After nearly two years of shadow boxing, the camps of Stan Kroenke and Alisher Usmanov are about to start to the real battle for control of the Gunners. Arsenal’s 4th largest shareholder, Lady Bracewell-Smith is looking to sell her 15.9% share and his retained the U.S. based brokers Blackstones to find a buyer. With both potential owners well within the the minimum threshold, the temptation to bid for the chunk that Lady Bracewell-Smith wishes to relinquish will be tantalising.

The additional issue here is that the Arsenal board view Kroenke as the friendly option and have assisted him by selling him shares between £8,500 and £10,000 each. Usmanov is rightly or wrongly, viewed as an unwilling option to most of the remaining board members. Whilst the animosity that both suitors faced is certainly nowhere near the levels it appeared when they began to buy up stock, Kroenke is now in poll position to push his shareholding in to the realms of making a bid for the entire club. He’s been on the board since 2008 and has quietly and effectively bought up stock and shares as it’s been made available.

Of course, the news has come as something of a surprise but it would now seem as if Arsenal are quickly moving toward new ownership, sooner rather than later. Kroenke currently holds 29.98% and Usmanov holds 26.26%. If anyone goes over 30% then they must make an offer for the rest of the shares, similarly to the situation that Manchester United had on the build up to the Glazer takeover.

Yet critics of Kroenke will point to the walking disasters that the Glazer reign and the Hicks/Gillett pairing and the fact that both groups that now own Liverpool and Manchester United came from U.S. sporting backgrounds. The difference for me is that Kroenke holds an MSL team and is well aware of the nuances of English football, having seen the issues that have blighted English footballs two most famous clubs.

The animosity is similar yet different, Ferguson has the full support of the fans who can see his hands are tied. Benitez uses the situation to cover the dreadful tactics and signings he makes to garner support with the fans. Both set of fans are completely at odds with the owners and it would take an amazing series of gaffes for Kroenke to alienate the Arsenal support to anywhere near the level his compatriots have.

Silent Stan would seem to be the prime candidate to make a bid for Lady Bracewell-Smith’s shares and so trigger the takeover threshold. Ironically, Kroenke is currently facing a similar situation over his stake the St. Louis Rams, which I still can’t get used to them being known as even if has been 16 years since the left Los Angeles. Or maybe I’m just showing my age!

Currently a bid of $750 million dollars is on the table for 100% of the Rams, Kroenke currently holds 40% so could be set to make a tidy amount of around $300 million, which would probably leave him more than enough to purchase the remaining 70.02% of the Gunners. Add a fantastic stadium recently built, consistent top 4 finishes and a constant conveyor belt of talent groomed by Arsene Wenger and you have a fantastic opportunity to take over a top quality Premiership side.

The only possible issues for financial outlay are the clubs debt, which currently stands at just over £200 million and strengthening the clubs playing squad. Arsenal do not require major surgery either off or on the field, regardless of whether Cesc Fabregas stays or rejoins Barcelona in the summer. One things for certain, Kroenke is definitely in pole position to take control of Arsenal, sooner rather than later and the rivals saddled with massive debts, disappointed fans and player squads and grounds in need of overhaul will be watching with trepidation. Arsenal could be about to embark on another glorious era.

The video below, which was spotted by our pals at 101 Great Goals, was taken at Old Trafford during Manchester United’s 4-0 win over Hull City last weekend. In the video, we can see many United supporters sporting green and gold — the colors of Newton Heath FC, which was the original club name of Man United — in protest of the shady financial tactics of club owner Malcolm Glazer.

The fans, of course, have plenty of reason to protest. It was revealed a week ago that Glazer has not only saddled the club with a huge amount of debt, but plans to extract 70% of all match-day income from the club to pay out the interest and line their pockets with the remainder. The end result is that Glazer and his family will extract an astonishing £220 million from the club between 2010 and 2017 while leaving the club saddled with the exact same amount of debt it has now — a strategy that one fund manager has called, “a violent assault on one of Britain’s best known sporting institutions.”

