goals for us.

It meant we went away to BK Forward in the final day of the season looking to secure an invincible season and it was a very tight game, one where it was clear we were already on our holidays and it was cruising along to a 0-0 draw until the 81st minute. Youngster Edvin Sward got onto the ball and fired one straight at the keeper who flapped at it and it hit the back of the net. It secured a 1-0 win and Edvin Sward's name in the history books as he became the leagues and the clubs youngest ever goalscorer.

Results / Squad​

A brilliant first campaign and our climb back up the leagues has started. We were a different level of class and it showed all season as we topped the scoring charts as well as holding out with the best defence. Next season the board want us to finish mid-table whilst also repairing the financial situation which has got bad. We are about £350k in debt and its only getting worse. Unless we see a big increase in income after getting promoted, i suspect we are going to need to sell some assets to stay afloat. This is also reflected in the budgets for next season as to no surprise we have £0 transfer budget and the wage budget has increased to £7.5k P/w which is around 4x what we spend now. However, I am not going to be able to justify spending 4x on wages if we can't even afford what we are spending now so I am planning on only spending around 50% of the wage budget at maximum and instead relying on the loan system and the youth players wherever possible.

Looking at the squad, the star player was easily Theodor Skarp who took the mantle of being the only striker with Bonilla out and led from the front. His 13 goals and 5 assists from 13 starts made him the leagues top scorer as well as a vital creative player for us. Erik Grandeluis was by far the most exciting player to watch as he could take us from defence to attack almost instantly and his 5 goals and 6 assists showed how important he was. We are definitely going to look at trying to bring him back on loan for next season. Finally, Adrian Pettersson was a rock at the back but also a constant threat from set pieces. 3 Goals and 1 Assist is a good return from such a short season. He is the most wanted out of all of the players and we are probably going to field some bids in the winter and so although I want to desperately keep the man, if a bid comes in that can wipe that debt out, I would be stupid to turn it down.

So onto next season, I am confident we can compete and the board saying mid-table already shows we are going to be strong enough to not struggle. We do need reinforcements in. The first call of business will be to try and retain Grandeluis and Bonilla from their loans for another season. Both are crucial to the team and I dont want to go looking for replacements in a market where we simply can't afford to. Other than that, we will look at both full back positions as neither really did what we needed whilst a new right winger to go into the first team would help balance us out. After that it will be a case of trying to upgrade the back-ups and move on some of the squad players where we can.

 

[jt8604]

Atvidabergs FF: 2021 Pre-season​

The Season ahead

Just like the 4th tier of Swedish Football, the 3rd tier is also regionalised but this time the country is split into 2 rather than the 6 divisions of the 4th tier. You have the Division 1 Norra and the Division 1 Sodra which as you guessed is the North / South divide. We will be playing in the Division 1 Sodra where there are 16 teams. This time it is a more traditional home and away league structure so we have 30 league games to contend with. The team that finishes top gets promoted to the Superettan whilst the team in 2nd goes into a play-off with either the side who finished 3rd or 4th bottom of the Superettan. At the other end, the bottom 3 are all relegated to the 4th tier whilst 4th from bottom goes into a play-off system with the sides who finish 2nd in the 4th tier. Of the 16 sides, 15 sides are semi-pro whilst just Norrby IF are professional. *spoiler alert* they are favourites for the league. We are predicted 9th from the off and the board want a top-half finish whilst repairing the club's financial situation

Transfers

One of the things, I had forgotton about with Summer Leagues is that the off-season is so long! In fact ours was 6 months between our last competitive match and our first league game. It meant there was a long time to deliberate about the summer strategy and what we should do. In the end, I decided I needed to be frugal with my signings and instead of giving out big wages, I should be careful with whom I sign and why. Our best bet / my only real way of helping the club repairing the financial situation is to not spend money and that is what I tried to do.

Now there were outgoings as we managed to sell 7 players for small fees ranging from £15 to £1.3k. The biggest names being last seasons starting right back Marcus Karlsson (£550), back up goal-keeper Joel Sundell (£1k), back up left back Daniel Enqvist and back up winger Mohammed Yousef (£1.2k). However, the best sale goes to Linus Olsson (£1.1k) who was our 4th choice centre half last year but also our top earner at £250 per week who has moved on and we are not paying any of his wages.

