As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
All correct Perry, personally I can't disagree with a single point you've made.
The one thing I will say though, after 10 years of KSE I'm sure we're all of the opinion that the current owner isn't going to be employing that top manager.
Sometimes in life it's better the devil you know but for me whomever to and whenever the ownership changes hands they can't be any worse surely?
Whether it's Kroenke, Ek, the Nigerian Prince or someone else they're always going to run the club as a business first and foremost. People have to get real and stop viewing football as it used to be where the local millionaire Mill owner also owned the town football club and every team played 4-4-2.
Absolutely, mate. I know exactly what you mean. The better devil you know thing kept Wenger at the club for ten years too long so you're absolutely right, surely anything else, right now won't hurt.
I'm not for a second defending the Kroenke regime because there really isn't anything that can be defended but, this whole fucking obsession with ownership is the 2021 version of the 2010-2020 cult of the manager obsession. Clubs have always been owned by people, owners always took money out of clubs, the supporters always came last. In much the same way as teams always had managers and sometimes they made good decisions and sometimes they made bad ones.
However many years ago, people with too much time on their hands and social media accounts started an arms race to be more obscure and attention-seeking with their opinions and started coming up with reasons why "Borussia Dortmund are so underrated" or "Athletic Bilbao will be the next global superpower" just because they'd seen them.mentioned once on that fucking awful Soccer AM or on "Championship Manger" where the deluded, the self-absorbed and the self-indulged came with with sickening shit like: "I honestly reckon I could manage a Premiership team in real life. I just need someone to give me a chance."
Nobody fucking cared who owned a club 25 years ago. Blackburn had a load of money thrown at them, Newcastle did too and won fuck all, but really- the established names were always around and really, there was no great feeling of being part of a club or controlling its decisions because we've always been the bottom of the pecking order. One day out of nowhere some corrupt, bearded cûnt buys a virtually bankrupt nothing club in west London and that's the answer to everything. Suddenly we're all told that this is a great owner who cares about his club and that we all need one. Everybody's running around checking out who can buy their club or whether having £5bn is enough to compete. Fucking hell. Honestly fucking hell.
We as a club never really showed any interest in being a massive club. We had the opportunities to "grow the brand " but didn't, should have been touring Asia and North America for 25 years but let some Wanker decide that sitting in a village in Austria was better for us. When we should have been kicking on, we weren't. That's sadly, where we missed the bus. It's not just this owner, but years and years of horrific, short-sighted and negligent decision making at the top of the club that have led here.
As I've said, I'm not for one moment defending Kroenke but really, what difference does it make whether we are owned by a bloke who lives on a ranch in fucking wherever or a bloke from Sweden who owns a music platform? It doesn't. Neither of them know anything about English football culture or what it means to follow a team. They've both got their own business interests to worry about before worrying about football and neither are them are going to put the fucking ball in the net or stop it going in there. I'd rather we got a proper manager in first and see what happens rather than getting excited about who owns us.
As depressing as it sounds, it matters not one fucking bit who owns us, because unless it's sovereign wealth fund or a horrifically immoral despot, we're not competing.
But this is the thing, we are a huge club with a massive overseas fan base that contributes more to our earnings than they ever have. Looking at the rankings for clubs by turnover/market cap we are around 8th. Given how shite we've been that's way ahead of where we should be. It hit home to me how big we are when in Baku a few years back we outnumbered Chelski 3 to 1 and that wasn't just fans from the UK. They came from far and wide.
Anyone who has a serious amount of money could easily double their money on Arsenal if they got us back up to the top of the league, and investing in the squad. That person unfortunately despite the fact he's a Gooner won't be EK, no matter who he brings on board. He is nowhere near as wealthy as is required to dig us out of this hole.
Ironically Kroenke with the business empire in his family could comfortably contribute what is required to bring back the glory days. And I am old school, always said you can't buy success well those days have gone now. If you have the money anything is possible.
