FM12 Arsenal Thread - Life after Cesc

[DandyDon]

i do all my conferences and interactions... it becomes second nature after a while to do it in a few clicks

Nah, I like to get my Ass Man to do some of them....always leave the press wanting more, keeps em keen if you have that air of mystery

[DandyDon]

2012/13 - Season Update - March to May

Unstoppable in the league (well just about) and with the youngsters and back up players performing well in the cup competitions we managed to complete a domestic treble. We also managed my personal holy grail on FM an unbeaten league season (hadn't managed it as yet on FM12).

We were helped in the FA Cup by a very favourable draw that after Bolton pitched us against lower league opposition until the Semi-Finals, and by the other top Premier League teams getting knocked out in the early rounds. The Final should have been a little less nerve wracking if we'd taken our chances, with 3 times as many shots on goal compared to Sunderland, but Gervinho continued a late run of form to grab the winner midway through the second half. Wasn't enough to win him MoM though, that went to Kyle Bartley who put in a very solid showing at the heart of our makeshift defence.

In the league with strikers struggling for form and fitness due to various niggling injuries, I was very thankful for excellent late season form from the likes of Gervinho, Wilshere and Jali who weighed in with a number of goals and assists, and of course Gylfi Sigurdsson kept up his level of contribution, he ended the season as our top scorer with 21 goals in all competitions, plus 19 assists. (Not quite as many as the previous season, but he only played 38 games compared to 47).

All conquering domestically, we came up short in Europe, again at the Semi-Final stage. After easing past AC Milan, then Zenit St Petersburg in the earlier rounds we drew familiar opposition in Man Utd. A very even 1st leg ended in stalemate, but with yet another Sigurdsson strike claiming an away goal advantage I thought we had a very good chance of making the final.

However, Utd negated our away goal with Griezmann scoring on a quick counter attack and although we scored before half time and then battered Utd for the majority of the match we couldn't find a second goal. We were made to pay for that, with the match heading for extra time, on the 87th minute Utd broke out of their own end for the first time in the second half, Giggs (yes he's still playing....) hitting a long ball up to Rooney who sped down the wing and crossed for Berbatov (who'd somehow kept up) to head home. With only three minutes left we just couldn't find a way through and so out we went to the sucker punch.

Final League Table

Season Summary and Awards

Apart from another Golden Glove award for the excellent Wojciech Szczesny, we didn't really come close to troubling the player awards this year. The strikers struggled for form and consistency so Sigurdsson ended up as our top league goalscorer, some way behind the eventual top scorer Wayne Rooney. The closest we came to a player award was Asamoah finishing runner up to Bale in the Young Player award.

We did have a presence in the team of the year, not surprisingly mostly in defence with Szczesny as the goalkeeper and Salvatore Bocchetti and Bakary Sagna in there as well.

A late slump in form from Liverpool allowed Man City to coast past them into second place (at one point they were in real danger of finishing outside the top 4) and Man Utd just squeeked into the Champs League spots on the last day of the season (at Spurs expense). They needed to clinch the spot as they failed to win the Champions League final, losing to Porto on penalties. Fergie retired in the aftermatch and the Utd board in their wisdom have appointed Alex McLeish as the new boss.

Planning ahead

I don't plan on making any major purchases during the summer and I'll be concentrating, again, mostly on hoovering up some highly recommended youth signings with 7 or 8 targets already identified. One area I might try and add someone a little more experienced is wide midfield, due to injuries I was forced to play Wilshere at AML several times during the season, so I'd quite like to bring in one more winger, ideally someone who could play either flank.

I'm also planning to retweak the formations and tactics to see if I can get a little more out of the strikers this time round, although some luck on the injury front wouldn't go amiss there.

[tomtuck01]

Hello Arsenal thread posters.

Sorry to disturb you all, but does anybody have a screenshot of a developed Alex Oxlaide-Chamberlain after four or five years please?

[Kieran87]

I'm only 2 years in and he hasn't changed much but he is soooo good its unreal! He scores loads and gets shed loads of assists / key passes that don't come up yet he is integral to my team

[dagoonerfan]

Decided to start a new game but with a twist - I start in the 2012-13 season. Arsenal finished 6th so even more of a challenge

[Carmi88]

Major personal milestone for me, just requested a new stadium and the board accepted, my first ever new stadium In any FM And I'm also In the carlin cup final, a win making me the most successful team in that competition woo!

