The man who stood up to the billionaires battling for control of Arsenal is today out of a job and out of the club he led to record profits. The official line coming out of the Emirates Stadium yesterday was that Keith Edelman, the managing director, had resigned in an amicable settlement. A statement said he was seeking new challenges, but he would stay on for a year as an adviser to the board.

By last night, it was an open secret that Edelman had not jumped but had been pushed from the job that paid him £1.1million last year. It is thought that negotiations to pave the way for his departure had been going on for a week after a series of boardroom disagreements over the future of the club.

Ken Friar, Edelman's predecessor, took over the reins yesterday as acting managing director and his first job was to inform staff that Edelman had quit after eight years, during which he had transformed Arsenal's finances and overseen the move, at a cost of about £400million, to the glittering Emirates Stadium. Staff were shocked but there were no fond farewells, unlike a little more than a year ago when David Dein, the vice-chairman, walked out of the club in a row over bringing in new investors.

In spite of a show of unity among the board members, who control more than 45 per cent of the shares, that row has continued to simmer and is thought to have claimed Edelman. Alisher Usmanov, the Russian billionaire advised by Dein, is close to securing a crucial 25 per cent stake and becoming Arsenal's biggest shareholder, with the power to block significant decisions.

Arsenal directors are desperate to keep Usmanov at bay, leading them to soften their attitude to Stan Kroenke, the American billionaire rebuffed as “not our sort” by Peter Hill-Wood, Arsenal's patrician chairman, last year. Kroenke, who has a shareholding of almost 13 per cent, is now being viewed as an ally and potential board member, a position that Edelman is said to have resisted.

One source close to the club said last night: “Keith was viewed as not being right for the job. He did well getting us into the stadium but the board thought he couldn't take things any further.”

The son of a North London accountant, Edelman, 57, went to Arsenal after a successful career in finance and industry, which included spells at the Bank of America, Carlton Communications and the Storehouse retail group. When he took charge in 2000, the club were based at Highbury, which was hemmed in by terraced houses and cramped compared with the modern grounds being built for other teams in the Barclays Premier League.

His biggest project was the move to a new stadium at Ashburton Grove, which came in on time and on budget. Edelman's financial record could not be faulted: the opening of the Emirates Stadium transformed Arsenal's bank balance, with takings each match day soaring to more than £3million. Record profits and record income of more than £200million mean that Arsenal are now rated by Forbes magazine as the third-wealthiest club in the world.

But Edelman was seen as cost-conscious to the point of penny-pinching and insiders say that he was not liked by Arsène Wenger, the manager, a close friend of Dein. Fans have wanted big-money buys and, although there was much talk of a massive war chest, Wenger has not waded into the transfer market, leading to worries that Arsenal, who have not won a trophy for three years, were being left behind by Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United.