Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal manager, is believed to have told
the powers-that-be at Highbury that he is quite happy with
the squad he has and because of tight finances he may be
content not to make any changes come the end of the season.
One Highbury insider said: "For him to say he is happy with
the squad was music to our ears. We know in an ideal world
what Arsene would like but if we had to buy we would
certainly have to sell first. Apart from finding the money
to buy we cannot afford to increase our wage bill which is
quite high already."
Manchester United do not have to worry about finding money
for redevelopment of the ground, that has already been done,
whereas everything at Highbury now hinges on financing the
proposed ground at Ashburton Grove.
Arsenal should by now have published their half-yearly
figures. The Arsenal half-year ended on Nov 30. There is no
word of when the figures may come; they may not be published
until the end of April.
The reason? I understand Arsenal are waiting to tie up deals
relating to their new stadium.
The Royal Bank of Scotland have been touting Arsenal around
the financiers and I understand that the German bank West
LB, who are financing Wembley, are interested in being part
of the consortium. Arsenal will have to pay interest of
about 1.25 per cent over bank rates, which could work out at
5.5 per cent.
Although there have been suggestions that Arsenal would be
better off sharing Wembley rather than building a stadium,
well-placed sources close to the club insist that there is
no question of abandoning Ashburton Grove.
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