Search: ' Alisher Usmanov'

A change in the Arsenal boardroom does not necessarily dictate a change in the club’s direction. Jon Spurling tells all

Last month, Stan Kroenke added Arsenal FC to his extensive portfolio of sports clubs. As usual, “Silent Stan” avoided saying anything of consequence to the media about the development, while in marked contrast to the noise surrounding the “Russian Revolution” at Chelsea in 2003, or John W Henry’s takeover at Liverpool earlier this year, the announcement that Kroenke had become majority shareholder at Arsenal warranted comparatively little media hype. Then again, Kroenke has been steadily increasing his percentage of shares at the club since 2007, while, in media terms, an American taking over a Premier League football club is relatively old hat. It is also the case that Kroenke, much like Villa owner Randy Lerner, has remained resolutely “hands-off” with his sporting investments, preferring to allow his executive and coaching teams to get on with their jobs.

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Arsene Wenger is a man who has always stayed loyal to his purist footballing vision, but is it now time to abandon his principles?

The terms used for the teams at the top of the Premier League have changed during 2010-11; the group once revered as the Big Four are now the more ambivalent “traditional Big Four”. While Liverpool have appeased the masses (and media) by bringing back “King Kenny”, Arsenal have no such party trick available to them.

 The club’s defeats in three Cups between February 27 and March 12 were greeted by a deep despairing groan. After all, apparently Arsenal haven’t won anything recently and, according to David Anderson in the Mirror, “in addition to the flowering of daffodils, another unerring sign of spring is the Gooners’ season disintegrating”. The Sunday Telegraph’s Oliver Brown worried that six years without silverware may be “too much to bear” for Arsenal fans, while in the Observer Paul Hayward described a “merciless vortex” and a “night of a thousand agonies” in Barcelona.

Encouraged by the likes of Emmanuel Petit claiming that Arsenal were “cracking up”, many commentators attempted a deeper interpretation. In the Times, Tom Dart muttered darkly of “long-held weaknesses”, “an underlying psychological block” and that: “If Arsenal did not need a session on the therapist’s couch before, perhaps they do now.” A cognitively minded Duncan Castles backed this up in the Sunday Times: “In times of trouble football teams, like individuals, tend to regress to their fundamentals.”

Affectionate epitaphs were prepared in advance for Arsène Wenger. Mick Dennis of the Daily Express offered a defence: “Wenger’s ‘business model’ is a beacon of hope for a game dominated by dosh. If he fails again, the light will go out. Money will have won.” But most were harsher. The News of the World mocked What’s your excuse this time Arsene? and the Sunday Express wondered whether Arsenal’s manager was now “more manic and barmy than Gallic and charming”, questioning Is le Prof losing le Plot? A prevalent leitmotif of the criticism was reference to Wenger’s new choice of outerwear – a voluminous knee-length puffer jacket. In the People, Dave Kidd asked: “Will the Arsenal board ever seriously question the man in the technical area with the sleeping-bag coat and the increasingly crazed demeanour?”

Indeed, while attention was focused elsewhere, it was quietly announced that the president of the International Fencing Federation, Alisher Usmanov, had increased his Arsenal stake to “over 27 per cent”. The Russian billionaire has previously called for heavy investment in the team and failed with a proposal of a rights issue to raise transfer funds in 2009. If Usmanov continues his gradual share accumulation, Wenger may well be forced to consider his policy of prudence. And further internal uncertainty at the club should worry the manager far more than cod psychology, generalised football “philosophy” or whether his giant padded coat is slightly too big for him.

From WSC 291 May 2011

Debt is a fact of life for football clubs, but how damaging will it become?

“We obviously can’t compete with the money Manchester City have so there’s no point trying. We’ve got to succeed some other way.” So said a Premier League chairman in late September. But this wasn’t a pragmatic view from someone at a club that would be happy with a mid-table finish. It was Arsenal’s Peter Hill-Wood, whose comments were reported on the day that his team went top after a win at Bolton. The Arsenal board are bucking the current trend by actively discouraging interest from outside investors, in their case Alisher Usmanov from Uzbekistan, who owns a 24 per cent stake in the club.

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What are the expectations for the team?
Thanks to the apparently golden touch of Guus Hiddink, probably greater than ever before. Russia teams of the past have generally managed to be less than the sum of their parts; Hiddink has managed to reverse that. The general feeling is that reaching the knockout stages would be a success. With a relatively tough group, Hiddink himself has tried to dampen any false hopes and said that his main target is the 2010 World Cup.

Is the coach popular?
He is now, although he has had to overcome the initial mistrust of those who said a foreigner would never get his head round the enigma that is Russian football. Along with his fellow Dutchman Dick Advocaat at Zenit St Petersburg, he seems to have cracked it.

Which players are good interviewees and who are the worst?
Andrei Arshavin and Vladislav Radimov, two of Advocaat’s players at Zenit, are always good value – friendly and open. At the other extreme, the grumpy and monosyllabic Sergei Ignashevich of CSKA Moscow is generally best avoided.

Are then any players with unusual hobbies or business interests?
Arshavin has a degree in fashion design, which included a thesis on “The development of sportswear manufacturing”. Alexei Smertin collects wine, and runs his own football academy in his native Barnaul in Siberia. He’s also obsessed with the works of John Fowles (author of The French Lieutenant’s Woman, among others), turning up at the novelist’s house in Dorset to introduce himself.

Do any of the players have famous girlfriends or wives?
There are no A-List celebrities, but plenty of wannabes. Four years ago, ahead of Euro 2004 a group of the players’ wives posed nude for a calendar. No word of a reprise this year though.

Will there be any rehearsed goal celebrations?
Unlikely. The Russians don’t go in for this kind of flamboyance. Don’t expect anything more exciting than some fist‑pumping.

Are there any players involved in politics?
Arshavin capitalised on his popularity as Russian football’s golden boy to gain election to the St Petersburg legislative assembly in 2006, campaigning on Vladimir Putin’s United Russia ticket.

What will the media coverage be like?
Sovietsky Sport and the estimable Sport Express will battle it out for the heavyweight coverage in print. The garrulous Andrei Kanchelskis, now general director at first division club FC Nosta (owned by Alisher Usmanov, who also owns just under 25 per cent of Arsenal), may pop up as a TV pundit.

Will there be many fans travelling to the tournament?
Not really. With the costs of getting and staying there beyond the average Russian, the travelling support tends to be restricted to the caviar sandwich eaters of the burgeoning business class, who can doubtless take the chance to check up on their Swiss bank accounts. Russian football song culture remains primitive and unimaginative, not least where the national team is concerned.

Dan Brennan

Apart from pubs and the stands themselves, internet message boards are the best place to debate your club’s fortunes and praise or criticise in the company of fellow fans. But, as Ian Plenderleith reports, this freedom of expression is increasingly under threat as clubs use lawyers to clamp down on dissent

Many people compare the football message board to their local pub. You can meet your mates there to relax, say anything you like, and the next day no one will remember a word. There’s the odd idiot who gets out of hand and maybe a fight breaks out, but after a while everyone calms down. Sometimes it’s quiet because there’s no one around, so you leave again. And strangers are treated with suspicion until they show they didn’t just come in to cause trouble, but rather gain acceptance by expressing the sort of opinion that’s greeted with knowing nods (the online equivalent of getting your round in unprompted).

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