After the launch of the #WeCareDoYou campaign on Monday, it didn’t take long for the club to respond. On Tuesday, Josh Kroenke, along with Raul Sanllehi and Vinai Venkatesham, took part in a surprise Q&A with the team at the Gooners Podcast USA. The vice-chairman of KSE later filmed a video interview with the club’s official website and also found time to pen a 900-word open letter to supporters.
First, it’s good that there was a reaction. I genuinely thought the club might play dumb for a few days in the hope the whole thing blows over. I guess with three games of a US tour coming up in quick succession, and press conferences before and after each, they decided it was better to say something rather than let the groundswell of frustration grow any further. They stuck their heads above the parapet and we have to respect that.
Second, I think everyone who took a moment to sign the petition can take great heart that it garnered so much traction in such a short space of time – I believe the kids call it ‘going viral’ – and that it forced the people at the top of the club to go public with a response. Given the Kroenke family now own 100 per cent of the club, it’s more important than ever that we continue to hold them to account like this.
Like Ivan Gazidis, Kroenke Jr is very comfortable with a mic in his hand. He strikes me as the type of person who takes pride in the way he presents himself, particularly when the cameras are rolling, and I suspect he second-guesses potential curveballs and has ready-prepared answers up his sleeve.
He also knows what plays well with the fans, which is why he casually mentions ‘Arsenal DNA’, touches on Edu and Freddie’s ‘Invincible’ status, hams up ‘Victoria Concordia Crescit’ and ‘Forward’ – both club mottos – and ends with the Yoda-like ‘May North London forever be Red’. The Arsenalisation of his corporate manifesto was all-encompassing.
But what about the details? What did Josh actually say? These were my key takeaways…
- When Josh speaks, Stan speaks. And vice-versa. (Not that the latter does)
- KSE consider themselves custodians not owners and they are involved ‘to win’.
- It’s time for a period of stability at Arsenal, not more change. Patience will be needed.
- Edu is the final piece of the jigsaw.
- Our Champions League wage bill is problematic if you’re not in the Champions League.
- Arsenal fans should ‘be excited’ about potential transfers this summer.
It’s quite easy to nod along reading Josh’s words and think to yourself, ‘this all makes sense’ or ‘this man seems to know what he’s talking about’. But we’ve been down this road before, haven’t we?
KSE has had a stake in Arsenal since 2007, the largest since 2009 and has owned more than 65 per cent of the club since 2011. So thanks for telling us about all the problems we’re now facing, Josh. They happened under your father’s watch. You weren’t paying attention.
I also feel very uncomfortable with the way so many of the changes that have taken place in the last 18 months are presented as part of a continuous long-term plan. When Gazidis set about hiring Sven Mislintat, Sanllehi, Darren Burgess and then Unai Emery, he may well have had a plan in his head for life after Arsene. We were always going to have to restructure the management hierarchy and he was in the process of doing that.
When Gazidis left, and I’ve certainly not lost any sleep over his exit to AC Milan, his version of the club’s restructured management hierarchy went with him. Raul and Vinai stepped in, Sven shuffled out, Burgess was cut and we tried to bring in new people.
Telling us that Edu is the ‘last piece of the puzzle’ sounds lovely but it does ignore the fact that we actually wanted Monchi for the role. It also heaps pressure on the Brazilian.
Highlighting a decision to incorporate Freddie within the first team set up ignores the fact that it was Ljungberg and Bould themselves who asked for the change to take place. Emery admitted as much the other day.
The reason Per Mertesacker is heading up our Academy isn’t because Stan thought the German was the right man for the job, Arsene and Gazidis did. We also needed a replacement for Andries Jonker, who quit.
These appointments, as much as they are welcomed, have not been part of a grand plan executed from top-down. They’ve been reactive. Of course, I want them to come off. However, if one or other of them don’t, will the next hire also be presented as the ‘final piece of the puzzle’?
A few years ago our new commercial deals were presented in these terms. Blah, blah, blah competing with Bayern Munich, blah, blah, blah.
We’ve got to the point where club communiqués remind me of Socialist Realist art. Come, comrade, look at the beautiful industrialised future that lies ahead. Let’s march into the sunshine together.
On the horizon for supporters, will always be trophies. It’ll be the days out with friends and families watching great matches and the chance to celebrate victories that get talked about for the rest of our lives. We need a competitive football team for that and a squad of players that we believe are capable of challenging for the game’s biggest honours.
Stan, Josh and KSE may well want those days out too, but for them, it’s more of a ‘nice to have’ than a necessity. Their horizon also holds more big bucks TV deals and a possible European super league. That’s what will put a smile on their face. In any normal company update, you’d mention such an ambition, but Josh knows you can’t talk about a football club in those terms. It doesn’t play well. So he doesn’t say it at all.
Right, back to matters closer to the pitch. Ahead of Arsenal’s second pre-season friendly – to be played against Bayern Munich at 4 am (UK time) tomorrow morning – Unai Emery has tackled the issue of the club’s captaincy.
Last year, Laurent Koscielny had the armband with Petr Cech, Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Ozil and Granit Xhaka all assisting him. At this point, you have to imagine the Frenchman will be following Cech and Rambo out the door. And it would be a real turn up for the books if our number 10 was given the honour full-time given his form, so that leaves the Swiss.
Again the boss wants a collective effort, but it does sound as though he’s leaning towards Xhaka, who is also captain of his country.
“We spoke a little about that,” he told a pre-game press conference in Los Angeles.
“Last year we had Laurent, Petr Cech and Aaron Ramsey. At the moment Koscielny has a contract with us but we’ll speak with the club and him about if he’ll continue or not.
“We have players with the capacity, one is Granit, he was a captain in the dressing room. We have others like Mesut, Nacho. There are other players who can take this position also. I want between three and five captains in the team.”
Does Granit want the responsibility? His answer: “If the club and the coach gives me the armband I will be happy of course. I will be very happy because it is something special.
“But it’s not my first time [to be a captain] because I have been the captain here, I was before in Germany and the national team as well.
“Our leadership improved last season but this is not something you can change in one day. You need time and in my opinion we are on a good way to create something special in the team as well.”
That level of diplomacy could get you a job with Josh.
Emery was also asked about transfers. So far we’ve only recruited 17-year-old Gabriel Martinelli and with the clock ticking down towards the start of the season, it’s squeaky bum time. The Spaniard is bullish about what he wants. And he insists he’s expecting a lot.
He said: “Players can come here to help us. We need, really, that they will come with a big performance and also our target is to achieve three or four players who really improve our team and our squad now.
“We are being very, very demanding and we are first speaking about the possibility to sign very big, very expensive players and the first player in our list is our first target.
“And after, if we cannot achieve that, then the second. But we are thinking every time that they are going to improve our squad.”
Here’s hoping he knows something we don’t. It sounds as though any deal for Wilfried Zaha is dead. But perhaps a loan for Real Madrid’s exciting youngster Dani Ceballos is an option.
“I don’t want to speak about the names,” said Emery before admitting, “Dani Ceballos is a very good player.”
Let’s see what happens. We’ll keep you updated with all the latest on Arseblog News. Catch you tomorrow.
