Arsenal attacking midfielder Mana Iwabuchi will leave the club on the expiry of her contract. The Japanese international joined the club from Aston Villa in the summer of 2021 but struggled to carve out a place in Jonas Eidevall’s team.
Arsenal held a long-term interest in Iwabuchi under previous coach Joe Montemurro and the club completed the signing just after the Australian left. Iwabuchi was less a fit for Eidevall’s more aggressive, high-pressing style.
Iwabuchi made five appearances for Arsenal last season- all from the bench- and scored one goal v FC Zurich in the Champions League in the first half of this season before spending the second half of the season on loan at Tottenham. Iwabuchi’s contract expires this summer and player and club mutually agreed not to extend.
A real shame, as she certainly looked a good fit, before signing for us.
Hoping she finds the right team for her next.
So she looked better playing for other team rather then us. So she could not be posibly a good fit. But i hope all the best for Mana! She is a great player!!
Goodbye, Mana Iwabuchi.
I think she just isn’t a WSL type player. She also joined us at the wrong time – Joe Montemurro would have loved her, but she didn’t fit JE’s style. A misstep by the recruitment team and she really should have left last summer.
Very talented and experienced player, I hope she gets to shine at her new club.
Totally agree. I warned against her signature even before she joined when Joe was raving about her but she simply is not a player to cope with the way that the WSL has developed.
That said, she is a very talented player in the right set up and in the right league so I wish her success to make up for the disappointment of missing out on the World Cup.
The way it all ended kinda hurt as she’s one of my favourite female footballers, but she’s a good enough player that if she goes to the right team, that plays in a way that suits her, she’ll really thrive.
All the best to her.
She was a superstar of the women’s game before she joined. This really hasn’t worked out at all as expected. Given all the squad injuries I had expected she might have then had a few chances but it says something that we loaned her out, to Sp*rs of all teams. Best of luck to her wherever she ends up.
I watched right here a video of a goal she scored. Only Roberto Carlos could have scored such goal.
A talent no doubt but you cannot sign a player for 2 or 3 seasons on the basis of 1 goal. Mana has played for Aston Villa, Arsenal and that other North London team in the WSL and it is evident that for all her trickery she is not up to the buffeting you get in this league. How do you imagine she would deal with the “treatment” that is handed out to Meado or Katie week in week out? Being perfectly frank, the WSL is getting more physical by the season and you have to accept that she is… Read more »
Agree with you PST. The way the women’s game is currently ref’d, she had no chance. The bar on what is a foul is higher than in the men’s game. England beat Germany in the Euros final last year and the sides kicked lumps out of each other.
Gutted