Stan Kroenke has made a bid to purchase Alisher Usmanov’s shareholding in Arsenal, an offer which is currently under consideration by the Russian business magnate.
Back in May the Financial Times reported that Alisher Usmanov had made a bid to purchase Stan Kroenke’s shareholding in Arsenal.
The billionaire, who currently holds a 30.04% stake, tabled a £1.3bn offer which the American rejected, reaffirming his desire to maintain his own 67% shareholding.
Now, Arseblog News understands that Kroenke has turned the tables, and approached Usmanov two weeks ago with a bid to purchase his shares, a move which would give him more than 97% of the shares in the club.
The two men are not friendly, but Usmanov knows he will never have a seat on the board or any influence at Arsenal while KSE remain in charge.
His former partner in Red & Holdings, Farhad Moshiri, purchased a 49.9% stake in Everton in 2016, and his USM Holdings company put pen to paper on a five year deal to sponsor the Merseyside club’s training ground.
As yet the 64 year old oligarch has not accepted the bid, and is holding out for improved terms. However, the temptation that he could sell and immediately reinvest into Everton, teaming up with Moshiri once again, is obvious.
In May we reported interest from a third party in purchasing the shareholdings of Kroenke which would have automatically led to a full bid. This consortium was privately backed but included people with a long history as Arsenal fans who were, and remain, concerned about the direction of the club under Kroenke’s stewardship.
Two bids were made, one as early as December last year, and one again in May following Usmanov’s bid. Both were far higher than Usmanov’s approach in May, but which were ignored by the American.
There was then consideration given to a purchase of the Umsanov’s shares but this would have been dependent on the consortium being given a seat on the board.
That idea was communicated in a friendly manner to Josh Kroenke, and Stan Kroenke’s legal representatives, but again given short shrift, meaning any purchaser of Usmanov’s shares would also find themselves shut out.
Perhaps fearing the 30% stake could be acquired by another party, the American has made his bid for Usmanov’s shares.
If Usmanov does sell, Kroenke would have total control over the club, and he can force the remaining small shareholders to sell to him and de-list the shares [source].
That would obviously be a very worrying development for Arsenal supporters who have seen the way KSE owned sports ‘franchises’ are operated in the USA, how they fail to achieve any real success and continue down a road of relentless mediocrity.
Arseblog News asked the Arsenal Supporter’s Trust what the implications might be should Usmanov decide to sell to Kroenke.
“The real concern is that he would take the club private,” said a spokesman, “in what’s called a squeeze out, by making a compulsory purchase of all shares.
“That would mean Arsenal would become a private company, with no AGM, no detailed accounts like we have now, all of which would reduce accountability.
“He would also have the option to register Arsenal in the United States, possibly Delaware where other KSE holdings are held.”
Although Kroenke has all the power now, him taking full control would be going down a road for this football club that would be very difficult to come back from.
Spend the money on the team!
If this guy ends up buying out Usmanov, then privatizing, there genuinely is more likelihood of Stan moving Arsenal out to America and making it an MLS franchise, then there is of Arsenal winning the Premier League ever again.
Like genuinely.
I believe that if this move made him a dollar more profits he will do it BUT EPL is too rich to abandon…
Dangote has vowed to put out and offer to all concern that will be too difficult to resist .
You guys should just relax. Be informed that Aliko Dangote African Richest man and one of the world’s wealthiest men has hinted of his desire to buy out The stakes of both korenke and Usmanov in 2019.
Never going to happen
Just because he has a few quid he thinks he can throw his money around and people will do his bidding.
Typical jumped up JOHNNY come lately Billionaire with ideas beyond his capacity
He’s not as rich as Usmanov
Part of the problem for him as only a main shareholder rather than having full 100% ownership, is that any money he put into the club which wasn’t proportionally matched by Usmanov is just increasing the value of usmanovs shareholding. If Kronke put in £1b and Usmanov put in nothing, effectively Kronke would be giving Usmanov £300m. Abramovich and the Mansoors wouldn’t have invested anywhere near as heavily in their clubs if they hadn’t owned the club outright. So although it initially sound worrying that Kronke wants to own it all, any other owner would want the same. Then we… Read more »
@Andy Mack: This is a great point. In fact, if Kroenke’s intention all along has been to de-list the company, the team’s underachievement in the past few years has been in his best interest – that share buy back is a lot cheaper now than it would be had we been winning the league or CL.
