Must read: Usmanov letter - full text.

http://news.arseblog.com/2012/07/full-text-of-usmanov-letter-to-the-arsenal-board/

 

That was beautiful, great to see some owners of AFC who share the sentiments of the fans, sadly, they are the minority owners of the club with a 30% stake.

Selling RVP will once and for all prove how useless the Arsenal management is, and will once and for all prove we are not a truly big ambitious club, because big ambitious clubs don't consistently sell their best players, which we have been doing for the past 5 seasons. If AFC had managed to keep a hold of our best players in all these years, we would have had the trophies by now, but we keep selling them, and start from scratch, which leads to a vicious cycle that get's repeated again and again.

 

The problem with this letter is that it smacks of opportunism. Unless we know whats really going on behind the scenes, i'm not inclined to support Usmanov. Saying that, our board sucks too. It's like being stuck between a $hit sandwich....

 

Don't forget the letter was "leaked" to the Associated Press

 

There is nothing better than appealing to the angry masses. What a bunch of crafty devils.....

 

The BBC say it was an "open letter" so hardly needed leaking.

I'd rather see Usmanov in charge than the cretins who are currently, he can't make things worse. If he decides to jack it in, so what, we just go back to being a feeder club like we are now

 

I don't think they're being opportunist at all, the sh!t has hit the fan (again), and they are voicing their opposition to the problems that are happening, which they should do as 30% owners of Arsenal.

WTF though, Arsenal have TWO BILLIONAIRES, not ONE, but TWO, yet we live on scraps.

 

Can Usmanov be worse than a Board who let our best player leave? Especially when that player wanted to stay, and just needed some assurances of our ambition?

 

That letter could have been sent anytime this year, if explicit mention of RVP was omitted, and it would still be as relevant to the message.

Yet they send it today! And you don't find that is opportunistic?? Dat logic...

 

???

The timing is irrelevant. It needed to be said - unless you are happy with the way things are going.

 

I am the most unhappy with the way RVP publicly revealed that he would in no circumstances renew his contract, that is what I'm unhappy about.

And I also don't want a sugar daddy running the club, and I think we are not too far off from success.


As far as showing ambition, I don't think we've ever signed 2 players of the class of Podolski and Giroud so early in the summer. What was RVP expecting, signing Iniesta or Messi?

So it boiled down to him just wanting to get easy trophies, not actually working for them, all while doubling his salary. So he'll go to a club where his presence won't be much of a factor in getting trophies like Man. City. Fine... but Arsenal couldn't have done much more to show "ambition" in the last few months, which means RVP has made up his mind a while a go. And not content in getting out clean he releases a statement behind the club's back. Real dignified...

 

gent - I think what this shows is RVP's unhappiness with what he heard from Gazidis - I think it is so blatantly obvious that this was the stumbling block.

Arsenal ARE in a position to be very competitive financially .. but the board have hamstrung Wenger, which in turn does not make Arsenal an appealing place to play football for top footballers. Podolski I would class as a top footballer, but nobody was in for him so he came to us, I have no problem with that. Giroud is not a top player yet but I believe he will develop into that player.

But make no mistake, we are regularly losing some of the best players in the world ... and replacing them with players at a lower level. I am not happy with this. We CANNOT improve as a team by continually eroding squad quality.

 

Blatant demagoguery but still true. The board can't expect us to believe that success on the pitch is their primary goal when we have just sold our one remaining world class player. There is still time, however, to do something about it. The board can swallow their pride, think about the team instead of their wallets and buy some top talent and make one last ditch attempt to persuade RVP to stay. If he still refuses after having brought some top tier players, sell him and buy an adequate replacement. I'm sick of us getting into the CL by the skin of our teeth every year and in the process suffer humiliating defeats by teams who used to be our equals ( and ones that are far below us too). I want to see some serious ambition this summer despite this setback.

 

With all due respect, Giroud is still relatively unknown and untested at the highest level and the Pod is quality, but not quite marquee. For the past few years we've taken one step forward and two steps back. Anyone can say what they want but losing your best player due to lack of ambition is a huge body blow. How can Wenger be expected to compete for the premier league title if he loses his players year after year? The management can spin whatever garbage they want but Giroud and Pod are not in RVPs class. Support players yes, but not as replacements.

What about Wilshere, OXO, Chesney? You think Wilshere won't up his sticks and leave if we continue our current trend?

 

The thing that annoys me the most is the way RVP has released this statement.I think he has treated AW with a great deal of disrespect.I have said this before and i'll say it again.AW and the rest of the club stood by RVP during what seems like 7 years of injuries of the 8 years he was with us.I was led to believe by various media reports that nothing would be said about RVP's contract negotiations until everything was sorted.For whatever reason RVP has decided to go back on this agreement.I think RVP has let himself down badly over the whole affair.He can moan and groan about trophies-just like other players who have left-but let us not forget that it's RVP,Nasri,Clichy etc etc who were in our team that didn't win trophies.If RVP see's out his contract with us i'll give him 100% support whilst he's on the pitch in a red shirt.When he goes he'll just be another ex-player who i wont give a monkey's **** about.I don't suspose everyone will agree with me but this is my view and i'm sticking by it

 

If Podolski & Giroud scored the goals that won us a trophy next season you'd soon forget about RVP.That's the nature of a football fan

 

He would be far better in my opinion, he seems more likely to spend and keep our best players the board currently just want to fill their own pockets and are content in just staying in the top four

 

Seriously, i think the Pod will be able to adjust better and score around 10-15 goals on the left. Giroud i am a little worried about. He needs a little time to bed in. Unfortunately after RVP revelation, he will be thrown into the deep end and be pressured to perform.

Even if they do the business, i won't forget RVP

 

RVP still loves the club in my opinion and I believe his intention was to show the fans, what we all fear in that our boards only ambition are content to just be a top four side. Everyone blames RVP for his statement but I think its good because he is clearly showing the truth, Nasri did the same and people complained that he went just for money..well guess what he has a champions winner medal already with City. RVP is 29 so he only has a few years to realistically win trophies, he would love to win it at Arsenal but he knows it will not happen if we continue with our current business model and with our current board.

 

This RVP is still a great servant to the club and will not be a forgotten.