Welcome to the latest part of this new Football Manager 2019 adventure. Lyn have enjoyed a decent start to the 2. divisjon season, which you can read about here in case you missed the previous chapter.
Today’s installment will take you through the middle part of the 2019 season. That will include the mid-season break and transfer window, where there’s a possibility that a couple of the club’s hottest prospects could be poached by bigger Norwegian clubs.
Speaking of that, Marit Enstad’s already taken steps to try and stop that happening with one of them, haven’t you, Marit?
TOR! TOR! TOR!
Hei, det er Marit! I will start today’s chapter with a look at 16-year-old Tor Fritzøe Östman, who has already made a huge impact for our youth team. In 13 appearances in the Oslo Under-19s Championship, the right-winger has scored 13 goals, provided eight assists, and has an average match rating of 8.22!
Tor’s exploits – which put us in the top three of the 20-team youth league – attracted a couple of Eliteserien clubs to him. Brann were first to scout him, followed by league champions Molde. (Incidentally, Molde now have Ronny Deila in charge, as Ole Gunnar Solskjær left them to manage Wolves.)
Before either of them could attempt to prise our young starlet from our grasp, we offered him a €140-per-week semi-professional contract, which he was happy to sign. This would take effect on his 17th birthday next March and run until 2021. It wouldn’t keep the [non-Black Country] wolves completely from our door, but it should make it harder for bigger clubs to snap him up.
In fact, as our senior wingers were struggling for form, I saw this as an opportunity to blood Fritzøe Östman into the first-team. He made his league debut on 2 June, away to a Nybergsund side who were bottom of the table without a win to their name. How would the youngster fare?
NYBERGSUND vs LYN 1896 (2. divisjon, Avdeling 1 – Match 8)
He made quite an impact, as it happened! Fritzøe Östman broke the deadlock with a debut goal on 34 minutes, cutting in a rebound shot after his initial attempt from Martin Trøen’s cross was saved. Unfortunately, Nybergsund cancelled it out just two minutes later, as Mathias Laudal slid in his defensive colleague Victor Wagner’s flick-on from Eino Puri’s corner.
Puri was one of two Estonian internationals in the Sundet team. The other was 35-year-old left-back Andrei Sidorenkov, who tried to head away a cross from Adil Zahid early in the second half. He could only send it as far as Marius Østvold, who powered in a 25-yarder for his first goal this season.
The crossbar stopped Trøen enhancing our 2-1 lead in the 62nd minute. His miss proved telling in the 79th minute, when our right-back Eirik Bækkelund‘s clumsy penalty-area foul on Awat Cinho gave Nybergsund the chance to draw level again. Aleksandar Cisic’s spot-kick proved too clinical for goalkeeper Knut-André Skjærstein, and two points went begging.
FRAM LARVIK vs LYN 1896 (2. divisjon, Avdeling 1 – Match 9)
Next up was a daunting trip to Fram Larvik, who were top of the league after a five-game winning run. They showed why they were leading the way just 12 minutes into this match. Robin Hofer Dahl exploited our high defensive line to latch onto teenage winger Sindre Osestad’s through-ball and slip it past Skjærstein.
Osestad almost created a second goal five minutes later, but right-winger Joachim Eriksen headed his cross against the woodwork. Meanwhile, Mads Pedersen and Fritzøe Östman each had equalising attempts saved by Fram keeper Kenneth Stenild [anyone else remember him as a potential wonderkid on Football Manager 2005?].
Fram wasted further chances in the second half before we hit them with a bolt from the blue in the 74th minute. Emil Borkø’s cross-field ball found right-back Eirik Haugstad, who hammered in a 30-yard howitzer!
Six minutes after that incredible equaliser, we pulled ourselves ahead. Playmaker Lars Følstad sought out Fritzøe Östman, whose dream start to his senior career continued when his square ball across the box was tapped in by Trøen! 2-1 to Lyn!
Fram were stunned, but they almost levelled on the counter-attack in stoppage time. It took a last-ditch tackle on Eriksen from left-back Martin Fasting to keep them at bay and secure us a first away win of the season. That result moved us up to 5th place – only two points adrift of Hønefoss in 2nd.
