While Arsenal fans have been concentrating on Unai Emery’s start to his career as our new coach, the continuing takeover of the Gunners by Stan Kroenke has been rolling on. The date for the compulsory acceptance of Kroenke’s offer of just under 30,000 GBP per share has passed and he now owns 98.82% of the club, with 733 still to be wrangled over. ESPN reported this morning…
Kroenke’s total takeover of the club is close to complete after KSE announced that a majority of individual shareholders accepted his compulsory offer by Tuesday’s deadline. The American now owns all but 733 of the 62,217 total Arsenal shares, and is set to acquire those as well through a forced takeover.
The Arsenal Supporters Trust advocated trying delaying tactics but there is absolutely no way to stop Kroenke acquiring 100% and make the club into a private company and the supporters will have no say in the way it is run any more. I will leave you the response of just one ArsenalTrust member who made her feelings clear about losing a part of the club we all love….
I was given a share in Arsenal some twenty years ago and since then have referred to it as the best present I have ever received. I was already a season ticket holder, but a share in my much-loved Club gave me a whole new level of interest. I was invited to join the AST (in those days, it was run for and by shareholders) and in doing so met many people with a huge knowledge of Arsenal and understanding of its finances. This information was shared and I listened, read and learned.
This coveted share was, in my mind, never to be sold or given up and, indeed is earmarked in my Will, as a legacy for my son, who ideally would, in turn, then pass it on to his son. So many times people have said to me, especially in recent years, ‘do you know what your Arsenal share is worth, you should sell it’ and I have replied, with absolute certainty, ‘it is worth much more than that to me’.
Over the past week I have tried to think of something positive that can come from sole ownership of Arsenal by a person who has zero interest in football and who, apart from a few PR platitudes, never speaks for the Club. I have tried and I have failed.
That we are now forced to sell our shares is the final act of what has, over recent years, been a gradual erosion of the pleasures that being both an Arsenal supporter and a shareholder gave me. I could weep when I realise that this proud Club, with its long history that is so often held up as an example of how a football club should be managed, has been relegated to a small, insignificant, private US company registered in Delaware.
Mary Maude
So that’s it then, how do we feel about being owned by someone who has no interest in the club other than financially?
You can read all the responses here on the Arsenal Supporters Trust website…
The end is nigh..innit
We were owned by 2 billionaires
now we are owned by one billionaire.
Nothing to see here.
More importantly we have a new manager
and a new player selection team.
Most of the deadwood are gone.
The new gaffer will weed out the rest over the next 2 windows.
Shape up or ship out is the message.
And about time too
Touche
I hope that Kroenke would be able to sell Arsenal easily after acquiring 100% ownership
The management did a great job in cleaning out the fringe players, but not good in dealing with the contract rebels (e.g. Ozil, Sanchez, Chamberlain, Ramsey, etc). As what you said, I hope they can get rid of the underperformers in the next two transfer windows
Kroenke has never sold any shares from his other sports franchises. He has insisted he is in it for the long haul and even made a declaration that Kroenke Sports Enterprises is a committed, long-term investor at Arsenal and will continue to remain so. He went through a lot of trouble to freeze out and eventually force Usmanov out so am not seeing him giving up Arsenal anytime in the future. His son has also made it clear he would love to be more involved with Arsenal in the future so am guessing he hopes to inherit the business from his dad and keep running the “self-sustinable model”. So in short, Kroenke is going nowhere.
Only an idiot would sell those shares straight after acquiring them, that’s not how you play the market at all. Usmanov is definitely buying another team, because investment wise, it’s stupid to dump those shares he has.
spot on barry. But in fairness this whole football is a business thing has a tendancy to ware a good old football fan down at times. At times you need a degree in finance to have a football argument these days.
Much of the deadwood is still here. Xhaka, Bellerin, Mustafi, Elneny, most prominently.
The arsenal supporters trust shouldn’t worry….things will be better…. If it is a sacrifice we have to make to get back to the top then we have to go through it.. Arsenal will always be an example to other clubs.. We are CLASS and we will always remain that way….i feel the pains of the former shareholders that bought shares just because of the love they have for arsenal…one thing that is constant in life is CHANGE.. we have to experience and hope for the best……..i have a feeling that at the end we could be bought be an Arab Sheikh…i guess Kroenke is preparing for that so he can have a large profit..Kroenke knows in no time the arsenal fans can turn him to leave the club… He is preparing to sell for a large fee………Arsenal fans should be ready to be bought by an Arab sheikh or a very rich billionaire…………all in all…. I know the future is bright as long as we can keep the core of these following players(kelech nwakali, Nelson, smith Rowe,nketiah,omari Hutchinson,mavrapanos,holding,osei tutu,torriera,guendouzi,joel Lopez, Karl hein,tyreece John Jules,maitland Niles and hopefully the return of Adelaide)………i envy the future coach who would be in charge of those players…. They set of players will take us to the promise land… They would be the next great set of team even better than the Barcelona of those years under guardiola
Trust me our great club ARSENAL will rise again to be huge force to be reckoned!!
