Arsenal Lobby

Twoism wrote:Anyone plans to buy new John Cross Wengers book ? ( Need some guinea pig ) Would like to buy but I'm afraid it would be hundred of pages John kissing Wengers ass

Raptorgunner wrote:

Twoism wrote:Anyone plans to buy new John Cross Wengers book ? ( Need some guinea pig ) Would like to buy but I'm afraid it would be hundred of pages John kissing Wengers ass

Its worth buying imo, I would love to more about Wenger. When is it coming out?

RealGunner wrote:probably 5

urbaNRoots wrote:I am more interested in Mike Dean's punishment than of Gabriel/Costa.

Dean has to rot in League One or something.

Specifically, Arsenal’s huge cash balance is still the talk of the town and has gone up yet again, rising another £20 million in the last 12 months from £208 million to £228 million. Let’s pause to absorb that number: that’s nearly a quarter of a billion.

To place that into context, the next highest cash balances in the Premier League in the 2013/14 season were Manchester United £66 million, Tottenham Hotspur £39 million and Newcastle United £34 million. In fact, Arsenal held 40% of the total cash in the Premier League that season: £208 million against £311 million for all 19 other clubs combined. Manchester United’s 2014/15 balance has increased to £156 million, but this is still £72 million less than Arsenal.

Lord Harris was quick to boast about the club’s financial capacity: “Money was tight when we moved to the Emirates, but it’s a lot freer now. In the accounts, there’s over £200 million in the bank.”

However, he had obviously not received the memo from chief executive Ivan Gazidis, who had previously explained why not all of this cash balance is available to spend on transfers: “It is quite untrue that we are sitting on a huge cash pile for some unspecified reason. The vast majority of that cash is accounted for in various ways.”

In fact, the club is so sensitive on this point that the accounts note that “proper consideration” of the cash balance should make deductions for the £35 million debt service reserve and the net £66 million owed on previous player purchases, which would leave “only” £128 million.

The annoying debt service reserve has been required since the 2006 bond agreements, though it does raise the question of whether these arrangements could be renegotiated given Arsenal’s significantly better financial position today, thus freeing up this £35 million.

It is also true  that most season ticket renewals are paid in April and May, so Arsenal’s cash balance will always be at its highest when its annual accounts are prepared, namely 31st May. The club has to pay a good proportion of its annual running expenses out of this cash, though it is equally true that other money will flow into the club during the course of the season, such as TV distributions and merchandise sales.

Despite all of these factors, the truth is that year after year Arsenal’s cash balance has steadily risen: May 2007 £74 million, May 2008 £93 million, May 2009 £100 million, May 2010 £128 million, May 2011 £160 million, May 2012 £154 million, May 2013 £153 million, May 2014 £208 million and May 2015 £228 million.

In other words, there is substantial money available to spend. It’s clearly not as much as the £228 million in the books, but we can say with some conviction that there would be enough available in the January transfer window to safely cover some of the glaring weaknesses in the squad: let’s say £70-80 million (with the usual caveats).

El Gunner wrote:So basically we have the most money in the back of all the EPL clubs