Arsenal announce rise in profits

Arsenal have announced a pre-tax profit of 36.6 million pounds on turnover of 243 million pounds for 2011-12.

The club also confirm player trading profit of 26 million pounds following the sale of Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri to Barcelona and Manchester City respectively.

After a summer that saw the arrival of Mikel Arteta, Per Mertesacker, Yossi Benayoun, Gervinho, Park Chu-Young, Andre Santos and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, the north Londoners have also seen their wage bill jump from 124.4 million pounds to 143.4 million pounds, leaving only City, Chelsea and Manchester United ahead of them.

Arsene Wenger spoke about the club’s financial position – something he has kept a keen interest in during his time at the club.

“We want to spend our money in the right way. We are not scared to spend the money,” he said.

“With some clubs we can’t compete on certain players – and for the rest, we only want to bring in players who add something to our squad and give a chance as well to the young players we have.

“We have good players, because to buy one more, we have to get one out.

Reflecting on the expected announcement, he added: “Our numbers are good. Under the actual circumstances this is quite positive because the whole (global) environment is not positive.

“We are very lucky because we have a good support and the income of our gates is very high.

“We have to maintain that by keeping our fans happy and to continue to manage well in the way that we do it.”