Arsenal all the way to Glory: An Experiment with a New Way of Using Assistant Managers in FM

[The Chosen One]

Originally posted by Luke Hearn:

I dont want to read 'guides' - that feels too much like cheating to me. I prefer the concept of using this thread to get some feedback from you guys as ass. managers - as i said at the top, its something you dont get enough of in the game. What screenshots would you like exactly? Just the formation?

The guide is just glossary. ANd how on earth is glossary is cheat? anyways. Formation and team squad would do.

[GreyedOutMan]

Clichy simply wasnt performing, simple as. And Traore - the offer was very good for a player with average stats who hadnt played yet, but I admit that might have been a mistake. Sagna, possibly, but I thought Alves was meant to be good - he sure is IRL!

CB - Toure: got £20m for him early in season 1 and wanted Mertesacker, who did a great job. Djourou does still seem to be a decent player, but is still in the reserves and more a "potential" player even now. Richards and Garay are doing great there.

MR - think I agree with RVP. We'll see what happens when Nani is fit, though, he was player of the year two years running whilst at United. I object to buying Lennon

ML - Silva i did try to get but didnt have the money at the time and i believe he went to Inter. Not sure about Fernandez - either way I now have plenty of wingers.

MC - WHY would I ever sell Cesc?! Not a chance. Diaby has done really well lately, and he was player of the year last year. When Riquelme retires/goes crap, he'll probably be my first choice. I dont like Denilson alongside Fabregas either in FM or IRL - not enough muscle. Denilson can come in when Cesc is injured, and only then!

DMC - yeah, once Riquelme goes I might invest here. Though I think Diaby, with a bit of re-training, could do a job. Either way, I'll need cover.

ST - Eduardo now has 92 goals in just under 3 seasons - I believe that counts as performing! As i said before, all games are different. Vela - yes. Aguero I have bought before but he's expensive and unnecessary with Vela around.

Walcott is never any good for me in this game, and I sold him recently to Juve for £13.75m. Admittedly he was improving, but too slowly for me.

Bendtner was a legend for a few months, but I didnt know if he could sustain it and £20m at the time transformed my finances. Adebayor stayed for 2 seasons but never really impressed - 26 goals in 2 seasons really isnt what you need, and Eduardo/Vela partnership is blossoming nicely.

Not going to comment on the ridiculous Anelka/Owen/Henry comment - you must be joking!

There are players in the reserves/youths - Rhys Murphy in particular has been good in previous games, and is starting to bloom at the moment, and players such as Nordveit and various young signings are looking nearly ready to make the step up. With Sidnei and Sakho too, I'm thinking that time is short for the likes of Lescott, Senderos, Coloccini and perhaps Bodmer....

[GreyedOutMan]

Enough? You can see my whole squad there as well as tactics...

[GreyedOutMan]

Sorry, i know the last one was mega small!

[GreyedOutMan]

PS - nicknames for Eduardo's are just to tell them apart, though I quite like the way I managed to get the "da" which is part of the Croatian's full name anyway!

[GreyedOutMan]

First of all a bit of news. Simon Vukcevic, who I signed back in 2008 for £6.5m, but who didn’t get a work permit, accepted a new contract for which he did get a WP. So I recalled him from Salamanca, where he’d been performing at 7.43 AvR, to solve my left wing crisis. He came straight into the team for his debut against Villa, whilst Adriano was left out altogether as he still lacked form despite a speculative move forward to the wing. Might look into offloading him and/or Alves at the end of the season if I can recoup most of my money.

14.04.10 Arsenal v Aston Villa – Premiership

Big game here. After consecutive Prem draws, we need to find the winning touch and make sure that the last six games bring maximum points. They ought to, its not a tough run-in. Vukcevic’s arrival was welcome relief to the injury crisis which has three wingers indisposed as well as Riquelme. He’s been doing really well in Spain and his stats rival anyone in the side. Arsenal’s new number 24 was raring to go, unusual though it might be for a debut to occur in April!

After we dominated for the first half-hour, we paid for our lack of chance-conversion as Angel di Maria opened the scoring on 35’. We needed to step up the performance, and van Persie was the most disappointing with a ‘5’, though Diaby, Eduardo and Vukcevic also had lowly ‘6’ ratings. They got a kick up the backside and the same team went out with clear instructions that better was expected of them. It came immediately, with van Persie equalizing within seconds of the restart. He then had another couple of shots which went close, and it looked like there was only one team likely to win the game. On 67’, with Eduardo under-par, Murphy replaced him, and Denilson came on for Fabregas, who seems to be tiring at the end of a long season, though still his performances are not dipping. Moments later, however, Diaby received a second yellow and his marching orders – is it me or are there too many red cards in this game? I really did need the points though, so I moved to three at the back and pushed Eduardo the defender who can play on the left wing up to...well....the left wing, and moved Vukcevic inside in the hope that he might have more luck just behind the front two. The moment we got a goal, I thought, he could drop back and play a more conservative role next to Denilson. It was adventurous, playing a 3-3-1-2 formation, but there were only 17 minutes to go and a draw wasn’t good enough. And in fact I was even more sure that it had to be done when the free-kick which resulted from Diaby’s red card ended up in the back of the net and I found myself 2-1 down at home to Villa with just 15 minutes to go. Realistically, this meant that I needed two goals in quarter of an hour to retain even the faintest hope of reaching the holy grail of Champions’ League qualification this year. The goals didn’t come, however, and despite having three times as many shots, I feel at this stage I must accept that its UEFA Cup at best for Arsenal in 2010-11. And Vukcevic was disappointing. For the time being, at least, he is no more than emergency cover - which is what he was today.

FINAL SCORE: ARSENAL 1 – 2 Aston Villa AFC Scorers: van Persie.

[GreyedOutMan]

Youngster Vincent van den Berg returned from a loan spell at Brighton which he claims to have enjoyed. Six goals in sixteen starts at 7.13 indicate that it was a success, but his attributes show definitively that he will never make it, and he will not be offered a new contract at the end of the season when his current deal expires.

17.04.10 Arsenal v Fulham – Premiership

Alves returned for the visit of Fulham, meaning that Richards could revert to his familiar centre-back role, and Mertesacker dropped to the bench. With Diaby suspended, Bodmer came into the midfield, as Denilson and Fabregas is not a combination I have any confidence in. Vukcevic retained his place in front of Aissati as I felt one poor performance wasn’t enough to judge him on, and Aissati hasn’t been setting the world alight lately. I cant wait to get Nani firing on all cylinders next season and start justifying the price tag he came with. Teixeira, too, would be useful now – he, at least, can score goals from the wing, something that has sadly been lacking from the team this season – still no-one but Vela and Eduardo have more than 4 goals (38 each, for those who are counting).

Fulham set up very attacking, with 3 AMC’s behind Leroy Lita up front. “This should be an easy enough task, shouldn’t it? Especially with a first-choice centre-back pairing of Garay and Richards who I can trust to keep Lita quiet, and Eduardo and Alves should be able to deal with Kamara and Barnetta on the wings, so I guess its just Dempsey in AMC who should worry me. I’ll tell the team not to allow him any space.â€

Worked a treat. Dempsey saw a lot of the ball but didn’t create much, more often than not passing the ball sideways. Vela opened the scoring on 19’, and we reached half-time without much alarm. Soon after half time, a rare headed goal saw Micah Richards get in on the act, and of course Eduardo couldn’t miss out either. Even Vukcevic saw an opportunity to get off the mark, and it was 4-0 before ten minutes of the second half had gone with three goals in seven minutes. That was to be the end of the scoring as the Gunners took their foot off the gas a little, but a very good performance all-round, with 9 ratings of ‘8’. Good to see two players other than the normal names on the score sheet. That can’t have happened in a long time! Certainly not since long before I started this ‘blog’. Lets hope this is a turning point - though the Champions League has all but gone now, we need to start hitting some form ahead of the cup final, and we're only just behind Newcastle in 5th. For the record, United's win at Birmingham confirmed that Chelsea's stranglehold on the Premiership trophy since I arrived at Arsenal has been broken - United are the Champions for 2009-10.