Carmichael Stadium with 78461 capacity, retractable roof, under soil heating and costing 322 million to build

[DandyDon]

Major personal milestone for me, just requested a new stadium and the board accepted, my first ever new stadium In any FM And I'm also In the carlin cup final, a win making me the most successful team in that competition woo!

Carmichael Stadium with 78461 capacity, retractable roof, under soil heating and costing 322 million to build

Very nice Where does that put you in terms of stadium capacity compared to the other premier League big boys?

Now I know I somehow need to plow through 11 seasons on FM12 before November to get a new stadium....can't see it happening somehow.

[TWalsh]

Having failing to get into a couple of saves, I took a read through the past few pages and decided to start with the Gunners?

Any advice? Using an update so I have Henry. Planning on using a 4-3-3:

GK: Szczesny / Fabianski

RB: Sagna / Jenkison

CB (cover): Koscielny / Djourou

CB (stopper): Vermaelen / Mertesacker / Squillaci

LB: Gibbs / Santos

DM: Song / Coquelin

RCM: Arteta / Ramsey

LCM: Wilshere / Rosicky / Diaby

AMR: Walcott / Chamberlain

AML: Gervinho / Henry

ST: van Persie / Chamakh / Chu-Young

Think if I use this as my squad with 1 or 2 additions for the year, I can focus the rest of my budget on filling the youth team with the hottest prospects from around the world.

[DandyDon]

2013/14 - Season Update - Getting under way

The Transfers

As I mentioned in the previous update there was no major surgery planned for the 1st team squad over the summer, and the majority of players brought in have gone in to our under 18s squad for now.

I did bring in a few reinforcements though. Daniel Sturridge arrived on a free transfer after Chelsea's attempts to hang on to him failed at the end of the last season. I waited until the end of July before signing him as when I'd initially tried to offer him a contract earlier in the year, his wage demands had been crazy. He'd been unwilling to accept less than £90k a week....a month unemployed and with Rangers the only other club offering him a contract he was willing to accept a far more reasonable £45k a week.

After Fabianski made his third bid for a mutual termination of contract I decided to accept and brought in 29 year old Spanish keeper Moya to act as an experienced third squad keeper behind Szczesny and Humbert.

I also tried to sign Willian from Shakhtar, to and an extra option for wide players, but couldn't get a work permit and he ended up moving back to Brazil to play for Sao Paulo. However I noticed Pedro had been transfer listed by Barcelona, so put in a £7.5 million bid for him, unfortunately his agents demands were excessive, so I pulled out of that bid and went back in with a season long loan offer which was accepted.

The only major outbound deal was Bendtner leaving the club when Juventus decided to pay the agreed fee from his season long loan deal that we'd set up the previous year, but we're still having to pay him £16.75k a week at the moment.

Results so far

We were rather comprehensively mullered by Man City in the Community Shield, with our defence constantly allowing Silva and Aguero the freedom of our 18 yard area during the first half. Only the fact that they took their foot right off the gas in the second half allowed us to escape a worse beating.

The league opener against them a few days later wasn't much better to be honest, despite taking the lead with a strong opening 20 minutes, City largely dominated the rest of proceedings and we needed a MoM performance from Szczesny to hang on to a draw. Our defence which had been so solid the previous season was looking decidedly creaky, and after almost throwing away a 3 goal lead against Villa, I've switched the Match Prep focus on to our defensive positioning and dropped Vermaelen and Cissokho for a couple games.

Certainly I got an improved performance defensively against Chelsea, with Bocchetti getting MoM this time, and Sturridge coming back to haunt them as he ran onto Song's peach of a through ball to smack a fizzing shot past Cech.

[Carmi88]

Me - 60,361 now becoming 78,461

Aston Villa - 54,814

Birmingham - 29,409

Blackburn - 31,154

Bristol City - 21,793

Cardiff - 26,765

Charlton - 21961

Chelsea - 64,620 "Zola Stadium"

Crystal Palace - 26,297

Everton - 49,531

Ipswich - 30,311

Liverpool - 54,518

Man City - 64,962

Man Utd - 99,937

Sheff Utd - 32,609

Stoke - 34,474

Sunderland - 60,883

Tottenham - 48,637

West Brom - 26,200

West Ham - 35,402

[Carmi88]

Having failing to get into a couple of saves, I took a read through the past few pages and decided to start with the Gunners?

