Arsenal: How Real and Atletico Madrid’s Transfer Ban Will Affect The Gunners

Two of the biggest clubs in world football, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid, have been banned by FIFA from making any signings for the next two transfer windows. How will that affect Arsenal?

Arsenal are a massive European football club. The Gunners boast one of the best squads in the world, who play in one of the best stadiums in Europe. When you look around at their competition it is clear that Arsenal rank in the upper echelon of clubs in the world.

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Clubs like Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid, PSG, Juventes and of course their domestic rivals at the top of the league, are the teams that Arsenal have to fight tooth and nail with to sign players and improve their squad. So when two massive clubs like Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid receive transfer bans from FIFA which will prevent them from signing players in this summer and next January, the shock waves can be felt all the way in North London.

Real Madrid embody one of the three biggest clubs in the world. Atletico are on a level probably a few ticks under that of Arsenal. So these two clubs regularly dip into the same pool of players as the Gunners. There absence will surely be of influence for Arsenal.

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First off let’s go point out the obvious. With Atletico and Real out of commission in the transfer market, that will mean Arsenal have two less competitors for big signings. A player like Alexandre Lacazette, who could possibly be a potent Real squad player or perhaps a big time luxury piece on Atletico, will now be looking at Arsenal with a keener eye.

The same can be said for players like Granit Xhaka, Willian Carvhalo and Andriy Yarmolenko. Each of these players find themselves in the distinguished company at their positions. All of these footballers are budding superstars who would jump at the chance at playing for Real Madrid. A move to Atletico would also symbolize a step up in their careers as well.

Now Arsenal can play the poacher and find themselves in much better positions to sign the bigger names.

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Take Andriy Yarmolenko for example. Arsenal have been interested in the Ukranian winger for quite some time but time and again the Dynamo Kiev star has stated that he wishes to ink a move to Real Madrid. Although other clubs are tempting, he truly yearns to play for Los Blancos in order to fulfill a lifelong dream.

You can’t fault a player for wanting to move to the Bernabeu. However at the same time, Yarmolenko has to be ready to make a move from Kiev in the near future in order to finally stretch his legs. Although he signed a contract extension in October he has made it clear that was simply to ensure that Kiev got a sizable fee for his departure.

With Madrid out of the picture, the glory and, most importantly, the wages of the Premier League will begin to look very good indeed.

Finally the slightly more complicated factor in this is the legal side of this entire ordeal. These bans are usually appealed by the clubs who have infringed the rules, and even after that phase they usually go to arbitration. This process can take months and Real Madrid and Atletico will do all they can to prolong this situation. So there is a chance that they will be able to do business this summer and not in the winter. That means they will look to do all their business in one extremely busy window.

Arsenal can benefit from this greatly. Real Madrid have a brand new manager in Zinedine Zidane and after the less than smooth reign of Rafa Benitez, the Real Madrid hierarchy will be keen to give Zidane all of the resources necessary to succeed. Therefore it is quite likely that Real will do their best to stall the ban as long as possible and allow Zidane the freedom to build the team he needs.

If that does come to fruition we could possibly see a large number of players exiting the Bernabeu in the summer, and Arsenal could reap the benefits from this major turnover. Players like Jese Rodriguez and Isco could now be on their way out of the Real dressing room in order to make way for much needed signings. Perhaps even players like Toni Kross and Karim Benzema will become available for Arsenal to snap up.

Likewise Atletico will be looking to make moves as well, even though Diego Simeone’s contract with the club runs through 2020. There are one or two players on Atletico’s squad who could also be useful at Arsenal as well like, Saul Niguez or possibly even Antoine Griezmann.

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Indeed these bans on two of Spain’s biggest football giants will send ripples throughout Europe. If Arsenal play their cards right, they could definitely reap the benefits of this situation.