With nothing much happening football wise all the discussion has turned once again to Kroenke, Dein and the takeover rumours. I don’t think I need to state again that I’m against it, for many reasons, and I honestly believe that those in favour of it are not looking at the bigger picture.
Over on Arseonline the appropriately named LordHillWood wrote a fantastic piece which echoes my feelings on many of these points. It’s worth noting the comments of the guy from the Manchester United site, UWS (United we stand), about half-way through.
When you compare that article to the one on ANR, which is little more than thinly-veiled propaganda for Dein and Kroenke (they could hardly have commissioned a better piece), you can see who the Arsenal fan is, who’s got the best interests of our football club at heart. The one comfort we can take from the ANR piece is that our old friend Myles says the takeover is ‘inevitable’ and given his past record on getting things right …
To accuse the board which has overseen and completed the most incredible stadium move, something he has commented on, of lacking vision and energy is ludicrous. Let’s not forget this move was made with one of the board members directly opposed to it and was made in order to bring Arsenal’s finances to a new level, to allow the club to compete with the top dog, which back when the project was started was Manchester United. Nobody foresaw an Abramovich who, despite other foreign investment, remains unique in the English game as an owner who is prepared to lose money on his plaything.
So, the Arsenal board ‘must’ sell, he says. Bollocks, I say. There’s been a lot of discussion on the Arses about it and quite reasonably somebody wanted to know what difference it would make to have Kroenke own the club instead of the current board of directors. Arser Eight gave this explanation about it which is far better than anything I could write this morning:
The existing shareholders own their shares, and OK, they expect some return (dividends, cash – (the current directors do not receive dividends but do get paid a salary. All profit currently gets reinvested back into the club – arseblogger)) every year, but they do not expect the club to pay for their purchase costs of the shares. If Kranky comes in, he will buy some shares with his own cash, but he will also take out a massive loan to pay for the shares he cannot afford to buy from his pocket (or does not want to take the risks of buying).
That money will be lent to him by banks, who will want to be repaid, with interest. So Kranky will have have to find (a) the money to pay the interest on his loans (which alone is likely to be a greater % than Arsenal’s current dividends on its share capital) and (b) the monies to repay the principal on the loan.
This means that he has to either (a) like losing money, or (b) be such an expert in football finance that he can revolutionise the club’s finances, or (c) just suck out a whole load of revenue from the club and give it to the banks (and effectively into his own pocket).
(c) is the tried and trusted Glazer route and the one I’ll bet he’ll take.
Please note that all cash injections in this scenario are from the club and into Kranky’s pockets (as we pay him to buy his shares) and the banks who support him. There is no magic transfer budget boost. He isn’t looking to throw money away like Abramovich – why would he? You might get some token gestures, but the real result will be that for ten years or so, revenue that would have gone into the team, will instead go out to repay the bank loan with which he purchased the club.
That really is the reality of this situation. If it’s some short term vanity purchasing you’re interested in then throw your weight and support behind Kroenke and his Renfield, David Dein. If it’s long term stability and increased revenue from a carefully thought out and planned project then there’s no choice but to support the board in their stance against any kind of takeover. The Mirror reports, no doubt after contact with the Arsenal Supporters Trust, that Kroenke will write to the board and the shareholders and Keith Edelman is willing to meet with him. I wonder what stopped Kroenke contacting the board before he started hoovering up Arsenal shares. It’s a bit late to try and go about things in more PR friendly now, isn’t it? And if you wanted any further proof that it’s not a good idea then James Lawton is all for it.
The Guardian is suggesting that Arsene’s appointment to replace Dein will have responsibility only for negotiations and recruitment. The politicking and representative duties will be carried out by current chief excutive Keith Edelman. One man who has thrown his hat into the ring is former Monaco general manager Henri Bianchéri but at 74 years of age is hardly someone for the future. Former scout and defector to Sp*rs, Damien Comolli, has pledged his future to Martin Jol’s team. Other names mentioned include Gilles Grimandi and Remi Garde who currently works for Lyon.
The Grimster would be good though. He’d be an awesome negotiator and players would be on their guard in case they were hacked down in the corridors of London Colney with Gilles doing that ‘What? Whaaaaaaat?’ shrug he was so good at.
Cesc Fabregas says his future is ‘bound’ to that of Arsene Wenger. I suppose we can expect a summer of transfer rumour and speculation from Spain, it’s something we’re just going to have to live with as long as he’s here, but he’s got an eight year contract to see out. I’d extend it until he’s 40.
Sources in France tell me that Arsenal are very, very interested in Le Mans keeper Yohann Pele. We’ve scouted him on a number of occassions and there are suggestions that a deal for him is very close – which you would think means the end of the line for Jens Lehmann.
William Gallas is attracting interest from Real Madrid. The article mentions Gallas as someone who wanted to get involved in a show of strength to protest against Dein’s departure. If that’s true he can fuck off and you have to question why the man who carried out players’ salary negotiations was so pally with them.
And that’s about it. Just time to announce the winner of the Goalhanger t-shirt. The RNG did its thing, picked out someone who answered correctly that Adebayor has scored three goals against Sp*rs this season, and that someone was Liam Madden. Well done to you and I’ll be in touch for details and such like.
Ok, that’ll do for today. More tomorrow.
