Arsenal Squad 2017-18: first thoughts on who’s staying and who we need.

37 Replies to “Arsenal Squad 2017-18: first thoughts on who’s staying and who we need.”

1. Good and interesting article.

   Assuming the Board settles Arsene Wenger issue by giving him a deserved two-year contract, I wouldn’t really count on Per and Carzola as backbones of the team.

   Carzola’s injury cost us at least a CL spot this season. I wouldn’t gamble on that next season. Ramsey ended the season in great form but we all know his injury records.

   Yeah…we need world class in attack but that shouldn’t limit Welbeck’s playing time if he stayed fit. I don’t think we need a new keeper. but we definitely need a monster of a CB, at least 6’3” tall. We have Europa next term and we must treat it as second rate if we’re to get back into top four and truly challenge for the title. We need another monster of a DM to replace Carzola. Zhaka is a great passer of the ball. Get him a real monster and we’re perfect in the middle. With El neney, Coquelin, Ramsey…we can always manage injuries and suspensions.

   So my take – one monster CB, one monster DM, one truly world class striker. Three players of real quality provided we keep Sanchez and Ozil, particularly Sanchez.

2. Tony please check your email.

3. What is the rule ? 17 + any number of homegrown ? or 17 +max 8 homegrown ? How do we get to 27 ?

4. BTW, what is missing is contract end dates for players on loan. Would be interesting to see that

   Apart from that, very interesting overview. At least we’ve got some firm basis to understand the summer transfer opera while watching it unfold….

5. Andrew , while I would love most of them to stay , yet I have to agree that it appears that it is the end of the road for some. For some reason or other they have not been able to fulfill their potential.

   Maybe they’ll get more playing time at other clubs,especially those coming up, who require some experience,as well as those teams in the middle of the table , as in the case of the local players.

   A great thank you to all the players who did try their very best , and good luck in pastures anew.

6. Tai E Obasi – I do get there eventually, but much of the time there is just me running Untold, so over the weekends I may not see everything straight away.

7. Thank you Andrew. You have missed several loanees, presumably because they are still under-21, but I’m interested to know what you think of two in particular – one of whom is now overage but HG: that is Jon Toral; and Kristian Bielik, both of whom I personally rate highly. I also wonder what future Theo has if the 3-4-3 is retained, much though I like him, and rate his goal-scoring ability. Additionally, the way that the Xhaka/Ramsey axis developed latterly, makes me face Santi’s decline with more equanimity (although I would love him to have one more storming season!).

8. Good analysis
   I agree we need two more- CF and CM. hopefully we get two world class players here. Also, with the large number of home grown players and under21, we should be able to field a “weaken” side for all cup games including Europa.

9. With all the rumours flashing around in the media and picked up in the blogs, it does seem at last that some closure will be reached on AW’s contractual situation. We will know soon what the decision is.

   That is important enough in its own right, and it will return the club to stability on the playing side when, as I expect, Arsene will be confirmed as staying, but it also impacts on the transfer window, in that with uncertainty over the manager’s contract, it would inevitably put off potential new players who would not want to commit until that was clarified, and in the meantime these players could be snapped up by other eager clubs.

   A great summary of the current roster and let’s hope the window will be successful for us.

10. @Chris,
    I got the contract end dates from transfermarket.com for the loan players they only had the end of their loans not the end of the Arsenal contracts.

    For the 25 man squad you can have as many ‘home grown’ players as you like (up to the 25 maximum), but a maximum of only 17 overseas players. If you only have 6 homegrown players you are limited to 23 players.

    You cad add as many U21 players as you wish, either overseas or homegrown.

    To qualify as homegrown a player must have been with an English or Welsh club for more than three years before their 21st birthday I.e. Starting before their 18th birthday, or be qualified to play for England.

11. Chris,

    Premier League clubs are allowed a maximum of 25 players in their squad. Of those, eight must be homegrown, which means they have must have come through an English academy.

    You don’t have to fill your 25-man squad. If you only have six homegrown players, that’s fine as long as you reduce your squad size accordingly to 23.

    Effectively it means clubs are fine as long as they don’t have more than 17 overseas (non-homegrown) players in their squad. 18 or more is not allowed.

    There is one more important point to note. The squads only apply to players aged over 21. You can have as many under 21 players from any country as you like to use in the first team, if needed.

12. Nice analysis, Andrew. Another in-depth article of yours.

    I’d just add another thing:

    Europa League has an extra knockout-round (Round of 32) comparing to Champions League. This season we played 55 matches (38 PL, 8 CL, 3 EFLC and 6 FAC). Given that we are seen as favourites to win Europa League next season, that means we might play up to 15 European matches. If we reach EL Final, we will play at least 56 official matches next season (provided that we play EL Final and get knocked out of both domestic cups in the first match which is unlikely) as we have CS to deal with at the very beginning of the season.

