Arsenal have announced half-yearly profits of £17.8million for the six months up to the end of November last year. Arsenal’s cash reserves also increased by £7m to £123.3m.
At first glance, that looks great, but that profit figure is funded by the sale of Robin van Persie to Manchester United for £24m.
The club’s financial report states:
“The club has no short-term debt and continues to have a robust financial platform.
“The figures show a profit before tax of £17.8 million. This was driven primarily by player sales of £42.5 million.
“Football turnover dropped from £113.5 million to £106 million as a result of four fewer home fixtures compared to the same period last year.
“However, overall operating profits from the club’s property operation increased to £1.9 million versus £0.5 million in 2011.”
Arsenal also pointed out that
“the accounts also show an investment of £40.9million in signing new players – Lukas Podolski, Santi Cazorla and Olivier Giroud – and the extension of contracts for existing players.
“The club has extended contracts for Jack Wilshere, Theo Walcott, Kieran Gibbs, Aaron Ramsey, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Carl Jenkinson. More recently, the club has signed Nacho Monreal from Malaga.”
So lets break down this numbers a little. From the profit of £17.8m, £1.9m came from the property side of the business, so that leaves a profit from the football side of £15.9m.
In the Arsenal statement they point out that this profit was due to the club selling players and not from ongoing operations.
“The figures show a profit before tax of £17.8 million. This was driven primarily by player sales of £42.5 million.
So without selling the likes of RVP and Song, Arsenal would actually have made a loss of £26.6m .
One reason while Arsenal’s financial situation is not as rosy as the club tries to spin, is Arsenal’s out of control wage bill which is now £155m. Compare to Man United‘s wage bill at £162m or Chelsea‘s at £171m and it is clear that Arsenal are not getting value for their money and that Wenger’s “we have a socialist wage structure” is simply not working anymore.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Some great points I believe we could save approx 25M P/A on our wges by getting rid for the players who have dont zero for us this season see below. I know some fo these are loaned out but we are still paying some of their wages.
The reality is the people running this club or more correctly the people who previously own the club lumber it with the staduim debt and sold out at top doller to the fat russian and silent stan.
We have had to sell our top players for the past seven seasons to make profits the downside to this is you become a poorer side and lose out commerically lose out big time.
The monkeys also tie us in to long term deals with no bench marketing to other sponership deals in the industry and we have lost on easily 100M plus the past 4/5 years. Only with the new Emirates deal and possibly the proposed adidas kit deal will the club make a profit from football without relying on player sales. We can actually start bulding a team capable of competing once again.
Waster list below pay cheque players and yes couldnt agree more the wage structure is f**king disgraceful only 8M below utd the pay Rooney V Persie 200K a week and tehy have won aton of trophies. Lets keep it simply we play well we get paid I would love a breakdown of this amount Arsenal have also be abit cagey regarding this.
Alumnia
Squllaci
Denilson
Santos
Arshivan
Chamakh
Bendther
Djourou
Park
Totally agree John. Those nine probably have combined wages of around £450,000 a week. That is 2 world class players that can help the team immediately
Can’t argue with this. A lot of player wages for players that just don’t even get on the pitch for Arsenal. I think Arsenal could get some money for Bendtner, Chamakh, Arshavin and Djourou. Maybe Park. I don’t know about the rest. Can’t see getting any offers for them.