Question for the morning: If the transfer window shut now, are you happy with the Arsenal squad?
When that was asked yesterday in the WhatasApp group, the answer was surprinsgly unanimous – YES!
Some still wanted Youri Tielemans in to replace Granit Xhaka (although they would admit to an irrational hatred towards Xhaka). Whilst others – including myself – said we would not mind a winger, but it was not a disaster if we did not get one.
A couple wanted a right back, but conceded that this would be a luxury and they had no idea about the mad potential of Brooke Norton-Cuffy.
It helps to be happy with the squad when you are one of only two Premier League sides to have a 100% record. But it does feel like we have quality in the first XI and strength in depth.
We have started with the same XI against Leicester City and Crystal Palace, with the players yet to start making up a pretty decent “2nd string” (yes, I know some will start once fit. But it just shows we have that depth that we won two games comfortably without them)
Turner
Cedric Tomiyasu Holding Tierney
Elneny
Lokonga Vieira
Pepe Nketiah SmithRowe
Some might say the defence looks weak as it has a right back playing at centre back, but lets remember we have 3 top class central defenders. None of whom are in the bove XI.
The above does highlight the need for a winger – Nicolas Pepe just is not the answer. Although again if the window shut now I would not be upset him covering Bukayo Saka.
Another key factor right now is the registration of players.
With Pablo Mari and Rúnar Alex Rúnarsson both going out on loan in the last week, Arsenal have no real squad size concerns.
I will probably expand on this another day in a second State of the Squad post, but as it stands we have:
- 27 players in the senior squad
- Of which 4 do not need to be registered due to being U21
- That leaves us with 2 “open slots” if we did decide to sign anyone
- Of the 23 senior players we have:
- 15 are non-home grown
- 8 are home grown
- That leaves us with 2 non-home grown slots
So in summary, if we decided to sign two new players, it would not matter where they are from as we have space for them.
That does not mean we will go out and sign anyone we want – we need to keep an eye on those U21’s who will become “senior” in the future.
We will not want to be in a situation like last summer where we have too many senior players and it means some end up not being registered.
Three of the four U21 players (Saka, Saliba, Martinelli) will require to be registered next season. So we will need to make sure there are open slots for them to be promoted to – there promotion will leave us with one senior player too many (requiring us to sell to buy)
Although this will be offset with the likes of Hector Bellerin, Cedric Soares, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Mohamed Elneny, Nicolas Pepe and Reiss Nelson unlikely to be here in 12 months time.
Those 6 departures will bring next seasons squad to 19 senior players (once the U21 have been promoted). This then opens up the space for new transfers next summer.
This is the sort of stuff Edu and his team will be staying on top of. It is not just about where the Arsenal squad is now, but also what it looks like in 12 months, in 36 months, and so on.
Anyone, I have digressed a bit too much.
So are you happy with the Arsenal squad right now? Join the conversation on Twitter:
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 
The answer to that is a resounding yes.
We have assembled a fantastic squad of 17 very good players – Ramsdale, Turner, Tomiyasu, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Tierney, Zinchenko, Partey, Xhaka, Odegaard, Vieira, Saka, Martinelli, ESR, Jesus and Nketiah. This is a good enough team to finish top 4, if not more.
That said, there are some positions that I feel we need to recruit to really complete this team. The following players need proper competition/backup: Gabriel at LCB, Tomi at RB, Partey at DM, Xhaka at CM and Saka at RW. If we can bring in top players in those positions, then the next step is to get them to challenge Liverpool and City.
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Not Happy, three experience players required.
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Happy, still want a wing with Reiss Nelson recently injured.
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Happy, especially if we bring in a quality winger who can play on either flank and will enable us to rest Saka and or Martinelli.the rest of the squad provides cover for each other especially in defence and midfield. We can rotate between Zychenko and Tierney, Zychenko and Xhaka and possibly Zychenko and Partey. Partey being the hardest one to cover, unless White can resurrect the role he often played for Leeds.
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