Mikel Arteta jokes that Arsenal want to get the maximum of 114 points if they want to win the Premier League (2:39).
LOS ANGELES – Arsenal co-president Josh Kroenke stands in a tent overlooking a box at Loyola Marymount University, where Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta and Los Angeles Rams manager Sean McVay have just finished educating 100 children at a network event.
“Just seeing Mikel and Sean’s state there, talking to the kids around us, it’s kind of the end of the cycle that we’ve been moving towards for a number of years,” Kroenke said in an exclusive interview with ESPN. “I’ve preached that we have to find a way to bring our other teams together, because it’s all about apples, oranges and watermelons, but they’re fruit trees. “
Kroenke Sports
“The organization my father built gave us the opportunity to cross-pollinate certain ideas and concepts into other companies, and those are our teams,” Kroenke continues.
“As you go through your recruiting process, whether it’s your CTO/general manager role, a lead training role, or you’re embarking on a new commercial venture to run the company, there are a lot of similarities, but they’re all different. It’s very different. With Sean and Mikel in particular, there is a relative style to hitting the right people into positions, giving them the time and resources needed. to succeed. “
There is concord within KSE those days. Stan is also available to practice the talents of two of his groups that educate youth ages 7-12 from Inglewood and South Los Angeles. Arteta and McVay talk about percentage ideas, and during Arsenal’s pre-season field trip in the United States, staff members from both groups, as well as others from the KSE groups in Denver, had dinner together and held panel discussions that they hope will lead to more innovations within the group.
Arsenal are starting to reap the rewards as they finished fifth in the 2021-22 Premier League table before two second-place finishes in which they took Manchester City into a tight race for the name. (His total numbers over the past two seasons, 89 and 84, would have been enough to win the league in almost any other season without Pep Guardiola’s remarkable paintings at Manchester City. )An unwavering confidence in a translatable style is what has allowed KSE to navigate the mutiny environment that has for so long threatened to define their relationship with Arsenal.
KSE’s decision in 2007 to buy a minority stake in the club was viewed with skepticism among Arsenal fans, with many wondering whether American owners who do not enjoy elite football might have the most productive intentions at the center of the club. . This skepticism turned into widespread hostility over the following decade, as Arsenal’s last Premier League title, in 2004, increasingly looked like a bygone era.
The club’s 2014 FA Cup victory belatedly ended a nine-year wait for a trophy, but Arsenal’s inability to compete for bigger prizes has led many fans to turn to the manager. At the time, Arsène Wenger was not sufficiently to blame for the developing distance. between the afterlife and the existing glories. Debt payments related to the move to the Emirates Stadium limited Arsenal’s move-in activity, so goals were reduced from the name contest to simple qualification for the Champions League. Between the runners-up in 2015-16 and 2022-23, the Gunners only finished fifth and failed to even qualify for the Champions League.
Reluctance to join those disgruntled enthusiasts led to Kroenke Sr. being nicknamed “Silent Stan,” and protests came again and again: supporters were angry at what they believed to be the death of light.
KSE was finally completed in 2018 before Arsenal controversially became one of six English clubs to sign up for European Super League allocation in April 2021. It only lasted 48 hours, but the damage was already done. Fans rebelled, and thousands of other people participated. Other clubs involved in this doomed escape faced the same opprobrium, but at Arsenal the hostility was exacerbated by stoking all the long-standing bad feelings.
Home symptoms posted by enthusiasts in attendance that day included: “Give us back what isn’t yours,” “We don’t forgive, we won’t forget,” and “Stan, you’re not loved, get out. “Swedish billionaire Daniel Ek, who owns Spotify, sensed an opportunity and made an offer of 1. 8 billion pounds to buy the club, and Kroenke admitted in the past that there were other donations “from other parts of the world”.
So, was there ever a temptation to sell even when those who gave themselves arrived in what seemed like their darkest hour?
“No, there were never any proposals for this or that,” Kroenke recalls. “My father and our family are long-term investors and holders. Personally, I have cared about the club for a long time. I have been on the board for over 10 years now, I enjoy it and I love the club. I knew it would be very rewarding to put it back on in a position to succeed and take out a few other wrong people along the way.
“The real praise is that when you walk into the stadium you feel the power of what’s happening, that’s the absolute praise for everything I could have imagined. “
Kroenke is referring to the final day of last season, when Arsenal beat Everton but missed out on the league as Manchester City beat West Ham United to win their fourth straight title, albeit by just two points.
“The other day I was showing someone a video after our last game of last season, it had been forty-five minutes after the game, but the only people who had left were the visitors [Everton fans],” Array said. “All tickets were sold out. We’ve had wonderful support, but to see that love for Mikel and the players and for them to give it back to me, it was like a goosebumps moment for me. “
But will KSE ever get that love, everything that happened before?
“I don’t know,” Kroenke replies. I’d hate to say I don’t care because it’s such a giant organization of other people. My dad gave us the opportunity to reinvest in the club in a way that hadn’t been done before, but he does it. Because he trusts the organization. of other people we have.
