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Mikel Arteta Admits Arsenal May Have to Sell Players If They Miss Out on Champions League
Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta has confessed that the club may be forced to sell some of their players in the summer if they fail to qualify for the Champions League again.
The Gunners announced they made a £27.1m loss in the 2018/19 season, and the lack of Champions League football this season certainly won’t have helped. Factor into that the £72m signing of Nicolas Pépé last summer, and you’ll get a good idea of how much money Arsenal have available right now.
Given they currently sit 10th in the Premier League, reaching the top four certainly seems a big ask, while it’s not even guaranteed that they will reach the Europa League either. With significant European income looking unlikely, Arteta confessed (via Goal) that the club will have some decisions to make.
“The damage caused by the club not being in the Champions League for the third season is really big,” he admitted.Guendouzi1AndersonWho has played more minutes in Premier League 2019/20?
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“Financially the impact is enormous because the structure of this club is built to be in the Champions League and you can sustain that for one year or two, but then after you have to start making decisions.
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“So we will have to make decisions one way or the other depending on the scenario we find ourselves in, whether we are in the Champions League, Europa League or nowhere near that.
“And we’ll have a very clear plan of what we want to do and depending where we are we have to act like this.”
The reality for Arteta is that he probably won’t be able to afford to rebuild his squad without selling players first. Strikers Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette have both been tipped to leave, and Arsenal may be powerless to prevent that.
Well, that’s what you get for not being good enough on the pitch. If you don’t play like a Champions League team, you can’t expect to be a Champions League team.
“It will be difficult but this is the situation we are in now,” Arteta added. “We’ve been in that situation because we haven’t performed as well as the other top-four clubs have been doing.
“That’s the reality and we have to face that reality face to face and try to make the best decisions.”
Source: 90min.com
