I know everyone is now playing Football Manager 2022, but there is one last piece of business left with FM21. We are now in Season 3 with our Osterlen FF story, two successive promotions have left us in the second tier of Swedish football, the Superettan. With the Beta ready to drop, I envisaged this to be the final season in our Freddy Adu reformation tale.
The odds were not good going into our first season in Superettan, indeed the first in the clubs history. We were rank outsiders, an so should be. We were the only club in the division still Semi-Professional. A request was made to the board to turn professional, but this was turned down. It took a while in Israel to get this status in the previous save. It really puts you against it with only a couple of days’ worth of training on top of match days.
A squad rebuild was required to try to achieve our aim of remaining in the league. I brought in a load of free transfers. We had some transfer budget, but at this level there are enough decent players available on frees that you can convert that extra cash to the wage budget. Well that was the plan anyway. I tried to keep the left-wing position free to enable Freddy to get as much game time as possible. This is his story after all.
As it turned out we started the season on fire. Three wins from the first four games. And a few more wins and draws saw us comfortably near the top of the tree. Freddy was having a memorable season, staring in the team. He scored 3 times in his 11 appearances culminating in a MOM performance. But this was to come to an abrupt halt! A torn hamstring and 4months out was not what we wanted.
His absence coincided with a dramatic loss of form. 12 games without a win saw us plummet from security at the top of the table all the way down to relegation zone. Perhaps, the tinkering with tactics and formation throughout our loss of form didn’t help. Maybe it was not having Freddy in the team. Either way we were in the mud come the season climax. With tree games left it was in our hands. A home draw against the league champions gave us hope. They were probably already on the beach, or since Sweden runs a summer league the tail end of the season is Autumn/Winter so they would be on the Ski slopes! Penultimate game saw us crash to defeat. This all left us perilously rooted to the foot of the table going into the last game against a mid-table side. We were at home, so maybe the advantage was with us. A final day victory, probably against the run of play, gave us the best possible chance of survival. We could still be condemned to relegation even with a victory, but the gods were in our favour this time, and with results elsewhere going our way we escaped the clutches of the drop zone on goal difference.
We were not quite safe yet! The bottom two clubs are consigned to automatic relegation, whilst the next two face the runners up in league below for the right to ply their trade in Superettan the following season. We had experience of this, as our promotion to this league was achieved in this fashion last year.
A two-legged tie against Karlsunds IF would provide our destiny. I had stopped the save IRL at the end of the regular season, it was getting late and there were a few weeks window before this tie was to be played in the game. Whether this was the correct thing to do, we would soon find out. It is a question we have probably asked ourselves many times playing this game. Do you stop playing when you are in a good run of form? Does stopping during a bad run reset the game universe and you start again with a clean slate and commence winning? Who knows, each of us will have our own rules as to when the game session is over!
What I didn’t expect, like many of us, was the Beta to drop so early. If I had, I would have ploughed on last time. So, since I needed a conclusion to the Freddy Adu and Osterlen FF story I had to load up FM21 one more time. It worked out well, I started the FM22 download and installation and went back to Sweden to try to save us from relegation. That would be a great way to end the game cycle wouldn’t it. I haven’t been relegated for the whole game, to end on demotion as my last act would be crushing!
It didn’t start well, a 3-1 defeat in the first leg, albeit away from home. This meant we needed to win our home leg by a comfortable two goal margin to stand any chance of staying up. I was hoping Freddy was going to score last minute goal that saved us. A true redemption story from the true FM legend. It wasn’t to be, no last minute theatrics or drama ensued. It turned out to be a comfortable 3-0 victory. Our season was saved. We were to remain in Superettan. The last act of Rio Santos on FM21 was not relegation.
So, how do we sum up this save. Freddy had played his part in building this club from the fourth tier of Swedish football to consolidating them in the second tier in just three seasons. To be honest, it wasn’t really down to Freddy, his performances were not that great. But, the man the myth the legend had one last swansong. He will always have a place in the annals of Championship/Football Manager history. Whether he returns is anybody’s guess. So, to have one last save to utilise his talents was good fun. The fact it was a success made it all the sweeter.
FM21 has been a great game. One of the best. And to share it with you guys has been a pleasure. I have enjoyed writing the story of Rio Santos. From a 21-season slog through the five levels of Israeli football, where we just about conquered all. To this resurrection of a player in the twilight of his career. It has been a fascinating journey we have been on. One I hope to carry on in FM22. There will be a Beta save and some more storylines to tell when the game is released. Stay tuned for that.
Thank you for all your support and readership. I hope you stick with it for the new game. Long live Football Manager.
FM RioSantos 