Passion, clarity, energy. Those are the three things Arsenal desperately need as we head into the tricky third season of my Football Manager 2022 youth challenge.
The 2022/2023 season was a real rollercoaster ride. Although a disappointing second-half collapse saw us finish 6th in the Premier League, we also made it to the Champions League Final – which you can read about in the previous chapter. You can also catch up on the entire story by visiting this page, which has links to every chapter I’ve written so far.
Today’s chapter is all about looking ahead to the 2023/2024 campaign. It’s been quite a busy transfer window, so let’s get straight to it…
TRANSFERS OUT
I’m actually gonna start this season preview by listing all the players who’ve left us over the summer. After such a disappointing league campaign, we had A LOT of dead wood and write-offs to shift.
In fact, I agreed many of these sales before the previous season had even finished! It won’t surprise you that the very first player I got rid of was centre-back Benjamin White, who left the Emirates after two shaky years to join Wolfsburg for £35million. Yes, that’s a £15million loss, but I wanted a more resilient presence in the defence.
I had also lost patience with left-back Nuno Tavares, whose relationship with me had gone so sour that he now regarded me as a “rival”. Once Dortmund offered us £25million, I was prepared to drive Nuno to Germany myself. Good riddance.
Pablo Marí left the Emirates on slightly happier terms when he signed for Fiorentina. Nicolas Pépé – the man who nearly won us the Champions League – returned to France, joining Monaco for a mere £50million less than we’d paid Lille for him in 2019. It’s fair to say that Pépé didn’t live up to expectations, though I certainly couldn’t fault his attitude or his determination.
We also said farewell to Mohamed Elneny, who joined Sassuolo after seven-and-a-half years at Arsenal. Elneny was never among the first names on the teamsheet, but I admired the holding midfielder’s professionalism and consistency – and let’s not forget he scored the winner in the EFL Cup Final! Thanks for everything, Mo.
A few surplus Under-23s players went to the Championship on permanent deals. Meanwhile, Bournemouth unexpectedly gave us £5.5million for Joel Ideho – a Dutch wide forward with decent if not amazing potential. If he does become a success, that fee could rise to £12.5million, and we’d get 50% of the profit from any future sale. Not a bad deal, all things considered!
Meanwhile, there might be an issue brewing with our star player from last season – Reiss Nelson. Having rejected an offer of around £50million from Leicester, we then got a much weaker bid from Manchester United on deadline day. Obviously, I turned this down… but United’s interest unsettled Reiss, who wanted to join a team with a stronger squad.
We eventually reached a compromise, as I agreed to sell Nelson if anyone offered £66million – roughly double his market value. United didn’t come in with another offer, but Reiss is prepared to wait until January. I hope by then that they’ll have lost interest, and he’ll be happy to sign a new contract that commits his long-term future to Arsenal.
Of course, trying that with Robin van Persie a decade ago didn’t quite go to plan…
TRANSFERS IN
With those sales, we had well over £100million to spend on future transfers – but that wasn’t all. Even before Stan Kroenke had set out my budgets, I’d already splashed out £60million on a new centre-back.
Indeed, by the time the summer window slammed shut, our transfer spending was nudging £200million! You can say that our penny-pinching days are long gone!
Let’s start with the big one – Fikayo Tomori, who cost us an initial £60million from Milan. On the face of it, Tomori isn’t that much different from White. He’s slightly younger, more physical, and better in the air, so it’s not like I’m comparing Sol Campbell with Igors Stepanovs here. However, Tomori does have a ‘Resolute’ personality… and he’s a boyhood Arsenal fan who understands what this club is all about.
Next up, I raided Crystal Palace after they failed to secure an immediate return to the Premier League. Tyrick Mitchell is a perfectly solid English left-back who may not set the world on fire, but he’s good enough to be Kieran Tierney‘s deputy until one of our younger talents is ready to break through.
On a similar note, I brought in Manchester United midfielder Scott McTominay for £33million…
…yeah, alright, very funny. You can stop laughing now. No, seriously. This isn’t a joke. Please stop laughing. Please?
Listen, there’s some sound method to this apparent madness. McTominay will mainly be Declan Rice‘s backup in defensive midfield, though the tough-tackling Scotland star also has the selflessness and the tireless work ethic to play a box-to-box role if needed.
Meanwhile, Liverpool were happy to sell England Under-21s wonderkid winger Harvey Elliott to us for just £55million (possibly rising to £80million). Elliott has great technical ability but is still very raw – and I’d be lying if he said he was my first choice to replace Pépé. That was actually Michael Olise at Milan, but the ex-Palace starlet’s wage demands were obscene.
Oh yeah… and we signed some Spanish kid named Gavi, who was practically a £30million steal from Barcelona. Now, you may be questioning whether we actually needed another midfield playmaker, especially when we already have Martin Ødegaard, Charlie Patino and Albert Sambi Lokonga. Honestly, I can understand that.
In truth, I might not have signed Gavi at all if Chelsea weren’t sniffing around him too. And as he was turning 19 just two weeks before the transfer went through, this was my last chance to sign this potentially elite midfielder before he ‘aged out’ of my shortlist and potentially got poached by an arch-rival. But even if the transfer doesn’t pay off on the pitch, we should still be able to sell him for a large profit.
Looking further ahead, I signed Celtic’s 17-year-old defensive midfielder Jordan Ward – the first ‘newgen’ I’ve bought in this save. The Irish youth international is a strong tackler and a hard worker who’s incredibly brave and determined. If Ward’s development goes well, he should be ready to succeed McTominay in a few years – and maybe even challenge for Rice’s place in the longer term.
