The escalating conflict within the Arsenal boardroom over the Robin van Persie saga has left a sour taste in the mouth and Chairman Peter Hill-Wood has moved to calm the situation. The 76 year old chairman was unhappy with the Alisher Usmanov’s public criticism of the Arsenal board over the handling of the Van Persie contract situation, stating that the 2nd largest shareholder’s comments were ‘not at all helpful’.
Hill-Wood also told the Guardian that he still believed that the club was being run in the correct way, especially with respect to financial matters: “We don’t have the same oil wealth that [City's owner] Sheikh Mansour has. He is prepared to pay astronomical figures for players; we cannot pay that sort of money, and we can’t compete.” He also called for a sense of reality to be restored as he added: “We give the manager as much money as we possibly can, and all we can do is continue. We have run the club sensibly, and we haven’t done badly; it’s not as if we have been relegated.”
Van Persie’s imminent departure is just one in the long list of high-profile exits from the club in recent years and coupled with the fact that they haven’t collected a trophy in 7 years, Arsene Wenger and the board will only be under further scrutiny in the months to come.
How on earth can Hill-Wood be chairman! His last words were “at least we were not relegated” what confidence does that give us, more especially the players. Bad Move HW.
To Mr Hill Wood,
I do agree with your vision and idea’s for Arsenal football club, however I do not believe that this will work a
The chairman is a lier, why should man.city be buying only arsenal players, they also go to man united and their best players, you board members are responsible for everytin wrong in arsenal. Ok if RVP is going they should will look for replacements, so that he will regret leaving the club. Buy quality players, what is the need of keeping players like djourou, park, arshavim, bentiner, squallica, and many others even diaby
We, fans, can show Arsenal board how we can impact their financial. They own the share but we determine the profit.
“it’s not as if we have been relegated.”
Lol if it takes relegation to realize afc has a problem then this guy is sniffing somthing up his nose! has he not understood arsenal not winning anything not being able to keep its top players is somthing to be concerned about? Some please send him to the poppy fields of afghanistan he might be of use over there
Dear Mr Hill Wood,
I do agree with your vision and idea’s on the everyday running of Arsenal football club, however i do believe that we can only continue with this if all other clubs do the same. I am however confused on how Arsenal FC can compete amongst the likes of Man U, Man City, Chelsea, Barcelona and Real Madrid. If we continue with an inferior wage structure it will become near on impossible to hold on to our very best players and in turn things will become even harder to attract top players to our club. As an Arsenal fan of 30 years I feel it is unfair that our club charge us the most ridiculous prices for tickets and still we do not compete at the same level as the teams already mentioned. From what I have seen and heard from Mr Kronke leaves me very disappointed, I know you will disagree with me but then you have to. From reading the letter on behalf of Red & White Holdings I can honestly say that this is our only option to progress and compete on a level with the above mentioned clubs.
I would ask with the upmost respect that you would give the idea of Mr Usmonov or a representative of Red & White Holdings a seat on the board. I seem to, as do majority of Arsenal fans, agree with what they have been saying and questioning. Diversity is not a bad thing and i feel we do need this at our club. Please remember, we all love and want what is best for our Arsenal.
Kind regards,
Mark C
Hill-wood should just shut up and leave the club.He’s one of the hindrances to the club moving
Van Persie is 29 this year and last season was the first (or pretty close) that he’s had injury-free. He’s played for 10 months straight and has been below par since January. He will likely miss most of next season with injury as his body, unaccustomed to playing all the time, buckles under the strain. I know I’m in a tiny minority here but I think Arsenal have gotten the most that anyone will ever get out of him. I would like him to stay but if he doesn’t then Arsenal will do brilliantly do get £15-£18 million for him. Let him go!
We need to invite Mr Usmanov and his company in the board, this is the only solution to us. Things are now fallen apart.
Mr hillwood has been a disgrace since his arrival 2 afc.he doesn’t know d game how could he lead us to trophy?i’ve alwayz welcomed d idea of alisher of whom some arsenal fans opposes.God bless afc!
I thinks peter hillwood much leave arsenal alone,he is the only man bringing arsenal problem at the club,he much go do his things somewhere else.if he is still there then our problem will never ends!shut up u man,u dnt know any things about football.
We cant compete with 15 million players for titles. We can only finish a max of top 4 next season unless we buy quality players. We cant blame van persie. He played with passion last season. Only because of him, we finished at 3 rd. We all fans, should protest against the board n kroenke. We wont buy next season tickets, watch the game in tv. We want usmanov at the club to succeed. We have to protest till it happens. Kroenke then will be ready to sell his shares to usmanov. If we wont protest now, if wont finish in top 4, then we cant attract quality players. Its high time for a change. Up gunners..
