Hello everyone.
Not much going on today in terms of actual news, but the heat, caused by our latest defeat and, more importantly, our failings priot to it, seems to be reaching its picus.
Arsenal Supporters Trust spoke out yesterday and the message is clear: they are not happy with the way things progress. To cut long story short, the main points are as follow: Arsene Wenger, Stan Kroenke, our transfer policy, Arsene Wenger, his contract, a cash pile in the bank. Did I mention Arsene Wenger?
Let's get our majotiry shareholder out of the way first. The report only confirmed what we already knew: Silent Stan isn't remotely interested in how things are run. He is content to hand over the power to the manager, while also giving him his backing. Kroenke just can't be bothered to understand, how football clubs should be handled, he just couldn't care less, it seems. While the club remains profitable, I doubt Kroenke will lift a finger to change something for the better. A sad picture, especially when you look at the likes of Abramovich. He may be a complete arse, but he cares for Chelsea and keeps pumping money, bringing in the best players and managers.
One of our former shareholders, lady Nina Bracewell-Smith, has already expressed her regrets about selling her part of the shares to Stan a few years ago, allowing him to become a majority shareholder. She has expressed her dissatisfaction, doubting the man's ability to lead this club forward to a better future. She also suggested, Alisher Usmanov, our second largest shareholder, should be given a place on the Board, while also being granted more freedom.
These comments appeared on, and were later removed from, the Twitter. While the critique she aimed at Kroenke is completely understandable, things are not so clear, when it comes to Usmanov. He is a billionaire, he can pump a lot of money into this club and, while this in itself isn't bad, I'd rather we hold on to our current business model of self-sustaining organisation. All this shiney cash may someday dissappear (due to several reasons, like someone proving, this money wasn't earned legitametely) and we'll find ourselves in a hole deeper and darker, than the one, we are facing now.
Second point is the manager. I think I already said everything, that needed saying yesterday. His seeming incompetence resulted in a disaster we're now trying to cope with and for this reason, he must either recuperate quickly, or go. He has way too much power and it tells.
The discussions about contract renewal seem to me like a joke at this stage. Having started a season this bad, Wenger would already be on his way out, had such a thing happened at Chelsea. Their methods seem absurd mostly, and they change managers at will, which can't be good, but that's not the point. Just because a club qualifies for the Champions League, the manager must not be considered immune to sacking. At Real Sociedad maybe, but not at Arsenal.
And finally, cash in the bank. The fact, that we have a lot this summer is nothing new, as is the fact, that this money is yet to be spent, though it's unclear on who and whether it is going to be spent at all. There's been some talk about Michu and Djeko, a seeming bid for Cabaye, but we've heard about a lot of players this summer and nobody joined the club.
But the fact, that reasonable resources have been available to us in summers past is a different thing entirely. Amid all this talk of how financially strong we are, I thought, that it's only this window, we have so much resources available. That we were only able to buy players, when we've sold some, even last year. The fact, that we've had money for some time now is nothing short of a surpise to me.
Is it only because of all the talk, that we only found out we were strong this summer? Had we been this strong previously in summers past, without knowing it? Has all the mess, we're in, been going for some time now?
I don't want to think, that the answer to any of the above is positive. Because if it is, too much of our nervous cells have been wasted for nothing down the years, when it could have been avoided.
Don't know, what to add.
Back tomorrow with a preview
Not much going on today in terms of actual news, but the heat, caused by our latest defeat and, more importantly, our failings priot to it, seems to be reaching its picus.
Arsenal Supporters Trust spoke out yesterday and the message is clear: they are not happy with the way things progress. To cut long story short, the main points are as follow: Arsene Wenger, Stan Kroenke, our transfer policy, Arsene Wenger, his contract, a cash pile in the bank. Did I mention Arsene Wenger?
Let's get our majotiry shareholder out of the way first. The report only confirmed what we already knew: Silent Stan isn't remotely interested in how things are run. He is content to hand over the power to the manager, while also giving him his backing. Kroenke just can't be bothered to understand, how football clubs should be handled, he just couldn't care less, it seems. While the club remains profitable, I doubt Kroenke will lift a finger to change something for the better. A sad picture, especially when you look at the likes of Abramovich. He may be a complete arse, but he cares for Chelsea and keeps pumping money, bringing in the best players and managers.
One of our former shareholders, lady Nina Bracewell-Smith, has already expressed her regrets about selling her part of the shares to Stan a few years ago, allowing him to become a majority shareholder. She has expressed her dissatisfaction, doubting the man's ability to lead this club forward to a better future. She also suggested, Alisher Usmanov, our second largest shareholder, should be given a place on the Board, while also being granted more freedom.
These comments appeared on, and were later removed from, the Twitter. While the critique she aimed at Kroenke is completely understandable, things are not so clear, when it comes to Usmanov. He is a billionaire, he can pump a lot of money into this club and, while this in itself isn't bad, I'd rather we hold on to our current business model of self-sustaining organisation. All this shiney cash may someday dissappear (due to several reasons, like someone proving, this money wasn't earned legitametely) and we'll find ourselves in a hole deeper and darker, than the one, we are facing now.
Second point is the manager. I think I already said everything, that needed saying yesterday. His seeming incompetence resulted in a disaster we're now trying to cope with and for this reason, he must either recuperate quickly, or go. He has way too much power and it tells.
The discussions about contract renewal seem to me like a joke at this stage. Having started a season this bad, Wenger would already be on his way out, had such a thing happened at Chelsea. Their methods seem absurd mostly, and they change managers at will, which can't be good, but that's not the point. Just because a club qualifies for the Champions League, the manager must not be considered immune to sacking. At Real Sociedad maybe, but not at Arsenal.
And finally, cash in the bank. The fact, that we have a lot this summer is nothing new, as is the fact, that this money is yet to be spent, though it's unclear on who and whether it is going to be spent at all. There's been some talk about Michu and Djeko, a seeming bid for Cabaye, but we've heard about a lot of players this summer and nobody joined the club.
But the fact, that reasonable resources have been available to us in summers past is a different thing entirely. Amid all this talk of how financially strong we are, I thought, that it's only this window, we have so much resources available. That we were only able to buy players, when we've sold some, even last year. The fact, that we've had money for some time now is nothing short of a surpise to me.
Is it only because of all the talk, that we only found out we were strong this summer? Had we been this strong previously in summers past, without knowing it? Has all the mess, we're in, been going for some time now?
I don't want to think, that the answer to any of the above is positive. Because if it is, too much of our nervous cells have been wasted for nothing down the years, when it could have been avoided.
Don't know, what to add.
Back tomorrow with a preview
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