adminLONDON. — Arsenal may be firmly in the title race thanks in part to the summer signing of Mesut Ozil, but the club remain staunch that they will not try and compete with their big-spending rivals.The Gunners have more than just a sniff of silverware for the first time since lifting the FA Cup in 2005 and have surprised many by the way in which they have kept pace with Chelsea and Manchester City this season.
They broke out of their self-imposed financial straight-jacket in early September to land Ozil for £42.5 million, with the German’s performances proving that considered investment is exactly what has been missing during the barren years.
But the success yielded by the purchase of Ozil won’t tempt Arsene Wenger into making a habit of late splurges in the transfer windows.
The risk involved in rivalling Sheikh Mansour’s City, with their seemingly infinite financial muscle, doesn’t interest the club.
Investment of almost £1 billion from Abu Dhabi over the last five years has made the notion impossible, argues Arsenal’s chief commercial officer Tom Fox.
“You can’t compete against that,’ he said, also inferring Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea, who paid £21m for Nemanja Matic on Tuesday.
“We’re a football club in London and we are a global brand, but we would never try to compete against the financial resources of a country.
“I just don’t think that’s a very realistic thing for us to do —trying to chase those types of owners. Obviously it’s just not possible.
“Almost by necessity, we have a financial model that doesn’t allow us to go into the market every summer and buy all of the best players that are for sale.
“We are competing against oligarchs, we are competing against nation states, we are competing against clubs all across Europe that have sources of funding that are significant, that make it very difficult for us to compete.”
The signing of Ozil sent out a message that Arsenal are capable of mixing it in the market, but they have always preferred to operate on their own terms and not be dictated by what others are doing. Wenger was perhaps forced into taking Ozil to north London given the opening day defeat by Aston Villa — even if they got back to winning ways immediately afterwards.
The mantra, Fox says, remains that the manager makes superstars rather than buying them. Figures such as the £37m quoted for Schalke’s 20-year-old Julian Draxler are hefty indeed. — Mailonline.
Online Reporter