Arsenal had one of their worst seasons in the Premier League as they finished eighth on the table, managing to win just 18 out of their 38 league games. To make matters worse, they were knocked out of the Europa League by Unai Emery’s side.
The Gunners have been declining with each passing season but after making a few bold signings over the past few transfer windows, everyone was certain that Mikel Arteta will be able to guide this side back into the Champions League next season.
But, in the end, Arsenal have turned into a total mess both on as well as off the pitch.
The manager is planning for a major overhaul this summer but without European football on offer, Arteta will have to accumulate most of his own transfer funds by selling off the unwanted players.
And this is where the North London club needs to be smart and follow the Leicester City guide to success, according to Sol Campbell.
Campbell said, as quoted by Football 365: “I think Arsenal need to buy clever this summer.
“It’s clear the spending power isn’t there; it’s nowhere near the levels other clubs are willing to spend, so they’ve got to look at that next level down. But in that next level you can still find decent players.
“They’re just got to look a little bit harder. Leicester do it. Arsenal need the right people out there looking at players. The club doesn’t have the funds to take a risk on a player for £50m, £60m for it not to work out.
“But look at what Leicester have done in recent years; they don’t really tend to spend more than £30m on players and more often than not they’ve got it right.
“A lot of teams take risks on spending smaller amounts on players and giving them a bit of time to develop. Look at Atalanta in Italy, Ajax have been doing it for decades, and now Leicester are doing the same in the Premier League.”
Leicester City have achieved great success by gambling on cheap transfers over the past five or six years but there’s no way Arsenal can afford to do that.
Firstly, this model will take a lot of time to be implemented in a proper way and with the kind of global fan base and pressure that the Gunners have, there’s no way Mikel Arteta will get more than one full season to sort things out.
The Arsenal boss will need to deliver results during the 2021-22 season itself and his first big job will be to take the club back into the top-four of the Premier League. It doesn’t matter if they use the Leicester model or spend crazy amounts of money in the coming months, the fans just want to see results at the end of the day.