    I think we can rely on our squad depth and players like Lucas Perez, Mohamed Elneny and others to deal with the group stage of Europa League and possibly even until quarterfinal provided that we avoid a big team from Champions League that somehow ends up third in their CL group (it happened a few times before). Mind you that EL brings a CL place as the final prize and whilst we have to accept there are three richer clubs in the Premier League, list of teams in EL doesn’t scare me at all. AC Milan are the biggest club in the competition but their squad is still “under construction”. They are ready to spend big money under the Chinese owners of theirs but even if they get big players as our alleged target Alvaro Morata, they are still behind us quality-wise. Same goes for another fallen giant that wants to return to the victorious path by spending big – Olympique Marseille are also one of the teams that might have something to say in this competition. We have a lot of beautiful memories with Villarreal while the other Spanish representatives Real Sociedad will feel the burden of European football next season.

    Back to the squad list.

    I have a feeling it is the end of the road for Theo. He is 28 which means he has just reached his peak years, he scored 19 goals – his second best return ever – including goals against Liverpool, Man City (x2), Chelsea, Bayern…and was our top scorer during the FA Cup winning campaign but the fact Arsene didn’t put a lot of trust in him during the crunch time (in the last ten games of the season he got 75 minutes v Leicester, 9 minutes v Tottenham, 6 minutes v Stoke and 5 minutes v Sunderland) suggests it’s time for Theo to leave. His game hasn’t reached the level we had all expected back in 2006.

    PRO: He has been loyal to Arsenal, has signed two contracts when he could have negotiated a new one with another club, has never spoken badly about the club, the manager or the team-mates. He still has a great pace, his right-footed diagonal shots are usually unstoppable and his decisions in the final third are probably the best among the British core. He is a HG-player which is a thing that shouldn’t be overlooked in the post-Brexit English football as we are yet to see the full extent of consequences on the football transfers.

    CONTRA: He hasn’t made the No. 9 role his own when he was given a chance, he has failed to reach the technical level to beat his marker and he is largely ineffective against those who park the bus. He doesn’t fit into a new formation. Having a player with a six-digit wage on the stands or on the bench is not something I’d expect from Arsene.

    Whilst Jack didn’t set the world alight at Bournemouth and had another awful injury (against Spuds nonetheless), I expect him to stay at Arsenal next season. He is 25, a HG-player, he loves Arsenal but he should also mature as he can’t hide behind the age any longer.

13. Great write up Andrew. Only one player has reached expiry. Several are on sell by date. Reality is all can play the whole season on current wage structure & really benefit the club. Those that sign new contracts will obviously have new wage structure & will be similar to buying in at huge premium.

    I prefer to let the picket fence sting my bum while waiting for Wenger to decide who,what & where. That does not forgive his lack of coaching in the art of dead ball kicking. A £30,000+ a week player must be able to kick a dead ball through the middle of a car tyre from 12 yards 19 times out of 20. He must also be able to kick the ball so it bends & it dips with similar accuracy. These are techniques not magic. For my money, I feel cheated each time a dead ball hits the wall or misses the goal.

14. Great piece Andrew- I hope the recruitment team have it this well spelt out for AW. I note however, you do not include El Neny in your final analysis/summary. Are you assuming he is to be sold? If you have omitted him, it stands that we have room for only one more signing unless someone else leaves/is sold? I also don’t think the numbers add up: 25-5+2=22 leaving room for 3 signings plus U21s. If you assume Kolanisic is a done deal, 2 as printed. While I expect Ospina might want to leave, The Europa league should keep him busy for weeks depending on how far we go, in addition to the FA Cup. Szezcsney will probably be sold to Napoli with a buy back clause. I am loath to see Wilshere go for sentimental reasons, and I suspect the same of AW. We were light in central midfield this season through suspensions, AFCON, and injury. I suspect we need one more there, possibly an upgrade on Coquelin. We probably have enough forward options; it will be difficult to keep the current complement happy in a world cup year so I would only advocate a marquee CF, depending on departures.

15. If Le Prof gets the nod from the Arsenal board(Kroenke) to remain the Arsenal manager as widely expected to happen in some quarters, I strongly advice him to be very professional and pragmatic and stops being emotional and poetry like, in his managing the Gunners in all their competitions campaign next season, more especially in the EFL which Le Prof has never won, the most sort after all Gooners Premier League win and of course the Europa League next season which I think Arsenal are yet to win since the competition began.

