Adidas Chief Hints At Possible Arsenal Deal As Puma Partnership Nears Expiration

Arsenal look set to leave Puma after a five-year partnership…

Arsenal look set to leave Puma as our kit manufacturer when the current deal expires in 2019 and adidas chief executive Kasper Rorsted has added fuel to reports that we’ll join the German giants, Bloomberg reports.

Puma became our kit manufacturers in 2014 on a five-year deal, a deal which was rumoured to be £150m over that period and gave us a significant increase in our yearly transfer budget.

It ushered a new era at Arsenal where we were able to financially compete on the market again, breaking our transfer record twice since securing that deal.

However, as ever in this market, our rivals have since renewed their kit deals to dwarf our £34m-a-year partnership with Puma, and so it’s only right that our commercial team is seeking a significant raise.

According to Bloomberg, Rorsted was quoted as saying that “London’s Arsenal, one of the English Premier League’s biggest names, is an attractive target as Puma’s deal with it expires next year.”

Puma has the first refusal on any potential renewal, but that doesn’t seem forthcoming given that we’re already renewed our kit sponsorship deal with Emirates until the culmination of the 2023/24 season.

After losing out to Nike for the Chelsea deal, it would make sense that adidas would want another club from the most lucrative league in the world on their books.

Any new kit deal will likely have to wait until the new year to be announced in order to allow Puma a significant period in which they can sell this season’s kits.