So the first piece of news is we didn't need to renew the loans of Erik Grandeluis and Jose Segura Bonilla as their loans were always designed to be running until 2021 so they will be here for another season. Incoming wise we signed 6 new players whilst also promoting the likes of Sward, Stenlund, Torasen and Sousa to the first team on a permanent basis. All 4 will be available for the reserves this year but they will all get some game time. Sousa is the only new face as he was rated highly by the backroom staff, albeit I am less convinced but as a back up centre midfielder he will do just fine.

So the first two signings actually were signed in 2020 at the back end of the season. Oscar Fritzson was playing in this 3rd tier last year and joins on a free transfer. He is a solid centre half who will be the new partner to Pettersson at the back. With 16 Jumping reach, 12 heading and being 6"4 he should be another dangerman at set pieces whilst being solid at the back. The second man to sign in 2020 was right back Ludvig Gran who comes in as solid dependable player who will compete for the first team slot with another of my new signings Danny Ervik who is probably slightly better attribute wise but older at 31. Both can play centre back which was one of the reasons I signed them as it means should we need to change formation and go 3 at the back to get an extra man in midfield we can do so comfortably without having to play someone out of position. I also wanted some players a little bit older so we had some experienced heads and also a bit more leadership.

Which will explain perfectly this next signing, Morten Gamst Pedersen of Blackburn fame joins us on a free transfer. At 39 this is probably his last season and his legs have gone but his technicals and mentals are head and shoulders above everyone else. A Set piece expert he will likely come on with 20-30 minutes to go to help steady the ship but also hopefully steal a goal from corners / free kicks that might just make the difference. He will also be the tutor to all of my U19's in the first team as i look to get them ready for first team action quickly.

Experience was also bought in, with our new No.1 Goalkeeper with Cameroon International Sammy N'djock signing on. A massive step up from what we have had, I'm hoping he can win us games in a league that will test us a lot more than last year. The final signing was a loan deal for left back Martins Egbe who joins from parent Club Malmo. He was the only player that was interested in joining and he will compete at left back for a starting slot.

As you can see the signings have largely been concentrated at the back, which when you consider we conceded just 8 goals last season from our 13 league matches might seem a bit strange but I strongly believe we will be tested more this year and we needed improvements here. I did try and and buy a striker but there was nothing really out there that would have made us better / the players i did identify chose someone else. All in all we started the window with a wage expenditure of £1.8k per week and we have ended it with a wage expenditure of £2.2k. Meanwhile, club debt has shrunk from £350k to £200k meaning the board is happy.

Pre-season

Pre-season wise it was a very positive as we tested ourselves against a number of the top flight sides including current champions Malmo and AIK and bar the Mjallby game we came away undefeated. Again lots of goals which is good to see with Bonilla once again on fire as we go into the season in good form. With the signings we have made we are now up to 5th favourites for the league but my main focus is to get that top half finish first and foremost

 

[jt8604]

Atvidabergs FF: April 2021​

Finding our feet

Four games into our first season in the Swedish 3rd tier and it has been eye opening. We are doing well points wise but performance wise we have been really sub par. Partly that is probably down to the fact, we are not able to dominate teams as much as we could in the league below and so we are spending a lot more of our time defending and our attacks are now less potent then before.

Our league season kicked off with with an away trip to Lunds BK and it was a drab game with the game goaless going into stoppage time but out of nowhere a deep cross right back Ervik found Bonilla at the back post and he was able to slot home to win us our first game of the season 1-0. Four days later we were on the road again as we went to Rappe GoiF, who like us were on an impressive undefeated streak of their own. We just failed to get out of the traps and we were punished as we lost 3-0 in my first defeat as a manager. Now it wasn't a 3-0 loss bad performance but it was our worst performance to date and it stung.

One of the issues we had during the first two games was Erik Grandeluis who has been injured all season and our left wing was just not performing despite trying youngster Emil Stenlund and Casper Creutz out there. So for our first home game of the season I decided to put Pontus Eriksson on the left wing, last year he was ineffective as a left back but for the game against Motala he was superb putting two great crosses in for Skarp and Bergstrom to score two tap ins and give us a 2-0 victory.