Meanwhile, the Eliteserien received a nice reputation boost at the end of the European season. Norway’s UEFA club coefficient has also gone up a fair bit, from 29th to 23rd. [I see Scotland also climbed up the rankings. It helps when Rangers don’t get dumped out of the Europa League by part-timers from Luxembourg, doesn’t it?]
In less positive news, Lyn were now over €100,000 in debt, which meant our financial status became ‘insecure’. The board therefore couldn’t retain any transfer revenue for future purchases until the situation improved. We were paying our squad just under €6,000 per week (well within my weekly budget of €10,000), but it was clear I needed to cut that bill significantly sooner or later.
LYN 1896 vs MOSS (2. divisjon, Avdeling 1 – Match 10)
This was another cause for concern. We followed up an away win over the league leaders by losing at home to a team who’d started the day in the relegation zone.
Moss made a very quick start, with Thomas Klaussen driving them into the lead from 25 yards out after just four minutes. They had the ball in the net again two minutes later, but winger Remi André Svindland was caught offside after cutting René Elshaug’s through-ball into the net from a tight angle.
Our first equaliser came in the 12th minute, when Østvold dribbled into the box and slipped in a tidy finish. Further encouragement came when Moss lost Klaussen to a groin injury in the 17th minute, but his replacement Fredrik Wasenius put the visitors back ahead just three minutes later. His goal came about after a sloppy throw from Fasting, who performed so pitifully that I subbed him at half-time.
Mind you, we would head into the interval level again at 2-2. After Følstad’s drive was parried by opposition keeper Anders Gundersen, a quick-thinking Simen Vedvik got to the ball and drilled it across for Trøen to finish.
Moss would take the lead for a third time three minutes into the second half – and this time, they wouldn’t let it go. Svindland’s corner fould Wasenius at the back post, and the young attacking midfielder cut the ball back to inside-forward Kot Chol Tafesse, who fired home from the ‘D’.
Having seen him concede three times from outside his 18-yard box, I was now calling Skjærstein’s goalkeeping into question. Following our first home defeat of the season, I recalled Thomas Sandsør and made major changes to our defence for the visit of high-flying Nest-Sotra.
LYN 1896 vs NEST-SOTRA (2. divisjon, Avdeling 1 – Match 11)
This match also had drama from the outset. Nest-Sotra midfielder Mathias Raum lasted just four minutes before a two-footed takle on Morten Lyngstad Bjørshol saw him receive a straight red card. We made the most of our numerical advantage two minutes later, as Zahid’s half-volley from Haugstad’s cross gave the attacking midfielder his first senior goal – and us a 1-0 lead.
We took the game to the 10 men from that point, but our wastefulness was punished when they hit us on the break late in the first half. A desperate lunge from Dahir came too late to stop Jone Rugland from latching onto Kristoffer Ryland’s long ball and drawing Nest-Sotra level.
The second half called for a Lyn hero – and Trøen answered that call. His diving header from Bækkelund’s hanging cross restored our lead in the 51st minute, and a powerful strike from Østvold’s through-ball doubled it in the 62nd. Martin then completed a memorable game-changing hat-trick on 70 minutes, smashing in a volley after defender Kristoffer Bidne had tried to clear another Bækkelund cross.
The points were now ours, though the game still ended on a couple of sour notes. Deep into injury time, Dahir’s sloppy back-pass gifted Rugland a second goal and reduced our lead to 4-2. However, that was a minor blow compared to one we’d sustained eight minutes from time, when…
…Trøen twisted his ankle, ruling out of our next three games before the mid-season mini-break. He was now the division’s leading scorer (with nine goals), but somebody would need to fill his big boots for the time being.
GRORUD vs LYN 1896 (2. divisjon, Avdeling 1 – Match 12)
No Trøen, no trouble! Grorud might have been another top-half team, but they capitulated at their own ground as we stormed to our biggest win of the season – and just our second clean sheet.
