Arsenal Need To Be Ambitious But Now Is Not The Right Time For Stadium Disruption

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Although there was plenty of disappointment from the 2024/25 campaign once again as manager Mikel Arteta’s side missed out on the Premier League title by falling short just at the wrong points of the season, fans should largely be pleased that where we had shown that we were slipping in performances, they were rectified by our summer transfer window business.

We finally signed a more died in the wool striker and Viktor Gyokeres has begun showing signs of hitting the ground running with three goals in his opening seven games, and that has helped us into top spot in the table already with five wins and a draw at this very early stage of the year and there will definitely be fans punting at champions league betting odds this year as we look to go one stage further as well.

With steady and consistent improvement under our Spanish gaffer in recent years we are now serious title challengers and many in the Emirates Stadium fan base will feel that it is only a matter of time before we finally get ourselves over the line again and taste the silverware that all Gunners desire. The board clearly see that we are once again truly on an upward curve as it has recently been reported that internal discussions have already been held on how we can improve the capacity of the stadium to further maximise match day revenue that can be reinvested into the first team squad given Profit and Sustainability Rule issues all clubs are now tinkering with.

The talks are said to be at a very early stage so no fan should be expecting significant or major movement on this front just yet, but for many it will evoke memories of the Highbury to Emirates switch as few can deny that it very unfavourably hampered Arsene Wenger’s attempts to build on his own achievements as simply put, whilst the new stadium made a lot of sense as we moved towards the future, we absolutely paid a financial cost in the moment.

It is also quite curiously timed as next year it will be the 20 year anniversary of us leaving Highbury and we already boast, with a capacity of 60,704, the fifth largest stadium in the country and there will certainly be those fans who wonder if the financial outlay and the disruption that would be necessary would actually be worth the eventual financial uplift that a few thousand extra seats would provide.

It would also undoubtedly involve a Wembley Stadium return for at least some homes games as whilst there is no favoured plan, it sounds like we are looking at structural seat plan changes for additional seats, as opposed to strict additional building.

It is certainly one to watch, and the board are not wrong to at least be looking at alternative options to continue to grow our revenue as we look for sustained success in the future, but whilst we are clearly on an upward turn again in recent seasons there is no way that we should hamstring or hold ourselves back in the way we did previously – even if it made sense for the long term.

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