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IAN HERBERT: Arsenal once held bold ambitions to emulate Bayern Munich as a spending power, but on-field failures are hurting the Gunners’ bank balance and they now trail Tottenham heading into the north London derby
- Arsenal have slid into the second tier of clubs financially over the past decade
- The Gunners hierarchy had bold plans to become a spending powerhouse
- However, a lack of Champions League football has hurt the club’s balance books
- Spurs are eclipsing the Gunners in key financial areas ahead of Sunday’s Derby
- Mikel Arteta’s spending power will rest heavily on how they end the season
Arsenal technical director Edu was presenting to the club’s owners this week. He laid out plans to reorganise the club’s worldwide scouting and recruitment operation and compete for the best young talents, as Arsene Wenger and his chief scout Steve Rowley did, in what now seems a different universe.
The problem is money. When former chief executive Ivan Gazidis spoke in 2013 of Arsenal becoming a spending power like Bayern Munich, the club were in the midst of a 19-season run in the Champions League.
But as the directors congratulated themselves on what a good job they were doing, Arsenal subsided into the second tier of clubs. They’re now blowing a small fortune just to stay there.
Arsenal chief Edu has bold plans to make the club a scouting giant, but money is a problem
In 2013, the Gunners were plotting to become a spending powerhouse like Bayern Munich
Arsenal’s financial results, published last week, revealed the eye-watering detail. After 16 straight profitable years, during which they enjoyed a £393million surplus, they have reported two successive years of losses, in which a cumulative £86m drained away.
As financial analyst Swiss Ramble’s examination of the figures showed, Arsenal now trail other members of the Big Six — most symbolically Tottenham, who they meet on Sunday.
The £17m TV money earned after their last-32 Europa League knockout compared with £69m for Spurs, who sit two places above them in the latest Deloitte Money League having driven £51m more in revenue.
However, Arsenal’s slide down the Premier League table has dashed those old ambitions
Their on-field woes are hurting the bank balance, with lack of Champions League a heavy blow
Arsenal are now outside the top 10 in that league. In 2013 they were sixth, ahead of Manchester City, Liverpool and 13th-placed Spurs. Arsenal are now the second-best north London team for matchday revenue — a financial realm where once Spurs could not remotely compete. Income is £79m, while Spurs’ new stadium has lifted them to £95m, the Swiss Ramble study shows. Arsenal are eclipsed in all areas: sponsorship, hospitality, merchandise.
The Premier League’s 10th-placed club have been fumbling around in the dark for three years, desperately trying to map a route ahead, just like Manchester United after Sir Alex Ferguson left.
Hence the revolving door of new executives in that time.
A number of executives have come and go as Arsenal have fumbled in the dark (pictured: former chief executive Ivan Gazidis (left) and former head of recruitment Sven Mislintat)
One by one, they have left, for reasons never spelt out. Gazidis, head of recruitment Sven Mislintat, then Darren Burgess, who had been appointed to great fanfare to work as the club’s performance director.
Manager Unai Emery’s sacking cost Arsenal £10m. Raul Sanllehi, the head of football, and contract negotiator Huss Fahmy have followed him out the door.
Wages soar when panic sets in and here is one field where Arsenal outdo Spurs, with an average £104,000-a-week offering compared with Tottenham’s £84,249.
Edu is hoping that contacts in South America can help land the region’s stars of the future
Profit of £40m from player sales has helped Arsenal. So has cancelling the contracts of Mesut Ozil, Shkodran Mustafi and Sokratis Papastathopoulos. A further £16.5m on this season’s wage bill has been staunched by loaning out Sead Kolasinac, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Joe Willock.
But the Swiss Ramble comparative study shows Arsenal are still running the third-highest losses in the Premier League, surpassed only by Everton (£175m) and Chelsea (£112m.)
Edu’s PowerPoint presentation is not the only solution being formulated by a club who have received no funding from owner Stan Kroenke in the past five years, at a time when seven sides in the Premier League have been given £100m or more.
But the club will also have to focus on keeping hold of the burgeoning talent they have already including the highly promising Emile Smith Rowe (right)
Folarin Balogun, 19, has impressed a number of suitors in Germany but has had limited minutes
The financial headache could have a huge effect on Mikel Arteta’s transfer budget this summer
It is thought…
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