Arsenal for sale?

Just a quick one today as I...eh... have to get a haircut!

The Arsenal for sale rumours rumble on, prompting the The Arsenal Supporters' Trust to make a rare public pronouncements that, while not against a buyout per se, they opposed a 'Malcolm Glazer-style' takeover of their team whose "principle objective is taking profits out of the club".

Whilst a few days ago I thought this was all paper talk, I was concerned to read that apparently, David Dein didn't know about Fiszman's sale of 1% of his shares until two days after the transaction. That 1% might sound small but the sale took Fiszman under the 25% threshold needed to maintain a veto on any changes to the club's statutes. I would have thought that Fiszman would have had the courtesy of informing Dein of such a move - unless he was up to something.

Meanwhile, Arseblogger has this to say:

"I’m told from two well placed sources that ITV have been in discussions with this group regarding the 9.9% of the club they own."

Several bloggers, such as Gunnerblog were calmed by this statement from Kroenke Sports Enterprise (KSE)- who were rumoured to be prospective buyers and already have a link up with Arsenal via their Colorado Rapids 'sawker' club:

"There is no interest from KSE in buying any shares of Arsenal or any Premier League club."

Unfortunately, it doesn't put my mind completely at ease:
A) They could be trying to cool the share price. They don't have to announce their intentions until they have purchased 30% and would want to calm the speculation which is causing the share price to rise: It's unlikely that they would make such a definite statement, however.

B) The statement was made by the KSE organisation ; not by any individual in the family or even any companies that KSE have an interest in. What's to stop them investing?

C) There's plenty of other prospective buyers out there.

What is it about Arsenal? Every summer, there's something that impedes our pre-season planning. Vieira's future; Anelka's future; Reyes' Future; Newsnight did their best to drag the club into controversy over Beveren (but failed). I have a feeling that the club's ownership is going to be the hindrence for next pre-season

Arsenal Ladies & Garforth Town
It's nice to see one Arsenal team doing well: the ladies team trashed their Leeds counterparts 8-1 to remain on top of the Women's Premier League.

Here's an interesting fact, trivia fans: The match was played at Garforth Town AFC, which is the last club the great Socrates played for. The club's owner, Simon Clifford, has a vision of getting Garforth Town into the top flight using modern training methods based on traditional Brazilian skills. You may remember that Clifford was Clive Woodward's assistant when the Rugby World Cup winning coach was the Director of Football at Southampton.

That's all for today. I'll be a much better blogger when I get my hair cut.