Must read: Usmanov letter - full text.

I would disagree with you there.There has only been one price rise since we moved to the Emirates except for the rise because VAT went to 20%
The price of most tickets when we moved were comparable to ticket prices at Highbury.
It was Dein's idea to charge fans between £1,100 & £1,500 and then buy a season ticket on top

 

I think when teams don't win trophies, or even individual games, there is a tendency to want to allocate blame. IF someone had done something differently then we could have won. No one ever seems to consider the possibility that there was nothing that could be done. That for whatever reason the other team was too good, that they were just plain lucky, or that the mistake that was made was one that anybody would have made in the same situation.

Often that blame placing does more damage than the original loss, or mistake. Players, managers and administrators become risk-averse and lose confidence. They lose team spirit and start to make more mistakes as they second-guess themselves. Having a culture of blame is worse than making a lot of mistakes.

When we have a team of decent professionals, and fans, that can make their best effort and then not turn round and start blaming others, then we wil win a trophy again. We need as a club to stop thinking that we have some god-given right to win, and start realizing that winning is difficult and it is going to take everyone working together to achieve that end. It is going to mean that we need to support the weakest players in the team (there will always be weakest players) instead of codemning them and booing them. It is going to mean supporting our manager, instead of making him fear taking a risk. And it means supporting the board, who have taken a very bold long term strategy, that on the whole seems to be working.

We cant stop supporting a club simply because a player and a rich spoilt shareholder have become impatient and would be willing to sacrifice the future for one year of success. Arsenal Football Club is a great club. Winning a single trophy, or having one great year, will not change that significantly. What makes Arsenal great, is being a big club, with a strong identity and just being at the top year after year after year. The trophies will come and go. A mere six or seven years after our last win, and the trophies we won mean no more that Spurs last trophy in the dark ages. But once again we look forward to competing in every major competition.

I want Arsenal football Club to remain great. I want us to keep our identity. I want us to stay at the top. And I don't want us to risk that position for a quick fix shot at a championship that will be forgotten in a year.

 

We all have our own views of course but this letter, apart from attempting to cause maximum embarrassment to the board, is a criticism of the way Arsenal are run in th eimmediate aftermath of RVPs decision not to extend his contract.
Now I don't see that Arsenal are operating in a different way now to the way we were when RVP accepted the captains armband 10 months ago.
He no doubt benefitted financially from being made captain and unless something comes out that suggests the club are moving in a completely different direction to a year ago then RVPs credibility will be questioned.
It's easy to blame the board, and I'm not suggesting that they get everything right, but perhaps we (me more than most) has misread RVP and fallen for the loyalty and love card he's been playing for for a while, maybe he is just as devious, selfish and self centered as the Nasris and Cashleys, after all apart from one effort in the Euro's he was virtually anonymous and appeared an outcast on occasions, maybe he's not the man we hear and see but just a clever and manipulative version....

 

Talking about Gazidis' holiday in the US.



http://twitter.com/Stuart_PhotoAFC/status/221271080009076737/photo/1

 

Clearly photo-shopped

 

There is something wrong if the best you can do to discredit someone is by posting a photo doubting where they are meant to be

 

Misunderstanding?

I posted that because RVP inexplicably said in his statemnt that Gazidis was on holidays on the US when he isn't.

 

I wasn't talking about you i was talking about the person who posted it on twitter
How do you know he isn't in the USA ?

 

Well he certainly isn't there today. There is another photo (with the EXIF time tags from the camera) on Stuart's flickr account, which shows the shoot was from today.

 

I know this may sound stupid but where did the story about Gazidis being in the USA come from.Did it come from the club or is it a media report ?

 

Twins

 

My long lost much younger sister

 

Gazidis is your long lost much younger sister?

Daft old duckwit!

 

RVP in his famous statement said talks will continue when Gazidis gets back from vacation, or something along those lines.

 

nasty bastard

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/jul/06/peter-hill-wood-arsenal-alisher-usmanov?CMP=twt_gu
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/ar...490&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

 

I disagree. If we typically spend for argument's sake £30m per season and have been going backwards we would need to spend considerably more than that to go forwards. Does one baby step forward constitute ambition ? If you wanted to be pedantic then YES. but being realistic it doesn't. The fact that we have simply spent what we would normally spend - considering what we normally spend has taken us backwards - is proof enough that we have not shown any ambition ABOVE standard and as Usmanov correctly asserts, our ambition is nothing more than 4th place and Champion's League qualification.

Regarding speed of transfers, aaaah but you see I disagree again. When Arsenal NEEDED to make quick signings they did ! We got 2 signings done early, it is not complicated. the only time it becomes complicated is if a player doesn't want to move to the club or the selling club don't want to sell.

 

I'm not aware of any of this, to be honest I only knew who David Dein was in the early 90s. Ticket prices were not high then.What did Dein do ?

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but:

(1) holding 30% of the shares would NOT give Usmanov any more right to a seat on the board than he has at present with his holding of just under 30%. What it would do would be to change his status under the rules from just a shareholder to an "owner".

(2) if Usmanov (or more precisely, Red & White Securities) held 30%, whether he had a seat on the board would depend entirely on Kroenke who, holding more than 50% of the shares, can approve or veto any proposal.

(3) if Red & White Securities acquire 30% of the shares and hence become an "owner", it will trigger a Premier League investigation into whether Usmanov is a "right and proper" person to be an owner of a Premier League club. You may like to ask yourselves whether this has anything to do with the fact that the holding remains just short of 30%. The letter states that Red & White Securities are seeking to buy further shares; believe it if you will but actions always speak louder than words.

 

I hear you and I can only hope that the reason we haven't firmed up any more signings thus far is because of the players being wanted by 100's of other clubs (them being such great players) which is slowing negotiations. It is unrealistic to expect the club to complete all of their signings in the first few days, however much we wish it isn't.