If you were reviewing a movie or music most would judge between great and terrible.
You can be in a relationship who at one point you love, then one day hate.
Occasionally though there’s a point that feelings goes beyond terrible or hate. Where it’s just disdain.
Where you’re so angry, so broken, you haven’t got the energy anymore to show your emotion. You shouted so much your throat is sore. Your eyes can’t manage another tear drop. You can’t physically worry any more. Your tired because you’re stressed, you’re stressed because your tired.
The Kroenke Family will be satisfied that just over 100 people attended a protest before the West Brom game.
Thursday was seen as our rock bottom. Yet with his ‘customers’ at their most annoyed, our owner won’t be worried by how many turned out. That’s because he doesn’t understand the emotion of football in this country.
If he did, he might be more worried than when thousands demonstrated before the Everton fixture.
This fan base has proved they can organise a gathering. A quick scan of social media will tell him how the consensus feel.
There’s one thing a group meeting up when you still have the hope of a European Final. Midweek was the final blow.
Fans are scared about the club’s future, they are wounded, dreams are shackled, hope has dwindled. It’s so dark that not just do some Gooners not want to talk about Arsenal, they don’t want to associate themselves with anything Arsenal-related.
Football fans are a unique breed in terms of loyalty.
Trust me (and our American custodian will never understand this), it takes a lot for a football fan to no longer have the energy to complain.
So where Silent Stan will naively think fans are already tiring of taking action, in reality he should wonder how far he has pushed us for us now to just be shrugging our shoulders.
We have accepted you don’t care Mr Kroenke.
Do your worst! What more can you take from us?
Hearing there was an 18.00 pm protest planned, my plan was to write a live minute by minute update.
I didn’t advertise this one, as I feared some gooners were so fed up with Thursday that they might follow in the footsteps of a portion of their Man United peers who last Sunday broke laws outside and inside Old Trafford.
Arsenal as a club were prepared for a backlash, forming a shield in front of the Armoury, of police and stewards in bright orange suits. It’s a sad reflection of English Football that certain stadiums need this much protection at a time when venues are empty.
It’s a cruel irony that the Gunners can be organised for this kind of thing but not on the pitch.
As the deadline for the gathering passed the hour, it was clear that there were more law enforcement and security then there were fans. A kind estimate would be between 80-100 who eventually met in one area and sang a few songs while one man banged a drum.
The truth is if you were taking an afternoon walk, you wouldn’t have thought this was a protest.
It takes nothing away from those that gave up their free time to turn out and is equally zero reflection on those who chose to spend their Sunday with their families.
There’s only so many times you can stand outside the Emirates, Yelling ‘Kroenke Get out of Our Club’ towards the door knowing he’s not on the other side.
He can’t hear you!!!!
In fact he’s not even watching us play. Arsenal will never win another title under the current regime.
I wish gooners that I could give you a positive solution but as soon as we accept it, the less pain you feel.
As fans, we are in a relationship where we are trapped. The Kroenke’s are abusing our love, but not breaking the law, and therefore no one can help us.
This Week I predict thousands will again protest in Manchester because they believe they can at least force some sort of change.
Our battle is …. how do you get a man to care who doesn’t care? Which means after 16 years, fans don’t care about making you care anymore. If he knew anything about the sport, Mr Kroenke would know that us not caring long term is NOT good news for him.
Be Kind In The Comments
Dan
I bet Kroenke has seen the protests, so let’s not waste our breath further. Let’s just support Arsenal for the Stamford Bridge game, especially after they beat a team that defeated Chelsea 2-5 last month
If Ek’s offer is good enough, Kroenke will accept it. Otherwise, we don’t need to use violence and aggression to force the owner to sell
Also a team who just beat City and Real Madrid lol
Those results will make our victory sweeter, which can be achieved if Lacazette leads the front line without Aubameyang
Hope your right
City twice
What are you saying please? Since when did peaceful protests become violence? We need to help Ek by protesting, boycotting the purchase of merchandise At least to put pressure on the krooks. If even he doesn’t sell it should affect his pocket. This isnt the arsenal we want and if he’s not ready he should leave and you can leave with him too please.
Exactly…
Fans need to move on….and probably get a job…
Most of these protest are backed up ‘unknown’
SHOCKING and very, very sad!
