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I have never been known to be a persistent writer, but reading some of the Lisbon Lions stories sort of inspired me. I decided to give Vejle Boldklub another go. My longest(if you want to call it that) running story ever was with Vejle it's probably gone now though.
I loaded up good old 0102 with the .68 patch. I loaded up the Danish league and that's it.
The goal is pretty much the same as in the Lisbon Lions challenge excpet that it's with Danish players this time and that I'm not sure that I'll do the national side part of it.
Anyhoos I'm far enough into the story (and the game) that I feel it will last for quite some time. So wish me luck
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You want to hear my story? Well, it’s a story about wasted talent and rebirth. My name is Peter Poulsen, but it’s unlikely that you heard about me before 2001. I was 35 years old at that time and I’d been out of the spotlight for 14 years. The last time anyone heard of me was in 1986 when I was hit by an injury during a Denmark U21 game. We were playing England in Manchester, the final score was 1-1, but since we lost 0-1 at home in Copenhagen England U21 went on to the European Championships. I didn’t make it through all 90 minutes of that game. I never really recovered from that injury and the promising career that lay ahead of me was gone in a mere second.
I started drinking, hoping the beer would make me forget. It didn’t. Then I tried drugs, not the hard ones at first, but that’s how it ended. I was walking on the edge, or should I say crawling, but I’m still here.
Why?
I met someone. A girl. It’s always a girl. She taught me to remember. Remember the bad times and cherish the good ones. It took a while, but I got back to what could be described as a normal life.
Allthough life had already taught me some hard earned lessons it was time for some formal education. I decided to get into the world of sports once more, I got a degree in sports psychology at Odense Universitet and I got my FIFA certificate soon after that.
I sent applications to all professinal and semi-professional clubs in Denmark, but it was my childhood club who offered me the chance. They realized that they had left me hanging when things went bad and they felt they had to offer me a way back into the game. Vejle Boldklub may have given me a job out of mercy, but they would soon realize that they had made one of ther best ever “signings.” I got a job in the coaching department, it would be my job to take care of the mental part of the game and to prepare the players for the day their career would end. It was an excellent job and I was thriving once more. I was hired in 1995 and as you know I stayed with the club for quite some time.
By the turn of the millennium I had to kids and a wonderfull wife. I may not have had the millions I would otherwise have had, but life was great. Except for one thing.
By the beginning of the 01/02 season Vejle had been mysteriously relegated. The manager was sacked and the board was looking for a new guy to fill in the position. During the past couple of years I had served as assistant manager. In my work with the reserves I had proven my abilities as a tactician and the board decided to give me the chance. It was a great opportunity, but not one without complications.
Well, thanks chesterfan2, but really much of the inspiration comes from Faramir and Brian's Lisbon Lions stories. I liked the concept, but I wanted it to be slightly different.
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Taking on management of a proffessional football club was an even greater undertaking than I thought, but the support from my family was outstanding. I sometimes brought the kids to our training sessions and they loved it. Well, the wee one, Lise, didn’t really have a clue what was going on, but Søren loved to mess around with the players and they didn’t seem to mind having him running around. It actually seemed to lighten things up whenever we were having a bad stretch.
Actually it didn’t take that many years for Søren to show his potential, but more about that later on. Sure it was time consuming, but mostly it was just plain old fun.
The board felt that Vejle Boldklub had lost it’s position as one of the main providers of talented youngsters. It would be my job to find talented danish players and develop them. From this point on all players in the first team were to be danes. Not exactly a task that was difficult to accomplish since the only “foreigner” was Christian Høgni Jakobsen, but even he wasn’t entirely foreign. He was a native of the Faroe Islands and since that was still a part of Denmark on a political level I figured that it wouldn’t be a problem. However the board felt otherwise and I was forced to put him on the transfer list.
I knew how he would feel about it, but my hands were tied. I could only hope that his dissapointment wouldn’t do too much damage to the team. I had to make sure that he wouldn’t take it too hard. So I invited him and his girlfriend over for dinner to assess his mental state. He was pretty dissapointed, but he knew it wasn’t my fault.
The biggest problem was that he wasn’t a huge star so finding a club wouldn’t be an easy task. I assured him that I wouldn’t free-transfer him. That way he could still develop his abilities and he would be ensured a steady paycheck for as long as I was allowed to keep him in the squad.
Still, I was concerned about him and I ordered him to make an appointment with a psychiatrist.
