Stevens subbed on at 65 mins, and Francis de Vries at 89 mins, as Värnamo start their Swedish 2nd tier season with a 2-0 loss at Landskrona. Already 2-0 when both Kiwis came on. Landskrona like Värnamo, promoted from last year's 3rd tier.
Subbed off at 74 mins in a 2-1 win over GIF Sundsvall. Score 1-1 when he came off. Francis De Vries subbed on at 81 mins (score 1-1). Värnamo join Garbett's Falkenbergs on 3 points, after 2 games.
Värnamo (1st) continue their roll with a top of the table 1-0 win, over GAIS (2nd). Long long way to go, but be a cool story if they manage consecutive promotions with their 2 Kiwis.
Stevens subbed off at 73 mins (1-0). Full game Francis de Vries.
In a weird one, Värnamo (1st) win 1-0 over Akropolis (last), to stay top of the table. Goal scored in 2nd minute, with goal scorer shown a straight red at 14 mins. Stevens who started, then 1 of two subs made early at 28 mins. Presume tactical as down to 10 men.
Little odd, with both Stevens & De Vries missing from the match day squad as Värnamo (2nd) beat Vasalund (14th), 1-0.
Maybe just some squad rotation, having only played 3 days ago. Swedish lower leagues did start season late due to Covid, so looks like a few 3 games in a week scenarios coming up.
Subbed off at 72 mins (score 0-0) in a 2-0 win over 2nd placed Landskrona. Full game Francis de Vries.
So a hugely important win for Värnamo who go top of the table, for now. Still 13 rounds left, and the top 5 sides are separated by just 4 points. Spots 3-5 have a game in hand.
1st spot gets automatically promoted, and 2nd into playoffs. Tense finish to the season coming up.
Season over in Swedish 2nd tier. Unfortunately Värnamo (1st & promoted) & the Kiwis don't get the finish the want with a 1-2 home loss to Norrby (4th). Stevens an unused sub & de Vries full game.
Norrby with the higher game day motivation, as they were chasing 3rd spot (promotion playoff), but even with the win suffer heartbreak of missing playoff spot on GD. Värnamo still win league clearly by 6 points, from GIF Sundsvall (2nd also promoted). FYI - Matt Garbett's former club Falkenbergs (last) got relegated to 3rd tier. Consecutive relegations for them, polar opposite of Värnamo with back to back promotions.
From afar you would think Stevens position at promoted Värnamo, next season more iffy than Kiwi mate de Vries. He's obviously capable of a odd worldy it seems Stevens. In the top flight? We wait & see?
Over 30 match season, he was in 21 match day squads, with 12 starts. But his last start was 12th September, and he was often subbed off early (only finished 2 games). Two goals. https://us.soccerway.com/players/joel-stevens/215100/
Big off season for Värnamo, as they’ll need to do a lot to get ready for Allsvenskan, which starts around April next year.
Their head coach, Robin Asterhed, has taken up the role of chief scout at Malmö. 34-year-old Asterhed was only in his first season as a head coach this year, so they might be a little annoyed he is already leaving, though he is a Malmö fan and came through coaching there from U11s to U19s, so understandable he’d want to go back there. Being such a small club could make finding a good replacement difficult, but the allure of Allsvenskan could be tempting for a coach who wants a team that’ll have no real expectations to do well. Asterhed mentioned copying the blueprint of Bodø/Glimt in Norway as a possible goal, in being a small club but beating the big boys by being smarter.
They’ll also need to upgrade their stadium, as they, possibly unsurprisingly, don’t meet the Allsvenskan stadium requirements, being a town of 20,000 that has never played in that league before. Similarly, they’ll probably have to go on a employment spree, as they currently have a set-up closer to a third-tier side than a top-tier. They have as many full time staff in any capacity as Malmö have video analysts (3). Of course, Malmö are aiming to compete in the Champions League, so Värnamo won’t need to replicate them, but will still need to improve.
They had apparently the third lowest player-wage budget in Superettan this season, so would be by far the lowest in Allsvenskan next season. It will be interesting to see what they do, whether they show faith in those that got them the league title, or be more ruthless and try to sign better players with their top-tier pull. If that’s the case, Stevens could be someone who could fall by the wayside, though I’m sure he’ll see it as an opportunity to play at a top tier European league in a World Cup year.
Joel Stevens unfortunately among nine players released by IFK Värnamo at the end of their fairytale season. Helped the club achieve back-to-back promotions. Scored twice this season included this one👇 https://t.co/4ecrlpYed8
Joel Stevens unfortunately among nine players released by IFK Värnamo at the end of their fairytale season. Helped the club achieve back-to-back promotions. Scored twice this season included this one👇 https://t.co/4ecrlpYed8
Unfortunate for the lad, but was always going to be a 50/50 on whether he was going to be signed up again (even as a squaddie) given the drift in and out of squads this season past.
Nonetheless, hopefully he'll have a few suitors lining him up from the Superettan.
"Big ol’ kia ora to Joel Stevens who is back on the scene with Swedish third tier club Oskarshamns AIK. Released by Värnamo after they were promoted to the top flight but he’s sticking around in the country having signed with a team who actually lost a preseason friendly to Värnamo 5-0 back in early February.
Oskarshamns finished third last year in the southern conference of the Swedish First Division that Stevens won with Värnamo back in 2020 so they should be pretty competitive. New season starts straight after the international break. This is also the same conference of the same division as where Ljungskile are with their trio of Ole Academy lads (Otto Ingham, Robert Sabo & Kees Sims). Should be fun."
Good to see him get picked up by another club over there, but perhaps a little disappointing it's not in the 2nd tier. Was a starter at that level for a lot of the first part of last season and only really got relegated back to the bench towards the back end of Värnamo's league winning push.
Still, good on him, and best of luck to him with his new club.
Agree. Fairly disappointing to be back in the 3rd tier after winning promotion to the top league. Hopefully he continues to do well and wins a contract somewhere higher up the football pyramid
Stevens has played 2 games (out of 5) to date for Oskarshamns AIK (7th) in the Ettan South Group (Swedish 3rd tier).
South group is actually the same region as Ljungskile (4th, with 3 ex Ole guys), plus as it turns out also the peripatetic Jesse Edge. So 5 Kiwi guys floating around this Division. One level above Torslanda (with it's large ex Ole crew) in the large 4th tier with all it's different pub regional leagues.
Edit - Stevens off at 67 mins (score 2-0) in a 3-0 loss. Stevens himself was only subbed on at 18 mins (so got 50 mins total) at 0-0 for a injured team mate.
