[Retro DB - FM21] Back to The 90's: Save the Arsenal, Save the World - and bring Football Home!

[PaulHartman71]

 

Liverpool obviously dominating the awards, with Nigel Martyn, Bruno N'Gotty, Patrick Berger, 33 year old John Barnes, David Platt and of course Shearer and Fowler up top for them. 

Blackburn's defensive pairing of Mario Yepes and Des Walker deservedly in there, with Tottenham's free transfer signing of Dennis Irwin, released by United, proving to be inspired business for them, with the 31 year old getting 9 goals and 6 assists for them, albeit 8 of the 9 goals were penalties, but still  

Italian winger Mauro Zironelli also impressing for Blackburn. 

[PaulHartman71]

 

We had a nice run in the FA Cup, including a fabulous 5-1 thrashing of Keegan's Spurs in the Semi Final which saw a marvellous Thierry Henry hat-trick, but despite a Pires goal, two early strikes from Fergie's United gave them the FA Cup win this season at our expense.

[PaulHartman71]

 

I thought we defended well against a strong Milan side in both legs, and I fancied us on penalties as it looked like it would go it at the San Siro, but a scramble at a corner saw substitute Hakin Yakin score for Milan at the worst possible time late into extra-time which was saw us crash out as Wenger's European Cup curse continues. 

[PaulHartman71]

 

Andy Cole had another good year, Bergkamp did well, our defence was good, had a few problems with morale particularly from January when Makelele kicked off about wanting a move to AC Milan. Given we were playing them in the European Cup I didn't want to sell him to them even more than usual so refused, he wasn't happy and we had fallings out through the rest of the campaign which I think played a part in some bad form and losses. I will definitely look to sell him this summer as whilst he's a great player, he's not happy and it's causing problems in the team. 

Rocastle broke his leg in February, given his age now I think I will look to sell in the summer. Vieira was injured early in the season and then had the African Nations so played very little football, but if Makelele does go I will promote Vieira to 3rd choice, with Davids/Petit starting and then Gilberto Silva as 4th choice having come back from a few loan spells. Ferdinand looked good when called upon, I will look to use him and Henry more than Wright and Keown next season who are getting on a bit now. 

 

[PaulHartman71]

  Wenger's Career Record

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season      Club                  League                Position           Achievements/Other
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1990/91     Arsenal FC            First Division          2nd              N/A
1991/92     Arsenal FC            First Division          1st              First Division & League Cup winners
1992/93     Arsenal FC            First Division          3rd              FA Cup & Charity Shield winners
1993/94     Arsenal FC            First Division          2nd              FA Cup & Charity Shield winners
1994/95     Arsenal FC            First Division          1st              First Division, FA Cup & League Cup winners
1995/96     Arsenal FC            First Division          1st              First Division & Charity Shield winners
1996/97     Arsenal FC            First Division          3rd              Charity Shield winners
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Arsenal's Trophy Cabinet in the Original Timeline

 

First Division/Premier League - x4 (1990/91, 1997/98, 2001/02 & 2003/04) 

FA Cup                        - x9 (1992-93, 1997/98, 2001/2, 2002/03, 2004/05, 2013/14, 2014/15, 2016/17 & 2019/20) 

League Cup                    - x1 (1992/93)

Charity/Community Shield      - x9 (1991/92, 1998/99, 1999/00, 2002/03, 2004/05, 2014/15, 2015/16, 2017/20 & 2020/21)

UEFA Cup Winners Cup          - x1 (1993/94)

 

 

Trophy Cabinet in the New Timeline

 

First Division             - x3 (1991/92, 1994/95 & 1995/96) 

FA Cup                     - x3 (1992/93, 1993/94 & 1994/95)

League Cup                 - x2 (1991/92 & 1994/95)

Charity Shield             - x4 (1992/93, 1993/94, 1995/96 & 1996/97)

 

Edited August 18, 2021 by PaulHartman71

[PaulHartman71]

 

 

John Lyall's West Ham side stopped Liverpool pulling off a double, despite goals from Dugarry and Fowler, Dalian Atkinson's brace helped the Hammers win the Cup and secure European football next season as a cherry on top. 

 

 

2 of the relegated sides come straight back up from last year in Sheffield United and Crystal Palace, but Norwich are pipped in the Playoffs by Aston Villa who return to the First Division after a 3 year absence. They beat Middlesbrough in the final 2-1, with, incredibly, a 16 year old substitute Darius Vassell winner securing them their promotion

 

 

Swindon, Brentford and Plymouth all went down. 

