Ahead of Arsenal’s AGM today, Stan Kroenke has reiterated that he has no intention of selling his majority stake in Arsenal.
Alisher Usmanov, the Gunners second-largest shareholder, attempted to purchase the American’s 67% shareholding earlier this year by offering over £1 billion. The Moscow-based billionaire’s effort to take control at the Emirates was dismissed out of hand and even met with a counter-offer. Another bid from a third party was also ignored.
Speaking to the Telegraph’s Jeremy Wilson with his son, Josh, the American tycoon insists he will be involved at the Emirates for the long-term, that he loves the club and that he’s not sitting on his investment as a means of getting richer.
Worrying stuff if, like the AST, you’re particularly concerned about the governance of the club.
“We get into these things [sports clubs] to try to grow them.” Kroenke explains. “You don’t see us selling things. You just don’t. We are committed long-term.”
Asked if a sale was ever on the cards, he continued: “No. Absolutely not. That’s just not our model.
“I’m at a stage in life where…what good does that do? I love Arsenal, love being involved with Arsenal. There no finer feeling than going out and winning like we did with the FA Cup.”
Just to make it utterly clear he doesn’t need the money that might come with a sale, he added: “There’s so many easier ways to make money, I can assure you. Much, much easier.”
Josh Kroenke, non-executive director at Arsenal, also touched on the decision to offer Arsene Wenger a new two-year contract in the summer, despite the club’s failure to win the league title since 2004.
“It’s easy to change coaches and people do it all the time,” he said.
“With clear-headedness, calmness, thinking for the long-term rather than the short-term. An easy answer is to do something. It’s harder not to do something. We have dealt with this a lot in different organisations and we just think that Arsene is doing a great job and he’s the right guy.
“Both sides have to get comfortable as they move forward, not just us. I’m sure he was thinking through if he wants to go on. We have a lot of respect for Arsene – we are not going to be pushy about things. I think he treated us with respect as well.”
Nice sound bite, but it’s literally not true, is it? pic.twitter.com/YaNSi14fTO
— Tim Stillman (@Stillberto) October 26, 2017
There’s nothing unusual about the upper echelons at Arsenal granting an interview on the eve of the AGM. In the past, Sir Peter Hill-Wood, Ivan and Sir Chips have done likewise. It’s all about controlling the media message before some potentially feisty questions from supporters this morning.
On the subject of fans, Kroenke Sr had this to say. “Sports fans are wonderful. They are rabid. That’s the good news. They are rabid.
“That’s the bad news. They are passionate, always have opinions and they are certainly entitled to them. The only part I worry about is how it affects the players and the coaching staff. It can have a deleterious effect on that group and that’s the last group you want it to have a bad effect upon.
“There’s going to be a percentage that really don’t like you. Thankfully, most people are in the middle. I run into fans all of the time, they are always interested in the club and I love chatting to them. I can be in the mountains in the summer and someone can come up to me and they will say: ‘Do you think you will get a striker signed?’”
If it was you who met Stan at the top of a mountain, do get in touch. We’d love to know what he had to say.
So what do we make of all this? Well, quite frankly, there’s nothing particularly surprising about anything the pair of them have said here. Ivan might as well have been whispering the answers into Stan’s ear. It’s the usual platitudes.
Actions speak louder than words Mr Kroenke…and we notice your nickname is still ‘Silent Stan’.
Looks like your fucking consortium bullshit was nothing more than a pipe dream. Usmanov would’ve been far better anyway. Fuck you arseblog.
gripping the thickness here
This guys is, as well as being a cunt, a businessman and no businessman would sell a profit engineering cash cow like arsenal until it’s been well and truly milked.
I just wish we’d seen the negative impact Stan has had on his other businesses before he got his claws into us. You would have thought somebody might of checked to see… But we were all too busy pissing our pants that Usmanov – a guy who always promised to invest – might come in and takeover.
