http://fm7.theoffside.com On a quest field an all-English Arsenal XI in Football Manager 2009 Thu, 27 Aug 2009 18:06:26 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en As the season picks up again, so I come storming back into the world of Football Manager. It has been an age since my last post, which you'll have to forgive - I've been busy moving house and moving country at the same time. I'm back in a time zone ... http://fm7.theoffside.com/fm09/footballs-back.html It's a measure of the progress we've made since last season that I felt comfortable in sending out the youngsters and the fringe players in the League Cup this season. Not because I felt confident that they would win the tie necessarily, but merely because getting knocked out at this ... http://fm7.theoffside.com/fm09/priorities.html In the course of this little experiment in Englishness, I've got to thinking about how much I, as an Arsenal fan in real life, actually care about having English players. The answer now would be, not very much. When I first started supporting the Gooners in the early nineties, we, like ... http://fm7.theoffside.com/fm09/the-north-easts-finest.html The addictive properties of Football Manager are well documented. We all know the “just one more game” syndrome. When you get on a good run it's incredibly difficult to stop playing. If you then have to blog about it all, you're forced to play some serious catch up. Hence the ... http://fm7.theoffside.com/fm09/one-more-game.html At the start of my summer transfer dealings I identified Gabby Agbonlahor as my key target. Here was a pacy young Englishman that I foresaw becoming the focal point of this brave new Arsenal for years to come. I'd had one failed experiment with England's past in the shape of ... http://fm7.theoffside.com/fm09/how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-agbonlahor.html I promised you an update on my formation and line-up for the coming year, but the prolonged transfer saga of Ashley Young was very dragged out, and injuries to key players in the squad meant that I couldn't really start making changes just yet. The first few games of the ... http://fm7.theoffside.com/fm09/the-teams-all-here.html In my last post I debated the rights and wrongs of signing a non-English player, thereby going against the spirit, although not the rules, of my original Arsenal vision. Ultimately, I thought that as long as it didn't affect my ability to reach my season-on-season targets in terms of numbers ... http://fm7.theoffside.com/fm09/glorified-friendly.html For all it's faults, the transfer window can make for some exciting times when it does come around. I get giddy as a school girl at the possibilities. Particularly when I've been handed a £72 million war chest. Let's have a look at the comings and goings then. First, those unlucky ... http://fm7.theoffside.com/fm09/purchases-and-principles.html It's always nice to end the season on a high, and with the players off on their summer holidays celebrating an FA Cup winner's medal to add to the League Cup one they picked up earlier this year, that's what's happened. However, that isn't enough to paper over the cracks ... http://fm7.theoffside.com/fm09/must-do-better.html I've been away from the world of Football Managing for quite a while, and for that I apologise. There's no better way to get back into the swing of things then with an FA Cup final however! Middlesbrough vs. Arsenal– FA Cup Final 30th May 2009 English starters: 4 – Gibbs, Taylor, Jagielka, ... http://fm7.theoffside.com/fm09/arsenal-pass-the-ball.html