Having said that – I doubt Kroenke’s attitude towards investment in the team will ever change for the better.
T-Hairy, You may be correct about his club investment strategy but until he (or someone else) owns the club ‘pretty much’ outright, we won’t know anything for certain.
…but sticking with an owner that deliberately sabotaged our team in order to buy cheaply is not a comfortable feeling…
Did he?
How?
T Hairy just said. Refused to invest to improve the club. When something left OJ’s bad, it sells for cheap.
Coy… there have been a number of small shareholders at the club for some years. Have they invested anything more in the club since buying the shares? Does that make them bad owners?
I don’t like Kroenke but there’s mothing he’s done (or hasn’t done) that make him a bad owner for us… yet.
He’s investing heavily in the Rams for a new stadium…
Stop talking nonsense – we do know for certain by 1) Looking at how he treats the clubs he owns in the US. 2) He even stops Arsenal spending their own money at the moment, to benefit his own interests, and it was only Usmanov who stopped the barsteward taking 4 million a year from Arsenal accounts for doing nothing, meanwhile a week ago he has spent 750 million on yet another Texan ranch, which he clearly needs more than Arsenal need any investment. Anyone who thinks it is a good idea having an American in control of any EPL… Read more »
They have got Bad yanks at Liverpool also.
Kroenke is hated in America by supporters of his sports club. Get rid of Kroenke.
gmv8,
1) He’s investing heavily in the rams.
2) How does he stop us spending club money?
I’m not sure Usmanov has any control over money Kroenke takes out, but bare in mind that Usmanov said quite clearly that if he was the owner then he’d want a dividend on his shares, and a dividend on an investment of thatsize would be a lot more than 4m…
Again. No.
Record turnover due to media rights would increase the value of the shares.
Andy Mack – you’re absolutely right in terms of how investment works. Kroenke and Usmanov were never going to agree to joint invest.
But the evidence from Kroenke’s other franchises strongly suggests he won’t be investing as sole owner either..
EZD, It does suggest he won’t be investing, but he’s never owned another PL football club before, so it’s still just a guess.
The same is true if he sells to the next multimillionaire as well…
Not if the money put in is in the form of a loan to the club.
The club doesn’t need loans. It’s got loads of cash. They don’t need to invest from their own pocket, just invest the money that’s sitting there already in the business.
Andy Mack your theory is probably right for most of the clubs. But none of the clubs owned fully or partially by kroenke has received any kind of investment for building the team . So in this case atleast he only wants to control the club fully rather than win somethingwith the team
Clins, you’re probably right but we won’t know this until he’s done it, and have no control over whether he does it or not.
Andy Mark by then it will too late for Arsenal fc and the fans if we listen to yourcomment. Kroenke is no football fan. He dont care if Arsenal wins nothing as long as he makes money out of Arsenal. Please stop Kroenke b4 its too late.
SO we get a different owner and we’re in the same situation of not knowing what will happen.
I don’t like him but he hasn’t done anything to warrant most of the negative comments against him.
That’s not how it works. Kroenke can inject money by having a rights issue where shareholders invest additional funds in the club proportional to their holdings. If Usmanov doesn’t participate, his stake simply gets diluted and Kroenke’s ownership % increases. Kroenke can also advance interest free loans to the club (similar to the Abrahamobic model). Many ways for Kroenke to have supported the club financially if he wanted to. He doesn’t intend to.
Firstly I have to say, Yes, as I said before, I think it’s unlikely he wants to invest in the club, but we don’t know this as a fact yet. The problem with a rights issue is that it puts even more shares out, so at a time when Stan wants less shares available to be traded, an issue would give the few small shareholders the chance to buy more shares when he wants to become the outright owner. Whilst not diluting his percentage ownership, it just muddies the waters more. I know that in a big PLC company a… Read more »
@Andy Mack. You sure are a die hard KSE fanatic after all these years of underachieving. It’s already clear for everyone to see what the true intention that Silent Stan wants. Believing blindly doesn’t make us a better fan. It might really be too late if what you ware hoping for doesn’t turn out true.
