19 new squad numbers announced- does van den Berg have a future at Arsenal after all?
Arsenal have announced their 44-man squad for this season’s Champions League with many reserve players making the cut. Thomas Cruise, Sanchez Watt, Wojciech Szczesny, Francis Coquelin have all been given numbers for the first time, whilst several players who were included in last year’s squad have also been given new numbers. There was one suprising inclusion, with Dutch winger Vincent van den Berg being handed the no.54 shirt, despite reports suggesting that he had left the club. New signing Amaury Bischoff is not in the squad, but injured duo Tomas Rosicky and Eduardo are. Scroll down to see the list of players who have been included from outside the first-team squad.
33.Nacer Barazite
34.Kyle Bartley
35.Francis Coquelin
36.Thomas Cruise
37.James Dunne
38.Jay Thomas
40.Kieran Gibbs
41.Gavin Hoyte
42.Henri Lansbury
43.Fran Merida
44.Rhys Murphy
46.Abu Ogogo
47.Mark Randall
49.Paul Rodgers
50.Jay Simpson
51.Rene Steer
53.Wojciech Szczesny
54.Vincent van den Berg
55.Sanchez Watt
I read some interesting news that Marc Overmars is gonna come out of retirement to play for Go Ahead Eagles again, possibly alongside van den Berg.
Surely he can’t make it at Arsenal with van Persie, Ade, Bendtner, Vela, Barazite, Simpson, possibly Theo etc all ahead of him.
Does any one know why Bischoff has not been included? He was said to be a new signing after all.
bischoff has been out for a long time with injury problems and is slowly working his way back to fitness. strange how eduardo is in and he isn’t though.
the official website says Bischoff has a squad No. of 28
This might well just be a list of the reserve team squad in alphabetical order, sent to FIFA for admin purposes. It also contains Rene Steer and James Dunne, who some of you have speculated about leaving.
It is strange to have not seen Van Den Berg in pre-season though. He is listed as no longer on loan on the Go Ahead Eagles website. Although he still appears on the Arsenal website.
ya!! but van den berg is a good young talent he should be made better at the end of the day
dunne and steer are definitely staying-for at least one year but van den Berg didn’t appear at this year’s reserve team photocall although if player’s have been released arsenal would have usually deleted his profile by now, especially as the website relaunched today.
Amaury Bischoff is in the first team page on the official site… with the 28 shirt no.
Where’s Nordveit?
he’s not in the squad but i’m sure he will be added in when you can submit more players in january-providing we’re still in the champions league of course.
I’m surprised Djourou and Traore are on the B-list when Bartley, Mérida and Coquelin are on the A-list. Technically, that means Bartley would have to get picked ahead of Djourou, as the B-list is an ‘emergency’ list.
wheres nordveit and sunu ?
where can i see the A-list and B-lists? are there any official links?
This may have something to do with eligible players. Perhaps we have to have a certain number of “home grown” players in the squad, so we are fleshing it out with the (mostly English) reserve and youth players.
Where can one find this squad?
The missing bods might be going on loan.
fabregas is on the b-list as well, nothing to do with ability.
We can submit any amount of players on the CL list. The rules are no more than 17 players can be named that have not either a) come through our own acadaemy or b) come through another academy in this country. So far we have named 16 players of this nature the other 28 all fit either a) or b) criteria. Wenger has purposely left one space free in case we sign someone before the deadline 31/08/2008. Additionally he can add 5 more players to the list before the end of the January Window. They will be No.28 Bischoff, No.39 Fonte, No45 Nordveit, No48 Rasmussen and No.52 Sunu. At least we all know that there will only be one more signing before End of Window – MAXIMUM anyone for a swiss roll?
By the way No.32 is going to Luke Ayling when he can sign a contract on his 17th Birthday 25th August. Eastmond already 17 and Blackwood 17 next week are unlikely to be offered pro contracts now. You will notice that 32 – 55 is every pro in the squad in alphabetical order. Numbers 13, 18, 23, 29 will remain free although 18 will probably go to the new signing, I think 23 is Botelho’s if he returns this season and 29 is Gilbert’s if he returns this season’s.
thanks for clearing that up, bc
You can have up to 25 players on the A list. 4 places on the list are reserved for club trained and 4 for club or association trained. You can have as many as you like on the B list but to be eligible for the B list a player must have been born on or after 1 Jan 1987 and been available to play at the club for 2 continuous years. It looks like loan spells away from the club don’t count for this and so that is why Bendtner is on the A list rather than the B list
Does anyone of you know why Gilles Sunu, Havard Nordtveit, Rui Fonte are not included in the list? I think those three name are better player than some name on the list…
Bischoff was handed Shirt 28 after his signing so no need for his inclusion.
perhaps those players will be loaned out ???
I believe that Van der Berg is on a loan to FC Zwolle, also a dutch second division club. (At least they are rumours about in here in Holland
)
I am hoping someone will get in touch with the webmaster or someone at Arsenal, to correct a blatant error.
Coquelin’s date of birth has been stated as August 12, 2008. Surely, this has to be a mistake
http://www.arsenal.com/reserves-youth/players/francis-coquelin
well havard nordtveit has only been at the club for 1 year. What about wilshere and ramsey.Are they on th list?
Look at the arsenal web page – it has bischoffs number
Great Story. Thanks for sharing.
If you look – all the numbers from 33 to 55 are given in alphabetical order (going from Barazite to Watt). But there are also some missing – 39, 45, 48 and 52. Looking at the surnames of players in the reserve squad not in this list, and the order they come in, you can give these numbers as:
39. Rui Fonte
45. Havard Nordtveit
48. Jonas Rasmussen
52. Gilles Sunu
All of these would fit in the alphabetical order. All of them are foreign – maybe that is why they are not included inthe B squad? Because you have to have a certain number of English ones in there?
i think you’ve got it sussed there, jq.
could any of the non mentioned ones be in the a-list?
i checked it, they’re not on there.