Kieran Maguire explains why Josh Kroenke is struggling to get Arsenal fans on side

Kieran Maguire says Josh Kroenke is struggling to get along with the Arsenal fans now because he is not used to the English football model.

The American, who is the son of Arsenal owner, Stan Kroenke, recently said in an interview via The Telegraph that he struggles to relate to the Gooners.

This admission has been met with mixed reactions, but it is a candid comment from the 41-year-old.

While some Arsenal will not like what he said, the financial expert Kieran Maguire does.

In a recent interview with Football Insider, he insisted there is a vast difference between owning a sports franchise in the USA and owning a football club in England, and that is Kroenke’s problem.

He said: “If we look at the NFL and other American franchises, they are seen as portable.

“If the club isn’t performing well in one city, it can be picked up and moved hundreds of miles to another city.

“That’s completely alien to football in both England and Europe. There are several of these cultural differences that he just doesn’t get.

“Clubs have a huge heritage in terms of culture and identity with individual towns and cities.

“There’s a far more relaxed attitude to clubs, which are seen as investment and revenue vehicles in the US rather than as part of the fabric of the area.”

Just Arsenal Opinion

The Kroenkes have owned Arsenal long enough to know what it entails to run a football club in the Premier League.

They cannot use the excuse of not being able to connect with the fans.

However, now that Josh has admitted to the struggles, hopefully, he can put in more effort and understand that we are not as portable as football franchises in the US.

Tags josh kroenke Kieran Maguire

3 Comments

  1. Maguire is being way too simplistic.

    Try taking the Bears out of Chicago. The Maple Leafs out of Toronto. The Celtics out of Boston. The Yankees out of New York. These teams are huge to the cultural identity of their cities.

    A brighter mind then mine could write a good article on all the differences between UK and USA sports teams. Passionate fans isn’t one of them.

    1. Very true, excellent counterpoint to the comments in the article. Far too simplistic from Mcguire, and he is equally as ignorant of overseas sport as Josh is of the fans of Arsenal.

      He is excused a bit, because he is unaware of the cultural ties of some franchises to their cities; as shown by the excellent examples by Voyageur

  2. Just my thoughts

    In my experience,

    American Sport Franchise owners view the city the team play in as privileged to have their team there.

    If the Owner wants a brand new stadium, they ask the city to help with the costs.

    If the city says no, in many cases the Owner has simply relocated the team to a city willing to cough up some (usually lots) of money.
    Note how upset St Louis was when the Rams left!!!!

    In Britain, in most cases, the city view the Owner as minding the team (ie it belongs to or is part of the fabric of the city – except for Wimbledon of course).

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