Arsenal’s 25 man squad, and how it will accomodate the under 21s as they move up.

 

 

• Arsenal are top of the big seven league, but guess who is bottom.
• How Arteta built a new Arsenal and took us to the top of the league.

By Sir Hardly Anyone

Each Premier League squad can contain no more than 17 players who do not fulfill the “Home Grown Player” criteria. The rest of the squad, up to a total of 25 players, must be “Home Grown”.

Arsenal have seven home-grown players and 14 non-home-grown in the current squad, which of course means three places are clear for either type of player, but if a fourth is signed one of them must be home-grown.  Here’s the list of players with the home-growns marked HG.

1. Alves Soares, Cedric Ricardo
2. Dos Santos Magalhães, Gabriel
3. Elneny, Mohamed Naser Elsayed
4. Fernando De Jesus, Gabriel
5. Ferreira Vieira, Fabio Daniel
6. Holding, Robert Samuel (HG)
7. Igaba-Ishimwe, George Lewis
8. Nelson, Reiss (HG)
9. Nketiah, Edward Keddar (HG)
10. Odegaard, Martin
11. Partey, Thomas Teye
12. Ramsdale, Aaron (HG)
13. Sambi Lokonga, Albert-Mboyo
14. Smith, Matthew Gerrard (HG)
15. Smith Rowe, Emile (HG)
16. Tierney, Kieran
17. Tomiyasu, Takehiro
18. Turner, Matthew
19. White, Benjamin (HG)
20. Xhaka, Granit
21. Zinchenko, Oleksandr

The under-21s list for this season is an astounding 68 (yes sixty eight) players long.  Now as I don’t watch the youngsters play I’m not the right person to comment on this but among the list of 68 players we have Folarin Balogun, Ben Cottrell, Marcelo Flores, Karl Hein, Tyreece John-Jules, Charlie Patino, Bukayo Saka, and William Saliba.

Out on loan we have Pepe, Tavares, Maitland-Niles, Mari, Trusty, and Runarsson.

Of course, the media when talking about Arsenal bringing in new players, never consider the implications of the 25-player rule, because it is much more fun for them to blame Arsenal for dithering about transfers, not offering enough etc etc.

But let’s try and do this sensibly, and work out how these numbers are going to progress.

We have 21 players, and I think we can take it that these are by and large fundamental to Arteta’s vision for the club.  Out on loan are six players, and I suspect that Tavares might well come back to the club after his current loan spell with Marseille.  He has after all played 14 games for Marseille this season already,  Tavares is already over 21 so, he will count in the numbers if he does return.

Auston Trusty is another interesting player – he joined us on the last day of the January transfer window this year and was immediately loaned back to Colorado Rapids (owned by Kroenke Sports) from whence he came.  This season he is on loan to Birmingham where he is a regular member of the first team having played 21 games this season.  He is 24 so if he comes to Arsenal he would again count in the numbers.

So we have 21 first-teamers which gives us four spaces two of which will in due course be taken up by Bukayo Saka, and William Saliba turning 21.  Charlie Patino looks to have a bright future at Arsenal, but he won’t be over age for a while, so he won’t be counting in the numbers.  But with Saka and Saliba we are up to 23 players.

Aside from Auston Trusty, also out on loan is Folarin Balogun who is doing really well at Reims being currently level with Lionel Messi in the top scorers charts for the French Ligue 1 with eight goals from 14 games.  He is now 21, so again would count in our 25 players list if he comes back to play for us.  

And that takes us to 25 for next season, so no room for any more signings without moving on players.  Here’s the expanded list.

1. Alves Soares, Cedric Ricardo
2. Balogun, Folarin
3. Dos Santos Magalhães, Gabriel
4. Elneny, Mohamed Naser Elsayed
5. Fernando De Jesus, Gabriel
6. Ferreira Vieira, Fabio Daniel
7. Holding, Robert Samuel (HG)
8. Igaba-Ishimwe, George Lewis
9. Nelson, Reiss (HG)
10. Nketiah, Edward Keddar (HG)
11. Odegaard, Martin
12. Partey, Thomas Teye
13. Ramsdale, Aaron (HG)
14. Saka, Bukayo (HG)
15. Saliba, William
16. Sambi Lokonga, Albert-Mboyo
17. Smith, Matthew Gerrard (HG)
18. Smith Rowe, Emile (HG)
19. Tierney, Kieran
20. Tomiyasu, Takehiro
21. Trust, Auston
22. Turner, Matthew
23. White, Benjamin (HG)
24. Xhaka, Granit
25. Zinchenko, Oleksandr

As we have noted, which of these players will be moved on is not seen by the media as part of its remit when suggesting who Arsenal are about to buy.  But maybe it should be.

And there is one other point.  Arsenal find it easy to recruit youngsters because they are seen as a club that will always give talented youngsters every chance.   Smith Rowe and Saka are perfect examples – and the ability of Reiss Nelson to fight his way back into the squad backs up this notion..  But if we start pulling in big name big cost transfers at the expense of talented young players already in the squad, that would over time harm our image.

As it turns out moving on the likes of Aubameyang and Ozil in the end did us no harm at all but memories can be short, and we do need to keep showing that we are a club that brings through and nurtures talent rather than a club that prefers to spend big and ignore the youngsters.

• The big seven minileague – and  the form.