hasdgfas

Real solid squad player. He's not breaking into the first XI, but I'm always happy to give him a start when I need to rotate.

lots of rotation. lots of games to rotate in. Skin is WTCS Gold. big fan

2026/27 REVIEW Obviously a great season, winning everything we participated in. Starting to hit the point I lose momentum on a save, but we'll see how long I can keep going. PREMIER LEAGUE Two losses, both away, both in the first half of the season, and some absolute spankings. CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Smoked Madrid in the final, and again very few issues apart from a couple away matches. CUPS No issues at all, really. TRANSFERS IN TRANSFERS OUT Little bit of a refresh. Real happy with my outs, except for Havertz under 40M, but it was going to be tough to get a profit there. Everyone else was a hugely successful fee out. And the ins are a lot of young players I'm hoping to make a profit on if they don't make the first team, and then Musiala is the big purchase(spoiler: he was worth it). SQUAD STATS outstanding performances from basically the whole squad. Under 7 average from only two players. One of whom is a 19-year-old central defender that I integrated into the team this season. I was hoping to play him less, but injuries and the number of matches meant he got 41 appearances. He's been fine. He's also young, he'll come through. The other was a loan signing that I didn't need to make, and really shouldn't have. Not worth it. He's heading back. A few notes on specific players: Musiala is hanging out down there with 16/16 on the season and an average rating of 7.21. Outstanding, especially with a slow start. Osimhen was injured for 3 months and still scored 24 goals! Odegaard was unreal. Fully in his prime now. 13/19 on the season, but a lot of pre-assists and key passes to get us into positions to get goals. Mamoru Fukui was one I wasn't expecting much from. He arrived in January after he finished the season in Japan on loan, and he was on fire. 6 goals and 2 assists in 7 appearances. He would have played more except for a couple smaller injuries. Really loving the squad I've pulled together here. Not sure where to improve them at this point, really.

Usually it's "spend the original transfer budget" rather than bonuses you may get. But yeah, it's always the toughest part for me as well. I'm usually not interested in gutting the squad to buy high-rep players. Maybe 1 a season, but I bring through so many young players that more than that is pretty rough.

Yeah, this is around the point where I just cannot turn it down. Even when I want to keep a player around.

2025/26 SEASON REVIEW Another very successful season for the squad 4 trophies(depending on how you count the UEFA Super Cup). PREMIER LEAGUE After a really up and down first half of the season, the second half went significantly better, with our only loss being at Anfield. Title was clinched with the draw against City. CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Not an easy path! The Barcelona performance at Camp Nou though, was outstanding. 4-1. DOMESTIC CUPS Glad to get the win in the NLD EFL Cup final, but the FA Cup loss to City hurt. JANUARY TRANSFER WINDOW IN Jocelyn Halleux was an excellent-looking youngster I picked up for 30M as I think he has incredible potential. He was bought in Jan with a loan back for the rest of the season, but he'll be in the first team mix next season. Rafa Marin was brought in on loan as central defender depth due to my third choice central defender leaving for Atletico Madrid. He has a buy clause for 6.25M, and I think I'm going to trigger it, to hopefully make a profit at the very least. OUT I bought him for 2M, so this is an incredible profit, and his performances just weren't improving to the level I wanted. This felt like a great deal. SQUAD Outstanding performances from most players. Osimhen with 36 goals, Saka replacements Mathys Tel with 20/17 and Roony Bardghji with 11/23, young backup keeper Dennis Seimen with 22 appearances due to some nice draws. Ethan Nwaneri stepping into the first team this season and performing quite well with 6/9! --- With the Tycoon takeover, I'm probably spending some big money this summer just because I can, although I have several players I'd like to keep developing.

Very unique approach @lomekian! I haven't gone with the "buy players entirely to sell them" direction before, but it seems to be going well with everything else you're doing.

Have you been throwing money everywhere? I am after January so I haven't had a chance to spend anything yet.

Kroenke was going to retire at the end of the season, so we got a new chairperson and, uhhhhhhhhhhh

