Football Manager 2013 Stories

I ended up signing only one more player, a young talented defender from Ghana on a free transfer. He was quickly sent of to defend Genk. One of my satelite clubs. A few other loaned out players concluded my preseason player movements. It was pretty intense when we talk about young lads out to get some experience! I am very interested on how they do this season, as on the next one, they should be tested more times on senior level.

We began the season conquering the Community Shield against Manchester United on a fully packed Wembley. I wasn’t going to post the game stats, but after taking a closer look at it, decided to do so. Check out the defensive prowess of my men, allowing MU to only three shots on goal, zero on target!

After the conquering the four tournaments that we disputed last season, I was more than confortable to declare that we would retain the Premier League title. But I decided to declare that I would challenge the title, as I will prioritize the Champions League this season. But still work hard to retain the title. Man City is the favourite for conquering the EPL, followed by Man Utd and then we appear in third place.

Season Objectives:

Champions League Title

Retain Premier League Trophy

FA Cup and Carling Cup will be played by reserve and young players.

Kits made for this coming season!

After the season ended, I had Sergio Busquets, Andre Ayew, Theo Walcott, Marek Hamsik, Robin van Persie and Wojciech Szczesny declaring that they wanted a new challenge and that they had conquered all they could aim at Arsenal. I managed to convince all but Hamsik and Szczesny to remain in London. The good in their moves was the amount of cash that flowed in. Real Madrid and Barcelona paid respectively for Midfielder and Keeper, £35M and £22.5M. Though Ranocchia was on my plans, I had to accept Real Madrid’s insistence in signing him. Their first bid came in the £18M, then on the £25M, when they arrived with the £30M, I could not refuse it, but the Italian defender could! For my happiness, Ranocchia accepted my £25k wage rise to stay in London for another three seasons!

Initially I would have John Ruddy assume the number one shirt, but then found out Marc-André ter Stegen’s contract was not renewed, and the German keeper accepted my offer. This will keep Ruddy another season as a [...]

Players Out:
Players In:

Mohamed Darwish – Bursaspor – Loaned affiliate club

Yair Jerez – Bursaspor – Loaned affiliate club

Serge Gnabry – Sandhausen – Free

Thomas Vermaelen – Barcelona – £32M

Andy Carroll – Everton – Loan fee £1,2M

Eric Dier – Sporting CP – £6.25M

Yair Jerez – River – £15M

Daniel Sturridge – Free Transfer

Leandro Damião – Internacional – Free

Dedé – OM – £12M

We opened Januarry announcing the signature of two great young prospects. Eric Dier from Sporting CP to play in defense and argentine wonderkid Yair Jerez as a highly gifted playmaker. I also brought in on free transfer Daniel Sturridge, as I have being deeply upset with Carroll’s performance, and an experienced forward would be necessary, as Walcott has being very tired lately. Robin van Persie’s fitness now at 32 years old is not very good, and Pato’s injury percentage is always a danger. Dier and Jerez would be sent on loan, but I eventually decided to keep Dier after there was a few clubs interested in signing Scott Dann. Yerez played a single match, scored a goal and then left to Turkey to defend Burssaspor.

on the last transfer window, Juventus, Milan and Barcelona declared interest and made their bids for Thomas Vermaelen, my current captain. At that time, I refused the offers and suddenly the Belgium defender was upset and in urge of a new challenge. I talked him into staying at Arsenal, but as the season went thru, other players were starting to declare to be downhearted with Vermaelen as the captain. So, now in January, Barcelona and Real Madrid came with their huge accounts to tempt me to sell him. £32M was enough to go to Barcelona. Other important [...]

Our great performance and form continued through November and December, with 8 wins in nine games played. We shook Tottenham at the North London Derby when Ramsey on a great night scored twice and Walcott once. Against Blackburn, another confident victory away from the Emirates Stadium. Against Chelsea, another good performance, but with no goals. We missed too many shots, and played 25 minutes with 10 players as Pato got himself a red card after violent conduct. Happily Chelsea weren’t able to put the ball behind the nets, and we continue undefeated.

Against Everton, a great debut night for young and talented striker Les Wingfield, who scored twice and will remember this night for a long long time! Newcastle and Birmingham both gave us work, with close results, but we still were dominants and secured the 3 points in each match. The greatest performance so far in the season was against poor Ipswich Town. A 6×0 with a huge team performance! WOW! Check out the goals!