Our final game in April was against Ljungskile who were playing in the Superettan last year and on paper would be our toughest fixture to date. We went 1-0 down and again just didn't look at the races, so i had to move our wingers forward a little bit more to try and put the pressure on their back line and it seemd to work as Bonilla scored just after time before adding a winner in the 72nd minute to give us a 2-1 victory.

Squad / Results​

So even though I am not happy, 9 points from the first 12 is a good start but there are a lot of teams with good starts so far and we are going to need to keep up that level of form. The one bright light has been Sammy N'Djock who has been very good in goal and without him, we certainly would not be where we are right now in the league table. Bonilla getting in on the goals is a good sign but we need more from the midfield who have really been out of sorts so far. Morten Gamst Pedersen has not got going and perhaps his physical inability might be too much despite his obvious strengths. Still we need to get Erik Grandeluis back who is our best player and was central to a lot of the good stuff we did last year.

The Month of May is a busy one with 9 games meaning we are going to be playing every 3-4 days in an intense schedule. Ill come back at the beginning of July, where the window should be open again and we will be half way through the league. If we can be around 5th and not too far away from the play-off spot then I will be a very happy man indeed.

 

[jt8604]

Atvidabergs FF: May & June 2021​

Relentless Schedule

11 Games in 36 days for a part-time outfit! It has been relentless through May and June and this period has tested the squad, the squad depth and our rotation policy like no other period before it. In April I wasn't sure if our results and performances were either a sign of a team getting lucky early on with us bound to get caught out or if it was the early signs of a very good team who were winning despite playing bad. After these two months, I can confirm it was the latter as we came away with 28 points from the 33 available.

Not only were we picking up points, we were hitting the back of the net on a consistent basis as Bonilla has carried on his scoring form having hit 14 goals in 15 games whilst the likes of Morten Gamst Pedersen have found their feet and the veteran midfielder has bagged 3 goals and 7 assists whilst the return of Erik Grandeluis (2 Goals and 2 Assists from 5 starts) means we have our attacking outlet on the left again.

Squad / Results​

It means we are in a title race now as Norrby sit level on points with us at the top of the table. I knew the gap between the 4th and 3rd tier wasn't huge but to be sitting so high up the table at this stage is still beyond what I thought. With the final 15 games coming in a much less intense schedule, It should help us recover and put out our strongest side as much as possible. Norrby's professional status wiill be an advantage but with a more manageable schedule i should be ok. We are going to need to look at some reinforcements though as Casper Creutz and Ludvig Gran have made me promise their sales due to lack of game time. Creutz's transfer is arranged as he will move to Osters for £6k + 10% of sell on fee. Gran on the other hand since complaining about lack of game time has found himself in the first team after Danny Ervik damaged his Hip and with no other right backs in the side, he may need to hold on for a little bit longer. We still have a couple of games to play until the window opens but either way, any new signings will be minor as we still try and keep the debt down (Currently around £190k).

Our 2nd youth intake preview is in and its a second golden generation even though these seems to be a lot more yellow then green in the preview. It is good to see wingers are not in the mix as we got a plethora through last year whilst the thought of a striker is very interesting as that is an area we could do with a nice young back up as Torasen hasn't really done a lot this year for the first team. For the reserves he is excellent though so perhaps it might be another year or so before we see what he can do for the first team

​

 

[jt8604]

Atvidabergs FF: July & August 2021​

New faces giving new life

With the transfer window opening again, it was time to add some new faces to the side to give us a fresh push as we go into the crucial 2nd half of the season. In terms of outgoings, there was the already mentione sale of Casper Creutz who was sold to Allsvenskan side Osters for a £6k fee with a 10% add on. He is young and had potential but in reality his potential is not going to get met whilst we are semi-pro and so his sale made sense. We also sold Daniel Westlund for a few hundred pounds who was a left back sitting in the reserves.

