My Arsenal academy challenge on Football Manager 2022 has reached the halfway point. While my young Gunners have only claimed a couple of EFL Cups during my three-year tenure, I’m confident of bringing some major silverware to the Emirates Stadium over the next three seasons.
In the previous chapter, our 2023/2024 season ended in double heartbreak, as we fell short of Premier League champions Liverpool – and then lost to Barcelona in the Europa League Final.
In today’s 2024/2025 season preview, I prepare my squad for our impending return to the Champions League, and a couple of former Gunners icons return to the Emirates. We also kick off the campaign by facing Liverpool for the most prestigious trophy of them all – the Community Shield.
EURO 2024
We start this chapter with a quick summary of the Euro 2024 finals in Germany. It was a tournament to forget for our three Scotland stars, who crashed out in the group phase without a win – and especially for right-back Calvin Ramsay, who suffered a knee injury against Hungary and missed our entire pre-season.
Four Arsenal players made it into the England squad, as Aaron Ramsdale, Declan Rice and Fikayo Tomori were joined by Eddie Nketiah, who scored twice in his first tournament. Sadly, the world champions couldn’t become European champions, losing 4-3 to Germany in an epic Quarter Final.
If this was real-life, I’m not sure my heart would have taken this!
Germany made it all the way to the Final, but Theo Hernández’ 62nd-minute penalty devastated the hosts, and brought the Henri Delaunay Trophy back to France. “Le football rentre à la maison.”
TRANSFERS OUT
The first player to leave us was backup keeper Matt Turner, who rejected an offer from newly-promoted Crystal Palace and instead went to Al-Ittihad in Saudi Arabia. The transfer actually went through on the day of the Europa League Final, so Turner wasn’t in the squad for that, though he’ll always have those two EFL Cup medals.
One American who had absolutely no success with Arsenal was centre-back Auston Trusty, who played only twice for us because he was absolute garbage. After a season on loan at Norwich, he was sold to Freiburg for £4million. We also got £7.5million from another German club for another defender, as Hannover 96 won a three-way bidding war for Omar Rekik.
Estonian international Karl Jakob Hein had a few productive EFL loan spells and could’ve been a solid third-choice goalkeeper for us this season. Unfortunately, he failed to get a new work permit, so I had to sell him to Torino on the cheap.
And lastly, we said goodbye to Gabriel Martinelli, who went to Lyon for £47.5million. I’m sure we could’ve got much more than that had his loan spell at Dortmund gone to plan, but with so many homegrown heroes standing in his way, I had to take what I could get. At least Lyon were willing to pay us a reasonable fee… unlike Frank ‘Lowball’ Lampard at Everton.
While they were at it, Lyon also eased our midfield conundrum by taking Gavi on loan, albeit after a lot of persuading. The Spanish wonderkid playmaker couldn’t find much consistency with us last season, but playing in Ligue 1 should hopefully kick-start his development. (It’s not as if Lyon are an average team either; they finished 2nd last season, ahead of PSG!)
In terms of other loanees, we’ve got nine players in the Championship this season. They include homegrown right-back Brooke Norton-Cuffy, who returns to Wigan for a second year (as does Issahaku Abdul Fatawu), with Irish holding midfielder Jordan Ward coming along for the ride too.
Another Hale End boy I’ll be following very closely is midfielder Miguel Azeez. After a year in Greece, he returns to the Championship for a potential make-or-break season with Luton. Miguel is now 21 and needs to kick on, especially with younger playmakers progressing more quickly.
I thought 18-year-old left-back Sean Fallon would benefit from a full season in League One, so I was surprised when Swansea came in offering regular Championship football. I wasn’t totally convinced Sean was ready to step up so early, but his first few games for the Swans have gone surprisingly well. If he can sustain that impressive form, his development could sky-rocket.
Alan Wilding and Victor Quintyne have both been sent on loan for the first time, playing in League One for Shrewsbury and Portsmouth respectively. Pompey’s manager promised to play Quintyne as a central midfielder and has been true to his word so far, so hopefully he’ll become natural in that position pretty soon.
TRANSFERS IN
Even before the Martinelli sale, Silent Stan had offered me over £100million to spend on transfers… but how much of it did we really need to spend?
Honestly, I was pretty happy with my first-team squad and couldn’t see an area where we obviously needed strengthening. Remember that the only over-18 players I can sign must be British/Irish or previously homegrown at the Arsenal academy.
One of the few players who meets my criteria and would significantly improve the squad is Jude Bellingham – an elite English attacking midfielder who was available from Dortmund for £99million. The fee wasn’t the issue; the issue was that he wanted £300,000 per week in wages! Our best-paid player right now is Martin Ødegaard on a mere £185,000 p/w, and I’m not shattering the club’s wage structure for one player, no matter how good he is!
In the end, I signed just one new player for the first-team – and three newgens for the future.
Our only senior signing this summer is a new backup goalkeeper – Mark Travers from Bournemouth. Yes, that’s the same guy who conceded 9 goals at Liverpool last month. And you thought I was nuts when I bought Scott McTominay!
I wanted a homegrown keeper to replace Turner as Ramsdale’s backup, and as none of our younger goalies were ready to step up yet, I decided to buy someone with a little more experience. It came down to either Travers or Freddie Woodman – and Woodman conceded five goals against us at Newcastle a couple of seasons ago.
We already have a few long-term contenders to Ramsdale’s throne. There’s James Trafford (on loan at Birmingham) and Evren Meral (on loan at Stockport), while even Lee Duke is showing some promise in the Under-18s. Despite that, I couldn’t resist signing Gavin Moth from Stoke for just £600,000, because this kid could be even better than the lot of ’em!