Been slow going this season for various reasons, but finally hit January 2026. PREMIER LEAGUE: Too many away draws! And the home loss to Liverpool was absolutely brutal(but deserved). We've had some absolute destructions of other teams, especially at home, but can't quite figure out what to do away from home. CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Having a mostly solid performance here, except that awful match at Atletico. Two away matches to finish it off, but also the weakest two opponents in the entire draw. Should get through top 8 fairly comfortable if we play how we know we can. EFL CUP: Straightforward so far. TRANSFERS: IN OUT Saka was going to kick up a fuss, and as we had already won everything I figured it was time to let him go. Everyone else was fringe players, except Nelson who was a rotation option. Feel like I got solid fees for everyone except Vieira. --- Mathys Tel was not my first choice replacement for Bukayo Saka, but I just didn't have the budget for a Vinicius Junior/Rodrygo level player. So I went a touch younger, as Roony Bardghji can rotate with him on the right. He's playing very well, but not to Saka's level(obviously). 11 goals and 9 assists in 30 appearances all competitions as right winger is excellent return. Luca Lipani was signed off a very cheap 5M release clause to try to make a profit off of at worst. I think that's all he's going to be, I don't see a world beater in here, but his loan to Hertha has him performing well enough to increase his value. Sam Amo-Ameyaw looked ok, and has potential on the wings with that pace. I think I overpaid a bit, but Southampton weren't selling for any cheaper and I had a lot of money available. As an English youngster, I have hope for him still. He's gotten a couple games in, has performed ok, but not outstanding. I think he'll be fine. SQUAD Good performances from most players. That DL spot is a struggle, between Estupinan and Zinchenko(who, like IRL, is constantly injured), but besides that, the struggles are from the youngest players, which is understandable, as I'm just trying to bleed them in with sub appearances for the most part. --- Overall, Things are going well. Got a few things to improve, but a good foundation.

Well, as much as I love him, if PSG is offering this up front, after we just the treble, it's time to let him go.

Arsenal 2024/2025 Competitions Overview: An outstanding season! Four trophies(if you count the community shield), capped off with our first Champions League win! Let's dig into the details. Premier League: Ups and downs throughout the season. Had about a 12 point lead going into January, but it was down a LOT by the end of the month, with a loss away at barely-survived Leicester. However, this was in the midst of a GK injury crisis where I literally had to start a grey GK named Sebastien Miggins who had no attributes over 8. Probably should just have adjusted my tactics to constantly hold possesion, looking back on it. Should have tried to avoid them getting any chances at all, because they put them all away. I did sign an emergency backup at that point. However, when our GKs stopped being in an injury crisis, it helped a lot. Even a torn thigh for Saka against Leeds, leaving him out for the rest of the season, didn't completely derail us. Domestic Cups Very poor performance from the backups at home against United in the League Cup, but the FA Cup had a win at Anfield and revenge against United in the final. Champions League In the new format, we opened up incredibly strong, with the last two matches (in January, during our GK crisis) not dropping us out of the top 8, so we got to skip a round. In the knockouts, our Home advantage at the Emirates overcame every attempt by some of the big boys of Europe to knock us out. Finally, in the final, it was a very even game decided by Warren Zaire-Emery's relentless pressing leading to a turnover that he poked home! SQUAD STATS The frontmen were oustanding. 27 goals from Osimhen, 16/12 from Saka, 10/12 from Martinelli. Odegaard and Havertz were also incredible from a little bit depeer. Odegaard with 15/19 and Havertz with 16/17. Roony Bardghji filled in admirably at the end of the season for an injured Saka, as well as being a good rotation option to keep him healthy throughout the season. 9 goals and 13 assists is a great return in his first season behind Saka. Back in the depeer midfield, Zaire-Emery was phenomenal, coming out strong at the end of the season next to Odegaard. Rice might not have had the average rating of others, but he was a rock at the 6. Tchouameni was disappointing. Just not quite to the level of Rice, but hopefully next season he'll more fully come into his own. And then in the backline, Tomiyasu was incredible across all spots, filling in where he needed to, and playing really well in all of them. Saliba/Gabriel continued to be a glorious pairing. Raya is just so good. He played out of his mind in a lot of the tight matches to keep us in it or keep us ahead, and we got through enough. Transfers: IN Made Raya official, he was absolutely worth it. Just an outstanding keeper in FM. Babadi's contract was expiring, so I figured at the very least I could get a big profit on him. He didn't quite fit into my plans this season and I couldn't get him a loan. I hope to next season though. Tchouameni looks good, but didn't quite perform to the level I hoped of him when I signed him. Maybe next season? Seimen was signed for a Raya backup and cup keeper, because Hein ain't it. He was loaned back to Stuttgart for the season, but I wish I had him for january, haha. Seriously, look at this kid. Cox was the emergency signing during January to play over Hein while Raya was out(and also while Hein was injured, as it turns out). He just displaced Hein as backup pretty quickly. Zaire-Emery was my top target going into the summer, and boy did he pay off. Champions League winning goal, and he looks like a staple of the midfield for a decade. Roony is my Saka backup, but he got a lot of starts due to Saka's injury at the end of the season. He had an absolute steal of a release game, really happy to trigger that. I've never been that happy with Zinchenko, so when Brighton were relegated last year, I went for Estupinan. He was good, but not outstanding. He was better defensively than Zinny, at least. Took a flier on a cheap kid from Kilmarnock for 1M. We'll see. --- Like I said, an outstanding season. Hoping next season to integrate more youth. More time for Nwaneri at the very least, and we'll see who else.