Any advice? Using an update so I have Henry. Planning on using a 4-3-3:

GK: Szczesny / Fabianski

RB: Sagna / Jenkison

CB (cover): Koscielny / Djourou

CB (stopper): Vermaelen / Mertesacker / Squillaci

LB: Gibbs / Santos

DM: Song / Coquelin

RCM: Arteta / Ramsey

LCM: Wilshere / Rosicky / Diaby

AMR: Walcott / Chamberlain

AML: Gervinho / Henry

ST: van Persie / Chamakh / Chu-Young

Think if I use this as my squad with 1 or 2 additions for the year, I can focus the rest of my budget on filling the youth team with the hottest prospects from around the world.

I'd personally swap Henry and park around as Henry ain't what he used to be

[DandyDon]

Hmmmm, definite problems defensively...just opened Champions League campaign in our first group match against Fenerbahce. Played them last season and stuck 7 past them without conceding a goal.

This time round we were 2-1 down inside 9 minutes by end of the first half we were 4-3 ahead. Looked like scoring every time we attacked....but looked like we'd concede everytime they did. Not sure what's happened to the lads so far this season.

We somehow managed not to concede again in the second half, despite Sagna getting a second yellow card and having an all round nightmare of a match. Ran out 6-3 winners.

[TP17]

Sounds like a great game to watch though!

[DandyDon]

Sounds like a great game to watch though!

Well once I'd finished swearing a bit, yeah.

Unfortunately we followed it up with a 3-2 defeat to Everton at Goodison. Pretty much gave them a 2-0 headstart leaving Cahill unmarked at a corner, then Sagna gave away a penalty inside the first 10 minutes. Managed to claw it back to 2-2 by halftime, but then we let Cahill waltz into the box unchallenged. After I made three substitutions Bartley got himself injured and we had to play the last 15 minutes with 10 men.

[Carmi88]

Sounds like sagna needs a kick up the arse

[DandyDon]

Sounds like sagna needs a kick up the arse

I'd planned to drop him for that game, but my other right backs have been crocked on international duty. Still might drop him anyway and give one of the youth team a run out for a couple matches.

To be fair Cissokho, Vermaelen and Bocchetti have all thrown in a couple of poor performances in the first few games, so they'll all be getting talked at some point soon.

[SJ234]

Argh hate my team at the moment a lot of talent but they are so inconsistent. They don't keep the ball well and quite often get dominated and I can't stop it happening.

[Carmi88]

mine have also had a horrid dip in form, whether It Is from sending offs or just not showing up, gone on a horrid run and the seaosn In hich I could become the most decorated In premier league titles looks like It is slipping away

[ewok01]

Hi guys, needed to share this with you all (sounds serious eh?) seems since playing cm1997/98 and every game from that point and having been a memeber here since 2001 I can't get back into this game. :-( Maybe it is an age thing, (going to be 48 this year). Don't get me wrong I have always loved playing this game and the forums, but seems it is gone. Sad eh? Anyway don't mind my ramblings but I guess if I don't find a new angle with this game I don't know when I will pick it back up (if ever). Cheers all.

[Carmi88]

My #1 rule since FM09 Is stick at your first save no matter what, crap advice since we are In February but I've only had the 1 save so far and I'm loving it, all my signings and experiences are coming at me fresh and It Is not losing It's appeal, whereas with each new save I started on FM11 after my good save, they got boring and repetitive very quickly

[DandyDon]

mine have also had a horrid dip in form, whether It Is from sending offs or just not showing up, gone on a horrid run and the seaosn In hich I could become the most decorated In premier league titles looks like It is slipping away

I feel your pain.

Got in from work and figured I'd play a little FM before hitting the sack, only to see us release our grasp on one of our trophies from last season at the first challenge.

Knocked out on penalties by Blackburn at the Emirates.....by Blackburn fer the love of £*&%!!!! 32 shots on goal and we only manage 7 on target ...I see a team meeting in the none too distant future.

[Carmi88]

I got spanked 4-2 by spurs In the fa cup 5th round, 3-0 down with in 15 minutes, 3 subs made, put highlights to text only and left the pc as I really couldn't bare to watch us crumble further, end result Is great compared to how it was looking. And turned around my 1-0 defeat from porto with a 2-0 win.

