Yesterday I asked the question:
If you have to choose one of them, which would you prefer as Arsenal owner, Kroenke or Usmanov?
I don’t want either as sole owner or even majority owner, but I phrased the question so that it just measures the popularity of the two gentlemen. It wasn’t meant to decide anything about the best ownership model for Arsenal.
Some people did object to the question and refuse to answer on the basis that they too do not want a single owner. Some feel it’s a choice between a rock and a hard place, to put it politely. However, there were over 1,000 responses, which give a fair spread of Gooners around the world.
I also asked where respondents were from, purely to see whether fans in one part of the world were more pro one of the shareholders than those elsewhere. I’ve taken it on trust that people replied honestly to that.
First the big picture:
Now a summary of all the numbers:
NB: due to rounding and the fact that a few people didn’t answer both questions, all the numbers may not match exactly or add up every which way. Don’t bother complaining.
Graph of where respondents come from:
Graph of percentages by region:
Graph of numbers voting by region (not including UK, as I’d have needed a much taller graph):
So there you go. I’m slightly surprised that Usmanov has such a healthy overall lead in this popularity contest, both in the UK and elsewhere. Fans clearly think the current regime could either do a lot better, or should be removed to let someone else do a lot better.
I won’t bother commenting further on what you can see for yourself, but a couple of final thoughts:
1 – We know Kroenke doesn’t love Arsenal, but anyone who thinks that Usmanov truly loves Arsenal also needs a reality check.
2 – A lot of people have commented that both the options here are unpalatable, so I’ll do another survey with more options. Without wishing to present things as leading questions, I hope there won’t be too many dimwits who think that Usmanov as sole owner is the only possible way to compete. It’s not, and Arsenal is too important to be owned by one person.
Twitter: @AngryOfN5
angryofislington 
Better the devil you don’t know than the devil you know???
I think those results are surprising, in favour of Stan. Didn’t think he’s going to get almost third of the votes
I’m frankly amazed by this result. However, your sample might be biased towards people who actually – for some totally unfathomable reason – think Usmanov would do a better job and wanted to use this platform to express their view. The Asian and European results are also interesting – maybe some people think he’s Asian (Uzbek) and others think he’s European (Russian).
Needless to say, given my comments above, I voted for Stan. I don’t like him at all, but as corporate owners go he’s better than most. i.e., he lets the manager get on with the job. Imagine if we had an AbramOvich type owning the club and sacking the manager every 5 minutes.
A simple question…..how the hell can any one of you rate Usmanov better than Stan??
Do any of you personally know the Russian?
If not,then you obviously have no idea of his intentions,so it is stupid to vote for him!!
No,i don’t like Stan,but voting for Usmanov isn’t a vote or Usmanov,it’s a vote AGAINST Stan,and that is ignorant and/or stupid!!
We all whinge about Citeh and Chelski,yet you want to turn us into the same thing,as that’s what will happen if Usmanov takes over.
Those wanting Usmanov in don’t love Arsenal,they just love trophies!!
I DO NOT WANT STAN,BUT I’d prefer him to that other criminal!!
No we love Arsenal winning trophies you fool.
How can you sit there and defend Kroenke?
I wouldn’t have either given the absolute choice but all the American has proved is he doesn’t care. 3 matches in 3 years, has never stated his intentions for the club despite many requests from fan groups and has invested £0 of his own money into the club. All borrowed from deutche bank.
That’s what people see, along with our best players constantly leaving, whilst turning profits every year.
But no you’re right because you read some stuff on the Internet about Usmanov and want to put others opinions down as they don’t agree with you.
Usmanov does not = trophies you fool!
Usmanov does not = trophies you fool
I love Arsenal regardless of trophies you tool.
Ooooh, I love arsenal regardless of trophies. What a knobish thing to say. We all love Arsenal or we wouldn’t bother using our spare time to go onto twitter, vote on something just for curiosity and then follow up with comments. As for going down the citeh/chavski route, I dont know any gunner that has whole heartedly endorsed it, ok out of frustration possibly there have been mutterings but even usmanov hasn’t said that would be the way to go, he HAS however said that there would be no profit taken out of the club which is all that is really needed for us to compete. Remember, when kreonke says £40m profit he’s giving a massive chunk of that straight to the taxman, that’s a massive chunk of money that could be invested in new players or even, heaven forbid, used to keep our better players. But if you’re happy for our clubs money that we hand over to improve our team to be shared out between silent stan and the taxman then that’s great. Tool
Stuart1979 = fool.
Read all that I wrote…. I said I’d rather have neither but u read the 1st line and responded to that. No Usmanov doesn’t = trophies, but he does = board wanting the club to do the best possible with its resources available. What does stan want for our club? We don’t know because he hasn’t said anything…. in 3 years.
And Arkadiy – we all love Arsenal regardless of trophies else we wouldnt be on here or go to games week in week out. Why would I be here if I didnt love arsenal with or without trophies you fool.
Ah yes but you also defended Usmanov in your statement too.