I bought Estupinan from relegated Brighton as I felt he was better than Zinny defensively and not a huge downgrade offensively. Timber has been solid across the back from me, so I haven't needed other upgrades at the fullback positions.

Lotta transfer movement for me between seasons 1 and 2: --- This has led to a bit of a rocky start to the new season, but we're still right up near the top in October.

This will honestly depend a bit on the rest of the tactic, as that will affect the spaces available for them. I've also just struggled with Jesus's success in general in this FM.

Just finished Season 1. A very good season with one big triumph and a few disappointments. Premier League Obviously this is the big one. Champions! Jumped out into first place pretty early and held onto it the whole time this season. But it was a sweat, even without many blemishes on the season . Needed a win against Spurs away in order to clinch... Absolutely horrendous first 35 minutes had me worried, but the next 5 gave me some hope. Osimhen got the third and I thought I was going to end up getting the fourth right at The End, but Vicario stood strong and kept our chances out. So all we needed was a draw at home against City, who were 5 points back with 2 to play. Again it looked bad early, with Rodri deflecting a ball that was way off target giving Raya no chance. But Martinelli got us back into it in the 33rd minute off of a great move from Jesus. We had all the chances from there, but Ederson was way too good on the day. We shut up shop in stoppage time since there were only 5 minutes. City had absolutely nothing for the first 4 minutes, but then my players go way more aggressive on a free kick on City's side of the field, they get the ball and launch it down their right flank. Ricardo Horta beats Timber to it, launches a cross into the box for Haaland. Raya claims it easily, but Gabriel pushes Haaland in the back for a penalty??? There's just no way. I fall over in my chair worried we're giving the title away. While we are only playing Burnley on the last day, anything can happen at Turf Moor. So Haaland steps up but Raya denies him with a great save to his right! They get a corner, it's easily handled, and the final whistle blows. This is when I triggered Raya's buy clause. I was already probably going to, as he had been outplaying Ramsdale enough that he took the starting job, but as soon as the match ended I did it. Champions League I thought this was going to be an incredible season after taking City out in the quarters and going up 2-0 in Paris in the first half. But PSG scored two goals in 3 minutes in the second half to salvage something there. Then they got a 21st minute goal out of nowhere and I was worried. I peppered Donnarumma for a while there, with 1.91 xG. But nothing went in and we went out in the semis after being in a promising position. The Cups: Pretty clean in the EFL Cup. Even the final was an absolute battering of Newcastle with a mostly second team. Clean in the FA Cup as well until the Semi. Then an absolute classic 3-2 against Liverpool. An incredible game. City in the finals was another even match, decided by a horrendous pass from Vieira straight to Haaland in the box when he didn't have to do it. Vieira was responsible for PSG's goal at the Emirates as well, so he might just be on his way out. Transfers Obviously Osimhen is a big one here, but getting what I did from them for Nketiah immediately afterwards made me feel good. Valentin Gomez has some potential here in the backline. I am excited to see how he develops. Squad Some standout things to discuss here. Obviously the biggest talking point is the GK battle. Raya decisively won that one for me. Ramsdale was the starter for a bit, with Raya in the cups and the CL, but Raya's performances were so good that I eventually made the swap. You can even just see from their average ratings how much better Raya was. An average rating difference of .25 for a GK in a similar number of starts is huge. Moving forward from there, the defense was solid if unspectacular. I need to tighten up a bit back there moving forward, but I think that's a tactical thing. They're playing how I want. And Saliba had 8 goals! Tomiyasu was outstanding covering the entire backline as he needed to. Walters with 23 appearances was higher than I was expecting, but with Timber's injury it was really necessary so that the squad didn't burn themselves out. And he played really well! Timber I have high hopes for his versatility next season. He was quite solid in the run-in after his return from injury, if unspectacular. In the midfield, there was a lot of messing around due to injuries and depth, but Declan Rice was basically everpresent and he was outstanding. Odegaard with 8 goals and 21 assists was also fantastic. Kai Havertz mostly played in the midfield for me and did quite well! 10g/10a is a good return. Myles Lewis-Skelly was another young player in there for depth, but he played well enough to get 10 appearances with 2 goals and 3 assists. I was really impressed. In the front 3, a really strong season. Reiss Nelson was an oustanding Saka backup. Reiss with 11g/12a and Saka with 21/14 meant the right wing was locked down. A mix of players on the left wing due to injuries and depth issues, but Martinelli with 21g/9a was the standout. Trossard, ESR, and Jesus deputized there when they needed to. Nwaneri was good during crises, with 10 appearances and a goal and an assist. I didn't want to overwork him while he was 16, but a few games was great for him and I'm excited to see him develop. Up top I decided to go with Victor Osimhen in January as Jesus wasn't firing from there and he was fantastic. 14 goals in 19 appearances and an average rating of 7.25 is just want I wanted from a big January signing. Can't wait to see how he does with a full season next year. For reference, Eddie in 22 appearances in the first half of the season got 9 goals, and you can see Gabriel Jesus got 12 in 48. So Osimhen is firing well. My plans for the summer: Make the midfield younger. Elneny is already on his way out and I'm looking to move on Jorginho, as well as Partey if there's interest. Lewis-Skelly could use a loan, and Vieira has annoyed me with some horrible mistakes so I might get rid of him if there's interest. Hopefully find some more consistency from the backline. Raya's the #1, I plan to move on Ramsdale, and the back four are strong but have a mistake in them. From there, we'll see what the window brings.

