With today’s announcement that Stan Kroenke has increased his Arsenal shareholding by buying out the Carr family’s shares (with the exception of Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith), the times look like changing at Arsenal. As long as Kroenke and Danny Fiszman are of the same mind, they run the club. What they say goes. But now Kroenke is the senior of the two men in terms of shareholding.

Kroenke has not actually paid for the shares that have been transferred into his name from Fiszman and the Carrs as yet, although there is no doubt he has the resources to do so as and when it suits to hand over payment. He owes something in the region of £90 - £100 million, but the man’s a billionaire.

He has no need to buy any further shares. The only reason to do that, given that his track record for retaining any profits his sporting concerns make for re-investment in the team, is to buy out the potential blocking stake of Alisher Usmanov. But does he plan to make any special resolutions that require the Uzbek’s blessing? Seems unlikely.

Alisher Usmanov is now dead in the water. He’s wasted his money to try and get a slice of Arsenal, possibly with the long-term extraction of profit in mind. With Kroenke now in control, he has four seats in the directors box, but he’s paid a high price to get those and go no further.

As for Arsenal, expect change. Prices could rise, although that’s been going on for so long, it’s difficult to single out Kroenke as the sole perpetrator of that tactic.

What is interesting is that, behind the scenes, the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust have played a key role in Kroenke being accepted by the club since his initial purchase of ITV’s shares back in 2007. Ultimately, it led to Kroenke being invited onto the board. So have the Trust – the body that represents fans and small shareholders in the ownership and governance issues that affect Arsenal – got the man they want in charge of the club? We await a statement of their views, although I would suggest that they will approve of the perceived stability Kroenke’s move seems to suggest.

Fiszman and Kroenke have played a clever game to bring about a way of blocking off Usmanov. If he had the money to do it, the Uzbek could have bought out Lady Nina and the Carrs to give him close to 50% of the club. Now if he buys out Lady Nina, he will still fall short of the combined shares in the boardroom. The Carr family have decided to cash in and trust the American to take the club forward. What significance that there were adverts to recruit three new senior executives last weekend in ‘The Sunday Times’?

Chelsea is owned by a Russian. Manchester United and Liverpool are owned by Americans. Arsenal is now controlled by one. There’s gold in them there Premier League hills… let’s just hope that in London N5, it’s re-invested in the team.