So, a two hour press conference was held by Thanopoulos today. Reporters said it was very sincere, "straight from the heart" kind of stuff. Clearly not saying what he is being told to say but rather what is true.

So, progress should be made soon with regards to Kozonis. A paper should be signed this weekend stating both sides are intending to go through with the deal (or something along those lines) and if all goes well (no arguments or hidden debts suddenly showing up) the transition will occur December 31st.

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Stan Kroenke owns the NBA's Denver Nuggets and Colorado Rapids MLS team.
The latest 200 shares that he bought; 100 shares from Arsenal Chairman, Peter Hill-Wood, for 8,500 Pounds per share put him on a brink of the threshold mark set up by the Arsenal Board of Directors.
29. Click to continue reading...

It's now or never for Arsenal Football Club.  Stan Kroenke has been mopping up small shareholdings over the last couple of weeks to raise his share in the club to 29.8%. He is a fraction below the mandatory bid figure of 29.9%.

It was rumoured that he bought 100 shares from Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood; this is the same man who famously said, "We do not need his sort at this club.

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Stockport County went into Administration in April earlier this year with the appointment of John Titley and Paul Reeves, Directors at Leonard Curtis.

Today the Administrators at Leonard Curtis gave this statement about where the Sale of Stockport County is up to.

"The Administrators understand the frustration of supporters at the apparent lack of progress being made on completing a sale of the Club and exiting Administration, however, we would like to reassure all fans that the sales process is still continuing to progress.

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by CARL EDLRIDGE Stan Kroenke has snapped up another 427 shares in Arsenal's parent holding company, at a cost of £3.6million, as the Yank moves closer towards the takeover threshold, reports the Daily Mail.

Kroenke is now the largest individual shareholder in Arsenal, with a stake of 29.

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So almost without us (or me, anyway) even realizing it, we appear to possibly have a goalkeeping controversy on our hands.

After Manuel Almunia went down a few games into the season with a "chest infection", and last season's number two, Lukasz Fabianski, was also out with a long term injury, we had to hand the gloves over to young Italian Vito Mannone.

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American billionaire Stan Kroenke faces a grilling at today's Arsenal AGM.
The Times says the American has increased his stake substantially in recent months to a level that is a little short of that which would trigger a mandatory takeover bid, but he has never spoken about the reasons for investing about £160 million in the stock. Click to continue reading...

Wenger says Arsenal are ready this year to compete for titles. Well, technically, he said the following:

I know that we haven't won a trophy for four years, but we have been very close and I believe that this year the team will do it. When I say that, it is not to please you, it is because I am really convinced of it.

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Last night the Guardian published a damning article quoting Portsmouth's new owner, Ali Al Faraj, as saying that he had bought the club on borrowed money, that he wasn't a billionaire, that he knew nothing about football and that he planned to sell on the club in six months after he had stabilised it.

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by CARL ELDRIDGE HOW close are we to a takeover bid from Stan Kroenke? Well this afternoon's AGM was always going to shed some light on the American billionaire's intentions wasn't it. Er, no. That doesn't appear to be the case, the latest reports from the meeting suggest.

For it seems Kroenke has maintained his silence at the AGM, when questions were directly raised as to his plans for further investment in the Gunners.

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Arsene will spend his 60th birthday today at the club's Annual General Meeting with the shareholders, and, unlike last season, a much more cordial atmosphere is to be expected.

I watched the AGM last year and I have to say that the reports in the press made it seem as though Arsene was attacked and strung up by his legs by the shareholders, who went on to poke and prod him but eventually let him go.

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60 years young today.

What's he doing to celebrate? Probably having some kind of big, lavish party, with Elton John playing songs while young starlets mill around drinking champagne? How about it, Arsene?:

No, I have nothing to celebrate. It will be very quiet. I have the AGM.

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I am touched by the hand of *boilk* this morning. Stupid delicious gin and tonics.

It's a big day at the club today. The AGM takes place this afternoon and, all things considered, it should be a much calmer event than the last official meeting. Back in April things were stormier at a special shareholders meeting, so much so that certain segments of it didn't make the official broadcast and we know that Arsene took offence at somebody labelling Sylvester geriatric when we all know that whatever else Sylvester still has the funk.

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Stan Kroenke has been quietly sweeping up shares wherever he can find them. He is now a mere 1.04% short of the 29.9% trigger for a complete bid for the club. Whether he can spare the £460 million, in the short term to buyout the club is a different question.

Frankly after the Tom Hicks and George Gillett hatchet job at Liverpool, you have to be very wary of someone yet to pay half of the £100m he owes for the shares that he bought last December.

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Wenger gives his reasons for not pursuing midfield pair.

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Wenger revealed why he had not bought either Xabi Alonso or Gareth Barry in the summer.

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Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has hinted he wouldn't be happy if the club was to be taken over.
With major shareholders Stan Kroenke and Alisher Usmanov both spoiling for a potential takeover bid, Wenger said: "Our way is the right way because it doesn't depend on any individual.
"It acknowledges the club is basically the property of the supporters. Click to continue reading...

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger says he steers clear of the boardroom dramas at the club.
Arsenal could be headed for new ownership with majority shareholder Stan Kroenke just one per cent away from the figure that would require him to launch a takeover bid.
But Wenger says: "On the board, you have all the shareholders, some main shareholders. Click to continue reading...

