Former Arsenal executive David Dein has opened up about competing with Chelsea and Manchester City when they were bought by new billionaire owners.
Arsenal is traditionally one of the biggest clubs in England and that includes their transfer spending and on-field success.
However, in the early 2000s, Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea and started spending huge sums of money to bolster their squad.
He also made Jose Mourinho their latest manager, with the Portuguese manager bringing unprecedented success to the West London club, at the expense of their rivals.
Arsenal saw them sign Ashley Cole from under their noses after offering the Englishman more money, and Dein has now revealed the difference.
He writes in his new book Calling the Shots, as quoted by The Sun:
“Arsene [Wenger] and I would come out of board meetings feeling we’d been knocking our heads against a brick wall.
“We lost Ashley Cole over £5,000 a week. It was a very difficult time.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Money is the key ingredient in football now and no one can fault the top clubs for spending enormous sums of money to bolster their squads and make them competitive.
Stan Kroenke has made Arsenal ambitious again with his spending and he must sustain it before we can remain a big club in England.
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