Finally finished my first season in charge of Arsenal, and it couldn't have gone much better. We won the treble!
English Premier League standings:
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Fixtures:
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Champions League:
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FA Cup:
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Transfers (first window disabled):
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Team stats (sorted by average rating):
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Considering that I disabled the first transfer window, I was very surprised by how well we performed in the first half of the season. Morale and team chemistry must have played a huge role. I could have tried to finish the season without shaking up the team, but it was too tempting to make some value purchases. Hummels was upset with Dortmund's league standing and was all too happy to join, most of the rest of the signings were for youth/reserves anyway, and the Dinamo trio (Kovacic is signing when he turns 18) is simply too talented (and cheap!) to pass up. (Kovacic deserves all the attention he gets, but Badelj is unbelievable. Look at his PPMs!)
Anyway, the combination of a flurry of signings, a few exits, the African Cup of Nations, and some vicious injury spells did make for a tough February (being forced to play Rhys Murphy meant two straight home 1-1 draws to Wigan and Sunderland), but once players started returning to full fitness, we were unstoppable.
I feel a little guilty for winning the Champions League; look at Udinese's incredible run!
I'm very excited to continue this game. FM2012 is by far the best FM game I've played (started with FM07), and Arsenal's squad is extremely promising. Unless I could somehow get Mario Götze, which is very unlikely, I would much rather avoid making huge purchases in the future and watch the young talent in my squad develop.
(In fact, I couldn't resist a peek at FMRTE, to see just
how well a certain player might develop, and...)