It’s time to pay another visit to Nacka’s Yard, as our rise up the Swedish footballing pyramid continues.

We were crowned champions of Division 2 Södra Svealand last season, but now we face some much stiffer tests in the Ettan Norra. Surely we can’t get ourselves promoted again… right?

This will be quite a long post, because there is so much to talk about as we head into the 2026 season. I hope you’re sitting comfortably!

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NEW YEAR, NEW LEAGUE!

Just 11 years after their formation, and two years after I took over as manager, Nacka FC are now in the third tier of Swedish football – the Ettan Norra! This little club from the outskirts of Stockholm is only one more promotion away from the professional leagues!

With around £500,000 in the bank, I thought it was time to invest in facilities and anything that could push us to that next level. However, our stingy chairman had other ideas.

• Improve the training facilities? “We can’t afford them.”
• Increase funding for junior coaching or youth recruitment? “We don’t need to.”
• Look for a senior affiliate in the Allsvenskan or Superettan? “We can’t find one.”

At least Mr Gilstring gave me a HUGE increase to my wage budget… and more transfer funds than a Swedish third-division club could possibly need.

Firstly, I binned off a few players who were not ready to step up to the Ettan. I was particularly reluctant to let Albin Andersson go, but the hard-working midfielder had not made much impact in our title-winning season. Young forward Ilias Alaoui wouldn’t play much for us this year, so he was loaned out to Division 2 side Laholm.

Though we had an excellent defensive record, I still brought in two new centre-backs. On the left, we have Pontus Johansson – an experienced and well-rounded defender. Hopefully his physicals won’t fall off a cliff the moment he celebrates his 32nd birthday.

On the right, we have a promising 20-year-old stopper from AIK named Victor Tjeder. He’s a determined and strong leader who has immediately taken on the vice-captaincy, but he will actually skipper us in most of our matches. Captain Marcus Eriksson is still here, albeit only on a non-contract basis, and he’ll now settle for a backup role.

We’ve bolstered our midfield by signing energetic ball-winner Dino Salcinović, but I’m more intrigued by Aberdeen-born Finlay Neat. The attack-minded youngster was wanted by 36 (yes, THIRTY-SIX!) clubs after being released by Malmö FF, but we swooped in at just the right time and got ourselves a real talent.

Teddy Bermudez is a pacey attacker who can play on the left wing or up front. Fellow wideman Michael Nakash‘s dribbling and technical skills perhaps make him the better prospect long-term, but he will miss the start of the season with an ankle injury.

I’d be remiss not to mention our other two signings. Liam Tahwildaran has pace to burn, can play at left-back or right-back, and also holds THREE passports (Sweden, Iran and Chile). Danish-Bosnian Amel Smajic has a resilient personality and could develop into a fine attacking midfielder if he can build up his physicals.

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SQUAD REPORT

You should still be largely familiar with the squad by now. I’ve retained most of our Division 2 champions, hoping that they can keep up the momentum.

Christos Ronaldo Liantas (aka CL7) overcame a shaky start to become a reliable goalkeeper, though his pre-season form has given me cause for concern. I’m also worried that more reputable clubs might try to unsettle our brilliant young left-back Elias Ziani again. Unfortunately, right-back Anton Pärleholt‘s head has already been turned, so he might need to be replaced sooner or later.

At least Tim Hauzenberger is firmly settled at Nacka. Changing Tim from a Mezzala to an attacking Central Midfielder has produced some brilliant results in pre-season, so I’m hopeful our midfield talisman can be even more productive this term.

If we are to consolidate our Ettan status, though, we’ll need our star attackers to step up again. Two-time Nacka Player of the Year winner Yusupha Jammeh needs to show he’s not just a speed merchant. Meanwhile, three-time Stockholm Beard of the Year winner Albin Rickborg has brushed up on his finishing in training.

As I’ve mentioned big tactical change I’ve made to the 4-3-3 is in midfield. Moving Hauzenberger to the right side of central midfield also allows the left-footed Neat to play on the left – either as a box-to-box midfielder or a more defensive carrilero.

I’ve got two versions of the 4-3-3 set up – a high-pressing version for home games, and a more cautious counter-attacking approach for when we’re on the road. We’re also training a 4-4-2, because… well, it’s lower league football, and you never know when you need to go route-one.

We’re now in a 16-team league, which means four more matches this season. Only the Ettan Norra champions are automatically promoted, with the runners-up facing a Superettan club in a two-legged play-off. The teams in 14th to 16th are automatically relegated to Division 2, while 13th will go into a relegation play-off with the equivalent team in the Ettan Södra.