No I’m not. I don’t like him, but there aren’t many supporters of any team in the world that like their owners. He hasn’t done anything great for us, but equally he hasn’t done anything bad enough to warrant most of the BS comment on here.
He was ripping the club off to the turn of 4 million a year before Usmanov stopped him, you really think he won’t quadruple that, when he has no accountability???? What are you, a Kroenke stooge? The guy has just spent 750m on yet another ranch, that he doesn’t need, yet is still trying to rip ordinary people off, and you really think he won’t rip everything he can out of our club??
What the fuck has him using his money to buy another ranch got to do with AFC.
Do you keep an eye on what the owners of all the other clubs are spending their own money on?
If you won the mega lottery and could buy the club with billions left over, would you stop buying anything else?
I’ve silently watched the demise of my team over the past fifteen or so years. I’ve anguished over the Gunner’s inability to mount a really serious challenge to the ‘money’ teams, Man U, Chelski, and more recently, Citeh. We are now, in the era of Kroenke, an also-ran, reduced to competing for the crumbs that fortuitously fall into our hands. For the past many years, our best players have been snatched away from us by the ‘money’ teams. We have been ‘managed’ from Colorado by an owner who has absolutely no desire to infuse Arsenal – my boys – with… Read more »
@Andy Mack That’s a great point. The current situation is not good for both the owners. I think Kroenke’s are forcing Usmanov to do one of the two- 1. Make an offer to the Kroenkes that they can’t refuse i.e go all in on Arsenal or 2. Sell your stake and get out(There is no point in owning 30% if you can’t even sit on the board) The thing about point 1 is if Usmanov does go all in then Kroenke’s will at the very least get to know how much a potential buyer is willing to value the club… Read more »
@Andy Mack
As much as I completely agree with what you’re saying, unfortunately, you can clearly see from Stan’s other failing sports franchises State side, that him privatising Arsenal wouldn’t be for any other reason then to just do what he wants with them. As he see’s fit.
He literally moved an NFL team to another state because he saw that in LA he could make more money off of them of there.
Firstly, PL is not like USA sport. Football is a global game with lots more potential growth than any american sports. They’ve invested a lot in trying to gain interest in ‘American Footbal’ around the globe, with really very limited success. Real Football is already everywhere and will grow with the economy of every country that follows it. The Rams have changed locations a few times. Originally the Cleveland Rams, then LA Rams, then St Louis and finally back to LA. So he isn’t breaking new ground on this. Similarly it’s happened here with the MK dons but we’re much… Read more »
Why are you supporting this guy? He has been destroying Arsenal since he has had anything to do with it. We are now in a position where we will lose all our best players by the end of this season, and we are no longer seen as an an attractive club to come to. Meanwhile Kroenke has been fiddling about in the transfer window, something he knows nothing about, and refuses to employ anyone who does, and losing us money in the process. When he arrived, the Spuds were 100 miles behind us, now they are so far ahead, we… Read more »
No. You are wrong.
What you are referring to is a “rights issue”:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_issue
Rights issues can be dilutive and a few years back, Usmanov proposed doing one to give Arsenal a capital injection. Kroenke refused at that time. If any of the 3% had not opted for the rights offering and Usmanov had funded the difference, it would have increased his ownership.
You’re kidding yourself. Kroenke will not put any money into the club even with a 100% holding. Same as all his other franchises.
Although you’re probably right, we don’t know that as a fact.
I don’t like Stan but most of the bitching towards him is all about guessing rather than any facts.
Similarly if he sells then we don’t know what the next owner will do and whether it’ll be better or worse.
No it’s not, he is and was ripping Arsenal off until Usmanov stepped in. He so say owns the club, yet only turns up to a final in a year? He doesn’t even know EPL results week to week, the only results he is interested in are the yearly profits. I maybe wrong, but Usmanov turns up regularly to watch games, and I don’t think if he was in charge, that he would watch this cr@p week in, week out.
What other fact do you want to see other than looking at how he conducts himself with his other franchises? What makes you think he can change his conduct with arsenal and not the other franchises he owns in America? I mean man be realistic. Open your eyes!!