Haugstad took on goalscoring duties in the first half. The 25-year-old winger got off the mark after four minutes, taking advantage of some woeful Grorud defending to finish a deep free-kick from Andreas Østeraas. Eirik doubled his and our tally in the 28th minute, though he needed two attempts after his first was blocked by defender Glenn Harviken.
One of the few disappointments from our first period was that frontman Jonas-Aleksander Bakken missed an absolute sitter shortly before the break. He was replaced at half-time by Svein Melfjord. The 17-year-old had just signed his first part-time contract with Lyn, amid interest from the Eliteserien, and was determined to make his mark.
A terrible header from Grorud right-back Ali Iqbal in the 74th minute gave Melfjord an unexpected scoring opportunity, which he volleyed home from just inside the box. The teenager followed up his maiden league goal with another five minutes from full-time, poking in a square pass from Vedvik.
That result took us into the top three, just ahead of Ørn Horten on goal difference. Fram Larvik and Alta remained four and two points ahead respectively, as they had done for the past few rounds, but if we could continue our recent good form, we would surely reel them in.
ELVERUM vs LYN 1896 (2. divisjon, Avdeling 1 – Match 13)
Remember our comeback from 2-0 down at half-time against Asker back in May? Well… we pulled off another great escape, this time at Elverum!
The relegation-threatened hosts wanted revenge after losing to us twice at the Bislett earlier this season. Things looked good for them when they pulled ahead in the sixth minute. Feisal Ahmed Hassan floated a deep cross to left-winger Emil Sandbæk Skari, whose shot was helped into the net by an unconvincing parry from Sandsør.
Half an hour later, Sandbæk Skari contributed to Elverum’s second goal by sending lone frontman Georg Flatgård clean through. Flatgård evaded our skipper Anders Lübeck‘s slide tackle and fired a shot against the post, but the ball rebounded off Sandsør’s heel and into the net!
We returned for the second half determined to reverse another two-goal deficit. Følstad got us up and running on 55 minutes, chesting Oskar Hansen‘s left-wing cross before stroking it past goalie Emil Holst. Barely a minute later, Følstad created the equalising goal for Vedvik, whose strike just crept in off the post.
Like Asker before them, Elverum managed to delay the seemingly inevitable until we broke through for a third time late on. It was in the 87th minute when Fritzøe Östman crossed to an unmarked Vedvik, whose second goal crashed in off the bar! The home fans were devastated, but as for ours…
BÆRUM vs LYN 1896 (2. divisjon, Avdeling 1 – Match 14)
The second half of our league season began with us managing just one shot on target in a 1-1 draw against Bærum. That came in the 13th minute, when Fritzøe Östman flicked in a header from a tight angle after Vedvik had intercepted a wasteful throw from home right-back Mathusan Sandrakumar.
Bærum started hogging possession thereafter as we struggled to take firm control of proceedings. They left us even more frustrating on the stroke of half-time, when their defensive midfielder Jan Christian Aubert scored direct from a free-kick. Skjærstein made only a tame attempt to keep it out on his return after sitting out the previous three games.
As for the second half… less said about that, the better. Fritzøe Östman fired a left-wing Joakim Rishovd cross against the woodwork in the 53rd minute, spurning a great chance to restore our lead. We wouldn’t get another as the match petered out into a stalemate.
TRANSFER WINDOW
The mid-season break gave us time to recharge our batteries and make changes to the squad in the summer transfer window. Because of our perilous financial situation, I was more interested in moving existing players on than bringing new ones in.
Defensive midfielder Emil Borkø was surplus to requirements, so I decided to let him leave on a free transfer to free up some of his wages. He signed for English League Two side Macclesfield, who now have SIX Norwegians in their squad. [A Norwegian influx in England? What year is this, 1996?]
I also tried to find new clubs for Bakken (who’d been useless up front all season) and Fasting (who’d asked to leave over limited first-team opportunities). Sadly, there was no interest in those two, so they would likely have to wait until next year before moving on.
LYN 1896 vs ALTA (2. divisjon, Avdeling 1 – Match 15)
Our first match after the break was at home to Øyvind Leonhardsen’s league leaders. Alta had much the better of proceedings, and we were quite lucky to escape with a point in the end.
