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Post by dalenichol on May 4, 2020 21:26:41 GMT
Consider this a placeholder for now. It's later than I thought, and I guess if I'm going to do a write-up after years of not doing them, I may as well put some effort in. I'm a year and a half into a save with IFK Norrkoping, nicknamed Peking for some reason. It's been good. I'm most likely going to fuck it up. Proper write-up to come at some point tomorrow night after work.
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Post by Reiver on May 5, 2020 8:49:58 GMT
oh those kits are lovely, where did you get the template?
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Post by dalenichol on May 5, 2020 11:37:02 GMT
oh those kits are lovely, where did you get the template? Cheers Reiver, it's a template bought from Yellow Images
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Post by chaodck on May 5, 2020 14:03:54 GMT
Dale back to posting writeups? This IS surely the end of times. Jokes aside my dear friend those are a pair of lovely kits, best of luck with this.
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Post by ttgb on May 5, 2020 14:43:08 GMT
Nice to see you back posting.
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Post by dalenichol on May 5, 2020 17:51:41 GMT
If I'm honest Chaodck, I just wanted an excuse to post that home kit somewhere. I guess i'll have to actually follow through and write now!
Cheers TTGB!
Just home from work, will take some time to chill and settle down and then I'll see about writing an update
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Post by dalenichol on May 5, 2020 19:19:30 GMT
IFK Norrkoping: Story So Far...So I want to say that there was some excellent, deep rooted philosophical reason for me choosing Sweden and Norrkoping for a save, like I had some grand scheme and plan in mind, but honestly, I'd really just ran out of ideas. I'd not played FM for a couple of weeks due to gaming burnout and other things going on and when I came back I just couldn't get stuck into anything after having some failed attempts in a few continents and even more countries, so I went with a random country picker, which gave me Sweden, and I opted for the team with what I perceived to have the nicest badge and colours, so here we are. So: IFK Norrkoping are a Swedish Allsvenskan side based in Norrkoping in northern Sweden. Both the city and the club are sometimes referred to as Peking, after the Chinese city, as apparently the translation into Swedish means "Northern City" and it just kind of stuck. The club play their home games at the 16,700 capacity Ostgotaporten stadium, which is nice enough. Thanks to some upgrades from season one, we have "Excellent" recruitment, coaching and facilities. There was no real overarching goal or strategy when starting out, so there's nothing that really ties me to any particular playing, but obviously our primary goal is European competitions and my transfer strategy will, whilst maybe not exclusively, will focus on Scandinavia for signings and selling on for a profit as well as our own youth system. Season One:So instead of starting from day one, you've actually caught me as I'm progressing through the start of season two. So for a quick recap...we fucking owned it. So it was a weird season. I had aimed for top 6 and absolutely didn't expect to win the title, especially not in the way that we did. I set up to be defensively sound, which we clearly achieved with only conceding 13 goals, but I hoped we could've done more from an attacking sense. Still, that's just me nitpicking, we won the fucking league, so let's not get upset over little things. Transfers:
I knew fairly early into my save that there were one or two players that I wouldn't be able to keep past the first season or two, I was prepared and ready to take advantage of any interest in them after season 1 ended, because I knew that we had a solid squad, that given the somewhat lesser quality of the league I could replace any outgoing players, and I needed to stick as much in the bank as I possibly could, so with that in mind, these were the key transfers from the end of season one: Isak Pettersson was the biggest but almost most predictable of the transfers. Young and far too good for this league, very likely going to be Sweden's first choice keeper. £3M plus a 50% future fee clause was a bit of a no brainer for me. He's already valued at £6.75m and with Watford having just been relegated (It's currently May) there's a very good chance he could be off this summer already and I'd be set for a decent little windfall. Filip Dagerstal was the next major outgoing. He'd been good but not spectacular and had largely been used as a utility player, as he could play DC/DM/MC, all positions that I used, but never really