They have had to suffer the ignominy of always playing second fiddle to Manchester United in the 1990s in spite of no dearth of effort to compete against them in the English Premier League. And then marched into the picture one Roman Abramovich and his Chelsea team and then Liverpool were taken over by the American businessmen. Suddenly Arsenal appeared to be the lightweight among the top four. Without a foreign investor, people thought that the inflow of cash would be practically static and a few years down the line, the London club would have to embrace foreign ownership.
But now with the publication of new figures, all these fears and apprehensions have been discerned as mere myths. In spite of the general notion that money at Arsenal is scarce, the new data suggests otherwise. Arsenal are now officially the richest club in Britain after the club’s turnover broke the £200 million mark after the club shifted from their old Highbury Park stadium to the Emirates at the start of last season.
The new figures imply that all notions fostered about the need of Arsenal to pick up some foreign cash to stay in touch with the rest of the Big Four, that is, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool, can now be dismissed. Arsenal have been the most attractive and entertaining team to watch in the English premiership for the five or six years and in spite of not possessing the best players in the world, club manager Arsene Wenger has been successful in building a brilliant squad with young foreign players horned at the club and notable names in mainland Europe.
After Uzbek businessman Usmanov increased his share in the club to 21% with reports suggesting that he wants to increase his stake to 25% there was a widespread feeling that Arsenal too was now acceding to foreign takeovers. The club has always been against that and the new data published revealing an inflow of over £200 million does give the club a great deal of breathing space. At the end of last year, Arsenal had £73.9 million cash and now that has been escalated to over 200.
Arsenal are generating more than £3 million a game at their new Emirates Stadium and the club are at their usual best on the pitch as well. After the departure of Thierry Henry in the summer, there were many who thought that Arsenal could struggle to sustain their position their place in the top four but going in October the London club are sitting pretty much comfortably at the pole position. And with the money that they seem to be engendering from the Emirates Stadium, Arsenal appear to be far away from a foreign takeover.
Image Source: BBC
Source: BBC
