Thierry Henry has confirmed reports that he, Dennis Bergkamp and Patrick Vieira have been in contact with Daniel Ek as the Spotify founder firms up plans for a proposed takeover of Arsenal.
As fans protested against existing owner Stan Kroenke and his role in the proposed formation of a European Super League, Ek, citing long-standing support for the club, announced his interest in buying the Gunners.
As a kid growing up, I’ve cheered for @Arsenal as long as I can remember. If KSE would like to sell Arsenal I'd be happy to throw my hat in the ring.
— Daniel Ek (@eldsjal) April 23, 2021
In the 11 days that have passed, the 38-year-old Swede has reiterated his intentions by claiming to have raised the necessary funds for a deal reported to be worth around £2 billion.
In response, Stan and Josh Kroenke released a statement dismissing suggestions they would be open to selling Arsenal.
Speaking on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football, Henry revealed why he was happy to field a call from the billionaire entrepreneur.
“It is true. Daniel Ek is an Arsenal fan. He did not say it for any publicity, he has been an Arsenal fan for a very long time.
“He approached us, we listened to him. And we knew, first and foremost, that he wanted to involve the fans. He wants to re-inject the Arsenal DNA, the identity that I think is long gone.”
He added: “He already – I’ll give you something – reached out [to the Kroenkes] and already said himself that he had collected the funds to make sure that he can put in a good bid.
“They now need to listen. A lot of people have been screaming that they want the owner out. We are trying to offer a solution involving the fans and getting the DNA of the club back. There needs to be a discussion, but he reached out.
“I think it is going to be long and not easy if it does ever happen. One thing that I want to reiterate is that Daniel will not move away, he will be there waiting to see if they want to sell.
“That is going to take a very long time, we know what we want to do but first and foremost we need to make sure that we can take over, if they are listening.”
Great to hear you are an Arsenal fan. We would love to work with you & will support any potential purchaser who will allow fans to own a real equity stake and give fans a meaningful say in how our club is run. That’s a match to take Arsenal back to the top #Custodianship #FansIn https://t.co/FaJHDaMNh6
— AST (@AST_arsenal) April 24, 2021
Henry also confirmed that Ek had already met with the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust to outline his vision for the club.
“Daniel is an honest man, transparent,” he said. “Fans want to know what might happen at their club.
“We had a discussion with the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust and he was very open with them and he wants to be open. We told them what we wanted to do. To bring them back on board.
“Make them part of the meetings and knowing what’s happening. You need to put the DNA back into the club.
“He wants to buy the club, he reached out, and there is going to be a bid. If I wasn’t part of the bid, I would have backed it up from afar.”
If you want to win fans around, involving Vieira, Henry & Bergkamp is the way to go. I know some say this won’t be any different but I’d love to see it happen. Can it actually get much worse than this?
I can’t be too sure but I think Usmanov and Dangote came with bigger offers than Ek and Kroenkes dismissed those bids pretty quickly. If this were to happen I’d be optimistic about the fans involvement at the board level, but can’t see this moving forward.
But those bids came when we still had hope that the club was on the way up again. It’s been years of gradual decline since, dropped out of the CL, almost out of the EL, no cups this year, income declining… it is a different scenario now.
The only way this will happen is if fans make a concerted stance just like Manure fans have. Disrupt and boycott. Without that Kroenkes aren’t going anywhere. If their revenue is safe they don’t care. This is like property investment for them. It’s a sure thing with minimal effort required – pay some people to do the things needed, and as long as the wheels don’t fall off it’s win win for them. Fans need to make the wheels fall off.
I think it helps if the owner is a fan if not of the club, at least if he/she is a fan of the game. Otherwise it just becomes an investment.
This whole thing being played out in public kinda makes me think that its less likely to actually be entertained by KSE. Because it does kind of make KSE seem fairly weak to their competitors, if some random Swedish tech billionaire, who, in comparison to other billionaires isn’t actually that wealthy. Turns up and muscles them out of their ‘franchise’ with a bit of fan and media noise accompanied by an offer that is pretty much about market rate. I think they will be potentially considering their position given everything that has happened in the last 2 weeks. But that… Read more »
I am not sure the KSE will be offended by the public nature of the bid or will care about looking weak. I think they will sell if they think its a bad investment. On the other hand if they think its a good investment and the value of their investment will only raise, they might not sell.