made any of them his own for the season. There were offers from a few clubs that had some future fee clauses, but none of them came close to Lyon's straight £3.2m and with money in mind, that was the offer I accepted. Manasse Kusu was the final of the three outgoings. He was mostly used as a sub whilst he was here, only playing 13 games, but there was immediately interest from a few clubs. Burnley's offer was nothing special, but it did come with a 50% future fee clause and I figured worst case scenario, he goes and develops there, doesn't make it and I bring him home. Either that or he gets sold and I get some free money. Win/Win really. Incoming:Our incoming signings were nothing special, truth be told, but they all bring something to the team and will do a job for us without breaking the bank. Virtanen was a direct replacement for Pettersson and for the price is a solid signing. He's done very well so far this season as our good form has continued. Sonko Sundberg comes in from the relegated Ostersunds and adds some defensive depth, he's also a potential candidate for a future sale given his ability and young age, but I'm happy enough with him being here. And finally, Fridjonsson, a bargain at that price for a capped international who can score goals. Brought in mostly as a secondary option to Christoffer Nyman, who was previously our only out and out striker, he's done well and scored 5 in 5 so far in season two. Talent: Despite losing a few players, we still have a lot of solid young talent kicking about the team, both to allow us to continue to compete at this level, hopefully progress in Europe, and as sell-able assets if we need to. Some of the players that have attracted attention so far are: Isak Johanneson(Milan, Ajax) Johnathan Levi (Genoa, Fulham, Freiburg), Simon Thern (who's dad played for Rangers!) (Lens) and Rasmus Lauritsen (Arsenal?!) That's just a few, and ideally I don't want to sell too many too quickly, but I need to start thinking about having a good scout around to see who's available if I need to start replacing some of these guys. I'm so out of the loop when it comes to writing updates, so please ask away if there's stuff I've missed. I'll try and come back with another update soon focused on Season 2's progress and possibly a look at some scouting prospects and what have you. Who knows, because I certainly don't.
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Post by jawzy on May 6, 2020 0:42:53 GMT
Your updates are fine Dale. Congrts on the first title, hopefully ypu can get to the CL group stage I set the lowest bar when I decide to do a thread
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Post by dalenichol on May 6, 2020 18:29:56 GMT
Your updates are fine Dale. Congrts on the first title, hopefully ypu can get to the CL group stage I set the lowest bar when I decide to do a thread Honestly, I'd be super hyped with the group stage and the money that comes with. It's one of the things I dislike about winning the league in a smaller nation like this, we'd be much better placed to qualify for the EL groups. :/
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Post by chaodck on May 6, 2020 21:10:33 GMT
Great writeup Dale, concise and insightful. I sometimes think I get too caught up in my updates and bore the hell outta the reader haha. This was great! Terrific first season, I think you're set up for a successfull long term save if you don't care about domestic dominance. Manual scouting of the youth intake is a boring process but you can secure a ton of the best rated youngsters for cheap money. Any plans of converting into a C&C down the road? Happy to see you back here mate, uber happy.
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Post by dalenichol on May 7, 2020 18:40:05 GMT
Great writeup Dale, concise and insightful. I sometimes think I get too caught up in my updates and bore the hell outta the reader haha. This was great! Terrific first season, I think you're set up for a successfull long term save if you don't care about domestic dominance. Manual scouting of the youth intake is a boring process but you can secure a ton of the best rated youngsters for cheap money. Any plans of converting into a C&C down the road? Happy to see you back here mate, uber happy. Thanks Chaodck, I appreciate that! I guess I hadn't thought about C&C as I rarely ever do it, but I guess that it could be an option down the line and definitely not one that I'm outright dismissing. Manual scouting is one of my favourite things, so I'm gonna make a point of doing that, and keep a constant eye on the youth setups of the international sides. Speaking of Champions League: That's two winnable ties in my eyes. Neither Batumi or Astana (most likely), shouldn't give us any problems. It's what comes after that which worries me!