“We are in this business because we are competitive. Sometimes there’s a lot to deal with, but the explanation for why we’re here is because we have a wonderful organization and we need to check and keep it in combination for as long as possible.
The fury of the European Super League crystallized many of the underlying disorders that dated back three years earlier.
In 2018, Arsenal began to slowly move away from Wenger, the legendary manager who had won 3 Premier League titles, adding the historic 2003-04 unbeaten campaign, immortalised as the ‘Invincibles’, but whose power had waned over time.
Wenger enjoyed an autonomy of control to a point that had gone out of fashion in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era, the Manchester United manager who was in full control of his club for more than 20 years, and the KSE began appointing nine new branch heads and a plethora of supporting staff. distribute the daily work and give authority to the club. KSE was reluctant to make public statements, so the coach had become a lightning rod for abuse. The disconnect was real.
“What’s attractive to see now is more the connection on the part of the fans,” said Theo Walcott, who played for the club between 2006 and 2018. “We were connected, but we weren’t as engaged as we are today. That is why We have done it. Mikel has made a union with his squad.
“As a player, he probably learned a lot about what it means to be on the other side and what enthusiasts go through. “
Wenger left in the summer of 2018, some time before KSE bought out Arsenal’s other major shareholder, Uzbek billionaire Alisher Usmanov, who had been denied a board seat for years due to divergent perspectives on the club’s long-term. Shortly after announcing Unai Emery as Wenger’s successor, chief executive Ivan Gazidis suddenly left the club to sign for AC Milan. How did Josh Kroenke react to the complaints of his family and the KSE?
“I mean, it wasn’t fun,” he replies. But it’s also a challenge and I’m a personality who likes to take on challenges.
“[Wenger’s] tenure and the effect he had will live on at our club. Turning this page and making corrections has never been a simple procedure and I don’t think anyone would have achieved everything one hundred percent as you do.
“There is a certain amount of updating in a healthy organization. But if you go through too much updating, it is very difficult to remain stable. “
Dan Thomas is joined by Craig Burley, Shaka Hislop and more to bring you the latest highlights and debate the stories. Stream on ESPN (US only).
Emery’s tenure proved disappointing (they missed out on Champions League qualification and lost the Europa League final to London rivals Chelsea in their only full season) and, in December 2019, the club tried their luck under Arteta, who I had never been successful before. However, he was a key component of Pep Guardiola’s coaching staff for three years at Manchester City. Emery has since joined Aston Villa and effectively guided them to fourth place in the Premier League last season and their first Champions League campaign.
“About a year and a half [after Wenger’s departure], we had other people in certain roles,” Kroenke continued. “Edu was on board [as technical director, then sporting director in November 2022]. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. ” I went out with Unai Emery, but I’m pleased to see him continue to succeed. He’s an intelligent man, I have him, I have a good reputation. . . I’m pleased to see a smart user succeed elsewhere.
“The real impact of this era has been COVID. It’s the grass clippings underneath us from some of the things we were looking to do. “
COVID hit all clubs hard, as in 2020 matches were played behind closed doors and crowds only gradually recovered, but the Gunners were especially vulnerable.
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire told ESPN: “For many years, Arsenal were one of only two clubs to earn the £100 million a year range for matchday profits. This occasionally accounted for 20% or more of overall profits, while the Premier League average hovers around 13% and for some clubs it’s just 4%.
“It also indicates that the club would possibly have followed an outdated attitude towards advertising revenue, which has allowed clubs such as Liverpool, the two Manchester clubs and also Chelsea to get ahead. This is an area that the club will have to address. “
The KSE has been heavily criticized for announcing 55 redundancies as part of cost-cutting measures, adding the man to the club’s mascot Gunnersaurus, while the scouting network has also been radically reduced. So when the European Super League assignment came up, KSE felt a much deeper reaction.
“It’s hard to underestimate how crazy the world was,” Kroenke continues. “Based on that, we went out and I know for myself in particular, met some of our most productive fan teams and got some feedback.
“Like any human being, if you feel like you’ve done something wrong or let someone down, you raise your hand and say, ‘How can we be better and how can we work together?’ It is what we have done as a club in a vital way and that requires a lot of humility, a lot of very direct communication, which is complicated because the fans come to you with emotion, but if they don’t have that emotion, “We don’t have the same love for the club. ” that we want things to get done.
Martin Odegaard talks about Arsenal’s hopes for next season with Mikel Arteta.
Following the collapse of the European Super League, a new Fan Advisory Committee was formed to discuss the club’s strategy with determined representatives of the concerned fans over a three-year cycle. Internally, the club had replaced its move policy in favor of acquiring players normally under the age of 24. The club also has it more difficult.
After winning the 2020 FA Cup, Arteta had the courage to start tackling the big issues within his team, identifying an absence or the necessary professionalism or a winning mentality to take the club back to the top. A new culture had to be formed, and the path chosen to get there is economically painful. Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Willian, Sokratis, Shkodran Mustafi, Mesut Özil, Sead Kolasinac, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Hector Bellerin had their contracts terminated and were reimbursed to leave. Nicolas Pépé, the club’s record holder in 2019 with £72 million from Lille, has become the ninth player to leave in this way last September.