So what if Kroenke hasn’t put any money in? Why should he?
I defended him because he has at least told us what he wants to do. I’d defend stan if I thought his vision was right, but I’m still waiting to hear his vision 3 years later!
‘So what if Kroenke hasn’t put any money in? Why should he?’
Unbelievable! Arsenal wouldnt be here today if people hadn’t invested money into us.
Someone who had invested their own money rather than borrowed it would care about that investment a bit more than if the money’s borrowed against the investment. See glazers and hicks & gillette as examples.
Again, why should Kroenke put his own money in? Oh and about that vision you have heard, he obviously knew there is enough people who are mug enough to believe he meant even a single word of it.
According to the survey most arsenal fans are mugs too by your logic, because they believe him too.
People might believe stan IF HE’D ACTUALLY SAID ANYTHING IN 3 YEARS!
Perhaps he should put his own money in so it made people believe he gave a shit, especially seeing as he doesn’t say anything.
But hey you keep defending the silent one and come back and tell me he was acting in Arsenals interests when he cashes in for a huge profit and still hasn’t said anything to us fans.
Downunder..it must be we Aussies that talk sense lol!!
The best person that would not turn the Club into a policitical football???
Scott, even though half of us voted for a KGB-friendly gangsta!
Did’nt read my email in time to vote but here it is anyway Kroenke and i’m from Galway
Noel, Noel, Noel! I am SO disappointed in you! Not for the Kroenke decision, that’s irrelevant, but for not paying attention to my blog for a period of very nearly 24 hours!
very interesting! kroenke has only been to 3 games in many years, has not invested a penny into the club itself, has said nothing at all except he wants the company to make a profit every year and has shown or acted that he has no vision at all! his usa teams are useless, terrible, his big team the st louis rams finish bottom of its league and only dont get religated as there is no relegation! he invests nothing in all his usa teams too, the fans blogs there say the same, i cannot understand how one single person would ‘vote’ for him to own our beloved club, i can only assume its because those people dont understand the above, jeez he didnt even pay for his shares in cash, he borrowed it from deutch bank…. now usmanov is the oppostie, he goes to many games, he says he loves the club, he says what his vision is, which is to pay off the debt and invest in the team, he says he wants to win, he paid for his shares with cash and he is the richest man living in the uk, worth double abramovich, and i know for a fact that he tried to buy the club from kroenke with a huge profit, kroenke thinks he will make more because he thinks the tv is undervalued, that my fellow gooners is all kroenke is interested in whatsoever, the tv income rising over the next ‘decade’ so we have him for that, if arsene goes wether you like him or not all we are left with is kroenke who does nothing and says nothing and his corporate monkey gazides who is his mouthpeice who basically says nothing too except talking about our ‘model’ which everyone knows is nonsense its translates into my boss? we dont invest!
Phil, I think your next survey has to include the question ‘do you want the club to sack Wenger?’ That might flush out any bias in the sample.
Yes!!!!!!!!
yes,yas,yes.
wanger,hilwood,gazidis and kroncke-doesn’t give a moncy about us the fans,and even worse,about OUR club!!!!
Dean will bring the arsenal spirit ,the love and soul for the club’the knowledge how to manuver in the transfer market.
Osmanon will bring the motivation,winning mentality,the will to use the arsenal resorseze to the transfer market and of corse to back the club’s aspiration with his own capital.
These combination,will protect us the fans from all the laying and coniving of the bad people who run OUR club at the moment/
sorry for my bad inglish,i am just a non english mad arsenal fan .
yes,yas,yes.
wanger,hilwood,gazidis and kroncke-doesn’t give a moncy about us the fans,and even worse,about OUR club!!!!
Dean will bring the arsenal spirit ,the love and soul for the club’the knowledge how to maneuver in the transfer market.
Osmanov will bring the motivation,winning mentality,the will to use the arsenal resources to the transfer market and of course to back the club’s aspiration with his own capital.
These combination,will protect us the fans from all the laying and conniving of the bad people who run OUR club at the moment.
sorry for my bad english,i am just a non English mad arsenal fan.
The fact that since Kroenke took over, the club have never improved, they busy selling players. I am not sure if he is aware that, the supporters who pay their money to watch good football are so frastrated about the idea of selling players from year to year. Even if he is the major share holder, he should have positive mind and also have sound in mind about the complaints from supporters. He should not continue to ignore the supporters. I prefer Usmanov, because begining of the season when RVP went on tweeter, indicating that, he will not re-new the contract with Arsenal, Usmanov was not happy about the idea to continue selling our best players. he even indicated that, the club is not investing, they are busy selling players which is not good for the progress of the club. The supporters at least need to see a change to the club.
i honestly wouldn’t prefer both as stan’s an idiot usmanov’s unreliable, but i’m a little inclined to usmanov mostly because i think we can hold on to our players. never really a fan of buying players, i think we’ve got great players from the academy ready to step up, but then again maybe usmanov’s more into buying players than waiting patiently while developing players. if you ask me i don’t think both are capable of keeping the club stable.
