2013-09-07 08:36#133888 wellsy1498 : Just read this through again and well I can never say I have been a avid follower but I am now
I'm very pleased to hear that.
I'm very pleased to hear that.
The Alan Thompson Chronicles
The ups and downs in the life of a Football Manager
I'm very pleased to hear that.
Part 2: Does team building come with IKEA instructions?
Alan had been hired following a 4-0 loss away to Öster. The club had fallen on hard times in the past, yet was coming off an excellent performance from the previous season, having qualified for the Europa League from overachieving in the league. However the club had gone semi-professional, which meant the players could only train 3 times a week (excluding matches), which meant that their continued existence in the Allsvenskan was remarkable. Alan had come to a squad where the few stars that were left all wanted to leave, looking over the contracts most would by the end of the season only a month away. The best keeper Kevin Angleborn wouldn’t negotiate another contract and was just waiting to leave the club. The young talented striker Roland Stenström was dreaming himself away to the Premier League. The rest of the team were suffering from severe bad morale caused by the disruption created by the wantaway stars.
Alan’s first month in charge was dreadful, ending up with some severe losses to opponents who, on paper, shouldn’t be better than Hammarby. The lack of harmony in the squad as several players were just waiting for the season the season to end. Hammarby suffered 4 straight losses in the last four games of the season, which made the end up in 12th position, which means a playoff game against a Superettan team to play for promotion/relegation.
Alan was at home in his new flat, contemplating the state of the club. He had lodged in a very nice flat in Södermalm only 20 minutes away from the training ground. The training ground had really disappointed Alan, the clubhouse was smaller than it had been in Goa, and the club only had two pitches. The problem with these two pitches was that they were in two different places and the youth pitch had an even smaller club house. Also Hammarby IF’s office, and therefore also Alan’s, was in between the first team’s training ground and the stadium. The stadium was one of the only things Hammarby had got going for them. The Tele2 Arena was finished in 2013 and seated 30,000 people (it actually said 30,001 on the Hammarby website). However they shared the stadium with arch-rivals Djurgården IF.
The Tele2 Arena was the stage of the second play-off game against IK Sirius. Alan had spent the week leading up to the first game telling the wantaway players that they would do themselves a huge favour if they used these two games as a promotion of their skills. Roland Stenström had taken that quite literally scoring a hattrick in a 4-1 victory away at Sirius. This wasn’t deterring the Bajen fans as 26,000 people showed up for the second leg of the play-off. As the referee blew the whistle for full time Alan let out a slight gasp. Even being 2-1 up at home and 6-2 on aggregate it was a huge sigh of relief. Alan had been hired to keep Hammarby in Allsvenskan and he had.
2013-09-09 07:57#134253 Walter : Good work, now for the season ahead, what are the plans for the wantaway stars?
There wasn't really anything I could do other than start scouting for replacements. However I'm only allowed to do so in Sweden.
Andy, there's only one thing I can ask you...
Why haven't you won anything with Denmark yet!?
Why haven't you won anything with Denmark yet!?
1
2013-09-10 02:31#134361 Neal : Andy, there's only one thing I can ask you...
Why haven't you won anything with Denmark yet!?
I'm not the national coach
By the great Hammar of Thor, I command that you win the league next season!
Nice writing Andy, congrats on (eventually) keeping Hammarby up
Nice writing Andy, congrats on (eventually) keeping Hammarby up
1
2013-09-11 16:17#134538 Rablador : By the great Hammar of Thor, I command that you win the league next season!
Nice writing Andy, congrats on (eventually) keeping Hammarby up
With a team practising 2 days a week. You'd be a fool to believe that.
They might go pro soon, who knows
Part 3: New year - New season
It was the 2nd of January. Alan felt quite sleep deprived as he had been at a huge New Year’s party with a lot of other expats in a big night club in Östermalm. He had gotten up to answer his phone and looked at the clock on the wall, 8:30 am. On his day off. Alan pressed the answer button.
“Hello?” Alan said part grumpy, part sleepy.
“Hi Alan, it’s Jens Forsberg-Högberg” The voice at the other end said. Jens Forsberg-Högberg was the Director of Football in Hammarby.