Inbound there were 3 new faces. The first comes from Norwegian football with Nigerian Olakunle Oluesegun joining on a free transfer. The Nigerian striker's deal was actually sealed in the pre-season and he will come in to challenge Bonilla and Skarp up top when we need to mix things up or if one of them gets an injury. The other two new faces were both loan deals but not from parent club Malmo who have so far been fairly useless in sending us players. Ghanaian U20 international Zico Asare joins on loan from Finnish side FC Lahti. I have bought him in as cover to Ervik with the original plan to sell Ludvig Gran. However, despite all of my attempts, I couldnt sell the unhappy Gran so we are a little overstocked now on the right back situation. Asare though will also be a useful cover for the centre of defence so he has a good dual purpose. Emil Jonsson was the final loan signing as he joins from Landskrona for the rest of the season. Another midfield body he provides us with another option in an area where we have struggled to partner someone with Morten Gamst Pedersen.

On the field, we have played another 9 league games whilst also entering the Svenska Cupen. In the league we have stayed undefeated picking up 6 wins and 3 draws including a 4-4 thriller against Rappe where we squandered a 2-0 and a 3-2 lead before having to score a late equaliser to salvage a point. Our run has been led by Theodor Skarp who has hit 8 league goals in the 9 games as he has suddenly bounced into life after a quiet goalscoring run in the 1st half of the season. He did a similar thing last season at this time of the year and I am very thankful for it. It leaves the league table like this with just 6 league games to go

It is a 3 way race for Promotion and we face either a 2nd league title, a play-off lottery or complete heartbreak this season. We still have Norrby to play whilst Norrby and Rappe also meet in what will be a tense final 6 weeks. At one point we were 4 points behind Norrby so to turn it around to be a point infront is quite some turnaround. Essentially, If we beat Norrby we should be good for a league title but if we lose than we are going to clinging on for that 2nd spot. I feel good about the team but equally we can't afford to drop points in the other games.

The Svenska Cupen saw us paired against fellow Division 1 side Motala in the 1st round and we made light work of them winning 4-0 which saw us progress ot the 2nd round where we were drawn against rivals Degerfors of the Allsvenskan. They were too good for us though and we were knocked out 3-1 allowing us to completely concentrate on the league moving forward.

Squad / Results​

Another solid two months and its good to see Olusegun get in the goals bagging 3 already including a vital 92nd minute equaliser against Tvakkers. Morten Gamst Pedersen and Theodor Skarp lead the assist tables in the league with Skarp really becoming a force again which is good timing as Bonilla has gone off the boil a little in terms of the goals. 6 More games and we could have back to back promotions!

 

[jt8604]

Atvidabergs FF: 2021 End of Season​

Youth Intake day

It was time to look at our 2nd youth intake and our 2nd golden generation.

Again, it looks like a half decent intake and there are some players in here, who could turn into something. Mattias Ahlberg , for me is easily the best of the bunch. Very good physicals and some nice mentals with the technical stats not too far off. He could quite easily be our 4th choice centre half next season and with the potential upside of getting into the team in a few years time. I also like Maximilian Jacobsson who as a left sided midfielder has the right stats. He would need to be retrained to play a little deeper but there is certainly a player here to work with. David Lannholm and Peter Andersson are also good prospects to keep an eye out for.


The Title Run in

Gameweek 25 was a massive gameweek for us and it pretty much set up the rest of the run in for us. We had a home tie against Lindome and we went 2-0 up within 6 minutes with goals from Theodor Skarp and Morten Gamst Pedersen putting us into a quick lead. We then let a goal in just before half time to leave things a little nervy. However Jose Segura Bonilla and Adrian Pettersson put us 4-1 up and despite conceding two late goals the 4-3 win was a massve victory. Especially as both Norrby and Rappe lost meaning we extended our lead at the top and were clear favourites.

A 4-2 victory over bottom club Vargada followed before we entertained Norrby in a crucial match that could decide the legue title. A 1-1 draw was a perfect result and it meant we were 4 points clear with just 3 games to go. When Norrby went on to lose against Rappe in the next game and we scrambled over the line 1-0 against Torns we knew we needed just 1 point from the final two league games to win the title. In the end we got 6 points from the final two games as we beat Oskarhamns (2-1) and Skovde (3-0) to easily seal the league title and a 2nd successive promotion.

Squad / Results​

A big season for us as we scored more goals in a season then ever before, racked up the most points in Division 1 history and won our 2nd piece of silverware with a fast climb up the leagues well on its way. It was all about the goals and our front two bagged 40 of them between themselves. Jose Segura Bonilla was the top scorer with 22 whilst Theodor Skarp bagging 18 goals alongside an impressive 12 assists. When you have two players scoring goals, it does before a lot easier but we also saw signs of a 3rd top striker as Nigerian Olakunle Olusegun bagging 6 goals in just 3 starts and 14 appearances overall. He was averaging a goal every 45 or so minutes and it was becoming increasingly harder to leave him out of the team.