Still 3rd however, opened up a gap of 2 points over man city and a 3 point gap between liverpool who I just beat 3-0 Chelsea and Man Utd 3 points ahead In 1st and 2nd with 8 games to go.

And I've won the carlin cup making Arsenal the most successful team In the carlin cup, fa cup and community shield

[DandyDon]

Some of the players redeemed themselves slightly by putting in a much better showing in our next league match, 5-0 against poor newly promoted Cardiff, with a MoM for Alex Oxlade-chamberlain.

@Carmi88

Do you still have either of Chelsea or Utd to play in those last 8 games?

[Carmi88]

I have a "fairly easy" run of games, only big games left are 4th placed Man City at home and 6th placed stoke away, which are my next 2 games, rest are bottom half teams

[DandyDon]

I have a "fairly easy" run of games, only big games left are 4th placed Man City at home and 6th placed stoke away, which are my next 2 games, rest are bottom half teams

Still in with a good shout then

[llama3]

Great news on the new Stadium Carmi! Congratulations!

[llama3]

After reading this thread I decided to start a save with the I support and join you guys in here, I've supported Arsenal since I was born as there has always been season tickets in our family. I haven't managed with Arsenal over the last few FM's so I decided now is a good time to have a go with them.

Here's how I've decided to start my save.

Everyone knows over recent years that Arsenal's form has dipped, we've lost two of our best players in Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri and haven't replaced them but previous to last summer we've moved stadium and maintained our top four position. Something that has to be praised. Obviously I take over the reigns at the start of this season so Andre Santos, Per Mertesacker, Mikel Arteta, Park Chu-Young and the like are all new signings, signings that I may or may not agree with.

One problem I have with the side is that we seem to have alot of players that are on high wage contracts, also they are mostly players that are on the fringe of the squad, over the next few years I'll be trying to sell those players and replace them with players that will suit my tactic and be more affordable. Value for money is the key, I'll be having a wage structure that unlike Wenger, I'll be willing to break to keep the likes of Robin van Persie. I mentioned my tactic, I'll be using a 4-3-3 formation (GK, DR, CB, CB, DL, DMC, DMC, MC, AMR, AML, ST) in order to keep the ball. I'll be looking for a high possession tactic, if we have the ball the other team can't score. There is alot of passing in my tactic, we tend to have around 65-70% possession in most matches and my two DMC's usually hit over 100 passes. Also, in a interesting turn of events I've turned Song into a centre back.

Taking those points into account, here are my deals from before the season started.

TRANSFERS OUT

Manuel Almunia - £1,000,000 - £38k p/w

Yossi Benayoun - Terminated loan - £65k p/w

Andrei Arshavin - £8,000,000 - £85k p/w

Marouane Chamakh - £9,000,000 - £50k p/w

TRANSFERS IN

Javi Martinez - £16,500,000 - £45k p/w

Gylfi Sigurdsson - £9,500,000 - £24.5k p/w

Xherdan Shaqiri - £10,000,000 - £25k p/w

Timo Hildebrand - £0 - £20k p/w

Willian - £8,000,000 - £35k p/w

CHANGE OF CONTRACT

Rosicky - £45k p/w to £25k p/w - mainly now based on bonuses

HERE ARE A FEW IDEAS I HAVE FOR MY SAVE;

• High player interaction, including high praise and criticism, this includes alot of reaction to the last match played & recommendations for signings.

• High manager interaction. I want to see how this effects in game, for instance I want to praise Bielsa because he's a hero. How will he react to me?

• I have set individual training settings for each players under 26.

• Having loaded all players from South America and Africa for this save I'd like to create a scouting network to pick up the best young players from those countries.

• Having said that, I'd prefer to utilise British youth players where possible, if they are through my own academy then that's obviously going to be better.

• Another thing I'd like to implement is having my players stay on as long as possible before retiring, either for me to make use of their tutoring skills or to have them become one of my staff.

• Hold a weekly backroom meeting.

• Have a 100% attendance record at press conferences.

• I want to make the most of tutoring, ideally having five or six players tutoring/being tutored at once.

i read your article on retaining possession on the TAS site - very good article!

