USMANOV: TIME FOR ACTION

Arsenal need investment insists Russian shareholder Alisher Usmanov

BILLIONAIRE - Alisher Usmanov

By ROB SHEPHERD, 09/05/2009

THE final battle of the Arsenal Cold War has begun with Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov firing the first shot in the wake of Wednesday night's humbling Champions League exit.

In a rare interview, Usmanov said he believes Arsenal are lagging way behind their main English rivals and are in urgent need of the major investment he has promised.

He has seen American tycoon Stan Kroenke significantly increase his stake and overtake the Russian as the club's biggest single shareholder.

Now Usmanov has urged the club's board to tell him just what is going on - and insisted the time has come to spend heavily after last week's trouncing by Manchester United.

"I love Arsenal but, unfortunately, it was not a good result," he admitted. "United have a player like Ronaldo who is very strong and quick and that is a big problem for our defence. At times it was a bit like men against boys.

"Does the club need to take a step up? Of course. To be first in the world, to be first in Europe, you must have a much stronger bench.

"Look at United on Wednesday night. They had at least £100million in talent sitting on the bench."

Despite being a major shareholder at Arsenal, Usmanov admitted he was perplexed and left in the dark over boardroom maneuverings.

He said: "What is going on in the boardroom and with the shares? We don't understand anything. We read the papers to find out."

The situation has created a power vacuum at the club and it remains to be seen how much pressure will be put upon manager Arsene Wenger to change his transfer policy when the ownership issue is finally resolved.

Arsenal go into today's game against Chelsea with big question marks about just how the club moves on from another season without a trophy.

CRITICAL - Manuel Almunia

And goalkeeper Manuel Almunia claims the time has come for Wenger to bring in some more experience. Almunia admitted: "Everybody is concerned by what happened against United. We need to be critical and do some self-analysis because Arsenal is a big club and we are not here to lose every time.

"I can't tell you the solution. The boss is the one who understands this club best. He is one of the best coaches in the country but there are some teams out there who have more power and better knowledge of the big games.

"Maybe it's because these teams have more players with the experience of playing in major finals - maybe that's the solution. Five years without a trophy is a long, long time. It's too much for the fans. They deserve something more. Every time a team is in a bad moment, you need someone to find a solution."

Wenger already has £40m to bolster his squad plus a further £28m if Emmanuel Adebayor is sold.

And players including Liverpool's Xabi Alonso, West Ham's Matthew Upson and Juventus centre-half Giorgio Chiellini are under consideration.

But potentially the most significant activity at Arsenal in the next couple of months will happen in the boardroom. Usmanov heads investment vehicle Red and White Holdings, which has accumulated a 25 per cent stake in Arsenal, mainly from buying out former chief executive David Dein.

But although Usmanov has recently been welcomed as a guest at the club, he has been denied a seat on the board.

In contrast, American Kroenke is on the board and having recently acquired shares from Danny Fiszman and the Carr family, is now in pole position with 28 per cent of the club.

If the American buys up a further two per cent, he would be compelled to launch a takeover bid, although Usmanov's stake gives him "blocking rights" over a full buy-out.

TAKEOVER BID - Stan Kroenke

The key to who ends up running Arsenal may be in the hands of Lady Bracewell-Smith, who has a 15.9 stake but was thrown off the board late last year.

As it stands, Kroenke and Usmanov could join forces to take over the club with, perhaps, Dein being cast as the honest broker and returning as chairman.

Whether Wenger would be tempted to spend big to strengthen his squad is open to debate because he believes his team have made huge strides this season, despite the lack of silverware.

Too many defeats during the opening weeks of the Premier League meant a title bid never really got off the ground, although an unbeaten run since November 22 has seen them secure a Champions League place again.

Wenger said: "I feel we had to rebuild the team after last season, and that we had a stuttering start. However, we have now played 21 games with zero defeats.

"That means the team is developing well and has gone forwards.

"Of course, we do not forget that we are here to win things. For me, the two main trophies are the Premier League and the Champions League, which we did not win - but we are on the right way and did as well as we could.

"The only thing I know on my side with my staff is we worked harder than ever this year. We tried very hard to get the best out of the team."

Andrey Arshavin is struggling to shake off a virus ahead of today's clash, which means winger Samir Nasri will probably retain his place.

