Skizz
26 Jan 2006, 06:03 AM
Taken from today's Daily Star:
Hill-Wood: "I know two things. One: we want him to stay. Two: we have made him an absolutely fantastic offer. I'm not going to say what it is, but I know it made me shudder. It's a lot of money.
"It's for five years. Arsene (Wenger) thinks 'he's physically very capable' of playing for another five years.
"Thierry says he wants to know if the club is ambitious. We're spending £350 million on a new stadium and have just brought in three new players. That's not unambitious. If he wants to go to Barcelona, or somewhere, there's absolutely nothing we can do, although someone will have to pay something to get him.
"But we've made him very welcome and we've made him a very good offer, which is probably as good an offer as anybody in this country - maybe other than Chelsea - would make."
On the Walcott transfer:
"Chelsea have raised the bar. We discussed twice at board level and we said it was a totally ridiculous amount to pay for a 16-year-old. Arsene's response was something along the lines of, 'I couldn't agree more'.
"It's a big gamble, but he's got great talent. It's £5 million up front. If it goes wrong, we lose, and if it goes right we pay the extra £7 million and we'll be happy to do that."
Hill-Wood: "I know two things. One: we want him to stay. Two: we have made him an absolutely fantastic offer. I'm not going to say what it is, but I know it made me shudder. It's a lot of money.
"It's for five years. Arsene (Wenger) thinks 'he's physically very capable' of playing for another five years.
"Thierry says he wants to know if the club is ambitious. We're spending £350 million on a new stadium and have just brought in three new players. That's not unambitious. If he wants to go to Barcelona, or somewhere, there's absolutely nothing we can do, although someone will have to pay something to get him.
"But we've made him very welcome and we've made him a very good offer, which is probably as good an offer as anybody in this country - maybe other than Chelsea - would make."
On the Walcott transfer:
"Chelsea have raised the bar. We discussed twice at board level and we said it was a totally ridiculous amount to pay for a 16-year-old. Arsene's response was something along the lines of, 'I couldn't agree more'.
"It's a big gamble, but he's got great talent. It's £5 million up front. If it goes wrong, we lose, and if it goes right we pay the extra £7 million and we'll be happy to do that."