Yesterday, I wrote about the need for everyone who supports our club to take a breath and not be concerned about the lack of actual, confirmed transfers that we have or have not made in the short pre-window, window. Well for all those who are now excitedly anticipating the opening of the window proper on Monday, I have one word for you – patience!
As I stated yesterday, the mini-window was primarily aimed at allowing clubs participating in the FIFA Club World Cup to strengthen their squads in time for the upcoming tournament and although there have been a few moves from other non-participating clubs, the main event only really starts on Monday. However, this does not mean that every Gooner out there needs to be constantly checking their phones or waiting for an alert to ping from whatever apps they are signed up to.
Why am I pretty confident that nothing definitive will happen at our club until July 1st at the earliest? Well, the answer is simple and unsurprisingly connected to UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules and their equally irritating younger brother, the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) policy. This is neither the time nor the place to go into the fine print of each of these supposed safeguards as I think that most people understand the basics of only being allowed to lose a certain amount of money in any given 12 month period. What is important is to understand is the different positions that clubs find themselves in between Monday and July 1st.
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In the broadest terms a club can financially be in one of three positions right now. Firstly (and I’m not sure if this applies to any Premier League club), a club can sit comfortably within both sets of regulations and is able to buy and sell from Monday as it wishes. Secondly, some clubs are either certain to or in serious danger of breaching one or both of the regulations and they need to sell players before July 1st in order to balance the books and not risk the inevitable fines and potential points deductions. Finally, there are the clubs whose current financial position does not pose any immediate threat of breach, but if they were to engage in any serious spending in the fortnight immediately following the re-opening of the 2025 summer window, they could find themselves crossing one of the lines in the sand that has been drawn by UEFA and/or the Premier League. It is my understanding that this third position is where Arsenal currently find themselves.
So patience is required and if in the next fortnight you see a player that you covert move from one club to another when you had hoped that they would be coming to the Emirates, please remember, this is not the fault of Mikel, Andrea, Josh or even Silent Stan. It is a result of prudent business practise and as much as we, more than virtually any others, remain a club first and a business second, we have to abide by the rules. I, for one, an very excited by what the summer could bring, but I’m happy to wait another couple of weeks rather than spend the entirety of next season with the Sword of Damocles hanging over our heads.