Welcome back to “Nacka’s Yard” – the Football Manager 2024 blog series that refuses to die. If you’re one of the five people who’s still reading after all this time, thank you very much for sticking around.
In case you haven’t read the last chapter yet, Nacka FC have just celebrated their first major trophy – lifting the 2034 Svenska Cupen. That means we’re about to embark on another European campaign, and hopefully qualify for the Europa League.
BUT FIRST…
The 2034 World Cup has just taken place. For once, FIFA decided not to stage the tournament in a nation run by a human-rights-abusing tyrant, with everyone instead descending on Japan for the summer.
England were aiming to lift the World Cup for an unprecedented third time in a row. Unfortunately, England boss Unai Emery could not emulate his triumphant predecessors Sir Nuno Espírito Santo (2026) and Sir Peter Bosz (2030), as the Three Lions were defeated 3-1 by his native Spain in the Quarter Finals.
Mohammad Alipour and Mohammad Rasoulzadeh were the only Nacka players at the tournament, but despite their best efforts, Iran finished bottom of their group after heavy defeats to South Africa, Sweden and Portugal. Indeed, Sweden went on an incredible run – knocking out hosts Japan in the Quarter Finals, and then stunning favourites France to reach the World Cup Final…
…where they were just minutes away from winning it all! Unfortunately, Jonah Kusi-Asare’s early strike was finally cancelled out in the 89th minute by Argentina, who went on to prevail 3-1 in extra-time. As the Argentine players did unspeakable things to the World Cup trophy, the beaten Swedes returned home as national heroes.
Okay, back to the story…
WHOA-OH-OH-OHH-OHHHH!
After our own heroics at the Svenska Cupen Final in May, Nacka FC would enter the 2034/2035 Europa League at the Third Qualifying Round. That meant we would have two chances to book a place in the League Stage of a major UEFA competition for the first time.
Just like when we made our European debut last year, we would kick off our continental campaign against Greek opposition. I was expecting PAOK Salonika and their homegrown wonderkid striker – who has the typically Hellenic name of Leigh Maher – to give us a much stiffer than AEK Athens had 13 months ago.
And so it proved. Although we took the lead twice in Thessaloniki, our defence let us down when we needed them most. Two goals from Maher helped PAOK take a 3-2 lead into the second leg in Sweden…
…where we tore them apart with our clinical, fast-paced counter-attacks. A 4-0 win on the night made it a 7-2 win on aggregate, and we were now guaranteed Conference League qualification at the very least!
If we were to get into the Europa League, though, we would need to win a Playoff. Our opponents would be Galatasaray, who’d been managed for the past decade by Okan Buruk. I hear he’s good mates with José Mourinho.
We were absolutely brilliant in the home leg, suffocating Gala’s midfield to take a commanding 4-0 lead! Nacka were surely going to qualify for the Europa League proper… unless we suffered a monumental meltdown in İstanbul.
Welcome to Hell indeed.
Gala went all-out attack, lining up in a 4-2-4 formation that overwhelmed our defence and obliterated our first-leg advantage. They even took the lead in extra-time through Fábio Vieira (yes, the ex-Arsenal guy). Ahmed Fouad found enough energy to level the scores and take us to penalties, but the damage was done.
When Galatasaray’s goalkeeper saved Allen Smajić‘s and Rasoulzadeh’s penalties in the shoot-out, our misery – and the Turks’ comeback – was complete.
I had NEVER blown a four-goal aggregate lead in a two-legged tie on Football Manager before. Gung-ho Gala had taken me by surprise, and to be honest, I did not have a Plan B to counter them with. But while it did hurt to miss out on the Europa League, we did at least have the Conference League to fall back on.
With an extra £2.5million in the bank, we discovered which six teams we would face in the Conference League. While we did have some very tough matches in the first half of the League Phase (especially away to Rangers and Nordsjælland), we could look forward to winnable home games against Zrinjski and Craiova later on.
Finishing in the top 24 was certainly achievable, but could we pull it off and reach the knockout rounds? You’ll find out a bit later…
SO LONG… AND THANKS FOR THE PASSPORT
After five-and-a-half years at Nacka, we bade farewell to centre-back Alexis Fonteneau. The Frenchman stayed just long enough to get his Swedish citizenship… and then crossed the Norwegian border to play for Sogndal. Alexis was now 25 and would probably never gain enough composure to be a reliable starter in the Allsvenskan, so I was happy to cash in for £200,000.
