Despite what all the Manc, Pool, Chelski and other loser fans out there think, no, although Henry leaving is not a good thing, it's not crisis time at Arsenal! Here's some research and my findings (out of my boredom): Upon reading through some reports from reputed dailies in London like The Sun, Times and etc, I have concluded selling Henry, though undesirable to most fans, was a calculated decision by Wenger- Dein's leaving was only a moment's folly of decisions, and not only will Dein be back, Kroenke is going to launch a bid for Arsenal after Danny Fiszman sells him his 25% stake, which would bring Kroenke's shares to about 38%. This combined with Dein's 12% would make 50% - ie Hill-wood can go and die.
And here's why Kroenke is not all bad news for Arsenal - he is VERY unhappy that the board allowed Henry to leave and is willing to pull out all stops to keep Wenger at the Emirates. Here's some proof: Dein knows he will come back to Arsenal 6 months after he left, shown by him rejecting Newcastle, Wenger knows that Henry leaving puts the doubt on his future, hence he has a bargaining chip to finally pressure the board instead of the other way round. The advance proof of that is clear: 1) Wenger wants Dein back at the club before he signs any new contract, 2) Kroenke is a good friend of Dein's, and is rich enough to buy over the club if anyone wants to sell, and 3) the Arsenal board are all desperate for Wenger to stay by agreeing to give him a 50% pay rise and 30 million pounds to spend.
All that aside, here's why Kroenke is really not too bad: He is more than willing to fund Wenger's transfer spending - in the same way as Malcom Glazer has done for Man Yoo, but not in the manner of borrowing in the name of the club. What is stopping that from happening is the alliance of long-serving old fogeys who "want to ensure the club remains English" who insists on not using Kroenke's money and thus forcing Wenger to scrimp, save and sell his best players/his promising players to buy more youngsters. One can thus tell that the old fogeys are more like the Communist Party Elite of the USSR in the past - determined to place control in the old guard - and one can't help but view them as the real villains should any bad thing happen to the club. The signs show even the board are relenting, and thus there is great chance that Dein will really be back and Wenger stays.
Why else would Wenger stay?
- Henry is important, but diminishing in significance - 10 goals in only 17 games is a good return, but last season Henry spent more time pressurizing the likes of RVP, Adebayor, Baptista, and basically everyone who attacks for Arsenal in his place. Standing in the Arsenal dugout every game next to Wenger only serves to pressurize everyone to play according to his style. As a result Arsenal are correctly labeled as being over-reliant on Henry because only he is capable of scoring goals that are as beautiful as in his dreams after Pires, Bergkamp, Wiltord and Vieira left and Ljungberg became impotent. Thus his leaving is not all bad news - in fact now all the above mentioned youngsters can play as they want and not be inhibited by Henry's visions.
- It's obvious Wenger is still planning for the future - he is set to appoint Gilles Grimandi as Director of Football, as someone to replace Dein in player recruitment. He is chasing the likes of Babel, Hunteelar, and Tevez as direct replacements for Henry. Heck, he is even thinking about bringing in le sulk back. Some more evidence? Well he let go of Aliadiere at long last, who has been the biggest embarrassment to an Arsenal shirt since Jeffers left. The fact that he sold Muamba to Birmingham but declined to sell Bendter to Birmingham suggests that he already knew he will sell Henry two months ago. And not to mention, by selling Henry and banking in on the outrage and anger over it, he has cornered Hill-wood and the old guard into a corner, paving the way for Dein and Kroenke to be a bit more liberal about the club's direction.
- Arsenal are not, and will never be a poor club. In fact it got richer. Ultimately Wenger earned a profit of over 7 million pounds on Henry who signed for much less than 16 million a few years ago. In the process the guy scored over 240 goals in more or less 360 matches for the club. So it's a good piece of business. Letting go of Aliadiere, Muamba and some other players also brings in some cash. Moving to the Emirates guarantees about 20 million pounds extra Gate Receipts every year, while renaming it Emirates also gives over 100 million pounds to Arsenal over the ten-year deal (or thereabouts). And not to say, technically Arsenal still own Highbury. That big a plot of prime land in the middle of London is currently being developed into luxury apartments which are already all sold, and upon completion the full amount of cash from its sale will be over 30 million pounds at least (I'm not sure how much they will earn, just that it's a lot of money). Not to mention, there's always Kroenke, and Hill-wood hasn't really dug into his own pockets for a long time cause Arsenal has been self-sufficient in the past few years. Granted we will never have, or spend as much money as the stupid Russian in Chelsea. Granted we'll probably spend less than Thaksin's Man City. Granted Man Yoo signed Nani, Anderson, Cristiano Ronaldo, Rooney and etc ahead of Arsenal (and there was nothing we could do about it). Oh heck, I suppose Arsenal won't even out-spend Tottenham this season. But to all the delusional Spurs, Manc, Pool and Chelski fans who are predicting doom and gloom for Arsenal, don't predict too soon.
So it's not bad news, after all =D
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