What Have The Rumanians Ever Done For Us?
Oct 2nd, 2007 by 'holic
It’s back to Champions League action in Bucharest tonight, and seeing as how my deep and insightful knowledge of Rumanian football could be written on the back of a postage stamp with a felt tip pen I have included the BBC preview here.
I am being a little harsh on myself there. I was present when the Fairs Cup winning Gunners hit Bacau for seven but nearly forty years on the memory is vague in the extreme!
The injury situation looks a little unclear with Hleb, Adebayor, Flamini and Diaby all carrying knocks from Saturday. Eboue, Gilberto, Diarra, and Eduardo could step up.
The ‘holic pound may well remain in the pocket. How can you predict a score against a team you’ve never seen? Oh, what the hell, just so the serious punters can take this out of the equation I’ll go for a 2-1 away win.
Usmanov ‘not interested in takeover bid’
The Usmanov charm offensive has started. A number of similar articles have hit the press today basically assuring all and sundry that the Russian is just making an investment and will not launch a full bid for Arsenal. I could even accept that line myself were it not for the involvement of David Dein, who, having sold his shares, is clearly not in this for investment purposes.
It is not an altogether surprising development. The oligarch clearly needs a softening of attitudes towards him regardless of his intentions and this may be a ploy to persuade wavering small shareholders that he is not the devil reincarnate. Sacking and severing all links with Dein could do that for him.
He faces a stiff task if he is looking to win hearts and minds. With every passing day opposition to his involvement grows. I am indebted to Susan Watson for her impassioned plea to supporters organisations to illustrate the point, and I quote…
“It is with serious regret that I find myself having to write about this – I have been an Arsenal fan for many years, through thick and thin, and consider this to be the worst threat to our club that we have ever faced.
Being Arsenal isn’t just about winning on the pitch, it’s the whole ethos that the club has maintained throughout the years – and in the face of potential takeovers and the influx of money that has watered down or eradicated the ‘spirit’ of other English clubs, our board have shown themselves to be more than worthy to the title ‘Custodians of Arsenal’, not selling out and still behaving with dignity.
I am proud to be Arsenal for far more than our success on the field – the desire to behave with a degree of honour and dignity, to do the right thing is more important to me than our cabinet being full of trophies tainted with bad money. I’d sooner win nothing than lose our character.”
A brief scan of the various blogs and forums show Susan is not alone in her concerns. Red Action are organising a show of support for the existing board at the Sunderland game this weekend. Good luck to them. I am all for anything that will sustain the existing ‘caretakers’ of our club.