{"id":13648,"date":"2026-06-20T19:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T18:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=13648"},"modified":"2026-06-26T05:39:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T04:39:47","slug":"a-year-and-a-squad-to-remember","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=13648","title":{"rendered":"A Year And A Squad To Remember"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Prologue<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I received the request to do this piece I was in the middle of a horribly complicated wrangle with Virgin Media who, on 8th May, right before the final, season defining three weeks of the season, accidentally disconnected my services. All of them. Internet, TV, landline (not that I\u2019ve had one plugged in for years) – the lot ! In fact, as a result, I hadn\u2019t received the original request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I eventually spotted the \u2018memory jogger\u2019 request, I misread it in haste as a brief to pick out the outstanding performers of the season. One of the few serious points I have often made in this bar is that I am loathe, considering the team ethic that Mikel Arteta has fostered in the club, to ever pick out a Man of The Match. Every player in this team, and this squad, is so dependent on all the others, I feel it makes individual awards unfair and even a bit redundant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having subsequently re-read the brief, I was both relieved and simultaneously perturbed to discover it was a good deal farther reaching than that. A squad review detailing \u201cWho was outstanding, who disappointed and the most noteworthy improvements this year.\u201d To quote Scooby-Doo, \u201cYikes!\u201d – this requires TTG levels of summarising skill. And I\u2019m afraid that for all of you who like your football articles to contain lessons in classic literature and ancient history, Scooby-Doo is all you\u2019re getting from me!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Disappointments<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t think anyone in the squad has been a disappointment per se. The great strength of the squad has been the spirit, the togetherness and the genuine warmth this group have demonstrated towards each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have felt disappointed for a number of players because their playing time and contributions have been seriously curtailed by injury. Those that fall into this category would be – number of games in (x) – Gabriel Jesus (13), Kai Havertz (24), Mikel Merino (14), Ben White (9), Martin Odegaard (13), Riccardo Calafiori (9), and Jurrien Timber (8). Add to that a cautionary note concerning Max Dowman who was also unavailable for 13 games with the ligament injury he suffered – a good reason to be extremely careful when considering playing a 16 year old against cynical old professionals. I have concentrated on those injuries that have caused successive weeks of unavailability. They add up to a total of 103 weeks and that is a lot of talent to have missing from the squad over a season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess this section would also have to include Christian N\u00f8rgaard. It\u2019s fairly clear that the manager decided he was not at the required level to rotate in midfield – a pity because it would have enabled Martin Zubimendi to pace himself better over the season and not suffer the dip in form caused by a relentless first term in English football. It should be stressed here that Zubimendi proved a tremendous addition to the team, allowing Declan Rice to progress more into his \u201c8\u201d role knowing that the back door was securely guarded (no, don\u2019t titter, Missus!). It should also be noted that the manager and players have made the point that N\u00f8rgaard, despite his lack of playing time, has been a tremendous example to the squad in terms of the standards he sets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I really have to be critical in a title winning season, I would say Noni Madueke has disappointed me. He clearly has ability and, hopefully, his second season will see him come good but, after all the step overs and feints, his final delivery has often been poor. And I absolutely hate to say I fear this could be the end of the road for Gabriel Martinelli. I\u2019m not sure left wing is his best position. He is not a tricky player and being marked by a touch line does him no favours. His pace is his greatest strength but going round the outside and ending on his weak foot renders his end product underwhelming too. He has seldom to never been deployed through the middle – where I personally think he is best suited – but I suppose there must be a reason for that. He has a tremendous work ethic and has been here so long he is one of our own. A thoroughly likeable, genuine member of the squad. I would love to see him still here but if the club is looking to strengthen the attacking department of the squad, I do feel only one of Martinelli, Jesus and Trossard will survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Most Notable Improvements<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My own first nominee for this award is Viktor Gy\u00f6keres. He eventually arrived last summer for a reported fee of \u20ac64 million with a phenomenal goal scoring record behind him in Portugal, no pre-season and, it must be said, a fair amount of scepticism that he would be able to transplant his skill set directly into the higher class environment of the Premier League. For a good while it seemed the sceptics were right. He looked slow, clumsy and weak in the challenge, lacked ball control, failed to hold the ball up or bring other players into the game and, to my memory, only scored either against the weaker sides in the Premier League, from the penalty spot, or in the more comfortable conditions of the Champions League. If Gy\u00f6keres was the answer to our goal scoring problems, what on earth had been the question?