I guess you’re not aware that he’s investing more money in the Rams than he’d get for the sale of his shares of AFC…
That doesn’t mean he’s changing either…
But as long as the Thief Usmanov is a shareholder, I understand why he doesn’t want to does anything to increase the value of Usmanovs shares.
When he gets Usmanovs shares, then we can start really judging him.
Open your eyes!!
Hypothetically speaking you are correct, but we all know that Kroenke isn’t investing shit into the club. He never has and never will, at least if he privatizes Arsenal he won’t have to release financial statements so he can take all the “consultation fees” he’d like without anyone questioning him. That mug!
That’s true, he may do. But do you think Usmanov or any other sole owner definately wouldn’t do the same?
So we’re either stuck with it all as it is now, or it changes for the better or the worse…
I don’t think what you’ve said is right. As I understand, every big decision is currently down to Kroenke, with Usmanov not even having a seat on the board. Kroenke has majority voting rights so whatever he says goes. If kroenke invests any money, he simply continues not to issue dividends, So usmanov can’t get at any of it. If Kroenke chooses to sell his 70% shares, the stock market rules say the buyer has to also bid for the whole club ( because the bid is for over 30% of the club ). Usmanov would have to sell, whether… Read more »
If Kronke invests in the club then the club shares increase.
That includes Usmanovs shares.
Usmanov and Kroenke have a strong rivalry, and whilst Usmanove may accept 5k per share if the market value is 2.5k, why would Kronke increase the share value by investing so that the market value becomes 5k and he’d have to pay 7.5k for each of Usmanovs shares.
Have seen Kroenke’s other sports club in America? They never won anything, the is not interested in his sports clubs winning anything all he cres about is making money. The fans mean nothing tohim apart from the being stupid cash cows. Ask the American fans of his sportss club if he owns the club Arsenal is doomed as a football club, please Usmanov do not sell your shares.
he thinks the team is ok as it is
I think it’s inevitable Usmanov sells.
We’re fu**ed
If he sells to Kronke, then Kronke will bleed us dry. We are buggered, well and truly.
Well were fuc??? as you’re saying what to do about it. And how to stop it. Anyone else have Ideas.
So, the plan has to be along the lines of:
0 Arsenal fans set up new football team (Re-Arsenal or New Arsenal)
1 KSE move Arsenal to MLS.
2 New Arsenal buy KSE’s assets in England (stadium, training ground, etc) and start the long process of coming back to the Premier League.
Likelihood = 0
AFC be well and trully f*cked
Convince the UK government to put a 250% annual excise on all American money invested into shares in the UK. Just like they did with Bombadier.
So basically you think they’d try to do what happened with Wimbledon and Milton Keynes. Would they also lose the vast majority of their support and try building it up again over many years the way MKdons is doing it?
Our best hope is for a Kroenke tragedy where they all suffer from spontaneous human combustion
or they can depart like in the leftovers all kreonkes
Oddly enough, this is true.
Due to the inheritance tax in the US, Kroenke dying could cause a tax burden to Josh depending on how they have their assets set up (e.g. a trust) and force the inheritors to sell things. No way to know the specifics of how they are set up.
However, if Trump and the Republican party are successful in removing the inheritance tax (something they have been wanting to do for ages), we are back to being fucked.
There’s no inheritance tax in certain states already–why so many people move to Florida to retire. Jersey and Washington are also similar in this regard. Inheritance tax isn’t a federal matter, so technically Trump shouldn’t have any authority to remove it–he can always pressure the tax with Federal payouts for highways and the like though. ARGH. And I don’t think Kroenke is so stupid to make a cross-Atlantic shift. I do think he is attracted to the idea of ‘collecting’ franchises in major metropolises. Perhaps St. Louis was a boyhood fantasy, replaced with the greenback producing LA in his adult… Read more »
Perhaps I used the wrong wording for you.
I’m referring to federal estate tax, which would be 40% of the assets in the Kroenke situation.
When Kroenke was a boy they were the LA Rams.
Flamini help us
I can see it now. The first sentence of his 2022 bestselling autobiography (I Came, I Flam’ed, I Conquered). “Before I saved the world, I had to save The Arsenal…”
So much for the two of them ‘never doing business’. If this happens, God help this fucking club. brb killing self.
