Questioning our Ownership: Kroenke can’t relate to Arsenal fans.
As football fans, we know the devotion that we have about your respective club, it is about living, breathing and dreaming football, a conscious thought that creeps into your mind every single day.
It is what makes English football so engaging, every fan is in a huge battle with their rivals at the pub or in their living room, through social media or even in the very stadium.
So, it doesn’t surprise me that our owner and director Josh Kroenke revealed this week that he doesn’t feel able to relate to Arsenal fans.
Josh Kroenke, along with help from his father Stan, took over the club in 2018 and had a rough ride so far with a drop off in table finishes, failure in Europa League and involvement in the Super League proposal.
He said on a podcast called Road Trippin’: “It’s hard to truly relate as an American or a foreigner heading into the UK, the passion that really goes on from the people that support these clubs.”
There were big protests against the Kroenke ownership after the Super League fiasco, thousands protested at the Emirates asking for a majority ownership or the Kroenkes out of the club!
Arsenal fans have always felt an attitude of the board throwing money at problems, with Pepe’s disappointing £70 million transfer breaking the record.
Now, I am not an American football fan, nor am I American so I cannot really comment on how Americans feel about the NFL teams they support, but this statement does reiterate the idea that American owners bring a certain Americanism into the clubs they buy.
A week ago, we saw our owners other venture (LA Rams) win a historic Superbowl, so maybe their focus isn’t truly on Arsenal and their American model is not suited to Premier League football clubs.
I do genuinely believe that the Kroenke’s want Arsenal to succeed, mostly because I know for certain that they enjoy money and both things come hand in hand.
However, it’s frustrating having this disappointed feeling about our ownership when billionaire Spotify CEO and Arsenal fanatic David Ek was very keen to buy the club last year.
He had a £1.8 billion offer to buy the club rejected, but has a kept a close relationship with Thierry Henry as they were spotted sat together in the north London derby, the Arsenal legend has insisted that he is here to stay.
Kroenke firmly rejected the offer saying that “they don’t need the money” and that they are not looking to sell the club.
As well as this the reports of £237 million deal between Spotify and Barcelona FC (which includes their stadium being named ‘Spotify Nou Camp’) might dampen the chances of another Ek footballing venture.
I get the feeling we maybe missed the boat and that the ‘Kroenke out’ movement has fully lost its momentum now.
One thing for sure is that David Ek would be much more open to a fan’s majority ownership than our current owners.
What would you want to see from the Arsenal ownership over the next few years?
Until next time Gooners,
Benedict
Before Kroenke bought most Arsenal shares, he must’ve known that an EPL club will never be as profitable as an NBA or NFL club. Yet he bought more shares, therefore he is likely waiting to make an enormous profit from a takeover
So we can only hope that whoever he hires to manage Arsenal can bring trophies and support the current regime. The Athletic reported that Man City are keeping tabs on Arteta’s progress in case Guardiola leaves and Arsenal are planning to tie him up with another three-year contract
Please what’s the point of this article? Seriously I’m trying to get the drift?
Just another attempt to increase the traffic, as other websites do
A bigger problem is that we have writers who don’t quite understand the Arsenal fans. Or worse still choose not to for clicks.
Our BIGGEST problem is that we have readers who would rather insult our writers rather than actually contribute to any points made in our posts.
Maybe they just do it for attention….
Perhaps they do it for attention traffic, or fire stoking traffic, or unnecessary arguments traffic – something of that nature.
🤣🤣
I didn’t see the point of the article either. If you don’t know what josh meant by the comment. I can understand because your not an american sports fan. We don’t have football clubs down the street that we can support. We don’t cry about who the owners are. We don’t start seasons saying our team will finish 4th only. The american sports fan is not the same as a fan from north london.
Wow, that’s quite a revelation an American Premier League Football Club owner born in to one of the richest families in the World can’t relate to me as a cockney who has been supporting that Club for longer than he has been on the Planet, none taken Josh
It’s a two way thing, I can only relate to him as someone who wants the best for Arsenal Football Club
Like our Manager he has been learning on the job and getting better for it, I thought the comment was refreshing and honest as is quite a lot that I have read him say recently
I have never been a “Kroenke out” man anyway and those protest were never going to make these guys sell but maybe what it did do was to make them have a chat and a think and as a consequence put Josh in the chair and let him fully focus on the job at hand, I think he has done that OK in the last couple of years and I don’t think he believes he is anywhere near finished yet
Denis Hill-Wood and I could never relate to each other when I was singing silly songs about his team on the North Bank as a kid either, funnily enough
Very nicely put F/F, that’s exactly the way I understood what Josh was saying and as you say is refreshingly honest and I’ve hit no problem with it either.
Just to add, Kroenke said or is hard for him to relate NOT that he can’t relate.
There is a difference. I find running a marathon hard, doesn’t mean I can’t do it (twenty years ago…)
I have always been a Kroenke out person from day 1
I am not prophet but we will get top 4 spot 😀…
The day our former share holder’s sold out for cash was the day we started to decline as a footballing power
I Don’t blame him for buying a great acquisition for his portfolio but he has been content on making money of the back of arsenal rather then strive for success in the trophy cabinet.
