Kroenke is ‘fully committed’ to Arsenal – but no new investment

Arsenal have appointed Vinai Venkatesham, our former commercial officer, as the replacement for Ivan Gazidis in the post of Managing Director of the club, and he will be the man in charge along with Raul Sanllehi.

He has known the Kroenke’s for some time now and he believes that the American is fully committed to taking the club back to the top. This is what Venkatesham said: “I’ve known Stan and Josh a long time, very well for probably five or six years. Raul and I a couple of weeks ago were out in Los Angeles, that’s the last time we saw Stan and Josh face to face. We’re on phone to them all the time. Their very very, very clear – they are 100% committed to this club, want to get the club back in the Champions League, back competing for the Premier League and competing to win the Champions League.

“They’re 100% committed behind that vision. Two individuals who are hugely passionate about the sport, very energised and excited about the future opportunity we have. The fans are everything around what a football club is, they’re the lifeblood of this club. I don’t think fans should be concerned around any lack of engagement with the club going forward.

“One of the key things we’ve been speaking about over the past few weeks is how we can continue to step up our engagement with fans, look to build more constructive relationships with our fan groups as well. These aren’t just words, these are things that are very, very important to us.”

I am of the opinion that they ARE just words, and sounds exactly like the guff we got from Gazidis every year, especially when he goes on to say that Kroenke will not be investing any of his money towards improving the team. When asked about a reported loss made on the last financial year, he continued: “I’m not going to get into speculation about what our financial results may look like on 31 May 2019, which I think is what people are talking about. What I’ll say is we have a self-sustaining business model at this football club. That means all the investments we make on the pitch are funded by the revenues we generate off the pitch. And we’re really confident we can be successful with this model. The ambition we have for this club is completely possible to be achieved in the business model that we’ve got.”

So everyone who thinks that Kroenke will be more ambitious now that he is the sole owner is going to be disappointed. He is committed? Maybe, but not THAT committed!

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28 Comments

  1. All talk quite frankly, what are they supposed to say. Same speeches from different mouths. It’s the same patronizing attitude and rubbish, and the truth peeks out when money is brought up.

    Heard the fan nonsense before, just like when Kronke “bonded” with St. Louis fans right?

    They’re so committed to Arsenal that Josh and Stan are always seen at the stadium, not like they show up once a year or anything.

    Like the old adages say, follow the money, and put your money where your mouth is.

    Fool me once, shsme on you, fool me twice shame on me.

    1. Spot on bro, but the fans can do nothing

      But I have got a feeling that Kroenke might surprise us again in January, like what he did with Lacazette and Aubameyang last season

      1. Unfortunately Kronke only acts when his investment is in real danger. He didn’t offer up Wenger until fan’s ire was at boiling point. Make no mistake, he threw Wenger to the mob to distract from his irresponsibility as owner. He replaced with Emery to soothe fan’s and then little afterwards in market. Papered over defensive cracks and no wingers.

        I’ll wait until this Summer and see where we are going into next season. Will he spend on a winger or 2 to chase title and trophies? Will he bring in top CB or fullback to prepare for Monreal’s eventual exit?

        I’ve seen nothing from Kronke to believe that, and only truth from Kronke is his “Sustainable Model” comments. He is still bemoaning all that Champions League cash; not like he really reinvested it wisely in the market anyway.

        More things change, more they stay the same comes to mind. Different manager, different executives, but same owner. Still hoping for catalyst for change in ownership. One can wish

        1. WELL SAID. ONCE A SNAKE ALWAYS A SNAKE. ANYONE EXPECTING SLIMY SNAKE KROENKE TO CHANGE FROM A REPTILIAN SNAKE OWNER TO A NICE CUDDLY, WARM HEARTED, KOALA BEAR IS LIVING IN A FOOL’S PARADISE.

          1. Jon Fox we see Kronke the same; A Snake Oil salesman who’s poison is infecting our club. Are we any better off than when he owned 66%?
            Rehashing the same promises for what, the third or fourth time?

            He gives American businessmen a bad name. A n owner who justifies his greed for money over the fondness millions and millions of fans have for Arsenal.

            No one is fooled; he doesn’t love the club, the fans, or even the sport. He values money and a quick buck over everything, except maybe his ego. He showed that in St. Louis, and again with our ex-Russian part owner.

