Winning the Premier League and reaching a Champions League final apparently doesn't buy you immunity from a cost review. Arsenal have enlisted Boston Consulting Group — one of the world's largest management consultancy firms — to audit the club's internal operations, with CEO Richard Garlick leading the process.
The timing is pointed. Just months after Mikel Arteta's side claimed the title and came within a penalty shootout of lifting the Champions League trophy against PSG, ownership is pressing pause on the non-footballing side of the operation and asking hard questions about efficiency. The club employs around 800 staff. That's a significant payroll for a review of this kind to land on.
What this is — and what it isn't
No decisions have been made yet, and Arsenal declined to comment when contacted. The review is reportedly focused on non-footballing areas, which is the important qualifier here. A similar internal review last season resulted in a full restructuring of the medical department — no mass layoffs, just reorganisation.
That context matters. BCG walking through the books doesn't automatically mean redundancies. But it does mean Josh Kroenke's ambition to make Arsenal financially self-sustaining is being pursued with more structural seriousness than a memo or a press conference.
The numbers from last season give some indication of scale. The title run, the Champions League final, League Cup final, and FA Cup quarter-final run generated roughly £300 million in revenue. Yet Arsenal still ranked only ninth in the Premier League for net transfer spend — selling Gabriel Martinelli to Al-Hilal for a club-record £60 million and offloading Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Jesus for a combined £28.1 million, while bringing in Bruno Guimarães and Ezri Konsa.
The bigger picture for Arsenal's ambitions
This is what genuine self-sustainability looks like in practice — not just a talking point for owner's letters, but consultants in the building scrutinising the spreadsheets. On the pitch, Arsenal have started the season with wins over Manchester City (3-0 in the Community Shield), Chelsea (2-1), and Napoli (1-0 in the Champions League). The project is clearly working.
Off it, Kroenke's ownership is trying to make sure the financial architecture can support sustained competition at the highest level without chronic dependency on player sales to balance the books. That's a reasonable ambition. Whether BCG's recommendations translate into meaningful change — or just a polished report that gets filed away — is the part that actually matters.
Next up: Sunderland away, then an EFL Cup trip to Ipswich. The football continues. The consultants keep reading.
