Ahead of Arsenal’s final game of the season, Arsenal Co-Chair Josh Kroenke reaffirmed KSE’s commitment to moving Arsenal forward.
The club’s owners have played a proactive role in bankrolling transfer business in recent windows and it’s expected they will do the same this summer as the Gunners look to create a squad capable of challenging for honours on several fronts.
Having tied down the majority of Mikel Arteta’s stars to new long-term contracts, the club’s wage bill is expected to jump significantly when the next set of financial figures are announced.
At the same time, they will benefit from a significant increase in TV revenue following a second successive title challenge and a run to the Champions League quarter-finals.
“To be fighting for the Premier League title on the final day of the campaign is a testament to the hard work, drive and determination of everyone at the club,” said Kroenke in a message shared on the club’s website and official matchday programme.
“So, too, is the fact we reached the Champions League quarter-final for the first time in 14 years and made it back-to-back Champions League qualifications for the first time in seven years.”
He added: “While we are undoubtedly proud of the progress we have made, I want to be clear that no one at the club will stand still…we’re all working behind the scenes to move us forward – always forward – again.
“There is so much that we want to achieve, both at home and in Europe, and we are focused on writing some exciting new stories and chapters that build on the history of Arsenal Football Club.
“There have been so many stories and milestones across the season, shaped by so many of our players. We have all enjoyed seeing our summer signings flourish into being Arsenal players and we’re delighted that a number of players have committed to new contracts to keep this squad together, fighting on all fronts.
“We want to continue to forge that winning mentality that runs so deeply throughout the club.”
After a rocky period in the years immediately following Arsene Wenger’s departure, the Gunners have benefitted from stability in its upper echelons.
Today, a new phase begins with Richard Garlick moving into a more prominent Managing Director role and CEO Vinai Venkatesham leaving the club.
Garlick joined Arsenal from the Premier League in 2021 and worked closely with Edu as Director of Football Operations. It’s unclear exactly how roles and responsibilities will now be divvied up but there remains a level of continuity with Tim Lewis operating as KSE’s eyes and ears on the ground.
In the short term, Arsenal hope to hit the ground running on the transfer front. The club is targeting forward and midfield recruits and a replacement for Aaron Ramsdale. Several other fringe players are expected to depart.
Speaking to The Athletic, Edu reflected on the work that has been done to make the squad as competitive as possible.
“Every season and every window we are striving. We are always looking to add quality and improve the elements that were missing,” said the Brazilian.
“When we started we signed a lot of different characters to build a good foundation. Then we brought in players like Gabriel Jesus and Alex Zinchenko to bring special impact. Then we started the next push which was needed with the new signings last summer.
“As soon as you understand what you need and get the support of the club you really feel that is going to increase the performance of the team.
“Also we have renewed 100 per cent of the players we wanted to renew. Players don’t want to leave anymore, which makes my life easier. We changed the dynamic. Players want to be at a place where they can challenge for big things. They love it.”
He added: “You see how people work every single day and how much they want it, and you start to believe that something special is happening here. You start to evolve the squad, you have to start bringing in players, and that’s very contagious.
“As sporting director I love what I do and I want to do more. I want to be better. I have to think about next season and how we can do even better. Even if we do win this title, let’s go for more. I love what I do every single day when I sit in here, trying to improve and looking after the staff, talking to people. It’s energising, it gives me fuel. The team is challenging, the club is healthy, and the sense of family is back.”
I know we always say “next year will be our year” but this time, next year will really be our year. COYG!
And Rodri is going to regret those “mentality” comments, I’ll tell you that for free.
We’re already living rent free in his head
What did he say?
Said we didn’t have the mentality of champions …
Man cheaty bottled against us dint they?
There are already 115 reasons why he’s a cunt, what did he think he needed another one for?
Well I’d be putting that up on the dressing room wall next season. He’s done us a favour. About time refs actually booked this fouling prick. He only gets a red on production of a death certificate.
And at least Declan didn’t hurt his little baby legs by running around a wittle bit and ask Daddy Waddy for a resty resty. Awwww.
“Ooh my legsies hurted!”
Pathetic.
He’s written our next few team talks against Manchester Cheaty, that’s for sure
Hopefully someone will do a job on that gimp, nasty turd
I fucking hate that asshole since forever but now our players hate him too. Thanks for making our pre-match talk for us, I guess.
Pin that up in the dressing room next season. Thanks you giant arsed bellend.
I believe sure next year we will make it
I like the sound of this. Let’s buy big and clever to let us challenge even harder next season!
It will be difficult to beat Pep managed City, but yeah I get the source of your optimism.
I feel no optimism whatsoever regarding Pep and his Merry Band of Cheaters. They have grown into a fucking cancer of the PL.
“We have renewed 100 per cent of the players we wanted to renew”
Given that Ramsdale signed a new deal last summer, I do wonder what’s going to happen this window. There was no imperitive for the club to offer him an extension on improved terms, and whilst Raya being no1 suggests the writing is on the wall for Aaron, I do wonder.
He’s gonna be sold. And hopefully for three times the amount quoted in the tabloid rag
I loved Ramsdale when he arrived. His impact was huge in so many ways but the one thing that let him down IMO was his tendency towards being too cocky which led to mistakes that punished us. My hope was he’d grow out of it but he didn’t and with Raya’s arrival that was that. He’s a good keeper and he deserves better than to be sidelined but it’ll have to be somewhere else. It’s time to move on now. Let’s make a tidy sum when he’s sold and put it towards the needed strengthening of the team. New players… Read more »
I think we should go for someone better than Raya. How about tempting City with a cheeky 40Mn bid for Ortega?
