What’s the connection between the headline and Arsenal, you might ask?
Well, Colorado Rapids are owned by KSE (Kroenke Sports Enterprises) who, of course, hold the majority shareholding in Arsenal.
There have been increasing concerns over Kroenke’s stewardship of Arsenal, and it seems similar fears are shared by fans of the Rapids who have endured a difficult start to the new MLS season, winning just one of their first seven games.
A supporter’s group, Centennial 38, released a public statement outlining their issues over recruitment, planning, and strategy, but tellingly insisted:
We would like to emphasize to everyone: our members, the Rapids staff, the players, the press, and the greater Colorado soccer fan base as a whole, that there is a very important distinction to be made between being critical of the club itself, and being critical of the people that run it. Players, coaches, management, and even ownership all come and go. In the end the only thing that remains is the identity of the club, and the community that surrounds it.
There have been protests at Arsenal in recent times over the future of manager Arsene Wenger, and he remains the focus of those – including one planned for Sunday ahead of the Man Utd game – the almost total silence from Kroenke and the rest of the board raises big questions about how our club is being managed through what is the most difficult period in its recent history.
The only thing fans have heard is a perfunctory statement from chairman Sir Chips Keswick back in March which said:
“We are fully aware of the attention currently focused on the club and understand the debate. We respect that fans are entitled to their different individual opinions but we will always run this great football club with its best long-term interests at heart.
“Arsène has a contract until the end of the season. Any decisions will be made by us mutually and communicated at the right time in the right way.”
Kroenke is due in London later this month for a board meeting at which a new deal for Wenger could be ratified. Whether that’s the majority decision of the board remains to be seen, but ultimately the American businessman makes the final decision and he has never been anything other than 100% behind the 67 year old.
Meanwhile, we came across this Deadspin article from January 2016 which came in the wake of the announcement that the St Louis Rams would be moving to Los Angeles.
Kroenke, currently the subject of legal proceedings from the city of St Louis for ‘fraudulent misrepresentation‘, is the brunt of some serious criticism in the comments.
They’re well worth a read, like this one from ‘Joe‘:
Stan Kroenke is a duplicitous piece of shit. Fuck him. His ownership is a taint, not just in the sense of a stain on the NFL, but literally a taint, the area between the anus and testicles.
Fuck Stan and his toupee.
It’s safe to say moving the Rams from St Louis has made Kroenke an unpopular man.
And if anyone knows what a non-skid dildo is, please feel free to enlighten us in the comments.
Welcome to the party..
It’s so sad we have become just another underachieving club with a hated owner.
‘Literally a taint’? I always thought the area being described there was the prostate. Which would be just as fitting I suppose..
Prostate is on the inside. I think you’re thinking of perineum.
Barse is the technical term lads. Avoid being kicked there at all costs.
Like barse-lona?
Otherwise known as the “taint,” because itain’t one, and itain’t the other.
Or in Ireland a “Tisn’t”. As in it Tisn’t my balls and it Tisn’t my arse, so it’s a Tisn’t”
Nobody else use the word ‘guch’ (goo-ch)?
Buffin’ the guch?
Does that make Stan “Guch-E-Man”?
I believe in England we call it a Gooch
I think on a woman it’s called the Twitter: the area between the twat and the shitter.
That explains Trump’s love for Twitter!
Truffle Butter.
Anyone else heard of the ‘ABC’ (Ass Ball Connector)?
Isn’t that the smelly bridge?
You mean the Humber Bridge, as for a lady it links a shithole to somewhere smells of fish
Always thought it was called the ‘grundle’. But still, there more than one word for ‘arsehole’
Maybe send Wenger over there to sort it out?? He’s got more chance of winning the champions league with Colorado than he has with us.
Beteeen that and Chicago Fire winning the World Cup, MLS may finally get some respectability.
No offense, but have you seen the Rapids play? Worse than being a Sunderland fan. After 7 games; 5 GF, 11 GA. Like watching paint dry.
Which is why most of us only go to rapids games to heckle the opposition. Pretty sure robbie Keane hates me after I gave him the old “Daryl, Daryl.” Simpsons-esque treatment.
https://www.fourfourtwo.com/us/features/colorado-rapids-struggles-plan-2018-future-mls-analysis – This could basically be about Arsenal to be fair. (I know Cronin, who was a part of that lopsided trade and the Rapids’ captain. By all accounts, a shocker to everyone involved, including him.)
So they’re looking to get Wayne Rooney in, then?
Yea but at least with Arsenal, you are used to winning. Rapids had a good last year but have historically been terrible. You guys are ready to jump off a bridge because you are in 6th place. Take that any day.