If United fans are getting games postponed for an owner who has spent more than any other European club bar Man City, then I’m not sure what Arsenal fans should be doing. But we need change more than anybody. We seem to not only have feckless and uninterested owners as every other big club does, but they are using our revenue to fund this club without giving anything back to the fans.
Hope we Arsenal fans, dissociate ourselves from the football-pitch-invading spoilt brats Man U fans.
I’m not a fan of any form of violence and it was sad to see a policeman get hurt.
But preventing a game from taking place is just the kind of statement fans need to make. Again, I don’t applaud any aggression. But we’ve had a lot of protests recently where aggression was called for in order to enact change. I don’t see why this should be any different.
Before Sunday’s events, Manchester United fans had been peacefully protesting for 16 years.
Over those 16 years, they had been consistently ignored
They weren’t ignored on Sunday.
I will far more easily disassociate myself from billionaire fanboys shilling for the Super League than from fellow football fans protesting scumbag owners in a way that gets their attention.
Peacefully protesting for 16 years?
But they were not though. Your comment is revisionist history. Unless you really ARE being the SarcasmBot….
There were many protests over that period.
There were always Glazer Out signs in the stadium, they set up their own protest football team, they wouldn’t stop talking about how terrible the takeover was and that the team was – is – still paying off the debt ON ITSELF so the Glazers can own it without actually spending any money.
They were telling everyone who would listen. People like you apparently weren’t listening, which is why they tried something different on Sunday.
I hope the police trace your IP address and VPN provider should there be a similar incident here.
Whoa, mask off.
Usually, people are a little more subtle about saying they’d want the enemies of the billionaire class arrested.
You’re supposed to use terms like “law and order”, not actually calling on the police to arrest your ideological opponents.
Didn’t they teach you that in fascist school?
I’d argue there is a very real chance A P is employed by KSE on their publicity team considering their comments since all this went down.
Keep dreaming, Daveo. Soon you will be an even bigger imbecile than Sarcasmboy
It’s reported that a policeman has lost the sight in one eye as a result of a blow to his head received during that protest. How does that move the United fans any closer at all to removing their owners? Of course it doesn’t and I would be staggered if their owners are any closer to selling up than they were prior to the demonstration.
“Nearly lost his eye sight” It’s been reported by the press. Don’t write false information to make your point.
It doesn’t. But one incident – which should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law – does not invalidate the protest itself or the movement behind it. Unsavory violence has been connected with pretty much every cause worth fighting for – be it the right of some groups to vote, be it the various liberation movements, be it the many struggles for political and social rights. If the government doesn’t want this thing to happen, they can address the cause and change the ownership structure of English football clubs. Don’t blame the people fighting for change – blame… Read more »
You seem to think that losing an eye is an acceptable cost for your team to be competitive. I wonder if you will the same thing if the person losing the eye was your child.
Stop normalising violence.
No one lost an eye! Where are you getting this rubbish from? The bloke who posted this lie above or your mate who knows a guy that saw someone who knows the postman of the policeman in question?
