retired_nekh_20

North Yankee poof!

danboyle

The first season in div 2 went pretty good, we ended up finishing in 8th place, two spots outside the playoffs, after floating around there pretty much throughout the entire season. Had a dip in form in the run-in, so we probably wouldn't have made a big impression in the playoffs anyway.

Brought in an 18-yr old N. Irish DC during the season, who went on to from a solid central defense with my other 19-yr old D/DM L/C. The latter was called up to the England U-21 squad, which made me immensely proud

The goalkeeper who was Bosmanated(?) in finally gave us some stability at the back, which we haven't had since the sole season in the conference.
Finances are very healthy, mostly due to the TV money of course, but we've also managed to get rid of all but one of the dead wood players, which helped.

The 05-06 did bring a few highlights, among them a 3rd round FA Cup tie away to Man Utd, which we lost 0-2, which would have been more if it weren't for our GK putting in a MoM-effort.

The Norwegian FA sacked their manager, and after I applied, they decided that the right man to steer Sweden's western neighbouring country to the World Cup 2006 was a certain Swedish Barnet Manager The first match in charge of Norway saw us take on Ukraine away in a friendly. They went 2-0 up before half-time, both goals coming from a guy playing for Milan, he seems to be a pretty good player... :cool: After a few substitutions at half-time and during the second half, we managed to come a way with a 2-2 draw. At least I didn't lose my first game with them... We ended up in a qualifying group consisting of ourselves, Bosnia, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and England. The FA expects us to qualify for the WC, period. Probably through the play-offs then, if you ask me.

Oh, and Barnet are div 2 champions with 3 games to go

Our GK and the two central defenders were named in the divisional select squad. With nothing left to play for, I intend to give some of the benchwarmers and a few youngster some games under their belt, in order to prepare ourselves for the first division next season.

Hooray!!!

danboyle

Stupid non-edit function.

I meant that the Norwegian FA expects us to qualify for the European Championships in 2008 (Held in Sweden, coincidentally), not the World Cup 2006.
The WC is being played as I type this.

creative36

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Henrik:
Bosmanated(?) <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>



Gonna have to use that one myself.

danboyle

Ok.

The first season in div 1, the board expected us to battle bravely against relegation. We did, and ended up in 17th place. Not too bad, but not very good either. Decided to clear out some of the older players during the summer, and bought some new younger players.
So far so good.
Then i remembered that I had asked for both a stadium expansion and improvement of the training facilities, and that the board had agreed, in both cases (The capacity at Underhill was 7875 [2875] seats, and the average attendance was 7663 for the season). Nothing had happened, so I asked again. Now, bear in mind, we had more than enough money, around £7 or 8 million I think. This time they rejected it. So I, Mr Bighead, issued an ultimatum. They ignored my "little outburst", told me that if the stadium was to be expanded, it would be for commercial reasons, not due to my personal wishes, but since I had brought the club up and bla bla bla, I wouldn't be sacked. Woohoo.
After that though, they were pretty ****ed off with me, and after a few games into the season, I got the message about "a bad result would seal my fate", against Bolton. We actually beat Bolton, but I was sacked anyway. By Barnet! My favourite team!

Anyway, I'm still the national manager of Norway, and we did actually manage to qualify for the European Championships 2008 (In Sweden). We ended up 2nd in the group, after getting beaten by England 0-3 in the final game, but since Switzerland scored a goal in the 85th minute against Bosnia tying the game 2-2, we ended up in the play-offs anyway.
Drawn with Greece, the game in Athens ended 0-0, and the return leg saw us ending up 2-1 winners, and set us on our way to Norrköping and Malmö, which is where group 3 will be played. We got France, Spain and Iceland(!) in our group, and the FA "hopes" that we'll qualify to the knock-out stages.

Now if only I could get a job with a club team as well...

retired_sara maria

\o/ To Norway beating Greece \o/

retired_kswansonwoolf

:o Oh well, it's only a game...