NHL’s Colorado Avalanche which Kroenk also owns were the worst team in the league this year. Worst by 20 points or so.
They have been bad for years.
Seems common amoung his teams. Yet they all have a strong fan base and make loads of money
The main issue Kroenke is going to run into: people will stop going to avs games like they did with the Nuggets (his denver based NBA team). Avs fans have other outlets for hockey in colorado (the university of denver just won the national championship, and the Colorado eagles aren’t bad either).
Most us sports franchises are run like this, sadly. Don’t even get me started on pat bowlen’s denver broncos and the taxpayer funded stadium.
At least the Broncos are consistently competitive, and if we, the people of Colorado, are dumb enough to fund the stadium, that’s on us.
Anyway, kroenke is a twat.
I’m devoting all my energy this week to remind you all how much of a cunt Mourinho is.
Good man.
Good Man Mourinho or ramgooner ?
Ramgooner of course, Mourinho is a cunt.
Appreciate the gesture, ramgooner, but no chance we’d forget.
I have loved this football club since I was a little girl, it’s been 50 years now and I’ve seen plenty of highs and even more lows, but this mans ownership of OUR club is a stain on our clubs history. We feel their pain, the sad thing is I can’t see him leaving anytime soon and even worse than the sadness is the helplessness we all feel. Not renewing my season ticket is not an option I waited 10 years before the Emirates opened for this, I would boycott a game if everyone else did, but that might and… Read more »
All fans need to unite and show the board we aren’t here happy. Not just a small handful but the whole stadium! Get behind the team, remind Mourinho he’s scum and then as Gooners let Stan know we want him out puente fuckin club!!
All fans need to unite and show the board we aren’t here happy. Not just a small handful but the whole stadium! Get behind the team, remind Mourinho he’s scum and then as Gooners let Stan know we want him out our fuckin club!
*Lack of proof reading and autocorrect at its finest
It was a coup. Kroenke waited like a vulture circling in the sky for the club to go ahead with the stadium, finance it all ourselves, then return to profit after a barren spell years of paying off the debt.
The minute the club did so he swoops down with all his dodgy cash deals to take it all off us. Fucking capitalist wanker.
At least they got balls, or maybe some brain to not be fooled as easily as us.
KSE has owned us from the start. We have known nothing else.
And people actually believe things at Arsenal would improve without Arsene Wenger! The problem is with the ownership of the club, not AW. The signs should read KroenkeOUT.
You are 100% correct!! Please offer a moment of silence for those of us poor souls who happen to have the misfortune of supporting both of these clubs. This like eating a shit sandwich only to pull a fat, wiry pubic hair out of your last bite. I was an Arsenal supporter before Kroenke became majority shareholder so this inevitable malaise Arsenal are experiencing is no surprise and will not change while he is part of the club. His teams wallow in mediocrity. They rely on being just successful enough to persuade him to throw them some scraps to live… Read more »
They both have to go.
Kroenke is not responsible for the performance on the pitch. That is Wenger’s responsibility. Both him and Kroenke need to go.
The performance on the pitch depends on the players on the pitch and the owner is not willing to spend on the ones we need. They are mixed.
That sets Wenger apart from Cuntinho and St. Pep, they get almost unlimited budgets and buy whomever they please. That’s why in my opinion Wenger’s season is less of a failure than St. Pep’s for instance.
Whoa there! Quite happy to have a go at the board but we have spent something like £350m on players in the last 6 seasons. Still we are told that we’re in transition – from where to what I’m not sure. Set aside from the two you mention – who have not done well with spending either – even Leicester have won the league with considerably less spend. No point in spending fortune on players who are either not good enough (Gervinho etc), not fit enough, not capable of playing at top level without any guidance or motivation at all… Read more »
No. Wenger has assembled a team of attacking midfielders and gives the Harry Redknapp tactical instructions(get out there and run about!). He alone should take the blame for this. Sad to say, but the league has gone back to a 6 foot plus size. Go back and watch the handshakes between Arsenal and Tottenham. Almost every single one of their players was taller. It’s no wonder we get bullied off the pitch these days. Our scouting has been poor Our academy has not developed players consistently Our tactics are Sunday League – except even Sunday Leaguers would NEVER use zonal… Read more »
Passing on Kante to buy xhaka tells one everything that needs to said on the subject of Wenger.
the team that performs like shit and a board that dont give a shit…both needs to go
First it was stadium debt holding us back, then Kronky.
Doesnt look promising for the future, with or without Wenger.
