The battle for Arsenal will intensify this week when Stan Kroenke joins the Barclays Premier League club’s board in its attempt to ward off the potential takeover threat from Alisher Usmanov, the club’s largest shareholder. At a board meeting tomorrow, Arsenal are expected also to ratify the appointment of Peter Lawwell as their new chief executive, the post that he holds with Celtic.
Arsenal’s directors have been forging closer ties with Kroenke, the American billionaire who owns a 12.38 per cent stake, since Usmanov began raising his stake to 24.9 per cent. The board’s initial antipathy towards Kroenke, which was encapsulated when Peter Hill-Wood, the chairman, said that Arsenal did not want “his sort”, has been reversed as it seeks to fight off the Russian billionaire.
Lawwell’s appointment comes after the dismissal of Keith Edelman as managing director in May, the reasons for which have never been explained. Lawwell beat off competition from Paul Donovan, Vodafone’s head of emerging markets, and Alistair Mackintosh, the Fulham chief executive.
Lawwell will take on part of the role once conducted by David Dein, the former vice-chairman who left the Emirates Stadium 18 months ago after his introduction of Kroenke to the club was criticised by the board.
One of Lawwell’s first tasks will be to look at Arsenal’s continuing redevelopment of Highbury, their former ground, into luxury flats. Many people who have exchanged contracts for a flat at the site have been trying to extricate themselves from completing the deal because of the collapse of the property market. Arsenal had planned to use money from the sale of the flats to pay off some of their loans.
More will be known about Arsenal’s cash situation when the club announce their financial results on Friday. The finances will certainly be boosted if Arsenal can enjoy a lucrative run in this season’s Champions League, which starts for them this evening. With three wins from their past three fixtures and 11 goals scored without reply, it came as a mild surprise to find Arsenal in cautious mood as they prepare to face the worst club from last season’s Champions League.
Dynamo Kiev lost all six of their group games last year, including two defeats by Manchester United, but Arsène Wenger is concerned that the trip to the Ukrainian capital could arrest his side’s momentum as group G begins. “It is a tough place to go,” the Arsenal manager said. “It is maybe a bit better to play [here] earlier, but it will still be a massive challenge. We’ll go there and try to win, but even if we take a point it will be a good start.”
Kiev’s 8-2 aggregate defeat of Spartak Moscow in the third qualifying round provides a reason for Wenger to be fearful of a lineup lacking star names, as does Arsenal’s undistinguished record in the former Soviet Union. “When you know Spartak Moscow and how strong the Russian League is at the moment that means it is a tough draw,” he said.
Arsenal have lost all three of their matches in Ukraine. Wenger said: “If you don’t prepare well mentally, you are surprised by the level of commitment and enthusiasm you get in Russia or Ukraine. We’ve had bad experiences, but we’ve learnt from that and can mentally cope better.”
Perhaps there is comfort to be drawn from the second qualifying round, in which Kiev overcame Drogheda United only 4-3 over two legs. After scoring a hat-trick against Blackburn Rovers last weekend, there is reason for Emmanuel Adebayor to approach tonight’s match with optimism, but he echoed his manager’s attitude.
“A lot of people think it’s going to be an easy one, but I don’t,” he said. “We know that playing in Ukraine is going to be very difficult. I don’t know whether we’ll win the Champions League or the Premier League, but we have to achieve something because we have the quality within the squad.”
Samir Nasri and Mikaël Silvestre did not travel after failing to recover from injury, but Gaël Clichy and Emmanuel Eboué have shaken off their knocks, and Carlos Vela, the Mexico forward, is pushing to make his Champions League debut.
(Source: Timesonline.co.uk)
