No offence, Sir Philip, but Arcadia needs to prioritise business over personality

For Philip Green to bounce back amid financial loss and assault claims, Chris Blackhurst claims the mogul’s high street concerns and his name should be kept separate

The snarling, swearing Green was back this week – or rather he had not gone away (EPA)

Listening to the radio the other morning, I was trying to imagine the faces of the advisers to Sir Philip Green and his Arcadia fashion retailing group. For months now, Green has maintained an extremely low profile – by his standards, anyway. He hasn’t been seen in Britain this year; he’s hardly photographed, and if he is, he’s not posing but someone has grabbed a picture of him near his home in Monaco.

Press interventions have been kept to a minimum – a guarded quote here, another one there. But nothing much, no big interviews, not anything remotely incendiary. He won’t have been staying away from journalists, of course. If I know Green, and I had many dealings with him down the years, he will still have been contacting those people he likes to chat with, and believes he can trust.

It’s in his DNA, he won’t be forced away. He likes to believe he can handle his own public relations, can manage his reputation, that he has such strong contacts with the media, with reporters and editors, that he can get his messages across.