Motivated by a great result against Ipswich, we placed another goal galore against Blackpool, being an Ayew-Pato show, each scoring twice. We finally closed 2015 with a present to Andy Carroll against Fulham, a goal after more than 13 hours without scoring! With this great form, we sit comfortably on top of the league, with seven points above and one game behind Man Utd. We are definitely on the right track to conquer the Premier League. It is also nice to see that my former club, Brighton is doing ok on a good middle table position so far.

We were almost qualified for the next phase in the [...]

We started our 2015-2016 campaign in good shape, with only a player or two lacking fitness and morale very high, especially after I set maximum prize for the Premier League title. Fulham was the first in our way. Ramsey and Pato bagged us two goals and sealed our first three points. Our next three points came from a good 2×0 win over Swansea at their ground. Another three points came from an away game, where Pato, Ramsey and Vermaelen bagged our goals against Burnley. It also marked our first conceded goal off a long shot. Against Liverpool, a solid performance from my three men back line and Pato’s opportunism gave us the three points on a match that we couldn’t control possession. Liverpool’s goals came off of dead ball situations, something that I have to work on, as I hate to suffer goals. Our 5th game in the season was against Sunderland away. After a tough beginning a few strategy tweaks, we started bagging our goals, one after the other, till we had 5×0 on the scoreboard! What a great game!

For those interested on my tactical strategies, I will soon post a quick resume on the tactics, strategies and shouts I use, under the GUMP’S MIND section. For every post I will have an update there with all the EPL games played, with video of the goals and image shot of game stats.

Pato’s performances have really got me excited as he was signed to score goals, and so far he bagged himself 5 goals in the four EPL matches so far. My defensive line is also very surprising. Last season I played with a two central defenders with stopping roles [...]

I decided that we had more than enough to challenge for the title on the Premier League. I’m also really interested in challenging the Europa League. We have a good squad, and a few good names coming in. The poacher role still has to be determined, but the player that I’m bringing in will fit in for the role! At least I hope so.

We are not really contenders for the EPL trophy, and Man City are hot favourites for their third consecutive title!

Pos.
Club
 
Pos.
Club

1.
Manchester City
 
11.
Blackpool

2.
Manchester United
 
12.
Cardiff City

3.
Liverpool
 
13.
Blackburn

4.
Chelsea
 
14.
Brighton

5.
Tottenham Hotspur
 
15.
Sunderland

6.
Arsenal
 
16.
Burnley

7.
Fulham
 
17.
Stoke City

8.
Everton
 
18.
Birmingham

9.
Newcastle United
 
19.
Hull City

10.
Swansea City
 
20.
Ipswich

Last season’s expectations towards me were not high, but now I need to start producing results in the competitions. I honestly believe that I can fulfill all of the performance initial expectations. As a personal objective, I plan to conquer the Europa League and FA Cup. But never leaving the Premier League as a second hand objective.

New kits for this coming season! Loved the third option! I would definitely buy one! lol!

Financially Arsenal’s account is still very secure, and one of the most valuable clubs in England and Europe. My last season expenses left us with a negative final result. Small, but still negative. For this season, I do expect to keep a tighter control on players signature, focusing on younger and cheaper players as the base is formed.

This season the first moves was bringing in players. Most of them young fellows that I had under my radar since Brighton, and now with better scouts, I could filter out my shortlist to even better players. This time I’ll make some individual reports of the [...]

Our final run on the Premier League was very successful. Seven wins out of seven games! After our defeat against Brighton, we faced Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium and managed a very convincing 3×0 win. Cardiff couldn’t handle us too, and a 2×0 win in London gave us a morale boost to face Man Utd on the following round. Though playing at home, we were not favourites. Man Utd began the match attacking, and almost opened the score board on the first quarter of the game! Playing a very stylish long ball with low tempo on counter attacks, we managed to score a winner exactly on a long ball to Theo Walcott.

That win was another huge boost on our morale, that served us well to kick Chelsea around on their own ground! Sergio Busquets and Theo where the poachers on a very interesting match, that again, our low tempo, long ball served very well. A great performance of wonderkid Cemil Torun, who scored twice, gave us a great 4×1 win against Burnley. Theo Walcott and Andy Carroll where the scorers of the other two goals.

Away at Sunderland, we did not play to our potential, and a single goal win was all that we could do. Anyhow, three points were conquered and left us in third place on the League Table, but with a game more than Tottenham. On the last round of the season, we were only interested on the win and hope that Man Utd or Tottenham slipped. With these happenings, we would end up in fourth or third, getting a highly expected Champions League spot. We did win, scoring four goals, [...]