By Walter Broeckx
Only 2 days ago I decided to write something that was meant to be funny in a way. Something that I thought was so silly that most people who understand English and certainly those who know me would realise that I was just having a laugh.
I was having a laugh about the ITK people (I had one sharp reader who noticed it – congratulations), having a laugh with Kroenke and Usmanov (a mild one in fact) and having a laugh with “Arry and his dog-account” and his way of buying and selling the same players wherever he went and goes. I all put this in a format and made sure that I used enough stupid words and abbreviations so that people would get the message from the start. Looking at the comments some missed it. But that will be due to my bad English but hey if even Arry can make it to become Spurs manager and not being able to write and read properly there is still hope for me.
But however since then a series of events have brought my wild ramblings in another perspective. What I will try to do is to bring a bit of an Untold perspective to the events. Some thoughts I have on what we have seen happening in the last 48 hours.
The Robin Van Persie statement was the start of a bizarre series of events. To start with: is there anyone out there who really thinks this was the idea of Robin and that he had written this himself? I wonder if it was Vos (one of his managers) or maybe someone else from his management team that had written this. Maybe someone who had connections to a particular group that has an interest in Arsenal?
Because as soon as the statement came out it didn’t take very long before an open letter came from the Red and White Holdings owned by the second biggest hare holder Usmanov. In this letter he made all kinds of critical comments on the current board, owner and Mr. Gazidis.
The only small amount of time between the two statements raised my eyebrows. It just gave an impression that the second letter was already partially written when the first arrived. Because it was critical in both cases for Mr. Gazidis. The RVP statement claiming that he was on a 14 day holiday right now. This has by the way been denied by another board member or director on twitter. And by a picture of Gazidis with one of the torch carriers from Arsenal.
And in the Usmanov letter the R&W holding was critical for Mr. Gazidis for writing a letter to one of the companies owned by Usmanov (the 3rd Russian phone company they claim). Now I thought it was part of the job for Mr. Gazidis to work on better sponsor ships deal. So writing to the 3rd (and maybe 1st and 2nd also) phone company from Russia was not a bad move? So it shows that Gazidis and his team are actually trying to improve the sponsor deals for Arsenal. Yet Usmanov is critical for this? I cannot understand this to be honest.
In fact if I look at this I cannot understand Usmanov at all. He claims he only wants the best for Arsenal. And now his company (he owes more than 50% of them) could become shirt sponsor for Arsenal in the future and instead of jumping on the occasion he write a letter of complaint to the Arsenal board. If he really would only have the best of interest for Arsenal he would tell his company: offer them £100M a year for the next 10 years and double it the year we win something. That would be showing not with words but by doing things that you are a real 100% Arsenal supporter and want the best for the club. Now Mr. Usmanov only complains about the fact that he was asked?
What about FFP rules you ask? Wouldn’t that be a problem if Usmanov would sign such a deal? Well I don’t think so. Because Usmanov is not on the board of Arsenal. So it could not be considered as a trying to avoid the FFP rules. In fact it is well know and documented that Usmanov wants to get Kroenke out himself. So a company who wants to make the current board leave sponsoring the club cannot be seen as a back door to avoid FFP rules. Usmanov is an enemy of the current board so no need to pay over the tops. Unless he just want to sponsor us that much he pays over the top.
And by paying the money Usmanov will show that he only wants best for Arsenal. All I see from that now is words but no actions. Even when he could take action like with the sponsorship deal.
Now Arsenal are in the middle of a mess with two billionaires fighting on the streets and causing unrest and trouble in the club. And as a result some people call for the return of Dein.
Now I don’t have anything personal against Dein and I want to underline that Dein has done some wonderful things for Arsenal in the past. But if we analyse the situation a bit we have 4 big players in the current messy situation.
1 Robin Van Persie and his team of agents : Vos and Darren Dein.
2. Stan Kroenke
3. Alisher Usmanov.
And then if we think on what they all have in common we end up with one person… David Dein.
It was David Dein who helped bringing RVP in and who has his own son acting as one of the agents for RVP.
It was David Dein who brought in Stan Kroenke at first
It was David Dein then who turned to Usmanov.
So in short if there is one person responsible for the mess we face now, by bringing all of them together at Arsenal…it is David Dein. So what would a return of David Dein bring? A solution or even more troubles?
Well I’m not sure but I do know that by bringing in the billionaires David Dein he has brought in, we have the trouble we now face today. So excuse me for not going overly wild of enthusiasm about the thought of him being involved even more in Arsenal. What would he do next? Bring in another billionaire so they can even fight more?
To use the words in my poem earlier I just would say to all of them: Just go then, why don’t you all just go then and let Arsenal in peace. If you don’t want to spend your personal money in Arsenal that is fine for me. We just run it with the money we earn. But why don’t you all stop pretending to be the one and only saviour by talking a lot but not showing any action even when you could. I don’t know if it all is a big coincidence or that people are doing things in order to get some things happening or done. So it all is guessing and trying to figure out what really is happening. But my message is this:
Why don’t you all just leave us alone with your stupid back room fighting. Because if there is one thing bad for our club than it is that back room fight for power.
If I may use the words our chairman once said and this is how I feel right now about all those billionaires around our club: “we don’t need your sort over here.”
Arsenal is a well run and sustainable club without one pound being put in by those billionaires so leave us alone. Just Go and let Arsenal do it their own way: The Arsenal way.
@Walter, bjtgooner
Remember all those years back when that old buffoon Ken Bates was saying that Dein wasn’t to be trusted? But if now he is actually poisoning the club he professes to love then history should judge him very severely indeed.
In respect of the role he may envisage for himself in an Unsmanov owned club it could be either Chairman or CEO, or perhaps even both!
