Former Arsenal midfielder Emmanuel Petit has expressed his frustration with the small transfer budget manager Unai Emery has been given.
The north London outfit are understood to have a transfer budget of only around £60million for Emery’s first window as Gunners boss, despite the club making a net profit on their transfer activity over the last two windows.
Arsenal spent £106.7m in 2017/18, mostly on bringing in Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. However, they sold Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Theo Walcott, Olivier Giroud, Francis Coquelin, Wojciech Szczesny, Gabriel, and Kieran Gibbs to bring in £114.2m.
Petit, who won the Premier League with Arsenal in 1998, is unimpressed by the budget Emery has been given and believes he won’t be able to have a significant impact due to the severe restriction on his spending.
“When I hear about the amount of money Emery has to spend, I can’t believe it. Where are you going with £60m? You’re going nowhere,” said Petit, according to the Evening Standard.
“With that amount of money, you can put the best manager in the world on the sideline and the team won’t change much. There is quality at the club, but not to match the likes of Manchester City or Liverpool. They need to bring in top quality players.
“I want to say to the board: ‘can you just stop bringing in young players for one year?’ We’ve had enough of young players. The club is full of them. It’s been like this for 15 years now, we need something else.
“We need talented experienced players. We need big characters and big personalities. This is what has been missing. For me, £60m is ridiculous.”
