Credit crunch to hit big transfers

Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood says the credit crunch is about to strike football's transfer market.

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."