Wenger future Gunners chief - Hill-Wood

The 71-year-old Hill-Wood heads a board featuring five directors over the age of 60 and he believes Wenger would make an excellent future appointment.

"None of us are getting any younger," Hill-Wood told the Financial Times. "Arsène would make an excellent chairman one day, but we haven't discussed anything specifically."

Hill-Wood's comments come on a big day for the Arsenal board, with minority shareholders set to get their chance to put their questions to directors at the annual general meeting in the face of speculation that the club could be the subject of a takeover.

It is understood that two significant stakeholders, American Stan Kroenke and Russian Alisher Usmanov, who have both been linked with takeover bids in the last year, are likely to be represented rather than appear in person.

Usmanov's investment company Red and White Holdings, which now owns around 23% and is the second-largest shareholder behind director Danny Fiszman, issued a statement on Tuesday "to reiterate its support of Arsenal Holdings plc and its position as a long-term investor".

Usmanov had been looking to build a so-called 'blocking stake' of 25%, but now looks to have softened his stance, as the statement added intentions "to vote in favour of all the resolutions at the upcoming AGM. There could, of course, still be the added twist of an appearance by former vice-chairman David Dein, who now fronts up RAWHL in a non-executive role.

Dein sold his 14.5% share to Usmanov's group for £75million in August, a few months after leaving the Arsenal board following a schism over the role of American businessman Kroenke - ironically then seen as a hostile investor but now viewed as very much a long-term ally.

The shareholding directors made an undertaking last April not to sell any of their shares for at least a year and Hill-Wood insisted on Thursday that one of those directors, Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith, who owns a 15.8% stake in the club, will not be looking to sell up.

"I can only tell you what she has told me - that she has no intention of selling her stake, and that she is in it for the long term," Hill-Wood said.