FINAL SCORE ARSENAL 4 – 0 Fulham AFC Scorers: Vela, Richards, Eduardo, Vukcevic.

[GreyedOutMan]

Sorry that wasnt clear - that was Eduardo da Striker who scored against Fulham, not da Defender!

[GreyedOutMan]

...oh and Vukcevic picked up the man of the match award - perhaps he's more than an emergency cover after all????

[GreyedOutMan]

That’s all for now folks, I’m turning in. Tune in again tomorrow for the exciting climax to the season, culminating in a Wembley final! Then hopefully a successful summer in the transfer market, with top targets being a good DMC, possibly replacing both full-backs, and just possibly a young striker as cover for the stars of the side, Vela and Eduardo, but not necessarily – Murphy hasn’t looked bad, chipping in with 4 goals in only 4 starts, and Doyle has 3 from 3 starts. We’ve been lucky this year though, with neither Eduardo nor Vela getting any long-term injuries. 39 each now...wonder if they’ll both end up with the same number? But once again, the worry is the next level on the goalscorers charts: van Persie, Fabregas, Murphy and Riquelme all have 4, and Richards, Teixeira and Doyle are on 3 each. We need more goals from other players. Perhaps I need to up the ‘attacking’ and ‘shooting’ training for the defensive and midfield players....will be doing that before I turn in! Nighty-night all!

League Table (Top 6)

C Man Utd P34 85pts

2 Chelsea P35 72pts

3 Liverpool P34 68pts

4 Everton P34 67pts

5 ARSENAL P34 57pts

6 Newcastle P33 56pts

[GreyedOutMan]

Oh and overnight/tomorrow morning, any feedback on the form of this thread would be really great. Ideally Id like this to be a really long-term project, but I want to keep people interested so let me know what makes it readable and what i need to stop doing. Ideally I'd like this to be running for ages, with people knowing my regens intimately. I once read a thread which did that, and people were saying how great a manager was - that manager had been a regenerated player in an early season, and had just retired from management! Thats the sort of thing I want - I want you guys following me in 2045 when Arsenal are World Champions and are so darn good that they've been invited to actually take part in the World Cup!!!

So let me know what you want to see in this thread - I want to improve it constantly throughout its life.

[sydfc4ever]

mate, maybe you should be putting this in the FM Stories area, you're off to a good start for there.

[Stomalomalus]

Good so far, keep it up Maybe add in some screen shots in your updates, graphics are always welcome

BTW, do you sign many youth players? I always trawl through the regens at the start of each season, pucking up all the good ones. I forgot this season and have had to shell out 2mil to get the good ones! But its worth it in the long run. If you sign all the good youths you should get a monopoly on youth talent, and with Arsenals rep., they should come. Its what Wenger does!

[emgergo]

I never manage big teams (or at least I don't start with them), but looking at your formation it looks really vulnerable to quick counter attacks down the flanks.

Of course, I don't know the individual settings.

But the formation has the danger of both the wingers and the wing backs pushing up, leaving gaps, which a direct passing down the flanks counter attacking can exploit.

Let's see my formation (I use it at a lower level, but the theory is the same).

The attacking part is:

<---AMRC AMLC--->

ST

So if I played against your Arsenal with this tactic, I'd encourage my defenders to directly aim the AMRC/AMLC, who run in to areas your players just deserted by pushing up.

It's of course only a speculation, but I'd like to see a run-down showing what type of attacks you concede the goals from.

[emgergo]

The ST is in the middle, the forum messed it up.

[GreyedOutMan]

Cheers for the feedback, I'll start adding some screenshots. For now I'll just put in the ones I think are good, but if anyone has any particular requests, go ahead. I wanna keep it in this area of the forums because the Ass. man feedback is really helpful. Keep that coming folks.

Youth players - yeah i signed quite a few early on - Sakho, Sideni, a guy called Sankhare etc. I dont really know how to "search the regens" - how can you do that? Is it just a question of searching for all players sub-17? Certianly there are at least 3 or 4 players who might well come good next year.

Formation - wingers and full backs need to push up, thats part of a tradition 4-4-2 philosophy right? That said, when I'm an underdog, I tend to move to a 4-1-3-1-1 formation, very narrow with 3 MCs between a DMC and an AMC, with only one striker. But thats not often - we're talking against the big European teams and occasionally vs. United/Chelsea/Liverpool but not always. I actually have 4 formations: one is for most prem games when I'm expected to win, but its not going to be easy, one is for when I'm an underdog (Big 3 sometimes, or in Europe), 1 is for when I'm a far superior team (such as in the cups against little teams, or Derby!), and one is for really evenly matched sides (Big 3 often, some european teams, occasionally a few domestic sides outside the top 4 such as Newcastle who are doing well). This is a screenshot of all the tactics I use, but the one called "BETTER TEAM" is by far the most common. Oh and "EVENLY MATCHED" is only different to "BETTER TEAM" in the mentality etc, so i havent put that in here.

BETTER TEAM

UNDERDOGS

DOMINATION

[GreyedOutMan]

A bid of £210k came in for Abu Ogogo. He doesn’t look much to me, but his stats are good enough to make me think I could at least get a little more money for him if he stayed a couple more years so I turned it down. Next up was a crucial game at Emirates against Newcastle, who began the day two points ahead of me. I’m ten points behind Everton so this match could see the official end of my Champions’ League ambitions this year. Oh well, I’d quite like another crack at the UEFA Cup anyway, to be frank. We were unlucky to go out to a last minute goal this year and it’s a trophy I know I have a chance of winning.

21.04.10 ARSENAL v Newcastle - Premiership

Despite the availability of Aissati and Adriano, Vukcevic’s good performance in the last match meant that he retained his place on the left wing for this crucial encounter. Diaby came in for Bodmer in the midfield, with next season in mind. His strength ought to toughen the team up a little. The team was told to stick tight to Michael Owen, and put pressure on returning old boy Alex Song in midfield, and see if he might feel the pressure exerted by a lot of boo-ing fans who saw his exit as premature.

The early exchanges were cagey, and the importance of the fixture was obviously a factor. A great ball from Diaby through to Vela after an extended Arsenal attack broke the tension and it was 1-0 Arsenal. A good start, and Vela had hit 40 goals for the season. UP FRONT! That saw us through to half-time, and the players were told to relax a little as the performance up till then had been a little too cautious for my liking. Eduardo, van Persie and Fabregas’ ‘6’ ratings was a reflection of how little they had seen of the ball. Early in the 2nd half, van Persie picked up a knock after a late challenge from N’Zogbia, and with the Cup Final looming, I was cautious, and replaced him with Simpson, after noting that his rating had actually gone up to a ‘7’, which was encouraging. Soon afterwards, a Fabregas free-kick tested Given and it looked like an Arsenal 2nd was moments away, but one Newcastle breakaway led to a Belluschi cross which found you know who, the smallest man on the pitch Michael Owen, to head into an empty net. We had to do it all again. Murphy came on for Vukcevic, and we switched to a very adventurous 4-2-1-3 formation for the last quarter of an hour in search of a victory which would be so vital to our prospects. Despite a lot of pressure, and I think about 100 great saves from the ever-green Shay Given in the Newcastle goal, the goal never came. Once again a lead had been squandered against a rival near the top of the table.

FINAL SCORE ARSENAL 1 – 1 Newcastle AFC Scorers: Vela.

For each game, I’ll include one screenshot. Let me know which ones would be useful. Thought this was probably the best one to start with -

[emgergo]

I use a very similar one to your "underdogs" formation

[GreyedOutMan]

Well i really dont use that often, even against United, Chelsea, and Liverpool it tends to be "EVENLY MATCHED"...

[Stomalomalus]

If you search for players aged under 17 and contract expired there should be all the regens who have yet to sign a contract with their clubs. Then just scout them, and you should pick up some good players and some average ones you can sell on later for a bit of profit

[GreyedOutMan]

Defender Jay-Emmanuel Thomas returned from a loan spell at Southend very frustrated. His performances suggested that the Championship was, if anything, too high a level for him. He wont make it. Next day, a treat was in store as Adebayor played his 30th league game for Valencia, triggering a payment of £1.3m into the coffers. Gotta be good. And another 15 goals for them, and we’ll get another £2.6m, not to mention 40% of his next transfer fee.

