Arsenal chairman brands own supporters as 'silly people' who 'do quite a lot of damage'

The bitter civil war threatening to engulf Arsenal intensified last night after chairman Peter Hill-Wood backed under-fire manager Arsene Wenger by launching an attack on his club's own fans.

Wenger reacted angrily to increasing criticism of his managerial approach yesterday by telling supporters that they should be happy with a second place league finish ( read the full astonishing transcript of his press-conference here ).

And Hill-Wood weighed in when the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust released a statement expressing bitter disappointment at the club's six-year trophy-less streak.

 "We are 100 per cent behind him," said the chairman.

"That is always a dangerous statement, but I can assure you it has not crossed our minds that we wouldn’t support him 100 per cent.

“I simply cannot believe he will react to these stupid comments from these silly people. They are supposed to be supporters, but, in fact, they do quite a lot of damage.

“We have set the bar high and everybody expects us to achieve that every year, but it simply isn’t possible.

“If you keep changing managers every nine months, you get into even more trouble.”