“It’s easy to change coaches and people do it all the time,” – Is it really? Last time I checked, I am fairly sure it is much much easier to sit there and literally do nothing at all. ‘I love Arsenal, love being involved with Arsenal.’ – That’s why I am never there, and I never ever say anything in public, and I don’t invest any money into it. – ‘I run into fans all of the time, they are always interested in the club and I love chatting to them. I can be in the mountains in the summer… Read more »
He means mountains here in his adopted state of colorado. I’ve had the displeasure of meeting him and josh at charity functions- neither of them like me much because I carry a camera.
Did you ask him about buying a striker?
I’d prefer neither and would dream of a businessman who cared about Arsenal as well as football to buy out majority shares.
Here’s hoping Flamini becomes a billionaire and buys out Arsenal.
Take two aspirin and have a lie down in a dark room, there’s a good chap.
“We are committed long-term” means make me an offer I can’t refuse and I’ll fuck right off
Usmanov did that in the summer. He basically offered him 2/1 on his original investment and he said no…. I cant see him being bought out.
Yeah, sorry man. I should have bought the club when I had the chance.
I know what i’d like to do if i met stan at the top of a mountain….
… while I’m sure it would be immensely enjoyable in the short term, such a decision would leave his son in charge.
Now I have no idea if that would be worse, but I’m certain it wouldn’t be better.
I think Shambles would do nothing if he met Stan on a mountain, for it is always harder to do nothing then kick the shit out of an absolute cunt.
Argghhhhhhghhgghhhhhhhhh.
Sing an a cappella rendition of “the hills are alive with the sound of music?”
“High on a hill was a lonely goat herd…”
Ask him why they named all those countries in the Middle East after him?
That’s Central Asia, numbnut.
Ah, A P or “Asexual Prick” to friends. Apologies, geography not my strong point, everyone has blind spots. Like you with logic, reason and not being a pedantic little gobshite.
Don’t think there’s any country called cuntistan
Sing the lumberjack song in suspenders and a bra?
I heard from a reliable source that he hates acapellas. In fact, he was once quoted saying, “acapellas make me wanna jump off a cliff”. Soo…..
Get into a barrell each and roll down the mountain?
You wouldn’t do anything. Keyboard warriors never do.
But they sign one hell of an online petition…
Ask Brian Blessed who we should buy in January?
Create a new Magna Carta for squirrels?
Ask if it ever gets a bit Brokeback on his ranch?
It was me on the mountain. He said we’re fucked mate, we peaked years ago ?
I met them up at the Rockies too last Fall. He was a bit far from me though so I shouted, “Hey, that extension was a mountainous decision, no?” He coughed and whispered something in Josh’s ear. Josh yelled back,” Lookie here youngin, that there was a mole hill.”
“Arsene is doing a great job and he’s the right guy…there’s no finer feeling than going out and winning like we did in the FA Cup” The funny thing is, even while enjoying the FA Cup celebrations in May, part of me niggled at the fact one of the few occasions Stan has turned up at a match and he looks around and witnesses loud, euphoric, Arsenal fans belting out songs in all their glory. For an American with little knowledge of the game, it really must have looked like a SuperBowl win to him. Wenger really couldn’t have finessed… Read more »
I think that would’ve been potentially countered by the fact huge sections of the fans were chanting ‘Get out of our club,’ the chants were huge.
“We are committed long-term”. The most depressing thing I have read regarding The Arsenal this century.
Exactly my reaction too 🙁
He is right about easier ways to make money. Football clubs’ turnover is huge, but the profit it makes is little in comparison to any international successful company. Banks (not even well known ones), telecommunication companies, pharma, retail companies have much MUCH larger profits. Fact.
Sure, but that’s because the companies you mentioned are all value companies, not growth companies. “Sports entertainment” has shown tremendous growth over the last two decades and it’s not projected to slow down. This is why you see all football clubs reinvest all their money into the team. If you project less growth you maximize your profits. Sports entertainment is a great diversifier to his other business (real estate), which throws off more cash than he knows what to do with.
