Arsenal FC’s renowned and long-serving manger Arsene Wenger has signed a three-year extension to his current contract, keeping him at the club until June 2014. The influential French coach’s decision to stay on at the helm of the company’s football business follows Arsenal’s success in hanging on to vital Spanish midfielder Cesc Fabregas and bodes well for the team’s fortunes on pitch. Even though a number of defenders have left the club over the summer break, Wenger has boosted his squad by signing a new forward, Marouane Chamakh, and a new centre back, Laurent Koscielny, ahead of challenging for domestic and European honours.

Arsenal’s season has got off to an average start, with the firm drawing against Liverpool in the first game of the Premier League this weekend. The club is around 6/1 with the bookies to win the league this season but faces a number of new challengers, most notably big spending Manchester City. The Blues have significantly strengthened their team during the summer and will be looking for a top four spot at least, in order to qualify for the money spinning Champion’s League. While it is too early to say whether Arsenal will maintain its impressive track record of qualifying for the Champions League, we note that the club has never failed to make it into Europe under Arsene Wenger.

At a mid-price of £10,250 Arsenal Holdings is capitalised at £637.7 million. Even though it is one of the few major football clubs to be prudently managed financially the hefty share price, poor liquidity in the shares and the continuing takeover uncertainty (American director Stan Kroenke only needs to buy 9 more shares to trigger a compulsory offer for the entire share capital) means that the shares are for fans and billionaires only.