Pre-Season 2015/16

The players who weren't on international duty are meant to be back in for pre-season training next Monday, with the rest of the players joining them a week or so afterwards.

Players expected to be involved next Monday:

Keepers: Emi Martinez, Ryan Huddart, Deyan Illiev, Matt Macey
Defenders: Per Mertesacker, Gabriel, Julio Pleguezuelo, Stefan O'Connor, Natxo Monreal, Mathieu Debuchy, Hector Bellerin, Tafari Moore
Midfielders: Krystian Bielik, Francis Coquelin, Mikel Arteta, Mathieu Flamini, Jon Toral, Dan Crowley, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
Forwards: Wellington Silva (remember him?)

Players to join a bit later due to international commitments:

Keepers: Wojciech Szczesny, Petr Cech (assuming he signs)
Defenders: Laurent Koscielny, Isaac Hayden, Kieran Gibbs
Midfielders: Glen Kamara, Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere, Santi Cazorla, Gedion Zelalem, Tomas Rosicky, Mesut Ozil
Forwards: Joel Campbell, Lukas Podolski, Theo Walcott, Olivier Giroud, Chuba Akpom

Players expected to miss pre-season almost entirely due to international commitments:

David Ospina, Calum Chambers, Carl Jenkinson, Alexis Sanchez and Serge Gnabry

With the season starting on Aug 8th, it'll be a very short pre-season with only four friendlies plus the Community Shield to be played before we kick the season off against West Ham.

Barclays Asia Trophy

Wed 15th July: Singapore Select XI vs Arsenal (13:30 BST)
Sat 18h July: Third/Fourth place play-off (11:00 BST) OR the final (13:30 BST) (Will be against either Stoke or Everton)

Depending on when the international players return, we could have a very mixed squad for this tournament.

Emirates Cup

Sat 25th July: Arsenal vs Lyon (16:20)
Sun 26th July: Arsenal vs Wolfsburg (16:20)

The big guns are likely to return for these games.

Community Shield:

Sun 2nd Aug: Chelsea vs Arsenal (15:00)

It's possible that a lot of best players won't have much match time for this game, which would be a shame since it's quite a big game despite how worthless the trophy is.

As usual, all pre-season pictures and videos, of which there'll be plenty, as well pre and post-match comments will go in this thread.

That was fast, cant wait.

lol it's 15 July tomorrow

El Gunner wrote:lol it's 15 July tomorrow

wat

shame Chambers Not gonna have full pre season
looking forward to improvement of Welbeck and Gabriel

So then, the players have started to return to training.

Looking forward to seeing Wellington Silva the most tbh

Apparently Wilshere has returned earlier than expected. One of many players who can benefit from a full pre-season.

Tactics will be Arsene's no 1 focus I think. Since we have more or less a complete squad. He will try out players in many positions. Specially the likes of Wilshere and Ramsey.

Dan Crowley and Wellington Silva trained today, supposedly. Bellerin wore 24, which may or may not indicate a number change for him.

Arsenal will be uploading some pics soon.

Pictures!

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20150707/arsenal-begin-pre-season-training



So the youngsters involved were Isaac Hayden, Gedion Zelalem, Dan Crowley, Jon Toral, Chris Willock, Chuba Akpom, Alex Iwobi and Reine-Adelaide. Wellingotn (no. 46 next to Bellerin) and Sanogo are there, too.

Mertesacker, Gabriel, Debuchy, Monreal, Flamini, Coquelin, Wilshere and Chamberlain are some of the first teamers training. Couldn't spot Arteta.

Will Wellington actually stay with first team?

I am hoping he gets a full pre season including Emirates cup. Want to see him play for us before he goes off to wherever and we never hear from him again.

