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Arsenal manager Unai Emery has asked fans to be patient as the club work on recruiting players this summer.
Thus far, the Gunners have only added 18-year-old forward Gabriel Martinelli to their ranks, while they’re still reportedly working on their attempts to sign Crystal Palace star Wilfried Zaha, Celtic left-back Kieran Tierney and Saint-Etienne centre-back William Saliba.
Per Goal’s Chris Burton, Emery said:
“The club is working. We are speaking every day with the club and [new technical director] Edu.
“I prefer to work with patience and calm and take the best decision.
“We have very good players, very young good players. We need someone to help us. The club is working on that.
“We prefer to take the best decision with patience. If we need to wait more time for this reason I prefer to do that.”
The transfer window opened on May 16. Premier League clubs will be able to offload players until September 2, but their deadline for buying is August 8.
What could be of small comfort to Gunners supporters is that Arsenal are far from the only team not to do much business, per StatsBomb’s James Yorke:
James Yorke @jair1970
Premier League still slow to move. Arsenal, Chelsea (with reasons), Palace, Liverpool, Newcastle, Watford, Wolves all yet to sign new players for the first team (over & above converting loanees). Bunch more teams have only really made one first team ready signing. Get on with it
However, Arsenal’s failure to qualify for next season’s UEFA Champions League—they’ll instead play UEFA Europa League football for the third campaign running—has limited their budget this summer.
According to BBC Sport’s David Ornstein, the club will only have around £40 million to spend, a relatively meagre amount in today’s inflated market.
Football finance blog Swiss Ramble looked at the unhealthy state of Arsenal’s finances:
Swiss Ramble @SwissRamble
In fact, given that there were no major player sales in 2018/19 (only Perez, Campbell and Akpom), it is highly likely that #AFC will report a large loss before tax for last season – the first time the club will have slipped into the red since 2002.
Arsenal will be aiming for a top-four finish in the Premier League next season so they can resume enjoying Champions League revenues.
While they missed out on the top four by just one point last season, with such a comparatively small budget it’s vital they get whatever recruitment that can be done this summer correct, because they can’t afford to bring in anyone who does not improve the squad.
Getting the deals over the line would still be better done sooner rather than later, though, so any new arrivals have more time to settle in during pre-season.
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