THE BOARD - Kroenke, Usmanov and Finance

[1989]

Dead-Wood: At least we haven't been relegated

http://m.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/j ... pe=article

[augie]

Dead-Wood: At least we haven't been relegated

http://m.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/j ... pe=article

The c**t is am embarrassment to all that was good about AFC

[Vinny1967]

Dead-Wood: At least we haven't been relegated

http://m.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/j ... pe=article

They should not allow him to speak to the press

[Metalheadz Gooner]

Hill-Wood acknowledged: "It would be good to have some young people on the board, but it is not as easy for young people who have full-time jobs to do that now as it was when I was a young man. However I do not think there is anything different we can be doing in the running of Arsenal."

[ArseneClueso]

I get so cross by these financial bullshit excuses I could stamp my little feet . Where's the Judy Garland emoticon when you need it.

WE HAVE £100 MILLION IN THE BANK.

Cash balances at 30th November
amounted to £115.2 million (2010 - £110.4 million).

From the Chairman's report, page 9 of the half year results.

http://www.arsenal.com/assets/_files/do ... L.sw29.pdf

I think the link below says a lot really. Our transfer spending over the last 5 years shows how little we actually spend
so to compete would not break the bank...

http://transferleague.co.uk/league-tabl ... asons.html

[northbankbren]

Yes I agree the timing of the statement is indeed provacative, but i agree with almost everything in the letter.

Im actually so angy about the whole van persie/usmanov statements followed by now hill woods ramblings, we really are being taken for mugs as fans.

I welcome a change of board and yes of managment.

[Widsy]

At the start of a shambolic summer, once again the heart of our team has been ripped out is and due to be sold on for
+£20 Million securing the board a nice tidy profit to take to the bank. As fans we happily part with our cash year in, year out on Season tickets, memberships, travel, accommodation & merchandise through our un-conditional love for the club. How are we Re-paid? By getting the *word censored* ripped out of us.

Having read Usmanov's letter, which i assume most of you have already browsed, it bares the question, where would you like to see the club move forward?

1) Continue this "self-financing/profit" model and fit the bill and achieve mediocrity every season where our best players leave at the end of every season for a profit to line the american fat cat's pockets?

Or

2) Demand/Force a radical shake-up which would allow Mr Usmanov to take control or at least get on the board?

After hearing Robin Van Persie's statement and reading Mr Usmanov's letter it is clear that both are linked in a way that suggests that the current board do not share the same vision as the players or more importantly, the fans. Mr stan kroenke and Co are only interested in making money out of the club before finally selling it off for a tidy profit, whilst contributing zero to on the playing side by way of investment to sustain a challenge for the Premier league & the Champions league. Upon a second reading of this letter and with a clearer and more calm mind, it is hard to pick a single point where you couldn't accept it as being the truth:

1) Trying to gain popularity by declaring the opposition as being "de-stabilizing" to gain control and confidence of the fans.

2) The self- sustaining model allowing the owners to use the club as a cash cow to fleece the hard-working and loyal supporters who's love is un-conditional. This has lead us to despair and despite naive assurances that we can compete with the other top clubs in the league and in europe and how our model is working for us is clearly just a smoke-screen to gain your hard-earned money and loyalty. How many time have you continuously given the board the benefit of the doubt only to see inadequate re-investment in the squad when it is needed at the start of each season or in the January transfer window? My answer to that is too many times and it begs the question:

How much more are you willing to take?

It has became apparent that where investment has been granted, it has came to little, too late to make an impact on our season and has seen our beloved club's name being dragged through the gutter leaving it being labelled as a joke by outsiders, penny-pinching and more importantly losing it's status as one of the elite clubs that it once was in it's glory day with the invincibles.

After all this negativity, what star player in their right mind would want to join us now knowing how the club is being run which will never compete for anything other than 4th spot and continuously look to sell off it's best players season upon season to line the pockets of an american who won't put a single penny of his own money into the club?

My guess is hardly any and this is why a dramatic change is needed from top to bottom because right now we are a laughing stock and it's not funny!

As Arsenal fans of course your love for the club will never die, your passion & support will remain un-deniable even through the tough times, but even the most die-hard of Arsenal fans must be having serious doubts about the way our beloved club is being run when it is right in-front of your eyes.

Although I am glad that one positive thing has came out of this whole episode and that is where both Robin Van Persie (club captain) & Mr Usmanov (willing investor) have called out Stan kroenke and the board members for exactly what they are... CON-MEN!!!!!!!!

Kroenke - OUT!!!!
Gazidis - OUT!!!
Wenger - OUT!!!

[northbank123]

The problem stems from Kroenke and unfortunately will not change while he is there. I imagine Wenger will leave at the end of his contract but I would imagine that they will then hire the most compliant out of work manager. If Gazidis left somebody with equal disregard for the football part of the football club will be brought in to do his job. Whatever you think of Wenger getting rid of him isn't going to change the ethos at the club that is demanded by Kroenke and personified by Gazidis, Kroenke isn't going to go out and appoint a manager who's going to rock the boat and equally no top ambitious manager is going to come to work under the constraints that this regime imposes.

Cut off the head and the body will fall. Maybe.

[Block_5_Gooner]

If I'm reading Quartz correctly he isn't praising Wenger either.

I agree with what Quartz & Augie have said, even IHH has an eliment of truth.
When Wenger first came to us he was spending £20-£30m on several players each summer. Then before the move to the stadium this just stopped. It quickly turned Tony's being a selling club and those Sky stats are proof.

There is money but Wenger us too self righteous to spend it, where he seems unnessasry. The world and his dog will tell him we need a DM but he's so stubborn and doesn't like to be told that he'll promote Coqueline and/or Frimpong. This all suits the board wonderfully.

My own question is whether the money that is there is money that can be spent? We're told that we need to make £20m a year to break even.
I could say more but I'm on my phone...

[mcdowell42]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog ... nal-owners

[Vinny1967]

Usmanov is not going away.
If Silent Stan cares for Arsenal and not just about money he would sit down and talk to him. A man with 30% of the club maybe deserves a seat on the Board and maybe will actually add to the club as opposed to the 'Yes Men' they give seats to.
If they can come to some sort of accord I can see positives of giving him a seat on the board.
Go and Talk to him Stan.

[Top Londoner]

Dead-Wood: At least we haven't been relegated

http://m.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/j ... pe=article

[Block_5_Gooner]

Good blog here;
http://le-grove.co.uk/2012/07/07/that-5 ... um=twitter

[augie]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog ... nal-owners

A far better article than the crap written in the mail by that kelly wanker and it is no coincidence that it is written by a proper Gooner as opposed to some wanker who sticks his nose around the grove every so often as he tours the different football stadia each week

Amy's suggestion that the two major shareholders need to get their heads together is fairly obvious but she of course points out that kroenke is not and will not entertain that idea so you have to say that kroenke, like fizsman before him, is putting a personal vendetta ahead of what might be best for the club and that should be unacceptable to all Gooners

The one quote that I would disagree with Amy on is her referral to the spend last season and this summer as proof that we are prepared to spend - what that point ignores is that the money for those purchases is continually coming from player sales and that in the last 5 seasons we have made a transfer profit of £24.9 million so it is nowhere near accurate to say that the club is not afraid to spend

Amy was perfectly correct to say that it is now kroenke's time to "put up or shut up"........I know which course of action I would be betting on though

[augie]

Double fault