Oh come on! On the arsecast this week both blogs and James agreed that our team was no worse than spuds in terms of talent, what they lack is a good manager. Sure, we would be better off with a more engaged and ambitious owner, but Wenger is most at fault for our hapless team. Spent 90 million pounds last summer and we are arguably worse now. How is the current owners starving Wenger for “good” players? Do we even know if a lack of transfer activity is down to funds or Wengers stubbornness. Sometimes I think Arsenal has some… Read more »
Exactly! I don’t understand people having a go at the board all the time! I think it’s safe to assume that all of us were content with the squad we had at the start of this season (though most would have liked to see Kante in place of Xhaka) and even in Jan there were hardly any calls for addition to the squad. Board gave Wenger the war chest he wanted, if he couldn’t convince players or get right players or get the right level of performance from players it is not their fault. They also got the scout from… Read more »
Let’s be honest, we spent £100M last year and you guys still aren’t happy. There isn’t an owner in the world that is loved when his team is underachieving, even when he lets the cash flow.
We spend the most on ticket price too.
We get about 3m per game from the gate. 20 games – £60m, not enough to cover the transfer fees on the players we bought. TV money means Stan can ignore the people that show up. It’s very sad, we need to lose money on an epic scale to rid us of this tick, and as much as I want rid, I would hate it to be at the expense of the club I love. Grim……
Exactly the problem man. Can’t be hoping for the club to get relegated in order to get Stan to leave. That’s just pathetic.
I don’t see anyone at Man City or Chelsea complaining
Other Kroenke teams (technically run by Josh Kroenke): Colorado Avalanche – last placed team in the National Hockey League this year. This was an amazing franchise that won a couple of Stanley Cups in the 90’s. They were the envy of the league and then Kroenkes took over. Denver Nuggets – Missed the NBA playoffs, pretty much always been crap, Kroenke has done nothing to change that. What’s bizarre is that there must be ways to make money. He doesn’t even strike me as a sports fan. I was gutted the moment I found out he was taking over Arsenal.… Read more »
If you’re an above average sports team in a league with profit-sharing, especially TV money, Stan is all in on riding you right into perpetual mediocrity. Especially if you also own the arena/field/stadium where you play. If he hadn’t been able to move the Rams to LA (and into a stadium he’s building), I’m sure the Rams would be playing 2x a season at the Emirates, and he’d be trying to move them there permanently. Seriously, fuck this guy.
Us doing as well as we did for as long had something to do with Arsène Wenger’s pull as manager because he managed to attract Özil here in a near personal call. Not just that, he has shielded the club from the growing negativity and apathy in the board. The fans call for him to go and he has still kept us in the very top tier even without the unlimited funds. Look at the best managers in the world, Pep and Mourinho. Struggling to do anything even with their WC squads. They are not being questioned. I’ll take one… Read more »
It’s not all Kroenke fault here fellas. Yes, he’s the head of Arsenal FC financial but our failures to win trophy and compete in UCL comes all to Wenger. He’s given 100 millions last time to strengthen the team and we’ve regressed. Arsenal needed top DM, CF, LW AND CB to add to the only well recognised world class players but Wenger signed Takuma Assano the Asian Messi instead of going for Abumayang or Lacazette stating OG and wellbeck was better than them. This is down to Wenger and his Scouts to bring average players adding to some deadwood and… Read more »
Please bear in mind that Stan does more than open the purse strings. I am not exactly sure what his duties are but certainly has some influence in decisions. Just about every KSE club is performing very poorly. Arsenal is by far doing the best.
True, Wenger comes in for criticism, but how many owners (and boards) would tolerate these shortcomings before sacking him?
Vinie, I don’t agree with your sentiment. Yes Kroenke allows spending and doesn’t control the tactics or the medical team. But real organizational direction comes from the top, not just at Arsenal. I work for a large multi-national and have seen CEOs come and go several times, and every time the culture shifts to match the CEO’s. Leadership is not the sole purview of a manager. It is down to the people at the very top. That is what I believe Blogs is getting at. Say next year Pep (or whoever you think is the top manager in the world)… Read more »
Thing is Kroenke hasn’t given Wenger £100m, Arsenal has spent money which the club has generated organically mainly via gate receipts, TV cash and commercial deals. As far as anyone can tell, Stan sits on his £1bn London property investment which will make him money regardless of how well it does on the pitch. He appears to have no interest in Arsenal from a sporting context, and therein lies the problem. This isn’t about “Kroenke Out” or “Wenger Out”, but the club is clearly being run like an American sports franchise where winning isn’t paramount to a brand’s success. Also,… Read more »
Could we have a unified result against Kroenke involving all clubs under his spectre of doom?
F*cking autocorrect. Revolt. Unified revolt.