Sadly what you say Dan, is so true. When nobody can contact this disturbingly absent owner the foundations become rotten over time. It hurt me to see Arteta sucking up to Kroenke, because that means, to me, there is nobody to stand up to our very own Devil….Kroenke. How far can a club sink? Can we sink further? Yes I think so. Between the two Kroenke and Arteta (probably add Kroenke’s Board into that) we have a macabre dance between owner and manager leading us into this nightmare, and the only possibility of recue is some change in ownership rules from the coming government review. Let’s all dream that a new rule will manifest, giving supporters either shares or at least a say in the running of our clubs.
Obviously is kronk trying to be nasty until his dying day. But he is 73 and look as fragile as Joe Biden, who hardly can walk. I think kronk junior is more sensable than Daddy-O. Junior will sell AFC and earn that nice Spotify hard cash. Then Henry, Vieira and Bergkamp is coming back and they are going to make the grass of Emirates as green as ever on Highbury.
Do any of you guy’s or girl’s have a stunning looking sister(or if you are stunning yourself) who’s single? Here’s my master plan, we marry her(you) off to Bill Gates. In 12 months she divorces him, but not being the greedy type, she(you) settles for £3 billion divorce settlement. She buys Arsenal, you are on the board & SACK Arteta!!!!! All our problems solved. I realise there a lots of flaws in my plan but I am writing this during my lunch break so forgive me.
Why can’t the stunner marry old kronk instead. She would be close to both our club and a lot of bread. And, as you say, the most important of all, she can put a big fat boot in the behind of a certain unqualified spanyard.
Hasse I like the way your thinking but, by forcing someone to marry Stan, wouldn’t that be crimes against humanity, and whoever arranges it, would end up in the dock at the Hague War Crimes Unit?
hassle, once Kroenke starts playing up, his wife Mary would be able to afford very expensive divorce lawyers, so she will very likely end up with Arsenal to give son Josh. Thus nothing would be achieved by sacrificing a beautiful daughter.
Grantygooner, if you are prepared to seriously indulge that line of fantasy, then why stop there? Simply shoot Kroenke and do the job yourself!
I doubt there will be any dyed in the wool Gooners who have not enjoyed the fantasy thought of how wonderful it would be if Kroenke was no longer alive.
I do not advocate violence or law breaking in any way but only those who are not prepared to be self honest will claim never to have indulged in this or similar TYPE of fantasy, where Kroenke is concerned.
We MUST get rid of him legally, BUT wouldn’t it be great to get him out any way we can. If only we had HIS life principles; then we would certainly do it in the fantasy way.
On a more serious note Jon I agree. I just want him to go. I’m taking the mick about it because to be honest, he’s not going anywhere, anytime soon and the knowledge of that is frustrating the hell out of me! God forbid any of us contributing to this site have morals and ethics like Stan, that’s a scary thought!
so that she can spend the entire 3 billion divorce settlement on players and wages?
With the high operating cost of running the club……she will be broke and back to normal in say 3 to 4 years of spending
What a sober minded, sad to read but above all else, immensely wise article by the highly perceptive DAN.
Your central point Dan is that the opposite of hate is not love but apathy and giving up caring. Though the appalling Kroenke cares not a jot for us or our club or anything real, precious or noble, he wil be worried sick at the thought that as a fanbase we might start apeing him and stop caring for our club.
For you see , though he cares nothing for us , he needs us to care for his (legally speaking only!) club. If WE give up, then HE is in trouble and that would terrify him, as it would mean his hold over us would be gone.
LET US FOR THE MOMENT INDULGE OURSELVES IN A FANTASY. Let us suppose that we can and will give up following our club; that we do not renew season tickets; that we do not buy merchandise or TV packages!
Where would Kroenke be then do you suppose? He would be upstream without a paddle, to put it mildly. In effect, he would be desperate to sell us asap while the club still had SOME value. For without fans ever coming again, NO club has ANY value and he is aware of that better than we are.
Our tragedy, in a way, is that this scenario will never happen and thus we cannot force Kroenke out by actual apathy. Because it is the one guarantee we have that we could get him out, IF we simply gave up. A classic catch 22 situation then!
“Opposite of love is not hate, but apathy and giving up caring” is how I SHOULD have phrased it, but stupidly did not!
Dan, if your assessment of the security being higher in numbers than the demonstrators, then job done. Kroenke would have to pay for it.
Demonstrations outside and non attendance inside the Emirates will be more effective next season.
Thank you Ozzie I hadn’t thought of that! Made me smile.
