1 Player In & 12 Out – How Arsenal’s Squad Is At Breaking Point

There’s 5 days left until the start of the season, and I don’t know about you but I can’t wait. Ever since the season ended it’s been a painful and tedious summer, where we’ve been linked with so many players and yet signed none (of note anyway). So at least the start of the new football season will be a welcome distraction.

So here we are. Currently in terms of our first team squad, we’ve signed one player (and bought none) released twelve and spent exactly zero pounds and zero pence.

The one signing we have made is Yaya Sanogo who was free from Auxerre. The twelve players we’ve released or sold (including loans out) are Andrei Arshavin, Denilson, Vito Mannone, Sebastian Squallaci, Andre Santos, Gervinho, Marouane Chamakh, Johan Djourou, Francis Coquelin, Joel Campbell, Craig Eastmond and Ignasi Miguel.

That is a lot of squad members to lose without buying anyone to replace them.

I know on Twitter there’s a graphic going around showing that we’ve actually released/sold  about 100 players but most of those were youth or reserve team members.

So in terms of players likely to be involved in the forthcoming season, our squad currently looks like this:

Goalkeepers
Wojciech Szczesny
Lukasz Fabianski

Full Backs
Bacary Sagna
Carl Jenkinson
Kieran Gibbs
Nacho Monreal

Central Defenders
Laurent Koscielny
Per Mertesacker
Thomas Vermaelen

Central Midfielders
Jack Wilshere
Mikel Arteta
Aaron Ramsey
Abou Diaby

Attacking Midfielders
Alex-Oxlade Chamberlain
Santi Cazorla
Tomas Rosicky
Ryo Miyaichi

Forwards
Theo Walcott
Lukas Podolski
Olivier Giroud
Yaya Sanogo

So after not including players like Nicklas Bendtner and Park Chu-Young who aren’t going to get a look in this season, then we have 21 players we can call upon for a whole campaign. Added to that, two of those players are injury prone (Diaby and Rosicky), another two have little or no Premier League experience (Sanogo and Ryo) and we have Theo, Ramsey, Vermaelen and Mertesacker reportedly out injured.

So to say the squad is threadbare at the moment would be an understatement.

We’ve had a decent pre-season and there have been some encouraging signs, particularly with the performance against Manchester City, but our squad is light on numbers. Technically speaking, we have a starting eleven which could probably compete with any team on the day but injuries to any of our key players and we would be in massive trouble. Arsene Wenger and Arsenal have done really well in offloading some of the dead wood in the squad but I thought we would at least make a few signings to ease the burden.

It has been widely reported that players such as Jack Wilshere, Mikel Arteta and Theo Walcott have publicly encouraged signings to the club but with 5 days of the season to go nothing has happened.

There’s still over two and half weeks to go in the transfer window but you would think that after seasons gone by we would have learnt our lesson and planned much better. The same point has been battered to death – why not get the players in early so they can settle into the club and squad so we can start the season in the best possible manner?

 

19 thoughts on “1 Player In & 12 Out – How Arsenal’s Squad Is At Breaking Point

  1. Let’s wait and c what will eventually happen in d next few days left, we dont need to talk as if we dont know our coach. I think he will still sign at least two to three players b4 d summer transfer finally closed.

     
  2. Tosh. In Arsene we rust. Sick and tired of being a club perennially ridiculed by others, and lied to by the board – having just renewed the most expensive season ticket in Europe. Once again, we hear “£70m to spend..”, then “We’ll buy big..” followed by “We’re a young squad..”, followed by “we don’t need anyone”. A threadbare squad that’ll be out the league contest by Christmas. A second string that’ll be out the League Cup in the quarters, an injured makeshift 1st team that’ll be defeated in the 5th round of the FA Cup. Great. Thanks again.

     
    • Andy Maxwell – ” In Arsene we rust ” ? Hey mate, that’s my catchphrase you’ve stolen ! But truly it has never been more relevant given the gross negligence and ineptitude that we’ve witnessed during this transfer window so far. Wenger has learnt ABSOLUTELY NOTHING from his previous fiascos. Even in the extremely unlikely event that we DO sign anyone, it has been yet another complete shambles, with seemingly no real plan behind any of our moves. Or should that be “rumoured moves”, as most of our supposed bids either have been denied, or it turns out that we didn’t even put in a bid in the first place ! Those that did have some substance to, Wenger stuffed up and let through his fingers ( and we know why, don’t we ? )

      The result of this ongoing circus ? Well let’s look at what happened in 2011 ; dithering and indecision left us underprepared, and we had our worst start to a season in 58 years !
      2012 ; Same scenario. No time for new players to settle in and gel. Equalled our worst start in 30 years.
      2013 ; Well what do you know ….. except this time we don’t have to worry, because we don’t even have ANY new players !