I was going off what was posted earlier. I was naive to assume that arseblog fans don’t lie to win arguments. If violence is the answer, you are asking the wrong question question. Also there is a major difference between violence to end the prevention of voting and violence to get power over a football club. Also saw this on another site – Sticky business Just wondering on an unrelated note.. I have been a fan of a local chocolate syrup since my childhood. But now they have decided to change the recipe because they are trying to tap a… Read more »
As I had said earlier, I don’t condone the violence, I think it should be prosecuted, just like any other similar act of violence. But we should not reduce the protest to this one violent incident, because the vast majority of those protesting had nothing to do with it. If we were applying the same logic to other parts of life, we’d be closing down every bar where a fight has occured. Some people are violent idiots. Violent idiots sometimes agree with people who aren’t violent idiots and support the same cause. If the violent idiots do something violent and… Read more »
Neo-liberal capitalism relies on exploitation and repression of working class (internally) and developing countries and their peoples (globally). That costs more than an eye. Look at the slave labour driving the Qatari world cup. Billionaires playing games with peoples lives. People die and suffer from financial exploitation of the world’s elites and there is barely a word muttered. And when people stand up against it they are the ones condemned. That sucks a lot for the police officer and SarcasmBot has rightfully said the perpetrator should be punished, but that incident is a drop in the ocean compared to the… Read more »
How have the big 6 been responsible for financial exploitation? Where does the revenue come from? Why are TV deals the biggest part? If you truly think that it is because of Burnley vs Brighton, you are sadly mistaken. In the present system the big 6 and by extention the sleazy 12 are responsible for the game being a form of highly remunerative employment, across the footballing pyramid. (Real and Barca lose points for having a greater share of the pie in Spain and hence making the league largely impossible to win out side of the group). The Qatar World… Read more »
Re: Qatar – that situation is an extension of capitalism. Extreme capitalism. And corporate criminality exists in every capital structure on Earth. This is propped up by a capital driven legal system that places advantage in money and power, and political structures that allow lobbying, which is essentially legalised corporate criminality. The Big 6 are absolutely responsible for financial exploitation. They are owned by some of the wealthiest and most exploitative individuals on the planet. Roman is commonly referred to as a corporate gangster in Russia and his gas and oil money was made with blood, dito Man$ity. The American… Read more »
Police love to have it both ways- they want credit as heroes when doing a “dangerous job” and dishing out violence on the behalf of the rich and powerful while protecting private property but when someone fights back or defends themselves they’re suddenly the victim. Babies with military hardware.
Last 5 years net spending is very interesting.
Man City £704 million
Man United £655 million
Arsenal £363 million
Everton £326
Chelsea £317 million
Liverpool £278 million
Make of that what you will.
I don’t think you actually understand what net spend is .. this does not do what you think it does for the owners.
Please explain what I think it is, that would be most helpful.
I mean it helps if a Liverpool sells Coutinho for 120#+ Mill and we exhange Alexis for Mkhi. That was largely not the money of the owners, but I think the last reserves we had so that we had to take loans from the Bank of England and so we made staff redundant. This net spend also shows me how poorly we spend our money and what kind of guys were in position to do that: a la Fraud Raul. And this is, where ownership comes into play for me. A guy, that looks out, that the best people possible… Read more »
Chelsea and Liverpool only look decent due to stupid offers for Hazard and Coutinho respectively. Since we haven’t hit the transfer jackpot like those two, and since we have been consistently letting valuable players leave for free or close to it, we actually look quite high on the the net spend table. What’s really hiding behind that figure is just poor management, which is exactly what we’re all sick of now.
Please tell me one valuable player we have let go for free or close to it with the possible exception of Ramsey. I can remember getting decent amounts for Iwobi and Ox
Technically we can say Ramsey, Wilshere, Santi, Ozil, Mustafi, Mkhitaryan, Wilbeck, Debuchy. One could argue that there’s a 100mil worth of transfer fees there alone.
Ramsey being the most prized asset that left for free but all the others I mention should easily be worth anywhere between 6-12 million.
Coupled with the fact that our record departure to this day is still Marc Overmars says a lot. You’d think we would be able to milk the sales of Cesc, RVP, Alexis and even Henry.
Our purchases and contract negotiations are a whole other matter too
Sanchez, Ozil, Mkhitaryan, Koscielny, Monreal, Mustafi, Cazorla, Gabriel, Lucas Perez, Sokratis and many more are all players we lost significant money on when we let them go for much less than we paid. I grant you that not all of those are redeemable but we should have sold Sanchez to city for 60m when they offered us that considering he did very little in the 6 months that we continued to have him. Could’ve taken approx 10m for Mkhitaryan as well.
Ozil was one of the best players in the world.
So when we turn players to shite, and let them go for free that’s good management because they were shite in the end anyway? Interesting take.
Özil? Wilshere? Alexis in a sense, and Mkhi, so we got really little out of that whole deal. Mustafi? Sokratis? When they finally went, they had no worth mostly. We had no plan for those players and should have sold them earlier (Wilshere or Alexis or Özil for instance) when they were still worth something. But nah, we don’t do that around here. Those three players would have been 100 Mill if they were let go earlier, so we could have had replacements instead for them. But no we let them run down, firesale Alexis and give Özil the biggest… Read more »
It’s exactly why the utd fans are protesting. The “spend” means fk all in real terms. It is no badge of owner commitment. In fact it’s the exact opposite. Utd’s assets have been stripped bare to fund the massively unsustainable debt the glazers have saddled their club with…throw a few beans here and there on a couple of players every now and again to feign interest and continue to take a massive percentage of revenue as profit with the bare minimum going to service the debt. In other words it’s one big fkn ponzi scheme. Exactly what FSG want to… Read more »
Yes, yes, yes, that’s the DNA we want back but for the ownership, I don’t know.
