An open letter to Peter Hill-Wood from a lifelong season ticket holder
Mr Peter Hill-Wood
The Arsenal Football Club
Highbury House
75 Drayton Park
London
N5 1BU
22 June 2011
Dear Mr Hill-Wood
I feel it is now time to write a damning letter expressing my views both on the club and the so called people who run the club.
Like many Arsenal supporters I have lost faith in the club and the management. My wife and I are season ticket holders and travel from Bristol for all home games and I travel to away games. We spend thousands of pounds and hundreds of hours going to games, that is our commitment. What is your commitment apart from robbing the supporters of their hard earned money and offering a third rate service?.
This club is on the decline since it moved to the Emirates, it became a business for only shareholders and the supporters became a means to an end to line shareholders pockets. You raise the price of season tickets yet you offer nothing in return, even when we have won no trophies where you can produce a new strip for the coming season you come up with the 125 year strip to make more money. Will next year be the 126 year strip?
The administration and the service level at the club is very poor because it is farmed out and the companies you use are useless, no care for the supporters and they treat them with no respect. They do not respond to letters and their administration is diabolical. The information on my renewal for season ticket and my wife’s were wrong, how? It is all on computer, I suppose it is because you use cheap labour to do these jobs, thus saving you money and making you shareholders richer.
The food on offer at the stadium is very poor and it is what you would feed your chickens and pigs with inflated prices. This topic has been raised before. The club asks supporters for their opinion and when they get feedback, the club ignores it. By doing this they can actually say that we ask supporters…but they ignore their views.
The team is shot to pieces; players do not want to play for Arsenal because they are ambitious and want to win accolades. They know Arsenal is not the place to come. Even the players who are at Arsenal are desperate to leave and are waiting for offers to come through from other clubs.
Fiszman has been hailed as an Arsenal legend and we are all reminded what he has done for the club. Let me remind you what this man did to this club, 1. Got rid of David Dein and the club started to decline…… 2. Became “greedy” and wanted more profits for him and his cronies…… 3. Sold his shares at the “right time” to start a tug of war between the two biggest shareholders… and finally made sure that not a penny of all the profits were paid in this country when he passed away.
Since the departure of David Dein this club has gone into freefall, from bad to worse. The man was true Arsenal through and through. Now we have a bunch of useless nobodies who have titles and have inherited their positions. Let me remind you that the club was founded as a working mans club catering for the working class people. Now it has become a plaything for wealthy Americans, Russians and a mixture of self inflated titled waste of space money spongers who want to milk the club through its supporters.
I have vowed never to spend a penny on food or beverages and will never buy any products from the shop. I will pay for my season ticket and that’s all.
It brings tears to my eyes to see my beloved club run by greedy businessmen who have no respect for football and treat supporters with contempt.
The club has a wage policy for the players but I am sure that the shareholders rob the club of millions of pounds to line their own pockets. The board are very proud to inform the world how the club is in profit and one of very few that are. At the end of the season nobody will care about the millions you have made for your own gains, they will remember Arsenal for being a “has been”.
The board is a disgrace and will go down in history as the money grabbing thieves who destroyed 125 year history.
I do not expect a letter from you because you are obviously a busy man….not running the club, but spending your ill gained profits. The reason I say this is because when I have written to you before I have never received a reply or an acknowledgement which proves that you are a man of no character running a company who treats it’s customers with no respect.
I do not wish you well and I hope that you suffer the same financial hardship, the hurt and humiliation that millions of true Arsenal supporters have had to endure since the clubs priority became money rather than football and that became evident when the club moved to the Emirates.
My finishing note is that Herbert Chapman would be ashamed to be associated with this club today. He was a great man and a TRUE football fan, unlike the den of thieves who proclaim themselves as Arsenal supporters sitting in that boardroom with you.
Yours with contempt,
William Patey
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Bring back Dein????? This is the man who loves the club so much that he sold his shares at a MASSIVE PROFIT for £75m to an Uzbeki criminal, what would his job be then?
We are told constantly that we are failing by the media because we haven’t won anything for a few years. The huge cost of building the new stadium has been deliberately down-played by the club. The fact that Wenger has kept us in the CL all this time is a miracle considering the financial pressure he’s operated under. Morons use the word ‘miser’ as though Wenger is deliberately refusing to spend more than he needs to. The man has an economics degree so I’ll take his word over the man in the boozer thanks very much.
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keyboard warriors ho!
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¡Viva la Revolución!
Bring back David Dein! He would *never* sell his shares in Arsenal just to make a quick buck.
Oh.