The first half was all about Alta’s Braaten twins. Centre-half Thomas [whose moustache is almost as impressive as Freddie Mercury’s] went for goal direct from a 27th-minute free-kick but saw it saved by Skjærstein. His frontman brother Vegard [who looks more like a younger, short-haired Brian May] had better luck ten minutes later, volleying in a cross from right-back Runar Overvik to put us 1-0 down.
If the result had stayed as was, we would have fallen seven points behind our opponents. They could have put that result beyond all doubt in the 68th minute, when starlet Marco Mauno Johannessen volleyed home from close range. It was just as well that the offside flag went up when Christian Reginiussen flicked the ball towards his 18-year-old midfield colleague.
We then pushed for a late leveller, eventually breaking through just two minutes from full-time. Trøen celebrated his return from injury with a point-blank finish from Hansen’s centre. Admittedly, it took a deflection off goalkeeper Dani Mederos before going in, but I wasn’t complaining.
RAUFOSS vs LYN 1896 (2. divisjon, Avdeling 1 – Match 16)
I was complaining after this painful defeat to lowly Raufoss ended our five-match unbeaten run. For a team with such a great scoring record on paper, we sure are wasteful with our chances! Discipline also seemed to be an issue here, having conceded 22 fouls.
In contrast, Raufoss stayed calm and took an opportunity when it arose late in the first half. A clever passing move ended with striker Anton Henningsson back-heeling the ball to attacking midfielder Matias Belli Moldskred, who beat Skjærstein from the edge of our ‘D’.
To be fair to Skjærstein, he later made some strong saves to keep Raufoss’ lead down to 1-0. Lübeck also performed admirably with some vital interceptions, but the rest of the team let me down badly. This was not the performance of promotion contenders.
To make matters worse, Alta were now seven points ahead of us at the top, though with 10 matches to play. We could not afford too many mistakes in the final third of the season if we were to challenge them and Fram for automatic promotion. We certainly couldn’t afford to lose a valuable asset either…
DEADLINE DAY DISASTER
[Groan] So THIS happened. Five Eliteserien clubs came in for Fritzøe Östman on transfer deadline day, all offering €11,250 – and no sell-on clauses. Our chairman Marius Solbakken went over my head and accepted all of them without even bothering to negotiate!
I was left powerless as, a few hours later, Tor accepted Rosenborg’s offer and signed for the country’s biggest club. The chairman had sold one of Lyn’s best youngsters for chicken feed, and if he does go on to make a big-money move a few years down the line, we won’t reap the benefits.
Then Marius had the cheek to say this! If you felt a sell-on clause should have been included, why didn’t you jævla negotiate before accepting the jævla offer?!
Thank goodness that there are elections for a new club chairman in September. We could do with having someone running the club who’s at least half-competent! (Please don’t tell Marius I said that! Please.)
And guess what happened to our other hot prospect Melfjord a few days later? Don’t worry; the chairman didn’t sell him to Rosenborg as well! What happened was that Svein sprained his knee ligaments in training, putting him out until October. ARGHHH!
This calmed me down a bit. We boosted our central defensive options by signing 6ft 5in Benjamin Zalo on loan from Allsvenskan side IFK Göteborg [I’m sure there’s a nickname in there somewhere]. The 21-year-old was signed from his local club Ørn Horten three years ago but has struggled to make an impact in Sweden, so perhaps a return to Norway will do him good.
Meanwhile, I dropped three players to the reserve team. Centre-back Benjamin Nyheim and winger Johannes Johannessen have played hardly any first-team football of late and would be released at the end of the season.
Meanwhile, my relationship with wing-back Fasting had broken down completely. I’d promised to find Martin another club, but absolutely nobody was interested in him. Even so, he now felt he could no longer trust me, so he too will spend the rest of this season in Lyn 2.
I think we’ll call it there for now. We’ll be back later in the week for the concluding part of this first season. Can Lyn make it back-to-back promotions, or will this just be a season of consolidation for Marit and her men?
“Takk for lesing!”
Fuller FM 
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