Arsenal have just £40m transfer budget this summer if they don’t reach Champions League
Gunners boss Unai Emery wants to bring in at least FIVE players but failure to secure top-four finish will dent plans
UNAI EMERY only has £40million to spend this summer if Arsenal fail to reach the Champions League.
The Gunners manager wants to overhaul his squad by bringing in at least FIVE players.
Yet Emery is facing a restricted budget from Emirates chiefs unless he can finish top four after two seasons in the Europa League.
That looks increasingly unlikely with the Gunners sixth in the Prem.
Even if they did, his budget would only be about £60m.
The Spaniard wants two wingers, a couple of full-backs and at least one centre-back.
That has cranked up the pressure on Arsenal to find a buyer for £350,000-a-week Mesut Ozil — who does not figure in Emery’s plans.
It also raises questions over the decision to let Aaron Ramsey and Danny Welbeck leave for free this summer.
Arsenal spent £69m on Lucas Torreira, Bernd Leno, Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Matteo Guendouzi last summer.
But they could only afford Denis Suarez on loan from Barcelona in January as Europa League football hurts their spending power.
Yet the Gunners could still land a cash boost by winning Europe’s second-tier tournament, which earns Champions League qualification.
But without that extra cash Emery will be left with no room to manoeuvre in the summer transfer window.
He knows that Barcelona winger Suarez will cost £18million if he wants to keep him at the Emirates which would eat up almost half of his limited summer budget.
Emery recently said: "The club is telling me that it is not a good moment to buy players but they say it is going to be different in the summer.
"Then we are going to have chances to spend money and buy players."