Anyway, don’t expect us to race to another promotion. The season preview has us in a respectable 11th place, and the board would happily take a lower mid-table finish. Frankly, I’d be happy with a simple season of consolidation too.

I was hoping we would enter the Svenska Cupen for the first time this summer, but… erm, no, I misread the rules. It turns out only teams from the Allsvenskan and Superettan get automatic entry to the Cupen. Ettan clubs are still subject to the luck of the draw, and we were one of only two Norra teams NOT to be selected. Maybe next year, lads.

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FIRST HALF

We faced a daunting start – an away game against Umeå, who were second-favourites to win promotion. I was bracing myself for a baptism of fire… and then, in the 15th minute, Umeå did this.

Oh my, Umeå! What a calamity!

It didn’t get any better for their goalkeeper, who conceded three more goals – to debutant Johansson, and wingers Kingsley Chibuike Okafor and Bilal Mohammed – and finished on a 5.1 match rating! To be fair, CL7 also made a couple of early errors, and so we started the campaign with a breathless 4-2 away win!

We then went on an early rampage – winning four of our first five games, and scoring at least three goals in each of them! The only blip was at Sleipner, who inflicted our first away defeat in 18 months. Whatever.

At this point, we were converting over 20% of our shots into goals, and were outscoring our xG by at least SIX goals. As clinical as we were, I thought this was just beginner’s luck. I believed the other Ettan teams weren’t taking us seriously yet, and were leaving our fast attackers far too much space.

And, er, I was right. We lost three of our next four matches by 2-1 scoring, despite having the higher xG in all of them. It didn’t help that Rickborg had forgotten how to score… but for once, our attack wasn’t the problem.

We didn’t concede many shots, but when we did, we often conceded cheap goals. Hence we were nine games into the season and had no clean sheets.

It would be too easy to blame Liantas or our other keeper Kevin Blennestrand. Johansson and especially Tjeder had both struggled at centre-back but were determined to improve. Instead, I pointed the finger of blame at the player ahead of them.

Success Nwosu had failed in the Ettan. The 31-year-old defensive midfielder was on an average rating of 6.6; he was making too many mistakes and being caught out of position too often. His conceding the match-losing penalty at AFC Eskilstuna was the last straw.

So let’s meet our new midfield anchor. Professional egghead Stefan Lindmark is tough, energetic, and loves to wind people up. He’s only one month younger than Nwosu, but he has A LOT more experience at this level (mostly with Umeå).

At first, it felt like putting some plasters over a broken leg. We squandered a 2-0 lead at home to Hammarby TFF (the feeder club of top-flight Hammarby) before Rickborg came off the bench to bang in the winner. And then we inexplicably won four more games on the bounce without conceding – including a 6-0 demolition of Nyköping!

That incredible run lifted us from 5th place to 1st, and so we entered another summer break sitting pretty in top spot! Could we defy the odds and win back-to-back promotions… or would Football Manager’s famous second-half slump bring us back down to earth?

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SECOND HALF

I’ve made a mistake. Back in February, Pärleholt got angry when I rejected an offer from a bigger club, and I had to promise to sell him. My mistake was that I made this promise when Anton was in the final year of his contract.

Of course, Pärleholt was free to sign a pre-contract with another club within six months of expiry – and because he was still waiting on a promise, I couldn’t offer him a new deal. I was even more annoyed when he chose to sign for BK Forward – a Division 2 club! So I decided to save some money and sell him now for £1,500.

Ziani would also be leaving us… but not just yet. I knew we couldn’t realistically keep hold of Elias forever, so when Superettan high-flyers Täby made their move late in the transfer window, I negotiated them up to a cool £12,500. I also ensured that we got a 25% sell-on clause – and, most importantly, got Ziani back on loan for the rest of the season.

I also released Pärleholt’s backup Adam Ohlander (he’s just not good enough) and signed two more right-backs. Amr Belhaj isn’t yet as defensively robust as his predecessor, but he has great crossing ability and plenty of potential to grow. Zack Lindgren is a bit older and stronger, and he joins us on loan from… Täby.

Nakash, Smajic and defensive utility man Ronny Karlsson both went out on loan to get more first-team football. I also recalled Alaoui from his loan and brought him back into the squad.

At first, it was looking like a classic case of ‘second-half syndrome’. We returned from the summer with three uninspiring goalless draw, and a shocking collapse at home to bottom-half Stocksund. Leading 3-1 with 14 minutes to go, we then conceded three of the cheapest goals imaginable, lost 4-3, and handed top spot back to Umeå.

