Arsenal's Financial Situation

[VCC]

I apologise for resurrecting what seems to be a dead thread. However, in light of the recent developments pertaining Arsenal's financial position, I feel it's only appropriate to bring up the topic again. Somewhat unsurprisingly, the developments have been overwhelmingly negative for the club.

Several media outlets reported on Arsenal's financial figures for the 2018-19 season on Saturday December 7th, 2019. The figures, although startling, didn't come as a surprise to me: Arsenal reported a whopping drop of £30m (from £99m to £69m) in matchday revenue and a pre-tax loss of £23.5m. We didn't make a substantial profit on player transfers, which accounted for the profit we made in 2017-18. Our cash reserve had depleted by more than 50 percent from £231m at the end of 2017-18 to £107m at the end of 2018-19.

The financial report confirmed what most of us knew already: without Champions League football, we're simply unable to operate a profitable business without either trimming costs or increasing revenues by selling players. The easy way to do both is to sell players: we may simply sell the players who are running down their contracts (Aubameyang, Lacazette), replace them with a fraction of the cost and pay their replacements lower wages. Of course, this creates a downward spiral where the quality of our squad deteriorates, thus further weakening our chances of getting back into the Champions League.

All in all, the longer we take to get back into the Champions League, the harder it will be to recover. Keeping in mind the fact that we're committed to self-sufficiency, at some point the damage will become permanent, and we'll remain a mid-table side forever. Unfortunately, this is the future Arsenal face.

I don't see how we can reverse our course.

The future is in the development model,
My only worry about this is the club has not changed who is developing these players, we changed our first team manager in AW, we then changed his replacement, but the club is still following the AW model of youth development we now have his number 2 coaching the youth team,
Ask yourself this
We have been poor for so many years defensively yet who have we developed in a defensive role
Saka and ANM are just flukes that have come off!

[EliteKiller]

The future is in the development model,
My only worry about this is the club has not changed who is developing these players, we changed our first team manager in AW, we then changed his replacement, but the club is still following the AW model of youth development we now have his number 2 coaching the youth team,
Ask yourself this
We have been poor for so many years defensively yet who have we developed in a defensive role
Saka and ANM are just flukes that have come off!

Agree with you on that ....

The best players coming out of top academies are the ones the academy scouting team brought in, look at all the best youth players today and nearly all started at a small club before joining one of the elite's at 12/13/14 or even older.

When Arsene arrived his greatest achievement was convincing Peter Hill-Wood to establish London Colney from 1999 for the next decade it was the number one training centre and we attracted all the best talent, sadly it was underused and we saw against Juventus in 2006 not a single development player in the line-up, like much at the club it stagnated and it wasn't until 2015 that a massive upgrade was undertaken .... but as you rightly say so far a similar massive upgrade in management personnel has not happened.

Of course since than Spurs Enfield training ground have overtaken us as the venue of choice for visiting International and US teams, Chelsea have spent an obscene amount of money on their Cobham training ground and both are now reaping the rewards of that investment.

Don't get me wrong London Colney is still a fantastic facility, but like the Emirates it's no longer the only one, we need indeed we must get back to having the best youth development programme even if that only delivers one player a year that's still a 'one of our own' that we can get behind ... it's what we desperately need.

[Ach]

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta could have a small transfer budget this summer if they miss out on Champions League football next season amid reports of poor financial results at the club. (Goal)

[Angelito]

Unless we fluke a title like Leicester it's goodnight Vienna.

The last time this happened was when Ipswich won the league in 1962. Leicester won it in 2016.

So, it happens once in 50-50 years. The odds aren't in our favor. In addition to that, they were sides that won their maiden titles.

Our goal is to get back to where we were during 11-16. That's the top-4. Then, we can hope we find the next Klopp or Arteta manages to punch above our weight.

I don't see us winning the league this decade. But a lot can change between 2020 and 2028.

[PairyGrows]

Having followed the club’s finances and other affairs for years and years, sadly I’m not at all surprised that it has come down to this. My worst fears seem to have materialised: we are no longer a big club.

The main win condition in football is the ability to compete in the transfer market. Our self-sustaining model has depended on consistent Champions League football since we moved to the Emirates. Considering our marked decline since moving to the Emirates, it’s only a matter of time until we fell out of the top four. Unfortunately, we’ve managed this drop in the worst manner possible: we’ve allowed players to leave for next to nothing, which has forced us to spend beyond our means; and we’ve given out insane contracts to players who have not and will not live up to their price tag. Seeing as we’re almost certain to make a loss again this season, we’ve most likely crossed the €30m threshold of permitted losses over a three-year period in just two years, getting us in trouble with FFP. We need to make a substantial profit next season. But how?