“We need you to come down to the office at 10.” Forsberg-Högberg continued.
“But it’s my day off” Alan replied longing to go back to bed.
“We really need you at the office. I’ve just phoned the chairman too. We’ve got visitors from England and they’re bringing a checkbook.” Even with the heavy Swedish accent the sentence was unmistakable. Hammarby was about to sell a player or at least negotiate a fee with an English club. The only player that could be interesting for an English club that would require both him and the chairman to be present was the wonder-kid Roland Stenström.
“Maybe we could get a couple of millions” Alan thought to himself as he got dressed.
As Alan got on the Stockholm underground, the T-Bana, at his local stop Medborgarplatsen, he was thinking about the build up of the team. He had lost two important players in goalkeeper Kevin Angleborn and defensive midfielder Nickolas Ledgerwood, both players had reached the end of their contracts and left the club. Which pretty much left the team without any real talent apart from Roland Stenström and a few U18 players. Some of these Under 18s were already practicing with the first team and Alan was pretty sure that he had one of the youngest squads in the league.
Alan walked in at the office on Vetärinärgränd at 9am. He quickly joined up with Jens Forsberg-Högberg and the Hammarby Chairman, whom he had only met a couple of times. Alan was quickly put up to speed. Roland Stenströms agent had been contacting a lot of Premier League clubs to see if his client could produce anything of interest. The agent had a DVD produced to send it around. This had let to a few clubs declaring an interest in Roland, this meant that at the two playoff games there had been scouts from Fulham, Southampton, Liverpool, Tottenham, and Everton. Only one of these clubs, Southampton FC, had let their serious interest be known when the transfer window opened and they were coming in about half an hour.
Before the Saints delegates came the three men discussed how much they were willing to accept for Stenström. Jens Forsberg-Högberg acted as a mediator as Alan tried to argue how important the player was to the team as the chairman who saw the chance of big kronor and wanted to set a lower limit. They reached a middle ground at what equates to £4,500,000, Alan wanted the limit to be set at £6,000,000 as he thought Stenström would make as he could be a vital part in the quest for the Europa League. The chairman argued that a fee of £3,000,000 would do as that would double the equity of the club.
The first one to arrive was Stenströms agent who had been very busy in accommodating the Southampton representatives in Stockholm. He didn’t look like the stereotype agent the press likes to portray. If he were to sit behind a desk talking about different types of personal loan options, Alan wouldn’t have thought him out of place. He smiled and greeted around the room.
“I think we will reach a deal which will make everybody happy” he said, Alan thought he seemed quite sincere in this.
A few minutes later the secretary open the door and let in three men in suits. They were introduced as the Southampton Chariman and Director of Football and an independent lawyer. After a few pleasantries the meeting started with each club taking turn in discussing the player. The Southampton Director of Football started by complementing Hammarby for producing such a great player and continued talking about how he would fit in at Southampton, and their expectations of him. Here Jens Forsberg-Högberg took over and talked about the importance of Stenström to the club, which was basically the speach Alan had given 20 minutes earlier.
The tension increased as the Hammarby Chairman looked up from his paper and stopped nodding and said that he thought a fee of £10,000,000 was what Hammarby were looking for. Alan almost dropped his jaw on the floor as he couldn’t quite believe that he would triple his valuation of Stenström to set the asking price. Alan almost said this out loud, but held back the words in time. The negotiation was quick as the Southampton Chairman quickly rebutted with an offer of £8,000,000. The agreement to meet half way at £9,000,000 was equally quickly reached. The meeting lasted for about half an hour more as the details of payment, The fee was to be paid over 2 years, and other clauses were attached to the deal, Southampton would come to Stockholm for a friendly within a year and a 30% sell on fee of the profit Southampton made.
When Alan got home it dawned on him that he had just been a part of the biggest transfer in both his and the club’s history. He might even ask the club if they would use some of that money to make the team go pro.
2013-09-12 07:45#134598 edu1878 : Good choice of club to sell to. What is that money going to go towards?
Players that won't come.
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