Angry Of Islington

The first thing to say is that this is an exceptionally good book. Pretty much any stat you could want on Arsenal and the players and managers of the world’s greatest football club is here, along with season-by-season summaries, pen portraits of all the greatest players, numerous quirky facts unearthed ... read more

It’s not often the departure of a CEO from a football club becomes such a talking point, but Ivan Gazidis has bucked that trend. Does it matter that he’s left Arsenal? Will it disrupt the new post-Wenger era? Some fans have commented that it would be a blow if Ivan ... read more

On the third of September 2018 the average age of the Arsenal Board will be exactly 67. If you remove young Josh Kroenke – a mere 38 – from the equation, the average age of the remaining members is close to 73. There’s no indication that the KSE takeover will ... read more

We all know Arsenal’s injury record is traditionally not good. Long term patients in fairly recent times include Rosicky, Wilshere, Walcott, Cazorla and the king of the medical room, Abou Diaby. I don’t doubt that Abou Diaby is a lovely fellow and wanted nothing more than to have an injury-free ... read more

It looks as though there will shortly be no more trading in Arsenal shares for the foreseeable future, as Stan Kroenke is determined to own every last one of the 62,219 issued shares. So for the record here is how the price has risen over the last decade – coincidentally ... read more

Stan Kroenke is the first ever majority owner in Arsenal’s history, and very soon will probably be the first 100% owner. He paid around £425m to buy 67% of the club in a number of different purchases, and has now agreed a deal with Alisher Usmanov for the Uzbek’s 30.04%, ... read more

Stability in football management for its own sake is no use. During the time Alex Ferguson was managing Man Utd, Real Madrid, a club of comparable stature, had 22 managers. United won 13 titles and two Champions Leagues; Real won 11 titles and three Champions Leagues. That’s not much different, ... read more

Yesterday saw the annual summer “Supporters’ Event” at Arsenal, hosted by CEO Ivan Gazidis. You have, I’m sure, read my fairly brief thoughts on it in today’s Islington Gazette, but I thought I’d expand a little as I’ve more space here. I’ve written disparagingly about these events in the past ... read more

Now that Arsene has finally departed we can look at his complete record against the complete records of all his predecessors as Arsenal manager. I first posted this table about four years ago, then again earlier this year – but at the time we didn’t know Arsene was heading towards ... read more

Someone asked me a while back whether Arsenal would have been better off staying at Highbury another ten or 12 years, and be moving now, as Spurs are. I considered this for a few seconds and decided that it was a flawed theory. But, said the questioner, look what’s happened: ... read more

History shows us that after 12 matches of a Premier League season there is just over a 1 in 3 chance that someone will still be unbeaten. So this will happen on average about once in every three seasons. Any team still unbeaten after 12 matches is almost certain to ... read more

This is an updated table from one I last posted about four years ago. As well as updating Arsene Wenger’s stats to the present, there are some changes to the early records, thanks to research by Andy Kelly and Mark Andrews, who do a fantastic job over at thearsenalhistory.com. ... read more

I hesitate to write another Arsenal share price post, because every time I do something seems to change within a day or two and make it out of date. I talked about a new record price and the market-makers then raising the bid and ask prices a couple of times, ... read more

As a post script to my last post, I see the price of an Arsenal share has gone up again today – without any even being traded. I mentioned last time that market makers, who decide the ‘bid’, ‘ask’ and ‘mid’ prices, had decided for reasons unknown to increase these ... read more

It seems like every other blog post I’ve written in the last 12 months has been about a new record price for Arsenal shares. Stan Kroenke must have blisters from rubbing his hands together in glee so often. The latest development was a share being traded for £31,000 on March ... read more

The journal Legal Week has reported that former Arsenal director and shareholder Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith has filed new court papers against her lawyers, Linklaters, in connection with the sale of her 15.9% stake in Arsenal to Stan Kroenke at the time of his takeover. Lady B-S is suing both Linklaters ... read more

Stan Kroenke has bought some Arsenal shares. Specifically he’s bought 22 of them, which is not many when you consider he already had 41,721, but it is worth mentioning. First the facts: Just before 16:00 on January 22 three trades of Arsenal shares were posted on the NEX Exchange web ... read more

It seems like a section of Arsenal fans are never more than a single slightly contentious incident away from a conspiracy theory these days. If it’s not Mike Dean it’s Anthony Taylor giving penalties, and if it’s not a ref being dodgy it’s the FA charging Arsène Wenger when they ... read more

Petr is a goalkeeper. When someone takes a penalty at him, what is his chance of diving the right way in an attempt to save it? Answer: 1 in 5. On occasions when Petr does dive the right way, what is the chance he will save the spot kick? Answer: ... read more

Plenty of chat this week about Mike Dean being appointed to oversee the North London Derby this weekend, with many Arsenal fans having the perception that Dean is biased against Arsenal and/or towards Spurs. Maybe he is, I have no conclusive proof either way. What I do know is that ... read more