Sunderland were next up at Emirates in my fourth of five home games in the last six. So far, four points from three of those games doesn’t make for happy reading. However, nine points from games against Sunderland, Reading and Derby would guarantee UEFA Cup football next year, and if by some miracle, Everton lost all four of their remaining games, we’d sneak into the Champions’ League. Not going to happen! No matter, 5th wouldn’t be bad with a side going through a major transition. Riquelme came into the team for Fabregas after some poor form, but other than that, the team stayed as it had been for the last match. All that really stood in my way in this match was Craig Gordon, who is the main reason why my record against Sunderland is only P6, W2, D2, L2, as we have only managed a total of six goals each against each other in those games. My defence were told to stick tight to Jermain Defoe, who is always a threat, and the game got underway.

Riquelme’s corner after 9 minutes saw a penalty-box scramble before the opener was turned in by Vela. What a player he’s turning into! Van Persie went close from distance near the end of the half, and then Eduardo’s legitimate goal was somehow ruled offside, but other than that there was little incident in the first half. Even the commentary on the match report said “It did look like a valid goal†– that will be a major issue after the game if we lose! Not a chance he was offside! In the second half, van Persie picked up another niggle, and was once again withdrawn in favour of Simpson. At the same time, the usual Riquelme substitution. However, though normally Bodmer would have been the player to replace him, with Diaby having replaced Fabregas for this game, Denilson came on in an effort to hold on to a precious lead. However, even before the assistant referee could let him on, Kenwyne Jones slid through to equalize for Sunderland. Oh dear. I left things as they were until the 80th minute, when I simply had to go for it. Murphy replaced Diaby and we went to a very attacking 4-3-3 – very unusual for me, but needs must, and I had to trust in Denilson to hold things tight in the centre whilst Vukcevic and Simpson pushed forward for a goal, and the full backs pushed forward, too. However, once again a goal came before the substitution could be completed, with Vukcevic slamming one into the bottom corner. A vital goal. I couldn’t retract the substitution, but I did push the full backs more defensive, take Vela out wide and take the wingers’ runs out, leaving a flat 4-4-2 formation for the remaining 10 minutes. Sunderland had one chance in the 93rd minute, but it went wide of the goal and we were 3 points closer to securing 5th spot, with a gutsy, battling performance. The next day, Everton’s victory at home to Aston Villa confirmed that was the best we could hope for, however, but Newcastle’s defeat at Boro had put us in pole position for it.

FINAL SCORE ARSENAL 2 – 1 Sunderland AFC Scorers: Vela, Vukcevic.

Oh and Man Utd fans were left heartbroken later in the week as Fergie moved closer to quitting his job and Steve McClaren was being linked to the hotseat, and this was compounded by Real Madrid’s 1-0 win at Old Trafford which proving fatal after a 2:2 draw at the Bernebeu in the 2nd leg put Real into the final and condemned United to another season of European mediocrity!!

[GreyedOutMan]

Valencia then beat Inter 3-2 on aggregate (with Adebayor getting a crucial 2nd leg goal for them) to confirm an all-Spanish Champions League Final at The Millennium Stadium, Cardiff. Valencia have done well this year, beating Liverpool in the group phase before pushing aside Bayern, Chelsea and Inter in the later rounds. The UEFA Cup final will see Real Betis, who beat Everton on away goals in the Semi, against Bordeaux, who so nearly threw away a 3-0 first leg lead, losing 3-1 in the return game in Turkey against Fenerbahce.

As for Arsenal, only Reading (away) and a final game at home to Derby now came before a third consecutive FA Cup Final in 2 weeks’ time. But with six points required to secure 5th place, they were vital matches, and Reading have been no pushover’s this year – as we pulled through the gates into the Madejski Stadium, our hosts stood in the top half of the table. Derby, however have been relegated for some time (along with Wigan and West Ham, with Middlesbrough a full 8 points clear in 17th), and shouldn’t cause too many problems. It was this final away game of the season which was the pressure match. Cesc came back into the midfield in place of Diaby, who dropped to the bench. Within three minutes – guess who? – Carlos Vela opened the scoring. However, we were pegged back only 4 minutes later by a Matt Derbyshire equalizer from a long ball from Sakho. Hint of offside was suggested, but not given. We seemed to have lost our way and indeed after 21 minutes Frazer Campbell put Reading ahead, before grabbing another goal in injury time at the end of the half. Not good at all, and my previously miserly defence has been really quite leaky in recent weeks. Some more woeful defending led to more pressure at the start of the 2nd half and a penalty conceded which Reading tucked away. Campbell then scored a fifth but was ruled offside. We were falling apart at the seams, it was embarrassing. Van Persie made way for Murphy and we switched to ultra-offensive 4-2-1-3 to try to salvage something from apparently a lost cause. Vela did pull a goal back but was ruled offside, and I knew then that it wasn’t to be. Oddly enough we hadn’t played that badly, it was just a case of too many defensive lapses. We had 56% of the possession, and another disallowed goal in injury time meant things could have been very different. But possession does not equal victory, and when your top striker gets a ‘4’, you’re not likely to win a match!

FINAL SCORE Reading 4 – 1 ARSENAL AFC Scorers: The usual suspect!

[llama3]

Originally posted by Luke Hearn:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">pouplin and hart are decent but u cud do better, alves overrated, adriano and eduardo are poor choices, you have better to start with. coloccini, lescott, are poor signings. van persie is not really a right midfielder, wud do far better with a new proper MR in there, riquelme unbalances the midfield, regardless of how well he has done he unbalances the side, bodmer is ok, aissati i have never been convinced by. doyle, kiessling are bad signings, teixeira is taking up a place in the squad.

there are most of ur errors, sorry mate but u ahve let good players (clichy, sagna, traore, adebayor) go and got not so good in for them

Pouplin has been a revelation! Hart was bought as cover when Lloris was sold - couldnt hold on to him because he was unhappy as Pouplin was keeping him out of the side and I got a good offer. Alves and Adriano, probably overrated, but I didnt realise that. Eduardo is doing really well, and he's one for the future. Coloccini and Lescott...fair enough, especially Collocini, though Lescott has done OK when called on this year. Van Persie has improved no end since moving to the wing, and couldnt score for love nor money up front. If Riquelme unbalances the side why is it that Fab, van P, Aissati etc and the strikers are doing so well? Aissati is young, and as I say, he's not really my first choice. Doyle and Kiessling, yeah I know, though Doyle has done well lately at last. Teixeira cost nothing and I'm not paying much to him in wages, and he's done a good job at times, even though he's not exactly been the best player lately. Hopefully he'll come back next season after his loan spell and do better.

As for the other players....they just werent doing that well! For the money I got for them....Clichy in particular, I felt that Adriano was a better player, and so he had to move on. Perhaps that was wrong, but Adriano came with a good reputation and good-looking stats...thats how you spot good players, right? Sagna wasnt doing very well and £20m for an under-performer isnt really something you wanna miss out on. Traore perhaps was a mistake but I'm not sure he was quite first-choice material. Certainly he's not as good as Adriano should be. And as for Adebayor....I dont have space for a striker who doesnt score, and with Eduardo and Vela both likely to get more than 40 goals this year....come on! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

to be honest though with your team not performing as well as it could and indeed should be you do have to look at problems in player personnel - once again riquelme unbalances the side, and thats got nothing to do with how well the other midfielders play, it leaves you caught too far forward, if you can lose 4-1 to spurs it shows you have defensive issues, and your first choice defence shouldnt concede that many. once again having riquelme and fabregas in midfield means u dont have a guy who can protect the defence. all good managers build from the back. a good defence will save you many points a season, and get you points even if your attackers cant score. i mean look at wenger's midfield, always contains a defensive-minded or box-to-box midfielders, vieira, petit, grimandi, gilberto, flamini, edu, fabregas, diaby, denilson - none of these are attacking midfielders.

if clichy isnt playing well that smacks of a tactical error, clichy is easy to get playing well. adebayor again doesnt take much to get playing well, just decent service, which leads me back on to van persie and aissati. even if rvp is scoring more out there is it a significant amount more to justify having less service to up front from the right wing?

and aside form this its not healthy for club finances to waste this much on 2nd class talent.

my arsenal side has made 1 big transfer, the rest were all perfectly reasonable. £35m on Micah Richards, £14.25m Omar Esparza, £7m Luka Modric, (free) Giovani, etc etc and i have promoted loads of kids, got some really cheap regens who cost no more than £2m each. and my side is flying. i went on a 38 game winning streak, my record in europe reads: Champions League winners (twice), semis (once), quaters (once) out of 4 forays. won plenty of cups, and lowest points haul in the premier league is 88 points in first season.

this is all on the basis of defence first.

