http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20721492 We know that we are not having the best of seasons, so when something like this is reported it raises a few questions. The biggest of which is, imo, should Stan sell and would Usmanov still want to buy him out? I would prefer it if Arsenal could get back to being a top team by following our current financial policy, but at the end of the day if Kronke has no interest in the club would we be better off if he sold to someone who is interested in us and Usmanov made it clear he wants to take the club forward. Im not jumping on the club in crisis bandwagon and dont think things are that bad yet, but it is a little alarming to hear that our major shareholder has little or no passion in us. I just want to see the club I love winning things again and making me proud to be a lifelong fan of them.
To be fair, Bracewell-Smith has a massive axe to grind after she was ousted from the board, so I wouldn't expect her to say anything positive about Kronke. She might be right ? . . . but I think her words should be taken with a pinch of salt.
She also said that the whole board should be sacked after she was ousted. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/13941917
Bracewell Smith seems quite happy to knife Kroenke in the back now that the big fat cheque he gave her for her shares has been cashed
I don't really give a **** if he has passion for Arsenal or not, as long as he allows money to be allocated for Wenger to do as he pleases, then that's just fine, in fact I think most managers would prefer it that way.
I wouldn't be too harsh on NBS, yes she sold her shares but Silent Stan was always going to be majority shareholder with or without her shares and she was offered a premium price for hers so she would have been foolish not to accept. She makes an interesting point for me, Silent Stan does not have the passion of your regulation Chairman/Owner, but she comes from an era of Hill-Woods when football was run differently and clubs owned by one or a small group of people, the climate has changed and despite the fair play rules the outlook is still probably gloomy (for us), so a little criticism to add to what's brewing around the club might register, if nothing else the mood is such that Stan cannot ignore the fact that fans are becoming more and more unhappy
Dennis Hill-Wood was a custodian of the club, but Peter Hill-Wood is just an arrogant, pompous arse with no regard for the fans whatsoever.
What's wrong with that statement? A lot of people here seem to think Wenger is being financially restricted by the board so getting rid of them is a good thing surely?
I think it was borne out of bitterness at being ousted from the board rather than any rational assessment of their performance.
Fair enough. She has a point though, they seem content with Arsenal regressing. Maybe some new blood is needed.
I'm not sure that they are content, probably more over cautious. I'd like to see PHW retire and I'd like to see David Dein back on the board. But other than that, for all the criticism he gets Gazidis is actually doing a pretty good job. He's delivered on his promises to massively increase our ability to spend on the squad, so for that he actually deserves a lot of credit. What we need to see now, are the fruits of our labours
Dein is another who couldn't wait to cash in his shares.I've detested that **** since 1991 when he started pricing fans out of going to games
I think the Bond scheme was a massive mistake and big error of judgement by Dein, but what he actually brought to Arsenal in terms of on the pitch results through his relationship with Wenger and his nouse of the transfer market has been sorely missed.
All his work with Arsenal was for his own financial benefit.He bought shares off PHW for **** all and sold them for a big fat profit to his mate Danny.The shares he had left he sold for a bigger profit to Usmanov.All that **** ever did was use AFC as a cash cow.
So all this tells us is everyone is in for themselves, not really a new thing is it. The problem is, the old days have pretty much gone and we need to accept the new era. It's not a particulary nice era, but that's what happens when money is involved.
The point i was making is how people like to treat Dein like the Messiah whereas i have a completely different view of him.
I think this is born out of desperation from the newer fans that started supporting Arsenal after Wenger's early success. The last time we tasted real success was when we had the Dein/Wenger partnership. Dein may have been reprehensible, but it's hard to argue that they worked well together.
