Starting Over with MFF

To say I was inspired by Malmö FF’s 0-0 draw with FK Ventspils, while technically correct, seems like an overstatement. MFF was uninspiring. In fact, their were boos. I’m not a fan of booing the home team, but if ever was a time, this seemed like a good one. It wasn’t until late that MFF even looked like they wanted to win the game. Taking a 0-0 to Latvia next week is better than giving up a goal, but it was the performance, more than the result that did not inspire confidence. On the other hand, MFF dominated the game, even if there was no invention in the final third. In fact, had finishing been better, MFF could have had several goals. It was, however, FK Ventspils that had the best chance – off the post.

The abject performance in some ways might be explained by the amount of movement at MFF this year (sourced from Wikipedia):

In (7.3 M SEK)

N	P	Nat.	Name	Age	Moving from	Type	Transfer window	Ends	Transfer fee	Source
29	DF	SWE	Tobias Malm	21	Landskrona BoIS	Loan return	Winter	2014	—	mff.se
23	DF	SWE	Jasmin Sudić	23	Mjällby AIF	Loan return	Winter	2014	—	mff.se
22	MF	SWE	Amin Nazari	20	Assyriska FF	Loan return	Winter	2015	—	mff.se
28	FW	SWE	Alexander Nilsson	21	Landskrona BoIS	Loan return	Winter	2014	—	mff.se
26	FW	SWE	Petter Thelin	18	IF Limhamn Bunkeflo	Loan return	Winter	2015	—	mff.se
24	DF	SWE	Mahmut Özen	25	Mjällby AIF	Bosman	Winter	2017	Free[71]	mff.se
27	GK	SWE	Zlatan Azinović	25	Kalmar FF	Bosman	Winter	2015	Free[65]	fotbolltransfers.com
9	FW	SWE	Markus Rosenberg	31	West Bromwich Albion	Bosman	Winter	2016	Free[44]	twitter.com
35	MF	SWE	Piotr Johansson	19	Youth system	Promoted	Summer	undisclosed	—	mff.se
—	DF	SWE	Pa Konate	20	Östers IF	Loan return	Summer	2017	—	sydsvenskan.se
24	FW	SWE	Isaac Kiese Thelin	22	IFK Norrköping	Transfer	Summer	2017	(~ 1.0M SEK)[60]	mff.se
3	DF	SWE	Anton Tinnerholm	23	Åtvidabergs FF	Transfer	Summer	2017	(~ 1.3M SEK)[37]	mff.se
—	FW	ALB	Agon Mehmeti	24	Palermo	Transfer	Summer	2017	Free[72]	mff.se
8	MF	GHA	Enoch Kofi Adu	23	Club Brugge	Transfer	Summer	2017	(~ 5.0M SEK)[43]	mff.se

Out (29.9 M SEK)

N	P	Nat.	Name	Age	Moving to	Type	Transfer window	Transfer fee	Source
10	MF	SWE	Jiloan Hamad	23	1899 Hoffenheim	End of contract	Winter	Free[73]	mff.se
17	MF	SWE	Ivo Pękalski	23	BK Häcken	End of contract	Winter	Free[74]	mff.se
27	GK	SWE	Johan Dahlin	27	Gençlerbirliği	Transfer	Winter	(~ 5.0M SEK)[75]	mff.se
9	FW	SWE	Dardan Rexhepi	22	IF Brommapojkarna	Transfer	Winter	(~ 0.4M SEK)[76]	mff.se
8	MF	SWE	Erik Friberg	27	Bologna	Transfer	Winter	(~ 5.0M SEK)[77]	mff.se
28	FW	SWE	Alexander Nilsson	21	Trelleborgs FF	Loan	Winter	—	mff.se
32	DF	SWE	Pa Konate	19	Östers IF	Loan	Winter	—	mff.se
19	FW	GHA	Benjamin Fadi	18	IFK Värnamo	Loan	Winter	—	mff.se
26	FW	SWE	Petter Thelin	19	Skellefteå FF	Loan	Winter	—	mff.se
29	DF	SWE	Tobias Malm	22	Östersunds FK	Loan	Winter	—	mff.se
24	DF	SWE	Mahmut Özen	25	Kayseri Erciyesspor	Loan	Summer	—	mff.se
5	DF	SWE	Pontus Jansson	23	Torino	Transfer	Summer	(~ 4.5M SEK)[78]	mff.se
3	DF	CHI	Miiko Albornoz	23	Hannover 96	Transfer	Summer	(~ 15.0M SEK)[79]	mff.se

The losses of Jansson (23), Albornoz (23), and Hamad (23) are undenibly huge, as is getting Mehmeti (24) back. The loss of Dahlin (27) would be huge if there wasn’t an adequate back, but there is. Bringing Tinnerholm (23) in will help with the loss of Albornoz, but he’s not a player that is going to help them qualify for the group stages of the Champions League. All you have to do is look at the price differential to see that a lot of quality was lost. 22.6 M SEK worth of talent has gone out. Some of that money can go toward wages to keep talent longer, and some can go toward the youth academy. I understand planning for the long term, but I’d also like to see MFF qualify for the group stages, and after being thumped last year by Swansea, and the dismal display against FK Ventspils yesterday, I just don’t see that happening for at least a couple of years. Of course, they need to keep winning the league to even have a shot at the group stage. Of course, a run in the Europa League would be nice, but I can’t see MFF challenging for the title with English and Italian teams starting to take the competition more seriously.

Not all of the transfers have made it to FIFA14. In fact, many have not. After the first transfer window, I was not able to get Mehmeti or Adu, because the game still has him on loan. I was not able to get rid of Albornoz (I could have cut him, but that seemed silly). I was able to get Tinnerholm and Thelin. I’m hoping to finish off making MFF look like the real life team in the winter transfer window. Perhaps I’ll have that ready by next week when I’m reporting on whether MFF has made it through to the next qualification round.

MFF next plays in the Champions League in Latvia, on Tuesday, July 22 at noon US ET.

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