Varbergs BOIS: Summer 2026

Hey everyone, and welcome back to the story! Some good news, the new computer is up and running, whey :). So, this means faster and more frequent updates (well, for the most part anyway). Last time I left you then, we had just crashed out of the Champions League at the hands of Arsenal while bringing in some talent that will hopefully move the club forward. Lets get started..

First up then, as ever, are the results of the league:

Perfect. You wont find a happier manager in Sweden right now and its all down the performance of my BOIS. An absolute sea of green for the league fixtures with huge wins and great performances everywhere you look. My personal highlights were the 7-0 hammering of Öster and the two 6-0 demolitions of Djurgården both home and away! Lecomte has been in great form as ever too, 29 goals in 22 games for the young Frenchman, along with a record 20 assists. An absolute legend of a player, just hope he continues this form. On for the first 100% season in Varbergs BOIS history? Well with 8 games left, I wouldn’t bet against us :D. The table as it stands:

Amassing 66 points from 22 games, with a goal difference of +65! Brilliant :)

Now onto the results of the cup run:

Now, you might think that it was a pretty straight forward run, and for the most part you would be right. Göteborg and Ljungskile were easily despatched 4-2 and 4-0 respectively with my youth/fringe team on fire! You wont be surprised to know though that it was Adam Lecomte with all but one of the goals (the other being an own goal).
Quarter final time came and I was pretty confident against Gröndal as you can imagine. They are in the premier league, but they have only just got promoted and lie near the bottom currently. But, I clicked on the ‘Team selection’ as usual and found this..

Umm.. Yep. Only 13 players of the squad left as they were all on international duty, and the main thing.. NO KEEPER! Couldn’t even get one of my U19’s to act as cover because the players had to be registered. Luckily, and I say that with great emphasis, Storgaard only had to stand there for the most part as they had two shots on target (both being goals), as we dominated possession throughout to clinch 4 goals with a very average squad. Degafors next, in the First Division. Should be though to the final again!

Phew! Now, onto all things Europe! It was Champions League qualifiers time and as ever, we were fighting to get into those group stages.. First up to play, was Northern Irish side Crusaders. First leg was away from home:

Lecomte and Olsson with the goals either side of the half to seal the win and a good advantage going into the home leg. Although, Bastos was injured to 4-5 weeks. He is getting injured all the time at the moment, and I rarely get to play him. Might have to offload him in the winter!

Easily done. 4-1 on the night, 6-1 on aggregate and we sailed through to the next round against Finnish side HJK. Four different scorers on the night and we outclassed them in many respects. Was a young team out that night too, and they didn’t disappoint either with my young partnership of Huarte and Belyakov on the score sheet that night.

So, HJK. Faced them before in these rounds so I was pretty confident going into the first leg away from home:

Haha, a double dose of penalties from Ravlo sealed another 2-0 away win. But would it continue at home?

Certainly did. A huge 6-0 win saw us smash through to the group stages of the Champions League for the 9th season running! No problem with these play-offs. (Ana, you should take a leaf out of our book ;)). A brace from both Lecomte and Svensson after an early Belyakov strike sent us on our way. The draw came though and this was our group for 2026:
Inter Milan
Varbergs BOIS
Fenerbahçe
Genk

Got to say, that certainly isn’t a bad draw. Shouldn’t have the problems of last year and maybe even challenge Inter for that top spot? Fingers crossed :D
You’ll also be glad to know that because of our coefficient.. We go into the group stages automatically next year! Happy days.

Next up, transfers. My favourite part, and I couldn’t resist dipping into the transfer market yet again! ;).
Did offload a couple of players so ill take you though those first:
Dudu

As you might remember, I took Dudu in for free in the winter. I was always looking to sell him on as he was never going to challenge for a spot in my midfield, was on ridiculously high wages and was always deteriorating. Did try him out for a bit in midfield, but he wasn’t performing too great so a nice £3m profit was a bonus when I offered him to clubs in July. Do have to pay £6k p/w of his salary though..

