It seems that the acquirement of a controlling interest in Arsenal Football Club is a lucrative business. Not only do newspapers aspire to sell stories off the back of it, radio stations get listeners when they pull in a Board member and the Lawyers get rich working out a way for a bid to succeed or fail. The latter party are doing well out of Red & White Holdings, getting instruction on a weekly basis with the latest installment as a result of Keith Edelman’s interview on Sportsweek yesterday morning.

The Daily Mail reports that they are looking at whether or not the ‘lockdown’ agreement in force and supposedly being extended, amounts to a restraint of trade for Arsenal shareholders as it removes 45% of the shares from the marketplace. Added to that it seems that the declaration by Edelman that the current Board and their policies are the best for the Club is causing consternation in the Perma-tan brigade; if true and the key word is if, it is time for them to wake up and smell the coffee.

The majority of comments I have seen reject Red & White as potential owners – it would be interesting to see if that reflected the view of across those who do not participate in forums and blogs – and personally, I would say enough is enough and it is time for Dein to back down gracefully with thanks for his services (some reports suggest that Usmanov is getting ready to tell him that anyway) but to be honest they can all bugger off (Kroenke included) and leave the Club to get on with the business of football. Alas it just is not going to happen, in the short term at least, because the rewards of investing at this moment in time are potentially just too big as acknowledged by Usmanov’s hitherto silent straightman, Farhad Moshiri, who according to Edelman said that ‘he thought we were a very good long-term investment and that he did not want to take the club over’. As he said that, no doubt a squadron of pigs flew overhead.

The Sportsweek interview revealed that the Board are succession planning for the future to a degree. Their plan for Arsene’s replacement is Arsene. Somewhat limiting in choice but their desire to keep him as manager beyond 2015 will, at present, find  few dissenting voices should he keep up the cycle of success that he has started. It heaps pressure on anyone who follows in the future for the current climate does not lend itself readily to patience with players so a manager has less time than that. It would beg the question of who should be the next occupant in the hotseat – and I am not bothering to speculate on that with Arsene barely settled into a longer stint – but it raises the question of the style of play that would be required. Would we, for example, be happy with the pragmatic approach of Mourinho that sacrifices panache for pragmatism but wins trophies yet is unfulfilling to watch or is the attractive approach without trophies more appealing. The two may not be mutually exclusive but in English football at least, there has only be one other team that has successfully tried to play football and win trophies; Old Trafford will see a prototype of the handover that Arsenal face at a somewhat earlier stage where there will be lessons to be learnt by the Arsenal Board when Ferguson’s successor is appointed. That said, replacing Wenger will hopefully be a decision that does not have to addressed for a few years yet but it is nonetheless a quandry that will have to be faced up to.

The Sunday’s had few titbits to chomp on. The elusive left winger of choice currently seems to be Nasri of Marseilles, over whom we are scrapping with Liverpool. Something curious is happening in the transfer valuations though as his price dropped from £17m to £10m in the space of four short days last week. Strange smell around that story as well.

The trip to Bucharest is somewhat early this week, or at least it feels that way, and with no-one seemingly recovered from the injury list, a not dissimilar squad will take the challenge head on. It still seems hard to credit that they won the European Cup in a truly turgid final twenty years ago and I would be disappointed should we return with anything less than three points. To do so and then take a maximum off of Slavia would wrap up qualification at an early stage for us.

’til Tomorrow.