Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke addressed the club’s AGM today and spoke about his involvement with the club. As the Chief Excecutive, Ivan Gazidis, and Chairman, Peter Hill-Wood stressed the club would continue its self-sustainable model, Kroenke revealed the process which brought about his association with Arsenal.
“We are involved extensively in sports in the United States”, he said “and had lots of opportunities to involve ourselves in lots of clubs around Europe and in the Premier League. We did not have an interest, but as we became involved with Arsenal in a commercial undertaking in Denver, I became more interested.
“What a wonderful club. Arsenal has all the elements that you need to have success in this kind of business. Tremendous management at the top, a wonderful manager on the pitch who makes great decisions in regard to personnel, and a tremendous following with the supporters.
“With all those things in place, it was an easy decision for us to get more involved. We are glad to be here, are happy with the direction of the club and are here for the long term – we love London, you had better get used to seeing us, because we will be around.”
There was some reported discontent from the floor when asked why Red and White holdings, owned by Alisher Usmanov, were not being given a place on the board. Hill-Wood said, “We don’t wish to change the constitution of the board”, and when you consider that Danny Fiszman was the driving force in ensuring that it was Kroenke, rather than the Uzbek that took control after his death, it’s understandable.
Quite why Red and White are portrayed as knights in shining armour is hard to fathom but clearly they had supporters at the meeting today.
A fuller AGM report will be posted later this afternoon.
Usmanov > Kroenke.
In fairness, Usmanov does have a larger body mass than Kroenke does.
Really? What successful sports teams does Usamov own?
What successful sports teams does Kroenke own?
the credulity of people who believe that man utd supporting usmanov wants to spunk money at arsenal like some kind of porn fire hydrant is worrying
Definite case of grass is greener
money is greener, surely?
Nothing much new there then. They could of just given a statement to the press for that.
No matter how you look at it, it does seem ridiculous that we have 2 of the most richest men in the world owning the club, but we struggle financially just to keep our best players.
Yes I understand, ‘self sustaining’, but if we want to continue to be a force as they state, then we are going to have to invest some top money soon or face being out of the top 4 in the near future.
Anton, you have a point there mate.
They could definitely get some top players in (and as well keep the ones we already have) and still operate the ‘self sustaining model’…bla bla bla
sorry to tell you lord macho but top players cost money – and lots of it – which rather torpedoes your theory that you can operate a self sustaining model in which you ignore expenditure
spending the surplus raised from transfers this year *in one go* would also fuck it, unless you decide that you’re going to maintain that level of income through… player sales!
if some of that surplus goes on RVP’s salary then we probably won’t mind and it’ll amortise over the length of his contract etc etc and so on.
meh
Well, the obvious solution is to spend what we have – around £60m. Perhaps if that had been spent on some better players we’d have had some more success which earns more money but also makes players less inclined to leave.
Better management of what we have seems preferable to anything else, in my opinion.
Billionaires aren’t billionaires because they give money away for free.
But in the case of some other clubs, their owners give money away because they are billionares. Mind you, I fully agree with what you are saying.
go Arseblog!
The money available also needs to be used on wages and signing-on fees. It’s not actually that much money when you work it all out
To be fair, we’ve also taken Fabregas, Clichy and Nasri off the books, Fab being our biggest earner for a while, so there’s definatley space for more players. We’ll also soon right off Almunia, I think Denilson’s wages are being covered by his club, don’t know whether we’ll sell Bendtner or not but Sunderland are almost certainly covering that. So we’ll either sell him for I’d guess around £5-10M depending on his season or keep him and hopefully sell Chamakh. Chamakh’s still got a reputation in France, so while we probably won’t get him for Millions, they’ll be some cash… Read more »
did PHW give an exclusive quote to the Daily Star about Usmanov, saying “we don’t need his sort here”?
deja vu and all that
The only thing Hill-Wood wants is for Hill-Wood to stay as Chairman until the day he croaks. He really does have a nerve to say we want to keep the current Board’s composition. Before Kronke took control, Hill-Wood kept telling us how great it was that we had multi ownership with several large shareholders. Now we are asked to worship at the feet of a man he openly derided when the Yank purchased Granada’s shareholding and said “we don’t want his sort round here”. The stench of self serving hypocracy from H-W beggars belief. You’d need a brass neck the… Read more »
PHW invented hypocrisy!
Which in itself is an achievement, but why does he have to be our chairman?
The guys as old skool as it gets.
Who cares! Me I cant shout o, Kroenke shud make sure Arsenal wins at least a trophy b4 2014 world cup in Brazil or else………………..
Usmaov can’t be any worse than the greedy scum c*nuts we’ve currently got running the club at the moment…
“We’re skint at the moment… So we’re sticking the prices up 6.5%… Don’t like it? TOUGH!…
By the way… Bonus all around for us!!!”
usmanov/kroenke whats the difference? all will run the club in the same “self-sustaining” model imo – Usmanov might initiate the taking of dividends, Kroenke it seems hasnt so far. so all seems to be running in a sensible non-championship manager/fantasy football way if you ask me.