Well scott, I’ve never whinged about city or chelsea having money, so Is out ok with you then if I want usmanov…. Without proper investment we will never compete… FACT!
Downunder , perhaps the question should be :- Do we want a new younger dynamic board or just keep the slumbering one that seems to have no desire to do anything but keep the status quo and the profits rolling in..
Don’t mind if you frame the question that way at all. My issue is with possible sample bias, not with who wins the poll.
Some people believe every bit of propaganda they read. Usmanov is a fan of Dinamo Moscow, not Arsenal!
Exactly my point too mate. Some show me a photo of Usmanov on the 1989/90 season kit and I’ll believe he is a fan and not out to make a tidy profit at the expense of us and our clubs heritage/history.
At least without him, we can control our own destiny.
It’s an easy choice, Usmanov of course!!! Stan Kroenke is primarily interested in making money , and Arsenal FC is just a vehicle to achieve that goal. At 3 billion net worth Kroenke is neither rich enough or so inclined to invest in the club to put it over the top and win trophies. His trophy is a quarterly statement ,so in fact he personally wins atrophy every quarter. Usmanov at 18 billion net worth is in a different league , and like most Mega-rich Russians , he’s all about making a statement. As an Arsenal fan , I never begrudged Chelsey or Man City their riches. Having world class players applying their trade in England is great for the fans of Premier League. The riches of talent and players no longer desired by those clubs, will eventually trickle down to other clubs in premiership das elevating the level of competition and making the sport even more popular the world over .
I see all the anti-usmanov brigade are out in force this morning.
I voted Usmanov. I wouldn’t want him as a single owner, fan share should be involved and even have a seat on the board too in an ideal world.
The reason I voted for him is simple. You are right he doesn’t love the club but he at least gives a shit about results on the pitch. Kroenke only cares about the share price and
the balance sheet.
From your response on the poll you conducted, its clear you are disappointed that Arsenal fans want Usmanov.
Who wouldn’t want a rich owner to make the club competitive?
Players departure and everything derisory about Arsenal will continue unless they start winning.
its evident kroenke doesnt care about the club nor the fans….usmanov on the other hand loves the club and he promises to lift the club to the top the way it shoulb be..
Urrgh. where did your brain go mate!
All of us cn nt make a mistake at the same time. Usmano is the man to handle arsenal bcs he love footnall and he has murtivation and good feeling.
Samf. How could Fanshare be involved? So far they’ve managed to acquire 3 out of 62219. Do you think either of our corporate owners would donate some? What makes you think that Usmanov would be less caring about the profit and loss account (while of course caring about the on-pitch results)? What makes you think he would decide to flout FFP rules? What makes you think he would let the FOOTBALL manager get on with his job?
Most likely he won’t get a chance to show that his words speak louder than his actions.
Regards fan involvement I said it would be ideal if it could happen. Take Swansea for example who have 20% owned by fans and the fans elect a member to the board of directors, that’s an ideal model for us but it’s very unlikely to happen. and unfortunately neither of our owners would give up shares at present in a power struggle. It could happen if 1 person had control tho.
The only reason fanshare only has 3 shares is because shares are being hoovered up by Usmanov in this power struggle.
Usmanov has stated he will care about the business being run properly but the main focus is on results on the pitch. Why can’t people see that success on the pitch leads to financial success (if well run) off the pitch. You only have to look at man utd to see that.
Only a few clubs in Europe are going to struggle with FFP, we will see what UEFA does when it comes in. Arsenal can easily spend more money now to bring more success and increase revenue, all the while complying with FFP, that’s what Usmanov has said he will do.
Usmanov has already stated he’d let Wenger or who ever the manager is deal with all the football side. He’d just provide the means to get the best possible for the team and to use every resource available to us. That isn’t happening at present.
Usmanov will get his chance. It’s probably a long way off but once Kroenke has made his money he’ll cash in for a massive profit. The sooner people realise thats all he’s here for the better.
Erm, I think the conclusion of your survey should be, at best, that the majority of your readers favours Usmanov. I generally enjoy your articles which seem to be well informed but I am very disappointed that you think that the headline of this article is in anyway appropriate for your ‘survey’.
Not necessarily even a majority of Phil’s readers. Just the ones who have an itch.
