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The Truth About Arsenal’s Financial State

By on October 3, 2009

Emirates StadiumThis week saw the annual release of the club’s financial reports (The full report may be downloaded here). After much speculation for the last six months, especially from groups with their own agendas (i.e., Red & White Holdings, the media, and “Arsene Out!” supporters), we can finally see the true state of the club’s finances. Here are the basic highlights:

ARSENAL - Turnover

Our group turnover, being the money the club has generated before expenses, has risen significantly over last season (£90m), though this is mostly due to revenue generated from completed sales involving the Highbury property. Increased matchday revenue, due to progressing to progessing to the semifinals of both the Champions League and the FA Cup, went from £94.6m last season to £100.1m this season.

The club is generating over £3m in revenue each matchday. As you can see our profits before tax were £45m and after tax came to £35.2m. This is a very healthy increase of £9.5m over last season. Here is how our turnover is broken down between the football and property sides of the company:

ARSENAL - SegmentSo you can see that, despite the increased numbers due to the one-time sales of 445 of the 655 Highbury Square apartments, the football business itself increased its turnover and profit. According to Forbes magazine, in an article published this past April, Arsenal are the third-most valuable football club in the world behind only Manchester United and Real Madrid.

As far as wages go, our wage bill now stands at £104m, up from £101.3m last year. This represents 46% of our football revenues. It also puts us near the very top of the Premier League in regards to wage bills. Chelsea, obviously, lead the way with a wage bill of £172m while United come second with £121m. Liverpool remains in the low £90m range.

Contrary to propaganda, Arsenal pay far better than competitive wages. It is only that instead of blowing that money on new signings, they handsomely reward those current players that have already shown their loyalty and commitment to the club.

The other question regarding our finances is, of course, the debt. So let’s see how that breaks down:

ARSENAL - DebtWhat does that mean? Well, our stadium debt is down to £244.9m after repayment of £5.3m this year. This loan was refinanced in 2006 leading to the very favorable fixed rate of 5.3% and is payable over 20-22 years.

As you can see, for a club with £99.6m in cash reserves and a profit of £35m, the money needed to service the debts is easily handled by the club and in no way hampers or limits the club’s overall finances or operations.Alisher Usmanov

Contrary to pundits and disgruntled fans who continue to say “Arsenal is so deep in debt because of their stadium that they can’t buy any players,” you can see that is just not the case. Arsenal have money on hand and are in no way hampered by the stadium loan since it generates far more revenue per year than the amount it takes to service the debt. In fact, the reality is the opposite. Arsenal’s current and future financial situation have been greatly enhanced by the building of the stadium.

Of course, this may frustrate some people even more to know that Arsene has cash available and yet “refuses” to spend. I would argue with this characterization. Just because the manager doesn’t buy as many players as some supporters would like, it doesn’t mean he “refuses” to spend.

In the last sixteen months, Arsenal have brought in Samir Nasri, Aaron Ramsey, Thomas Vermaelen, and Andrei Arshavin. These are significant transfers of players of real quality, and, while some may wish for more in that vein, you cannot deny that Arsene has brought in players.

ARSENAL SHARES

Arsenal KroenkeIn other financial news this week, Stan Kroenke bought 80 more shares at £8,500 each. From my point-of-view, this is a satisfactory development. Kroenke continuing to buy shares in the club is an obvious buffer to a Red & White takeover. Kroenke now holds 28.7% of the shares in the club, just 1.2% away from the percentage that would force him to launch a takeover bid.

Of course, even if Kroenke reaches 30%, the club and shareholders are not required to sell. I believe that Kroenke has no interest in an Uzbek-style takeover in the club and, while I know many are not happy about an American being such a big shareholder, he is by far the lesser of two evils and poses no real threat to the club.

The very positive financial reports really cast a dim light on Red & White’s tactics over the summer and the motives behind their proposed rights issue. Red & White would have people believe, and it seems to have worked on the pundits and some supporters, that Arsenal cannot compete financially with other clubs at all.

As you can see from the numbers above, this is absolutely not true. Arsenal are the third-richest club in the world and as the stadium and property debt continues to decrease so will our profits increase by the same amount.

The fact is that Red & White have tried to mislead the supporters to help their own cause. Considering the characters involved, this should come as no surprise. Whether or not Arsene spends the money, the fact remains that the money is there if necessary, as the Board, Arsene, and Ivan Gazidis have said all along.

