Big transfer fees and monumental wages are no longer possible at Highbury and while Patrick Vieira dithers over his new contract and Dennis Bergkamp waits to be offered a serious one, there was a hint this week that the bonhomie is not what it was at Highbury.
A long way away in Lagos, the club's beanpole striker Nwankwo Kanu was giving Nigerian radio a hint that all is not well when he said: 'There's a lot of politics at Highbury at the moment. Funny things are happening at the club. If things are not going your way, it is up to you to decide what to do next.'
Kanu may have an axe to grind because he played in only 27 games last season, fewer than Francis Jeffers or Bergkamp, who has his own grievances with the club.
The Dutchman has been in Holland awaiting word from Dein on a contract offer. When it came, he described it as 'ridiculous'.
His agent Rob Jansen claims Bergkamp was promised a one-year offer in March and that his client was even prepared to take a cut in wages because of the new financial climate in the game.
But Jansen derided Arsenal's latest offer, saying: 'The contract Arsenal have offered Dennis is too embarrassing for words. I'm not going to make public the money involved but I want to say that this is not the way to deal with people.
'I still intend to get a good outcome from this situation but we're disappointed with the way Arsenal have behaved.'
Several other senior squad members are thought to be upset at being offered as makeweights as Arsenal seek to compensate for their cash shortfall by doing player- exchange deals. Indeed, it became apparent at the end of last season that Wenger might have to sell big- name players like Freddie Ljungberg to fund new transfers.
Wenger, who believes he has a £10 million war chest for transfers, might not even be aware that some of his fringe players are being touted around to agents and potential buyers.
There could be an ongoing problem over the pay structure for the side expected to be chief rivals to United in the coming season.
Though Thierry Henry signed a new four- year contract at the end of last season, said to be worth £60,000 a week, Arsenal captain Vieira is stalling over committing himself for a similar period and there have been suggestions that it may be over a signing-on fee.
Despite the club having once again made the Champions League, there remains a financial problem at Highbury. Long-term budgets have been badly hit by the protracted negotiations over financing Arsenal's new 60,000 seat stadium at Ashburton Grove.
As the FA found with Wembley, delays lead to escalating costs and already the price of the new stadium has leapt by £100m.
Arsenal are more than £40m in debt, the largest chunk of which is a £30m loan from Barclays. As a result, they have effectively mortgaged all their assets, including Highbury, their training ground at London Colney and parts of Ashburton Grove.
The loan to build the new stadium - £317m over 17 years - has not been concluded by the Royal Bank of Scotland. They would like to syndicate the deal among other lenders but at least half-a-dozen other banks have declined to come on board and work has been halted on the new site until all funds have been secured.
In the meantime, Arsenal can only look on as Chelsea wonder how to spend their Russian treasure, United have £25m to spare and Kewell goes to Liverpool, where there are no marble halls but maybe a more homely welcome.
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