Well, plenty going on this morning so we'll delve right into it.

The main news is obviously the share sale. Yesterday, Danny Fiszman sold 5,000 of his shares to Stan Kroenke. That leaves Fiszman with a 16.1% holding and Kroenke with 20.5%.

You can read the story on the official site here, with the kind of quotes you would expect from Kroenke and from Chairman PHW. There's also a Q&A with Fiszman in which he says:

I have no current intention to sell any more of my shares in the Club. This sale to Stan was a one-off sale. I certainly intend to continue as a long-term substantial shareholder. While I thought long and hard about selling any shares, I believe that Stan’s increased holding is a positive development for Arsenal Football Club.

It's certainly hard to see what difference the sale makes in the short term. A number of shares have gone from one 'friendly' director to another but of course the minute share sales happen the name Usmanov crops up.

There were reports in recent days that Lady Nina was actively trying to sell her holding in the club. Whether Fiszman's sale to Kroenke has anything to do with that I don't know. What I do know is that Usmanov's wealth is not what it once was.

Forbes magazine estimates his wealth has fallen from $9.3 billion just one year ago to 'just' $1.6 billion now. He's lost a packet on various investments and even the value of his Arsenal shares is down £10m on what he paid for them, bearing in mind he was hoovering them up at inflated prices a lot of the time. So it seems unlikely that Usmanov is in any position to launch a bid for the club.

On the other hand Kroenke's wealth has increased in the same period by $300m, from $2.7 billion to $3 billion so he seems to be in a much stronger position. You wonder, perhaps, does his increased holding and his obvious wealth add some stability to the club's finances at a time when the property market has had an effect on the income we thought we were going to get from the Highbury Square development.

I suppose while the issue of Lady Nina's shares is still up in the air a lot of questions and uncertainty will remain. The Arsenal Trust released a statement, saying:

If a sale had to take place we are reassured that it is to Stan. The fact that Stan Kroenke is already a member of the Board at Arsenal should ensure that this change does not create any instability. The AST have asked to meet with Danny Fiszman to discuss with him how he envisages the club moving forward.

So in the very short term nothing much has changed, only for another chunk of the club to move from the old guard to the newcomers. The prospect of 'foreign' ownership draws ever closer, with close to 50% of the club now in the hands of non-English, non-Arsenal fans. Maybe this is the way forward, a mix of the two, and I do hope that remains the case, but you just get the sense that a total buy-out is more or less inevitable.

Moving from the boardroom and shares to the pitch and there's bad news on the injury front as Robin van Persie has picked up a groin injury in training for Holland and will return to Arsenal for treatment. Hopefully it's nothing too serious but even a tweak in that area means a couple of weeks out.

Meanwhile, Arsene Wenger won't be best pleased to hear Denmark more or less saying they're willing to risk Nicklas Bendtner who has a knee problem. If he suffers a setback on top of a van Persie injury it certainly reduces our striking options, although Eduardo should be fit, Arshavin is available domestically and Adebayor could return after his spell out with injury.

Speaking of Adebayor he says he's glad he stayed at Arsenal in the summer but has displayed an awareness of time more akin to that of a small child than a grown man. You know the way with kids something happened yesterday when in reality it was sometime last year? He's the same. Talking about injuries to our squad he said:

We've missed Eduardo for several months (real time: a year) Tomas Rosicky for about a year (real time: over a year), Theo Walcott for three or four months (real time: more or less correct), Cesc Fabregas for almost six months (real time: 4 months) and I've also been injured for two or three weeks (real time: 2 months).

I suppose when you're being paid £80,000 a week abstract concepts like time aren't really relevant.

Hull City have submitted their 'dossier' to the FA over Fabregate. It's interesting to hear the Hull Chairman say they'd be happy with an apology from Cesc who has insisted all along that nothing happened.

Obviously the ball is now in the FA's court and we'll wait and see what they make of the 'evidence' that Hull have submitted. Further comment on this can wait until then.

One thing that does need to be made public again though is the Ballack thing. I've seen a few newspaper pieces in which they bring that up again. Let's be clear, Fabregas did NOT spit at Ballack, Ballack made no accusation that he did, Bayern Munich have confirmed that no such incident took place, yet the papers still phrase it as if there's some doubt about it.

Right, that's enough to keep you going. We'll await injury news on van Persie with bated breath. More tomorrow.