Frenchman Nasri said: "We can still clinch third place."

Your comments

This article has 34 comments

How long will wenger continue to disappoint his fans? Buy experience players, the likes yaya toure,alonso,upson,chellini,santa cruz,rossi. Wenger u can do it...

By Steve.. Posted May 25 2009 at 2:12 AM.

i think its time, players like bendtner,ade and gallas should go. they are not worthy to be gunners. arsenal should alonso in, get david villa, he would be a massive boost upfront. chiellini is not bad at all. these experienced players would fuse the young ones to bring out the best....but i don't see most of these changes happening because wenger has his ''policies''. i am just tired of being a loser.

By namdy.. Posted May 24 2009 at 1:53 AM.

Accordingly to my super opnion,i think arsene must atleast recruit one of the big players in the world e.g messi,kaka and e.t.c................................

By tiagu.. Posted May 12 2009 at 2:33 PM.

Hi ade should not go please But bring in defenders and one striker

By malish wota.. Posted May 12 2009 at 9:05 AM.

There is still a lot of doom and gloom going around, however I think some people need to look at the bigger picture and realise that we have made a lot of progress this season, compared to last year’s campaign.

Firstly, progression to the Semi-Finals of the FA Cup and the Champions League, whereas last year we made the Fifth round and Quarter-Finals respectively.

The continued development and growth of the likes of Denilson, Carlos Vela, Alex Song, Kieran Gibbs and Nicklas Bendtner, where their game play and performance levels have gone up another rank from last year.

Spuds have underachieved yet again this season after spending £85.2 million pounds on EXPERIENCED players of the likes of Bentley, Keane, etc
Don't forget, they bought three of those players back to the club after selling them a few months ago. Where has that got them? They are desperate to qualify for Europe next season, whereas we have placed our faith in youth yet again with a world class signing in Arshavin
It just goes to show that our policy is working to a certain degree. However we do now need big players to compliment the youth.

Basically, I believe we need two defenders and a World Class goalkeeper (We do not have that)
Rosicky will probably never return and he should be replaced as should a Viera type figure player coming in which we all agree about. Lastly Adebayor (No commitment at all) should go and a good striker to come in.

By GoonerBooner.. Posted May 11 2009 at 9:16 AM.

Messi,ronaldo, pato,anderson, rafael,fabio,evans and many more...what do they have in common? Whats their average age? Compare them now to the likes of bendtner,song, and even an 'older player' adebayor. The quality and steel is what we lack. Wenger should realise the price of quality has gone up since the days of henry and pires. Trust me, if he had the mentality he has now, with the price increase, we would have missed out on players like pires,henry, bergkamp(evn tho wenger dint bring him) ljumberg,viera etc.. We would have misd them all. Wenger is an economist. He should review the law of demand and supply. He should remember that the higher the demand, the lower the supply as to create higher prices. So if there are great defenders and holding midfielders and strikers, they will be held back(restricted supply) in order for people to realise how much they are needed then sell them later with a much higher price because the demand needs to be satisfied. Therefore, if he does not pay highly to get great quality, he will definately pay lowly and get low quality. Read your notes again proffessor

By Dave.. Posted May 11 2009 at 6:22 AM.

as arsenal fan what all arsenal fan need Mr Wenger, to do is to go an look for hot Strikers like Obafemi Martins and Diego Milito and Midfielder like Alonso or xavi that i s what wenger need for next season.

By frank klinsman.. Posted May 11 2009 at 5:12 AM.

I think the biggest mistake by Arsene is taking away the captaincy from Gilberto and giving it to Gallas who was never part of the Gunners culture.

As if this is not enough he offered the captaincy to Fabregas who was 3-4years away from ready for this responsibility. Next season will be the last chance for Arsene to rectify the situation and make us happy.

By Tunde.. Posted May 11 2009 at 1:59 AM.

I can't believe this. We are loosing too much this season. We need some experienced players in the squad, Clinical strikers and better defense build up. Wenger pls, pls buy us some goal scoring assasins. pls

By EKM - USA.. Posted May 11 2009 at 1:49 AM.

