"Gunning For Success"

"A New Look, A New Manager, A New Future"




As an Arsenal fan myself, i am sure all you fellow Arsenal fans are getting increasingly frustrated with the inconsistency with the clubs performances at the moment. Too many big players under performing and too many youngsters getting overlooked. The aim of this story is for me to try and get back the enjoyment i used to have surrounding Arsenal Football Club and whilst it looks increasingly unlikely we will be winning any trophies anytime soon, at least maybe i can aim to change that on football manager.

I understand many people will be thinking oh no another big club story, but i think i can say on behalf of most Arsenal fans that the way we have been peforming in recent times we dont really deserve to class ourselves as a big club until the basics are put right and that is transformed into performances on the pitch.

Also, i understand people will say with certain tactics it will be too easy to win everything early on but its not my intetnion to try and beat the game by using any tactics to make it this way, there is a tactic on this site which i shall post the link to the post which plays some beautiful football possession based football and this will be my aim of the story, To win trophies yes, but to win it by playing the type of football Arsenal were known for back in the day.

I have simulated the first season so that it would seem more realistic to see where Arsenal finished and safe to say it wasn't the best season as Arteta was sacked halfway through and Patrick Vieira was brought in on a short term basis until the summer to try and steady the ship.

And this is where the story begins........

Arsenal have announced 35 year old unknown Englishman Rowan Bromley as there new manager.

There is very little known about the Englishman who has admitted he has never played football at a professional level before. Instead he had made the decision very early on in his career that he was instead going to focus on learning the management side of the game.

Even though he has not proven himself as a footballer, he has spent the last 10 years working in the background for various clubs picking up on all that he could do to make sure he had the confidence to one day take that step to becoming a football manager.

Where it all began

Bromley started off like a lot of people, firstly playing alot of football management simulation games and this gave him the drive and passion of football management. Whilst working as a part of the background staff at various lower level teams he was still finding time to progress his football manager game series and after leading his favourite team Arsenal to multiple trophies he decided that as an of chance he would write into Arsenal football club showcasing what he has achieved over a sustained period along with guiding lower league teams to champions league success. Here is a snippet of an interview he had once he had heard back from Arsenal Football Club.

This was a quote direct from Mr Bromley:

"I never thought that i would get a repsonse from the club really, i just thought why not give it a go and take a chance as i had heard in the news that someone else in a different country had done something similar so why not give it a go. Then, low and behold a week later i had an invitation from the club to come down to there head office and have a talk with them. I was really nervous as you could imagine but i thought the worst thing they can do is turn me away but i had to take the chance i was given. So, i went and sat down with some of there backroom staff who were also avid football manager fans and we had a good chat about the game and shared our achievement's together. They were in dis-belief at how i managed to get callum chambers to score 10 goals in one season as they said he cant even score in training haha. It was kind of surreal thinking that this was actually the situation i found myself in and at the end of it i was asked to join there academy backroom staff so that i could learn more about the game at a higher level."

"So a few months past by and i had a call from the head office saying that they liked what they had seen of me and the ideas i was talking to there coaches about and that they wanted me to share some of these ideas with Mikel. After working closely with Mikel for a number of months sadly the club decided the results werent good enough and they wanted to seek a new manager. It was at this point they hired Patrick Vieira as interim manager until the end of the season as he was a big lover of the club and was at the time out of employment."

Then the un-imaginable occurs.......

It was 9.00am Sunday 26th of June and i get a call from the head office and having seen me show my passion for the club and having been impressed with the way i was helping manage the academy teams, they wanted to offer me the job as taking over as first team manager. I couldn't believe this was happening but i of course jumped at the chance and said yes. So within 2 years of me first joining this team in 2019 by sending an email not expecting anything to happen, my dreams have well and truly come true and i hope i can finally turn my management game skills into reality and get this club back to where it should be....... ON TOP!!!

Lets have a look at the squad.....





This is the first team squad i have taken over at this point. I have a few decisions to make on who i want my regular first team squad to be and possibly the most important decision is who i should have as my main CB partnership and weather or not to loan out any of the players above.

The squad itself in general is quite well balanced but i am open to bringing new players in providing they are a good deal for the club.

I also would like this series to be an interactive one so there may be times where i put a poll up asking for viewers opinions and i am more than happy to listen to any reccomendations along the way regarding potential signings , team selection ect.

Hope everyone enjoys the story, feedback is appriciated

NEW SEASON ......... NEW KITS!!!








These are the kits that i shall be using for the 2021/2022 season made by the guys over at FMcustomkits. They make 2D and 3D kits upon request along with custom logos too feel free to check them out

Something as simple as changing kits each season helps towards improving the realism of the story in my eyes.

Here is the formation / tactic i shall be using for the season. It is a 4-2-3-1 possession based system with lovely pass and move football. The tactic can be found via Google and it is called 4-2-3-1 Pass-elona. I have just made a few tweaks including changing the IWB on either side to traditional WB as i needed more width.