For me it matters not which name is in charge more to how they will run and keep the football club who we run in the elite realms of the football worldwide. Some of you will say we are some will say we aren’t. Kronke brings stability and is the safe option we in my opinion will be serial underachievers and perhaps over achieve on such a tight budget due to the excellence of our manager. Although not being able to challenge amd if another billionaire comes to the league there will then be four meaning our fourth place slot which seems to currently be ours would probably no longer be. Although the risk off slipping away like rangers and Leeds becomes non existent. Usamonov comes with promises amd what he will and can do.y only question is giving someone with no real history with AFC full ownership of our great club. Spending is great but it comes with consequences if not done properly. Whilst I believe with Kronke we will never reach the heights we should amd that’s competing with Manchester united world wide usamanov worries me for the above reasons. What I would like us to be instead of keep retaining money from sales with heavy positive balance sheets all the time it would be nice to see it balanced so that we didn’t waste money but rewarded our ether players on better contracts and then all we would need to do is introduce one marquee signing per season not three or four. The reason we are always begging for signings is due to us keep selling the best players we are a club always I transition making wenger a scapegoat. All the wenger haters he really is the scapegoat for stan and stans business. Wenger himself isn’t going to tell us the truth cos yes he is on 7 million a season. My wish is some one in between the business model of stan and the usamanov spending. In my opinion this should be a arsenal shareholder takeover people who genuinely love the club with someone responsible entrusted to run the shareholders ideas and money. The club has a amazing footing amd
Is self sustaining doesn’t need to be so profit making as the Kronke obviously wants. With ffp jut round the corner or a slightly more controlled spending with the right ownership we have so much going for us we could be the club/brand everyone follows. At the minute I feel we are just to conservative.
Uhmn, I think the question being asked is misleading in many regards !
It really should be ‘How can we make the ownership of Arsenal better reflect the wishes of the fans’, and not a popularity contest with a ‘winner takes all’ result. Most Gunners do not want any form of soul-ownership situation being brought about at our club ( although you could argue that Silent Stan virtually enjoys that privilege currently, despite what stock Usmanov holds { the Hill-Woods etc are obviously opposed to Usmanov )).
I think approaching matters from this angle will result in a board that actually acts on what we all want to see. What have we got currently ? Truth is, it isn’t what many of us want to see from the board or manager.
Wenger has come in for some serious stick over the last couple of years, and some of this has been warranted, but I also feel that his instinctive frugality has been, on balance, a benefit to the club in situations where we have had to spend limited cash reserves carefully. We must remember too that Wenger has had to operate under the financial constraints placed on him by the board and this has been stiffling for Arsene. Afterall, what manager would not want to go out and be able to splash £100 million + every transfer window without batting an eye-lid ?? However, what I could not support has been our policy of off-loading players due to having an idiotic parity pay structure in place – this has crippled us at times, I feel.
So, returning to the main two candidates, I’d like all to open their eyes about these two souls. Stan clearly doesn’t give a toss about Arsenal being the best that they can be, as he doesn’t really want to pump any ‘extra cash’ into the club to really put us on a level to compete for those £30 million plus signings. Usmanov, on the other hand, has been making noises about loving the club deeply and attacking the board for not releasing the funds to enable us to compete in the transfer market, yet has actually said very little about just how much of his own considerable wealth he’ll sink into the club, if needed ? We also need to then look at the characters of these two men and Stan seem to come out a little cleaner, if only just.
I think the dieal situation is one where Usmanov and Stan can hold pretty much an equal stake in the club and this will force the two of them, along with the other share holders, to actively work together much more closely in the interests of Arsenal ? I must finally state that Hill-Wood and a few other rather unhelpful board memebers at Arsenal should urgently be retired from any formn of influential role and, preferably, moved as far away from the club as possible !
Onwards and upwards Gunners !!
I totally agree with lb. something needs changing its right that us have the opinion I respect others people come on amd say there wrong etc etc. I honestly think the general opinion and I go home
And away I here armchair fans slagging but tbh don’t always listen. The general opinion is the fans miss winning. The songs
That we’re being
Sung
In the pub before Liverpool game were all about nasri van p Ashley cole we have become a little like spurs in this respect. We used to sing great songs about our own players lately for the past year or two we seem to be directing
Our anger at ex players and
Unfortunately these ex players are constantly giving it back to us by picking up trophies constantly. It is a sad time when all we have to sing about is bitterness to ex players. This is due to the lack of success on the pitch….henceforth spurs comparison. We are to classy to good for this although I agree sometimes it is funny it’s not
The way it should be. These thoughts were said to me by a away steward who had noticed the change in the way our fans are now. The problem us fans have is identifying with these players every yet te face the heroe of arsenal is taken fabregas van p etc etc yes I know another is born but it doesn’t happen at the other big clubs. It’s then harder to keep relating to new players as they take time to bed in amd understand the arsenal way. You know Sagna will be next the willshere and so on. You feel if the ox has a good year he will then be sold irrespective of length of contract as Alex song situation has proven. We need someone strong
In our leadership so when those vile Barcelona cretins come
Knocking they know where to go. Wenger will quit when he has won a trophy the stubbornness is keeping him at te club as he wants to be proven right. Eventually we will succeed he will then leave a hero amd we will be fucked as I don’t believe there is a better man to work under these constraints then our current manager. As to be proven by Rodgers at Liverpool in the coming mOnths
He has in the past said there would be a £200mwar chest available immediately.(usmanov)
All those who voted for Usmanov are idiots!!!!! Why or why would we want to run by one man???? He would spend, spend, spend then if dies or gives up we go bust!!!
I love the way this club is run and we will win things again doing it the right way.
Great argument. 60%+ of ARSENAL FANS who voted are idiots.
You helmet.
So Usmanovs money dies with him does it?
