Pre Season prep
Well well well. Sarpsborg were our promotion rivals and won the league fairly comfortably. They had their beady little eyes on our hero. I’m sure they only wanted him as back up but I had other plans. Stefan chose to not play in the Norwegian Top flight when Ull/Kisa won promotion but this was a second opportunity too good to refuse
Aalesund needed the cash and Stefan had to prove himself. The coaches rated him as a leading first division Keeper. Sarpsborg were a step up in club with infrastructure and fan base plus they proved to be a decent team winning a competitive league. I reluctantly accepted the bid. As before, I created a new manager at Sarpsborg 08 FF and made sure to create suitable attributes for the club learning my lesson from the Aalesund move.
We were predicted to finish last but we are confident of proving them wrong. The squad favoured the same playing style and seemed to have a good mix of experience and some promising youth talent. We needed a decent striker able to play on his own and more dominant centre backs to make me completely satisfied with the squad.
A fresh start
It was a tough start and with just 1 win in the first 4 games culminating in a brusing 7-2 thumping by Viking. I gave Stefan a talking too and adjusted the tactics to play more to our strnghts and have the players in the optimal positions for set pieces. I felt I now roughly knew our best team. Results and confidence improved. Stefan bagged his first goal for Sarpsborg scoring a beautifully curling free kick in the 3rd round of the cup.
This was a run of 3 games 3 goals with a penalty against Odd in the league and another penalty in the next round of the cup against Åsane. The team kept performing consistently well but it would be a couple of months before Stefan got his fourth goal of the season, a 93rd minute winner away against Tromso.
We were competing at the top end of the table and well away from the relegation scrap. I identified some players to bring in and strengthen the team in the August transfer window.
Post transfer window
Games were starting to get tighter as the oppostion were adjusting their approach to us now were weren’t considered relegation favourites. We started to drop some more points so I decided to drop some of the players that didn’t like the pressure and changed from the trusty old 433 DM wide to a 4231.
We started winning more games and got ourselves into contention for qualifying for European football . Stefan Was able to play his part. In the 3rd last game of the season he got his 5th goal of the season, a penalty in a 4-1 win at home to Ranheim. Then next game he scored another penalty in a 1-1 away draw to Stabæk. That took him to 6 goals for the season, his 2nd best ever total. The last game was a 1-0 loss to our old team Ull/Kisa.
Season round up
The move felt justified now. All in all a very successful season for player and club Stefan proved himself as a competent keeper for the top flight. He did let the odd goal in now and again but he scored a decent return and played his part in taking a newly promoted team, favourites for relegation, to continental football qualification. Can he score in European football now? I found being 3rd in the league with 0 goal difference hilarious.
We have finished above some decent teams. I was pleased to see in the review our Goalie pick up goal of the season for the free kick and he was runner in the Premier division signing of the season. There was still one last surprise though.
I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. This has been the highlight of the save for me. Best keeper of all the Norwegians in the whole world as voted by the players. His Average rating gets a boost from the goals so this obviously plays a part.
Conclusion
I’m really excited to see if Stefan can get some goals in Europe. We will look to strengthen the team as we relied a little on loans but as always in Norway the finances are tight. My ultimate aim is to get Stefan to reach number 3 in the all time goalkeeping scorers chart. Next in sight to get above is Higuita.
The old clubs
I still keep the managers at the old clubs and run them like a director of football on holiday mode. I was so chuffed when I saw that Ull/Kisa had reached the Norwegian cup final and ever so proud when they won it. It was great to see them stay up as well as they are still a relatively small club with a small supporter base. It’s great to see them in Europe too. The right back Holst-Larsen made it into the Norwegian dream team too.
Aalesund were again unfortunate in the play offs in the first division. I decided to quit the manager as it takes up too much effort even holidaying with them to do the club justice.
If you’d like to see all the goals check out FMGoalieGoals on TikTok https://vm.tiktok.com/ZML667GX2/
Thanks for reading!
MikaelinhoFM 