Players

Now the FUN BEGINS!!!

You will be rumoured with players, but don't bite. Buy the guys YOU want, and that will benefit YOU. EG: Diego Perotti. Rumoured with him... Sevilla want around £20m for him... er... no. Wellington Nem is just as good and you can get him for £3.5m but BE QUICK!!! Loads of people want him because he's that good, for that price!

Also, be firm with who you want out. For me, Chamakh will never play for me. As I'm doing an online game with a friend, I'll be loaning him to my friend for the first season (he's Portsmouth). Coquelin is going on loan for the season, and Squillaci is going too.

Positions Needed:

• GOALKEEPER!!! I ONLY HAVE SZCZESNY!!!
• Left Back
• Striker

I also look at players that I have bought before that work well.

• Doria (CD Botafogo)
• Wallace (DR/L Fluminense)
• Pretty much any good Brazilian young player (this is where the good scouts come in handy).

Wellington Nem. £3.5m. Best seems to be Advanced Playmaker attack. Have bought him for my other game and he's been brilliant. Averages around the 7.4 mark. Scores and assists!

Goalkeeping solution? Ro-Robert Zieler. Bought for around £15m. He's one of Germany's most promising young 'keepers, along with Marc-Andre ter Stegen. These 2 will be the best keepers for Germany once Neuer retires. Keep a watchful eye on them.

Naxto Monreal. Left back (full back support highlighted). Around £14.5m. Goes in real life, and certainly solidifies the left-back position.

Denys Garmash. Young Ukranian centre mid. His "best" role is CM but he's quite versatile and there's not much difference between his roles. With a bit of training to firm up what area you want, he'll be electric! £5m Initial bid with £10m over 2 years.

Another option, if you want a solid striker for your second season, is Fernando Llorente. A target man by nature, he stats speak for themselves. Spend around the £27million mark if you want him sooner, or wait until his contract runs out at the end of the season. He should be available to try and sign around January.

Staff - Coaches (Part 2)

This is a continuation from the last one. In this post, (fingers crossed) I will look at Goalkeeping coaches, fitness coaches and Physios.

Goalkeeping: Luckily, Arsenal already have 2 very decent GK coaches (you're only allowed 2. Weird, as you start with 3). If you do want another, there is only 1 option: Franco Tancredi! GK 20, WWY 20. Winner.
If you want a new U18s GK coach, look for the best stats possible, but with the lowest wage. They will ask for less than the rest, and therefore offering them more for being an U18s coach will be more beneficiary. I picked, Juan Jose Lasuen (20/20).

Fitness: All of the Arsenal Fitness coaches are poor. You're allowed 4. So 2 First team, 2 Youth. But the balance you chose is yours.
I chose:

• Rodolfo Rocha: 18 fitness, 18 youngsters --- U18s
• Sergio Botelho: 18 fitness, 18 youngsters --- U18s
• Antonio Pintus: 20 Fitness, 18 Youngsters --- main
• Bebeto de Oliveira: 19 fitness, 20 youngsters. Sau Paulo, £74.85k comp --- main

The choice is yours.

Physios: Start with 4, Can have 6. I prefer to split this 4:2 as I fear that my first team are more important than the youth, but aim to get similar stats. I sacked all of the physios apart from the head physio. So far...

Because of the Head Physio, it actually means that you have 3 for the first team, 2 for the youth as the Head covers both really.

• Filé: 19 physiotherapy, 20 fitness, 16 youngsters. -- Main
• Alan Tomlinson: 18phys 18youth -- main
• Mogens Kreutzfeldt: 18phys, 16 youth -- main
• Ricardo Galotti: 17/17. U18s
• Crystian Pedrosa: 17/17. U18s

Staff - Coaches (Part 1)

In this post I hope to cover both the normal Coaches and the youth coaches. In FM12, there was more distinction between the two. You knew which coaches took the regular team and which ones took the youth set up. FM13 (for me) seems to lose that distinction. But still, I will try my best to cover both areas.

Arsenal start with 5 Coaches, with a maximum of 10. This covers both youth and first team so be wise to make sure that you cover both areas (even though I'm sure that they overlap anyway).

Boro Primorac seems to be the only coach worth keeping for the first team, with David Court the pick of the U18 staff. Steve Leonard is a possible keeper. Be cautious of sacking the rest, but still bring in your own staff, ones that are bloody good. I try to get coaches that overlap in stats too. Eg: Angel Vales has a 19 technique and tactical training. 1 coach, 2 areas. Bosh.
(Don't worry, I'll do a list of ones that I find, and ones that I sign).

Right.
Attack Coaches: For this I'm going to show you a lot of people that are high in the Attack Coaching Stat... Duh! Again, most of these will be Unemployed. They tend to be the easiest to get hold of.

