frankbutcher wrote:Marty you plonker.
My theory is not contradictory. The common denominator is that whatever the Board provide in terms of resources, Wenger ignores it to do it his way. As long as we qualified for the Champions League, there was no real urgency to sack him. Now that Kroenke is in place, I think that this will change, as he needs Arsenal to start attracting serious commercial revenue. You simply don't do that by coming 4th every year. BTW, I never said the Board were forcing him to do anything. The man is a tyrant.
I don't think I have said you sai the Board werecing him to do anything.
But again even here you undemine and cotradict your own argumentwith your insistence that Stan Kroenke will change thiings now when in fact he had no problem with how anything was run the past two-plus seasons he sat on the Arsenal Board. That fFrank is if not a contradiction (more on those after
)certainly an inconsistency in your argument and a serious one, and the inconsistencies and contradictions undermine the credibility of your entire argument, even the valid points you do make certainly at times. That alone doesn't invalidate what you say altogether but it does seriously undermine its credibility.
Look at it this way. Why would a) Kroenke want to buy the Club? b) Usmanov want to buy the Club?
Two different reasons in my opinion, but result in the same need for the Club to be successful on the pitch.
frankbutcher wrote:a) Kroenke - needs commercial revenues to pay for his investment. Therefore he requires a successful trophy-winning team. Investment in the squad required? Yes
b) Usmanov - Billionaire Arsenal Fan. Billionaires like to win things to boost their ego - see Abramovich. Investment in the squad required? Yes.
In both examples, you need to buy top players to win trophies. You don't succeed by raping the Club, and falling down the League. I know that Usmanov is not on the Board, so his views would not be included in the thinking of the Club, however I see no reason why Kroenke would want to dumb-down the playing staff. I also think you are ignoring Kroenke's track record in US Sports. He likes to be successful on the pitch. The man is not stupid. He's a Billionaire for a reason. Just look at the Glazers and John Henry at Liverpool. Are they making returns on their investments through perennial under-investment in the squad????????????????????
You know it makes sense.
UKFranky.
Frank I am inclined to agree with some of what you say here but that really isn't the issue, we are talking about the incentive of ther Arsenal Board to invest more money in the team over the last several years.
Now we could say now that the club has been sold that is irrelevant except it really is anything but that because if the Board sold by choice to an owner who could not afford to purchase the club out of the pocket(and the fact that the purchase was in fact financed by German Bank raises the issue) who may then push for the awarding of shareholder dividends in order to use that money to pay for the financing of his takeover. In other words Arsenal Would actually be paying for its own purchase - indirectly yes but that would be the case.
This would be what happened at Liverpool under Hicks and Gillette -
divdend leveraging the club rather than
debt-leveraging it, and while Mr. Kroneke would have to spend nmillions more before he could debt leverage his takeover, he only needs a majority vote on the Arsenal Board now to divend leverage his takeover. And Given the Board members recieved in some cases as high as 5 million GBP from Stan Kroenke in this takeover do you they would refuse him this? I won't even go into the other serious questions this raises or would raise excpet to say that I think this negates the whole this is history forget about it now argument. This is very current events. Let's hope we don't have to find out just how current.
As to Mr. Kroenke's history I have actually defended his record of success in the past on footballing forums and even here recently. I have even broken it down based upon the differing competitive platforms of American sport and showing how much more turnover there at the top of American sports leagues because of salary caps than in European and specifically Premier League football(I will try to find the research for you though this from some time ago 2007 or 2008). My concern now is we have learned that in fact that he did not have the cash on hand to purchase the club and thab we now may face the prospect of a diviidend-leveraged takeover which will have the same effect as a debt-leveraged takeover really on our ability to compete on the pitch and potentially even to survive as a football club as we saw at Liverpool.
And AST members are clearly concerned about this possibility and they have asked Mr. Kroenke and his representatives to guarantee they would not pursue this option and their concerns were ignored, as Mr. Kroenke and his representatives promised they would not debt-leverage the club(which they legally cannot do and they know it). So I would say this is a seriosu concern we all have to be aware of here and now and only because the Previous Board as you like to call them chose to sell to this gentleman. As I say let's hope it doesn't come to that but's noit wait until it does and its too late to actually stand up for what is in the club's best interests. We don't have to make the same mistake twice do we?