[Tommo1]

Thanks Llama. My save is going along slowly, at the end of February we're second. I'll have a end of season review up when I've completed the season.

[Carmi88]

Pipped to the title by Man Utd on 2 points, needed to beat crystal palace and needed them to atleast draw at home to Charlton, I won 5-0 and they won 2-0 5 seasons In a row I've won the league, guess the fact United did the double over me Is what cost me, onwards and upwards though!

Now need to win the league twice to achieve my goal, bah

Eden Hazard Retires aswell, 204 appearances and 39 goals

[Carmi88]

And once again approached by Barcelona, getting harder and harder to reject them!

[Tommo1]

ARSENAL F.C. - END OF SEASON REVIEW 2011/2012

I've come to the end of my first season in charge of Arsenal and it's one I've been surprisingly pleased with. I expected to be in the top four at a struggle but my own goal was to finish in the top three and qualify straight into the group stages on the Champions League. The tactic I've deployed is a high vertical possession based tactic that proved to be devastating at home but it kinda struggled away from home. At the Emirates we conceded 7 goals on the way to winning all 19 home games, away form home we only scored 13 goals whilst we conceded 12. As you can clearly see it's our away form that held us back from challenging for the title. We finished second in the league seven points behind a very good Manchester United side and thirteen points ahead of third place Chelsea. Manchester City pipped Tottenham to fourth place which of course pleased me. Surprise of the season has to Wolves, who beat Liverpool to the second Europa League spot and finished sixth. QPR, Blackburn and Norwich were relegated.

My favourite player of the season has to be Javi Martinez, signed at the start of the season from Bilbao he slotted straight into one of the two defensive midfield positions next to Arteta, their partnership was a joy to watch in almost every match. Over the season Javi averaged 101.06 passes per match (49 matches) with a pass completion rate of 91%. He was set as our playmaker and the way he controlled the tempo has wonderful to see. He and Arteta has the best pass completion percentages across the five big leagues with Arteta hitting 93%. Below as some stats from my players over the season.

Some stats

In the Carling Cup I decided to play my youth players and despite Chamberlain trying his best to single handedly try and pull use through we lost 2-1 at St James Park in the fourth round after a extra time win against Villa in the third round. I was taking the FA Cup very seriously, we visited Highbury stadium in the third round and goals from RVP and Gervinho meant we'd breezed past Fleetwood Town, 3-0.In the next two rounds we hosted Burnley and West Bromwich Albion with a aggregate score of 6-2. Bolton wee up next at The Emirates and we dispatched them 4-1 which meant we found ourselves in the Semi Finals drawn with Newcastle, the winner would player Chelsea or Nottingham Forest. We won 2-0 and Chelsea won 4-0 to line up a competitive final. I went to Wembley with my normal tactic and at half time we were one nil up. I decided to make a change and my players duly replied with another two goals. Maybe playing more direct is a better options for some games? We lifted the trophy with a 3-0 win.

The Champions League was a interesting one, we easily made it through a group of Lyon, Zenit and Genk and faced Benfica in the first knockout round. a mistake from a potential transfer target Garay gave us a 1-0 win in Portugal, we dominated at home but could only manage one more goal. Bayern München next. These two guys surprised me, the players were class in both games, something that I had my doubts on was the mental side of their game but 2-0 results in both games sent us through into the semi finals. Real Madrid saw off Chelsea and Lyon dumped out United so we were the only English hope left in the competition. We visited the Bernabeu and Mourinho's men donned us, 3-0. Tie over. 0-0 at The Emirates saw us leave the competition at a stage where people really didn't think we'd reach.

*Screenshots available on request.

[Tommo1]

Pat Rice retired at the end of the season, has he done so in your saves? If so, who did you replace him with?

[Kieran87]

Di salvo ( free agent from Madrid )or Martin Keown are the 2 best bets. both are easily worth their weight in gold and will do a job for 10+ years

[llama3]

Martin Keown is an excellent Assistant Manager

[Maestroik]

Oleg Luzhny for me.

[Angelic_Apple]

I got Mauro Tassotti on my save.

[KingLara]

I brought in Di savio but wasn't impressed so have now got Tassotti who seems excellent.

[DandyDon]

Tassotti is excellent, but you do have to pay him pretty big bucks.

