New Look Arsenal Women Squad Report For Training

We have got our first look at the ladies in pre-season testing as Sky's Anton Tolui Toloui reported from the Sobha Realty Training Centre. All new recruits were present along with the rest of the squad, and I have to say, immediately looking at those images, it's a really different feeling looking at the squad on the training pitch and in the gym.

You can also go to arsenal.com, and you'll find all the photos from the gym training session before the outdoor pictures from the training centre. But it does look really different.

Obviously, no Katie McCabe, no Victoria Pelova, and Beth Mead is missing. You know, these are big, big names that are now absent from the squad. I'll talk about it from my point of view because you might not feel the same way, but I got a really positive feeling looking at those images and the video. It really, really feels like we're moving forward.

It is a big group when you look at it. But it really, really does feel like the club is not just moving on; now Renee Slagers is really putting her stamp on the development of this squad and sort of building up a group of players that are unmistakably her players, and we will see more of what that actually is this coming season. And I think it will tell us a lot more than last season did about Renee and what she wants to build. And I'm all here for it. I'm a massive fan of Renee Slegers. I absolutely love that woman to bits. She's not perfect, but this is, again, her first managerial role. She's only 18 months into the job. She's already delivered us the Women's Champions Cup; she delivered us the Champions League, and we came within two wins or a win and a couple of draws of winning the WSL last season. We got to the semi-final of the Champions League. You know, we're competing right up there.

We really, really do need to work on our performances in the domestic cups. But again, for someone in their first 18 months managing at this level, I think she's absolutely fantastic. And she has shown, particularly over last season, that she does learn from mistakes. She does course correct. And I think we forget that she was dealing with a lot of issues last season as well. We had injury issues to key players. Chloe Kelly and Leah Williamson were out for a massive proportion of last season. No Manu Zinsberger, Daphne and Annika were carrying injuries at various points too. People forget they were injured and playing through injuries because we didn't really have any other options at all.

So I think for some fans that are impatient and maybe sometimes a little bit harsh, they could just take a step back, take a deep breath, and really think about last season and what actually happened. Listen to me when I tell you these things, and just calm down a bit. Because, number one, I think we did have a lot of issues last season, and we coped really, really well in the end. Maybe it didn't feel like it at times, but we did cope, and the club have taken steps to identify the issues that we've had. Squad depth, having quality cover when we have key players injured, our attacking and defending at set pieces... I think with the signings that we've made this season, we've taken steps to address all those things.