I didn’t realise stan will leave forever. Why dont the government or drug companies know about his magic potion!!
You dont seem to understand that if kroenke disappeared it would make no financial difference to AFC as under his watch we spend within our means and have no unfunded promises in owings due to outrageous transfer fees or crazy petro-wages. Thats the difference – if Usmanov (see abromovich / Leeds / Malaga et al) changes all that, promises lots – to we fans and to overpaid players – and then things change are you ok with your conscience. You can’t stay happy, sing sad angry songs with your like minded mates unless we win everything ? That’s ok you are an arsenal fan like me we just have different ideals.
That’s great, so we all wait for the Abu dhabbi royal family and abramovich to die then we might have a chance to be successful again, that is if we can still attract/develop the players to do so. Besides usmanov hasn’t said he will spunk cash everywhere just that he wont bleed the club dry like kreonke is at the minute. Let’s face it, the reason we sold cesc,nasri,RVP,song and all the others was to balance the books plus a little extra, you know for stan’s sky rocket. The guy is murdering our club and you are not only complicit but actively encouraging and assisting him. £40m profit taken out of a FAILING company, it’s nothing short of criminal. Idiot
@ Wakinola. 9.38am
And your preferred choice(s) of replacement????????
Those who endorse Kroenke as an owner because of long term stability, are deluded. I do not like the idea of Usamanov having full control neither, but it is very likely that the club will be owned by a sugar daddy eventually, whether its in 5 years, 10 years or 15 years. Kroenke is a keeper, and not renowned for selling,but when he does, you seriously think that he won’t sell to the highest bidder-with little sentiment to the board or the fans. Moreover, the board will be easily swayed, and even if they are not, there is nothing they can do about it. HE DOESN’T CARE ABOUT THE CLUB, AND ITS JUST A QUESTION OF TIME AS TO WHEN THIS MANIFESTS. I fear that it’ll take many more sacrifices from the faithful for the penny to drop, in which time the club would have compromised brand loyalty, market share and economies of scale (lack of investment). And for what, a better share price. We don’t need to invest recklessly, but we do need to invest, surely. Don’t think that the club’s long term future is as stable as a lot of people may think, and anyone hoping that Mr Kroenke will forgo future increases in personal wealth for the greater good of the club ,once financial prosperity is derived, are hugely mistaken.
My big fear is that he’ll eventually sell to Usmanov!
Vp, nailed it. The sooner people open their eyes the better.
It does really mean that Usmanov or Kronke must own the entire Arsenal, but let those people with geniue interest in Arsenal should take over the board, perhap we could invite Usmanov on board, retired Hill Wood and replace him with David Dein as chairman and allow him to work together with Ivan Gazidi together they can form formideable partnership.
One thing that make me not to too impress with Kronke is his director of sport in the person of Ivan Gazidi, ever since he brought this man we have problem of loosing our best player due to his inability to negatiate the contract with our top existing players compare with David Dein era who know how to persuade our top player to stay.
No one can do a worse job than Kroenke he refuses to invest in the club or do a share scheme to raise money …he never attends matches …. I loathe the fact that AFC has a majority shareholder who has zero passion for the club …. I will never forgive Fizman or the board members for selling out to him just because he promised they could keep their jobs ……. I pray for the day that Kroenke goes ….the club is going nowhere under him.
Usmanov
Mind you American bussinessmen are all about profit making, look at Man u, if truely kronke loves Arsenal at heart he should hav been more concern about lack of success on the pitch by our dear team. Yes Usmanov is more concern because he love Arsenal at heart, he watch some match at Emirate than kronken do, take a contents from his last comments and i read, ” I bought the share because i love this club and am a fan, Arsenal is the first team i watch on tv back then and from then i start following the team, and if coming to the board is of profit making without success of the team i rather stay away from the board. Preiod, unlike kronke that bought his share as a sport businessman simple because he know is going to make more profit. How many time does he watch Arsenal in a season?.
An organisation that makes profit is a healthy one, what is wrong with making a profit. If you have savings in your personal life, it sets you up for the unexpected one day, the same applies to any business. At the end of the day, credit costs money, (Interest, arrangement fees, early payment penalties etc…) money that in the long run can be invested in the team.
Just because it has become fashionable for a few teams to spend beyond their means, does not mean it is right or appropriate and the jealous minority need to get their priorities right.
As you pointed out, the question is too simple, offering no other shadings.
However, for a start it would be interesting to know how many hits you had on the story overall — how many people read it, but didn’t vote.
Some would be lethargy or lack of interest, but a non-vote can also carry meaning.
I can well imagine that there would be a lot of people who don’t like Usmanov at all, but see Kroenke’s passivity as the lesser of two evils.
In that case they might skip voting because while they would like to say nyet to Usmanoff, they don’t want it to look they are voting FOR Kroenke. So they just pass.
Am praying and hoping for Usmanov to keep pressurising him ,keep buying shares for sure Kronke love to make profit, mark my word one day, you will hear a bombshell, kronken has decided to sell his entire Arsenal shares to Usmanov, once he show him a fat wallet.
