The biggest news story of today is that Hill-Wood has come out and dismissed talk of a takeover. Below are some quotes from an interview with The Guardian, they make interesting reading!

"The shareholders would prefer to stay in control than sell out to some stranger.

"We would be horrified to see ownership of the club go across the Atlantic.

"These people [major shareholders Fiszman, Lady Nina and the Carrs] love Arsenal, they are independently wealthy and do not need the money. Having a few extra million pounds in the bank is of no interest to them.

"We're here for Arsenal football club, not to make a few bob. The club has been run for the benefit of supporters, staff and players."


One important note is that the is no mention of David Dein. I remember reading another post which claimed he was allied with Kroenke to win power in the board room. If they are allied, the they control over 25% of the club, which is large enough to cause problems. I wish I could find the link so you could have a read, but unfortunately I can't.

The other news is Neil Banfield claiming that the club highly rate Jay Simpson. The reserves coach had this to say on Arsenal.com

"Jay's a young centre forward; he's strong and can play out wide as well. He's had a difficult season up front on his own but he's given everything and coming into the back end of the season he's showing a good line of form. His strength is his power and running with the ball.

"We'd perhaps like to see him score a few more goals for the Reserves but he's scored a lot of goals for the youth team and I think that will come at this level next season. We may look at him more as a wide player too because he's got good stamina, a good engine, gets good crosses in and always works hard for the team. He's got a lot of plusses. We've got high hopes for him."

This is the guy that scored the first hattrick in the Emirates! Highly rated or not, I doubt he will be at the Emirates in five years time.