I did think of that but it will come out of the till
Dan, the till of the “Arsenal business” KS&E owns 100%.
Do anyone know where the kronks are living. It would be nice with an email address, so we can tell him how much we love his arsenic white hair etc. And that we wish him to become at least 100. How about starting a fan club for the old guy?
hasse , IN VAMPIRE FILMS THEY CALL HIS WAY OF “LIVING”, THE UNDEAD! A blood sucking vampire feeding on our blood and our clubs blood to satisfy his lust, for money though , not blood
I did think of that but it will come out of the till
Sadly Arsenal still has branding around the world, albeit falling steadily. Kronke is an expert at milking a brand, not necessarily pushing it on to greater heights.
Season tickets will still be sold, sponsors are still lining up to hand him money, and the Arsenal name continues to be in the news and make headlines. Even if its bad press, they are still talking about Arsenal.
He will not sell because there is still money to be made from the club. He thought SL was his golden ticket, now he will just search elsewhere.
1.8 billion simply won’t get his attention; he is not looking to break even, he’s expecting to make a handsome profit.
He will be factoring in what the club can make several years down the road as well, so any offer will have to be in excess of 2 billion.
Also, isn’t there a degree of debt the club is holding? Wasn’t that increased by the government loans the clubs received during the pandemic? Even though the debt may be structured and lengthened, it is still debt that has to be factored in.
durand, if my memory serves me correctly, KS&E bought Arsenal for a total of £800 million, so if today’s valuation of £1.8 billion is correct, that represents a profit of 125% (minus financing costs), should he sell.
Very little point complaining whilst there are no fans in the stadium
ManU supporters have put themselves- team wise – under pressure by them having so many games close together now
Wait until the start of the new season with fans being noisy and banners on aeroplanes. The world will be watching then
Do you see what the MUFC fans are doing? They are literally going after sponsors and putting pressure on them to stop dealing with The Glazers. That is another way we can get hurt Kroenke’s pockets and force a sale
for somebody, anybody, to display a banner with the word hate in it is over the top. that is nothing to do with sport. we are trying to cut out racism, but, here are some fans with that terrible banner.if these banners are allowed to fly then it is the beginning of the end.we all know that the owners are not right for the arsenal , but, hating them, ?, well thats a step too far in my opinion. we will never rid the world of hatred and racism and bigotry in this case. i say shame on anybody who carries such banners. you certainally are not representing me or my thoughts.and all this in the name of sport, i dont think so.
gerry, I applaud your post, on the one hand, but on the other hand,I feel its vital to point out that what many of us TRULY feel for Kroenke IS blind hatred. It would be dishonest to pretend otherwise. Perhaps we ought not to, but we DO!
I do anyway , even though I TRY NOT TO HATE, GENERALLY. BUT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO HATE EVIL .And Kroenke is evil and his lack of morals make him harmful.
hi jon, as you know i am a big fan of your comments here, i think you are the very best contributor here, in fact. but, i must disagree on the hatred thing, it is not impossible to hate , i do not hate anybody in this world, and i am no saint i can guarantee you.we have a fun saying here in ireland “i hate dah”, but that is in pure jest when somebody gets the better of you. and thats the only time i would use that word.i am tempted to say i hate the word hate, hahahah, sorry for laughing, but i laugh at everything. our owners have us all by the short and curleys, they dont care about us, thats obvious. they only care about the dollar sign. and i certainally understand how most supporters feel. perhaps it is the fact that i do not live in england, the distance might be getting in the way. if i lived in london i would probably be out there shouting .to follow the arsenal is now a chore,a punishment, but like all gunners fans i cannot stop following the club. i just wish that an end would come to all this kranky and his family stuff. there is no place for a cold hearted owner in football clubs.
What on earth has the word “hate” got to do with racism and bigotry?
I love Arsenal, but the Kroenke’s have destroyed what I love, thus I hate them! There is nothing wrong with the hate, and it’s a quick and easy word to use when expressing ones feelings. I question any fan who doesn’t hate Kroenke.
ThirdManJW, if, what you have written is true, then, i do feel so sorry for you . yes, you are entitled to your opinion, as am i . but to say you would question anybody who does not hate the krankeys is a bit lush, wouldnt you say ?.hatred is something that destroys the hater from within, and, if you are comfortable living with that then i wish you the very best of luck. i will continue in my own way of hating absolutely nobody on this earth.to each his own, i guess.peace brother, or, sister.