Our worst performance of the season had me assuming we were going out of the Champions League: But we followed it up with our best performance of the season:

these are all my strikers. How does your tactic look? I can't consistently keep them involved in the games.

Osimhen for essentially Eddie Nketiah and 14-27M depending on add-ons seems like a pretty good deal to me!

JANUARY 2024 Season's going very well so far, even with a bit of an injury crisis. However, I'm very glad it's January 1 and the transfer window is open. PREMIER LEAGUE: The beginning of the season was a little bit rough, with several matches tighter than they needed to be. However, even with that, the win at the Etihad against City was phenomenal and made me think that there might be something to this season. After the home Fulham win, the tactics started to come together a bit more. No embarrassing results here. Even Newcastle was a good performance. We just couldn't get past Nick Pope on the day. However, as you can see from the table, it's tight at the top! Liverpool still haven't lost, so there's still no breathing room up there. CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: A solid if unspectacular group. Bayern (obviously), Sociedad, and Crvena Zvezda meant we should progress even if we couldn't take the latter two lightly. And it went quite well! Very happy with the home win against Bayern, and everything else went about as expected for a clean 1st place in the group and a tie against Leipzig in the round of 16. I think we should be able to get through that. EFL CUP: Straightforward wins even with rotated squads, and a semi final against Championship Leeds means we should hopefully make the final. I threw out a squad against Wolves that I expected to lose because of all the injuries and fatigue going around, but they were great! I mean, look at this: COMMUNITY SHIELD: Horrendous 4-1 loss against City where Jesus got injured in second half stoppage time. No need to talk about it further really. It sucked. SQUAD PERFORMANCE: Overall very solid performances from everyone. Goals are being spread around really well. I've been disappointed in Jesus, like seemingly many people in here. AND he can't stay fit. Declan Rice is unbelievable. His average rating may not be as high as a couple others, but I've been watching him in games and he's been doing exactly what I want. TRANSFERS: Obviously, most of these are from real life, but I've picked up a couple young players since. Ronnie Edwards looked like a player with loads of potential down at L1 Peterborough, so even if he doesn't make it here(and he still might!), I expect to make a good amount of profit. Valentin Gomez pretty similar. I like what I'm seeing from him, I'm letting him get some more time in Velez to develop, and we'll see how they look at the end of the season. I'd like to pick up some depth this January, and in particular, start to look for more midfielders and another striker. Elneny, Jorginho, and Partey are all on their way out at the end of the season (or even here in January) if I can find replacements. I want a TOP striker. I'm looking at Osimhen because he seems quite affordable right now.

January can't come soon enough:

yep, I've generally had a lot of issues at end of season as well! We'll see how 24 treats me.

Looks like a lot of turnover, @Carmi88. Have you struggled more at the start or the end of seasons? Also, how do Patino, Nwaneri and Walters look for you now?

How's everyone's tactics looking? I have won all my games, but I'm generally not winning comfortably. Kinda similar to the IRL team honestly. You can see a lot of wins, including an incredible win at City. But only beating Burnley at home 1-0 is incredibly disappointing. I've been playing around with a few different tactics, but none of them quite feel right.

he got injured for 6 weeks in added time in the Community Shield for me and is just coming back now, so I couldn't tell you yet! I am just hitting the Champions League games in the first season. Group is Bayern, Arsenal, Crvena zvezda, and Real Sociedad. Should progress, but not a given. Is anyone integrating or focusing development on any young players? Nwaneri or others?