Our patience,pain and frustration will give us success,joy,happiness and pride in Jesus name……..Amen
God bless Arsenal!
Wow! You are the ultimate optimist. Hope you are right! I long for the old days when all clubs were owned by business people who were life long fans of that club. Football is almost unique in being both a business- at top level- and a thing of the heart too. What other business can claim its product or service is a thing of the heart too? That is my point! But I still prefer realism to ultimate optimism without due reason. Optimism ? Yes , of coursee. But only with due cause and I see no cause under the Kroenke family ownership.
@ Chiza, with all due respect, I think you are speaking through your ass. You are so full of shit!
Trust you? Really? You’re the same person that said we were signing Dembele and you were sure of it.
You also said you were sure we would ‘thrash’ Man city in our opening game.
Please go take your meds cos you seem to be having delusions of grandeur, hallucinations as well as garrulous speech. All symptoms of Manic episode of Schizophrenia.
Kroenke’s compulsory acquisition of the minority shareholders is a act of pure bastardry. These shares have in many cases been handed down from generation to generation and have great sentimental importance to the owners giving them a sense of ownership of their football team, Arsenal FC.
Kroenke could have let the minority shareholders retain their shares; yet he decided to proceed and force the issue.
It is a sad day for the Arsenal and given Kroenke’s statements about not owning sports teams to win anything and the mediocre performances of his US franchises, the future does not look good.
As much as it pains me to say this, Kroenke is not the devil here. The devil is Dein who brought him to the club and all the shareholders that sold their share to him and Usmanov. If arsenal share are truest cherished family legacy why those that sold theirs didn’t keep them in their family.
mobella, you are spot on regarding the major shareholders, who only saw an opportunity to enrich themselves.
As far as Dein is concerned, as I understand it, he introduced both Kroenke and Usmanov to the then board and was forced out when he backed Usmanov.
Nonsense to think Kronke will sell the club, it’s a piggy bank to him. He could have sold to the Russian but he declined, he will not sell to anyone.
As soon as the Kronke take over is completed, I would have no reason but to resign my Arsenal supportership. Arsene gone, Kronke takes 100% ownership of Arsenal FC-nothing will interest me about Arsenal anymore and I cease to be a gunner or a fun thereof.
STAN KOENKE does not understand football. whoever from the beginning sold him shares have done a disfavour to ARSENAL FOOTBALL CLUB and also to the passionate supporters of ARSENAL FOOTBALL CLUB. the BRITISH GOVERNMENT should take a stand and place an embargo of foreign nationals buying football clubs in ENGLAND, otherwise local talent will suffer because of less playing time.
Surely it is still in supporters hands. Don’t buy season tickets, don’t buy merchandise, don’t go to matches, don’t take SKY. What will SK do then. No pain no gain.
Technically , you are rght. Trouble is that the vast majority of fans will NEVER ACTUALLY DO as you suggest. IF they did, you would be right. But they won’t! London itself and the Prem which is popular worldwide, draws tourists and fair weather “supporters” who will never go to war with Kroenke. And all out war for as long as it takes is the ONLY thing that could ever work. With EVERYONE on our side. It ain’t goona happen though, which is our tragedy.
“Over the past week I have tried to think of something positive that can come from sole ownership of Arsenal by a person who has zero interest in football and who, apart from a few PR platitudes, never speaks for the Club. I have tried and I have failed”…. This is not the time to cry. The time is long gone. This is like crying over spilled milk. You were there when the majority shareholders were selling their shares because of greed to those who don’t have any affiliation with the club and you did nothing. You didn’t make any efforts to rescue the club from Kroenke and Usmanov when the club is lossing her on-field value. It was the common fans that were fighting while you watch your precious shares becomes more and more valuable. Now that you are forced to part away with it we get to read about the share being family legacy. AST should have seen this coming. IMO until arsenal has a single ownership fans will never see the much desired investments in the players side of the club.
What were the minority shareholders supposed to do to stop millions upon millions of shares being bought and sold by billionaires.
*Millions upon millions of pounds worth of shares being bought and sold.
Issues of Club ownership and holding shares are not part and parcel of being a supporter of a particular Club. They are basically matters of economics, commerce and the law. I did not support Arsenal because of its shareholders nor did I care to know about its ownership. I was attracted to the club because of its brand of football and the quality of its players. Those who want to engage in non football issues can go ahead but I will not be drawn into that. I will always support Arsenal regardless of its manager, staff, shareholders or owner. Does it matter whether a Club is owned by an Arab, Russian or American billionaire? The Russians seem to be getting tired of owning football clubs and might change to something else. The craze now is with Arab oil Sheiks but they, too, will get fatigued with football and move on. Nothing in this world is static. .
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I’d say it hurts them badly having to give over those shares, it’d give them an extra sense of, this is my club, while holding them. It feels unfair that you can own shares for such a long time, but are powerless to stop someone from taking them all off you.
Unfortunately B-O-T life is often very unfair.