Arsenal Transfer Sales Boost Profit

Arsenal FC are revelling in their decision to sell Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri after they have reported a huge pre-tax profit of £49.5 million for the six months to the end of November 2011.

Arsenal, who lost £6.1m over the same period in 2010, might have made only a small profit but for the controversial departures of Fabregas and Nasri last summer for a reported £54m.

Arsenal enjoyed an overall profit on player trading of £46.1m, having made a loss of £5.9m the previous year.

They made £63m overall in player sales, while there was an investment of £74.7m in new arrivals and contract extensions, the cost of both being spread evenly over the length of an individual’s deal.

Arsenal’s cash reserves also swelled to £115.2m, up from £110.4m, with their turnover from football rising to £113.5m from £97.6m.

Chairman Peter Hill-Wood said: “We are proud of Arsenal’s record and consistency over many seasons and have the foundations in place, at every level of the club, to ensure we remain a force in the seasons ahead.”

Chief executive Ivan Gazidis added: “It’s important to acknowledge that the most important thing for this football club, the most important thing for our fans, and the most important thing for the board and the people that work at the club is how we do on the pitch.

“We have a healthy cash balance of £115million for the half year. But it’s important to understand that not all that money’s available to invest in transfers.

“We have running costs of the club, player salaries and so on, so that amount goes down during the year. We also have to keep something in reserve in case things don’t go our way.

“There is money available, we don’t talk about an exact figure – and there’s a very good reason why we don’t put an exact figure on that – because it would impact on our negotiating position.

“We have to invest efficiently, we have to invest sensibly.”

Arsenal are on the brink of ending a seventh successive season without a trophy and are in danger of failing to qualify for next season’s Champions League, a competition they have regualrly attended for the last 15 years.

Gazidis said: “We can’t gear our entire financial model around that – that expectation – because that would place the club in jeopardy if we didn’t qualify.

“So we’ve always got to keep something in reserve in case things don’t go our way.”

by Ismail Uddin