I was far more reluctant to sell our most valuable assets. Centre-back Patricio Cisternas requested a transfer when I refused to let him go to Porto, but he gave up on that dream very quickly. Rasoulzadeh also got a bit annoyed when I turned down offers from West Ham and Bayer Leverkusen – with Bayer’s final offer amounting to almost £3million.
Meanwhile, Monaco were very keen on Fouad. They made FOUR offers on deadline day – topping out at £2.2million – but that was still far too low for an inside-forward of his calibre. Luckily, Ahmed didn’t seem to mind.
We acquired a couple of 18-year-old wing-backs over the summer, both with a fair amount of potential. The brave and energetic left-back Moses Selemani was a free transfer from Zimbabwe. Meanwhile, the ambitious and skilful Guatemalan Rudy Priego cost us just £20,000 – becoming the latest Latin American to embrace the naturally warm climate of suburban Stockholm.
I also promoted Leonel Grine – one of our young winter signings – to the senior squad. Having banged in plenty of goals for our Under-19s squad, the Mozambique international was now ready to get some first-team minutes off the bench. Perhaps Leo will be the next Nasser Mutambe?
TIGHT AT THE TOP
We didn’t need to worry about Europe until August, so we eased ourselves back into the league with four straight wins in July. Mind you, we did need a last-minute corner goal from Cisternas to see off lowly Helsingborg.
Injury-time drama was also on the table when Hammarby came to town. We were staring down the barrel of a rare home defeat when Yaw Boateng – a promising 16-year-old right-winger from last year’s youth intake – unleashed a last-gasp shot that deflected in off a defender and salvaged a point. At least we managed to take all three points in our next derby versus AIK.
But… er… please don’t ask about the AFC Eskilstuna game. Just don’t. The defence turned up about an hour late for that one.
With about a third of the Allsvenskan season still to play, we found ourselves just inside the top five… and, unbelievably, in with a real shout for the title! The top half was so congested that eight teams could still dream of taking Halmstad’s crown.
But, of course, we were now fighting on two fronts. Could we sustain a title challenge while trying to compete in the Conference League?
[Insert deflating balloon sound effect]
As soon as September began, we suddenly forgot how to keep our shots on target. Amid four scrappy low-scoring draws, we also made heavy weather of a dreadful Västerås team who were destined for an immediate return to the Superettan. Cisternas opened the scoring early in the second half with this free-kick.
(If you’re wondering, Cisternas has 7 Free Kick Taking and 9 Long Shots. But he also has 14 Technique, so I guess that’s fair enough.)
Despite all that, we began our defence of the Svenska Cupen with a 7-1 demolition of Division 2 side IFK Östersund – the same team that we beat at this stage last year. Bar Benitah scored FIVE goals.
And then, to misquote the Norwegian singer Girl In Red, we fell apart in October. Anchor man Sigge Jansson thought he had scored a late winner at Örgryte, only for our defence to lose focus and concede an even later equaliser.
In our next two matches, we had 18 shots at goals, but only got three on target – and none of them IN the target. After Malmö punished our forwards’ profligacy at home, the bottom fell out of our defence at Elfsborg. Incredibly, we turned things around by beating Degerfors and Kalmar, which meant that one more win at Brommapojkarna would see us sneak back into 5th place on the final day…
…aaaaand we blew it. 0-0 draw. We couldn’t create anything, even if we had Neil Buchanan in midfield.
After an intense title race, it was Hammarby who ultimately pulled clear and won their first Allsvenskan since 2001. There have now been four different champions in the last four years.
But yeah… I’m frustrated. One more point would have got us into 5th place. Too many sloppy draws – especially away from home – have cost us this season.
So we’re now in exactly the same position as 12 months ago, whereby we need to win the Svenska Cupen to qualify for Europe next season. Either that, or we somehow channel the spirit of David Moyes and WIN the Conference League. Speaking of which…
WHOA-OH-OH-OHH-OHHHH! (PART 2)
…we will still be in Europe in the new year!