As an Arsenal fan i feel we def need new preproved players.get shot of gallas adebayor denilson silvestre.bring in toure yaya,alonso or barry. a centre half who is strong and wins everything in the air because we a beat too often with the ball over the top.a winger who is direct like silva or ribery and david villa to parter v.persie up top!!a new keeper wudn go a miss either.i like mcgregor at rangers.we need to hold on also to what we have got.i no it wud b hard to sign these sorts of players but thats wat we need to do to compete at the top again because at the minute wer not even close.i think xavi alonso sud b our number 1 target along with a centre half.alonso wud be perfect to help fabregas in a 4-4-2 and for experience i think eider gudjonsson wud mean we wud have 4 brilliant stickers if we cud get him n villa wif v.persie and arshavin (also play on the wing) and bendtner 4 back up.we have to splash the cash this summer cause with signings like this we will win things and get the money back that way!!

Dream Team:

Alumina
Sagna Toure Chellini Clichy
Arshavin Fabregas Alonso Silva
Villa V.Persie

McGregor
Eboue Senderos Upson Troare
Walcott Toure Yaya Nasri Rosicky
Gudjonsson Bendtner

And with all the young players on the frindge and learning stuff off these players wed be set 4 years!

That wud be a great squad wif quality back up in every position and a winning squad cause its not bout the team its the squad.Its alot of £ bt we need these players

By Ricky Dobbs.. Posted May 11 2009 at 1:35 AM.

it's signings or no trophy.

By jeff uzor.. Posted May 11 2009 at 12:58 AM.

i think is time for wenger and the board to make decisions,here is some advise for them: on the defense i think signing silverster was a decision made in a hurry i don't think he should be in he team and senderos is ok for the team again Upson wont be a bad signing either, also i think its time for gallas to go, 1 or 2 defenders with experience should be brought into the team, on the midfield denilson should be loaned, diaby sold go and a strong holding midfielder like yaya toure should be brought into the team to support fabregas, song, nasri, ashavin, on the attack i think we've had enough of adebayor, its time for he to take a bow and leave the team, there is need for daivd villa in the team.

By olatunde terebo.. Posted May 10 2009 at 10:41 PM.

Well Mr Wenger, time to admit that you have make some fundamental mistakes. Not getting a holding midfielder was in my eyes the biggest mistake ,and purchasing a injury pron player in Sylvester , just crazy. In fact that was a panic buy. If only you could sit down and admit to yourself that you have made mistakes and address them we could be on the up. If you look at the last 5 years we have gone back wards. what are you going to do to rectify this????????

1, Get rid of Pat Rice, Nice guy but no balls
2, Bring in Tony Adams, let face it your defense purchasing is pretty poor. Cyan, Senderos,
3, 2 new center backs, and sell Gallas. Move Toure into the midfield.
4, buy a top class holding midfielder, loan Denilson to Wolves for the whole season.
5, Sell Adebayor.
6, WE MUST BRING BACK DEIN . If the board really did support Arsenal and not making money. Then they would put aside the politics and bring back a real supporter of the club.

Remember, if we want to have so many young players, then we must have experienced player for them to learn from.

THINGS CANNOT STAY THE SAME FROM NEXT SEASON MR WENGER. GET HELP IF YOU CAN'T SEE IT YOURSELF.

Pistol Pete

By Pistol Pete.. Posted May 10 2009 at 9:31 PM.

Arshavin is a good buy, probably the best buy since Fabregas! Song, eboue, Bendtner, Adebayor, Djourou need to go! Mexes, De Rossi, Mario Gomez, Ribery or somebody that can play along side Fabregas, Nasri, Arshavin.
Chiellini Would be good too!

By Sick of this!.. Posted May 10 2009 at 8:58 PM.

if arshavin can score four goals against liverpool and we still did't win the match tells you we have not been decent enough.
i told friends that the board and wenger are to blame for this atrocity.last season wenger promised 3more signings in summer...summer came and 3players left,and we only bought 1 player +silvestre whom is out of age.it is time we stop making the same mistake we have been making for the last 4yrs.
i will not say what we need or don't need ,i think any aresenal fan following the games will be really diisappointed watching his team play.
wenger can tell tales but the truth of the matter must be told.we have been awful in every direction.
nobody evever what your plan is,but i hope definately next term the squad wil be improved by new signings next season.

"change doen't mean you can not archieve"

By change is what is needed.. Posted May 10 2009 at 8:37 PM.

