Arsenal show the value of prudence with £36.7m profit

Should football management ever grow wearisome for Arsène Wenger he could always find work in the financial sector in these troubled times. While doom and gloom pervades the City, his institution yesterday announced a rosy pre-tax profit of £36.7m for the year ending May 2008.

Wenger believes that Arsenal, who yesterday revealed that the American businessman Stan Kroenke had accepted an invitation to join the board, deserve credit for maintaining a sensible business policy as they look to compete with other clubs bankrolled by billionaires. The profit is a product of the club's move to the 60,000-seater Emirates Stadium in July 2006. Gate and match-day income totalled some £94.6m, which is 45 per cent of overall football revenues.

Even though Arsenal have a significant amount of net debt – £318.1m – much of that is linked to a funding deal secured over a long-term, 23-year repayment schedule with a low interest rate of 5.3 per cent and will be reduced by the ongoing sale of properties at the newly regenerated Highbury Square development, which has already generated proceeds of £18.7m.

Wenger thinks that prudence makes Arsenal one of the game's market leaders. "These figures prove the club is well managed and we are responsible people in a business which is not always very responsible," he said. "That deserves double credit for me because when your environment is destabilising, to keep your line of conduct is always a good sign of strength."

The Arsenal manager added: "You would like that your business does not depend too much on outside income and lives with your own resources, which depends on the quality of the games the first team plays. That is what we try to achieve."

The appointment of Kroenke to the board has been widely interpreted as an attempt to stave off a potential takeover from the Uzbekistan-born Russian tycoon Alisher Usmanov, who also has a significant stake in the club via Red & White Holdings.

However, the club's chairman, Peter Hill-Wood, maintains that the board is not about to sell up to the American, whose Kroenke Sports Enterprises holds 12.4 per cent of shares in Arsenal's parent company, and supports the current "lockdown" agreement which runs until October 2012. He said: "The board is still very much committed to the current ownership structure. Mr Kroenke fully supports the approach the board has taken in setting the direction of the club."

Kroenke's appointment reflects a new attitude to him from the board after his initial investment in April 2007 was met with horror by Hill-Wood, who claimed "his sort" were not welcome.

Arsenal hope to appoint a new managing director shortly, with Vodafone's Paul Donovan linked with the vacancy after the Celtic chief executive, Peter Lawwell, ruled himself out.

Midfielder Samir Nasri misses today's trip to Bolton with a knee problem. Mikaël Silvestre is out with a knee strain.