Arsenal turnover up to a huge £313m and
club makes record profit... but Arsene Wenger won't splash the cash
on new players in a hurry
Resources available: Wenger
Arsenal
chairman Peter Hill-Wood insists results on the pitch will
always come ahead of profit at the Emirates
Stadium.
The Gunners' parent holding company today revealed an increase
in turnover to £313.3million and a record profit after tax of
£35.2m from results for the year ending May 31.
The Highbury Square development, meanwhile, remains robust
despite the difficult financial climate and falling house prices,
with the completion of 208 private apartments at the club's former
ground bringing in £88m.
Most of Arsenal's overall net debt, which has decreased to
£297.7m from £318m, is tied into the move to the 60,000-seater
Emirates Stadium, financed mainly by a long-term loan which is
repaid at a fixed rate, much like a mortgage, at around £20m a
year.
As such, Arsene Wenger's men are clearly under some pressure to
continue to produce on the field - with Champions League
qualification now arguably a prerequisite each season.
Wenger has, though, so far refused to spend heavily on new
players, instead placing faith in youth and re-signing key men like
captain Cesc Fabregas, England forward Theo Walcott and Robin van
Persie, last season's leading scorer, on long-term deals.
Nevertheless, despite relative progress with a
Champions League final appearance in 2006, Arsenal have failed to
deliver a trophy since the 2005 FA Cup.
Life-long Gunners fan Hill-Wood knows all too well the
importance of consistency on the pitch, which ultimately drives all
other parts of the business.
'The group's profits have now risen in each of the three years
in which Emirates Stadium has been our home. This is excellent
news, although I should perhaps stress that making and reporting
profits is not in itself the primary objective for the directors,'
Hill-Wood said in his report.
'First and foremost we are supporters of this great football
club and, as such, our main goal will always be the achievement of
success for Arsenal on the field.
'The group's profitability is important because it is a
by-product of running the club as a solvent and successful
business, which in turn allows us to maximise the level of
investment in the playing staff and in the future development of
the club.'
Hill-Wood added: 'Arsene has the resources to bring more players
in, if he believes doing so will add to the quality which we
already have in the squad.'
Much has been made of whether Arsenal should accept being
bankrolled by outside investment, as all of their top-four rivals,
which now include cash-rich
Manchester City, have done.
Indeed, City raided the Emirates Stadium for both striker
Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure this summer, while Wenger opted to
bring in just Belgium defender Thomas Vermaelen from Ajax for £10m,
leaving him with a healthy surplus.
Earlier this year, the Arsenal board decided against a proposed
rights issue to generate new cash which was put forward and
underwritten by the Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov, the second
biggest stakeholder in the Barclays Premier League club.
One and only: Thomas Vermaelen (left) was Arsenal's
only major summer signing
Usmanov - whose Red & White Holdings group
have a stake of around 25 per cent - had argued the scheme would
help to reduce both the long-term debt and also hand Wenger extra
transfer funds.
Arsenal also have Stan Kroenke as a non-executive director. The
American entrepreneur is now the club's largest individual
shareholder, but just short of the 30 per cent threshold which
would, under City rules, trigger an automatic formal takeover
bid.
Hill-Wood felt a new rights issue just to help buy players would
be 'at odds with our ethos'. The Arsenal chairman said: 'In
the final analysis I believe it distils down to a decision about
whether it is appropriate to raise money from shareholders to
purchase the registrations and pay the wages of
footballers.
'This is not something that Arsenal has ever done previously in
its history and it would be at odds with our ethos of running the
club as a business which is self-sustaining and pays its own way in
the world.'
