Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood is optimistic manager
Arsene Wenger will agree a new contract with the club after the two
parties held talks.
Speculation has been rife that the Frenchman, 57, would quit his
post at the end of the season, after more than 11 years in north
London with the club.
Hill-Wood said: "Hopefully in the near future we'll have something
positive to say. I'm confident he'll stay.
"We had a fairly lengthy conversation recently and that went very
well."
Hill-Wood has also dismissed talk of a summer of discontent at
Arsenal.
Wenger has sold talismanic compatriot Thierry Henry and there have
been reports midfield lynchpin Cesc Fabregas could follow him out
of the door.
But the Spaniard has committed his future to the club and Hill-Wood
says the club is set up to challenge for honours over the course of
the coming campaign.
"I believe we've never been in a better position," said Hill-Wood,
chairman of the club since 1982. "I think the team is absolutely
first class.
"We had some very good results last year against the likes of
Manchester United and Chelsea, the sides we didn't overhaul in the
league but played pretty well against when we faced them.
"It's a young side still but they're a year older now so they're
going to be that much better.
"If you tune in to the media, you would believe that it's been a
difficult summer but I think people have not really looked behind
what's happened.
"I'm very relaxed. I think we've got a very good squad and we've
added a few players, most of them not names people have heard of
before.
"But that's very much Arsene Wenger's style. People hadn't really
heard of Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira or Cesc Fabregas before they
arrived."
And Hill-Wood has rubbished suggestions that the Gunners are being
hampered by the financial burden of their new home at the Emirates
Stadium.
"It's actually the reverse," he insisted. "Relocating to the
Emirates has increased the income of the club.
"The stadium has not held Arsenal back at all in terms of bringing
in players.
"It's actually given us the opportunity to compete with the biggest
clubs in the world.
"If we had stayed at Highbury that would have limited our resources
and over the long term affected our ability to financially compete
with the top sides."
Wenger has been at Arsenal since September
1996