Arsenal's chairman, Peter Hill-Wood, last night revealed why David Dein, the vice-chairman, left the club so abruptly on Wednesday and he went on to state that he and the current board would block any attempt by the US billionaire Stan Kroenke to take over the north London club.

Hill-Wood, a traditionalist whose father Denis was chairman of Arsenal before him, said: "Let's be truthful, the rift with David Dein has been festering for some time, although nothing sufficiently as bad as this to make it impossible to continue. We had an idea he was in league with Kroenke and the board did not know what was going on. We put two and two together and came up with the right answer."

Dein, who bought into Arsenal in 1983 for less than £300,000, left for the final time on Wednesday evening, after a few weeks in which Kroenke has steadily built up his stake in the club to 11.24%, having purchased 9.9% from ITV and continued to accumulate. "When ITV sold their shares they called me half an hour before the announcement to tell me," Hill-Wood added. "That's not right. I asked David Dein if he knew Kroenke and after hesitating he simply said 'Yes'. We suspected that he knew Kroenke far more than he was letting on and we came to the conclusion eventually that he knew him a lot more.

"Call me old-fashioned but we don't need Kroenke's money and we don't want his sort. Our objective is to keep Arsenal English, albeit with a lot of foreign players. I don't know for certain if Kroenke will mount a hostile takeover for our club but we shall resist it with all our might.

"We are all being seduced that the Americans will ride into town with pots of cash for new players. It simply isn't the case. They only see an opportunity to make money. They know absolutely nothing about our football and we don't want these types involved."

Dein was responsible for most of Arsenal's daily business dealings, determining to a significant degree who would and who would not sign for the club by handling contract and transfer negotiations, and Hill-Wood has yet to say who will take over. "We have a number of senior executives at the club and, though we haven't formalised any arrangement yet, I'm certain that one or more of them will handle transfers in David Dein's absence."

Dein's most obvious contribution was to champion the appointment of Arsène Wenger in 1996 when few in England had heard of the Frenchman. Dein not only knew of Wenger's professional successes but had also got to know him personally. He even claimed that the moment he knew Wenger had the intelligence for the job was when, at a house party in 1990, the Frenchman performed brilliantly at charades. "If Arsène wants to strengthen then we have the money to provide him with any reasonable purchases," Hill-Wood added last night, party games being the furthest thing from his mind.