We’re now well into the 12th season of my Football Manager 2024 adventure with Nacka FC in Sweden.
Last time out, our incredible run in the Conference League finally came to an end. (Bloody Craiova.) We have soared up the UEFA coefficients to become the most-improved team in Europe… but if we want to get back into European competition, we need a strong finish to the 2035 Allsvenskan season.
Today’s chapter will also see us play our final match at the Fisksätra stadium, ahead of moving into a brand-new ground next year. But first… we must say goodbye to a true Nacka hero.
INS AND OUTS
After nearly five years at the Fisksätra, right-back César Gamarra‘s time with us has come to an end. Having lost his place following a sharp decline in form, we decided to sell César to Ligue 2 side Pau for £600,000 – the highest transfer fee we had ever received.
Giorgi Lobzhanidze was also given the opportunity to leave, but the Georgian playmaker rejected a £100,000 move to Falkenberg and decided to fight for his place here. Instead, utility man Noah Lahmadi moved on to IFK Värnamo for £37,000. Teenage right-back Rudy Priego also dropped to the Superettan, as he joined Häcken on loan to gain some more first-team experience.
But, most importantly, we did not lose Mohammad Rasoulzadeh. Our right-wing superstar had torn his calf muscle in May, which was enough to deter any bigger clubs from signing him. We were even happy to sit down with Raz and discuss a new contract…
…until his agent insisted on a £2.4million release clause. Go do one, mate.
Meanwhile, we made three major signings over the summer, including a couple of 18-year-old African prospects born only a few days apart. The first of them was that Senegalese frontman I was crowing about last time – Tahirou Dioussé. He’s got the pace, skill and off-the-ball intelligence to lead the line for many years – whether it’s as a deep-lying forward or more likely as an inside-forward.
I’m also looking forward to developing Ulrich Nkolo – a Cameroonian attacking midfielder with some precocious playmaking skills. Standing at just 5ft 5in, he has the potential to be a little magician.
And on deadline day, I finally brought in a new left-back – signing the 30-year-old DR Congo international Vimoj Muntu Wa Mungu from Helsingborg for £150,000. Emílio Chamboco has had issues with consistency, and Hassan Msengi is much more comfortable as a right-back, so I needed an older and steadier presence on the left-hand side.
READY TO CHALLENGE?
Sitting in 4th place at the mid-season break, we returned to action with a shaky 1-1 draw at Elfsborg, who also had a last-minute winner ruled out for offside. But then Ahmed Fouad found form again and Dioussé hit the ground running as we won five consecutive matches – firing us up to 2nd position behind Djurgården!
Unfortunately, the wheels came off when IFK Göteborg used FM24’s corner exploit and leapfrogged us into 2nd. We were then VERY lucky not to lose to Djurgården after Chamboco got himself red-carded late in the first half, with Fouad needing to score late on to preserve our unbeaten home record.
A week later, we went to IFK Norrköping, where Rasoulzadeh made his first competitive start for over three months. Raz scored a magnificent goal to give us the lead in the 3rd minute…
…and then he pulled his groin in the 6th minute. That’s three more weeks on the treatment table. [Groan]
Noel Sergel doubled our lead to 2-0 on the stroke of half-time, and that should have been us home and dry… but ohhhhh no. We lost 3-2.
Great job, fellas. Treat yourselves to some complimentary Fuller FM-branded water bottles.
As if that wasn’t infuriating enough, we almost knocked ourselves out of the Svenska Cupen! A second-string team went 1-0 behind at home to Ängelholm from Division 2 – that’s the FOURTH tier, may I remind you! – and we only managed to turn it around with an injury-time Sergel penalty. I swear this team is trying to kill me.
September started more brightly, as we cruised past AFC Eskilstuna before Bar Benitah‘s brace completed an impressive league double over Malmö. But then we undid that good work with back-to-back losses against Hammarby (our first home league defeat this year) and Örgryte.
With five games remaining, we were still in the top four – one point adrift of 3rd-placed Halmstad, and six ahead of a Malmö side who would be ready to pounce on any more slip-ups. Djurgården were surely going to regain the title, while Göteborg were looking good for 2nd.
Just to remind you, only the top THREE teams would be guaranteed continental football next season. 4th place might be enough, depending on who wins the Cupen. This was a massive opportunity to get ourselves straight back into Europe, and we couldn’t afford to let it slip away.
FAREWELL TO THE FISKSÄTRA
After a shaky start at home to AIK, we fought back to win 2-1 and push our Stockholm neighbours closer to relegation. That result also leapfrogged us into 3rd place ahead of Halmstad, where Fouad fired us to another victory – pulling us five points clear of the former champions with three games to play!
