Alisher Usmanov says he’s happy that Arsene Wenger has signed a two year contract extension with the club, but has urged Stan Kroenke and the board to fully back the manager over the coming seasons.
The club’s second largest shareholder, who had a bid turned down for Kroenke’s shares earlier this month, appears to be putting some pressure on the American to dip into his own pockets to help fund summer purchases of star players.
He also reiterated his desire to contribute to the club from which, at the moment, he remains frozen out of despite his 30.04% shareholding.
“I am pleased that Arsene Wenger will continue to manage Arsenal for the next two years as he is one of the very best coaches in Europe.
“What is now of paramount importance is that he receives the full support of the board and majority shareholder.
“He has a great opportunity to deliver the success that the fans deserve and the legacy that his long contribution merits.
“However without the right support there remains a real risk that his legacy will be tarnished.
“If the support is not forthcoming, we stand ready to step in and do everything we can to deliver success on and off the field.”
Earlier, Stan Kroenke said, “Our ambition is to win the Premier League and other major trophies in Europe. It’s what the fans, players, staff, manager and board expect and we won’t rest until that is achieved.
“Arsene is the best person to help us make that happen. He has a fantastic track record and has our full backing.”
While Wenger spoke about the need to trim his squad and add ‘top top quality’ to it. It’s stuff we’ve heard before, so let’s see if there’s more to all this than talking a good game.
I like that from Usmanov!
Was he wearing a blue scarf during that interview?
can we all just skip to august 8 for community shield?
Inasmuch as Usmanov seems like a questionable character, I don’t really see how much different he is from someone like Abramovic and I don’t think there’s an Arsenal fan out there who wouldn’t trade our trophy cabinet from the last ten years. Usmanov might also see Arsenal as a cash cow but at least he sees it as a cash cow that he can milk only by feeding it the grass of consistent success.
“Inasmuch as Usmanov”
Beautiful.
Does he? In what way has he shown that? With the millions he has invested in the club? By the way, when the club was apparently skint he dipped into his pockets to buy us a centre half when we had Sylvester and Senderos in the starting line up? He’s exactly the same as Kroenke. All talk.
“The same as Kroenke, all talk”. Hah!
Haha actually I didn’t pick the best phrase there did I?
I like the way an anti Usmanov comment is getting the thumb downs. THAT’S how bad it’s got being a gooner!!
Have you ever, ever had a look at what a kind of guy/type Usmanonov is? do you really think he is some kind of angel? he was a known ManU´fan´ before he invested in Arsenal-shares. He invested nothing into the team or else.
Correct me if I’m wrong here and this is not me defending usmanov, but I don’t think he could’ve invested in the team even if he wanted to as he is not a board member. Currently player acquisition can happen only through funds generated by the club. And for that policy to change usmanov needs to have a seat on the board. And even then a change in policy needs to be approved by the board.
He was ready to invest but Kroenke wouldn’t allow that.
I wouldn’t trade our trophy cabinet from the last decade against chelseas because it would mean I’d also have to sell my soul and I’m rather unsuccessful and stand by my values than sell my soul for a few trophies. If you really would want someone like Abramovic at Arsenal I don’t er why you support this club in the first place? Just because you think red kits are more beautiful than blue ones?
Don’t get why*
Usmanov is perhaps the only force pressuring the board into action. He may be doing it for selfish reasons, but at least he’s applying some pressure. Personally I think it’d be great if Gazidis, Law, and Wenger did the same….
I hope Wenger gets the support and encouragement that he needs to identify and sign quality additions as soon as possible, so they can be bedded in and adapt to the type of game we play. I know a few supporters scoffed at our Top 4 ‘trophy’ and while aiming for 4th is not real ambition, the fact that we were playing Champions League regularly meant we didn’t have to pay stupid wages and transfer fees (a la Man utd). We’re going to have to pay slightly more than what Wenger likes to pay for players, but that is just… Read more »
Definitely read Kroenke’s statement as: “Arsene is the best person to help us make that happen. He has a fantastic track record and has our bull fucking.” I thought our board didn’t function well in their meetings, but I didn’t think they were that far off the rocker.
He doesn’t need support. He does perfectly well buying HOlding, Mustafi, Granit, cech, Santi, Koscielny, Monreal, the Jeff etc etc. Usamov talking out of his arse to pander to his all too willing (and frankly gullible) audience. What Wenger needs is a gentle kick up the arse, a reminder coaxing him to finish his potentially last two seasons big without being too conservative in market. He needs to be told to shed his projects a little. This whole Little Britain core does not need further mollycoddling (sounds perverse…) He has Holding, Welbeck, Ramsey, Chambers, Ox even if we should get… Read more »
Arsenal have not won the title for 13 years. We haven’t gotten to the final of the ucl since 2006. Liverpool, Chelsea, Leicester have won the league and ucl. So I don’t understand you constantly trying to hype up Wenger all the time. He hasn’t been perfect. We haven’t been improving for 3 seasons now.
