Arsenal chief Hill-Wood warns credit crunch will hit League's big spenders

Words of warning: Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood (left) with Arsene Wenger and club mascot William Poole

With a banking crisis sparking a downturn in the global economy, Arsenal's long-serving chief believes it is only a matter of time before Premier League clubs are forced to cut back on lavish player spending.

His warning comes on the day Chelsea were linked with a reported £48million move for Real Madrid's Robinho and Manchester United closed in on Tottenham's £28m-rated Dimitar Berbatov.

Hill-Wood said: 'People need to be waking up to the realities of the world and that the days of easy money have come to a pretty sudden end.

'There is an awful lot of talk about big transfers and major demands of players but you will find throughout the UK and Europe that money is not quite as easy to obtain as it used to be.

'So I think a lot of these stories emanating from agents may not actually come to fruition. There is a lot of talk and not a lot of action.'

Speaking to Arsenal.com, he added: 'A lot of people don't seem to realise that in the long run you must run a football club on a sensible commercial basis. A lot of the figures bandied around at the moment don't make commercial sense.

'That is what disappoints me, that people are prepared to do what can be construed as very silly things.'

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Arsenal have been the subject of big-money transfer speculation over unsettled stars Alexander Hleb and Emmanuel Adebayor, while the club have also signed £13m Samir Nasri and £5m Aaron Ramsey.

Hill-Wood insisted there was 'nothing new' to report on Hleb or Adebayor, adding: 'It is a long-running saga in both cases.'

He also revealed that Arsenal expect to announce the identity of their new chief executive next month.