How much money do Arsenal actually have to spend on transfer fees and wages?
While Arsenal fans continue to beg Arsene Wenger to ‘spend some f**king money’, how much money do the Gunners actually have to f**king spend?
In May, the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust (AST) released their latest findings regarding the club’s finances and it does seem as if the Gunners have a sensible amount left in their alleged ‘warchest’ this summer.
Arsenal, the AST claims, is in ‘rude health financially’. Basically, they’re in a strong position.
Wages are now reportedly up to £200m-per-year, which is £40m under Manchester United’s, and £10 below Chelsea and Manchester City’s but, according to Football.London, still £80m above Tottenham.
They also had around £90m to spend on new players back in May. Obviously, now this is minus £52m for club record signing Alexandre Lacazette, which brings the new total to £38m, but this doesn’t include player sales or the wages from deadwood being cast afloat.
Arsenal’s revenue is apparently £420m when it was around £350m last year. The £70m is said to be almost exclusively from the new TV deal.
Saying this, the Gunners also lose money from other areas this year. For example, the cost of failing to get Champions League will most likely be around £25m. As Football.London points out, Arsenal got under £50m for just getting to the final 16 of the Champions League during the 2015/16 season, while Liverpool only got £25m for making the Europa League final.
Arsenal’s debt is said to be around £200m, which the AST believe is manageable.
The AST also reckon that the club are in a strong enough financial position that they could offer both Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil large new contracts and not have a problem.
From what we can tell thanks to the AST, it does seem as if Arsenal could have enough to sign one big player this summer, given that a few players are set to leave. However, given the club’s already forked out £52m for Laca, I’m not entirely sure Wenger’s priority is bringing in new players.
We also can’t expect the Frenchman to go out and spent £150m+ on new players. It’s just not going to happen. Unless he offloads one of the first team players linked with a move away, such as Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain or Alexis Sanchez.
Perhaps he will. Perhaps he’ll surprise us and bring Thomas Lemar on board by 31 August but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Who’s to say Wenger spending large amounts of money is actually a good thing anyway? Last summer, he spent close to £100m on Granit Xhaka, Shkodran Mustafi and Lucas Perez, and we finished fifth.