Arsenal can still compete financially with the top clubs evem if we missed out on a Champions League spot, says chief executive Ivan Gazidis. The club earned £26m from Europe last season but Gazidis believes they could still keep pace with the top English clubs without it.
“We would rather qualify for it but we have a really sustainable model that can cope. Not just cope, but we can do well and compete. It would be very foolish to build a business model that relied on being in the Champions League for perpetuity and I don’t think any clubs do that and, if they do, then they probably aren’t being run as responsibly as they should be.”
“We don’t have a salary ceiling, I don’t know where that story comes from,” said Gazidis, who was speaking at Leaders in Football conference. “We have a very sophisticated business model that looks at what we need to do to compete today and what we need to do to compete next year and five years from now.”
In other AFC news, Mikel Arteta has claimed he signed for us without having a medical first. He claims there was so little time to complete his £10million move from Everton on August 31 and he told the club he would assume liability if there was an issue with his fitness.
Arteta, who was given a four-year deal, said: “It was very stressful. At 6pm, they said everything had broken down. Then, at 8.30pm, everything started again. But there wasn’t time to have a medical. I went to the offices of Everton and from there I told Arsenal to trust me and that if some medical problem was found it would be my responsibility.”
Shows you how deperate we were after the OT mauling.
Meanwhile, Arsenal target Mario Gotze’s agent has declared his client is very unlikely to leave Borussia Dortmund before the end of his contract in 2014.
Oh, and Arsenal are rumoured to have revived their interest in Anderlecht midfielder Lucas Biglia.
Congrats to the Oko Kid, who hit a hat-trick for England nippers last night.
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