 

 

 

The 3rd Division was won by an impressive Bournemouth side who impressed so much that David O'Leary got promoted not to the 2nd Division but the 1st when Wimbledon hired him to replace George Graham. 

Peter Shilton's Preston North End and Lincoln City will join them in the 2nd Division next season, with Northampton, Accrington Stanley, Fleetwood and Port Vale all facing the drop. 

[PaulHartman71]

 

Juventus retain the Serie A, as Fabio Capello's side truly cement themselves as the dominant force in Italian football. 

Inter Milan miss out on European Cup football next season, with Fiorentina joining them in the UEFA Cup. 

 

 

A Juve centric side dominating the awards, although inclusions for Bosvelt, Nesta, Cafu and Cudicini in the defensive side of things. 

[PaulHartman71]

 

 

Real Madrid retain the title in Spain, with Barcelona not too far off. Valladolid and Gijon are the best of the rest once again, with Atletico Madrid dropping off slightly, although as you will see later they might not be complaining too much with how things turned out. 

UEFA Cup next season for Sociedad and Valencia. Valencia interestingly still sacked their manager even finishing 6th, and have got in Roy Hodgson to replace him. 

 

 

The top two sides absolutely dominating the awards, with only one player from Santander getting into the entire squad of best XI and subs. 

[PaulHartman71]

 

It's 3 in a row for Bayern in the Bundesliga and nobody really got near them this time. 

Bremen, Stuttgart and Gladbach will all play in the European Cup next season though. 

A poor season for Leverkusen sees them outside the European places altogether. 

 

 

A fairly Bayern heavy team of the year. 

[PaulHartman71]

 

PSG retain Ligue 1, with neither Bordeaux or Monaco really getting anywhere near them, with Marseille even further back. 

 

PSG dominating the team of the year. 

 

 

 

PSV back on top of the Eredivise and they have 20 year old Brazilian sensation Ronaldo to thank for it, scoring 26 goals and 5 assists in 33 league games this season. Surely one of the big boys will pick him up this summer??

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, in Scotland, Rangers narrowly pipped Celtic to the title. 

 

[PaulHartman71]

 

Blackburn's fantastic season did not end trophyless, as they beat Lille on penalties to secure a win in the Conference League. 

 

[PaulHartman71]

 

The UEFA Cup was won by Atletico Madrid, who despite finishing 10th in the league will still play in the European Cup next season due to their win. A strong field in this competition which saw Man United, heavy favorites after being knocked out of the European Cup, getting dumped out by Leverkusen, who were then smashed over two legs by Valladolid who would eventually lose to fellow Spanish side and eventual winners Atletico. Nottingham Forest, with help of Neil Lennon and Ally McCoist navigated their way past both Rangers and Celtic to the Semi Final, before coming up short against Monaco who had also knocked out Leicester City on their path to the final.

 

 

[PaulHartman71]

 

Meanwhile, in the European Cup, it was Juventus who once again were crowned champions, retaining their crown after beating Real Madrid in the final. 

They beat strong domestic rivals Milan 5-3 on aggregate in the Semi, after knocking out Ronaldo's PSV who did well to reach the Quarter Finals, with Ronaldo scoring and assisting 1 against Juve in the Quarter Finals, but his heroics could not help them get past the much stronger side. 

Milan managed get past a heavy scoring Liverpool side in the end out scoring them 5-4 in the Quarter Finals, whilst the Quarter Finals also saw a fun all-Italian tie with Roma knocking out Inter, whilst Real Madrid prevailed in an El Classico Quarter final with Barcelona. 

 

 

 

 

An almost entirely Juve-centred affair in the awards, with just the free-scoring Alan Shearer managing to make the team with them. 

[Sonic Youth]

Lots happened this season!

Hmm, how old is Ravinelli? It’d be close to the time his move to Middlesbrough.

And Ian Rush? Fowler coming through must mean he’s getting less first team action. Owen must soon be around the corner.

Does Real Madrid have Raul, or Atletico Madrid?

I wonder if Barcelona will end up getting Ronaldo this time round 

And Bayern Munich looks like they could use a quality forward too.

[PaulHartman71]

On 08/08/2021 at 03:42, Sonic Youth said:

Lots happened this season!

