WillyBroadband

December 1, 2023

@FuSS Hello mate, can't wait to give this a go*, always been a fan

*FuSStive Spirit still worked really well for me on FM24

December 1, 2023

Hello everybody, if anyone was wondering if FuSStive Spirit works well in FM24, here are some screenshots from my first season at Arsenal.

As you can see, I won everything but finished 2nd in the league with 96 points losing the title on Goal Difference on the final day. Was one of the most exciting title races I've ever been involved in.

Thought I would share my transfers too.

Posted June 21, 2023 · June 21, 2023

I always sign Bernhard Peters as my Assistant Manager and then the following - on every save for whatever club I am - Dennis Bergkamp, Oliver Bartlett (Fitness Coach at Stuttgart), Paul McGuinness, Anthony Colbert (Fitness Coach), Francis Cagigao (Scout/Chief Scout), Darragh Connolly (Sports Scientist), Bryan Klug (Coach at Ipswich Town) and Norbert Elgert (Youth Coach at Schalke)

These are off the top of my head, I'm sure there are a few more but this is a good start. All unemployed unless stated.

June 21, 2023

I signed him for Arsenal on my last save, as soon as he turned 18, and he was unreal the first season and wildly inconsistent the second season. I signed him for about £10.25M and sold him after 2 1/2 seasons in a part exchange transfer for Jamal Musiala.

March 22, 2023

I was playing some random pre-season friendlies and this name made me do a double take! I wonder if Charlie or Martin Sheen are in the game too :lol:

February 15, 2023

On 13/02/2023 at 16:28, HUNT3R said:

You have to be careful about playing time promises/expectations, firstly. Know that a squad player, for example, will be expecting to start roughly every 2nd match. If you're going to rotate that much every other game, it's going to be difficult managing Important and Star Players. What helps a lot is keeping tabs on their happiness. I do it like this:

If I see someone is "Concerned", I know I should look to play him a little more, especially in the immediate future.

That is exactly what I do and 90% of the time, it works.

April 1, 2022

6 hours ago, Telegram Sam said:

2027/28 - Part 3

A busy December got underway with a narrow home victory against Wolves, with the 2-1 win ending up being more challenging than it needed to be after our young German centre-back Jörg Granatowski getting himself sent off for a two-footed challenge just before the hour mark. Thankfully, we had already established the lead thanks to goals from Martinelli and Vlahović and our ten men were able to hold out until the end. Things were a bit more straightforward against Everton as we ended up 3-1 winners with strikes coming from Saka, Martinelli, and de Ligt in the first half. An 85th-minute goal from Cristian Pavón proved to nothing more than a consolation for the visitors.

We travelled to Germany for our final Champions League group game with top spot already secured to face Bayer Leverkusen, who themselves were needing a victory to have any chance to qualify ahead of FC Porto in second place. We fell behind twice before levelling the game through Jude Bellingham with roughly fifteen minutes left to pay, before Granatowski managed to get himself sent off for the second time in three matches in the 88th minute. We sat back with ten men to try and see out the point, but in the fifth minute of injury time a superb ball from Yusuf Demir played Dušan Vlahović through on goal and the Serb rounded the goalkeeper to slot home his second goal of the game to earn us a dramatic 3-2 victory. The win didn't really count for anything but it was great to see us battle back through adversity again to end the group stage on a high:

The draw for the first knockout round was relatively kind to us as we managed to avoid the likes of PSG and Real Madrid with both having finished second in their groups, as we instead found ourselves up against Real Sociedad:

The good times kept rolling in the league as we notched up three more victories against Aston Villa (A, 2-0), Southampton (H, 4-1), and Sheffield United (A, 3-2). This meant we had now won eight consecutive games since our 2-1 defeat to Stamford Bridge and we had regained our spot at the top of the Premier League table. However, the busy Christmas schedule meant we now had the unenviable task of travelling to the Etihad to face Manchester City on Boxing Day before then hosting Liverpool at the Emirates two days later to round off 2027. Before then, we had to navigate a tricky away tie against West Ham in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals, and the game ended up going to penalties after neither side was able to score despite our dominance. In the end we managed to secure passage through to the semi-finals in a 4-3 penalty shootout win, with Huddersfield Town waiting for us in the semi-finals.

