Arsenal filed their annual financial accounts this week, revealing that they spent a club-record £346m on wages in 2024-25. This season, that sum will rise once again.
The correlation between wages and success on the pitch is much, much clearer than net spend, regardless of what Pep Guardiola suggests. And Stan Kroenke has underwritten significant financial losses in recent seasons in order to ramp up the wage bill and turn Arsenal into a superpower once again.
The next step is to turn that investment into silverware, of course.
But whatever their position domestically and in Europe come May, the Gunners are in an infinitely better position than the first of the post-Wenger years.
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Bukayo Saka signed a new contract last week, making him the club’s best-paid player. His £300,000-a-week deal, however, is one of several in that bracket. About 75 per cent of the club’s total payroll, according to most reliable industry experts, is attributable to players.
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“If you look at the period from 2014 to 2024, Arsenal’s wage bill doubled,” says University of Liverpool football finance lecturer Kieran Maguire, speaking exclusively to Arsenal Insider.
“However, that has very much been driven over the last two years. It was £212m in 2022 and, now, £346m.
“The important thing is that they have wage under control relative to revenue. They are well within the FIFA’s suggested limits, so they have got the capacity to spend more.”
As well as FIFA’s recommended wages-to-revenue limit, Arsenal are also obliged to keep spending on transfers and wages to a maximum of 70 per cent of turnover plus player sale profits under UEFA’s financial rules.
Although they are expected to have complied, Arsenal are said to have run that ratio, which is assessed in calendar years rather than seasons, close in 2025.
From next season, the Premier League will introduce a similar system, though that won’t be of any immediate concern to the Gunners given that the domestic cap is set at 85 per cent.
But raising revenue in order to spend as much as possible under the UEFA rules will remain essential going forward, especially given that Stan Kroenke has funded the club’s losses to the tune of £340m in recent years, per the accounts.
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“They deserve credit for acknowledging that the commercial side of the clubs needs a revamp,” continues Maguire.
“And they are now earning £147m more there than they were pre-Covid. That funnels through to the wage bill. You have to spend that successfully, but they appear to have turned a corner there.
“So, they are in a strong position financially. They have leeway to spend more and it looks like senior management are willing to protect the value of their investment by spending more on the squad.”
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