Hmm, how old is Ravinelli? It’d be close to the time his move to Middlesbrough.

And Ian Rush? Fowler coming through must mean he’s getting less first team action. Owen must soon be around the corner.

Does Real Madrid have Raul, or Atletico Madrid?

I wonder if Barcelona will end up getting Ronaldo this time round 

And Bayern Munich looks like they could use a quality forward too.

 

Yeah, he's 28 now, I think by now he would be at Middlesbrough but he still seems to be starting for Juve so I imagine he will be quite happy staying there given how dominant they are at the minute  

Ian Rush got released this summer, he's 35, 36 in October, but has signed on a free for West Ham in the mean time. 

Yeah, Michael Owen is kicking around now, obviously with Shearer and Fowler as you say he's not getting a look in, but has gone on loan to Middlesbrough this season. I'll share a look at the England Youth squads to give an idea of who's about now: 

 

 

Some of these are on loan so like Carragher is still a Liverpool player he's just out on loan. I think Frank Lampard must be injured as he's around at West Ham and would surely make one of those squads being 19 at the minute. 

 

Raul's at Real Madrid. 

 

It should be interesting to see who gets Ronaldo, slight spoilers but I was surprised to see nobody move for him this window. 

[PaulHartman71]

 

As mentioned previously, Makelele wanted a move since January and it was bringing the whole team down the constant drama surrounding it. I offered him out at £35M, Barca and Milan came back with £30.5M which to be fair at the time was still the record transfer fee which I thought was fair enough. A quality player for us but not worth the hassle. 

Alan Smith is still on big wages that nobody wants to pay in full alongside a transfer, so he goes on loan again, this time to Sunderland in the Second Division. Lee Dixon wanted first team football so he joins newly promoted Aston Villa, whilst Stephen Hughes and Didier Drogba both go on loan again, to Charlton and PSG respectively. Finally, David Rocastle wanted a move/new challenge and given he picked up a nasty injury last season and isn't as useful as he once was whilst still on big wages it seemed a good time to let him go, so he joins Newcastle United in a decent £7M deal. 

 

 

I wanted to get a young right back and a young right midfielder and just happened to stumble across these two Invincibles on the market. Both had been snapped up by bigger clubs than they started at, but I managed to sign them both for pretty good fees for players I expect to eventually be first team players for us. 

 

 

Atletico seem to have retrained Lauren to play CB too which is handy. 

 

 

PSV with Ljungberg as well being able to play centrally, again useful to have. 

 

 

Finally, a 16 year old Ashley Cole has emerged on the scenes. Hopefully in this iteration we won't have any Cashley Cole shenanigans. 

[PaulHartman71]

 

A fairly quiet June. Stefan Beinlinch surprisingly left Leverkusen for Everton in a fairly big money move for the Toffees, meanwhile Dominic Mateo leaves Palace for Chelsea, with Dennis Wise ditching QPR for champions Liverpool. 

Paul Kitson joins Osasuna in a weird move, whilst Dion Dublin leaves Norwich for Crystal Palace. 

Mark Hughes says goodbye to Man United and hello to Newcastle United who pick up another experienced player alongside Rocky Rocastle. 

 

 

 

 

 

Man United break the transfer record once again in a bid to get back on the top of the mountain, spending £34M on David Trezeguet from Monaco. This is an interesting one and a butterfly effect style ripple effect of little things happening, in this case Juventus signing Van Nistelrooy at a really young age so I guess never signing Trezeguet instead, whilst United didn't sign RVN for a few years yet they haven't got Andy Cole because of us and so they wanted a striker and there Trezeguett was. Should be a quality signing for them to be fair. 

Liverpool add Jose Luis Caminero to their defence, whilst Kily Gonzalez leaves Lille for Tottenham. Johan Mjallby is snapped up by AC Milan, whilst Monaco replace Trezeguet with a young Hernan Crespo which you have to say isn't too bad going. Redondo leaves Liverpool for Valencia, whilst Blackburn snap up Steve Saunton in a decent bit of business for them. Elsewhere, Gary Speed leaves Leeds for Newcastle. 

 

 

The Champions of Europe's big purchase this summer appears to be Vladimir Smicer, snapped up from Spurs, which is an interesting one, whilst Liverpool take Michael Tarnat from Barcelona. 