It also made me realize that there still wasn’t anyone who took care of players in this sort of position. I made a point of contacting the Danish PFA, I had been in a similar situation once and I knew what the consequences could be. At first I would make an enquiry into any plans they might have in this area and if I didn’t get the answers I wanted have to think about the action I had to take.
I sent my scouts René Holm and Michael Lund out to find useful Danish players to bolster the squad. I told René to focus on young players. I held Anders Lohse back just in case I needed someone to take a look at a specific player.
As we had just been relegated it was important to get back up right away, but we also needed to return to the type of football for which Vejle Boldklub had gained fame. That meant technical, attacking football. So we were looking for players with flair and an attacking outlook.
Allthough I knew the squad quite well the situation had changed, so I would have to make a thorough assessment of the squad. The chosen tactical pholosophy had me worried though. I was pretty sure that we could handle it offensively, but I wanted some kind of security in the back. In the end I decided on an attacking 5-3-2 formation. Something which meant that I had at least 5 players on defense and at least 7 players in offense. I really couldn’t expect to get too much more out of the squad at this time.
However, I would need to get hold of an experienced keeper. Tom Mortensen and Stig Olsen were both 17 and very talented, but I had no intention of relying on 2 teenagers to keep the ball out of the net for an entire season. They could very well become regulars in the future, but they needed time to grow.
In central defense I would have to rely on 4 players; Calle Facius, Kristian Nielsen, Jesper Olesen and Chris Sørensen. I would be looking for one or two other players to fill out those positions though as it wouldn’t take many injuries to get us in trouble. I had no doubt that Calle Facius would be our team captain. He was one of the oldest players in the squad and as anyone could see in training he had a tremendous influence on the younger players.
On the left wingback position I had Jacob Tychosen and Peter Gravesen to chose from. Gravesen would be be my first choice for the position, but I was sure that Tychosen would get his share of appearances throughout the season which would help him develop.
On the right side it was down to 16 year old Steffen Kielstrup and 34 year old Klaus Eskildsen, which basically made it a no-brainer. They would be a good team were Steffen would learn from Klaus which was the kind of scenarios I loved.
Allthough Thanh Manh Le was actually a left midfielder he would get his time on the pitch in the left wingback position where he would serve as backup for Gravesen and Tychosen. It was also nice to have some cover in case one of the central defenders suffered an injury in which case I could move Gravesen into the central defense. On the right we had another player who would serve in a similar role. However, Lasse Lauth seemed able to earn more time on the pitch than Manh Le.
The midfield seemed the strongest part of our squad, but 3 of them would be occupied in defense and allthough Christian Høgni Jakobsen would be able to play in a midfield position he wouldn’t feature in the squad. That left Tommy Knudsen, Mads Beierholm, Anders Nordstrøm, Kern Lyhne and Tommy Schram. So 5 players would have to occupy 3 spots. It was definitely an area in which I was going to look for reinforcements. Knudsen, Beierholm and Nordstrøm were all quite young players and would mainly be used in rotation. Beierholm was a player of considerable talent so of the 3 of them he would be my first choice. However, he would be spared as much as possible due to his tender age. That left Lyhne and Schram as the number 1 and 2 midfielders with the other 3 sharing the 3rd pick.
The forward positions would be made up of the Blom, Brown and Knudsen trio. This was another area in which Christian Høgni Jakobsen would have proved useful, but all I could do was wish him well in his future career. There was little doubt that Brown and Knudsen would be the best picks for these positions, but it was another area in which I longed for reinforcements.
I always knew that managers made these kind of assessments…hell, during my time as assistant manager I helped make these assessments, but as the manager the weight of it was just far heavier. Your decisions could basically make or break a players career. Sara could feel how these decisions tore me up, it was just one of those things she could do, and still can by the way. However, she wasn’t one for misplaced sentimentality. She basically told me to quit whining and get on with it. She was right, as usual.
The first opportunity to test our meddle came on the 4th of July at Hjørring Stadion. A friendly match against a decent 2nd division team which should see us come out on top. I decided to field what would for the time being be my preferred lineup. Which meant: Stig Olsen; Klaus Eskildsen, Peter Gravesen, Jesper Olesen, Chris Sørensen, CalleFacius(cpt); Mads Beierholm, Kern Lyhne, Tommy Schram; Kenneth Knudsen and Jerry Brown with everybody else, except Jakobsen, as substitutes.
The first half was a hard fought affair and the score remained at 0-0 at the whistle. Hjørring was dominating the game mainly because they had the upper hand in the midfield. However, we had managed to fire off more shots than the opposing team. With our 4 shots against their 2 I still felt we had a chance, allthough the second half would give some of the second stringers a chance to prove my assessments of their qualities wrong.
