Is Kroenke Holding Us Back?

[Sweggeh]

Some great tweets by the financial columnist and expert Matt Scott on Kroenke's motives for owning Arsenal and why we are unlikely to spend any money or decrease ticket prices any time soon.

* As its Twitter, the tweets are in reverse chronological order.

1. 
   Matt Scott ‏@Matt5cott 4h4 hours ago
   This is Kroenke's legacy to Arsenal. #AFC
   
   88 retweets18 likes
   
2. 
   Matt Scott ‏@Matt5cott 4h4 hours ago
   Regardless of the new TV money flooding the Premier League, Arsenal will not go on a spending spree and they will not reduce ticket prices.
   
   114 retweets18 likes
   
3. 
   Matt Scott ‏@Matt5cott 4h4 hours ago
   Arsenal continues to hoard cash, which then permits more KSE borrowing and more purchases of cash-generating assets. Rinse and repeat.
   
   124 retweets26 likes
   
4. 
   Matt Scott ‏@Matt5cott 4h4 hours ago
   He used loans to buy Arsenal, secured against KSE. The loans are serviced through revenue from eg the farm or the St Louis Rams.
   
   79 retweets15 likes
   
5. 
   
   Matt Scott ‏@Matt5cott 4h4 hours ago
   By growing KSE's equity he can increase the amount of money he can borrow. This is then spent on revenue-generating assets like the farm.
   
   80 retweets13 likes
   
6. 
   
   Matt Scott ‏@Matt5cott 4h4 hours ago
   Kroenke buying a £500m farm *is* linked to Arsenal not spending any money. By growing the cash pile in the club he grows the value of KSE.
   
   103 retweets24 likes
   

 

[Godwin1]

I think everyone knows, by now anyway, that Kroenke is a cancer that needs to be cut out.

 

[say yes]

That's a pretty damning assessment if true.

 

[bingobob]

I just want an owner that is interested in the club. As disparaging as it might be to others I've no interest in where the cash comes from that's for other people to scrutinise and query.

Why am I not bothered because we'd find pretty much everyone somewhere, politicians, ceos, business people, have been sly and underhand in their dealings. Very few will be squeaky clean so since they're all at it why should we be handicapped for sticking to a moral code that is rarely followed.

 

[Sweggeh]

Its so sad to know that City and Chelsea have owners who desperate for success and are actively losing money on a regular basis to achieve it. While we are stuck with this **** who owns so many sports teams who barely have two trophies to rub together.

I would be over the moon if Usmanov bought the club. Or that Nigerian guy. They may be a dodgy individuals but they are not happy with the position of the club and they want to take us to the top, the same thing Abramovich did for Chelsea and the Sheikhs are doing for City.

 

[say yes]

Is there a feature we can enable to embed tweets on the forum @redwhiteAustrian , @celestis , @blaze_of_glory ?

Similar to the way in which youtube videos are embedded. Tweets currently don't copy and paste very well and have seen it done on other forums.

 

[A_G]

That's a pretty damning assessment if true.

Might absolve Wenger of some blame as well.

 

[Gooner Zig]

The most frustrating thing is that we don't know if Kroenke has leveraged us to KSE because the **** won't release his financial statements.

I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest - this guy is a cancer.

Say what you want about the Glazers, at least everyone knows they leveraged their loans against Man United. This hiding behind the shadows stinks to the high heavens.

 

[Gooner Zig]

First thing's first - who is this Matt Scott and where does his knowledge on these matters come from?

 

[Sweggeh]

Wenger still deserves blame because he is complicit in this fraud that Kroenke is running. Wenger is a guy with real power and has a lot of influence, he could say whatever he wants about the board and they won't do ****. The worst they would have done is fire him and he would probably have clubs even more prestigious than ours offer him jobs.

If he cannot perform because of the limits on transfer dealings, he should say so instead of saying he has enough options to win the league every single year.

 

[Jasard]

I don't think any owner of this club is ever going to be in it for anything other than filling their own pockets. Those days are gone.

 

[bingobob]

First thing's first - who is this Matt Scott and where does his knowledge on these matters come from?

Matt Scott
Nationality British
Occupation Journalism
Known for Investigative journalism
Matt Scott is a British sports journalist.

He is best known for his work in The Guardiannewspaper in the 'Digger' column which was printed between 2007 and 2010.[1] He was also an occasional contributor to the Guardian's Football Weekly podcast. He vacated his position at The Guardian in January 2011, having been employed there since 2003. Since then he has written for theDaily Telegraph and is a columnist for the website Inside World Football (IWF).[2]

He had previously worked for Sportsbeat, Worldsports and the Daily Star.

A known Arsenal F.C. fan,[3] he is the great grandson of William Scott; a former player of Arsenal and Forfar Athletic.


References

Last edited 12 months ago by Punavuori

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He just tweeted this

I'm being challenged to provide proof that KSE borrowed to buy Arsenal. It's at section 8 on pp8/9 here: https://t.co/LXJJTZuBpE #AFC

Edit. I've read section 8 Kse leveraged themselves but not us. Nothing is secured against us but since we're under the Kse umbrella I'd say what this journalist is writing is true. Our cashpiles are used for further borrowing for the group which we are part of.

 

[Nyctophobia]

Looks grim.

 

[Gooner416]

I wouldn't classify him as holding us back. I would maybe say with somebody else, we could have more progress. My issue with Stan is that he shows absolutely no desire or interest in the club (at a game once every few years) and is silent. It would be nice to see him at a game or hear him speak about what Arsenal means and his vision for the future.

He's too busy borrowing against his assets now to build a $2B privately funded football stadium in LA. The financial statements show he's barely taken anything from Arsenal except a few million here and there so all in all, I don't think he's the worse owner but I do think if we had more of an interested owner we might be in a different position.

