How much longer can Arsenal go on losing this much money?

 

 

by Tony Attwood

• It is more than likely that Arsenal’s new players are taking a while to adjust to the ways of English officials
• Summer transfers: who spent the most and which 7 clubs receive more than they spent?

In the last eight seasons, two teams have won the Premier League: 

In the eight seasons from 1966/67 to 1973/74, seven teams won the First Division.  They were Manchester United, Manchester City, Leeds United, Everton, Arsenal, Derby County and Liverpool.  The one club that won the league twice in this period was Leeds United.   

Of course, winning the league multiple times, with the same team/s being at the top over and over, is the European Way of doing things.  For example, in France, in the last 13 seasons, 11 of the titles have been won by Paris St German.  Lille and Monaco have each won it once.

In Germany, in the last 13 seasons Bayern Munich have won the league 12 times.  Bayer Leverkusen won it the other time largely because Bayern Munich brought in Harry Kane as centre forward.

In Spain, in the last 21 seasons, Barcelona have won the league 12 times, Real Madrid seven times and Atletico Madrid twice.

But ithis how it has to be?  Is this how it will be now in England forever?  After all in England in the last eight years Manchester City have won the league six times and Liverpool twice.

Of course, it never used to be like that.  In England in the 1960s, Liverpool won the league twice, Manchester United won it twice, and Burnley, Tottenham Hots, Ipswich Town, Everton, Manchester City and Leeds United each won it once.

Now obviously, we all want our team to win the league.  I want Arsenal to win – I wish they had come first rather than second in each of the last three seasons.  But to take a broader perspective, is it really that exciting when the same two or three teams win it all the time?

I think the answer is that unless it is your favourite team winning all the time, the answer is “no”. And indeed in the end the pattern becomes so entrenched that the belief that anyone else can win the league vanishes.  What’s worse, the big two or three clubs become bigger and bigger because they have European money all the time, and the rest slip further and further behind.  Competition in the real sense of the word vanishes.

And in case anyone feels like suggesting that I wouldn’t be bemoaning the fact of the same team winning over and over again if Arsenal had just won the league three times running, no of course I would not.  I have supported Arsenal from my earliest days when my family lived near the ground.  Of course, I want Arsenal to win things.

But taking a broader view, this domination by certain clubs is not good news, not least because the clubs that year after year have no chance of winning see their support drifting away.  Yes, the supporters still identify with their team, but they are overall less likely to go and watch.  

Part of the issue is that going to watch a football team can become a habit – a regular activity one does, irrespective of the results.   Certainly, this is encouraged and enhanced by the fact that Arsenal has a very high percentage of its home fan tickets sold as season tickets, and a requirement that they are used or sold back to the club (and even the number of times you can do that is limited).   

Apparently, the Arsenal season ticket waiting list is now around 100,000 people long, and the number of tickets moving hands officially each year is tiny, so there is a real demand.

But there is another factor underlying this.   Arsenal used to be a profit-making business before the current owners took over.  Now it is a loss-making business in a very big way.  In the season 2023/24, Arsenal lost £17.7m.  The year before Arsenal lost £52.1m.  The season before that it was £45.5m.  

Now of course, you might argue that the decline in the loss-making to £17.7m for 2023/24 was good news and shows Arsenal moving in the right direction.   But you only have to pause for a moment and look at the transfer dealings for this summer – £293m was spent and about £10m collected from sales.  Obviously, we don’t know anything about the income for the club in 2024/25 nor the expenditure (primarily on salaries of course, but other costs as well), but we can be sure that Arsenal will declare another whacking great loss.  Probably their biggest ever.

So the question remains – where does this end?   Arsenal might win the league this season – but even if they do, that doesn’t really generate much more money  A good run in the Champions League, as per last season, also helps, but again is not enough.

And as we have noted before, in the reign before the Kroenkes, Arsenal made money; now they lose money.  So the question remains, where does this end?   Do the current owners finally find a way of making money out of Arsenal, which of course they need to, because even with their enormous wealth, the money will run out in the end.   Or is there another way out that I’ve never thought of?