Arsenal FC, the Richest Club in Britain

That has a nice ring to it wouldn't you say? The board released the club's financial numbers today for the past year, and they really are astounding. You can read more about it here. The club's profits for the last year are up an amazing 274% to 51.2 million pounds. This is before "player trading" is taken into effect, meaning the losses of Reyes, Henry, Ljungberg have not been added into that profit number. Another big number in the positive for the club is that we generate 3.1 million quid per match. The overall turnover for the club for the season was 200 million quid, which makes Arsenal, not Manchester United, the richest club in Britain. In the entire continent Arsenal is only beaten in turnover for the year by Real Madrid.

Do you think the fat oligarch will realize we really don't need his investment? I realize he wants to come in and make some money off the richest club in Britain but this shows that our board runs a thriving business and it leads to wonderful football. Our numbers go up every year without foreign investment and while Chelsea's owner is driving off a great manager and Man U is loaded with debt, Arsenal Football Club continues to make more and more money and uses it to make the club even better still. Stay away Usmanov, we really don't want your sort.

In addition to all this, Keith Edelman spoke about transfer money available to Arsene Wenger. He said Wenger didn't use all of his money available in the summer and will have loads to spend in January if he wishes.

'We gave Arsene a budget in the summer and he didn't even spend all of it on transfers and hopefully we'll be able to carry that forward into future years.'

He added: 'We have got plenty of financial firepower to makes the transfers Arsene wants to make.

'We had over £70million of cash at the end of the year and if Arsene wants to spend that money we will make it available.'

Wow. 70 million is a ton of money. Now while that's all good and well that he has all this money at his disposal it's unlikely that Arsene will spend it. Look at his record and you will see that he has always favored cheaper signings and his worst signings have generally been the most expensive ones (Reyes, Jeffers). Another thing is that if the squad is still playing as well as they are now he may choose not to add to it just so that it won't have any negative effects on the team chemistry. But again, maybe he will choose to use some of it and uncover some other young gems that make this football club so great.

Tomas Rosicky will be out at least two weeks with his hamstring injury, which is a shame. He gets these little injuries every now and then and it's quite annoying, especially since we don't really have anyone to back him up on the left wing. Wenger may keep Diaby out there but maybe Walcott or Eduardo will get a run out.

Cesc Fabregas says he could see himself in an Arsenal shirt ten years from now. He said he is enjoying his football so much and also that Henry leaving has really taken a load off everyone's shoulders.

And last for the day, Denilson is going to have a new contract soon. The young Brazilian is quite skillful and should feature in the Carling Cup tomorrow. He's kindof a Cesc-like player and I like him quite a bit and I am glad that he's getting a new contract. In fact, unlike last year when I couldn't stand Hleb or Flamini (or sometimes Eboue), I'm happy with the entire squad right now. I guess winning does that for you.

Later ArseNolians