      Absolutely disgraceful. There are NO EXCUSES for this. What more can be said about Wenger than has already been said ? And many of you naively believed that because we have 70 – 100 million to spend, Wenger would change his ways ? Sack him and bring in a fresh face and a Director of Football to oversee transfer negotiations.

      ” In Arsene we rust.”

       
    • Andy Maxwell – How did you get suckered into renewing your season ticket ? Don’t you know Wenger and this board well enough by now, to know better ?

      ” In Arsene we rust.”

       
      • Please stop banging on about worst start since 999 BC. It is the end result that counts. Do you know more than the people paid to do the job ?

         
        • In reply to Austin
          WE certainly know better than you.I have watched that damn economist for years and witnessed how he the team was torn down by Manu because he thought that he had a strong squad. He believes only in keepimg the money for Stan, in fact, that’s what he is paid for.
          I guess your ambition is not about filling Stan’s pocket is it? but about winning a trophy, so how can you be so blind and foolish?
          The fu*****g **hole is no more coach, but a school headteacher developing talents.

           
          • And how many years have you been watching Arsenal, you spastic moron ?. Sometimes I wish people paid to post on forums, wasters like you would be weeded out

             
        • The point you are not getting Austin, is that the same pattern repeats itself year after year. This years is NO DIFFERENT, in fact it’s worse, because we are weaker now, despite Wenger having the financial resources to strengthen the thin squad that we have. So isn’t it reasonable to assume that with this same pattern manifesting once more, we can expect a similar start again. Are you happy with this incompetence ? “The end result is what counts” ? Haven’t you noticed the ENORMOUS points gap between us and the champions for the last two seasons ?

          Yet Wenger CHOOSES to rely on developing young kids ( “Project Youth” never really went away, did it ? ) and relying on what we have. That’s gambling recklessly YET AGAIN when there is NO NEED TO. Particularly so when we haven’t won ANYTHING for almost nine years !!! The man is an overpaid washed up fool.

          The fact that all this needs pointing out to you, tells me you’re either not very bright, or haven’t been following Arsenal for very long. Maybe both.

          ” In Arsene we rust.”

           
  3. Dat guy called arsene wenger is a very stupid man and he should be sacked.y cant he buy players b4 now?d earlier d beta

     
  4. You have left out frimpong who I am sure is lined up to replace coquelin and the 3 league starts he made last season. Whilst mentioning that of the 12 players you named above only 4 coquelin included actually started a league match last season. The other 3 being gervinho mannone and santos. Santos made his 3 starts before monreal arrived so his replacement has already bedded in. Mannone was 3 rd choice keeper he too has been replaced by martinez. Whilst gervinho who only started 12 league matches and a handful of cup games has been replaced by two players sanogo and ryo.

    Therefore having started only 23 players in the league and important champions league matches last season we have the same size squad. The 21 you listed above plus martinez and frimpong.

    Players like arshavin chamakh djourou miquel and squillaci made a handful of appearances between them all mainly as subs and will comfortably be replaced by the likes of bellerin hayden yennaris eisfeld gnabry olsson zelalem akpom and afobe.

     
  5. It has been a very long summer for Arsenal. Here we are five days to the start of the season and we are yet to sign a player apart from Sanogo who came in on a free transfer. It is very disheatening to say the least, the squad depth is thin. It is obvious we need a centre back, goal-keeper, defensive mid-fielder and a proven striker. For the team to make an impact this season, these positions must be filled. We have about two weeks to go, Arsene please do something. We MUST fill our cabinet with silverwares this season. Time is running out. …………..

     
  6. Wenger is a strange manager am sure he knew from the beginning that our squad was weak but what does he do nothing! you cant have 3 centre backs and expect to to compete in all competitions. Wenger’s contract should not be renewed. I also dont know how much he is paid from savings made as a result of not spending money meant for transfers. Wenger out. Laudrap in

     
  7. To me arsenal need a strong defensive medfider ( felani or gastavo) to strengten up the midfield and d defend as well. We fans ar just puttin blames on all those defenders in which i think we need to cast all the blames on arsene and the baord. They need to sign QUALITY PLAYERS!

     
  8. Hmm.. Arsenal fans! The best fans in the world, i now totally agree dat our main problem in dis club is mr.wenger. I dnt knw wat is wrong wit dis man, he dnt want to spend money, he has no respect for our(fans) feelings, he had rather make few ppl happy dan we the majority dat paid our money and risked our lives travelling week in – week out jst to watch our darling club playing. I thnk the tym has now come dat arsene wil resign and leave the post for fresh blood. Up gunners

     
    • Travelling week in week out from viewing centre in Bauchi or where ?. You better focus on Kano Pillars and don’t give yourself hypertension on top team wey no know say una exists

       

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