Let's start with the Champions League draw which was made yesterday in Monaco. I didn't see it but I assume it was the usual crack of 2 hours of utter shite before they lash out the draw in five minutes then all fuck off to have a Prince Albert, or something.

Anyway, we've got some travelling to do as we drew Porto, Dinamo Kiev and Fenerbache. Thankfully the first game is in Kiev on September 17th, meaning we won't have to combat the elements like we usually do when we go that far east. As draws go it could have been better but it could have been worse too.

Arsenal's largest shareholder who isn't a fat, disgusting, Manchester United supporting oligarch cunt, Danny Fiszman, spoke afterwards and he revealed that the club does have money to spend but Arsene Wenger simply chooses not to. He says:

I hear all the time that we have no money, but I just wish someone would take the time to look at our accounts. We do not need extra investment. This is a proper business which produces its own cash and lives or dies by its performances. If Arsène said he needed £30million for a striker, he would get it, no problem at all.

So stick that up your Fat and Orange holes, is essentially what he's saying, while at the same time reassuring fans the money is there. And that message has been constant from both the club and the manager despite the fact we're wheeling and dealing like barrow-boys. One of the reasons Wenger has been so successful at this club is that he has had a board that has allowed him absolute freedom to do what he wants from a football point of view, and Fiszman says that will continue. However, he does acknowledge that it's time we won something but suggests the manager won't change his policy of bringing through young players.

But that does not mean all we are interested in is the artistic achievement award. We are not settling for second-best. We want to win trophies and I think it is time we did, but Arsène also believes in creating teams with a certain style.

Style is wonderful and when Arsenal click it is exceptionally pleasing on the eye but ultimately it's about trophies. That's the bottom line. If you can combine style with winning silverware then you are truly a God amongst men, often though you have to sacrifice a little of style or principle to win things and at the moment Wenger doesn't seem willing to do so. That we have so much money and have completely failed to replace the players who have left in central midfield makes it all the more frustrating.

Perhaps the best thing that could happen is the appointment of a new Chief Executive. Someone to replace Keith Edelman and someone who, while not interfering in the football side of things, might challenge Arsene from time to time and maybe shake him out of the comfort zone he seems to be in. There are just three days until the end of the transfer window, there's money to spend, it should be spent. At the moment we're like a car driving around with a broken window while the owner sits staring at a suitcase full of cash.

'But this young window has so much potential. If I bring in a new window to replace it then all the time I spent with that window will be for nothing'.

'Fuck the fucking window'.

The team needs a new player, or two. Arsenal needs a new player or two. Abou Diaby might not need a new player or two but frankly I don't care about Abou Diaby. I care about Arsenal. I don't care about Bischoff, I care about Arsenal. I want us to have the best team possible, I'm not asking for a superstars or £30m signings, just a good player, or two, to help us win the trophies that we want to win. Anyway, let's see what happens between now and Monday night. Something, I'm sure. I just don't know what. And is nothing something? That way I can be right either way!

There's a new column from Safety in the columns section called Brave new world. Go read. 

Gael Clichy talks about William Gallas and Adebayor. He's a very clever young man.

Philippe Senderos talks about his move to AC Milan and, understandably, he's delighted with it. Right, Arsecast time.

On this week's Arsecast I chat with GilbertoSilver from Gunnerblog about Twente, Fulham and the state of things at the moment, the Man in the Bar has a player history, there's some poetry from Tony Adams and more.

To subscribe to the Arsecast in iTunes simply click here, the direct feed URL is here, to download this week's arsecast directly - click here (16mb MP3). You can find the arsecast archives here. And you can listen directly below without leaving this very page.

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Finally for today as I'm moving house tomorrow things here are a bit hectic. There's all the packing and cleaning and throwing stuff in boxes and bags at the last minute. So I'll be offline from tonight. But fear not, the blog shall go on and Tom will be here to update you on who we haven't signed and who we're not going to sign.

I should be back on Sunday but you know how these things go sometimes. Until then have a good weekend, fingers crossed for a Twente-esque result against Newcastle. See you on the other side, Arsefolk.

Right then, something to talk about this morning. Danny Fiszman has been talking and a number of things have come to light.

Firstly the club won't be appointing a new 'director of football' and will instead be creating two new directors. Firstly a CEO who will 'work with the manager, negotiate player purchases, sales and wage contracts', and a Chief Finance officer.

