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Arsenal round-up: Summer rebuilding planned; Stan Kroenke’s wealth released; Leicester’s Jamie Vardy discusses rejecting Gunners
The have a report discussing the summer rebuilding job ahead of Arsenal as Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez are both set to leave the club at the end of the season. They also state that Arsene Wenger is set to agree on a new two-year contract at the Emirates Stadium, despite the team’s recent struggles on the pitch and he will be the one to lead the rebuilding. Several names are mentioned as possible targets including Lyon’s Alexandre Lacazette, Monaco’s Kylian Mbappe, Borussia Dortmund’s Marco Reus, Celtic’s Moussa Dembele, Everton’s Ross Barkley, Stoke’s Jack Butland, and Manchester City’s Joe Hart, among others.
If the report is correct and Arsene Wenger is going to remain at the club, he will be given £100 million to take the club to the next level. Although that is a lot of money, there is a huge rebuilding job to be done and that may not even be enough to sufficiently replace Ozil and Sanchez, two world class players. The club need to be careful as a large section of the support is openly against Wenger and things could become poisonous around the Emirates Stadium on a match day. This story is designed to increase positivity, but it is unlikely to do that.
Alisher Usmanov may have to fund the summer rebuild and figures released show that his net worth has risen over the last year. The club shareholder is now worth €15.2 billion, while Stan Kroenke is valued at €7.5 billion, according to the . The pair combined are worth more than double Roman Abramovich and this will only go to frustrate Arsenal supporters more, as their owners don’t invest as much as is required. The problem lies more with Kroenke as he is the majority shareholder and he hasn’t done enough to support Wenger in recent years.
It is evident that Arsenal haven’t spent enough money in recent seasons and they are now being punished for that on the pitch. This summer is going to be the biggest in the club’s recent history as they are going to have a lot of work to do off the pitch to retain their current position, let alone try to push forwards. These figures show that the two major shareholders have money to spend and they must now invest that into the club. If they are going to let Wenger stay, then it is important that give him the tools to be successful.
One player that didn’t sign last summer was Jamie Vardy, as he turned down the opportunity to join Arsenal after a bid was accepted by Leicester City. This season hasn’t been the best for the England international as he has struggled to live up to the high standards that he set during the club’s incredible title-winning campaign. However, he hasn’t had any regrets about rejecting the opportunity to move to the Emirates Stadium, as he told the :
“If I’d played like that I would have been in the same situation there, so no. No, not at all,”
“The main thing was not to let it get you down. That is the worst thing – then you will just never want to go on the pitch again. So you just have to keep working hard.”
Although the club wanted him, it wasn’t a huge blow for Arsenal to miss out on the signing of Vardy last summer. He has shown this season that he can’t perform at a high level consistently and it would have been a waste of money from the Gunners. They need to be targeting a higher calibre of player if they want to reach the next level and it was a blessing in disguise for Vardy to reject them.
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