Arsenal fans have come together to express their concerns over the direction of the football club and dissatisfaction with the way it’s being run by Stan Kroenke.
A statement released this morning reads:
As Arsenal fans we have watched with frustration as the team’s football performances have declined over the past decade. When Stan Kroenke began buying Arsenal shares the club had just competed in a first Champions League final. Twelve years on, Arsenal are about to play in the Europa League for the third year running.
Off the pitch, fans have never felt more marginalised, less listened to or valued. This was sadly illustrated when Stan Kroenke forcibly bought out the last remaining supporter-shareholders without even a word of appreciation for their custodianship role in the club. It feels as though Arsenal is at a crossroads. Things need to change.
What all of us as signatories to this statement want to see is meaningful action by Stan Kroenke to reinvigorate our football club.
This requires work to strengthen the club’s board and football executive and to once again make Arsenal a place where fans have a real sense of belonging. Change needs to start with better leadership.
In his takeover document Stan Kroenke said: ‘KSE’s ambitions for the club are to see it competing consistently to win the Premier League and the Champions League.’
We see little evidence of how this is to be achieved.
Instead, our club feels like an investment vehicle, personified by the owner’s statement that he didn’t buy Arsenal to win trophies. It is sad that an institution like Arsenal FC has such passive ownership. All of us want to see a clear sense of purpose and direction. KSE should start by being more open and accountable and explain how they intend to achieve the goal of winning the game’s major trophies.
If Stan Kroenke is going to be absent from London he needs to make sure the board he delegates to is fit for purpose. There is a desperate need for some new and dynamic appointments. The addition of independently-minded directors can act as a genuine check and balance on the owner. Ideal candidates would have football and commercial expertise relevant to the needs of a football club in 2019, and ideally some ‘Arsenal DNA’.
Arsenal have invested money in recent years, but their approach to both buying players and paying wages looks uncoordinated and appears to lack strategy. There has also been a lot of turnover in the senior football personnel. A strong board would be proactively managing this.
On a matchday the Emirates Stadium can be a soulless place. The atmosphere is poor and there are thousands of empty seats blighting almost every game. If Arsenal really cared they would make sure seats weren’t left empty by investing in an improved ticketing system and actively supporting initiatives like safe standing. The club uses the strapline ‘Always ahead of the game’. It would be good to see action to demonstrate this.
Finally, the very fabric of football in England and across Europe is at threat from proposals for a European Super League.
These moves are driven by the greed of a few so-called elite clubs who want guaranteed entry into top-level European competition every year. Why care if you finish fifth or lower if automatic qualification is guaranteed? Arsenal and the other clubs involved should understand that fans do not want more meaningless group stage fixtures designed only to rake in more broadcast and ticketing revenue. You could call it the ‘franchisation’ of European Football. Arsenal should immediately clarify they will have no part in this.
As Arsenal Supporters, we care deeply. We would like to hear from our club and see actions that demonstrate that they do too. The first opportunity comes when the Managing Director and Head of Football speak to invited supporters on July 25th. We urge them to address the issues raised here.
Signatories
7amkickoff
Arseblog
Arsenal Armed Forces Supporters Club
Arsenal Supporters’ Trust (AST)
Black Scarf Movement (BSM)
Highbury Library
Highbury Squad
Hugh Wizzy
Gooner Fanzine
Goonerholic
Gunners Town
Gunnerblog
Le Grove
REDACTION
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon
You Are My Arsenal Blog
I am all in support for this. I am in Arsenal’s fan club group in Kenya, it would be nice to get international fan groups involved with this and have a statement from all countries with fan groups.
We want to feel good about our beloved Arsenal.
We want a sense of direction and purpose.
#wecaredoyou?
COYG!
It would be great if there was a website or petition where all Arsenal fans from around the world could register their support for the sentiments in this letter. Hopefully it could be the start of a fully-fledged pressure campaign.
See here – https://secure.avaaz.org/en/community_petitions/Enos_Stanley_Kroenke_-_Owner_Arsenal_Football_Club_fans_unite_in_warning_to_owner_Stan_Kroenke_WeCareDoYou/ …
J. Archer signed the petition just before I did. He’s obviously taken time off from celebrating the World Cup win.
Getting support from official Arsenal Supporters Clubs could be a great initiative. There’s list of them on the website with contacts, so shouldn’t be a trouble:
https://www.arsenal.com/fanzone/arsenal-supporters-clubs
I was the 16-21 year old rep some years ago and the meetings were primarily just Ivan spouting off the same bullshit soundbites he did at press conferences. A few positive changes were made but very little genuine progress occurred. Perhaps different now he’s gone but always felt like something he felt he had to do rather than wanted to. Wouldnt be surprised if the entire thing was scrapped now we’re privately owned.
