An Arsenal Story for the 16/17 Season

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waynethickett

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So it's that time of year again, Football Manager is installed and up and running, the first main save has to be a career mode with my beloved Arsenal. I have an idea for another save or two further down the line but for now COYG!

Last year my main story centred around a framework of rules which I had to adhere to, mainly balancing the books, having to raise funds before I could spend, having to sell players before I could sign and trying to maintain a homegrown squad. This year I have decided to keep it relatively simple. Based on Assistant and scout reports I am going to choose who to sell, who to loan out and who to buy. Using the star system which some people use and others do not player movement will be decided.

Any players in the senior squad with a potential lower than 3 stars will be transfer listed with the aim of offloading, I won't be trying to sell at all costs but obviously morale will be impacted on meaning selling sooner would be beneficial.

Any senior squad players with a current ability lower than 2 stars will be listed for loan.

Any players purchased need a potential or current ability on the scout report of 3 stars or higher.
 
So my squad is as follows: (The first number is ability and the second is potential

Goalkeepers:

Petr Cech 4 / 4
David Ospina 2.5 / 2.5 Transfer Listed

Defenders

Mathieu Debuchy 2.5 / 2.5 Transfer Listed
Calum Chambers 2.5 / 4
Nacho Monreal 3 / 3
Laurent Koscielny 4 / 4
Per Mertesacker 3.5 / 3.5
Gabriel Paulista 3 / 3
Hector Bellerin 2.5 / 5
Kieran Gibbs 2.5 / 2.5 Transfer Listed

Midfielders

Krystian Bielik 1 / 4 Listed for loan
Mikel Arteta 2.5 / 2.5 Transfer Listed
Mathieu Flamini 2.5 / 2.5 Transfer Listed
Francis Coquelin 3 / 3
Aaron Ramsey 4 / 4
Santi Cazorla 4 / 4
Jack Wilshere 3 / 4
Theo Walcott 3 / 3
Joel Campbell 2 / 2.5 Transfer Listed
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain 3 / 4.5
Danny Welbeck 3 / 4
Jeff Reine-Adelaide 1.5 / 4.5 Listed for loan
Mesut Ozil 4 / 4
Alex Iwobi 1.5 / 2.5 Transfer Listed
Alexis Sanchez 4 / 4

Strikers

Olivier Giroud 3.5 / 3.5

So I was happy to see the high potentials of the likes of Bellerin and Reine-Adelaide, and if I had been forced to guess who would make the transfer list I think I would have called them all. I don't normally make signings or sell players in the first transfer window so this could be good or a complete disaster.
 
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My first job as manager is to remove Wenger from the club, obviously not physically, I mean he is rather old, but although he is the personification of the word LEGEND I want to work without Le Profeseur's shadow hanging over my head.

As well as transfer listing Ospina, Debuchy, Gibbs, Arteta, Flamini, Campbell and Iwobi, and listing Reine-Adelaide and Bielik for loan I have identified we need some more backroom staff and am looking for 3 senior squad coaches, 1 physio, 3 Under 21s coaches, an U21s physio, 5 U18s coaching staff and an U18s physio. I don't normally pay much attention to the coaching staff but I want to see whether it makes a noticeable difference.

The board set initial budgets as £63.7M to spend and £2.6M p/w for wages.

Chelsea, AC Milan and Gelsenkirchen make bids for Debuchy, Arteta and Campbell respectively but unfortunately we are unable to agree a fee and the offers are rejected.

Inter Milan make an acceptable bid for Alex Iwobi and we make bids for Alexsandr Mitrovic and James Ward-Prowse.

Friendly

Arsenal 5 (Oxlade-Chamberlain, Giroud (2), Walcott, Sanchez) Arsenal Under 21s 1 (Fortune)
 
I make a bid for Leighton Baines which is accepted.

LOSC make a bid for Mikel Arteta which is accepted, the club captain is on his way out.

Villareal have a bid rejected for Alex Iwobi.

Newcastle and Southampton want far too much for Mitrovic and Ward-Prowse.

