Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has been sharing some information on Arsenal’s current finances.
This comes after Maguire recently made an appearance on The Price of Football Podcast where he spoke about a number of financial-related topics concerning a number of clubs.
On the subject of Arsenal, Maguire had this to say on the club’s finances.
He said: “Look what happened to Arsenal when the fans got fed up of finishing fourth.
“It’s a classic case of ‘be careful what you wish for’, and Arsenal, certainly from a financial point of view, have become detached from the rest of their peer group.
“I would say financially, their peer group have been Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool.
“I wouldn’t have even included Spurs there, but Spurs now have the infrastructure in a non-[pandemic] world to leap over Arsenal in terms of the wages that they can afford to pay.
“A couple of years outside of the Champions League, i.e. not finishing fourth, can be hugely damaging for a club’s long-term finances.”
The north London club hasn’t finished a Premier League season in the top four since the 2015/16 campaign where they finished in second place under former manager Arsene Wenger.
So far this season, Mikel Arteta’s side has won three out of their first four league games, losing the other, currently placing them in fourth place in the Premier League table.
Unfortunately, the club has had some financial issues behind the scenes as a result of the global pandemic, including having to make 55 members of their staff redundant.
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TIF Thoughts…
It appears that Arsenal’s failure to finish in a top-four place in recent years has seen them fall behind some of the other big clubs in the Premier League on a financial level as Maguire mentioned in the podcast.
However, with the club recently splashing out a fee of £45 million to bring in Thomas Partey, this shows that the club is investing in their squad to try and get back into the top four and play Champions League football again.