Club Information
—
Malmö Fotbollförening (Malmö FF)
Formed: 1910
Chairman Status: Happy to stay
Rivals: IFK Göteborg, Helsingborg, IFK Malmö
Finances: Okay
Continental Competitions: None
Captain: Jackson Mashaba
Vice Captain: Jorge
Media Prediction: 9th
—
So here we are, a new chapter in the Varbergs BOIS story! In my heart of hearts, it was always going to be either Malmö or IFK Göteborg (or Varbergs GIF..) and luckily the former were sliding down the league. With the threat of relegation they binned their manager and hired me! Much to my pleasure as it had been nearly a year without a job… This though means I start in the Premier League so my aim is clear, win the Champions League.
Malmö’s history speaks for itself really..
17 League trophies, 15 League Cups. Domestically they are the Liverpool of Sweden and I guess this giant needs to be boosted back up to it’s former glory! As they have already surpassed my trophy cabinet success with the BOIS, there is no need to domestically challenge myself to better them. Although, it won’t stop me from trying now will it? ;)
We have to sort this domestic disaster first though…
I mean we have to at least challenge a little?! Lying 12th out of a possible 16, Malmö really need some work in the later part of the season if they are going to finish in the top half. I guess this is where I come in though and with 16 games to go, I can hopefully drag them to safety and build a platform on which to progress next year.
Their squad is at least half the quality of the squad I had in Varberg. I mean even the reserves are better than this lot. Plus what worries me even more is that they don’t have many ‘Home Grown Players’. Now if you have been following this story since I got into the Premier League with Varberg, you will know how much of a pain in the arse this is to deal with. This is my predicament:
That’s right, I can’t even have any subs on the bench due to the lack of ‘Home Grown’ players! There are 6 players injured, one of whom is my best player (Out for 2 Months). A very, very grim situation.. No wonder they were doing so badly. Hopefully with the upcoming transfer market I can buy young and get some very talented players to come to Malmö, rather than having to get guys on frees who are frankly waaaaaaay past their cell-by-date. With the current situation though I might have to do just that, which rather spoils my plans..
It’s not all bad news though! Hurray! Check this out..
Ok, so it isn’t exactly great news but at least we aren’t starting from scratch as we have the second highest value in Sweden. £91 Million is the figure I will have to improve by so I keep my promise and do better than Varberg. This is going to take a while…
Before the transfer window opened though, there was chance to squeeze in a game against Gröndal. They were sitting below us, so we should have a good chance of winning…
Well that sucked. Lapse in the defence cost us the goal, and it only got worse after the game as two of our players got suspended. Not the start I had in mind as Malmö manager but there you go. The tougher the better I guess ;)
—
Now, I am still the manager of France and as it is now the summer of 2030.. It’s the world cup!
There was a preparation match against Romania to keep the lads motivated for the tournament..
Completely smashed it too.. Renard is a beast of a striker and he scored a hat-trick to grab the win and more importantly, boost morale!
The morale did need a good boost too as we were drawn against Portugal, Morocco and Chile in Group H. No easy games there I can tell you, as all of them are ranked in the top 16 in the world with Portugal being ranked the highest at 10th. We are the highest ranked team in the group (7th) so I hope this give us a little advantage going into some of the games..
Here is the look of the group after the last match:
Three wins out of three without suffering a goal against and averaging over 3 goals a game! Couldn’t have asked for better from the French really. Started off with a 1-0 win against a great Portugal side after one of their men got sent off after 30mins which was followed by a 3-0 win against Morocco. By that time we had qualified anyway so I played around with the players and gave others a rest. You know, they didn’t disappoint as the hungry reserves absolutely mauled Chile in a 6-0 rout with Lecomte bagging a hat-trick. Wouldn’t have expected it but there you go. Chile went home without scoring a goal! Ouch..
Round of 16 then and this was the line up..
Unfortunately no big names knocked out of the competition, although I guess you could count Mexico as one? Anyway, this pitted us up against Nigeria!
Lovely jubbly! Looks tight on paper but we hit the post countless times and had over 60% of the possession. Happy days :)
Quarter Finals..
Again it was all the big names coming through again, with the exception of Brazil. Guess who beat them? Yeah Italy.. So much for an easy run to the final. Would we make it though?
We did, in style! A rampant France on the day who completely dominated the match form start to finish. I owe it down to that man Onguene though, what a shift he put in! He is my fourth choice striker and honestly I took a massive risk with him. His ability was there, and boy did he show it :D
Semi Finals..
Drawn against Argentina in the Semi Finals which is very tough! Not that I wanted to get in the way of Spain who are joint favourites, so I was happy about that. Although we just beat Italy who were the other favourites so anything is possible. Could we get through and have a chance at the trophy?
Just was not our day unfortunately. It looks like a rampant win, but it was a case of 8 shots on target each, 5 goals for Argentina and 1 goal for us. We deserved a lot better but it wasn’t to be..