Been having similar thoughts, fans together going mental wherever he rocks up would be great, though suppose his ranch might be a tad difficult to gain access to considering it’s the size of Hertfordshire
“there is a very important distinction to be made between being critical of the club itself, and being critical of the people that run it. Players, coaches, management, and even ownership all come and go. In the end the only thing that remains is the identity of the club, and the community that surrounds”
Applicable to Arsenal too.
Non-skid is a substance with an adhesive side as well as a rough side like sandpaper. This expression is used by US Navy sailors to convey the metaphorical hurt their superiors are putting on them.
Thank you!
The closest description I found of a non-stick dildo.
http://m.ebay.com/itm/350698062845?_mwBanner=1
To much of a compliment for that silent twat if you ask me.
Thank you for the laugh! (I was glad to see the items for sale were marked as “new” and not “nearly new”.)
Earlier this year Kroenke persuaded members of the Bracewell-Smith family to sell him around eight per cent of the club and bought a similar block from Fiszman. purchase consolidated his position as the largest shareholder but crucially also isolated Bracewell-Smith, who owns almost 16 per cent. Bracewell-Smith and Red and White’s combined stake represents almost 40 per cent, but the antipathy towards the Russian, stoked by the Arsenal board, means that unaligned shareholders would be unlikely to back them in any takeover. The media planted stories about Usmanov all them years ago have Hair-lined silent stans pockets over these last… Read more »
The media didn’t plant any stories about Usmanov, and your timeline is miles off.
why hasn’t he?
Get a podcast with the arseblog of the Rapids and the Denver Nuggets. Would be well worth a listen.
That would be brilliant.
ˆThis.
As a (not very active) member of C38, I want to say that although there are some parallels, Arsenal are sooo much better off than any of the other KSE teams. Yes, Stan is cheap but there is something more than the lack of spending.
Denver native and Rapids, Avalanche, Nuggets and Mammoth fan, a.k.a supporter:)
The club made a bad decision letting this yank takeover. I’m not a fan of Usmanov, but at least he gives a damn about the club. No one man should be allowed to have power over a club.
You know what’s really sad? At the time, the vast majority of arsenal fans were fully behind having Kroenke as the owner rather than Usmanov, believing him to be the lesser of 2 evils. Shoot, we didn’t even consider him evil compared to Usmanov, whom we feared would be too involved, would saddle the club with his money and push out Wenger when he should never be pushed out. We championed the fact Kreonke said we should be self-sufficient, believing it was because he believed in the vision of the company (when in fact it was because he’s a stringy… Read more »
Yes, because we didn’t like Abramovic and the trophies he bought for Chelski. Evil Russians. Good Americans. Abramovic is at every game, Kroenke is seen as often as Santa Claus but with fewer gifts.
We were also pretty short sighted with how little UEFA did to enforce FFP. The whole sustainable model might have worked if the likes of City & PSG were kicked out of the Champions League, not just given tiny fines and workaroundable transfer rules. Instead these clubs rack up millions in backdoor commercial deals, clever financing and threaten huge legal battles which UEFA can’t possibly afford to challenge, effectively killing FFP.
Kroenke’s NHL team, the Colorado Avalanche, finished this past season with the worst record in the last 20 years… when they reformatted the points system. They were champions when he bought them.
You’re my hero :0D
Dear Arsenal fan base, please open your eyes and realise that Kroenke and board have being seeing you like a big milking cow, for years!!!
As I was commenting on Facebook about the unpopularity of Kroenke, I am a San Francisco 49er fan. The 49ers suck (another ownership problem). They won only two games last season, and the team the ‘Niners beat was Kroenke’s L.A. Rams. I hope Kroenke owns the Rams forever. And I hope that Silent Stan sells his interest in the Gunners before they, too, slip into sub-mediocrity as all Kroenke’s American sports franchises have.
The real concern here that Kronke blatantly and brazenly lied to St Louis. It wasn’t just a little white lie, it was a stand out falsehood. Yet he went ahead and plainly doesn’t care.
Even the lawsuits, are water off this ducks back.
So why should he, or would he, give a rats arse about us ? He doesn’t. It’s that simple.
I really, really fear for our immediate future. The more I think about it, the worse it looks likely to become.
https://www.amazon.com/Butt-Plug-Skid-Medium-Package/dp/B00HL64UOS#legal-disclaimer
A non-skid dildo is a virtual impossibility.