My God, you really won’t leave the Raya thing alone, ever. How many times have you seen Ortega to make you think he is a better fit for Arsenal?
He’s a troll. Don’t reply to the cunt. Keep urging Blogs to fuck him off out of here.
Yeah, I used to think he was an unstable Arsenal fan with a Ramsdale tattoo, but he’s just a troll.
Apart from the obvious objection (WHY?), maybe because there are somewhere around 115 reasons why they don’t have sell anyone unless they want to?
I think Ramsdale’s new deal was genuinely meant as a show of faith / reward and Arteta would have been happy to play the season with him, but late in the window a market opportunity appeared for a player we’d already thoroughly scouted and believed to be better.
For a man of his money, that’s a shocker of a beard from Josh, in that photo
Get down the barbers on the Holloway Road and get it trimmed son. It’s straggly
Was actually admiring it, it’s somewhere between Big Lebowski and the beard-stroking Pai Mei from Kill Bill. If I were a billionaire why not at least be a hipster billionaire.
Ming the Merciless from Flash Gordon.
Oh christ and Alan Watts, that’s the Alan Watts beard one for one. No wonder he’s so zen and patient with his managers
https://cdn.britannica.com/34/252434-050-0216EA32/Alan-Watts.jpg
What I find funny is his resemblance to the armie hammer character in ‘sorry to bother you’
I like it. Strong Ashurbanipal vibes.
You have been playing Civ V for far too long 🙂
He’s actually cut it down; it used to be much longer and really did have a Brooklyn hipster vibe, rather than Sam’s Club. He’s also 6’4″ which adds to the look. Billionaires are an inherently dangerous species (I wish England had the German ownership model) but I suppose, all things considered, we could have done a lot worse.
We all dislike billionaires, and we should, but as far as billionaires go there are really much, much worse ones than the Kroenkes.
So, you dislike the Kroenkes?
Only inasmuch as they belong to the categorisation of “billionaires” which i dislike as a whole. Within that categorisation I dislike them the least amount possible, and if they cease to be billionaires I will no longer dislike them (though ironically I might then dislike their ownership of the football club i support)
That’s dumb. You might as well dislike Arsenal as a football club, as it is worth $2.2bn.
you obviously haven’t understood a single thing I said, nor the fact that this is all kind of a joke, and yet you talk about dumb, heh
When they first came in I feared we would be left to coast along 5th place at best… like Sp*rs.
But once the Kroenkes saw the benefit of investing in Mikel’s project they have gone all in. I couldn’t ask for much more.
For sure–I hadn’t read down this far when I said something similar.
Stan is fairly benign as far as “people with more money than billions of people combined” go. It’s his wife’s family who are evil. They’ve done more to destroy small business in America than almost anyone. And all the while treating their employees horribly when they really don’t need to. Be glad you don’t have the abomination of Walmart near you, sucking the life out of your small towns economies.
yeah I mean that’s pretty much it, even if you’re a fairly classy person who doesn’t actively harm people, to have accumulated that sort of wealth you must have at the very least indirectly/unintentionally stepped on a lot of people AND networked regularly with people much worse than that and probably forged business relationships with them, essentially making you an accomplice. So as much as there’s nothing about them that seems directly indecent, there will always be some indirectly sketchy stuff when you’re talking about holding the sort of wealth most middle class people wouldn’t earn in 100 lifetimes.
I’d say Josh, not so much Stan. Josh seems to take a very active interest, and pride, in Arsenal’s performance. His taking the reins off his father coincided with our upturn and the exec clear out after a pretty dire slide under Stan’s watch when Arsenal seemed little more than portfolio filler. Whatever has put the fire in the younger man, long may it continue.
We should focus our attention on the LCM spot to confirm Kai’s move to striker, with Jorginho and Partey as very experienced backups, then look to move on and improve on ¾ of our squad options who, regardless of talent, haven’t played enough to be relied upon: Vieira, Nketiah, Nelson and, sadly, Emile Smith Rowe. Alongside a statement CM I can see us making a signing from a lower team to fill the homegrown quota (Eze, Gibbs-White, Olise etc) then probably one more Raya-esque surprise, maybe at Left Back or Winger. What I really don’t want to see is another… Read more »
My support of Arsenal since the mid sixties has never been conditional on them winning anything and for years at a time they won nothing.
From the outside two other thing strike me; the club have never been so together both men and women and how lucky we are to have American owners who, fortunately, seem to be a country mile from the ‘know nothing about football’ lunatic at Chelsea for instance.
Cough superleague Cough
That was American ignorance, not knowing what makes a football club tick. They were chasing money and it is not about that for the fans.
“From the know nothing about football lunatic at Chelsea”..
😂 Love it!
Micah ‘laughs at potatoes’ Richards and other smug, deluded Citeh fans saying they want the PL to hurry up, so they can put the 115 allegations to bed
Here’s a thought. How about City actually cooperate with the investigation then? Dozens of those charges are for refusing to cooperate.
Start there, you fucking clowns.
Great insight from Edu. Just like Arteta he’s Arsenal through and through. Both working hard to bring silverware to this great club next season. COYG !
Sad to see Vinai go. Seemed a decent guy and had to do the apologising on behalf of the owners decision to other clubs in the Premier League in addition to being the face of the decision to the fans, when he was just the CFO.
As CEO we made strides, he certainly aided that period of stability and backed up Garlick in that difficult period where we had to renegotiate around 20 contracts.