The summer transfer window is now open, at least temporarily, and Arsenal can spend big without having to worry about PSR.
The first of two summer transfer windows opened on Sunday morning, with player registrations now possible for the next nine days or so.
The window will close again on June 10th, before reopening on June 16th. This early additional June window is simply to allow transfers ahead of the Club World Cup, though all other clubs are eligible to move players around too.
Arsenal have a lot of work to do this summer, regardless of which of the two windows they do it in. But the good news is that the club have some financial flexibility.
Kieran Maguire tells the BBC that Arsenal “could easily spend over £200m in the [summer] window and have no PSR concerns”, adding “if a striker is not signed it cannot be blamed on PSR”.
The Gunners are in a strong position due to three consecutive second-place Premier League finishes, in addition to a long Champions League run to the semi-finals and plenty of money-boosting European wins along the way.
Homegrown sales of players like Emile Smith Rowe and Eddie Nketiah represent “pure profit” to offset expenditure, and given PSR operates on a three-year basis, those transfers continue to help this summer too.
Knowing Arsenal, that’s not going to lead to reckless spending. The Gunners have shown over many years that they’ll act cautiously even when a bit of recklessness is probably advised.
But it’s certainly necessary to sign a striker, and the club evidently have the funds to do it. As Maguire highlights, there can be no excuses for failure on that front.