If this happens, we are screwed. Forget about ever winning the league or even making the top 4. Wenger is guaranteed to be here for another 10 years if this is true.
Please God, don’t let this happen. Please!!
It makes absolute sense for all parties (except the fans of course), so horrifically it will happen. Fair play to Kroenke – he saw an opportunity to buy a business that is a global brand and milk it dry. Imagine a business where you can treat your customers like shit and still make money.
We’re basically Ryanair.
So that’s why Stan looks like he’s wearing a toupe and a stuck-on moustache – he’s just Michael O’Leary in disguise!
Wenger staying another 10 years wouldn’t be as bad as you and others are making out to be.
We are going to cry for him once he leaves. There is no one in the current setup of the same ilk. Both as a person and as a manager.
Pretty sure there are way better managers than Arsene Wenger out there. And what’s him being a good person have to do with anything. The only criteria he should be judged by is managing, not being a good person. Arsenal is a football club not a charity.
This ^^^^^^??????
There may be way better managers out there, no disputing that fact. What is also a fact is that they will be more tempted to go to clubs where the board and owners are more interested in winning trophies than turning a profit. With the current owner and board philosophy Wenger is as good a manger as we’ll get unless we get a manager that will use us a type of stepping stone. However, that will still not guarantee us any trophies. We’ll be a club where managers prove that they can win trophies if they get money to buy… Read more »
‘Pretty sure’…
Might be better manager’s out there but they won’t be coming to Arsenal. We’ll have our pick between Division 3 Tony Pulis or Sam Allardyce.
Not doubting the availability of other managers, but would a Kroenke owned Arsenal hire them?
Wenger would let them continue auto piloting Arsenal and they can own a zillion dollar club without any of the trouble of running it.
Well, there’s Ancelotti for starters!
Well Wenger signed 2 year deal this summer. Highly doubt that Ancelotti would like to wait for 2 years.
arsenal fans need to grow a set of balls and stop going to games and buying goods from this club if that cunt takes over.this is arsenal football club not fucking kroenke football club
I think Kroenke has an eye on the guy from Africa, most people dismiss him as a bit of a dreamer, but fuck me he’s got some money behind him, and he has every intention of buying silent Stan out, but agree with previous comment, if Usmanov sell to Stan, we’re probably fu*ked.
Dangote has the cash, in excess, and has always been a vocal supporter of the Arsenal. Kroenke has never been.
Does he have cash cash though?
Yeah he does and more than Kreonke recently opened oil refinery in Nigeria I think . Me thinks Kreonke getting nervous.
Ndeipi Inini Zvangu.
Maybe if Stan owns the club outright, he will show some balls. But history does not strike any of us with confidence at the moment.
Usmanov should contact this African billionaire and form a take over consortium and put the Kreonke,s under pressure.
Why would Usmanov do that when he can afford to take over the club on his own?
Why do you think Usmanov and/or Dangote would be a better owner than Stan?
For sure American like less football….compealing to other game especialy basketball…take a look on clubs own by asian pple…do well because they love football .and they do not rely on profite but on wellfr of there clubs.
Lots of clubs owned by Asian people that aren’t successful, as well as the successful ones.
I’m not having a go at you, but I find it weird that people are referred to as being African. We don’t seem to do that with other continents – I don’t get it. Especially as Africa has such massive differences between ethnicities across the continent. I find the phrase ‘African American’ a strange one, for example. Nobody who was a Moroccan American would be called ‘African American’. We all know he’s from Nigeria, so why does he get referred to as African? Again, not criticising you, I just think it’s a bit of a weird quirk of how we… Read more »
I agree, however the Uzbeki Usmanov is usually referred to as the Russian…
Yes but he’s not referred to as “The European”. We refer the country not the continent of Europe. Africa is a continent not a country. That’s what he’s getting at. It is indeed a weird quirk.
Yes.
Not good news.
We are caught between the rock and hard place!
This is where except probably Dean, the earlier shareholders eyed the money and not the legacy of the club. Even Dean necessarily didn’t sell to the right stakeholder but the intentions were in the right direction.
Who is he going to loan the money from this time.?
Then use the Arsenal as his cash cow for his American franchises.
He may do the same as ManU owners have done.
Has it cause them such a big problem?
