Category: Hale End Heroes

Embed from Getty Images

Welcome to the 20th and FINAL chapter of my Football Manager 2022 story with Arsenal.

In this series, the aim was to win either the Premier League or the Champions League with a team consisting mostly of graduates from the Arsenal youth academy.

I will finish this story off with the 2025/2026 season review, before looking at how all our homegrown stars have developed over the past five years. (HUGE spoiler alert: if you haven’t read Season 5, Part 4 yet, you might want to do that first!) Continue reading “Hale End Heroes: The Final Whistle” →

It’s all or nothing for Arsenal, as the fifth season of my academy challenge comes to an end.

After a seven-game winning streak, Arsenal are top of the Premier League table by two points, with just eight matches to play. If our Hale End heroes can hold their nerves, we will be champions for the first time in 22 years. We’re also gunning for continental glory, having reached the Quarter Finals of the Champions League.

Can Arsenal finally end a long wait for a major title – or is there yet more heartbreak to come?

Continue reading “Hale End Heroes: Season 5, Part 4” →

After four years of frustration and near-misses, is this the season where Arsenal finally claim a Premier League or Champions League title?

We made a fine start to the 2025/2026 campaign, sitting just four points behind leaders Manchester United at the end of December. Today’s chapter will take us through the next three months, which includes two big title clashes with Liverpool and Manchester City, plus both legs of our Champions League knockout tie against Roma.

And with a new youth intake on the way, we’re also going to have a look at how our best newgen prospects have developed. We’re all especially excited about Fallon…

Embed from Getty Images

…no, not THAT Fallon. Continue reading “Hale End Heroes: Season 5, Part 3” →

Embed from Getty Images

While the Football Manager 2023 hype train has started, my FM22 series with Arsenal is still going strong – and things are arguably just heating up!

Today’s chapter takes us through the first half of the 2025/2026 season, which I previewed in the last installment. Unfortunately, we lost the Community Shield to Liverpool, but that won’t matter if we can finally knock them off their Premier League perch.

There are plenty of questions that need to be answered. Can we continue to frustrate the bigger teams? Can we find some consistent scoring form against the weaker teams? And is 19-year-old Sean Fallon ready for the Premier League? Continue reading “Hale End Heroes: Season 5, Part 2” →

Embed from Getty Images

Welcome to the fifth season of my Football Manager 2022 series with Arsenal. We finished the last campaign by winning the FA Cup at Wembley… but by the end of the 2025/2026 season, I want us to be lifting an even bigger trophy.

My challenge of rebuilding Arsenal into a title-winning team with a strong core of academy players is almost complete. We showed last season that we can seriously ruffle the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City, but we need to find more consistency.

And as I explained in the last chapter, I have to make some very difficult decisions to help turn us from contenders to champions – without sacrificing my commitment to developing homegrown players.

In today’s post, we will say goodbye to a couple of big names and look ahead to the new Premier League campaign. You’ll also find out whether we can successfully defend the Community Shield, as we once again do battle with our title nemeses Liverpool. Continue reading “Hale End Heroes: Season 5, Part 1” →

Embed from Getty Images

We’ve now come to the end of my fourth season at Arsenal.

2024/2025 started with high hopes that we could overtake Liverpool and win the Premier League, but inconsistent finishing was ultimately our downfall. Our hopes of major silverware rested on the FA Cup, which… well, you can read about that in the previous chapter.

Today, I’ll wrap up the season with a bumper season review, looking at various stats to try and figure out what went wrong. I’ll also look at our whole squad to help me decide which players to keep, sell or promote over the summer.

[Advance warning: this will be the longest chapter of the series so far, so get comfortable…] Continue reading “Hale End Heroes: Season 4, Part 4” →

Embed from Getty Images

I never said this Arsenal academy challenge would be easy! Midway through my fourth season, this is already shaping up to be my most frustrating one yet!

In case you missed the first half of this campaign, my young Gunners have been VERY inconsistent. While we’ve finally figured out how to defeat our title rivals Liverpool and Manchester City, we’ve also struggled to kill off lesser teams like Brentford and Bournemouth. Too many wasted opportunities and dropped points have left us some way off the pace.

Today’s chapter takes us through the second half of the 2024/2025 season, as we attempt to resurrect our Premier League hopes, while also competing for both the Champions League and the FA Cup. There’s also a look at this season’s youth intake, which sadly does not include Ethan Nwaneri (who, alas, won’t make his Football Manager debut until FM24). Continue reading “Hale End Heroes: Season 4, Part 3” →

Embed from Getty Images

In the 2023/2024 season, Arsenal scored a record 107 Premier League goals and picked up 88 points… but still finished runners-up to Liverpool.

As we head into my fourth season as Gunners manager, there is plenty of reason for optimism. We have largely kept the same squad that pushed Liverpool so close, and after beating the Reds in the Community Shield, it feels like the 2024/2025 season might be the one where it all comes together.

Emile Smith Rowe is ready to bring the Premier League title back to North London. Can we now start the season as we mean to go on? Continue reading “Hale End Heroes: Season 4, Part 2” →

Embed from Getty Images

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. Continue reading “Hale End Heroes: Season 4, Part 1” →

Embed from Getty Images

As the third season of my FM22 academy challenge draws to an end, my free-scoring young Arsenal team is on the hunt for yet more silverware.

The previous chapter saw us lift our second EFL Cup, after a crazy Final showdown with Leeds. We also extended our unbeaten Premier League run to 28 games and look set to take champions Liverpool all the way.

Meanwhile in the Europa League, we’ve been drawn against Manchester United – and a certain Norwegian goal machine – in the Quarter Finals. Can we find a way to stop Erling Haaland, and perhaps even make amends for last year’s Champions League heartbreak?

Is 2024 the year where Arsenal finally bring a big trophy to the Emirates? Time to find out… Continue reading “Hale End Heroes: Season 3, Part 4” →