In Sweden, the national football league, Allsvenskan, is played during the Spring/Autumn seasons, and not the Autumn/ Spring like the major leagues in other European areas. The argument for playing the season in reverse order to the rest of Europe is simple. It’s due to the cold climate in winter making it hard to play football.
The result is that the Swedish Silly Season plays out a lot different from the, let’s say, Italian, German, English or Spanish Silly Season. The major leagues have a longer transfer window during the summer and a short one of one month in January.
Swedish Silly Season is the opposite. The summer window is incredibly short while the winter off-season is really long. This has both many benefits and disadvantages. During the Winter Swedish teams can play it cool waiting until the major transfer window is closed, and then, in an almost non-competitive environment, pick players that are still looking for new adventures.
This Silly Season is extra interesting because of the Champions from last year, Malmö FF, lost half their team as Bosman. Players who helped the team to take three league titles in four years plus reaching the Champions’ League Group stage twice has left the club for free. Notable examples are Jo Inge Berget, Anton Tinnerholm, Magnus Wolff Eikrem and ErdalRakip. Malmö also sold their best player from last year when Anders Christiansen was bought by the Belgian team Genk.
The most Swedish champions have bought a lot of players to replace their former stars and it’s not just anybody who will be joining the club in front of the fans at “Stadion”. Icelandic midfielder Traustason joined from a free transfer as well as SörenRieks and Bachirou. Three former star players from Allsvenskan rivals that joined the Champions. Two defenders also were brought in to bring strength to the squad.
Other teams that are looking to strengthen their team up and in some ways already have, is AIK and Norrköping. AIK from Stockholm is looking to beat Malmö but with an economy with less than 20% of Malmös total cash balance, it’s not going to be easy.
The Champions from 2015, IFK Norrköping, bought former Malmö- and AIK player Simon Thern who is the son of Swedish bronze hero Jonas Thern. With his speed and his calm feet, Norrköping has gotten a skilled player with a ton of experience on the highest level in Swedish football.
Östersund, the fairy-tale team from Northern Sweden, lost their midfielder Bachirou to Malmö but has a strong team and are looking to expand. Östersund are playing Arsenal in the play offs in Europa League and even though they most likely won’t relegate The Gunners, Östersund can look back with pride knowing they went against all odds going through from the group stage.
Malmö are biggest favourites to win the gold medal once again but with half the team gone it’s goingto be tough. The quality from the new players are the same but to get a new team ready in just a few months can be a struggle especially when the coach targets can put a lot of pressure on the players. Malmö coach Magnus Pehrsson said in an interview with local newspaper Sydsvenskan that the goal is to win the league, cup and reach the group stage of Champions League. Will he succeed?