Seaside succour / Silent Stan swoops

Blackpool 1-3 Arsenal

What a day: A hard-fought and much-needed away win at Blackpool gave way to the momentous news that Stan Kroenke is on the verge of an Arsenal takeover. Oh, and somewhere in the mix was a first team return for mad Jens, aged 41 and a bit. Yep, it was quite a day alright.

On the pitch

No complaints from me. If you want to pick holes in our 3-1 win then you could with reason point at our shaky start to both halves, a defence that rode its luck a bit and our profligacy in front of goal, but overall it was a very good win and one with bags of energy and dynamism – just what many of us were looking for as a response. At times in the first half we were quite superb, slicing Blackpool apart time and again. How it was only 2-0 when the whistle below at half time is one of life’s mysteries – at least it would be if it wasn’t Arsenal we were talking about. Time and again we profited from the home side’s kamikaze defending, scoring twice and missing what seems with the blur of time to have been about five one-on-ones.

The goals were scored by two of the founding cast of The Great Maligned, namely Abou Diaby and Emmanuel Eboue. The former had the kind of game he could put on his CV. He drove forward with pace, passed neatly, won the ball well and scored, and he kept it up all game. Why doesn’t he do this more often? Why do you never see baby pigeons? Fair play to him though. I don’t know whether words had been said to some of the players this week, but he certainly was approaching the kind Diaby we read about in the manufacterer’s blurb.

Eboue got a little sloppy in the second half but his goal was a thing of beauty, a neat one-two with Jack Wilshere that led to a hydraulic left foot drive rasper.

Of course, I’m doing things out of order here. The big pre-game news was that Jens Lehmann was in thanks to an Almunia knee injury. For Manuel, it never rains these days – it comes down in buckets. Jens had one hairy moment, which led with some relief to Blackpool’s goal. Had it not done, he might have been facing the ignominy of a red card. Luckily, it never came to that, and otherwise he did remarkably well for a retired goalkeeper. The reception he got at the end from the travelling fans was raucous. “They haven’t forgotten me”, he said afterwards.

At 2-1 prospects did look a bit in the balance – we’re very used to self-narrowing our leads these days – but Walcott crossed one in for the otherwise misfiring van Persie to repair the two-goal cushion and that was that.

It was just the medicine this side needed, and in the time honoured fashion, taking one game at a time, we move on to the next must-win game. As much as it was a big relief, it was also a reminder to me of how my own mood has been affected in recent weeks by our slump in form. Three points can be wonderfully restorative for a fan as much as a team.

Off the pitch

Of course, overshadowing all this, post-match, was the momentous news that Stan Kroenke is on the verge of taking the club over. He’s agreed to buy Fiszman’s and Bracewell-Smith’s shares, taking him to 62% of the club. He is now obliged to make an offer for all the shares.

It really is the end of an era for Arsenal. The dynasties and individuals that have owned or controlled the club for so, so long are finally handing the reins over, and it’s hard to overestimate the significance of that. Not just in historical terms either. Personally, I think the board of old ran the club well, in a hands-off way – a very understated, Arsenal way.

At this stage we have no reason to believe that Kroenke will not do the same. He doesn’t open his trap every weekend and leak to the press, he has no history of whispering in his manager’s ear that he wants this player or that player to play. The board have got to know him, clearly they trust him, and if you had to have your club taken over by anyone, he seems a good fit. More on him and his intentions from the Swiss Rambler here.

I reserve my judgement though, as we all should. It’s a huge step-change for Arsenal. Personally, I would rather Arsenal was not 100% owned by one person. Plurality of ownership guarantees a certain accountability, even if one of those owners is an overseas investor we know even less about. So it will be interesting what Usmanov does, and what Kroenke’s position is with the army of small shareholders – though the Guardian says he was a prime mover in the establishment of Fanshare. Worth keeping a check on the AST for that.

And how is he paying for it? A leveraged buy-out is the last thing this club needs when already saddled with repaying the debt on the stadium. He has no history of doing things this way, but Arsenal is an expensive purchase.

It’s also another club to be controlled by overseas investors. It’s a shame we’re so eager to sell our football clubs lock, stock and barrel, but it’s no use getting misty eyed about local, Arsenal-supporting businessmen getting together to buy the club. Those days are gone. We can lament all we like the lack of full-scale fan ownership – like in Germany or Spain – but we have no history of doing that in England. As I said, I’ll be interested to know how much of the shares he intends to hoover up, what his future approach is to Fanshare, and what his overall plans are.

Questions, questions, questions. Hopefully some of them will be answered over the next few days.

Jim

Arsenal since about 1979. Thick, thin and all that.

This Post Has 3 Comments

  1. Jeff

    The match and the performance reminded me of the Newcastle match that ended 4-4. There was a collapse-o-Arsenal in my feed of the match.

  2. Martin

    phew, who cares, we got the 3 points, lets get back on track!

  3. East Lower

    Don’t remind me of the Collaps-o-Arsenal…

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