Of course, this won’t stop those prone to conspiracy theories, but, for those of us with half a brain, there is no need to listen to Red & White or the pundits regarding Arsenal’s financial situation, when we can see it for ourselves.

NOTE: For previous takes on the Red & White situation see “Gooners Stalked By Delusional Fat Guy” and “The Good and Bad Legacy of David Dein.” Also, for the view of the Arsenal’s Supporter Trust, check out Arseblog’s interview with Tim Payton on this week’s Arsecast.

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72 Comments

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  1. arsenalaction

    October 3, 2009 at 10:51 am

    Good stuff mate

  2. woody

    October 3, 2009 at 11:11 am

    it should be noted that in our accounts the wage bill includes ALL staff, players medical, directors. other top clubs show these seperately

    • ArsenalStation

      October 3, 2009 at 12:56 pm

      That is true, Woody.

  3. Julian Jackson

    October 3, 2009 at 11:11 am

    Great piece of work and some good considered analysis – a shame articles like this don’t get the “air play” they deserve. Well done and thanks.

  4. Mark

    October 3, 2009 at 11:21 am

    Sorry to say but your financial analysis looks as if it is done by a 16 year old with a business studies GCSE.

    There is a £136m loan that needs refinancing next year. NO BANK is willing to fund that. Thats why Liverpool are in so much trouble.

    So tell me? Where is that money going to come from? (96m on hand but 136m needed?)

    • FE Gooner

      October 3, 2009 at 11:41 am

      Mark, what is this £136m loan for? If it is for the property development, I don’t think it would be difficult to refinance because the loan quantum relative to the property value is low, maybe less than 50%. At the worst case, the club would easily be able to sell the property units at 50% of the value fully repay the loan. The stadium financing is already done up for the long term so no worries there.

      • ArsenalStation

        October 3, 2009 at 11:56 am

        The original remaining balance was £123m on the property development. But Arsenal used the proceeds from completed sales to bring the loan down to £47m. And this balance has been refinanced with Barclays Bank at 2.5% with the term ending December 2010.

    • lauritz

      October 3, 2009 at 6:19 pm

      Easier for Arsenal to get a loan then Liverpool… Just search up “premier league credit ratings” and you should find Arsenal at the top, while Liverpool is just above insolvent. While Arsenals debt i related to projects that makes money, Liverpool’s debt is related to transfering the club to two americans.

      Comparing Arsenal and Liverpool financially is like comparing Arsenal XI with Derby XI, it’s a different league!

      • ArsenalStation

        October 3, 2009 at 7:07 pm

        That is exactly true… that is the difference between good and bad debt which seems to be too subtle a point for most in the media to understand. Arsenal’s debt generates revenue far more than the debt itself. Liverpool and United’s debt is from the sale of their clubs. The new owners took out loans to buy the club and then transferred the loans onto the club’s books so essentially the United supporters pay for the Glazers to have bought the club. That is not good debt in any sense.

  5. JIm

    October 3, 2009 at 11:27 am

    In the next 1-2 years we have to pay off the property loan of £129.6m. At the very least we have to renegotiate the term of the loan.

    My guess is that until this loan is paid off or renegotiated the club will hang on to as much of the cash reserves as possible in case it needs to lever the negotiations.

    This could mean that some of the money might be made available to Wenger once the renegotiation has taken place. Perfect for the Jan Window.

    • malvin

      October 3, 2009 at 12:27 pm

      the 129 million has been paid and in addition most of the gearing for the real estate will be wound down after sales of the remaining units. actually they have paid most of it and the balance as of now is 47million which will be reported in the next financial year. actually i think next year our financial results would be the best we can ever do after completing sale of remaining units

      • ArsenalStation

        October 3, 2009 at 12:58 pm

        That is true… the sales of the apartments are one-time influxes of revenue. Still the money that would have gone to paying the loan for the property development will remain with the club so there is a long-term benefit if not anywhere near the level of the initial revenue generated by sales.

  6. ClockEndRider

    October 3, 2009 at 11:30 am

    Mark,
    The loan which needs to be refinanced next year is £47m and has been reduced from £127m last year. Please read the full results on the Arsenal.com website.

