There’s nothing better than seeing your team win a major trophy, but it’s an added bonus if it somehow manages to irritate your biggest rivals too.
Arsenal won their 14th FA Cup trophy with a 2-1 win over Chelsea yesterday, which also secured their place in the Europa League next season.
Qualifying by winning the FA Cup is given a higher priority spot from England’s qualifying teams, and it now means that Spurs will need to enter into the second qualifying round.
That will be irritating enough for Jose Mourinho as it results in extra games to play, but this report suggests it could play havoc with his transfer plans too:
#thfc A potential pitfall of qualifying is that Spurs will not know if they’re in the EL group stage – and therefore in the money – until October 1, which raises the possibilty that some/most of their transfer business could be left late.
— Dan Kilpatrick (@Dan_KP) August 2, 2020
The final figures probably won’t be finalised until the new season starts, but a look at last season’s prize money breakdown shows that there’s some serious money to be made.
Simply qualifying for the group stages nets a team €3m, while they can increase that by winning games and topping the group too.
We’ve seen over the years that Daniel Levy is tight when it comes to finances and he’ll want to be sure of the money coming in, and this could have a big impact.
Waiting longer to complete a transfer allows other teams to come in and make a move, so Arsenal fans will be quietly pleased that their success has also hurt their biggest rivals.