It wont happen, I’m gonna buy Kroenkes shares off him one day. I’ve been saving for a few months now. 😉
Hahahaha, stuart as an Arsenal fan am happy for your dream but do you have any penny?, have a nice day, wishing you and all the rest of gunner fans sucessful and injury free season with atleast one major trophy.
I personally didn’t vote as I dont think either of them are best for Arsenal however I like the idea of Kroenke keeping Usmanov out. If the bloke really supported the club, he would want what is best for Arsenal and not himself.
A few more years of winning FA and selling our best players I reckon you’ll get lock, stock… for £50 😉
Mind you, in any form of business you are doing after making your gain, you have to also reinvest in to such business but why is the Kronken, hill wood. Gazidi’s lead board are not doing that.
I voted for both. My reason is, I feel IF they worked together. Arsenal FC could become the biggest team in the world (of cause with AW at the helm)
I would’nt want a City or Chelsea model. Just enough money from our two billionaire investors to invest the team to that extra 4-5 top players within this squad. Then I feel we could challenge on all fronts.
Think this is a bit of a misrepresentation. The majority don’t like Kroenke and when only given the 2 choices they will therefore pick Usmanov, “grass is always greener” and all that.
Of the two i’d have Kroenke, (better the devil you know) and the little I know about Usmanov is not good, sounds like a right dodgy geezer. The statements he releases reek of opportunism, he just jumps on the insecurities of Arsenal fans and tells us what we want to hear.
Abramovich could be categorised as a ‘right dodgy geezer’ but at least he has won (bought) lots of trophies for that little club. If you think holding the moral high ground is the same as winning trophies, and to be frank I’m not sure Kroenke is whiter than white then that is upto you but most Arsenal fans are more interested in seeing a successful team as this poll result would suggest.
1 – We know Kroenke doesn’t love Arsenal, but anyone who thinks that Usmanov truly loves Arsenal also needs a reality check
——
On what do you base this?, as I understand Usmanov has 2 boxes at the Emirates and regularly attends matches, as others have already pointed out Kroenke’s American sports franchises are not big players in their respective sports, Usmanov regularly attends Arsenal matches and is roughly 5 x richer than Kroenke, I really don’t understand why anyone would ‘prefer’ Kroenke, it just doesn’t make any sense, I guess too many people have been reading that Craig Murray blog who clearly has an agenda against Usmanov?.
Show me a picture of Usmanov in an Arsenal top from the 80s or 90s and I’ll believe he is a fan.
Show us one of stan then too…
Stan isn’t a fan either
No usmanovs perhaps not the super special fan you yearn for but he at least attends matches and gives a shit about something other than his monetary investment, unlike silent stan.
I don’t buy all this Usmanov cares for the club. If I had his money, I would donate. This guy is one of the richest people on the planet and Arsenal is his next pay cheque
“No usmanovs perhaps not the super special fan you yearn for but he at least attends matches and gives a shit about something other than his monetary investment, unlike silent stan.”
Maybe you would agree that Kroenke is doing the right thing by letting football people do the football stuff or did you want Usmanov interfering and picking the team?
When exactly did Usmanov state that he was going to install himself as manager, sack Wenger, Gazidis and anyone who disagrees with him and treat Arsenal as a plaything?
All I’ve ever seen him say is that he supports Wenger and wants what is best for Arsenal.
I wouldnt have either if i had a choice but with logical thinking it’ll be one or the other at some point. Usmanov is my choice at present because from what both him and Stan have or haven’t said he comes across as much better for Arsenal than Stan.
‘If I had his money, I’d donate’ aye let’s help the bloke who you want to buy out of Arsenal, great idea.
‘This guy is one of the richest people on the planet and Arsenal is his next pay cheque’ — Jesus Christ you’ve finally seen what stan is in it for 😉
I can’t understand people who want to knock Usmanov and defend stan? What has stan done to benefit Arsenal?
Stan is in it for an investment, This is how he made his money.
Usmanov is not in it to make the club secure, the guy is a criminal with a history including serving time for involvement in mafia activities. The guy even bought a news / media business and fired the management, replacing them with people who supported his views only. I bet he didn’t tell them he was going to do that before he bought it.
I can show you one of RVP, means FA mate.
It means he is a fan, Usmanov is not a fan.
Everyone should read this: http://swissramble.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/uefas-ffp-regulations-play-to-win.html?spref=tw
It explains, among other things, why current Arsenal management is doing well. Why we are, and will remain, one of the top clubs in Europe (and the world) and why oilygarchs are unhelpful.
Stop bitching people. We will win.
No, by that (excellent) article Man Utd, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern will be the winners with FFP.
They spend what they make to get more success and don’t just keep it in an account to save for a rainy day or give to the taxman.
3 of those teams are not in the PL. If you just go by money ManU will be the only winners, but they have a debt of 400 million and owners who don’t give a shit. So what’s the diff?
We are in the competition. We have a great team (especially with out Ego van Pursey.). Get behind your team mate!
