There is absolutely nothing going on today. It’s all very quiet, I have to say.
Gallas avoided further injury when he overturned a buggy during some kind of French squad bonding exercise. You do have to question the logic in having your team participate in a buggy race this close to a major tournament, but that is the wisdom of that mentalist Domenech for you.
Yesterday we were linked with a Nigerian suitor who, allegedly, is considering making an offer for Lady Nina’s shares. You’d have to wonder what the logic would be to buy those shares as that would still leave him around 14% short of Kroenke Tonk Stan’s current holding of 29.9% I guess all of those emails that have been coming out of Nigeria for the last few years have been so that he can make a move for Arsenal. I think that we can put this particular story and character to one side for the time being as I would be confident that it is a bit of a non-runner. It just doesn’t make sense, to me anyway, unless he has done a deal to go into partnership with our shady Uzbeki.
The Times says that there are eight potential suitors interested in buying Lady Nina’s shares, however I am taking that with a grain of salt as in the same article they also state that shares are changing hands for £10 apiece, but that Lady Nina wants £13. Given that both Kroenke and Usmanov have paid between £8,500-£10,500 per share, we can safely assume that the quoted figure is either a typo or extremely poor research. The article does point out, however, that her attempts to sell the shares may be prompted by a possible change to capital gains tax in the forthcoming emergency budget on June 22nd.
Elsewhere, there are some transfer links reappearing about Melo and Schwarzer. The is also a link to Mertesacker. Whether there is any substance to these links or not remains to be seen. Schwarzer would be good for a year or two, giving Szczesny some more time to mature by getting first team experience out on loan, that’s assuming he actually makes the grade to be our no1 in the future.
That’s about that for today. There’s nowt going on. The fact that I had to mention the Gallas buggy accident story shows you how slow the news is today.
Arsenal News 24/7
The North Bank - "It's got va-va-voom" (An Arsenal blog) 
Very interesting stuff. Would love to see his pardon reversed.
If it was reversed, would it affect the outcome of a Premier League fit and proper persons test, were he to be subjected to one?
Alisher Usmanov, Russian mining magnate and owner of Arsenal, 10 percent-stake in Facebook and much, much more, has something in common with the famous director and writer Roman Polanski. Both the oligarch and the director were accused of rape. However, unlike Polanski, Usmanov spent 6 years in prison and now the rape victim is reportedly trying to dispute the full pardon Uzbek government issued to Usmanov after he became the prominent Russian businessman.
Usmanov was accused of rape and racket in 1980, when he was 27, and was sentenced to 8 years in prison. He was released after 6 years due to “excellent behavior and deep remorse”. 20 years later Usmanov became one of the top Russian businessmen with major interest in the largest Russian companies and strong connections with the government. In 2000, Usmanov received full pardon from the Uzbek government and stated that the case against him was politically motivated.
According to the Newsland.ru, popular Russian online newspaper, the rape victim, who lives in the US, is fighting the Uzbek court’s decision to pardon Usmanov and clear his criminal record. According to the victim, whose name has not been released to the public because of privacy laws, is “outraged by the fact that the Uzbek judicial system has been tempered with by the politically connected magnate”. The victim promises to file petitions to the international courts.
Lately, Uzbekistan has reduced its political and economic dependency on Russia and is trying to build its international reputation. That, according to Newsland.ru, is a good chance for the victim to reverse Usmanov’s pardon decision.
http://www.oligarchwatch.com/news/2010/5/29/russian-facebook-investor-alisher-usmanov-haunted-by-the-pas.html