Edu explained this policy in July 2022, some time before he was appointed sporting director: “When a player is 26 years old or older, has a large salary and is not performing well, it kills you. They have no price movement and it is greater to pay a player to leave rather than keep him.
“One of the terms that has come up on other occasions, whether in Mikel’s first year or two in the job, is the demand for patience or things like that,” Kroenke says. This is rarely necessary, but you also have to be a little ruthless and make sure you don’t slide in the wrong direction while being patient. That’s where the acceptance you have in your organization comes into play. “
And that organization, made up of Arteta, Edu, new executive leader Richard Garlick and a key board member Tim Lewis, was given a workspace. Recommendations on basic decisions are submitted, basically through Lewis, to Kroenke’s family for approval.
“I don’t need to reveal any of our secrets, but what my father has taught me over the years is: First, know what you don’t know,” Kroenke says. “Second: Put other people smarter than you in a position to succeed and that’s a smart way to succeed.
“There are a lot of moving parts, but you have to understand from the beginning what we’re doing. We’re in this business to win and winning is more fun than the other option, I guarantee that. “
Part of the plan was to test and use the success of the KSE as a strength, rather than a loss that many Arsenal enthusiasts considered. Kroenke saw parallels between Arteta and McVay, who was hired at just 30 years old and faced questions about his preparation early on. forward, but temporarily revived the Rams’ fortunes.
“I connected [Arteta and McVay] via Zoom COVID,” Kroenke said. “I know Mikel is not going to tell Sean how to race routes. And Sean is not going to teach Mikel how to play from the back. But the way they run the locker room, the way they deal with conversations with players, the psychology of controlling other people is there for everyone to absorb.
It’s a quote with McVay’s values.
“It was a natural connection because there’s a shared passion, a lot of core values, yet I was a fan of [Arteta] for a while, watching him from afar,” the Rams coach told ESPN.
“The leadership, the communication, his ability in other aspects, but [also] the way he held his steady in smart times and in tough times. But I love him, I appreciate him, and in fact, we’ve remained close ever since.
“Humility is still one of his greatest traits. He loves those players. They feel this love from him. I think that’s why you see them play so hard and the same goes for the coaches. When they encourage you not to leave them” “Other people get depressed because of the way he leads, I try to emulate him and emulate him as much as I can. “
After Arsenal’s mass removal of players, significant spending followed. Arsenal’s net spend in 2021-2022 is estimated at £94. 8 million. The following year it was £187. 4 million, the year after that £145. 2 million. Declan Rice acquired for a record £105m. in the summer of 2023.
Arsenal racked up 89 goals and held the defensive record in the Premier League last season, while also breaking a string of club records (28 Premier League wins, 91 goals, the highest goal difference in history (62), but still failed to do so. while Manchester City lifted the trophy for the fourth consecutive year. The Gunners also returned to the Champions League for the first time in seven years and reached the quarter-finals for the first time since 2010, losing to Bayern Munich 3-2 on aggregate.
So the KSE has responded to the two major criticisms: Does it lack ambition and is it not willing to invest?
“The effects we get on the pitch clearly help, however, from the moment my father was able to buy one hundred percent of the club – and I know that led to his own complaint – that allowed us to enter another phase after run the club and manage it like we manage our groups here,” Kroenke responded.
“I know, because we enjoy winning with other teams, winning is not a linear process. Winning at the highest point is very complicated and combining an organization to go through and win things and have the possibility of winning things year after year, The year requires many other elements.
James Olley reacts to Arsenal’s signing of Riccardo Calafiori from Bologna.
“If you look at what the Gunners have done in recent years, we go from fifth place to a moment and then to a moment. You can see that completing fifth place hurt us because we were looking for that position in the Champions League, but that missed opportunity gave us more firepower and mentality to come back. We were betting like crazy the following year.
“We ran out of gas. You can see that there was a detail that we didn’t perceive towards the end of this season, the weight of everything and within our team we had some injuries. But last year you saw us and I was like ‘maybe this organization is in a position to do it’ but we didn’t make it.
“But I think this organization is up for the challenge and we’re going to continue to add skills so that we have the ability to move up a spot and give our enthusiasts something to celebrate. “
And what about the broader vision of the future? Kroenke revealed that the club was beginning to think about imaginable innovations for the Emirates Stadium, perhaps even an extension, and proceeded to invest in Arsenal’s women’s team.
“It would be inappropriate to talk about projects in depth, but internal discussions are starting to take a position on [the stadium]. It’s not a simple renewal, but we see the odds of what exists,” Kroenke says. “Our goal is I’ve been competing for the name of the Premier League, because if you look at the world at large, if you’re competing for the name year after year, you’re competing for everything else.
“What can our fans expect? Everything they have achieved in recent years. We will continue to enrich the group. I know that Mikel’s power is at its peak, in the most productive way. In our women’s team you can also see how Women’s football is taking off around the world. We are excited about this component of the business.
“But as a club our main objective is to continue making our fans proud. “