Arsenal Manager Unai Emery is facing "significant restrictions" with the club's wage bill during the next transfer window in January following a "series of deals" that have been agreed to over the past year, according to Jeremy Wilson of the London TELEGRAPH. Although midfielders Jack Wilshere and Santi Cazorla and forward Lucas Perez "all left Arsenal during the summer," the incoming arrivals of goalkeeper Bernd Leno, defenders Sokratis and Stefan Lichtsteiner and midfielders Matteo Guendozi and Lucas Torreira, as well as extensions for midfielders Granit Xhaka and Ainsley Maitland-Niles, have "further increased a wage bill that was already running at an annual record high" of more than £200M ($253.8M). The situation will "improve next summer when a new shirt sponsorship and kit deal cycle begins." The new main Emirates shirt deal, alongside a "first separate sleeve sponsor, will alone bring in" around £20M ($25.3M) more annually. Adidas is "expected to manufacture the kit" starting in '19 instead of Puma, with Arsenal also "hoping for an increase" on that deal approaching £20M ($25.3M) a year (TELEGRAPH, 8/14).
