In the past two years, Arsenal has been in the group of three clubs in the English Premier League spending the most in the transfer market. And this summer, they can even surpass Chelsea.
Young stars like Saka (right) and Odegaard help Arsenal gain more confidence in their financial situation – Photo: Reuters
For comparison, in the two Premier League seasons 2021-2022 and 2022-2023, Man City spent 311 million euros buying players but also earned 226 million euros from sales. That means Man City’s actual transfer spending in the past two years was only 85 million euros. As for Arsenal, they spent 360 million to buy and only sold 55 million euros, which means they actually spent more than 300 million euros. In England, only Chelsea and MU spend more money on player purchases than Arsenal.
This summer, Arsenal is more generous than ever. The “Gunners” have now completed a 70 million euro contract named Kai Havertz and are close to buying Declan Rice for a fee of about 100 million euros. Even Chelsea is slower than Arsenal in purchasing players.
Why does a team that is always considered austerity like Arsenal swing so strongly? Changes at the top are an important reason. In 2018, billionaire Stan Kroenke – who had been the main shareholder of Arsenal for the previous 7 years – bought back all shares from Alisher Usmanov to become the sole owner of Emirates Stadium. From here, the American billionaire determined to invest heavily to bring Arsenal back to its golden age.
The 80 million euro contract named Nicolas Pepe in the summer of 2019 was a milestone. In the past, Arsenal very rarely bought superstars. But since 2019, every summer they have made at least one expensive transfer from Pepe to Partey, Ben White, Gabriel Jesus and now Havertz and Rice.
In addition to the serious investment attitude of the owners, Arsenal has also built a solid financial foundation. The Mirror said that Arsenal’s salary fund is currently only 128 million euros/year, tied for 5th place with Tottenham and much less than Chelsea (251 million euros), MU (248 million euros), Man City (216 million euros) or Liverpool (190 million euros). With last season’s Premier League runner-up performance, Arsenal promises to sharply increase revenue in 2023. Therefore, it is understandable why they freely spend money this summer.
In addition, Arsenal’s squad full of expensive young stars is insurance for their future. In addition to the trio of attacking superstars Saka – Odegaard – Martinelli worth around 100 million euros each, Arsenal also has many other very young pillars such as Magalhaes, Saliba, White, Ramsdale… In case of failure with With expensive new recruits and a financial deficit, Arsenal can still consider selling off stars to balance revenue and expenditure. This is something that MU, Liverpool or Tottenham cannot have, with their aging squad.
After two decades of living as a child from a poor family, Arsenal fans have finally gotten used to the feeling of MU, Chelsea or Man City…
