Title Or Bust For Arteta After £600mil Transfer Splurge

Arsenal Unveil Record Signing

Over the weekend Arsenal unveiled their newest signing as the Declan Rice saga finally came to an end. Rice becomes not only Arsenal’s record signing but also the second most expensive player in Premier League history and the most expensive English player of all time.

Rice becomes Arsenal’s third summer signing, following Kai Havertz and Jurrien Timber through the entrance, and takes the club’s spending under Mikel Arteta to £600mil in just three and a half years at the club.

Record Premier League Spending

Outside of Todd Boehly’s circus in West London, the Gunners are the highest spenders in the Premier League since Arteta took charge. The squad has been reshaped to his wants and needs, including a couple of expensive contract terminations after Edu failed to find buyers for players not in the Spaniard’s plans.

Arteta won the FA Cup in May 2020, defeating Frank Lampard’s Chelsea. The team that was put together by Unai Emery, on top of what he had inherited from Arsene Wenger. Of the 20-man squad named by Arteta that day only six remain at the club.

Academy graduates Bukayo Saka, Reiss Nelson, and Eddie Nketiah were named on the bench, with only Nketiah playing a part in the game, while Rob Holding, Kieran Tierney, and Nicolas Pepe started the game.

All three of the starters on that day are among the players Arteta reportedly wants to sell, as he looks to extinguish as many links to the Wenger or Emery eras in his playing squad, outside of academy players, as possible.

In fact, the only player in the squad who was signed by someone other than Arteta who appears to have a future at the club is William Saliba, who Arteta sent out on loan for two years.

Last season the only players who featured in any competition for Arsenal and weren’t either signed by Arteta or academy graduates were Saliba, Holding, Tierney, Mohamed Elneny, Granit Xhaka, and third-choice keeper Karl Hein who played in one League Cup match. Xhaka has left the club, Holding and Tierney will follow this summer if Arteta gets his way.

Arteta: The Pressure to Deliver

This is now his squad, his players, and his decisions. He has been backed to an extraordinary degree with the full £600mil spend coming after his FA Cup. £600mil in three years, and no trophies in those seasons to show for it. He’s still a young manager, learning his craft, but surely he is also now a manager under pressure to deliver.

For the type of investment the Kroenke’s have made in backing Arteta, not just in terms of signings but also the contract terminations and the plethora of new contracts handed out, they will surely be demanding that he deliver one of the two big prizes, the Champions League or the Premier League.

The Kroenke’s own four major sports clubs. The LA Rams, the Denver Nuggets, the Colorado Avalanche, and Arsenal. Three of the four have won their biggest prizes in their respective sports over the past few years. The Rams won the Superbowl in 2021, the Avalanche claimed the Stanley Cup in 2022 and the Nuggets continued the run winning this year’s NBA Finals.

The Pressure on Arsenal

Now the pressure will be on Arsenal. The Kroenke’s are very wealthy but they are also very careful with their money. They want a return on investment and they want success. Stan Kroenke first bought shares in the club in 2007 and has since gone on to take control of the club by buying out other shareholders. In the 16 years since his first investment, the club have won the FA Cup four times, but that has been the extent of their success.

For a club like Arsenal and a man like Stan Kroenke, that is unacceptable. The Gunners are one of the great clubs in English football, and success is demanded not hoped for.

The Ultimate Expectation: Arteta’s Rebuild and the Hunt for Major Honours

Kroenke has made this £600 investment in Arteta’s rebuild with the expectations of major honours, and Arteta must start to deliver them or he might find himself heading for the exit door.