SoccerBlogs

Usmanov attacks Arsenal owner Kroenke by TAB

Despite owning nearly 30 percent of Arsenal Football Club, the Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov cannot get a seat on the board and so cannot influence the running of the club nearly as much as he would like. Stan Kroenke, the American businessman who has more say than anyone because of his controlling stake, has come under attack again from Usmanov, who is convinced that silent Stan is not doing the right thing.

In a lot of the financial projections by the Arsenal board this season, the assumption seemed to be that the Gunners were set to significantly increase the income generated by the kit manufacturing rights. The belief was that Adidas were going to challenge the current supplier Nike for the Arsenal contract, so we would either get more from them or Nike would have to increase their sponsorship.

Ian Wright is an Arsenal fan, so is feeling the pain and frustration of a derby defeat to Spurs as much as the rest of us. The former Gunner finds it hard to believe that the man at the top, Stan Kroenke, shares those feelings though. Wright is concerned, as are many Gooners, that the American billionaire does not have the passion to win trophies and push the club forward.

Although there has not been an official offer made to buy Arsenal Football Club from the major shareholder Stan Kroenke, the plans are in place, apparently. There has been on official statement from the American billionaire, but there have been murmurs from `sources` close to him that he is keen to remain at the club for the long haul.

Arsene Wenger will not be happy about the reports of a huge bid to take over control of Arsenal from Stan Kroenke. I have no idea whether he will be for or against the proposals, but the timing could not have been worse. Wenger has had all week to prepare his players for what could be the most important game of the season, and all this talk of Middle Eastern money and takeovers could be a serious distraction.

So we all now know that an 'un-named" Arab consortium has proposed to pump 1.5 billion GBP into a takeover of Arsenal, but what exactly are they promising to the Arsenal fans, and why should we support it?

Here is a detailed list made up from the more reliable reports: Firstly the cash offer to Stan Kroenke will give him close to 400 million profit on his original investment (almost doubling his money!

The breaking news today that a Middle East consortium has prepared a massive bid to take Arsenal off Stan Kroenke's hands is likely to be welcomed by the American with open arms.

Anyone who saw the miserable miser who is the ówner' of Arsenal trying to hide from the freezing English weather while in the Emirates watching his "investment" getting destroyed by Bayern Munich last week will be under no illusion that Stan Kroenke was enjoying himself, in fact he hid himself under a big red blanket and may well have been asleep for all we know!

JJ is not in this picture, just wanted one that shows the staffs at work

Continuing on from Part I yesterday, here's Part II and completion of the interview.

Me : What new features will the media group or you in particular, looking to add to the new season?

JJ : We've got 5 or 6 reporters who work for the media group and we're constantly looking to improve/expand on our content across all platforms with the intention of giving the fans what you want.

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By Shard

This is a continuation of yesterday's Untold Economics article: "Red and White are planning a takeover using non-dividend equity.

Two odious characters: The pugilistic Usmanov and the insipid, colourless Kroenke

Normally anything that Alisher Usmanov, the Uzbeki oligarch would have to say about Arsenal could be dispatched with a flick of the head. But what he said about Van Persie sums up the state of affairs in the Arsenal boardroom which is there is no state of affairs under the majority ownership of Stan Kroenke, who remains a cipher, a zombie wheeled out at various points of the year to parrot out a boilerplate script.

Timbers Army Art Takeover Operation: Harper's Playground (Intro) from Actual Industries on Vimeo.... Read the rest

Timbers Army, a ton of talented graphic designers and several local companies all teamed up to make Timbers themed, screen-printed, individually signed and numbered posters (just $30per!). Tomorrow (Sat) at Coava Coffee!!

If you haven't seen any of the posters yet, I assure you, there is some COOL stuff.

If Carlos Bocanegra, Maurice Edu and Alejandro Bedoya were thinking of wading through the tough times Rangers and sticking around for another season, they might want to reconsider their options.

In the wake of the club's financial turmoil, liquidation and takeover by new owner Charles Green, Rangers essentially need to start their franchise from scratch.

Football is back on the USA's menu. You can sense the optimism in the players and their growing belief in Juergen Klinsmann.

This was easily the best performance by the MNT since Klinsmann's takeover. Landon Donovan scored a blazing hat trick with his 47th, 48th, and 49th strike and then picked out Jermaine Jones with a beautifully calculated cross for the midfielder's goal.

Venky play foul in Blackburn takeover

After two years one still doesn't quite know why Venky's decided to takeover Blackburn. The one thing that has been established unequivocally is that they did not do it because they loved football. The other imperative of raising the company's profile internationally by investing in a brand is also not being borne out by their step sisterly treatment of Rovers.