With the summer continuing without any reinforcements being made, Arsenal fans are understandably anxious about the lack of transfer activity.
However, in an interview with the official website, Josh Kroenke says fans should ‘be excited’ about what’s to come.
The club’s executives are all in the US and discussions over potential deals have been taking place.
In the interview, Kroenke says, “I would say ‘be excited’. There are a few things that I know our group are working on, and a few things we hopefully have on the doorstep.
“Nothing is ever a done deal until it’s a done deal, obviously, but we know we have key areas we want to address in our squad, both now and in the future.
“Our entire football operations staff have a great grasp on that and I’ve encouraged them to be as expressive as possible.”
We’ll obviously have to wait and see what happens, and this may well be a case of talking a good game in response to the criticism of the last 24 hours.
Until fans see tangible things happening, it’s not unreasonable for skepticism to continue.
For more from Josh Kroenke, check out this interview carried out by the Gooners in the USA podcast. Mike and Andy got hold of him in Denver, and he plenty to say.
Don’t tell us to be excited. Do something that excites us.
Boo!!!
Oh, sorry. You meant Josh, didn’t you?
Reading through the comments below, and on the previous article, it is no wonder JK and silent Stan don’t bother speaking about matters Arsenal much in public. How on earth did Wenger put up with us for 22 years!
a lot has changed over the past 22 years as social media really wasn’t even a major thing a decade ago = most of a mangers/players interaction with fans was through very scripted interviews. I’m not saying I like JK/Stan but it’s a totally different world today than it was & their response really is just more for PR purposes as it looks bad to not respond.
Okay so first of all, I think fair enough, at least the cunts finally said something and actually responded to the concerns levelled at them by the AST and other fan groups. As for what they actually said, its just more of the same complete shite. He cant really sit there and say that sort of stuff when its fucking mid July, the first game of the new season is less than a month away and the first team squad is quite literally worse off than last seasons. We have done absolutely nothing in the transfer window. We havent sold… Read more »
I know everyone is frustrated (I am, too) and has little faith in the powers that be at Arsenal, but the lack of transfers isn’t worrying me that much — firstly, I think a few things will still get done (it’s tough for a budget-conscious club like Arsenal these days to get deals done when prices are way over value, agents are black holes, and financial fair play is an awfully whispy spectre in the wings); secondly, I don’t have high expectations on the players we are being linked with this window; thirdly, the real hunger in our squad appears… Read more »
When you look at the bigger picture things are very very bad. Every other team is moving forward. We aren’t. We have been allowed to stand still for well over a decade now. The whole purpose behind the move to the Emirates was to take us to the next level. To push us into the footballing stratosphere to become akin to the likes of Real Madrid. That is exactly the reason why we left Highbury. We didn’t leave our home of 93 years to watch us decline into a team that can’t compete for signings, in a transfer market where… Read more »
It’s not even that we are not buying players it’s the fact we are still after so many years not tackling the defensive problems we have. Every player we have been linked to is an attacking player, apart from one french teenager who we will loan back for a year…well that makes perfect sense to me…..NOT!!! Are we sure Emery isn’t Wenger in drag! Same old problem year in year out.
I should try this for my wedding anniversary.
“Hey wifey, be excited! We’re going to ……….Poundland. Yay. You can invest on the now and the future”
Be excited? Oh no! So it was Josh who chose the script all along! Not Ivan!
If he told me it was raining I’d check outside to be sure.
Greg, that’s one of my favourite comments on here for some time
I agree, brilliant!
Just comment to say I’m late but agree and thumbs the 200 up ? i will surely recycle this one at work
Jam (jelly?) tomorrow
Things explicit in the fans’ letter which could have been directly addressed but weren’t: – Improving the atmosphere at the stadium (such as through less extortionate ticketing practices, although this was not explicit) – Recognition of the loss of club identity in grabbing shares away from long time fans Diversification of the board away from the family and its puppets Things implicit in the letter which weren’t addressed: – The awful financial performance of the past ten years, and the rewarding of those who made it possible – The common failure across old and new management models to avoid basic… Read more »
THIS!
The only thing they want or understand is money. Thats the bottom line. Until we as fans stop buying the new shirts and demonstrating by either not attending or attend then do organised walk outs they put out statements like this. None of the obvious flaws were addressed just more of the usual bolox. The fans have the power in the pocket and until they choose to use it we will continue to go downhill. What a huge statement we could make along with fellow unhappy Newcastle fans. Live on tv at a certain time all fans unite and walk… Read more »
Oh yeh Josh? I can’t wait for the last week of transfer window while we pick up Ryan Fraser and an injured midfielder from Southampton.
