18th December - 1st June
Previously on Conquer The Turf
I take control of Burnley, though making it through a rough season getting to the reasonable position of 15th just before the January transfer window. My signings have hardly set the world alight (My main signing Martinez didn't even score for me) though success did come in the cups, with the knockout stages of the Euro Cup and the League Cup Quarter Final awaiting.
Then I jumped ship down in London...
Arsenal
On the face of it I have abandoned my original plan. Trying to restore Burnley FC to their former glory. True a miraculous last gasp snatched victory against the top of the table meant qualification for the knockout stages of the Euro Cup, but we were drifting in the English league and I had probably run out of ideas. Sure, you can take any team in FM and with enough seasons, signings and youngsters you can win everything but it takes a lot of time. Three mid table finishes would be required to gradually replace the squad with younger better players which wouldn't make for great reading. I suffer from wanderlust in FM anyway, breaking away from the norm and trying to move clubs as often as I can. It’s way more fun.
So off to the bright lights of London as I swap the Turf for the Emirates. Arsenal. Chapman, Graham, Wenger. Titans of the game. We think of the Invincibles and a recent decade of stagnation. I have swapped the Europa League and Mid Table for the Europa League and Mid Table. Hmm. Reckless maybe but let’s be honest; a lot more money and some world-class players to utilise. Seems like that victory over them back in October helped pave the way to getting the job. I can now challenge for the league! Well that’s what I thought… This is Arsenal after all.
First a look at the squad. One of things I have spent a lot of time thinking about is just how unbalanced the team seems to be. Two Attacking Midfielders and two Strikers? How the hell do you fit Özil, Mkhitaryan, Aubameyang and Lacazette all into the same team? Simply; you can´t. As shown in real life. With only two weeks to the Winter transfer window and 86 million transfer money and 400k on wages I have money to burn! The team wages are fucked, particularly on Özil though at least Ramsey signed a new deal. Oh there is just one injury to Welbeck who is out for another 5 months, no chance of selling him in January….
The back five pick themselves, I am particularly impressed with Bellerín. Only 23 he looks like one of the best right backs in the game. Čech is obviously dropped for Leno, Koscielny and Sokratis paired in the centre with Kolašinac at Left back. Otherwise its an ageing defence with some interesting youngsters further forward in Smith-Rowe and Iwobi. My favourite player? Lucas Torreira, who I can build the whole team around in defensive midfield.
To the window and I have issues shifting any of the big earners so I keep them. With zero sentiment I push out Monreal and Čech for a combined 10 million and then bite the hands of Bayern Munich when they bid 31 million for Mustafi. I use that to pay the release fee of Pavard to be the linchpin of my defence, take a well informed punt (thanks Shifty) on Kieran Tierney for 36 million. I was still short out wide so went for the stalwart Berardi at 21 million and then an absolute steal of Everton from Grêmio for only 15 million. He will surely go on to be a star though endured a slow start. Finally my old club Burnley came in for the ancient Lichtsteiner at 900k.
I had some money remaining but have just about managed to have a balanced 22 man squad. For the moment I am happy though I totally fuck up on the Euro Cup registration…. Only three new players can be registered so I have to leave out Koscielny, Guendouzi and Tierney. I favoured registering attacking players, if injuries bite I still want to be able to score goals. They are all very pissed off and I will have to carefully juggle players for fitness. This joining mid season business is bloody tricky!
I basically delete all my tactics from Burnley and move the DM to the AM position. I am going to have a lot more possession and be expected to win most matches now. Playing on the front foot is much easier to plan for, you can see what is going wrong. Plus who doesn't like a Playmaker behind the striker? The AM stays for a while but will eventually get moved back to DM with the new influx of players. Europe requires a deep lying playmaker. I set the team mentality to positive and get the passing a lot shorter. Pushing the team further forward will help win the ball back in aid of making the team more attacking.
