Arsenal confident Wenger will sign new deal soon

LONDON, Aug 26 (Reuters) Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger will sign a new deal soon and hopefully will commit his long-term future to the club, managing director Keith Edelman said today.

Wenger, who has been Arsenal's boss for nearly 11 years winning three titles and the FA Cup four times, is out of contract at the end of the season and there has been speculation over his future following the departure of vice-chairman David Dein last season.

However, Edelman told BBC Radio Five Live that the club were confident Wenger, 57, would sign a new contract and stay to develop the latest crop of young players at Arsenal.

''Arsene has a fantastic young squad which we feel he'd like to develop to its full potential.

''I am sure he will sign a new contract soon but Arsene will decide when he wants to sign and when he does we'll announce it.

It's very much in his court at the moment.

''We'd like Arsene to be with the club for a very long time but he'll have to look at what he wants to do as well,'' he said.

Edelman also said Arsenal were in a very healthy position financially and although the debt on the Emirates Stadium was 520.7 million dollars they were generating far more income than they did at Highbury, their home for 93 years until they left in May last year.

''We are generating more money out of Emirates Stadium than our debt repayment.

''Therefore we are more profitable at Emirates than we were at Highbury and we can invest more money.

''We will have the largest gate revenue in the country and when our results are produced in September and you see the amount of cash the business has got, some of the comments that have been made over the summer are very wide of the mark.

''We're in very, very good financial health and we're financially very strong as a club.'' Arsenal, unbeaten so far this season, ended Manchester City's perfect start to the season when they beat them 1-0 at the Emirates yesterday.

They are expected to reach the group stage of the Champions League on Wednesday when they face Sparta Prague at the Emirates holding a 2-0 lead from the first leg of their third qualifying-round tie.

REUTERS TB RN1909