Arsenal Women boss Jonas Eidevall says investments the club has made in recruitment behind the scenes led to a far more serene transfer window this January than past windows.
Following the summer of 2022, Eidevall was public about the fact that he was not able to recruit to the level that he wanted and that the club needed to reviews its practices.
The Gunners signed three players in January 2023 and five players in the summer of 2023, partially after playing ‘catch-up’ on the back of a poor summer 2022 window. This month, Emily Fox was able to join the team in the first week of January, while Noelle Maritz was sold to Aston Villa in the opening days of the month too.
Kathrine Kuhl was also loaned to Everton in the first half of the month. While Sarah Bouhaddi did not officially join until the end of January, the agreement for her arrival was sealed much earlier in January. Arseblog News asked Jonas Eidevall whether the club were now better prepared for transfer windows, giving them more an air of serenity.
‘We are not looking for quantity we are looking for quality,’ Eidevall explained. ‘We have been investing heavily in the background on our recruitment team. That doesn’t take effect in the first week, you have people in the building but it has really positive effects now.
‘We can be really proactive with our squad planning and we are able to do things much earlier than we have been able to do before. I hope the feeling of us being frantic is not there anymore.
‘But also for us a club we want to do business as early as possible. Both to have people settle in but also to work long-term, that is the plan and we are at a much better stage now than we were two and a half years ago.’
January signing Emily Fox is one of three players, along with Canadian duo Cloe Lacasse and Sabrina D’Angelo, who could miss games in February and March due to the CONCACAF Gold Cup. Arseblog News asked Eidevall whether that trio of players would be available for the match with Manchester United on 17 February, scheduled a few days before the start of the tournament.
‘The formal dates when an association can demand their players is set in FIFA regulations and that comes the Monday before the Man United game. Then it is a discussion with the different associations that can call up players to see what best for the players, the national team and the club.
‘That is not a straightforward answer, different associations might view that differently. We will communicate that when we know.’
Better transfer management at Arsenal all round since the dark days of Raul. The post Wenger rebuild pretty much complete now. I know the women’s side is pretty separate, but the ethos of both teams and their management must rub off on one another.
We just need to convince USWNT that they are strong enough without Emily for at least the Utd game. She will destroy their defence given the chance!
We’ve got cover at the back for Emily, and plenty of attacking options. United will probably be losing Jayde Riviere, and their cover at the back is thinner than Skinner’s chances of keeping his job.