ARSENAL are staring into a financial black hole following this week’s shock Europa League exit.
Managing director Vinai Venkatesham is still counting the full cost of Thursday night’s Emirates defeat by Olympiacos.
But he fears it will leave the Gunners at least £60million worse off than England’s four Champions League contenders this year.
And with the club now in real danger of failing to qualify for Europe for the first time since 1995, the situation could be about to get a whole lot worse.
And that would have grave consequences for Mikel Arteta’s plans for a major summer overhaul of his squad – with the likes of Dayot Upamecano, Jonathan Tah and Jonathan David targeted.
Failure to progress beyond the last-32 means that Arsenal will only bank around £15m from this season’s European campaign.
That is less than half of the £40m they received for reaching last year’s Europa League final, when they were soundly beaten Chelsea in Baku.
Yet even that windfall could not prevent them from reporting a £23.5m loss for the financial year as a direct consequence of an absence of Champions League football.
Spurs and Liverpool both made around £90m for getting to last season’s Champions League final while beaten quarter-finalists Manchester City and Manchester United each received £84m.
Those figures have put Arsenal at a huge financial disadvantage to their “Big Six” rivals and now they are set to miss out on Champions League qualification for a fourth consecutive year.
Arteta had been targeting Europa League victory as his team’s best way of clinching a Champions League place for next season.
But those ambitions have been dashed by Thursday’s 2-1 defeat and now Arsenal’s only hope of getting back into Europe’s top competition depends on their League form.
Yet they are currently ninth in the table and seven points behind fourth-placed Chelsea.
And even if Manchester City’s European ban is upheld by Uefa, Arsenal still face an uphill task to break into the top five.
There is even a real danger of missing out on Europe altogether, especially if Aston Villa win Sunday’s Carabao Cup final to claim one of England’s three Europa League places.
Arteta admits he now has a massive job on his hands to turn things around following the disappointment of Thursday’s extra-time defeat.
He says: “Getting to the top four or five is going to be very hard because when you look at the table we are still far from our objectives.
“We have been a long way from the top all season but we have to keep fighting and the most important thing now is that the dressing room has to be strong.
“Losing to Olympiacos was very painful and my job is to lift the players before we play at Portsmouth in the FA Cup on Monday.
“I have to get back the belief and convince them that there is still a lot to play for.
“Disappointment is a big part of sport and we have to learn to react as a team and as a club.
“I will try to show the players what happened on Thursday night and why the game finished like it did.
“And if we can learn from that process and move on quickly, we still get rewards like we managed in our previous ten games.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
