Arsenal invested more than 250 million pounds in signings in the summer window, but did not violate the Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR). TA believes that this is mainly due to several key factors in the club's financial situation.
First of all, this large-scale expenditure was carried out after the 2024-25 season, and in that season Arsenal basically offset the cost of signings by selling players in the transfer market, which created financial space for subsequent large investments. Secondly, although the team's net transfer expenditure as a proportion of revenue has doubled from 15% to 30% since the Kroenke family took full control in 2018, the club's total revenue has also achieved amazing growth. Reaching the Champions League semi-finals last season brought the team about 100 million pounds in revenue, and total revenue also increased from 403.3 million pounds in the 2017-18 season to nearly 700 million pounds.
Huge revenue growth provides Arsenal with ample PSR cushion. It is estimated that Arsenal's loss of 97 million pounds last season was still within the Premier League PSR's loss limit, but in fact they are likely to have achieved a profit. Looking forward, a pre-tax loss of £52.1 million for the 2022-23 season will be excluded from the PSR calculation cycle for the 2025-26 season, further strengthening their financial security.
However, at the UEFA level, the situation is more complicated. Although there is no big problem in terms of loss limit, Arsenal faces a "precarious" situation in terms of UEFA's "lineup cost rules", which was a regulation that they were very wary of last summer. Although compliance is difficult to accurately judge from the outside, outsiders believe that they may "barely pass the test."
In addition, Arsenal still have the opportunity to increase their income through the Champions League stage before the end of the year - each victory is worth about 1.8 million pounds, and the remaining four games may bring up to 7.2 million pounds in additional bonuses, which will help them meet the requirements of the lineup cost.