Mikel Arteta and Edu were very active in last summers transfer window, and also off-loaded a whole host of peripheral players, and another five were disposed of in January with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Pablo Mari, Calum Chambers, Sead Kolasinac and Ainsley Maitland-Niles all parting company with the Gunners.
Arsenal fans were rightly worried that we were left with a threadbare squad and we were very vulnerable if we picked up just a few injuries. This has been proved true this week with the terrible news that Kieran Tierney won’t play again this season, and Thomas Partey has also set up camp in the treatment room again.
So it was little surprise that Arteta was asked by the Metro if he was expecting to be very busy again this summer, especially if we have the added games of a European competition, which seems very likely right now. Arteta said: ‘I am expecting so, yes.
‘I think both competitions [the Champions League and Europa League] require a much larger squad because the amount of games you play is much bigger in both, so I don’t think [which you qualify for] makes a lot of difference or changes a lot.
‘If you can financially afford it and we don’t have to do the turnaround in the squad that we’ve had to do, if you ask me what I want it’s 22 outfield players and three goalkeepers.”
Now that is a very interesting number because, having checked our official squad list, Arteta currently has 18 outfield players, and we all know that Elneny, Lacazette and Nketiah are set to be moving on, and hopefully William Saliba will be coming back from his loan at Marseille.
That means that we will need to have another six players come in, and I’m not sure that we can cover many of those spots with Academy players, although I would like to see Balogun improve enough to rejoin the squad.
But one thing is for sure, it is going to be a very exciting summer for Arsenal fans!
Admin Pat