[FM 23] Gunners via Italy & Germany

[vivu]

Season '29/30 Kick Off

Has an unbelievable preseason with the team lifting the Club World Cup. Breezed through the friendlies before running into spurs. My record signing was sidelined and I had to go in with my youth GK, who did a fantastic job. but we lost the tie on penalty heart break after an extra long shootout. We have been made favorite to the Serie A, but the campaign started off to a wasteful draw against Fiorentina, whereas Vlahoiv began with a double as Juve started off perfectly. And the UCL draw was completed and we have a tricky run in.

And we have a bank breaking transfer that smashed our transfer record

The wording on the below message seems buggy. Pretty sure the purchase of CR7 is reversed

[Deisler26]

That's a lot of bread....

[vivu]

Transfer Window Update:

Players Out

2 club stalwarts moved on at the twilight of their careers.

Spoiler

Club Icon Piotr was our record league appearances record holder with 454 appearances for the club. He was a really good player, but on high wages and would have found it difficult to break into the first team.

Spoiler

Another stalwart who could do a job, but I wanted to give my up and coming youngsters a chance to stake a claim for first team football.

Spoiler

The Belgian youngster was a decent performer, but I have way too many options at the back. He moves on for a tidy profit and 50% of any further profit.

Spoiler

Marco moved in after my record capture of Donnaruma. He was a really good GK, but he always performed badly when my team lost, scoring an avg rating 6 in few matches. This inconsistency was the reason I was on the look out for a new starting GK. Spurs was in advance discussion with him, when PSG came in to fill the hole at their back.

Spoiler

Marco was a youngster who was never gonna make the cut. He moves for a decent price.

 

[vivu]

Players In:

Spoiler

Jon can play in few positions and is highly rated. Would be a fringe player at the club and would be loaned out in Jan if he cant break into first team.

Spoiler

My record signing and I have high hopes that the legendary GK can bring in better organization at the back.

Spoiler

A highly rated Italian youngster who came through Viola's youth system; he would be spending rest of the season at Fiorentina.

Spoiler

Another Italian youngster with decent skills. Our scouts reckon he has decent potential, but was not recommending the signing. I went ahead anyways; he will be spending the season at our affiliate.

Spoiler

The young Portuguese International was being tracked by me for some time. He had a breakout season last year at Roma, and I have earmarked him to replace Anguissa, whose contract is running out this year. He looks absolute quality and will be spending the season at Roma.

This leaves the squad like this:

I have renewed the contracts of most of my core team and this has driven up our Salary spend

Edited November 19, 2022 by vivu

[vivu]

A familiar name in the news report

He has developed nicely and is already rated as a global superstar.

[vivu]

[vivu]

I think this must be a bug in the game. I can understand if the players retired after not qualifying for a WC, but the team still have a chance via the play offs.

 

Edited November 19, 2022 by vivu

[Deisler26]

Yeah, I've seen in some other threads that is a issue, re: international retirements

[vivu]

5 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

Yeah, I've seen in some other threads that is a issue, re: international retirements

I think I had seen that in a previous version of FM too

[vivu]

Sep & Oct '29

We were solid in UCL, but our league form was mixed. Had a shocking early defeat against Bari and rounded off Oct with 2 poor draws. Already 4points off the top in a season where we are supposed to put up a title challenge.

[vivu]

[vivu]

Nov & Dec '29

Our form dipped in November and we suffered our first losses in UCL for a while. Held a team meeting , which seemed to pi*s off the whole team, but paid off in next month's performances. Osimhen was injured for a while and is slowly getting back to peak form. We took over the top spot for the first time in the league (from the surprise package this year - Atalanta).

Edited November 20, 2022 by vivu

[vivu]

[vivu]

Bloody hell. I had to move all the transfer budget to wage, as I went over the limit.

[vivu]

Vultures are circling for my youngsters

Milan came in with a 17 mil offer which was way below his value. Hissy fit and offering out later he is on the move to the glamorous shores of

Funny that only Kobenhavn was willing to make an offer (I think its because I included the loan back as non negotiable). Still need the idiot as back up as I don't have any targets in sight as of now to replace him.

The 35 million red bottom line almost wiped clean

Edited November 20, 2022 by vivu

[vivu]

Jan '30

Team was in really good form despite the off field financial woes. I have plenty of 12month payments coming, so I think we would be in financial quagmire for couple of seasons more, so the performance on pitch becomes critical.

Bayer, Monaco, Valencia, Lyon & Ajax are the bigwigs missing out on knock out round

The loan back inserted in the sale of Huguet becomes even more important

Transfer update :

Only player in, youngster who is going to be in my youth teams for the foreseeable future. He is highly rated by scouting team

Apart from Huguet, I decided to cash in on Anguissa who had agreed a pre-contract deal with Lyon. I have plenty of cover in his position and he was on a 6 figure contract. Another experienced war horse moved on under my watch.

 

 

[vivu]

Feb & Mar '30

Our league form had been slipping and the draw with Milan at the end hurt more than the thrashing we received from Juve in Copa. We could have gone top and led by 2 goals going into final 15 mins   Had an absolutely legendary KO meeting against Liverpool too

 

[vivu]

Mr Martin would be on the way but for this

[vivu]

Apr & May '30

The team was wonderful in the UCL play offs setting up consecutive finals appearance, with my favorite team coming up in the finals. We had Serie A title within our grasp, but a surprise defeat opened up a window for Milan and the loss to Inter threw open the title race. we went into the final match level on points and with us facing the outgoing champs Juve. Milan raced into the lead and went on to trounce their opponents, whereas we were struggling to pry open the Juve defence. I made my changes after the hr mark and things went from bad to worse with 12 mins to go when we went down to 10 men due to an injury. I had lost all hope with this and had settled on another UCL battle when my DM popped up with a belter from outside the box with a min to go. I though we had won the whole thing as the champion animation played at the close of the match, but upon checking the fixture list saw that there was a play off with Milan. So effectively two finals to look forward to Never had such a dramatic end to a season for a long time

Some accolades

And 12 of our boys are off to the WC

[vivu]

Old Club Watch

Simon Kjaer have made Bayreuth into a solid mid table Bundeliga team. They again narrowly missed out on Europe due to poor run in at the end of the season.