Still, we could settle for third place with a game against Spain who had just been beaten 1-0 by England..?
Bummer. Still, we did better than expected having come 4th with a ranking of 7th? Not bad I guess, although I would have loved to get into the final :)
Eventual winners?
Ahh, curse those Argies!
—
So that’s it for this episode boys and girls. Thanks for reading, the next one will take you through Malmö’s season end. Hopefully I can install some belief into these lads so they can avoid relegation.
Untill then, Hej då :D
plobdork
6 августа, 2011 at 23:46
Ahhhhh, Love This Story Varberg Will Be A Force To Reckon With…..varberg in the premier in sweden is Like Manchester United being in league 2 :D :)
Even Though I love this story more What About FMS PATROTS :)
Excessive
9 августа, 2011 at 11:44
I hope not, I’m going to have to try and nudge them off their perch ;)
It will be my next post, dont worry mate.
Rod
7 августа, 2011 at 09:06
Awesome! I really liked this post! What i find more insteresting is that if you can suceed with Malmo, the sweden league can grow more! And the national team too! I really would like to see that! So good luck!
PD: i’m happy for Argentina :D
Excessive
9 августа, 2011 at 11:46
Thanks Rod :D
I hope so, the dynamic league will be really put to the test…
P.S I knew you would be ;)
Darren Smith
7 августа, 2011 at 09:28
Well you had a tough start indeed and there’s nothing better than realising you can’t field a bench. :) The World Cup was a success in my eyes, Argentina always develop great regens and that match was a little too much. Anyway, can’t for you to begin the journey.
Excessive
9 августа, 2011 at 13:50
Haha, there isn’t.. ;)
Yeah, I mean the way they were finishing was unreal.. Hopefully we have a chance at the Euro’s!
Johnny Karp
7 августа, 2011 at 09:39
Wow, can’t imagine how a club like Malmo managed to slide to such a low position in the table. It looks like the former manager did a terrible job considering the squad, you have a tough task ahead of you but I know that’s exactly what you like!
Beating Romania 5-0 in that friendly backfired on you, that’s why Argentina beat you :P
Excessive
9 августа, 2011 at 13:51
I know, I can hardly believe it myself.
Haha, I knew you would mention that ;)
Sibo
7 августа, 2011 at 10:50
Good luck with this, Malmo should be an interesting team to manage but Varbergs are going to be extremely tough to knock off their perch, also…no bench?!? That’s going to be tough! :P
France wasn’t too bad, as mentioned earlier Argentina will always produce incredible regens, but it was a shame not to beat Spain, even so, I would consider that campaign to be quite successful. :)
Excessive
9 августа, 2011 at 13:52
Very! I’m going to have to do some serious re-shuffling if this squad is going to get sorted ;)
Ana Garcia
7 августа, 2011 at 14:06
Good luck Jake, am really happy that this story is back.
Interesting challenge with Malmo, glad to see Spain doing ok. :)
Anyways good luck, it will make a change battling against relegation after you spent so many seasons running away with the league!
Excessive
9 августа, 2011 at 13:52
Thanks Ana!
Mmhh, well I am always up for a new challenge :)
Laxeyman
7 августа, 2011 at 14:43
Hmmm, Malmo are certainly in trouble, or should I say were, because with you in charge Jake, they will surely get better. You did well with France too, shame you couldn’t beat the Argies, as then either you or England would have won it…. not to be, but good luck with Malmo!
Excessive
9 августа, 2011 at 13:54
I don’t think I’ll be able to do much better ;)
Thanks man, I couldn’t get past the Argies unfotunately.. But there is always a chance at the Euros!
Thanks Laxey.
vaibhavc
7 августа, 2011 at 21:23
Hey Excessive
A new team will definitely be interesting. It will be hard to do it again, but with a bit of luck, I am sure you can make it.
Excessive
9 августа, 2011 at 13:54
Cheers Vaibhav.. I’m hoping that I can at least save them from relegation ;)
Nicholas Phipps
8 августа, 2011 at 00:20
Wow, looking forward to seeing you knock Vabergs of their perch! It must be hard building up a team for about 20 years, then trying to upstage them! If you achieve this, you’re one of the best managers out there ;-)
Excessive
9 августа, 2011 at 13:55
Haha thanks Nick. I’ll do my best to make sure it happens! ;)
Sears
8 августа, 2011 at 15:09
Gonna be tough to dismantle Varbergs BOIS, but it sure does make the story more fascinating! Good luck ;)
Excessive
9 августа, 2011 at 13:56
Thanks Sears ;)
CsAtlantis
9 августа, 2011 at 02:07
Varbergs BOIS are so far ahead in value it looks like a tough mountain to climb, though I think if you can get Malmo to greater heights then the Swedish league should improve in ranking, so it will be interesting to see how the dynamic league rep comes into player, good luck
Excessive
9 августа, 2011 at 13:56
Absolutely.. Varberg and Malmo dominating europe together? Would be magic ;)