Well done too anyone who can still sit there and still enjoy the fare that is being put before you. Im fed up with Kronk, im fed up with the club and im fed up with Arteta. So yes, we are getting fed up of complaining, the apathy surrounding this club is sad to see. At this moment in time im no fussed about watching us, it boring and just dreadful fare. I couldn’t muster up the energy to demonstrate but i can keep my hands in my pockets and i can keep saying on forums how i feel. There are people who prowl the Internet at Arsenal, gauge opinion and keep an eye on finance from supporters, to gauge things.
First came pandemic of covid-19 and football went to a 100% digital sport (at the beginning it felt like I was watching my son playing FIFA 2020) and with that the atmosphere in the stadium; the feeling, love, nervousness, anger, joy…from public .
I loved football, all kinds of football. I am admirer and follower of European football. But the pandemic turned off some of my burning feeling for football due to the above reason.
Then came Arteta, Edu, SuperLeague (Kroenke been there a while), politics (Özil/China) and the overwhelming, majority of the players became zombies and now not only I am fed up of Kroenke, I am fed up of ARSENAL club. My burning feelings for football almost extinguished because of the paralyzed arsenal. To give my soul calm moments, I will NOT see any arsenal game anymore until the club goes through a fundamental change…
history suggests that there are only two ways to get the attention of someone who appears to not give a flying fu**…either through blunt force, like we saw with the United fans, or through the use of a highly visceral and inventive means, like an airplane flying over the Emirates…of course, I don’t have anything against the notion of fans holding peaceful protests outside the stadium, but to think that this will achieve the desired result is naïve at best
if we really wanted to make a statement we would find a way to disrupt our mid-week London derby, as it’s the solo evening fixture, which would almost assuredly get the kind of attention we so desperately crave…that said, such a proposition would be exceedingly difficult considering the hyperawareness of security officials, in light of what has already transpired, so we will likely need to wait until fans are back in the stands versus Brighton on the 23rd…knowing this we would be wise to tamp down our protests until then so that there might be a little element of surprise, as they might feel that the flames of protest had largely fizzled out
if we really wanted to get some international attention on that final day, we would grow a pair and not have a single fan attend that game…instead of attending a game, that functionally meant nothing, the only fans in attendance would be outside protesting, which would definitely get the attention of pundits and the news media alike…there’s no doubt that Kroenke’s banking on the somewhat understandable presumption that the fans are such lemming-like creatures they will scurry to the box office and pay through the nose to attend that game, no matter the mitigating circumstances, just to get their footballing fix…if we could show some resolve and not do as he had anticipated, I think this would get both his and a lot of other people’s attentions…just a thought
Everybody’s entitled to an opinion and we are all free to support whatever team we want to
I have read through all of these hoping to understand why exactly I should hate Kroenke and more importantly not renew my season ticket.
I have read a lot of insults but nothing with any substance to explain why he is any different to any other owner or previous Board Members who have run our Club for years.
It can’t just be that he lives in America and doesn’t go to games can it?
I am obviously missing something that you all know
Help please
The problem here is that the guys over Aftv can’t wait to get their greedy hands on some arsenal shares. They think that they represent the majority of the Arsenal fan base. Doesn’t mean because we watch we agree with everything hey say. I would like to see new owners at AFC, but some of these fans think they are experts at everything. They also want the manager gone, and that does not sit well with everyone. MA joined a sinking ship, that’s what we need to realize.
Are you working for Wayne’s World TV?
Article and above comments pretty much sums up my own state of mind. Past caring. I think I have one more season left in me but if this becomes terminal in consolidating the club’s decline, then my emotional investment in Arsenal will be minimal, a quick scroll through the BBC, results and fixtures after a game and that’s it. It won’t be hard because I am not a North Londoner with no memories of going to games with family members. I spent 79 -82 in England and went to Arsenal games regularly but also have to face up to the fact that at some point all good things must come to an end. Definitely won’t go to an Arsenal game if ever I have another opportunity to visit the Uk. Would rather hike the moors or visit the Scottish islands. The Kroenke’s and their hacks, yes you Vinai, Edu and Arteta represent everything I hate in sport. No soul, no passion. There are better ways to spend my time and recourses.
Joe. S, I’m with you, in that I have family and other interests in life, and thus “better ways to spend my time and resources.”