We made the trip up to Manchester and got away with a point thanks to a header from Vyacheslav Spirin, which was cancelled out by a second-half equaliser from Raheem Sterling. City probably deserved the win based on the number of chances created so I was more than happy with the draw, even if it ended our eight-game winning run. Chelsea and City had both dropped points in the weeks prior and the draw meant we now sat seven points clear at the top of the Premier League at the halfway stage of the season:

With a point earned against City, a win against Liverpool would now really help secure our position at the top of the table. It was a nervy start to the game and we nearly fell behind after Erling Haaland hit the post from close range, but we managed to wrestle control of the game thanks to first half goals from Yusuf Demir and Jamal Musiala. Demir then struck again shortly after half-time with a fantastic free-kick from the edge of the box, which effectively wrapped up the win. A final goal in injury time from substitute Benjamin Badić helped us round up the game and 2027 as a whole in style, with 4-0 being the final result. I'll also point out the superb contribution in this game from Charlie Patino, who ended the game with two fantastic assists. He had become a great squad player for the team and was now comfortable playing at the base of the midfield in the 4-3-3 formation I was now using pretty regularly.

The turn of the year also meant awards season, and the announcement of the best players in the world. Given that we ended 2027 as reigning Premier League and European champions, we had a hugely impressive nine entrants into the Goal 50:

I felt this was mostly fair, although Vlahovic and Musiala should probably have been a tad higher with Rice and Livramento being given placings I thought were rather generous. Both de Ligt and de Jong had been very good since they signed for us, although perhaps not particularly spectacular, but I was nonetheless happy to see them ranked so highly. We also had four starters in the FIFPRO World XI for the year, along with three more players on the bench:

Back to the football and we started the New Year with a comfortable 3-0 victory on the road against Southampton, with Vlahović's bagging a hat-trick and continuing his fine vein of form. We then had three cup games in succession, with a 2-0 away win against Preston in the FA Cup Third Round being sandwiched in between our two Carabao Cup semi-final ties against Huddersfield, which we won 2-0 and 3-1 respectively. Newcastle had overcome Derby County in the other semi-final 4-1 on aggregate so we'd be facing the Magpies at Wembley in a repeat of the 2025 final, which we won 2-0. Despite their riches, they still hadn't won a major trophy since their takeover and were languishing in mid-table this season, although were still involved in the Europa Conference League.

With progress in the cups secured, we had another huge game at home with Chelsea visiting the Emirates. They had inflicted our only defeat in the league thus far and we were very much interested in exacting our revenge, which we did emphatically:

After hammering Chelsea 9-0 in the 2024/25 season, in which Vlahović scored a record-breaking six goals, we inflicted another massive defeat upon our London rivals yet again to reaffirm our status as the best club in the capital and probably the country. The game started in a hectic manner with Vlahović bagging the opener from the spot after Spirin was hauled to the ground in the first minute, before Pulisic equalised for the visitors from kick-off. The game settled into a calmer rhythm before some beautiful football allowed Jamal Musiala some space in the box to curl in a fantastic strike to help us regain the lead:

From there, we never looked back. Vyacheslav Spirin, our star academy product who I had re-trained to play as a left inside forward, scored two headed goals at the back post to give us a 4-1 lead going into half-time. We were in no mood to slow down in the second half as Musiala headed home his second goal of the game before Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe both came off the bench to make the scoreline even more emphatic. Despite not being amongst the goals himself, Jude Bellingham finished the game as man of the match with an incredible three assists to his name in what was so far a fantastic campaign from him.

With Chelsea having been our closest challengers up to this point, this victory gave us a 10-point lead at the top of the Premier League:

The win over Chelsea had clearly whetted our appetite for goals as we faced off against Huddersfield for the third time in a month and trounced them 5-1 in their own stadium, with the highlight undoubtedly being an incredible four-goal haul from Vyacheslav Spirin. After scoring from a corner in the opening minutes, this superb volley gave us a 2-0 lead at half-time:

Former Gunner Eddie Nketiah made it 2-1 early in the second half to make things a bit nervy, but Spirin sealed his hat-trick with a superb finish following a quick counter from a Huddersfield corner before then adding a fourth goal with a header while unmarked at the back post. Emile Smith Rowe scored from the penalty spot late in the game to make it twelve goals scored in two league games for Arsenal.

