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Could Usmanov become Mr Arsenal?
08:12 AM 02 July, 2009
With the Arsenal board meeting set to discuss a proposal from Alisher Usmanov to raise £100m (by way of a rights issue) to pay off debts and finance transfers, it's interesting to hear an expert's take on the situation.

Jeff Randall of Sky News Business told Sky Sports News: "As an underwriter of a share issue, that does not automatically give you a seat in the boardroom.

"You could end up owning a big chunk of the shares, but have no control of how the money's spent, unless you force your way into the boardroom as a director.

"That's quite a weak position to be in.

"It's not a good thing to own lots and lots of shares but to see somebody else running the business.

"However, if you do own lots of shares you can become a real pest. At the next AGM you can start voting down proposals by the management. At that point normally, a big shareholder is invited into the boardroom to give it some sort of coherence.

"My impression is Mr Usmanov is playing a very calculated long game. He has the money. Arsenal need the money. He has the appetite and patience to sit there and use that financial muscle to creep his way into the club, on to its share register and into the boardroom.

"I think his long game is to say 'I am Mr Arsenal'."
14 comment
leon-gunner4life wrote 05:27 PM 13 Jul, 2009
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usmanov should go for agm and all arsenal fans who love and care about our club should support him let are voices be heard at every game for usmanov to take control of our club or else will be dropping down the league so fast and wont even have qualified for champion league if i remember it was the spending of 17 million+ on arshavin that helped us get forth diaby is shit he needs 6 games after every injury to play properly denilson a joke trys to be cesc when he should play like flamini song has no positional sense eboue a right back (enough said) dont want to see him anywere but right back we did get to championleague final with him at right back rosicy will be lucky if the dude started jogging let alone reserve game bendy needs to be tough how to shoot and at the same time dropkick ade i cant hit a barndoor to milan and give us back flamini i dont care player swap no cash does me rather watch carlos or eddy up front and as for that ex man reject get that cunt out of our kit.(NOW I HOPE U SEE WHY CURRENT BOARD ARE SHIT AND WHY WE NEED SOME TOP PLAYERS OH YEA DID ANY OFF YOU KNOW HE ALMOST GOT MONOCO RELGATED WHEN HE DID THIS IN FRANCE THIS AINT NO NEW PLAN OF HIS WHEN HE HAD HENRY TREZ THEM PLAYER HE DID ALL OUT YOUTH AND HE ALMOST GOT THEM RELGATED BY 1 POINT THEY SACKED HIM HE GOT TO BIG FOR HIS PAY HIS NOT A BANK MANAGER HIS JOB IS TO WIN AND HE SAID TOO ALL OF US THAT WE WOULD HAVE A WINNING TEAM WHEN WE MOVED FORM HIGHBURY WHAT DID HE MEAN THE WOMEN ONE THEN. USMANOV THE FANS SAVIORS
ARSENAL GOOONEER wrote 01:26 AM 03 Jul, 2009
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WENGER MOST STAY
Arsenal1Again wrote 05:53 PM 02 Jul, 2009
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@Matt .... You say, "I don't care who is managing the club" Most Arsenal fans want Wenger to continue managing our club. Most Arsenal fans would prefer the club to continue being run financially safe and self-sustaining .... rather than spend big and increasing the debt - just to find the new players are flops (like Reyes). We only need 'One' player .... a decent Defensive Midfielder ..... so why jeopardise the financial security of the club and undo the youth development by spending 100 million on players we don't need, and players that might turn out to be crap?????
ANNOYED ARSENAL FAN wrote 04:07 PM 02 Jul, 2009
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WENGER HAS BEEN OUR MANAGER FOR 13 YEARS THATS TOO LONG IF WE HAVE A FRESH MANAGER FRESH IDEAS FRESH CLUB. WENGER IS THE PROBLEM
John wrote 02:54 PM 02 Jul, 2009
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You chaps that get fed up with arsenal winning nothing do my nut in! i remember my first game against watford in 1983! we hadnt won anything since 1979 and didnt win the league cup till 86 then only the championship in 89 Wneger has brung us a long way so stop being glory hunters and get behind our team otherwise you could never be a true gooner! yours the gooner fed up with GLORY HUNTERS!
tich wrote 01:39 PM 02 Jul, 2009
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He is the clubs saviour!!, appoint him now !! Get rid of wenger and appoint someone who wants to win something, Wenger has lost his desire.
Matt wrote 01:13 PM 02 Jul, 2009
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To be honest as a fan I don't care who is managing the club, its only hurting me more every season by us not winning anything...board seem to get richer, greedy, and most importantly obsessed about the fact who will manage the club..clubs like Chelsea, Man City, even ManU don't deserve anything what they are getting...and none of their fans don't care about who is managing the club as long as they are winning...lets grab the financial support and help Wenger to enhance the team..otherwise even top four finish will become history..
Alex Thomson wrote 01:11 PM 02 Jul, 2009
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Unless Arsenal do not buy a scoring centre forward and a hard working midfielder to help the existing team weaknesses they will not be in the top four this coming season. Why do they continue to ignore the problem areas which I believe is an insult to all the regular season ticket holders that fill the stadium week after week! Current board are not functioning in today's football world for a winning team and do not seem to use the weekly profits to buy big performing players of the type that has given birth to the name Arsenal. You cannot wait four years to change history.
Goonerbeall wrote 12:59 PM 02 Jul, 2009
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I say give Alisher Usmanov what he wants. In many ways is equivalent to what many fans want. He wants success and he is ready to pay for it with hard cash while the current board members are pussy footing around hiding behind Wenger because he takes the blame for absence of signings. That Wenger said "I hear people say I have £100m to spend and never spend, how can they think that?" The man was so upset he almost fell into the hands of Real Madrid. That he is frustrated with having to make do with kiddies never register with many of our beloved bloggers. And these are the people we choose with our feet to interprete whats going on in our club. Yes, there is a lot that is wrong at Arsenal: one is owners who are hard up and therefore, lack of signings. Second , is the absence of clued Arsenal bloggers.
London_King wrote 11:27 AM 02 Jul, 2009
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if alisher become the main owner of arsenal it could be good.he has money and he will spend it for us. in this moment we need cana and no player forsale.
Msabila wrote 10:13 AM 02 Jul, 2009
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I think now it is the right time to spend some money to get strong midfield players like Cana, Melo coz the coming season will very tough so we have to be very strong to face teams loke man, chelsea, liver and the big spending Man city. We beliave in Arsene wenger
David wrote 09:42 AM 02 Jul, 2009
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I think the man needs support and I understand that he likes watching Arsenal play. This makes him to feel the pain we supporters go through thus why he wants to support the team financially. Help us Mr Usmanov with transfers and club debt. Maybe we can start smiling again.
eddie wrote 09:29 AM 02 Jul, 2009
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yah your right arsenal fc need too pull there finger out and move on with the times or be left behind
neil wrote 09:01 AM 02 Jul, 2009
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I think Arsenal football club need to give him a chance we need the cash to buy players to be able to compete for trophies, because if we have another trophyless season we will lose some top players next year.
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