Do you remember the week the ‘big 6’ withdrew from the Super League?
The Gary Neville’s of this world were demanding UEFA hand out the harshest sanctions. Graeme Souness predicted no way back for the majority of those owners.
Other pundits declared it a victory for fans.
From an Arsenal perspective, at the very least the consensus was that Stan Kroenke would be pressurized into investing in the transfer market as a PR strategy.
A couple of months later what’s happened is what many others viewed as obvious.
Fans got distracted by the Euros, are still buying 70–100 Pound shirts, renewing season tickets, etc.
Mr. Kroenke is still not showing the ambition required to challenge the elite (I respect the market is still open) with Amazon’s documentary paying for a left back few gooners had heard of.
Led by his son Josh though there has been a response to the fallout from the end of the last campaign.
Kroenke Junior has an increasing control over the Gunners, and he has put in an action plan to show those protests outside the Emirates were not a waste of time.
Ready? …………
Drum roll ………..An Arsenal advisory board!
These will be elected members of various Arsenal Supporter Groups, who twice a year get to sit down with our board and give a supporter’s perspective on the running of the club.
Then Arsenal can tick a box and declare they have listened and are giving fans a voice in serious decisions.
In these meetings Fans will confer with Josh Kroenke, Tim Lewis (board member), Vinai Venkatesham (executive), Mark Gonella (media, Communications) and Mark Brindle (liaison).
These are successful businesspeople, in some cases millionaires.
It’s unlikely that their strategy is going to be influenced by anything a fan has to say.
It’s funny that when I heard about Daniel Ek’s bid to buy the club I was more interested in his promises to invest, reinstall our DNA and challenge for major honours.
Paying lip service to customers isn’t something I care about.
The Kroenke family have had serious power at Arsenal for over a decade.
If at any point they cared about customer feedback, they could have picked up a paper, gone on the Internet, attended a few fixtures, etc. to get the general mood of the fanbase.
You don’t need a couple of official meetings to learn gooners are not happy.
It’s hard to believe they will learn anything from this that they don’t already know.
It’s equally hard to fathom an advisory board going into a meeting and coming out with any dramatic change.
I’m not important enough to be on this board but would turn down the offer anyway.
I couldn’t think of anything more tedious than an evening being patronised over a topic I’m passionate about – by a group of suits who have zero knowledge of the sport.
It’s really simple.
Under the current model we have regressed to the point we have not qualified for Europe for the first time in 25 years.
We are further away from winning the prem at any point since we last won it.
We are owned by one of the richest men in the world who if he wanted could spend more than he is.
The more you invest the better chance of winning things.
Most have accepted we are simply part of a portfolio who print money based on the brand, no matter where we are in the table.
You don’t need an advisory board to tell you any of this.
Be kind in the comments
Dan