Arsenal have now gone eight years without a trophy. Qualification for the Champions League next season remains in the balance and a failure to do so would cost the club £30m. Even more important, it would be a blow to their morale as being an ‘ever present’ in the Champions League has been seen as offsetting the failure to win a trophy. But you can’t parade your Uefa coefficient round the streets of Islington.
Arsenal have now gone eight years without a trophy. Qualification for the Champions League next season remains in the balance and a failure to do so would cost the club £30m. Even more important, it would be a blow to their morale as being an ‘ever present’ in the Champions League has been seen as offsetting the failure to win a trophy. But you can’t parade your Uefa coefficient round the streets of Islington.
Financially, Arsenal’s situation is starting to change. Player sales accounted for £178m of £195m of Arsenal’s profits over the last six years. Selling Robin van Persie earned them £24m and knocked £5m off the wage bill, but at what price?
Arsenal are now emerging from a period of paying for the Emirates, a move which had to be made, and being restricted by relatively small (for a top club) kit and shirt sponsorship deals. A further £7m will be knocked off the wage bill in June when the contracts of Arshavin and Squillaci expire.
But can Wenger spend wisely at the top of the market? The absence of Wenger’s record signing Arshavin from the match-day squad against United, despite being fully fit, speaks volumes.
As a neutral, I like the style of football that Arsenal play, but perhaps it needs to be more emphatic in the final third. I also admire Wenger, but one has to ask whether his era at the Emirates is coming to an end. Recent speculation has linked him with Paris St. Germain, but their style of buying in players is different from his emphasis on development.
Will the club be seen as sufficiently attractive to a world class replacement? One hopes so, because a dominance of the Premier League by the two Manchester clubs would make it less attractive as a competition.