The match we played against man utd and chelsea today shows that the team needs a major overhauling.We need experienced players to move this club forward.

By Samuel.. Posted May 10 2009 at 6:43 PM.

I agree with Daves last comments about Wengers insistence that there was no need to strengthen the squad at the back. This Arsenal team is chock full of very talented, technically gifted football players. The problem is there just is not enough experience in the squad. Obviously this will come in time but another problem we have is this business of letting the players move on just when they are really coming good. Take Hleb and Flamini for example? Arsenal are in serious danger of just becoming a conveyer belt of talent for the so called bigger european glamour clubs, who also, incidentally are able to lure our players away with much larger salary increases. I agree it's time to seriously spend!!

By stevie walnuts.. Posted May 10 2009 at 3:18 PM.

Look, Arsenal are a great team, however the likes of Man U, Liverpool & Chelsea have much stronger squads and when players get injured they can replace them with top quality talent, we cant. If one of our first team are out for a long period, we have to make do with an in experienced very young player, who might have great potential but has not got the experience of big games. I think if we were injury free all season will would have done a lot better - but when is any team going to be injury free all season? Defence is our weakest area and is where we need to strengthen most in the summer. Hangeland, Albiol and Upson would all be great signings and all have experience. Alonso, Barry, Melo, Yaya Toure or Veloso would all be very good holding midfielders and fit into the team well, and out the door Adebayor, in Santa Cruz. Also Arshavin for captain next season, he's a natural leader and will be our best player next season.

By Craig Anderson.. Posted May 10 2009 at 3:24 PM.

Arsenal is my club however the defeat for any trophy this season and last season is due to the main captain of the club.. I personally Blame wenger for this: how can u offer Gallas captaincy for last seoson some one new at the club with out any idea of Arsenal style of play, how could a new player lead old players on the pitch..I mean Gallas him self found it hard to lead these guys on pitch It was wrong wenger. For this seoson U could not offer captaincy to fabregas is such a younger player who cant command people like Toure, Rosiscky, Gilberto,Van persie, Adebayor, Eboue, Eduordo, Gallas, silverster ..I believe Fabregas him self is finding it a problem!! U could have made Gilberto acaptaincy this guy had experience, strong he could fight, he had brains.. Wenger much as you do well sometimes you disappoint me. and wonder why???

Please think more and more about next season because we need trophies not only good ball. otherwise thank you for the style I love it.

By Robert.. Posted May 10 2009 at 3:57 PM.

Wenger need to stop doing economics on the pitch, it time to spend money!

By gunners4life.. Posted May 10 2009 at 2:33 PM.

I am a life long Arsenal fan and love what Wenger has done for us previously, i just believe he went too far at the beginning of the season with his belief that we didnt need strenghtening at the back, why were we not in for the likes of Woodgate when he was on the cheap? £7M for that sort of cover for the disputing Toure and Gallas pairing could have made alot of difference. It doesnt stop there, playing Denilson in a holding role instead of buying a muscle man midfield general in the mould of Flamini or Viera was a big misjudgement, in my view. New season new beginnings, 2 centre halves preferably with Premiership experience, 1 world class holding midfielder and swapping Adebayor for the likes of David Villa would be a step in the right direction. Its time to spend!

By Dave.. Posted May 10 2009 at 1:40 PM.

Arsenal need more experianced players. Out adebayor and denilson, in roque santa cruise and chellini.

By Dario goder.. Posted May 10 2009 at 12:03 PM.

As far as this takeover/power struggle at the club goes, i'm not sure it will make much difference who gains control. The Usmanov/Dein camp seem to sympathise with the growing number of fans wanting some silverware and would be more keen to buy some success like the other top three. Whereas Kroenke and the board seem to want to go down the more fiscally appropriate route because of this enormous debt on the stadium. The fans' opinion on this will be based on what they want. I think the best solution would be for them all to join forces, pulling in the same direction then we would have the shrewd, calculating board - who have done a fantastic job for years allied with a massive injection of spending power helping us to compete. Add our superlative youth development and scouting systems to Arsene Wengers proven knack for turning unknowns into very very good players and it could very soon be our turn to dominate football in England and Europe. We are close but at the moment we are short of becoming the absolute best.

By stevie walnuts.. Posted May 10 2009 at 11:41 AM.

