ARSENAL are in turmoil after chief executive Ivan Gazidis admitted they cannot “outgun” their big-spending rivals – despite boss Arsene Wenger pledging to splash the cash this summer.
The Londoners have made one major signing this summer with the purchase of Granit Xhaka from Borussia Monchengladbach for £35m.
Their two other buys have been unknown youngsters Takuma Asano and Rob Holding – prompting Gunners’ fans to once again vent their frustrations at their under-spending and under-performing club.
Last summer, they only signed goalkeeper Petr Cech for £10m while the January window saw just one player join in the form of midfielder Mohamed Elneny, also for £10m.
But this year Arsenal were named as the fifth most valuable football team in the world according to Forbes magazine, while accountancy firm Deloitte revealed they have highest matchday revenue in the world thanks for the high price of season tickets – and they are owned by billionaire Stan Kroenke.
Boss Wenger has overseen 20 consecutive top-four finishes in the top flight, but has not won the league since 2004, with some fans protesting at the end of last season, calling for a change in manager.
Earlier this week the Frenchman insisted that the club would “add what we missed” during the transfer window to perform better in the league, but having missed out on Leicester‘s Jamie Vardy, his pursuit of France forward Alexandre Lacazette has been fruitless with Lyon turning down a £29.3m offer.
But Gazidis, 51, reaffirmed his support for Wenger and denied he is still at the club due to a “sense of nostalgia” – and claimed Arsenal have to be “very selective” with their choice of transfer targets while Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City all strengthen considerably.
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He told the New York Times: “We would not be successful if we simply went out into the transfer market and tried to outgun our competitors.
“We can’t afford to outgun competitors that have far more money to splurge on transfer fees than we do. So we have to be very careful, very selective about how we do things.
“We’re still active in the market, as are most other clubs, and if we find opportunities that our manager believes can improve our squad and add something to it, we’re certainly going to take those steps.”
Gazidis also and claimed the Premier League’s large and evenly-shared television deal means money is less of a factor than it once was.
He added: “The constraints within the Premier League are less and less about pure finances.
“More relatively important become things like how well you identify players, how well you develop players, what kind of sports science you have, your analytics, your psychology.
“All of these support areas around what we do increasingly become bigger differentiators.”
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