At just 17, Moth already some very handy technical and mental attributes, a Professional personality, and even an England Under-21s cap. He was dubbed “the next Gordon Banks”, which makes it even more bizarre that Stoke never offered Gavin a pro contract before we nicked him on the cheap! Oh well, their loss is our gain!
Meanwhile, we beat several top European clubs to sign Croatia Under-21s midfielder Anton Plećaš for just £650,000 from Šibenik. With his excellent passing and stamina, the spirited teenager has the makings of a quality box-to-box or attacking midfielder. Anton will start this season in our Under-23s but can also expect the odd first-team chance, mainly in the cups.
Another Slavic teen with an exciting future is Czech centre-back Libor Šilhan, who arrives from Teplice. Libor’s a big lad at 6ft 5in and could be very effective in the air, but he’s got decent passing ability too, so I’ll try developing him into a ball-playing defender.
I also brought in a couple of Arsenal old boys to help coach our development teams. I enjoy developing coaches almost as much as developing players, so I’m looking forward to seeing how far Jack Wilshere and Theo Walcott can climb the coaching ladder over the coming years.
Walcott will be working alongside our new Under-18s manager, who will also be a familiar face to some of you. Damien Duff never played for Arsenal (his loyalties were in west London, not the north), but the Irishman’s professionalism and vast experience will hopefully inspire our next generation.
SQUAD REPORT
As you can see, we’ve now built up a pretty solid squad. We’re especially stable defensively, although Gabriel is asking for more first-team football, and William Saliba is complaining because I wouldn’t sell him to Hertha BSC. (Hertha? Really?!)
Their unhappiness could mean more opportunities at centre-back for Daniel Ballard, who showed last season that he is capable of playing at the highest level. I’m still a little worried Dan will randomly decide to two-foot someone in a vital game, but I’m pretty sure he’s here to stay now.
As for our other Hale End boys, Yunus Musah is now firmly established in the starting XI as our most attacking midfielder. Charlie Patino still has some way to go before he’s a regular midfield starter, but I’ll continue grooming the precocious playmaker as Ødegaard’s long-term replacement.
Leading scorer Nketiah and his backup Folarin Balogun bagged a combined 63 goals for Arsenal last season. I don’t expect them to quite reach those heights again this term, but there’s plenty of reason for excitement, especially as Eddie is now recognised as a world-class striker and Flo has brushed up on his finishing.
Lastly, there’s a new face competing with Emile Smith Rowe, Reiss Nelson and Bukayo Saka on the wings. Marcelo Flores was very impressive on loan at Birmingham last season, and the 20-year-old will now be eased into the Arsenal first-team. Marcelo can play anywhere across the AM strata or even up front, but with his pace and dribbling, I reckon he’s most effective as a left inside-forward.
Incidentally, Nelson has now dropped his desire to leave the club, as Manchester United appear to have lost interest in him. I’m hoping Reiss will agree to a new contract soon and commit his future to the Gunners. Having scored 29 goals in the last two seasons, he’s well on his way to becoming a firm fan favourite.
OBJECTIVES
The board are once again playing it safe and only expecting a top-six finish. Any championship ambitions will surely come down to our matches against the other big teams. We didn’t claim a single league win over Manchester City, Manchester United or Liverpool last season, so I’ve been tweaking my 4-3-3 system to try and outsmart those teams.
Chelsea dropped to 5th last season and lost 4-1 when we visited them at Stamford Bridge, but I expect Pep Guardiola will find his feet soon. West Ham could be dark horses once again, especially with Benjamin Šeško leading their attack, while Newcastle and Tottenham need to improve on last season’s disappointments.
After lifting the EFL Cup back-to-back last season, I’m really not at all bothered about winning that trophy again. The FA Cup is much more important, especially as the board want us to reach the Final. We haven’t even reached a Quarter Final since 2020!
But despite reaching back-to-back European finals, I’d be surprised if we got to another. The board simply expect us to reach the knockout phase, and even that might be tricky if you look at our group…
Of course, we had to get bloody Bayern München in our group! Bayern are the defending champions, having beaten Real Madrid on penalties after losing to us in the Semi Finals in 2022/2023. Herrs Kimmich, Musiala and Sané caused us plenty of problems back then, so I’m expecting a couple more tough matches.
We’ve also been drawn against Nice for the second time in three seasons. They also made life tricky for us back then, and even with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang having now departed, they pose a serious threat to us getting out of the group. Thankfully, we shouldn’t have too many issues against the Bulgarian champions Ludogorets.
Oh, and I almost forgot about the Community Shield…
2024 COMMUNITY SHIELD
Having finished 2nd to Double winners Liverpool, we had the privilege of kicking off the new season at Wembley against Jürgen Klopp’s red machine. We had never beaten Liverpool in this save, and things didn’t look like changing after just five minutes, when captain Rice gave away a penalty which Mohamed Salah converted.
When we played the Reds in our opening league match last season, we conceded early and then capitulated to a 6-3 defeat. We’ve grown more resilient over the last 12 months, though, and we responded with an equaliser eight minutes from half-time. Having grabbed 22 assists last season, Ødegaard kicked off his season with an excellent corner delivery that Tomori headed home.
Nketiah struggled in front of goal, but our other striker had better fortunes. In the 75th minute, Flo Balogun popped up at the near post to stab in a cross from right-back Takehiro Tomiyasu. Despite some late pressure from the champions, we held onto our lead to finally end our Liverpool hoodoo – and add another trophy to the cabinet!
The first of many trophies this season? Who knows?
Community Shield champions! You’ll never sing that!
Can we follow up our Shield success by taking an early lead in the title race? Please come back next time, when I’ll recap the first half of our 2024/2025 league campaign.
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