At the time, the We Care Do You Care? campaign gave the impression that the relationship between certain fans and the club had basically broken down and has been seen as some sort of watershed moment.
As time has evolved it is starting to appear that it had almost no influence on the club and may have even had a negative effect.
I will say up front that when the letter was released by the Arsenal supporters trust and a number of Arsenal websites and groups that we at JustArsenal supported the message here.
However, we soon started to question the campaign and gave our support to the board here.
Then we ran a piece stating that the campaign was ill-timed and cannot take credit for the Nicolas Pepe signing here.
We jumped on the bandwagon far too quickly without thinking it through but if anyone reads the comments on this site and other Arsenal blogs our change of view is not widely supported and for the most part, there is very little trust in the owners and board.
Additionally, a large section of the fan base remains convinced the We Care Do You? campaign is responsible for forcing the club into splashing the cash in the transfer window.
I simply do not accept that interpretation of events and now Josh Kroenke has spoken on the whether the We Care Do You Care? campaign caused the club to act.
This is direct from Arsenal.com
Did fan unrest cause you to act in the market?
I would say that if you’re reacting and doing club record signings based on public opinion, you’re not going to go very far as a club. We weren’t reactive this summer, we were actually proactive. It was unfortunate that the summer unfolded publicly the way it did with some of the supporters groups. I tried to answer some of their concerns to the best of our ability, but we had instruments in place behind the scenes heading into the window where we knew we were going to be aggressive and we weren’t going to be reactive to anything, we were going to be proactive. The transfer market is an evolving, living, breathing thing. There are certain moments in time; sometimes those moments are sooner, sometimes those moments are later in the window. We identified a few key targets, worked on those deals and over time we were able to execute them. I hope that our fans are just as excited as I am about the upcoming season, because I think we’ve got some talented new players in, at an age profile where they’re going to grow and improve on the pitch over the next eight to 10 months or so and well into the future. It’s an exciting time to be an Arsenal supporter.
To me, that is fairly clear, the club did not react to fan unrest, the club was not reactive and Kroenke clearly did not appreciate the fans openly criticising the club so publicly.
Now, you can call Kroenke a liar or whatever you want and some fans will never change their minds but we did, we know we initially overreacted and are not too arrogant to admit that.
I thought we have seen enough of similar article
To me it didn’t affect our transfer activities but it created an environment where there is less margin for error
Basically,what I got from that is we were gonna do what we liked anyway so it doesn’t matter what you guys sat or think. This is a big problem. The board are out of sync with the fans. This was the perfect opportunity for josh to make peace with the fans and say you know what we have heard you. He didnt have to comment and say we were doing it anyway or yes we listened and reacted. I could understand why he would not want to give the impression that the board will roll over and do as the fans say every time we write a letter. However, he could have simply agreed that spending was needed and stated that he was proud of the unity of fans and wanted to strengthen the bond between himself and the fans etc or something like that. More corporate waffle. Arsenal are a huge club with bags of potential. 1 or 2 premier league wins on the trot would put us right back where we need to be and or a champions league. We are potentially the 2nd biggest premier league side after man utd in terms of fan base and revenue etc. However, we must win major trophies to fulfil that potential and unify the fan base. I look up north to liverpool and see the U turn the club has made with many youngsters becoming huge liverpool supporters similar to the early 90s where their fanbase was one of the largest. Arsenal have so much potential but it needs to start from the top with Josh being sensitive to fans and arsenal winning
With that I think you should join their PR team.
??? thanks not a bad idea lol.
Not really sure wether it was a reaction or not, but I am happy with the situation and what he has said.(for now)
After years of hiding behind the outright lies from AW and Gazidis the board were left in no doubt just how their attitude differed from the real fans.
The rubber stamp no-marks on the board have been unsurprisingly quiet this summer because they are simply human shields.
Time will tell, but the board and Kroenke family deserved what they got. No regrets.
Of course not. Why would the Kroenkes bother about the #WeCareDoYou campaign when they were immune to previous attempts that even include protest marches?
Buying players is an very complicated process! And from all the reports that I was reading before the campaigners where sending messages, we where in for those guys already except for Pépé ! I’ve been following transfers for many years now !! And ive definitely noticed a more direct approach for our targets the last two seasons !! This is not a coincidence that’s it’s coincided with the new off-field structure behind the scenes and with the departure of Arsene!
I think with all the shenanigans that’s gone on in the past it leaves us all feeling that’s it’s the same old! But I really do feel we are starting to see the new shoots of recovery ! And this is not done in a reaction to a let of protest this is only achieved by planning and recruitment and structure which all takes time
So did you expect him to come out and say yeh the we care do you influenced the spending? The previous window we concluded our deals earlier.we took sooooo long concluding deals which we ended up paying anyways
No, but it forced Kroenke’s to speak, which is a feat in itself.