Selling stuff is a piece of piss, so I’d really love to know how I could make a ton of money more easily than selling my PS4. Please do share, Stan as I’d like more money.
When you’ve already got a load of money then there’s lots of ways of making much more money, much more easily.
The first billion is always the hardest.
Unless you marry it.
I didn’t meet him on top of a mountain but I did call him a cock at the Emirates on Tuesday evening. My boy was chosen as a flag waver and part of it was to watch the teams arrive at the stadium. First to arrive was Stan. It was hard to resist shouting fuck off you wanker or similar but I knew we’d get thrown out and ruin my boy’s evening. So I did the old ‘disguise’ a word with a cough thing. Childish I know, but I got a lot of satisfaction and the adults laughed while their… Read more »
It was me that met him up at mountain, a mountain of bullsh*t
Yep. This club won’t be progressing for a very long time. We have Spurs who have moved ahead of us. Next it’ll be liverpool and who knows Everton. We are done as a big club. The next couple of years will show it.
These idiots talk about their ‘model’. They’ve turned all the sports teams they own into failures – that’s their model.
Yep, it’d be easier to invest in them if their other teams were successful
who would have thought a guy who owns a business, is treating it as such. Really baffles me how people think that Kroenke is an exception from owners of other clubs. He has successfully found a way to use a minimal amount of money, and at the same time get decent results, which is much more sustainable for a club of our stature, as we dont generate the revenue (have the financial means of other pl top clubs), to be able to sustain ourselves if we were to compete at the highest level for a longer period of time. And… Read more »
Firstly we make a lot more money and are a bigger club than Spurs. Secondly even if a new Pochettino is/was available the board would overlook him because we have done and we will continue to stick by Wenger. Thirdly Spurs have put a structure in place with Daniel Levy to be less dependent on the manager and to handle contracts, transfers etc to allow the manager to do well at what he is best at. We are fully dependent on Wenger and have no one to stand up to him, and even worse we are making no plans not… Read more »
I think there is only one English club–Man United–that generates more revenue (and that, significantly more) than Arsenal from football.
Just confirms what we already knew.
We’re stuck with this pr*ck.
None of his franchises win anything so getting an FA Cup must have been a wonderful surprise for him.
Shame that he doesn’t realise the PL and CL are the more prestigious and difficult to achieve and he is encouraged to aim for those.
So there are easier ways of making money, than buying a healthy club and sucking the supporters money until they are bored of football and life? Name me one Mr Arsenal-since-my-birth! Also, how Wenger is a long term solution? How old is he? And if he is why didn’t you gave him a 20 year contract? Ohhhh, at least we have our Eddies and our Jacks to look forward…
If you already have loads of money then there’s a big list of things you can do to make much more…
I doubt it, he’s more than doubled his money in 10 years at a time when keeping his money in the bank would have brought him probably 1% a year and done absolutely nothing to achieve it.
You’d be wrong then. Investing his money wisely in property (his main business) would have had much better returns.
Investing wisely in Banking, shares etc. would all have gained as much over that length of time.
Really anyone that has a billion plus would never consider just leaving their money in the bank.
That’s what people with very little spare money do.
I wouldn’t be wrong, he’s parked his money in Arsenal and more than doubled it with no effort whatsoever and not a single further penny invested out of his own pocket. There isn’t an easier way to more than double your money then doing nothing, even if there are outlier examples of even more exaggerated returns by doing nothing.
He literally hasn’t had to do anything, even the main driver of growth(the TV deal) is dealt with by third party. The only requirement was not to get relegated, which given our resources would have require serious levels of mismanagement.
