Football News

On paper there's a lot to like about the spending cap being proposed by Premier League teams from an Arsenal perspective.

The new «anchoring» model would see the amount Premier League teams are able to spend tied to the amount of money earned in television rights by the lowest-earning club in the division. Last year that was Southampton, who earned £103.6million. Should the cap be set at five times that, then teams would have been able to spend £518million.

Arsenal would have fallen well within this. Their spend on their wage bill, amortised transfer costs and agents fees came to an estimated £326million last season. While the signings of Declan Rice, Kai Havertz, Jurrien Timber and David Raya combined with contract renewals for Bukayo Saka, William Saliba, Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Maglahaes, Martin Odegaard, Aaron Ramsdale, Reiss Nelson, Ben White and Takehiro Tomiyasu will have changed that for this season's numbers, the Gunners should still hypothetically be fine.

The fact that these rules would come in to replace Profit and Sustainability Regulations would also benefit Arsenal. The Gunners were unable to sign Raya on a permanent basis or do any January transfer business due, in large part, to the current restrictions. With more room to manoeuvre under the «anchoring» system they would have been significantly more liberated to get those deals over the line.

Crucially, going forward Arsenal would also be well placed to benefit from these new rules. The Gunners have achieved a position of relative stability with the recent overhaul of Mikel Arteta's squad. They are not in a position where they need to spend huge amounts to close the gap on the top of the Premier League. Any investment would only improve a squad that has

Mikel Arteta Declan Rice Aaron Ramsdale Martin Odegaard Gabriel Martinelli David Raya William Saliba Kai Havertz Arsenal