AIK — And so it begins…

Hey everyone!

Thanks for coming back to the story aiming to destroy my own creation in the world of Football Manager, Varbergs BOIS. This is the second time round so I hope it is going to be a little more successful than the other and I would at least attempt to get my teams arse in gear for a measly challenge. First though, I have to get in the same division as them..

Yep, the Swedish Second tier is where we will be this season and I aim to be out of it within two years at a maximum. Might sound a little tough considering the state that the club is in at the moment and their previous position but I think that it is just about achievable. Anyway enough of the introductions and onto the game!

So let’s have a look at the expectations of the board. Mid-table finish was the bottom option but I opted for the ‘Top half finish’ option as it gave me a little more money in the transfer and wage department which honestly, I desperately needed! Could be a little risky but I expect to at least be in the top half come the end of the season..

It looked like the bookies predicted the same fate after giving us odds of 33-1. Not bad really, I would bet with the team for a quid.. Did it with the BOIS (although it took me 3 years..) so I don’t see why I couldn’t do it with AIK ;). Obviously the relegated teams are the favourites to go up..

Usually the first things I do to a club are sort out the backroom staff and try and get my board to do everything possible to make the team better. AIK was no exception either and after 3 hours of sorting through tedious screens of dodgy looking physios/scouts/assistants and god knows whatever else I needed, I finally got together my team. Regrettably I could only get so many staff in and although I asked the board, they were reluctant to give me the nod. Even the request for a Parent club was turned down?!

Really disappointed at this one as this is where I managed to loan some really decent players at literally nothing when I was with Varbergs BOIS.. Bugger :(

Not only did that piss me off no end but this really did grind my gears.. Basically we have an agreement with Vasby as an affiliated club. We are the parent club but they are in the same divison as us. No problems here right? Nope.. But wait till you look at the agreement:

If you can’t see that, it does actually say 456K. I got a right shock on February 1st when this came in my inbox, and I’m really annoyed as this deal offers me nothing more than a parent deal with another regular club but I have to pay literally x20 more. Cancelling? Nope, can’t do that. Guess I just have to deal with it..

Anyway away from all that I did manage to get the motivation to dabble a little into the transfer market. When I say dabble, I mean destroy, as we literally needed quality and quantity due to the poor strength in depth and overall talent at the club. First the ‘Outs‘ and we didn’t do much in this department. All the squad that I didn’t rate went straight into the reserves and they will stay there until next transfer window when I have the time to get rid of all of them..

Ok so now the ‘Ins‘! We spent a rather large (for us anyway..) 180K in total but I feel that I have got every that I needed. No less than 15 players introduced into the squad! Obviously I had to be aware of the rather annoying ‘Home Grown Players’ rule which is honestly all I think about when I am in the transfer window with a Swedish Club so I signed some rather average looking HGP’s too..

Obvious there are tons of players there so I’ll just show you my top three transfers. Note: The quality of these players is marginally higher than that of the other players signed and in the squad. If all my players looked like this I would be rocking the Premier League without any doubts ;)

Signed on a two year contract, Simonsen is the best player in the squad in my eyes and gives excellent versatility meaning he can be a starting Centre Back or Centre Midfielder! Oddly I loaned this guy with Varberg BOIS when I was in this division (2017 and ended up getting him on a free and selling him for 325K! I honestly didn’t recognise him until I checked his ‘History’..

Blackpool reject Simpaio was snapped up on a free by yours truly! Really needed a striker with pace and I have found exactly that in him, his finishing may not exactly be up to scratch but as I learnt from previous experience, it is all about pace up-front in this league.

Well I had to dabble back at my old club a little right? Philip was bought by me back in 2027 for three quarters of a million. In hindsight, that probably wasn’t the greatest of moves but he will be right at home within this league and fit nicely into the centre of midfield as a ‘Home Grown Player’ only costing 40K as a loanee.

Transfers over with and some news came through about my beloved Manchester City sacking their manager! I was tipped to take the post off Gerrard was sacked but reluctantly declined as not only am I at AIK for the long haul, I’ve already got a City save.. ;)

Pre-season results went amazingly well as we racked up a host of high scores and pulled off unlikely wins against Jaro and Odd with the only loss coming to the hands of high flying Hammarby. Really chuffed with this, even though pre-season can be deceiving at times! All of the below were played using my modified ‘Il devasto’ tactic that I downloaded from FM Base way back in the Swedish second tier of my Varberg BOIS part save. Hopefully it can do just as well for my new squad ;)

So a nice little inbox came through noting me of my first game in charge of the mighty AIK!

The adventure begins..