Arsenal's CCO says we cannot compete against Man City

Details: Written by George White; Published: Thursday, 16 January 2014 15:48

Arsenal’s chief commercial officer Tom Fox said on Wednesday that Arsenal couldn’t compete against Manchester City’s finances.

Fox said: “You can’t compete against that.”

“We’re a football club in London and we are a global brand, but we would never try to compete against the financial resources of a country.

“I just don’t think that’s a very realistic thing for us to do… trying to chase those types of owners. Obviously it’s just not possible.”

Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke has always wanted the club to spend within their means, Fox reiterated that and also discussed what winning the Premier League could do for the club in terms of receiving cash from sponsors.

He added: “Almost by necessity, we have a financial model that doesn’t allow us to go into the market every summer and buy all of the best players that are for sale.

“(Winning the Premier League) would create a completely different environment and it would be an easier environment in some ways to do business.

“Whatever we do commercially is not anything out fans really want to know or understand. They want the club to be successful… and be able to compete.”

So...

Fox says we can’t afford to buy the best players available every summer, but we know the funds are there but we are hesitant to use them.

Also why is Fox focusing so much on Manchester City and not talking about us and what we aim to achieve.

If we had no money then it would be true for Fox to argue that we couldn’t compete against City but we do have money and a lot of it.

It has been suggested that we can afford to buy at least two more world class footballers.

Why isn’t he talking about spending that money to ensure we continue competing with the Manchester club and help us win the Premier League title.

Lets start focusing on ourselves for once Mr.Fox. Stop talking about Man City and focus on what Arsenal are achieving. Competition is actually elsewhere!

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Comments

+1 #8 Winston 2014-01-17 16:29

All said and done, arsenal need two polished "world class strickers" to win this race.

-1 #7 Jeff 2014-01-17 07:20

With due respect Mr Fox must concetrate on Arsenal for it to win the League and there is much we can do to win the League and boost our position. If we invest that money into quality players we will financial grow. Why not buy buy just top quality to achieve the goal. If we buy Diego Costa or Jackson and J. Draxler we can win the league and recover the money to reinvest. Mr Fox do your calculations properly we are so close do not let us down at the wrong time. Yes we can.

#6 Malawi gooner 2014-01-17 06:51

He says if we win the league then sponsors will come with money.How can we win the league if we dont use the available resources to reinforce?Further more buying a player to reinforce is not competing with another team.What is needed here is to reinforce especially upront,if we dont do that then we my well forget about winning the league or indeed any trophy,dont wait for an 8-2 thashing to splash the cash.

#5 Phil The Blue 2014-01-16 18:19

Sorry chaps, it is going to get worse, a lot lot worse. Manchester City's owners have a ten-year project in place. It is only five years in !!!!

You are 200 miles away. The scum across the road are apoplexic with fear and worry, all the way to Florida !!

My second team is Arsenal. My late father was born and bred in Islington before eventually settling in Manchester after the war.

-5 #4 Pedro 2014-01-16 16:21

Amos
we dont need TO MATCH man city spending.
we just have to buy 1-2 quality players and win the Premier League.
This scenario allows us to enjoy the fame and attract even more sponsors.

+1 #3 George 2014-01-16 16:16

I concur with Family Enclosure Man, the article is just histrionics and obviously taking Mr. Fox out of context.

+3 #2 Amos 2014-01-16 16:14

We have cash reserves but we also have net debt. If we spend any of the cash reserves the net debt increases. Even accepting the higher net debt levels if we were to spend our entire cash reserves ( financially impossible of course) we would barely much City's spending in one summer transfer window. Without any reserves the annual operating profit would not be enough to maintain the investment levels of the past 3 years since Kroenke too control. Fox was talking to an industry forum. Quite rightly, as you've just demonstrated, you're not at all interested in the commercial reality - so why bother commenting on it?

+4 #1 Family Enclosure Man 2014-01-16 16:09

Is it possible the man was simply responding to a question that a journo asked him?

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