I’ve never understood why dein is still held in such high regard by fans. I think all of our current issues can be traced back to him. Dein made the first moves to break the plural ownership at the club by bringing in kroenke behind the board’s back. Not content with that he then sold up to usmanov and guaranteed the empasse we see at board level now with two unwanted billionaires. Great football executive mind he may have been, but it’s hard to look beyond his self serving actions and not see them as the route cause of all… Read more »
Or maybe Kroenke simply adapted once Dein departed. If Dein had remained on the board, it probably wouldn’t have played out like this. Gazidis is just a puppet and Wenger is drunk on power. There’s nobody there willing to make the big calls, pushing Kroenke/Wenger or showing the sort of ambition Dein would have.
You can choose to like a person on all the good that he/she has done or you can focus ok little bad they have done and brandish them so, based on that.
Hindsight is an amazing thing, it gives perennial doubters amazing confidence.
Unfortunately, I agree. During his time at the club, Dein was a major player and behind much of our success. But his manner of leaving was a disaster.
*Dein
This is revisionist, Dean originally wanted Kroenke to have significant involvement. This lead to the animosity between him and the rest of the board, ending with Dean out and joining up with Usmanov. Ironically, the rest of the board then required Kroenke’s involvment to keep Usmanov at bay.
Oh sweet everything that is holy no…
This is genuinely the most harrowing Arsenal news I’ve read in a long while.
so not only would Arsenal become a brass plaque registered in a tax haven, but the money used to make that happen – hundreds of £m – would potentially go into helping to strengthen Everton. It’s a shit sandwich where the shit filling has bread made out of poo.
Have any of the other money owners moved their clubs to ‘Brass Plaque’ tax havens? I don’t think so, but they would pretty much all have done it if they could.
I’d guess there’s something in the PL/FA rules that doesn’t allow it.
Google, Facebook, Amazon are all expecting to come in and compete for worldwide TV rights.
Money in the game is going nowhere.
Kroenke can see where it’s going.
Usmanov will see where it’s going.
It’s inevitable Usmanov sells if he can’t budge Kroenke.
Because he can rule the roost at Everton or whatever club he chooses to buy.
We’re screwed.
I know we (the fans) always say the club is bigger than whatever the current ‘crisis is – but I genuinely worry something like Kroenke taking the club private could be the beginning of the end for Arsenal.
Is the possibility of a Phoenix club on the horizon?!
Well, Newcastle is privately owned. It doesn’t mean Ashley wouldn’t sell at the right price. Maybe Stan is trying to manouvre Usmanov into making a better offer.
Most clubs are privately owned…
I was in such a good mood as well…
Does Kroenke even realise that every Arsene fan out there despise him to the core?
If I were him, I would have actually felt extremely ashamed of myself and would have walked away from the club with atleast a little dignity intact.
This is beyond despicable.
There’s far too much money involved for this cretin to walk away.
Protest all we want.
He has one motive and that motive is to bleed his investment dry
But shouldn’t we at least speak up? It’s so pathetic to fly planes over the Wenger discourse and do nothing but sing a little song once about this issue.
a few protested about wenger, but the rest were to scared to, so I don’t think the fans will
Wenger isn’t the chief problem, it’s Kroenke, not Wenger. In fact, Wenger has done something I doubt any other manager alive or dead could have done, keep Arsenal in the top four for over 20 years. No other manager or club in the premier league (or anywhere else I imagine) has been able to achieve such an amazing feat, and on top of that, he put together and managed a team that went undefeated for 49 games, truly amazing. Step back and let that sink in for a bit. Everyone wants instant success, they want Wenger to produce another miracle… Read more »
When Peter Hill Wood and David Devin asked Wenger dome years ago what he would do if they gave him 100 million to spend, his answer was “I’d give it back to you”
That is Mr Smart Arse, Arsene Wenger.
Totally agreed that it is all about money and nothing else for that money mongrel.
Actually today I did come across an article in one of the newspapers which said Usmanov is about to come back with a bid of around 2 bn to acquire korenke’s shares.
To be coming across two extremely contrasting piece of information on the same day is actually quite surprising.
kroenke don’t give a fuck
Indian Gooner, anyone that understands finance doesn’t despise Kronke but does hate the present Kronke/Usmanov situation. They may not like and may not trust Kronke (the same goes for Usmanov) but until he becomes the outright owner it’s only emotion rather than justified/factual hatred.