    • ArsenalStation

      October 3, 2009 at 11:35 am

      Exactly, ClockEnd Rider. From the report:

      “The original repayment date for the £137 million Highbury Square bank loan was the end of April 2010. Over the last ten months we have been in negotiation with our syndicate banks for an appropriate extension to the term of the loan to reflect the delays occurring in sales completions and probable requirements for rescission of a number of the original sales contracts. We have worked closely with the banks during this period and I would like to thank them for the constructive and supportive approach that they have taken throughout. There were a number of moving parts to our negotiations – in particular, the status of certain bulk purchases, the completion of construction works and the East Stand (which had originally been marketed and largely pre‐sold to the Club’s own contact list) – and it served the interests of both lenders and borrower to allow as many as possible of these aspects to be resolved before agreeing the terms of the loan amendment.

      I am pleased to confirm that we have now agreed terms to refinance the loan with Barclays Bank plc. The term of the new loan is December 2010 and the margin will be 2.5%, previously the margin was on two loan tranches with one at 1.3% and one at 1.7%. The balance on the Highbury Square loan was £123.6 million as at 31 May 2009 and it has subsequently been reduced to £47.1 million – all repayments have been made from the sales proceeds at Highbury Square.”

      So before you go insulting people, Mark, you should probably actually read the report you are commenting on. It’s people like you that spread false information around and lead to a misunderstanding of the club’s position. Sadly, people commenting on things they haven’t even taken the time to read about seems to be a common occurrence.

  7. Chappers

    October 3, 2009 at 11:35 am

    What about the cost of the other major project that include the building of an indoor sport complex and apartments? Did you take the cost of that into consideration as well?

    It´s easy looking at numbers and coming to the conclusion that we have money in abundance, but without having inside knowledge it´s abundantly clear that neither you nor I have full knowledge of our financial situation and thus your title is misleading.

    Thank you for providing a link to the financial report though and commenting on certain parts of it!

    • ArsenalStation

      October 3, 2009 at 11:42 am

      Arsenal is a publicly-traded company, it cannot hide its financial results. This is the same report given to the actual shareholders. Deceiving them would be fraud and lying about financial results is a crime. So, what you see is what you get, Chappers. Looking at the numbers is exactly how you determine the club’s financial situation.

      The article was meant to give a very simple breakdown of the report because, as already evidenced here, many people will not take the time out to read it for themselves but still want to make uninformed or false statements about the club.

  8. redordead

    October 3, 2009 at 12:20 pm

    Thanks ArsenalStation,

  9. bobbygee

    October 3, 2009 at 12:26 pm

    It looks like Arsenal is in great shape. Good report. http://bobbygee.wordpress.com/

  10. Dgob

    October 3, 2009 at 12:40 pm

    ArsenalStation,

    Excellent adn much needed. I think the partially informed responses here typify much that is wrong with our glorious club at the moment. I also suspect that the most negative respondents will fall into one of the three groups of nay-sayers that you identify in your clear article.

    Again, well done

    • ArsenalStation

      October 3, 2009 at 12:57 pm

      Thanks, dgob. And you are exactly right about the different nay-sayers. Actually I expected a bit more flaming from those groups.

  11. ArsenaLOS

    October 3, 2009 at 1:31 pm

    Really enjoyed this coherent report! It’s nice to have someone break down the financial status of the Arsenal for the layman…as most of us know, Wenger has money to spend if he finds a player that he wants to purchase. If Gooners don’t like his careful, articulated selection of players maybe they should support IOU, Real, or Chelsea.

    • ArsenalStation

      October 3, 2009 at 1:35 pm

      I can understand people being frustrated with what you put very well his “careful, articulated selection of players.” But that is because of how Arsene operates, not due to any financial restrictions put him on by the club’s finances. It’s when people claim that falsely that the facts get distorted. That is what I was trying to combat with this article.

      • Damian

        October 4, 2009 at 11:49 pm

        How short memories some of u have or u just were to young to know this is not how Wenger operates this is how Wenger had to operate as there has been no money for 4 years see above before Emirates & billionaires he was as active as all besides the players he inherited Ashley Cole was the only player to come through young the big wake up call was SWPhilips Wenger wanted him & offered top dollar 15m but Abvomavich paid 25m pluss rediculious wages to make him a sub so we never got him add Emirates & a new way had to be found every 20M 21y old is a 5M 17 y old

  12. Sue

    October 3, 2009 at 1:46 pm

    Seems that Mark has shut his gob up!!!
    Nice read

    • ArsenalStation

      October 3, 2009 at 2:32 pm

      Thanks, Sue… 😉

  13. desigunner

    October 3, 2009 at 2:38 pm

    Arsenal are in fantastic financial state as revealed by the report released by the club.