Not even a second half where we dominated much of the play was enough to secure a win. I was pleased to see that our defense did not allow any further shots to be fired against our goal, but not being able to score a single goal in 11 shots left me somewhat dissapointed. However, it proved that we were capable of creating goalscoring opportunities and I could only hope that further matches would improve our accurracy.
One of the reasons that we couldn’t score was Hjørring keeper Jan V. Jensen who earned a deserved MOM for his performance. Our best player on the day was central defender Jesper Olesen who didn’t lose a tackle or a header.
Since I perceived Mads Beierholm as the greatest talent available I decided to attempt to re-negotiate his contract. He had 2 release clauses that allowed him to leave the club for pittance in case we didn’t earn promotion or were relegated. I really wanted to remove those clauses or at least increase the amount for which he would be allowed to leave.
The 2nd test of our abilities was against Superliga side AB a team that had been Dong Cup finalists 3 years running and had won it in ’99. A home game in which we would have to do our very best to stand a chance and the best test I could wish for before the season began.
The starting line-up would be the same as in the game against Hjørring, but almost every squad member would get time on the pitch.
Allthough the lads were tired they managed to hold off AB during the 2nd half. AB were slightly dominant, but the real concern was our lack of goalscoring opportunities. It was obvious that I would have to make a lot of substitutions during the break. However, 0-0 at half-time was proof of a satisfactory performance so far.
As the 2nd half began we managed to push back the AB onslaught. Allthough AB defender Thomas Guldborg Christensen earned the MOM award we walked away from the match with our spirits intact. A 90th minute loose ball could have handed us a 1-0 victory, but Michael Blom blasted it over the bar. It was apparent that my players needed some rest after this game, it was a bit early for 2 matches in 3 days. However, I would look to arrange one for friendly before the season started.
After the AB match Brøndby’s managing director, Per Bjerregaard, called me. He wanted to know if we’d be interested in a friendly match against them on the 14th of July. That would give us a 7 day break which should be enough to recover. The prospect of testing our meddle against the premier side in Denmark was too good to refuse.
Our Friendly campaign would end on July 28th in a home game against non-league side Aabenraa. I was hoping that a game against a non-league side would boost our confidence before our 1st division campaign started.
On the same evening Ole Mørch was appointed manager of Superliga side OB. If nothing else that would add some personality to OB. Mørch was known as a manager who, if nothing else, was always entertaining to watch. It was also a statement from OB that they wanted attacking and physical football.
On the evening after the AB game Mads Beierholm dismissed my initial contract offer. He wasn’t pleased about the lack of a release clause. I could understand that he wanted to be sure that he would allowed to leave if the right club made an offer so I decided to make him a new offer. An offer with a minimum release clause that guaranteed that he would indeed be allowed to leave, but a clause that also ensured that we would get ample compensation for loosing the talented youngster. However, on the day before the Brøndby game Beierholm approached me once again. He assured me that he did indeed understand our need to capitalize on his possible departure, but he felt that the cluase offered was a bit too high. He was afraid that the price tag would scare off potential buyers. He knew very well that had indeed been my attention, but he urged me to make him an offer with a price tag in a more suitable range and so I did.
As the half-time whistle blew I could not hide my pride. Indeed we had yet to bag a goal this season, but our defense continued to show the form they had showed in previous matches. Calle Facius showed outstanding leadership as he guided the young team. The off-side trap was working flawlessly. We still had 45 minutes to go, but we had managed to hold Brøndby at bay during the initial 45 minutes and I felt confident that we could do so for the remaining 45 minutes.
Our off-side trap turned out to be the key. We managed to trap the Brøndby players 10 times during the match, their frustration was apparent. Our forwards on the other hand could do nothing against the Brøndby defense so the game finished with an even score.
A result we have every right to be proud of in a game where Tommy Schram earned the MOM award. He managed to complete 39 passes and his distribution of the ball truly was excellent.
On July 23rd René Holm left our souting team for a ditto position at AB. I couldn’t exactly blame him as he was offered the opportunity to find talent for a Superliga team. However, it was still a tremendous loss.
I had a bid for Jetsmark striker Jesper Bechmann refused as he had only recently joined the team. So far my signing strategy hadn’t really produced any players and his movement off the ball would have made an excellent addition to the team. I would however, continue to look for reinforcements, preferably players with some experience as the age of my squad was a real cause for concern.
