Arsenal Football Club have announced that they have £159.4 million in the bank – a figure which won’t be lost on fans who criticize boss Arsene Wenger for not splashing the cash in the transfer market. This according to a story in The Sun.
So if Arsene Wenger is going to start dropping some of that cash where will he go?
Well according to The Independent today, Wenger will reportedly get at least £70 million to spend in the summer, with Borussia Dortmund striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Watford forward Odion Ighalo, and Leicester City midfielder N’Golo Kante among the targets on his list.
Ighalo is one target they’ve consistently been linked to, and we’ve covered that in detail here.
The club’s January transfer window was very unexciting, and their summer transfer window was even more dull, as they bought zero outfield players.
The Petr Cech signing obviously worked out well, but the Gunners are going to have to show some more signs of activity in the transfer market to truly ever be a league title favorite and a team that can go really far in Champions League.
We know now that they have the money to do so, and it being cheap could have ramifications beyond just England and Europe. Just three weeks ago Wenger declared that European football should be “worried” about the “financial power to move the whole game to China.” That’s the story in the February 6th Telegraph.
You can see where the Arsenal manager is coming from, given the inherent strength that country contains to buy the game’s best players.
A huge population and gigantic television markets means big time revenue, and that means a prolific ability to bring over the best in world football.
Shakhtar Donetsk forward and Chelsea, Liverpool target Alex Teixeira joined Chinese Super League club Jiangsu Suning in a 50 million euro ($56M) move.
The same club made an audacious move for Oscar, offering about double what the Chelsea bench player is supposedly worth. Stamford Bridge turned it down.
According to the Daily Mail, Odion Ighalo (not to bring him up again) revealed that he rejected a Chinese move to stay at Watford. Ighalo has been the Hornets’ breakout star, helping the recently promoted side to a better than expected performance this season.
So there is certainly a trend here, and Arsene Wenger makes a few good points.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram
