Jonas Eidevall has said Arsenal will have to have a look at their recruitment strategy after ending a second successive transfer window a player short of what he had wanted.
“I think recruitment is key if you’re going to be a successful team,” the manager said before Sunday’s game at West Ham. “Last summer we got one player too little, and we did that again in January. So obviously there are things we need to look at in order to be better because over time these things have a big impact on how we perform and the ambitions we have.”
Arsenal sit third in the WSL, three points behind the leaders, Manchester United, and Chelsea in second place, but with a game in hand. Eidevall’s desire for a forward in January was heightened by the loss of Beth Mead and Vivianne Miedema to ACL injuries.
It was reported that Arsenal showed interest in Brazil’s Debinha and Canada’s Cloé Lacasse before making a world record bid for Manchester United’s Alessia Russo which was rebuffed.
Eidevall described the problem as being down to an “immature” transfer market, which makes it hard for clubs to lose players because they have a difficult time finding a replacement.
“We knew it would be tricky, but it was harder than we thought,” he said. “I think I was clear in the window that we needed another forward. We identified targets – I know the club worked hard – but it was a very difficult transfer window, not to find players to want to join Arsenal but to find clubs that want to sell quality players in this window. We were not successful, and of course we are disappointed with that. Now we have to look forward and make the best of the situation. I still have a squad with a lot of qualities, that I believe a lot in.”
Eidevall said Chelsea’s bid for Katie McCabe was not even entertained by club or player. “There was no chance of that happening,” he said. “That was a no-brainer, no question, and that’s not only with our response to the bid but also with my conversations with the player.”
He denied that any players had been set to leave beyond those who departed. Reports suggested Stina Blackstenius was among players offered to United as part of the deal for Russo.
“We were thinking about adding players,” said Eidevall. “Of course we were not in a position to talk about losing players, especially top players in top positions. My role is not to be directly involved in transfers – other people do that bit – but of course when it comes to key decisions, if a player is going to come to us or if a player is going to leave us, I’m very much involved and we were never at any point in this transfer window at a point of any other player leaving us than the ones that did.”