Things can always get worse
By ek, let’s hope it gets done. I say this mainly because I just don’t like the Kroenke ownership and it seems we ain’t the only ones, they are not well received with the teams supporters in their home ventures. They have no care or affection for this club, all it has ever been for them is the money.
At least our former legends have a passion for the club and it seems that Ek does too. Just a shame that Stan is so bloody set on not selling.
God, I hope it does not just “get done.”
This is a catastrophe in the making
Top post. Spot on. 👍🍺
I don’t know what people think will happen. They have said they aren’t gonna sell, doubt they’ll be forced to and nobody’s gonna offer way more than we are worth
I’m not gonna pretend like I’m some kind of business guru, but I feel like saying you aren’t gonna sell is the first step in pretty much any kind of negotiation like this.
2 billion sounds like aprx 400 million premium to Kroenkes vs actual net worth, which btw is sinking fast. In the end of the day Kroenkes are in it for business, they are deeply hated and needs to be send out to Mars, so lets hope it will go all good. They get their money, Ek sells to supporters and we get our club back. Thats all that matters now. I dont give a fish tit about Kroenkes billions anyhow.
I am with you on this, but I am more than a bit skeptical about a positive outcome in our favour. This kinda bid is derisory whether we agree or not as it’s played out in the public. It will make the yank look weak not only in England but overall as a businessman. I think it has already hurt his ego else Silent Stan would never quickly issue a statement even before an actual bid. Remember the 40£m+1 bid it hurt the ego of FSG as they were looking stupid and hence went about exploiting the last bit of… Read more »
I think there’s a number of things making this more feasible. We’re no longer an elite club, even if we make Champions League next season – we ain’t winning it and we’re years off the league. A lot of money needs injected into this club in a market where the incoming funds is declining.
From a business standpoint, football (Arsenal) just aren’t as profitable as they used to be and Stan will be well aware of that. Add on the fact that nobody likes them and we’re a million miles away from America, what’s the point anymore?
Yup I was thinking along those lines and also if he wants to keep Arsenal in the family. Passing it down to his son eventually and him holding on to it till it’s really deemed to not be profiting anymore.
I very much doubt this will happen, the Kronkes would only sell if they saw that their investment wasn’t going to increase in value. Ownership is a tricky issue, is it only success and trophies that fans want? Genuine question, if the Saudis bought the club and invested 500m quid on players and won the CL, how much would/could you celebrate it? Henry mentioned something beyond all that which resonates with me, that the DNA of the club has long gone (for me the last strand went with Wenger). It is this lack of identity which has led me to… Read more »
100% this. For what it’s worth. You can direct feedback to [email protected]
I’ve mentioned this in another comment section but if we start writing in and getting some momentum, we as fans can help tip this in our favour.
I personally have withdrawn my membership as a (very small) gesture.
Let’s get our club and identity back!
Lol. We’re going to force laurel and hardy to sell by sending polite emails to the feedback inbox?!! “Dear Stan, el mintero here, would you mind awfully selling up and tootling along now there’s a good chap, auntie’s getting a little miffed with your ownership model.” 😂
What difference would it make having a different owner? The ESL was dropped, and as far as i know the club can spend whatever money it makes on its own. Maybe a more competent person to lead the club and hire the right people. But really nothing should suggest Daniel Ek knows anything about football. We suck not because of the owner but because of years of poor management of both money and players. And if you dislike KSE for their type of people they are, and maybe think they dont represent the values of Arsenal FC. The exact same… Read more »
Take my like.
Henry is only supporting this and singing “club DNA” because he hopes to coach Arsenal.
Lot of conjecture and speculation there. At least one of them is provably illogical. If Ek is an Arsenal fan it follows that he knows at least a little bit about football.
