Graphic: Pointing the way to profits

Carpet-baggers circling what is now claimed to be England’s richest club will find the doors locked for some time to come. Amid the sumptuous leather armchairs and glass-fronted balconies of the £400 million Emirates Stadium, Peter Hill-Wood, the Arsenal chairman, spelt out graphically yesterday how foreign invaders will be repelled by a determined board of directors.

The so-called lockdown deal between the eight directors, who agreed not to sell their shares to outsiders, is almost certain to be extended beyond April next year, the original expiry date. With their shares amounting to 45 per cent of the club, the message is that foreign predators are not welcome now and will not be in the future.

The lockdown was triggered by the unwelcome advances earlier this year of Stan Kroenke, the American sports magnate. But an even greater threat has loomed over the Emirates Stadium, in the form of Alisher Usmanov, the Uzbek billionaire, who has spent more than £90 million building up a 21 per cent stake in the club and installed David Dein, the former Arsenal vice-chairman, as head of his investment vehicle, Red and White Holdings.

Dein, once the darling of Arsenal fans and the man who introduced Arsène Wenger to the club, jumped ship - he sold his shareholding to Usmanov for £75 million – as he protested that Arsenal could compete with the best football clubs in the world only with the backing of a benefactor with billions of pounds at his beck and call, in the mould of Roman Abramovich, the Chelsea owner.

But, with Chelsea seemingly about to implode after the departure of José Mourinho, their charismatic manager, and Arsenal unveiling a set of glittering accounts to the City yesterday, Hill-Wood could be forgiven a self-satisfied smile and a celebratory glass of wine.

Arsenal have become, arguably, England’s richest club, thanks to their move from Highbury just around the corner to the 60,000-seater Emirates Stadium. Bigger gate receipts, sales of programmes and merchandise, plus a bigger corporate entertaining facility, have boosted takings to £3.1 million for each home game, which adds up to a doubling of match-day revenue to £90.6 million for the year to May 2007.

Leaving cramped Highbury, for all its memories, has bumped up all the numbers in Arsenal’s profit-and-loss accounts and, in spite of owing about £250 million to finance the construction of the ground, the canny directors have arranged loans at an average 5.3 per cent interest – the sort of repayment deal that thousands of mortgage-holders would envy at the moment.

The result of prudent housekeeping, massively increased revenues from the turnstiles and a roster of blue-chip sponsors meant that Hill-Wood could announce yesterday record operating profits of more than £51 million.

The club have an eyewatering £73.9 million in cash in the bank, which they could use for further debt repayment or in the transfer market. The money adds strength to Hill-Wood’s view that you cannot buy the history and loyalty that already pervades the Emirates Stadium, for all its shiny new paintwork and modern glass and concrete structure.

“I like to feel Arsenal is a stable business run by reasonably civilised people,” he said. “We understand the value of the club. We believe we are the guardians of a great football club and we will resist attempts to wrest it from us. This club does not belong to the shareholders, it belongs to the fans, who generate so much of the income. To disrupt the way it is run would be a tragedy.”

Arsenal’s approach seems out of step with the Abramovich quick-fix model of spending big and fast, which has set a trend in the Barclays Premier League. But Arsenal’s profit-and-loss accounts show more black ink than red, there is cash at the bank, a full stadium and a team at the top of the league.