It's back to work on Ashburton Grove site

Building work has secretly restarted on Arsenal's new £400million stadium at Ashburton Grove after the club were told by their bankers that funding has been secured.

Two tower cranes have been erected at the north London site with a third due to go up on Saturday.

The new work confirms that the club have got the £260m bank funding they need to finance the stadium.

Main contractor Sir Robert McAlpine has also re-opened its site office and around 50 people are currently working on the job, according to industry magazine Construction News.

One worker said: "It doesn't look much like a stadium job at the moment but people have been put on long-term contracts, so someone is confident it's all going ahead."

The site was mothballed last April when Arsenal ran into funding problems for the 60,000-seat stadium.

An Arsenal spokesman said: "Site enabling work has been carried out and I understand it is a bit more than preparatory works going on at the site."

Banking journal Project Finance International has reported that six banks have now committed to the funding after the terms were adjusted to make it "more banker friendly".

They are Royal Bank of Scotland, Banco Espirito Santo of Portugal, the Bank of Ireland and AIB Capital - also from Ireland - a US fund management firm called CIT and German bank HSH Nordbank.

The loan has been reduced in size from the £317m originally planned after Nike's £55m sponsorship deal with Arsenal allowed it to put up more of its own money. The interest rate has also been increased slightly, with Arsenal now paying 2.5 points over London base rates. The loan is due to be signed by the end of the month.

Meanwhile, Thierry Henry could be a surprise omission from the Arsenal team to face Middlesbrough in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Saturday.

Manager Arsene Wenger has been looking for opportunities to rest the striker and left him out of the Carling Cup semi-final first leg defeat by Boro on Tuesday.

With both Dennis Bergkamp and Sylvain Wiltord - who have been out since December because of injury - potentially available, Henry may only be on the bench on Saturday.

He is also unlikely to play against Boro in the Carling Cup return leg on Wednesday.

Gilberto Silva is a doubt for Saturday's match with an ankle injury.