Lots of people are fans of football, doesnt mean they know anything about the sport. Daniel Ek has literally had nothing to do with sport up until this point, what on his resume should suggest he can run a football club? Do you think some random bloke on aftv can run the club? Do you think Piers Morgan can? Just because they happen to be fans, doesnt mean they are knowledgeable about the club. I dont support this highly idealistic view of football fans being these ambassadors of everything thats good about football. Although you never said most of those… Read more »
Do you think Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour were knowledgeable about their clubs, or knew anything about football?
I’m not saying Ek is the answer but he’s a successful businessman who has an interest in Arsenal/football and has the backing of those who do know about the game.
What exactly are you looking for on this resume? There’s no perfect formula.
has he published details of how he would structure the takeover? will it be a leveraged buyout? if so, who owns the resulting debt – the club or the owner? frankly, i think it is irresponsible of ex-players to be backing anything until we are all allowed to see the detail of what is being proposed. right now, we could have worse than KSE – they are not extracting money from the club in the same way the glazers are and we are in a reasonable financial position. there is no need to rush things before we know all the… Read more »
I really love that we put in so much work in funding a new stadium to avoid the club being held ransom by a foreign billionaire with no interest in the club.
Possibly the best comment yet. Have a like my friend.
I’m all for KSE Out but I prefer that the ownership is returned to the fans than business men / women.
A pipe dream that legally no one can own more than 10%!
Such beautiful words… But damn! Where is the action?
Hopefully if ppl like Henry, Bergkamp and Vieira remain involved they can keep that billionaire hustle in check because fair play to Ek but you gotta prove your words.
The fool in me really wants to believe we/Arsenal could create the next to perfect blue print for Club ownership.
Indeed. We’ve had various works billionaires claiming they want to own AFC but KSE actually did it – whether we like it or not; they have sporting links albeit very much USA based. It’s almost a vanity thing for fans that past heroes are adding their names here or Ek just becomes another foreign suitor like the Nigerian guy. How much will the players actually be putting into this? TH14 always shows his love, Vieira wanted to but took the Citeh bucks anyway, DB10 invested in a box at the stadium but only lent it to other players rather than… Read more »
Mate, these things take time. It won’t happen for at least a year or so yet. Much as I hate him, even I am having to concede that Kroenke isn’t going to go anywhere for the foreseeable future.
You want to eat well? This is going to have be a pressure cooker job, not a fucking microwave.
This all makes more sense now. Ek contacted Kroenke in the first place, realised he may need to play the long game, and thought public support for his bid might help increase fan pressure on Kroenke and make him think it’s all not worth the hassle.
Still a risky move though. I don’t think Kroenke really cares much what fans think of him, and making it all public might just annoy him and make him more obstinate.
On the other hand, if we make enough chronic noise to generate enough constant media pressure on him, he may just buckle. This guy needs torturing slowly…..
I don’t quite understand this entitlement mentality fans have. He bought and owns the business (or “club”, if you may). However, if you don’t like how he runs his business or aren’t entertained, you’re not under any obligation to pay for anything it produces – there’s no gun to anyone’s head. There are times when Arsenal play so bad and I switch to watching another team… Because I just want to be entertained!!! But No, instead of getting your emotions in check, y’all are going about disrupting someone’s business for what? Because your nana took you to watch a game… Read more »
This has got to be some kind of parody
You can take your anger and frustrations out on the dislike button, but for all of our mental healths, I’d advise every fan detach their emotions from the “club.” I’m not saying that you should hate the club or something. I’m saying you should realize that, at the end of the day, it’s not you or your family’s property. They make you feel like a part of the “club” so they can sell you a £5 silk shirt for £80+ Reclaim control of your emotions, be responsible for your happiness. Don’t tie it to how your club performs so much… Read more »
Again, you totally underestimate the power of the football fan and the special bond between the clubs, their histories and their supporters.
That, my friend, is the very essence of being a supporter of a particular club. It’s history, it’s traditions and it’s culture. Take that away from the fan and you lose the fan. Lose the fan – and you lose the life blood of the football club.
No amount of money can persuade a football fan to support something as inherently false as a false owner – as we have seen – and as Kroenke will learn…..
We had been fans of the club before Kroenke bought it.
He’s a crash course on capitalism for you – Kroenke doesn’t “produce” anything. He owns.
Arsenal was here before Kroenke and will be here after him (although “here” might not necessarily mean London).
