Wenger's new deal 'days away'
Arsenal are due to switch from their current Highbury home to a 60,000-seat venue at nearby Ashburton Grove in time for the 2006-07 season.
The official name of the new stadium was announced yesterday as part of a 15-year sponsorship tie-up with Emirates Airlines that will be worth £100 million to the English champions.
Speaking in the wake of the announcement, Wenger said: "I've said many times I am committed to Arsenal and now it is just a question of days when an extension of my contract will be announced."
The Frenchman ruled out a move to Real Madrid this summer and has previously resisted overtures from the France, Germany and Japan national associations. He is expected to sign a new deal that will keep him in north London until 2008. His current deal expires at the end of this season but Arsenal have an option to keep him for a further season.
"The extension will be for a few years. I see no problems with that," he said.
"It may not be to 2021 (when Arsenal's Emirates agreement is due to expire). I don't know if I will be sitting here then but it will be for a few years."
Wenger welcomed Emirates' long-term backing. "We will have money to spend on paying for the stadium and improving the team, whatever is more important at the time. It is nice to have the choice," he said.
"Perhaps we do not always realise how respected we are but it is not just the new sponsorship that is keeping me here. My contract is just a question now of fine details between my lawyer and the club's lawyers. The money is not in question."
Arsenal have been at Highbury since 1913 but the club's ability to compete financially with rivals like Manchester United has been hampered by its relatively small capacity of 38,500.
The expansion of Highbury was unfeasible because of building restrictions - part of the stadium is listed - and objections from local residents.
As a result the club opted to build a new stadium on land currently used as a rubbish dump at a cost of £400 million.
Given higher ticket prices in London, Arsenal should overtake Manchester United in terms of gate revenues as soon as the club move into the new ground, even allowing for United's planned expansion of Old Trafford's capacity to 75,000.
The agreement with Emirates was signed yesterday at Highbury by Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood and Maurice Flanagan, the airline's vice-chairman and group president.
Hill-Wood admitted the £100 million deal from Emirates Airlines to secure the naming rights on their new stadium and an eight-year shirt sponsorship deal was too good to refuse.
The ground will now be officially titled Emirates Stadium. And Highbury will be lost to football's vocabulary when they move out in 22 months' time.
But Hill-Wood, whose Old Etonian merchant banking family have been associated with the club since 1926, knows Arsenal's decision to take the same course as more modest contemporaries like Bolton, Southampton and Leicester City in naming their new stadia after sponsors will leave a sour taste in the mouths of traditional fans.
He said: "I would be one of those supporters. I've been here a long time, a great many years and if we named the new stadium after Herbert Chapman or even Arsene Wenger it would roll off the tongue.
"But things have changed in football and this is a wonderful offer we have received - the biggest ever in English football. We must move on."
The airline's backing includes an eight-year shirt sponsorship deal which will start after Arsenal's current agreement with mobile phone company 02 expires next year.
The Gunners will wear the logo "Fly Emirates" on their shirts.
Keith Edelman, managing director of Arsenal, said the lucrative deal would strengthen Wenger's hand in the transfer market.
"I think you can assume that a lot more money will now filter through to Arsene for building the squad if he feels he needs it," he said.
Emirates are currently shirt sponsors of Arsenal's London rivals Chelsea, but that deal expires at the end of the current season.
Emirates Airlines chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum hopes the tie-up will boost the popularity of the sport in the United Arab Emirates still further.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to sponsor such a major new stadium and club, and represents a win-win partnership for both Emirates and Arsenal," Sheikh Ahmed said.
Emirates also sponsor match referees at Premiership and Football League level through an agreement with the Professional Game Match Official Limited which runs until 2007.
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