I am behind the team. What a stupid statement.
Why would I be here if I didn’t care about Arsenal?
I’m not behind our current owner. That doesn’t mean I don’t support Arsenal. Just because I question the way the club is run at the very top doesn’t mean I don’t support the team, why can’t people see the difference?
All them teams are in the champions league tho. Also Chelsea are very near to achieving FFP from that article so that’ll be 2 teams in PL.
In simpler terms than my tweet. When you survey a population on a topic, you have to consider the size of that population.
In this instance, what is the “real”number of Arsenal supporter in the general population and what % are from the UK, the rest of europe, Asia…
Your survey needs to take into account that” real” representation (weigh it in) or the study won’t be representative of the original sample population(Arsenal fans) and therefore will be significantly inaccurate . My question was did you go thru that process?
Hope it clarifies things: market research methodology is not always easy to explain:)
shazzer, You can’t do a proper survey on internet by asking people to vote. To get a random sample you have to start with a list of all gooners. Not possible. There are 40 million!
But you can design the questions in such a way that biases in the responses are revealed. e.g responses here are showing that Usmanov supporters tend to want the club to throw money at players – so the questions could include some about what people think about the current spending/selling policy, or what people think about financial sustainability/profitability.
Obviously respondents are self-selecting. The only way to make it truly random and accurate would be to get a contact number for everyone in the world, cold call a random selection, ask if they were an Arsenal fan, and if they reply yes ask the AU/SK question and ask where they’re from. If they’re not an Arsenal fan, discard them. Keep doing it until there is a big enough representative sample from each territory being measured – in this case I’d say a couple of hundred from each territory would be sufficient.
If all the territories contain at least half a million Arsenal fans that will be perfectly representative.
It makes no difference how many Arsenal fans there are as a percentage of the population total or in each territory.
I’m still not entirely sure I’m getting the whole point.
It doesn’t matter what percentage of Arsenal fans there are in the overall population, unless some non-Arsenal fans are going to start tactical voting to upset the result. I’ll assume that’s unlikely.
Are you saying I should be concerned about the percentage of Arsenal fans in the UK population compared to the percentage in other populations? If so I don’t see why. The survey was only concerned with the percentage of Arsenal fans that favour SK or AU. Anyone not in the set ‘Arsenal fans’ is by definition nothing to do with the survey. It would only matter if there were for example only 3 Arsenal fans in the whole of Asia, so the sample size would never be big enough. Only 18 responded from Australasia, so it’s likely (but unproven) that overall Australasian fans in general feel the same as fans elsewhere (given the fairly consistent pattern elsewhere), but their number of responses in this case wasn’t great enough to show that.
As an aside I wanted to know whether UK fans had a vastly different collective opinion to fans elsewhere. As it happened, they didn’t, and for most territories the percentages were in the same ballpark. It doesn’t matter that about 55% of total respondents were from the UK, because the sample from the rest of the world taken as a whole is big enough.
The issue is not about the proportion of fans (most likely they are all fans because they get your twitter feed). The issue is that they are self-selecting and you may have picked up more pro-Usmanov fans who want to make a point than people who think the present set up is likely to be better (note: I’m not saying pro-Kroenke). So the question is how to counter this (possible) effect. Only thing I can think of is add questions so you can see, for hypothetical example, ‘Wenger out’ vote is closely correlated with pro-Usmanov. This would be a result you can check against the AST survey that shows 77% support for AW and you would get some indication, of how biased your sample is. Still it wouldn’t be representative of the whole fan base. You just cannot achieve that with this type of survey. Not your fault.
That said, I think it’s interesting that the result was so uniform across different regions. Suggests to me that the club’s PR is severely lacking. And, in your position of access, I would point it out to them.
Obviously also, they need to tour Australia next summer 🙂 We have the most sensible fans and we need more!
Sad to say this poll reflects very badly on our ‘fans’. Either total ignorance of the Uzbekistan’s crooked past (I wouldn’t touch him with a barge-pole) or buying into his self-interested publicity machine (the same one that’s reprocessed his own history). Why vote for a crook who wants to pay shareholders (himself) dividends? Do these people want money to walk out the door?
What evidence of this ”crooked past’ do you have?, apart from that Craig Murray blog in which most of it is not proven. Of course Stan dances around a maypole whilst throwing daisies to small children *sigh*. Usmanov is a better businessman proven by the fact he is worth $18bn compared to small time Stan at $3bn, apart from those facts the rest is just guesswork, I know who I would rather have on my side.
How good is your Russian?
http://www.gezitter.org/society/1678_kto_takoy_alisher_usmanov_milliarder_sdelavshiy_sostoyanie_na_tsellofanovyih_paketah/
Not at all surprised Phil. I was taken aback the other day when you said you felt that the grass roots support in the UK still saw the Yank as the lesser evil. I thought this might reflect opinions within the AST. It certainly doesn’t reflect what I hear from the match and pub-going ordinary Gooner, who can not stomach the sight of Kroenke.