Oscar Fritzon slotted in at the back very nicely but from set pieces he was a beast as he bagged 7 goals as he got on the end of a lot of dead balls. Dead balls that were delivered with absolute accuracy from 40 year olf Morten Gamst Pedersen who bagged 5 goals anad 15 assistsa as he rolled back the years. I have never had a veteran be as good as he has been this year and he was a class above everyone. It wasn't just a good season for us as our reserve side went undefeated winning every match in a very impressive campaign. Many of the youngsters from the 1st intake heavily featureing including Torasen, Svard, Stenlund and Sousa. All of this success means this happened

We are back being a professional club with that promotion and it now feels like the 1st chapter of the save is done. We have got through the lower semi-pro ranks and are now in that next phase of whether we can get ourselves back to a top flight club. This is going to be a much bigger jump in class and I am expecting us to be in the 2nd tier for at least 2 seasons, probably 3. I need to go and re-do contracts, re-jog the backroom staff all whilst trying to fix the debt problem which just isnt going away. Our budget for next year is £10k Per week and our current spend is £3k. We have a small transfer budget of £3k as we are expected to battle relegation. We are predicted to come dead last and our odds of 350-1 show how big an outsider we are especially when the team in 15th has odds of 33-1.

The loans of Erik Grendeluis and Jose Segura Bonilla do expire this year and they have been massive for us over the last two seasons. Morten Gamst Pedersen is retiring but will join the team as our new director of football. We have a few others leaving but we are going to need a big window. Full backs and cenrtral midfield being pressing concerns for us

It is now time for phase 2 and I can't ****** well wait

 

[jt8604]

Atvidabergs FF: 2022 Pre-season​

The Season ahead

So here we are in the Superettan, the 2nd tier of Swedish football and the 1st tier that is National in scope. Another 16 team division, we play each team twice in a 30 game season. The top two are automatically promoted to the top flight (Allsvenskan) and the team in 3rd goes into a play-off with the team that finishes 3rd bottom in the top flight. However, chances are we are going to be at the other end of the table and that is where it could get a little tricky. The bottom two are automatically relegated with the teams who are 3rd and 4th to last going into play-offs against the sides that come 2nd in the Norra and Sodra.

Transfers

So going professional, meant we had to go and renew every contract at the club and to move the players off part time contracts and that took a lot of time and effort but we got there. Still there were exits at the club. The biggest loss was Morten Gamst Pedersen who at 40 years of age decided to retire and he is now my director of football and we are going to miss his 15 assists and set piece wizardry. Other than that we let three players go on a free transfer - Pontus Eriksson, Anders Eriksson and Josh Bragg. Bragg was in and out of the team in the midfield but at 30 years of age, there are better younger options. Anders Eriksson has been my backup centre back for the last two years and didnt get a huge amount of game time whilst Pontus Eriksson played in a number of positions over the last two years (LB, LM, RB) but failed to impress in all roles and so has been moved on.

There were two other exits on permanent deals as we sold back up goalkeeper Daniel Ahlberg who was kicking up a fuss about lack of game time and he joins Enskede for £1.3k with the second being Felipe Reider de Moraes who spent the whole of last season in the reserves where he scored a tonne of goals and has finally moved in a £1.3k deal and is off to Finland to play with AC Oulu. On top of that we loaned out 10 youth players to give them some more game time, some with small loan fees as we look to see if we can develop some players to help fuel our growth.

