This has to be the best news to happen to the club for some time, finally Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov has got the 30% shares he needed to demand a seat on the Arsenal board, which will really be worrying not only for Ivan Gazidis but majority shareholder Stan Kroenke also, as this move will surely now open a whole can of worms of what really has been going on behind closed doors at Arsenal over the past 6/7 years and where the money from sales and profit really has gone in all that time.
And that slippery eel Ivan Gazidis should really be shaking by now as Usmanov is firmly behind bringing David Dein back to the club also in the role that Gazidis now runs, and runs very badly I must add, no longer is there the bridge that there once was between Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger and the board as there was in Dein’s time at the club, despite a very public face Wenger and Gazidis do not really share the same views on the policies of the club nor does himself and American billionaire businessman Stan Kroenke who is in the club for the sole aim of profit and marketing not anything else, Usmanov is a huge passionate football fanatic Kroenke is not, he is a businessman out for that almighty dollar, you have to look how far his American teams have fallen from grace since he has been in charge to realise that most notably the NFL team the former LA Rams not St Louis Rams, who Kroenke shipped off and moved back due to American teams being a franchise rather than anything else, they used to be one of the toughest NFL teams, now they’re a shade of their former selves during Kroenke’s time in ownership of them – mark my words if Kroenke was offered a mega bucks deal for the land the Emirates is on, trust me he would take it and bulldoze the place for a new Wallmart and multi storey car park without any hesitation, he is a businessman after all,
Alisher Usmanov will ultimately be given access to the clubs accounts with this percentage, something that will now be concerning the shareholders and board members alike, every detail of the club will now be under scrutiny in fine detail by Usmanov and that can only be a good thing, he will now find out for sure if there were the millions the club claimed every season they had for new players, or if the board have been using their famous smokescreen ploy to appease fans, and instead whilst not spending on strengthening the team, have indeed just been paying off debts, most worryingly of all, we will find out if the board have indeed been lying to fans, or if the one who indeed has been refusing to spend is and always has been Arsene Wenger, as many of us have thought, surely now he will also be worried at this prospect.
If Umanov is to do what the majority want, and force a takeover bid from Stan Kroenke – for me I hope he does, he will first now have to make his intentions known to the OF-EX market, he would then following that have up to six months to go ahead and make the offer for whatever shares are remaining, which you can guarantee in order to stop him will become the highest price for shares he has had to pay out on to date, before he can do any of that mind he will have to pass what is the Premier League Owners and Directors Test, to determine once and for all whether Usmanov is suitable to own a Premier League football club, and if he passes that test – he can then start to bang on the door for a proper seat in the board, from the one man who has been denying him this so far and refusing him, Stan Kroenke the American owner who was noted as the ringleader behind an attempt by American owners to turn the Premier League into an American business franchise and abolishing the relegation system of the league.
Good on you Alisher Usmanov, the majority of fans are behind you on this, and the sooner the better that the board finally have something to fear and worry about – which also may in turn finally put pressure on Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger to deliver his season after season promises and to actually now show results of those promises to succeed, something this current board who have been happy to milk the made profits by Wenger have refused to put pressure on him to succeed and deliver!