If you don't fancy the hefty wages then Martin Keown has the attributes to be a great promotion from within, otherwise take a look at Jair Ventura a Brazilian Asst. Manager. I got him in on my Newcastle save and he's been very, very good. I think his contract expires during the 1st season, so he may well be a free agent in summer 2012.

[Tommo1]

ARSENAL F.C. SEASON PREVIEW 2012/2013

It's 18th August 2012 and we're preparing to host Aston Villa in an early kick off to kick start the new season. I thought I'd write a season preview update before I got any further into the season. The summer has been a very busy one, twenty five players left the club. It was my aim to continue making my mark on the side, having the overpaid dross leave the club was number one on the list. Instead of writing who went where, below is the list.

PAID DEALS

Johan Djourou - Wolves - £3,000,000 (£29k p/w)

Nicklas Bendtner - Sunderland - £5,000,000 (42k p/w)

Per Mertresacker - PSG - £8,000,000 (80k p/w)

André Santos - Marseille - £6,000,000 (£55k p/w)

Timo Hildebrand - Bayern München - Bosman

Tomas Rosicky - Dortmund - £1,000,000 (£25k p/w)

Abou Diaby - PSG - £6,000,000 (£42K p/w)

Park Chu-Young - Napoli - £4,000,000 (55k p/w)

Sebastien Squillaci - Lille - p/ex (£50k p/w)

Theo Walcott - Juventus - £16,000,000 (£45k p/w)

BOSMAN DEALS

Sanchez Watt (Unattached)

Daniel Boeteng (Unattached)

Sean McDermott (Unattached)

Sead Hajrovic (Unattached)

Pedro Botelho (Unattached)

Ignasi Miquel (Unattached)

Manu Frimpong (Unattached)

Conor Henderson (Unattached)

Jenade Meade (Unattached)

George Brislen-Hall (Unattached)

LOAN DEALS

Wellington Silva - Salamanca

Ryo Miyaichi - Lorient

Carl Jenkinson - Hull City

Nico Yennaris - Lorient

You'll notice that I've raised plenty of capital and lifted plenty of money off of our wage budget. This allowed me to sort out my players contract. I had Robin van Persie, Vermaelen, Alex Song and Theo Walcott all on deals that run out at the end of this season. The wages that I managed to get off the clubs helped towards securing the deals for three of the above four. Vermaelen signed a new deal worth £40k p/w, Song signed a deal worth £48k p/w and RVP signed a new contract worth £85k p/w. I did think about getting shot of van Persie due to his wages, his age and the fact his attributes will decrease shortly but I couldn't hack it. You'll notice on the transfer out list that Theo has left, he wanted £135k p/w which I laughed off. Juventus came in and he was off.

Coming into the club I signed four players, a right back to be backup to Sagna, a defensive midfielder to rotate with Arteta, a goalkeeper to challenge Chesney in-between the sticks and finally a world class talent to replace Theo.

LORENZO DE SILVESTRI

Lorenzo signed from Fiorentina after I spotted him on the transfer list. He's a perfect fir for my side, costing only £450k and £18k p/w he's be a great back up to Sagna who should be ever present this year.

FERNANDO

Fernando Réges joins for £4,500,000 from Porto. A six foot beast with all the right attributes to be a star in my side, he's big strong and quick to play right next to our playmaker Martinez. Fernando is only on £25k p/w too.

RON-ROBERT ZIELER

Ex Manchester United goalkeeper Zieler joins us from Hannover for £5,000,000, again his wages are a low £26k p/w and I'm sure he'll be a hit here. I'm not sure whether he'll go straight into the starting position or Chesney will keep his place but it'll be interesting to see who wins that battle.

EDEN HAZARD

Once Theo had left I couldn't resist making this one big signing. Eden moved for £21,000,000 as Squillaci moved the other way. Somehow I got them to take him after I'd be offering him out for just £1 every week during the break. With Squillaci's £50k p/w wage off our books I offered Eden £60k p/w and he accepted. He becomes our third highest paid player behind RVP and Arteta.

There are still a few deals I'd like to wrap up before the end of August, I'd like one more striker to play backup to RVP so I don't have to move Chamberlain into the team too quickly. I have a loan bid accepted from Shakhtar for Eduardo, paying £325k and only 50% of his £50k p/w wage. A bargain for someone of his quality. I also need a left back to back up Gibbs, at the moment I have Vermaelen that can play there but I'd like to learn from Wenger's mistakes and have a proper left back back up.

