Jai Paul on tour

Better and better.

Great job, and nice signing in Ballack!

Superettan! Roughly translated as The Super One - alost better than "Elite".

On another topic (due to the The Smiths reference earlier), During the 90s, Skellefteå was one of the big indie pop citys in Sweden with bands like The Wannadies, This Perfect Day and my favorites A Shrine.

I'll have a listen to them mate; cheers, and yep, I was shocked by getting Ballack!

Professional status may be all good and well, but one of my players has just complained to me that he was taken off unfairly; in a match where he was the most tired fucking player. Controlling egos might be the biggest challenge yet...

Two injuries; best CM out for 5 months, best ST out for 4 months. FM.

I had a lovely save on FM14 with Torino, played about six seasons. Signed good ol' Gabigol for about £13m from Barcelona, he got a virus and was out for about nine months. Didn't even get a single league game out of him before he got the virus, good times.

Ah it's FM, I must have half the first team out for injury atm, and the form has dropped subsequently, we have enough about us to stay above the drop though.

We're halfway through the season, and distinctly average. We've conceded too much recently, but also started scoring and our top scorers are strikers, not centre backs, which is something new.

Concern is; 1 win in the last 7, which was away to 2nd place Orgryte, but we've been really poor, even discounting the injuries and suspensions.

The wage bill has quadrupled as we've made the step from semi-pro to pro; some of them haven't really stepped up yet, and some are more future signings, but striker Sandberg Magnusson has 6 goals and 7 assists in the league so far.

Our latest signing, this trophy-looking Ivorian is a bit of don for the shaky backline. Mind you, we've just conceded 5 on his debut.

Table looks like this at the mid-point.

Still think we need a good 15 points to secure survival, maybe more; and hopefully when our strikeforce is back, and Kone settles in, we'll improve and get a few more wins.

Well done on promotion mate! And maybe Ballack should come out of retirement and play for you

Cheers; unfortunately the finances are a bitch, and debt is catching up on us, so a mini fire-sale is required again in the winter.

Game is weird; played 28/30, had a streak of 8 games without a win just there, and it's ended by beating top of the league Orgryte. We've somehow done the double over the Champions, but found ourselves on the brink of relegation. Not anymore after that win though; the winless streak was caused by buying a shite Finnish striker on stupid wages and he's not scored in 7. Gimp.

We were a bit shite, in the second half of the season. Into the 3rd round of the cup with its obscure, but rewarding, pre-season group stage coming up in March. We got a couple of wins in July and August; and a vital couple near the end to ensure survival. We probably could have pushed on, but I didn't really care too much, I might have been a bit complacent with being mid-table all season.
Pfft, as long as they're happy:

Mind you, I've got a month left on my contract and they haven't approached me yet...


Final table; Orgryte win the league, Helsingborg get promoted after beating us on the last day, Umea were shite; and Assyriska could make it 2 promotions on the bounce, the cunts.

Like clockwork, that.

Need a right-back, defensive midfielder, attacking midfielder and a couple coaches, but the Skell dream lives on. Season 5...

Fwiw, If I thought I was frustrated with these, a quick check of Västerås SK's progress:

2014: 2nd in First Division North (lost in promotion play-off)
2015: 2nd in First Division North (lost in promotion play-off)
2016: 3rd in First Division North
2017: 3rd in First Division North

Just can't buy a promotion, they never beat me in 6 attempts either.

Not a terrible season chap, good to sign a new deal

Yep, it definitely wasn't as easy as it looked like being to stay up, but we've done it and hopefully we can improve on it next season. With the finances the way they are, promotion is out of reach.

First competitive match of the season; cup match against the Champions of Sweden.
First win of the season, against the Champions of Sweden.
Board just offered me a contract extension to November 2019 as well, magic.

After our best pre-season yet, we've lost our first 3 league matches. In every single one of them, we had more shots. Meh. Fucking meh.

3-1 up with 10 to go; draw 3-3.
26 shots, to 6.
Fuck off.

And despite being 15th with 1 point in 4 matches in the league; we've won again in the cup, and are 1 match away from the final... with a 3rd consecutive win against Allsvenskan opposition. This game...

Shite cunts.

Right, we're in the fucking cup final. We are in the fucking cup final... and to think the morons paid me £55k to get home advantage!
Mind you, I don't mind Hammarby- good fans.
But we are in the fucking final boys.

Next, another second division match; where we haven't won in 5 despite dominating all fucking 5.

And we lost. 4-0. And we're also in the relegation zone after conceding a 94th minute goal in our last match; despite there being 3 minutes added on.

Lovely. I'm off to acid attack my dad!

Lost 2-0 at home; another last minute goal! Which bleach tastes best?!

I'll tell you what, this game takes me to the brink, it really encapsulated me, it brought me to the edge of the end, the abyss; and then, it just gives you that glimmer of hope, that little ray of sunshine, that dodgy bit of belief, the false hope that keeps you on it.

God bless Lauri Pajala. Top wages at the club, first 13 appearances without a goal; I brought him on late on; and he does that. His first goals for the club, and my could they be crucial. We're in the relegation play-off zone, but we have this massive bit of hope again.
Night.

What a weird but typical FM season your having chap! haha

Right, so we beat Brommapojkarna 2-1, in this 86th minute and it crashes.
So we play again, this time we win 3-0; but my main striker is injured in the 17th minute; the striker I bring on for him injured in the 21st (out for 2 months) and my only other left back (after the other one was injured and is out for 3 months), gets injured on the 30th, out for 3 months as well.

So, the identical result but now I have no left backs available at the club; and my in-form striker misses 10 matches. Lovely this.

How many times did you need to flick between FM and the internet to post Brommapojkarna correctly?

Hahah, I've not beaten them in 4 now so the name resonates pretty clearly for me. The dicks.
We've just lost 3-0 to bottom of the league; and find ourselves back in the relegation play-off zone at the midway point. Which is weird as we've arguably played our best football yet, this season. Still, I think we'll stay up; just need 5 wins out of 15 really.

Just won 5-0 anarl, stupid game.
We're 13th, in the relegation play-offs, with 13 games to go. And we're 9 points behind 3rd place (the promotion play-off spot). Could we? After being in the bottom 4 basically all season, it wouldn't be that bad to go on a promotion run; we definitely can do it, but we're iconic bottlers in Swedish football.

JUST HIT THE BAR TWICE AND MISSED A PENALTY AND LOST 1-0! SOMETIMES I CAN HANDLE IT; BUT NOT EVERY TIME
I'M GOING TO KILL MYSELF!