Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis admits the club will never be able to compete with their wealthier rivals, but has defended their transfer policy.
Gunners hoping to benefit from sensible recruitment policy
Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis admits the club will never be able to compete with their wealthier rivals, but has defended their transfer policy.
A cautious approach to recruitment has not always sat well with a demanding fan base, with the events of last summer leaving certain sections of the Emirates Stadium support bemused and frustrated.
Star turns such as Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri were allowed to head for the exits, but no marquee acquisitions were drafted in to take their place.
Arsenal supporters have grown accustomed to such events, with the club, and their manager, having displayed a reluctance to dig deep for some years now.
The latest window has seen Arsene Wenger adopt a similar approach, with there having been little movement in the red half of North London.
Sustainable
Gazidis appreciates that this is not what fans want to see, but he believes that Arsenal will benefit in the long run from having kept their financial house in order.
"It (our model) does mean we can't afford to compete with oil money, and we can't afford to compete with super-wealthy individuals from Russia," he told
Fox.
"But I think the more important thing about our model is that it's sustainable.
"If we've learned anything from the world's economic crisis, it has to be that football clubs need to have responsibility - not just for today, but for their own futures.
"And our business model means that we can continue to do what we're doing forever.
"Our focus is always on young players, we've got a fantastic development system and still there are young players coming through consistently from our youth ranks and that'll continue to be the way Arsenal do things.
Proud
"We play football in a certain way, a little bit different to everyone else and we develop our team (in a way) that's a little bit different to everybody else.
"Yes, we can't afford to spend £50-70million on an individual player. But, we're proud of the way we do things, and we're proud of the results that we're able to produce from that.
"Of course there's anxiety when clubs are spending the kind of money they're spending. We don't believe that's sustainable for the long term. We think that has to come to an end. UEFA agrees with us and is bringing limits on spending in (the Financial Fair Play initiative), and we'll continue to do things the way we do them."
He added: "Arsene spends money with a view not just to the short term, but also to the long term.
"People don't think about Oxlade-Chamberlain, but we spent a lot of money on Oxlade-Chamberlain. We believe that this is a young player who is an exciting prospect, and there are a lot of clubs in the Premier League that would love to have him, believe me."