We just lost our best midfielder on a free transfer. Our captain and best defender had refused to play. We have two ludicrously over paid attacking midfielders who are contributing almost nothing and the rest of them are extremely low par .
I will be excited when you actually sign some good players, not just ‘out smarting the market’ and scraping the barrel of the professional footballer trolly dash
I’d take that at this stage
I’d have taken Fabian Delph for £8M at this stage.
I know this kind of talk. I work for an organisation that is fluent in “non-committal.” Keep things positive but vague, just the right mixture to keep people calm and confused at your intentions.
I hope I am wrong.
It’s called the art of BS
KSE are corporate language specialists. Its complete nonsense and purposefully allows people to fill in the blanks themselves when reading/hearing this kind of garbage that KSE are spouting.
Are you in politics then NairoGunner89?? 🙂
@blogs can you get NarioGunner89 on the the next arsecast
I have PTSD from the loss of Rocisky and Cazorla. It’s hard to get excited anymore.
We paid Cazorla all the time he was injured and released him when he was back to fitness. Almost as criminal as letting Rambo go for free. If we’d had Cazorla last season we’d have got 4th, I 100% believe that.
We paid Cazorla for nothing. And now fans shout at Özil’s wages…
Cazorla didn’t play because he’d had a debilitating injury.
Ozil doesn’t play even in the games he starts.
An injury which was literally made worse by our fucking ass hole medical staff.
Arsenal medical staff was not responsible for Santi’s procedure and its after effects.
Yes they were. Go read the article about his injury. He nearly lost his leg because of them. They were hugely to blame.
I read the article in the Guardian. It said “Doctors in London” it did not say Arsenal. He was sent to ‘world renowned specialists’.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/sep/07/santi-cazorla-villarreal-injury-arsenal-interview-sid-lowe
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/09/08/arsenal-defendsanti-cazorlas-medical-treatment-midfielder-says/
‘it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt’
i’m starting to understand why the kroenke’s don’t talk so much.
I won’t hold my fucking breath …
? Too right !
Are Mike and Andy stupid? They swallowed everything he said.
I’d say they just want to build some trust with him so they can speak to him again another time.
Theres a face I could punch repeatedly before taking a shit of last night’s curry on the bloody mess and then I’d get started on his old man. I really dont give a fly fuck what he has to say. Cunts.
Wow, you’re hard (In David Brents voice)
I just really want Arsenal to play the kids. Why can’t we be the PL version of Dortmund?
Dortmund is an extremely well-run club with a long-term vision which really cares about the relationship between the club and its fans, the atmosphere at their stadium being second to none.
Sound anything like us?
The PL and the Bundesliga are very different leagues. BVB has between 15 and 20 pretty easy games per season whilst we may be lucky and get 6 easy PL games per season (although if we play those teams at the wrong time they can be tough as well).
Their top few clubs are very high standard but their mid-low teams games are a usually a much less competitive level.
Dortmund actually spend money lol, just this summer they’ve signed two of the best non Bayern players in Germany in Brandt and Hazard. I wish we could do that.
Everyone has a right to be skeptical but to write off what he’s had to say completely is unacceptable in my eyes. Josh could have completely ignored that open letter to his dad but he didn’t. Yes, if it was left to Stan we would probably still be waiting for some kind of response, but heck at least give the guy a chance. It’s not like some of what he says isn’t true. We’ve undergone an enormous change after having a manager in place for 22 years and yet some want to act like spoiled brats and stamp their feet… Read more »
Couldn’t agree more. I’ve been as frustrated as any other fan but it’s also important to be realistic. Unfortunately, this club has been managed poorly for some time so there’s naturally going to be some ‘carry-over’ issues to address over the next couple of years. Yes it all happened under Kroenke’s watch, but the club has at least recognised the need to modernise and made the necessary changes. Some bits have needed to be ironed out but the leadership has now been assembled. Let’s see how the rest of the window goes and keep an eye out on renewals/sales over… Read more »
We didn’t ‘not win the PL last season’, we passed up two chances to finish fourth. We didn’t have single ownership during the Invincibles season, so how come competent management didn’t seem so impossible then? This fanbase is barely activist as it is, and we have owners who would happily collect dividends and say nothing if they aren’t publicly shamed. The negativity from fans will stop when the stupidity from the club stops. Sign Ceballos, for example, and see if you have to keep responding to letters. And he isn’t even a player who’s going to transform us. That’s how… Read more »
*passed up two chances to qualify for the Champions League
If it makes you happier mate just think of the 70% of Arsenal fans that don’t moan on the Internet. 🙂
You’re a Patient man ????
