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[FM20] A decade of disappointment - We want our Arsenal back!


Sysiphus
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Summer transfers

I didn't feel like there was too much of a need to strengthen the squad, but we've added some quality players to give us better quality depth. The weakest area of our team right now is very obviously central defence, but I am willing to give my young guys time to grow into their full potential. First, the players that left us. There are no major outgoings, Mavropanos didn't have a future here so he left for a nice profit (signed for 2.2m). Sokratis had been unhappy with his playing time and when Atletico showed interest in him I decided to let him go. Kolasinac played well last season, but he's not the type of player I want playing in my system. He had very low passes completed percentage and many yellow cards. I therefore decided to cash in on him, but I feel a little stupid letting go of two determined players in Sokratis and Kola when I'm trying to change the culture here. However, their footballing ability just isn't good enough and you can't make up for that with work rate and determination. Not included in this screenshot is Mesut Özil, who went on a free to Russia. I'm still paying a chunk of his wages for this last season of his contract.

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I also loaned a few players out, most notably Martinelli and Nelson, who played about 25-30 games for us last season. But with Nketiah coming back from loan, Martinellli's gametime was due to be limited and I didn't want that, as I had already struggled to get his development going. He went a similar way to the one Nketiah went last season - to a Championship contender. Nelson never really got going in the bigger games last season, and as I bought a new winger (see below), I didn't want him to rot on the bench. He'll go to Villarreal where he'll hopefully be able to showcase his talents and come back stronger. Aubameyang is getting older and probably doesn't have more than two seasons left in him, so Nelson needs to be ready to step up by that time or else I have to find another replacement. John-Jules makes a step up as he joins a Championship team on loan, whereas he played in League One last season.

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Now, the incomings:

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As detailed in the February update, we signed Russian defensive midfielder Roman Zobnin from Spartak Moscow. We decided to add another midfielder to replace Dani Ceballos, who went back from his loan to Real Madrid. We got an email that shortlisted Houssem Aouar had requested to leave Lyon, and we acted quickly ahead of other big interested clubs such as Man Utd and Man City, to snap him up for just north of 50 million pounds. To replace Kolasinac, we unsettled relegated Southampton's Ryan Bertrand and got him for a minimal fee.

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Aouar is a very, very good playmaker. He'll be a big part of our future, and brings his good personality, great traits and leadership skills to the dressing room. He'll continue the tradition of good French players playing for Arsenal and is now one of five Frenchmen in the squad, so he'll probably fit in well.

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Bertrand is intended as a two year stop gap while we wait for young Joel López to realise his potential. There's still uncertainty surrounding López's ability so if he doesn't pan out in two years I have my eyes on Jamal Lewis from Norwich to come in as a backup to TierneyBertrand is professional and doesn't really have a week spot in his game. He's on a lot lower wages than Kolasinac was on and fits better in with our playing style. This is how Joel López looks as of now:

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Shortly before the transfer window closed, a long time target of Arsenal, Wilfried Zaha, asked to leave Crystal Palace and was available for minimal fee. We snapped the Ivorian up for only 26 million pounds and add a lot of quality to our frontline. I'm very excited to see what he can bring to the table.

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So currently, the squad looks like this (Cirjan and Batch are only there for mentoring purposes, do not play for me as of yet):

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UEFA Super Cup

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Not a title that matters a whole lot, but it's still very nice to start the season with silverware! We shot very accurately in the match, putting 10 out of our 11 shots on target - and eventually one went in. Nicolas Pépé grabbed the goal to win it for us and we go into the season with our chest pumped.

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August 2020

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As detailed earlier, we won the UEFA Super Cup against Man City. We then had a rough start in the league, not being able to overcome the Canaries at Carrow Road despite a plethora of chances. We then played against Man City in the league and suffered a defeat at home in a game where we had all control. We had 6 clear cut chances against 0 for City, but it wasn't to be:

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We managed to spring back to life after that match and ended the first month of the season with solid wins against Leeds and Everton. We're 6th in the league but can't be focusing on the table so early on. Liverpool look like a force again, having won their first four games with 14 goals scored and 0 conceded.

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Finally, we're back in the Champions League after a three year exile. We play Spanish giants Real Madrid, but other then that we should not have to much trouble in the group. Gladbach are a solid team but I'll be really disappointed if we don't manage to finish above them.

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21 hours ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

Good season Sysiphus. Looking forward to your next one.

Thanks Nobby. It was a solid season and we've streamlined the squad a bit to our liking. It is a process and we have the youngest team in the league currently. Hopefully this season will be equally good or better!

