Premier league summer transfer review and what it means for Arsenal in the season ahead by Tom
Come 2019 May the 4th and Unai will learn if his Arsenal have had the force with them. He will learn which players have taken on his new ideas and which have struggled to adapt. He will know which players are needed and of the loaned – which are ready to come back and be first teamers – all whilst learning which of the new signings have taken to the league.
What makes Arsenal’s rise back to the top difficult is the modern market status. Today the market is different. In the past the likes of Vieira wouldn’t have gone to United amongst the interest. Today it’s a likely outcome. RVP to United, Matic to United, Sanchez, Sterling to City, Ox to Liverpool, Giroud to Chelski, Walker to City, Welbeck to Arsenal, Cech to Arsenal, Mata to United…
If the likes of Torriera becomes as mighty as Kante why wouldn’t Arsenal take £70m from PSG or City?
For Arsenal Fans hoping to expect ‘mighty Arsenal’ now it’s near impossible. Even to get Arsenal to win the league and maintain its levels of excellence is impossible.
The best Arsenal can expect is to one day win the league and prepare again to win it within 5 years. No team is going to dominate – we are yet to see if City will!!
So Unai in 2019 end of season will be looking to see the heights of the challenge ahead. We want the league, but in truth how close can we get. Is Unai the Rogers before the Klopp, the Pellegrini before the Pep or is it Wenger before the Wenger before Unai the slayer – the league winner. If it is, it’s not this season ahead. A lot of work is needed.
But to put it all into perspective as to why I believe this, I have some useful information.
• Average spent by premier league clubs this window : € 70.461.000
• 208 arrives (Average of 10.4 players per club)
• €857,130,000 was spent by clubs outside of the top 6 with an average of €35,713.750 per club.
• €-50.847.650 was the average of each club on the balance sheet of ins and outs from this summer window.
2017 Arsenal revenue was £423.90m pre tax whilst operation and wages costs where at £337.7m. The difference here is £86.20m pre tax profit.
On this knowledge, Arsenal will only spend approx £100m per transfer window…unless a super offer comes in for a player or we dip into the previous season’s earnings. But looking at the stats above we see the power of all clubs in the league now – competition is as hard as ever.
Buying power isn’t where we will win the war!!
This is why the model of buy talent (Torriera) at a fair price and sell on at a huge profit in the future is the best way to win the league for Arsenal. We don’t have the power of paying players or buying players the top dollar.
Our Owner gets stick because he doesn’t put in his own money but why should he? They have funded the growth with their money, and top that up with cash for transfers… Albeit it only maybe 30% towards the total budget, but why should we demand more? Because City have a mindless owner? Because Chelski have a boy with a toy owner?
I’m not going to start the debate of what’s right and wrong off the pitch at arsenal. My focus is always Arsenal football. And Unai this year has to get into that top 4.
It’s hard to gauge Arsenal fans online because some might be fans during the Wenger days, others like me the George Graham days and others even before. Some have perspective based on a history of what the club has done over 25 years, others 2 and a half years.
All I know is it’s like snakes and ladders. Under Wenger for sure we climbed the ladders and grew, but it’s not that now we have fallen down a snake (no kroene pun intended) but the game board has just got bigger and we have further to go. That’s the reality of football with years perspective imo!!!!
Win against City and everyone will be expecting us to win the league, lose and it’s crisis…and draw and we will be no wiser to the good.
The season will be tough, and we won’t see the full Arsenal we want. But allow time and support the building work now. It’s time we live in a society that is respectful of hard work again…and Arsenal will have to put in hard work to achieve some of our immediate goals… all be it just a top four spot.
Tom