Arsenal Women’s Eidevall only has 2 weeks to get his squad right! by Michelle
Well, how well do you know your Arsenal women’s history? Do you remember back between 2012/13 and the start of the 2013/14 seasons when the club lost 12 quality players: Becky Spencer, Gilly Flaherty, Steph Houghton, Yvonne Tracy, Jen Beattie, Katie Chapman, Gemma Davison, Kim Little, Jayne Ludlow (retired), Lauren Bruton, Julie Fleeting, and Ellen White? They left due to a rule where only three players had to earn above £20,000 (so they were leaving to be one of the three in the different clubs) and the arrival of not-so-loved Shelley Kerr as the head coach. Some fans believe if they hadn’t left and had continued to play together, they would have seen the club effortlessly win the FA WSL 2013/14 league title, which Liverpool won.
Imagine such a thing happening now: 12 first-team players to suddenly leave. How disappointing that could have been! Thankfully, nothing like that is happening. The Arsenal women now have one of the best coaches in the world, and women’s football has more than developed over the years, including the remuneration for players.
Unlike the mass Exodus 10 years ago, now the desire at the club is to recruit quality players, have a large and quality squad depth, and have enough options to flourish even when injuries strike. As Jonas Eidevall admitted towards the end of last season:
“This season has been tough with injuries, of course. Injuries are one factor [for not having success]. Player availability is a really important KPI if you’re going to be successful. We need to have a deeper squad in order to deal with those situations. You can see with Chelsea, they’ve been able to use their squad in a very deep way.”
The WSL transfer window opened on June 26th and closes on September 14th. Arsenal Women have already secured the signatures of Swedish defender Amanda Ilestedt, Canadian forward Cloe Lacasse and England striker Alessia Russo. Arsenal are also reported to have secured a deal, with Barcelona, for Spanish World Champion defender Laia Codina, which should be announced very soon.
So will we see one or two more additions to Eidevall’s squad? Arsenal are reported to be amongst several clubs who are interested in signing Portuguese midfielder Tatiana Pinto.
Arsenal are also rumoured to be interested in 25 year old American Sarah Luebbert, who is a professional footballer that plays as a winger for Liga MX Femenil side Club América.
Arsenal Women will be in action on 6th September, against Swedish side Linkoping, in the UWCL qualifiers. I wonder if we’ll see any of our new recruits on the pitch?
The WSL openers are on Sunday 1st October – Arsenal will play Liverpool at Emirates – a match for which 35,000 tickets have already been sold. Have you got your tickets?
COYGW!
Michelle Maxwell
Follow Michelle on Just Gooner Women on Twitter for regular updates on the Arsenal Womens Team!
Do you want to read more about the Arsenal Women’s Team? Click here….
