Blame the Euro’s, bad weather and both my personal and work life being ultra busy right now (and one too many holidays)! My annual review always takes a day or so to research and right.
As with previous years, the yearly report will highlight exactly where the squad is ahead of the new season, taking into account home grown requirements to register players.
Normal rules apply:
• Clubs can register up to 25 senior players in their A list
• Of which no more than 17 can be “non-home grown (NHG)”
• To be considered home grown (HG), a player must have been registered to an English (or Welsh) clubs for 3 entire seasons before the season he turns 22
• Players born before 01/01/2003 do not need to be registered in the A list
The first thing that is very obvious is that in the current first team squad, we have no players aged under 01/01/2003. that means we have no “bonus” players that do not need to be registered.
What will be interesting as the summer goes on is if some current academy players are promoted to the first team, replacing senior players.
Personally, I am not too concerned about the lack of bonus players. Most top clubs tend to only use 22 or 23 players regularly regardless of whether they are registered are not. All this means for Arsenal is that our first team squad will all be aged over 21 for the first time in decades.
There are 26 players listed above. That means we are in a position where we need to sell before we can buy.
If we buy before we can sell, we are in the situation of a couple of years ago where we either have to dump players on the cheap, or have to leave them unregistered. Buying before we sell will leave us in a poor position to negotiate.
We are not short on players that could be heading for the exit:
Kieran Tierney
Nuno Tavares
Thomas Partey
Albert Sambi Lokonga
Aaron Ramsdale
Emile Smith Rowe
Eddie Nketiah
Reiss Nelson
I would not be surprised if all 8 of the above listed names depart. That would bring our squad size down to 18. Four new signings then take us back up to 22, with the rest of the squad being made up of the likes Ethan Nwaneri, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Chido Obi (who do not need to be registered).
We currently only have 15 NHG players. That means when it comes to incomings, we can sign at least two without infringing the 17 man NHG rule. Further NHG can come in Kieran Tierney, Nuno Tavares, Thomas Partey and Albert Sambi Lokonga.
I would expect at least 3 of those above to go, with Partey the only one that might remain. And if Partey does stay at the club, we are unlikely to sign a new midfielder.
If all 8 names mentioned above do depart, we then have 11 NHG players and 7 HG. for all intents and purposes, we could then 7 new players not from these shores and still be within the rules!
What is more likely is we buy one HG player (the back up keeper), and then the other 3 or 4 signings being either NHG or HG. We really have zero concerns in this area.
Where we are operating a bit different from previous years is we are in no rush to sell most of the potential outgoing players.
Mikel Arteta is likely happy with Nketiah as 3rd choice, Ramsdale as back up keeper, Smith Rowe as 4th choice on the wing and Partey as back-up DM. that means players will only depart if our valuation is met.
As for players coming in, it will be one in, one out:
A striker to replace Nketiah
A winger to replace Smith Rowe
A midfielder to replace Partey
A keeper to replace Ramsdale
The other 4 on the list (Tierney, Tavares, Lokonga, Nelson) contributed so little last year so do not need replacing.
0 Comments