Cesc is priceless - Wenger Sunday, September 21, 2008
“I don’t think for us to sell our best players for almost any figure makes any commercial sense for us,” Hill-Wood said.
“We don’t have to. If someone gave us £100m we’d have to pay 40 per cent tax on the damn thing and what the hell are we going to do with the extra £60m? I’d rather have a couple of good players. We will resist any overtures that are made for any of our star players.”
Arsenal announced an increase in turnover and pre-tax profits last week but their overall debt has risen by £50m in the past year.
Yet Hill-Wood is confident that the club’s business plan is working and that they do not need to follow the path of Manchester City – or Chelsea and Manchester United who meet today at Stamford Bridge – in seeking foreign billions.
Alisher Usmanov, the Russian billionaire and a major shareholder in the club, has made no secret of his desire to buy Arsenal outright.
“If we looked for an outside benefactor then that would lead us to become a business that’s unsustainable,” he said.
“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. It makes you very slack in the way you run the business.”
