PR Week Echo Columns

While doors were slamming in Chelsea, Arsenal Football Club put up Not For Sale signs by posting turnover figures that equal those of Real Madrid and put them leagues ahead of UK rivals Manchester United and Liverpool. Seemingly under threat by yet another Russian billionaire, Alisher Usmanov, Arsenal's chairman Peter Hill-Woods dismissed Chelsea's plan to be the dominant British club as "fantasy" (bbc.co.uk, 25 Sept). In another dig at their SW6 rivals, Hill-Woods insisted that a fanbase "takes 100 years to build and about 100 minutes to destroy" (Sporting Life, 24 Sept).

The move from Highbury to the Emirates stadium enabled Arsenal to generate over £3million revenue each game last season and gave manager Arsene Wenger a war-chest of over £70million to spend in the transfer market. Despite a wage-bill second only to Chelsea's in the UK football league, the club posted a record operating profit and confirmed the Board's position that it did not need, and was not encouraging, any foreign investors. Prudent housekeeping had led to "glittering profits" and the club has an "eye watering" amount of cash in the bank (Times, 25 Sept) should Wenger want to add to either his playing or management team.