Regardless of competitions, you should be able to attract some quality players to Arsenal still. On the City season, you can attract the majority of top players, despite not having any kind of European football to offer them.

Try sending out scouts on assignments to other leagues, have a nosey around, Young is good but Milner isn't anything special on it.

I've spent a couple of months up to the January window (I joined them in October in 19th position!) doing that. They have 17 scouts (!) and their scouting knowledge is full bars almost all of the way down the list of countries.

I have got no problem finding the players I want, but the likes of Dzeko (At Lazio) turned me down so did Subotic (Osasuna) and Fellaini (Everton in Champions League) and apart from Dzeko none of them are elite players. I tried to sign Michael Owen (At 33) on a free, but he wouldn't consider it and signed for Genoa. I think Arsenal's reputation in the game took a nose dive through not being in Europe at all for 3 seasons on the spin.

My lineup is pretty hillarious:

1 - Fabianski
2 - Phil Neville
3 - Clichy
4 - Gallas (35 and terrible)
5 - Senderos
6 - Blodznyswky (Terrible Eastern European midfielder)
7 - Barazite
8 - Febregas


9 - Bendtner
10 - Vaughan (Of Everton fame)
11 - Vela

This is genuinely the best side I can field, having inherited the squad with the window shut. There is only Clichy, Senderos (As backup) and Febregas I'd keep out of those. I've taken them from 19th to 6th by January but every draw or defeat is met with 'fans are unhappy' messages.

Barcelona are after Fabregas despite his asking price being £90m, so if he goes I'm off. My Bradford team in the Championship was better than my Arsenal squad).

Where are Wilshere and Ramsey? RvP?

You should try for the lower rep, higher PA players. Any good new-gens in the academy/reserves?

Yeah I've cheated and had them all rated by FM Scout. There is a lot of decent prospects in there but they are all the 108 CA and 174 PA types that will take a few years to turn into anything.

Wilshere is at QPR, Ramsey is at Portsmouth and RvP is playing for Inter Milan.

What is FM Scout?

Have you tried for people like Verratti and Kadlec? Both become immense but start off at lower clubs at a very young age.

I've never heard of those two, I'll have a look. I'm in my 4th season now, so no doubt they are going to be moving up the ladder by now.

FM Genie 2010 I think it's called. It's just a little program that imports your FM game save and lets you search the database, showing you the PA and CA of all the players in the database. You can also see the hidden stats, like injury proneness, consistency, ability to handle big matches etc and how much the AI will sell you the player for.

It ruins the game but I use it occasionally if I'm truly stuck.

I go on the editor to look at stuff like that, on the FM forums, there's a shortlist you can download with all -9 and -10 players, as well as players with PA 160/170 and above.

Verratti and Kadlec are both -9's who start the game at 16 with quite a decent current ability. Kadlec starts at a Czech side, I think it's Sparta, whilst Verratti plays for Pescara in Italy, who are a lower league side. Problem with Verratti is he's sometimes co-owned, generally turns out to be world class.

Just started into my third season with City now, my team is generally unchanged, with only Lescott, Robinho, Toure and Wright-Phillips leaving. I've brought in Azpilicueta, Diego Renan, Danny Wilson and Pato. I regret getting Azpilicueta, he wasn't really needed and I bought him 'cause he was on the cheap. The season's started OK but it feels like all the chemistry has gone in the team. I just played Ipswich, had 69% possession and 21 shots but only one goal was scored - and that was from a set piece. Maybe once the CL games come in and my players are playing 2/3 games a week, things will shape up as everybody gets games under their belts.

I got van der Vaart for £10m, bargain buy for my Man City team, provides good cover for my midfield.

I got a bit bored with my Man City game, as it was getting quite easily. In my 3rd season, i only spent £20million, as my team was already world class. I am struggling to get back into it now though, tried being a few lower league teams such as Notts County, but i can't get into the game. TBH, its probably a good thing, due to me having exams at Uni over the last few weeks, as it can become pretty addictive once you get into it.

Think i am going to start a new game with Man United, just have a little mess around until the new patch comes out in February, then look to start a proper career then, as that's usually the final patch i think.