[GreyedOutMan]

RvP isnt scoring more, but Vela and Eduardo definitely are, and clearly he's providing good service. 9 assists, and an AvR of around 7, which isnt half bad. But theres clearly plenty of service for the strikers - they have 23 assists each between them, and Fab and Riquelme have 36 between them, so I think this criticism of the legendary Juan Roman is a little harsh.

As for spending money - if its there, why not? With the exception of Alves and Adriano, they've all been a success so far.

But I do take the point about the defensive midfielders. Diaby is improving in that role and might make the step up, and I'll be looking for a DMC at least as cover for him over the summer. But I think him and Cesc will be able to form a good partnership.

And will people stop talking about people I've sold? Yes, Adebayor was good, but why on earth would I care about him now when Eduardo and Vela have now managed over 80 goals between them this season?! Clichy played in the same system we're playing now, and he was OK but nothing special, and the offer I got for him was excessive. And defence first - yes we're leaking goals now, but earlier in the season we had the best defence in the league. Richards might well get player of the year if Eduardo misses out, and Garay isnt far behind. They've both played 49 games this season now at an AvR of over 7.

As i have said before, shopping list for the summer looks something like this, assuming none of the stars are sold:

DL

DR

DMC

....I think with those three in, and hopefully Alves and Adriano sold for a profit, we'll be challenging again next year.

[llama3]

i am not saying riquelme is not a good player, its the fact he is in the team that unbalances the side, clearly something is wrong with ur team, or u wudnt have come to here for help. but i am glad u are going to use diaby alongside fabregas, he will complement him well provided your tactics are good. having said this eduardo scoring at that rate is impressive, just try and learn whats right and what needs improving. as for rvp an average rating of 7 should be the minumum you expect, and 9 assists is ok, but for a creative player from wide you would have every right to expect more.

[GreyedOutMan]

After the Reading debacle, the final day looked far from promising. We had to win and hope that Newcastle didn’t. On the face of it, realistic. But who were they playing? Of course it’s the old enemy – gooners cast your minds back to 1999, when Man Utd went to WHL on the last day needing a win to secure the title, and Spurs took the lead. Did anyone dare hope they wouldn’t cave in and lose 2-1? Of course not! Sixth spot, however, should guarantee a place in the UEFA Cup anyway, due to the FA Cup final being between ourselves and the Champions, and anyway, I intend to win the Cup! Alex Hleb complained about his complete lack of first-team football, and I offered him to various clubs for a cut-price of £2m.

9.05.10 Arsenal v Derby - Premiership

For the final, probably meaningless league game of the season, RvP and Joe Hart had picked up injuries. Simpson and Fabianski came in on the right wing and on the bench respectively, and Adriano got a place on the bench too. Good news on the long-term injury front, though, as Nani and Alex Teixeira (hereafter ATex) resumed light training, and will be fully fit for the World Cup, for which Nani is a shoo-in for the Portugal squad, though ATex will probably find himself in the Brazilian U21 squad for the summer. The Derby game marked Richards’ 50th appearance for the club in the league, and we were hot favourites. I told the players to relax and let the result come – frankly it will probably be meaningless anyway, though my eyes will be on the score from St. James’ more than that at Emirates, just in case.

By half time, goals from Arizmendi and Owen had ended any chance of a last-day turnaround. At Emirates, despite peppering the goal for nearly ninety minutes, it wasn’t until the 88th minute that Micah Richards popped up from a corner from Riquelme to head the winner which was, ultimately, meaningless. The squad got a £1.3m collective windfall out of the £15.5m the club were awarded for their final position.

FINAL SCORE ARSENAL 1 – 0 Derby AFC Scorers: Richards.

[GreyedOutMan]

yeah i agree RvP hasnt been exactly fantastic. If I can get a decent amount for him this summer he might be out of the door...

[GreyedOutMan]

Premiership Awards

I'll give you guys some end of season screenies later, but for now:

Top League Goalscorer:

Rooney (36), Eduardo (32), Drogba (29).

In any other season, Eduardo would have won the golden boot, but Rooney has been outstanding, breaking Alan Shearer and Andy Cole's record of 34 goals in a season, a record that had stood for 15 years.

Players' Player of the Year

1. Carlos Vela

2. James Vaughan

3. Diego

Good for Carlos. Perhaps a little harsh on Eduardo, though?

Players' Young Player of the Year

1. Micah Richards

2. Scott Sinclair

3. Giles Barnes

Cant complain - both awards going to Arsenal players. Perhaps a little harsh on Eduardo that he doesnt figure in that list, and also that Vela won POTY, but wasnt named YPOTY - odd one.

Team of the Year

Gordon (Sun)

Evra (MU)

Vidic (MU)

Terry (Che)

Ivanovic (Che)

RvP (Ars)

Diego (MU)

Ronaldo (MU)

Rosina (MCY)

Rooney (MU)

Vela (Ars)

Bench: Cech, Drogba, Mikel, Pandev, Eduardo, Diakhate, Vaughan.

Again, two in the starting XI and one on the bench reflects the good season my players have had - with so many players having such good seasons, the final position of 5th seems strange to me.

Also, as Eduardo got considerably more league goals than Vela, its odd that he beat Eduardo to the first XI for my money, given that this is a premiership XI (for the record, Eduardo ended up with 39 goals, Vela with 42 in all comps).

[GreyedOutMan]

Alex Teixeira returned to full fitness earlier than expected, and soon enough to be drafted in for the Cup Final. Before that, Betis beat Bordeaux despite some element of home advantage (the match was played in Lyon) keep the UEFA Cup in Spain after Real Madrid had won in the previous year. Poor Bordeaux, it was the 2nd time in 3 years they’d lost the final, both times to a team playing in their home country, having lost to Man Utd in 2008 in England (presumably at Old Trafford, actually). Fergie, possibly managing his last match for United in the Cup final and chasing one last ‘double’, tried his usual mid-games before the final, demonstrating his usual arrogance in breathtaking fashion. I told him to shut up, as you do. Of course, the game engine twisted my intentions, claiming that I had said that “although several other managers believed him to be incompetent, I was still largely undecided on the issueâ€. Frankly, utter ****** though he is, I don’t believe I ever said he was “incompetentâ€. Oh well. On to more serious matters at Wembley, where I would be looking to draw level with Man Utd on 11 FA Cup triumphs at last.

15.05.10 ARSENAL v Man Utd – FA CUP FINAL!!

At the last minute, Aissati came in for Vukcevic. Call it instinct, I felt he should be in the team today somehow. I’m honestly writing this before the game starts, so if Aissati scores or gets a man of the match award, I don’t claim to be a particularly great clairvoyant! Either way, it was good to have ATex back on the other side. In another last minute change, I went from my ‘evenly matched’ tactic to my ‘underdog’ tactic, with Fabgregas in a slightly unfamiliar DMC role, which may or may not work out. We were about to find out...

After only seven minutes, a hanging cross resulted in a scramble leading to a Man Utd penalty after a foul on someone (god knows who – could have been an Arsenal player for all I could make out) by Dani Alves. Yes, him again. What a poor season he’s had. Pazzini slotted home the penalty, and we had to come from behind. But don’t forget, I’ve often found myself 2-0 up against these big teams and lost, so all is not lost.

