On the surface, you’d think it shouldn’t be.

In the past, Arsenal have set aside cash reserves in case they don’t qualify for the competition.

Many players also receive big bonuses for reaching the Champions League, which the club didn’t have to pay this season, and wouldn’t have to pay next year either.

The problem is that the rules have changed since Arsenal started setting cash aside all those years ago. Now there are much stricter wage controls, which create more of an issue than transfer fees.

The new Short Term Cost Control (STCC) measures restrict teams to £7m salary increases each season. You can overspend against this amount, but only if you can show that the extra money comes from increased commercial or match-day revenue, or player sales.

TV money is specifically excluded from the calculation, or rather, it’s included in the calculation of the initial £7m increase. You can’t ramp up your wage bill just because Sky and BT spent another few billion to show your matches.

Arsenal therefore have to rely on the other three aspects.

Unfortunately, a big side-effect of losing Champions League is a hit to your commercial income and match-day revenue.

The club reduced season ticket prices for 2017/18 as a result of the drop to Europa League, so that’s an immediate hit to ticket sale income, even if they sell just as many.

The cash reserves Arsenal built up to prepare for this eventuality now can’t be used on wages. They’re still available for transfer fees, but there’s no point bidding £100m for a top player if you can’t pay his salary.

If Arsenal want to buy, they therefore have to sell. Fortunately, they’ve done pretty well at this so far.

A number of big earners are now off the books (Alexis Sanchez, Olivier Giroud, Francis Coquelin, Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Gabriel Paulista, etc.) and only a few players have joined in return. That should leave a bit of extra space in the budget for the summer.