Arsenal have announced a profit of £17.8 million in the club’s latest half-yearly results to the end of November 2012 and the supporters’ group have urged the board to invest a major chunk of its cash reserves of £123 million into the squad. 

Gunners announce profit of £17.8m but concerns over wage bill remains

The North London club are financially well equipped than other top clubs in England as they operate on a self-sustainable model, however the figures are significantly influenced by the changes in the squad made due to transaction of players in the summer transfer window.

In 2010, Arsenal posted a half-yearly loss of £2.5 million as there were no major departures from the club. In 2011, the North London club announced a £49.5 million profit for the six months to November 2011 as several key players – Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri and Gael Clichy – were sold that summer.

Likewise, the trend continued this season too, as the club lost two important players in the form of Robin van Persie and Alex Song in the summer transfer window.

However, Arsenal are not relying only on player sales to boost their financial position in near future. Several sponsorship contracts will be renewed next season while the club will be able to use funds from the new Emirates sponsorship deal, worth £150 million over five years.

Chairman Peter Hill-Wood said in the report:

“While we have our sights set on a 16th straight season in the Champions League, our aims are higher; our ambition is to win trophies.

“No one is more focused on that than our manager Arsene Wenger, our majority shareholder Stan Kroenke and the board and it is what we work towards every day.”

While couple of top players had left the club, the Gunners have replaced them with Lukas Podolski, Oliver Giroud and Santi Cazorla that resulted in income of £23.2 million from player trading.

It has to be noted that the cost of signing a player is spread out over the term of their contract, for accounting purposes, although it did not include the £8 million fee to Malaga for Nacho Monreal in January.

The only worrying sign here for them is their increasing loss of control over the wage bill. In the latest report, Arsenal did not reveal their wage bill instead it was placed in the operating expenses of £137.1 million.

They have the fourth highest wage bill of all clubs in the country and that figure may rise to £150 million mark as six new players including the likes of Theo Walcott and Jack Wilshere were handed new contracts.

The club will look to curb out the figures, as several high salaried players like Andrey Arshavin, Marouane Chamakh, Andre Santos and Sebastien Squillaci are expected to leave the club next season.

Overall, there are plenty of reasons to be happy about. The club has cash reserves of £123.3 million and several new sponsorship deals are expected to take place later this year. It is to be seen whether, Arsenal board use a major chunk of that money to rebuild the squad for the coming season.

In fact if the football gossip and transfer rumours on talkSPORT and other sites are correct, it looks like a busy summer ahead for Arsenal after Arséne Wenger has been given a £70 million transfer kitty.

On the other hand, commercial and ticket revenues are not rising (turnover fell by £7.4 million to £106.1 million due to fewer home fixtures played than same point last year) and it could be due to the fact that the team is not delivering success on pitch.