The ”continuity/status quo” argument in favour of Kroenke won’t wash. It may have done if the old board had continued in this vein, but an American with no connection to the club does not represent status quo.
The ignorant masses like me know what his motives are. He wants to earn a buck out of our Arsenal. He praised the Glazers. His American teams are shit. He is unlikable. He has no charisma. He acted like a tit at the last AGM. He blatantly has zero affection for something we have loved all our lives.
He comes across like an insurance salesman who has screwed over your elderly mum.
Doesn’t Usmanov love Arsenal? Maybe not like you or me. His background is different to ours.He is not in it to squeeze a few pennies (by his standards) out of us though.
Sir Chulmondlyski-Goonerov, 7th Baronet of Finsbury Park – old Harrovian and former Clock End bovver boy all in one he ain’t, but I don’t think he cares less for the club than the 1000s of the newer breed of fan who turn up these days.
I think its pretty clear what gooners want. I haven’t spoken to a single gooner who wants Kroenke. Gooners are quite smart and its clear whats going on. You have one potential owner who attends games and has clearly stated his vision for the club, which is Keep AW, pay off the debts, attract star players, win trophies and therefore increase commercial revenues. This would make the club actually sustanable rather then are current siuation where the owner cannot afford the club, where the failings of his commercial monkeys mean we have sell off our best players to make a profit so his shareprice keeps increasing. Every single comment I have ever read about Usmanov has been unfounded assumptions of how he would behave even though he has already said exactly what he would do. He has clealry stated he would not turn us into a chelcski and would let the football people do there job. I personally feel that the fans should force a change towards usmanov but in the process demand a large percentage loan of shares to fanshare where the fans can pay off bit by bit at least a thirty percent stake in the club. This way fanshare can have a representitive on the board and although Usmanov would have the final say we as fans would have access to the relevent information in order to maintain the long term stabililty of the club. i have actually worked out how this could be done and in fact I posted Usmanov on his facebook page asking him to implement such a scheme as this would show his commitment to the fans and the long term future of the club. Although the perfect solution would be to have red and white holdings have a representive in the board and they can accept money from Usmanov to be spents as suggested by the brilliant Alex Fynn in the le grove pod cast. That way we have a balance of power but of course they won’t allow it. All you kroneke lovers should know something, Usmanov offered to buy out RVP’s contract and pay him whatever he wanted in order to keep him! Imagine if he had, we could win the league this season. They refused out right and gave no explanation. He also offered to pay off the debt so we could invest more in players with an interest free loan, which was rejected. So if there are any Stan lovers who would like to explain why he is better for the club then go ahead but I think your going to struggle. Oh yeah and craig murray is full of it, he can’t offer one bit of evidence to back up his claims and until someone actually starts producing facts I’m not going to judge man because he comes from far away.
Wonderful post Scravaldio, in one breath you tell us that you’ve communicated with usmanov via that private and businesslike medium that is facebook and then you tell us you have the inside line that jabba was prepared to finance van pursestrings… mind the credibility gap!
Its a fact mate along with the debt offer. If you actually did some research before posting you might know that. But hey like most people you post before you think.
Whatever your personal view of how Arsenal have been performing in recent seasons and whatever may or may not be Usmanov’s history; the fact that a majority would rather be owned by someone they likely know next to nothing about is striking. Reading the comments above, it seems that people voted for Usmanov because they don’t like what they see Kroenke has done since he became the majority shareholder. Fair enough but, of course, these people don’t know what they would be getting with Usmanov. It could be worse, much much worse. Or it could be better. The point is, no one really knows, yet most would rather the club gamble in the hope that it can make the leap from 3rd to 1st. Phil – in your next poll, can you give a choice of Kroenke or a sack of spuds – based on the above comments, one would imagine that the spuds would get a majority…
Usmanov has suggested a number of ways to improve Arsenal’s fortunes so I think we can say to some extent we would know what we were getting from him, whether he could be trusted is another issue but I see no reason to doubt him given that A. He appears to be a fan of the club and B. he is so rich that Arsenal really is relative small change to him.
I think the thing that annoys some of the anti Kroenke brigade (of which I am a member) is the way some of the pro Kroenke types talk down to us as if we know less than them, when all they appear to go on is a blog from sometime ago which is full of hot air and that he’s from the east so must be a ‘bit dodgy’. I welcome any further evidence against Usmanov that can be provided..
Dan,
I posted a link to a Russian newspaper above (must be the only one not owned by Usmanov). If you can read Russian, you will see that it details Usmanov pleading guilty to said charges hence going to prison.
Hi release is said to be under questionable circumstances.
I dont feel i know more or less than Usmanov supporters but just to be sure you fully understand I want nothing to jeopardise the values of my greatest love AFC – so I don’t have anything more or less against a guy from Uzbek or anywhere else – I would however not just like to hand over the keys to someone who has heaps of financial resources and at least a very questionable profile. I feel most status quo supporters like me are speaking against those noisy folk who appear to rate money above respect solid financial quality and history.
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