This morning, long time share holder Stan Kroenke increased his overall share holding in Arsenal to just 62.89 percent, he appears to have won the backing of Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith and Danny Fiszman in what has been a highly anticipated takeover. For a long time now American Kroenke and Uzbek billionaire Alisher Usmanov have both been seen as the two men that would takeover Arsenal if such a thing were to happen, this morning much to the delight of many Arsenal fans, it was the American that has made the first move, seemingly beating Usmanov to become the sole owner of Arsenal Football Club.
So, what could this takeover mean for Arsenal? We’ve seen in the past how takeovers can be beneficial, Chelsea and Manchester City would be a good case for this, both teams have gone on to improve quite significantly due to the additional investment from their new owners. However if you look at the like of Manchester United, the Glazer family are not very popular at all with the fans as it seems as if the debt at the club continues to increase. In an even more extreme case, Portsmouth FC very nearly went bust after numerous calamitous takeovers.
I think it’ll be good news for Arsenal, the club are creeping closer to the possibility of making it six seasons without a trophy and this new ownership will put much needed pressure on Arsene Wenger and the players currently at the club. The current board seem to be content with financial security; there’s never been any evidence that the board is particularly upset with the lack of silverware over the past few years, a view that is not shared by the Arsenal fans.
An encouraging sign is that Stan Kroenke has shown that he’s a winner; the American owns a number of teams in various sports, all of which he’s had success with. Kroenke bought the NBA team Denver Nuggets back in the year 2000, when he took over they were an average side finishing 5th-7th in their league, but in the six seasons from 2005 until 2010 the Denver Nuggets have finished top of their league three times and finished runners up on the other three occasions. In the same year Kroenke took over NHL side Colorado Avalanche, in the ten seasons he’s overseen the Avalanche’s, they have finished top of their league on four occasions and finishing in second place in four of the six remaining seasons. Finally, since he overtook MLS side Colorado Rapids in 2004, the team has won six trophies in the six seasons he’s been there, encouraging statistics for Arsenal fans, this guy is clearly a winner.
For many years Arsenal have had obvious problems within their team that just haven’t been fixed, the excuse I hear all too often, that I don’t necessarily believe, is that the money isn’t there to be spent. So this excuse is no longer valid, in the Forbes 2010 edition, it was stated that Stan Kroenke was worth 1.77 billion pounds. From now on, it would appear that if Arsenal wants to, they will be able to match the spending power of the richest clubs in Europe.
The news that Arsenal may now have the money to strengthen their squad if needed should send shockwaves through Arsene Wenger’s team, he’s given this group of players a long time to produce silverware for Arsenal, and it appears all too often they crumble when they arrive at the last hurdle. Some of the Arsenal team may have become comfortable knowing that Arsene Wenger may not have had the resources available to replace any player that was underperforming. Arsene will want players that thrive under pressure, so this takeover could help Wenger see who likes the pressure and who crumbles beneath it, something that seemed to happen when Arsenal lost to Birmingham City in the Carling Cup Final earlier in the season.
It will also put pressure on Arsene Wenger to deliver silverware sooner rather than later, as I mentioned previously, it’s evident that Kroenke is a winner, so he won’t be satisfied with regular 2nd place finishes or just the honour of appearing in the Champions League, he’ll want to win the lot. It doesn’t seem as if the current Arsenal board puts a lot of pressure on Arsene Wenger, I doubt Kroenke will demand immediate changes from Wenger, but he will want success sooner rather and later. Wenger can have no excuses if he doesn’t achieve this, he’s had this group of players together long enough, he can’t use the excuse lot’s of managers do these days of ‘not having enough time’, he’s had plenty of it.
This could be the catalyst for Arsenal to push on and become a truly great club, they are undoubtedly one that is draped in a glorious past, but they will want to be one of the most dominant in the near future and for many years to come. The benchmark will be Manchester United, they’ve won a phenomenal amount of trophies in the past twenty years and Arsenal will want to replicate this dominance. One thing that United have always had that Arsenal haven’t is money, now Arsenal have got that, surely there can be no more excuses.
0 comments:
Post a Comment