Arsenal
Aston Villa
Chelsea
Crystal Palace
Everton
Fulham
Leeds United
Liverpool
Manchester City
Manchester United
Newcastle United
Nottingham Forest
Southampton
Tottenham Hotspur
West Ham United
Wolverhampton Wanderers
News
Arsenal ready to do what no one else can as £80m proposal on the table
Arsenal are approaching an inflection point in the timeline of Stan Kroenke’s ownership. The success of their season now hangs on the Champions League and a critical transfer window is on the horizon.
If Arsenal fail to overturn a one-goal deficit against Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday, it’s hard to see how the campaign can be deemed anything but a failure.
If Mikel Arteta’s side win their remaining three Premier League games – a tall order given that Liverpool and Newcastle are up next – they will finish on 76 points. That would be their lowest total since 2020-21. Historically, 76 points hasn’t always guaranteed a top-four finish. If Nottingham Forest beat Crystal Palace tonight, it could be a nervy run-in for Arsenal despite the fact that the top five teams will qualify for the Champions League this season.
| Position | Team | Played MP | Won W | Drawn D | Lost L | For GF | Against GA | Diff GD | Points Pts |
| 1 |  LiverpoolLiverpool | 35 | 25 | 7 | 3 | 81 | 35 | 46 | 82 |
| 2 |  ArsenalArsenal | 35 | 18 | 13 | 4 | 64 | 31 | 33 | 67 |
| 3 |  Man CityManchester City | 35 | 19 | 7 | 9 | 67 | 43 | 24 | 64 |
| 4 |  NewcastleNewcastle | 35 | 19 | 6 | 10 | 66 | 45 | 21 | 63 |
| 5 |  ChelseaChelsea | 35 | 18 | 9 | 8 | 62 | 41 | 21 | 63 |
| 6 |  Nottm ForestNottingham Forest | 34 | 18 | 6 | 10 | 53 | 41 | 12 | 60 |
| 7 |  Aston VillaAston Villa | 35 | 17 | 9 | 9 | 55 | 49 | 6 | 60 |
Alternatively, Arsenal could end the season as European champions for the first time in their history. As salvage operations go, that would take some beating.
But regardless of what happens in Paris and, potentially, Munich, Stan Kroenke will be pleased with the season. The Gunners will probably turn a profit for the first time since his full takeover in 2018 and, commercially, the North Londoners continue to make progress.
Playing in the reformatted Champions League that Kroenke lobbied for has been worth close to £100m already and, if they do qualify for the competition next season, they will have done so with a modest net spend as far as the transfer market is concerned.
They will surely have to invest this coming summer or risk going backwards, though new sporting director Andrea Berta will likely have to player-trade for Arsenal to pay for their top targets, the likes of Nico Williams, who some reports have suggested could be part of a £300m overhaul of the squad.
Kroenke has had to abandon his favoured self-funding approach at the Emirates Stadium in recent years, injecting hundreds of millions of pounds via interest-free loans, but it’s not a model the 77-year-old is comfortable with. Instead, he wants sustainable growth.
Commercial income is part of that masterplan – and there could be a big change in that department soon.
- READ MORE: Stan Kroenke files official paperwork as Arsenal owner investing billions in stadium project
Arsenal can secure double-your-money shirt sleeve sponsor deal
Arsenal are currently under pressure to ditch Visit Rwanda, their shirt sleeve partner since 2018.
The deal is worth £10m per year but is coming under fire from campaigners who criticise the policies of the Rwandan government, which is led by Paul Kagame, who happens to be a big Arsenal fan.
Similar pressure has been put on Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich, both of whom are also partnered with Visit Rwanda. However, both clubs have renewed their deal with the tourist board, while Atletico Madrid have now signed up with them too.
Reportedly, the Gunners want £20m-a-season for their shirt sleeve rights, which would rival the biggest deals in that category in the Premier League. Over their desired four-year deal length, that’s £80m all-told.
“Chelsea were getting £20m,” says Kieran Maguire, football finance lecturer for the University of Liverpool, speaking exclusively to TBR Football.
“For a club that is appearing in the Champions League, I think that price point is achievable. When it comes to morality and ethics relating to sponsors, clubs tend to have a tin ear for noises made by pressure groups.
“With Emirates, there are environmental issues and issues in terms of the regime that it represents there, which – in the eyes of some – are negative. But there has never been any pushback there.
“So I don’t see Arsenal voluntarily abandoning the deal with Visit Rwanda. It will come purely down to bottom line or top line, and it’s now more likely to be top line given the way that squad cost control rules operate.”
Under UEFA’s squad cost control rules, clubs are not allowed to spend more than 70 per cent of turnover plus profit on player sales on wages, transfers and agents’ fees. The Premier League are expected to introduce a similar system from 2026-27.
“On that subject, some clubs are going to have to change the way they run their merchandising,” says Maguire.
“What a lot of clubs do now is that they pass on operational responsibility for their mega store to the kit supplier, then they take a cut of the profits.
“But if it’s top line – i.e., revenue – which is more important under squad cost control rules, that might have to re-examine their kit and merchandising deals.”
Arsenal have unique advantage in sponsor search
Stan Kroenke’s sports empire is worth over £12bn, making it the second most valuable on the planet.
The Los Angeles Rams (NFL), Denver Nuggets (NBA), Colorado Avalanche (NHL), Colorado Rapids (MLS) are all extraordinarily lucrative for Kroenke Sports & Entertainment – more so than Arsenal, whose losses the owners have had to underwrite.
Commercially, however, Arsenal are probably top of the pile, though it is close between themselves and the Rams. Now, KSE want to leverage the power of the sports empire as a whole to secure new, more lucrative sponsorship contracts.
The group has established Kroenke Sports Properties to sell sponsorships across their portfolio, not just for one team. The department is led by Arsenal commercial director Olly Dale and could potentially have a big role to play in the Gunners’ shirt sleeve sponsorship targets.
That’s the kind of reach that no other Premier League club can match.