Stan Kroenke takeover low-down | Guess who might be on his way back?

So one minute everything is looking pretty stable on the ownership front, the next, we hear via Sky News reporter Mark Kleinman that Arsenal are in advanced talks with Stan Kroenke to takeover greatest footballing business model on the planet. Exciting times? You bet…

Our educated well-informed guess says that Danny’s health has sadly taken a turn for the worse and he’s moving fast to make sure everything is put in place for a clean handover to his favourite moustached American billionaire. At the same time, there have also been negotiations for the remaining shares of Lady Nina. Only a few weeks ago I was told she was holding out for £15k a share. Well, if rumour is to be believed, she’s more likely to have received £12-13k a share… not bad business for a Lady I’m fully comfortable admitting I find quite attractive.

Megan Fox watch out…

Check out @JWTelegraph twitter page for news on her statement about her shareholding.

There are many questions you’ll all be wanting a bit of clarity around. Well, I can’t give you exact answers, there are blocks of coal more transparent than Silent Stan. What I can do is give you a few hints and tips as to what people far more in the know have told me… Pam will be jealous, she hasn’t had a say in any of this!

So… first of all, the AST have informed me that anyone with a Fanshare will get a vote on whether or not to sell up to Mr Kroenke. That also goes for all the more traditional full shareholders like Geoff. Their recommendation is going to be that people should opt not to sell out to Stan.

The feeling is that he doesn’t want to take absolute control straight away. What he’ll likely be looking for is a majority control which is anything past 50%. At the moment, he’s confirmed by the BBC on 62%. That’ll make him the overlord when it comes to decisions and it’ll give him the chance to do many wonderful transparent things that’ll make us feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Bring the new blood through: People like Tom Fox and Dick Laws will probably be given the opportunity to join Gazidis on the board. That will give them more say on how the club is run and more of a free rein when it comes to making decisions. I’ve heard from countless people who work around the club that these guys are absolutely top-notch and when the time comes, they’ll show their true worth.

Promote Fanshare: There are many concerns in my mind about the American. His lack of transparency scares me. What his intentions are and how he’s funding this being the pertinent concerns. By not taking the club private, he has the opportunity to promote Fanshare and the involvement of key stakeholders who will represent the voice of the fans through the AST. By doing this, we should be able to grow our involvement in the club we all love. Gazidis has been a staunch supporter of this initiative as have the Government. Do you think Ivan would have supported such an initiative had the man who bagged him the Arsenal CEOship not backed it? I think not…

Invite Red & White to the board: Stan may also involve Usmanov and Moshiri to the board. Whatever you think of Usmanov and his alleged background, he’s still a major player in the world of business and he’d still add plenty of value to our club. What a lot of people seem to forget is that Moshiri actually owns 50% of Red & White. He’s the guy talking to Gazidis and he’s apparently very, very switched on. Bring him along to the party and see what he has to offer. At the end of the day, you might not like Usmanov, but a shady Eastern European past hasn’t stopped him becoming the 35th richest man in world. He and his team are visionary in what they do, if you want to read more, why not read what I wrote a year ago here.

All round good guy: The AST have already met with Stan and on face value, they believe he’s a very genuine guy. He’s owned sport franchises around America, he’s very shrewd with how he operates them, he’s not afraid to splash the cash and he’s never sold a club. He’s also made assurances he won’t partake in a leveraged buy-out. I remain sceptical about the last point… so we’ll see. The Swiss ramble have an interesting post on him here.

Chairman: Giving Peter Hill-Wood the red card and a lifetime ban from being the Chairman would be a great move. No more PR bombshells, no more elitist comments and no more doddery old farts sitting on the board dragging the club down.

If you read the News of the World this weekend, you’ll have noticed that the club sided with the AST over the PHW comments. That is very telling. I’ve mentioned before that the top brass have worked hard to keep the Old Etonian motor mouth under control over the last year and in the main, have done a good job. They know he’s a liability, the new guy is coming in will also know that and he’ll have previous with him, remember, ‘we don’t want his sort’?

Well, I’m just putting it out there, but Red & White were brought on board by David Dein, Kroenke was given a way in by the same man. If that Chairmanship comes up for grabs, wouldn’t the biggest PR Coup of the century be to bring David Dein back as the club chairman?

I’ve got goosebumps just thinking about it…

So, all in all, I feel like this is an exciting announcement. I’ve generally been more pro Red & White Holdings over the past 2 years due to their superior cash flow and my worry about the previous failures of American investors in Premiership football. However, it has to be said that Danny Fiszman is probably one of the most important figures in Arsenal’s recent history. Geoff was right when he said he should have his own statue. Therefore, if he thinks Stan is the man to take this club forward, I’m going to roll with that. He’ done pretty well up until now and the very least he deserves through these very sad times is the absolute support of the fans he’s worked to hard to leave a legacy to!

Good luck Danny, good luck Stan… let’s see where this takes us!

Yeeee haaaaa!

View from a shareholder… (Geoff)

So if as expected we get a shiny new American owner today what can we hope for? Well I’m not sure why Stan would want to own a business that judges success by winning nothing other than qualification to a competition and gives gainful employment to a large percentage of the worlds talented young footballers. Especially at his age.

Not sure why someone that doesn’t speak at the AGM’s would want to be involved with a big English football club, though I’m sure Arsene has approved the deal or it wouldn’t be happening.

However, I sure hope he remembers the other stupid comment made by embarrassment and Brideshead revisited look-a-like Peter Hill-Wood, when he said we didn’t need his sort at Arsenal. I guess by that he meant he’d prefer his investors to come in with inherited wealth like he did. I also really hope that Stan brings back David Dein and David Dein kicks Peter off the board.

Now that would indeed be sweet, sweet Karma wouldn’t it!

I still can’t work out why he would invest a large chunk of his money into an English football club that he can’t possibly have the same passion for that he does with his American business interests, unless there’s a bigger picture, I can’t see him shoving huge amounts of cash in either, he’s not that rich and certainly isn’t in Usmanov’s league, and on that note I also cannot understand why Usmanov has dithered for so long, Nina’s had her shares up for sale since what, 2008?

Who knows, this may get Usmanov to show his hand, either way I would love it if Dein was coming home and really love it if he slung that elitist muppet off the board and made him pay for his ticket, I somehow suspect we wouldn’t see him again though would we!

Just a word about yesterday and the return of Jens Lehmann, how nice to see a proper keeper between the sticks commanding his area, did you notice the defence looked more confident, although someone needs to explain to Koscielny you aren’t allowed to kick people over inside the box that has a big white line painted around it.

It was interesting to hear how Wenger never doubted Jens ability as he was a good keeper, true he is a good keeper, and far better than the clown that replaced him, so the question I have for you Arsene, if he’s good enough now, why wasn’t he good enough 3 years ago? Hmmm, still Wenger says Chezzer isn’t far away so stick with Lehmann until he is please.

Pedro is heading down to the AST AGM this evening, he’ll be back tomorrow with a full review of the goings on and maybe Lady Nina’s mobile phone number… who knows! Stay tuned to his twitter throughout the evening @LeGrove for all the goss and give @TimPayton a follow as he’ll be drip feeding news about the takeover as the day progresses.