History suggests he’ll be a poor owner but until it happens at AFC, that’s just a guess…
Yeah I think I read a review of the financial site of the Club by one of the big Financial Magazines (can’t remember which one) who where pointing this out. That it’s bad for business to have the ownership split like this – especially if the parties are ad odds with each other. Which is why I (who doesn’t understand much about the financial side of things) always felt like there is no use in opposing Kroenke in any way. I still can’t help to get my hopes up about the mentioned “third party” though. Like imagine a major player… Read more »
I was actually about to say Arsenal fan out there in my initial comment. Just realised I instead wrote Arsene. Ironic in a way.
But I would love to see what Arsene really could do with the change of Manager? Has Kroenke been hiding behind the great man’s back? We would be able to figure out a lot.
Owner* . Friday night my hands are shivering.
Not that I’m that naive to think we can really stop this from happening but… now that I know there’s an actual alternative to Stan… Are there any plans to protest against Kroenke? And at least make him feel a little uncomfortable? Because I can’t stand the thought of just looking on.
Especially taking into consideration there have been flying planes over Wenger in/ out and this is very much A LOT of a bigger deal.
Which alternative to Stan do you suggest?
Well there is talk of a “third party”. And there seem to be Arsenal fans involved in this “consortium” if I read this article right. I’m aware that I know very little about them but apparently they are in a position to make a bid. So maybe I’m a little naive here because I’m upset about the news – but I’d at least like to know more about them. Or have gotten some information about them after their second bit in May. Because to be honest from where I stand I can’t judge if Kroenke or Usmanov are the lesser… Read more »
At every club there are always rumours of consortiums of fans (with former players being involved) wanting to take over, but these things rarely follow through even when a club has financial problems.
So them raising enough money for a club which isn’t in financial problems will be a ‘unicorn’ event (maybe not quite that rare but still very very rare… 😀 )
We live in hope (and die in despair)…
Well if they’re able to make a higher bid for Kroenke’s shares than Usmanov they seem to have quite some money though… Which I would have thought to fall into the “unicorn” category. But I don’t think arseblog made the thing with the bids up so…
Setting up a consortium is easy to get a rough agreement for, but when it comes to signing paperwork and depositing funds (or supplying legal guarantees of the money) to make it legal, it’s really really difficult.
I’d like this to be something that happens but it’ll be one of the extreme minority if it does.
There’s a national “Day of Action” sometime in October. Maybe we should throw a few banners together and join in.
We are f’d if this goes through.
lol, wear fucked now
It this news were true,the US guy would treat Arsenal as a cash cow judging by his record.Then Arsenal will become just another London club.
But he aint dumb. Arsenal is apremium brand.
The end is near
The only hope is that syrup is simply holding out till he gets a big enough offer so he can buy his true love ” the Rams”which by all accounts is going to cost him north of 2 billion & having all of afc obviously gives him more collateral to barter with.
He already owns the Rams!
He already owns the RAMS.
He’s building them a new stadium which will cost over $2billion (probably $3billion).
The Glaziers have used a portion of their ManU shares as collateral for a number of loans since they’ve owned the club.
I will give Kroenke a chance after we find a new manager to see what really happened in this club
Shit the bed
While I agree on the footballing destruction, Kroenke will not destroy the club financially unless he decides to buy something else at the expense of Arsenal. At the end of the day, it is his investment and he is a businessman. He will position the club where the risk-free money is and that isn’t exactly where you win the titles in modern game. The best reason for this bid are probably asset appreciation before a sale while at the same time, taking the club private so that if the sale doesn’t work out, no one asks him how much he… Read more »
Was your last sentence supposed to be satirical or just unfortunate?
No one else think ending the post with “No!” made it read like a Donald Trump tweet, then?
Well that was a fucking depressing read.
But not at all surprising.
Whether he becomes a pvt investor or otherwise, doesn’t matter. If you want Kroenke out, stop buying merch and stop going. Until fans wake up and realise this is a dead club with no future as long as Wenger/Kroenke controls things, you deserve what you get. The wheels should have been put in motion years ago. No other major clubs’ supporters would have tolerated this mess.
