Malmö FF — The fight to stay in the Allsvenskan..

Hey everyone, welcome back to the story!

Last update I gave you a run through of the club. As you could probably tell, they weren’t exactly in the healthiest of positions as not only were we sitting precariously above the relegation zone, but I couldn’t field a bench due to the lack of ‘Home Grown Players’ that the squad had on their books. Brilliant..

Anyway, we tried to put the loss against Gröndal behind us and during the summer I tried to fudge together a squad capable of escaping relegation. Trouble was that there were zero ‘Home Grown Players’ that I could grab meaning that I would have to spend the whole back-end of the season with no bench. Not looking forward to that one bit. I did however manage to bring in a better back-room after ages going through the whole ‘staff search’ list which took the best part of two hours alone! Thankfully that job was done till next season when I can hopefully bring in a few decent coaches to fill the void of quality.

Only two players in during the break, thought that the squad was lacking players with the letter ‘Z’.. ;)

David Gonzalez

Gonzalo

Gonzalo will replace a keeper that I sold off to Blackpool when I arrived. Not too bad on a free either, and with £100k gained from the sale I was more than happy. Gonzalez was bought (well, bought on a free..) purely for his attacking attributes and experience. On a one year contract, so hopefully he can bring me some short-term success!

We started the second half of the season with a trip to Hammarby where we got a respectable point after a 0-0 draw. Things went a little sour in the second game where we took a mighty fine hammering at the hands of GAIS in a 4-1 mauling which really worried me about our chances of staying in the division. As we flirted with relegation we came up against Assyriska, could we make it third time lucky?

First win for ‘Di Blåe‘ and my god did we need it. This was the game that the new signings came in and I’m glad that both of them pulled their weight, with Gonzalez getting on the score sheet and bossing the action up-front.

Then we came up against a familiar team in the form of Varbergs BOIS! Yep, these were the lads that I would be knocking off their pedastools..

Maybe not. It looked close, but if they hadn’t have had Alvarez sent off in the first 4 minutes it would have probably looked a little less flattering. Still, at least we know the scale of our mission. Also, I highlighted Varbergs best players in the last update, but I failed to mention how much Roldan has improved..

Just awesome, even at 21! I am going to need to sign players like this if I can get Malmö up to this level!

On with the rest of the season now, and here are the results:

Not bad considering the circumstances really and I am quite proud of the lads for the performances they gave. Hopefully with a bench next year, we can actually play with 11 men rather than having someone getting injured in the first 5 minutes which honestly happened at least 3 times over this part of the season. Did we manage to stay up though?

Of course we did! Well, we were in there at one point after a string of losses but we managed to fight our way back out and end up in a very respectable place in the table. Phew! :D

It did occur to me that while we did manage to stay up, the need for ‘Home Grown Players’ was really strong, so much so that I was getting really desperate after searching high and low. In the off season I went on a mission to get as many of them in as I could. Quality wasn’t exactly the best though due to the poor league and lack of effort by the managers to nurture their youngsters! No wonder the league is failing.. Anyway, I did my best and here were the in’s and out’s before the new season:

Players Out

Massive clear out of some awful first team and youth players. Only £170k from them, but I would have been more than happy to pay someone to take them off my hands..

Players In
£1.2M spent on the players! So let’s see what I have brought in..

Philip Gunnarsson

Signed from my old club, will be a decent backup and prospect and only £35k. Home grown too :D

Simon Backborn

Another ‘Homegrowner’, will be my backup AMR.

Samir Johansson

My best ‘Homegrown’ signing! I signed Samir at BOIS but he never really reached much potential, so I’m glad to have him back in my midst at Malmö.

Gunnar Leo

Home-Grown striker! Woo. Will be rotational after a £200k move from Elfsborg.

Milos Horvath

Free! Very creative, so I am hoping that he will fit in quite nicely in my tactic as the playmaker in midfield.

Rui Pereira

Another freebie! Again, he will be used as a rotational centre mid.

Rios

Best player of the lot! Costing a measly £325K, he will be my starting AMR.

Magnus Corneliussen

Left back area needed strengthening so Magnus will be my starter…

Mikael Carlsson

Last of the lot. Just a back-up keeper that was ‘Home Grown’ meaning that I have more space to add foreigners. Happy days :)

Ok, now normally that would be your lot for players but I did manage to get a player into the academy that isn’t a worthless peice of pixel! Halliujah! :D. This will be now my 20th? Season in Sweden and I haven’t once had the pleasure of getting a player that I could nurture into something from the academy. Well, step forward Viktor Eriksson..

At only 16, Viktor is a magical player. Already given him the longest contract going after Man City highlighted their interest for him, and stuck him in the first team. With any luck, he will be a brilliant wonderkid.

Last look at the finances before I leave you, and luckily we are in a very healthy position:

Have also asked the board, and they have gladly accepted my proposal of better training ground facilities so at least the club are on the up! With any luck, the team will follow and hopefully get a spot in Europe.

Doing these post in seasonal updates, so I will take you through 2031 in the next post.

Till next time then, Hej då :D