I finally managed to persuade Mads Beierholm to sign a new contract. He still had those pesky clauses, but the price tag was significantly higher at £800k. Still a very affordable price, but as long as we didn’t fail to get promoted it wouldn’t be a cause for concern. In addition I slapped a £5m price tag on him to avoid any immediate interest in the kid.
Allthough the first half of the game against non-league Aabenraa saw Jerry Brown bag our first goal after 21 minutes it was ultimately a dissapointing performance. After holding our own against Superliga teams AB and Brøndby, Aabenraa managed to dominate much of the first half. Aabenraa managed to equalize from a lovely freekick Jonas Kvist after 41 minutes. The fact that Lyhne brought us back in the lead 2 minutes later didn’t do much to cheer me up. If we can’t maintain possession against a non-league team then how would we fare in the 1st division?
I offered little praise to the team during the break and I made it clear that I wanted to see a different attitude in the 2nd half. This may have been a friendly match, but I wanted to see some results.
8 minutes into the 2nd half it did not seem as if they had listened to me. Nobody marked Henning Pedersen on the corner and allthough Stig Olsen saved the header he was unable to hold the ball. Mikkel Mogensen got an easy shot on the rebound and the game was even once more. Kern Lyhne must have seen my fit of rage as he stepped up to the plate. He showed the kind of attitude that could very well make it a successful season as he completed his hat-trick with goals in 62nd and 68th minute respectively. I had to young central defenders who were on trial at the club playing as subs, and their performance along with my coaching staff’s reports spurred me on to offer them permanent contracts in the reserves.
In a game that read 4-2 at the final whistle I had found cause for concern. Our defense showed the first signs of insecurity and I could only hope that they hadn’t been able to focus on a match against such lowly opposition.
Truth be told I didn’t really know what to make of the pre-season. Allthough we had managed to keep some tough opponents at bay, we had also shown weakness against a significantly weaker side.
However, I was confident that we would find our way back to Superligaen and I could only hope that confidence would spread to the squad. There was a great deal of talent, but I feared our lack of experience might be a problem.
The lack of experience wasn’t only on the pitch. Being an assistant manager was a great way to learn, but in the end the players would look to you in times of trouble and I wasn’t quite confident that I would be able to offer them the support I needed.
By August 1st I had managed to sign 5 new players. Young central defenders Jacob Lindgren and Jacob Østergaard who would initially be starting in the reserves, but who would hopefully develop into first team regulars. I got 20 year old D/MC Martin Pedersen for £12k from HFK Sønderjylland, however, they would get another £5k when he had earned 10 caps for Denmark. 24 year old striker Brian Gelerd would both serve as an immediate reinforcement of our attacking line-up as well as serve as an exciting prospect for the future. The final signing was 28 year old striker John Laursen who would only serve as backup for my starting forwards added some experience to the team. All except for Martin Pedersen joined the team free of charge. I was also trying to sign 31 year old striker Christian Taylor, however, several other clubs had the same idea so at this point I didn’t dare hope he would choose us.
DBU had not given us an easy start. We face B93 at Østerbro Stadion in the first match of our 1st division campaign. It seemed very likely that B93 would be one of the contenders during the final stage of the season. Newroz Dogan gave us a wake up call after 12 minutes of the game as he caught Stig Olsen off balance from a 20 yard freekick. A cross from Eskildsen found Lyhne 4 minutes later and he sent the volley home making it 1-1. A minute later Schram found new arrival Gelerd unmarked in the area. Gelerds first ever Vejle goal made it 1-2, but B93 were not beaten yet. During the 28th minute Will Orben made a run into the penalty area and made it 2-2. Allthough B93 enjoyed a slight majority of possession we seemed to be creating more chances. However, Jesper Olesen seemed tired so I decided to sub him for Martin Pedersen.
Two late goals by Ulrik Drost and Kenneth Christiansen secured B93 the 4-2 win. Admittedly it was my romantic view of the game which cost us the game. My determination to play attacking football left us flat-footed in defense. A more experienced keeper might have saved the day, but in the end I was to blame.
The first home game of the season was with Frem as the opposing force. We were still notoriously poor at maintaining possession and we only managed to create half the chances Frem did. However, a 31st minute strike by Tommy Schram put us ahead by 1 goal. A lead that was maintained at the break. At that point Stig Olsen, Peter Gravesen and Kern Lyhne looked like they would be putting in a vintage performance.
