How many spare places do we have in the squad for purchases in January?

Each squad contains no more than 17 players who do not fulfil the “HGP Player” category The rest of the squad, up to a total of 25 players, must be “HGP”.

To see where we stand on this here is a simple table numbering the players as either homegrown (HG) or foreign grown (FG).

We thus have 15 foreign grown out of 17 allowable.  Six of the seven basic Home Grown slots are allocated.   So that suggests we have three spaces.

Except that we have other players who might need a place next season.  William Saliba for example is tipped to be coming back next summer and would need an FG place.  Saka and Smith Rowe will be wanting HG places next year.  If so that is all three of the available places taken.  (The fact that an HG player takes an FG place is allowable, but the reverse is not).

Any other under 21s who want a game can have one, so that doesn’t matter in terms of Charlie Patino for example.

Which then raises the question who could we be selling who is currently on our active list?

If Runar Alex Runarsson comes back from being on loan in Belgium he would take up an FG place which we don’t have without selling someone.  That would mean -1 FG

Rob Holding renewed his contract last summer, and he has had a few games.  It is of course easy to say “sell him” but the question then is, do we have enough backups?  However if Saliba comes back to Arsenal that could allow Holding to leave, but that would then mean we had lost a home grown player and replaced him with a foreign grown.  Seems unlikely for him to go.

VfB Stuttgart have Dinos Mavropanos, and again his return would mean the need to release another player and to rebalance the home grown numbers if it was a home grown player who left.  I suspect a sale.

Hector Bellerin does count as a home grown player, but it seems he is out of favour and happy to return to Spain, so when his current loan deal ends that is presumably what will happen.  He’s obviously not counted in our squad at the moment.

Sead Kolasinac has of course been out injured for a long while, so releasing him at the end of the season would free up a foreign grown space.  So that is -2FG

Ainsley Maitland Niles appears to want to leave and he is home grown, so he may well be let go just to free up a space.  That makes -2FG and -1HG

Mohammed Elneny seems to be used only for League Cup games, and there is talk that he would like to leave to get more games, so that might be another departure. -3FG and -1HG

Abameyang and Lacazette could both leave or stay, and I suspect just one of them will go.  So -4FG and -1HG

Nicolas Pepe is the person many people think ought to go, but I doubt anyone is going to pay what we paid for him, nor match his wages, so I suspect he sits it out.

Reiss Nelson is with Feyenoord and I suspect won’t come back.

Eddie Nketiah seems to be determined to go, so I guess he will, which means -4FG and -2HG

So yes we will have quite a few slots – enough for four foreigner players and two home grown players.  But of course that does depend on all the players wanting to go and finding a new home to go to.

Of course there are also assumptions in place here, such as that Guendouzi won’t return and nor will Torreira.   If either did, that’s one place less available.

But yes by the look of things we do have four FG slots and two HG slots we can fill if these departures go ahead.  However we have to sell the players or loan them out, to make these six slots available.  If the deals don’t go through, we can’t buy someone else.

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