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Arsenal chairman says Wenger to stay
LONDON (AFP) - Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood has assured Arsene Wenger and supporters that the club wants him to stay on as manager even after his current contract expires next year.
Doubts are being cast over the Frenchman's future following the departure late Wednesday of the club's vice-chairman David Dein, a close ally of Wenger and the man who was instrumental in bringing him to Highbury in 1996.
Dein left over what were termed as "irreconcilable differences" involving the way the club was run.
Those differences are understood to be over the direction and ownership of the club, with Dein known to be very much in favour of the involvement of American billionaire Stan Kroenke.
That put him at odds with Arsenal director Danny Fiszman and also chairman Hill-Wood.
Despite the close bonds between Dein and Wenger, Hill-Wood was at pains to insist that the most successful coach in the history of the club was not on the way out.
"I think 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," Hill-Wood told Arsenal TV Online.
"However I believe the relationship that Arsene has with the rest of the board is good.
"He is on contract with us until 2008 and we very much hope that he will extend his contract beyond that, but we haven't got into talking details on that yet."
Hill-Wood also said that reports that Dein had left was linked to the question of the transfer funds available to Wenger were wrong.
"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," he said.
"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."
Dein was a key figure in Arsenal's transfer dealings but Hill-Wood insisted that other "senior executives" would fulfil the role.
"We have a number of senior executives at the club. We haven't formalised the arrangement yet but I'm certain that one or more of them will handle the matter of transfers in David Dein's absence," he said.
Dein's departure has sparked speculation that he was ready to sell his 14 percent stake in the club to Kroenke, who has already acquired 11 percent of the tightly-controlled Arsenal shares.
If that was to happen, Kroenke, the owner of Major League Soccer's Colorado Rapids, basketball team Denver Nuggets and ice hockey side Colorado Avalanche, would become the biggest shareholder in the Gunners, currently valued at 420 million pounds.
But he would remain short of the 30 percent required to trigger an automatic takeover bid under UK corporate law and the remaining board members, who together account for just over 45 percent of the shares, have agreed to hang on to their stakes for at least the next year.
Analysts suggested that the stance of the board, led by chairman Peter Hill-Wood, made a takeover unlikely in the short term. But there is certainly scope for a power struggle which could put Wenger's future on the line.
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