Things are looking up at Arsenal. I managed to tie up last minute deals for Aturo Vidal, Eden Hazard and Neden Subotic and I'm on a run of W14 D1 L0 in all competitions. I've taken them from 19th in October to 3rd in February, cutting the gap on the leaders from 18 points to 6. Well worth my £91,000 per week.

Hazard is superb. If you're on 10.2, he goes immense. I play him on the left as an inside forward, never really tried him through the middle but he's a class act.

I've signed Daniel De Rossi, Stevan Jovetic, Marco Verratti, Moussa Sissoko and Edin Dzeko. I felt that we was a little weak in midfield with Scholes ageing and Hargreaves out for a good while, so i signed De Rossi, who is world class and also Sissoko who is only 19, with loads of potential. Also felt that we needed another top striker, so brought in Dzeko and obviously Jovetic is a wonderkid so i brought him, with the view to replacing Giggs in a season or two.

Sold Nani for £10million and sent Tosic out on loan, with the view to a permanent deal. Lost the community shield to Chelsea on penalties, in a very even game. Beat Portsmouth 1-0 in the opening league game of the season.

How much did all those signings cost and where did the funds come from? You surely don't get that much to spend as Man U given their financial predicament? De Rossi and Dzeko would probably run to about £50m on their own.

£72million i got, but i am expected to win the league.

De Rossi cost £45million and Dzeko cost £20million. Although, i used a lot of installments. I had £30million remaining after signing those players, and i've just signed Maxi Rodriguez to give me some cover on the right on a final day deal, he cost me about £20million. If you use installments, then it doesn't take that out of the transfer budget, but obviously you have to be careful, otherwise it hits you hard as you get into the game.

I'm close to losing my job as City, I'm down in 6th but in touch with the top 4. Apparantely I have a few games to save my job.

I could do with a left back as I had to sell Figueroa and only have Edman who is getting on a bit and N'Zogbia who i'd rather play at LM.

Anybody know any decent young left backs for around the £4m mark that would sign for Wigan?

Love a network game me.

3 of us playing, lowest place finisher in prem buys 1st round of shots on holiday

Quote ="Conroy"I could do with a left back as I had to sell Figueroa and only have Edman who is getting on a bit and N'Zogbia who i'd rather play at LM. Anybody know any decent young left backs for around the £4m mark that would sign for Wigan?'" There's a player on my game, he just came second in the world defender of the year award, despite playing for Zaragoza. He's not got great stats, but he must be doing something right, have a look: i49.tinypic.com/jfartg.jpg Ivan Obradovic he's called.

Quote ="Conroy"I could do with a left back as I had to sell Figueroa and only have Edman who is getting on a bit and N'Zogbia who i'd rather play at LM. Anybody know any decent young left backs for around the £4m mark that would sign for Wigan?'" There's a player on my game, he just came second in the world defender of the year award, despite playing for Zaragoza. He's not got great stats, but he must be doing something right, have a look: i49.tinypic.com/jfartg.jpg Ivan Obradovic he's called.

Maybe it's just me, but does anybody else feel that the game has a habit of going to ET/Pens whenever it's available?

I've played two champions league finals, two FA cup finals and two league cup finals, all but one of them went to extra time. I've played two community shields, both went to penalties and the world club challenge game went to penalties as well. I don't draw a lot of games and scoring is never a problem, but I've had two goal leads in games that have been lost in the final 10 minutes. Maybe it's just coincidence, who knows?

Not really. The finals I've been to have all been won in normal time. Even the one's I've not played in have rarely gone the ET route

It must be your 'park the bus' tactics

I've only had one penalty shootout in my four seasons on the game.

Surprisingly, the only final that didn't go to pens was a league cup final against Everton which I won 6-0



I don't actually have park the bus tactics, 4-4-2, no holding midfielders, my wingers play in the AML and AMR positions, full backs play as attacking wing backs, very fluid, attacking mentality. Seems to destroy everybody along the way but as soon as a final comes around, it just doesn't happen for me.

You must come a cropper away from home occassionally with tactics like that? And even at home to the bus parkers at the bottom of the table?

Everton have won 3 of the 4 league cups on my current game. Bit optimistic given we've never won it outright I don't think and we very rarely get anywhere in the competition.

After beating Stoke, Arsenal and Chelsea, my job status has changed to stable. I'm now closing in on the top 4 with Robinho on top form and Carlos Tevez back from a broken foot.