I don't think he's in Lerner (Villa), Gillette/Hicks (Liverpool Pre-FSG), Kenwright (Everton), Glazers (Man U) bad territory though.

 

[AVENTUS]

Blame Nina-Bracewell Smith shes the one who sold him the her shares when she left. If she done the smart thing like David Dean and sold to Usmonav who would of had a place at the board room table as a result of his purchase things would so so different today.

Instead were stuck with this tool.

But saying that while his been here we have smashed our transfer record with Özil and also signed Sanchez there is nothing to really tell us Arsenal won't buy any more super established players like the above mentioned.

Another decent CB, Maybe another CM and a striker like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang caliber we are sorted.

You have to really ask yourself if Wenger said ''Right, I want to to sign Pogba can we offer Juventus £55.000.000''

Do we think the board would say no or yes.??

It could be a combination of tight manager & tight board, Or as some are lead to believe just tight manager or visa versa nobody really knows,

 

[Bearded Toaster]

Personally I don't think it's just him who needs to leave. There are other members on the board also. Keswick - former banker, Gazidis - lawyer/commercial side of things, Lord Harris - basically a carpet salesman and then there are the Kroenkes (or the krankies as I call them) who are in real estate, finance/marketing etc. Those who I've just mentioned joined/wormed their way into the club over the last 10 yrs (give or take).

Now if Usmanov were to take charge/main shareholder yes he would probably pump money into the club, spend money etc to gain trophies/success although not guaranteed, that would tar us with the same brush as chelski and citeh would it not? I for one would not like to see us try and "buy" success like those clubs.

Seems strange that before the changes on the board, we didn't really have much of an issue in buying/bringing in players. I think the main problem was the David Dein situation but thats another story completely

 

[samshere]

Some great tweets by the financial columnist and expert Matt Scott on Kroenke's motives for owning Arsenal and why we are unlikely to spend any money or decrease ticket prices any time soon.

* As its Twitter, the tweets are in reverse chronological order.

1. 
   Matt Scott ‏@Matt5cott 4h4 hours ago
   This is Kroenke's legacy to Arsenal. #AFC
   
   88 retweets18 likes
   
2. 
   Matt Scott ‏@Matt5cott 4h4 hours ago
   Regardless of the new TV money flooding the Premier League, Arsenal will not go on a spending spree and they will not reduce ticket prices.
   
   114 retweets18 likes
   
3. 
   Matt Scott ‏@Matt5cott 4h4 hours ago
   Arsenal continues to hoard cash, which then permits more KSE borrowing and more purchases of cash-generating assets. Rinse and repeat.
   
   124 retweets26 likes
   
4. 
   Matt Scott ‏@Matt5cott 4h4 hours ago
   He used loans to buy Arsenal, secured against KSE. The loans are serviced through revenue from eg the farm or the St Louis Rams.
   
   79 retweets15 likes
   
5. 
   
   Matt Scott ‏@Matt5cott 4h4 hours ago
   By growing KSE's equity he can increase the amount of money he can borrow. This is then spent on revenue-generating assets like the farm.
   
   80 retweets13 likes
   
6. 
   
   Matt Scott ‏@Matt5cott 4h4 hours ago
   Kroenke buying a £500m farm *is* linked to Arsenal not spending any money. By growing the cash pile in the club he grows the value of KSE.
   
   103 retweets24 likes
   

I'm not convinced with this cash pile theory. KSE has ownership of Arsenal as a whole which includes cash and other assets. For Eg: If Arsenal were to invest the cash in a new facility or a player, that would still be classified as an asset on Arsenal's books and should give him the same leverage he would get by maintaining a cash pile. Unless of course, his borrowing has a convenant which requires a minimum level of liquid(cash) assets. But from experience, such a convenant is rarely applied to a subsidiary when the holding co. is doing the borrowing.
And even if we put all of this aside, the actual cash that he takes out of the club is 3m for consultancy fees, so it isn't as if he's servicing his debt out of Arsenal's cash reserves which should still be there for spending.
Back on topic, I don't really think that Kroenke is holding us back. Its just that he isn't pushing us forward. Arsenal would probably have been same without him. I've seen 10 years of unenthusiastic results, I can wait to see another two years if Wenger can't win the title with the resources available to him before I pass judgement on Kroenke.

 

[albakos]

It is so sad that a friction inside Board memberds basically allowed this snake to get a hold of our club and is certainly hell bent only on profits while winning titles seems secondary.

It all started in 2006, when as Kroenke was hounding around the club, PHW has claimed: We don't want their sorts anywhere near the club.

Then it seems like David Dein was a big proponent of Stan, while late Fiszman was against it.
Apparently there was a debate which resulted in Dein being fired from the Board. So in retaliation, Dein sold his shares to Usmanov. To return this "favour" back, Fiszman then sold all his stakes to Kroenke and they basically forced Lady Nina out with her having to sell her stakes to Kroenke too, thus resulting in Kroenke becoming our majority shareholder.

Unfortunately all this mess landed Kroenke our club in silver platter.
We had built the Emirates and were profiting from CL participation and selling our star players, while competition for Top 4 was weaker

 

[Aevi]

Is there a feature we can enable to embed tweets on the forum @redwhiteAustrian , @celestis , @blaze_of_glory ?

Similar to the way in which youtube videos are embedded. Tweets currently don't copy and paste very well and have seen it done on other forums.

This would especially be nice for when there is a video in it.

Great suggestion.

 

[TheLawOfDiQ]

The sad reality is that we're just a cash cow for Kroenke. Results don't mean anything to him, so it doesn't make much sense paying over the odds for a much needed player. It also looks very likely that he will own us for a lengthy period of time.