Arsenal Women coach Jonas Eidevall admitted that a big summer lay ahead for him and the club and admitted that the two previous windows ‘were not good enough.’ After both windows, the manager was public about his belief that the squad was not as big as it needed to be and that the club missed prime transfer targets.
This summer will be significant for the Gunners with Leah Williamson and Laura Wienroither out for the first half of the campaign and centre-half Rafaelle set to leave the club. January target Cloe Lacasse is back in the crosshairs and the club are chasing another big centre-forward target. Eidevall also admitted that a left-footed centre-half, with Rafaelle leaving, ‘is a big column in our Excel spreadsheet.’
“It has to be a very big transfer window for us. Especially given last summer and this winter transfer window, in mild words, it was not good enough for us. We didn’t get our acquired targets in the way that we wanted, so we have to get that right this summer.
“After Saturday is not the right time for me to switch off, we have some really important decisions to make and we have to get those in motion, both in regards to the final pieces of recruitment but also on how we need to work going forward.
“I would prefer to work on that a little after the final game and after that, I can switch off a bit.” Arseblog News asked about the futures of Jodie Taylor, who joined in March on a contract until the end of the season and Anna Patten, who has spent 18 months on loan at Aston Villa.
“Nothing that we can communicate at the moment with either of the players. We have had a nice change in our organisation with David Murphy coming in, both to work with us on recruitment and also managing our loans.
“He has been able to follow all of the players we have had on loan in a very detailed way and creating reports and being in contact with them much more regularly as well.
“That has been a huge development in our programme, but both of these are decisions we have to take after Saturday and not before.”
That’s good news about having someone focusing on the loaned players. I imagine it might be easy to feel forgotten about by your parent club. The human element in all this is very important. Everything crossed for the summer. It is music to my ears to hear that they are looking at *two* centre forwards – but I will be quite upset if Stina leaves. Two additional CFs, a deep-lying playmaker (ideally a midfielder/CB type) and a top quality left-footed CB. That player could also be someone like Leah who can play on the left equally well, despite being right-footed.… Read more »
I forgot Leah will miss most of next season as well! So that’s 2 CBs, ideally…
I guess we should sign about 5-6 quality players to cope better with potential injuries
This is my shoppinglist for this summer. Not all of them but some prospects I think they should look at. Amanda Ilestedt, PSG Diani, PSG Cecilia Salvai, Juve Amanda Nilden, Juve Julia Grosso, Juve Katja Snoejs, Everton Hanna Bennison, Everton Claire Wheeler, Everton Kyra Cooney-Cross, Hammarby Rosa Kafaji, BK Häcken This is players I think will fit in perfectly in Arsenal. Ilestedt and Salvai I would really like to get. Both are phsyical and athletic players. Diani can play everywhere in the frontline. She would be a dreamsigning. Then we have Cooney-Cross who will be one of the best CDM:s… Read more »
Here are all the left-footed centre backs that I can think of in the WSL:
Magdalena Eriksson (Chelsea)
Rafaelle Souza (Arsenal)
Alex Greenwood (Man City)
Danielle Turner (Aston Villa)
Gabrielle George (Everton)
Jasmine Matthews (Liverpool)
Megan Campbell (Liverpool)
Shelina Zadorsky (Tottenham)
Kerys Harrop (Tottenham)
Ashleigh Plumptre (Leicester City)
Gemma Evans (Reading)
For the other major European Leagues, I only know of Mapi Leon (Barcelona) and Paulina Dudek (PSG).
Gunners big needs are a left-footed centerback, for sure, and also a defensive mid and a winger. I’m very curious about the Miedema situation. I think switching her to the 10 position was largely a dumb waste of time and talent. And now with Maanum playing so well in the 10 position the situation is further complicated. Either way IMO Miedema needs to move back to goal-scoring CF role, and I’ll be curious to see how this plays out as I read that next year is her contract option year.
The boss said that the winter transfer winter was not good enough, Pelova was a master stroke and Kuhl will be a great player, tie them down to long contracts
Kuhl has been greatly underrated so far by fans,
suggest you watch Austria v Denmark first 10 minutes among other games, she has been compared to her team mate Harder
She is talented, wants the ball and rarely wastes it, she just needs playing time