How the flying fuck is keeping Wenger a ‘long-term’ decision what the fuck? It’s a fucking short-term decision you twat. These cunts obviously have no long-term plans. Just snakes that think a bit of PR and a candid interview will diffuse some of the anger towards their inept, coward management
So how does agm actually work? Looks more like a press conference than a meeting.
“If it was you who met Stan at the top of a mountain, do get in touch. We’d love to know what he had to say.”
He said “please don’t push me off the mountain, I’m too rich to die”
What a cunt.
Heartbreaking at the thought of generations of slimy money suckling kroenke’s, balls deep in the arsenal.
It speaks.
“We get into these things [sports clubs] to try to grow them.” Kroenke explains. Hmmm…ok, fair enough. But Stan, can you name just one sports club that you own that has actually grown sporting wise since you started owning them? You know, as in become more competitive? I also firmly believe that his full (unedited) comment later given was: “There’s no finer feeling than going out and winning like we did with the…er…with…er….with the….um…(quickly glaces down at the PR office prepared notes)…with the FA Cup…yes the FA Cup. Yup, no finer feeling…Well except finishing the transfer window in large profit….Or… Read more »
Interesting that you think he was referring to sport when he said he wants to grow them. He’s a businessman talking about a business, not a sport.
True. But surely to grow a long term sports business, you will at some stage have to grow the sport. For us dropping out of the CL hurts business wise. Dropping out of the EL would also hurt…& so on. There’s only so much growth that can occur within sports clubs without actually winning something.
Well he did mention winning the FA Cup (success of a sort) and we’re nowhere near dropping out of the PL (despite the doomsday moaners), so not a great problem there.
There is an enormous potential for commercial growth though, and only when we’re very good at that, will team success be the only remaining option for the clubs business growth.
How did kroenke make it out alive being in the mountains with a fan and all?
This is a positive. I think they have finally started feeling the heat – both from other parties trying to buy their stake and widespread fan hatred. Of course they still hold all the cards and it will be a long while before we can be rid of their vile presence.
One of my favourite quotes applies to this situation perfectly.
“I don’t believe what you say because I see how you act.”
As an American when I hear this I get the same sick to my stomach feeling that I get whenever I think about 3.5 more years of Trump.
Hopefully it is 7.5 more years. MAGA
“We get into these things [sports clubs] to try to grow them.” Grow how? Bar moving the Rams back to LA he hasn’t really grown any of his American sports clubs – the Nuggets are mediocre at best and haven’t, reached the play offs for years and have the lowest average attendance in the NBA, the Rapids are now one of worst sides in the MLS, and the Avalanche are hardly tearing up trees in the NHL and have seen a decline in attendances (from 17k in 15/16 to 14.8k in 16/17). Also, I really don’t like being called “rabid”,… Read more »
He’s a business man, so WHF has the team being successful got to do with growing a team?
Even considering the Rams situation, it probably remains to be seen whether the move will have a positive impact on the team’s prospects in the future, plus he now has an entire city (St. Louis) who have him on their list of least favorite people.
The Rams were originally in Cleveland (I think), then went to LA, then St Louis, and now back to LA. For everyone in St Louis that hates him, there’s a person in LA that likes him (OK, doesn’t hate him 😀 )
“There no finer feeling than going out and winning like we did with the FA Cup.” How about winning the league once in 13 years for a change?
Kroenke’s mountain of lies! Smh.
The last time I ran into a Stan Kroenke fan it was at a Blackjack table. He hit on a 14 while looking at a dealer 5. He busted, I then pulled 15 on a double down and the dealer, of course pulled a 17. Had everything pushed a card His wife wins, he wins, my wife wins, my double down wins.
IE Stan Kroenke fans are the a-holes that ruin everything for the sake of the house’s take thru their own stupidity, misguided selfishness, and ignorance.
Soylent Stan is a more fitting nickname these days.
As to the issue of ownership, I’m disppointed he rejected my third party offer of $1.
This man is a crook (crooked stan)man thats only interested in milking the club.