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!
It’s the 2032. I’ve just been escorted off the premises at the Leicester City football ground after the owners didn’t want me or something. I later found out that they had wanted me to manage Leicester for a while when I was at Fiorentina. But I had made some nasty comments about the club when I was there. They still wanted me as they thought I could do a job for them (which I did!) but made an unrealistic target at the end of the season to ensure I would leave. Nasty!
That does mean that I will be looking for a new club again. Maybe something out of the spotlight where I can continue to develop my skills as a manager and maybe win some trophies too. So this time, welcome BACK to Switzerland. I’m not manager of Basel.
The club was currently in quite a good financial position. I managed to sell £11 million worth of players to add to the fairly large transfer budget to ensure I could get a few players in to strengthen the squad.
Almost all of that £11 million came from selling Brian Antón to Frosinone. He’s a decent player and some of the squad questioned the decision. my reason was that he didn’t fit in to my tactics. But There were also a few loanees to free up some more of the wage budget to allow for the incoming players.
I decided to spend most of the budget, including the money I had made selling Antón. The players I bought in, I hoped, would allow Basel to regain their Swiss Raiffeisen Super League title that they lost last season after finishing third. Here are the players that I signed.
This is the squad that we will be using to compete in the Swiss Raiffeisen Super League, the Schweizer Cup and the Europa Conference League. All of these, I have high hopes for. The League and Cup are something we can certainly win.
The Europa Conference Cup is also something that, given a bit of luck with the draws and results, we could do quite well for ourselves. I’m wondering if we may even be able to win it is some of the stars were to align.
Early in the season, we entered the Europa Conference League in the early qualifying rounds. the League Path Third Qualifying Round, to be precise!
Our first game was against BB Erzurumspor of Turkey. I’d never heard of them but I can see this competition giving a chance for clubs to play in European competitions.
We beat them easily in the first game 7-0. I decided to use the second game as a chance to build up some match fitness in some fringe players while giving some players a rest as this month, we had a lot of games to cover. The second leg was a 3-3 draw.
Up next were Inhulets of Ukraine. Again never heard of them but they put up more of a fight than BB Erzurumspor. We did finish 4-0 and 2-0 winners.
And with that the qualifiers were done. We’d reached the group stage with ease.
The opponents were draw and we were chosen to join Group D along with sc Heerenveen from Holland, Genk from Belgium and SV Ried from Austria. They are all teams I will be hoping to beat this season. So qualifying top of the group is our target.
We jump, now, back to the league which started at the end of July. The Swiss league is a fairly small one so the fixture list isn’t that congested early in the season. There are, however, the European competition games and cup games mixed in, but more on those later.
Half way through the season, we find ourselves in a decent position. Top of the league by 4 points and twice the goal difference of the next team.
We do have one youngster who seems to be like one of those Rolex watches you get in China. You know the ones: they break after 5 minutes of use. Well this one is a Dusan Tadic knockoff. He’s tried to change his name a bit but he isn’t fooling me!
With January, February, March and most of April passing unbeaten winning all games except one 0-0 draw with Lugano, we head into a critical fixture with second place Zurich. A win here would basically make us champions. But what an end to a game that would be!
The match would be a completely one-side affaire where we’d have 23 shots to their 7. 14 shots on target to their 5. But with our early goal cancelled out by their second half strike, we have a goal disallowed on minute 66.
It was looking like we’d finish in a draw and our title would be postponed another game. That was until we earnt a penalty in the 92nd minute! It was scored but just to confirm, Fioretti scored again in minute 95 ensuring we keep all 3 points! Absolute scenes!
That important win qualifies us automatically for next season’s Europa Conference League and moves us 8 points clear of Zurich meaning we could win the title in the next two games!
It’s time to tighten up those boots and ensure that we don’t do a Steven Gerrard and slip now! There won’t be pulling ourselves together and going again. This is our opportunity! besides, if we lost this now, we’d be rubbish!
Game One
Game one turned out to be a slip up for both teams. We lost 3-1 to Young Boys which would be our first loss in this calendar year.
