Arsenal fans want £17m profits spent

Arsenal last night faced calls from fans to spend more money on the team after half-yearly figures revealed a profit of £17.8m (€20.5m) generated by player sales — and cash reserves of £123m (€142m).

The profit, achieved effectively by the sale of Robin van Persie to Manchester United, covers the six months up to the end of November 2012.

The Arsenal Supporters’ Trust (AST) said the figures highlighted the need for the club to spend more money on team strengthening. They believe the Gunners have not replaced players such as van Persie and before him Cesc Fabregas with those of similar quality.

However, Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood insisted the club is determined to keep their stars.

He said: “Our intention is to keep our best players and recruit new talent to make us stronger.

“Although we were disappointed to see Robin van Persie leave the club, we have taken steps to secure our best players going forward and have recently signed Jack Wilshere, Theo Walcott, Kieran Gibbs, Aaron Ramsey, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Carl Jenkinson to new long-term contracts.”

Hill-Wood said the Premier League clubs’ agreement to bring in financial fair play-style spending controls would help Arsenal.

He said: “These new rules will be good for us, good for the Premier League and good for the game as a whole.”

The financial report states the that “profit on sale of player registrations amounted to £42.5m (€49.1m) — down from £63m (€72.8m) in 2011.

The AST said the figures showed Arsenal’s wage bill would be close to £150m (€173m) for the year, not far behind Manchester United’s, but that had not paid off in terms of results on the pitch.

An AST spokesman said: “These figures contain few surprises. They show that Arsenal yet again made a profit from the sale of their best players and that the club has large cash reserves.

“Arsenal fans have contributed to this financial health through paying some of the highest ticket prices in world football. AST members want to see this money used for more, and better, investment in the team.”