New Finance figures show Arsenal BANKED £50m last year!?!

Arsenal fans may have had a bit more to shout about int the transfer market over the last year or so, but at the end of each window, us fans and the football media are still left scratching our heads as to why Arsene Wenger did not sign, for instance, a striker or a defensive midfielder.

And it is not because the club cannot afford it. That is made more than clear by the new financial figures released on Arsenal.com today. The figures show that the Gunners are in a very healthy financial position and that our turnover went up by £21 million to just over £301 million, up to the end of May 2014.

The wage bill also went up by about £12 million, although the wages as a percentage of turnover actually went down a little. And the new policy of not selling our best player every year is shown in the fact that Arsenal made just £7m on that compared to £47m the previous year.

The standout figure for me, though, is the cash balance. With about £120 million in the bank at the start of the financial year, most fans would expect some of that to go to boost the transfer kitty, but instead of that, the club has increased it’s cash balance to £173 million. What the hell are they saving it for? That does not even include the money held in reserve to deal with debt servicing.

If you believe the Arsenal transfer rumours, Wenger was after a defensive midfielder and perhaps another centre back this summer. There were reports that we had a few bids for William Carvalho turned down as well, so can anyone explain how we failed to get the players we needed when there is nearly £200 million gathering dust in the bank? Please enlighten me Gooners…

Tags Wenger

63 Comments

      1. On another topic

        AW commented on Ozils poor form by replaying that (Ozil) still has “post World Cup blues” AW went on to say that some of Ozils international coligues who play for Bayern Munich are still not in the first eleven because of the ” World Cup syndrome” if this is so why the hell is Ozil starting every game for us ? should he not be eased in by coming on as a sub??? Don’t get me wrong I rate Ozil but clearly something is not quite right with him.

      2. 173 million cash balance. lol. we have donald trump with a scrooge complex might aswell be 5 billion – makes no difference

        1. What are they doing? Saving up for Messi’s release clause? That’s an awful lot of money to be sitting on.

          Yet supposedly the transfer for Carvalho fell through because we wanted to pay his transfer fee in instalments. What’s going on??

        2. As an example Man U spent £150m on there rebuild attempt. We have ‘£170m’ in the bank. Shows how far we are form where we want to go.
          In answer to the question asked on the post on why we didn’t sign a DM when we have money in the bank… The answer is just because you might have money in the bank doesn’t mean you are entitled to signing anyone or even someone.
          It is these comments that concern me, people who make assumptions based on misunderstanding how business works. And as this governs football and therefore how business and football work together I am worried fans don’t fully appreciate how an organisation works, and what is within there capability in the current state.

          Nonetheless, congratulations AFC for the continued growth to one day compete with the Man U, Real Madrid and Barcelona, whether that’s on the pitch and or off it financially

          Let me call trump, get us where we need be in super quick time to appease some peeps 😉

      3. That’s not how finances work. This was for the 2013-14 fiscal year meaning that transfers this summer are taken out (70 mill net) meaning that it’s a lot closer to 100 million.

          1. We haven’t sold a big player for years. We need a holding midfielder but who was available. Our (70 million) net spend is the second highest in the world last season. We signed a world class player (Alexis) and because Arsene Wenger struggled to find a defensive midfielder or centre back, cheap as Scrooge. Who was available?

            1. Our net spend was 46 million. We received funds from Fabregas, Vela, Vermaelen and Djourou.

              We also cleared the squad of a lot of deadwood costing us great sums in salaries (we still have a few of those Podolski, Arteta, Flamini cost us more than 10 million a year)

              But in general we could have bought players like DiMaria or Falcao if we wanted to.

    1. Come on guys…you know if our budget is £173 million, only £1.73 is available for transfers.
      Now round that down to about 99p, because we don’t want to overspend!

    1. the only problem is finding a team willing to sell. Other than the overpriced, third party owned Carvalho, every holding midfielder under the sun ain’t for sale.

      1. Do Maria was ‘overpriced’, Falcao was ‘overpriced’..of you deny that either of those two would benefit us please feel free to delete your account on here!!

        Overpriced…..what a load of boll*cks. It’s affordable or not affordable, but if it covers a need in the team there’s no such thing as overpriced.

  1. Not making use of this money does not really matter it just find th balance within the team….. most player out there are machineries they don’t was not to play for badge tgr want highest bidder I can’t imagine use pay one stupid person running around for 90minutes 300k per week for the name of a world class striker it make me sick… I know with time we WL find the right playerfor the positions left to cover. in arsene I trust.

    1. @Arselonia
      Don’t you know yet it’s not ‘In Arsene we trust’ it’s actually ‘In Arsene we rust’
      Besides it’s ‘Arsenal’ that matters and which must come first not ‘Arsene’!