Hansen famously once said about Man U - 'you cannae win anything with kids'. Arsenal are proving him right. The difference is Man U had a balance of youth surrounded by experience. The likes of Bruce, Pallister, Irwin, Ince, Hughes, Mclaire, Keane, Cantona were all playing then, helping to bring up Beckham, Scoles, Butt, Giggs, Neville etc etc. Whereas our whole team is composed of comparitively inexperienced boys. Everyone is always going on about the 'average age' of our team. Don't get me wrong they are all fantastic players and i do believe in Arsene but we must remember during our most successful years we had an experienced and physically strong defence and midfield. The players we have now have no steel in them, they're weak, fragile and soft - hence the reason they're always injured compared their counterparts at other clubs.

By stevie walnuts.. Posted May 10 2009 at 10:40 AM.

Shome mishtake here...... that's not Usmanov, that's the US face transplant lady.

By goldestre.. Posted May 10 2009 at 10:13 AM.

we good arsenal. we jus nid to eliminate gallass and adebayor. bring in babel, richards and chilleini from juve. we gonna rock da premiere n europe for 5 good seasons.

By badri.. Posted May 10 2009 at 9:49 AM.

Lets not kid ourseleves, wenger has got to sign good players even if they are young, we talk too much about having a young team but we forget that rooney,ronaldo,anderson and evans are all young players the problem is that we ve too many young players playing regularly even though it will almost be difficult for these players to tie down a regular shirt in any other big four teams

By jesse umeh.. Posted May 10 2009 at 9:56 AM.

everybody knows that the board want to pay of the debt of the stadium. i believe wengers is under orders not to spend big for a few years but to hes credit has done an amazing job with the resources he has. but the fans now want more, its time to get the cheque book out and get some muscle in the team, it was not boys agaist men the other day, it was boys against proffesional assasins.

By tony michael.. Posted May 10 2009 at 9:22 AM.

I'm also an Arse fan, and am bitterly cut about the way we lost, but it was ManU and you have to repsect they are the best team in Europe and on their day just will NOT be beaten. Guys, if 'that' slip hadn't of happened it would likely have been a different result, but the teams heads were down and they all but gave up. We are not light years behind the Chavs or Man U, have people forgotton we have beat both this season, and drew at Anfield with the most in form prem team. C'mon they are real prospects, just a bit more experience and very possibly a new captain as Cesc as much as I think he is great is not a natural leader. We will sign, but do not think it will be anywhre near as much as the other top 4 teams,or possibly top 6 or 7 as we know what to expect by now...

By fnw.. Posted May 10 2009 at 9:19 AM.

As an Arsenal supporter i think we hide against this so called youngsters routine, look at the squad and see the so called youngsters of Almunia,Gallas,Toure,Sagna,Eboue,Rosicky,Arshavin,Adeybayor,RobinVanPersie these are not young and we have to look at maybe these older stars are not rising and helping our youth, also bear in mind that we have had this season our attackers out early for long periods, our right side of defence out early for long periods, and finally at the crucial time the left side of our defence out for crunch games. If these were injury free all season i say we would have done more.

By A.Davison.. Posted May 10 2009 at 9:07 AM.

Looks like Mr Usmanov needs to participate in pre-season training this summer. His chin is the only thing at the Emirates going for the treble.

By Dale Huddlesceugh.. Posted May 10 2009 at 8:52 AM.

I just wonder what wenger will say come next year when the club finnish the season without any silverware,he seems not to have learnt from the past,this young tem is a goo team but not that good when playing the likes of man u,liverpool and chelsea.
Arsenal performs well against them in the league but when it comes to cup competitions its awful,look at the case of the FA cup semi-final against chelsea,man u in the champions league,that tells you much enough.

By harlex.. Posted May 10 2009 at 6:53 AM.

I wish they would do something because Im tired of hearing "we will learn" and that this is a young squad and we will get over losing. Plain and simple its not good enough all the teams around us are spending and we got good young players..... We were lucky to get forth this year because villa messed up. I just hope its not the same story this time next year

By tired fan.. Posted May 10 2009 at 5:29 AM.

we want dein back , because wanger needs him, so Arsenal could be back to the best as it was when dein was at the club

By Noor.. Posted May 10 2009 at 4:12 AM.

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