The transfer of Leighton Baines is cancelled due to the fact he is out for 5 months with a broken ankle. Oops should've spotted that at some point in the negotiating process.

We have a bid for Bazoer rejected by Ajax.

Alex Iwobi signs for Inter Milan for a potential £3.6M.

We have a bid accepted for Charlie Austin.

Arteta signs for LOSC for a potential £2.2M.

We have a bid rejected for Goulart but a bid for Yarmolenko is accepted.

We sign Blackburn's David Fevre as a physio.

Friendly

Beijing 1 (Xiaofeng) Arsenal 1 (Oxlade-Chamberlain, Walcott (inj))
 
Walcott is injured for 7-9 weeks with a dislocated shoulder.

We sign Charlie Austin for a potential £10.75M. Here we find a possible issue with the transfer policy, my scouts had Austin having a potential 3 stars but my coaches say he is only 2.5 star and has reached his potential, so he will be transfer listed at the end of the season unless that improves over the course of the year.

We sign Ludek Miklosko, Neil Bailey, Gerd Muller, Steve Cooper, Iain Brunskill, Stewart Henderson and Kelhan O'Hanlon to join our backroom staff.

Mathieu Flamini signs for FC Lorient for a potential £1.6M.

Friendly

Montpellier 2 (Martin, Ricky) Arsenal 2 (Giroud (2))

Ricky Martin got two goals back for Montpellier to draw again.

Yarmolenko signs for a potantial £19.25M.

We have an offer accepted for Sven Van Beek.

Koscielny is out for 3 weeks with Achilles Tendonitis.

We add Nderiz Redzaj to the backroom team.
 
We sign Sven Van Beek for a potential £28.5M.

Kieran Gibbs is injured for 4-5 weeks with a sprained ankle.

We sign young goalkeeper Dragowski for a fee of £8M.

Our accepted deal for Cristoforo is cancelled due to him failing his medical.

Friendly John Terry Testimonial

Chelsea 4 (Azpilicueta, Pedro, Diego Costa, Willian) Arsenal 2 (Sanchez (2)) MOM Sanchez

Mathieu Debuchy signs for Juventus for a fee of £7.75M.

We sign Loftus-Cheek for a fee of £10M.

David Ospina out for 3-4 weeks with a broken wrist, this seems a very short period to be out for a goalkeeper with a broken wrist.

Friendly

Arsenal 3 (Giroud (2), Oxlade-Chamberlain) Lyon 0 MOM Giroud

Community Shield

Arsenal 3 (Bellerin, Giroud, Cazorla) Chelsea 1 (Willian) MOM Bellerin

Reine-Adelaide and Dragowski sign for FC Lorient on loan for the rest of the season.

Joel Campbell moves to Watford for a fee of £9.25M

Per Mertesacker is out for 2-3 weeks with strained stomach muscles.

Andrew Robertson signs from Hull for a potential fee of £16.75M.

I will be posting screenshots from now on just saw little point in the pre-season.
 
So the start of the season is upon us and the first match of the new season is:


View attachment 204380
Not the best start to the league but one of the trickiest fixtures on paper out of the way early doors, it wasn't helped by our 7 injuries before a ball was even kicked.

Premier League

View attachment 204379A marked improvement with Sanchez scoring 4 and new signing Charlie Austin opening his Arsenal account.

Premier League

View attachment 204377We dominate but only manage a one goal victory, Charlie Austin with his 3rd in 2 matches and new Left Back Robertson being awarded the MoM.

Sven Van Beek out for 12 days with a twisted knee.

Capital One Cup Draw sees us play Bristol City at home.

Champions League Draw sees us pitted against Zenit, Ajax and Viktoria Plzen.

Premier League

View attachment 204374We gift Sunderland their first point of the season with only 1 of our many shots hitting the target. Poor performance.

PSG make an unacceptable bid for Francis Coquelin.

Gabriel is out for 6-7 weeks with a double hernia.

