BBC’s David Ornstein: Unai Emery Only Has A Budget For Loan Deals In January

BBC correspondent David Ornstein doesn’t expect too much movement January…

BBC Sport correspondent David Ornstein has revealed that Unai Emery will not have a significant budget to work with in January as the Spaniard attempts to achieve a top-four finish.

With Aaron Ramsey set to depart in the Summer when his contract expires as the club rejected the advances of a few clubs to pry him away in January, attention has now turned to who we’re bringing in.

The thrashing at Anfield has given many fans a reality check as to the level of squad we currently have at our disposal compared to our top six rivals.

Investment is needed if we’re to get back into the top four with every year outside the Champions League leaving us further behind.

As the January window opens on Tuesday, Ornstein claims there aren’t funds available for major signings and Emery will have to settle for loan deals if he’s to strengthen the squad.

According to his report, this is due to ‘heavy investment in new signings and contracts over the past year’ and the club has been forced to scale back.

It seems we’re still suffering from the decisions made 12 months ago in that fateful transfer window. Alexis Sanchez was allowed to waltz out on a free to Manchester United five months after we rejected a £60million offer from Manchester City.

We were handed Henrikh Mkhitaryan in return, and the Armenian came with a hefty wage packet given the absence of a transfer fee.

Still in need of a marquee name, Arsene Wenger decided to break our transfer record on another centre-forward in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, months after landing Alexandre Lacazette for a record fee.

Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott were also allowed to depart to Chelsea and Everton respectively, and it left our squad lop-sided – on the pitch and on the balance sheet.

All this was preceded by the decision to hand Mesut Ozil the second-biggest contract in the Premier League.

It seems this has tied Emery back and we’ve now handed our new manager ‘restricted budgets’ in two separate windows. That will change, according to Ornstein, in the summer – though one imagines the noises coming from the club will hint at financial prudence if we miss out on the Champions League yet again.