Hello. My name is Woy Hodgson. I’m a PE teacher in South London who has had a career in non-league. This is my story into football management after a suspicious call from someone from Sweden. I hope you enjoy the story!
I hadn’t been around long but I had been given a fairly decent sized budget of about £600k-£700k to purchase players I wanted. And I spent it all! I quite happy with the signings and needed to strengthen some of the areas that were lighter on players. I managed to get rid of a few players but didn’t make back nearly as much as I spent! This could be a very short career in management if it doesn’t work out!
Which leaves my three best players as Carl Gustafsson who lives next door to me. Oliver Berg who is one of the older members of the team, and Maxwell who is on holiday in Brazil. No seriously, he is on loan to a team in the 3rd division in Brazil while he is studying to become a doctor! He made this decision when he arrived, played one season and decided it was too cold to play football in Sweden! He’s pretty good so I hope to persuade him to be out token Brazilian. Every team needs one.
There are two competitions that we will be playing in. The league which is called Allsvenskan. 16 teams play each other twice with the top team playing the in the following year’s Europa League and the 2nd and 3rd place team entering the new European Conference League. The bottom two teams are relegated where as the 14th place team plays a relegation playoff match. Malmo FF are the dominant force in Sweden at the moment so they are the team to beat!
We also are entered into the domestic cup competition called the Svenska Cupen. This consist of a group round followed by 3 knockout rounds where the winners earn qualification to the European Conference League. These games are played before the league matches begin in a kind of pre-season competition. A bit like they do in Scotland.
My first competitive match will be in the Svenska Cupen. I am preparing for three matches against a mix of teams from the lower divisions as well as one in the same division as us. So a good test to see how many goals we score.
But the first game, against a lower division club proved to be a bit of a wake up call. We quickly went 2 goals down after 26 minutes. I start Googling flights back to London at this point. But quickly realise there aren’t any until next Tuesday.
But before the first half is over, we have two goals disallowed. So I decided to instruct my players to not press so high and not sit so far up the pitch tempting them to play the offside trap. It worked and we find ourselves at 2-2! Then we take the lead! Engblom with the (hopeful) winner! But NOOO we concede in the 84th minute and go on to draw the game.
Things I’ve learnt:
- We might not be as good as I think – drawing to a team in a division below us.
- We need to be tighter at the back.
- I can do tactics.
- There are only 2 flights a month back to the UK.
And with this we go on to win one game and lose the final one meaning we drop out of this cup already. Not to worry. I’ve learnt A LOT from it already! No we turn our focus on to the league.
Before we lock our squad in for the season, I have a little look at the transfer market to find some interesting names there that would be interested in coming to Sweden to play for a former PE teacher. Let me show you them:
That’s correct. We sign Manchester legend Carlos Tevez! He’s 38 and I’m hoping to use him for a bit of experience and to score some crucial goals. I also managed to get Englishman Devante Cole for £95k. I did need to sell our 31 year old striker to afford it but we all agree, it’s an upgrade. More goals incoming!
But that all for now. Next we start the Allsvenskan and I’m excited like a young boy starting school for the first time! Excitement, nervous but optimistic that nobody is going to flush my head down the toilet!
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One might say you’ll wegret not going down that road ..
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