We Don’t Need A Sugar Daddy, says Gunners Chief

Peter Hill-Wood reckons Arsenal should make do without a foreign "sugar daddy".

The Gunners' chairman has seen the likes of Manchester City and Chelsea taken over by billionaires, while Uzbek-Russian tycoon Alisher Usmanov - a major shareholder - is thought to been on buying the Gunners outright.

However, Hill-Wood does not value foreign benefactors as a long-term approach for the north London club.

"I’d prefer that Arsenal remained British owned for traditional reasons. I think we have a deeper understanding of Arsenal than someone coming in from Timbuktu who puts down a billion pounds to buy it," said Hill-Wood.

"If you’re expecting some sort of sugar daddy to top up the coffers every time you overspend then I don’t think that would be our way of doing things.

"A rich benefactor can easily get bored and decide to buy another yacht or go into horse racing.

"I don’t think it’s a help because it makes you very slack in the way you run the business and you end up deluding people.

"The fans understand that, I’m sure."

He added: "If we looked for an outside benefactor then that would lead us to become a business that’s unsustainable.

"We clearly can’t compete with the money Manchester City have so there’s no point trying. We’ve got to succeed some other way."

Hill-Wood also claimed that manager Arsene Wenger is more than happy with the resources on offer.

"I was at a dinner with Arsene Wenger recently and Danny Fiszman asked him who he would buy if we gave him £100m to spend in the transfer market. He said he would give it back."

[Guardian-Series]