Arsenal For Sale, Players For Sale – A Long Summer Ahead

The news that Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith is looking to dispose of her Arsenal shares comes as little surprise. The ruthless manner in which she was marginalised, despite being a major shareholder, left an inevitable conclusion that she would sell at some point in time, irrespective of the convenience of timing for the club. No-one knows her financial status and neither should we presume that this is a reason for disposing of the shareholding.

With the season almost over, she is seeking to maximise the value of her holding. Reports suggest she has no intention of selling to Kroenke. I doubt the matter is as black and white as they would suggest. ‘Silent Stan’ has a history of deferred payment for purchases of shares and this may be the decisive factor as far as LBS is concerned. Perhaps she is looking to protect the club by selling to someone else, to prevent a takeover bid by either or it may be that she has tried to sell to either him or Usmanov without success already.

If either purchases her shares, the price for the club is inflated by £80 – £100m, the differential between the average £8.5k per share that they have paid and the highest price of £10.5k per share that Kroenke has paid. If Usmanov buys, Kroenke will no doubt hold out for the £10.5k whilst seeking to avoid manditorially paying that amount in a formal offer.

The days when leveraged takeovers are going to be ‘welcomed’ are long over. Liverpool and Manchester United have put paid to that being an acceptable methodology. The farcical ownership of both clubs has highlighted the inherent dangers of this type of deal. Revised lending from banks and bonds ought to have made it certain that any takeover via debt would be opposed.

Any supporter who believes that there will be a large and sustained influx of cash from this method of purchase is deluding themselves; player purchases are funded by sales and if the experience of Liverpool, United and to a certain extent, Aston Villa, not all of the funds recouped are available to be reinvested.

The examples set by the Glazers, Hicks / Gillett and Lerner provide lessons, mainly on how not to manage your investment from a supporters perspective, that any potential Arsenal buyer would do well to heed. The secretive nature of the trio is something that should not be replicated. Irrespective of the owner’s viewpoint, transparency or more importantly the absence of it, is the biggest bugbear.

Whilst there are complaints about the club keeping matters of transfers quiet – and other issues such as sponsorship – the PLC status has allowed visibility of financial reports. Few can argue that we were not aware of the implications of the new stadium beforehand, even if there were those who still refuse to accept that the cost of the stadium prevented hundreds of millions being invested in the transfer market.

Ahead of the Tottenham game, this might well be a welcomed diversion for Wenger. It deflects attention away from the players for 24 hours at least. No squad member should be affected by it but the ‘privacy’ it allows the players can only be welcomed.

There is no confirmation of Robin van Persie being in the squad, perhaps that will come from Arsene today. His return would certainly be a boost, and according to the player whose position in the starting XI is most threatened, the Dutchman would be welcomed back. Nicklas Bendtner commented:

When you play for a top club you want top competition and that is what we have here.It will be great to have him back. He had a nasty injury and he has been working really hard in training to get back and if we can have him available for the last games – obviously being out for that long takes a bit of time – but if we can have him available it is a boost for us.

It makes a pleasant change when the squad show a collective spirit, especially with the player considered to be most at risk of losing his place is speaking. Too often, the media is filled with stories from dissatisfied players, normally from other clubs, who think there ability is better than it actually is.

There was a stat I saw yesterday somewhere that showed Arsenal were averaging 3.2 goals a game in the matches van Persie played and 1.8 in his absence. That does not take into account the fixtures nor that RvP has missed more games than he has played, missing around 30 games in total.

The disparity in those figures is one of the reasons that there has been an increase in the view that Eduardo should be sold. The implication is that his lack of goalscoring form is the key to that drop. Yet Eduardo has barely been able to string two matches together in the starting line-up. Forwards thrive on playing regularly, their goalscoring ratio increases the more games they play typically.

It is too easy to write him off but considering the fitness issues, I would argue he is a good squad member to have around, able to score internationally when he plays which indicates that if you put him centrally in the team, the form of a couple of years ago is going to return. Whether it is to the same extent is another matter, something that only time will tell.

Arsenal supporters wanting to sell players is one thing. The media trying is quite another. Following the frenzied reporting of goalkeepers being tracked – come on, surely there is another one they can link us to other than Sebastian Frey – and centre backs coming in, all driven by Arsene’s comments post-Barcelona, we have seen Fabregas going to Manchester City, Eboue to Roma and now Sagna to Internazionale.

Wenger threw down the bread and like pigeons, the media has swarmed to feed on the crumbs. Like pigeons, most are losing their legs upon which they stand, rotted by the crap they spew.

Thankfully there is a match on the horizon to distract from this. ’til Tomorrow