LONDON: 'What we have, we hold' is the best way to sum up Arsenal's close season after the deposed champions spent the summer nursing bruised egos following last season's disappointments.

With the club's financiers focused on raising the estimated 500 million pounds (US$804 million) needed to build a new stadium not far from Highbury, manager Arsene Wenger always knew he would not have much money to spend on new players.

So the erudite Frenchman, still sore after surrendering the league title to Manchester United last season, has concentrated largely on extending the contracts of his current squad.

Those talks are ongoing in the case of captain Patrick Vieira, whose continuing presence at Arsenal is of huge importance to Wenger's plans.

The pen of another much-admired Frenchman, Robert Pires, is also hovering over a new deal but strikers Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp are already committed to the cause.

With arch-rival Chelsea spending Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich's money like water, such talks have taken on a new urgency.

Wenger's sole venture of note into the transfer market was to sign Borussia Dortmund's German international goalkeeper Jens Lehmann as a replacement for departed servant David Seaman.

Optimism

Should Vieira and Pires sign up - and Wenger seems confident they will - it will be cause for optimism.

United, on paper at least, are weaker after selling midfielders David Beckham and Juan Sebastian Veron, although they managed to win the Community Shield on Sunday by beating Arsenal 4-3 on penalties after a disappointing 1-1 draw in Cardiff.

Chelsea's 60-million-pound (US$96.47 million) spree has worrying long-term implications for Arsenal as London's top club, but next season may be too soon for the new faces at Stamford Bridge to blend into a side capable of sustaining a prolonged title challenge.

Wenger is not intimidated by Chelsea's spending power. "I have enough good players," he told Arsenal's official website. "I don't know where I can fit another player in."

Critics might argue that Arsenal still lack a world-class central defensive partner for Sol Campbell and an effective stand-in for Vieira, whose absence through injury at the business end of last season seemed to drain the side of self-belief.

Their over-reliance on Henry, Europe's best striker, was also highlighted when his form dipped in the final months of last season and no-one stepped in to score the goals.

Arsenal's consolation prize was retaining the FA Cup, but the premier league, and especially the Champions League, are what matter most to Wenger.

Under his leadership, Arsenal have yet to progress beyond the quarter-finals of Europe's elite competition, something that infuriates their perfectionist manager.

But if the temptation is to funnel all the team's efforts into a successful European campaign, Wenger must be careful not to neglect their minimum premier league goal of qualifying for the Champions League by finishing in the top four.

Chelsea, Newcastle and Liverpool are better prepared than ever to challenge Manchester United and Arsenal's dominance of English soccer.

With the stadium plans sucking at the north London club's finances, failure to qualify for the lucrative Champions League would have extremely serious implications both for the future of Arsenal and Wenger.

Agencies via Xinhua

(China Daily 08/13/2003 page8)