    However, I was expecting there will be some analysis here but you have just put the same information that is there in the report. You are also factually incorrect when you say “So you can see that, despite the increased numbers due to the one-time sales of 445 of the 655 Highbury Square apartments” the increased numbers do not include one time sales of 445 apartments. They include sales of only 208 apartments. The remaining sales have occurred after May 31 and have been used to reduce the property loan down to 47 M but that is not reflected in the numbers upto May 31. This is mentioned separately in the report.

    Considering the fact that 200 odd apartments have generated close to 90 M for us we can expect the same amount to be generated from the remaining 210 apartments. If that happens then we can roughly expect a profit of 40 odd million on those but thats all uncertain. These numbers also do not reflect the sales of Toure and Abebawhore to Citeh. That will again increase our cash and profits.

    Overall our finances are fantastic and Arsene is using them shrewdly as he always does. But the blog could have been better.

    • ArsenalStation

      October 3, 2009 at 3:15 pm

      I’m sorry if you expected more in-depth economic analysis but I am certainly not a business student. My goal was to wade through the report and pull out the most important stuff for the average reader, like myself, that didn’t have the time or inclination to go through the report in an effort to combat the misinformation spread by those with an anti-Wenger agenda.

      You are absolutely correct about the apartments. I should have clarified that only 208 of those 445 had been sold in the prior year. That figure was a total for the entire project. Good catch, desigunner, and I apologize if you expected more. If you are inclined to do the kind of in-depth economic analysis that you expected, I would more than gladly post it on the blog.

      • desigunner

        October 3, 2009 at 3:53 pm

        No worries. I didnt mean to sound so negative. The thing is I have read a lot about our financials and I do have a business degree so your title raised my expectations. But you have done a good job based on what you set out to do.

        I am presently searching for the financials of United and other top clubs. If I can get the same I think we can have a good comparative analysis.

        • ArsenalStation

          October 3, 2009 at 4:44 pm

          desi, my offer stands. If you can get those reports, though I’m not sure if they’re made available like Arsenal’s is, then you are more than welcome to publish your analysis here. Just email me.

    • Damian

      October 4, 2009 at 11:55 pm

      Yes Arsenal r in great shape but cash broke the original analisis had us making about 100M profit down turn now shows as u say 40M as 4 Toure etc. those sales will be in financial report year 2010 not 2009

      • ArsenalStation

        October 5, 2009 at 12:05 am

        The club has 99.6m in cash reserves. What do you mean “cash broke?”

  14. Pingback: The Truth About Arsenal's Financial State « Arsenal Station

  15. ezee gooner

    October 3, 2009 at 4:34 pm

    great……..but should have been circulated to the twats in the media always saying we are deep in debt…i wonder why?

    • ArsenalStation

      October 4, 2009 at 4:33 pm

      It is circulated to them. They either don’t read it or willfully ignore it. And these are journalists who are supposed to be providing the full story to us. It is a sad commentary on journalism and British football journalism in particular when you have to go to individual, non-professional blogs for real information.

    • Damian

      October 4, 2009 at 11:59 pm

      because from 1 point of view we are just like when u spend on your credit card u have debt the fact u have the money isn,t taken into account just like ManU from 1 point of view they have 800m debt the fact the Glaziers have 2.5B in their pockets isn,t mentioned

      • ArsenalStation

        October 5, 2009 at 12:05 am

        Because that 2.5b they have in their pockets is theirs, not the club’s. That’s the difference with Arsenal. We are operating on and turning a profit on totally our own resources. What if the Glazers sell United to someone without that kind of cash outside of buying the club? Or to someone who does the same thing the Glazers did and takes a loan to buy the club and then puts it on the club’s books? Relying on someone else’s money for the solvency of your club is a dangerous game.

  16. marcus

    October 3, 2009 at 4:34 pm

    So if we can make another 90m on the remaining flats we stand to walk away with around a 43m profit from the Highbury development.

    That could be invested into the team or knock off about 20% of the Emirates debt.

    Nice 🙂

    • ArsenalStation

      October 3, 2009 at 4:46 pm

      That is relatively close to the figure that we stand to make from the remaining apartments since 2/3 are sold already. I think the development news took people a bit by surprise. All the negativity in the media made it seem as if the club was losing money on the development and that they couldn’t sell any flats because of the economy. Personally, it seems they’ve done pretty well considering the recession.