Zurich also lost meaning no ground was lost. Their loss was to 6th place Lugano.
Game one turned out to be a flop for both sides. We move on to game two.
Game Two
Game two was a bit better. Still not convincing but we did win 3-2 against Vaduz. We are one win away from a title.
Zurich also won, 1-0, against Sevette. A sold defensive performance but will need to hope for a miracle to stop us winning the league.
Game Three
A crazy match where we only needed a draw to win the title. After going 1 nil up after 33 minutes we conceded just after half time. It looked like we’d scored a winning in the 91st minute but a 96th minute penalty for Sion meant the game would finished in a draw. It was enough and Zurich winning 1-0 was not enough.
We go on to win the remining games and finish top of the league by 7 points! Another trophy for the trophy cabinet and another manager of the year award for myself. But that’s not all. There was the domestic cup left too! Oh and let’s not forget the Europa Conference League!
We entered the Schweizer Cup in the first round. Our first round match would be against small team Tuggen. We thrashed them 5-0 earning a second round match against Neuchatel Xamax.
That game was much closer but thanks to a superb defensive performance, we won 1-0. This set up a third round tie against Lugano.
We beat Lugano in a close 2-1 match. They were doing well in the league at a time when we were still finding our feet. So this results was a good one for us! This set up a quarter-final draw against St. Gallen who were fighting for the European places in the league.
Beating St. Gallen turned out to be one of the easier things. It happened as a 3-0 thrashing.
Next up was Stade Lausanne-Ouchy who were struggling in the league.
But with a winning goal from Tyrese Campbell, we woin 2-1 wich set up a final against Schaffhausen. I checked and see that they are a seond division side! It’s exciting when a team from the lower leagues reaches a cup final! They must be like Bradford.
The final, which turned out to be a rather dull affair despite the 5 goals scored as it was so one-sided saw us win 4-1. We allowed them a goal as they were going on to win their division and would be in the same league as us next year but it was another trophy. A domestic double. Next up, the big one! European Conference League!
Here we go. This is the big one. We’ve got the league and cup wrapped up and could pull of a treble here! Imagine what they would do for my reputation!
We left it after having found out our opponents in the Europa Conference League. sc Heerenveen, Genk and SV Reid.
As predicted, the group stage was where we showed the rest of the competition we were there to win. Our opening game against Genk was 1 – 0 victory. This was followed by a 4-0 win at home to Heerenveen and an away victory to SV Reid where we conceded our first goal.
The return leg was a narrow 3-2 victory to SV Reid followed by a 3-1 win at Herenveen and a 4-0 thrashing of second place Genk in Switzerland. This undefeated run with a goal difference of 13 meant we’d skip the first knockout round and head straight for the second knockout round.
Strangely enough, Genk from Belgium won their first knockout round game to be drawn against us in the second round!
The first game we won 3-1 away from home in Belgium earning those important away goals. Rodrigao getting both goals before going off injured. The return fixture was only a 1-1 with Genk pushing hard for the goal they needed. It wasn’t enough and we were through to the quarter final against Real Sociedad.
But something more interesting than this tie is the possibility of the semi-finals! If we win, it’ll be against us and either Brann or KALMAR FF! Our old club! How exciting!
The first leg was an exciting 3-1 victory and for a second tie in a row, we score two crucial away goals from Tyrese Campbell, Recoba and winger Fernandes.
The return leg was a bore-draw meaning we’d go through to the next round. I was hoping and praying it would be against Kalmar FF!
The first leg of the semi final was at home. But we were left feeling extremely frustrated with the result. Despite pushing and pushing, we weren’t able to find the goal. The game resulted in a 0-0 draw.
At least they didn’t score any away goals. But we went in to the second leg with confidence. But a missed penalty was the difference on the day meaning we were knocked out.
Brann would go on to win the competition in the end beating Udinese in the final but it was a frustrating end to the season, especially when it was there for the taking! Still, a league and cup double isn’t too bad! On to the next season!
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