The big games kept coming as Manchester City rolled into town following our draw at the Etihad a few weeks prior. It's worth noting at this point that we had probably the worst injury crisis I'd experienced during my time at the club, compounded by the fact we had players away on international duty for much of January. Our young newgens Mauro Guerrero, Renan Renato and Valtecir were all off playing for their U23 sides in South America, while Livramento, Granatowski, Tierney, Ødegaard, and Martinelli were all ruled out for a few weeks due to injury. We were particularly hit hard in defence and I was forced to play Declan Rice at right-back with Livramento, Guerrero and Tierney all unavailable, with Frenkie de Jong playing alongside de Ligt at the back with Rice moved out wide and Renato and Granatowski not around for selection.

I was concerned that we may suffer with these absences and my concerns seemed to be realised when Victor Osimhen struck for the hosts within four minutes. However, we rallied in style as Jamal Musiala followed his brace against Chelsea with a fantastic goal from the edge of the area to draw us level within minutes:

Musiala had suffered for form at times this season but had really picked up his game during this period with lots of games, and had made big contributions when it mattered most. That said, the hero of the day would ultimately be Yusuf Demir as the Austrian playmaker bagging himself a sensational hat-trick to send us on our way to a 5-1 win against City, with Spirin grabbing the other goal. Demir had given us the lead minutes after Musiala had equalised, and he made it 3-1 with half an hour played with a beautiful chip over Ederson. Spirin's goal had come after he received a long pass from Aaron Ramsdale behind the City defence, and he fired home a fourth before half-time with his shot rebounding off the post. Demir finished off his hat-trick with a powerful drive from outside the box in the second half and this secured another sensational home win against one of our title rivals.

These three high-scoring wins in January had put us 10 points ahead of Chelsea, 13 ahead of Liverpool and 14 ahead of City with 24 games played, with the second consecutive defence of our title now looking imminent. We did finally slip up during this tough period, drawing 2-2 away at Southampton, but it very much felt like a point earned after two superb goals from Dusan Vlahović in the 82nd and 88th minutes completed a fantastic comeback for us. We had been poor for much of the game but with us having battled back to gain something from the match, I notched up our disappointing display to fatigue and injuries more than anything.

We'd played 8 matches in January up to this point and I've still not mentioned our transfer window; it was a relatively quiet one, but we did sign two young players with a view to the future. The first deal was for Aleska Smiljanić, a Serbain defender-come-midfielder who I'd had my eye on for a while:

My scout in Serbia found him when he was 16, although for the past two years he didn't want to make the move to a major club just yet. I spoke with his agent in late December and it became clear his openness to a move had changed, so we decided to activate the £7.25m release clause he had in his contract with Partizan Belgrade.

While we have the likes of Frenkie de Jong, Charlie Patino and Declan Rice as great defensive-midfield options, the former pair's strengths lie in their playmaking rather than their defensive nous and Rice has mainly be deployed as a centre-back for us this season. I'm certainly expecting it to be a few years until Smiljanić becomes a first-team regular, but with his superb marking, tackling, positions, decisions, and strength attributes, I see him already as a good defensive option from the bench to help us close out games.

The injury issues we had in January meant he gained first-team experience earlier than expected, making his debut against Huddersfield from the bench in the first leg of the semi-final before then starting in the second. I gave him his first league start against Southampton at centre-back due to the increasingly severe injury issues we had and he did relatively well, ending the game with a fine assist from deep to Vlahović to help us grab a point.

