Kroenke won't mess with Wenger vision
Reuters - Friday 06 November 2009, 10:46
LONDON - While Arsene Wenger's young
Arsenal team are playing some stunning football on the pitch, the
men in suits who run the club are playing an intriguing game
behind the scenes at the Emirates Stadium.
This week American billionaire Stan Kroenke upped his stake
in the north London club to 29.9 percent, the threshold beyond
which he will have to make an offer for the remaining shares.
The financial wheeling and dealing for control of the club
has been going on since August 2007 when former vice-chairman
David Dein sold his shares to Alisher Usmanov for 75 million
pounds.
Even though Arsenal have not won a major honour since 2005,
the boardroom manouevres do not appear to have had any
detrimental affect on the pitch.
Despite their recent lack of silverware, Wenger has been
allowed to develop a new exciting team whose recent form in the
Premier League and their 4-1 demolition of AZ Alkmaar in the
Champions League on Wednesday suggest new honours are not far
away.
Arsenal were one of England's most traditional, conservative
clubs with strong links to London's banking professions and
public schools.
The club's current chairman Peter Hill-Wood is the latest
incumbent of his upper-class family to head the club, while the
family of director Lady Bracewell-Smith, who owns 15.9 percent
of the club, has been associated with Arsenal for more than 70
years.
Hill-Wood though is now central to how the boardroom game
will play out, as he is known to favour Kroenke becoming the
club's new owner, rather than Uzbek-born Usmanov, who owns 25.5
per cent of the shares through his Red & White Holdings company.
SILENT STAN
Kroenke's background could hardly be more different to that
of Hill-Wood, but the 62-year-old tycoon, known as "Silent Stan"
is unlikely to want to bring in sweeping changes if he does
assume ultimate control.
He owns, among other interests, the St. Louis Rams American
Football team, the Denver Nuggets of the NBA, the Colorado
Avalanche of the NHL and the Colorado Rapids soccer club who
play in the MLS.
Kroenke may well become the latest American to take control
of a Premier League club, but he seems to have little in common
with the Glazer family who now own Manchester United, or Tom
Hicks and George Gillett, the Americans who own Liverpool.
Instead he is likely to play a similar role to that of
American Randy Lerner, who now owns Aston Villa and has allowed
Martin O'Neill to run the playing side of the club without too
much obvious upheaval.
Ellis Short, who now has a majority shareholding at
Sunderland, also appears to be allowing Steve Bruce to run
matters with a real improvement obvious on the field.
HIGH STANDARDS
Clearly, if he did take control of Arsenal and did start to
interfere with manager Wenger's authority, he would immediately
be cast into the wilderness by Arsenal's fans.
Apart from a few unhappy weeks last season when Arsenal's
form faltered from its usual high standards, Wenger has had the
undying devotion of the club's faithful since becoming manager
in 1996.
Wenger is Arsenal's most successful manager and the most
influential man in the club's story since Herbert Chapman was
manager in the 1930s.
Like everyone else, he does not know Kroenke's exact plans
or how much money would be made available for transfers.
Earlier this week he told reporters: "I have spoken with
Stan and all the shareholders, but I have never asked him about
his plans.
"I care and worry about my plans. The board are on the floor
above me, and I look downwards towards the team.
"I don't own any shares in Arsenal. I have thought about it
but I felt always that I try to do the job with a good work
ethic and not to be accused of any decision being taken for any
personal interest. I decided not to be involved at all."