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!
The 2033/34 season is about to kick off and I have been offered a great, career improving opportunity. I did well at Basel and enjoyed my time there. The team lifted two trophies last season and, as a result, FC Kobenhavn has asked if I’ve make the journey north to Denmark. Since they were playing in a more reputable league and therefore would have more money to spend, I said yes. It would be my way of climbing the ladder back to the top. This would be another step!
There are a lot of player at this club. A LOT of players! There are some players who also aren’t up to first team standard but are still quite decent. Because of this, I managed to make quite a bit of money selling them. In fact, I made £21.5 million selling the dead wood. I decided to make that the new transfer budget to ensure the club would make a load of money this season. I also decided that the club only need to bring in a few extra players to fill positions. So I made three signings at a total cost of £19 million.
First up was versatile winger/attacker Kean Lewis-Potter formerly of Hull. He cost less than £5 million and at the age of 32, I hoped would be the bit of experience needed at the club. A potential leader.
With decent wingers in short supply at the club it was looking impossible to find any more. I needed a few of them that would be first team standard but at the moment, they were as hard to come by as rocking horse poo.
That was until I found a young right winger at Manchester City just shouting out for some first team action. Stiven De Armas who was valued somewhere between £36m and £52m looked a great prospect. Not near the first team at City but we’d throw him straight into the starting 11! I was very pleased to find this piece of rocking horse poo that I really hoped would not play like manure!
Finally there was a central defensive position that needed filling. I went to the hotbed of central defenders. In a previous life that was Azerbaijan. But this time, it’s South Korea. With some sort of Groot from the Marvel films obsession, I introduce you to Im Seung-Sub. (I’m hoping Seung doesn’t mean super because I’m hoping to play him in the starting 11!)
Finally a ‘signing’ that I’m excided about is Peter Espersen. A local lad that has come from the reserves. Some great promise but still learning to be a striker. Decent finishing but prefers to play as a winger. It’s strange because he can’t cross as well as he can shoot! I expect goals from this lad.
Once all transfers had been sorted, I was ready for the league. One problem was that I had no read the league rules. Turns out you need a least 3 u21 players on the bench and one of them has to be a goalkeeper! Have I made a great mistake by coming here?!?!
Here in Denmark, we are to compete in three competitions: The league – 3F Superliga which splits towards the end of the season. The Cup – Sydbank Pokalen Cup thing and the European-wide Champions League after FC Kobenhaven won the league the previous year. We’d enter the group stages.
First up in what will prove to be a very busy season is the Superliga. Starting in July we won our first two matches without conceding a goal against SilkeborgIF and Brondby IF. This was including a red card after only 17 minutes of playing the first match! We then drew 0-0 with Randers FC meaning we finish the opening month without conceding a single goal. Excellent!
The run continues with 14 more games between August and November with an unbeaten run with the exception of a 2-2 draw with Brondby IF at the end of October. This run put us clear at the top of the league with 47 points and a massive 15 points ahead of second place AGF. Things were looking good!
In Denmark, there is a mid-season break from the middle of December to the middle of February. I set up some friendlies to keep the squad fit but we would face the remaining five games of the preliminary phases before competing, hopefully, in the Championship Group.
With the club performing so well, it was expected that some big clubs would be lining up at the front door with offers of mad money for our players who, if I’m honest, are performing exeptionally well! These offeres may be too good to turn down.
Two players who have been poached by Barcelona and Real Madrid are a central defender, Yasin Yurtseven and striker Ognjen Begovic. We got £37 million for Begovic. We got decent money for them so we spent it hopefully upgrading both players with a 33 year old central defender Matteo Lovato and a 21 year old Mexican wonderkid striker in Dieter Martínez. I am so excited for this guy! Take a look for yourself.
And with that, we played the final games of the Preliminary Phases. I’m disappointed to let you know that we lost the final game 0-1 to fail in finishing the season unbeaten. There were also two draws and two wins to finish the phases top of the group.
With that we enter the Championship Group phases competiting against the other top 6 sides to fight for the best in Denmark. We keep the same points score and remain 12 points ahead of second place FC Midtijlland.
Unsurprisingly we continue a decent run of form in the final fixtures winning 8 of the 10 games and drawing the other two. We were crowned champions with 5 games remaining.
First trophy in the bag with the domestic cup competition and the Champions League to go, the potential was there for a treble. But would that be too much to ask? The cup certainly isn’t!
We entered the Sydbank Pokalen Cup in the third round after some of the semi-professional sides had had a turn and been knocked out. Our first match was one of these semi-professional sides who had mis-read the script about being knocked out early in the cup. So we had to do it for them.
After humiliating Avedore IF in the third round, we beat Brondby at home to set up a two-legged quarter final with Randers FC. Two 3-1 and 3-0 victories set up a semi final with FC Midtjylland, another two-legged tie. The problem would be that the matches would be played almost 5 months apart! But time did pass with many other games in between and we eventually beat FC Midtjylland 3-1 and 3-0 over the two legs.
The final would be played against Aab. The match would have looked at home in the league where there was nothing at stake.
Peter Espersen the games only two goals early on and by the 20th minute we were cruising to a 2-0 victory. Peter was close to taking the match ball home but it wasn’t meant to be as he missed a penalty during the match.
The dream of the treble was edging closer and closer! The only thing now was the Champions League. Surely not…
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