            The self sustaining model is not only for our club, but mostly his ego.

  2. I believe they’re just words too, the right words as they see them. We are the lifeblood, funny. First on the agenda, take their stocks away, second move, end the Q & A no face to face with the lifeblood. Thirdly, go back to America as there’s nothing I can do here that I can’t do over the phone. Aren’t we so lucky, so privileged to have not one, but two fully committed Kroenke’s. Someone give me some good news ..please, please don’t tell me that there’s a third! Kroenke!.

    On a better note, Raul Sanllehi is beginning to sound like the man in charge. So we have Emery focusing on what he needs to focus on. Then Sanllehi is not occupying the managers time like how Gazidas did with Wenger.

  3. I’ve just read a rumour that Emery will have £40 million in the summer for transfers. If that’s true then we need to sell quite a few players

    I don’t think it’s true but I do believe Kroenke is a tight ARSEnal owner

    1. I saw that too Innit…. and an article saying the winter transfer window isn’t as relevant as the summer one, so we’ll see how it goes (in regards to whether we need to buy any players or not) be interesting to see how that pans out!

  4. chelsea 2 man utd 2… draw good result but may be a united won would have been a great result for us but still take it.. if we beat leicester on monday by lead of 4 goals like fulham we will be at 3rd if i suppose liv and city to win today then that would send some statement for chelsea man city and liverpool that emery means business and going into the game against liverpool we will definitely be playing with more confidence… COYG!!! Die Hard ARSENAL Fan from PAKISTAN….

    1. And nice to see giroud miss an absolute sitter in the dying moments of the game. Good riddance to that trash and take ramsey with you in jan

  5. I’ve been hooting for the past week about having to travel to the Ukraine next week and even asked Phil how he’s going to get there when Iv’e just tumbled we’re playing Sporting Lisbon. Sorry for the confused posts, surprised nobody corrected me. The years are catching up on me. By the way, Merson’s just had another little dig at us comparing Fulham’s open way of playing to our games when we played against Barcelona. Didn’t however mention anything about when we beat them though.

    1. Hi Kenny-saw the post but didn’t pick up on the dates.Sporting is easy next week.Fly in Wednesday and back late Friday.Even Vorskla is not too bad.I haven’t booked yet but seems we are flying to Kiev on Tuesday PM and getting the only AM train down to Vorskla on Wednesday.Train back to Kiev Friday AM and flight to Heathrow PM.Ive been to Kiev and Shackter Donesk a few times and always found it a good country for football fans to visit so looking forward to a few days over there before facing 5pud5 on the Sunday.

      1. Brilliant Phil, all the years you’ve supported the club and still doing the long trips. You deserve recognition of the highest order from everyone on this site

    1. I think he playing as a number 9 today. Interestin. Seems he can play anywhere. Always a good sign. I genuinely feel nextvsewson he could be the answer to our trickery goal scoring winger we are crying out for.

  6. By the way… Reiss nelson is on a hatrick for Hoffenheim as I type this. I think we have something quite special on our hands with this young man. I also think our new manger is the perfect man to oversee his progress.

    1. i remember when the rumor was he was moving away permanently. Thank god Aresnal got him on a new contract and this is just a loan. That’s 4 goals all comps for Hoffenheim already I believe.

      1. It’s scary to think we could have lost him for nothing. I personally think he’s ready for our first team right now but a season playing at Hoffenheim in a competitive league will do no harm whatsoever.

    2. and gotta feel bad for Hudson Odoi just languishing in youth football while Nelson and Sancho get regular game. He’s arguably the one with the most potential out of all three of them. Chelsea youth products should always try to escape ASAP.

  7. Seems like Josh has an interest in the sport. However,Stan probably couldnt tell you what a free kick is.

  8. Wish we had kept Reiss-Nelson and Chambers but they will get more playing experience on loan.

    Reiss Nelson, Chambers, Holding, Niles, Guendouzi, Smith Rowe, Iwobi, Zelalem, Nketiah and Bielik could be important in the future. Some are important now actually.

    1. Out of all those you mention the only one I worry about and don’t feel will make the grade at Arsenal is Chambers. Definitely not as far as breaking into our first team and becoming a starter goes and if I’m honest I don’t see anything that would warrant a place on the bench.
      I’ve been following his loan moves especially this season at Fulham and he looks extremely average. He was taken off at half time today in their loss away to Cardiff City.

