Ornstein: Chelsea 'in a strong financial position'
David Ornstein joins Rebecca Lowe to discuss the biggest what if's from Arsenal's and Chelsea's respective summer transfer windows and how the two clubs are moving forward this season.
Video Transcript
Premier League insider, David Ornstein.
David, let's talk about these two teams, shall we?
Starting with Arsenal.
Maybe a little bit of underwhelm amongst the fans that there wasn't that big-name player, that big striker coming through the door, and then the window closed.
Tell us more about the behind-the-scenes goings on.
Yeah.
Hi, Rebecca.
Hi, everybody.
What a day it is here in London.
It should be an amazing match.
With Arsenal, the Premier League champions, pretty happy with their business if you speak to people at the club.
Their feeling is that they got pretty much everything they wanted.
The fans, the public have a slightly different view.
Was it perfect?
By no means, because coming off the back of last season and that defeat in the Champions League final, it was clear that they needed and wanted to upgrade in that attacking department, to take that one step further with some world-class talent.
It's why they pursued Morgan Rogers, who they'll play against today.
When a deal for him didn't happen, they looked at Vinicius Junior.
The ownership, the Kroenkes right down to Mikel Arteta, they were all in, ready to finance what would've been a blockbuster deal.
It didn't happen.
He renewed with Real Madrid, even though he would've, we understand, been up for coming to Arsenal if he had not renewed.
Then they looked at Julin lvarez.
That has been a long-term target of the, of theirs.
But he was clear to Arsenal that he didn't wanna come, even though Atltico Madrid would've done a deal.
They looked late in the window in the last couple of days at Malick Fofana, the young, Lyon winger who ended up going to Sunderland.
They were offered an opportunity.
They looked at a loan with an obligation to buy, then they realized it might not work from a financial point of view.
It might push them over the UEFA financial threshold.
They were prepared to do that for, say, V- Vinicius Junior and an lvarez, but perhaps not for a Fofana.
And that shows that Arsenal's finances are in a delicate place right now.
They did need to sell in this window, and they did in the end with that Gabriel Martinelli deal.
They explored or considered the possibility of Myles Lewis-Skelly leaving before deciding to keep him.
Ethan Nwaneri went, Gabriel Jesus too, and Trossard.
So they didn't strengthen that frontline.
They lost four and only brought in one in the form of Solis.
But they did strengthen in other areas with, Bruno Guimares, of course, Esri Konsa.
Th- they were delighted with those, and, and they were recruiting from a position of strength, and it, it gives them the belief that they will have a really strong season in both domestic and European competition, backed by the Kroenke family at ownership level.
Sporting director, Andrea Berta, there is scrutiny around the work he's done, but let's see how it pans out on the pitch 'cause they've had 100% start to the season so far.
They'll hope that continues.
The one thing to keep an eye on is Mikel Arteta is into the last 12 months of his contract.
No news on a new deal yet.
The suggestion is that he will sign, so we'll have to watch that space in the coming days and weeks.
Okay.
From Chelsea's point of view, much busier in the transfer window, and Robbie's already talked about it today.
They sell so well.
They sell as b- as well, maybe better than they buy.
The word coming out of Chelsea is that they sold approximately 600 million euros or, or raised that amount in sales, in loan fees, and add-ons as well.
They bought quite a lot.
Of course, they've rec- recruited quite heavily in, in many different positions, bringing in youth and experience and, and they appear to have upgraded their squad quite significantly.
But what they spent is far outweighed in the net spend by what they got back in, and that helps put Chelsea in a strong financial position.
Again, it wasn't the completely perfect window because the Enzo Fernndez decision was huge for them.
They didn't want to sell him, but of course, he wanted to go, and Manchester City head coach Enzo Maresca wanted to sign him.
In the end, it happened, and Chelsea weren't able to get, somebody in to strengthen their squad before the deadline, which they wanted to do.
It's why on deadline day, they were looking at the Roma midfielder, Manu Kon.
They then turned their attention last minute to Lamine Camara of Monaco, only for Monaco to pull that deal at the last moment.
They didn't sign the deal sheet.
They thought they were gonna get the Flo Balogun sale to Everton.
It didn't happen, and it was too late on Camara.
So you imagine that's a position Chelsea might look to revisit in the future.
There are names such as Alex Scott, who they pursued earlier in the window, to keep an eye on.
But it's worth pointing out they've got more than enough numbers and quality in that position, so it would've maybe been an added bonus.
I'm sure they'll continue to look at other positions because they're always looking to trade, as we talked about, before, on this show and, and also to, to, to lead themselves to a position where they're back in Europe.
That's the big target for Chelsea.
Their new manager, Xabi Alonso, rather than head coach, and that speaks of his importance in the decision-making process.
He's now got a goalkeeper of top level in Emiliano Martnez.
And the sporting directors at Chelsea are now receiving a bit of credit.
They're- they've been there for some time.
They were scrutinized heavily, but the work in the market appears to have put them in good shape.
When other sporting directors are leaving, such as Richard Hughes at Liverpool, and changes in departments around the Premier League, Chelsea actually have a bit of continuity there now.
And there have been reports about changes at ownership level.
But actually finally, following that 2022 upheaval, the ownership change, and everything that has followed since, they appear to have calmed things down.
They appear to be competitive again, and they'll wanna go even better by making a mark here at Arsenal today, this season getting back into Europe and building into the future