Any chance you could describe how you know Kate. Take your time, type slowly, blow by blow account. For research purposes obviously
I have been a Rams fan for a long time, considerably longer than I have rooted for Arsenal. I have cheered for them since the L.A. days and were happy to see them return (the city of St. Louis, as a whole, didn’t give two shits about the Rams; there was/is very severe infighting between Rams fans from LA and those from St. Louis who now openly root against the team). After 5 consecutive losing seasons, they FINALLY fired their head coach, but, for whatever reason, left their incompetent general manager in charge. The only thing I can say is… Read more »
There are many reasons to despise Kroenke. Moving the Rams back to LA is not one of them.
I feel that Kroenke is very disconnected from fan sentiment in UK and I would love our US based fans to somehow let him know that we are very widely supported team globally and we won’t comtinue stand for this level of mis management and complacency. Let’s bring our discontent to the gates of his mansion.
Ha ha ha…
Oh Joe, mate, I owe you a pint. You’ve made my day. I’m chuckling like a jibbering idiot here.
He really screwed the fans of the St Louis Rams. Kroenke has a net worth of close to 10 billion and his wife is an heir to the Walton fortune. Her share, alone, is probably more than his 10 billion. Anywho, unlike Emirates stadium where the club secured loans to build. Since there wasn’t football in Los Angeles NFL owners would leverage the threat of moving to Los Angeles in order to secure funds for stadium construction. Faced with the prospect of losing their beloved team the citizens of St Louis financed the stadium through tax increases. He purchased a… Read more »
you’re are telling me in the system that the NFL runs that you wouldn’t have moved the Rams to LA from st. Louis if you had the chance??? If idiots that vote for using taxpayer funds to build stadiums for these owners get what they deserve.
What about the ones who didn’t vote for it but still had to pay through their taxes?
Blogs, the Sunday protest alluded to above links to the Chips Keswick statement.
A non-skid dildo is that thing that Mourinho is gonna stick up our butts on Sunday afternoon.
Hindsight is easy but we should have let the fat ManUropa loving Uzbek be the majority shareholder.
Things could have been do different
Well his ownership IS a product of Walmart money. Keeping the business philosophy consistent I gather. Shit product, sell it everywhere, make tons of money.
To be fair, a Walton heiress doesn’t marry into poverty. Stan made quite a bit of money on his own. Otherwise, your post is appropriate.
There’s no doubt he’s a shrewd businessperson, but he didn’t have “I’m buying four sports franchises” money until 1) he became a major developer for the retail plazas that house Wal-Marts (this after marrying into the Walton family) and 2) his wife inherited Wal-Mart money in the mid 1990s.
Love Arsenal. Hate Kroenke.
Wenger is a gonner (not Gooner) at the end of this dismal season. Love the man, still want his children , but thats where we are…….he has run out of time. Hopefully we will see the back of a few players who have seriously let him down…….Mesut, Theo, Olivier (I forgive him a little, cause its more just be a lack of talent, and I cant castigate that)……they just care about themselves…..hate to tell you, but the truth hurts. Its hurting me and my fellow fans. Does anyone remember Ray Parlour, Patrick Viera, Tony Adams, Martin Keown etc etc etc…….… Read more »
Rams should never have been allowed to move to St. Louis in the first place. I didn’t recall St. Louis fans talking about that back in the 90′.
The owner’s widow did not like LA where they had played for the past 40-50 years.
..and the truth will out… Well said Colorado fans, well said.
Kroenke gave one million dollars to Trump’s inauguration fund. The man hasn’t got a shred of decency. The sooner we see the back side of him, the better.
Non-skid most commonly refers to the stuff painted on the decks of Naval vessels to prevent slipping. A dildo coated in the stuff would be too good for Silent Stan…
In the two years I lived and loved in Denver I went to my share of Rapids matches (saw Henry, saw Beckham, both on opposing sides) and always spotted with pride a massive Arsenal crest on the wall in full view of the pitch. It was a little weird, sure, this silent reminder and passive marketing for this other team 4,000 miles away. Arsenal wasn’t ever mentioned at matches or anything. It was just that there was this big random crest. Strange fact, the stadium is near the former Rocky Mountain Arsenal; the US Army’s former chemical weapons development site.… Read more »
It’s time that Arsenal supporters’ groups started to collaborate and share camoaigning with fan groups of Kroenke’s different sports interests in the USA.
Surely if the UK managed to get itself out of the EU (sigh) it really shouldn’t be that hard to change the laws around club ownership. The Bundesliga 50+1 standard would be ideal, but any recognition of the responsibility of owners to their club’s fan base would be welcome by millions of fans across the country. Football fan associations should start campaigning for a reform of football club ownership. Enough is enough.
I’ve got a mate who’s pushing Pougatch as the official term. It’s got a certain ring to it!!