Arsenal is actually playing it safe... they are looking at the
extreme long-term..
imagine if Glazer decides he's had enough?
imagine if Abramovich decides to stop playing Championship
Manager?
will they go the way Leeds went? probably...
the owners of Arsenal and Wenger are making sure they do
not..
I doubt very much that the board are just playing it safe... The
Board are just trying to spend as little as possible before they
sell in 2 to 3 years time when their collective agreement not to
sell ends...
Their former vice-chairman Dein already has another
Russian billionaire waiting to buy them... And this guy knows
how to run a football club. But the longer the board can hold
out, the more they might get as the club value increase... The
current Arsenal board is very realistic business wise. I get a
feeling from their actions that football is not very near their top
agenda... Increasing their club value and milking the most of it
seems to be their main objective when they decided to sack Dein.
They have the most expensive ticket, have no problems selling them,
The board would probably milk it for another 2 yrs before letting
it go.
Today, Clubs in the premiership won't go the way of Leeds
anymore especially the top ones... With the money from the
Tv deals, Its so appealing to many investors. If the
Glazers had enough, they can always put the club up for sell and
their investment in United will actually give them a nice
profit too after covering the debts as the club is valued at
between $900,000 to $1.2B.
Anyway, they seem to be long term investors... had they want to
reduce their debts, they can easily sell 49% of their stake or put
it back into the stock exchange and it will go a long way to
reducing that debt.
Chelsea on the other hand is a little more tricky as it has
been reveal that the money Roman put in is a loan from him and he
expect the club to return it to him should he leave the
club... The problem is can Chelsea sell for that kind of money
without a worldwide fan base and marketing appeal? On top of that
the super salary their players are getting? Who would want to take
on such a big debt?
They already owe Roman more than half a billion and we
can expect that sum to increase by another $100m when the transfer
market close.
Arsenal's only chance is to wait for the current board to
sell... Then they won't be a selling club anymore like what Wenger
call them now...
