Despite beating Liverpool in midweek, the Arsenal manager made it clear that there is a massive gulf in quality between Klopp’s Champions and lowly Arsenal, who are barely fighting to get into the Europa League.
The Gunners boss challenged Stan Kroenke to invest when the Mail asked him how hard it would be for Arsenal to get back into the Top Four: “Harder and harder” he said. “because that’s obviously something that has to feed each other. If you are not in the Champions League and you say “OK, I don’t invest because I don’t have the financial ability to do it”, but the other clubs invest, then the gap becomes bigger.
‘If I do want to invest and risk, and then I don’t reach it, what happens? So at some stage you have to make a decision, whether I want to aim to make that gap closer and go for it, or I stay where I am.
‘You see many good examples of teams that have done it [risked] and they have come back to their habit [of being in the Champions League].
‘While I am sitting in this chair I’m not [stopping seeing Arsenal as a Champions League club], because that’s the only thing that I think of this football club.’
Despite that the Boss has admitted he doesn’t know if funds will be available, but Ray Parlour is insistent that if Arteta isn’t backed this summer, like Frank Lampard at Chelsea, then the Gunners can forget about returning to the top table.
He told Talksport: “They’ve got gamble if they think they have the right manager.”
“Look at Lampard at Chelsea! They have given him funds.”
“If they don’t spend then they are not going to get into the top 4.”
He may be right if we want continual success, but as sides like Sheff United and Wolves (and of course Leicester when they won the title) have shown that it is not totally neccessary to spend to have success.
Do you think Parlour is right?