Kroenke hasn’t added any value to the product – if anything, he’s detracted from it.
Feel free to support the interests of your billionaire overlords, I will continu to side with the fans.
Funny of you to mention “capitalism” while using all the capitalism-powered items and services that make your life easier than it was for your ancestors. About this 👉 “Feel free to support the interests of your billionaire overlords”, I’d suggest you deal with your insecurities and stop projecting them. I’m not here to fight!!! I’m simply trying to get fans like you to come to the understanding that you don’t OWN Arsenal. Just because someone’s wife make you smile and you think her husband is a jerk, doesn’t mean you have the right to try to break them up. Wake… Read more »
Okay, so Stan Kroenke decides to liquidate Arsenal and use the funds to buy a baseball team instead. He’s the owner, after all, he’s free to do whatever he pleases. Is it fair to assume you’d be okay with that and just move on to another source of “entertainment”? Because a lot people care about this football club beyond the revenue it can generate. Funny turn of the phrase there: “capitalism-powered”. The point you make about my life being made easier through capitalism than the life of my ancestors is undercut by the fact that the lives of my descendants… Read more »
Lol lol and lol again
We may not own “Arsenal” the business, but we own “Arsenal” the meaning, what it stands for. And that ownership of clubs by fans is what’s being lost and making this whole football game meaningless. when it became nothing but business it started to empty somehow.
What a cold assessment. Much like Stan, you don’t appear to understand that football clubs aren’t just simple money-making machines. Football clubs are unique from other businesses in that they are also cultural institutions with entire communities built around them. It’s attitudes like this that have allowed the treatment of fans as mere customers to become mainstream practice. Pernicious stuff.
I don’t dispute that football clubs need to be run in commercially sustainable ways, but there is much more to a football club than just that.
Well, first off, I applaud you for criticizing the message and not the messenger.
Yes, the assessment “is cold” because fans are running a temperature right now.
“there is much more to a football club than just that.”
Can you name just 5? Aside from uniting people?
It’s not a quantitative argument. I’m pointing out that a football club’s value doesn’t just lie in its monetary worth. If you take away the communities that are built around a football club, that club will cease to have anyone to sell its “product” to.
Owners like Stan Kroenke understand profit, but they apparently do not understand custodianship or why it is necessary. That is where the danger lies.
I bet you didn’t even shed a tear when Bambi’s mother was shot.
Talk is cheep. Ek, Henry and co need to get on with it and make the bid. Despite what he says Stan was willing to sell the club for about £1.7 billion two years ago according to the Mail on Sunday in the UK yesterday.
I love the fallout from the events at Old Trafford yesterday: the whole world stood up and paid attention.
Fans of the “dirty 6” should now come together and force the cancellation of the remaining PL games their clubs are involved in. That’ll make Stan and Josh shit themselves. We can control whether these games get played or not. No games, no revenue, no revenue, no kroenkes.
Ek is a fan, a very successful tech smartypants which would be invaluable. What is Stanley – a builder who married VERY well with no discernible management skills of any value to a football club – a game which he clearly doesn’t understand. If the Premier League actually do get tough with The Super League 6, as they are promising, it might bring about the exit of those 3 American owners?
Stan Kroenke does understand the American sports well enough. Soon after taking over Denver Nuggets, Stan hired Kiki to do the “tank job”, totally dismantling the team such that it would get the worst record in the league. It was, er, beautifully done, and gave the team the highest chance to land the 1st draft pick of 2003, i.e. LeBron James (= Messi). Of course, the Nuggets only got the 3rd draft pick, and ended up with Carmelo Anthony (= Fabregas). Anyway, in the closed system of American sports, not only there is no relegation, you can intentionally and shamelessly… Read more »
So true.
How about we fans all over the world contribute a token to buy out the Kroenkes, coupled with Ek’s billions.
Make it a public company where Gooners can buy shares and. have a say in the way the club is run.
We need competent people pulling the strings, not fans having a meaningful say in how the club is run
Arsenal fans rarely agree on anything, and leadership comes from the top
If KSE employ the right people, then the issue with their ownership will quickly disappear
I think it’s a great idea, let’s include the lunatics in running the asylum. It would be entertaining at the very least.