But then midfielders Neat and Hauzenberger exploded, getting assists and goals aplenty. Jammeh also returned to form – albeit very briefly – as we won our next four games, then drew our next three.

A dramatic late victory over play-off rivals IF Karlstad kicked off another winning run, in which we put Nyköping and Örebro Syrianska out of their relegation misery. Though we were still leaking goals from relatively few chances, we were scoring often enough to put ourselves back on top – with just two matches to play.

One more point from our remaining away trips would secure a play-off at worst… but if we could win them both, we would be automatically promoted as champions. Could we hold our nerve?

Next up were Brage, who had to win to keep their play-off dream alive. They absolutely battered us and went 2-0 up early in the second half… and then we took the game right back to them. Rickborg halved the deficit before a 95th-minute equaliser from Ziani got us the point we needed to secure 2nd place!

Unfortunately, Umeå won their penultimate game and now led by two points. Ironically, their final game was at Brage, where they had the chance to secure the championship with another win.

And they blew it.

24 hours later, it was OUR opportunity to snatch the title. We knew that if we could win at 11th-placed Stocksund, our first season in the Ettan Norra would end with back-to-back promotions…

We had wet the bed. SPECTACULARLY.

CL7 let in a lame long-ranger that even I could’ve saved, before a Johansson own goal put us 2-0 down. Throw in some awful finishing at the other end, and we had saved our WORST performance of the season for the biggest game.

At the start of this season, I would have been delighted to finish runners-up. Instead, I was disgusted that we had basically gifted the title to Umeå, which meant we would have to play two more matches for another shot at promotion.

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PROMOTION PLAY-OFF

Our play-off opponents were Öster, who finished 13th in the Superettan after battling relegation all season long. If we could defeat them over two legs, we would take their place in the second tier.

Though Öster were fully professional, and had a couple of midfielders who each earned more wages per week than our ENTIRE squad, they were not in good form. By contrast, we were still in high spirits – despite choking at Stocksund – and I remained optimistic about our chances.

And then the first leg – in front of a 1,000 capacity croud at Fisksätra – ended in a boring 0-0 draw. Rickborg had forgotten how to score… or even how to stay onside.

We needed to somehow get a result at Öster to keep our promotion dream alive. Unfortunately, our defence caved in again, and Öster had raced into a 2-0 lead by half-time. It was time for a desperate change of plan.

“Mina damer och herrar, Nacka kommer att spela 4-4-jävla-2.”

Chibuike Okafor made a quick impact off the bench, setting up Rickborg to pull a goal back in the 56th minute. Though Öster soon went 3-1 up, we never lost hope, and another Chibuike Okafor assist (for midfielder Ismael Lindqvist) got us back to 3-2.

Then, with just two minutes remaining, Elias Ziani provided the visiting Nacka fans with one last moment of brilliance.

I’m going to miss you so much, Elias.

I was now getting ready for extra-time or possibly even penalties… but everyone around me was celebrating as if we had won promotion. I had forgotten that Sweden is one of the few countries that still uses the away goals rule.

After an unbelievable climax to an incredible season, Nacka had won back-to-back promotions – and we were now in the Superettan!!

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SEASON REVIEW

[Note: Ziani’s statistics are broken because he technically left us and then rejoined us on loan. Just another classic FM bug.]

What can I say? Our achievements this year have frankly been beyond my wildest dreams.

Despite being in a higher division, we had once again achieved the statistical ‘holy trinity’ of having the highest xG, the lowest xGA and the most xPoints. I guess it shows that all you really need in lower-league football is a solid tactic – and a squad that is both physically and mentally strong.

My only concern is that we were a bit too leaky at the back. We definitely can’t afford to give up too many clear-cut opportunities next year, otherwise our stay in the Superettan will be very short!

Liantas was largely blameless for our defensive frailties – indeed, he was voted the BEST goalkeeper in the Ettan Norra! Joining him in the league’s best XI were midfield dynamo Hauzenberger (who got 19 goal contributions!) and play-off hero Ziani.

Hauzenberger had a strong case to win the Fans’ Player of the Year award, but he was edged out by his new midfield colleague. Neat was in very tidy form for most of the season, using his dribbling skills and his magical left foot to cause havoc to opposition defences.

Promotion to the Superettan means that we have now turned professional with immediate effect. Tim, Finlay and CL7 will definitely be going full-time with us, but I’m afraid some of our most loyal servants will be leaving. There will need to be a lot of changes over the winter if we’re going to have any chance of avoiding relegation.

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Phew! I’m going to need a long old rest after all that!

I’ll be back in the new year, as Nacka FC take their first steps into the Superettan. In the meantime, enjoy the holidays.