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It looks quite clear now that the newly recruited Gabriel Heinze has been of massive benefit to Gy\u00f6keres over the season. Apart from improving his sprinting speed, he now has a totally different attitude to how he receives, controls and holds the ball up. It starts with a determined step across his centre back locking him in place with his arms, a step and push backwards to clear a yard of space in which to control the ball and provide the vision of where his team mates are. He has begun to integrate far better into team play and has accumulated a total of 21 goals across the season which is a very decent first season return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My next two suggestions might surprise a bit in this category. They are Leandro Trossard and David Raya. I have to admit to being a little disappointed and quite surprised when Trossard was offered significantly improved terms on his contract before the start of the season. I thought he had looked past his best the season before, only really impressed as a substitute and generally, much like a prawn cocktail, disappointed as a starter. As it transpired, the new season found him in much better form. Despite a dip in form in the second half of the season, he turned in twelve goals in all competitions, worked really hard and proved a valuable squad member considering the long absences of Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz, and the unfortunately underwhelming form of Gabriel Martinelli.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Raya had clearly made himself a very obvious first choice before last season. However, I thought he scaled even greater heights last term, pulling off saves that earned the team several highly valuable points. When he first arrived he was, by his own admission, quite nervous about stepping into a team where expectations were at a different level to his previous clubs. He was also replacing a fans favourite in Aaron Ramsdale and in his first season he often looked quite jittery, seemed to unsettle the defence to me and took up some very odd positions between the posts. Last season though he built even on the season before. He plays as a sweeper keeper and is an integral part of how the team plays out from the back. He is now regarded by many as the best in the world. We have come to regard the truly exceptional as almost the norm now as David Raya looks practically unbeatable. (Except on penalties, shh!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Outstanding<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could almost list the whole of the rest of the squad in this section. The obvious choices would be Declan Rice, Gabriel Magalh\u00e4es, and William Saliba who were inexhaustible at the core of the defensive formation on which the title bid was built. Gabriel also made a fantastic contribution to the attack, creating havoc at our anti-football set pieces although I was surprised to see that he only scored four times across all competitions during the season. It seemed a lot more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to mention Martin Zubimendi again here too. C100 referred to him earlier in the season as a \u201cSwiss gold watch of a player\u201d, a phrase that has stuck in my head since. His quality absolutely shone through at the beginning of the season as his defensive covering helped to release Declan Rice to go forwards whenever possible. He was available for the whole of the season although it\u2019s physicality eventually took its toll on him, requiring some time for him to recover during the final few weeks. That, in turn, led to the emergence of the first of my three, intentionally possibly less obvious, main nominations for this section – Myles Lewis-Skelly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had all been impressed with Myles when he stepped up to fill the troublesome left back slot – an inverting left back slot at that – the season before. It was something of a surprise not to see him featuring at all at the beginning of last season. Mikel Arteta clearly preferred to go with the physicality, experience and extra defensive capability of Riccardo Calafiori, and for a lot of last season it appeared that, sadly, the writing might be on the wall for Myles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What we didn\u2019t know was that behind the scenes the manager was schooling Myles in exactly how to play his boyhood and academy midfield role in a highly demanding first team setup. And then, just as Zubimendi began to tire and Mikel Merino remained sidelined with his broken foot, up stepped Myles Lewis-Skelly again to absolutely help to save our season. He slotted into our midfield like he\u2019d been playing there for years, displaying strength, tenacity and an ability to win and carry the ball past opponents as well as anyone in the team. He played with a lovely calm and desire to always try to look for the positive forwards option. Declan Rice must have breathed a huge sigh of relief to see the Lewis-Skelly cavalry arrive, and possibly took a quick look over his shoulder at the young man showing the potential to match him in a few seasons time. Myles was entrusted with the remaining league games of the season and was then paid the highest compliment with a start in the Champions League final. A quite brilliant contribution from such a likeable, talented young man at a critical time of the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christhian Mosquera is my second personal choice for the \u201coutstanding\u201d section. He arrived from Valencia last summer at the age of twenty-one for a fee of \u00a313million. Since then he has played