Arsenal midfielder Jill Roord has joined Frauen Bundesliga powerhouse Wolfsburg after two seasons with the Gunners. Roord joined Arsenal from Bayern Munich in the summer of 2019 and scored 15 goals for the club.
Roord started the season excellently with back-to-back hat-tricks against Reading and West Ham in the first two WSL games of the season. She also scored a hat-trick against Gillingham in the FA Cup.
Good luck in the future, @JillRoordNL 👊
Thanks for everything! ❤️
— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) May 10, 2021
The Dutch international has decided to accept an offer from Wolfsburg, who have five other Dutch players in their squad next season. New Wolfsburg coach Tommy Stroot was Roord’s coach at FC Twente in her native Netherlands.
Arseblog News understands that a signing has already been agreed in the attacking midfield position for next season.
What’s the scoop on the new signing?
It’s out there now, Mana Iwabuchi.
Not too shabby.👀
Doing business with immediate alacrity
It hurts, love the character, like the prospect. But I’m not convinced that she will be better than Jordan in midfield. Some good moments but I really miss the decisive quality and the consitency.
Mmm no great surprise. Difficult to turn down Wolsburg but I don’t see losing Jill as weakening the Gunners. A big deal is being made of her hatricks but she was never consistent enough or good enough at link up play for me and I believe that those goals could have been scored by others if they were presented with the exact same opportunities. It is a little concerning that consideration of incoming player(s) to the point of your inferrence, Tim, when we do not even know who the new coach/manager shall be and how they want us to play.… Read more »
Exactly how I feel. The beginning of the season, they made a big deal about her job this season, to be more consistent. She scored back to back hat-tricks and everybody felt like this could be her year.
I saw a moment yesterday where she took an impossible shot and Beth stood there, threw her hands in the air as if to say ‘What the hell was that…’ and that’s how I felt at times.
I think she can be a great player, but is young and definitely needs to learn and get more experience.
I share the same sentiments. However, if we are to shield her for saying she is young, look at the likes of Lauren Hemp, Chloe Kelly shaking up Barca’s backline…look at Barca’s Aitana and Bruna, their “killers'” instinct and pace movement….all the more not forgetting Lauren James from ManU😊
Good luck to Jill. I hope that she can find more consistency in Wolfsburg. Talented player, but it really didn’t work for her at Arsenal. This year we played to get the best out of her, but it really didn’t work as well as could of hoped for.
If rumours are true, that we are replacing her with Iwabuchi, when for me we have upgraded.
And that would be another factor for Viv to extend her contract. I fear nothing more than Viv leaving next year. Mostly to another WSL team.
It certainly would not hurt our mission to get Viv to resign. For me most dissapointing about Jill was that she wasn’t good fit with Viv, which is funny because how close they are and how many years they have played together both for Holland and in club level. I hope that Mana’s playstyle would compliment Viv much better, because as long as we have Viv, our new coaches many priority is to get as much out of her as possible.
We also need to invigorate Viv’s confidence too with some new faces and new ideas.
She was clean through on goal yesterday and you would have bet your house on the net bulging as she tricked the goalkeeper into diving the wrong way. Unfortunately, in her current mindset, she tamely tapped it into the goalkeeper’s arms like a backpass!
Yep: Viv did not finish chances this year with the smashing confidence that she’s had in recent years. It’s another indication that everything was out of sorts this year. I don’t think Monte ever figured out what our best lineup was; he’s so very tactically oriented–to a fault, arguably–that chemistry and consistency were an obvious issue. Evans, who was so instrumental and good at wing in our title-winning season, lost her regular spot and then was hurt. McCabe, who like Evans was good on the wing two years ago, was forced to play LB all year. I’m a fan of… Read more »
#MissionVivfor4moreyears
In my opinion we have 3 “world class” players who must start every key game, being Kim, Viv & Leah – in that order. Kim’s contribution is often taken for granted I feel but I consider her to be the Number 1 player in the WSL, better than the much praised Bronze or Houghton & better than any of the U.S. “stars” too!
Kim is underrated and add Wally and Jordan to your list provided they are utilised correctly.
The issue this season was what the players were being asked to do and not the players themselves.
Yes, I realised after my post that I should have included Lia (in 3rd equal place with Leah Ha Ha), whilst Jordan I hope will prosper under the new manager – and I must say I felt Jayne Ludlow would have been ideal but of course it’s not to be.