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September 2020

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We still haven't managed to hit the run of form needed - losing badly against Crystal Palace and getting eliminated in a penalty shoot-out by our arch rivals in the Carabao Cup. I still don't understand how we managed to concede four goals against Palace, but they were devastatingly good on the counter to be fair.  We managed to squeeze out a win against Tottenham in the league with Lacazette on form. Another hard fought win came at Vicarage Road against the Hornets, and we climb up to 6th in the league after a rough start. Let's hope these two wins in a row in the league are indicating of what's to come.

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Two solid wins in the Champions league against Gladbach and Dynamo Kyiv put us in a nice position there. Saliba and Badiashile have ensured that our sheet remains clean in the Champions League, and might be calling for Premier League action soon.

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Comunicado oficial! Two youngsters sign

Letting a lot of young players who won't live up to their promise run their contracts out and then loaning the promising ones out will lead to empty youth teams - who would have thought! Having very few players in my u23s and u18s I decided to bolster those squads and snapped up two promising Frenchmen who will arrive in January.

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Guy Merchand is a very interesting 15 year old. He's very tall, but has got good athleticism on him along with solid mentals and finishing. He's not going to be a bonafide superstar by any means, but we'll see how he develops.

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Another exciting 15 year old is Valentin Meunier. He's got the ability to do unexpected things and a good touch on the ball, along with solid pace. He's very small and weak and will have to overcome that if he's to play in the Premier League, especially in midfield. I might focus his training on inside forward if he doesn't grow in the next year or two.

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22 hours ago, Swills417 said:

Really enjoying these updates! :) Keep them coming. I wonder if we could get a glimpse of your tactics or interesting stats that have popped up during your save? 

Thanks! Yeah of course, will put it up tomorrow when I have the time!

21 hours ago, 1984mattyd said:

Doing well! I'm still in my first season, February. 4th place, wolves were too for a while but have dropped off. Just signed Erickson from spurs as he was leaving for 17.5mill, also got nididi as well for £38mill

Thanks! Nice buys - was thinking about Ndidi as well, still on my shortlist. 

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11 hours ago, Sysiphus said:

Thanks! Yeah of course, will put it up tomorrow when I have the time!

Thanks! Nice buys - was thinking about Ndidi as well, still on my shortlist. 

I think nididi is such a good player to get. Good for b2b or even ball winner. I use guendouzi as b2b and he's done well

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On 29/11/2019 at 01:54, 1984mattyd said:

I think nididi is such a good player to get. Good for b2b or even ball winner. I use guendouzi as b2b and he's done well

Definitely, Ndidi looks very good as a ball winner. I play Guendouzi as a roaming playmaker but he has great stats for box to box as well.

On 29/11/2019 at 02:17, samiam said:

How is Joe Willock performing for you? I worry that his Passing and Vision aren’t strong enough to be the driving attacking force for a high level squad like Arsenal...

He performs well, I had him as a first choice mezzala last season so he played a lot for me, scored a few goals and had an average rating of about 7.1. However, he hasn't really developed much. Can't remember his vision attribute but I think his passing is sufficient, but he'll never be top top class I think. Squad player for a top team is realistic I think. I like his skill set a lot though.

Edit: Some screens. His vision's fine imo! Not really good enough for top level playmaker though.

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On 27/11/2019 at 15:34, Swills417 said:

Really enjoying these updates! :) Keep them coming. I wonder if we could get a glimpse of your tactics or interesting stats that have popped up during your save? 

My tactics are pretty much the same as when I started the save. I play the attacking one every game, only switch to the other one when I desperately need to close out games in the last 15 minutes. I want to impose my style on other teams, that's the Arsenal way, so therefore we always play attacking from the get go. PépÉ's injured so therefore you can't find him in the screens.

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Do you have any specific ideas of some interesting stats you want to see? Nothing really that pops into my mind right now. :) Just saw this recently; Newcastle had a takeover so they've been making some absurd bids:

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October 2020

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Annoying loss against West Ham, not too worried about the loss in Madrid. Otherwise, solid victories in the league. Next month is important, where we have our 4th and 5th games in the CL group and need good results in the league to try to close the gap to City. 5th place in the league currently, but there're only 3 points between 2nd and 8th place. City with a nice lead currently.

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Always like this message, testament to our development of youth to have every player in the top 3 of YPOTM.

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November 2020

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Good month for us, two wins in the league and a great home win against Real Madrid. City maintain their 6 point lead on us as we go into 3rd place. Still very tight from the 2nd place and down but Bournemouth and West Hamm are falling a little behind, as expected.

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The last round in the CL group is very exciting, as both spots are still open. We are the lucky ones who face Dynamo Kyiv next - hopefully we can win that easily and leave Real and Gladbach fighting for the 2nd place.

