It’s a relatively quiet one this morning with the Sunderland match not until Sunday.
The main story this morning is that Stan Kroenke was in town yesterday and had a meeting with the Arsenal board. Having been slightly misjudged because of the way David Dein brought him into the club the American now holds a vital shareholding and, should he decide to align himself with the board, a shareholding that would put paid to Fat & Orange’s plans to take over the club.
The importance of Kroenke’s stake in the club has not been lost on Alisher Usmanov who thinks the American has been priced out of making a bid for the club. You can’t help but feel Usmanov would love to get his hands on Kroenke’s shares because if he doesn’t it means his ambitions regarding Arsenal are thwarted. From what I’m told by a very good source is that Kroenke has no intention of selling his shareholding and sees his investment in Arsenal as long-term. He does have minority shareholdings in other sports. As well as that, as somebody with a sporting background and who recognises the fans unease at Usmanov’s large, sweaty presence then I suspect he would be reluctant to sell to the Russian.
I caught the tail end of Martin Lipton speaking on the radio here last night. He was one of the journalists flown to Russia on a private jet and put up in a 5 star hotel before an audience with Usmanov.
“Was it a charm offensive?”, asked the presenter.
“Well”, said Lipton, “charm doesn’t come naturally to some people.”
With the AGM on the horizon it will be very interesting to see what comes of the meeting between the board and Kroenke and what will happen if some kind of agreement is made between them. What will F&O do with the shares they bought way above market value then? Perhaps, as Usmanov suggested, he could ‘stop being an Arsenal fan’ and invest somewhere else. I suggest Saturn.
Meanwhile club insiders and the AST have attacked F&O’s desire to take dividends from their shareholdings, according to the FT.
On to the football and our current form is no surprise to Robin van Persie who is really enjoying playing in this team. He had a fairly quiet game against Steaua but was playing with a knock. Despite that he popped up with the winning goal, his fifth of the season, and he says:
At the start of the season I said we will surprise – and everyone was laughing. Now 12 games into the season, everyone says, ‘Ooh, look at Arsenal, they are a good team’. This I knew before and my mind has not changed.
Football from a different planet was how he described it. Once it’s not Saturn we’ll be ok. You never know who you might run into there.
The goalkeeping situation could get a little heated in the weeks ahead. Jens Lehmann is back in full training and he’ll be wanting the ‘number 1’ jersey back from Manuel Almunia. However, the Spaniard is in no mood to hand it back, saying:
I have done nothing wrong and I am trying to keep my level high. I believe I am the best keeper now. I would like to play the whole season.
It leaves the manager with a big decision. Does he jettison the experience of Jens in January? He may have no choice. Euro 2008 is coming up in the summer and Jens is currently Germany’s number 1. He won’t be if he’s not playing regular football and he will move to maintain his position in the national team. It’s interesting is what it is. I suspect Jens won’t get back in if Almunia keeps keeping clean sheets.
Another man currently out of the side is Gilberto but he’ll have a vital role to play in the season. He knows it’s only just begun and warns that because of our form and the way the media are spunking over us that we’ll become the team that everyone wants to beat. He’s got a good point, you know. As much as the youthful exuberance is wonderful to watch and develop there’s still a need for experience and a couple of older heads just to make sure nobody gets too carried away. He’s not enjoying the time on the bench at the moment but he’s a good professional and understands that others have come in and taken their chances. The competition for places will keep everyone on their toes.
Not much else, I have no interest in the Cuntley Cunt stories so if that’s your bag check out the Newsnow feed and take a look yourself. Final thing for today is to ask for a second or two of your time. I have been nominated for ‘Best Podcaster’ in the Irish Internet Association’s ‘Net Visionary’ awards. If you could take a minute just to vote for Arseblog (you only need to vote for Arseblog, none of the other categories, and please only vote once) that would be fantastic.
And of course there’ll be an Arsecast tomorrow, brought to you by OleOle.com. News of new OleOle features on the ‘cast tomorrow plus a debut blog chat from a current Arsenal blogger. All to look forward to.
Until then have a good day.