OFF THE PITCH

Off the pitch we've had a good summer, you can tell how much we've saved through selling the players that Wenger was paying too much. We are currently £1,360,000 p/w under our wage budget and have a transfer budget of £8,730,000. The bank balance is looking great also, £117,586,208 in the bank, I'd quite like to keep that consistently above £100m. We still have two loans outstanding also, one that's £1.3m per month until 2030 and the other that's £347k per month until 2032.

Regarding our wage structure we only have four players on £50k p/w or more, RVP (£85k) Arteta (£65k), Hazard (£60k) and Gervinho (£50k). Below that we have eight players between £30k and £50k, Wilshere, Song, Martinez, Ramsey, Sagna, Vermaelen, Willian and Koscielny. The stage contains our bright starts that are paid £26k p/w or less. Zieler (£26k), Shaqiri (£25k), Alderweireld (£25k), Fernando (£25k) Gylfi (£24k) Szczesny (£23k) Gibbs (£14.5k) Coquelin (£10k) and Bartley (£1.5k).

The future looks promising, here's to a good season.

*Screenshots av. on request of course.

[DandyDon]

Some good wheeling and dealing there Tommo

Looks like a very nice deal to bring Eduardo back to the Emirates as well, did you find yourself a replacement for Pat Rice by the way?

[Lone Gooner]

Hi Guys,

Just returned to this thread as have started an Arsenal game as havent played as my beloved Gunners for a while, the main area for signings I was thinking were:

Left Back - Canella/Baines?

Central Defender - Hummels?

Attacking Midfielder - Hazard/

Striker (Backup for RvP) - Tevez? (Although wages would be high!)

Any other suggestions appreciated

Thanks

LG

[lucatonix]

I'm not sure you need to buy another striker since you have Chamakh and Walcott who are class. Also how can you sign Tevez to be a backup? Doesn't make a lot of sense. While Hazard be a good addition I'm not sure how much the team needs another attacking midfielder since you have Wilshere coming back and Arshavin is one of the best AMs/wingers on the game. Better than Hazard at the start of the game.

As for a CB, perhaps but not really for the first season since Mertesacker is good and accumulates value well, so can be sold for a profit after the first season.

The team does need a good left back. Not sure how you would juggle Gibbs, Santos and the new signing unless Gibbs was loaned out.

[Cam NBH]

Any suggestions on a backup tm for cavani please? English if poss. Have sold Chamakh.

Thanks,

[lucatonix]

Lacina Traore or Yaya Sanogo perhaps. I would look for a youngster that could perhaps become your new first choice tm when cavani gets too old.

Not too sure why you sold Chamakh. One of my favourite players on the game and is a perfect tm/complete forward and is very versatile.

[Cam NBH]

Lacina Traore or Yaya Sanogo perhaps. I would look for a youngster that could perhaps become your new first choice tm when cavani gets too old.

Not too sure why you sold Chamakh. One of my favourite players on the game and is a perfect tm/complete forward and is very versatile.

He annoys me irl! Plus Cavani is just amazing and I cant have too many johnny foreigners in my team

/suarez

Thanks for the info

[DandyDon]

The team does need a good left back. Not sure how you would juggle Gibbs, Santos and the new signing unless Gibbs was loaned out.

Considering the amount of injuries Gibbs and Santos both picked up on my save, I doubt he'll have to worry all that much about juggling them.

[Tommo1]

Some good wheeling and dealing there Tommo

Looks like a very nice deal to bring Eduardo back to the Emirates as well, did you find yourself a replacement for Pat Rice by the way?

Thanks DD, Eduardo's work permit was rejected both initially and on appeal, which was gutting. I've replace Pat Rice with Oleg.

[DandyDon]

Thanks DD, Eduardo's work permit was rejected both initially and on appeal, which was gutting. I've replace Pat Rice with Oleg.

I'm surprised he missed out on a work permit...injury problems at Shakhtar causing him to miss international I assume?

Shame though, sure he'd have done a job for you.

[Robin_ellis_19]

Finally won the Champions League in 2015 against Lyon who are starting to become the next Barcelona on my game and the FA Cup again for the 3rd time in 4 seasons! But still cannot win the Premier League, with Man Utd having an unbeaten season with a tiny squad and playing a 3-4-3!