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Post by dalenichol on May 8, 2020 17:53:46 GMT
We needed a little bit of luck to overcome both Red Star and Olympiacos, but I'll take a little bit of luck every day of the week. We got pretty lucky with the draws, we could've faced much more difficult teams, and we're going to get absolutely shafted in the group stage, but fuck me that's a lot of money. Our bank balance is now up to £24m, so I'm going to request another bunch of facility upgrades and maybe look at one or two players that I'd paused on before due to the finances...I'm Scottish and as tight fisted as the stereotype suggests. Still another 11 or so league games to be played, but should get that done tonight and a proper update will follow it.
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Post by dalenichol on May 9, 2020 12:10:55 GMT
IFK Norrkoping Season TwoWell that's another season wrapped up here in Sweden and it's a similar picture to last season with only a few switches in places. Helsingborgs and Sundsvall managed to just avoid the drop last season, but weren't so lucky this time around. At the top, Malmo and Goteborg decided to finally get their shit together and provide a challenge to us at the top, but once again we were just that little bit too consistent for them, even if the gap was reduced from 13pts to 5. Does that mean we're slipping a little? Who knows, but I'll deal with that when it comes to it. EDIT: Sundsvall actually avoided relegation via the playoffAs far as nitpicking on results go, we had a similar record to last season, we drew one more game than last year, with 1 less win and the same 2 defeats. We scored 15 goals more than last season and conceded 4 more. I was hoping we'd score more this season, so it's nice to see that we did, but I still feel we lack consistency in front of goal and this is something I'll hopefully address in the post seasons transfer window. It's very possibly a tactical issue, but our lack of out and out goalscorers does bug me a little, but maybe I should be more happy with the fact that the goals are evenly spread across the team? Performances and Development
So I went to write this piece, took one look at the stats for my players this season and realised that there's a definite correlation between tactical issues and lack of goalscoring, or well, more like my persistence in playing certain players in the hope they'll come good. Case in point: Christoffer Nyman. He was our only out and out striker in season one and didn't score that many, despite looking good on paper. I continued to give him playing time this season, even after bringing in Fridjonsson as a second option...can you see where I might need to change next season? Despite being poorer on paper, Fridjonsson is clearly the more consistent striking option, so he'll be first choice next season. Nyman is talking about whether or not he needs to move to a bigger club...he can go the minute I get a decent bit in for him. Isak Johannesson continues to develop and impress me a lot. He's the son of Johannes Karl Gudjonsson, who played in England for many years 2002 and 2012 but I don't recognise the name. But it's nice to have him and Simon Thern, son of Jonas, the greatest Swede to ever play in Scotland . That aside, Isak contributed 5 goals and 4 assists as well as a 95% pass completion rate over 27 appearances. He's going to be excellent and so far his head has not been turned despite repeated interest. I want to pay special attention to our defence here, pictured above. We've conceded only 26 goals in two complete league seasons and it's largely down to the three pictured above. Firstly, I want to talk about Rasmus Wikstrom, a £1m signing from Goteborg as a direct replace for Henrik Castegren who went to Blackburn for £2.5m (and is a miserable little shit). I wont do a transfer update on this post, because these were the only deals that I done this season, 1 in and 1 out, direct replacement. So yeah, I like Wikstrom a lot. I'm trying to get into stats more and more as I play the game, doing that cliched moneyball thing but trying to do it somewhat properly, instead of the "buy low, sell high" common sense tripe people usually attribute to it on FM. I picked Wikstrom as my replacement for Castegren because despite having better players available "on paper", Wikstrom was actually leading the league on both tackle completion % and interception per 90%. He's good, he has a high ceiling and he was clearly already doing what I wanted my centrebacks to do, so signing him really seemed like a no brainer, and as you can see above, he clearly has continued to replicate that form for me. What isn't pictured in that view is only 19 mistakes and 0 mistakes leading to goals. I'm not very experienced with properly trying to analyse these little stats and tidbits, so if I'm missing anything or misinterpreting things, let me know! Europe