Maybe the taste of winning something now might drive him on to achieve success with us
Onwards and upwards
Well as a person who is huge NBA fan and watches every game of my favorite team Golden State Warriors and Utah Jazz because my favorite Croatian player Bojan Bogdanović plays for them (I am from Croatia), I can tell you that their fans are enormously pationate. I have the same passion watching GSW as I do watching Arsenal. The main difference is that they play every day or every second day so there isn’t that much time to dwell on loses or celebrate victories. If someone like Kroenke can’t relate to the fans it is because he is that kind of person. But if he does his job good then I don’t really care. And if he does it or not that is another matter.
On the money side of things the commitment is there from the Kroenkes having spent I believe 370miillion in 3 years .
But it’s the football side of the coin which I personally have worries for ,leaving 2 novices ,who by the look of it have the final say to the day to day running of the club .
Does our league positions over those 3 years warrant that kind of outlay .
IMO There is only so much money they can throw at Arteta and edu before they realise that other avenues will have to be explored if results and the football played on the field do not improve ,and after 2years in charge i personally see no improvement whatsoever.
Dan
I beleive you are blinded by the fact you dislike MA as a manager but he doesn’t come in to the equation right now
Kroenke has not been the person who should have led us to the promise land and 370m as you have kindly said does not make up for the fact he and the Kroenke family have not invested wisely or enough for the past 12 years prior to this.
Don’t be fooled to beleive that MA and co have the final say on the millions that have or will need to be shelled out. Kroenke didn’t make his money by leaving it to others to decide for him.
The under investment in our club has been appalling for the past 15 years and AW worked miracles at times by making a silk purse out of a sows ear.
Unfortunately again Kroenke awarded him another contract and then fired him instead of using his experience and love of the club upstairs or was that some one else who made that decision?
We can keep blaming managers or players but the buck stops with the owner first and foremost
Onwards and upwards
Sorry Alan but you’re post makes absolutely no sense -to me anyway .
And please stop with the dislike comments buddy ,my views are and always will be based on what I see on the field nothing else .
Onwards and upwards .
Well onwards anyway 👍
Sorry Dan
What you see is not what a lot us of see which is progression
As for dislike. That is what comes out always in your comments even when we win
You will have to humble pie again like Christmas time when we finish do 4th but I am sure you will find a negative in that as well
Always onwards and definitely upwards
Alan
What progression ?we are in sixth place buddy
Your comment about when we win (and I’m negative)is made up bollocks that you seem to have jumped on the backs of the loud mouths on this site .
HAs for the humble pie comment ,as much as i didn’t mind giving money to charity ,you know as much I do that we was only there by default because of games in hand ,
Week later we sat in 7th .
Like I said above I judge by what I see
Weekly on the pitch not some silly agenda or dislike or hate .
Onwards and onwards 👍
Jonbo
And I quote
“ I love a difference of opinion, it makes life interesting,”
Really is that just opinions that agree with others your views there buddy .
Me and Alan was having a nice little conversation and for some reason you just had to get that little comment in a comment you repeated no less than 4 days ago
I love a difference opinion, but under the umbrella of critical thinking, otherwise you’re just repeating the same thing over and over regardless of the situation or facts presented….which you do!
I am sure if we qualify for the CL you’ll still want MA out.
I’ve been extremely lukewarm about the Kroenke’s ownership. This stems from the fact that the executive level they appointed wasn’t fit for purpose. Forget about the ‘rookie’ manager; it was more about the rookie owners of an EPL football club not understanding the complexities of the product and also what it means to the community the club serves
If they are on board and ‘get it’ then maybe there will be better times ahead
JAY, well you and certain others have asked “what is the point of this piece”. To my mind it is a worthwhile article and I commend it for being an honest view of a fan who writes from the heart what the thinks.
As such -and remember it contains no false rumours, as other articles do, which irritate and frustrare so many of us – it is a refreshing piece which I enjoyed , though I would have liked it to delve a little deeper than it did .
Among the whole gamut of JA articles, I would put it VERY easily in the top 10-15 percent of all the ones I have ever read as a regular on JA.
We are stuck with an owner, who runs the club/business the same way, as the owners of Liverpool, Spurs, Man U etc., etc..
In reality only 2 or now 3 clubs, Man C, Chelsea, and possibly Newcastle, have owners, that use the club/business as a hobby or possibly for sportswashing.
Apart from those 2-3 clubs, I have no problem with it as such. In general it is a level playing field for nearly all clubs, and whether we like it or not, being a successfull business actually is a neccessary way to compete.
All questions are in my view legitimate. What are the qualifications for one to own a football club. Must he be a football fan or not? In the absence of any ground rules anyone with money can buy a football club. Previously we have had Russian billionaires investing in British clubs and now the Arabs have taken over. With the toxic atmosphere surrounding Russians following the invasion of Ukraine the tide has moved against them. Perhaps something else might also militate against the Arab sheiks. All in all so long as capitalism rather than the love of for sport dictates who owns the clubs we shall continue to have this kind of situation!
These are the fruits of laissez faire capitalism in sport and we have to accept it as a fact of life. I know few of us appreciate these economic factors but they are real. It is no longer love of sport but business. I know Jon knows these facts but his dislike for Kroenke sometimes makes him lose sight of the reality. We shall be Kroenke for as long as he still wants to own Arsenal football club. There is very little we can do about it.
DAVID surely my dislike of Kroenke and of how he runs a club he has no passion for, IS the reality?!
So I am losing sight of nothing but being acutely aware of the reality!
CARE TO DISAGREE AND IF SO EXPLAIN WHY?