These guys are involved because they are first and foremost businessmen. They came here to ‘make’ money, not ‘donate’ it. Yes, there’s the ‘speculate to accumulate’ debate but have Chelsea run at a profit since RA took over? Will City ever make their money back? I very much doubt it… You cant expect the owner of the company to cough up his own personal money year after year, the business needs to run itself. Could however have coughed up a 60 million quid bridging loan at the start of the summer and Arsenal could have replaced Nasri & Cesc earlier,… Read more »
Anyone who really thinks Usmanov could be Arsenal’s saviour is seriously deluded. And while I understand some people’s frustration that we’re not spending the appropriate levels of transfer money stroke wages – whatever the answer is, it’s not Alisher Usmanov.
It’s got nothing to do with the fact he’s a big yellow Vogon. It’s his track record. It’s who he is. It’s what he’ll do to the club given half the chance.
Vogons destroy things for fun (and their poetry is crap too).
“With all those things in place, it was an easy decision for us to get more involved. We are glad to be here, are happy with the direction of the club and are here for the long term – we love London, you had better get used to seeing us, because we will be around.” Well Chee-Whiz Stan that’s just hunky dory. Anyone might think someone once said “we don’t want your sort round here.” As for those scoundrels Red and White Holdings getting a place on the Board ! The very nerve of the idea. Anyone would think they… Read more »
This summer was a embarrssin shambles lets see what happens in January, hopefully we will handle things better and have learnt the lessons, arsene and the players have dug us out the whole the board put us in with the summer dealings and with the
Millions in the bank for possible signings in January il reserve my judgement on the board until then. We need signings to push on let’s see if the board agrees or just want to bank the money.
Lol, January signings??? thats laughable.
We wont sign anyone! You should know this by now.
Like someone says earlier “we have two richest men running the club and still struggle financially” makes me wonder, what on earth do we use THEIR billions for?
We don’t but you don’t become a billionaire by throwing money around.
All loans have been paid off and now it’s just the stadium that needs sorting with new sponsorship deals available at the end of 2012. The financial situation will be finalised by the end of net year and then Wenger will reap the rewards of his own ability to keep us competitive while making sure we clear debts ASAP.
Usmanov may not be the answer however, if you google the supporters blogs for the other Kroenke Inc. franchises (Broncos, Rams, nuggets etc) they are all Mid table dross… Profitable but average performers… Rams were NFL champions when he took over & now look at em’…. As I said before, Usmanov is not the answer however, I do know that he was an Arsenal supporter and went to quite a few games while he was a student in London…. also, he was regularly at matches for years before all this takeover mlarky started… Just coz he’s a Russian Oligarch don’t… Read more »
Can I ask how you know he was a Arsenal supporter?
Seems to be a few conflicting stories about this (stories about his office being full of ManU gear).
Years ago, during the Viera days, just when the rumors about a Russian investing in a london club were just starting, there was an interview with the fat uzbeki cunt on Russian tv after a game at highbury that my mate Boris kindly translated… Yes, i was in moscow at the time… It was in that interview that he mentioned watching the arsenal as a student…. Oh, and he denied being the Oligarch the rumors were about.
I wonder who Ian wright and George graham sold their shares to? I don’t think a major shareholder should be denied a place on the board on democratic grounds, but the people who sold shares to someone as questionable as Usmanonov clearly only had lining their own pockets as a motive.
At £15,000 per share…. Ian Wright and George Graham must have need for the money
we have only one saviour – and he carries no 13
I thought the idea in business was to (if you wanted growth and successful turnovers) actually invest in your investment in order to grow the business?
If we invested in our ‘project’ with a bit more ambition with what we had, we wouldn’t be trying to blood in 6 or 7 new players after 2 of our best have just fucked off, just to keep up with where we were, which was considered at the time, not even good enough then.
@manbearpig ya can’t say that on here mate they love the American and hate the russian. If this summers shambles is how he is happy to run our club then it ain’t a good start. Not saying the Russian is the answer but am sure this American isn’t either.
