Arsenal have proven their mettle as they made a resurgent comeback to the Champions League for the first time since 2016/17 – which was coincidentally the last time Liverpool were absent – and are already happily reaping the benefits of their amazing performance.
Despite having lost out in a title race they led for 248 days in the last season, Arsenal’s campaign is proving to be transformational for the club most positively in areas that matter.
The Gunners have been absent from the competition since the 2016/17 campaign, during which time they have become accustomed to Europa League football and forced to watch on as the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea frolicked around enjoying considerable, money-spinning success in European football’s elite knockout club competition.
Liverpool will now be the ones next season looking on enviously, having been displaced from Champions League by their fifth-placed finish in 2022/23, which means they will be absent from the premier European competition for the first time since 2016/17 when Arsenal made their last appearance.
Needless to say, Liverpool have reaped considerable financial gains from their Champions League success in recent campaigns apart from the last one. This has helped to grow their global profile and attract better players. Obviously their hopes would be that the Europa League is a temporary one-off stop-gap measure next season, which would then mean effectively minimalizing the financial damage. However, should this continue over a number of seasons then the problems that the Gunners endured trying to manage the financial coffers without the riches of Champions League participation would similarly affect the Reds.
Liverpool’s wage bill has increased significantly by 76.4 per cent over the same time period when the Gunners’ only rose by around 6.3 per cent. While the Reds’ acceleration in wage spend has expedited them to be regular competitors for top-four football due in no small measure to consistent qualification for the Champions League.
Now a flip of the page sees a new scenario where Arsenal find themselves in the kind of rosy skies situation that Liverpool had enjoyed after terminating their own hiatus from the Champions League, with the £140m sale of Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona in 2018 allowing for the massive transfer outlay on key players like Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker which cranked up the Reds’ overall performances a notch, undeniably.
The Gunners have purportedly agreed to pay West Ham United £105m to sign Declan Rice, this coming after they bought Kai Havertz from Chelsea for £64m. Talks are also in progress to sign Ajax defender Jurrien Timber for £40m.
Mikel Arteta and his merry men now have availed themselves the opportunity to leverage on lucrative nature of the Champions League, which will add at least £50m in revenues regardless of the outcome this season. In like manner, Liverpool were able to draw in more than £100m in a financial year twice from their qualification and subsequent performances.
With UEFA having introduced new financial sustainability regulations last year that see clubs allowed to spend only 70 per cent of their revenue on squad investment, albeit there being a three-year grace period to comply with the new rules, Arsenal are now enabled to spend while having room to manoeuver when it comes to profit and sustainability the Premier League.
The blue skies above the Emirates are a confirmed good omen predicted to escalate football revenue considerably in the next financial year to pass the £400m mark for the first time in the Gunners’ history. The smudge left behind in the most recent financial year with the Gunners posting a loss of £45m will be glossed over as now with Champions League football they would most likely move back into the black by the time the new season ends, especially given the increase in merit payments from the Premier League related to their most creditable second-placed finish.
Arsenal, not unlike Liverpool in 2017, are about to enter a new era that would establish themselves once more as a top four force competing regularly in the Champions League. Now that the ‘big six’ has now turned into the ‘big seven’ – with Newcastle United’s massively funded by inexhaustible Saudi Arabian petro-dollars – the Reds would be facing much stiffer competition all around.
One must also not forget a Then there is the potential for a Mauricio Pochettino-enabled Chelsea to bounce back with their expensively-assembled side next season and push the envelope.
There are no doubts the field will be a crowded one in the new season with quite a number having the financial resources to make themselves a problem for Liverpool again in the foreseeable future.