As I write we await the confirmation of whether Arsenal will host Liverpool on Christmas Eve. Richard Scudamore of the Premier League has said the match won’t take place at 4pm as was originally planned, but hasn’t yet ruled anything else out. Many supporters are up in arms about the ... read more

In an unprecedented turn of events, two Arsenal shares were traded yesterday for £27,500 – the previous record price was £21,500 set a month ago on September 6. Since March the record price has been broken six times and risen from £17,750 to £27,500, a rise of 55 per cent. ... read more

This is a simple layman’s terms view of the Arsenal accounts for the period 1 June 2016 to 31 May 2017. It’s nearly all distilled from the longer and more detailed report written by Simon Hill for the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust. All figures are rounded to the nearest million pounds. ... read more

There are a few answers to this question, and depending on your angle or how you feel, you can choose the one you like most. a) There are 62,219 shares in issue (of which 62,217 can be traded because ... read more

Arsène Wenger spent the spring dishing out more cryptic clues than the Times crossword compiler: was he staying or going? No one knew. Then we dropped out of the top four but won the FA Cup. Opinion remained divided on what Arsène should do, even on the Arsenal Board. Most ... read more

Inspired by an off-the-cuff poll by Brad aka @ArsenalFCView on twitter, here’s a list of some baffling things Arsene has done. To qualify, things have to be baffling at the time or be repeated or go on for a long time, so lots of suggestions I received on twitter to ... read more

Arsenal’s traditional battering away to a top 6 rival has happened early this season. We haven’t had the luxury of a couple of months or more for things to settle down and the league table to take on the familiar shape of big clubs at the top and the rest ... read more

Strange times in the Premier League these days. When I was a boy there was a ‘Big 5′ of Arsenal, Liverpool, Man Utd, Everton and Spurs, who tended to have a bit more money coming in through the turnstiles than most of the others, leading to more success – though ... read more

I posed this question on Twitter earlier: The fact that 50 per cent went for the most massive figure shows that either they were aware of the magic of doubling numbers or they could be bothered to open Excel and do a calculation. However, as is usually the case ... read more

As the world’s foremost blog and/or internet site on Arsenal ownership and share dealings, it is my duty to write yet another post telling you of a new record price for Arsenal shares. It seems like only last week I wrote the last one (though actually it was April). On ... read more

There’s a long (very long) post on Gunners Town from a couple of days ago titled “If you believe Wenger is a failure, you’re deluded. Here’s why”. It opens with this sentence: “If you have been clamouring for Arséne Wenger’s departure based on any reason other than you’re throwing an emotional ... read more

A guest post today from Will at YourDailyArsenal: With not too much news about our star forward recently, it gave many Arsenal fans hope that the player might actually be staying in North London. However, our dreams came crashing down this week when the Guardian published a story that Manchester ... read more

…then goes off and leaves the tough questions to someone else – Ray Parlour in this case I believe. It’s the annual end-of-season supporters’ event this evening, which I’m not bothering to attend this time. I’ve been to many and written about several, so I know the script pretty well ... read more

…then goes off and leaves the tough questions to someone else – Ray Parlour in this case I believe. It’s the annual end-of-season supporters’ event this evening, which I’m not bothering to attend this time. I’ve been to many and written about several, so I know the script pretty well ... read more

Well he hasn’t built any roads or an aquaduct, and he certainly hasn’t brought peace. But as detailed in my last post, I don’t believe Stan Kroenke is going to be selling his stake in Arsenal anytime soon. So as we’re stuck with him, is a good or bad owner ... read more

Stan Kroenke has made it plain that he doesn’t want to sell the two-thirds of Arsenal that he owns. He has repeatedly said that he’s never sold a share in any of his sports clubs in his life. When he first bought into Arsenal and joined the Board, this statement ... read more

Alex Ferguson had been interviewed defending Arsene Wenger. The first point here is that football managers nearly always defend other football managers, never think they should be sacked and usually proclaim what a great job they’re doing even if it’s blatantly untrue. So pinch of salt required with all managerial ... read more

Who is Alisher Usmanov? He’s a billionaire from Uzbekistan in the former Soviet Union, though often referred to as Russian, who owns all of Red And White Holdings, among many other things. He used to share Red And White with business partner Farhad Moshiri, who has since departed to buy ... read more

Who is Alisher Usmanov? He’s a billionaire from Uzbekistan in the former Soviet Union, though often referred to as Russian, who owns all of Red And White Holdings, among many other things. He used to share Red And White with business partner Farhad Moshiri, who has since departed to buy ... read more

This is an update of a bog post I did way back in 2012: a handy table showing how much the Arsenal Board have taken in salaries and expenses since 2004. Ivan Gazidis became the first non-football employee to take a base salary of £1m plus in 2011, and judging ... read more

Stan Kroenke is the first ever majority owner in Arsenal’s history, currently holding just over two-thirds of the shares. Specifically, as at April 2017, he holds 41,721 shares of the total of 62,219, which is 67.05 per cent. If he decides to sell up, how much profit will he make? ... read more