Player of the Month: 1st Sako (Palace), 2nd Hazard (Chelsea), 3rd Aguero (City)
Young Player of the Month: 1st Robertson (Arsenal), 2nd Bentaleb (Spurs), 3rd Barkley (Everton)
Manager of the Month: 1st Howe (Bournemouth), 2nd Pochettino (Spurs), 3rd Van Gaal (Man United)

Bielik joins Doncaster on loan.

We sign Hakim Ziyech for a potential £9.75M from FC Twente

So here are the transfers for the first transfer window:
View attachment 204373
 
Premier League

View attachment 204366Another match where are domination is not capitalised on, it is not a defeat but it is another 2 points dropped.

Champions League

View attachment 204365A quality performance marred somewhat by injuries to Giroud, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Koscielny. Chambers goal was a very impressive overhead kick.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZWT2HNm6Ak

Koscielny out for 4-5 weeks with a sprained ankle.
Giroud out for 5-7 days with a damaged heel.
Oxlade-Chamberlain out for 9-11 days with thigh strain.
Sanchez out for 3 weeks with a twisted ankle.

Injuries look like they could play a big part in this season as much as they may in real life.

Premier League

View attachment 204364Bournemouth were in second prior to this match and as can be seen from the stats it was a very evenly matched game. The clinical finishing of Charlie Austin decided the match as he added another 4 to his ever growing account.

Walcott out for 5-6 days with a bruised shin.

Our new signings are doing very well so far:

Charlie Austin leads the club and league scoring charts with 7 goals.
Andrew Robertson has the clubs highest average rating with 8.10.
Yarmolenko tops the clubs assist table with 4.

Capital One Cup Third Round

View attachment 204363We have to utilise penalties in order to progress to the next round but progress we do.

Yarmolenko out for 2-3 weeks with groin strain.

Capital One Cup Fourth Round draw sees us face Tottenham away.

Premier League

View attachment 204362Another evenly matched encounter where we scrape three points by one goal. These are the matches on paper that we should be romping home by three or four goals but I will take the three points over anything else.

Charlie Austin out for 5-6 days with a bruised head.

Champions League

View attachment 204357It honestly felt like we were more all over them than the stats suggest. A point away from home is not to be sniffed at but these were billed as the whipping boys of the group. I would like to blame a weakened squad but even our second string should get a win.

Player of the Month: 1st Austin (Arsenal), 2nd Willian (Chelsea), 3rd Jenkinson (West Ham)
Young Player of the Month: 1st Bentaleb (Spurs), 2nd Roberts (Man City), 3rd Depay (Man United)
Manager of the Month: 1st Me (Arsenal), 2nd Klopp (Liverpool), 3rd Bilic (West Ham)
 
Charlie Austin receives his first England call up, and deservedly so on current form.

Premier League

View attachment 203323Kieran Gibbs makes his first start of the season, in an attackingleft midfield role and scores twice and gets the man of the match as well. Way to try and force your way into the team.

Mesut Ozil is out for 3 weeks with a twisted ankle.

Premier League

View attachment 203320Another victory and we cement our position at the top of the table.

Champions League

View attachment 203319We also cement our position at the top of the Champions League group.

Premier League

View attachment 203316A very good performance away at the Etihad. We make it back to back 2-1 victories, the lack of clean sheets should be concerning however we are getting a lot of three points. Charlie Austin is making waves in the team and the league.

Capital One Cup 4th Round

View attachment 203312We lose our first match in what seems like an age, and to our bitter rivals. Truth be told we were poor and we were lucky to keep it at only one down.

Charlie Austin will be out for 5-7 days with a damaged heel.

Premier League

View attachment 203309We make up for the Capital One Cup disappointment with an emphatic win. We even miss a penalty to save Spurs blushes by a fraction.

Bellerin out for 5-6 days with concussion.

6 league wins in a row, unfortunately we have had no clean sheets in that time but am very happy with how it has gone so far.

Player of the Month: 1st Borini (Sunderland), 2nd Gomis (Swansea), 3rd Coutinho (Liverpool)
Young Player of the Month: 1st Depay (Man United), 2nd Zouma (Chelsea), 3rd Robertson (Arsenal)
Manager of the Month: 1st Me (Arsenal), 2nd Monk (Swansea), 3rd Klopp (Liverpool)

Back to back manager of the months, possibly my most successful opening to a first save season in many years.
 
Champions League

View attachment 199145An away draw keeps us three points ahead at the top of the table.

Premier League

View attachment 1991436 points clear at the top with Sanchez and Austin continuing their impressive runs. Outstanding result away at Anfield.

Premier League

View attachment 199142
Just as in real life we show Aston Villa how to play football.

I have been offered a four year contract extension worth £110000 a week.

Champions League

View attachment 199131
Oh dear, we make things more complicated for ourselves with a woeful away display to Ajax. after being 1 goal to the good.

Premier League

View attachment 199128Earning my contract extension already, 2 defeats since I signed my contract.

Player of the month: 1st Pelle (Southampton), 2nd Hazard (Chelsea), 3rd Zouma (Chelsea)
Young Player of the Month: 1st Zouma (Chelsea), 2nd Correa (Southampton), 3rd Depay (Man United)
Manager of the Month: 1st Pochettino (Spurs), 2nd Mourinho (Chelsea), 3rd Ranieri (Leicester)
 
What the **** have you been feeding Austin haha, turning out to be a good buy!
 
I know I can't complain. Clearly just suits the formation, my coach report still only rates him as 2.5 stars maximum potential.
 
Koscielny out for 3 weeks with achilles tendonitis.

Chambers out for 2-3 weeks with strained stomach muscles.

Premier League

View attachment 199080Santi Cazorla stops the rot as we pick up a valuable 3 points at home. Shouldn't be reliant on penalties to win a match like this though.

FA Cup Third Round draw is kind to us as we draw a home tie versus League One outfit Burton.

Champions League

View attachment 199079We have to settle for 2nd place in the group stage after a draw with Viktoria Plzen.

Sanchez will be missing for 3 weeks with a twisted ankle.

Premier League

View attachment 199078Walcott and Austin get the goals in which we were second best for large parts of this match.

Stoke sack Mark Hughes.

Champions League First Round Knockout draw sees us drawn against SLB.

Premier League

View attachment 199077A convincing victory and a hat trick for Giroud who made the most of his opportunity in the first team ahead of Charlie Austin.

Sunderland sack Sam Allardyce.

Premier League

View attachment 199076A stunning away performance and the three points keep us away from the consistent pursuit of Chelsea and Tottenham.

Gibbs out for 4-5 weeks with a sprained ankle.

Premier League

View attachment 199075Another 3 points on the road make this a reasonable December so far.

Leicester sack Ranieri, what a difference to reality.

West Brom sack Tony Pulis.

Premier League

View attachment 199074Unfortunately a perfect December is spoiled by a goalless draw, however Chelsea were thumped by Man City so our goal difference is now superior.

Stoke hire Michael Laudrup as manager.

December Player of the Month: 1st Rooney (Man United), 2nd Costa (Chelsea), 3rd Pedro (Chelsea)
Young Player of the Month: 1st Bellerin (Arsenal), 2nd Sterling (Man City), 3rd Zouma (Chelsea)
Manager of the Month: 1st Me (Arsenal), 2nd Pochettino (Spurs), 3rd Klopp (Liverpool)
 
Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year to you all, the kids are now back at school and so the updates will start coming regularly again.

Sorry for the delays if anybody was following.
 
Premier League

View attachment 1007213We open up a 7 point lead at the top of the Premier League with a 2-0 home victory over second placed Chelsea.

Sunderland hire Fernando Hierro.

Calum Chambers out for 4-5 days with a bruised head.

FA CUP 3rd Round

View attachment 1007221We only manage a 2-0 win over the minnows of Burton, however a win is a win.

FA CUP Fourth round draw sees us handed another relatively easy tie at home to Colchester.

Senol Gunes takes over at Leicester.

Premier League

View attachment 192171Spurs move up to second place as we drop two points at home to the Toffees. Giroud adding another couple of goals, since Austin went off the boil Olivier has really stepped up.

