Arsenal’s inability to hold on to Cesc Fabregas, Gael Clichy and Samir Nasri last summer will be repeated this year with Robin Van Persie, Theo Walcott and Alex Song all joining the exodus. This is a simple by-product of Arsenal’s failure to show ambition to win trophies by investing in top class players.

Stan Kroenke took over as owner of Arsenal and immediately announced that Arsene Wenger’s policy of buying young (or cheap) and selling at a profit will continue as long as he is in charge, despite the obvious fact that this policy WILL NOT bring success to the club.

The board at that time had a choice between Kroenke and Alisha Usmanov, the fantastically rich Russian billionaire who is listed as the 35th richest man in the world, and just as shrewd a businessman as Silent Stan.

Usmanov was ignored by the board but refuses to give up his shareholding. In fact he has increased it this season and still intends to try and takeover if he ever gets the chance. But why do I believe that Usmanov would have done a better job than Kroenke?

Here is why. This is how Usmanov saw the way the club was going and his plan to make Arsenal even more profitable. His comments (in July) were in response to a question of why he wanted to be on the Arsenal board. He said: “If the role of a board member is to oversee a trophyless period, while making significant personal profits and asking fans to pay inflation-busting ticket price increases then, no, I would not want to be on the board.

“If instead it is to try to deliver sustained success, to increase your personal investment in the club, to help develop the commercial position and to ensure the fans have a say in the running of the club then, yes, I think I certainly have something to contribute.

“In terms of doing things differently, let me give you a very clear example. Arsenal has all of its major commercial contracts coming up for renewal in the next couple of years.

“It’s no secret that to maximise the value of those you want to have success on the field and be winning trophies. To do that you need to invest now in building a winning team. This is simple commercial logic. Whether it comes to pass, we shall see.”

Simple commercial logic, with the side-effect of breeding future success and happy fans. Wouldn’t you prefer to have that man in charge that a silent partner that just wants to line his own pockets? All I can hope is that Kroenke suddenly realises that his investment will be devalued if he stays in charge and relinquishes control to Usmanov this summer. Before it is too late for the non-silent Russian to make a difference….