BURNLEY, England (AP) — With the major honors set to elude Arsenal
again, chief executive Ivan Gazidis is admittedly "not happy" with this
season so far.
And Gazidis fears Arsenal will
find it harder in future just to maintain its perennial place in the top
four Champions League qualification places, believing the surge in the
television cash will make the Premier League even more competitive.
The
Gunners have not won the league since 2004 but have been propelled to
second this season with their first eight-game winning run since that
title triumph. Earlier setbacks, though, for Arsene Wenger's team have
contributed to Chelsea holding a commanding lead.
And
Arsenal's shortcomings were exposed in Europe again with a round of 16
elimination in the Champions League, which it has never won.
Asked
to assess this season, Gazidis said: "We are not happy but we are going
to keep pushing to the end and see how far we can go."
The
season could still end in silverware by defending the FA Cup, which
produced Arsenal's first title in nine years last May. But the
competition's status has diminished and it is the biggest prizes Arsenal
wants to be collecting.
The talk for the last decade
from Arsenal's leadership — particularly during the costly process of
building the Emirates Stadium — has been that the team is on the verge
of clicking and matching the success enjoyed between 1998 and 2004
again.
Can Arsenal be a force again?
"We are happy with the
way the squad has developed and we are very focused how we can make a
positive end to the season," Gazidis said. "After that it will be a
question of how can we progress the team further so that we can have an
even better season next year. We have a squad that's clearly coming
together. It's a relatively young squad so it will continue to improve."
More than $180 million was spent on players in the last two years, largely on attacking players Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil.
"We
had a lot of new players this year who are beginning to gel together,"
Gazidis said. "We had a lot of injuries at the beginning of the season
as well. Also coming off a World Cup year there are a lot of complex
issues.
"We were trying to put the
jigsaws into the right places at the beginning of the season. I think
everyone can see those pieces are now beginning to fit. It gives us
great optimism for the future."
But
even Manchester City has discovered that heavy spending does not offer a
guaranteed path to glory, with the Abu Dhabi-owned club set to fail to
defend a Premier League title again. And Southampton has been the
surprise package of the campaign, sitting in fifth place despite seeing
many of its stars prized away by clubs like Arsenal in the offseason.
"I
think the league is going to get more and more competitive," Gazidis
said, responding to a question about City's struggles. "I do think that
is a long-term trend. People talk about Financial Fair Play inhibiting
competition.
"I think it's
completely the opposite because what it means is, you are going to see
more Southamptons, more challenger teams coming in because revenue has
gone up."
A 70-percent leap
in domestic TV rights to $8 billion for the three seasons starting in
2016-17 could see even the bottom-placed finishers earn $140 million in
broadcast revenue. The champions could rake in more than $200 million.
"Most of this new revenue is
shared very, very equally around the league," Gazidis said. "We are
going to have teams ... who will to be able to sign top class players.
There will be teams that do it very, very well and they are going to be
challenging for those top four places.
"So
I think it's going to become more competitive which is going to be more
challenging for clubs like us but I think it's going to be great news
for broadcasters, like NBC."
Gazidis spoke to The Associated Press
ahead of Arsenal's 1-0 victory at Burnley on Saturday, a game shown
live on the main NBC broadcast network across the United States. It is
the growth in international revenue that has cemented the Premier
League's status as the world's top domestic soccer competition.
NBC,
which flew over its presenting team from the U.S. to a Premier League
game for the first time on Saturday, is paying $250 million under its
current three-year deal — a figure that is likely to soar for 2016-19.
The league is currently selling those international TV rights, which
analysts have said could generate an extra $5 billion.
What makes
the league so attractive is being a magnet for leading players. But the
English Football Association is trying to impose restrictions that would
see Premier League squads restricted to 13 non-homegrown players from
17 by 2020. The FA has already convinced the government to tighten work
permit rules for players coming in from outside of the European Union.
"In
England we are interested in the development of English players and the
development of the England national team, but I think our global
audiences are primarily driven by the intensity of the competition and
the quality of play," Gazidis said.
"I
don't think the new rules make a very significant directional change. I
think the rules will rework to make them a little bit more objective.
Whether that will lead to fewer non-EU players coming in or not, or
whether the players coming in will be of lesser quality than the ones we
have had in the past, it's too early to say."
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