Highbury House

Don’t you just love him?

He’s taken to this International Football like a fish to water.

Despite all the rumours about Johan Djourou moving to Italy, he has denied this story and has committed his future to Arsenal. Not sure what to make of that one..

Onto todays post:

Arsenal blogs all over the Internet continue to talk about Arsenals owners Kroenke and Usmanov.

They are asking why two billionaires who have bought into Arsenal FC have decided not to spend any of their considerable wealth on making our club more successful on the pitch.

What’s the point of buying into a football club only to let it tick over as it always has, it’s a bit like buying a new house or a new car – you love both but regardless of how good it is or looks, you want to add your own personal stamp to it.

Whether that would involve a bit of decor change, fitting a few extras or buying a furry dice and alloys for the car, it’s all about increasing the value of your investment and making that investment that much more enjoyable.

However, with our two major shareholders comes a power struggle, Kroenke with 60 odd percent of the shares seems to be quite happy with us ticking over and making a good profit, where as Usmanov, our nearly 30% share holder wants to inject some of his wealth into the transfer fund, but for that he wants to be more involved with the club.

Supporters are at a loss to understand why Kroenke has declined Usmanovs offers to date, maybe he wants total control and fears the much wealthier Usmanovs involvement on the board would be too intrusive.

Whilst these two billionaires are looking after their own interests, Arsenal FC seems to be in a state of flux, we don’t seem to be moving forwards but we are just about keeping up with the rest of the so-called ‘top clubs’, not so much in a challenging way, more like just about keeping in touch.

It’s my belief that this situation could go on for some considerable time whilst the two owners try and outdo one another for the remaining shares available but whoever should acquire them doesn’t mean that things will really change, as both men are used to getting their own way.

This all seems to me to be a stalemate between the two as it appears neither one is prepared to work with the other for the benefit of the club. At the moment Stan Kroenke has control of the reigns and it looks as though he is quite happy with how the club is being run, where on the other side of the coin Usmanov must be getting a little fed up and frustrated with keep being dismissed by this current board.

Many other clubs in the Premier League are struggling money-wise and would really benefit from a rich investor and the longer the power struggle at Arsenal continues, the more I think that one of our owners may venture elsewhere.

Arsenal have undergone major changes by moving Stadiums, that in itself has almost doubled gate receipts so the hard work, you could say, has been achieved. We have been at The Emirates for a while now, so a lot of that investment has been paid back.

On paper we should be nearing the time that investment in the squad will take place and both our wealthy shareholders could see the light at the end of the tunnel and more money should be available for transfer funds, so if I was Kroenke and wanted to see Usmanov off, I would be tempted to invest such funds without the help of my business rival to show him that he’s involvement/money is not required.

Should that transpire and Arsenal start progressing, the supporters, Board, Manager and players would instantly follow Kroenke’s game plan.

Exit Usmanov.

Could that be Kroenke’s plan, could that time be now?

If so, we won’t have very long to wait before we all find out.

Written by Steve Palmer