Last week I heard that Lady Nina had found a buyer for her shares.
She has 15.9%
I wrote the story on ANR and then took it down, and I’m sorry if readers were puzzled or annoyed by that. I deleted it when told that the news was not for publication.
On Wednesday The Telegraph revealed that Lady Nina has two buyers, one of whom is Russian-based.
So I figured four things :
One, Lady Nina wants the story out there. She wants football to know she is talking to two big investors. She wants to sell her shares and she wants Arsenal fans to know she is selling.
Secondly, in the end it was the Carr’s stake that was crucial. If Usmanov got her shares AND the Carrs shares, Danny Fiszman had a problem. But Stan Kroenke bought the Carr’s shares and that weakened Lady Nina’s position.
Thirdly, in this sort of situation, we look for Daily Mail columnist Charlie Sale to do a follow-up story, as Charlie apparently has access to Lady Nina. He hasn’t today. But the Telegraph’s Jeremy Wilson has a quote from Alex Fynn and Kevin Whitcher’s new paperback, Arsenal :The Making of A Modern Super Club :
Lady Bracewell-Smith says. “I had been unfairly treated since the day I entered [the boardroom]. Danny Fiszman always kept his distance and you got the feeling that if you didn’t fall in line you were marginalised.
“They [the board] didn’t like having to take me in, but because of the dismissal of David Dein, I had 15 per cent and they had to put up with it. Now they’ve got Stan Kroenke they don’t need me any more. Dismissing a director is taking matters to an extreme and the timing was callous. People shouldn’t behave like that to a woman.”
Four, the upcoming AGM on October 22 is Ivan Gazidis’s first AGM and if two Russians turn up it could be a controversial one.
Clearly, Danny will never allow David Dein back in the club, and never allow Usmanov in the director’s box or his elite Diamond Club.
At the last AGM, Danny sent us all a message: Stan Kroenke, now a director, sat at the table with the other directors for the first time. Danny was absent. So Danny was sending a simple, primitive message to the elders of the Arsenal tribe. His absence said : It’s Stan’s club now – and here he is, folks! This smart American businessman is the new owner of Arsenal FC. He is the owner I have chosen.
Afterwards, Kroenke chatted to shareholders but the press office rottweilers made sure Stan did not talk to reporters.
As you may know, the Arsenal AGM was traditionally at noon on the first Thursday of September. This year it is on the fourth Thursday of October, the 22nd.
That date is Wenger’s birthday. He will be 60 on that date. Is that why the AGM is scheduled for October 22nd?