All this nonsense from the AST about shared ownership, and the fans having a say on key decisions about how the club is run is basket case lunacy Blogs hit the nail on the head this morning, why would anyone think Henry, Bergkamp + Vieira are qualified to run the club? Why would anyone think leveraging the club against shares in Spotify is a good idea? We’ve gone from records to CD’s, to Apple store downloads, to Spotify and Apple Music The market moves, it’s only a matter of time before innovative people come and take a share of that… Read more »
Heh.
So according to you, there’s no such thing as fans who might ultimately prove to be competent too.
Some of you lot deserve Kroenke, you really do.
Im not against a new owner I’m against leveraging the club against a business model like Spotify, that is very likely to be replaced by some new innovation to the market What we want is competent and committed people, what football team they support is entirely irrelevant Caring about the club is a pretty useless trait without competence to go alongside it There’s huge benefits to removing emotion from a situation, people don’t think logically when they’re emotionally invested What we need are ruthless killers in the boardroom with no room for sentiment, not people who allow emotion to cloud… Read more »
Sounds good for sure, but that’s all it is at present – just talk. Let’s see if/when Mr Ek puts his (and very probably others) money on the table and what Stan does in response. You can never rule anything out of course but I still don’t see Stan selling up.
Stan won’t sell up yet. So hold the ‘I told you so’s ‘ when the bid is submitted and gets turned down.
Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Being honest and fair are different things. No such thing as an ethical billionaire. I guess he’s the lesser of two evils if you aren’t a musician…Spotify’s business model is horrendous to the creators of all their content.
Seriously, this musician thing is going beyond boring.
The music industry has been in a fucking state for decades. Napster, P2P, Winamp, Audio Galaxy, Lime Wire – this all happened fucking years before Ek formed Spotify.
People have either got short memories or need to research a bit more before blaming one dude on the death of the music industry. It’s been dead since the 90’s.
This feels largely like a PR exercise. PL football clubs outperform their size/value as businesses in PR terms.
Henry was a fantastic player but has always been a jerk and he’s a failed manager who’s so arrogant that the players hated him and he’s been fired more than once. He’s been condescending and rude about Arsenal, Giroud, Lacazette and plenty more. Bergkamp was a fantastic player who left Ajax under a cloud after falling out with just about everyone there and he’s been unemployed for years. Vieira is a failed manager who was fired by Nice. Ek is a flash in the pan without the mean to buy Arsenal who’s teamed up with three legends who’ve never done… Read more »
I’d still prefer 10 Henry douchebags then half a bag of Kroenke “class”, thank you very much
Henry has always been thoughtful, quick, highly intelligent and eloquent – much the same as the way he played.
I’d rather him on the board than the fucking clueless muppets we currently have.
“ he’s a failed manager who’s so arrogant that the players hated him and he’s been fired more than once. ” This is not actually true. Henry got Montreal into the MLS playoffs after a 4-year absence, and he was not fired from that job – he resigned due to having been unable to see his family during the COVID crisis. His record at Monaco was not great, but he was hired when they were in the relegation places already and was simply unable to improve them, which is not a huge surprise for a first-time manager. As for how… Read more »
With all due respect to this former Arsenal Legend, with a history littered with a total lack of managerial success – STFU, Thierry.
You’d let this Ek douchebag, who is a paper billionaire whose fortune is based on a company that doesn’t actually make money, saddle the club with all that debt, held by hedge funds….
That supporters think this is a good idea is really really troubling.
Blogs was eloquent on this point, and persuasive, as he tends to be. I’d give it a listen.
Yup – Josh at his finest. Getting rattled at the prospect of a forced exit?
Although the Kroenke’s have great wealth they have no pride. If they did they would not stay at a place where they are not wanted. They bought into Arsenal for one reason to make money. That being the case enough money is being offered for them to leave with a profit. Not only are they out of their depth regarding football, they also do not understand what football means to its club supporters. Outsiders such as the Kroenke’s will never be welcomed or accepted, the anemosity towards these owners will not subside, and in the end cost them more than… Read more »
Regardless of which former players he has doing pr for him, ek has a billion dollars and anyone with that kind of money is never to be trusted.
So what exactly do you propose our new ownership come up with – magic beans?
Market forces mate. Whether we like it or not, money talks.