Viktor Selmer

Been at the club since 2017 and has been my first choice full back for many years. Contract was ending in December so when Betis came calling, he only had one thing in his mind. Sad to see him leave, but at the end of the day he isn’t good enough for the squad now.

Onto my new signing then, and there is only one that I obtained in this transfer window:
Louis Taylor

Freebie! He has great mental, physical and creative skills for a 23 year old. Couldnt resist when I found him, and will retrain him to play on the right wing. Although his pace isnt brilliant, his crossing ability is something we might just need in the side.

Lastly then, i’d like to reintrouce you to our signings from the previous transfer windows that came in July! Denis Belyakov and Paulo :)
Denis Belyakov — Aged 17

Denis Belyakov — Aged 18

My new star striker, obtained for a cool £3.2m under a year ago from Kyiv. Will be partnering Lecomte before too long. Over this period he has had some notable changes to his attributes. The 19 finishing and 15 composure really set him off as a brilliant wonderkid. Hopefully he can prove himself at the club and improve even further.

Paulo — Aged 16

Paulo — Aged 18

If you can remember that far back, I obtained Paulo for £1.7m from Brazilian side Cruzeiro. From the looks of it, he has improved a little. Especially in terms of his mental attributes. Hopefully he can improve further, and much faster when he is fully fit again!

Go to the next page for the world cup adventure with Uruguay…

So all things world cup! Yay :). My first world cup in Football Manager so i’m really just here for the experience more than anything. With me there then is a Uruguay side ranked 17th in the world and predicted to finish second in the group stages behind England and infront of Ivory Coast and Poland.

First up was the game against Ivory Coast. I was worried about their strike force more than anything. One played for Arsenal, the other for United so I wasn’t feeling to great, as my defence was the weakest part of the squad. Still, kicking off group E this is how we faired:

Oof! Get in. What a great result for us which sits us top of the group. Two goals in the first half from each of my strikers nestled us in nicely for a praise-packed half time team talk. We didn’t get complacent though, and scored another before getting a man sent-off for two yellow cards. Still, I brought Barreto on and he didn’t disappoint, capping off a well deserved win for our first World Cup game.

Next up was England. Ranked ‘top seed’ if you will, we would surely have a tough task of beating them..

So it proved to be. We took the lead early on as Rodriguez ghosted in at the far post to crash in a header from 3 yards but after 10 minutes, we started to look wobbly as England pressed and eventually caved in with two conceded before half time. Was always going to be a push from there and sure enough, England put the game beyond any doubt.

Last game of the group then, was against Poland. Only a win would do to secure ourselves of a knockout round place..

Oh no! A 90th minute goal enough to grab Poland a draw right at the death of a frankly dirty game by our standards. But was it enough? Had we gone through?!

With England beating the Ivory Coast, our 2nd place was secured! Happy days. But we did have a massive task of getting any further, as we drew Spain in the all important knockout rounds. 1st in the world rankings too and have a very, very strong side. But could we beat them, stamp our place into the Quarter Final?

That we couldn’t, and we bowed out graciously at the hands of Spain. We started off the brighter, hitting the post and carving out numerous chances for ourselves. Unfortunaltely, the dominance didn’t last long and before too long we were behind going into the break. A red card 82 minutes in gave us hope of clinching an equaliser, but it was too little too late from our perspective.

Needless to say, I resigned from the Uruguay job. Spain won the World Cup in the end though, a 2-1 over Holland enough to secure them the trophy. Did apply for the French, Brazilian and Italian jobs when the world cup finished but they were unsuccessful :(. Oh well, it was an experience nonetheless, and hopefully I wont be out of international management for too long!

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Sorry to end it on a sour note, but that’s it for this instalment. Next one will be the end of season post that will conclude the league, cup and Champions league adventures, along with some news on players and facilities.

Till next time then, Hej då :D