Ironically Kroenke with the business empire in his family could comfortably contribute what is required to bring back the glory days. And I am old school, always said you can't buy success well those days have gone now. If you have the money anything is possible.
Yeah but he's never going to do that is he?, he's a asset, land and venue hoarding prick who owns a string of mediocre sports franchises, of which Arsenal are just another one now.
You can quite obviously buy success - look at the CL semi's line up - all 4 clubs effectively finanically doped, especially P$G, City and Chavs but even RM have been bailed out by the state a number of times in the past.
Football is f*cked but it would at least be nice to have an owner who gives a sh1t and in that regard anything is better than these American pricks who just collect clubs like some sort of property portfolio.
What we really need is an owner who can appoint good people to make good decisions and run the club correctly and allow then to actually make decisions without necessarily having the owners say so, something Stan has been woeful at. Some decisions can only ever be taken by the boss but when you don't understand the business you need to delegate to people who do, Wiggy never has seemed that sort to me
What we really need is an owner who can appoint good people to make good decisions and run the club correctly and allow then to actually make decisions without necessarily having the owners say so, something Stan has been woeful at. Some decisions can only ever be taken by the boss but when you don't understand the business you need to delegate to people who do, Wiggy never has seemed that sort to me
Yep getting annoyed already at hearing fans say (along the lines of) "oh well, this takeover is never going to happen but at least KSE might do something now".
Bullsh1t will they, they might make some limp gesture like putting 1 ex-player on the board, as long as they tow the line and don't kick up any fuss, but don't expect anything useful from KSE.
Knowing our fanbase it will be one protest then back to whining but watching us play midtable for the next 20 years and accepting it, remember - Rome must burn to get these parasites out, if that means short-term pain for the club then so the fvck be it!.
I know that I'm in the minority here, but does anyone hinestly believe having one fans representative on the board is a realistic demand cos I dont The problem in my opinion should be about who isnt on the board, but more about who actually is on the board - when we had DD in there, we had a guy who knew what he was doing and had accumulated contacts within the game, and we would never have considered demanding a fans representative on the board. The c.unts in power right now know fcuk all about the game and/or know fcuk all about our club and english football in general. We have an absent owner who has no knowledge nor interest and is not interested in spending money, and he of course then appoints people whose lack of knowledge or lack of requisite skills is irrelevant as long as they follow his policies, and hence why we are a rudderless club just drifting along and no fan representative on the board will make any difference.
How would you even go about picking a fan representative to go on the board, or what criteria would they have to meet ? My own opinions of "fans representative groups" like redaction (c.unts) and ast are well known, and neither would offer a candidate that would shake things up. In variably the fan representative would be a guy who would end up just being a token puppet imo
I think that Kroenke has the problem is that many of the people at the club past and present haven't a clue how to manage the football club from the footballing side of things he trusted Wenger but since he had to ditch him they haven't had a clue what to do ,Raul tried to fill the void however his problem is that he was a career bureaucrat .
Only Edu and Arteta know anything at all about football management and their credentials don't stack up high either but in the land of the blind the one eyed man is king !
Weve got rid of our scouting system so we are wholly reliant on agents to bring us players and that hasnt worked either .
Ironically Kroenke with the business empire in his family could comfortably contribute what is required to bring back the glory days. And I am old school, always said you can't buy success well those days have gone now. If you have the money anything is possible.
Yeah but he's never going to do that is he?, he's a asset, land and venue hoarding prick who owns a string of mediocre sports franchises, of which Arsenal are just another one now.
You can quite obviously buy success - look at the CL semi's line up - all 4 clubs effectively finanically doped, especially P$G, City and Chavs but even RM have been bailed out by the state a number of times in the past.
Football is f*cked but it would at least be nice to have an owner who gives a sh1t and in that regard anything is better than these American pricks who just collect clubs like some sort of property portfolio.
Burn 'em out if required..