The system clearly wasn’t working though, and Riquelme had picked up a knock so at half-time, he made way for Lescott, which meant that Eduardo could fill in at DMC and Cesc could move forward to his usual role in the centre. It was his final goodbye – he will be leaving this summer. I kept the formation the same, but with the 1-0 scoreline in mind, pushed my full backs forward a touch, and tried to create a little width by having Aissati and ATex running wide, but not forward. Two more yellow cards early in the half took the tally to four. We were losing our discipline, and I was worried. However, my lack of any real muscle on the bench meant that there was no obvious substitution to be made at this stage so I let things lie. I had put Diaby there, but stupidly I had him as the 7th sub, forgetting that the 7 subs is only in the prem/champs league. I also had no sub keeper.

With 15 minutes to go, we were desperate. Eduardo the defender made way for Rhys Murphy in one final push to take the game into extra time. I switched to an attacking 4-3-1-2 formation in pursuit of that golden moment. Murphy squandered a golden opportunity, and a few more decent chances went begging. This wasn’t to be our day, and my wonderful run of never having lost a match apart from on penalties was gone, and for the 3rd consecutive year, Arsenal are the bridesmaids in this competition. Once again, we were probably a shade unlucky. United were by far the better team, but we had chances to nick an equaliser at the end there, and replays, to me anyway, clearly showed that the penalty was harsh. The FA disagreed on this occasion and I will serve a one-match touchline ban at the start of next season.

FINAL SCORE Man Utd 1 – 0 ARSENAL

And the next day I sent the squad on holiday for a month and a half. Transfer dealings to come later tonight when I get home! I want some input from my AssMan (all of you guys)!!!!

[Stomalomalus]

Did Vela get more assissts than Eduardo? If so, that would be why.

If your looking for a LB, you could try to either get Traore back, or bring in Bale, Insua or Kolarov. All excellent youngish players.

Diaby would probably make a good player, but is he world class? Could you post a screenie of his attrtibutes?

BTW, how good has Chris Gunter got? I know hes at spurs, but hes a good young prospect

[GreyedOutMan]

Thought you might find this screen helpful, particularly in terms of my financial position, though this will of course take a large boost with TV money etc.

Expect around £50m in transfer budget plus whatever I recoup from sales. At least - perhaps more.

There will be more end of season summary screens later on, and I'll get my scouts out there looking for some good talent, especially at the World Cup. You'll read it here soon

[GreyedOutMan]

And Stomalomalus, yes I'll do that when I get back. Anyone else with any requests, do ask and I will provide

Will return around 10ish, I expect!

[anagain]

Your level of attention to detail is great and you know how to keep a story going.

You would be better off moving this to the stories forum though. I'm not having a moan; I just think you would get a bigger audience there. Many people here will read the start of post one and get bored. People will go to the stories forum to read stories though.

[Stomalomalus]

I wouldnt have found it if it was in the stories forum. I hardly ever go there! And im glad I found it as my games are a bit stale atm, and I like trying to help out.

Have you kept hold of your scouts BTW? If you have, I would reccomend sending Karbissiyoon(sp?) on a scout. Hes 20/20 if I remember!

[GreyedOutMan]

Thanks for the feedback. I know what you mean about stories, but the main purpose of this is, as explained, to get help in the form of assistant manager - you lot. So I will leave it here for now anyway. Stoma - yes I still have Karbasiyyoon, but he's not 20/20, he's 14/15. Shame he got a career-ending injury really, he was meant to be a good prospect a few years back, full back cum striker i believe. Couple of newer ones have higher ratings though, and I'll send them all out.

Screenies requested:

Diaby's page- he's not world class but the one year he was a regular, he was player of the season alongside Cesc so...

Chris Gunter - he does look good but his stats this season were far from living up to his potential -- have asked my scout to have a look for a 2nd opinion.

Time to start having a look at the players who might be coming to join the team next year I think...who knows what gems the world cup might uncover?!

[anagain]

Originally posted by Luke Hearn:

Thanks for the feedback. I know what you mean about stories, but the main purpose of this is, as explained, to get help in the form of assistant manager - you lot. So I will leave it here for now anyway.

Fair point that you feel that you need the rest of the forum users as your assistant manager but I have to ask one question. What if every forum member decided to start a thread asking people to be their assistant manager? Oh, I know, things would get a bit crowded around here.

[GreyedOutMan]

Well anagain - they havent, so who cares?! Its an experiment, and it might not work well anyway!

News from the game:

Adrian returned from a loan spell at Fulham (3 goals in 8 games, 7.25 AvR) – he will be a good player, I’m sure.

Andy Carroll came back from Scunthorpe (2 goals in 4 games – one from the bench – 7.00 AvR) – not so sure about him, but we’ll see.

Scouting so far:

Karbassiyoon might have uncovered a gem in South America already:

Grimandi (in C Europe) suggested Flamini, but I’m not one to go backwards! However, he also highlighted Anthony Vanden Borre, who has been good in many games of mine...might be worth a shot? Apparently could be bought for between 6.5 and 8.75mil...and his versatility has to be an asset...encouragingly, Steve Rowley also highlighted him, as well as Moussa Sissoko (Momo’s brother?):

They’ve all been looking for DMC’s only for now. In another couple of weeks, I’ll spread it about a bit, with full backs also on the agenda.

Champions League final was a tight affair, with Real Madrid clinging on for the last few minutes after an Adebayor brace for Valencia either side of goals from Robben, Tevez and Soldado:

So – where from now I wonder? We’ll see – don’t want to make any rash offers until after the World Cup when I’ve really sussed out my options. Do people think that a DMC, and full backs if I can offload Adriano/Alves would be a good idea? Any other positions which might need strengthening? Bear in mind the winger situation at the back end of 09-10 was due to a massive injury crisis rather than a lack of players....

[Stomalomalus]

Tiago Dutra is meant to get good, thanks for reminding me about him! lol.

Vanden Borre makes a gd RB. Gunter does look good, but not exceptional. Not worth the hassle of signing off Spurs

[GreyedOutMan]

Diary form for the summer so you get an idea of the sequence of events. I’ll post a week or two at a time depending on length.

20th May

Nani resumed full training. That was welcome, as at £33m, it was starting to sound like the most expensive appearance fee ever paid!

Adebayor ended up with the golden boot in the Champions League with twelve in twelve in Valencia’s run to the final, and with 39 goals in 51 games in all comps this season, he has more than justified his transfer fee. But last year at Arsenal he could only manage ten, sixteen the year before, and with the form Vela/Eduardo have been in, I still have no regrets in selling him. 39 goals is very good but for my money, that was probably the season of his life, and Eduardo matched that this season and has been consistent, not to mention Vela who scored three more.

21st May

Good news as Micah Richards, the Young Player of the Year, signed a contract extension which will keep him at the club until 2014. But it’s a bumper contract, worth £25m over 4 years, and it takes me a little bit over my wage budget. Oh well, players will be offloaded this summer.

23rd May

Real Madrid made an enquiry about Alves. Of the two full backs, he’s the one I’m more inclined to keep, as he did improve through the season, and ended up with an AvR of 6.89 which was a lot better than it was half way through the year and I guess he could step up a gear next season, so I wont sell him for less than I bought him for under any circumstances. I told them I wanted £42.5m for him, which would be a good £5m or so profit for the ugly sod.

24th May

More good news on the injury front as RvP returned to training. We’ll have a more or less fully fit squad for the start of next year, touch wood.

25th May

A bid of £4.1m plus 20% of the next sale came in from Middlesbrough for Adrian, but after his success at Fulham, I think he might still have a future with us despite not getting a single goal in thirteen substitute appearances for Arsenal this year. He’s still only 22.

26th May

Real withdrew their interest in Alves. Might actually keep him. But want to offload Adriano if possible, though only if I can recoup the majority of the £22m I paid for him. Offered him around for £20m...if I cant get that I’ll see if he might show signs of improving next year. No-one seems interested at this stage.

31st May

Liam Brady’s contract is nearly up. Though he’s clearly done a great job as youth coach, I his JPA/JPP were 17/18 and I needed some new talent spotters, so I offered him a mega contract offer to change into a scout. Doubt he’ll take it but we’ll see. Karbassiyoon’s contract will also expire in a month, but he hasn’t done much, so I plan to let him go. I have too many scouts anyway. Steve Gatting, the youth coach, was offered a new contract, however.