Interesting that Reine-Adelaide trained as well. Willock, Crowley and Zelalem getting chances

My guess is that Wellingotn will at least go to Singapore with the squad, if only because we might have a shortage of forwards (not knowing if Theo, Welbeck, or Giroud will be part of the touring party or not). Beyond that, though, I think the Emirates Cup minutes will be given to the late arriving first team players, and he'll be loaned/sold. Basically the Joel Campbell treatment.

More pictures:

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20150707/pictures-squad-train-at-london-colney

New squad number for Chuba Akpom - he's got 31 now. Might suggest more involvement with the first team.

Heard Chuba has been given 32,Gnabry has been given 27,Bellerin has been given 24 and Hayden 42.

RealGunner wrote:I am hoping he gets a full pre season including Emirates cup. Want to see him play for us before he goes off to wherever and we never hear from him again.

Interesting that Reine-Adelaide trained as well. Willock, Crowley and Zelalem getting chances

Does anyone feel Silva will be given a fair crack at the first team?What does he have to do in the pre-season fixtures?

Or is it a given that he'll be loaned to some English team to get used to the English way?

A similar group to yesterday's trained today. Still no sign of Arteta or Welbeck.

T-Mach wrote:

RealGunner wrote:I am hoping he gets a full pre season including Emirates cup. Want to see him play for us before he goes off to wherever and we never hear from him again.

Interesting that Reine-Adelaide trained as well. Willock, Crowley and Zelalem getting chances

Does anyone feel Silva will be given a fair crack at the first team?What does he have to do in the pre-season fixtures?

Or is it a given that he'll be loaned to some English team to get used to the English way?

Don't know much about the lad's development, but I don't think he'll have a chance at the first team any time soon.

He'll most probably go out on loan.

With Walcott supposed to be given more chances as a striker wouldn't we be slightly shorter in wide midfielders if we don't sign anyone?

So,if Walcott is to be counted as a striker,the one spot in wide midfield could be a toss up between Gnabry and Silva.

Ramsey, Wilshere, Chamberlain and Welbeck will all be options for the wide positions, so I don't see where Wellington Silva could get sufficient game time. It'd just be Campbell/Podolski all over again.


Even more pics:

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20150708/training

How tall is silva? LOL even Wilshere towers over him!

For what its worth, I think Silva will be a success at Arsenal.
The reason why Poldi didnt fare to well at Arsenal was because as a player on the wing, he provided neither speed and crosses (like traditional wingers), nor was he able to create goals by cutting into the box. I am sure if he would have been resigned to play from the bench  and lower his wages , Wenger would have kept him.

Silva can surely contribute more than his predecessors. We have had him in the books for nearly 4-5 years now without actually seeing him play for us. Wenger clearly rates him.

If anything, I would be worried if I were Gnabry. This is probably his "make or break" season.

That's all well and good, but does Wenger rate him higher than Chamberlain or Welbeck? Would he be comfortable throwing Wellington in instead of, for example, playing Wilshere or Ramsey on the flanks if he has to?

This is why I compare his situation to Campbell's. Campbell was talented and stuck around the squad but never got the opportunities to prove that talent because he was so low down in the pecking order. He was 22. Wellington is 22. That's not an age where a player can really afford to sit around hoping to play Capital One Cup minutes.

Gnabry doesn't have this problem, since he's younger. He can spend the next couple of season's on loan and come back with a much better chance of a first team spot.

According to The Guardian, Chris Willock and Dan Crowley will go to Singapore as part of an "almost full strength squad" with Ospina and Alexis being the only confirmed absentees (as they're on holiday following the Copa America):

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jul/08/arsenal-daniel-crowley-chris-willock-pre-season-tour-squad

Would be strange if Zelalem wasn't also part of the squad, given his involvement in previous tours.

I guess Arsenal will confirm the squad sometime before they jet off this weekend.

Jorge Bird mentioned about some random guy training with us.

Anyone figured it out who it was since then?

I hope Crowley takes this chance to earn himself a loan move to a decent team, he needs it after a fantastic individual season with the youth team.