It’s simple. YEs the club could compete. Usmanov would have made sure of that. Hill-Wood couldn’t let go for the good of himself not the club he turned Usmanov away. If the tyrant won’t leave of his own accord revolt against him and Gazidis his right-hand man. As for Kroenke he knows it’s a good investment and that’s all he cares about. The club doesn’t need to win trophies to make profit so why should Kroenke interfere as an American who probably doesn’t even understand the offside trap.
RVP should be go, there is no way he will be injury free for six monts next season. While I agree that the club can not compete with the maddness going on in city whereby almost all the players earn over 200k, the club can offer reasonable wages to keep reasonabl players. I am sure nobody will tolerate the Abrahmabitch style. But he does whatever he wants becausehe isthe sole owner and dictator in chelsea. epays for everything outside any economic basis. The EURO fair finacial rules will take car but when is it ging to take effect?
We have turned into a laughing stalk, just imagine our board’s ambition is to fight relegation! I can imagine hillwood telling persie “please stay with us, we wont and cant be relegated” too bad
We need at least 2 defender and 1 mildfielder.
Mr. Stan , I’m highly disappointed. So until Arsenal is been relegated we’ll know we’re having a problem. U dash the hope of the fans by this statement. I’m ones again disappointed!
Thank you very much for your outburst that has been leaking recently,what i will like to share with my arsenal fans is cant they see that arsenal are doing business with the players and that is why up to date they don’t like buying English players because they know that English players don’t like leaving the club and the like to play their heart out and die for then team.All members are thieves
@Lanesra. You’re wrong, he was the player of the season in the opinion of almost everyone last season and his injury problems may be behind him. Losing him is a massive mistake and it is clearly due to his discussions with Gazidis. In the opinion of RvP, who knows more about the internal workings of Arsenal than any of us, the club is not geared towards winning trophies. Quotes like this from PHW just reaffirm this idea.
Dear Mr Thin air,
I do agree with your vision and idea’s on the everyday running of Arsenal football club, however I do most convolutedly believe with only the utmost reverence that we can only continue with this master stroke of magnificence if all other clubs do the same. I am however confused on how Arsenal FC can compete amongst the likes of Man U, Chelsea, Barcelona and Real Madrid because these clubs are so amazingly more in debt than we have ever been. If we continue with an inferior wage structure it will become near on impossible to reach the debt levels of all those clubs and to hold on to our very best players who will leave anyway regardless of how much we pay them since the rest of the team needs over-hauling before it wins anything again, and in turn things will become even harder to attract possible top players to our club who might manage to play well in the Premiership after coming from a weaker and less physical league. As an Arsenal fan of 30 years I feel it is unfair that our club charge us the most ridiculous prices for tickets and still we do not compete at the same level as the teams already mentioned except in the champions league and , um, when we are finishing the season above some and, um, when we are beating them, um, let’s just forget that last bit, k? From what I have seen and heard from Mr Kronke leaves me very disappointed because how dare somebody who has bought 60% of the shares with his own money do whatever he pleases with his football club. Yes, he could sell all the players and pay off the stadium, he can replace the sold player with guys from the conference league and he can do what the Glaser family did at ManU and many other bad things, but I will whine about the man all I want. I know you will disagree with me but then you have to. From reading the letter on behalf of Red & White Holdings I can honestly say that this is our only option in my small minded head to progress and compete on a level with the above mentioned clubs because I just can’t understand nobody can do diddly without the owners say so. Nobody, not the manager, not the board, not Usmanov, absolutely nobody can do anything unless Kroenke wants it to be the case.
I would ask with the upmost grovelling respect that you would give the idea of Mr Usmonov or a representative of Red & White Holdings a seat on the board. I seem to, as do majority of Arsenal fans, agree with what they have been saying and questioning, because we refuse to accept Kroenke has absolute power at Arsenal. We like to think Kroenke cares what we want, and we like to think Kroenke doesn’t have the power to rip Arsenal a new poop hole and sack the entire board at will, appoint McDonalds workers if he likes sink the club into an unfathomable debt. Diversity is not a bad thing and i feel we do need this at our club, because AGAIN I am conveniently forgetting Kroenke, the man with ultimate say and ultimate power is in the picture. Please remember, we all love and want what is best for our Arsenal, but what we fans want is completely inconsequential to Kroenke and there’s nothing anybody on the planet can do about this. He can let the club rot if he wants.
Kind regards,
Mark C the most deluded nut I read today.