Thomas Helveg leaves United for Barcelona, presumably not getting much of a look in over Gary Neville at right back, interestingly United did add a full back, with Chelsea captain Graeme Le Suax joining them late in the window in what you imagine would be a big blow for Chelsea - although the London-based side replaced him with Chris Powell from Derby by the looks of it. 

Blackburn continue their good business by prizing Steve McManaman back to England from Valencia, whilst also adding wantaway young England defender Ugo Ehiogu from Man United. 

Luis Garcia joins Valencia from Barcelona, whilst Slaven Bilic is sold by West Ham to Southampton.

[PaulHartman71]

 

In the European Cup, I imagine Ajax and Juve will get through Group A, with Group B being a bit more interesting as Blackburn make their maiden campaign in this timeline. PSG probably favorites, although they're now a complete powerhouse that Blackburn couldn't win that group if they had a good time of it, whilst Stuttgart are a decent threat to and Red Star aren't complete mugs. Should be an interesting one.

Bayern should win Group C, although who gets through out of Gijon or Celtic is harder to predict, I'd fancy Celtic though. 

Barcelona always seem to get tricky groups now. This one is no different as at least one of them, Liverpool and Napoli will go out at the group stage, you'd obviously favour Liverpool and Barca, but Napoli are a good side on their day and won't be easy to beat. 

 

 

I think we should top our group, although all 3 of the other sides are quite decent, PSV probably the best of them given they still have a wonderkid Ronaldo up-front, but Valladolid regularly finish Top 4 in Spain which is no easy task. 

Group F an interesting one. United probably favourites, but in Monaco and Europa League winners Atletico Madrid they won't have an easy time of it you would think.

Real Madrid and Roma should come through Group G, although Gladbach will be hoping to cause an upset. Dinamo will be hoping not to lose every game I should think.

Milan should make it through their group, but 2nd place is definitely up for grabs for both Rangers and Werder Bremen in that one.

[Sonic Youth]

19 hours ago, PaulHartman71 said:

 

Yeah, he's 28 now, I think by now he would be at Middlesbrough but he still seems to be starting for Juve so I imagine he will be quite happy staying there given how dominant they are at the minute  

Ian Rush got released this summer, he's 35, 36 in October, but has signed on a free for West Ham in the mean time. 

Yeah, Michael Owen is kicking around now, obviously with Shearer and Fowler as you say he's not getting a look in, but has gone on loan to Middlesbrough this season. I'll share a look at the England Youth squads to give an idea of who's about now: 

 

 

Some of these are on loan so like Carragher is still a Liverpool player he's just out on loan. I think Frank Lampard must be injured as he's around at West Ham and would surely make one of those squads being 19 at the minute. 

 

Raul's at Real Madrid. 

 

It should be interesting to see who gets Ronaldo, slight spoilers but I was surprised to see nobody move for him this window. 

Is Owen still on for his impact as an 18yo? Hmm.

Interesting that Ronaldo didn’t move!

U18’s looks the most intriguing, with some notable stars appearing. 
I like how Fulham cloned Sean Davies 

It’s also interesting to go back over the transfers after seeing the UCL tables as some of the big transfers make a little bit more sense.

Matteo I think moved to Leeds around this time?

Wise to Liverpool I hope wasn’t a Redondo replacement 

It will be interesting who becomes one club players now that they are in the game (Gerrard, Carragher, Terry, Raul, Totti).

Edited August 10, 2021 by Sonic Youth

[PaulHartman71]

On 10/08/2021 at 12:56, Sonic Youth said:

Is Owen still on for his impact as an 18yo? Hmm.

Interesting that Ronaldo didn’t move!

U18’s looks the most intriguing, with some notable stars appearing. 
I like how Fulham cloned Sean Davies 

It’s also interesting to go back over the transfers after seeing the UCL tables as some of the big transfers make a little bit more sense.

Matteo I think moved to Leeds around this time?

Wise to Liverpool I hope wasn’t a Redondo replacement 

It will be interesting who becomes one club players now that they are in the game (Gerrard, Carragher, Terry, Raul, Totti).

 

 

Owen still looks pretty good, I think his problem will be eventually getting into the side over Shearer or Fowler who are in unbelievable form. He's done okay at Middlesbrough with 8 goals and 4 assists in 27 games so far. 

Yeah, I seem to remember Totti would always move to Man United in some of the FM games around the time he was playing. 

[PaulHartman71]

Mid-Season Update

 

 

So far, so good in the League Cup, although we've got a tough tie with Man United in the Semi. 