This led me to starting him in the final game of the month, which was at home against Newcastle. This time he featured in midfield as I reverted to our old 3-3-3-1 Total Football formation with no full-backs of note to call upon, and I deployed him as the left Carrilero alongside Jude Bellingham. We fell behind after a poor start thanks to a header from Talles Magno, but Smiljanić helped rescue the day with this fine chip over the goalkeeper to level things at 1-1:

Things got even better for the Serb as he yet again assisted his compatriot Vlahović, who fired us into a 2-1 lead on the brink of half-time. Talles Magno equalised for the visitors with his second goal of the game in the second half, making a second consecutive game where we dropped points looking likely, but a curled effort from the edge of the box from Emile Smith Rowe put us back in control before Vlahović second strike of the night rounded off a 4-2 victory.

This rounded off a great January for us and in the remaining days of the window, I made one final signing before the window slammed shut:

The Italian midfielder Saverio Bartoli has the profile of a certain Andrea Pirlo, although has a long way to go before those comparisons can be made with any real conviction. He joined us from Verona for an initial £3m and will spend the first six months with the U23's before I decide how best to develop him in the summer. With de Jong and Patino at the top of their games I don't see a place for him in my squad for a while yet but I'm optimistic about his potential.

We didn't sell anyone in the January window, although we did receive this unexpected loan bid from Inter for Ryan Gravenberch:

If a serious bid had come in the summer I may have considered it, but Gravenberch has largely been great for us even if he's unlikely to ever unseat Jude Bellingham as first-choice option for the number eight role we have in the midfield. I paid £70m for him in 2025 and would want a fair bit more for him if I did decide to sell, so I never really considered Inter's bid. In the summer though I imagine he'll either sign a new deal—his current contract will only have two years left to run—or I'll let him go if we receive an offer of some serious money from a major club on the continent.

As we head into the final months of the season, we face another away trip to West Ham in the FA Cup Fourth Round along with our double-header against Real Sociedad as our Champions League defence really gets going. We also have a Carabao Cup final against Newcastle to look forward to along with what I hope will be a relatively comfortable stroll to the title. We're looking pretty with 12 games left to play:

The only other thing of note is that rumours of another takeover have started filtering through from my press officer...

Loving your updates dude.

March 31, 2022

On 29/03/2022 at 23:50, ajw10 said:

Mbappe

What wages is he on, mate? On 22.3 I tried to get him on a free and he wanted about £600K a week and I couldn't get near to his demands, even with crazy bonuses.

March 31, 2022

12 hours ago, ajw10 said:

Erm...

Wow man, what a successful reign! How is Ødegaard getting on as captain? He has quite a low leadership rating doesn't he? I always go for Tierney as my captain. I think he should be IRL next season, too.

March 31, 2022

12 hours ago, ajw10 said:

Tomiaysu who has definitely played his last game for the club

Ahh man, that's a shame, he has been a king of consistency for me. One of my faourite players at the club, IRL, too. I guess with TAA coming in, you'll be alright, haha

March 31, 2022

11 hours ago, ajw10 said:

4th season done. Bit of a mixed season as we lost in the FA Cup for the first time as well as losing a final for the first time.

The CL Final was a disgrace of a performance by Tomiaysu who has definitely played his last game for the club. A 6.0 rating, at fault for two goals and subbed off after 30 minutes.

It's a huge summer as a lot of my players enter the last two years of their deal and I'm not sure some of them are worth the big pay increase.

Hello mate, where did you get those different competition colours from? Is it a skin? Looks great.

March 30, 2022

10 hours ago, ajw10 said:

I'd like to apologise to Mbappe

Haha, how many chances did he miss?!

March 25, 2022

1 hour ago, Harper said:

I like having some sort of wage structure and keeping it low. From a base wage, I try to keep something like this.

This is very similar to what I do as well, mate. On my last save I had a kind of tiered system - IE Saka & ESR on the same wage, Gabriel, White & Tomi on same etc.

I always have a lower base salary with hefty bonuses.

March 25, 2022

7 hours ago, hasdgfas said:

Probably my highest ever number of players called up to the World Cup:

I've been meaning to ask before dude, what are the Y codes you have in brackets after some players?

