Arsenal Chairman To Fight US Bid

I wrote yesterday about the very sudden and strange departure of David Dein as Arsenal Vice-Chairman. Now, in the wake of Dein’s exit, the chairman Peter Hill-Wood, has hit out at the growing American influence taking hold on the Premiership and then vowed to fight any potential takeover at the north London club.

Hill-Wood said, “Why don’t we want the American at our club? Call me old-fashioned, but we don’t need his [US billionaire Stan Kroenke] money and we don’t want his sort. Our objective is keep Arsenal English, but with a lot of foreign players.”

Sorry, but God that makes me laugh! “… keep Arsenal English, but with a lot of foreign players.” What a load of ****!

Anyway, as we know, Aston Villa, Liverpool and Manchester United have been bought by American owners, but Hill-Wood is determined Arsenal will not fall into US hands, he just doesn’t want any English or British players on the pitch.

He continued by saying, “Americans are buying up chunks of the Premiership football clubs and not because of their love of football but because they see an opportunity to make money. They know absolutely sweet FA about our football and we don’t want these type of people involved.” Nice use of “FA” there! At least he has a sense of humour!

I would imagine all Arsenal fans are more worried about how the departure of Dein could effect the future of their manager Arsene Wenger. The Arsenal boss’ current contract runs out in May 2008 and he has publicly spoken of his “huge disappointment” at Dein’s departure.

Dein was instrumental in the appointment of Wenger as manager way back in 1996, and he’s not done too bad over the last 11 years really, has he? He said, “It’s a huge disappointment because we worked very closely together.”

Wenger has also said he was on good terms with the other club directors, but gave no clue as to whether he intends to extend his contract, adding, “My position is that I am linked with the club very strongly. The relationship with the rest of the board has always been very good and we try always to have a good understanding.”

Hill-Wood has, of course, tried to reassure the fans that Wenger indeed would stay at the club, stating, “The relationship that Arsene has with the board is good. He is on contract until 2008 and we hope he will extend beyond that. It’s well known that Arsene and David have got on very well over the past 10 years and I am certain that Arsene will miss him.”

I think reading between the lines it’s pretty safe to assume that Dein must have been in favour of Kroenke’s involvement, and that has obviously put him and Hill-Wood at loggerheads over the situation. And Hill-Wood has quickly, as he obviously would, stressed that the departure of Dein was not as a result of a lack of transfer funds. The Chairman has stated, “We’ve always made funds available to Arsene, he attends the board meetings, he understands the financial position. I can assure supporters that we will continue to provide funds when Arsene requires them.

“We have a very good squad - young, maybe, but developing well - and if Arsene wants to strengthen it we have the money to provide him with any reasonable purchases he wants to make.”

We will have to wait and see, won’t we! But slightly worrying times for Arsenal fans. Are you a Gunner? If so, please leave comments / thoughts.

Cheers
The Soccer Blogger

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Many thanks
Rik