July 1 has been and gone

There are still no official news about any signings from Arsenal. Signs are, however, that a lot of loan deals will be made in the coming weeks.

Yeovil Town announced yesterday that 18-year-old Arsenal striker Luke Freeman joins them on loan. I hadn't seen that in any news source anywhere until Yeovil made it public and other bloggers brought it to my attention. So the papers really aren't on top of everything...

Freeman is set to be just one in a long line of Arsenal loanees this season. The excellent Young Guns Blog has reported that the Arsenal Reserve team has been made defunct. Players will now move straight from the U18 team to the first team squad as a result of the new Premier League squad rules.

A lot of 19- and 20-year-olds at Arsenal need to prove themselves now, either in Arsenal's pre-season or while on loan elsewhere.