Should have contacted ALL official supporters clubs and asked them to be signatories as well.
At the moment it looks like a ‘cosy club’ has written.
Well that is a very considered and thoughtful letter. And I’d like to believe it would get a positive response.
Frankly, I don’t think it will. And Kronke – as the letter implies – couldn’t care one way or the other.
But he would start to care, if we get to the situation – and we MIGHT, this coming season – where every home match is the scene of a protest against the owner.
That is the risk he runs if he ignores this.
Which works better? An empty stadium or protests? Wenger out fans had been going at it for seasons yet i like to think it was the thousand of empty seats at each home game towards the end of le Prof’s time that actually was the death knell. It couldn’t be drowned out by counter protests or simply ignored by media.
Protests like Loserpool may work but it’s doubtful with Kronke. He doesn’t care what we think of him or how he uses our club.
The only other way to get him to let go of the club is for fans to stop going to games, stop buying merchandise and make Arsenal not worth owning.
If Arsenal becomes not worth owning who else is going to buy it and invest?
Fans
There would always be someone willing to buy a big club. It just needs to be a) someone with a passion for the sport (or winning) and b) someone willing to let those who know better run the club.
After what he did to St Louis i don’t think this will have any impact with Stan
Do you think Stan and Josh would care?
Josh cares…but people who hate Stan want to overlook it…I’m not saying he goes to bed at night in his Arsenal jimjams under an Arsenal duvet like Jenko, but at least he turned up in Baku and is at the training ground and will doubtless be at the match later.
No
Excellent statement and full support, but I would have personally included a sentence referring to our abysmal performance in gaining value from the transfer market. Buying and selling, contract value – it’s all been shambolic and I might have called it out explicitly. But you’re all more than right in that this is bigger than transfers (though budget is a huge concern), the statement articulates our milieu as a club, as an institution – we are at a cross-roads and this (sadly) needed to be said. Thank you all for that and I’m 100% behind this statement.
Well that should do it. Job done.
Great move, well worderded, to the pont, interested to see what they say
Hmm I wonder what silent Stan will have to say..
Silence.
I think sadly it’s going to have to come to sustained protest. I can’t see KSE even acknowledging this letter, but who knows… we live in hope!
I’m in Zambia. It hurts to see the direction that the club has taken. When the new stadium was built there was genuine excitement. We were told for a while the club would have to tighten their belts as loans had to be repaid. A decade and a half later it feels like what was supposed to be a transition period has become eternity. The disrespect that KSE is showing the fan base is disgusting. I say let us all Arsenal fans unite and save the football club that we all dearly love. What was Championship challenging team has moved… Read more »
Every match at the Emirates should be a KroenkeOUT protest. He has no place at out club. The letter is too mild in my opinion. We need to take action to hurt his revenue stream. I for one will not be being the new beautiful adidas shirt this season.
Well no place at our club apart from the £1bln he has spent purchasing it you mean.
This is the only course of action that will make a difference. Outright boycott.
I support you without any reservation. We shouldn’t continue to have heartache because of inaction in transfer business and poor games caused by average team
I won’t be buying it either. However there shouldn’t even be fans showing up in stands on match days. Boycott the bloody thing; and protest outside the stadium instead.
A lot easier to say when it’s not you spending £1200+ on a season ticket not to use it.
Well here’s an idea, don’t buy the tickets mate. That’s a financial blow to the diaphragm. A language well understood by Stan.
Firstly, there’s a huge waiting list for season tickets. So if you’ve spent 5-10 years on the waiting list then you/we are expecting a lot from this person to then not buy said ticket. Secondly, someone else will then just buy the ticket if you don’t, so basically in order for the seat to remain empty it probably requires someone to buy the ticket the first place…… which is why i originally said it’s a lot easier to say when you/we are not the ones parting with our hard earned cash.
Great stuff. It’s not pleasant being an Arsenal fan at the moment but it’s good to know there’s people out there who want to actively do something to change that.
Perhaps a reference to the famous Ivan Gazidis ‘competing with Bayern’ quote a few years back would have been good to use but regardless, the point is made very eloquently.
Stan Kroenke is a parasite and we as fans deserve better.
Great letter, but the only way to get KSE interested in talking is to have more and more empty seats in the stadium on match day, this is the only language they will listen too. This is not a protest against the team that we love, but the people at the top making decisions … bad ones! This is the only way KSE will listen and change as it is clear $$$ is all they are interested in and our embarrassing transfer situation that we are now in, we are a joke and as an Arsenal fan I am embarrassed… Read more »
Couldn’t agree more. Action is required
Thank you to all the individuals and groups for coming together and putting this out there. All movements need vocal and effective leadership and Arseblog (amongst others) has the loudest voice.
