Arsenal failed to add a single player to their squad in the January transfer window.
Instead, Mikel Arteta’s side lost the likes of Calum Chambers and Pierre Emerick Aubameyang.
Auba’s departure late in the transfer window left the club short of attacking number and it was too late to replace him.
Some fans and pundits thought the club’s bid for a Champions League place would now suffer, but they have defied the odds to become arguably the most in-form English club this new year.
Arsenal’s absence from the Champions League has hurt their finances and Dr Dan Plumley says the money they would have made in sponsorship deals is proportionate to which position they finish on the league table.
He tells Football Insider: “Commercially, sponsors are always looking for as much exposure as possible.
“One of the primary ways you’re going to get that is through the Champions League. That is what the big commercial partners are interested in.
“It’s been five years in the making to an extent because that’s how long they haven’t been in it.
“You can’t say it’s direct cause-and-effect. It’s not as simple as saying that £12m drop is because they aren’t in it, but we do know it has an impact.
“They have got a good chance of getting back in the Champions League this season. That is the aim.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
We have made a lot of progress in our bid to make the top four this season and this could be the end of pain for us.
Some fans didn’t expect us to still hold up when Auba left, but Arteta has built a top team without the striker.
With only a few games to go, hopefully, he can get his team to stay focused and achieve that goal.
Those games referred to as ‘few’ seem like a whole season to me but we shall conquer.cl is a must reach and a must win.COYG
what a grade school analysis of the commercial marketing realm, as this could be completely understandable if we were a nothing burger brand, but there are few footballing organizations who have a more extensive and committed international fanbase, so I don’t give a lot of credence to this particular explanation…fact remains we’ve done a rather underwhelming job when it comes to properly exhausting our potential commercial opportunities, which is quite baffling, especially considering our self-sustaining business model