Modern football forces you to suspend what you thought you knew about concepts like parsimony and wealth, and once you've done that: read on to hear of the monetary encumbrances that will be placed on the new Arsenal manager.
Jeremy Wilson of The Telegraph has the story that whoever succeeds Arsene Wenger will have £50 million to spend in the transfer window this summer, although can increase it through player sales.
The reason behind the relatively small budget is the lavish outlay over the last year or so, which has featured around £100 million on a pair of strikers in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette - neither of whom look particularly comfortable playing up front together. They've also taken a hit on the wages they've had to pay Mesut Ozil to convince him to stay - reportedly £350,000 week.
The salaries paid to Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan are believed to be fairly steep too.
Given the budgets of Chelsea and the Manchester clubs, along with the fact that Liverpool are in a position to spend £75 million on a centre-half (and this was before their Champions League run yielded further riches), Arsenal won't be able to spend to bridge the chasm between them and their rivals.
That Arsenal ended up blowing a significant part of their budget on two strikers is evidence of the dysfunction behind the scenes over the last year. Despite having had the chance to sign Aubameyang last summer, Wenger opted to sign Lacazette from Lyon. Then, once Arsenal revamped the staff by adding Sven Mislintat from Borussia Dortmund, Aubameyang arrived from the same club. Had there been a singular vision at Arsenal, they would likely have one top-class striker comfortable playing up front by himself and have the funds to address ongoing disaster zones like goalkeeper, defence, and central midfield.
As to who might go: Hector Bellerin has been courted by Man City and Barcelona in the past, and given that his contract runs until 2023, he may be a candidate for sale.
As to who might be Wenger's successor: the usually-reliable Jonathan Northcroft of The Sunday Times had Luis Enrique as Arsenal's top choice, although Max Allegri, Mikel Arteta, Leonardo Jardim, Julian Nagelsmann and Joachim Löw are all mentioned in the Telegraph report.
