Kroenke unlikely to thwart Wenger's plans for Arsenal

This week American billionaire Stan Kroenke upped his stake in the north London club to 29.9 percent, the threshold beyond which he will have to make an offer for the remaining shares.

The financial wheeling and dealing for control of the club has been going on since August 2007 when former vice-chairman David Dein sold his shares to Alisher Usmanov for 75 million pounds.

Even though Arsenal have not won a major honour since 2005, the boardroom manoeuvres do not appear to have had any detrimental affect on the pitch.

Despite their recent lack of silverware, Wenger has been allowed to develop a new exciting team whose recent form in the Premier League and their 4-1 demolition of AZ Alkmaar in the Champions League on Wednesday suggest new honours are not far away.

Arsenal were one of England's most traditional, conservative clubs with strong links to London's banking professions and public schools.

The club's current chairman Peter Hill-Wood is the latest incumbent of his upper-class family to head the club, while the family of director Lady Bracewell-Smith, who owns 15.9 percent of the club, has been associated with Arsenal for more than 70 years.

Hill-Wood though is now central to how the boardroom game will play out, as he is known to favour Kroenke becoming the club's new owner, rather than Uzbek-born Usmanov, who owns 25.5 per cent of the shares through his Red & White Holdings company.

SILENT STAN

Kroenke's background could hardly be more different to that of Hill-Wood, but the 62-year-old tycoon, known as "Silent Stan" is unlikely to want to bring in sweeping changes if he does assume ultimate control.