In the wake of Portsmouth's Financial mess, interest in the money driving the English game has come to the forefront. Filthy Rich. That's the name of the Wealthy Man's club where Roman Abramovich barely makes the membership list. But even with his latest maritime expenditures, he still makes the cut. Click to continue reading...

It looks as if Arsenal may soon lose its status of being the only top four club controlled by an English board, while Liverpool continues its search for a purchaser. At Arsenal, American sports entrepreneur Stan Kroneke is close to winning the battle with Moscow-based billionaire Alisher Usmanov to control Arsenal.

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Last October, then Culture Secretary Andy Burnham put considerable pressure on the Premier League to increase its clubs financial transparency and regulation with a series of penetrating questions which asked the League to "reassess its relationship with money". The League, as David Conn put it, neatly "body-swerved" the meat of Burnham's proposals with its response this year, which we'll continue to look at.

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Carson Yeung finally showed his hand last night by making an official offer for Premier League new boys Birmingham City. There had been increasing speculation that the Hong Kong businessman (who already has significant financial interest in the West Midlands club after previously securing a 29. Click to continue reading...

Entier into Le Professeur's mind. Martin Samuel gets the scoop in Wenger's most detailed interview since he arrived in England thirteen years ago.

Wenger comes across as a multifaceted man obsessed with football, utterly devoted to it, willing to engage in its minutiae.

"For me, football dominates all the time.

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According to Colin Tattum at the Birmingham Mail, businessman Carson Yeung is interested in purchasing the Birmingham club for around £70million. The club issued a statement to the Stock Exchange saying,

"The board of Birmingham notes the recent press speculation and confirms that it has received an approach from Grandtop International Holdings Limited which may or may not lead to an offer for the entire issued share capital of the Company.

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Cambridge United are again on the lookout for another manager after Martin Ling left his position by mutual consent, just 9 days into the job. Cambridge released a statement at 2.00pm on Tuesday afternoon stating irreconcilable differences between Ling and chairman George Rolls as the reason why the former Leyton Orient manager has departed the club.

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Damn, it's good to be back! And so no thanks to a dispute between Shiny Media, Pies' former owners, and one of their more difficult shareholders ('difficult' being a very generous euphemism), I was locked out of Pies for...

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Another excellent piece of journalism by perhaps the best blogger out there at present as Arseblog delves deeper into the boardroom kerfuffle at the Emirates.

It looks like the gloves are coming off and the relationships between our biggest shareholders are going to be increasingly tested over the next little while.

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Morning all,

it looks like the gloves are coming off and the relationships between our biggest shareholders are going to be increasingly tested over the next little while.

You'll have seen some news reports quoting Alisher Usmanov's partner in Red and White, Farhad Moshiri, after he was interviewed on Sportsweek on BBC 5 Live yesterday.

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So, AEK has been on the news all day, and everyday, for the past few days. The reason why? It looks like two Cypriot investors (the identities have not yet been revealed) are going to invest a large sum of money. I can't remember the exact details but I believe one of the Cypriot investors will be investing seven million euros, another will invest two million, and the shareholders already with AEK will add another six million, meaning that overall, fifteen million euros will be invested into the team.

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Todays blog will attempt to analyse some of the issues raised by yesterday's blog and many of the excellent comments contributed to that thread. We now have the unenviable spectacle of two major shareholders at loggerheads, each pursuing their own strategy, neither certain of the likely outcome.

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According to Nick Szczepaniak at TimesOnline, the Arsenal board rejected a proposal from billionaire shareholder Alisher Usmanov to create new shares to raise funds for the transfer window and to reduce the club's debt.

The reason for the rejection was largely due to the fact "that the plan would require existing shareholders to take up their full allocation of new shares or face their stake being diluted when the process is completed.

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This week could be a monumental week in the history of the ownership of Arsenal Football Club.

At a board meeting this week, the directors will discuss, amongst other matter the option of raising additional capital.

Alisher Usmanov has sent a letter to the club formally offering to under-write a £100 million rights issue.

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Arsene has for the first time broken his self imposed purdah on Arsenal's transfer budget or money available for transfers.

"I am fed-up with people who think I have £100million in the bank yet don't want to spend it. How can people think that? The pride of the club is in having moved to a new stadium while maintaining the club at the top level.

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Serbian left-back Aleksandar Kolarov is slowly becoming the star of the transfer window in Italy. Juventus prefer the Lazio player even though he is much more expensive than Dossena and especially Grosso. The plan is to sell some of the fringe players and thus raise the money to bring Kolarov to Turin.

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QPR Official Site - ANNUAL ACCOUNTS UPDATE
- Tue 23 Jun 2009
- In accordance with the provisions of the Companies Act 2006 and the Articles of Association of QPR Holdings Limited (the 'Club'), the directors of the Club have decided not to hold an Annual General Meeting this year and to make available online to shareholders the Club's annual report and financial statements for the period 31 December 2008 (the 'Financial Statements') at the Club's website www. Click to continue reading...

UK pay-television sports broadcaster Setanta underwent emergency talks yesterday to refinance the business and save it from administration, according to a source close to the company. The group is a privately-backed company whose shareholders include its management team and investors. The source was keen to emphasise that the business was not [. Click to continue reading...