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Financials show why Arsenal have fallen so far behind

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This morning the brilliant Swiss Ramble on Twitter has published his year summary of Premier League Clubs financials

The financials highlight just why Arsenal have fallen so much.

Arsenal’s revenue for 2018/19 was the 6th highest in the Premier League. The worst of all top 6 teams.

The bottom two are Arsenal and Chelsea, who were both in the Europa League. However the revenue drop is not just because of European broadcasting revenue.

Arsenal are bottom of the table when it comes to commercial revenue. Nearly £80million behind league leaders Liverpool.

Poor sponsorship deals is the key reason why we have fallen behind.

Whilst Ivan Gazidis often boasted about “record breaking” deals, the reality was often different.

For 2018/19, Arsenal had the 5th worst sponsorship revenue.

In 2018/19 Arsenal were coming to the end of their deals with Emirates and Puma.

For 2019/10, the new Adidas is set to increase revenue by £30million. The new Emirates by £20million. However when projected against new deals for other clubs, Arsenal still only have the 5th highest sponsorship deal.

And the big difference is that Arsenal’s £40million from Emirates includes stadium naming rights – whilst Manchester City receive £20million on top of kit sponsorship for this and no other club has taken advantage of the lucrative market.

We are still missing out on £10-15million training ground naming rights. Although in a post-Covid19 world, these sort of deals will not be as lucrative as once was.

Another concern is Arsenal also lag behind on non-sponsorship commercial revenue.

In 2018/19, we generated around £41m outside of sponsorship.

Manchester United made £111million elsewhere, With Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham all being above £60million

Arsenal are not generating enough from naming rights for either the stadium or training ground and “other commercial deals” are the lowest in the top 6.

Arsenal have also been poor when it comes to selling players in recent years – bringing in just £12million in player sales for 2018/19.

Once again, we are outside the top 4.

All this reduced revenue leads to Arsenal having less money to spend

Arsenal have the 5th highest wage bill in the Premier League, spending around £80million less on wages than Liverpool and Manchester City.

Remember earlier in the blog when we spoke about commercial revenue? We were also £80million behind Manchester City and Liverpool.

There is a direct link between commercial revenue and wages.

With player contracts being signed for 4 or 5 years, and commercial deals similar, clubs know they will receive the commercial revenue each year – unlike broadcasting and player sales which fluctuate.

Commercial deals is guaranteed money over a period, meaning clubs know they can pay that money out on wages without having to be concerned by a drop in revenue.

How can Arsenal expect to compete for the title when they are paying so much less in wages?

It is actually ironic that many fans complain we pay too much in wages to players, when the actual truth is very different. We need to pay more.

The £80million we pay less than Liverpool is the equivalent of £1.5million a week.

Arsenal could sign an additional 7 players on £200,000 a week for that.

That would be an additional 7 1st XI players, improving 2 thirds of the team.

In turn that pushes 7 players currently starting for us onto the bench, and you lose 7 players at the bottom end of the squad.

Imagine 7 new first team players. We would be challenging again.

And when it comes to buying players, we are also 5th when it comes to spending.

So we spend less on transfer fees, we spend less on wages. It should not then be a surprise that we have a worse squad of players than those above us.

On the pitch, Arsenal and Mikel Arteta have a lot of catching up to do, but we are being hampered by our off-pitch activities.

It is a simple equation.

The more money you make, the more you can spend. The more you can spend, the better the players you have. Better players leads to success.

It is unreasonable to expect us to compete on the pitch when we are so far behind off the pitch.

Hector Bellerin should be made captain…not sold

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Today’s player linked away from Arsenal is Hector Bellerin.

It has been reported that Inter Milan want to sign the 25-year-old right back for £27million.

What is baffling is that Arsenal fans seem to want him out.

This morning I have seen the transfer  been described as a “masterstroke” and “Raul’s best deal to date” if Bellerin was sold. I will not give these blogs the traffic by linking to them.

The justification behind this is that “Bellerin has a very questionable injury record and has missed 372 days through various problems since 2015”.

Recently we were reprimanded by NewsNow for our articles. They said we fell below their editorial quality. Will NewsNow do the same with these blogs? Or is that sort of statement OK?

Whilst the statement is true, it is also misleading.

Bellerin suffered a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his left knee in in January 2019. It initially ruled him out for 9 months – but as we know with long injuries it can take a while for a player to return fully, playing twice a week.

Prior to his injury, Bellerin had a fairly clean record.

The 3 seasons before 2018/19, he had averaged 45 games a season.

You do not play 45 games a season if you have a “a very questionable injury record”

Of the 372 days missed injured since 2015, 90% of them came since 2019, since that horrible injury against Chelsea.

Before the suspension for Covid19, Bellerin had played 7 of 10 games. The 3 he missed were cup ties.

He was regaining his full fitness, regaining his form.

Some fans have it out for Bellerin.

Bellerin has previously called out “fans” who profit from defeats. He has a strongly held political opinion; actively supporting Jeremy Corbyn and Labour in the last general election. He likes his fashion and is often seen at shows during his down time.

We should be glad that Bellerin is an intelligent young man. That he has an opinion and can back it up. That he has interests outside of football beyond hitting a golf ball. These things should not be held against him.

In England especially, players tend to be a bit thick.