We are not going to qualify for the Champions League this season. Therefore, we have to grow the income and trim the wage bill by selling players and replacing them cost-effectively. Of course, we’ll have to strike gold with every single signing we make next summer, or else our squad will become substantially less competitive. That or we’ll have to hope our youngsters blow everyone away, which I don’t see them doing apart from Martinelli and Saka. Not to mention we don’t have many assets, and some players we want to get rid of are on ludicrous wages, making them almost impossible to move on for any reasonable fee.

All in all, Arsenal are in the gutter. We must get every single decision regarding the squad right from now on if we are to harbour any hopes of getting back to winning ways. Hell, even Mikel Arteta has admitted this. Many Gooners won’t like this, but the mess we find ourselves in is 100 percent of our own making and thus well-deserved. A club who celebrate mediocrity as a trophy won’t stay competitive for very long and, frankly, they don’t particularly deserve to. Unless by some miracle we pull ourselves out of this mess, we will be a mid-table club for a very long time.

I must admit that watching all this unfold has been akin to witnessing a car crash in slow motion. I’ve seen this coming for years. Yet it’s not any less painful to see our club sink like a rock before our very eyes.

[Highbury Hillbilly]

Transfer fees balloon ever year, but Champions League money does not.

Where would 3 more seasons of CL have put us financially, assuming our usual R16 elimination?

Would we have been able to buy £200m worth of players each year as Man Utd and Man City have done?

We are spending close to that on a high volume of players, but its quantity over quality. Take a rare transfer like Pepe out of the calculations and we'd still need to spend £100m/yr on transfers just for maintaining our squad.

[Phil71]

It’s the loss of CL money.

I said this last year and loads on here said we don’t need it and CL vs EL money is about the same. It’s not.

And here we are.

[Salibatelli]

It’s the lack of ambition that has destroyed us, years of accepting and even celebrating being also rans, many of the fans are just as guilty, buying everything the club says and does despite evidence showing our decline.

You cannot remain competitive if you have no ambition to succeed, eventually it catches up with you which is what has happened. Wenger has us on a downward spiral for years but we didn’t get rid, we waited until we had a squad of overpaid, underperforming players and had wasted much of our cash reserves we’d built up and had stopped qualifying for the CL.

This despite years of getting humiliated in the CL last 16 and collapses in almost every competition, the signs were there for years but everyone ignored them, no other manager of a top club would have survived the hammerings we got under Wenger, that battering in his 1000th game by Chelsea summed it up and still it was sugar coated, Wenger survived the ultimate humiliation in that game.

It’s finally caught up with us now.

[Phil71]

It’s the lack of ambition that has destroyed us, years of accepting and even celebrating being also rans, many of the fans are just as guilty, buying everything the club says and does despite evidence showing our decline.

You cannot remain competitive if you have no ambition to succeed, eventually it catches up with you which is what has happened. Wenger has us on a downward spiral for years but we didn’t get rid, we waited until we had a squad of overpaid, underperforming players and had wasted much of our cash reserves we’d built up and had stopped qualifying for the CL.

This despite years of getting humiliated in the CL last 16 and collapses in almost every competition, the signs were there for years but everyone ignored them, no other manager of a top club would have survived the hammerings we got under Wenger, that battering in his 1000th game by Chelsea summed it up and still it was sugar coated, Wenger survived the ultimate humiliation in that game.

It’s finally caught up with us now.

Yep.

As a club we accepted that we weren't going to win the league. Gave up. Threw in the towel and settled for one of the runner up spots every year. Regarded that as success.

[gooney]

Next step in our financial dealings will be to take the cast offs of the big club on the cheap. Willian will sign for us on free this summer. Either way we are fecked. Its gonna take years to change this and we will miss out on a generation of fans imo

[elkanofan]

[LMAO]

https://www.arsenal.com/sites/default/f ... counts.pdf

Page 14 (Cash Flow Statement) - Cash and cash equivalents at end of year (£166.957 million)
Page 27 (14. Cash at bank and in hand) - Other accounts (£130.196 million)

[Zenith]

Winning the FA Cup has earned us a total amount of £6,206,250.

To that £6.2m we can add an additional £2.3m for qualifying for the Europa League group stages.

That should add an additional £8.5m our transfer budget.

[Callum]

Winning the FA Cup has earned us a total amount of £6,206,250.

To that £6.2m we can add an additional £2.3m for qualifying for the Europa League group stages.

That should add an additional £8.5m our transfer budget.

Plus the TV money which is an extra £20-30m, I think.

[Santi]

minus all he bonuses for winning the cup and playing in europe