ABOVE: Arsene Wenger may spend big with Wayne Rooney or Gonzalo Higuain in their sights
The club has even been considering trying to land £50m-rated Wayne Rooney, who is on £250,000 a week, from Manchester United
ARSENAL are joining the big boys of football and have confirmed they can sign a superstar like Wayne Rooney this summer.
The Gunners will boast an income revenue of £300m in two years, up £70m.
And they are ready to land a marquee signing and pay top wages in this transfer window.
Arsene Wenger has around £70m to splash out on players and will have at least a similar figure available every year from now on.
The club has even been considering trying to land £50m-rated Wayne Rooney, who is on £250,000 a week, from Manchester United.
Although Rooney seems set to stay, the Gunners – who have agreed a record £170m kit deal with Puma over five years – look certain to be raising the bar when it comes to bringing in established names in this window.
Real Madrid’s Argentina ace Gonzalo Higuain is on Wenger’s hitlist, with the board now admitting that eight years without a trophy and just scraping into the Champions League is not good enough.
“The critical thing about that is to work out how we don’t have to go through all that again, and how we can go through next season and put ourselves in a position where we are really competing for major trophies towards the end of the season,” said chief executive Ivan Gazidis.
Asked if a player of Rooney’s price and wages would be within Arsenal’s reach, Gazidis said: “Of course we could do that. We could do more than that. We have new revenue streams coming on board and all of these things mean we can do some things which would excite people.”
Gazidis declined to reveal Arsenal’s financial position in detail.
But Starsport can reveal that the already healthy figures are about to get better thanks to commercial deals. In two years they will be similar to that of the world’s richest club.
“We have got fantastic support from Emirates through the new deal we have done with them,” added Gazidis.
“We’re very confident with the other new deals we’ve got coming through, although we can’t talk about that in any detail.
“We should be able to compete at a level like a club such as Bayern Munich. I’m not saying we are there by any means – we have a way to go before we can put ourselves on that level.”
Asked if Wenger could spend more on transfers and wages, Gazidis said: “It means both of those things. We can look at some options that weren’t really in our financial capability.
“Our wage structure will evolve, as it has over the last five years. It will continue to evolve with a new financial capability behind it.
“That means we can do some things perhaps that we haven’t been able to do while we have had one hand tied behind our back.”
Gazidis also insisted Arsenal could challenge for the title next season, despite finishing 16 points behind Manchester United.
He added: “We need to make improvements for me to be able to say that, so probably we’ll have a fairer idea once we get through the summer.
“But that’s certainly what our ambition is and our goal is. That’s what this whole thing has been about.”
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