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great letter m8 sums up what the majority of true working class fans who have supported the club for decades feel. well done and ignore all the jcl mongs calling you plastic or whatever else, they feel they have to back the club and the board no matter what because its their way of countering the fact they have proberbly only supported the club since wenger was in charge, havent a clue of the history this club was based on and have proberbly never seen let alone stood on a terrace. VICTORIA CONCORDIA CRESCIT.
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Great letter which needs 2 b backed up wit action in d nearest future
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am arsenal supporter, i don’t know how long i can stl waitng 4r a trophie, i surgest that wenger must liv da club if he win nothg. We need to be the big arsenal.
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FANTASTIC FANTASTIC LETTER.
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Please don’t be put off by those people who love nit picking. David Dein WAS the best thing that happened to Arsemal.
You said what I have been feeling about our money grabbing bastards of a board for months.
Maybe if we all wrote similar letters….maybe they might actually think about giving us what the fans deserve…A winning team.
Maybe if we all wrote in, instead of fighting amongst ourselves, we might get a reply???
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dein was forced out u idiots,wat should he do,not sell his shares after bein treated da way he was??dein is arsenal,n since he left dats jus become so glarringly obvious,bring back dein,DIS BULLSHIT WUDNT BE GOIN ON IF HE WAS STILL HERE
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great letter! i feel like crying! everyday i pray for Arsenal, but the devils (administration) let me down!
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Its amazing the way this article is cynical yet so, so true. All Arsenal need to do is buy like 3 or 4 quality ONLY! and teams like Manchester United would definitely have a hard time competing with us! i will say this, Manchester United wins trophies from Arsenal’s and Chelsea’s mistakes, not coz there the best! We play the most attractive soccer in England WHAT??!! So Arsene Wenger & the Greedy board, PLEASE STAY PUTT, MAYBE FOREVER! COZ UR STUBBORNESS & STINGINESS WILL ONLY BENEFIT BOTH MANCHESTERS & LIVERPOOL TOO! SAD TIMES FOR ARSENAL FANS REALLY! sad to see a comment from a student who’s performance has dropped??! Surely why have we become the laughing stock of England??! NKT
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this is an ok letter. the statement is good but its poorly written and sounds reactionary.
totally agree that the service at emirates is poor and insanely expensive.
I paid £80 for me and my girlf to go for dinner at diamond level then watch fever pitch on the emirates pitch. the food was dry ribs and magherita pizza buffet, but it was foul. There’s better sandwiches at tesco.
I better Peter Hill Wood never eats that.
There is a big divide between the supporters experience and the boardroom experience, and its not what we should be about.
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we are going to be the new liverpool soon.
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was this letter written by a 12 year old who knows nothing about the running of a football team,when have the shareholders ever taken a dividend.as for the 78 year old who claims this is his last.see yay.
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A very very very good letter. People who wish to join the club could not because of bad administration. I can’t imagine Arsenal going trophyless for 6 years. Please buy good player by spending the money
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WELL SAID!
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Totally agree .. Greedy shareholders have made fortunes from the club and priced working class ( people who work) out of the game. The late director took a fortune out of the club and made profit … Not a hero in my books .. The fans that travel away and support the team through thick and thin and spend hard earned cash are the real supporters. We have every right to question the lack of investment in buying players.
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whether written in bad english or not, he has spoken the minds of 95 percent arsenal followers.
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i don’t think wenger is the problem he has done a fantastic job over the years, like the letter said it is the board that is causing the problem, if they wont give wenger the money to spend he wont be able to buy the players we need, it is time to filter out the players that in a week get paid more than average joe can earn in 2 years for sitting on the bench out, get what we can for them and give it all to wenger and get in the players we need!
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Wenger just buy 3-4 very-very good quality player that it .. Solve problem. Gud player not cheap so dont be stingy or cheap head.
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Datz a very good letter, let hill wood prove to d fans dat he is a man of courage by responding positively
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Boycot!Boycot!!Boycot!!!……don’t buy any arsenal mechandise!
We’ll force downthere profits!
Bunch of KillJoys!
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The letter is a good start. The current Arsenal team is frustrating for the supporters. Poor results, plenty money. What an oxymoron. My real concern though is, do these guys know that there are fans out there who would give up their lives for the club like so many before them? We are talking real supporters humiliated by poor performance and not losses from betting.
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Fantastic letter!!! We got to sack Wenger along with the board and bring back Mr Dein!!
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What a damn good letter!My deep concern about the club i really adore has always been insensitivity to the fans’cries and grievances by the board and management.The club is in sure decline and very frustrating while the powers that may be simply give reckless responses and attitude.I will always contend that fans are equally a big stakeholder and their ambitions and aspirations must find space at the club. I predict fan action which will make matters worse.
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sadly he still pays for his season ticket
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