Arsenal will turn to Nketiah, Saka and Willock to beat Covid-19 transfer market crisis

The coronavirus pandemic is having a crippling effect on the finances of football clubs across the country.

From the lower leagues to some of the Premier League’s giants, clubs are struggling to make ends meet as revenue streams dry up completely.

And with the prospect of at least the first half of the 2020-21 season being played behind doors, there is no sign of things improving fast.

The Covid-19 crisis has already led to Tottenham having to take a £175 million ($224m) loan from the Bank of England, with chairman Daniel Levy admitting that the club was on course for a loss of over £200m for the period ending June 2021.

And down the road at Arsenal things aren’t much better, with detailed analysis from the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust revealing the club could lose up to £144m ($184m) should the entire 2020-21 season be played behind closed doors.

It’s going to take a long time for football to recover from the financial implications brought on by the pandemic, with the next few transfer windows expected to look very different to what we have seen in recent years.

Aside from a select few clubs, such as Manchester City, Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain, the vast majority simply aren’t going to have the amount of money to spend that they would have expected to just a matter of months ago.

The impact of Covid-19 has already seen Liverpool turn their backs on a £54m ($77m) deal for Timo Werner, allowing Chelsea to pounce for the RB Leipzig forward.

At Arsenal, the summer transfer window looks set to be exceptionally difficult. Mikel Arteta wants to reshape his squad and the club are hoping to do some business, but the current financial climate will make it tough to do the deals they want - such as bringing Atletico Madrid midfielder Thomas Partey to north London.

But with most of their rivals in a similar situation financially, there are reasons why Arsenal could actually emerge from the crisis brought on by coronavirus pandemic in a better position that most.

Twitter/Arsenal

With funds set to be scarce, not just this summer but also over the next few transfer windows, clubs will need to turn to youth more and rely on the talent that is coming through from their academies.

And Arsenal currently have several exciting youngsters in and around the first team thanks to the exceptional work that has been done at Hale End in recent years - with another promising batch waiting in the wings behind them.

Arteta has already shown he is not afraid to use young players if he believes they are good enough and homegrown talents Bukayo Saka, Eddie Nketiah, Reiss Nelson and Joe Willock have all featured extensively this season  - as has Gabriel Martinelli following his move from Brazil last summer.

Emile Smith Rowe, currently on loan at Huddersfield, has already proven he can make an impact at senior level and will be hoping to stake his place for regular game time next season when he returns in the summer and right-back Jordi Osei-Tutu has impressed while on loan with Bochum this season.

So Arteta has several talented young players to call on in a variety of positions and if new signings are limited over the next few windows, they should get even more opportunities to progress and establish themselves as Premier League players.

The likes of Tyreece John-Jules, Florian Balogun and Miguel Azeez will also hope to benefit as they continue to develop at an encouraging pace at Under-23 level.

Few clubs in the country can fall back on such an impressive batch of youngsters as Arsenal can right now and that should serve them well during a period when transfer funds are expected to be tight.

Getty Images

For a club that continues to strictly adhere to a self-sustaining model under the ownership of Stan Kroenke, Arsenal could also benefit over the next couple of years from some of their rivals not being able to spend the sort of money on new arrivals that they would be hoping for.

Tottenham for example, would have been expected to spend heavily this summer under Jose Mourinho, and with Arsenal again facing the prospect of another season without Champions League football, they could have seen their neighbours outmuscle them in the market.

But with Spurs having to borrow cash to help them through the current crisis, money which will not be spent on transfers, there is an acceptance that any business will be limited. The same goes for Liverpool.

So while Chelsea and Manchester City, with their cash-rich billionaire owners, and commercial giants Manchester United may still be big players in the transfer market, other top clubs in England will have to rethink their plans.

And that will be a big boost for Arsenal at a time when they risked being left behind due to three years of Europa League football and a crippling wage bill.

The shutdown and subsequent restart caused by the pandemic has also given Arteta an unexpected period of time to get to know his players and to work with them on the training ground without the distraction of matches to get in the way.

Since arriving in December, the Spaniard has had to deal with a constant string of games and would have been looking forward to the summer and working with his squad during pre-season to really get his methods across.

But he’s now been able to use the shutdown as an opportunity to get to know his players, not just on a professional level but on a personal one as well, something he would have found tough to do had the season continued as normal.

“This time has been really helpful from my side, at least, to get to know the players better,” Arteta admitted during an interview with Arsenal.com in April. “We are trying to improve our relationship, our communication and the understanding between us.”

Arsenal have now been back in training for three weeks and on Saturday they had their first friendly ahead of the Premier League’s return, beating Charlton 6-0 at the Emirates.

They will stage at least one more friendly before travelling to Manchester City on June 17 and by the time they return to action at the Etihad, Arteta will have had about five weeks working with his squad at London Colney.

For a coach who arrived in the middle of the season and who inherited a squad that was bereft of confidence, it will have been an invaluable period of time, one that you would hope will have improved the squad immeasurably in terms of the players’ understanding of Arteta’s ideas.

It should also put them ahead of schedule in terms of where Arteta will have expected his squad to be when the 2020-21 season gets underway later in the year.