In the league we are 10th, 10 points behind Tottenham who are in fourth. Man City lead the table on 48 points and there is zero chance of catching them. Before I turn up Arsenal had just lost 6-0 away to Liverpool. This team was a disaster. The form against the other top 6 teams is not great but first things first. Need to get them playing well and beating the rest first. The Champions League positions must be my priority. Cup-wise I have Stoke in the FA Cup Third round at Home with Krasnodar as my Russian opponents in the Euro Cup. Both very winnable.
Results wise things start out great. Eight wins in the first nine games is a great start. Three 2-0 wins against Bournemouth, Cardiff and Huddersfield steady the ship and give some confidence. 0-0 against Fulham was poor but at least we are strolling through the FA Cup with 2-0 over Stoke and a 5-2 smashing of David Beckham’s Preston!
Alas it was not to last. We finally meet some real opposition in Chelsea and Manchester City. You can probably guess how many points we take. That’s right. 0. For all of the changes we were still outplayed. All the new signings did help but just shows how much more change is required. Maybe that’s just where Arsenal are still at, whipping all the small teams but under performing against the top 6?
For all the progress made this puts us at 6th. 26 points off top. No chance of the league title which was slim anyway. How about top 4? 7 points behind Liverpool in 4th but all the teams above have a game in hand. Still doable. In theory at least.
March starts badly but the next five games of Wolves, Krasnodar, Derby and Burnley all look winnable. Smith Rowe's winner in a 1-0 over Wolves signals his importance as a squad player to the team. A makeshift starting 11 gets a great 2-0 away win over Krasnodar followed by a 5-1 tonking at home in the return leg. Even though we are still 6 matches from the final it looks very attainable. Aubameyang scores a brace and is turning out to be the best player in the squad. Who knew?
A relatively easy win over the plucky Derby in a 2-0 home win sets up Chelsea in the 6th round. My top 6 record across Burnley and Arsenal is fucking appalling so will need to come up with something special for that.
Speaking of Burnley I get a 2-0 win over my old team which I feel bad about. Don’t want to see them relegated though I am shocked who they replaced me with, Sam Allardyce?! Next up is 3-1 victory over Everton. That's 6 wins on the bounce. Maybe I am actually good at this game?
I am a bit of an unusual fan in that I see European competition as a way to play against the best. Why hope for minnows when you can be playing the cream of the continent?
Step forward Benfica.
Not as big as they were but they are twice winners of the European Cup. Remarkably they are 5 times runners up! The curse of Guttmann or so they say. It’s not the final but they are a very good side. And so it proves with them twice taking the lead at the Emirates only for us to grab two goals to draw 2-2. Those away goals look very dangerous, my makeshift team selection looks an extremely bad move in hindsight.
Some results can concentrate your priorities, the next four league matches contain no wins, absolute damning loses to West Ham and Watford away means the league is a complete write off. In 8th, 9 points off Watford in 5th(!!). Sure I have two games in hand but I just blew my biggest games against the team above me again. I was even 2-0 up against Spurs and fucked it up by drawing in the last 5 minutes.
For all this negativity this is a great team to manage. Hell I am not even an Arsenal fan. Sure they have a very imbalance squad (one window was never going to fix it) but there is a lot of potential in this young team. In reality I need to make 29 points on Chelsea in top spot but they have an excellent stadium, great training facilities and crucially can attract top talent. The front three could become the most fearsome in England if I play it right. Conclusion, fuck the league for this season. Let’s go win some cups!
For the second leg at the Estádio da Luz I go all out, full team and attacking. I need at least one away goal, which we get weirdly from Xhaka who is barely in my plans. Felix equalises to put Benfica back in control only for Lacazette to smash home a 92nd minute penalty to put us through!! Nerves of steel. Three days later we have a comprehensive, very surprising 2-0 away win over Chelsea. We even missed a penalty! Damn satisfying.