I also recruited James Trafford (20) to be our third-choice goalkeeper after his Manchester City expired. There’s also a new striker in the Under-23s squad, as Belgian pressing forward Lucas Stassin (18) arrived from Anderlecht, where he’d already made a couple of top-flight appearances this season.
SQUAD REPORT
We head into the 2023/2024 season with more squad depth, in terms of both quality and quantity. There are now 24 players in the first-team (of which EIGHT are Hale End boys), which should leave us better prepared for the rigours of juggling both domestic and continental football.
Don’t think I’ve forgotten my homegrown rule either. As I’m now in my third season, I must name at least THREE academy players in my starting line-up for every match.
There is one significant change from this season. Rice (17 Leadership, 16 Teamwork) has now been promoted to club captain on a full-time basis, although his predecessor Tierney (14 Leadership, 19 Teamwork) has agreed to stay on as vice-captain. McTominay has 15 Leadership and is next in line for the captaincy, just ahead of goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale.
Another change is that young Scotland right-back Calvin Ramsay – whom I signed from Aberdeen in January 2022 – has been promoted to the first-team. Ramsay had an encouraging year out on loan at Bristol City, but while he’s still a little suspect mentally, I believe he at least has the technical and physical ability to deputise for Takehiro Tomiyasu.
You’ll also notice that two homegrown youngsters have been promoted alongside Ramsay. Daniel Ballard‘s aerial ability and bravery should put him in good stead as he joins the centre-back ranks. He also has decent enough ball-playing skills for a defensive midfield role, although 16 Aggression and ‘Dives Into Tackles’ trait are a potentially troublesome combination.
This could also be a breakthrough season for Folarin Balogun, after scoring 34 goals in two loan spells at Middlesbrough. Though Flo’s main assets are his pace and finishing ability, he can also hold the ball up pretty well, which means he can be effectively deployed as a deep-lying forward.
Balogun is the newest member of an attack that’s now very much dominated by Hale End boys. Nelson, Bukayo Saka and Eddie Nketiah are all looking to build on their combined 45-goal haul from last season and move towards becoming elite Premier League forwards. Emile Smith Rowe will simply be focussing on his recovery from the leg break he sustained in April, and may take some time to get back to his best.
The well-rounded Yunus Musah can expect to see more action in an advanced midfield role after a promising debut campaign. Meanwhile, this is set to be Patino’s first full season in the senior team, where he’ll continue to shadow Ødegaard while developing his off-the-ball intelligence and playing in the less important matches.
And here is this season’s loan brigade. Of our homegrown loanees, the most likely player to break through next is probably 20-year-old playmaker Miguel Azeez. I was planning to loan Azeez out to a Championship club until the Greek (sleeping) giants Panathinaikos swooped in, offering him top-flight football AND a taste of European competition. It’ll be interesting to see how he handles the step up.
A full season in the Championship does await the highly-rated Mexican forward Marcelo Flores, who has joined Birmingham alongside Spanish left-back Hugo Montañana. Wigan have also taken a couple of our players on loan, one of which is right-back Brooke Norton-Cuffy.
And as you can probably gather, we’ve struck an agreement with Las Palmas to be one of our affiliate clubs. Over the coming years, I’ll be looking to send some of our youngsters off to the Canaries to play in La Liga 2 (which is a bit like the Championship, except with fewer Stokes). First up is Tunisia centre-back Omar Rekik, who has worryingly stagnated in recent months.
OBJECTIVES
Last season, Silent Stan was only aiming for a top-half finish, but there are NO excuses for slacking this time. We have to retain our top-six position at the very least, though I will have my sights firmly set on 4th spot after missing out last time.
It’s all change at Manchester City, as Luis Enrique has taken over the reins from Pep Guardiola – and made £45million Everton striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin his first major signing. A certain Erling Haaland has also finally shacked up at Manchester… United, that is.
Zinedine Zidane is the latest man to step into the Chelsea hotseat, and Joachim Löw is also hoping to last a full season at Tottenham. By contrast, things remain relatively stable at champions Liverpool, who will welcome us to Anfield on the opening day. [Gulp]
We’re also expected to reach the Semi Finals of the FA Cup, having made it no further than the last 16 in my previous two attempts. Having won the EFL Cup last season (cheers once again, Mr Elneny), that competition is definitely not a priority… not that it ever was.
And having come within touching distance of lifting the Champions League in Istanbul, our ‘relegation’ to the Europa League gives us an even greater shot at European silverware. Unsurprisingly, the board are anticipating another Semi Final – and as one of the top seeded teams, we should have a fairly safe passage to the knockout rounds.
If anyone’s going to trouble us in this group, it’ll probably be Hertha BSC. The big-spending Berliners have a formidable team, with the likes of Krzysztof Piątek and Jonathan Ikoné in attack, and Fuller FM veteran Lucas Tousart protecting the defence.
We also have to play Crvena Zvezda and Rosenborg, who are respectively the league champions in Serbia and Norway. With all due respect, neither team looks particularly threatening, and I reckon I can afford to rotate the squad for those matches – which means even more gametime for our rising stars.
And so everything’s in place now for the new campaign. I hope you’ll join me for another season for this wild Arsenal adventure!
The next chapter of this series will be posted early next week. Don’t forget to hit the ‘Follow’ button below and/or follow me on Twitter @Fuller_FM if you want to be updated as soon as a new post goes live.
Fuller FM 
You must be logged in to post a comment.