Meanwhile in England, Pep + Saudi money pays off

[vivu]

Most important goal of the season

https://i.gyazo.com/b46e990c15819a71d5ca42a3286753d9.mp4

 

 

 

[vivu]

One down My forwards were a big disappointment

 

Edited November 20, 2022 by vivu

[vivu]

[vivu]

Bloody hell. The play off fixture is bugged. Half the team missing for both

 

[vivu]

And our Youngsters did us proud.

40 year wait ends

[vivu]

End of Season

Player of the season and an absolute legend. He has been an excellent fit to my tactics

Edited November 20, 2022 by vivu

[vivu]

 

[vivu]

Manquant, Allan & Basaric Watch

Manquant had a decent season guiding WBA to mid table with his 14 goals

Basaric got relegated with his wqorst season in PL but stayed in the league with Newcastle after they triggered his active relegation clause

Allan has developed well and have earned a mammoth payday with his mega move to Bayern.

[vivu]

They sold him too soon

[vivu]

[vivu]

We are almost catching up

[vivu]

Golden boot from 3 games

[vivu]

Decided to accept our legend's wishes when the gunners came in with an insane bid

 

[vivu]

End of an Era. 147 league goals for Napoli

[vivu]

And his replacement

 

[vivu]

I wish the supporters would make up their mind

[vivu]

[vivu]

2030/31 Pre-Season & Transfer update

Team has handled the loss of our talisman quite well in the pre-season friendlies, but the real test would begin in League & especially in Europe (where Osimhen was electric for us).

Players out:

There were two big outgoings after Osimhen

Spoiler

Renan was a back up option who has not developed as I had expected. The money on offer was too good to refuse and he moves to our major competitor.

Spoiler

I was not sure about letting Jason leave as he was a very solid performer. Bit the financial part of it won the argument and I had a much cheaper replacement lined up who is as good as him as per my scouts.

Players In:

Spoiler

Frederico is a highly rated wonderkid who had a breakout season at Gil Vicente. My center backs are attracting big attention, so he is a solid back up option. He stays back in Portugal for the season.

Spoiler

My replacement squad striker who came at a fraction of my outgoing one. He is highly rated by my scouts and my coaches and they reckon he can improve a bit. The worrying aspect is that he had never established himself at Benfica or impressed when he had gone out on loan. I am taking a gamble by moving on my proven performer, but hopefully I can unlock the lads potential. Otherwise he will be moving on (for a profit I think as his price has doubled after the move).

 

Edited November 20, 2022 by vivu

[vivu]

Not the ideal news before the season starts.

Squad is looking well balanced

[vivu]

Made a move for a youngster I had been scouting for couple of years now. Pretty steep transfer fee and Wages for what is essentially a hot prospect role, but needed to move as my main GK is out and I only have 1 decent back up at the club.

[vivu]

[vivu]

Edited November 20, 2022 by vivu

[vivu]

Aug & Sep '30

Our campaign started very well with Porras and Bastos doing very well in front of goal, but small knocks to Kvaradona and Porras meant I had to go with Bastos leading the line against Gunners (in a rematch of last season's final) and he was a big disappointment. Same issues against Milan, but the team picked up when Porras came back. Bastos seems to be better at making an impact from the bench. Have a tough start to UCL campaign with Dortmund up next.

 

Edited November 21, 2022 by vivu

[Deisler26]

Fast start in the league, not so much in the CL

[vivu]

Oct Nov & Dec '30

Team kicked into top gear in December after decent if unspectacular Oct & Nov results. We have healthy lead in the league and are well placed for top 8 position in UCL. Most satisfying results were the back to back away victories at Juve and City. Only slight niggle is that my strikers are a bit of a hit an miss and not as consistent as Osimhen.

[vivu]

Had the quietest transfer window in the save

[vivu]

Jan, Feb & Mar '31

We have control over the league and is into the UCL quarters (where we have PSG) and one foot into the Copa final. Only blemish was the loss in the Super Cup. Porras have been really good and Bastos chipped in when I had to rotate.

My HoYD ison the way out. I will be replacing him at end of season.

Edited November 24, 2022 by vivu

[vivu]

Only my injury cover GK I brought in this season made the list.

[vivu]

Apr '31

I had to rotate heavily as I had 3 critical players out injured. Raspadori, Kvara and Bastos were out for most of the month an Porras was the lone fit main striker at my disposal. The results were very good considering that I had to call out some players from the u20s for the Bologna and Juve fixtures. Have surrendered the advantage to a brilliant Bayern team though and have a tough ask at Munich. Finger crossed that at least  one of Raspadori/Kvara would be fit for that one. Have a horribly congested May calendar to deal with, 11 point lead and game in hand should enable us to rotate heavily for the league fixtures.

[vivu]

Injuries cost us dearly as my front 3 misfired spectacularly and the goal that prevented us from a 3rd consecutive final was an assist from an old friend I brought through, Sam Allan.