at centre back on both left and right sides, covering multi-game absences of Gabriel and Saliba, generally reckoned to be the best centre back pairing in the world. Surely the highest accolade he could have earnt was that the absences of our first choices were hardly noticed. He is a proper physical presence, calm under pressure and careful with his passing out of defence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also filled in at right back when both Jurrien Timber and Ben White were ruled out with injuries for the final games of the league campaign. Then, as our third choice right back he became another very young squad member to be entrusted with a start in the Champions League final. His job was to mark the best left winger on the planet in Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. The PSG man only managed to get past him on one solitary occasion, and that was after both Christhian and Bukayo Saka had been disabled on our right hand side by two of the dodgiest yellow cards you will ever see – and as Arsenal fans we\u2019ve seen a few. We may need him at the beginning of next season if reports are true that William Saliba has been playing with a back problem for some time but the French are insisting on playing him through the World Cup – I\u2019m sorry, The Donald J Trump World Peace Cup. In any event, a tremendous season from Mosquera. We are lucky to have him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Piero Hincapi\u00e9 gets the last of the three spots. He came on loan from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer with an obligation to buy at the end of the season “depending on conditions”. I have no idea what those conditions were but it\u2019s impossible to think they were not met. He will be a \u20ac50 million addition to the squad, presumably some time in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t know anything about Ecuadorian football other than when ever I\u2019ve seen brief glimpses of their national team playing, the players have looked technically competent, quick, athletic and very strong. Hincapi\u00e9 has not disappointed. He initially filled in at left back during one of Calafiori\u2019s injury spells and then at centre back when Gabriel was unavailable. Since then he appears to be at least equal first choice at left back, probably depending on Mikel Arteta\u2019s tactical preference on a given day. Calafiori offers more going forwards, certainly in terms of variety and chaos in the opposition area, but Hincapi\u00e9 is the better defender when facing a particularly dangerous winger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can\u2019t remember a game when Hincapi\u00e9 has disappointed in either of his positions. He is an aggressive defender, tackles well, a careful passer and must be an absolute nightmare to play against – a big lad, strong and relentless after his man. You could argue that he doesn\u2019t have Calafiori\u2019s ability to excite but he has settled seemlessly into the side and been reliable whenever needed in vital positions in our defensive formation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately the squad held up and delivered our first league title for the now much over quoted twenty two years. However, it did get close considering the level of investment made last summer, once again due to the amount of injuries suffered. We finished up stretched in the full back and midfield departments by the end of the season, just as we had been in the attacking areas at the start of the season.

The most alarming of those injuries to me were the ones incurred by Saliba, Saka and Calafiori, an incredible four times, in match warmups. We have been unlucky in that injuries have tended to hit certain areas of the squad in clusters. Personally, without any inside knowledge, I still feel our recovery record and strength and conditioning practices have been suspect for a couple of years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have offered that opinion on the blog several times over that period so am not simply jumping on the bandwagon given that interestingly in that regard, the club has recently sacked head doctor, Zafar Iqbal, and are to appoint the former Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest head of medical services, Arnaldo Abrantes. Spanish physiotherapist Joaquin Acedo has also been brought in to review the club\u2019s injury management. We\u2019ll see.
The last and probably most important thing to say is that Mikel Arteta, Andrea Berta and the owners have built an incredible squad. In fact they\u2019ve rebuilt an incredible club. Whoever has played, coached, supported or in any way been involved, they have developed a very special atmosphere throughout the entire club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a wonderful togetherness throughout the squad which must be carefully protected over the course of this summer\u2019s comings and goings. It will be sad to see any of them go but no club can stand still in elite football. Thank you and very best wishes to every single one of them. Quite apart from the trophies, you have given us all back genuine pride in this great club.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Prologue When I received the request to do this piece I was in the middle of a horribly complicated wrangle with Virgin Media who, on 8th May, right before the final, season defining three weeks of the season, accidentally disconnected my services. All of them. Internet, TV, landline (not that I\u2019ve had one plugged […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[33,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13648"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13648"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13673,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13648\/revisions\/13673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}