With Ken Friar currently carrying out the first of those roles it'll be important to get the right person in place, but Friar is certainly more than capable of carrying out whatever work needs to be done this summer.

Now, the second thing Fiszman spoke about was new players and I can see the headlines generating more headlines, if you know what I mean.

GUNNERS WON'T BREAK THE BANK - will probably get some pulses racing this morning but if you look at what he's saying it makes sense. He has eschewed the 'benefactor' model, whereby someone like Abramovich comes in and starts throwing around cash for a few glory signings. As Fiszman rightly points out these players cost more than just their transfer fee. For example, take Ronaldinho - you could probably buy him for £20m but a four year deal with wages of around £5m a year (and that's erring on the cheap side) brings the whole deal to £40m over four years.

When you have somebody with the kind of money Abramovich has it's easy to sign those kinds of players but there are dangers too. If you read about the kind of money that Chelsea and United owe it's scary to think of us in that kind of position. We're going about things our own way, making our own money, and not mortgaging the future of the club with short term thinking. When you see our wage bill is comparable to Manchester United you know our players aren't going short - and when Henry was at the club and by far the best player in the world there wasn't a better paid player in England.

When it comes to transfers he spells out the club's policy, saying:

It is not a big name, it is big talents and committed players we are after. We have never said no to Arsène so whoever he wishes to bring in, he will be fully supported.

And I don't know that any Arsenal fan, no matter what side of the transfer fence they sit on, can really argue with that. I think all Arsenal fans will accept that we need to strengthen the squad this summer. We might have our differences in terms of how we go about expressing that but the bottom line is we all want to see new players come in. But which kinds of players? Would we be happy with three signings of players we don't know so well but who possess the kind of quality of Sagna or Eduardo? Or is it necessary to make a statement of intent and sign a 'big name' to show we mean business?

Personally I think what's important is the experience and quality of the player, that far outweighs the importance of his fame. Often big name players, despite their quality, come with baggage. Do they still have the hunger for the game? You look at Thierry Henry. Last summer 30,000 Barcelona fans packed into the Camp Nou to watch him do a few keepy-ups and to laud him as the signing that would win them back La Liga from Real Madrid. Now, you could argue that Henry was the straw that broke the camel's back - he's been distinctly average for Barcelona this season and at a cost of about £23m (transfer fee + one year's wages). Can we really take that sort of a gamble on a player?

It might not suit some fans who want that big name signing but I can't see it happening. And that's not so much the board or the club's policy but the manager's. While he has bought the odd player with a big reputation before it's generally been when their stock has been quite low. Overmars off the back of a knee injury which many said would finish him, Henry playing as a wingback for Juventus etc. When he has spent big, big money it hasn't necessarily worked out great as Reyes, Wiltord (to an extent) and Hleb demonstrate.

So, it'll be interesting to see what the manager does and who he looks to bring in. The message from the club is clear though - they'll fully back him whoever he wishes to bring in. So that could mean they'll cough up for a big player if AW decides that's who he wants, similarly if he finds a couple of Sagnas/Eduardos they'll do that too. So look beyond the dramatic headlines (but haha at the Mirror for saying we can 'spend, spend, spend!') for the real story - and I think the way Arsenal are going about things at the moment is the right way. Arsenal FC needs to exist not just for the season ahead or the one after but for decades in the future and I like the way we do business, it has a touch of class about it that no other club has.

Update: The full Q&A with Danny Fiszman is here. 

In other news the Grimster could be on his way. He currently scouts for us in France but could become the new sporting director of PSG. How sad to lose him again. We'll always have Davids though.

Francis Coquelin is an Arsenal player according to reports in France. He's a 17 year old midfielder and unless he's Cescesque in his brilliance he's not one for the first team straight away.

Young Dutchman Nacer Barazite says he wants to play for the Arsenal first team next season but wouldn't rule out going on loan. He's an interesting player.

Nothing new happening in Spain from an Arsenal point of view. For those of us that get fed up with the machinations of the Spanish press and the big clubs though the Cristiano Ronaldo story should raise a smile or two. Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon has basically said everything is done and now it's up to Ronaldo to come ouut and say he wants to join (sound familiar?!) while manager Bernd Schuster is already talking about he'll fit into the team and be accepted in the dressing room. Whatever you might think about United/Ronaldo, Real Madrid really are the most ill-mannered, insufferable cunts when it comes to transfers. It's still nice to see it happening to someone else though.

Right so, plenty to chew on this morning. Have at it.