Originally Posted by
Niall_Quinn
That's right. Look at most corporate entities these days with their ever declining services, greedy rates, fucked up call centres that take the piss. Customer loyalty is nowhere in the equation these days because it is taken for granted or at least poor performance in that area can be compensated for by state of the art customer acquisition models.
The present board members have their loot safely tucked away, why should they care less what becomes of the club beyond delivering on whatever terms they made their agreement with Kroenke under? And Stan, he'll have a business plan in place and it seems to be based on acquiring Asian and African revenue. There's still enough inertia to allow the present shambles to trade off the back of past glory. That won't last forever but it could last long enough, especially in combination with enhanced revenue from overseas, to deliver Stan a decent return. Then he's out and what does he care?
Kroenke is not a football man. 99% chance says he's here to hoover up on the unrealised brand potential before that brand is tarnished beyond these shores. Point is, for those thinking it can't get worse because sure "those guys" will do something, that doesn't have to be true. It's the blood they're after, not the corpse. I could be reading it wrong but then I think of the possible reasons Kroenke would ever want a club like Arsenal anyway. The prestige? He already has that in the States. Love of the club? We can scratch that away without much thought. He has to be here for the money, what other realistic reason could there be?
So then it all becomes a case of how he will make his money (and he will, one way or another). Will he do it by risking his own money to build a winning team that can compete at the very top? Or will he squeeze the hidden value out of dogshit sponsorship and merchandising deals, take the loot and make back his initial investment by bunging the club at some goon like Usmanov? He's a hard-headed businessman. What do you think his plan is more likely to be?
Where will we be by the time these guys have stopped feeding? We can see how fast we're falling, to the point we can almost predict the date of each fresh calamity. We already know what's happening in 2012, for example. I don't think the money men care where the club will be when they are gone. I suspect they only care about what they can get from it while they are here. I say this because everything we have seen so far matches this analysis.
I doubt we'll even get rid of Wenger before his contract expires, because that would cost extra money. So if Wenger is as bad as most people think and if Kroenke decides to go for milking the club rather than injecting it with steroids, we could be looking at our first trip in even the longest fan's memory to the lower leagues. That's how low it could go. Depends if anyone decides to risk a great deal by coming in to pick up the pieces.
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