Will the expected Premier League rule change affect Arsenal’s summer transfer plans? (Opinion)

The Premier League are expected to agree to allow five substitutions for next season after a number of clubs requested the return of the rule, but how will this affect Arsenal?

We are already believed to be hoping to bolster our squad in the coming window, with the focus tipped to be around bringing a striker and a central midfielder in, with another striker and/or a new right-back also tipped to be in our thinking.

This was before any new possible rule changes were being brought in, with the need to bolster our squad numbers ahead of a return to European football for next season, not that we have secured our place in a place in Europe as of yet.

Should we qualify for the Champions League as our current league position would permit, we will need a bigger squad to take on the challenge of both competitions, but we now have to figure out if the potential use of five subs in the Premier League will mean we have to further assess our transfer window.

Of course, the hope would be that the additional substitutes would allow further minutes for our young and upcoming future stars, with the likes of Charlie Patino, Zak Swanson and Giraud-Hutchinson all having warmed the bench more than once in the PL this term, but are yet to feature.

The likes of Chelsea and Manchester City are likely to profit due to having the larger squads in the division, while those at the bottom end of the table may get the brunt of it, but the fact that they are now expected to bring in the changes ahead of the new season means that clubs will have the opportunity to deal with their deficiencies in the pre-season.

Do you think Arsenal will change their transfer plans because of the rule change? Or would we already have been looking to bolster our squad sufficiently due to our likely European entry for the new term?

Patrick

Tags five subs

20 Comments

  1. Yes. If the substitution rule changes, I expect Arsenal to recruit the player types we don’t have

    Probably a 30+ years old towering CF to sit on the bench

    1. i doubt very much if it would affect transfer plans, we have a small squad atm, but we need atleast 2 first teamers to come in and back up for a few.
      depending on what happens with Laca, we would bring in 2 strikers and a midfielder, with another as back up, i cant see more that 5 players coming in regardless of the new sub rule

      1. I also don’t think we’ll sign many new players. As you said, we might get a backup CF if we win a CL ticket

  2. It definitely can when the academy players get their chance to come off the bench and impress then never looked back leading to not having to sign anybody for that position.

    1. 5 from 7 is fine, that way it fair to the lower teams.

      If it means Arsenal are to look at increasing the amount of signings, then the should surely be looking at the free transfer market. Just look at these offerings. Mbappe, Bellotti, Dyabala, Dembele, Kessie, Pogba, Lingard, Kamara, Eriksen, Di Maria, Christiansen, Rudiger, Gunter, Mazraoui, Onana

  3. Absolutely, Definitely , Positively not.

    I support this change whole heartedly and did wanted it to continue after it was first implemented.

    Teams like Chelsea, Man City and Palace will love the new changes and so too should we, my suggestion of two marquee defensive midfielders and two marquee forwards must not be compromise regardless of rule changes

    1. Imagine landing Mazraoui, Kessie and Mbappe for Free then nabbing Haaland for £64m. Obviously some severe selling would be required.

      Now that is carlsberg window. 4 players that would go straight into our first team thus strengthening our bench considerably.

      These two x1s would give most teams a fright

      Ramsdale
      (Turner)

      Mazaroui White Gabriel Tierney
      (Tomiyasu Holding Saliba Tavares)

      Odegaard Partey Kessie
      (SmithRowe Sambi Xhaka)

      Saka Haaland Mbappe
      (Pepe Balogun Martinelli)

      A man dream can’t he?

  4. It presents the opportunity to rest multiple players and avoid injuries (hopefully) and over-playing those we depend on.

    For example, we can sub Odegaard and replace with ESR and not lose much in productivity and give ESR valuable minutes. Also the same with Pepe subbing in for Saka or Martinelli.

    Also would be good for the back line; gives Tavares some game time and rests Tierney, and can rotate the back 3 with Saliba returning to keep them all fresh, sharp, and create some real competition between those 3.

    1. Durand,the question was about how it would affect our transfer plans!having said, you’ve mentioned the benefits of having 5 subs.

  5. The deliberately false idea that having 5 subs may well change our transfer strategy is too daft for serious comment. ITS NONSENSE, SO IGNORE IT.

    1. Jon
      You’re right that’s why I commented on a more pressing point about substitutions. As if we have the money of City and Utd to base our transfer plans on the additional subs alloted in a game.

      To answer that question, it is no. We didn’t dip into the market to increase our team in January, so why would Arsenal do it this Summer?

  6. I hope not.

    I am not a fan of this change in principle but haven’t seen any details yet, unnecessary and only really helps teams with bigger squads, the very teams that don’t need that help, an introduction of a change that could potentially help teams with smaller squads would make more sense to me in times when the rich get richer allowing them to buy surplus players because they can (Grealish going to City for example)

    On the basis that goalies only get subbed if badly injured that’s half a team you can change in one match!, get your team selection right in the first place and stand by it for that game would be my view, use your coaching & player management skills to improve things in a game and then change it for the next one if you think you got it wrong

    The original introduction of one substitute back in the day was to prevent the practice of bunging an injured player out on the wing, out of the way to keep the full team number intact but in doing so risking greater injury to that player, it made a lot of sense

    When it went to two the same etc but then we moved into the area of “tactical substitutions” was when it should have been addressed in my view

    There should be strings attached to the 5 in my opinion, 3 or 4 of which must be clearly injured to the ref or 4th official’s satisfaction in order to protect the player, head injuries being considered etc and no substitutions allowed in the last 10 minutes of a game as this is widely used to break up the opponent’s momentum or just as an all round time wasting tactic, but allow further substitutions if the game goes into extra time in cup games by all means, maybe the 5th one should only be allowed if there’s a goalie injury? and so on

    If players are just knackered they should still finish the game but be left out for the next one if the Manager chooses to do so to give them a rest, 95 minutes football shouldn’t make a player that tired in itself, if it does they probably weren’t fit enough to start and shouldn’t have been selected

    I don’t like the January transfer window by the way for similar reasons and think that Managers shouldn’t be sacked mid season either!

    Here endeth the rant

    Just my view

    1. You’re so right FF, and I wholly agree with you.
      I’ll surely never fancy this 5 subs whatever, and get really bemused as to why almost everyone wants it, and how happy they have been.

  7. Yes the rule may affect transfer in the summer but the manger and his amerndiments should sign the new strikers and mimidfielder to meet the comptition than realizing on racazete we will continue to the best losers 👍👍👍👍

  8. I think the new rule will and should benefit our Academy players. There are so many upcoming stars in our Academy, they will get much needed playing time. Our transfer policy can remain the same as was originally planned and the new rule should be used to give more playing time to Academy players. Having said that, the new rule is beneficial in the case of injuries or burn outs when more substitutes are required.

  9. It won’t. Now, I hope we get a midfielder to replace Xhaka, ST for Laca and bring back Saliba. If funds remain, I’d like another DM to challenge Partey.

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