      • Damian

        October 5, 2009 at 12:01 am

        We are losing money but its profit originally we were to make about 100m now its about 40m

        • ArsenalStation

          October 5, 2009 at 9:33 am

          I don’t understand what you are talking about.

  17. KilburnJohn

    October 3, 2009 at 4:36 pm

    Thanks ArsenalStation for taking the time to present the figures in a simplified way. I was rather puzzled too about the division of the sales figures having read th £47M figure when the report was published. The clarifiction was useful. Given the very low inflation rate it may be prudent for us to repay a large slice of the outstanding loan on the stadium next year, and in th process renegotiate an improved rate. That would still leave AW with aprox £100M to spend, but that is not ho the man operates. I believe AW is working on his legacy to US by leaving the club clear of all debts with annual income to compete with the non Oil Cartel Clubs such as Barca, Madrid, Manu Etc. For me an honourable objective, which future genertions of gooners will appreciate. When the billions of £s of dubious origins dry up, we will be the ready to rule the roost for a generation.

    • ArsenalStation

      October 3, 2009 at 4:50 pm

      You are very welcome, John. That was exactly my intent. And what you say about the future is precisely correct. I try to tell people that when the billionaires eventually stop pouring money down the football drain, Arsenal will dominate strictly due to the measures taken now by both Wenger and the board. I know we all want to win now, but I am comforted to know that Arsenal will continue to be viable into my old age and the lives of my 2 young Gooners. The money well will eventually dry up along with increasing regulation from UEFA and FIFA and this will cause a massive realignment at the top, because none of those clubs are even close to prepared to being able to deal with running their clubs on their own resources. Chelsea will be screwed most of all, as will City but clubs like United and Liverpool will also suffer. Meanwhile, that is when Arsenal will rise to the top and remain there…

    • zullcrates

      October 5, 2009 at 3:26 am

      it’s so true. what arsene is doing is very honorable and show how much he loves this club. the world will not go around without money. it’s sad maybe, but it’s true. i don’t want my beloved club end up like leeds utd with huge debt. i’m so excited of the future of our club. i share the vision of le prof. IN ARSENE WE TRUST. Gunners 4 Life!!!!!!!

  18. tyner32

    October 3, 2009 at 5:00 pm

    City and Chels don’t bother looking at balance sheets they just wipe debt off.

    • ArsenalStation

      October 3, 2009 at 5:04 pm

      I don’t know about City, but all the money that Abramovich has pumped into the club (around 700m, last I read) is, technically, a loan which he can call on the club to repay any time. It’s not a gift… although it looks that way until he either decides he wants the money back or actually needs it. Should he call that loan in, though it is unlikely he would do so, Chelsea could be put into administration. As any college student will tell you, you always pay the price later on for living off of loans.

  19. Renan

    October 3, 2009 at 5:07 pm

    Brilliant job mate.

  20. Joe

    October 3, 2009 at 5:18 pm

    Hi ArsenalStation (I feel like Homer Simpson, Dear Die Hard, you rock…) let me join the people saying thanks for the breakdown of figures. I am very pleased with the financial results for this year. However I have to say i don’t understand people saying we are in a position to spend big though. Some of the money we hold will surely be required to be held as reassurance for the banks who are loaning us the cash. Also, if we made £35 Million in profit this year that is fantastic, but we are now in a (minimum) 6 team competition for Champions League places, without which most of that profit would be wiped out (we usually make about £25 Mil from CL and probably more last year due to the Semis appearance). Equally if the teams performance falls off it will lead to subsequent quality player sales which may lead to a short term self perpetuation of the fall of the team due to instability and thus numbers at the Emirates will drop, again reducing revenue. Combine this with the fact that we are still in a recession and you can surely see why having £99 Million in the bank doesn’t mean Wenger can just go out and buy Ronaldo. I hope everyone continues to get behind the team, i think if we can get into the champions league again this year it will be fantastic for the future of the club.

    • ArsenalStation

      October 3, 2009 at 5:45 pm

      That’s funny, Joe. My name is Michael for those who don’t want to feel like Homer Simpson, though you can just say, AS, I guess. 😉 You are absolutely right about not all of that money being available to spend because of the loans. Almost any club that appears in the CL regularly inevitably becomes dependent on that money.

