Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis has held an in-depth discussion regarding the financial aspects of the Premier League and talked about the club’s plans this week.
With new television deals creating bigger pots of money across the board, the Gunners official believes that the gap is shortening between the ‘big clubs’ and the rest.
In turn, he has claimed that there is a greater importance on how clubs now identify talent, using Leicester City as a great example to follow.
While also noting that perhaps Arsenal haven’t done as good a job in picking out talented individuals in the lower leagues around Europe, it suggests that the Gunners may not be looking to splash out big money this summer.
Naturally, that wasn’t met with the greatest of reactions from supporters on Twitter, who are still waiting for further investment in the squad after the signing of Granit Xhaka last month.
“It’s how well you can identify talent,” he told ESPN. “It’s how well you can develop talent. It’s how strong your club philosophy is. It’s how together you are as a football club, what your support services are like in the medical field, fitness, analytics, psychology. All of these things become differentiators.
“Leicester identified players from the French second division, so maybe there’s talent that we’ve been overlooking. They did their talent identification [well], they had great unity within the group, as well as quality.
“It wasn’t built on money. It was built on the great fitness work they did. It was built on all of these other elements. I think that’s going to be a continuing trend within the Premier League.”
If you want to spend your day with joy & happines, don’t read the latest Ivan Gazidis comments.
— Ap (@TweetofArsenal) July 22, 2016
Just read Ivan Gazidis’ interview with @espn & I’m dreading the reaction to it.
It’s not promising, but it’s also not ruling anything out.— Moh Haider (@ArsenalMoh8) July 22, 2016
All these fans saying Arsenal won’t spend money. Pah. Board recently signed off on big bonuses for Gazidis & ‘consultancy’ fees for Kroenke
— tim payton (@timpayton) July 22, 2016
Really hoped Gazidis quotes were old & not exclusive to ESPN. Only one man will be happy to have £200m+ in bank come Septemeber. #Kroenke
— Michael Gooner (@MickTheGooner) July 22, 2016
Ivan Gazidis has ruined your day and he earns a multi-million pound annual salary for doing so. Love Ivan.
— Brenin Aaron Ramsey (@BundesLlew) July 22, 2016
Sick of Ivan Gazidis and Wenger pretending like we’re a small fish in a big pond. We’ve paid off the stadium, have highest ticket prices…
— #DW23 (@ArsenalVenter) July 22, 2016
The Gazidis interview today is just a shambles. Not gonna go down well with the fan base, and it shouldn’t either. #AFC
— Papps (@SgtPappa) July 22, 2016
Ivan Gazidis: “We’re making progress against competitors who have capability to spend far more than we do.” Err… pic.twitter.com/9ZKc6FqqwZ
— Daniel Storey (@danielstorey85) July 22, 2016