 

 

Meh. 

We're actually only 4 points and goal difference off of Liverpool at the halfway stage which you would think I'd not to be too disappointed at, but to lose 6 games already is horrific. We have got unlucky, losing 2-1 to Man United, Liverpool and Chelsea, before a ding-dong 3-2 loss at a Crystal Palace side who have had an unbelievable start given they were a newly promoted side this year. 

We also lost to Leeds and West Ham. 

The table is very tight to be fair as 7th place West Ham are only 3 points and goal difference behind us, so we have a lot of work to do still.

Sheffield Wednesday having an absolute nightmare at the bottom of the table, whereas the other places are a bit harder to call, as realistically anyone from 12th down to 19th could feasibly go down if they have a bad run of form in the second half of the season. 

QPR sacked George Graham in October, replacing him with former Ireland and Newcastle boss Jack Charlton, whilst Southampton dumped Howard Wilkinson who not that long ago led them to 4th and European Cup, with Gordon Strachan taking the reigns over there. 

[PaulHartman71]

 

Overall, happy to top the group. We lost to PSV at home which was disappointing, but Lauren got sent off and a Ronaldo brace was inevitable has his incredible pace and skill took advantage of us having 1 less player for the last 25 minutes of the match. 

 

 

Juve and Ajax comfortably made it through their group as expected, with Blackburn just about sneaking through to the knockout round which is nice to see for them. Gijon and Celtic pulled off somewhat of a surprise to ensure Bayern were knocked back to the UEFA Cup, whilst Barcelona and Liverpool went through at Napoli's expense in their group. Man United mad short work of Monaco and Atletico Madrid, with Real Madrid and Roma making it through their group, and Milan top their group, with Bremen joining them instead of Kenny Dalgish's Rangers side. 

[PaulHartman71]

 

Roma are a dangerous side, making the Semi Finals last year and of all the 2nd place teams they wouldn't have been my first choice, but if we defend well we have every chance of doing something. PSV and Barcelona face off as Ronaldo looks to knock out the side he would already be playing for in the real timeline, whilst Ajax and Man United should be an interesting clash as Louis Van Gaal's red and white army face off against Fergie's side. 

Werder Bremen and PSG, as well as Blackburn and Gijon will mean at least 2 sides who I don't think have actually made a Quarter Final in the European Cup just yet in the save itself. Celtic have a tough tie with Real Madrid, Monaco similarly with Milan, whilst Liverpool and Juventus is probably the most exciting tie on paper and could quite easily have been the final. 

[PaulHartman71]

 

A reasonably quiet January, although there were a few notable moves as 21 year old Michael Ballack joins an already stacked Juventus side in the biggest move of the winter: 

 

 

Liverpool sell Patrick Berger to Inter in a bit of a strange move as certainly from what I'd seen in games against us or in random cup competitions he always seemed to do quite well for them, but they've seemingly replaced him with Sporting Lisbon's young Portuguese international Luis Boa Morte. 

Bayern strengthen up front by picking up Danish striker Peter Moller from Feyenoord, whilst the Norweigan defender Hennig Berg swaps Luton for Coventry.

[Sonic Youth]

Tough league this season. Crystal Palace pulling a Hull! If they make Europe, does that mean relegation next season!?

Owen actually looks underwhelming with not that scintillating burst of pace while Ballack looks amazing and over compensated.

[PaulHartman71]

 

Ahead of the 98 World Cup in France I'm pleased to confirm the reigning European champions have indeed qualified, without really breaking a sweat in a group where we won all the games and only let in 1 goal  

 

 

It's the first World Cup with 48 teams, so we revert to a 3 team group stage. 

 

We've got Peru and the Ivory Coast which we should hopefully navigate our way through. Ivory Coast have a young Didier Drogba but other than that they've not really got too many names through yet, I'm sure they'll be more of a threat in the mid to late 2000's though once more of the big names come through. 

[PaulHartman71]

Nottingham Forest sacked Joe Kinnear in late January, picking up Bobby Robson who has been without a club since getting sacked by Leeds last season. 

Sheffield Wednesday who were already doomed to go down in February got rid of Maurice Evans for upcoming Brighton manager Big Sam Allardyce. An interesting move for him as whilst it's probably a step up it will mean he is relegated fairly instantly into his top flight managerial career even if one can argue the relegation won't really be from his doing. 