Right I am back, but struggling for time at the minute. What I also wanted to address was your desire for a big fat owner who puts money into the club…..hmmm, despite the club’s long history of charitable works, Arsenal FC is not a charity. A businessman would not just simply give aid to the club for no reason. He or she would want something in return in the long term. A profitable return on investment would be the most obvious reason, I would think and not to go into a business 101 class, but the businessman would surely want more control and to dictate who should be employed and in the recent scenario at QPR, even decide who should play
for the team! It is after all, their money, their finances at risk. The
idea that even if it was owned by fans and the club was profitable, that they wouldn’t want a return on investment is also debatable, even the form of subsidiaries like cheap or free tickets, merchandise etc. All of which eats into the bottom line.
I have a serious question to ask about why you think a tough demanding role which has evolved, would be suitable for Dein? He is almost 70yrs and correct me if I am wrong, been out of full time work for years! The FA even passed over him, but yet you think he is the most appropriate person to lead Arsenal forward. Yes I said forward, think outside of the box, deal with the rigors of the role, network, innovative and make smart decisions that will benefit the club in the short and long term.
Lastly in your post directed at me you make an assumption that the fans know best and could reach an agreement. Which frankly, with some Arsenal fans (possibly you being one), the only thing I would be willing to agree on is the fact that we disagree!
I note that you bring up the purchase of YaYa again, Alan. Since you are an interested fan, I challenge you to find Arsene Wenger’s interview where he discusses what happened when we were trying to buy him. As might even find photos of YaYa in Arsenal pre season gear too if you are really interested. Besides is it not possible to be a mercenary and a professional? What is your point?
I would also challenge you to provide evidence that Kroenke has taken out of the club thus far. It’s one thing to ramble, exaggerate and tell half truths in an attempt to win an argument, but you are stepping in to new territory.
I have to ask you Alan, how long have you been a supporter? I don’t believe that you are R&W PR that’s for sure as this would be an incredibly embarrassing defense of them.
@ Stroller, I do recall Bates saying something along those lines! I remember thinking that Bates thought Dein was more slippery than himself, which was really saying something.
Do not want to intrude too much on this argument, but I have seen quite a few tweets and blogs suggesting stan is taking money out / has securitised his loan onto the club…whatever that means, or has been involved in leverage type activity. I have yet to find a shred of evidence he has done any such thing, the board stated categorically they would not have entertained a LBO, hopefully this would not be tolerated at a later stage. I can find no evidence stan has ever taken anything out of any of his clubs. Some may not like the self sufficiency model, others may want to buy the club. We have players openly claiming to be unhappy with our direction, but as regards stan, slience does not mean he has to be guilty of lying over his stated intentions. Of course , if he is , he should be exposed, but as you say, let’s see the evidence. There are some clever analysts out there, if stan really is up to any such things, hopefully the likes of Swiss ramble will be onto him very quickly.
I don’t think it would be at all easy for Stan to take money out of the club even if he wanted to. Just because he is the majority shareholder doesn’t give him any easy mechanism to simply grab money for himself. Others may be more expert on such matters as corporate governance and accounting but all options that I can think of require some form of disclosure which would have to be revealed in the club’s Annual Report.
@Mandy & Stroller
I have noted posts/blogs assuming Stan has or was continuing to take money out of the club – but absolutely no back up evidence. Those posts just looked as though some of the AAA were trying to blacken him – the usual approach from them.
As far as I am concerned until there is evidence to the contrary Stan is not guilty. One point I have noticed about the human character – those who are basically corrupt find it very difficult to understand that everyone else is not equally corrupt.
Usmanov is not my preferred option, but preferable to what we have now. What s wrong with barcelona”s fan ownership model, where the fans own the club and where there is a governance structure based around periodic elections to select a president and managing board? When fans buy the shirt, or season tickets and a beer and burger, any profits from these go towards developing young players, but also rewarding and keeping likes of Messi and Puyol, and also bringing in Villa, Abidal. If RVP is worth £150k a week, and if it needed that to keep fabregas, then better our money goes to them than to hill wood,fizsman ,the keswicks and bracewell smiths, or now kroenke enterprises.
Agree bjt, if he is guilty of such things, he Will be exposed, unless he was to take us completely private, then suspicions could be aroused. As I say, if guilty, I hope he is exposed.
He has stated he did not buy us with a LBO, he does not take dividends or money out of the club, and he believes ultimately we are under marketed. Ok, it seems he will not invest in the playing side, that is upsetting many. Some are saying the money wenger has accumulated on transfers is not all being made available. Some say phw is being paid to cover it all up for stan, when he is not being a senile bumbling fool that is. None of it really adds up. Beware or those who chose to thrive on perceived chaos…..for their own aims……that sounded almost biblical! The fact is , we are doing ok, a player is getting old and a little greedy , panicking about trophies, and others and their agents are being a bit opportunistic on this.
Hi goona gal
There appears to be some confusion with two Alan s on this site, so I have renamed myself Gooner Al . In response to a couple of your questions , I have supported arsenal since 1967. I am not a Usmanov fan, and certainly not his PR. I do hold the view that with an owner putting money in, supported by a “deal doer ” CEO of dein s quality, in turn supporting a manager of wenger’s quality, our self sustaining model could attract and (more importantly) keep enough quality players (not blatant mercenaries) to compete for silverware . Football wise, I believe that most title winners or CL winners play with a strong spine , and character,thru the centre, something we have not had for better part of 6-7 years. And in nearly every position you need a player who is one of the top 2 to 3 in their position in the premier league. Only RVP, vermaelen, Wilshire and sagna , in my view,meet that criteria, and three of them suffered too many injuries with inadequate cover last season. Had RVP had his usual injury ridden season, we would have been mid table, or worse.