FM24: Arsenal - Taking the next step

[puffascruffowitz]

Well guess I'm not letting Reiss go just yet...

 

 

[lomekian]

Having abandoned the game I started in January to start a new one with the data update, but with the same principles.

DISCLAIMER: Using some DB add-ons that

1) add real life youth players to the game (from some FM websites), so have Obi-Martin etc

2) Add all missing Arsenal u16s myself (info taken from various websites, but just editing the ones duplicated by the above DB adds to resist the temptation to make them all amazing!)

3) Added BIG points deduction to Man City (the cheating bastards). Not enough to guarantee relegation, but enough to make it possible. I thought this a way to hedge bets re real life sanctions when they come

4) Remove Brexit. Yes I am still bitter.

5) Allow me to keep Arteta as Assistant Manager

6) Adds an Arsenal B team in the 7th tier

No First teamers or existing youth edited by me or any mods.

This time I actually finished a season!

SEASON 1 Transfers

Obviously Arsenal are skint to begin with, so first thing is to grab some filler non-squad guys on Frees. Some old blokes for mentoring usage, who don;t mind the old Scott Carson role. Others who rate themselves and will ask to leave when I don't include them in my squad, so can be flogged ahead of first transfer deadline to raise some funds. And pure profit for FFP! Trial them first then hold off to get them on lower wages than day 1. Those that can't be sold immediately were kept for weaker teams in the cups. What's great is if you player the real world option some are free in July and some become free later on. And teams have a habit of releasing players with expering contracts they don't want. Made over £40m from selling players acquired in this way.

Some great old blokes to tutor available for free

Marco Motta, Gael Clichy (yay!), Kazuyoshi Miura (when he got released), Fumio Ando

I also hoovered up lots of kids with my non brexit status - getting some on youth contracts and buying others for peanuts. Randomly City, Liverpool and others sometimes have good prospects available very cheaply. The best though are Benfica (most of their kids have resolute, determined or professional personalities and Portugal is cheaper for transfers), Real Madrid (several players with good reps in real life youth competitions available for next to nothing or with expiring contracts), Sporting (2 or 3 very promising kids that are far too cheap) and after Xmas Barcelona (lots of their younger players seem to have cheap relause clauses - picked up Pau Cubarsi for £2.3m!).  Apart from that Austria and Switzerland are great for super duper cheap youth prospects, and of course with enough leagues loaded West Africa and Mexico.

Bigger signings: Managed to get in Pepe (the old CB) from Porto for £2.4m as both up to snuff still for the first team, especially in Europe and an excellent tutor. Tbh this was off the back of his performance against us in real life. Added Oscar Perea from Atletico Nacional for what could eventually rise to £3.5m, but largely deferred. Immediately recouped a decent chunk loaning him to Lens. Vitik from Sparta Prague came in to be the next layer at CB, and Shalke listed Assan Ouedraogo for £8m which I couldn;t say no to. Thinking ahead for an Eleney replacement I bought Gerrard Yepes from Sampdoria for what could rise to £4.6m to get him ahead of Spurs, but ended up loaning him to Coventry for a fee - he's been great for them and is now worth £35m - as he went out I pounced on Aleksander Pavlovic from Bayern who despite being improved is still dirt cheap - £3.2m - Edned up loaning him out to France for a decent loan fee as 2 more DMs came in after Partey's sale. Jose Gregara from Espanol was listed so cost me £2.3m and brings decent passing and size as an emergency option. Was amazing in the cup games, but ultimately will fill the Elneny role.

He was usurped by a thought experiment I wanted to try - when Partey and Vieira went out for fees I couldn't refuse, I wanted to try Rice more in the 6 role to see if the team worked as well, so I could decide which direction to go at the end of the season, so I went looking for a player who could do a job at 6 or attacking 8 but was more of a box crashing 8 who could dovetail with Havertz. As it happened a player that is much derided but I feel I could do well in that role after seeing his internation displays was listed for £15m. So in came Scott Mctominay, a player whose in game attributes always intrigued me, with good personality and of course some goalscoring form in real life.