A performance that earned Stig Olsen the MOM award kept us in the game. He even saved a late penalty, but he couldn’t stop a drive from Kjetil Clorius at the 79 minute mark. A game that we really should have won finished 1-1 and we really needed to pull out a win in the next match.
In the end Christian Taylor settled on a move to our old rivals from Silkeborg, however, that would not be a major concern for at least another year. The major dissapointment in this was that we could really have used his experience and skills on the pitch, but for now our offense seemed strong enough. It was other areas that needed looking after.
Our third game of the season saw go to Riisvangen the home of FC Aarhus. The score at half-time belied the fact that there had been plenty of goalmouth action. We managed to create the majority of the chances, but possession was becoming a recurring problem and a problem we had to fix.
It was a second half that only added to our disastrous position. Allthough consistently creating twice as many chances as the opposition we were still unable to clinch a match. Once again we suffered from late goal disaster. This time it was Rasmus Svenningsen who denied us the one point we came with.
That 1-0 defeat at the hands of FC Aarhus nearly tore me apart. I was used to adversity, but the responsibility of managing a football club was new to me. If id hadn’t been for the loving, but stern, support from my wife Sara that game might have been the end of my management career. I’ve never been a quitter by nature, but there are times when you’re just not prepared. I’m not sure I was ready to take on management at that stage of my life, but Brian Kristensen and the rest of the board had for some reason believed I could do it, and I just couldn’t let them down.
As Vejle boldklub suffered a defeat at the hands of FC Aarhus the Vejle fans are left wondering why Peter Poulsen was put in charge of the team. While Mr. Poulsen was once a talented player himself he doesn’t seem to be catching on to the finer points of management. Allthough it is still early on in the season this was not the start they had hoped for.
Peter Poulsen previously served as assistant manager and mental coach for the team and it seems he still has a lot of work to do on the mental aspects of the game. The fans can only hope for a quick recovery or a change in management. Either way it has to happen soon.
Louise Nielsen
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She was right off course, but I had hoped for some kind of warning before something like that was printed. Louise and I went back a long time. Way back to gymnasiet, but that didn’t’ seem to matter. I was going to make a point out of meeting up with her some time soon.
After 3 games we were sitting in the relegation zone with only one point and we certainly did not look like candidates for promotion. It was clear that we would have to evaluate our tactical plans.
At the end of the first half of our 4th league match it seemed our bad run was going to continue. There was only one goal in it, but it had been scored by HFK Sønderjyllands Henrik Asmussen. For all our talent we just couldn’t get the ball in the net. I was happy enough defensively. The only game in which we had conceded an excessive anount of goals was in the game against B93. I was cursing the fixture list; B93, Frem, FC Aarhus and HFK Sønderlylland was a ridiculously tough start. We had to somehow turn it around.
Even if I was bewildered the lads remained focused. There went a sigh of relief through Vejle Stadion when Mads Beierholm scored on a chip by Peter Gravesen in the 57th minute. 3 minutes later Anders Nordstrøm made us believe it was indeed possible. When Michael Blom clinched it after 73 minutes the fans found cause for celebration for the first time this year. Peter Gravesen was a well-deserved MOM with 2 assists, but more importantly we had broken the bad spell.
I’m not sure the importance of that win could be be given proper justification. The morale of the team changed overnight. We had always known we could beat any team in the division, but now we’d proved it. In celebration I invited the entire team to a barbecue at my place. Sara wasn’t exactly pleased by that, but she understood my reasons and had words with me after the players had left.
It also took a great deal of pressure off me. Sure I had been forced to make some tactical changes, but the general outlook was the same. Now we had to make sure that we could duplicate that result.
The Dong Cup 3rd round fixture against Skjold at Østerbro Stadion wasn’t really a priority, so I let those players who hadn’t featured in the XI get a crack at it. 19 minutes after kick-off Tommy Knudsen made it clear that he had something to offer. A low strike after some excellent passing from Michael Blom and Martin Pedersen preceded Knudsen’s strike. Except for the goal the game was just about even, which could be perceived as a dissapointment considering that Skjold weren’t exactly a powerful team, but considering that I was fielding the second stringers I was somewhat pleased about the half-time score.
Allthough Skjold tried to increased the pressure during the 2nd half, they couldn’t find a way past my young boys. In a game that finished 1-0 in our favour I had a lot to be pleased about. If we got much further I would probably have to treat the Dong Cup as a competition we would try to win.
The August table was less than flattering for a team with championship aspirations, but the form had improved a lot over the last couple of games and I was hoping it would continue.
Returning to Nørreskoven 
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