Outs​

Now onto the Ins. It was busy as 10 new faces joined the club. We managed to loan back in Josue Segura Bonilla and Erik Grandelius for a 3rd straight season which is a great win. Bonilla's goals are going to be crucial whilst Grandelius is definitely our best player. We are paying more of Grandelius wages this year but I think it is totally worth it. So the main strategy was to bring in places in all positions to help boost the overall squad depth but also to remove some obvious weaknesses. It was a struggle as players either wanted big wages (£1k p/w) or were not willing to risk the prospect of joining a club who have had back to back promotions and predicted to finish last. I looked at our parent club Malmo for some help but to be honest, it was fruitless. They wouldn't loan out a number of players sitting in their reserves, the ones they would, they expected us to pay and the ones we could get to join for free were unwilling to play in the 2nd tier. So I had to make a change

BK Hacken have now taken over as our parent club, paying us aorund £1k per year more and they already seem more willing to do business with us. We managed to sign 24 year old Frenchman Remi Mestrallet on loan for the season paying none of his wages. Solid physicals with some good tackling he gives us a ball winner in the middle of the park and I feel like we will be playing with a BWM this season as we are going to have less of the ball and there will be a need to try and win it. He can also play left back which has been another area of concern. Before the loan deal of Mestrellat, I did add 3 more central midfielders to the side in what has been the biggest revamp of our options. Hampus Holgersson was the first in having been released by Mjallby. A solid allrounder who definitely needs work but has some youth on his side. Noah Soderberg is another player with a similar review. He has less weaknesses than Holgersson but doesnt have the strengths and these two will be the back ups this season in the midfield. The other starter who will go alongside Mestrallet is Jesper Brandt who also joins on a free and has taken over the captains armband for this season. Another player who can tackle but brings some much needed leadership and teamwork that we lost with Pedersens retirement.

So thats the central midfield covered. We also added a winger for each side. Competing with Grandelius we now have Kosovan Patriot Sejdiu in the side. He was at Malmo and rejected coming on loan here a couple of times but now he is without a club, he has come crawling back. He has good pace and can cross but also means we finally have another option should Grandelius get injured or fall out of form. The right hand side will be governed by Dennis Olofsson who again joins on a free transfer from Landskrona. He is solid, can play at right back meaning he has some defensive abilities as well and is just a solid player without being excellent.

Defensively we added three new players. Linus Marklund comes in to play at left back having been at Umea for the last few years. He has solid stats with the standout being long throws meaning we might have a new set piece danger?! Fredrik Martinsson was at GAIS last season and will be the right back for the season. Similar to Olofsson he can play further up the field if needed but will play right back due to his inferior crossing compared to Olofsson. Finally in the centre of defence we added some experience in Anton Lans who is a left footed centre half and will give us better balance at the back. Whether i drop Fritzon or Pettersson is up for discussion but either way we now have options.

Our final signing was a new keeper and 18 year old Samuel Andersen has come in to compete with N'Djock for a starting position. I initially was only looking for a back-up but Andersen could end up being a starter. So there you have it. A big window and we are going to need to juggle adding these players into the first team with ensuring we dont ruin our good team balance built from the last two seasons. We haven't bought a superstar player but we have added depth and options in a number of positions to give us a better overall first team. Will it be enough? Well going into the first game of the season, the bookmakers dont seem to think so as we are predicted to come dead last still.

Ins​

Pre-season

Pre-season wise I made a huge mistake. Normally my assistant arranges a 5-6 friendlies and I supplement with a few others to give us a large pre-season of 9 games ensuring we have solid match fitness and sharpness. However, my new assistant only arranged 3 and i completely forgot to get around to arranging a few more until the last week. Result wise we have done OK but we are not match fit and that is going to make this season even harder as we need to build fitness as well as trying to get off to a positive start.

 

[jt8604]

Atvidabergs FF: April 2022​

Our toughest fight yet

This league is definitely a step up and we are fighting, competing but definitely feeling the battle much more than we have in the last two seasons. It has had a bit of everything and right now, as it stands we are out of the relegation spaces and if we fast forward 26 more games and we are in 11th position than I willl be ecstatic. In none of the games have we been outclassed but the biggest difference is we are going to have to play well to win games, whereas over the last two years we could play poorly and still pick up wins. That is just not going to happen.

Our league season started away to Goteborgs AIS who are one of the better sides in the division and are predicted to be finishing around 4th/5th. We actually took the lead through Olakunle Olusegun in the 14th minute and it looked like we were going to be able to carry on from where we left off and pick up some early victories. GAIS though game back to take the lead before Theodor Skarp scored the most bizarre goal as their left back smashed a clearance straight at his head to put us level at 2-2. However, we couldn't hold on and GAIS came away with a 3-2 victory.