So I mentioned before that we managed to get to the group stage of the Champions League and our reward was a group consisting of Anderlecht, Liverpool and PSG. We've not been hammered quite as badly as I thought, and as the time of writing we're sitting in 3rd place thanks to our performances against Anderlecht. We're 2 points to the good, so we just need to match their results in the final two games and we could drop into the Europe League, which would be fantastic. Off the pitchOff the pitch things are looking solid. We've a bank balance just shy of £30m, and with European football continuing with a possibility of Europa League, and another crack at the CL qualification next season, our financial position is more than secure. I have asked and the board have agreed to improve the youth and training facilities once again, costing around £8m, and I might try my luck at a stadium expansion next. The facilities will be key, as despite already possessing Excellent across the board, we have had two very poor intakes so far, which is why I've not mentioned either of them in my updates as yet. Domestic success is one thing, but getting that golden generation intake is one the best parts about FM in my opinion! Future fee transfers: As far as these are concerned, it's just a waiting game. I was convinced Watford would sell Pettersson (50%) when they got relegated, but he's still there as they sit top of the Championship. Manasse Kusu (50%) still sits in the Burnley U23's, whilst Categren (50%) has only just joined Premiership new boys Blackburn. I can cash out Castegren for £1.6m, but there's little point doing that when I don't need the money. He's playing games, so let's just hope he does well!
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Post by dalenichol on May 9, 2020 13:34:14 GMT
It's a little confusing the way it's laid out in my various windows, but going from a 16,000 or so, with 10k seating, to a 25,050 with 19k seated would be pretty damn nice, even with that expense. There's also another £6m being spent on upgrading youth and training facilities. We mostly sell out our 10,750 seating limit on European days, so an extra few thousand is a nice way to make some extra income. Speaking of extra income: It's off to the Europa League knockout rounds we go, as Anderlecht failed to win either of their last two games. Anything extra is just gravy at this point, mostly looking forward to the extra income and prize money at the end of the European campaign. Bank balance down to around £15m now that the facilities need paying for.
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Post by chaodck on May 9, 2020 17:58:25 GMT
Hi Dale, great update mate. I hadn't realised but the season in Sweden league-wise goes January-December, the same way like in South America? Is it too much of an inconvenient to plan ahead for the year and have the European Competitions split it in the middle? Good job on the league mate, it's starting to become a trend, despite the challenge from the bigger sides. Regarding your lack of goals I'm finding it's a matter of tweaking certain things and geet your share of luck. I've had players have seasons with 10 goals and the next 35+, with smaller tactical tweaks, but mainly because "he got hot" at some point and never stopped.
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Post by dalenichol on May 10, 2020 7:34:28 GMT
Thanks Chaodck!
Yeah, it's January to December. Norway, Iceland and Finland are all roughly the same too, I believe, give or take a month or two. It does give us a slight benefit when it comes to the European qualifiers, because we're half way through our season and on a good run, whilst we're often up against teams just coming out of pre season. The draw back is that the roles are somewhat reversed now that we're somehow in the EL KO round in our pre season, against a Chelsea side that are 26 games into their season, so swings and roundabouts I guess.
I've brought in another young striker this transfer window, so hopefully with 3 strikers vying for the one spot, we'll bring out the best in Nyman and see a few more goals scored.
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Post by Nick on May 10, 2020 12:15:59 GMT
Great progress so far Dale. I've not had Sweden loaded too much, nor have I played there for a long time, but the domestic game is dominated by Malmo these days isn't it? Is Henrik Larsson (second greatest behind Jonas Thern obvs) still at Helsingborgs?
That group stage money is an absolute game changer in these smaller European leagues. It looks like you're using it sensibly too with the upgrades to the facilities.
Conceding 26 goals in 60 matches over the two seasons is an unreal record. Surely if you carry on in that kind of form, Malmo and Goteborg won't be catching you. Looks like you've made some sensible signigs too, signings that have adapted really quickly to your style of play.
The Nyman conundrum is an interesting one. What role does your striker play? He should be killing it at that level.
