TOP STARS ARE DESPERATE TO PLAY FOR THE GUNNERS
Arteta claims players are drawn to Arsenal’s style and history but fears slide out of European contention has hit recruitment
MIKEL ARTETA insists players are still desperate to play for Arsenal – despite the club’s plunge out of the top six.
The Gunners host Liverpool tonight sitting in ninth, five points off sixth-placed Wolves and 43 behind champions Liverpool.
Their star striker PierreEmerick Aubameyang has just a year left on his contract and has yet to sign another, while Alexandre Lacazette is being offered Champions League football by the likes of Juventus and Atletico Madrid.
But Emirates boss Arteta said: “We’ve an incredible history, an incredible structure, in a beautiful city and a style of play that attracts players.
“And I’m telling you now because when I’m closer to the market now, when I speak to people, a lot of players want to play for Arsenal.”
The Gunners were beaten 2-1 on Sunday by their ailing neighbours Spurs, Arteta becoming the first Arsenal boss to lose his first north London derby in the Premier League since Bruce Rioch in
November 1995. And despite heralding the attractiveness of playing for his club, the Spaniard (right) conceded a lack of Champions League football could have an impact on recruitment plans.
Urging the board to invest in order to keep up with the Premier League’s pacesetters, Arteta added: “If you’re not in the Champions League and you say, ‘OK, I don’t invest because I don’t have the
Live on Sky Sports Main Event from 8pm financial ability to do it’, but the other clubs invest, then the gap becomes bigger. “So at some stage you have to make a decision. You see many good examples of teams that have done it and they have come back into form afterwards.
“What I need to do first of all is do my work as well as possible and improve my players.
“Then, at the end of the season, we need to see the direction we want to take, agree on the ambition of the club and realise that, where we are, the demands are going to be huge.”