Arsenal hold out hope of Wenger stay
Hill-Wood claims the future is bright at the Emirates
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Monday, 16, Jul 2007 10:35
Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood is confident that this coming season will not be manager Arsene Wenger's last at the Emirates Stadium.
The French tactician's contract expires next summer and, after the loss of boardroom ally David Dein, it had been thought that he was likely to refuse an extension and leave north London.
"Hopefully in the near future we'll have something positive to say. I'm confident he'll stay. We had a fairly lengthy conversation recently and that went very well," Hill-Wood said.
The loss of striker Thierry Henry to Barcelona has dampened expectations of a title challenge from the Gunners, but Hill-Wood is also optimistic that the team can improve on last year's fourth place.
"We had some very good results last year against the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea, the sides we didn't overhaul in the league but played pretty well against when we faced them," he said.
"It's a young side still but they're a year older now so they're going to be that much better."
The £16.1 million that Barcelona paid for Henry has been partially reinvested in Croatian international Eduardo da Silva who signed for an estimated £8 million from Dinamo Zagreb.
Hill-Wood hopes that his arrival, which according to speculation could be coupled with a swoop for Boca Juniors forward Rodrigo Palacio, will turn out to be a typically shrewd Wenger purchase.
"I think we've got a very good squad and we've added a few players, most of them not names people have heard of before," he continued.
"But that's very much Arsene Wenger's style. People hadn't really heard of Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira or Cesc Fabregas before they arrived."