OUT:

In addition to loan farming for fees (especially to scandinavia in November), some of which led to loan fees greater than the prospects purchase prices, and the selling of never going to be good enough freebies from above, I also raised another 5m + 50% sell on clauses for varous never going to make it original youth players like Jack Henry Francis etc.

The big one was ahead of intended schedule - Partey had been in decent form, but no better than Jorginho, and I wanted to try Rice back at DM to inform what End of season transfers to target, so when Inter came in for him I negotiated them to £44.5m rising to £53m. On top of that, Fabio Vieira was the subject of a bid of £43m rising to £51m from Newcastle, and hadn't seen a lot of game time as ESR had outshone him in the few looks they had. I suspect he'll do well for them but he might be another Hugo Viana. With £87m rising to £104m coming in on top of the £40m from selling my opportunistic freebies, the coffers are healthy even without more sales and prize money.

So how did it all go?

Well. Very very well.

One thing I love about recent FMs is how the ever more effective tactical evolutions Arteta introduces in real life are similarly increasingly effective in game.

So Kai at DLF (A) creating a dual 10 system with Odegaard as AP(S) in the AM slot, with Rice and Later McTominay in the attacking 8 slot was amazing, especially when Zinny was on form as an inverted full-back providing that extra creativity.

Not only did we go the season unbeaten, we had a ridiculous record of 35 wins and 3 draws. We scored 177 goals in the league alone. When you get on a roll you can really stuff teams on this FM...some of the scorelines were ridiculous. Opening day beat Everton 10-0. 2 weeks later beat Burnley 9-0. Won 8-0 twice against 5th place Newcastle. Beat Fulham 6-0, Sheffield United 8-2, Brighton 6-1, Won 8-1 at Villa Park, 6-0 at home to Bournemouth, and 7-0 vs Wolves before beating WHU 11-0 at home.  Just bizarre. Highest score against any of the relegated sides was 5-0.

 

We won every cup (very much helped by some of the jammiest draws in cup competition you could hope to see - The Champions League saw me face Feyenoord, FC Kobenhavn & Union Berlin in the group stage, an injury battered Leipzig, a frankly even crapper Feyenoord again, a flaky PSG and a bizarrely title winning AC Milan (who left Rafael Leao on the bench?!) as my opponents. If only we could get that in real life! That said, Trossard, Nketiah and Mctominay is a pretty unlikely scorers line up for the ECL title.

The Fa Cup gave me Burnley, Ipswich and Everton in the QF, SF and Final, allowing me to rest my stars. The League Cup required pens to beat Liverpool and Bournemouth, but the other ties were all lower league opposition.

On individual players, Raya got the golden glove. Kai finished the season with 40 goals in the league. Odegaard got 22 Assists. McTominay was a revelation - he scored 15 in 15 in the league, averaging 7.94 and was MOTM in his only European tie, the ECL final where he got a goal and assists. An absolute example of finding the right role for a player. Naturally this has made me question my summer transfer plans!

The next step to keep it interesting is to blood the kids. Nwaneri, MLS, BNC, Chido Obi the obvious candidates.

Might lean into a Brexit squad further by setting myself rules about HG or British players. Already have Archie Gray from Leeds, Jobe Bellingham, Samuel Illing lined up for the summer

Edited May 23 by lomekian

[Gee_Simpson]

Great season. So did you start from season 23/24? Or did you use a mod to start at the end of this season?

[lomekian]

1 hour ago, Gee_Simpson said:

Great season. So did you start from season 23/24? Or did you use a mod to start at the end of this season?