This is far more about having people in charge who actually give a shit and are humble enough to walk the walk – not just blitzing us with the endless meaningless crap sound bites a la Josh and Arteta.
I’m not proposing anything here as I have no plans to buy a football club,well stating that anyone who a masses the kind of wealth ek and kroenke have are dishonest and bloodthirsty by nature and not to be taken at face value- their entire images are carefully shaped by public relations firms and cozy relationships with celebrities and media. If you’ve bought into this, I’ve got a bridge to sell you. Stop licking the boots of people who want to exploit you and call them what they are- unnecessary. Humanity, and indeed the planet, would be better off without… Read more »
Mate, this is a forum for discussion about football – not the thoughts of Karl Marx.
If Arsenal are to compete we need someone with money – end of story.
People like you make me laugh – you trash Arsenal fan Ek for being a billionaire but are seemingly quite content for this club to continue as it is – owned by a billionaire who couldn’t give a shit about the club.
If you want to talk about morals, look a little closer to the contrast in their attitudes towards this football club.
Waste of time. The only way KSE sell is if Arsenal get relegaged
Relegated even
Relegaged is what happened to Troy Deeney last year. What a shame those annoying twats (yes, I don’t like Watford) have bounced back up. Hopefully we can send them all back down again. To the Earth’s core.
Are we being delusional? Will we ever see Arsenal part fan based owned again? I can’t see anyone who’s wealthy enough to buy a club outright want to share decision making of his millions or billions, unless it’s a consortium who needs to raise funds.
No we won’t. We need to get over emotional pie in the sky and look at this situation objectively. Nobody negotiates with a mob, the ESL debacle has shown the Kronkes a lesson and they’ve said they will learn from it. Rather owners that admit their mistakes and learn from it than burn the whole thing down for a dodgy bald guy and three ex players with huge egos who’ve never done anything for this club since they stopped playing. Couldn’t even be asked to turn up at the Legends matches, I remember a whole lot of moaning about that… Read more »
A lot of scepticism – which is understandable and also a lot of downright negativity on here. Here’s a few facts on the matter, that we should, as Arsenal fans, look upon as being positive. Henry, Bergkamp and Vieira have, (individually never mind collectively)more experience of the game than any of us will ever have. They also love The Arsenal as much as we do. Ek has used his business acumen to make more money than 99.9% of us reading this will ever make. He too loves The Arsenal as much as we do. Nothing is certain in this world.… Read more »
*Cardiff 03
Although it seems like nothing could be worse than KSE, it absolutely could be. A leveraged buy-out of the club, whereby the new owners take out debt to finance the purchase and then load that debt onto the club ala Man U, would be infinitely worse in terms of our ability to compete on the pitch, and absolutely must be avoided at all costs. If someone like Ek wants to buy the club and has the actual money to do so, great. I’ll be the first to tell Stan and Josh not to let the door hit them on the… Read more »
Ek doesn’t have the money so it would be a leveraged debt. There’s no way this deal would benefit Arsenal.
We’re up to our arse in debt anyway.
Thanks to Kroenke, we STILL haven’t finished paying off the ‘new’ stadium.
Plus all those little loans of his that we need to repay for Partey, Auba’s new contract, Pepe, etc etc etc.
The whole fucking planet is up to it’s arse in debt – why should we presume to be any different?
America – the planet’s most affluent nation is also the planet’s biggest debtor. Just let that sink in…
No we’re not. The debt that Arsenal is carrying is small in the scheme of things and in the context of other clubs. The debt was also restructured and we’ll have money for transfers this summer. Why would anybody think that a guy who needs a leveraged buyout to “buy” a football club is a good idea? Covid has cost Arsenal a huge amount of money, but we’re still in a better place than a lot of other clubs.
A Big “YES”
Any serious investor would just wait for the Kroenke to dilute the team even further and get a better bargain in the future.
At least if this bid goes through then we won’t have to suffer anymore pain from owners who knowingly let the club fall into disrepair and so easily allow vulture executives to siphon money in expensive ways for 2+ years.
They are incompetent. They would not survive in any other business
Reality is amazing. From invincibles we became top 4 trophy seekers. We Then dropped to Europa and now we won’t even be in Europe next year. arteta is killing the youngsters with his prejudice favourites like Willian and ceballos.