For those who don’t know, Delaware is pretty much a tax haven. Not surprising that he would move the money there. This Kroenke shit just gets more depressing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/01/business/how-delaware-thrives-as-a-corporate-tax-haven.html?mcubz=3
Very bad news if true. Expect asset stripping of the highest order too, and I’m not talking about selling players – we have a money making modern stadium on prime London land worth more on the open market than £380m we spent to build it. And he could do whatever he wants with it. Sell it and have us rent it. Keep it and build a WalMart in the basement. Use the pitch to have game hunting tournaments for his tv station. The mind boggles.
If he does that I would give up as a proud supporter, and never spend another penny on his shit project
Nonononononononono. No
End of the football club if this happens.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CskqY3WGuI
just when you thought it could’nt get any worse just around the corner is the Apocolypse
Haha. I wonder what “screw right off you moustachioed twat” is in Russian?
“He would also have the option to register Arsenal in the United States, possibly Delaware where other KSE holdings are held.”
Absolutely it would be registered in Delaware. Almost every corporate entity in America is domiciled in Delaware because the State of Delaware charges no corporate income tax.
The fans could get rid of kroenke. Or at the very least have a damn good go at it. But they won’t.
The only way we could get rid of him is by not buying tickets/club paraphernalia.
The only thing he’d notice is being hit in the pocket, but without knowing what his replacement would be like…. who knows if it would be a wise idea?
The last thing we need is this Wanker owning most of the club
He already owns most of the club.
Which wanker would you prefer to own the club?
If this happens we are fucked. He will bleed us dry and what happened at Rangers could happen to us. This, if Usmanov sells to Kronke, could be catastrophic.
…and if Kroenke sells to Usmanov? Same problem, different beast!
Rangers spent money they never had, can’t see that ever happening at the arse
Kroenke will have to invest money if we fall much further from the top. He’s US teams have no chance of relegation, he’s teams can sit at the bottom of there divisions knowing they will be there next year regardless.
Here lower/smaller teams are getting stronger all the time and it wont be too long before most are backed by billionaire owners. Needs to up his game or get out!
That could be why he wants to get the other shareholders out.
So if he does need to invest, then he won’t be putting money into other shareholders finances.
Oh em gee
This is a nightmare scenario. Time for Usmanov to show he’s a real fan and resist this offer – better still, make another offer himself. Kroenke has been bad news for all the sports clubs he’s purchased.
Do you really think Usmanov will be a better owner?
I’m hoping his move of the rams to la hurts so much financially that kroenke has to sell the arsenal to someone else- the an is a cancer and is killing our club.
It hasn’t hurt at all.
The same way it didn’t hurt the previous owner that moved it from LA to St Louis.
May she rest in peace.
The thought of Usmanov teaming up with Moshiri ..Everton considering building a new stadium…and 2 guys that want to spend money…could see another Man City rise….
Urgh.
What matters most is who takes over after Wenger.
He’s getting on a bit…hopefully he dies soon.
His son will take over.
I know a lot of fan’s who will be very angry if this did happen his other sports owned team’s mediocre jeezz , arsenal fans don’t want to hear that (non arsenal fan)
if Kroenke buys up all the shares then it would actually make it easier in the future for an interested party to buy him out than to have to deal with him and someone else with 30%
Eduardo, you are 100% correct.
At the moment Usmanov won’t sell to Stan. and Stan won’ sell to Usmanov.
So we’re suffering more from that than we are from Stan (at he moment).
We’re caught in a Mexican Stand-off…
David Dein has a lot to answer for. How he could have misjudged Kroenke so badly and sell his shares in the club to him is an absolute mystery to me.
I hope another investor will match Kroenke’s offer and Ushmanov will sell to him… it looks like none of them like the current situation, if Ushmanov holds firm, or if he sells to another investor who will hold firm, maybe, maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel and Kroenke will eventually sell…
Maybe, or maybe Kronke will sell as soon as he owns the club…
Oh no please mr Usmanov do not sell your shares to the plonker! Why don’t you buy plonker’s shares instead?!
Stan is simply letting usmanov know his realistic price he would sell at . The American stadium build etc is running into problems.