• Chico Fraga: 16 Attack, 17 Technical, 16 Youngsters.
• Clive Allen: 17 Attack, 17 Youngsters
• Gerd Muller: 18 Attack, 18 WWY. This guy's from Bayern Munich, currently U23 coach. Wants to be a full Coach, but offer him enough he'll go as U18s. £86k comp.
• Jeffrey Talan: 17 Att, 17 Tech, 17 WWY. Again, with a club, reasonable contract, with £79.1k comp. Hurry, his contract ends June 2013.
• Rodolfo Borrell: 17 Att, 18 Tech, 20WWY. Liverpool's Reserves Manager. Prefers to be a coach. Expensive. £1m+ Comp.

Defence: Same as above, but for defence. Just to warn, all of these will include the WWY stat so that it can cover both first team and youth (remember, you have young first team members too).

• Paulo Cesar Batista dos Santos: 17 Def, 16 Tact, 17 WWY
• Massimo Bonini: 18 Def, 16 Fit, 20 WWY

These 2 are by far the best really. Niko Kovac (17 D, 19 WWY) is the only real other option. But again, My opinion, search around.

Tactics: For me, I've already dabbled with this (dos Santos ^). But I need someone with good tactical coaching, but also good tactical knowledge. There aren't a great deal of these though, and thankfully, you already start with a good'un. Milos Babic and Otto Baric (both 16/16) are the only free ones. Bryan Robson (scout from Sunderland) is 16/17, Inter's Sergio Zanetti is 17/16. I went for Zanetti - £301k comp. Yikes!

Technical: Again, covered with Chico Fraga, but why not dable for more. I went for a more technique AND mental (the 2 seem to go together).

• Marcel Lucassen - 20mental, 18technical. Job done.
• Tommy Martin - 16 Tech, 15 Mental, 19WWY = from Man U. only £75k comp. Youth.

Staff - Scouts

To begin with, the staff that are already at the club are pretty decent - as you'd expect from a top-rated Premiership team. With this post, I'm going to show you what staff I chose to keep and which to lose, and those who will replace them. This may get costly.


For some reason, I'm going to start with the scouts.
Scouts: (key: if I do a (x/y) type thing, this means the judging player ability and potential attribute. In this case, x=ability -- y=potential. Other stats will be included)
Most of the scouts are pretty decent. Steve Rowley as your Chief is a pretty fantastic option. 20/20 rating is pretty damn magnificent. No change there. Also, make sure you keep the scouts that you have. Cagigao is STUNNING.
However, there are a few there with lower than my standard. ie: Martin Keown and Christian Karembeu. Keown (15/14) does have a high determination stat (20) but for the life of me, I don't know what that does. Karembeu has 15/15 but also has a very high determination (18) and adaptability (17). Again, *shrug*. Also, Bobby Bennett (15/17), Everton Gushiken (15/16), Jurgen Kost (16/16) and Stewart Houston (16/16) may also be casualties.
KEY TIP: Do NOT go chopping your way through the ranks early on. You WILL forget who you try and sign, you will forget what you wanted to do. I have done this before. One offline game, I sacked 80% of the staff, then found that I lacked the funds to get all the people I wanted, and therefore lost out MASSIVELY.
BRING IN: (tip: Try and sign 'free agent' staff. No compensation fees) - Also, these are tips, not definite buys...

• Luciano Moggi (lol... 20/18 -> Tactical Knowledge 19) - I said that I aim to use scouts like him to scout next Opposition... this is why.
• Luciano D'Onofrio (18/20 - again, TactKnowledge is 17)
• Cesare Maldini (19/17)
• Borba Filho (18/18)
• Gilmar Francisco (19/19)
• Juarez Fischer (18/18)
• Bojan Krkic (18/20)
• Mauro Pederzoli (18/19)
• Pantaleo Corvino (20/20) - Hold your horses on this one. He's down as both a scout AND a Director of Football. This is where not axing everyone at once works. You can try and sign him as a scout, but he prefers the DoF. --> Arsenal don't start with a DoF. So I'll use him.

These are just 8 Scouts (1 DoF) using the following:

• Judging Player Ability 18
• Judging Player Potential 18
• Staff Role: Scout
• Employed: No

There are others that are high in the Ab/Po rating, but they are Assistant Managers etc, they will feature later in my AM/RM/U18M Section.

When looking for Scouts, you obviously want the highest judging player ratings you can. But you may need to compromise. As I plan to look to the future, a very high Potential rating would be more beneficiary. If you want to find players to come in straight away, then a high Ability rating is more necessary.

Arsenal are allowed 14 scouts. They start with 13. Don't try to increase the amount you can have just yet, you've just started, the board are yet to warm to your whimsical ways.

I will edit here what scouts I signed, and what ones I released. Hopefully, with contracts too.

Welcome to Arsenal

Welcome to the club! :D

Attended meeting with the Chairman Kroenke(? thought he was just a director...?). Ignored club history (kinda know about it already). Next step, agreeing goals of the season. I'm going to stick with the continental option that he puts forward. To be honest, aim low, win big!
Transfer budget: £30m.
Wage Budget: £1.48m
These should be more than enough to bring in the players AND the staff that I want/need.