1st June

Real Madrid’s Maxwell was given a big new contract, which made me wonder if they might be prepared to sell Royston Drenthe, who might be a perfect replacement for Adriano – like him, Drenthe can play on the wing as well as at left back, and he should be considerably cheaper. However, according to Grimandi, who also pointed out that he would be a great signing, Drenthe wouldn’t be interested, and he didn’t give me an estimate. I put in a tentative £13m offer, but I’m not sure yet...any thoughts? World Cup is only 10 days away now: England have Romania, Ghana and Chile whilst the group of death appears to be Japan, Holland, Ivory Coast and Turkey, though Argentina, Sweden, Mexico and South Korea won’t be a cakewalk.

Enquiries came in about Fabregas and Vela, both from Real Madrid. YOU MUST BE JOKING! Cesc made exactly 50 apps for me this year at a very consistent level of 7.26, while Vela – well 42 goals in 53 games speaks for itself, even without the ridiculously high AvR of 7.58. Cesc’s contract still has 4 years to run, but with Vela’s only 2 years from expiry, I offered him a slightly more lucrative deal (£76k/wk) to extend that into 2015. It means we’ll have a slightly lower transfer budget, but with the possibility of bumper deals to offload the full-backs, and really only a DMC to target if they don’t happen, I don’t mind much.

[GreyedOutMan]

3rd June

Drenthe bid was rejected so I upped the offer to £16m, especially as he had snubbed a new deal from Real. Vela rejected the contract offer I had made him and I decided not to push for a while, there’s still time.

5th June

Brady rejected the contract as I knew he would, so I offered him an extension as a youth coach. Eduardo came runner up to Rooney in the European Golden Boot, and AC Milan put in an enquiry for Alves. Again, I told them I wanted £42.5m.

6th June

Another bid for Drenthe was rejected. For now I’ll abandon that project. If I cant sell Adriano, I cant buy another left back anyway. Twelve of my squad were then called up for the World Cup, including surprise call-ups for Denilson, Nordtveit and Nani, who hasn’t played for a long time...oh well, Portugal’s problem. Even reserve player Ahmed Abdulla got a call up to the Saudi squad.

7th June

Brady finally signed a deal. Clearly he really enjoys coaching. Milan didn’t follow up their enquiry about Alves either – looks like I might be forced into keeping both him and Adriano. Think they’re worth keeping and giving another chance? Quick poll here?

11th June

The World Cup begins, with Italy v Egypt and Uruguay v Norway in group A. Come back soon for the results and the rest of the group phase!

[GreyedOutMan]

11th June

The World Cup began with predictable results in Group A, with Italy overcoming Egypt 3-1, and Uruguay drawing 1-1 with Norway. Looks like the group will be decided on whether Uruguay or Norway can grab something off Italy. Nordveit played the entire game in the heat of Cape Town for Norway, but got booked and ended up with only a ‘6’.

12th June

Day two of the tournament saw Group B’s opening games – perhaps a minor shock with Slovakia overcoming Nigeria 2-1, but Spain routinely beat the Saudis by 3 goals to 1. Fabregas put in a decent performance for Spain, getting a ‘7’, whilst young gun Ahmed Abdulla had a poor game for the Saudi’s, getting a ‘6’. Dead wood. There was also one group C match, between Ghana and Romania, which the African’s won 2-1, with the impressive Asamoah Gyan getting both goals. I set my scout, Francis Cagigao, the task of watching him for the remainder of the Ghanain campaign – I could probably do with an extra back-up winger or two – can’t hurt.

13th June

Arsenal’s kit will not have ‘Emirates’ on it for next year. A new sponsorship deal will net the club £2.5m per season. Wish I knew what company it was! The general sponsorship deal is up for renewal in 3 years which is the biggest deal, so hopefully that might end up with a big increase in revenue after that.

Meanwhile in South Africa, it was the other half of group C – England v Chile, and Group D’s opening games. England managed a 1-0 win over Chile, thanks to a Downing goal. Richards played well without excelling, gaining a rating of ‘7’. In group D, there were two 1-1 draws. Portugal slipped up against Serbia, with Stankovic getting a last-minute equalizer after a Deco opener, and Nani gained a ‘7’ in his first competitive game in months.

14th June

Group E and one game in Group F took centre-stage today, including a real grudge match between Mexico and Argentina. The Argies took the honours, by one goal to nil, through a last minute penalty. Sweden defeated South Korea 2-0, and Japan got two late goals to draw 3-3 with Turkey in Jo’Burg. Meanwhile, the press had picked up in my interest in Gyan, and speculation suggested it might need about £11m to prize him from Udinese.

15th June

The European Club Rankings kept Arsenal at 7th, the same as last year. Real Madrid are the best team in Europe, apparently. Well they have won the UEFA Cup and the Champions’ League in the last two years....

The other half of group F saw a repeat of a game from the 2006 World Cup, with Holland playing the Ivory Coast. This time, the Ivorians were victorious, and emphatically – two goals from Drogba and one from Gervinho gave the Africans a famous victory. In group G, Germany beat hosts South Africa 3-0, and USA beat Paraguay by 2 goals to nil. Only Manu Eboue represented Arsenal today, getting a ‘7’ in his country’s finest hour.

16th June

Steve Rowley reported back on Chris Gunter today. He did seem to think he was good, but nothing like as good as Alves, and he predicted an asking price of £14.25m, which is too much for a player I’m not sure about. Meanwhile, Gyan seemed to indicate he would be open to a switch to North London, and Birmingham’s bid of just £3.8m for Fabianski was thrown straight in the bin.

At the World Cup, Group A’s third match took place – Italy losing surprisingly to Uruguay, throwing the group wide open – as well as the games in the last group, Group H, completing the first round of games. Here, Brazil overcame the Czech Republic 1-0, with a goal from Robinho. Alves got a ‘7’ and Denilson got a ‘6’, only coming on for the last half hour or so, and Australia beat Costa Rica 1-0 in what really ought to be a third-place playoff in that group.

The rest of the 2nd round of group matches to follow soon....

[GreyedOutMan]

17th June

Another £3.8m bid for Fabianski was laughed off. He might never really make it, now he’s 25, but he’s a very good 3rd choice keeper.

In South Africa, today saw the other half of Group A – a routine 2-0 victory for Norway against Egypt with Nordtveit putting in a decent performance, and Group B, where Spain thrashed Nigeria 4-1 (Cesc played well without excelling), and Slovakia beat the Saudis 2-0, which meant that Spain and Slovakia became the first two teams through to the next round, after the shock result from group A the day before.

18th June

Karbassiyoon reported back today on Tiago Dutra, and immediately I put in a bid of £2m for him. Meanwhile, Gallas signed on the dotted line to move to Sunderland at the end of the month on a Bosman, and Pat Rice set up a series of friendlies for later in the summer. The likes of Marseille, Carlisle, Barnet and Macclesfield awaited us, along with the traditional annual trip to one of our affiliated clubs. This year it was BEC Tero-Sasana in Bangkok, of all places. But I leave friendlies to Pat, anyway.

Back to South Africa –

3pm K/Offs:

Group C: Chile beat Ghana 2-1, with Gyan disappointing on this occasion.

Group D: Portugal beat Cameroon 1-0 with yet another last minute goal, but Nani was largely disappointing before being substituted after 72 minutes.

7pm K/Off:

Group C: Romania 1-1 England. Rooney scored a minute after Chivu’s opener in the first half, and neither team had the ambition to go for a 2nd. Richards got a ‘7’.

19th June

Speculation was linking Blackburn with a move for Diaby but I think, after his wonderful player-of-the-year season in 08-09, I’ll keep him for now.