Their education is reduced as they go through school and concentrate more on football. They are not encouraged by parents to work hard at school and on the football pitch. Football takes over. This leads to many failed footballers struggling for a career if they are released at 18.

Bellerin should be praised for being an intelligent individual, with deep interests and opinions. Not criticisms.

It was apparently Bellerin who got the players together to take a wage reduction to help ease Arsenal’s financial worries.

Bellerin is also who was behind Arsenal’s show of support for the Black Lives Matter protest and helped launch Football United, raising funds for the NHS.

Not only should Bellerin not be sold, he should be made captain.

Keenos

The 5 players Arsenal need to sign this summer

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Cedric Soares

Arsenal took Southampton right back on loan in January.

He arrived with an injury and then the Covid19 suspension hit meaning he has yet to play a game for the club.

Available for free in the summer, Arsenal would do well to secure his services on a 3-year contract.

Capped 33 times by Portugal, Soares was part of the team that won Euro 2016.

The experienced right back has spent 5 years on the South-Coast, playing 138 games. He has experience, and more importantly Premier League experience.

Some are calling for us to sign Max Aarons – but at £30million it would be a misappropriate use of funds when he would not be first choice.

Soares would be solid cover for Hector Bellerin.

Pablo Mari

Like Soares, Pablo Mari is also on loan. Like Soares, Arsenal should make the deal permanent.

Arsenal are currently overloaded with central defenders. Before even signing Mari, we have 7 at the club (David Luiz, Shkodran Mustafi, Sokratis, Rob Holding, Calum Chambers, William Saliba, Konstantinos Mavropanos).

Signing Mari would take it up to 8, but then the challenge would be to sell or loan out at least 3.

Two of David Luiz, Mustafi and Sokratis should be moved on. Mari is better than the later 2.

Time is also running out for Calum Chambers and Rob Holding.

Both Englishmen have stagnated at Arsenal and unlikely ever be good enough. Neither are young enough to be considered as “having potential”.

Mavropanos has been linked away from the club in recent days. A loan deal for a season would make a lot of sense.

Whilst plenty are linking us to the likes of Dayot Upamecano, we do not have the finances to make many big money signings.

Available for as little as £7million, Mari would add balance to the defence and replace the experience we would lose in Sokratis and Mustafi. He is an organiser and leader of the defence.

Ideally, we should go into next season with Luiz, Mari, Holding / Chambers and Saliba; with either Dan Ballard or Zech Medley as 5th choice.

Thomas Partey

If Arsenal make one big money signing this summer, it needs to be Atletico Madrid midfielder Thomas Partey.

For years, Arsenal have lacked power in the middle of the park for nearly a decade. You have to go back to Abou Diaby for the last time we had midfielder powerhouse; capable of physically destroying an opposing midfield, whilst also having the power and pose to drive forward with the ball.

Calling Partey a defensive midfielder is a disservice to him. Like Patrick Vieira, Yaya Toure and Diaby, he is much more than someone who simple wins the ball and passes it on (think Claude Makelele or Gilberto Silva).

He is the type of midfielder that dominates the game, dictates it with his physicality.

The 27-year-old Ghanaian midfielder is at his peak and would transform Arsenal.

Orkun Kokcu

Dutch-born Turkish youth international Orkun Kocku is one of the biggest prospects in the Dutch top-flight at the moment.

It was reported recently that Arsenal’s technical director Edu is a huge fan of the midfielder and wants to bring him to the Emirates this summer.

With Mesut Ozil set to leave the club on a free transfer in the summer, Arsenal should recruit his replacement this summer, enabling him to play and train alongside the German, before taking the step up for the 2021/22 season.

Our friends over at GunnersTown have an excellent scouting report on Kokcu.

At just 19-years-old, recruiting him this summer would give him a year to adapt to the Premier League before becoming a first team regular in 2021.

Ryan Fraser

Bukayo Saka is going to be a star. But he is still just 18-years-old.

Saka can not be expected to play 50 games next season, and with Nicolas Pepe and Reiss Nelson the other two “natural” wingers at the club, we are one short.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang needs to play down the middle next season, with Gabrial Martinelli backing him up (if Alexandre Lacazette leaves). Neither player is really a winger.

Bournemouth winger Fraser is available on a free transfer. The Scot would give Arsenal some Premier League proven experience alongside Saka without breaking the bank.

The pair could share the load on the left hand side, and give Mikel Arteta the option of playing left or right footed players on both wings.

Final Thoughts: The impact of Covid19 is going to impact the finances of all clubs across Europe this summer. We are not going to see too many teams spending big this summer.

Based on reported fees, the above transfers would cost the club in the region of £80million. Once this is amortised for accounting reason, it would increase the clubs outgoings by around £16million a year.

Arsenal would look to raise funds (and make savings in salaries) by moving on Mustafi, Sokratis, Chambers / Holding and Henrikh Mkhitaryan. In the current market, Arsenal would do well to raise £25-30million.

Selling Alexandre Lacazette could double that, freeing up further wages and providing us with some very important cash to complete the transactions.

With tightening finances, Arsenal are going to have promote some youth next season. The likes of Soares, Mari and Fraser will provide experience alongside those youngsters, whilst Kocku would replace on loan Dani Ceballos as the creativity behind Ozil.

Thomas Partey should be the number one target.

Keenos