Jordan is one of the best at what she does but that ain’t standing out by the touchline watching the ball being passed side to side by the back 3/4!
I’d like to see us tempt Laura Harvey back from the States. She is a Gunner and has the right mentality being on the management team when Arsenal were last truly successful and along with her USNT U20 experience she would be a good fit.
Absolutely agree on Laura Harvey – that would be superb!
The entire team was inconsistent this year. There were too many injuries, too many different lineups, too many players switching from one position (midfield) to wing…too little chemistry, in a way. Who was consistently good for Arsenal this year? Nobody, really. McCabe–everybody’s new darling–struggling in the big matches as well. Arsenal must know who the new coach is, yes, because you’d want his or her input on new signings.
I’d agree Katie was exceptional this season but even she couldn’t fill two positions at once against the stronger sides!
In an interview, she stated that her home is a 3 hour drive from Wolfsburg. That was also a key factor. I don’t think she ever settled in England really. This is all speculation, but I feel she clinged to Viv and Lisa quite a bit but otherwise, she’s a very determined and focussed person and isn’t there to make lifelong friends. Which can be a good thing as a player, but seeing how close the rest of the squad is, she didn’t really feel like she made the connection like for instance Caitlin and Lydia have made. I wish… Read more »
Sweeping generalisation time!: Not surprised the Ozzies feel at home that’s part of their national nature!:) Does an introverted Australian exist? The Dutch are perhaps a little more reserved and Jill found it difficult to open up to anyone other than those she was already familiar with.
Problem is football is a team game where you need to forge good relationships with your team mates on and off the pitch to maximise potential and in Jill’s case that hasn’t worked out.
very interesting comment…I was wondering what the motivation behind this move was, and whether it had to do more with footballing or personal reasons. Although this article seemed to suggest she was feeling happy and settled at Arsenal (of course this was also right after scoring back to back hat-tricks, which could have had an influence):
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/oct/09/arsenal-jill-roord-bayern-munich-hat-tricks
Mutually beneficial transfer in my opinion. Welcome Mana Iwabuchi! 😝
Good luck, Jill.
On an unrelated topic;
The UEFA conference league is an abomination.
I blame the Kroenkes for this.
I do wish Jill well. I felt she was always there for the team – dank je wel! Women’s football is a growing world game and movement of players between countries is an inevitable part of this. I know very little about Mana Iwabuchi if she is to be our new signing. However skilful she may be, I am a bit worried that she’s only 5ft 1 in. Jordan and Daan are 5ft 3 in and I’ve felt in the games we’ve lost to the top teams that we haven’t been able to compete physically. It’s the comparison with the… Read more »
The other three players leaving are not tall, but it will be interesting to see who the new manager wants. I only knew about Mana being done and it’s been agreed for a while. I am not aware of any other signings being agreed at the moment, I imagine they will all be down to the new coach.
Plus, Mewis is going back to the NWSL anyway.
That’s a loss for the WSL but a win for us. Mewis ran amok in midfield in the Conti Cup game against us. Poor DvD for getting assigned to (wo)man mark Mewis in that one.
Is Rose Lavelle staying at City? It’s surprising to see her spending so much time on the bench.
She’s going to Lyon
Wait, wait… What?!? The other THREE players leaving? So apart from Roord and Gut, there are 3 players leaving?
Leonie. Try and keep up at the back!
No Roord and Gut are included.
😅
I’m not too concerned about height as I certainly would not like to be on the receiving end of a DvD crunching tackle but physical strength has been an issue. Joe assembled a very technical squad while full time training and every other benefit that comes with the game becoming professional led to many teams, even some of the lower half of the table ones, getting much more physical on the pitch. It is an area that I feel we need to look into especially as I have mentioned before sometimes to win you have to battle a result like… Read more »
Iwabuchi was Cazorla-esc for Villa against us: So smart and gifted, that size does not matter.
Jill Roord vorsprung durch technique
I wonder if Miedema has any thing to do with Mana Iwabuchi maybe coming in. They both played at Bayern Munich 2014-2017….
‘If you want me to stay, get me Mana…’
She was planning to stay with us for sure 🙂
Demonstrates pretty weak management if you only sign Viv’s mates in order to keep one player happy.
I think the Japanese has shown enough to earn the transfer on her own merit.