Arsenal revealed their hope of finally starting construction work on their new stadium early next year as they delivered an upbeat assessment of their plans at their annual general meeting today.
The Gunners still have to finalise funding for the delayed £410million Ashburton Grove project and also have yet to cross all the planning hurdles along their path.
However, director Danny Fiszman, the biggest single shareholder, presented what the club's website described as a 'bold future for the project' at today's AGM as he rejected the possibility of instead moving to the new Wembley.
Fiszman said: "We now have a stadium design that is fully developed and we have a fixed price contract agreed with Sir Robert McAlpine.
"They have been outstanding so far at Lough Road and we are delighted to have them as our contractor for the new stadium.
"Depending on financing, we are ready to start construction of the stadium in the first quarter of next year."
Some elements on the Arsenal board have reportedly been considering the idea of moving to Wembley if the Ashburton Grove plans fall through.
However, Fiszman stressed: "We only wanted to build a new stadium and stay in Islington. This was our first choice and that of many of our supporters."
His confident presentation will be a measure of relief to boss Arsene Wenger, who has admitted that the building of a new 60,000-capacity stadium is absolutely vital to the club's long-term future.
However, it will only be when the £260million funding and planning approvals are all in place that Wenger and the rest of the club will able to relax completely.