23/24. So not much starting cash, hence the bargain hunting and bringing people in just to flog later.
Looking forward to see what I can do in the summer! Still not full summer yet

Just agreed a deal for Ruben Neves on a season long loan paying 80% of his wages (still 350k a week!) with an 8.75m future fee if we win the league - will replace Partey immediately and then ultimately be my Jorginho. Similar deal concluded for Thomas Lemar who arrived in January with a 6m future fee clause, essentially replacing Fabio Vieira. Never hit his potential, but a player who is both very professional and can be competent or better in 5 positions is no bad thing. Got Lunin coming in from Madrid on a free to replace the presumably departing Ramsdale. Also got Ziolinksi coming in on a free to hopefully be Odegaard cover. And a few kids with some promise on bosmans.

Also brought in some higher rated kids for the u21s/loan to develop but from a stronger base - Jobe Bellingham from Sunderland for 11.5m, Cameron Humphries from Ipswich for £7.25m, El Chadaille Bitshiabu (easy for you to say!) from Leipzig for £6.25m, Ronnie Edwards for 2.5m, Hugo and Nuno Felix for a combined £3.5m from benfica B, Wisdom Amey from Bologna for £1.2m,

For the freebies I can't sell, if ther is a lack of interest I am offering them in exchange deals for more developed promising youngsters - we'll see if that gets anywhere beyond the below...

So far got lined up Skelly Alvaro from Lyon (probably never be good enough but the hilarity of a 6"8 midfielder to add to my set pieces threat vs weaker opponents is fun!) for 1.5m + Junior Tavares (free in Jan)
Also swapped listed Jesus Vazquez from Valencia for Nigel Robertha (free in Jan) and Rafael Luis from Benfica for Stefano Sensi (talented but injury prone freebie, who did score in the FA Cup Final) and Isaak Toure (6"8 left footed centre back from Lorient for £2.5m + Josef Martinez, who is actually not terrible, but not good enough for me.

Bar Neves the most exciting bids I've got on the way are for an unhappy Kenan Yildiz, and unsettled Rico Lewis, a low value Ivan Fresneda and Guillaime Restes from relegated Toulouse. Real Madrid don;t want to Sell Tchouameni, who I probably don't really need anyway.

Looking for 2 more oven ready players with room to grow at wing and at striker, but my options may be limited if I can't sell the likes of Nelson etc. Trying for Yamal as he's up for it, but Barca understandably not keen to sell. Up top we want a combo of physicality and speed...eyeing Sesko (Osihmen is not remotely gettable now), but if the worst comes to it, I can always get a stop gap like Tammy Abraham listed for 8m or the very raw but intirguing Emanuel Emegha who my scouts reckon I can get for 20m ish.

The real dream is my immediate priority. Mbappe has been set to leave PSG, but becuase his next club isn't announced IRL (though we all know) he seems to be set to leave with RM and Saudi both set to go for him...currently showing as Wnt, but no bids yet. Trying to thin the squad to free up wages so I can throw my hat into the ring - may have to adjust wages vs budget to even be able to bid!

Edited May 25 by lomekian

[Gee_Simpson]

Ah, I take it you have used a transfer data update, so Mbappe leaves PSG? Because I think he usually signs a new deal if it's not set.

[lomekian]

40 minutes ago, Gee_Simpson said:

Ah, I take it you have used a transfer data update, so Mbappe leaves PSG? Because I think he usually signs a new deal if it's not set.

Yeah, but more wide reaching than this - just all up to date stuff

[Gee_Simpson]

7 minutes ago, lomekian said:

Yeah, but more wide reaching than this - just all up to date stuff

So the leagues were updated etc, or everything outwith that?

[lomekian]

On 26/05/2024 at 00:36, Gee_Simpson said:

So the leagues were updated etc, or everything outwith that?

No - just transfer deals set to happenon the dates they did in real life + injuries etc.

[Gee_Simpson]

8 hours ago, lomekian said:

No - just transfer deals set to happenon the dates they did in real life + injuries etc.

Lol so you do the same thing as me then, good to see I'm not alone 😅