In a draw that’s sure to make Rick B happy, Arsenal will be travelling to Eastern Europe, as it’s either Dinamo Zagreb of Croatia, or Ekranas of Lithuania that will be the Gunners’ 3rd Qualifying Round opponents.
Dinamo Zagreb are the more likely of the two, as they currently lead Ekranas 4-1 after their first leg match earlier this week.
There has been a lot written about the implications of the new Champions League eligibility rules and the effect on Arsenal. Most of it, including my own contributions has been ill-informed and poorly researched. I have finally got around to looking into it and was surprised at what I found.
Article 15.02 states that “Each Club is responsible for submitting an A list of players and a B list of player, duly signed to its national association for validation and forwarding to UEFA. List A is confined to 25 players but List B is unlimited.” It is most important to consider who qualifies for List B as that means you don’t have to include them on List A.
Article 15.14 states “A player may be registered on List B if he is born on or after 1 January 1985 and has been eligible to play for the club concerned for any uninterrupted period of two years since his 15th birthday by the time he is registered with UEFA.” Having consulted the list of first-team players on Arsenal.com, I believe the following players are eligible to be listed under List B – the first date is date of birth, the second date is date of joining Arsenal (d/m/y).
I was surprised to learn how few friendlies we had planned to get us ready for the coming season.
I am aware of the high level of World Cup activity, however only one player made it to the final and one other was part of the final week.
I think it could be a dangerous tact using the CL qualifiers as friendlies. It will be difficult getting players up to speed as we can’t sub 8 players in the game, only 3. I am sure ALL three will be used in both legs; I can assure you that.
OK, so this is the first time in ages we have had to qualify for the CL, since in the past, we’ve either won the league or come second.
The personnel changes have not been that great yet. When you consider that Pires, Bergkamp and Sol have left, Ashley Cole might leave, and Senderos is out for a month, basically half of the first XI will be new(ish).
Friendlies are a way for players to get their match fittness and sharpness back. None of the main starters have played and may only get 45 mins before an important CL qualifier against a team whose league might already be up and running.
Some of the kids who are playing in Austria, despite giving it their all, still won’t break into the first XI this year, not even in the Carling Cup. Why do we need to see them/ play them?
There is also a week between the two games in Austria, what is that about? I am sure we could fit another one in, especially as we have such a large squad out there.
Make no mistake we need to qualify for the CL knock out stages, both for money and prestige.
We could play someone like Osasuna, who are not too bad, and would not have had 18 players at the world cup.
We also want to win the league this year. We need the new team to be defined and to gel together ASAP.
Lastly the sale of Cole and any new signings will mean that the first XI could change even more before the season starts in earnest, and playing around with the back four will mean that we could be exposed.
I would much prefer AW to do all of his buying and selling before the squad comes back for pre-season so everyone knows who they will be playing with.