Arsenal have announced the biggest shirt deal in the history of English football. Puma will pay a reported £150million over the course of the next five years with Arsenal wearing Puma kits from the summer of 2014 through 2019.

In addition to producing the playing and training kit for all Arsenal teams, Puma has acquired wide-ranging licensing rights to develop other Arsenal branded merchandise on a global basis. This new commercial partnership represents the biggest deal in Puma and Arsenal’s history.

It’s been a long journey to get the Puma-Arsenal deal officially announced. The Daily Mirror newspaper reported that Puma had signed a £170million deal in May of last year. Whether the news was premature or perhaps Puma and Arsenal wanted to wait until the Nike deal was almost over, we don’t know. But the good news for Arsenal is that the money will help fund manager Arsene Wenger’s player acquisitions if the club so chooses to use those funds to strengthen the squad.

Then in October of last year, Thierry Henry was pictured alongside Olivier Giroud, Bacary Sagna and athlete Linford Christie. Henry was seen wearing the Arsenal home shirt for the 2014/15 season, while Giroud was wearing the training top.

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