The hopes of Arsenal fans that the club would be major movers in this summer's transfer market have been dashed by acting managing director Ken Friar.
While Friar reassured a meeting of 'senior supporters' that Arsene Wenger had cash at his disposal for new signings, the details of his speech revealed that the Frenchman's kitty probably does not stretch to £30m - approximately half the sum champions Manchester United are understood to have made available to Sir Alex Ferguson.
'Although Arsenal's most recent financial results revealed the club had cash reserves of £69million, Friar explained that this entire pot is not completely available to bankroll new signings,' reports The Daily Telegraph. 'He stopped short of giving an exact figure but it is understood that around £25m has been set aside to secure future repayments of the club's debts while the board must also meet additional transfer fees payable on existing squad members, which is believed to cost in the region of £20m.'
The details are somewhat curious, however, in so much as Arsenal spent relatively little last summer when recruiting Bacary Sagna and Eduardo but recouped significant sums when selling Thierry Henry, Jose Reyes, Jeremie Aliadiere and Freddie Ljungberg. They also made a profit of around £3m when selling Lassana Diarra to Pompey in January having bought the midfielder for approximately £2m from Chelsea on the final day of the summer transfer window.
Wenger has expressed hope that he will be able to make a new signing in "the next two or three weeks". Following the departure of Mathieu Flamini to AC Milan, a central midfielder is his priority, with Manchester City's Michael Johnson and Aston Villa captain Gareth Barry thought to be among those on his shortlist.
