With the window shutting across the majority of Europe last night, it is well worth reviewing the Arsenal squad.
Last season, due to having too many players, Arsenal were left Mesut Ozil and Sokratis unregistered. Arsenal simply had too many players.
So what is the state of Arsenal’s first team squad 12 months later?
According to Arsenal.com, we have a first team squad of 27 players.
Of those 27, 6 were born on are after 1st January 2000 so are considered “Under 21” and therefore do not require being registered.
You can have no more than 17 non-home grown players in your squad. Arsenal have 15.
Finally we have 6 home grown players that would require registering.
This is a nice place for the Arsenal squad to be as it leaves us a couple of non-home grown spaces for signings in January. We would not have to look to move players on prior to bringing players in.
Also looking forward to next season there is space for those under 21 players born before 1st January 2001 to be accommodated into registered spots without the need to sell – although if all the loan players return we will be in the same situation as 2020 of having too many players.
With no European football, we still probably have too many players to keep everyone happy.
The Turkish and Russian windows are also still open which might see the likes of Sead Kolasinac and Mohamed Elneny depart.
In summary, Edu and his team have done a much better job of reducing squad numbers than they did last year, even though they have probably not sold as many as they would have liked.
Transfer deadline day used to be an experience, almost a sport in itself. But yesterday it died – further highlighting how Sky Sports News is going down the pan.
It used to be great.
An overly excited Jim White next to a calm and composed Natalie Sawyer. Reports outside grounds surrounded by fans. Even if nothing was happening it felt like something was.
And then yesterday it was as dishwater, and almost became a box ticking exercise.
Sky had decided to remove everything that was great about transfer deadline and replace it their fake ITK journalists pretending to take phone calls, reading texts from “agents” and YouTubers sharing their “expert” opinion. Add in a splattering of footballers who achieved nothing and clearly just their for their £500 pay day and you end up with the disaster of a show we saw yesterday.
The two fellas that do the transfer round up. It was just cringeworthy the way they pretended that agents were contacting them whilst live on air.
We had Leanne Sanderson talking about her time in Italy for Juventus where she made just two appearances.
Sky are clearly trying to appeal to a younger audience by having YouTubers on everything; but how many times do we have to listen to a London based Manchester United talk about Arsenal?
Is there a warehouse of YouTubers somewhere in Chiswick that a Sky presenter just goes down to, picks one out and sticks them on TV? Everyone of them is a Londoner.
The young lady “representing Arsenal” was agreeing with tweets that Arsenal fans were racist just 2 days before. And now she is live on Sky?
Lee Hendrie was no better. What insight does he actually have?
Meanwhile on Twitter they are censoring any criticism by hiding any negative replies to their tweets.
It was just a shit show and what was a great TV event is no more.
The show has eaten itself.
It realised it was popular and became terribly self-aware; attempting to manufacture the incidents that made it popular. A bit like when Big Brother began to hand pick contestants rather than have a dozen random people.
In the end, I am not sure what it was supposed to appeal too.
The younger crowd would have been glued to their phones, getting their breaking news off Twitter whilst the older crowd would have soon turned off – or over to BBC5 Live.
No insight, no breaking stories. Just a bunch of people using a national TV show to promote themselves and increase their online following.
In an era where players seem to put what they earn above how much they play, we have to say fair play to Willian for agreeing to cancel his contract; costing him around £20million.
The 33-year-old is off back to his home team club Corinthians.
The criticism Willian has got for what he earns is often unfair. It is not his fault that Arsenal offered such a high wage and a 3-year contract.
He probably feels that he was sold a lie (which feels like a common theme at Arsenal at the moment) and that what he was promised never materialised.
Likewise I do not think anyone could have predicted just how poor he would be following a very good season the year before.
Older players can “fall off a cliff” performance wise and it looks like that is what happened to Willian.
He has shown he still has a desire to play football, even if it does hit him in the pocket, and for that we must give credit.
Hector Bellerin
It might end up being the biggest piece of transfer drama for Arsenal on deadline day. Hector Bellerin.
Despite him wanting to leave and Arsenal wanting to sell, there has been very little interest in the Spaniard this window.
There were reports late at night that both Real Betis and Barcelona were looking at him, but neither would have the cash to make it a permanent deal.
If he joins Barcelona it will feel like Arsenal have missed a trick – we should have been in for Tottenham bound Emerson Royal.
The worry is that neither Cedric Soares or Calum Chambers have looked particularly good at right back this season. And if Bellerin goes our options to replace him will be thin. Which leaves Ainsley Maitland-Niles.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles
Firstly, I do not condone AMN’s behaviour on Instagram.
It was a petulant action in an attempt to force a move out of the club. But it was an action he was perhaps forced into due to the clubs behaviour towards him.
Last summer he was on the verge of joining Wolves where he would have instantly gone in to replace Matt Doherty at right back.
At that stage he was on the fringes of the England squad with an outside chance of making it.
Someone at Arsenal decided late on that he would not be leaving the club and the deal fell through.
He would start just 5 league games before being loaned out to relegation-bound WBA; killing any chances he had of making the Euro’s squad.
You can appreciate his 12 months of frustration.
On the verge of leaving and then kept at the club. Whatever he was promised to remain did not materialise.
And now we are in the same situation.
He has played just 19 minutes of Premier League football this season and there is an offer from Everton on the table. But Edu and Mikel Arteta have decided that they do nit want to let him go again.
Yes, Bellerin could be leaving. But if AMN was next in line he would have started the 4 games we have had so far. He has not.
I have always been of the belief that if a fringe player wishes to leave us to play regular footballer elsewhere, we should never stand in their way.
If we force AMN to stay for the 2nd summer in a row, it could have huge ramifications on squad moral and future transfers.
The whole situation really paints the club in poor light.
More…
Eddie Nketiah – Looks like Crystal Palace have gone elsewhere. They offered £10m, we wanted £20m. The same people moaning we have not sold him probably also moan that we under sell players. It is easy to say “we should sell Nketiah for £15million” but you can only do that if a £15million offer comes in for him.
Reiss Nelson – A new 2-year contract with a loan deal attached to it feels sensible. I still do not feel he is the quality to make the grade at Arsenal, but a new deal at least secures a future transfer fee. He hits Donyell Malen figures whilst on loan in Holland and his value shoots up.
Tariq Lamptey – People still calling for Arsenal to sign him despite him having been injured since the middle of December 2020.
Houssem Auoar – The fact he has been available all summer yet no club has gone in for him highlights just why Arsenal are right to stay clear. There is a problem player there.
