Wenger promised transfer funds

Wenger: £70m kitty

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Arsene Wenger is to be given a transfer war chest of £70million after Arsenal revealed themselves to be Britain's richest club.

Figures publicised on Monday showed The Gunners' turnover for the last financial year to be more than £200million.

With operating profits also up 274 per cent to £51.2million, Wenger is expected to benefit from the club's strong financial position.

The Arsenal boss did not use his entire budget during the summer transfer window, and managing director Keith Edelman claims he now has considerable funds available to reinforce his squad.

Outstanding performance

"I think we are in a very good position," Edelman said.

"Clearly Arsene's performance and the team's performance on the pitch has been outstanding, obviously backed up by our very strong financial position.

"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.

"We have got plenty of financial firepower to make 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."

There has been speculation of a possible takeover at Emirates Stadium, with Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov recently increasing his stake in the club to around 21 per cent.

But Edelman insists the financial results show there is no reason to change the way in which the club is run.

Rabid fans

"We think it's very important as a board that the club develops revenues it generates itself and is not dependent on people putting money in every year, because that's not a very stable basis on which to run a club," he told Arsenal's official website.

"We regard ourselves as custodians of the club and fans as well. It's important that the club does have a stable financial base.

"If you look at the shareholders and look at the board, we are all here because we love the club. Yes we want to run it well as a business, but only because we want to be a great club.

"That could be contrasted with what could be called financial owners, who come to purchase clubs to make money out of them and they don't have that affinity to be a rabid fan - to live, breathe and eat Arsenal Football Club."