Landskrona Bois is a newcomer in the Superettan after being promoted from Division 1 South in 2020. Back in the second highest series, the striped team has been successful, as they lead the series 13 rounds with eight wins and only one loss.
Bois is currently in a suite of five straight victories in the Superettan – most recently 2-0 at home against Gif Sundsvall – and club manager Michel Ekberg testifies that there is a good summer atmosphere in the city after a little less than half the series played.
– We probably feel good, both in town and at IP. That’s absolutely. We are happy with our performances so far, and have had a good pressure on the stands during the last matches. So it’s fun, he says to Fotbollskanalen.
Could you even expect it to go so well?
– No, we probably could not have expected that. We know we have high quality in the player group, but that we would be so consistent with good performances right through … It’s fun to see.
But despite now topping the Superettan table after almost half the series has been played, Landskrona will not revise for its goal for the return season in the Superettan.
– No, we have the same goal as we had when we entered the season: we should have enough points to play elite football in 2022. That’s what it’s about. That is what we are striving for. Then we have full focus on our performance goals, if we do it right it will give us points, says Michel Ekberg.
At the same time, Landskrona is in a deceptive situation when it comes to the contract situation for several of the key players in the squad. Players such as Kevin Jensen and Sumar Almadjed, who have both been clear starting players during the season, are on outgoing contracts and have been linked with Allsvenskan clubs.
How does a superettan club that is financially pressured but at the same time has the chance to go up in the Allsvenskan – do you aim to sell and bring in much-needed money or do you keep the key players while risking losing them as a boss this winter?
– There are two good players that you mention (Jensen and Almadjed), who really have agreements that expire after the season. But where we are now, it’s about letting everyone focus on performing every week. Should something turn up, we must take a position on it, and what it means to us in such cases. But our attitude now before Västerås away on Sunday is that the squad we step into with Västerås is with us all autumn. That’s where we are right now. It takes something extraordinary for us to do something other than that, says Ekberg.
At the same time, Landskrona Bois has had a strained economy with negative equity as recently as last winter. Is there an aspect that player sales could mean that important money comes in to the club?
– It is as you say, our economy is problematic, or how to put it. We have a negative equity that we will restore during the season. The forecast I have made means that we are able to do it through sufficiently large revenues on other things than selling players. That forecast means that we will be able to handle this without having to sell any players. That’s what I work for. In this situation, I can not speculate in any player sales, I focus on other pieces to get it together.
At the same time, superettan clubs can make good money by selling players up the hierarchy. Is there anything you are looking at doing more going forward?
– What we want to focus on is that Landskrona Bois should be a very good environment to develop in as a football player, where you can perform both in the short and long term. It will obviously cause interest from other clubs. We are aware of that. Then we need to be wise together with those players so that it becomes a good environment for them, says Ekberg.
He continues:
– Primarily, I think that most of those who play in a striped shirt right now see great opportunities with the season we are in the middle of. I think there are many who think it is really, really nice. There are not many in our squad, if any, who have been in this situation before. I think you are quite happy where you are, even if you obviously have ambitions.
In recent years, several talented players have appeared in the striped jersey without Landskrona Bois getting paid much for them – where players like Jonatan Levi and Erik Pärsson both left the club for free and then performed in other clubs.
– This is an area we want to improve. But we who are sitting here now have not been backwards, so I can not really answer why they have not managed to get paid. It is clear that we have an ambition that we will get a good compensation for the players who may leave us. Then you will not get compensation for everyone, no club will get it. We are working on that. We are more foresighted and extend the agreements much earlier now, but we also have the financial conditions to do so. It’s a game we have to deal with. I think we are getting better and better and have a much higher degree of continuity today, which means that we have the opportunity to make wise decisions going forward.
Now there are 17 rounds left of the series, but what would it have meant for you to go up in the Allsvenskan from an economic point of view?
– The central funds are of course increasing, there is quite a big difference. There is a distribution within the Sef family of 75-25 between the Allsvenskan and the Superettan. Only there do you have a big discrepancy. Then, of course, the interest in the association will increase, and so on. So, of course, an advancement would mean another financial platform, there is no talking about it. Then we have challenges with our arena, it is not approved for all-Swedish play. There we have other parts we need to address in such cases. But it’s an issue that, to be honest, we have not started to cave in yet, we are focusing on trying to continue to perform at the level it is now. Then maybe it can become a reality we should have with us.
Michel Ekberg concludes:
– Now we have soon played half the series. All credit to the players, they show that they can challenge any team in this series. We will not stop having that ambition, because now we have soon met everyone once, so we know we can.
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