Our first league match in the Conference League could not have gone any better. We had rented AIK’s Friends Arena for our home matches – and it was not a friendly venue at all for our Belgian visitors Kortrijk, who had a player sent off before we raced to a comfortable 3-0 win!
After a bruising away defeat at Ibrox, we showed much greater resilience in Denmark. Noel Sergel was the hat-trick hero against FC Nordsjælland, who also fell apart following a red card.
Once the Allsvenskan season had ended, we could turn all our focus towards Europe. We saw off Zrinjski to effectively seal our place in the knockout rounds, but followed that up with a dismal home defeat to bloody Craiova. Although we blew a 2-0 lead in our final match in Hungary, a great strike from left-back Emílio Chamboco eventually sealed an important victory over Újpest.
After winning four of our six matches, we finished 12th in the league phase – just one point off the top eight. I’m a little annoyed that we wasted a great chance to go straight into the Round of 16… but for a team with so little European experience, this has still been a great effort.
The Conference League resumes in February, when we will face a two-legged Playoff against one of the teams that finished between 17th and 24th.
We won’t discover our opponents until the new year. Knowing my luck, we’ll probably have to play bloody Craiova again!
SEASON REVIEW
Despite winning the Svenska Cupen and reaching the Conference League knockout rounds, this has been a frustrating campaign on the Allsvenskan front.
Defensively, we have been much better than last year – only the top two teams conceded fewer goals than our 26. Some of that can be put down to having a more reliable goalkeeper in Daniel Strindholm, who was ever-present throughout our Allsvenskan campaign and kept 13 clean sheets. His 82% save rate in the league is more than acceptable as well.
On the flip side, we have become rather less potent. While we outscored our xG by five goals and had one of the best shots on target ratios in the game, we didn’t create as many decent scoring opportunities as I would’ve liked. Given the quality we have up front, I feel our issues lie mainly in midfield, where we have lacked penetration.
Despite that, Ahmed Fouad scored 20 goals this year – half of them in the league. Incredibly, this is the third season in a row that our Egyptian inside-forward has scored exactly 10 Allsvenskan goals. He has also equalled Albin Rickborg’s club record of 61 competitive goals, with his partner-in-crime Sergel not far behind them on 55.
However, it was the third member of our frontline who took most of the plaudits this season. With 7 goals and 13 assists to his name, Rasoulzadeh was voted as both the Nacka Fans’ Player of the Year AND the Allsvenskan Young Player of the Year for 2034.
Raz really does have everything you need in a creative winger – pace, agility, flair, dribbling skill, and a fair amount of crossing ability. Although his form dipped when West Ham turned his head in August, the 20-year-old is now firmly established as our key player. I would obviously love to keep him for a bit longer, but with Monaco also taking a keen interest, that may be easier said than done.
Our other standout performer was Patricio Cisternas, whose growing centre-back partnership with Alipour was another factor behind our meaner defensive record. Cisternas narrowly missed out on the Young Player of the Year award, but he did win the Allsvenskan’s Rookie of the Year and Goal of the Year (for that Västerås free-kick) – and he also made his international debut for Chile in November.
In terms of our new signings, Jansson was an unsung hero – and a far more reliable defensive anchor than Stian Røren, who has developed an unhealthy habit for dribbling. However, our loanees were far less impressive. Ivan Balaban hardly created anything from left-back, while forward Abdoulaye Guillaume was incredibly erratic. I won’t be signing either of them permanently.
For this winter, I will look to improve our creative output with a couple of new wing-backs and a midfield playmaker. And although Sergel has enjoyed his best season in the top flight, I feel like we need another strong centre-forward who can take us to the next level.
Money certainly won’t be too much of a problem. We now have over £6.5million in the bank – and that has allowed the board to give me a wage budget of £55,000 per week and a transfer budget of £2.5million!
After three seasons in the Allsvenskan and two European campaigns, Nacka FC’s financial future is secure. Now all we need is a big, shiny new stadium…
Join me again in a fortnight’s time, when our Conference League campaign resumes with the knockout rounds. We will also kick off our 12th – yes, TWELFTH – season at Nacka FC.
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