Well bugger me with a fishfork. The record price for an Arsenal share wasn’t broken for five years and now it’s been smashed for the second time in a couple of weeks. On 27 March the record reached £17,750, after being at £17,500 since September 2012. Today a share was ... read more

There is a lot of speculation on this topic and a lot of contradictory information – but very few hard facts. The club leak info to selected journalists, Arsène himself makes statements then contradicts them later, and occasionally a Board member will say something in public. I view all of ... read more

The 31st of March is the sixteenth anniversary of the death of David Rocastle, one of Arsenal’s most popular and talented players of the modern era. Arsenal fans will commemorate him before Sunday’s match, as they have done in recent times. Rocastle’s Arsenal career was ended way too early for ... read more

There are two entries for Arsenal shares on the NEX exchange today, both for £17,750. This is a new record price for a single share – previously it was £17,500, first reached on September 7th 2012, and last paid just two months later on November 13th. Since then the price ... read more

The last week for Arsenal has defeat to a title rival (again), a thrashing by Bayern Munich (again) and fan protests about the manager, the Board and the direction of the club (again). In response Arsenal took the rare step of making a statement. Purportedly this came from Chairman Sir ... read more

What does Arsène Wenger need to do to deserve a new contract? Some would say it’s too late and he’s amply demonstrated that he can’t win the big prizes anymore, so whatever he does now is irrelevant: he must go anyway. But I beg to differ. Although I’m often critical ... read more

I’ve got tired of seeing people claim that Arsène Wenger’s greatest achievement is keeping Arsenal in the top 4 during the (apparently) ‘difficult’ years since 2006, so I conducted a twitter poll to see how many thought – like me – that an unbeaten league season is a greater achievement. ... read more

My last post has generated lively debate on Twitter, as supporters of Arsene defend him against any suggestion he’s not achieved absolutely everything he should have achieved. (He built a stadium, you know. So did Herbert Chapman as it happens, and it didn’t stop him and his successors winning the ... read more

It’s been a great achievement for Arsène Wenger to keep Arsenal in the top 4 every year for 20 years. Just saying that upfront so I’m not accused of ignoring it. I keep seeing the chart comparing Arsène’s 20 years of finishing positions with the previous 20 years, and naturally ... read more

A self-explanatory table. Twitter: @AngryOfN5 ps – buy my book   ... read more

Just posting this up as I put it on Twitter and it generated a fair bit of comment. An interview with David Dein from the Arsenal programme in 1989 – sorry, ‘match day magazine’, as it had been retitled by then. Dein, for all his faults, is a man who ... read more

News has broken that Alisher Usmanov’s company USM is to sponsor Everton’s new training ground in exchange for the naming rights. The Sun (I know, ever reliable…) are running this story, but have not given a figure for the deal. Usmanov’s business partner Farhad Moshiri gave up his half of ... read more

By the start of the 1978-79 season it had been seven full years since any Arsenal silverware, but the Chairman’s mood in the first programme of the season, home to Leeds, was optimistic. Arsenal had been FA Cup finalists and League Cup semi-finalists and had finished fifth in Division One ... read more

Continuing my potted history of Arsenal through the medium of the match programme, we reach 1977-78.  It’s fair to say that the 1977-78 was not a particularly vintage year for the Arsenal programme. It appeared the editor thought he’d seen enough change in recent seasons, so stuck with almost exactly ... read more

(Updated and reposted 15 November 2016; last update: 27 November 2016) Jimmy Gauld (ex-player, most recently for Mansfield Town), David Layne, Peter Swan and Tony Kay (all Sheff Weds at the time of the offences), plus others: all banned for life and given varying prison sentences for betting on ... read more

This is an updater of previous posts, so figures are current as at 15 November 2016. Firstly, how many Arsenal shares are there? There are two figures commonly quoted: 62,217 and 62,219. The second figure is given on the ISDX website, where Arsenal shares are listed. However, the share register maintained ... read more

Further to my last post, I’ve now got fascinated by the possibility of predicting the eventual number of points the league champions will win the title with by looking at the table after nine games (much more exciting than xG). Arsene Wenger alerted me to this with his prediction that ... read more

At Arsenal’s recent AGM Arsène stated that based on points accumulated so far, he expected the Premier League to be won with a total of 82-86 points this season. He appeared to be basing this on the fact that the top three were all on 20 points after 9 games, ... read more

It was the Arsenal AGM today. I won’t give a full report because most of what happens is the same thing year after year. Things that are always the same at the Arsenal AGM: 1: The Chairman acts like an old duffer. PH-W used to, now Sir Chips does. They ... read more

I guess the celebrations of #Wenger20 brought this to the front of my mind. Congratulations to Arsène for outlasting 144 other Premier League managers and 1,027 in total in English football since October 1996. The longevity is exceptional, though I believe opinions differ on whether it’s become exceptionally good or ... read more

Today is the official 20th anniversary of Arsène Wenger starting at Arsenal, as his contract began from 1st of October 1996. He’s won a few trophies in that time, though you’ll be aware that trophy-wise his best years were in the first half of his reign. But this isn’t really ... read more