There are no set piece exploits with this tactic it is just set up to play attractive possession style football that of which the Arsenal of old where known for.

NEW SIGNING ALERT!!!

Martin Odergaard has flown in from Madrid to have a medical at Arsenal after a 1 year loan bid with an option to buy was accepted by Los Blanco's. Odegaard had a successful loan stint along side fellow former team mate Dani Ceballos at the gunners last season and made his intentions clear that he would like to have made the move permanent but there was no purchase option in place. This time round however the club have ensured that should they wish to make the move permanent they have the option to do so.



I had been looking around the loan/transfer list to see who was available and spotted this little gem who has asked to leave Real Madrid so i thaught i would put a cheeky 1 year loan deal with an option to buy and Real graciously accepted the bid so if he performs well we can complete the purchase for £37.5M which i couldn't believe they accepted but good news is that they did and he will slot perfectly into the AM position in the Enghance Role making him the focal point of my attacks.

If anybody who is following the story has any suggestions/recommendations feel free to let me know

EMIRATES CUP CHAMPIONS!!!

Just the two matches this month which were both in the Emirates Cup that i had setup along side dutch giants AJAX, PSV & FEYENOORD.

ARSENAL 6 - 0 PSV


Arsenal 4 - 0 FEYENOORD


Absolutely dominated both games with 70% of the ball against PSV and 62% of the ball against Feyenoord. Some lovely goals too. The surprise i suppose was the fact that Saliba and Aubameyang finished joint top goal scorer both with 3 goals. Glad to see it may not just be reliant on Auba to get all the goals.

I have tried to attach the matches as i have saved them to upload but the site doesn't allow .PKM files apparently. If anybody wishes to have the matches so they can watch the type of football feel free to message me and i will try and send them to you directly.

This brings us to the end of july. Next update will feature some big games with Chelsea & Manchester United to play in the first few games of the season.

COYG!!!

OFF TO A FLYING START!!!









Overall a great team performance from the lads, now ready to travel to Goodison for our next match away vs the toffees.

SQUASHING THE TOFFEES!!!









Confident performance by the lads here, just under the 60% possession per game i would like but still put them to the sword with 2 clinical finishes. Next game is an away trip to play against Zurich in the Europa Conference League Qualifier. Looking at the teams involved i am definitely aiming to the latter stages of the competition and see no reasons why we shouldn't make it all the way !!!

YOUNG GUNNERS STARRING!!!









A much rotated squad worthy enough to get the job done. Not a bad first leg result also taking us to 3 clean sheets in a row in all comps. Back to London now to face off against another title rival with a big shock result to follow.

WHAT ON EARTH WAS GOING ON HERE?!!!









Firstly, what on earth were United playing at with there starting XII ?? David De Gea had an absolute mare letting in two goals from PEPE at his near post. This was a result i never seen coming in a milllion years. United had many key players it seemed who werent fit enough to start which is pretty bad management from the red devils. Next game sees the return leg against Zurich were we look at cementing our place in the group stage.

THATS EUROPE SORTED !!!









Perfect way to seal all important group stage football for the club. NELSON, MARTINELLI & SAKA particularly stood out in an attempt to stake a place in the first team with the latter putting in two quality performances over the last few games coming on as a substitute in the premier league showing that he is ready to take his place in the first team. We end the month with an away trip to Wolverhampton hoping to continue this great run of form.

WINNING START OVER!!!









All things considered i cant be too disheartened with this result. Away form has always seemed to be an issue for ARSENAL but we are at 4 points from 2 away games so i cant be too disappointed. Saka was set to start but due to picking up an injury he wasn't fully fit so was only fit for the bench. Xhaka scored a worldy of a freekick before Leno decided to try and become a 5 star dribbler and decide to take a risky turn on the ball which presented the ball to RONAN to slot it home for a late equaliser. Roll on September where we shall see the start of the Europa Conference League were the games will be coming thick and fast.

AUGUST SUMMARY

PLAYER OF THE MONTH - NICOLAS PEPE

YOUNGSTER OF THE MONTH - WILLIAM SALIBA

Taking everything into consideration this month has been a very successful one and not much more than i could have wished for. Beating rivals CHELSEA and MANCHESTER UNITED within the first few games of the season has certainly got the lads up for it. You can expect to see more of the youth getting a chance now that we are up and running in multiple competitions rotation is going to be key to keeping players fit. I am not really too sure if i need to be signing any new players given the squad depth that we currently have with MARTIN ODEGAARD being the only acquisition thus far. Nevertheless, if a player becomes available who i think may be a good fit for a reasonable price I'm not ruling out any signings or departures. I am however slightly concerned about the GK department with only LENO and RUNHHARSON but i am not convinced the latter is really up to the standards we need so a back up GK may be on the cards.

If anybody would like to recommend any potential signings for either now or January feel free to reply

Good start so far. Maintaining this will be the challenge.