Two odious characters: The pugilistic Usmanov and the insipid, colourless Kroenke
Normally anything that Alisher Usmanov, the Uzbeki oligarch would have to say about Arsenal could be dispatched with a flick of the head. But what he said about Van Persie sums up the state of affairs in the Arsenal boardroom which is there is no state of affairs under the majority ownership of Stan Kroenke, who remains a cipher, a zombie wheeled out at various points of the year to parrot out a boilerplate script.
Kroenke, the Walmart heir and a billionaire, has not put in a single dime of his money while owning 67% of Arsenal’s stock valued at £11,750 per share. There is no desire as an American owner to market Arsenal in the USA with just the YES channel carrying a weekly programme called Arsenal 360. Arsenal also has Ivan Gazidis, a former MLS deputy commissioner and a marketing wiz as its CEO but that connection too has failed. So Kroenke’s gradual takeover has not benefited the club in any material way. Arsenal’s boardroom is a cozy, cushy world of a glad handing moneyed class that has nothing to lose as long as they keep making money.