  9. What a surprise Maureen was involved in a bust up after Barkley scored… someone from Chelsea celebrating in front of him, punching the air! Uh isn’t that what Maureen does all the time to wind people up?!! You dish it out, you’ve got to take it!!!

  10. If we end up with no money to spend in the next 2 transfer seasons and arsenal don’t start to compete I hope all the Gooners who actually live in the UK start to protest and boycott or nothing will be done

  11. People…. to buy you also need to sell in order to create space to register the new recruits into the squad. When you hear that we have 40mil to spend, it means 40mil + whatever you sell.

    How many fringe players do we have that are not adding value to the team? Quite a few.

    1. Elneny 7mil (to make space for AMN)
    2. Ramsey 15mil if sold in January (not fringe but contract situation leaves us no choice – again will create space for AMN as we have too many central midfielders anyway)
    3. Jenkinson 5mil (is he even still our player?)

    In addition, everyone keeps crying out for another CB. ?????? We have Koscielny, Sokatris, Mustafi, Holding, Mavropanos and Chambers. We first have to sell 1 before buying another!

    As for the wingers, if we buy the wingers what happens to Iwobi (left wing) and Nelson’s (right wing) development??? You might say “oh they are young and inexperienced” but so was Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling once upon a time. Emery can cook these youngsters like what Pep has done with Sane, Sterling and Jesus. What we can do maybe is buy older world class wingers on the cheap or for free (Ribery, Robben anyone) whom Iwobi and Nelson can play understudy to for 1 year and learn the craft. Like the Bellerin – Litchsteiner arrangement. But if we buy the wingers then that effectively means we gave 3 strikers fighting for 1 striker position in the team (Laca, Auba, Welbz), of which 2 of them are world class and wouldnt want to bench. Auba and Welbz were being used as defacto wingers in some games.

    As for the left back situation, Kolasinac was injured, still needs his chance under Emery like we have given Bellerin, Iwobi, Xhaka, Mustafi, Ozil and the likes. Remember he’s basically been Monreal’s understudy and if he’s learnt anything then its promising. Plus he’s an aggressive attacking fullback which fits into Emery’s system. When Kolasinac takes over the reigns from Monreal, Joel Lopez can step up as we are currently cooking him in our academy right now.

    In a nut shell, with +/- 67mil we have a decent enough transfer kitty for a January window without breaking up the harmony in the team. We do need to start scouting for a right back to help out Bellerin as Litch is short term. Plus we need another proper DM to rotate with Torreira as he’s the only one we have and Bielek’s not ready.

    So, my proposition for Jan transfer window assuming we lose/dispose of Elneny, Ramsey and Jenkinson:

    1. Swap Ramsey for a winger (right or left)
    2. Purchase the other winger $35mil
    3. Purchase a cut price DM to support Torreira $7mil (maybe from MLS or something since there is some cheap talent there)
    4. We still have Litch for another 6 months at that point so continue scouting for RB

    1. Without a doubt the most intelligent post of the day I’ve read. Seems there are too many “fans” who want the club to spend like they are City/United. Which we cannot do. Seems the 9 game unbeaten run isn’t enough to show that the players we have are good and/or improving under Emery and thus we don’t actually need as many players as it would seem. Definitely agree we’ve got good cbs. I’d maybe sell Mustafi next summer if Emery cannot improve him. The rest solid enough. Another dm for cover. Although I like Gondouzi in that role. Not as disciplined but again that will come with game time, coaching and experience. WE. NEED. WINGERS. BUT one step at a time. It’s taken Klopp 4 seasons to get his team purring the way they are. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

  12. I will never fotgive Kroenke for forcing the long term individual shareholders of Arsenal, many of whom had passed the shareholdings from generation to generation, to sell their shares.
    As has been said above “a leopard doesn’t change its spots”. Kroenke’s record of sporting franchise ownership in the US does not give cause for optimism.
    We are being given the “talk the talk”, but are waiting to see Kroenke “walk the walk.”
    Regardless of the funding available, I have faith in Sven and Raul scouting and contracting the players, in consultation with Unai, that Arsenal requires.

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