Please tell me when Leicester won Champions League
Where did I say they’ve won the ucl?
Right here mate:
“Liverpool, Chelsea, Leicester have won the league and ucl.”
when did Liverpool win a title in the last 13 years?
They won the ucl in 2005. Do the math genius
KRONEKE OUT!
Let’s reserve judgement on that until the end of the transfer window?
Which transfer window? The one for the past few season?
I think if they mention there is 100m to spend, Wenger should be coaxed strongly to spend it. We don;t have to spend all of it since we will generate income from players sales and we may have to sell one key player plus shed plenty of weight in the squad. Ospina will leave possibly 10-15m, Walcott we should sell at maybe 20-25m (Italy? Milan?), Alexis or Ozil for 55-60m, peripheral sales of any of Debuchy, Jenko, Elneny, Jack, Lucas, Campbell, Sanogo, Asano for another 10m say conservative. That’s income of 95-100m Kolasinac if he should materialise is FREE. We… Read more »
Sell Elneny? Wtf?
The worst thing about all this, is that if the club don’t change as i suspect it wont then the atmosphere is going to get even more toxic than this season. Many feel he should have gone this time, some like me think his time was up a few years back and many like Blogs gradually came round to the fact he should have gone as the season evolved. If we don’t change and we lose Sanchez and don’t bring in the replacements or players promised but needed then he will lose even more fans that have been on the… Read more »
Connecting the recede of hostility to performance of the club isn’t a viable option for me because things have already been decided,whether you like or not AW is going to be here for the next couple of years if some of us resume hostility it means a deliberate attempt to wreck Wenger’s ship without noticing that they’re actually hurting the club those fan claim defending.
I think it is a collective responsibility that we all share any attemp to let personal issues prevail over common cause will mean disaster for all of us.
Kroenke: “he gets our full backing”. I thought he did actually, the way you wanted til after the fucking season finished to tell the fans who the manager will be when we start again in ten weeks.
The other thing is it makes no sense to say that kroenke is not ambitious just because his other franchises are ‘mediocre’. If anything as a businessman, the better our club does the more money to him. Why would he set limits? Its befuddling to say the least how people think. Whether he has sufficient control over Wenger is of course a different thing but we are dealing with no ordinary manager. This is a man who has built the club up both in terms of on field success, financially (Because we were not rich when Wenger took over) and… Read more »
People have been trying so hard to paint this guy as some demon, but it’s clearly not working. He’s not a saint, but he definitely loves the club. The same was said about Roman, but look how far Chelsea are. They are now a bigger club than we are.
I’d take him over Kroenke any day of the week.
City have bought 2 of their targets already. Just saying
They had nothing to do during the past week.
I’m not clear on why so many people dislike Usmanov. Is it his appearance? Rumours of his business background?
He’s watched Arsenal in person a multitude of times more than Kroenke has and has stayed with us when other investors would have gone. I say, give the guy a break and let him apply pressure to the board.
I want Wenger to stay but also want someone to twist Arsene’s arm into recruiting proven, significant talent and not just more potential.
I can’t speak for others but his business and political background is more than a little dodgy. Essentially, he’s not really very different to his friend Abramovich. If your question was serious, scroll down to controversies on his Wikipedia page and you’ll get a sense of why some are uncomfortable having him as primary shareholder.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alisher_Usmanov#Suppression_of_online_criticism
Some are definitely prepared to bend forward for Usmanov’s money.
This reads like empty PR talk – unless Usmanov is actually willing to put up some money for player purchase (which I doubt).
Usmanov wants control of Arsenal, that is all we can be sure of. Anyone who thinks he wants to throw money at the club is kidding themselves. He is not an Abramovich. He was interviewed on Football Focus and asked directly whether – if he was the owner – he would put his own money into Arsenal and he found himself unable to say yes. The owners of Arsenal do not fund the club, SK bought into a self-sustaining business. He took payment for “services” for a couple of years, but fan sentiment has forced him to forgo that. Usmanov… Read more »
Usmanov wants control of Arsenal, that is all we can be sure of. Anyone who thinks he wants to throw money at the club is kidding themselves. He is not an Abramovich. He was interviewed on Football Focus and asked directly whether – if he was the owner – he would put his own money into Arsenal and he found himself unable to say yes. The owners of Arsenal do not fund the club, SK bought into a self-sustaining business. He took payment for “services” for a couple of years, but fan sentiment has forced him to forgo that. Usmanov… Read more »
Actually, Usmanov offered to pay off Arsenal’s debt in 2009 and was blocked by the board.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/arsenal/5314550/Alisher-Usmanov-offers-to-pay-off-chunk-of-Arsenals-debt.html
Victoria Concordia Crescit my arse.
If they are serious about victory through harmony, then invite the man to the board and let him contribute.
There’s nothing harmonious about freezing out a 30% shareholder.
Should there be a campaign to get old Fat & Orange (how things change, eh) onto the board?