By the way, does anyone know how to get the best out of Neymar? First season he has been awful for his stats and £70m price tag!

[DandyDon]

2013/14 - Season Update - September to December

September ended pretty badly for us (regardless of the 5-0 hammering of Cardiff) and october got off to a similar start. A poor performance against Everton saw us drop further behind Man City who were setting quite a pace at the top. An even worse showing against Blackburn saw us relinquish our hold on the League Cup, with 32 shots on goal, we could only manage to get 7 of those on target and they held out fairly easily for the lottery of a penalty shootout.

Worse was to come in Europe, where we were humbled on our own ground by Marseille and had a player sent off for the second straight match in the Champions League, Sagna sent off in the freak Fenerbahce game and then Gibbs late on in the Marseille match (straight red for elbowing Remy!!).

After the bollocking they received for the Marseille result, the players seemed to pull themselves together a bit and we put together a decent run of results, starting with a measure of revenge against Blackburn for knocking us out of the League Cup. We won 6 straight matches relatively comfortably, including a good performance in the Southampton game where we had another player sent off. Despite Asamoah's dismissal on 16 minutes (straight red for two footed tackle) we continued to dominate possession and chances to run out 3-1 winners.

We grabbed a vital win against Man Utd where 2 first half goals meant we were already in control of the game before Rafael was sent off on 50 minutes. We got a little lax to allow Rooney to score from a corner but stepped things up a gear after that, Alex Song securing the result with a nice half volleyed finish from a Chamberlain cross.

Our form took a bit of a dip with an incredibly dull 0-0 draw with Spurs, nothing happened, hardly any shots on goal, no bookings, nadda. Another wobble in the home game against Fenerbahce where Walcott wasted 4 seperate 1-on-1 chances against their keeper meant we had to rely on a late equaliser from sub Daniel Sturridge to gain a point. (Sturridge showing Walcott up by scoring the first time he was played through against their keeper). That result, combined with another defeat at the hands of Marseille meant we were very lucky to scrape through to the knockout stages of the Champions League, with Marseille topping the group it means we'll have to start our Knockout round with the 1st leg at home. (We've drawn a very strong looking Bayern Munich side for that tie)

I thought things were going to get even worse when a defeat at Liverpool meant we didn't take advantage of a slip by Man City who drew 2-2 with Sunderland the day before. However they then threw in another draw with Birmingham in their next game and we recovered from the Liverpool result to cruise to a win against Wolves. That sparked a nice run of goalscoring form which saw us win the next 3 games pretty easily, Man City's draw with Birmingham had allowed us to go top, and when they lost on the 30th Dec to West Ham while we were winning at Swansea it meant that we'd start the New Year top of the league and having opened up 4 point gap on them.

Of course that gap could close on the 1st of Jan as our very first game of the New Year is away at the Etihad stadium.

The Talent

Just thought I'd also update on the progress of some of the key young talent who were already at the club before I arrived, starting with the two most obvious I suppose.

Wilshere's progress was a little stop/start for me over the first couple of seasons. Obviously massively hampered by the long injury lay off he managed to end the 1st season with a good run of games and started the second fairly well, unfortunately he picked up a hamstring injury which kept him out for 3 months and further derailed his development.

This season though he's had a lot more luck on the injury front (only missing a couple weeks due to a groin strain) and has been starting a lot more games. With a little luck he may make it into double figures for goals and assists by the end of the campaign and can really kick on next season.

Ramsey has stalled a bit this season as he's found it hard to get into the 1st team, mostly due to Wilshere's form. Loathe to drop Sigurdsson from the AMC slot where he's been incredibly effective and consistent, I've been using Jack at MC as a deep lying playmaker alongside one of the more defensive midfield players. Which has meant diffculties including Ramsey. Also he's had his first serious injury while I've been at the club, went the first two seasons injury free and played a lot of games, but his luck didn't hold out this time.

I'm hoping to give him more starts during the second half of the season, both in the league and in the FA Cup if we can keep a run going there.

Not too much needs to be said here. Szczesny has been my 1st choice keeper since the start and has easily justified the decision. He's won the Golden Glove award for the past two seasons and currently leads the league for clean sheets again this time round. His kicking and throwing may not be great, but he more than makes up for that in his other attributes.