Josh Kroenke admits Arsenal’s relationship with fans was affected by big decision

Josh Kroenke has admitted that Arsenal’s participation in the failed European Super League affected their relationship with the fans, but he wants to move on.

The Arsenal director says the club debated if they wanted to be a part of the breakaway league or not and decided it would be best for them to support it in case it succeeds.

However, they were wrong considering the backlash from their fans that followed and he doesn’t want the club to be defined by the hours it took before they opted out of the agreement forming the new competition.

Asked if it was the lowest point in the relationship between the club and supporters, Josh responded to Sky Sports: ‘I wouldn’t disagree with you. 

‘I’ll say it that way. But as someone that always tries to find the positives in things, when you’re at the bottom, there’s only one way to go and that’s back up.

‘I said this to our fan advisory board who we met with, I don’t want a 48-hour period to define us.

‘We were presented with an opportunity. We asked ourselves a question, which was what was worse, a Super League or Super League without Arsenal? And we answered that question that we should be included in that. Were we wrong?

‘Obviously. We listened to our fans. We made a quick pivot, removed ourselves from the situation. We apologised, and now we move forward.

‘And some of the dialogue that I’ve had with some of the support groups has been as clear as crystal and I couldn’t be more excited to be communicating with them on the level that I am because I understand who they are and now they’re understanding who I am.

‘And I think the more we understand each other it’s exciting because the only thing that we want is for Arsenal Football Club to be great.’

Just Arsenal Opinion

It was pure greed that motivated the club’s owners to join the competition.

However, the Kroenke’s have done very well in supporting Mikel Arteta in the transfer market so far.

Fans can forgive them for their part in the Super League and the calls for them to leave would remain low-key as it is now if they keep pumping money into the club.

It would be interesting to see if they will splash the cash on a new striker at the end of this season.

Tags josh kroenke

12 Comments

  1. Josh Kroenke actually came over, superficially, rather well IMO.
    But I am not fooled into thinking he cares for our team or fans.

    He is defined only by financial profit, like his awful father, even though – and probably due to his relative youth he seems to be a more pleasant fellow, though only on the surface- than his non speaking father, who is to fan communication what Mourinho is to modesty!

  2. WE should have agreed to play in this compétition…And that’s not greed but ruthleness and pragmatism….

  3. As far as I am concerned, I think this super league thing would have benefitted Arsenal alot more than any other clubs involved becos it actually presents them the opportunity of being immune to relegation. God forbid Arsenal relegating! but if such occurs, hw many of we fans would still pledge our outright allegiances . Even without relegating, we have alot of exArsenal fans who have left AFC for another club claiming that the club lacks ambition. Ofcourse, we may savour the unpredictability of English football matches but what I know for sure now is that the smaller teams are now striving to subdue the influence of the bigger teams which with time might hand them some advantage. The owners have been criticized and likewise accused of being too greedy but putting myself in their shoes, I think I would have done the same because no one would want his/her business crumbling especially considering the resoluteness of the smaller clubs most recently. In this case, I can boldly say that we football fan are the most cynical here for failing to take the owners interest into consideration. Unless there is any other agenda attached to the competition apart from escaping relegation, I firmly stand by my notion.

  4. Of all the top teams the competition had before it demise, Arsenal is the most luckiest participant. So, how dare we then contend against such advantage?🤔

    1. Then your morals stink and you care nothing for the game at large but only your own personal happiness. THAT STINKS OF SELFISHNESS!
      Thank God so very few people will ever be like you, as we found out so thrillingly, when this corrupt European Super League idea collapsed in 48 hours!

      1. It has nothing to do with moral dear Jon.When you have an opportunity to make deserved money(yes deserved!!!People are seeing football because of the club not Preston and Barnsley)it’s called business pragmatisme and wisdom not corruption.

  5. Exactly my point! We only care about ourselves. And yeah, I am not afraid admitting that! I care only about my own personal happiness and you, what do you care about?🤷 Pls, what else do I get from football save from getting happy? Tell me. Ok, what if I tell you there is nothing moral about football. Mr moral, If you are after morality in football it is better you stopwatching the game and find yourself another intriguing stuff. Bring on super league football as far as AFC is among I am pleased😂.

  6. Recently I wrote about European clubs selling their souls to the devil by selling out to the sheiks, oligarchs, corrupt business people, violators of women’s rights etc. Where are the morals there? In my view the super league would have been more morally correct than selling out to these characters who hardly care for morals. You can’t eat your cake and have it! In case some people have not realised it there are no more morals, if there ever were, in European football. It is all about making money. Where is the moral of staying in a national league whose majority owners are foreigners? How about the the oldest English cup being called Emirates FA cup? Is it moral? Let us not deceive ourselves about morals and decency because they don’t exist in sport at the moment. You either accept the situation as it is or simply stay away. There are many other alternatives to watching football games.

    1. David
      You make a very compelling argument about morals or lack of them.

      I was appalled by the initial super league plan and would advocate competition over some Mickey Mouse league that more or less only has the same teams. That is what makes the FA Cup so enduring- it gives the minnows in football a chance to aim for the top

      I’m not daft enough to have not realised that the Kroenkes saw pound and dollar signs flashing. In the years ahead we may have to tolerate the meteoric rise of the billionaires and oil states who have jumped on the football bandwagon to line their pockets but hope I’ve shuffled off by then

      I grew up in a time when whole families and communities supported the local team. It is, therefore, part of my heritage. I don’t live near the ground but my parents and grand parents did. The same applies to millions of families whose support for Arsenal, ManC or Liverpool began in this way.

      Now that the EPL is a global enterprise, the Englishness it is supposed to represent will diminish in the race to make money from worldwide interest and it will change the dynamic of it

      Me going through the turnstiles in the late 1960’s with my mum and dad and seeing other local families is very much a thing of the past. People fly in from abroad nowadays to watch a league game. It has changed in that way, but I hope the spirit of competition never does. What is sport without competition?

      1. There are no morals in football from the owners to the managers and players. All in it for the money and nothing else. The money that is generated and wasted and the pantomime of supposed respect, is simply adding to the soap opera that is football now. Those at the top of the chain screw the rest over and managers and players just extract money from the system without any real morals. I said the other day, football is not what it used to be, it has sold its soul to the devil. The super league was an awful idea but many more awful ideas will be brought in to screw even more money into the money pit for them to screw even more out of it for us to fuel even more. But we love football!!!!!!

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