It’s the Thursday prior to the Saturday and there’s not much going down. The Telegraph reports that the Arsenal chairman is “in the dark” over a possible takeover. Apparently, Kroenke did not care to mention to the board that he was buying ITV’s stake, which is a concern.
Let’s be realistic about a takeover: as the Telegraph points out, to buy the whole club would cost the buyer £423m plus £260m in debt. No businessman (forget the Russian, he’s a one-off) has that kind of money rattling around in his pockets, and would need to borrow heavily to finance it. A buyer might offer a transfer warchest to get on the side of the fans, but that money would need to be clawed back, as would any money borrowed to buy the club and any debt already there. It would be run to make money, much as it is now, so if anyone is expecting a buyer to be a knight in shining armour you can forget it.
Besides, who’s to say the current board will not finance a summer splurge? I suspect they will. Wenger bangs on about not needing to replace much, but he always defends his teams in public so I’m not remotely surprised by that. And anyway, the moment he says ‘we’re looking for a striker and a keeper and a dynamic midfielder’ the world’s agents lick their lips and put their prices up.
As we know, he’s as ruthless as anyone when it comes to offloading players and I expect he knows exactly who’s going in the summer – and indeed, he probably has a fair idea of who’s coming too.
Happy Thursday to one and all.