Arsenal's £70m summer spree: And that's just what Arsene Wenger can spend on transfer fees
Arsenal's £70m summer spree: And that's just what Arsene Wenger can spend on transfer fees
Lucrative commercial tie-ups and new TV deal mean Gunners are ready to pay £20m-plus for first time AND cough up huge wages
Arsene Wonga: Who will Wenger buy to make Arsenal title challengers again?
PA
Arsene Wenger will be given a huge budget to transform Arsenal back
into genuine contenders next season by making summer signings. The Gunners' chief executive Ivan Gazidis will back Wenger with a transfer war-chest,
thanks to lucrative new commercial tie-ups with airline Emirates and
sportswear giants Puma as well as the Premier League's huge new TV deal
that comes into effect in August.
Wenger will be able to spend the
£70million-plus windfall on fees, as a major summer clear-out could
clear more than £350,000-a-week off the wage bill.
Arsenal's highest earner Andrey Arshavin, who was on £90,000-a-week, is leaving.
Major
League Soccer's LA Galaxy, a return to his native Russia or a move the
Middle East are options for the former Russia captain.
French club
Lyon are interested in Gervinho, while Marouane Chamakh, Nicklas
Bendtner, Park Chu-Young, Andre Santos, Denilson, Johan Djourou and
Thomas Vermaelen could all go, too.
Wenger will be urged to then spend big - and on the very biggest names.
The
Frenchman believes three key signings - a goalkeeper, a midfielder and a
forward - would blend in easily and turn Arsenal back into title
contenders.
The Gunners are eager to show they are not satisfied with finishing fourth, but want to win trophies again.
Strikers Gonzalo Higuain (Real Madrid) and Stevan Jovetic (Fiorentina) and keepers Asmir Begovic (Stoke), Julio Cesar (Queens Park Rangers) and Rene Adler (Hamburg) are all possibles.
Midfielders Kevin Strootman, of Dutch heavyweights PSV Eindhoven, and Max Gonalons, of Lyon in France, have also been watched.
Restructuring
Arsenal are ready to not only blast through the £20m transfer-fee
barrier, but also to compete in the wage market to sign stellar names.
Meanwhile, Auxerre striker Yaya Sanogo is set to join the Gunners for around £25,000-a-week.
Full-back Kieran Gibbs has admitted the squad are NOT
satisfied with finishing fourth and want next season's celebrations to
be about winning silverware.
After the players danced in delight on the pitch in Newcastle on Sunday after pipping arch-rivals Tottenham to fourth, Gibbs said: "We are jumping around celebrating, but we haven't actually won anything.
"You can look at it like that.
"On the other hand, we are aware that we need to produce next season. We have to be confident to deal with that.
"It's
massive to finish in the top four. We have done for however many
seasons on the bounce now. But we haven't actually properly qualified
yet because we still have to play the play-off game at the start of the
new season.
"We would have liked to have had a better season but I think
overall you have to be happy with the way the team got back together
after December and showed real character, yet again, to come back and
finish where we want to be.
"We haven't shown it consistently
enough in the cups and the Premier League but you have seen many
glimpses this season of what the team is capable of. We have played
against the best and we have performed.
"Next season we have to
focus on every detail and being professional in every single way so we
give ourselves the best chance to produce something because we are
desperate to get a trophy under our belts."
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Arsenal transfers: Who's expected to leave and join The Gunners this summer
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