Another victory over Elfsborg would have effectively sealed a top-three finish, so imagine my horror when we blew ANOTHER 2-0 lead – conceding in the 87th and 92nd minutes. At least Sergel and Benitah got the job a week later by smashing Helsingborg in our final away game.
So we were now guaranteed 3rd place and another crack at the Conference League qualifiers. But incredibly, we still had a chance of leapfrogging IFK Göteborg on the final day and finishing in 2nd place! The Allsvenskan runners-up would be in line to qualify for the Europa League… but only if champions Djurgården won the Cupen in the new year.
All we had to do to finish 2nd was to get a better result on the final day than Göteborg. ‘Blåvitt’ were at home to Elfsborg…
…while we hosted a Kalmar team who were still fighting for survival. Emotions would run high in our last ever match at the Fisksätra stadium – the tiny but wholesome ground we had called home for over a decade.
The stage was set for a fairytale finale. You could probably guess where this is going… and sure enough, after 23 minutes…
Bloody hell. What are you playing at, Patricio Cisternas? You’ve been our most solid central defender all year, and then you go and do THAT?! [And in the ultimate case of irony, Kalmar’s goalscorer Gideon Granström was born in Nacka.]
Ah, never mind. At least we’ve got plenty of time and plenty of chances to turn this around…
AW, FOR GAWD’S SAKE! What a time to forget our shooting boots… and our passing boots… and indeed ANY football foots!
And guess what? Göteborg also lost 1-0 at home on the final day. If we had scored just one of our 13 shots against Kalmar, we would have finished runners-up and taken the large silver medals – but instead, we must settle for the small silver.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m still delighted that we came 3rd. It’s our best ever Allsvenskan finish, and it’s confirmation that we’re well and truly among the big boys now. But man, it could have been so much better…
SEASON REVIEW
Despite finishing 3rd in the Allsvenskan, only two of our players recorded an average rating above 7.00. One of them was Rasoulzadeh, who despite missing much of the season through injury still reached double figures for goal contributions.
Our next-best performer was – of all people – our backup inside-forward Bar Benitah, who scored 8 goals in 18 Allsvenskan matches. The 24-year-old Israeli even had the 5th-highest average rating in the entire league (7.18). I guess he might be worth keeping around after all!
Cisternas’ final-day mistake against Kalmar meant he unfortunately fell just short of the 7.00 rating threshold – and so did Fouad, who had his best Allsvenskan campaign to date with 12 goals from 24 matches. He has also broken all of Albin Rickborg’s goalscoring records for Nacka FC.
It was also a productive year for his Egyptian compatriot Hazem Reda, who finally found his calling as a Deep Lying Playmaker. Though he doesn’t get many assists, his direct and penetrative passes helped us create more scoring chances in the second half of the season. Reda also made it into the Allsvenskan Team of the Year… or at least he was named on the bench.
Our more fluid and direct counter-attacking style is helping us get better results – both at home and indeed on the road. We’re one of the better teams at getting shots on target AND converting them into goals, although the Kalmar fiasco suggests we can still do improve when it comes to breaking down stubborn defences.
But while things look good on the attacking side of things, our defence has been a bit leakier… and an ongoing issue has reared its ugly head again. After an encouraging first season at Nacka, our veteran goalkeeper Daniel Strindholm finally showed exactly why his coach report reads “Dreads big matches”. Dan saved only 63% of the shots he faced, and he was especially hopeless whenever we were playing against a top club like Djurgården or Malmö.
We ended the season with Elton Fischerström Opančar back in goal, but he’s clearly not got the reflexes to be a top Allsvenskan goalkeeper. So, once again, I’m on the lookout for a new keeper. 19-year-old Vladimir Lazarevski has been showing remarkable improvements while on loan at Öster in the Superettan… but is it too early to throw him in at the deep end?
My other priorities in terms of winter transfers will be in midfield – specifically finding a more robust anchor man, and a high-end midfield runner. As brilliant as Daniel Ulvestaf has been since we entered the Allsvenskan, there have been a few hints that our 29-year-old captain is slowing down and becoming a little less reliable in possession.
Other major signings will be subject to major sales. I believe we could realistically get around £4-5million each for Rasoulzadeh and Cisternas, which would give us more scope to improve the squad and sign even more hot prospects.
It would also go some way towards paying off the new stadium. I hear that construction is definitely going incredibly well and that our new ground will absolutely be finished in time for the start of 2036.
I’ll be honest with you. This season was a bit of a slog, and there have been times where I thought about whether to call it quits. But now that we’re back in Europe, I’ve decided to stick around for a bit longer and see if I can build a title-winning team.
So join me again next week for the start of Season 13, when Nacka FC begin life in their new stadium… and make their first push for Allsvenskan glory.
Fuller FM 