Season Summary time today – I love these things, they’re really useful, great feature – and sorry, I didn’t update you on the relegation/promotion issue at the end of the season, but it’s all here:

AND

Back to the world cup: group D’s qualification issues were almost sorted by Serbia’s win over Iran, whilst in group E, Argentina sealed qualification by beating South Korea 4-0 with 4 goals from Palacio, but Sweden and Mexico looks likely to be decided on goal-difference (I think) after a 0-0 draw which left Sweden on 4 and Mexico on 1, but with Sweden facing Argentina and Mexico facing South Korea in the final round of matches, you have to think it likely that they’ll each finish on 4 points. Vela played the full 90 minutes but was disappointing.

I know thats not the full round but it was getting long!

[GreyedOutMan]

Apologies for the formatting error, hope its still readable!

[GreyedOutMan]

Sorry, I had to re-post, the last one confused even me! Could a Mod please delete the first version of this?

TRY AGAIN:

20th June

Carlos Vela was, unsurprisingly, announced today as the Arsenal fans’ Player of the Year, and the best XI for the season was as follows:

Pouplin, Eduardo (D), Richards, Garay, Dani Alves, van Persie, Riquelme, Fabregas, Walcott (left in Jan), Vela and Eduardo.

Bench: Hart, Aissati, Bodmer, Diaby, Simpson.

Vela, Richards and Walcott were all considered good enough to be inducted into the all-time XI, which now looks like this:

Pouplin, Mathijsen, Mertesacker, Gallas, Sagna, van Persie, Diaby, Fabregas, Walcott, Vela and Eduardo.

Bench: Lloris, Riquelme, Rosicky, Teixeira, Richards.

Fixture list came out, meaning that after a home game against Sunderland, I face a trip to Anfield and a visit from Man Utd in the first three games. Tough start!

Useful boost to the finances with £29.5m for TV rights. Lovely ïŠ. Told the board I felt we could only really expect qualification for Europe next season. Actually I feel a title challenge might be around the corner, but I didn’t want to put pressure on myself and end up losing my job, and a £42m starting budget which would grow considerably with re-distribution of excess wage budget was perfectly reasonable enough. Various players wre promoted from the U18s and replaced by new intake. Tony Adams pointed out a guy called Shaun Cooper to be a good prospect and yes, for a 16 year old, he does look good, with strong bravery, determination and flair attributes, as well as demonstrating a good level of teamwork. Hoyte, Collocini, Senderos, Adriano, Eboue, van Persie and Riquelme were all transfer listed to clear out some dead wood. With some re-assignment of resources, my transfer kitty was upped to £66m, and will be more if I sell people. If I don’t, then it might be a little less as I will have to assign some of that back to the wage bill to cover it.

On that note, Gremio asked for a structured payment amounting to £2.5m for Tiago Dutra which I happily offered. Newcastle’s bid of £17.75m for van Persie was negotiated to £25m – I don’t want to sell him at face value if I can help it. On the other hand, £4.5m for Eboue from Sunderland, having not played in 3 years, was too good to turn down. Meanwhile, their keeper, Craig Gordon, left for Bayern Munich in a £22.5m deal, and Everton seemed keen to enter the chase for RvP.

GET BACK TO THE WORLD CUP, IDIOT!!

Yes, I know that’s what you’re thinking and you’re right. But its good to think about building for next season too! Today was Group F, and half of Group G. Two draws in F saw the Ivory Coast retain top spot with 4pts, with Holland languishing in last place on 1pt, behind Japan and Turkey on 2. Paraguay and South Africa’s 1-1 draw in group G helped neither team, and it looks like Germany and the USA will probably triumph there. Van Persie had a poor game for Holland in their 2-2 draw with Japan. Arsenal players are not exactly covering themselves in glory at this World Cup.

21st June

Middlesbrough’s bid of £4.6m for Eboue was accepted, whilst Fulham and Napoli were told that £5m would prize Fabricio Collocini from my grasp (after making 18 appearances following a £16.75m move to Emirates, this shocked me, but he’s not good enough), and the £25m asking price on van Persie’s head was reinforced after a Villarreal enquiry.

In the World Cup, Germany sealed qualification with victory over the USA in group G, and in Group H, Brazil did likewise with victory over Costa Rica. Australia’s draw with the Czechs put those two in a similar position to Sweden and Mexico: the Aussies are on 4pts, the Czechs on 1, but with Brazil up next for the gold and greens, and Costa Rica for the Czechs, it’ll all be down to goal difference. And they’re neck and neck there too – Australia on +1 and Czech Rep on -1, so God knows how they’ll solve it if Australia lose 1-0 and the Czechs win 1-0! This being FM, I doubt that will happen! Dani Alves did OK for Brazil in their 1-0 win against Costa Rica – a ‘7’.

22nd June

Another bid, this time £5m, came in from Bolton for Manu Eboue. Again, accepted. Collocini – asked for £5m for him from Man City. And a £1.2m bid came in for young Lee Carlton, a regen. But he looks really good, and I rejected it.

Groups A and B came to a climax today.

A: Italy beat Norway 2-0, whilst Uruguay and Egypt played out a 2-2 draw, meaning that Uruguay went through with Italy.

B: Nigeria beat Saudi Arabia 2-0, Spain beat Slovakia 3-0, meaning that Spain and Slovakia were the next teams through.

23rd June

The bid for Tiago Dutra was accepted, and I offered him a decent contract. Whether he’ll get a work permit, I don’t know.

Groups C and D came to a climax today.

C: Romania beat Chile 1-0 and England beat Ghana 2-1. England and Romania progress.

D: Two goalless draws. Portugal and Serbia progress.

Biggest casualties so far: Nigeria and Cameroon, so only the Ivory Coast left to fly the African flag now! Also, after a good report from the scout, and a recommended bid of £13m, I took that advice, and placed an offer for Asamoah Gyan. An offer came in for Kevin Doyle, but it was only just over £5m, and he’s good enough that I don’t have to sell him if I cant at least recoup the £10m I paid for him.

24th June

A whole bunch of good young players returned to the club from successful loan spells. The future looks bright.

Groups E and F:

E: Two 1-1 draws put Argentina and Sweden through.

F: Holland defeated Turkey 3-2, and Ivory Coast demolished Japan 5-0. They look a threat, they really do. Holland and Ivory Coast progress, but Ivory Coast top the group.

Arsenal players today: Garay 7, Coloccini 7 (came on after 75m), Vela 8 (1 goal), Eboue 7, Van Persie 9 (3 goals). Great performance from the Dutchman, and Vela continues to shine on the big stage.

25th June

That great performance from Robin immediately led to a bid of £25m from Newcastle. It was accepted.

Groups G and H:

G: A goal fest. Germany beat Paraguay 4-2, and the USA beat South Africa 5-0, with Freddy Adu outstanding. I would have made a bid, but he had a suspected calf injury which forced him off just after the hour, so I decided to wait a little. But he’s definitely one to look at in the coming weeks. Germany and USA progress.

H: Brazil beat the Aussies 2-1, and Costa Rica lost once more to the Czechs by the same score. Brazil and Australia completed the 2nd round line-up, but as Australia and the Czechs had an IDENTICAL record, I have no idea why....goal difference is apparently the first factor, followed by goals scored, followed by the result between the sides. Every single one of these factors was level. Based on this, I’d say it actually did come down to alphabetical order?!

An enquiry regarding Nordtveit triggered an asking price of £7.5m for the talented youngster – I have lots of young defenders so I’m more than happy to let him go if the price is right.

Sorry for the LONG post!!

[GreyedOutMan]

26th June

Tiago Dutra accepted his contract offer, and a decision is due on July 1st regarding a permit. Eboue’s £4.5m transfer to Sunderland was finalized, and Udinese asked for £19.25m for Gyan. A little excessive for a player valued at £7m, I think, though he is good. I returned with a bid of £16m. I got an enquiry over Lescott: £15m will prize him away, I think, though he’s doing really well lately. Oh, and young David Rochela left for Millwall on a Bosman – or rather, agreed to go to Millwall in 5 days!

The 2nd round of the World Cup started with results that could only be called “predictableâ€, with Italy overcoming Slovakia 1-0, and Spain beating Uruguay by the odd goal in 3.

27th June

Portugal beat Romania on penalties after a 2-2 draw in the early game in South Africa with Nani playing a full match and getting a ‘7’ despite a booking, and England cruised past Serbia 3-1 with goals from Rooney (2) and Gerrard. Richards played 90 minutes and also got a ‘7’.