Of course, Kroenke won't ever spend the money required. My point is do we accept someone who clearly hasn't got the finances, it will take a huge loan to pay wiggy off and rebuild the team. It's very easy to say any billionaire will do without looking at things in more detail.
Spotify's share price fell 12% the other day (more than the value of our club), to say the company is overvalued is an understatement and Ek will be using his business interests as collateral to buy Arsenal. This is exactly what the Glazers did with manure, and they are still seriously in debt.
How would you even go about picking a fan representative to go on the board, or what criteria would they have to meet ? My own opinions of "fans representative groups" like redaction (c.unts) and ast are well known, and neither would offer a candidate that would shake things up. In variably the fan representative would be a guy who would end up just being a token puppet imo
It would probably end up being the Luton fan Robbie, given afctv’s “popularity” - from some of the questions that fans decided to air at the AGM’s when they still happened, for some, the most pressing concern is the food and drink rather than the state of our first team and the way the club is being run.
Maybe a celebrity fan would appeal to the masses like Lofty ?
A fan on the board would be pointless with our ownership structure anyway. If the fans owned enough shares to actually hold a blocking vote it would mean something, but when you have a sole shareholder with full voting rights then the role would be a gimmick but carry absolutely zero power anyway. If you want fan power, you need the German model of fans owning a meaningful stake in the club
I know that I'm in the minority here, but does anyone hinestly believe having one fans representative on the board is a realistic demand cos I dont The problem in my opinion should be about who isnt on the board, but more about who actually is on the board - when we had DD in there, we had a guy who knew what he was doing and had accumulated contacts within the game, and we would never have considered demanding a fans representative on the board. The c.unts in power right now know fcuk all about the game and/or know fcuk all about our club and english football in general. We have an absent owner who has no knowledge nor interest and is not interested in spending money, and he of course then appoints people whose lack of knowledge or lack of requisite skills is irrelevant as long as they follow his policies, and hence why we are a rudderless club just drifting along and no fan representative on the board will make any difference.
How would you even go about picking a fan representative to go on the board, or what criteria would they have to meet ? My own opinions of "fans representative groups" like redaction (c.unts) and ast are well known, and neither would offer a candidate that would shake things up. In variably the fan representative would be a guy who would end up just being a token puppet imo
They'd pick someone from the Diamond Club. A true fan's representative.
I know that I'm in the minority here, but does anyone hinestly believe having one fans representative on the board is a realistic demand cos I dont The problem in my opinion should be about who isnt on the board, but more about who actually is on the board - when we had DD in there, we had a guy who knew what he was doing and had accumulated contacts within the game, and we would never have considered demanding a fans representative on the board. The c.unts in power right now know fcuk all about the game and/or know fcuk all about our club and english football in general. We have an absent owner who has no knowledge nor interest and is not interested in spending money, and he of course then appoints people whose lack of knowledge or lack of requisite skills is irrelevant as long as they follow his policies, and hence why we are a rudderless club just drifting along and no fan representative on the board will make any difference.
How would you even go about picking a fan representative to go on the board, or what criteria would they have to meet ? My own opinions of "fans representative groups" like redaction (c.unts) and ast are well known, and neither would offer a candidate that would shake things up. In variably the fan representative would be a guy who would end up just being a token puppet imo
They'd pick someone from the Diamond Club. A true fan's representative.
The problem in my opinion should be about who isnt on the board, but more about who actually is on the board - when we had DD in there, we had a guy who knew what he was doing and had accumulated contacts within the game, and we would never have considered demanding a fans representative on the board. The c.unts in power right now know fcuk all about the game and/or know fcuk all about our club and english football in general. We have an absent owner who has no knowledge nor interest and is not interested in spending money, and he of course then appoints people whose lack of knowledge or lack of requisite skills is irrelevant as long as they follow his policies, and hence why we are a rudderless club just drifting along and no fan representative on the board will make any difference.