  2. Wenger had 2 years to look for a defensive midfielder after song and 3 months of summer plus world cup and you say there was none available our players are short compared to the invincibles and he still buys petit players like Sanchez no disrespect we need to set our transfer dealings right no waiting till the last day of window we need physical players that can fight in the middle not midgets

    1. steady on about sanchez his workrate, willingness to fight, world class talent means hes well worth it.hes an exception to your ‘midget theory’

      as long as we have a yaya type to boss the midfield. which we dont ..and ur right wenger had ample time – even while song was here he was going forward wayy too much,wenger knew this

      1. yeah I know he is a hard worker & I’m not concerned about Sanchez what I’m saying is in going for players, height need to be considered as well as other inputs.

  3. Wenger had 2 years to look for a defensive midfielder after song and 3 months of summer plus world cup and you say there was none available our players are short compared to the invincibles and he still buys petit players like Sanchez no disrespect we need to set our transfer dealings right no waiting till the last day of window we need physical players that can fight in the middle not midgets.

    1. Some ppl have no idea what they are talking about. Cash reserves don’t mean jack, however good cashflow is key. The profit is pre tax meaning that any profit is non existent and we probably made a loss. Atm our bank balance is around 100m and because of poor cashflow DURING the season, a faiked target (champs league) or an expense that pops up can leave us in the lurch.

      1. That is if we spend stupid amounts of money on players. Our revenue and cashflow will improve for next season so expect 1 player at max in January.

  4. Stipend for services rendered
    to the glory of Arsenal FC.

    25 mill for davidnz
    20 mill for Hafiz Raman
    15 mill for Muffdiver.
    10 mil for KJ’s ratings.

    1. Arsenal Monetary Authority;

      Sorry you are paid by likes and are fined for dislikes…

      So muff gets – 40 mil
      David get – 12.5 mil
      Kj gets – 1 mil
      And Hafiz…owes us 250 mil

      Hoping to buy Messi with this so Hafiz is the real MVP guys.

      1. @suemow.
        Who the hell is hafizrahaman?
        #bringbackHafiz Rahman
        Just thought I would correct your correction.
        Touche turtle…”touche away “:)
        Touche Turtle and Dum Dum 🙂

  5. “There were reports that we had a few bids for William Carvalho turned down as well, so can anyone explain how we failed to get the players we needed when there is nearly £200 million gathering dust in the bank? “

    To enlighten you my friend, lets take a small deviation and witness the ridiculous summer debauchery of Manchester United, who let slip they had money and need for players, overpaying more than 20 million in a few deals also which included meaningless high salary.

    Arsenal are a club which prides itself on tradition, integrity, values and honesty.
    If you think that us having 300 million in the bank will lead us to overpay for someone and massage their ego with high salary, than my friend, this is the wrong theory you have.

    And I believe overpaying for someone is the club losing face.

    Chelsea and City has time and again overpaid for players and won many thropies, yet are ridiculed by football fans around the globe. That is what i mean by club losing face.

    But lets skip lecture. In short-
    That’s not The Arsenal Way

    P.S.- You may say Real Madrid pays over the odds.
    I accept, they do. Its cause Perez said “The best footballers in the world play for Real Madrid and we will do whatever necessary to bring them here.” Hence overpaying in the process.

    1. I would rather over pay for a player and have him than have players like, Sonogo, welbeck,Arteta, flamini, Diaby and others who will never see a full prem game, these players are getting a lot of money each week and are no use to arsenal, it’s because of some aresenal fans Willet up with challenging for 4 th that wenger is allowed to mess up so much

      And I’ve just listened to Wenger on sky sports talking about the change in formation, it’s because we conceded a lot of goals to the top teams,oh so now we can’t beat the lower teams, good decision wenger !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  6. I am getting fed up with the penny pinching, we could have signed a world class left winger this summer. And don’t say there wasn’t any available.

    1. Yeah!!! Di Maria, but don’t fret Man Utd got him instead (sarcasm). I think you’re the only one besides me that realizes we need a LW just as bad as a CB and DM. A lot of folks will disagree but I would have sold Podolski for Di Maria in a heartbeat since he rarely plays anyways and gets paid quite well for sitting on the bench…

      1. griezman would have also done…. infact he would have been superior to playing 42 mil ozil on the left…. and if we can’t even compete against atleti then the board should wind up the club and go to hell!!!!

        1. I suggested Griezmann before the World Cup and folks said he was crap. Shame really beacuse we’ve been so unbalanced for a while with a weak left side, why do you think Monreal gets slammed? Oh well

    1. Strange..I would take any of these players before Ozil..Did you include Messi in that?Well in that case you should also show the goal tally

  7. Won’t be long before we start hearing about next summers £100m big spend and how we should trust in the manager and be patient, keep the faith etc.

    How many of us will fall for this tripe again?

  8. Lets get one thing right AFC made a profit of £4.7m in the last fiscal year, cash reserves are something different.

  9. People are criticizing teams such as Chelsea, city and manure for buying the league over the years.. While arsenal,are being commended for ‘doing things right’
    In 20 years from now when people look at the history books and look back at the list of winners of the premier league.. Next to all those teams that won it will not say in brackets (spent £500m to win it though!!!)
    Nobody is wanting arsenal to act like wreckless lottery winners in the transfer window..What we do want is the money that is available SPENT on players that we ALL know is needed instead of lame excuses players aren’t available that will improve the squad..and buying average shite to patch up a few holes that will help to get qualification into a competition we can never win and spin the lie that only the best players want to join us when in theory nobody of any true ambition wants to join us!!!
    It is utter bullSHI£ that we are constantly lied to and it’s year after year transfer window after transfer window..that pisses most of us off!!!

