As it stands, Arsenal has a 30-man 1st team training squad.
The 30-man figure includes Myles Lewis Skelly, Ethan Nwaneri, Max Dowman, Tommy Setford and Marli Salmon. All of whom, under Premier League rules, will not requiring registering.
That leaves Mikel Arteta with a 25-man “senior first team squad”. That is bang on the nose for the maximum amount of players we need to register.
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To cut a long story short, when Bruno Guimaraes signs, we need to sell to make the space for him.
As it stands, we have 16 non-home grown senior players and 9 home grown. That is a positive as it means we are not restricted by who we need to sell (or not register). The outgoing playing could either be Home Grown (HG) or Non-Home Grown (NHG). Remember, you may have no more than 17 NHG players in your squad.
The only minor headache comes is Bruno will take up a NHG player spot. That will result in us having to sell a NHG player further down the line if we want to make space for someone like Vinicius Jr.
Christian Norgaard is likely to join Everton in the upcoming days. By the time I hit publish that move might already be confirmed (as might the deal for Bruno). His departure is a good one as he takes up a NHG spot.
Norgaard out, Bruno in keeps the status quo. And then we are back to where we are now where we would need to sell either a HG or NHG player to make the space for Vinicius Jr (other left wingers are available). Not a hard task when we have players who are surplus to requirements.
The biggest issue for Arteta is not how many players he has registered, but how big the squad is. 30 is simply too many regardless of whether 5 need to be registered or not.
Over the rest of the summer, I think Arteta will look to get the squad down to 25 or 26. That will mean 6 or 7 exits after Bruno and a left winger sign.
Fabio Vieira, Reiss Nelson and Gabriel Jesus are the next 3 men after Norgaard whose heads are on the chopping board. They would take us down to 28. Management may also consider Marli Salmon as part of the first team squad – and the youngster may only do occassional training with the first team.
We would still need to sell two or three to bring that squad size down to 25 or 26. Gabriel Martinelli and Ethan Nwaneri are the most likely candidates. And maybe both.
Two coming in takes us to 32.Jesus, Vieira, Norgaard and Nelson drops us to 28.Salmon being a fringe player takes us to 27.
Martinelli and / or Nwaneri going takes us to 25 or 26.