'New ground will put Arsenal back at No1'

14 April 2012

It is a sign of the times at Arsenal that as they prepare to play the Premiership leaders their biggest shareholder has other things on his mind. Overshadowed by Chelsea's success this season, tonight's game at Stamford Bridge is unlikely to be more than a footnote in the story of Jose Mourinho's march to the title.

But Arsenal are already looking to the future and director Danny Fiszman is confident that moving to a 60,000-seat stadium at Ashburton Grove next year will give the club new clout.

He said: "Our ambition is to be the number one club and it is not a pipedream. It will not be easy but we have the building blocks to enable that to happen. We have the financial strength to come through from the new stadium, we think we have the best manager in Arsene Wenger and we are constantly moving up a level.

"But there has always been a feeling we are fighting above our weight. Certainly, we have over the last few years with the success which Arsene has brought us without the financial strength of a Manchester United or an AC Milan.

"Emirates Stadium will allow an extra 22,000 fans to come to see Arsenal play and as high as the profile of the club is now, to have a major stadium in the middle of London will add to it. When it is up and running it will put the club in as strong a position financially as any other club generating its own funds."

Fiszman's exclusion of rivals funded by rich benefactors is significant.

No one in football can pretend they have a money-making scheme which will make their club as wealthy as Chelsea could be with Russian billionaire-Roman Abramovich's full backing. But Fiszman thinks the £357million Emirates Stadium will transform Arsenal's finances.

By allowing more fans to watch, introducing a luxury Club Level and accommodating more than 150 executive boxes the club will have more money for players. Repayments on the loans which paid for the stadium will be reduced by spreading them over extended deals once the ground opens in August 2006.

The board believes the extra money generated by the stadium, coupled with Wenger's acumen in the transfer market, will finally allow the club to make big strides in the Champions League.

Fiszman said: "The manager is totally committed to the club and has spent our money very wisely. By nature of the blank cheque which seems to be available at Chelsea at the moment, they don't have the same constraints as the rest of the clubs. But we can compete. There are only 11 players on the pitch for each team in a game and there are lots of factors other than money involved."

Considering Arsenal have spent less than £15m in the transfer market in the last couple of years, that would appear to be very fortunate.

Wenger has concentrated on keeping key players such as Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira committed to the club instead of bringing in costly new faces.

This season Arsenal's spending was dwarfed by clubs such as Birmingham and Spurs and injuries to Gilberto Silva, Sol Campbell and others have sometimes left them short of experience.

Fiszman is adamant no one could have foreseen Arsenal's problems last summer and their new stadium is not to blame. He said: "We never were in a position where we have not done that much in the transfer market because all the money was going towards the move.

"On the contrary, we have had a lot of successful property deals around the stadium project which have helped the club's balance sheet. We had a budget available to the manager, but he is not a spender for the sake of it."

Wenger's kitty this summer will be around £40m and the club will make more available as they move into the new stadium next year.

Sales for the new Club Level and executive boxes are already going well and the club have promised no hike in prices for those who prefer pies to prawns.

Fiszman said: "Our ambition was to build the best club stadium and have the finest team playing in it. We think we can deliver that."

For further information on Club Level at Emirates Stadium, call 0845 2620001 or visit www.arsenal.com/clublevel

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