Arsenal's squad and who plays in Europe next season
Next Post Coming Soon...
By Tony Attwood
I notice one or two people are writing about Kieran Tierney going back to Celtic on a free, and suggesting Arsenal are being robbed by this. “What a coup” for Celtic as the Telegraph puts it. And yet I think they have perhaps forgotten what Tierney’s injury record is like – and maybe also forget that the player still has to be paid even when not playing.
For between 2018/19 and the season just finished he has had 15 separate injuries. Now the latest hamstring injury was a big one and he was out of 160 days in 2024. But again in 2021/22 he was out for almost 100 days due to knee surgery. Back in 2019/20 it was again another injury taking him out for almost 100 days, that with a shoulder problem.
And so we hit the problem. If the player is up for sale is any club going to take him knowing his injury record?
Plus – how many players are going to want to come to Arsenal when they see just how many Arsenal players get injured in a season? Of course the point can be made that all clubs get injuries, but as we have seen this season, Arsenal get far more publicity in relation to injuries than other clubs.
So if you were a top footballer would you want to come to a club that was top of the injury league in 2024/25?
Maybe you would, thinking that injuries are caused the carelessness of players, and you would take more care. But then if you were thinking thatanother issue could spring to mind, which might arise if you saw the headline, “Arsenal slammed for ‘lack of manliness’ as ‘headless chicken’ Rice and ’embarrassing’ Gabriel hammered.”
That rather bizarre bit of writing comes from Football 365, as does ‘Arteta sack,’ suggesting headlines abound as Odegaard ‘blamed’ for non-existent change
And then you might spot Arteta brainwashingcomplete as Declan Rice makes up bullsh*t to excuse Arsenal after PSG defeat and by now you can guess where that comes from.
The fact is most clubs get a bit of knocking, (although Liverpool seem not to, no matter how they are doing) but Arsenal are way out in front most of the time when it comes to ultra-negative copy. Indeed, while almost every other club would revel in three consecutive second places in the Premier League after a trio of seasons of coming 8th and 5th, Arsenal and more importantly their players, are hammered all the time for not winning the League.
So irrespective of what the manager thinks and the club negotiators are saying, the fact that the same publication as cited above now tells us that it is “hardly a surprise” that Zinchenko is available for transfer, which of course doesn’t do anything to encourage a potential buyer.
Worse, these complaints go on with the clear implication that most of Arsenal’s purchasing techniques are useless. In other words – Arsenal is packed with players the club ought to unload but probably can’t or won’t.
So the list spells it out. The players who must be sold or even given away if they can’t be sold include, Tomiyasu. Nuno Tavares, Partey, Jorginho, Sambi Lokonga, Marquinhos, Nelson, Gabriel Jesus, Martinelli, Sterling, all must go.
That is nine players, all of whom they want to get out of the club.
Now to be fair we do have some players who are not listing in the 25 because of their youthfulness, players such as Ethan Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly.
So who else might we find? Marquinhos is only 22 and could be ready to step forward. Other names being mentioned are Max Dowman, Andre Harriman-Annous, Dan Casey, and Jack Porter, And of course the great thing is that they won’t count as being part of the “25”.
Of course Football London even today are saying that Arsenal will definitely be in the market for a striker, “having struggled in 2024/25 after lengthy injuries to Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus.” Which when you think about it, doesn’t make any sense if both players are under contract and have recovered or are recovering in time for next season. And I know no journalist will ever mention it but Arsenal were the third highest scorers in the league last season despite not having a centre forward much of the time.
Of course it could all be happening already as Football.London also says that they expect “two of Benjamin Sesko, Viktor Gyokeres, Rodrygo and Nico Williams” to join, not least because Arsenal have gained £177.8million in prize money this season. But they reckon Arsenal can’t pick up much from selling unwanted players (not least because of the way the press rubbish them, making clubs unlikely to be willing to pay, fearing a fan backlash if they do).
Roundabouts and roundabouts in fact.
Recent Posts
Arsenal's squad and who plays in Europe next season
Next Post Coming Soon...