Fully expecting glamour ties in the next rounds we draw Ipswich in the FA Cup semi final and Eintracht Frankfurt in the Quarter Finals. Fucking sexy right??? Actually that's unfair, Ipswich get a goal on the fourth minute to scare the crap out of me but Iwobi's brace and alongside Lacazette's pen easily put us through. The final? Very fittingly old foes Tottenham Hotspur. What a game to come.
The scares extended to Europe as well. Turns out Frankfurt are very good. 3-1 good. Full team are out and they were shocking, only a Aubameyang pen keeps us in it. To be honest it was that bad with the home leg next I doubted we would go through. After shouting at the players and then picking the same starting 11 its 3-0 to Arsenal at halftime and we are going through!!! An attacking trident of Aubameyang, Berardi and Everton is really beginning to blossom. Definitely the front line for next season. Oh wait, they get a fluky goal and now a penalty shootout.
Weirdly I find them just as stressful as real shootouts. Though it's not so bad I can't watch. Just painful having no way to influence things. More so when Berardi has the opening kick and passes it straight to the keeper….. Fucks sake. Sack him!! Actually this isn't fair,this is a story about a hero rather than a villain. Leno you beast!! Saves kicks 3 and 4 to put us through with the other 4 kickers scoring. Bring on the semis.
League results continue to be all over the place, a 5-1 smashing of Liverpool is punctured by a 2-1 loss to Newcastle. Feeling quite similar to real life where Arsenal are crap away from home in the league. Anyway, I told you. It’s all about the cups! And the tastiest tie of them all, Atlético Madrid. Now after the last round you would be expecting a crazy match, with so many goals and instances. Probably pens again right? Nope. 5-0 straight win over two legs. Bloody easy. Even Bellerín scored! Actually his 88th minute screamer in the first leg put them on the back foot from then on. Counter attacking is very easy with this team.
My final opponents? RB Leipzig. Much derided in Germany for the Red Bull links they play some good attacking football and have some wonderful players. Should be an interesting game.
Anyway, three final league wins put us 7th with a mere 62 points. Wengesque you could say. 9 points off 4th (which is as good as winning a cup right?) Fortunately a Europa League win would put us into the Champions League next season. In 21 league games in charge I win 12 with
5 losses. Sure there were problems before I arrive that have not completely disappeared but this team is on the up.
So let’s save this season. Bring on the FA Cup final and Spurs!! I go pretty much full team, even starting Özil. I don’t think it matters what cup you are in, you still want to win it. Trophies are what people remember, not when you came second or had a good cup run. You just have to win. So we did! A 4-1 smashing is just what we wanted. To be fair it was pretty even but an early Everton goal set us on the way. An Aubameyang brace with goals either side of Iwobi’s seals the match. Considering this is Arsenal’s fourth victory in the FA Cup in 6 years maybe they should think about renaming it?
Finally to the big one. A competition I have not won in a long long time, let alone Arsenal who won it in 1970. 11 days to prepare almost feels like too many. Do you risk a friendly to keep match fitness but may incur injuries? I don’t bother, hoping the rest will do them good. Again I pick the best side, the one that won the final almost two weeks before.
If this season were about one player it would be Aubameyang. He has been simply brilliant and is one of my favourite players on FM19. It’s just a shame he is almost 30. But age is no problem for him, with pace he scores 2 in the opening 10 mins only for us to be pegged back by Malcom. The first half ends with us just in front only for us to concede a stupid volley to make it look like a tense end of the game. Nope. Auba scores to get his hat trick and then assists Xhaka to put it beyond doubt. Just how good is this guy?! 4-2 is the final score and with it Champions League football for next season.
What a double for the team, to have been so bad at times yet score 8 goals in two finals. A couple of trophies is an excellent return and puts this team on the map. I am excited for the summer, more sales and bargains to pick up. Still need to sort out the Özil situation, his wages are a dead weight at the club. A lot of the players proved themselves to me and so deserve another chance. The tactics need to be tweaked, especially against the top teams but there is a lot of hope after some giant killing in the cups.
The future is looking rosy. If only I didn’t have my head turned two days before the Europa League final….
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