At a time when Americans have been checking out and checking in at Anfield, there are signs that Stan Kroenke could be stepping up his interest in Arsenal. Club insiders expect the US tycoon ultimately to push his 29.9% stake in the club past the 30% threshold that would trigger a mandatory bid.

Intriguingly six months since Lady Bracewell-Smith's 15.9% of Arsenal was taken to market by the financial services firm Blackstone, there are understood to be serious talks under way with at least one interested party. Blackstone declined to comment yesterday on who that was, though one insider said the process is "ongoing". Anyone who goes through with the transaction would presumably be aware that Kroenke holds a significant "poison pill" in the shape of 50% of Arsenal Broadband Ltd, the Gunners' media outlet that will in time probably be the club's biggest income driver. And yet it will have to yield half the profits to Kroenke, a big disincentive for other purchasers.

The fall in Arsenal's net debt from £297.7m to £135.6m in a single season has forced up the club's share price close to the £13,000 Bracewell-Smith wants for her stake, which she values at £128.6m. Danny Fiszman, formerly the club's largest single shareholder, has previously sold significant stakes to Kroenke and presumably might do so again. As one observer put it: "They want to make sure all parties are happy when they reach an end point." Might that be soon?

Burden gives himself a lift

Roger Burden's belated declaration that he may stand for the position of full-time chairman of the Football Association has produced a useful benefit for the acting chair. The delay in putting himself forward afforded the current FA director and chairman of the national game board the opportunity to write the job specification.

When it became clear that Burden would be only a temporary incumbent in the FA's top job, with no apparent intention of putting forward his own candidacy, he was tasked with writing a formal job spec for the position. (During past senior appointments the FA board had not always regarded this as required procedure.)

However Burden's advantage may be short-lived. Despite the overwhelming support his candidacy enjoys among the grassroots-dominated FA council – and would therefore probably carry among the three other FA board members from the national game – there is disquiet among some board members that he should now be going for a job for which he wrote the specification. Burden's work in setting out the job spec will come under close scrutiny at the next FA board meeting, on 18 November.

Tweet sorrow for Savage

Robbie Savage yesterday effected what must be football's briefest-ever retirement from Twitter. The Derby County midfielder was angered by what he viewed as the misrepresentation of his tweets by a newspaper and decided that he would no longer place his thoughts on the public forum.

Within minutes his advisers, sensing media-career suicide, were telling him that it might not be such a good idea to turn his back on the near-70,000 base of followers he had managed to build up in only three months. Sure enough, with his team-mate Stephen Bywater and Manchester United's Rio Ferdinand telling him the same, Savage was back before the day was out.

Big Ben gets 2012 cover

London 2012 organisers are confident they have the means to prevent the ambush marketing that Westminster City council fears during the Games. This column revealed last Friday that Westminster harboured concerns about repeats in 2012 of projections such as Cricket Australia's holographic images of Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke on Big Ben last week. It warned of potential legal action over the "criminal offence", but the £2,500 maximum fine it carries is hardly a deterrent.

However, competitor attempts to undermine official sponsorships at the Games will be pursued aggressively, with statutory sanctions running into multimillion-pound fines for organisations deemed to be in breach. "We do and will take ambush marketing very seriously," said a 2012 spokeswoman, suggesting anyone wanting to follow Cricket Australia's lead ought to think again.