I just hope you dont write that for free.
Can’t believe this got 50 likes, yes Josh responded, but in riddles, there was no substance to his reply, his goal I’m sure was to nip it in the bud before bad sentiment increased. Stan has contributed zero value to arsenal. Nothing of his own money. He’s invested nothing, yet still his investment has increased massively. And will continue to increase organically as football continues to increase in popularity. Stan has used arsenal to leverage loans for his American franchises. He has taken money out of arsenal. So yes I get why Stan cares about his arsenal investment, which is… Read more »
Robert no. I am satisfied with a PR response written by his European Department of Communications. He cares
Give the guy a chance? Yeah — they’ve only had since 2007…
They didn’t own the majority of the club back then, so didn’t have as much control. The original point was now they have control give them time to do what they do. You should read before you comment or it makes you look rather silly.
Mate — the Carr family sold up to him and he was literally the majority shareholder before the end of 2009.
So that’s a decade under his ownership and we’ve done nada..
Goober – under Wenger he called all the shots, they didn’t have to do anything (in retrospect this was detrimental to the clubs progress) so really only over the last couple years have they actually had to be involved.
Exactly that’s their fault isn’t it?
If they genuinely cared they would have taken a more active role in the running of the club. But they didn’t, because they don’t care, and it suited them to do nothing. Since they had acquired this asset which just continued to go up in value without them having to do anything or more crucially invest any of their own money.
Hence we are where we are.
That interview is damning in the sense we are Ona shit house road to fucking nowhere with lines – it’s not our job to be concerned how the club is run, we should just turn up every week and a cheer, we are fucked
Are the Kroenke family really that bad? Stan , may be quiet but would we rather have a shady previous member of a former eastern block country?
Was it not ” the supporters” who pressurised the Club to break their stringent wage structure for Ozil et al?
Be careful about what you wosh for ,
Former eastern are swadow-y whilst westerners are full of white light, hope and love…
He’s married into the Walton family that owns Walmart, there’s nothing more shady than that.
Don’t think because they made their money in America it isn’t shady. I’d rather have an owner like Abramovic who has shady money but actually puts it into the club.
He talks a good game, I’d like to believe that nobody would come out with comments like “be excited, things are coming” etc. in this sensitive time of fan unrest, if they know that a couple of pimple-faced kids are all we’ll be getting.
Gonna give him the benefit of the doubt, on the evening of the first match when the window has SLAMMED SHUT in Sky terminology, I will draw my sword or through my bouquets.
The proof of younger Kroenke’s pudding will be in the new pairs of legs running around the pitch next season. I’ve no doubt that a lot of work is going on to try and bring in new faces – after the finish to last season it’s now obvious to everyone that the current squad just isn’t up to the job. I think we need to be cautious though. On the evidence of press reports so far, we seem to be offering to bring in players through a mixture of loan moves, loan backs, extended instalment payments and “imaginative” add on… Read more »
All talk and no action.
Nobody cares what you say mate, they care what you do. You can write and spout all the nonsense you want…as long as your father (don’t flatter yourself and pretend like you’re his equal, you aren’t and won’t be until he’s dead) categorically refuses to invest a penny of his own funds no matter the circumstances while running the club as an absentee landlord, nothing will change.
RTOTM…read this out to my wife. Well said mate I especially liked the “don’t flatter yourself” bit. LOL
I forgot the W doh!! 🙂
At least he said something.
“For more from Josh Kroenke…..”
ummmmm……no thanks.
Platitudes polished by a PR team are pretty useless when your actions speak otherwise, Josh.
More empty chat from another dickhead.
Josh is a real wank name.
I was excited for a bit when I read he said we should be excited. Having listened to the interview now, I realise that “excited” was his watch word right from the start of the interview so he just chucked it in again when asked about transfers. One thing though “Our entire football operations staff have a great grasp on that and I’ve encouraged them to be as expressive as possible.” as reported above is actually not correct – he said “aggressive” not “expressive”. Anyway I am no longer excited.
I think this statement has even less credibility than the open letter. Come on Josh, there had better be some genuinely exciting transfers now or you’re going to look a right fool.
Fuck off Josh. Treating us like idiots and gullible fools. Think we will swallow your PR shite. No. We won’t.
Custodians! My arse.
