‘At some stage you have to make a decision’: Mikel Arteta urges Arsenal to take a gamble and invest to help the club return to Champions League… as he insists Gunners will still attract top players despite being out of Europe
- Arsenal look set to miss out on Europe altogether as they sit in mid-table
- Manager Mikel Arteta wants the club to be positive and invest in the squad
- He said taking a financial risk can help the Gunners bounce back to the top four
- The Spaniard said he always considers Arsenal as a Champions League outfit
Mikel Arteta has told Arsenal they need to be ready to take a financial risk in order to regain their Champions League status or they face being left behind.
Arteta says he will never stop considering Arsenal as a Champions League-level club though the harsh reality is next season will be their fourth in a row out of Europe’s top competition.
Missing out once more will be another major financial blow for the Gunners and give their Premier League rivals the chance to pull further clear.
Mikel Arteta wants Arsenal to be bold and take a risk to invest in the playing squad next season
The Gunners look set to miss out on European football after another disappointing campaign
Two weeks after stating the club cannot afford to cash in on their best players like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in order to raise money for other signings, Arteta further outlined his expectations of the club.
Asked how much harder it is to get back in the Champions League the longer Arsenal are out of the competition, he said:
‘Harder and harder because that’s obviously something that has to feed each other. If you are not in the Champions League and you say “OK, I don’t invest because I don’t have the financial ability to do it”, but the other clubs invest, then the gap becomes bigger.
He said it is getting harder to get back into the top four as the club’s rivals continue to invest
‘If I do want to invest and risk, and then I don’t reach it, what happens? So at some stage you have to make a decision, whether I want to aim to make that gap closer and go for it, or I stay where I am.
‘You see many good examples of teams that have done it [risked] and they have come back to their habit [of being in the Champions League].
‘While I am sitting in this chair I’m not [stopping seeing Arsenal as a Champions League club], because that’s the only thing that I think of this football club.’
Arteta, whose side host champions Liverpool on Wednesday, accepts there are big demands on him too to return Arsenal to Europe’s top table.
‘What I need to do first of all is myself do my work as good as possible, improve this team and the players individually as much as possible and get the maximum out of that.
The Spaniard is confident Arsenal will still attract big names despite lack of European football
‘Then, at the end of the season is, OK, see the direction we want to take, agree on the ambition of the football club, realise that where we are the demands are going to be huge – it doesn’t matter what we do, that’s never going to change because it’s linked to our history and our success – and move from there.
‘Put our plans together where we can achieve that as quick as possible.’
Arteta also insisted Arsenal will continue to remain an attractive club without Champions League football ‘because we’ve an incredible history, an incredible structure, in a beautiful city and a style of play that attracts players.
‘And I’m telling you now, because when I am closer to the market now when I speak to people, a lot of players want to play for Arsenal.’
