Hello readers and welcome to the next post in my European Alphabet Challenge story, where I take on the whole of Europe, winning every trophy available to the top-tier sides. In this post, I will be showing you my first pre-season for Nordsjaelland. I am kind of hoping that this will only take 1 season as Denmark isn’t the most attractive league and the league’s structure is weird.
The first message of importance I received was our expectations. I wasn’t expecting much as the finances are poor, but here are the expectations/budgets:
I opted for ‘winner’ as I really think it’s achievable and the budgets were a little better for that option. I was given £222k to spend with about £9k in wages. This is really poor in comparison with arguably the most successful team in Denmark, FC Kobenhavn. They have spent £4m this window which really shows how far behind the budgets are from being the best.
Here’s what I achieved with my small budget. Firstly, the players outgoing in the pre-season window:
Only 3 players left in the pre-season window. I allowed academy boy, Murat Turkoglu, to leave on loan to recently relegated side Randers FC. Holmgaard and Jensen were released as their contracts expired and they were not good enough to be granted a new one.
Now for the players which entered the club:
I signed 3 players and the previous manager signed Overgaard. He is useless and out for 5 months and I will not show his profile due to him not being ‘my signing’.
Alexander Bierstekers: DM (Loan Fee: £9k p/m — From AZ)
I brought Bierstekers on loan from AZ as I felt I needed to bolster the defensive side of my team. With no good DC’s available for loan or free transfer, I opted to sign a DM. He has been fairly good so far this season, and has settled well. The fee I am paying is not too high so hopefully he will bring good dividends.
Alexander Siegl: GK (Free Contract)
Austrian goalkeeper Alexander Siegl was released by FC Admira as they were relegated and he refused to sign a new deal. After scouting him a few times with different scouts, I decided to sign him on the basis that he was 1.5* better rated than my next best. He has been in fine form so far, keeping out less than he has played, which is a good target for any keeper.
Guss de Vries: DL (Loan Fee £0 — From Werder Bremen)
Having lost my previous DL to retirement, I needed to bring in a quality defender for no loan fee. After scouting several candidates, de Vries emerged as the best one. Hopefully he can provide both stability in the back line and also some decent attacking football when needed.
Finally, here are the results so far this season, (played up to the transfer deadline day):
We started by winning 2 out of 3 friendly games, including a thrilling 4-3 victory over German side, Hannover. We conntinued our good play into the season and won our first 5 matches. That saw us climb to joint 1st and also progress in the Europa League. We then suffered 3 losses on the spin, to AGF in the league and in the Europa League. Our 2nd leg victory wasn’t enough to overcome our 1st leg loss. A draw against title rivals Kobenhavn as well as 2 solid wins saw us regain form heading into the main chunk of the season.
Thanks for reading and please comment/vote!