Josh mate, we really don’t give a fuck at this point. You can’t fill a leadership vacuum built up over 10 years with a nice letter and some upbeat interviews.
Just hand over the damn chequebook, and we’ll leave you alone for the next 9 months
Patience is a virtue. Build a new team around home grown youngsters who care about the Club and a minority of very high quality imports
Blah blah blah… Bullsh*t.
You’re just afraid of mutiny by the fans aren’t you? The boycotting merchandise campaign does have an impact i guess.
Bunch of lies and promises…
So…from the comments so far I’m picking up just a hint of scepticism…
Just a little
So far yes I rekon…
I’m pretty sure he said to be “aggressive” not “expressive”
You are telling me it ain’t all about money for you ?! Good joke bro ..
Wow! that was a fast reaction! If only they were so good at football issues and not only on PR/business/ corporate staff. To be honest I think their strategy is to have a low risk investment, try to milk the cow for as long as possible and then sell it when they forecast that the bubble of EPL is about to burst and there is no more ‘inflation’. Of course this is a very good and secure business and nobody will blame them for using The Arsenal for that. Or maybe I am wrong and they …actually… follow Arsenal, read… Read more »
Arn’t we all used to hearing this every season
Why the fuck should anybody care about what someone whose only qualification is that he’s the son of a guy who’s married to an heiress has to say?
The little twerp doesn’t know shit about anything.
I’ll be excited when him and his cunt family fuck off.
Harsh but fair.
No wonder why Kroenke turned Arsenal into his cash cow.
Not ready to win big trophy yet?? Why the fuck not, i don’t want to wait,, we’ve been waiting since 2004, shit my boy was playing for a u12 team at the time, he’s now 27 and has son of his own, life is to short,, I want now,,,this season or next and the next and the next, if i don’t get knocked over by a bus it be nice to see,, we all have waited long enough
Thumbs down???
Tells you a lot hey mate. Too many of our fans are just bent over and ready to take more of it. We were promised big trophies and to just hold on a little longer, for years, and now it’s ‘oh not yet’ – fuck off
To true gooner86
Big and little Enos speaking as one saying absolutely nothing. Same shit different day.
Be excited ?? are you having a laugh ??
Its been 12 years Josh since you and your family have got involved with OUR CLUB, and we have gone BACKWARDS, I want an owner that’s Arsenal through an through, who comes to our matches and is passionate like the fans, not a monopolizing businessman looking to buy yet another club to add to his collection of money making, but not really successful on the pitch clubs.
Fine, i’ll shut up until the end of the window. But that’s the line.
I will be excited once your cheap ass father waxes his mustach and spends some cash in the market.
In the immortal words of Kurt Cobain, “Here we are now, entertain us!”
Yea I’m soooooo excited can’t wait for out next lowball offer now.
Lots of brand new Kroenke-apologist posts in the comments today; it’s almost like a PR team was given a list of social media sites to start “visiting” ?
😉
More nonsense. I’m glad some of our fans are still gleefully optimistic with all this Bollocks and I wish I could be too. But I’m not. We should be doing so much more and it’s sad we have come to feeding off scraps like this
Josh runs the NBA Denver Nuggets and has done a good job building them up in the last few years, they’ve gone from horrible to one of the better teams in the league, and they’re still very young and on the rise. Just saying.
We are Arsenal fans and we are following the opposite trajectory. Just. saying.
Let’s be real here. He has no idea who our targets are and why those players will benefit the team. He probably just knows we’re in negotiations for a couple of people that can play soccer.
It doesn’t take much to correlate the decline in the club with Kroenke ownership. NOT stadium payments.
You can’t blame on Wenger and that structure even after he has left.
The big issues were transfer policy, and that policy got very skewed shortly after kse implemented data analytics in transfers and subsequently siphoned 2.3m from the accounts every year.
Now we are scrambling for 2.3m for Kieran Tierney.
Explain that one Josh.
It got even worse when you had a self serving CEO who only was interested in making himself look good.
And you allowed him to overspend and overstretch without due diligence of your own.
If that doesn’t spell ‘disinterested’ or ‘handsoff’ then what does?
Can we all start to gather all the quotes and videos from the Kranky’s, we’ll start to assemble them into a nice tight, hefty, solid ball that we can throw back in his face at the end of the transfer window when we have sold no players, bought maybe 2 maybe 3, unproven players, and have a huge locker room crisis because our captain is chucking a wobbly.
Ambition is not without action, and yes, there has been action in the backroom, but none of that has materialised on the pitch so far in a positive way.