  10. we are in the money we are in the money oops i mean arsenal are in the money arsenal are in the money lol

  11. what did i say? wenger is there to make money for the investors not to win trophies. As i said many times, if you want to support a trophy hungry team go support city/chelsea/utd not Arsenal.

  12. If the board were serious about our great club, we would have replaced Cole, Henry, Vieira, RVP, Fabregas and so on with like for like players.

  13. Fans, well, some of them, are already talking about the defeat in Germany as a possible turning point for us… Like Aston Villa was last season…!!

    A turning point for what?
    Top four? Again?

    We have money, loads of it… £173millions in cash reserve. No club, and I mean NO club in this modern world, has more cash than us… But still Wenger is acting like we were a struggling middle table outfit in financial difficulties…!!!

    Get rid off the “deluded granny” and let’s get someone fresh, angry and ambitious.

    Each seasons look the same with the same frustrations, same results, same excuses and same outcome.
    Nobody from our camp came out to state the objectives of the club and so for years…!!! Why? Simply because there are none… Coming March, Wenger will just said that we are “challenging for the league”, then “we are aiming for top four”… And so on…

    How can we “attack” the new season being short of defenders (after Vermealen was sold)?
    I just cannot make sense of it!!

    Wenger just does what he wants and does not get accountable for it…

    Still you have the group of delusional fans who continue with “the professor” and the “In Wenger we trust”…!!! I did not realised that we kept winning CL and leagues and we were one of the mighty in Europe!!

    Been addicted to failure or the minimum is a tumour in football…

  14. screw you man city and chelsea we have reached the promise land of £300+ million without the dodgy deals and we did our way painful or not we did our way and we will continue to grow our own unique way.

    this is only last tax years finances 13/14 we can also add the puma deals and emirates deals on top of the cash pile as from july(as it wont be in this set of account but next years 14/15 as it didnt kick in till july officially, so that’s £60 million extra so expect our revenue to be closer to £350million next years results, of £178 million+£60million=£238million (that’s almost 2/3rds of the overall gross debt in cash we will end up having higher cash reserves than gross debt soon maybe that’s the overall plan, so we can say we can pay it off if there is a collapse in the market in future.)
    we are filthy rich and will get richer as for the debt i see the net debt drop by from £90million + to just £32 million that means we are heading in the right direction on the debt front i am not sure what the gross debt is. does anyone know the new figure
    COYG
    WHERES SWISS RAMBLE WHEN YOU NEED HIM

  15. @phil-thompsons-nose

    I went off on my post by frustration and the fact that Wenger is annoying me more and more each day, when I believe another “coach” (not a manager, but a proper coach) could do way better.

    I just red your comment and you are just spot on… Clear and relating the disappointment…

    So much potential but still achieving very very little…!!

    1. Thanks mate

      Great minds think alike.. I read your comments regularly.. It’s a joke that keeps repeating itself and it won’t go away until the deluded manager has gone!!

      Keep it up mate..

  16. If Wenger couldn’t find quality in DM and CB in the summer, what makes you think he will find quality in January?

  17. The thing with United and Chelsea is that they don’t have great defense but awesome attackers (Costa, Fabregas, Hazard, RVP, Falcao, Di Maria, Mata) so therefore it doesn’t matter if they let in a few goals because they score so many.

    We are lacking a top striker, we are not using a CAM and short in defense.

    We need to spend money in January on a defender and defensive midfielder in my opinion. We can’t rely on Bellerin, we need another good defender. Arteta and Flamini are older and slower. Diaby is always injured. Wilshere is not a DM.

    Also (I know it won’t happen because we just bought Welbeck and have to Nant forwards) but if Draxler really wants to come here we should get him. When Walcott comes back, put Walcott and Draxler on wings and Sanchez up front.

    Would love to sign Carvalho and Draxler

    …………………………..Szczesny
    Debuchy…Koscielny…Mertsacker……..Gibbs
    ………………………Ramsey……Carvalho
    Walcott…………………..Ozil………………..Draxler
    ………………………….Sanchez

    1. Rosicky,arteta,diaby,flamini all are out of contract next summer meaning their will soon be vacancies in the midfield. January is the ideal time to get a dm (schnederlin/carvalho/imbula)to give him time to settle into the position eg matic did this last season for Chelsea.

      In the summer we should retain one of the above(diaby if fit),and we would still have space to sign a young def mid (rabiot) to replace coqulan and flamini plusleft winger (pedro/draxler)meaning santi n ozil will get more games centraly.

      By next season I would like to see

      Schnederlin >arteta
      Rabiot=coqulan,flamini
      Pedro or draxler>Rosicky
      Cavani>podolski,loan Campbell and sanogo

      That’s about 80m net spend

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