Chelsea sacked Graham Taylor in March, becoming one of the first clubs to pluck for a foreign manager, as they hire French U21 manager, Gerard Houllier. 

Tottenham have also hired a foreign manager now, as Kevin Keegan was given the boot in May, with former Tenerife manager Rafa Benitez plucked from Real Sociedad in Spain to take over at Spurs. 

[PaulHartman71]

 

The 1997/98 season of course saw Wenger's side win the double. Given they'd lost 6 games at Christmas it looked unlikely Arsenal would repeat that this season. 

 

 

However, despite Robbie Fowler dropping Cristano Ronaldo/Messi numbers in terms of goal-scoring, they dropped 8 points from their last 5 games, including a 1-0 loss away from home at City on the last day of the season which would prove incredibly costly...

 

 

Unbelievable scenes

We win the league on 82 points, which would only be good enough for 3rd in the last two seasons. Even going into the last game of the season at home to Palace we had to win and hope that Liverpool didn't win or get a point, as even if they'd drawn at City they would have won on goal difference. Probably would've given us a 10-15 percent chance of winning the title going into it, mental that we managed it, especially given we drew at home to Leicester in the 37th game which would've at least put us on level points and made it so if we'd won and they drew we'd get the title.

 

 

 

 

To put into perspective we were only top of the league 8 minutes into the final league game of the season when Andy Cole put us 1-0 up  

 

 

Seems incredibly harsh on Liverpool that we have so many players in here instead of them, Robbie Fowler obviously warrants his place given he got 50 goals and 13 assists just in the league  

Dennis Wise had 6 goals and 18 assists yet didn't get in it  Duggary had 14 goals and 15 assists but also missed out. 

Fair play to Sheffield United's Francesco Pedone who made the team on the right wing. 

 

 

[PaulHartman71]

 

United got the better of us in the League Cup, we took a real pasting in the first leg with a few injuries and a lot of players rested, but even so, not great to lose 5-1, we beat them 3-0 in the second leg, but it wasn't enough to get to the final.

 

 

United got the better of us in the FA Cup too, as they beat us in the Semi of that as well. 

 

 

[PaulHartman71]

 

A great result over two legs against Roma, as despite not getting an away goal we took advantage of the 0-0 to beat them 3-0 at home in the return leg at The JVC Stadium. 

 

 

An incredible set of matches, which saw us lose 4-3 at home in the first leg, at 1 point being 3-0 and 4-1 down, we went to the Bernabeu and put in one of the all time European Cup performances to pull off a huge comeback and upset to make the Semi Final at Real Madrid's expense. 

 

 

A heroic last minute away goal from substitute Ian Wright at the San Siro gave us a real chance of making the final, but we just couldn't get the 1 goal we needed to go through against AC Milan and we bow out at the Semi Final, with Wenger's European Cup curse continuing. 

[PaulHartman71]

 

Andy Cole excellent again, with Bergkamp and Adams also stand out performers. 

 

[PaulHartman71]

 Wenger's Career Record

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season      Club                  League                Position           Achievements/Other
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1990/91     Arsenal FC            First Division          2nd              N/A
1991/92     Arsenal FC            First Division          1st              First Division & League Cup winners
1992/93     Arsenal FC            First Division          3rd              FA Cup & Charity Shield winners
1993/94     Arsenal FC            First Division          2nd              FA Cup & Charity Shield winners
1994/95     Arsenal FC            First Division          1st              First Division, FA Cup & League Cup winners
1995/96     Arsenal FC            First Division          1st              First Division & Charity Shield winners
1996/97     Arsenal FC            First Division          3rd              Charity Shield winners
1997/98     Arsenal FC            First Division          1st              First Division winners
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Arsenal's Trophy Cabinet in the Original Timeline

 

First Division/Premier League - x4 (1990/91, 1997/98, 2001/02 & 2003/04) 

FA Cup                        - x9 (1992-93, 1997/98, 2001/2, 2002/03, 2004/05, 2013/14, 2014/15, 2016/17 & 2019/20) 

League Cup                    - x1 (1992/93)

Charity/Community Shield      - x9 (1991/92, 1998/99, 1999/00, 2002/03, 2004/05, 2014/15, 2015/16, 2017/20 & 2020/21)

UEFA Cup Winners Cup          - x1 (1993/94)

 

 

Trophy Cabinet in the New Timeline

 

First Division             - x4 (1991/92, 1994/95, 1995/96 & 1997/98) 

FA Cup                     - x3 (1992/93, 1993/94 & 1994/95)

League Cup                 - x2 (1991/92 & 1994/95)

Charity Shield             - x4 (1992/93, 1993/94, 1995/96 & 1996/97)

 

[PaulHartman71]

 

A brilliant effort from 2nd Division Luton to reach the final, but Alex Ferguson puts them down in the final to win another cup. 