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Post by dalenichol on May 10, 2020 14:34:30 GMT
Great progress so far Dale. I've not had Sweden loaded too much, nor have I played there for a long time, but the domestic game is dominated by Malmo these days isn't it? Is Henrik Larsson (second greatest behind Jonas Thern obvs) still at Helsingborgs? That group stage money is an absolute game changer in these smaller European leagues. It looks like you're using it sensibly too with the upgrades to the facilities. Conceding 26 goals in 60 matches over the two seasons is an unreal record. Surely if you carry on in that kind of form, Malmo and Goteborg won't be catching you. Looks like you've made some sensible signigs too, signings that have adapted really quickly to your style of play. The Nyman conundrum is an interesting one. What role does your striker play? He should be killing it at that level. Yes and no regarding Malmo. They've won 5 titles since 2010, so clearly they're the most successful recent side, but there's been 6 league winners since 2010. They seem to have a win 2, lose 1 record for league titles. It's one of the things I like about the Sweden, there's always 4 or 5 teams that you should be a bit wary of. Larsson is managing in the Finnish top tier currently and if he does well he could get a job back here. He starts the game unemployed as he's had two stints at Helsingborgs IRL, but both have those have ended due to issues with the fans, unfortunately (Once him and his son were attacked after a game, the other he got fed up of all the online abuse and harassment he was receiving from his own fans). We started with around £10m in the bank due to transfers that had happened IRL, so we were always looking okay financially, but the European money has been huge and will continue to keep us afloat, thankfully. I should only have 1, maybe 2 rounds of facility upgrades to go until they're maxed and then we're golden. Our defense has been a bit shakier this season, although we're only 5 games in so it's early days yet. Nyman is an odd one, but I've always had issues with lone strikers on this game, regardless of how I set up. I'm currently running a DLF-A up front with a IF(S) and W(A) on the left and right, but I've tried Poacher, AF, CF and Target Man over the seasons. Our wingers are scoring, so that keeps me happy enough, but we'll see what happens this season.
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Post by dalenichol on May 14, 2020 19:53:46 GMT
You want to keep your best players for as long as possible, obviously, but sometimes you get a deal that you can't turn down, or that just makes too much sense. This is one of those deals. It's gutting, because he's probably my favourite player in my squad but this deal is a good one. They offered £5m initially and I was going to reject it, but I decided to chance my arm at asking for £10m up front, thinking they'd immediately tell me to fuck off. When they said yes, it was a done deal. Moving to a mid table Premiership side is also ideal for me, he'll either get game time, flourish and move for big money later, or he'll do little and leave. Whilst I'd rather it was the first scenario, either way we're going to make a bit of money on this deal. I'm going to see if I can't use the £8m that the board will let me reinvest in to bringing in some good new players. I need to learn to actually spend money.
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Post by dalenichol on May 14, 2020 20:52:43 GMT
And we have our replacement... £2.6m makes him the most expensive signing I've made, and the highest paid on 4.5k p/w. However, he had interest from Sporting Lisbon, Wolfsburg and Udinese, so this is a definite coup for us and a player we could definitely see a quick turnaround and some healthy profit.
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Post by Nick on May 15, 2020 10:08:46 GMT
I'd say he was a pretty good replacement Dale. Fighting off teams like that is massive although it surely won't be long until they, and others, are back in for him. I imagine he'll develop brilliantly with you, given his personality and your current success on the pitch, and you'll be able to make a tidy profit off him in the future. Basically, enjoy him while he's with you mate because it might not be for long!
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Post by dalenichol on May 15, 2020 21:46:54 GMT
Yeah, I think we got lucky that none of those other clubs interest level went above "slight", so there was no other offers made, allowing us to swoop in and seal the deal. We're about to lose out on the below player to Roma, who did decide to make an offer for a player I wanted He's so, so good. It's a shame, but ah well. I think you're right about Dalehaug though, I think we'll get 12-18 months out of him, tops.