Meanwhile, as the fans waved their green and gold scarves and chant in protest, Glazer sat in his mansion and thought, “Yes, please come to Old Trafford and protest me. Please pay those outlandish ticket prices I’m charging and tell me how much you hate me. While you’re doing that, I’m going to sit here and count all of this money you just gave me.”

This is the conundrum of the “Love United, Hate Glazer” crowd. Fans are fans. They want to go to games and support their clubs. However, for Man United fans, going to games means giving money to an entity they despise — an entity that has put the club on the financial brink and has no plans to change its business practices. So what do they do?

In most cases, the right thing to do as a consumer would be to vote with your wallet. Don’t like Wal-Mart’s business practices? Don’t shop there. Don’t want high fructose corn syrup in your diet? Don’t buy any Coke or Pepsi. (Except maybe for that Pepsi Throwback with real sugar that actually tastes 1,000 times better than regular Pepsi.) Don’t like the Recording Industry Association of America’s lawsuits against consumers? Don’t buy or download any music from the major labels. Put your money and your focus on independent artists and labels instead. This is how capitalism is supposed to work.

Basic capitalism, however, goes right out the window when it comes to football fans. These people have spent their whole lives loving and supporting a club. Asking them to switch that off — or worse, to change allegiances — is a complete anathema to them. No self-respecting Man United supporter will suddenly decide to support Manchester City because they disagree with the club ownership’s business practices. That ownership, however, has put the fans in a tenuous position; if they stop going to games, then the club might fail and become the next Leeds United, and again, what self-respecting Man United supporter wants their club to be like Leeds?

Furthermore, it’s not as if the Glazers are giving the fans a terrible product. This is what separates the Glazers from, say, Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder, who is also raking in cash by gouging the fans. The Redskins are a terrible team. Man United is the three-time defending Premier League champion and is very much in the hunt for a fourth, not to mention they’ve been to two Champions League finals in a row and are in no danger of missing out on next year’s Champions League, either.

Then again, if the fans really hate Glazer, how much does that success on the pitch matter? Perhaps the only real message, as Barry Glendenning suggested on The Guardian‘s Football Weekly podcast yesterday, is to stop buying tickets and merchandise all together. All the green and gold scarves and “Love United, Hate Glazer” banners in the world might not be as effective a message as a half-empty Old Trafford on match day, because once the Glazers realize the fans aren’t giving them money anymore, they might decide it’s time to sell. A few supporters sent their message years ago by breaking away and starting their own club, but how many green-and-gold-wearing United fans are willing to sacrifice the heights of the Premier League for the depths of the Unibond League? The answer, it would seem, is not very many.

So what do you do, United supporters? Do you continue to give Glazer your hard-earned cash while swinging those green and gold scarves, which would seem to do nothing but preserve the status quo? Or do you stay home, keep your money in your pocket and attempt to force a change in ownership, thus risking the possibility that the club you love might collapse under the weight of all that debt? It’s a difficult question, but until a third option arises, it requires an answer.

Imagine how many hundreds of thousands of words were wasted discussing the possibility of Cristiano Ronaldo moving from Man United to Real Madrid this summer. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the word count went into the millions as the story was the biggest tease from June through August.

While the episode appears to be over and Ronaldo has admitted to the Portugese press that he’ll be at Manchester United this season, very little has been mentioned about the unsung heroes at Old Trafford and that’s the Glazer family.

The American owners could have easily taken the money and run. The transfer fee would have been enormous. The player would have been pleased to leave, and many fans would have said good riddance. Despite this, the Glazers stood firm and refused to allow the player to leave, focusing on the player’s contract and even going against the wishes of FIFA President Sepp Blatter.

Manchester United and the Premier League are better places for having Ronaldo stay, and all credit needs to go to the Glazer family.