Arsenal have completed the signing of Swedish forward Lina Hurtig from Juventus. Hurtig becomes the Gunners second signing of the summer after American goalkeeper Kaylan Mackerse.
The Gunners have been looking for a versatile forward to provide competition for the wide forward positions, as well as the centre-forward role with Vivianne Miedema now primarily considered a number 10.
Arsenal did initially target Brazilian winger Geyse earlier in the summer before she signed for Barcelona. With Nikita Parris sold to Manchester United and Tobin Heath leaving for OL Reign, there was a hole in the forward line.
Hurtig is a long-time international teammate of striker Stina Blackstenius and can play all across the front line. There is a fee involved though the £125,000 sum reported in the Italian press is inflated sources have told Arseblog News.
Hurtig recently signed a new deal with Juve, managed by former Gunners boss Joe Montemurro, but was keen to join Arsenal once their interest was known. The player flew to London on Wednesday to complete the deal.
“It feels so great – I’m very happy to be here,” said Lina. “I’ve always, always wanted to play in England, and I’ve always been interested in English football, so it’s super exciting for me to be here. I know Arsenal are a great club, with great players and lots of quality, so I think I will enjoy it here.”
Head Coach Jonas Eidevall added: “Lina is an excellent forward who will bring power and dynamism to our game. She has shone in the Champions League and international tournaments and we are delighted that she will be lining up for Arsenal moving forward.”
Head of Women’s Football Clare Wheatley said: “Lina was a key target for us this summer so we are pleased to have completed this signing. She is exactly the right profile of player for Arsenal and will add quality and experience to our squad.”
The squad fly to Germany for a pre-season training camp at the Adidas HQ on Friday, the intention for Hurtig to travel depending on her visa coming through. Hurtig will wear the number 17 shirt.
Welcome Lina. I hope you are successful at the mighty Arsenal 👍
Really good signing. Just the right profile. The very best of luck Lina!
On a tangent, but I still think Jonas Eidevall is too clever for his own good in playing Viv as a #10. She’s the best striker in the squad and I don’t see how she’s the best #10.
Here we go again! For far too long we relied on Viv to provide all of our goals and we won nothing! Look how she finished last season from the 10 position. She is playing with a smile on her face, she is involved in the game more, and she will still probably score double figures popping up from midfield positions. She wants to play 10, Jonas wants her to play 10, she will create more assists for the other forwards and the chances are she will sign an extension to her contract if she is happy and there is… Read more »
Was their a lot of discourse about it before? The only place I go is on here and there are never many comments on the articles, even then.
Personally I feel like what benefits the team is more important. Do Arsenal Women play better with Miedema as a #10 or as a centre forward? If it’s the former, fair enough, but if it’s just to keep her around, I don’t see the point.
This is nonsense. You don’t think she was smiling when she was scoring goals in bunches before last year and with The Netherlands for years? Looked like she was to me. I didn’t realize that scoring goals for Arsenal and The Netherlands actually made her unhappy! If she has been unhappy, it’s surely because the rest of the team has under-performed. Not enough dynamic play and scoring from the midfield. Not enough good service. We won nothing with her at striker? Remind me what Arsenal won last year with her at the 10? And how was Stina at the 9?… Read more »
Agree – Mr Fistfight may come to appreciate Viv at Number 10 as the new season progresses………..
Spot on once again Peter!
She’s said she’d rather get an assist than score a goal. I imagine #10 is where she wants to play, and getting her wish likely factored into her decision to stay at AFC. She has provided world-class assists already, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she becomes best #10 in women’s game.
She’s always been a 10 at heart. She’s never been one of those forwards who just live to score.
I’ve never heard her say she’d rather play the 10. It smacks of craziness to me because you’ve now got a CF who’s not as good as Miedema. This sounds much more to me Eidevall’s idea than Miedema’s–and how did Arsenal do last year with this change? in any case, we can only watch and see.
Viv Miedema exclusive: ‘I can’t do more to shut people up’ | OneFootball
She has said it several times.
She would probably not even be at Arsenal if we played her as a 9. Being able to play as a 10 is part of the reason she stayed.
I’m excited to see how Blackstenius gets on with Viv playing the through balls now they’ve had longer together….she was making the runs last season, but nobody seemed to notice. If Lina helps with this ….. Bring it on!
That’s a coup. Normally Juventus take out best players – Brady, Ramsey…
Nice to see !
I think we got them back when we signed Henry.
One could argue that he wasn’t their best player by far, at least they didn’t realise it. It was our transfer of the century, though.
A solid replacement for Keets and Tobin now we just need to sign Lia’s twin sister to bolster the defensive midfield and we should be good to go!
I was casting admiring glances towards Oberdorf throughout the Euros for that reason – can’t see it happening though somehow:(
Nor can I unfortunately. We can but live in hope!
After watching Georgia Stanway play Oberdorf roll for Bayern vs Barca this week I kind of wish we had signed her on a free earlier this summer
Not many Germans like to play out of FrauenBundesliga, I reckon is easier to convince Patri Guijarro, but not this year.
That is somewhat true. I can only think of 4 Germans who have played for us. We’ve had just as many Jamaicans! Leonie Maier, Tabi Kemme and Jo Henning are the easy ones to remember but Turid Knaak was also on the books for a short while I believe so it is not impossible if we can sell “the project” to potential players and back that up with some solid acheivements. BTW I never rated Stanway previously but I have to admit she had a very good Euros and I begin to see what her coaches knew she had all… Read more »
Guijarro would indeed be one hell of a signing
All the opposition will be hurting after playing us.
Interesting or perhaps not interesting fact.
Hurtig means swift and is an old soldiers name. It stems from the days everyone was called Olsson, Svensson, Persson and so forth so alternative names where applied for officers to be able to bark orders at specific individuals when needed. The names where decided by the officers and often related to traits.
While hose days are long gone the names live on. Examples:
Stark – strong
Rask – swift
Modig – brave
Frisk – healthy
Stolt – proud
Definitely interesting, so thanks.
Is Limpar also one of those names?
Not totally sure but I doubt it. Limpar is a very unusual surname.
I can tell you that Ljungberg means heather hill though. Mr Heatherhill to us.
Limpar is Hungarian. Anders Limpar’s father, Laszlo Limpar (1935-2019) fled Hungary in 1956 after the Soviet invasion.. He came to Sweden, met a Swedish girl and Anders was born in Solna, outside of Stockholm, in 1965.
Further research shows that Limpar actually means “Slayer of Mugsmashers”.
https://youtu.be/NVTayts24pM
Hi again Emi- if you take the 2 parts of the name Limpar you might get a good result as well.
Lim – Glue
Par- Pair
A couple glued together? Sorry – I know where the door is…
It is not. Limpar is partly hungarian descent and the namn comes from there. However, ‘limpar’ (with a different pronounciation than his actual name), ironically means ‘limping’.
Sounds like you’re Scandinavian,mate. Maybe I can add one to the list:
Klog – Intelligent. A combination of Hurtig + Klog might make an absolutely devastating football player! Fingers crossed for 3 wins on the trot tomorrow..
Great signing. If she lives up to what her name means in the other Scandinavian language,Danish, she’s going to cause opponents big problems. ‘Hurtig’ means ‘Fast’. C’mon Lina….
The most convoluted discussion lve seen on here. Interesting though 😁
Like a Quentin Tarantino script…
Well while there is no football to talk about we can get into onomastics!
Learn something every day an ex-boss once told me!