      However, in a few years’ time, we should be in a position where missing the CL would not break us, figuratively. But you are essentially right, it does not mean that Wenger has 99m to spend but does provide a buffer of sorts and the club is willing the finance whatever player acquisitions Wenger sees fit to make. Very well put, Joe.

    • Damian

      October 5, 2009 at 12:04 am

      u r dead right 70m infact

  21. Daniel

    October 3, 2009 at 6:34 pm

    So this report doesn’t include the $30m profit from the transfers over the summer (ade, kolo –> verm) or another 230 flats sold at highbury??

    We’re in an incredible position… wouldn’t it make more sense to pay off a large part of the loan whilst we can afford it rather than paying interest?!?!

    Lets get a win tomorrow and make spurs and manyoo pay for their slips today. oh and hope liv and chelsea draw and villa beat man city on monday.

  22. deanshidah

    October 4, 2009 at 2:12 am

    What we (Arsenal fans) need is at least a trophy which we have not able to achieve since 2005 (FA Cup). Good financial result is needed mainly by the shareholders of Arsenal PLC because profits mean more money for the shareholders. Most of Arsenal fans do not own or just own a very minor share in Arsenal so for most of Arsenal fans we do not care much about financial result compare to trophy. Yes it is good to have good financial result but as George Graham said recently, number one priority should be winning the game and then play beautiful football, then I would say good financial result.

    Arsene must buy more and also establish players, last summer we lost 2 players (Kolo Toure & Adebayor) and only bought Thomas; it means we reduced again one more number of players. At Manchester United and Chelsea; they have depth in their squad. They have quality bench players like last season; Manchester United had Carlos Tevez, Berbatov among others at their bench, big factor contributed to their win in premier league. We almost win the premier league in 2007-2008 season where we were topped with five points in Feb 2008 and the draw at Birmingham with Eduardo broke his leg changed everything afterwards and we lost the best chances to win the league in 4 years. This is because we didn’t have depth and nobody else in the bench could replace Eduardo at that time.

    Another point is the newspapers, sports commentators and referees are favouring the other big four clubs especially Manchester United because they have many English players in their team. Alex Ferguson were not afraid to buy English players even though there are expensive e.g. Rooney, Carrick, Ferdinand, Neville and others. He even jumped to buy Owen on free transfer because he was English. Arsene Wenger needs to be realistic, English premier league is in English soil so it is natural when majority the media and referees are favouring Manchester United. When Arsene came to Arsenal in 1996, Arsenal team already had so many English players and the media and referees were already favouring Arsenal and loved Arsene Wenger at that time and we won the league a few times. The fact was Arsenal contributed 9 of 11 English players in England team at that time. When the news and sports commentators always supporting the club just like they do now with Manchester United, more fans from all over the world will also support the club because they will be influenced with one sided media.

    If Arsenal has owner who will provide lots of money to spend like Chelsea and Manchester City owners and Arsene do not even have to look at the club balance sheet, he will be free to spend any amount and buy establish players no matter how much is the price and also buy some English players, the end result Arsenal will be successfully winning the trophy and also growing the numbers of fans all over the world not just in England with the support of the newspapers, media and referees.

    • ArsenalStation

      October 4, 2009 at 6:39 am

      First of all, Arsenal does not pay dividends to its shareholders so more profits does not mean more for the shareholders.

      Second, what happens to your scenario when the sugar daddy pulls his money out of the club? Who needs that kind of threat hanging over the club’s head for 1 or 2 trophies. I find that people who support Arsene and the Board, seem to take a longer-term view of the club’s future rather than those who are short-sighted and only worry about trophies now.

  23. German van Spey

    October 4, 2009 at 4:26 am

    Great blog, but you have to make it even simpler — like, imagine if you were trying to explain it to a mongoloid with ADD — because, apparently, its still too complicated for most our ‘fans’ to grast :facepalm:

    • ArsenalStation

      October 4, 2009 at 6:40 am

      😉 They are “financial results” after all, GvS. You can only make them so simple. But you are absolutely right.

    • ArsenalStation

      October 4, 2009 at 4:34 pm

      Good work, Joe. I forwarded them to desigunner in case he still wants to do that comparison.

  25. MikeSA

    October 4, 2009 at 6:34 am

    deanshida

    Where does one start with that?

    Quite frankly you have just regurgitated every myth, clump of shite and drivel the media and all the naysayers mentioned earlier have managed to puke up over the last while.

    Honestly, get a life. There are just too many inaccuracies quoted as fact, too many complete misconceptions trundled out.