 

 

They also won the League Cup. 

 

 

 

Derby County won the 2nd Division, with Ipswich joining them in 2nd and Coventry beating Sunderland in the Playoff final. 

 

 

Brentford, Plymouth and Swindon gain promotion from the 3rd Division. 

[PaulHartman71]

 

It's 3 in a row for Juve and they've only gone and done it unbeaten! Incredible stuff from Guus Hiddink's side who finish 16 points ahead of Milan. 

Inter are the side of the Top 5 who will be in the UEFA Cup next season. 

 

[PaulHartman71]

 

Barcelona are back on top, narrowly pipping rivals Real Madrid to the title. Valencia make it into 4th. 

 

[PaulHartman71]

 

4 in a row for Bayern in Germany. 

 

[PaulHartman71]

 

PSG retain in France. 

 

[PaulHartman71]

 

Despite 26 goals in 33 games for Ronaldo, it was Ajax who won the title this year with Louis van Gaal's side back on top. 

 

 

 

Celtic back on top in Scotland, with Larsson in fine form up-front for them. 

[PaulHartman71]

 

A great effort from a young Porto side boasting the likes of Paulo Ferreira and Deco in the Conference League, but it was Auxerre who took the title back to France. 

 

 

 

[PaulHartman71]

 

 

Valladolid were on a mission to win the UEFA Cup given their league position meant their only route to the European Cup was to win it, but unfortunately one of the sides who dropped out of the European Cup, Bayern, proved too strong for them and ultimately won it ruining the party.

 

 

[PaulHartman71]

 

A very interesting year in the European Cup. 

Blackburn pulled off a huge upset in the Quarter Finals to knock out Barcelona, whilst Milan made sure Juventus were only unbeaten in the Serie A and not in the European Cup too by knocking them out. Louis van Gaal's Ajax side knocked out Fergie's Man United, then got through against PSG on away goals, before dumping out Blackburn to reach the final against Milan. 

What a final it was, as Ajax the underdogs pulled off a huge upset by taking it to penalties and getting the surprise win!

 

 

An incredible final saw 19 year old Juan Roman Riquelme, on loan to Ajax from a Valencia side not even in the European Cup this season, eventually beat Milan on penalties with Riquelme scoring another penalty, as Marco Van Basten had his own penalty saved by Ajax keeper Rogerio Ceni. 

 

 

Ajax end up with just 2 players in the Best XI of the tournament despite winning it  

[Sonic Youth]

There’s so much to unpack in this years round ups!

Ajax with Seedorf getting the first UCL of his career. Riquelme there is such a trip. Did Ajax do the treble? No wonder Ronaldo didn’t win the Dutch league!

Shevchenko in Milan!

Juv unbeaten is pretty special there too. That front 3 is ridiculous.

The Laudrops playing against each other in Spain 

Fowler and Liverpool  Talk about robbed by Arsenal 

How old is Wright now? Cole was pretty good this season. Henry looks like he’s progressing.

Luton deserves a mention as well 

Did Totti play against you?

Also, Aimar, Deco, Maldini, Raul! Saviola must be around now. Walter Samuel too.

 

[DaneBramage]

4 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

How old is Wright now? 

That's a good question, I see things like Henry mainly being a sub and wondering why he isn't playing more, but of course he's still young. So my mind's not keeping up with what age everyone would be.

Can we have a screenshot of the squad, with a column showing their age?

[PaulHartman71]

7 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

There’s so much to unpack in this years round ups!

Ajax with Seedorf getting the first UCL of his career. Riquelme there is such a trip. Did Ajax do the treble? No wonder Ronaldo didn’t win the Dutch league!

Shevchenko in Milan!

Juv unbeaten is pretty special there too. That front 3 is ridiculous.

The Laudrops playing against each other in Spain 

Fowler and Liverpool  Talk about robbed by Arsenal 

How old is Wright now? Cole was pretty good this season. Henry looks like he’s progressing.

Luton deserves a mention as well 

Did Totti play against you?

