Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis has hinted that the club are close to ending commercial deals tied to their stadium move, with the side currently having to turn profits wherever possible in the transfer market.

The Gunners had to resign to selling two more of their biggest stars this summer, with Robin van Persie and Alex Song making moves away from the Emirates amidst their desires to head to bigger clubs.

Arsenal have always argued that their need to break even has taken precedence over keeping big players, though the side have clearly suffered as a result of needing to sell their stars, with seven seasons now going by without a trophy to add to a rather dusty-looking cabinet in north London.

And Gazidis argues that now that the debt to the Emirates stadium is decreasing, there is a likelihood of a re-evaluation of Arsenal's spending going forward.

"We have been in Europe for 15 straight years," he told the Daily Mirror. "We are ranked sixth in Europe by UEFA - those things are taken for granted but they are fantastic achievements through the process of building a stadium and catapulting the club forward.

"We are coming to the end of the stadium journey now where some of the commercial deals that we tied into the stadium move, which were fantastic deals for us because they enabled us to get the stadium built, are coming up for renewal. We have got the opportunity as a club to really catapult our revenues forward again."

Ivan Gazidis
Ivan Gazidis says that things are changing in the Arsenal fold. Reuters

Arsenal have always argued their viewpoint over transfers from a financial perspective, and Gazidis is wary of only talking about the club in terms of how it can balance the books, arguing there is so much more to their workings behind the scenes than making money.

"I am very conscious of the fact that it sometimes sounds like I talk about Arsenal in terms of revenue streams and so on, partly that's because it's a big part of my job, but really all of this is about football," he explained.

"It's about putting this football club at the top of the football map and in the modern world, you have got to have the revenues to be able to do that. This club has a really simple financial model. I wouldn't call it a business model because it is not like any other business I know or could imagine.

"We have a manager who has got an outstanding record in making difficult football judgements. It's not all about which players you sign in the transfer market, although that is one element of it, but managing the football club is far more complicated than that.

"There are many different factors to it: efficient management of player contracts, good talent identification, good talent development, succession planning, the dynamic within the squad, the ability to create something between the players that is more significant than the individual players themselves which insulates you from individual player comings and goings.

"While we can get into extensive debate about individual decisions - and I would certainly say we don't make mistakes because like all clubs we are not perfect in our judgement - the ultimate arbiter of whether you are spending your money efficiently is a very absolute hard judgement which is where did you finish in the Premier League versus your overall spending."

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