Arsenal are only willing offer their new manager the £8.5m-per-year Arsene Wenger was already earning, which could price out the current favourite for the job, Luis Enrique.
The Daily Mail report that the club are ‘reluctant’ to pay their new boss anything more than their current one. That could make it difficult to appoint Enrique, who reportedly wants £15m-per-year. If those reports are reliable, that’s a pretty huge gap to bridge.
Journalist Kike Marin, one of the first to call Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s move to Arsenal in January, throws another spanner in the works. He says Enrique is requesting €200m to spend in the summer, which Ivan Gazidis doesn’t want to give him.
.@Arsenal Se complica la llegada de Luis Enrique. Ivan Gazidis quiere seguir la política deportiva actual y no gastarse 200 millones en fichajes, como pide el ex técnico del Barça. Veremos. #Arsenal #PremierLeague pic.twitter.com/HBolpP6vXx
— Kike Marin** (@Kike_Marin_) April 28, 2018
Nonetheless, Enrique is still the overwhelming favourite for the job with bookmakers. Most price him at about 3/1 to take the job right now. Although that may be more for a lack of rumours about anyone else.
It just goes to show how little influence Arsene Wenger had on budgetary matters. He always picked up the blame when Arsenal wouldn’t spend money during his time with the club, but even now that he has no say, the board are still apparently risking missing out on their target over finances.
We’ll see in the coming weeks if they change their mind and pay up, or move onto new targets.