Arsenal Supporters Have Come Together
Jul 15th, 2019 by 'holic
A broad cross-section of the Arsenal support have put away past differences to come together with a vision for the future good of The Arsenal Football Club. All of the signatories to what is reproduced below have always had the best interests of our club at heart. Now we come together with a plea to Stan Kroenke to live up to his promises of what we could expect under his custodianship of our Football Club.
As Arsenal fans we have watched with frustration as the team’s football performances have declined over the past decade. When Stan Kroenke began buying Arsenal shares the club had just competed in a first Champions League final. Twelve years on, Arsenal are about to play in the Europa League for the third year running.
Off the pitch, fans have never felt more marginalised, less listened to or valued. This was sadly illustrated when Stan Kroenke forcibly bought out the last remaining supporter-shareholders without even a word of appreciation for their custodianship role in the club.
It feels as though Arsenal is at a crossroads. Things need to change.
What all of us as signatories to this statement want to see is meaningful action by Stan Kroenke to reinvigorate our football club.
This requires work to strengthen the club’s board and football executive and to once again make Arsenal a place where fans have a real sense of belonging.
Change needs to start with better leadership. In his takeover document Stan Kroenke said:
“‘KSE’s ambitions for the club are to see it competing consistently to win the Premier League and the Champions League.”
We see little evidence of how this is to be achieved. Instead our club feels like an investment vehicle, personified by the owner’s statement that he didn’t buy Arsenal to win trophies.
It is sad that an institution like Arsenal FC has such passive ownership. All of us want to see a clear sense of purpose and direction. KSE should start by being more open and accountable and explain how they intend to achieve the goal of winning the game’s major trophies.
If Stan Kroenke is going to be absent from London he needs to make sure the board he delegates to is fit for purpose.
There is a desperate need for some new and dynamic appointments. The addition of independently-minded directors can act as a genuine check and balance on the owner. Ideal candidates would have football and commercial expertise relevant to the needs of a football club in 2019, and ideally some ‘Arsenal DNA’.
Arsenal have invested money in recent years, but their approach to both buying players and paying wages looks uncoordinated and appears to lack strategy. There has also been a lot of turnover in the senior football personnel. A strong board would be proactively managing this.
On a matchday the Emirates Stadium can be a soulless place. The atmosphere is poor and there are thousands of empty seats blighting almost every game. If Arsenal really cared they would make sure seats weren’t left empty by investing in an improved ticketing system and actively supporting initiatives like safe standing. The club uses the strapline ‘Always ahead of the game’. It would be good to see action to demonstrate this.
Finally, the very fabric of football in England and across Europe is at threat from proposals for a European Super League.
These moves are driven by the greed of a few so-called elite clubs who want guaranteed entry into top-level European competition every year. Why care if you finish fifth or lower if automatic qualification is guaranteed? Arsenal and the other clubs involved should understand that fans do not want more meaningless group stage fixtures designed only to rake in more broadcast and ticketing revenue. You could call it the ‘franchisation’ of European Football. Arsenal should immediately clarify they will have no part in this.
As Arsenal Supporters, we care deeply. We would like to hear from our club and see actions that demonstrate that they do too. The first opportunity comes when the Managing Director and Head of Football speak to invited supporters on July 25th. We urge them to address the issues raised here. We will watch with interest.
Signatories:
Arseblog
Arsenal Armed Forces Supporters Club
Arsenal Supporters’ Trust (AST)
Black Scarf Movement (BSM)
Highbury Library
Highbury Squad
Hugh Wizzy
Gooner Fanzine
Goonerholic
Gunners Town
Gunnerblog
Le Grove
REDaction
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon
You Are My Arsenal Blog
7am Kick Off
I understand there are some who feel our job is just to support and not be critical of the club. This is not a time for us as supporters to be falling out when we ALL want the club to achieve it’s maximum potential. We just have different ideas about how to achieve those aims from time to time. We don’t pretend to speak for everybody, but we do believe we are expressing popular commonly held views of our situation.
25 Responses to “Arsenal Supporters Have Come Together”
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[…] Original article: https://goonerholic.com/2019/07/arsenal-supporters-have-come-together/ […]
Holic
I’m very happy to support this statement which looks an appropriate response to the dire stewardship of Kroenke . There is no specific mention of his unwillingness to make funds available to the club to speculate to accumulate as Liverpool!s owners for example have .
I’m very pessimistic about the new season and have become reconciled to the fact that under Kroenke we will slowly decline as a football force . Let’s hope this sparks the right sort of reaction
The letter does indeed summarise a commonly held view of the current state of affairs at the Arsenal. I wonder whether it will play any significant part in influencing Kronke’s thoughts on management of the club. Any response might at least indicate that Kronke or one of his minions has, actually read it.
After a nearly continuous upward vector from the mid £200 million per annum to the mid £400 million per annum, Arsenal’s revenues have recently begun to travel in a reverse direction.
While that reverse is, as yet, very unlikely to impact the asset value of the club, were it to continue in a significant way, it might just begin to have Stan scratching his head. Otherwise some version of “continuation of our self-sustaining model managed by our new executive group” will be the most likely response.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/48979800
I agree with every word, and think that the initiative is well timed.
Unfortunately, recent experience tells us that there will be no positive response from silent Stan.
I expect that our next half dozen signings will be bodyguards for the owner!
I join TTG in his support of the statement.
The comment the BBC requested from the club, if it is forthcoming, will be telling. Will it have substance or just be a blanket of bland corporate communications-speak?
The prospects for a European superleague, however, are probably more tied to the ambition and fortunes of Middle Eastern sheiks than to Stan.