28th June

Tony Adams fitness report was very encouraging: no injuries at all at present going into pre-season for the non-internationals. Good stuff. The bid for Gyan was also accepted, and a contract offered.

Ivory Coast beat Sweden 1-0 in South Africa with a last minute goal (the theme of the competition it seems) from Salomon Kalou, whilst Argentina overcame Holland 2-0 with goals from Aguero and Palacio. Van Persie played 90 minutes and got a ‘7’ while Colloccini managed 15 minutes from the bench for the Argies.

29th June

An enquiry about Diaby was batted back to Boro. I need my player of the year for 2008-9 to fire again in 2010-11. A £5m bid for Colloccini was accepted, however.

In the two most easily predicted games of the 2nd round on paper, there was a shock. Germany overcame Australia 3-1, but USA overcame Brazil 4-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw, despite their normal-time goalscorer, Jay DeMerit, ironically missing a penalty. Johnson, Donovan, Dempsey and Beasley penalties put them through with Adriano (not my player, the famous one) and Gilberto (the former Gunner) missing for Brazil. Dani Alves, the sole Arsenal representative in today’s matches, got a respectable ‘7’ in his last game in the World Cup for at least 4 years. And at 11pm, Robin van Persie, after 43 goals for the club in six years, departed for Geordieland for £25m (or rather, agreed to depart in 2 days time!!). Goodbye Robin – thank God you’re a lot better IRL than on FM!!!

1st July

Having been 1st last year, Arsenal have moved down to 4th in the Club Rich List this year – though I think that might rectify itself this summer as some big money sales will be made. Tiago Dutra’s work permit application, however, was turned down in a poor start to the window for me. I appealed, and it being July 1st, of course, a whole load of other transfers were completed today – for Arsenal:

Gallas to Sunderland on a free.

Rochela to Millwall on a free.

Eboue to Sunderland for £4.5m.

Pedro to H. Tel-Aviv on a free.

Van Persie to Newcastle for £25m.

And later in the day, Asamoah Gyan signed for Arsenal for £16m. A good bit of business, I reckon. His attributes are OK, though I’ve seen better, but his form both for Udinese and for Ghana had been good. All these wheelings left me with £86m still in the kitty for transfers, and currently the squad didn’t really need anyone more apart from Tiago Dutra, who will be cheap. The deal for RvP actually broke the club record for a transfer fee received, set by the Anelka transfer years ago.

2nd July

First thing in the morning, the work permit came through at last for Tiago Dutra, who become signing number 2 this year. If I don’t sell either of my full backs, he might be my last. I have included a screenie of my current squad, with a few of the best reserves promoted just to show them all together – just the ones who could break into the first team squad this year. What do people think? I still have 2 months to make any necessary transfers. I’m turning in now so you have overnight and probably a fair bit of tomorrow to suggest areas of improvement! One thing to point out – I’m trying to offload Senderos and Djourou at the moment. I just think I have better than them. Sidnei and Sakho in particular. The one player of note who isn’t in that squad shot who perhaps should be is Lee Carlton, who I have included a screenie of too.

SQUAD

LEE CARLTON

Sorry...another long post there! See y’all tomorrow folks! Get your AssMan caps on!!

[Wen1234]

Your squad's a little too big, you really need to clear out the second string players who aren't going to play.

Also, I noticed that you pay a lot of attention to average ratings - it's not a good comparision across positions. If both LB and RB consistently get poor ratings, it might well be your tactics, rather than the players. For example, DMs very rarely get good ratings unless they assist or score.

[Stomalomalus]

Yeah, your squad does look rather big. Unless youve seen a massive improvement, I qould reccommend getting rid of Senderos, Simpson, Riquelme, Doyle and Keissling and at least 2 of Lescott, Djorou and Mertesacker. There just seems a lot of players. 10 CB's is a bit excessive, lol!

[crafty bison]

I've just bought FM08 and am playing with Arsenal to get used to the game, I just finished my first season and I'm quite dismayed to see you've made such similar signings to me! I didn't think everyone playing with Arsenal would buy Sakho, Aissati, Garay and Bodmer...

[llama3]

continuity and stability is key, i only signed modric in the first season, in january for £7m - BARGAIN. dont make huge changes, cos your original squad is very strong, be subtle but knwo the direction to go in.

[GreyedOutMan]

Most of those DCs are in the reserves at the moment, not quite ready to make the step up...though I think Sidnei will this year. Senderos – been trying to get rid of him for years, its just never happened. Similarly for Hoyte and a couple of others. I now have 9 DC’s in the first team squad, but a large number of them play either primarily or in a secondary role in other positions – Eduardo for example has played mostly at DL, though can play quite literally anywhere now apart from up front and in goal after some re-training to give him a good right foot. Thinking of trying him out in a DMC role alongside Cesc a bit this year.

2nd July

At the world Cup, the Quarter final stage begun with Italy beating Portugal, and Spain beating England 1-0 after ET. Nani had a decent game for Portugal, getting a ‘7’ before coming off on 79’. Cesc also played well for Spain – a ‘7’ again, but a red card after 112 minutes means he will miss the semi-final. Good to see that Jose Reyes, who recently signed for Sevilla for £32.5m and is one of the most feared strikers in the game (70 goals in 4 seasons, but two of those he played less than 20 games in), only managed a ‘6’ and was withdrawn on 83’. Richards also got a ‘7’ for England as once again a strong team underperformed on the big stage. England played a very odd formation, with 4 defenders, 2 DMCs (Carrick and Jenas), not a single player in the middle of the park, 3 attacking midfielders (Downing left, W-Phillips right and Gerrard central), supporting Wayne Rooney as a lone striker. Really strange.

3rd July

Coloccini’s deal taking him to Villa Park for £5m was completed today. A loss of nearly £12m was made on him, and he really wasn’t much good. I now have £88m to spend, and its only really full backs I need, though I think more and more that Alves will get another chance to impress this year. In the other two World Cup Quarter-Finals, Ivory Coast continued their impressive run by beating Germany 2-1 after extra time, both goals from Salomon Kalou. I wonder if the African team winning the world cup is about to come, just a decade or so later than first predicted? In the other game, Argentina strolled to a 3-0 win over USA.

4th July

The USA’s heavy defeat the day before must have put a bit of a dampener on today’s celebrations on the other side of the pond! However in North London spirits were high after a whopper bid of £15m – more than I paid for him – came in from Eastlands for Joleon Lescott, and was immediately accepted. I might see if I can buy another versatile defender to cover, because if Adriano doesn’t perform again this year, we only have Eduardo and Sakho, who is really a DC, as cover in that left full back position.

6th July

Lescott’s £15m transfer was completed, taking my transfer budget to £103.5m! That’s a lot of money! Any thoughts on wise investments that could be made? First team squad is now 29-strong, and breakdown according to best position (in Tony Adams’ opinion) is:

GK: 3

DC: 6 (including Eduardo who I see as a full back or DMC really, and Sakho/Richards can also be full backs.)

DR: 1 (but Richards and Eduardo can fill in)

DL: 0 (Adriano is apparently an ML. Again, we have cover in Eduardo/Sakho)

DM: 1 (Tiago Dutra, but Diaby is also training to be a DMC, and as Dutra’s rating is only 2, he cant be first choice this year).

MC: 3 (Denilson, Cesc, Diaby)

AMC: 3 (Bodmer who is also a DC, Vukcevic who is a left winger really, and Riquelme)

AML: 2 (Nani and Aissati, but Vukcevic/Teixeira/Adriano can play there too, and even Vela in emergency, not to mention Eduardo (D) if necessary)

AMR: 1 (Gyan, but again, others can play there – Simpson, Nani, Teixeira, Alves, even Vela)

ST: 8 (but of those, two are really wingers for me, and Vela can be used there too). If I can get rid of Kiessling this summer I will but I don’t think its likely).

Any thoughts on how my £103m could be spent? I don’t want to spend all of it, because I think the backbone is there now, but with that much to spend it would be a shame not to use a little of it....