Arsenal Women boss Jonas Eidevall has revealed that Brazilian winger Gio cannot play for Arsenal before January because she is not registered in the 25-player squad.
Gio signed from Barcelona last summer and spent the first half of last season on loan at Everton but was recalled in January due to Arsenal’s injury crisis.
Arseblog News’ information is that loan spells with Tottenham and Atletico Madrid were explored this summer though we don’t have the details about why neither move came off.
“The idea was very much for Gio to go on loan because the reality is that we can only register 25 players,” Eidevall told Arseblog News. “Gio is not registered to play for us. It is a tough situation for her as a player because she misses really valuable game time.
“It is a situation that doesn’t really benefit any parties and it’s something we need to address and look again in the winter so we find a solution that benefits both parties. As it stands at the moment, because of the regulations, Gio cannot play any games for us.”
The Gunners face Bristol City in the opening game of the Conti Cup group stage on Thursday evening and Eidevall revealed to Arseblog News that he will rotate his side, with players like Kathrine Kuhl, Lina Hurtig and Kyra Cooney-Cross having not featured much yet this season.
“It is a great opportunity for me to test new things and to see different players, of course we need to take that opportunity and I really look forward to that.
“With Laia Codina she came back from international duty with a little muscular injury. It is nothing serious but it rules her out tomorrow as well.”
Arseblog News asked Eidevall whether the size of his squad enabled him to take a “horses for courses” approach tactically this season with players selected in accordance with the tactical game plan for each team, as we covered in our weekly Arsenal Women newsletter.
“It is one way, to find roles and responsibilities that the team really needs. To understand different games have different contexts and that changes what the starting eleven and the finishing eleven looks like.
“I also think managing a squad is to understand that football is not static. People develop and we need to do that on a daily basis and the competition needs to be alive for positions and that is the other part.
“The third part is that we don’t build a squad where everyone does the same thing. Because that enables us to learn things from each other that we all benefit from.”
It would be good to see Gio play – I like her spirit and it will be a shame ot lose her.
That’s very unfortunate.
I like his comments about using the squad and everyone having different qualities to offer the collective. Really looking forward to seeing the lineup tomorrow.
The Gio disclosure seems most odd. If we can only name a 25 player squad to actually play. Why have 28 players, including Gio been named on every programme since the first fixture?
What was the point of registering Teyah, Laura and Leah as it was obvious that they aren’t going to be available to play until next year?
Teyah doesn’t need to be registered and she isn’t counted towards the 25. Leah has a chance to play before January. You can only make three additions in January so if you leave Laura and Leah out and bring them back in, that limits any signings you can make in January.
Are there any plans for January, Tim? Back up for Noelle is a must I would have thought and as you say in your Bristol preview Katie has played every game and Steph gets named even if she is still on a plane back from Oz so we could probably do with cover at left back too!
I don’t think LB is a priority with Steph, Katie and Noelle all able to play there to a high standard. I think there could be some GK merry-go-round in January in the WSL, just a case of whether Arsenal are involved in that. But I don’t anticipate much really, we already have 25 players registered, one of them would have to be sold to make room and I am not sure I see who that is. Maybe a loan for Kathrine Kuhl at most.
Trouble is Steph, Katie and Noelle would be expected to be starting 11 in most games anyway so we still don’t have dedicated back up for that position without using a player who should be due a rest.
The rules say you can use academy players. But does not define academy team eligibility.
Do young players reach an age when they have to be in the 25 to able to play
Why cant gio just play for the reserves for a season