Arsenal’s chairman, Sir Chips Keswick, has said that Arsenal will ‘continue to invest rationally in our squad retention,’ with some in the media claiming this is a message to Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil.

170225 daily mail arsenal accounts
Daily Mail, 25 Feb 2017

The papers have been full of reports that the duo are making all sorts of demands (although they haven’t had of those sorts of stories for a while). At one point, wages of £250k-per-week was the demand being made to Alexis’s camp if you believe what you read.

Speaking after the release of Arsenal’s latest set of financial results, Sir Chips, said, “We have continued to invest in the region of key players.

“Francis Coquelin, Hector Bellerin, Laurent Koscielny and Olivier Giroud have all signed new contracts, while we have taken up options to extend the contracts of Per Mertesacker and Santi Cazorla.

“Further work is required in the area of contract renewals and we will continue to invest rationally in our squad retention.

“As expected, increased Premier League broadcasting revenues have had a direct impact on player costs both in terms of transfer prices and player wage demands.

“While these are market forces that have contributed directly over time to the success of the Premier League, I would sound a note of caution in light of the very material contractual commitments to future wages that clubs are taking on.”

The accounts show that Arsenal have cash reserves of £100.5m with a rise in football turnover from £158m to £191m.

This doesn’t mean that Arsenal have £100.5m to spend on players, but that is of course how many are trying to make it look.

Arsenal will need money for signing-on fees and, of course, no business splurges all their reserve just for the sake of it.

The accounts, which cover June 2016 – November 2016 also show a record level of money invested in players with £110.5m spent in the summer on Granit Xhaka, Shkodran Mustafi and Lucas Perez.