It emerged over the weekend that Arsenal could be subject to a takeover bid from an Arab consortium group who wish to remain anonymous at the moment. The bid will be around £1.5bn which is more than double what Arsenal was valued at last year.
The group are made up of Quatari and United Arab Emirates members and they are looking to take full control of Arsenal in a 100% buyout which will see shareholders Stan Kroenke and Alisher Usmanov leave the club. Their main interest is to eject Kroenke from the board but they are thought to be happy to work with Usmanov.
They will offer Kroenke £830million for his shares which will enable him to leave the club with £400million profit after he invested £430million in 2007. According to The Telegraph the Arab group have already requested a meeting with Stan Kroenke to discuss this offer further.
A lot of my fellow Gooners have been asking my opinion on this takeover bid and my answer is simple – I absolutely do not agree with any single group owning Arsenal FC. We are a club built on history which has always dictated that Arsenal will not be solely owned by ANYONE and this is one principle I believe we should always keep.
Our current board are a mess and we are unsatisfied with the way they have been dealing with things over the last few years. I think majority of Arsenal fans are united in the opinion that somethings needs to change within the board.
We have two investors but only one with a seat on the board – Stan Kroenke who holds 66.83% shares. We all know there is no love lost between Silent Stan and the fans and that is entirely his fault. If he was as good a businessman that he and the board claim him to be, he would have been aware before investing, that there are certain key elements that are important when you are involved with any football club.
Kroenke has failed to grasp the importance of appearance. If someone has invested their money then he should take an interest in his investment and attend more games. The fact that he only spends a matter of weeks in the UK every year is not good enough. If he had more interest in the club and the team as opposed to complete ignorance most of the time then I’m sure he wouldn’t be criticised half as much. If he was attending more games, then I think he would have more insight to how bad things really are at Arsenal or maybe the truth is that he really doesn’t care, as long as he is making a profit.
His failure to communicate with the fans is disgusting and he has still failed to adhere to any promise of meeting the Arsenal Supporters Trust (AST) and other fan groups, despite trying to say that he already had held such meetings. He is never available to talk, at a time when our football team are falling apart, because it has neglected to make him money. He should be out there giving at least 1 press conference to explain and defend why the club are failing. If Wenger can’t manage it then it is up to him and other members of the board, to come out and give their reasons.
Lets me honest it the club was bought over! I’m sure the deadwood in the board would be shifted and money made available. So what i’m trying to say here is it would most defo be better than the situation we are in now. If the proper investment was made in Arsenal and quality players brought in we could become one of if not the biggest team in the world in 5-6 years. Arsenal have a global appeal although without trophies that means nothing. Theirs no reason Arsenal cannot emulate Man U. But dead wood players and board members need to be culled first.
I agree with the takeover we need a new start like man city and they winning