Stan Pimps Us Out by Dan
The cruel irony?
The man who in approx. 15 years has managed a couple of interviews with the English press, is at the core of the whole concept of the Super League.
To clarify, on those two occasions he handpicked the newspaper and the questions to get out of communicating with fans at an shareholders meeting. At AGM meetings, instead of speaking, our owner would have one of his employees direct the audience to the article for answers.
Make no mistake, Mr Kroenke as a business man is brilliant, that can’t be denied.
If he ever walks away, he will leave Arsenal a richer asset than before he arrived, and personally will have made a massive profit on his investment. Football fans of course don’t care about that if their team is failing on the pitch. Ultimately the American’s business model is not to care what his customers think.
There are gooners (including on JustArsenal) who defend our owner. To me it’s as simple as; look where we were when he gained power on our board, then look at where we are now.
Under his stewardship we have had our worst prem finish in 25 years.
He’s never reacted to failure with any urgency. When we were building a young squad who just needed some leadership to challenge for the title, he sold Adebayor, Touré, Clichy and Nasri to rivals. That never happened under David Dein.
When it was clear we had regressed to only challenging for the top 4, he allowed Van Persie to go to Old Trafford.
Even when we eventually stopped qualifying for the Champions League, Sanchez moved to Manchester, the Ox moved to Liverpool.
In the last few winter windows, Liverpool brought VVD and United bought Bruno Fernandes in response to struggling.
The three times we have been stuck mid table in January, we could only afford loans. This year we actually prioritised slashing the wage bill, despite our worst start in decades.
The occasional big transfer is always too late when the damage has been done. If you go to a restaurant every week, you don’t shake the Chef’s hand if he cooks your steak correctly once every month
I would be amazed if any readers still can’t see his true motives after Arsenal confirmed they are one of 6 Prem clubs to sign up for a Super League.
It’s a step closer to his ambition of turning the Gunners into the other sport companies in his portfolio.
Essentially, he’s always wanted us to adopt the US model. Zero promotion, zero relegation, zero pyramid, you simply get rewarded for being a franchise.
No matter the Gunners results. We could lose every game in the Super League and be bottom of the Prem, but we will always be in the Super League as one of the 15 ‘ founding members’
There’s an irony that out of the traditional ‘big six’ in the UK, four of them might realistically not even finish in the top 4 this season.
Early plans are that there would be some sort of pyramid system to reward every year 5 annual qualifiers, although what that criteria is remains sparse.
The 6 Prem representatives are locked in, so even if a Leicester were champions the ‘founding members’ might argue they don’t want another English representative.
You can’t base a pyramid on domestic performances if the FA, La Liga, Serie A and UEFA follow through with their threat of banning anyone who tries to start up this new League. Technically it’s a breach of those association rules to start up their own competition without permission.
FIFA could even stop any Super League player from competing at a World Cup! That’s the cards that those governing bodies hold.
That’s why though, each club has been ensured 350 million to compete (that’s before other revenue).
While Sky Sports can’t now bid for TV rights after being so vocal on the concept, there will be a network or two in the Middle East and Asia who will pay big money.
Bankers JP Morgan have committed 5 billion to this project in the hope that will compensate clubs for bad PR, lower attendances, and even the worst-case scenario of being exclusive to that League if they call their domestic association’s bluff.
As a business deal, it’s brilliant. You finish outside the top 6 two years in a row yet end up getting a big pay day!
From a sporting integrity point of view though it stinks! Arsenal shouldn’t be rewarded with failure.
We follow our teams because of the journey. If we get to the Europa Final, we know a win means the next chapter is the Champions League. Lose and the narrative is; how do Arsenal respond?
Success or failure, rich or poor …. all decided by the width of a post, the ball not crossing the line, a penalty blazed over.
That line between winning and losing is so small. That’s the emotion that we follow, like a drug.
You can’t explain that to a business person. So many millionaires have made the mistake of thinking they can be a success in Football based on other genres. Where the Kroenke Family are different is their model is not caring about fan backlash, they have a thick skin to it. How do you make someone who doesn’t care, care?
If this idea becomes a reality the last hope of our owner caring about us winning dies.
I lost hope years ago that we would ever be champions under his control. The Prem became so lucrative he realised he made a fortune regardless of where we were in the table. 60,000 will still be at the Emirates, even more still buy shirts off Nike, we will still be one of Sky’s or BT’s first picks to show live.
We have become the template of the Super League. A team who stands still, zero ambition, happy to just make money as a brand.
If that’s our owners ethos already, can you imagine if he doesn’t have to worry about top 4, top 6, relegation, etc? As a business man, genius. Based on the whole principles of sport, this is scary.
If the top 6 call The FA and UEFA’s bluff, I don’t trust them not to cave. They are not going to harm their own product for principles.
If the Super League happens, Stan Kroenke wins.
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Dan Smith