Analysis – How Arsenal can fund our Top Top signings and compete with the Big Boys

Griezmann, Llorente, Aubameyang? I’m afraid we can’t compete with the other top clubs in the Premier League and now it’s time to accept that. With the Gunners missing out on the Champions league next year it’s going to be even harder for Arsenal to lure top players to the club this summer.

It is true that Arsenal has one of the biggest cash balances in the Premier League, second in fact. Though cash balance is not regular revenue and with Arsenal not getting money from Champions league football this year, they’re likely to want to keep a substantial reserve. The Gunner’s reserves have gradually increased year on year as shown in Swiss Rambles report on the club’s finances. In 2004 the balance stood at £75m, 2011 £150m and finally 2016 £225m. The only club with a similar cash balance is Manchester United who holds £229m, following us two is Manchester City with £75m.

It’s been known for some time that Arsenal has always relied on match day revenue to keep up financially, though some people don’t realise how ridiculously the club does rely on it. As a percentage of total revenue, match day revenue is 30%, whereas Manchester United’s match day percentage revenue is only 23% as also shown in the report. Although match day revenue is something that we can rely on regularly, with Tottenham, Chelsea and Manchester City all increasing their stadium capacities in the near future, it’s not something we can lead forever.

With Gazidis promising to take us to the next level and compete with the likes of Bayern Munich, it might come as a surprise that Arsenal managed to finish fifth in terms of commercial revenue in the Premier League shown by Deloitte’s money league. United was in a league of their own with £201m, Manchester City – £174m, Liverpool – £116m, Chelsea – £108m and then finally Arsenal with £103m. In terms of shirt sponsorship, Manchester United manage to draw £56m a year from Chevrolet, Chelsea £40m from Yokohama Tyres, whereas Arsenal only managing £30m from Fly-Emirates. Kit suppliers are where Arsenal really fall behind United and Chelsea, with Adidas giving £75m and £60m to United and Chelsea respectively, whereas Arsenal only get £30m from Puma.

The Gunners are already paying a high percentage of their revenue to player wages. United’s wages only take up 45% of revenue, Tottenham 51% and Manchester City 55%, whereas Arsenal’s are the highest with 56%. With our wages to revenue ratio already at a high, can Arsenal really afford to pay Ozil and Alexis what they want, unless they have a massive clear-out?

With only Sanogo’s contract expiring this summer its next summer where things start to look dangerous for the Gunners with the contracts of Alexis, Ozil, Ramsey and Oxlade-Chamberlain all expiring.

Though it is possible to pay our stars what we want, with both Ozil and Alexis both wanting £160k more a week, with a clear out we could easily meet their wage demands and add extras to our squad this summer. A realistic budget of £125m on just transfers alone wouldn’t see our cash balance sink below Manchester City’s, which I think is a reasonable ask. With Wenger saying we only need one or two signings to compete, I think he’s right if they’re top quality signings.

Shown below is in my eyes, the perfect overhaul we could have:

This would change the starting line up from this one and transform it into the one below, presuming everyone is fit.

This isn’t even including Szczesny, Monreal, Gabriel, Bellerin, Coquelin, Elneny, Ramsey, Iwobi and Welbeck all of which could field a strong bench and cover key positions in the team.

Who would be the ideal signings and who would be willing to join is yet to be seen. Though I hope to analyse the possible signings we could make and who would make the perfect fit over on my Arsenal blog in the coming weeks. Although we might have had a disappointing sseason, it’s certainly going to be an interesting transfer window.

Will

21 Comments

    1. I know right

      Greizmann, Aubemeyang and…. LLORENTE? lol, WTF
      Like Swansea City Llorente??
      Maybe there is another Llorente somewhere

      1. What a shame, all that hard work (hours) into putting this article together and he killed it, right at the start.??

  1. Do other EU countries have a homegrown quota system in place?

    I for one thinks this stupid system have held back our club and a lot of other premier league club as well.. Fact of the matter is that these English players are just not good enough and are just stealing a living while holding back the clubs.. I don’t want to hear about the spuds and their English core because they still haven’t won anything and will most likely join us in next season Europa league.

    I can’t see a EPL club winning the UCL again anytime soon with that system in place.. Everyone should get a chance only on merit. With or without the quota in place, scholes lampard Gerrard seaman Campbell etc would still be the legends they’re because talent is talent regardless of your nationality.

  2. The problem lies with the deluded one, he still believes in a bunch of has beens, wannabes and one season wonders. It has nothing to do with raising more money, the funds are already available for top top players, they have been available for last 5 years,at least.

  3. The highest salary in Bayern and Dortmund are £160,000 per week. I wish we could at least communicate with one or two of their players like Lewandowski and Aubemeyang and offer them £280,000 per week and at least make an offer to the clubs. It’s highly unlikely they would sell but worth a cheeky bid or two

  4. Very good and detailed article. If some clubs can buy Ozil, Walcott and Giroud, Arsenal would have better fund to keep Sanchez and buy two 30 million plus players.

    Rather than chasing super expensive players like Aubameyang, Mbappe and Rodriguez (which cannot even start ahead of Modric, Casemiro, Vazquez and Asensio), Arsenal can chase some affordable Barcelona or Real Madrid players. Such as Rafinha, Turan, Vazquez and Asensio. These affordable players are squad rotation players, but they are still regularly playing in the highest football level.

    1. Sanchez is gone mate, he isn’t staying for love nor money!
      His agent is dealing with his next move.

      Real Madrid have apparently pulled out of the chase for Mbappe, leaving Arsenal at the head of the queue. ?? Wenger really wants this kid, if he pulls this off, I will never call him delusional again,,.. I think! ?

  5. French Montana:

    You’re a nobody
    Till somebody called Arsene Wenger
    Almost signs you

  6. Bellerin tweets ” Don’t believe everything that you read…” & the Arsenal fans are happy as Larry, yet the Barcelona fans start slating him off.
    Here’s one of Barcelona fans comments: ?? ” What?.. You want Europa league?”

    Anyways, What Bellerin was actually referring to was the removal van.. It wasn’t his sister’s stuff that was being moved out ??

  7. no top club are manager in Europe want to work with ozil one year leave on is contract an no bid form any club. but Sanchez our best player world class now one serious bid we hear Man City Chelsea Man United Bayern Munich PSG wants him but not one serious offer i think manager are afraid of working with him because of how he over play the game

  8. What about James Rodriguez.. kondogbia.. Lacazette.. sadly I don’t think Wenger is in for a CB.. looks like he gonna stick with what we have.. push monreal as CB if and when needed.. chambers returning..

    But bottom line we have to keep Sanchez.. pay him wot he wants.. make him captain if need be.. come on why not? Lol!!
    If not sell him to Bayern for 60-70 mil

  9. Sanchez departure is for sure by his words. Now the best way to cope without him is to get Morata, James Rodriguez and lacazette or mahrez. We must also offload per, Giroud,Walcott, Wilshire and finally Perez and Ospina gone. Need a solid midfielder like Modric or rakitic or gueye. Let’s hope for the best.

  10. So we complain that teams like Man Utd and Chelsea can afford to pay players over £200k/week, and yet Arsenal have the highest percentage of revenue going to players wages?

    The glaring main problem, therefore, seems like the wage structure.

    Arsenal desperately need to get players who are never going to make the first team off the damn wage bill, stop offering generous salaries to “Promising players” and only start paying them big money when they have actually fulfilled that potential, and stop paying huge wages to players that are always injured (Like Jack Wilshere).

    Then there should be plenty of money to pay market wages to first-class players.

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