It’s great to see the fans uniting behind this. If you agree, please sign the accompanying petition. I’m not naive to think that Kroenke gives a sh!t about petitions and statements, he’s seen off much stronger collective action in the USA, but we have to try something and if we can get a massive tide of opinion behind the campaign then it’ll be the stronger for it. For too long we’ve been meek and allowed the club to take us for granted, now’s the time to show that we’re no longer prepared to stand idly by and watch our great club get run into the ground.
Well said, Holic and Co.
I’m very pleased to see people coming together to try to influence affairs – they certainly stand precious little chance as individuals.
Kroenke’s influence and now ownership, coupled with his lack of oversight of his managemnt team, has been a disaster for the club.
Hopefully, your polite and balanced statement will affect him for the good.
Thanks all.
By and large the response has been positive and heartening. Some people don’t read these things, make assumptions, and then give out stick for stuff that hasn’t been said.
There is no call for Kroenke to go. There is no mention of demonstrations, or boycotts of the stadium or merchandise. What there is happens to be a plea to open lines of communication with the Kroenke family.
We are drawing on the bonds that unite a number of supporters who have fallen on various sides of virtual fences constructed on social media in recent times and are using those bonds for the positive good.
Possibly some have just looked at the signtories and jumped to conclusions, based on a couple of them. I mean that Arseblog fella is the biggest troll out.
🙂
Excellent points made.. Not sure about the European franchise bit as I’m sure Stan won’t understand it, and even if he did, he wouldn’t have any meaningful control over it as Ned pointed out.
It can’t hurt to ask, you would think.
The city of Denver on the other hand, by entering into this agreement with KSE, put themselves into a similar situation as the city of St. Louis, which entered into a Trojan horse of an agreement with Kroenke shortly before the latter unilaterally announced the move of the St. Louis Rams football team to Los Angeles a few years ago.
https://www.denvergov.org/content/denvergov/en/mayors-office/newsroom/2019/denver–kroenke-sports—entertainment-commit-to-long-term-agree.html
Anti-trust laws exist for a good reason, and it is time for governments to enforce them.
I heard Josh Kroenke turned up to our training camp in an LA Rams t-shirt. That says it all about his lack of sensibilities, his judgement and his priorities. Prat.
I’ve been invited to the meeting with Raul, Vinai and the AST next week. I was going to the Oval so I will make a late decision on that one. At least the execrable Gazidis will not be the one bullshitting us this year
Good stuff H. You won’t find me disagreeing with much of that. I’ve been saying that and getting slaughtered for it for the last 7/8 years. The club is Stanley’s money maker. Despite what he might say, I personally don’t believe he cares one jot about us or the club. Just as long as the cash keeps rolling in. I said years ago that the club sees us now as customers.
Off the field we have been a mess for years. Gazidis was a total clown and massively over promoted. The one gem was the window where we bought Xhaka, Mustafi and Perez for a total of £80 million. I mean, what on Earth were they thinking? This transfer window tells you on its own what a total shambles our transfer and player management policy is. Assuming that we do actually have one?
I applaud you and all of the others for getting together on this. However I do think that we may now be too far down the Kroenke Road. It may take something quite major for things to change. I hope that change comes a lot sooner than I anticipate.
From the last set of drinks. SSY @ 123, what a fantastic track from an incredible album.
bt8b@13: Good luck with that. Baseball has an anti-trust exemption dating from a Supreme Court decision in 1922, and football has a court ruling dating from 1963 that the NFL is a natural monopoly and thus does not violate antitrust laws. Gotta love the land of capitalism.
Henry Winter in the Times refers to Goonerholic this morning as ‘an agenda setting ‘ blog in reference to the Kroenke petition. He does couple us with Le Grove though! Henry addresses supporters groups quite often. He may be a closet Gooner.
Saw some highlights of the win in Colorado. Saka looked outstanding and Martinelli is a talent . With Nelson available too do we need to spend our hard-earned on wingers with what we have already? Unai wanted Suarez as a winger and what a waste of time he was. Are we trying to get a marquee signing when what we need is a solid defence?
I signed – and then promoted it on the previous drinks. How dumb am I?
I signed and it showed all the recent signatories and they were pouring in. I could swear I read Unai E just signed!
Just watched the game vs Colorado (I taped it). Very impressed with John-Jules in midfield. Looks a very classy footballer. Also Saka, very tricky and took his goal well. Absolute banger of a goal from Olayinka. Add in Smith Rowe, Nelson and Nkethia and there’s a great generation coming through.
Countryman
I agree re the young lads . Saka is a massive talent. I understand John- Jules has improved enormously from when I last saw him live which is natural for a young player. Balogun is coming through too.
I understand ESR is still crocked from last season where he scarcely played after Christmas. Hopefully that can be sorted out soon .
If the rumours about Ceballos joining on loan with an option to buy are true that is a spectacular win for the negotiating team. He is a very talented boy and if we could unload Xhaka and Elneny we would have Torreira, Guendouzi, Ceballos and Willock with maybe Iwobi switching into the middle. That might negate the loss of Ramsey at least partially .
Not sure if Dani Alves is right at £200 k pw though but Emery does know him.
Hello TTG, I think Henry may have been alluding to us being different sides of the same coin. ☺️
i’ll tell you, seeing the interview on pravda with josh come out *today* makes me wonder if that was a bit rushed. all the same mouth movements we’ve been hearing, with “edu”, “invincibles”, and “be excited” thrown in.
i’ll be in los angeles tomorrow for the bayern game, and will see what is being said, if i can.
Ornstein has just resigned from BBC to join an American website.
Where will we get our info from now?
You are going to have to pay to read his and others excellent work TTG. They are going behind a paywall. I hope it works out for them.
Now, a packed Tuesday piece. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>