I personally like the meeting of the Journo's. You get to tell them how you play, how you want to do things... basically establish yourself. I know it's a game and that the AI isn't going to give 2 shits, but it kinda works with the players, managers etc. Then, DEFINITELY MEET WITH THE STAFF!!! Even though I plan on sacking most of them, it'll give me a chance to confirm/alter my earlier ideas of how I'm going about this. Yes to reserves v firsts, yes to team report.
Agent offers: ONLY FUTURE PROSPECTS. Don't care about free agents, they're free for a reason! (Other people don't want them)
Friendlies: Personally, I care little for the friendlies. I'll set the tactics and formations that I want and tell the assistant to follow them. It gives the players a chance to get used to the system you aim to use.
Match Prep: I'm going to do the Prep myself (based on the scouting reports I get) and I generally do the Opposition Instructions too but I'm saying that I let him do it.
Journos: I enjoy this, I'll do it.
Reserve/Youth team: Currently Arsenal don't have one, therefore I'm going to let Bould take it for now. However, this will change if I get a decent Reserves Manager. Read more later.
Team Talks: I like to do them myself, but sometimes I'll just click "Assistant takes team talk" thing anyway so whatever.

Team Report: Straight away I see a GLARING ERROR!!! Per Mertesaker is a 4* rated CD. He's slow as shit, and will be TERRIBLE against quick strikers. Also, the best left back is Vermaelen on 3*. This will change when I bring in a new Left Back (again, more later). Error 2: Walcott as a striker. Personally, I don't seem him as a striker. For me, winger. but still, you have Podolski and Giroud as back up. Plan? Buy young player. Not Ashley Young. Or Luke Young for that matter.
Meet the Staff: Pretty self explanatory. Agree with them.


This Concludes my Welcome to the Club. Standby for early plans of BUYING PLAYERS AND STAFF.

Introduction

Welcome to my new blog. I have decided to do this as my friend and I are keen Football Managers and we thought it be fun to try and write stuff about our trials and tribulations during the game. My name is Dave (the clue is in the title). I hope you enjoy.

For this project, I thought I'd have a go at being Arsenal manager. Firstly, I am not a fan of Arsenal. Just to let you know. I prefer teams like Tottenham, Swansea, Barcelona and Dortmund. This is an attempt to try my own ideas of what Arsenal COULD do. Secondly, please don't berate EVERY decision I make. I am doing this as I would if I were manager, not trying to appease you/fans. I will make drastic changes. I will buy/sell as I see fit to try and win trophies. Please, don't hate me. Thirdly, I hope you enjoy.

This first blog I intend to try and introduce myself and my aims of what I plan to do. The plan WILL change. In this piece, I will try and outline what players I have in mind to bring in, who to go, staff, formations and outline where I think I'll end up. Fingers crossed I will not bore you. LOL etc etc.


Now, my aims. (Disclaimer: Do NOT hold your breath)

My main aim is to try and bolster the current squad with a few purchases and maybe a few people being sold. Mainly bringing in players in key positions, like Left Back. But also to bring in few (youngish) centre mids to cover Wilshere and Arteta when injured/suspended/knackered. Also, a striker - personally don't think Giroud is that good irl, but on FM he tends to be quite prolific... who knew!?. Maybe a 'keeper too... I've always like to bring in Butland but then again, could venture to the German pairing of Ter Stegen (M'gladbach) or Ron-Robert Zieler (Hannover). If I can use the youth that is available, I will try... but I'm not banking on it.

First definite buy - Wellington Nem. OH MY GOODNESS he does good. Especially when you can get him for a measly £3.5m or so (minimum fee release clause. He's worth around the £8m mark). AMRLC/ST. Scout. Scout him now. Like, NOW. I digress... When you have a budget of around £30m (don't quote me), you have a large scope to bring people in, BUT DON'T BLOW IT ALL AT ONCE!!! Arsenal fans, I will not be bringing in Neymar, Falcao or any other wonderfully brilliant players like that. I am going to be realistic and try and do this the normal way (ie: not control another team so I get shit-tonnes of money).


Second aim. Sort out the staff. Tried managing Arsenal in the first few months of owning FM13, but didn't get far (boredom/save file corruption). From what I remember, I think Steve Bould is the only GOOD staff member. I advise sacking everyone, and starting from scratch. However, that would be stupid. Bring in quality scouts like Borba Filho, Gilmar Francisco, Luciano D'Onofrio etc (basically, anyone with a 18 rating for Potential and ability). HEADS UP: When signing scouts, try and sign at least 1 that has a reasonable rating in the "Tactical Knowledge" department. Great if scouting opponents.

These are my main aims. AND NOOOWWWW... To the actual game!

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