    I am inclined in believing the Premier League title win next season will be hotly contested for by all the 6 top club sides more than they contested to win it win last season. Therefore, on no any account should Le Prof continue to keep any injury prones/deadwoods or any Gunners with low output in productivity in their positional area of playing on the field for Arsenal next season. But sell or discharge those injury prones/deadwoods and the low output in performance players who are habitating in his squad of last season’s campaign.

    As Le Prof himself has seen the consequences of holding on to this less in productivity in emotional inclination to hold on for too long to a Gunner or Gunners who in the long run will not or have not contributed any tangible performance for Arsenal overtime in it’s quest to win the PL and CL. The wins Arsenal would have won many times over had Le Prof allowed who to go to go and replace them with far better quality ones who have a good trait of being consistent in high preformance and are not the injury prone kinds.

    Nonetheless, if the left back Kolasinac is signed, I think it’s better still for Le Prof to keep Gibbs or promote a top grade U21 player to the first team to replace him while Monreal form in the later part of last season suggests he should be kept. We need 3 left back specialists and not 2 as was the case last season. But if Debuchy whose deal will holds till 2019 is allowed to go as Jenkinson is not favoured to remain by Le Prof, won’t there be a shortage in manpower at the right back being that only Bellerin will be the only senior recognized specialist RB at the right back position despite both Holding, Paulista and Maitland can all operate there. Or would Le Prof converts one of the trio to a permanent right back/centreback permanently next season to keep one of them, Bellerin and Debuchy as the specialists in that position next season?

    The mass Gooners opinion is, Le Prof should retain Szcesney and Chambers next season. I hope he’ll respect that mass opinion and keep them in his first team squad next season and not loan any of them out again. I believe they’ll all help Arsenal to attain their set heights next season. Le Prof could give the PL goalkeeping to Cech, all the domestic Cup games goalkeeping to Szcesney and the CL goalkeeping to Ospina as he keeps them and deem fit while one of Macey and Martinez can be their assistant in wait.

    Haven purportedly signed Kolasinac, in addition to promoting Eddy Nkethiah to the senior team next season after subjecting him to a series of tests in Arsenal friendlies in Australia, China, the Emirates Cup and the Charity Shield match to see if he can make the grade to play in the PL and EL next season to see if he can become our own Mbappe, Le will of course MUST sign that one world class striker who ticked all the boxes as he keeps Sanchez and Ozil at Arsenal by having them to extend their staying at Arsenal beyond next season. And with all these done, I strongly believe Arsenal will credibly challenged for the PL and EL title wins next season and win them.

16. Th need for ideally two left footed centre backs in the squad (plus two left footed wing backs) would probably favour the retention of Gibbs – as long as the new man can fulfill the CB role. I would agree re Walcott – he doesn’t well into a 3-4-3 but there will be occasions when formations change from match to match or even during a game depending on circumstances. We are, like everyone else, bound by squad size restrictions and a tightly run budget. So long as everyone plays by the same rules we will always be in a stronger position than the vast majority.

17. Arsenal need icardi,mahrez,James n krychowiak n nzonzi

18. don’t think either of Wilshere Ospina or Gibbs will leave
    Jack is the closest we have to replace Cazorla, Ospina is happy with cup games and Szchs is not coming back, Gibbs is still part of the plans according to Wenger
    i think we might sign a left back and a right back, as academy players don’t seem to be ready

19. OT Borussia Dortmund have sacked manager Thomas Tuchel.

20. All change, all change. Is it not amazing?
    It produces the energy that keeps the world functioning.
    Amen.

21. Once is clear who will be a manager next season then only then is worth to discuss.
    If le prof stays is same all same.
    Not expecting much honestly if he stays.

    We need a new start .

22. Dennis Bergkamp famously said that the most important signature was that of the boss.
    Players in/out depends on who’s in charge, and if we don’t have Wenger some top players may be reluctant to join us.
    All the early indications are that he will be here for two more years.

23. Good morning folks.

    Now that the euphoria over the amazing Cup Final win is dying down, all attention must now turn to the Wenger contract situation. A board meeting to be held tomorrow will decide whether or not to offer the manager a new contract and, from what has been said, Wenger will have a day to decide to sign it or not.

    Gazidis is known to favour a reconstruction of the current management structure, the appointment of a Director of Football being a prerequisite. Wenger has previously said that he sees no need for such an appointment and would be unwilling to work under or alongside anyone who would usurp his total control over footballing matters.

    Asked whether he would be making a presentation to the board, Wenger dismissed the notion saying all he had to do was advise the board to look at the video of the Cup Final, where they would see that he is obviously the right man to carry on.

    Efforts are being made in the media to portray Wenger as a tactical genius following his change from a back four to a back three for the last five games of the season.