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Post by ttgb on May 15, 2020 22:17:47 GMT
You can't beat Norwegian talent
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Post by dalenichol on May 17, 2020 7:54:48 GMT
I should get some time to sit and play the game today, finally nearing the end of my third season here in Sweden. Whilst I'm all for European progress, and the financial advantages that it brings, there is also a point where I just think 'Fuck it, let me just do something else'.
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Post by dalenichol on May 17, 2020 9:57:34 GMT
IFK Norrkiping - Season 2021 (Season Three)It's another season and another title...Yay! Seriously though, if we were in any other league, with any other level of opposition, we'd be absolutely fucked. I don't want to downplay our achievements, obviously, but Malmo won only 2 of their last 9 games and sacked Jurgen Klinsmann, whilst we failed to win any of our last 4 games and only won 4 of our last 9. We were shit, they were thankfully shitter. It's hard to sit here, winning our third title in a row and try to be positive when it wasn't a particularly great season by any metric. We scored less than last season, conceded more than either of our previous two seasons, lost more games than the last two seasons combined and won less than either of our last two seasons...but we still won the league, so that's something. I'm not going to need to switch something up next season tactically, maybe a completely new outlook. Defensively we were quite as sound this season and once again we had issues with our strikers in front of goal, with the three of them only scoring 11 goals combined in the league, even after trying out a two striker formation. Meanwhile our first choice wingers scored around 25 between the two of them... Anyway... It was a more active window than we usually have (although I can see that changing this winter, we have lots of players wanted by bigger clubs now). The big transfer, which I mentioned in a previous post was Isak Johannesson going to Norwich for £11.5m. Whilst it's only October, he's valued at 17.5m and doing well, despite them being rock bottom of the Premier League, there's a potential quick turnaround there if they go down. We replaced him with Daniel Dalehaug, another that I screened in a previous post. He's done well and managed a very good 7.41avg over 13 league starts. As Nick mentioned, I really don't think he's a player I'll be able to hold on to for too long. The other players were mostly squad based purchases to fill in some gaps and add depth. Fallenius is a player I'd managed before in previous saves and can develop well, whilst Peter Bjerke was all set to be the solution to my striker problems but with 3 goals in 31 appearances it hasn't quite worked out that way. I'm not writing him off, by any means, because our issues certainly seem to be tactical, but I'll likely sell one of the Nyman/Bjerke/Fridjonsson trio this winter if I can find someone with a proven goalscoring record to bring in. I think, and I know I mentioned it last update, but I really need to start feeling less tight with my transfer budget. There's £30m in the bank and we need to start signing a better quality of player, but this is difficult when you're trying to stick to Scandinavian players. The best players in the league are going to come with ridiculous premiums, the best of those playing on the continent come with a wage that we just can't match, so it's a challenge but one I'm going to have to take a good look at over the next few months. EuropeI posted a picture of the group we were drawn in earlier this morning and, in short, it's an absolute bastard. We've not made too bad an account of ourselves so far, which is nice, and that draw against Napoli put another 750k in the bank, so I can't complain. Similarly to the league though, our qualification run luck can only last so long. We avoided any real big teams in the qualifiers, with HJK putting out Basel, and then avoided Celtic, Sparta Prague, Red Star and Olympiakos in the playoff. I'd actually like like the drop off into the Europa League or the Conference League, for a chance to get hammered a bit less, especially when we're more financially secure. Going to keep this update short and sweet, my anxiety is kicking my ass a bit today so I need to go find something productive that isn't sitting at the PC! Any questions about the save or any suggestions for going forward, give me a wee shout!
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Post by Marshdweller on Jun 29, 2020 13:41:19 GMT
Hi Dale, did you make much more progress with this save? I have a real soft spot for Swedish and Norwegian saves and I'm following this with interest.
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Post by dalenichol on Jun 29, 2020 14:04:55 GMT
Hey Marsh. Unfortunately I did not. Got a bit bored of the instant success and fell out of love with FM for a while, as I sometimes do, and when I came back I ended up starting elsewhere.
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