Also, Aimar, Deco, Maldini, Raul! Saviola must be around now. Walter Samuel too.

 

 

Looks like PSV won the Dutch Cup, so no treble for Ajax. 

Totti played in both games against us I think. 

 

2 hours ago, DaneBramage said:

That's a good question, I see things like Henry mainly being a sub and wondering why he isn't playing more, but of course he's still young. So my mind's not keeping up with what age everyone would be.

Can we have a screenshot of the squad, with a column showing their age?

 

 

Wright is pretty much finished at the top level at this point, he'll very likely leave this summer I think. 

Henry is a difficult one as he's definitely good enough to be starting for us, but Andy Cole's on fire and Bergkamp offers a lot more than goals and in the deep lying creative type position is fairly integral so really Henry needs to be beating Cole to be first choice. Henry should become better than both within then next 2 seasons though I imagine. 

[PaulHartman71]

But it's the summer of 98, which means only one thing...

 

 

The Euros have come home, ahead of France 98, can the World Cup come home now too??? 

[PaulHartman71]

 

 

The new timeline squad: 

 

Goalkeepers: David Seaman, Nigel Martyn, David James - Tim Flowers

Defenders: Gary Neville, Rob Jones, Greame Le Saux, Chris Powell, Tony Adams, Sol Campbell, Gareth Southgate, Rio Ferdinand - Martin Keown

Midfielders: David Beckham, Steve McManaman, Paul Merson, Nick Barmby, Paul Gascoigne, Paul Scholes, Jamie Redknapp, Paul Ince - David Batty, Darren Anderton, Rob Lee

Strikers: Alan Shearer, Robbie Fowler, Teddy Sheringham, Andy Cole - Les Ferdinand, Michael Owen

 

David James for Tim Flowers a fairly simple swap as James is doing much better for Leeds than Flowers for Southampton. 

Rob Jones and Chris Powell in there instead of Martin Keown.  Went with Ferdinand over Keown as there wasn't much in them and Keown coming towards the end of his career now anyway. 

Nick Barmby getting in over Darren Anderton who had a poor time of it with Spurs, whilst Redknapp doing better at Liverpool than Batty at Blackburn  and Paul Gascoigne still doing well for Madrid so he gets the nod ahead of Rob Lee..

Strikers a bit more interesting. Ferdinand could have made a case to go but couldn't really justify any of the other 4 not going who are all extremely good at the moment, which also means Michael Owen doesn't get a look in either.

Dennis Wise had an excellent season for Liverpool but I just couldn't justify him going over Scholes or Gascoigne, Matt Le Tissier may have gone if he hadn't been injured and Ray Parlour also a bit unlucky to miss out. 

Edited August 19, 2021 by PaulHartman71

[PaulHartman71]

 Bad news for Brazil as Ronaldo misses the tournament through injury, on the plus side they still have Romario, Edilson and Giovane Elber up top. 

France having a bad time of it as Robert Pires misses out through injury, whilst Thierry Henry is not chosen to go, possibly due to not starting for us, with France opting for Jean-Pierre Papin, Cantona and Djorkaeff as strikers, as Man United star man David Trezeguet is also out with an injury. 

[PaulHartman71]

   

 

A nice result against Egypt in our first friendly. 

 

We also put 4 past Mali to put us in the mood for the Group Stage. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 19, 2021 by PaulHartman71

[PaulHartman71]

 

Robbie Fowler picked up a knock in training to unfortunately put him out for the first few games, but all the same we beat Peru 2-0 without too much bother. 

[PaulHartman71]

 

Sheringham ensured we barely missed Fowler at all, as his hat-trick helped us smash Ivory Coast to comfortably top the group. 

 

 

Ivory Coast and Peru drew 0-0, which meant Peru went through purely on the basis that we put less goals past them... 

 

 

No massive surprises here, perhaps USA going out ahead of South Korea, but pretty much what you'd expect I think. Italy dominating their group, as did Argentina, whilst Germany perhaps causing a surprise by losing to Cameroon. 

 

 

 

Sweden going out at Costa Rica's expense possibly a surprise, although again, they only really went out as they got beat by Brazil a bit less. A similar story for Australia, as Ghana go through instead of them through losing less to France. 

 

 

Wales make it through what you have to say is a fairly kind group for them, whilst Senegal who have a reasonably strong side including Patrick Vieira go out to Uruguay and Slovakia after losing both games, maybe 2002 will be more for them.