Few academies in England produce as much talent as Arsenal’s and they had had high hopes for the future in 2011-12. We’ve looked back to find the Gunners’ wonderkids from Football Manager 2012.
Arsenal would go without silverware again, finishing third in the Premier League and 19 points off both Manchester City and Manchester United.
But there were some positives in the youth academy, where a plethora of exciting talent was beginning to emerge. Alongside names you’ll now know well, there were also those whose careers were less notable.
With the release of FM 2012, which was released just over a decade ago back in October 2011, FM Scout picked out the 11 Arsenal talents with the elusive Football Manager ‘wonderkid’ label, so we had a look at how their careers developed 10 years on.
Emiliano Martinez
Listed as Damian Martinez in the game, the goalkeeper arrived in 2010 from Independiente as a youth player.
Martinez’s career is a proper feel-good football story. After spending a decade in the wilderness at Arsenal, going on loan six times, his chance finally came at the end of the 2019-20 season when Bernd Leno was injured and he certainly took it.
A string of stunning goalkeeping performances helped Arsenal to an FA Cup victory, but he fell down the pecking order following Leno’s return from injury.
As a result, he left for Aston Villa in 2020 and has since asserted himself as one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League. The 29-year-old also became Argentina’s first-choice keeper and helped his national side life the Copa America last summer.
READ: Emi Martinez: From the Arsenal bench to Argentina’s Copa ‘phenomenon’
Kyle Bartley
Bartley never made a competitive appearance for Arsenal and spent the 2011-12 season on loan with Scottish side Rangers.
The centre-back then joined Swansea the following summer for around £1million but found a more permanent home at West Brom, where he has been a regular in the first team since…