Alisher Usmanov

Moral highground doesn’t win the champions league or premier league or buy Mbappe

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haha when I highlighted your post to quote it it missed the last word so I just guessed it was “fuck” :grimacing:

This actually looks more promising than similar stories in the past. Kroenke is very focused on building his new NFL mega stadium complex in Los Angeles and Wenger’s situation, along with the likely fall out of the Champions League, has to make Arsenal seem like a riskier bet going forward in terms of the value of the team. In the past I thought Kroenke simply wouldn’t sell, end of story. But if Usmanov makes him a really good offer, I think it could happen. On the other side, Usmanov is getting older, Russia is a total mess, and the idea of transitioning into semi-retirement in London surrounded by shiny toys like Arsenal Football Club has to be attractive to him. Usmanov didn’t get his 15 billion dollar fortune by making bad deals. But I can see him thinking “Fuck it, what’s another $100M if it gets me this club finally” and making Kroenke an offer that is hard to refuse.

I think all of the supportive things Usmanov has said about Wenger are completely strategic, trying to shift the spotlight to Kroenke’s role in the club’s mismanagement. If Usmanov bought the club, I think he’d sign the ownership papers at breakfast and sack Wenger before lunch.

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Possibly but there’s a human-sized stumbling block and its name is Josh Kroenke.

re: the morals, it’s murky territory and never really stacks up for me. We lost any right to being a moral bastion of big clubs when we got involved with an oil-guzzling multinational imo, and you could perhaps extend that line of thinking prior to that

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I don’t know how much he really cares about Arsenal, to be honest. He is an American guy that grew up playing basketball, played more basketball in college, and now lives in Denver and has become a big wheel in that city. I think his first two priorities are always going to the Nuggets (NBA) and the Avalanche (NHL).

Hopefully, I’d read that he’d picked up a taste for soccer ever since Daddy sat him on the Board, and the longer term project was for Josh to take on a bigger role than Wiggy in all matters Arsenal

I think his two main priorities are making money, and then making more money, just like his wig wearing dad.

Getting Usmanov would mean he would go and get the best manager available, and if he wasn’t available, then he would offer him enough money until he was.

He would make a massive statement of intent in the transfer window as well.
As for being like Chelsea or Man City as long as we only spend the 200m we have for transfers and everything we make in profit during the season we don’t have to rely on his personal wealth, and we can still get two or three world class players each season.

I’m fed up with supporting a club that brag about how much profit we make, and how we can afford to get the best players with the 200m we have in the bank.
Just do it, and stop going on about it, and if you can’t be bothered, sell to someone else who will spend.

ABK
Anyone But Kroenke.

He’s repeatedly backed Wenger publicly…

As for all the other stuff you’ve mentioned what is that even based on?

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Wishful thinking.
Like I said,
ABK
Anyone But Kroenke

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I have a feeling this is one of those kinda things that sound terribly exciting and drastic for the club yet after a couple of days we never hear about the bid again.

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It is impossible to know Usmanov’s true thoughts but I believe it highly likely that he publicly backs Wenger in order to put the blame on the Kroenkes for the club’s failings. He wants to increase public pressure on them to sell.

I also think it very unlikely that he would buy the club and then keep Wenger for any meaningful period of time. Football clubs are toys to these guys and he will want to compete for the biggest trophies. This is particularly likely given that his buddy Roman owns a major London rival that has been winning those trophies in the last few years. I doubt Usmanov goes through this whole process just so that Chelsea can smash Wenger every season and Abramovich can talk shit to him at every Russian oligarch cocktail party.

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Better chances now than before but I think this is still by far the most likely scenario unfortunately.

It genuinely concerns me what people are willing to turn a blind eye to if it means the football club they support gets some more money for transfers.

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I agree.
But it would be nice just to get a bit of excitement in the transfer window just to see what it’s like to support a club like Man City, Chelsea or Man U.

We can still spend only what we receive in revenue, it just means we don’t have to haggle endlessly and then miss out on so many top players.

If you can’t beat 'em join 'em :wink:

But it’s only Reuters current valuation. It’s simple market value.

Cause I’m sure Kroenke has always done the Christian and saintly thing in amassing his wealth.

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I’m sure he’s a cunt in his own right, but there are orders of magnitude and Usmanov far exceeds him in that respect.

Do you know what the odds on this likely are Leper and what they would likely represent :henry2:

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I was going for the simple maths myself.