Remember that time, oh, last week when American investment group KSE denied having any interest or intention in buying Arsenal shares or any other Premireship club?
Well, turns out it was a load of bollocks.
The group, led by Stan Kroenke, owner of KSE and part time Unabomber impersonator, released a statement to the stock exchange that read:
“ITV plc today announced that it had unconditionally sold its 9.99% shareholding interest in Arsenal Holdings plc to KSE UK INC, a vehicle controlled by Stan Kroenke, and has also entered into conditional arrangements with KSE UK INC in relation to the sale of its 50% shareholding in Arsenal Broadband Limited.”
Sure, perhaps at the time – last week – they didn’t realise they were going to make the move when they came out and squashed all the rumours. But if they were ever to make a move for the rest of the shares, we’d point to this little act of “miscommunication” as a bad start. Although, e’re sure Liverpool, Aston Villa and Manchester United’s American owners are nice people and not at all the money-first, cutthroat, sell-my-wife-for-doughnuts businessmen that the suits across the pond tend to get stereotyped as. Then again, after the Leeds and various other administration-related debacles in English football, a bit of financial acumen might not be such a bad thing.