Arsenalare quite proud of their academy, with Bukayo Saka being the most recent graduate to secure a spot in the starting team, but not all ...
Arsenalare quite proud of their academy, with Bukayo Saka being the most recent graduate to secure a spot in the starting team, but not all players have experienced the same degree of success.
Football managers frequently aim to stay ahead by securing the next promising talents, but although these players may shine in the game, not all of them fulfill their expected potential.
A decade later, here are the Arsenal young talents from FM16 and the trajectory of their careers.
Calum Chambers
With limited opportunities in the first team, Chambers moved to Middlesbrough and later Fulham on loan before finally departing Arsenal in 2022.
From that point, he transferred to Villa, where he remained for three seasons prior to moving down a division to sign with Cardiff.
The Welsh team saw Chambers make 41 starts in the Championship during the 2024-25 campaign, yet they still failed to avoid a drop to League One.
Hector Bellerin
One of the more unexpected disappointments among Arsenal's young talents was Bellerin, who did not meet his initial promise.
His contract termination at the Emirates enabled him to join Barcelona, but solely as a backup for Sergiño Dest.
He made only seven appearances for his local club before relocating to Portugal and Sporting. After one season, he returned to Spain, this time settling in more permanently at Real Betis.
This season, he has appeared in 12 league matches for the team, contributing two assists, and remains just 30 years old.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles
Looking for consistent playing time, Maitland-Niles was loaned to Mick McCarthy's Ipswich during the 2015-16 season but found it difficult to establish himself permanently at Arsenal upon his return.
In 2021, he was once again loaned out, this time to West Brom, followed by two additional stints at Roma and Southampton.
In 2023, Maitland-Niles' tenure at Arsenal concluded permanently as he moved to Lyon, and he is just 11 appearances away from reaching a century with the French team. During his time there, Lyon have placed sixth in both seasons and are currently in seventh position.
Do you recall Ainsley Maitland-Niles? He's netting effortless goals against PSG.
Vlad Dragomir
Midfielder Dragomir was never going to complete his studies at the Arsenal academy and instead moved to the Romanian team ACS Poli Timisoara, making his debut at only 15 years old.
Dragomir remained for only a single season before relocating to the Italian side Perugia, followed by Virtus Entella, and eventually signing with the Cypriot team Pafos in 2021.
He has now made 170 appearances with the club, securing the First Division title during the 2024-25 season.
Daniel Crowley
Midfielder Crowley is just 28 years old but has already represented 12 different clubs throughout his career.
After a series of three loan spells at Barnsley, Oxford United, and Go Ahead Eagles, Crowley departed Arsenal freely to sign with the Dutch club Willem II, later making a return to England with Birmingham in 2019.
A season at Cheltenham came before a return to Willem II, and later he was back in England, starting with Morecambe and then Notts County.
Last summer, he joined the League Two team MK Dons and has featured in 10 league matches for them this season.
Gedion Zelalem
Arsenal was the sixth team that midfielder Zelalem played for, but he only managed to make four appearances with the first team at the north London club.
Meanwhile, he spent time on loan at Rangers and VVV-Venlo prior to moving across the Atlantic to sign with Sporting Kansas City.
In 2020, he joined New York City FC, which is owned by Manchester City, but he only made 21 appearances over three seasons before returning to the Netherlands to play for Den Bosch.
In 2024, he transferred to the Croatian team Lokomotiva and later signed with New Mexico United in 2025.
Jeff Reine-Adelaide
Following his time at Arsenal, midfielder Reine-Adelaide went back to his home country of France, where he signed with Angers and later transferred to Lyon in 2019.
Nevertheless, he was never selected and had stints at teams such as Troyes, RWD Molenbeek, and Salernitana before joining Heracles in the Netherlands this summer.
Serge Gnabry
The standout success on this list is Gnabry, who transitioned from being overlooked by Arsenal to becoming one of Bayern Munich's top performers.
The path to Bayern was through a loan at West Brom, where he featured only once, and then to Werder Bremen, where he scored 11 goals in 27 matches.
This caught Bayern's interest, leading them to sign him before the 2018-19 campaign, and he rewarded their faith with 10 goals in 30 Bundesliga matches.
This marked the beginning of a steady scoring streak for the German player, who scored double digits in the following four seasons. In the Bundesliga this season, he has netted four goals and provided three assists in his nine appearances, having played 300 matches for the club.
Donyell Malen
Although his time at Arsenal didn't go as planned, Malen has achieved success in other areas. Following his departure from the Gunners, he returned to the Netherlands and joined Jong PSV, the reserve side of PSV Eindhoven, before progressing to the main squad in 2018.
55 goals in 116 matches led to Borussia Dortmund showing interest, and he managed to score 39 times in 132 appearances for the German club.
In January 2025, as Jhon Durán was possibly heading to Saudi Arabia, Aston Villa acquired Malen for £21 million, and he netted his first Premier League goal in April.
This season, he has only started three matches for the Birmingham team but has managed to score three goals, with his latest coming in a 4-0 loss to Bournemouth.
Chuba Akpom
Akpom experienced six separate loan periods while at Arsenal, but it wasn't until he joined PAOK in 2018 that he started to show any level of performance.
In Greece, he netted 14 goals across 54 league appearances, prompting Middlesbrough to take interest. Following a mixed first season, he returned on loan to PAOK in 2021, but the next year, Akpom delivered his most impressive campaign yet, finding the net 28 times in 38 Championship matches and helping Boro reach the playoffs.
This brought him to the attention of Ajax, who signed him in 2023, but he was unable to regain that level of performance and ended up being loaned out for the 2024-25 season.
Last summer, Ipswich secured his signing on a temporary basis from Birmingham, but he has made few appearances for Kieran McKenna's team so far.
For the Tractor Boys, Akpom has participated in 11 league matches without managing to find the net.
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