Once again I applied for the role of the Sweden NT manager.
We had decent results in the last two seasons. Objectively both seasons saw results in the higher tier - relatively to the NT history, but as I said, I want to break through the upper ceiling of the team's performances so far.
At the euros in the S69 we finished 4th in the group, an equalized achievement from seasons 65, 61, 47 and 13, and only behind a third place in a distant season 33. Obviously I want us to get higher and to qualify for the top 12 (so 2nd place) for the first time in swedish BB history. But that takes time and is far from guaranteed. 18yo draftees from when I first became manager are now 26 yo, so it is evident, that NT takes time to build. And I must emphasize, that the previous manager, Stokes, did a very good job as well, and I did not start from point 0.
Last season at the consolation tournament was also quite decent. Finishing 18th after the round robin was a solid achevement, topped only by placements in seasons 52, 42 and 20. So we have put together two decent seasons now, a sign of consistency and better overall quality, which will, as I have said numerous times, only grow from now on. The most important result of the last two seasons is continuous progress of 18-26 year old players.
For the next two years I still cannot realistically hope for some breakthroughs, since we still havent resolved our lack in depth with high players. I would aim for two more decent seasons, so to preserve consistency, and improve our rating a little. Progress is never linear though and typically one or two games determine the success of the season, so some noise is always expected.
We have some reserve with our friendly matches (which contribute to ranking in small amount), which are very commonly lost, even to much worse opponents. I rather deal with off-season checks of the younglings over a longer period, since I never know if I will have the time in the exact one offseason week. This means many dismisses of players, leading to the minimum enthusiasm and consequentially bad results. At this stage, I still don't believe such marginal gains would be important for us, though, so I rather take care of the future and not care much about my win to loss ratio which is heavily influenced by friendlies.
I generally have very good experience when communicating with domestic (and also many foreign) managers, so I wouldn't reapply, if I wasn't convinced I have the support of those, who contribute to the development of the NT. However, I saw that my general support has lately fallen to below 50%, and I would very much like to hear some complaints, if there are some, and if those "don't supports" aren't just "because". I realize it is difficult for a foreign manager to have a consistent support. At least in slovenian BB community (or in most large-ish BB communities world-wide) foreign manager has never taken care of either U21 or senior NT, so no hard feelings if you decide for a domestic manager. I actually find it odd, that no experienced swedish manager has appied for the position in a very long time, but to be honest, this is fine by me, since I am very interested to manage the swedish NT further for several more seasons.
Last edited by Deschamps at 1/23/2026 4:17:45 AM