Sutton boss warns Arsenal stars to prepare for lukewarm showers as club plots refurb after £700,000 FA Cup tie

Arsenal stars expecting their creature comforts when they arrive at Gander Green Lane on Monday night will be sorely disappointed, but they can at least rest assured in the knowledge that their visit will leave its mark on Sutton United for a long time to come.

The National League side will host Arsene Wenger’s Premier League giants in the Fifth Round of the FA Cup after eliminating AFC Wimbledon of League One and Championship giants Leeds in the greatest cup run in their history.

Sutton and Arsenal fans swiftly snapped up the 5,000 tickets for the tie, the biggest in the south London club’s history, in the hope of a remarkable FA Cup giant killing.

Sutton manager Paul Doswell does not expect his side to overcome a side 104 places above them in the football pyramid – even if Arsenal named a weakened side he put their odds at “one or two per cent” – but he did warn Mesut Ozil and company that they should not expect the luxury of the Emirates.

Whilst Doswell did assure them of a “warm Sutton welcome” that warmth may not be apparent in the dressing rooms.

“We thought about putting new shower heads in… for about two seconds,” he said in his pre-match press conference. “Then we thought no. At the end of the day we haven’t done it for any of the other teams coming down.

“It has only been because we haven’t been able to afford it. We’re not trying to be big and clever. One of the players said to me the other day ‘when I played against you it was always hot in the dressing room.’ I said ‘well it’s because we can’t turn the valve off on the radiator.’

“It’s nothing clever. We just don’t have the money. The one thing the Cup run won’t do is go into buying players – our wage budget is very strict – but what it will do is allow us to build four new dressing rooms for the young players.

“The roof is probably just about to leak – it splashed me on the nose during the Leeds game. There’s a leak by the bar as well. We’ll get that completely redone. The boiler is absolutely shot to pieces; at best they’ll get lukewarm showers. I don’t think we’ve got a water softener either. The water is struggling to get through the shower head.

“The reality is, and I do mean this, we can refurbish the whole club, get the academy and the chairman has said we can add two more bulbs to the floodlights.”

Arsenal’s visit to Gander Green Lane will prove to be a major money-spinner for Sutton, who are expected to make around £700,000 for reaching the last 16.

However FA Cup rules oblige the National League minnows to share 40 per cent of their ticket revenue – expected to be around £100,000 – with Arsenal.

Sutton’s wage bill of £10,000-a-week would cover 12 hours of Mesut Ozil’s salary whilst the Gunners’ £330m turnover is 413 times that of their next opponents.

Doswell is urging Arsenal to find a way around FA regulations to support Sutton, though the club’s chairman acknowledges that they should not expect any further financial assistance from the Premier League giants.

“There is a way. Arsenal can go and buy those classrooms for us and do all the things we said. It would change every aspect of this football club, for years to come. It’s life-changing for the club. This money isn’t going to be blown overnight.

“Why do you think I’m getting Arsene Wenger a £300 bottle of red wine? There’s a method to my madness. They’ve been approached by other people and asked the question. Arsenal’s turnover is £330m, ours is £800,000.

“They were superb, their first reaction was yes, we’d love to do it. It’s a great PR story for them. Every penny they give us will go into the academy.”

Sutton chairman Bruce Elliott added: “We’ve not spoken to Arsenal about it. The integrity of the FA Cup rules means we cannot share gate receipts.

“We have been delighted to be part of a very supportive stance from the FA, they’ve been extremely helpful. It would have been a nice gesture but we would not have been able to accept it and Arsenal would not have been able to send us that money.”

Standard Sport understands that representatives for Arsenal and Sutton remain in dialogue over what support the Premier League club can offer but it is highly unlikely that the Gunners will be allowed to forego any of their revenue from the match.