Neither are particularly appealing, but it seems the moment anyone slag’s off Kroenke, people automatically assume you want to see Usmanov in place which is an idiotic bit of conclusion jumping. Personally I don;t care for either, this summer was a complete cunt fest for Arsenal fans and Kroenke and Gazidis over saw it and have not even come close to admitting they would of done things differently. Usmanov comes across as a particularly unappealing character also so it’s a case of “between a rock and a hard place”. I just wish those that are so pro Kroenke wouldn’t be… Read more »
Usmanov may not be a Knight in shining armour but it’s borderline criminal that someone who owns almost 30% of a club, business, or anything is denied a say as to what happens to his considerable share of an investment. The “constitution of the board” is the most pompous thing I’ve heard in quite some time and whether or not it was Fiszman’s dying wish that Usmanov be excluded doesn’t make it right. If anyone here owned that much of the club and got shafted by the board because it was a dead mans wish, you’d cry foul – I… Read more »
I am not a Kroenke supporter but I find this comparison of Arsenal to his teams in the US quite ridiculous. It is more like apples and oranges than anything really because as some others have mentioned, in their leagues it is quite hard to win 2 trophies in a row let alone keep winning it every other year!! The transfer system is basically a lottery with the team that does worst getting to pick first amongst all the available players for the next season, kind of like allowing West Ham to sign Fabregas and Blackpool to get Chamberlain. There… Read more »
Dude… Point well made about new signings, however the Rams had a NFL winning squad & under the ownership of Kroenke Inc. they sold off their best players…. wages might be capped, but transfers ain’t! Just look at the green bay packers… No vampire attached to the club, Wholly owned by the fans and have won the most NFL titles. The Dallas mavericks, owned by Mark Cuban who is more interested in on field success and they won the title last season. Yes, the way the teams are run are apples & oranges but the way the teat is milked… Read more »
Oh and I forgot to point out, I agree with your views on why Red and White should be given a chance to be part of the board but at the same time if they’re not being allowed to participate AND are not crying foul as you would assume they should be, then maybe they’re not really all that interested to be involved in the first place other than make provocative noises when the club seems down. Or maybe they will cry foul and they have every right to do so. Just my views on the topic, good to be… Read more »
ManBearPig – agreed mate, nothing to suggest that Kroenke is an angel or a saviour of any sort but I still think that none of his teams in the US had any sort of history comparable in any way to ours. In many ways I think the problem is the fact that Kroenke is rich and can invest if he chose to. The fans are no doubt annoyed that this guy has the money and can pump it into the club, but won’t and so the fat Uzbek seems an attractive alternative (notwithstanding all his perceived flaws). I wonder if… Read more »
I don’t know who is more naive, the people who think that Kroenke has Arsenal’s best interests at heart, just because he hasn’t a criminal record, is western and all the so-called above boardness that comes along with it or the people that think that Usmanov would immediately plough millions into the club if he had full ownership. I’d say both are fairly questionable. I’m surprised that no one asks key questions like, ‘why have they even bought into the club?’ ‘What do they stand to gain?’ They are fantastically rich business men, who wouldn’t invest any of their lucre… Read more »
He may own loads of different sport teams but i wouldn’t go and say they are successful, least not for the past few years. Nuggest have won nothing in their history, Avalanche have not won anything in over 10 years, the only team to have won anything under him is Rapids who won MLS cup 2010. Where he goes does not mean success follows.
Not true. All of his teams have won a championship while he was an owner except for the Nuggets.That includes Arena league and Lacrosse teams. In the US, just winning one championship is a huge deal. The structure of the leagues promote parity and make it difficult for any team to sustain success. In the NBA, success usually comes down to having the superstar of the league, coupled with another star player. Said superstar/star pairing almost always includes one particular position. How is that player acquired? A player like that comes along once every 5 years or so. You have… Read more »
You make very valid points and have put it across very well. Being somewhat familiar with the MLS and therefore the franchise system, I have to agree with most things you say. I find it absolutely ridiculous that people claim Kroenke knows nothing about football and yet then question his record in sports and leagues they don’t know much about themselves. In the US it is awfully hard for any team to win their respective championship two seasons in a row let alone consistently achieve that level over a decade. While not impossible, very few teams have sustained that level… Read more »
On a dark wet winter’s night in S***** High Street with both Kroenke and The Owl coming towards me. I am alone and cornered on this dark road of despair … what can I do…well I would go towards the one with more hair…. Oops No can do because I discover Stan is wearing a rug… so what should I do now….RUN Girl RUN
Lemmiwinks – spot on mate absolutely spot on.
What really irks me is that only Blogs here has any reason not to like Usmanov so it justifies the subjectivity. The others though?
Can I just say as well that Usmanov has never said that he’ll throw money aroundd but he has said he believes that you must speculate to accumulate.
I do agree also with blogs that perhaps we need better management of our transfer kitty which up to press has been managed terribly.
Wenger talked about being United, whilst unfortunately at the same time the Board aren’t exactly showing that when it comes to Usmanov having a seat and working together……. Pity that Kroenke didn’t go into how he actually got interested through his contact with Dein – doesn’t seem as if any respect is paid to him whatsoever. Glad Wenger got some applause though, even if price hikes do seem a punishment when, not just players are getting higher salaries, but where 7mil goes to the manager and bonuses all round for the rest of the executive team!
[…] Arsenal’s AGM took place yesterday, and owner Stan took the stand to address the fans, and to clearly disgruntled fans who want the American out, he reassures he will be around to be that thorn in your skin. […]