Arsenal close in on hot-head Lehmann

Lehmann was also sent off for the fourth time in his career last season - for shouting abuse at his own team-mate.

Lehmann felt that Brazilian striker Marcio Amoroso was guilty of slack defending that allowed Schalke to put the ball into the net. The 'goal' was disallowed but before Lehmann had realised that, he had given Amoroso a verbal volley. It earned him a second yellow card and he later bemoaned: "The game of football is just getting too serious these days."

Wenger has taken his squad to an isolated training camp in the picturesque town of Bad Waltersdorf in the east of Austria but the peaceful setting cannot hide the problems surrounding Arsenal.

Will Patrick Vieira sign his new contract? Will Robert Pires and Sylvain Wiltord follow suit? Is there internal strife at Arsenal over the new stadium project and has that split the board?

Wenger will speak only after matches on this tour and there are three of them, starting tonight against the part-timers of Ritzing. Then he can find solace back at Waltersdorf.

Of all the issues that have bedevilled Arsenal in the close season, it is arguably the talk of boardroom dissent that is potentially the most damaging - certainly where the new stadium at Ashburton Grove is concerned.

"That kind of thing certainly doesn't help," said majority shareholder Danny Fiszman towards the end of last season. His rationale was that it makes Islington Council edgy and potential investors nervous at a time when Arsenal are looking for the funding for the stadium.

They should hear by the end of September whether the cash is in place and with the green light, work on the site will recommence although vice-chairman David Dein is known to favour a groundshare with the revamped Wembley rather than invest so heavily in Ashburton Grove.

Wenger himself is expected to publicly express his support for the stadium later this week. And the contracts of Vieira and Pires? At Highbury they are convinced they will be signed before Everton come to London on the first day of the new Premiership season or possibly before the Community Shield clash with Manchester United at Cardiff six days earlier.

Which leaves Wiltord, and his case is slightly different in that he wants to sign for four years while Arsenal have so far only offered their record £11 million signing a two-year deal. A compromise is the likely outcome.

Indeed, Wenger is likely to have more trouble shedding some of the dead wood in the squad in a bid to reduce a pay roll which last season was the second-highest in the Premiership.

The club have received no offers so far for Nwankwo Kanu, Igors Stepanovs or Stathis Tavlaridis.