- Arsenal v Wolverhampton: how the financial issues of last season will affect this campaign
- At last a club speaks out against a member of PGMO. Now we might have a conversation
By Bulldog Drummond
For the new season Wolverhampton have so far brought in …
- Rodrigo Gomes from SC Braga for €15.00m
- Pedro Lima from Sport Recife for €10.00m
- Tommy Doyle from Manchester City for €5.00m
- Jørgen Strand Larsenfrom Celta Vigo on loan
Leaving the club we have seen Pedro Neto go to Chelsea for €60.00m and Max Kilman to West Ham for €47.50m. All these details come from Transfermarkt
So by my reckoning that is 30 million eurors worth of players coming in but 107.5 million euros on players leaving the club. The New York Times (the home of the Athletic website) said that the club managed to avoid sanctions under the profit and sustainability rules last time around despite losses of more than £67m which is presumably why they have now been selling more than they have been buying.
One Football reaches a similar conclusion, noting that, “Wolverhampton Wanderers offloaded 17 players for £140 million this summer, and that decision looks set to shield them from Premier League sanctions… The player sales were prompted by concerns of violating Profit and Sustainability rules, formerly known as Financial Fair Play.”
So this suggests that for the season opener we should be seeing the consequences of Financial Fair Play in operation since Arsenal are suffering far fewer restrictions.
But it looks even worse than that because One Football suggested in 2023 that “Wolverhampton Wanderers offloaded 17 players for £140 million this summer,” (that being obviously the summer of 2023) for the same reason. Which is to say they have been spending money they hadn’t earned in order to climb up the league.
Now of course climbing up the league is something that the current Arsenal know all about…
| Season | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | Pos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019–20 | 14 | 14 | 10 | 56 | 48 | 56 | 8th |
| 2020–21 | 18 | 7 | 13 | 55 | 39 | 61 | 8th |
| 2021–22 | 22 | 3 | 13 | 61 | 48 | 69 | 5th |
| 2022–23 | 26 | 6 | 6 | 88 | 43 | 84 | 2nd |
| 2023–24 | 28 | 5 | 5 | 91 | 29 | 89 | 2nd |
We’ve mentioned this so often it hardly needs repeating, but just in case you’ve been away all summer, the pattern shows winning increase, defeats decreasing, goals reaching a record level, goals against reaching a new low and points increasing. Of course, as we have noted this can’t go on forever, but maybe it can for one more season…
As for Wolverhampton Wanderers, we see the opposite effect…
| Season | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | Pos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019–20 | 15 | 14 | 9 | 51 | 40 | 59 | 7th |
| 2020–21 | 12 | 9 | 17 | 36 | 52 | 45 | 13th |
| 2021–22 | 15 | 6 | 17 | 38 | 43 | 51 | 10th |
| 2022–23 | 11 | 8 | 19 | 31 | 58 | 41 | 13th |
| 2023–24 | 13 | 7 | 18 | 50 | 65 | 46 | 14th |
Here we see wins dropping in recent seasons and defeats rising to the 17 to 19 games a season, with the number of points gained at a consistently lower level since 2019/20.
In fact in their first two seasons back in the Premier League after promotion in 2018 Wolverhampton have been slipping as the financial fair play and associated rules have come in. Overall it suggests that unless those incoming players turn out to be real bargains, the club is likely to end up once more in the bottom 30% in the league with no way out in terms of purchases.
But of course, we might be wrong (it has been known!)
What’s worse, however, as we noted in the previous preview article on this game, the club had a terrible end to last season being the least effective team across the last ten games of the season. So overall achieving 7th, their highest position since returning to the Premier League, could be quite a challenge.
Premier League injuries has Matheus Carneiro da Cunha, Enso Gonzalez Medina, Leon Chiwone and Nelson Semedo as “not available” for this game with Daniel Podence “currently being assessed” and with only a 25% chance of playing.
Mario Lemina and Jorgen Strand Larsen are reported by the site as having a chance of playing but are currently being assessed.
On the injury front, Arsenal have Takehiro Tomiyasu ruled out with a knee injury, Jurrien Timber with a foot injury and is currently being assessed but with only a 25% of playing, and Kiernan Tierney ruled out with a thigh injury.
The possible return date for Tomiyasu is now given as 5 September but Jurrien Timber could be ready for this game. Tierney has “no return date” next to his name.
More anon…