March 24, 2022

11 hours ago, Harper said:

The wage expenditure table is one I love being further down. Could be seen as a trophy like a top 4 finish, haha

March 24, 2022

10 hours ago, ajw10 said:

Nice one man! I've always wanted to sign Tammy, he has Arsenal as a favoured club too, I think. How much did you sign him for?

March 24, 2022

10 hours ago, BrickCommo23 said:

I can very much recommend Malacia as a back up LB.

Yeah man, I had him on FM21 and he was very solid. Good shout.

March 23, 2022

On 21/03/2022 at 15:11, ajw10 said:

just need to find the right LB

I can recommend Tyrick Mitchell at Palace, was super solid and never moaned about being backup to KT.

I got rid of Tavares, not keen on his mental stats really. He went to CSKA Moscow.

I'm impressed with how much you got for Lucas Torreira & Eddie Nketiah, mate. How did you manage that? I sold Eddie for £11M to Leeds & Torreira to Real Sociedad for about £9M with a wage contribution of about £6K a week. Had no other takers!

March 23, 2022

On 20/03/2022 at 11:05, Ö-zil to the Arsenal! said:

I always liked Bellerin

Oh me too man, but I've sold him in every save I've had as he doesn't fit in with my wage structure. Funnily enough, I drove past him last week in North London, he was in a brand new Tesla!

On 20/03/2022 at 11:05, Ö-zil to the Arsenal! said:

I also don't like him

Haha, same! I always get rid as soon as I can, though - I don't care about his attributes fitting (because I nearly always play with a Box to Box) he's just a wally.

On my most recent save, Daniel Ballard was the only one I kept at the club out of all the players out on loan in the first season. Including Saliba, who I loaned to a second division side in Spain - was surpised no one in the Prem wanted him, really.

February 24, 2022

On 20/02/2022 at 20:33, XaW said:

For me, this is the correct and only way to number players.

Mine is this but swap the 4 and 6 around.

As a Gooner, Vieira was our number 4 so I always have that as the central midfielder.

February 18, 2022

Another update, as I've never seen this before in any save (I don't think) - Gabi Martinelli was really unhappy because I didn't play him as an AML/Winger (he played 21 games as an AML/Inside Forward & 4 as a ST/Pressing Forward) he requested to be transfer listed, so I accepted.

So, I looked at what social group he was in and asked Gabriel & ESR to have a word - nothing. Along comes my captain Kieran Tierney and this happens...

February 18, 2022

22 hours ago, hasdgfas said:

Now as soon as I say this...

With the number of English players I have in my squad, and the fact that my youth intake players are starting to come through, I think I have to accept this, which should inject some life back into the save.

Oh wow man, thats cool!

Weirdly, in my save, Ernesto Valverde is the England manager.

February 18, 2022

Hello lads (& everyone else), thought I'd do a little update as I've just finished my 3rd season and I think it will be my last before the next update. Not much point starting a new one, IMO. 86 points is the third highest points tally - of the Premier League era - since The Invincibles & our title win in 2001/02 but Liverpool are so hard to knock off their perch.

Here's my squad... I must admit, I do have some average squad players (Hidemasa Morita, Anatoliy Trubin) but a strong 15/16, I like sticking to my Teamwork & Work Rate rule though.

Even though I don't think I'm carrying on, I still have these two dudes on the way. I signed Ilaix Moriba on FM21 for Everton & he was unreal & I really like Florian Wirtz IRL (big fan of the Bundesliga, been following for years)

My history - 66% win percentage and £44M in profit, 2 FA Cups & a Community Shield. Not bad but maybe a little underwhelmed.

This is probably my strongest XI - I would sometimes put Martin Ødegaard as CM/Att & bring in Marcos Antônio as the DLP (but he was terrible in bigger games) - also used a customised version of a FuSS tactic this season.

Thanks for reading, all and hope everyone is having fun on their Arsenal saves.

February 16, 2022

I also had a newgen come through my youth intake at Arsenal, labelled as the "next Tony Adams".

He ended up being more like the next Sébastien Squillaci though, he was rubbish, haha

(thanks @Welshace :thup: )

February 16, 2022

I remember Chuba Akpom - once of Arsenal - labelled as the "next Michael Owen"

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