Arsenal has been told that they have to spend big like Manchester City did when they got taken over by their current owners if the Gunners are serious about returning to the top of English football.
Mikel Arteta’s side has fallen behind their top-four rivals, including Tottenham in recent seasons.
They haven’t played in the Champions League since 2016/2017 and will not play in any European competition next season if they don’t win this Europa League.
The type of mediocrity that Arsenal has suffered in the last few seasons is similar to the one Man City endured before their present owners bought the club.
They have since started investing in their team and today they are one of the best teams in Europe.
Football Insider columnist Kieran Maguire says Arsenal needs to also start spending money to get back.
He told Football Insider: “Arsenal’s wage spend has fallen significantly lower than that of its peer group.
“Their issue is that they are no longer competitive with the rest of the ‘big six’ in terms of attracting players and agents whose focus is solely on wages.
“They have the London location, which is attractive but they don’t have Champions League to offer.
“They will have to spend big to compete. They’ll have to pay over the odds like Man City did following their takeover. It’s the Sheikh Mansour model.
“Players will come in and say: ‘I want to play Champions League’. Arsenal will then say: ‘we can’t offer you that but what we can do is offer you more money than club X or club Y’.
“That’s an expensive way of making progress.”
City has shown that money can buy success and it will be interesting to see if Stan Kroenke will splash the cash in the summer.
“It will be interesting to see if Kroenke will spend money this summer”. Ad Martin, why on earth should anyone think that a SCROOGE WHO HAS HELD BACK PROPER SPENDING MONEY SINCE 2007 WOULD START DOLING IT OUT NOW? All past evidence says your question is superfluous and pointless.
Leopards do not change their spots, as life teaches those who wish to learn. Some prefer not to learn, it seems!
Or to be strictly accurate , they learn but pretend not to, when a pointless article is needed, as ever.
Kinda wrong imo
The team wage bill is huge and there was a lot of money spent in this squad.
All badly spent, but the money is there. Weak excuse. Pepe was more expensive than VVD, partey more than salah, auba more than Firmino, laca more than mane…..
Willian will cost 44mi £ by the end of his contract, that’s what Chelsea bought werner for.(at the time second best striker in the buli).
Money is not the problem, arsenal net spend (5years) is double that of Chelsea and liverpool. Spending 443mi £ in Transfers. How someone can spend that much and still not create a good team is beyond logic.
Top 4 is the least The club should aspire.
Kroenke doesn’t care he wont do anything. A takeover is our only chance at changing the culture in teh club
What would Arsene say should arsenal go down the “doping” route? he he he
No we won’t be spending big this summer and we won’t be on our own. There will be no spending for success because as well as there being no money, Arteta doesn’t guarantee success, even if we did. Kronk will not be throwing money at Arteta, even if he wanted to, why should he.
This will never happen as long as KSE is our owner.
I would suspect that Kroenke will light a fire under Edu and company’s asses to sell off numerous players so it will appear as if he’s investing, but instead it will simply be the usual dollar in, dollar out business model…of course, if we actually secure the services of the appropriate targets I won’t care about the semantics whatsoever, but I’m certainly not expecting our absentee landlord to actual reach into his own pocket
I think you are right TRVL.However ,what bothers me is my unease at the prospect of Edu being in charge of recruitment an area where we have failed miserably during the past 6/7 years.If you compare us with the efficiency shown in that department by Leicester City, we are found wanting, with the deal for Willian being the final straw as far as I am concerned.The fact is, we have spent money on recruitment, but sadly we have not spent wisely .