Zelalem moves on loan to Leicester.

Nigel Pearson takes over at West Brom.

Sanchez will be missing for 2-3 weeks with groin strain.

Premier League

View attachment 192170A comfortable away win, we are performing far better than what I was expecting. The signings all seem to be performing when called upon, in fairness that could be said of every player in the squad.

FA Cup 4th Round

View attachment 192169Giroud and Oxlade-Chamberlain continue their recent good form and we sweep Colchester aside.

January Player of the Month 1st Oxlade-Chamberlain (Arsenal), 2nd Sagna (Man City), 3rd Bamford (Palace)
Young Player of the Month 1st Mitrovic (Newcastle), 2nd Redmond (Norwich), 3rd Robertson (Arsenal)
Manager of the Month 1st Me (Arsenal), 2nd Flores (Watford), 3rd Pellegrini (Man City)
 
What formation and ractics are you using?

this is a good reed can't wait to read more!!

COYG!!
 
Here is my formation I use this for 98% of matches just rotate the personnel dependent upon form or fitness (depends on opposition as to which i choose to select by). Player roles are determined by the players selected, as you can see Giroud favours being a supportive target man whereas Austin is an Attacking Advanced Forward, I just try to ensure a good mix of Attacking, Supportive and Defensive players.

View attachment 192005View attachment 192004Here are the tactics/instructions I employ. These will change during the match, sometimes before depending on the strength of the opposition, when holding a lead i prefer to drop deeper, slow play down and play more direct and disciplined, when attacking higher tempo, higher defensive line and more expressive.

View attachment 192003
 
We sign Gianni Vio as coach.

Board add more transfer funds at lunchtime of transfer deadline day, we now have £59M to spend.

We sign James Bree from Barnsley for £2.5M.

We sign Marquinhos for £27.5M potentially rising to £48M if he was to make 50 appearances and score 50 goals and so on.

FA Cup Fifth Round draw sees us face Reading at home.

Wilshere out for 7-10 days with a gashed leg.

Premier League

View attachment 191970A comfortable victory as Giroud gets a further 2 goals to add to his list. Ziyech with a goal and three assists.

We have gone 10 matches unbeaten in the Premier League.

We let Bree move on loan to Huddersfield.

Premier League

View attachment 191969West Ham put up a fight but we manage another 3 points. This is looking good.

Ramsey out for 3-4 months with a damaged achilles tendon. Oh dear, we look a little light in the defensive minded midfield players, an area we may strengthen in the summer.

Charlie Austin out for 4-5 days with bruised rib.

We loan Dan Crowley to Bolton.

Loftus-Cheek out for 3-4 days with food poisoning.

Premier League

View attachment 191968Giroud is now clearly the top scorer for the club. Welbeck gets two goals on his first appearance of the season.

Walcott out for 12 days to 2 weeks with a twisted knee.

12 matches unbeaten in the league with only 9 goals conceded in those matches.

Kieran Gibbs out for 3 weeks with a twisted ankle.

FA Cup Fifth Round

View attachment 191967Two late goals from Danny Welbeck secure passage to the quarter finals.

Van Beek moves on loan to Dnipro.

We draw Everton at home in the quarter finals of the FA Cup.

Champions League

View attachment 191966As I have said before a win in the champions League is a win. would have liked a bigger margin but will take no away goals to contend with.

Premier League

View attachment 191965We drop two points away to Watford. The points cushion is coming in handy. Our goal difference is staggering, especially when you see everyone elses.

Oxlade-Chamberlain out for 9-11 days with thigh strain.

Chelsea win the League Cup.

February Awards

Player of the Month: 1st Giroud (Arsenal), 2nd Baines (Everton), 3rd Firmino (Liverpool)
Young Player of the Month: 1st Zelalem (Leicester), 2nd Sterling (Man City), 3rd Bernardo Silva (Man Utd)
Manager of the Month: 1st Me (Arsenal), 2nd Gunes (Leicester), 3rd Pochettino (Spurs)
 
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