    It’s actually just not worth the effort to refute in detail, but please, please, PLEASE go and 1. understand what football actually is, 2. do some genuine research and form your own opinion without mangling some drivel spewed out by the media and other idiots, 3. get someone to explain reality to you in some detail and use some examples.

  26. ArsenalStation

    October 4, 2009 at 6:41 am

    “Quite frankly you have just regurgitated every myth, clump of shite and drivel the media and all the naysayers mentioned earlier have managed to puke up over the last while.”

    :claphands:

    I love that he starts with “What WE as Arsenal fans need…” How someone who can’t even get the facts straight is proposing to speak for all us Gooners is just hysterical. What WE as Arsenal fans need is supporters like him to get a clue and worry about what happens to the club beyond the next 3-4 years. Many of us plan on supporting the Gunners for many years to come, and our children for even more. I wouldn’t rather see us win a trophy now and have my son watch Arsenal in the Championship when he gets older.

  27. fonesolo

    October 4, 2009 at 7:36 am

    I feel next years financial results will be better. What with Highbury Square flats should be all sold & don’t forget our wage bill will be considerably less………………, now that Ade has gone!

  28. deanshidah

    October 4, 2009 at 9:58 am

    I’ve been fan of Arsenal since 1996 when I stayed near the Holloway road. I write this comment with no intention of whatsoever other than from what I believe many of Arsenal fans opinion in the best interest of Arsenal fans.

    Higher company profit will translate to higher shares value in shares market which means capital appreciation for the share holders, it simply means more money if they sell their shares. For us non shareholders, we just want Arsenal to win trophy, period. Hopefully Arsenal will win it this season as we’ve been waiting for 4 years, if not there is not much value in Arsenal being the richest club, simply look at Real Madrid being the richest club, fans value Barcelona more. Without in-depth squad, we really depending on luck for something like Eduardo will not happen again this season. Poor Eduardo when the media at that time were not blaming the Birmingham player much and only ban 3 games, Eduardo on the other hand could not play and were injured for a year. Imagine if this happen to Wayne Rooney, the media would have gone far to blame the Birmingham player.

    Imagine what Arsene could do with unlimited budget, two or three summers ago he could have bought Samuel Eto’o and Drogba when they were not happy with their club (for some reasons) and openly asked to be allowed to leave their club. Frank Ribery and others openly said they like Arsenal (not mentioning David Beckham a few summer ago). Arsene said in a few occasions we could not bought some players because they were expensive.

    I am not English but would love Arsenal as English club to have most of their players as English so we would get majority support from every one at least in England including the media, referees and the FA. This will also influence the rest of the world’s media and winning some neutral fans.

    This will be my last comment in here, I want to see where Arsenal at the end of this season, I want to see Arsenal to win at least a trophy.

    Good luck because we really need it!

    • ArsenalStation

      October 4, 2009 at 11:38 am

      dean, you mention all the big names but almost all of them have proven to be problems in the dressing room… Eto’o, Drogba, even Ribery now. Do you really think that David Beckham would have fit in at Arsenal. Real-life football is not like Football Manager where you just buy up the best players. Team chemistry must be taken into account. You have to have players of a similar temperament that will want to fight for each other on the pitch and off.

      You say “many Arsenal fans opinion” but I don’t think you represent the majority of Arsenal fans at all. While all Arsenal fans are upset at not having won any trophies in recent years, I hardly think the majority would rather see Usmanov or some rich Arab take over the club. If that were to happen, there is no guarantee that Arsene would even stay. He had his chance to have unlimited money to buy players when Real offered him the manager’s job this past summer. Instead, he turned it down to stay at Arsenal and finish building this current team into champions. The club has money to spend but Arsene chooses when and how much to spend and that wouldn’t change just because some billionaire bought the club because it goes against his footballing philosophy, of which you don’t seem to know much about.

      • MikeSA

        October 5, 2009 at 1:18 am

        A simple example of one of dean’s misconceptions:

        The Eduardo incident wasn’t necessarily an example of “lack of depth”, you completely ignore the psychological impact that had on the team.

        Who knows, I even had the thought that Hleb distinctly lost his taste for English football after that.

  29. desigunner

    October 4, 2009 at 8:14 pm

    thanks for the links … looks like they have a more complex structure … will work on it during the interlull!

    • ArsenalStation

      October 4, 2009 at 8:16 pm

      I’m sure they have more to hide than we do. 😉

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