David Ornstein has claimed that Arsenal’s transfer policy won’t be dictated by whether or not they will be in European competition next season.
Arsenal have only one realistic chance of qualifying for Europe next season, by winning the Europa League and gaining entry into the Champions League, because if they were to do so through the Premier League, they would have to make up either a seven or eight-point gap on the teams in 7th and 6th respectively.
But speaking on the latest edition of his show, Ornstein claims that Arsenal’s transfer strategy won’t change that much regardless of what European competition, if any, the club find themselves in next season:
“We need to see what’s going to happen in terms of the outcome of their European campaign. Will they be playing in the Champions League, Europa League, Europa Conference, or no European football at all? Interestingly, from I think the Arsenal perspective, they don’t think the European status will have too much of a bearing on what they want to do.
“And that might hint at the idea that the ownership, the Kroenkes, could help in the transfer market financially. Again, we’ve seen Josh Kroenke and also Mikel Arteta hinted that publicly in recent weeks, but the proof will be in the pudding.”
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TIF Thoughts on David Ornstein’s comments about Arsenal’s spending plans…
Ornstein’s words are rather interesting when it comes to Arsenal’s potential spending habits.
As we’ve seen when it comes to Tottenham forward Harry Kane, playing in the Champions League does mean something to players, so to tempt them away from a club in that competition would take something rather substantial.
So either they are planning to bring in players who aren’t concerned about playing in Europe right now, in which case you’d have to question the quality of the players they are targeting. Or they are looking at high-quality players but are willing to pay above and beyond the market price in terms of wages, in which case you wonder how they are going to find the money to spend given their financial situation.
And depending on what route they might go down could give us an insight into what their long-term strategy is.
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