Gameweek 2 saw us go away from home again as we took on Jonkopings Sodra. We went 2-0 down in the first half and despite Theodor Skarp scoring a screamer on the brink of half time we were unable to overcome our poor start as we lost our 2nd successive game by a goal. The margins are so much thinner in this league and we need to get our concentration together. Next up we had our first home game of the season as we hosted Landskrona and when we went 1-0 down through some non-existent marking from a corner, I thought we were doomed. However, the team rallied in the 2nd half and we struck 3 goals to win the game 3-1 and get us off the mark.

Our final league game of April was against AFC Eskilstuna and we were away again and it was a game we really struggled to ascert ourselves on as we defended well but failed to do much going forward. Then they had a man sent off, but even against 10 men we couldn't take control. It was the same story when they went down to 9 men as we limped to a disappointing 0-0 draw.

Results / Squad​

Some work to do for sure. As part of the move to this division I have moved both of my central midfielders back to the DM position as a way of trying to make sure we have enough men back defending our goal. It hasn't really worked as our defence has conceded 6 so far in the league which makes it one of the leakiest defences but equally we are the top scorers in the league and are attacking prowess is still evident. Do we have enough in this squad? No. We need more but we have the smallest budget in the league and the club debt is rising as it starts to get close to the £500k Mark.

I am not sure what I can really do. Our best bet is going to be to raid parent club Hacken for some free loans but this is going to be a real test for the first time this season

 

[jt8604]

Atvidabergs FF: May & June 2022​

Inconsistent but competing

​

We are now at the half way mark of this season and it is safe to say we are not going to have three back to back promotions as this league is clearly a much bigger step up in quality than what we have faced. However, we are competing and although the results have been a little inconsistent, we are in a good position going into the back half of the season as we just about sit in the top half of the table.

Going forward we have been pretty good bagging a respectable 21 goals but we do need a little bit of work defensively as shipping 22 goals means we are not doing much better defensively then the teams at the bottom of the table. However, even though we are 8th we can not get ahead of ourselves as we are just 4 points above the relegation play-off spots and we are much closer to the bottom than the top. Realistically 7th is probably the best we can hope and the magic points mark of 35 has been touted by the press as the number of points we should be aiming for.

As you can see the spell where we beat Falkenbergs, Gefle and Ostersunds in May has been the real highlight as at that point we looked like we had really settled in the League. June has been tougher for sure but another 16 points is all we need to get as survival is still the number 1 goal. Player wise, we had the shock recall of Jose Segura Bonilla from his loan spell as I wasn't playing him as a poacher. Which i would understand if he hadn't been here for the last two seasons where he has never played as a poacher and this was merely an extension of that loan period so no promises were made. It means we have been a little short upfront and that will be an area I look at when the window opens up again in July.

Squad​

In terms of the rest of the squad, our inconsitency in results has shown in terms of the average ratings of the players. Only two regulars are averaging above a 7.00 with Theodor Skarp being the real highlight bagging 9 goals in 15 games as he has now scored consistently across all three divisions for Atvidaberg. Oscar Fritzon has been a solid rock at he back but everywhere else has been quite frankly a mess. I have tweaked the formation a few times and reverted back to moving the DM's back to the MC spots but the mentality has changed from balanced to cautious and we certainly seem to be in games more often even if results are not immediately better.

Financially, the club is struggling, the increased wages being spent is putting a financial pressure on the club and we now sit £600k in the red and it is going to make it hard to move in the transfer market, so it may be a case of looking at youth again, where we have our 3rd golden generation being touted

 

[jt8604]

Atvidabergs FF: July & August 2022

Calling the reinforcements​

With the transfer window reopening, it was time to add some reinforcements as we try and go for a final push to secure our safety. Four new faces joined all on loan deals and all costing us absolutely nothing. Parent club BK Hacken lent us three new faces in the form of Karl Langsten, Melvin Bajrovic and Jesper Dickman. Langsten provides additional cover in the forward positions and will rotate in and out of the team. Bajrovic will do the same but in the central midfield positions and will cover for some of the exits that we saw in the window. Jesper Dickman is the only sure fire starter of the three as he will go on the right wing. He is left footed which is a slight challenge but either way he is a massive upgrade on what we have so far.

