The (Invincible) Boys Are Back In Town (Sort Of)

I've been away for a long time, but with time to kill in the summer, it's time for another FM career. It's good to be back.

As an Arsenal fan, we won the FA Cup last year and that was great. But come on, it's not like 03/04. That season was the best by any club anywhere ever (of course), and it often leaves me feeling incredibly nostalgic, knowing we probably won't have a team like that again. It's at this point that many an Arsenal career would go off on a normal path, with many signings and the objective to stay unbeaten. But not his one.

I spent a couple of hours in the editor and swapped out all the players on the current Arsenal squad for all the players who were in the Invincibles squad and still active. I didn't stop there, as for all the great players in the team that have retired (Bergkamp, Vieira, Lehmann etc) I looked for active players who had very similar or identical profiles, in terms of nationality and build. The end result is a team that either has the same players, or very similar players, to the ones from 03/04. Of course you can't replace Bergkamp, Vieira, Pires etc.. but I've tried to get similar players from the same country.

We won't have the same success, but hopefully I won't get sacked and we'll be able to win something.

Without further ado, here are the Invincibles mark II.

Goalkeepers:

Rene Adler (replacement for Jens Lehmann)
Graham Stack
Manuel Almunia (only joined the season after, but needed a third keeper)

Defenders:

Kolo Toure
Justin Hoyte
Ashley Cole
Stathis Tavlaridis
Matthew Upson (replacement for Martin Keown)
Ashley Williams (replacement for Sol Campbell)
Laurent Koscielny (a better version of Pascal Cygan)
Nicolas Nkoulou (replacement for Lauren)
Gael Clichy

Midfielders:

Gilberto Silva
Sebastian Larsson (replacement for Freddie Ljungberg)
Alou Diarra (replacement for Patrick Vieira)
Gary O'Neil (replacement for Ray Parlour)
David Bentley
Elano (replacement for Edu)
Cesc Fabregas
Jeremy Menez (replacement for Robert Pires)

Forwards:

Rafael Van der Vaart (replacement for Bergkamp)
Jose Antonio Reyes
Charles N'Zogbia (replacement for Wiltord)
Thierry Henry
Shola Ameobi (replacement for Kanu)
Jeremie Aliadiere

Ameobi > Kanu

How did you ever figure that Elano would be a replacement for Edu?

He's brazilian, has some technical ability and plays in central midfield. Ultimately, none of the players are good replacements in terms of skill, but they all have similar profiles

The first friendly results...

Awesome idea. I like it, I like it a lot!

This guy's even more of a d*ck than Ashley Cole!



As much as I hate using it, the in game editor proved useful to extend both of their contracts. Everyone else that needed resigning did so voluntarily.

Probably a stupid question guys but how do you embed an image in your comment, i just cant seem to get the hang of it

Thanks

Upload your images to imgur, then copy the link that has the [img] tags either side

Thanks man

Great idea mate!

Love this idea! good luck pal

Cheeky draw against Galatasaray...



We also got Piss Easy Pacos for our champions league qualifier...

Last friendly done, now for Aston Villa in our first game of the season! Shola was on fire, as you can see.

Invincibles no more. Boll*cks. Not making excuses, but Larsson AND Menez i.e Ljungberg and Pires were both out injured.

This is neat. So are your players attributes as they are at the beginning of an FM 14 season. As in Henry is old and getting on?

Yeah, that's sort of why it's more of a challenge than a normal Arsenal career. I mean if you look at the side it's probably midtable

Two good wins to get our season back on track, including a winning goal from Thierry Henry (who else?)

Might give this a try with the Celtic team of 2001-02 when we lost just the once.

I'd like to see that!

As expected, cruised through into the Champions League as we beat Pacos with the reserves...



It then got even better as we got handed an easy group...



But then things got worse...



And worse...



And worse...