We were in the promotion race properly. Our form had been extremely good for a side tipped for relegation and we seemed like we would be able to maintain our level of performance. The big question was how would the teams around us perform?
In the end they did a little better although we did take it down to the last game of the season, or two if we're being fair. With two games to go we bottled it a little. In our penultimate game we bottled it and Brage, our promotion rivals, came back against Degefors to secure a win. That put them ahead of us. Going into our final game we could have still pinched 2nd but we needed to win and Brage needed to lose. We won in style but Brage finished things off and left us in 3rd place instead.
I was pretty upset by this. Which was daft considering 3rd meant we were in the promotion play offs. We would have to face whoever was in the relegation playoff place in the division above. There was a bit of a wait as the premiership had 3 games to go but eventually we found out who we would be playing - Varnamo.
1st Leg
We took the lead and then pretty much proceeded to hammer them. Nothing really came of it but a 1-0 result at home gave us the advantage and meant they didn't have any away goals.
2nd Leg
Boo. They took the lead early and held on to it. My team just couldn't get back into it. They were tired but they still didn't play as well as they should have done. One goal would have won the tie for us on away goals but it never came.
I shouted at the players in the post match comments and they all ended fired up. A nice response but a little too later. Top flight Swedish football would have to wait another season.
What now?
This season demonstrated we had a capable team and with some extra players and slight improvements I think we could finish higher still. 3rd place was also my highest finish in Sweden. With 'Tuna the best I'd managed was to scrape 9th. Potentially there are huge problems though,
First of all I'm not convinced I can keep our key players. Most of them only have a year left, other teams have been sniffing round pretty much every one of my first 11 and some like Wallgren and Alexandersson have had the dreaded 'ambition' talk. I had to actually turn down a £220k bid for Wallgren. If it came in again I don't think I could get away with turning it down.
Normally I wouldn't be too bothered. If they were unhappy and valuable I'd ship them off and replace them but I'm not convinced I could replace them properly. A quick search finds very few players either willing to come or cheap enough to come. We've punched above our weight in the league but financially were well behind the rest of the teams in the Elite and and the Premiership. Our rep, although improved, lags behind as well.
I think I need to see if I can extend a lot of contracts. If they accept they might get grumpy later on but at least I'll have the option of keeping unhappy but good players, or selling them on for more cash.
The next problem is I think we've lost the element of surprise. We'll be rated high next season and so teams will play differently from the off. My 3-2-2-2-1 tactic with counter attack style has worked well his season but I think it might be a little less effective next time round. I might be able to switch styles and make some tweaks but such changes normally take a little while to be effective.
The third and final problem is probably recruitment. I'll be losing a few players that have been cover this season. Mainly because I couldn't keep them happy and they were moaning, which led to complaints of poor squad harmony. But it's difficult to recruit players without promising them lots at the moment. My targets don't want to hear that they'll be squad rotation, they want to be important at least, which causes all sorts of problems. I'm thinking of just filling the gaps from the youth team for this coming season and leaving my hollow promises for a while. Maybe my rep will increase the season after and I'll be able to lie less to get players to join.
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