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December 2020

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A very solid December saw us top our Champions League group and go up to 2nd place in the league. We actually have exactly the same amount of points as we had after 19 games last season AND the same goal difference. Hopefully we can kick on.

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As said above, we topped our CL group and Madrid won Gladbach in the last round to accompany us to the last 16:

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Where we will face Lyon:

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Youth intake news and transfers

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The bottom line doesn't fill us with confidence, but we could do with the promising full-back that's noted here, whether he'd be right or left sided. We'll temper our expectations and see what happens.

 One provisional transfer for January has been confirmed, a young Scottish striker called Adam Darge joins us from Hearts from a minimal fee:

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Darge is quick, determined, a solid finisher and a good passer full of flair and works well within a team. He might get some training time as an attacking midfielder or a winger.

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Our skipper David Luiz has agreed a deal in Brazil and will leave us at the end of the season when his contract runs out. David has been very good for us, a leader in the dressing room and a good tutor and role model for our young centre backs. He'll turn 35 in October so he'll most likely finish his playing career in his home country.

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I just came home from a week's work trip where I didn't manage to play at all. Quite a busy week ahead of me but by next weekend I should be able to get some gametime in!

On 02/12/2019 at 22:13, Nobby_McDonald said:

This season is going pretty well.

Pretty well - yes! Still want more. Let's see what happens.

On 03/12/2019 at 05:02, hasdgfas said:

Wow, you had to play United twice in the Premier League in 3 days??? What happened with the schedule to force that?

Don't have the game open so I currently have no idea! Will look into this later - reckon it might have something to do with the Carabao Cup?

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Could be February where you have league carabao cup and Fa cup all in a week. 

Got to admit that willock is definitely underrated for arsenal. He's a squad player for me but he scores a lot of goals from outside the box for me as a b2b midfielder.

Think the hardest thing to do with arsenal is to figure out what to do with the young talent you have almost right away. Because by halfway through the first season you have 5 wonderkids if you include saliba to loan to.

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2 hours ago, 1984mattyd said:

Could be February where you have league carabao cup and Fa cup all in a week. 

Got to admit that willock is definitely underrated for arsenal. He's a squad player for me but he scores a lot of goals from outside the box for me as a b2b midfielder.

Think the hardest thing to do with arsenal is to figure out what to do with the young talent you have almost right away. Because by halfway through the first season you have 5 wonderkids if you include saliba to loan to.

Yes, I'm trying to include them all - having good success with Nketiah, Smith Rowe and Saka - Willock playing well but not developing. Jury is still out for Saliba but he's been fine so far this season when he's played. Having trouble fitting Nelson in and getting him to play well, which is a bit of a worry for me.

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12 hours ago, Sysiphus said:

Yes, I'm trying to include them all - having good success with Nketiah, Smith Rowe and Saka - Willock playing well but not developing. Jury is still out for Saliba but he's been fine so far this season when he's played. Having trouble fitting Nelson in and getting him to play well, which is a bit of a worry for me.

AHH totally opposite with nketiah, sent him on loan again for 2nd season as a star player for them. Couldn't get him to score for love nor money for me. Smith Rowe and saka are amazing, Nelson I have the same problem but he's on loan at sampdoria as a starter so hoping it will help him along, saliba is on loan at Norwich as a starter to. Willock is great as a b2b. Literally all his goals have come from outside the box. I have to rotate him and nididi as b2b

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  • 2 weeks later...

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January 2021 transfers

We had one outgoing, as West Ham came in with good money for our backup defender Calum Chambers. I liked Chambers, he's a versatile, solid player of good age who always gives it his all, but the money is way too good.

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I wrapped up the signings of two youngsters for my youth sides - first, Gastón Romero:

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Romero is lacking a bit in the technical department bus has great mentals and good physicals. I'm looking to train him as a central defender and hoping that he grows a bit more.

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Second, I bought in a Scottish striker - Dylan MunroMunro has a lot to do development wise, but could become good if he trains well. All of the biggest teams in England submitted an offer for him so I thought we'd join in and beat them to it:

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He's also very cheap and very young so the risk isn't big.

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Lastly, we bought big! I got this notification late in the month and we had to act fast:

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Eduardo Camavinga will join after the season finishes. He's one of the brightest prospects in Europe and canr eally do it all. I'm excited to see him develop.

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January 2021

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This month was unfortunately very up and down. We lost twice against the top team in the league, Liverpool, which puts a big dent in my title hopes. Along with that we made sloppy draws against Fulham and Burnley. We're through to the 5th round of the FA Cup after two easy games vs. Chesterfield and Hull. We've played a game more than some of the teams around us, but the title race and the CL race are both pretty tight.

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