    It is worth noting that following Chelsea’s September defeat at The Emirates, Antonio Conte made that same switch saying, “it was obvious that the defensive formation was not working.” That was after just three games in charge.

    Despite the fact that our defence had not been fit for purpose for a decade it took Wenger around fifty more games, League, EFL Cup, Champions League and FA Cup to make the same switch by which time we were out of contention for all but the FA Cup.

    When he first arrived at Highbury Wenger was an innovative, forward thinking coach but has, particularly over the past five years, been overtaken by coaches with a fresh approach and fresh tactics. His failure to recognise the problematic nature of his defensive system for such a long time is a damning indictment of his failure to keep up to date.

    I’m afraid that beating Chelsea in the FA Cup Final is in itself nowhere near enough justification for Wenger to be allowed to remain as manger at Arsenal.

24. Wenger verbally agreed new 2yr contract with Kroenke at yesterday’s meeting. Will be rubber-stamped by board today & announced tomorrow #AFC

25. According to the BBC, Wenger has just signed a 2 year extension! Lot of good all of your venomous moaning did, aye? Brilliant news!

26. Oh dear. Board has really bottled that one. Corks being popped in training grounds across the top 5. 2 more years of stagnation and underperformance.

27. @ Benjamin

    Please tell us about your experience, coaching badges etc and cv as a top club manager which qualifies you to make such a judgement. Please also provide some evidence to support the negative, yet unsubstantiated opinion

28. Arsenal’s biggest failure last season was to allow all these contracts to run down. Anyone we want to retain should now be at 2020 or beyond.

    How can that have been allowed to happen?

29. Benjamin, like the Chelsea supporters who had put up papers before the match: “Wenger, we want you to stay”. Well I didn’t see them anymore after the match when I walked back to the hotel and came past the pub where they had put them up…..

30. Goonermikey, you should keep in mind that in some other university the FA cup is not a trophy.

31. Were you staying in the IBIS? I saw a punch up there as i was going to the station afterwards.

32. Goonermikey

    You don’t need to have experience in football management or coaching to express an opinion on the managers performance.

    He is in a public job at a club with many fans who don’t all agree but we are all entitled to an opinion.

33. Poor Benjamin, another two years of misery.
    Someone take him to one side and tell him ‘it doesn’t have to be that way’.

34. A fair article and a good read as well, cheers Andrew but I’d like to see Wilshere come good, hopefully he can get that season uninjured that he needs.

    I also hope Arsenal announce an 8 year contract for Wenger and that’s enough to push all the idiots out of our club! Hehehe, surprise motherfudgers 🙂

35. Pete – renewal of contracts early costs an absolute fortune. Renewal when the contract reaches the final year is much less but can mean player could leave. The final year sale price is not as good as it is with two years. The issue is that sale price is no longer a big deal for Arsenal. It is more important for the player to want to play for Arsenal rather than any other club.

    When players chose to play for Arsenal & renew contracts that have a year to go, you know that the players love the club. Wenger has agreed a two year renewal & it’ll mean many players will sign to continue their momentum. Those that decide not to might be kept on through their last year.

    Personally I only wanted Wenger to remain, UK to Brexit & Corbyn for PM after the FA cup that is!

36. Great article and some very good comments, with the usual notable exceptions…
    Some man mentioned similar on here but my thoughts for next season are:

    We are stacked for CB’s in a 2 or 3.

    We have options at RWB but short if RB (think Debuchey and Jenko will go).

    You said sell Jack but I would keep as could play any of the 4 CM and AM positions IF rested and fitness maintained.

    Theo is out in the cold unless we play wide AM like Chelsea rather than the narrow AM which has gotten the best out of Sanchez, and Ozil.

    And with our squad IF we can keep them relatively fit then the busy EL would be no problem as the lesser quality would easily allow a rested line up similar to this:

    GK. Szczezney
    RWB. Bellerin / The Ox
    CB. Holding, Gabriel, Chambers
    LWB. Gibbs
    CM. Jack/Ramsey/Santi, Elneny/Le Coq
    AM. Iwobi, Theo, or a Jack/Ramsey
    CD. Giroud, Welbeck, Perez

    All quality options with either or players depending on previous or next lineups in the more important PL.

    If possible a big name signing would be a big shot in the arm for the team and fans, who though… I don’t know…

    For me though, there are definitely reasons to be optimistic.

37. Oh in case you were wondering my PL XI would look something like this:

    Cech
    Bellerin
    Mustafi, BFG, Kos
    Kolasnic (if signed)
    Xhaka, Santi/Jack/Ramsey (any of)
    Sanchez, Ozil
    (Big, quick, agile, clinical CF)