The fourth loan deal was from former Parent club Malmo FF and that was left back Emil Lindman who like Dicman will be a starter for us as he provides a much better option for us. These deals were balanced out by a number of exits. We loaned out Rasmus Bergstrom, Daniel Rambin, Albin Bergstrom and Bram van Dongen along with two other youth players. The first 3 all went with a small loan fee but the important thing is, we got some more wages off the bill. The final exit was one for real money as Noah Soderberg leaves us to join Orebro SK for £100k straight up with another £10k due if he plays just 1 game and with a 40% sell on fee also due. He was only here for a little bit but he wasn't playing much and he wanted game time so it just made sense to do the deal.

Ins / Outs​

Safety Secured?

When this season started it was always going to be about safety as we look to establish and build ourselves back into a Professional outfit. The month of July saw us hit a terrible run of form as we picked up just 1 win and 3 points from the 5 games played. It was a run of form that genuinely left me worrying about dropping into the play-offs but the new signings above have started to kick in and in August we picked up 10 points from a possible 12 whilst also progressing from the Svensken Cupen 2nd round to give us an undefeated month

Squad / Results​

Sitting in 9th, 8 point clear of the play-off spots with just 6 games to go makes me feel comfortable that bar an awful run we should be guaranteed to stay in this league. The prize money should in theory get us close to killing off the debt which hopefully will allow us to invest a little more into the team. The loan signings have really helped in particular Dickman who has been an instant upgrade on the right hand side. Theodor Skarp has got back in the goals as well and his 15 goals this season means he is joint 2nd goal scorer in the league which considering he has been with us on this journey since the 4th tier is quite remarkable.

We just need to close off the season without too many dramas, hopefully we can sneak into the top half as I believe the prize money takes a little jump at that point and right now every penny still counts

 

[jt8604]

Atvidabergs FF: 2022 End of Season​

Youth Intake day

Our third and probably least impressive intake so far

Not awful by any means but we are going to need better players than this certainly if we are going to have our youth system be a solid source of new players for us. With our wage budget thin and the lowest in the league, I have decided to only sign 3 players on the off chance they can be good enough for us. Thomas Malmen is the best of the crop and is a fairly defensive left back. A position we do lack depth in and i could see Malmen perhaps being the back up left back next season depending on the signings. Filip Lindqvist has the best mentals I have seen from a youth player so far in this save. They say he is a ball winner (I am guessing due to his very high bravery), I think he is actually more creative then that with his decent vision and passing stats so he could be an ok all rounder. Stefan Petkovic is the third of the signings and has the bare bones to be a right hand side winger. Another position we are thin on the ground, but I am not sure he is going to have the ability to become a starter for us... but we will see.

Safety assured but a lot more work to do

Results / Squad​

I said in my last update, we just needed to not completely muck it up and I was right. 3 draws and 3 defeats from the final 6 games was not a great end but it was more then enough to keep us in the Superettan for another year. I am disappointed with the 12th place finish as to be honest we should have finished around the 9th /10th place mark based on our expected points for the season.

However, our form dipped and our dressing room atmosphere is rock bottom and we need a rethink going into season 4. I look back at the season and i think tactically we were a little bit all over the place as i tinkered and tweaked our winning formula all season to the point where we were probably confused with our identity. A new tactic and a new formation is going to be put in place for next year. Also our signings, just didnt improve us and towards the end of the season, many of them were not even making the bench let alone the first team squad. There were too many and because our pre-season was short we didn't bed them in well enough. That too will need to be looked at. Money wise we have around £3k per week to play around with which is probably 4 decent players, so the loan market is going to be crucial to pick up some bargains.

I'll save some special praise for Theodor Skarp who came 2nd in the golden boot race and has been with us since day 1. He top scored in the 4th division, Scored 16 and assisted 12 in the 3rd flight and 17 goals and 4 assists in the Superettan has been superb to see. Will he make it to the top flight? I hope so but i sense we could be in this division for awhile. I want to break into the top half which is ambitious, the board want to avoid relegation and we are predicted to come 11th out of 12. We need to work smart and hard and have a good pre-season. Pre-season will look a litlte different this year as we have the Svenska Cupen 2nd round group stage which gives us 3 ties and i have booked in the friendlies already to make sure we are match fit going into the season.