Let’s hope this is the start of something that leads to change. If not forcing KSE out (ideal world), at least forcing them to realise the club is not in a good place.
No disrespect to those who have put out this statement but to be honest it won’t affect kroenke.. This is not the first time we have done this….this won’t work…. We all know how to hit kroenke… Do not buy merchandise,do not come to the stadium on matchdays……the small amount of fans in the stadium can protest……larger amount of fans can protest outside the stadium….the truth is that we need to make the atmosphere worst than what wenger experienced in his last years because kroenke is more stubborn…we need to sacrifice our so called class right now to save our… Read more »
It is a start. I believe of the respond from the board is not satisfactory, there will be more to come than just a letter like this. Just consider this as a warning for them
I believe if the response*
I hope you are right
I do believe, strongly, that this time if things arent getting better until the start of the season especially if we lost a few of the early matches, all hell Will break loose. More than when wenger was still around
Fly the drones- ‘KroenkeOut’
A very articulate letter. PURPOSE and DIRECTION.
Get it sorted our get out of our great club and find yourself another light touch investment vehicle Kroenke!
Not surprising that Kroenke is reluctant to open the chequebook after the previous regime (Gazidis, Wenger, Law, etc.) splashed silly money on Xhaka, Mustafi, and the Ozil contract extension. Spending doesn’t guarantee success. Forking over £100+ million on Laca and Auba didn’t end in CL qualification for us. A few more shrewd transfer windows like last summer (Leno, Torreira, Guendo) and we should be golden
But we’ve lost our golden eye Head of Recruitment who was responsible for identifying most, if not all, of these transfers over boardroom power struggle and disagreement over which direction the club is taking.
A few good transfers won’t take us out of the downward spiral we are currently in, the club is floundering about the place from it’s leadership right down to the team. Until substantial change happens, each new addition (think Edu and any other decent player we sign this window) will simply be putting a sticking plaster on much deeper and more fundamental issues.
Kroenke never opened his cheque book for any players, that from revenue
I hope for a massive anti-Stan support and chant visible and audible to the world when Arsenal play the Colorado Rapids in the preseason; both sets of fans united in their disdain for Stan.
Also I have zero interest in a European Super League. I can safely say I have no interest in arsenal being the perennial whipping boys and probably struggling at the bottom of said league every season, with little chance of actually winning it. That doesn’t interest me at all.
I gave you an upvote just for the new name (the old one was equally good, btw).
Love the new Name change My Cousin Vinai. Very witty!!!
Thanks guys. 🙂
Arsenal is Managed by Idiots
Kroenke is a terrible owner, he could make a few meaningless moves, but that won’t stop him being a terrible owner. He’s too slow to react, and it’s going to take at least another 2 seasons of better decision making to even begin to put us back on track. I’m in favour of self sustainability, all the extra money in the game simply creates mass inflation, and that inflation inevitably falls at the feet on the consumer. We have a revenue that will be at £400+ million this season, and that’s outside the Champions League, and football revenue is incredibly… Read more »
Yeah that’s fair enough but seem to be the only club with this philosophy and where already feeling the inflation. Most expensive match day tickets in the land. I’m not asking for much but just be as ambitious as the wolves Everton of this world?
I am south african based fan so I guess my only way of protesting would be to stop watching and buying merchandise, but I wonder for the fans based in UK who are able to attend matches, wouldn’t it make more of a statement if the team played to empty stadiums?
Unfortunately it just isn’t possible – the ticket prices are exorbitant so those with tickets tend to go to get their monies worth (especially if like me you can only afford the occasional game) and even if us local fans didn’t go they could fill it out with tourists 10x over. On the other hand I have friends who work in the sales department renewing the season tickets and they tell me that the club IS concerned about the response they got this summer. I’m just nihilistic about the whole thing. We got into bed with the wrong people and… Read more »
But is it your money’s worth? Let the ticket sales dwindle.
I am a Bajan Gunner and even all the way her in Barbados we have felt the frustration building over the past 12 years. There needs to be a change in the operations of Arsenal. Get back to the culture of playing beautiful football and smart business deals for developing players and the club. I support this effort 100%.
KSE can do better.
About damn time. I would join the stadium protest too if any if i lived there in London
Imagine Coca-cola. A small group of people invented it and started to excel in its production. It got big, bigger management, bigger share of consumers. After some years it became the mind and sole of some people that they could not imagine living without drinking coca-cola. They kept drinking it. At some points, they only found an empty bottle. Not a problem, they would still drink that empty bottle and hold on to it than anything else. These empty bottles got more, but everyone still longed for that taste, that drink, that joy of having it. Then all of a… Read more »
I quite like Pepsi.
Yep. My choice of the two if I drink the version with sugar.
Sugarfree version though, I prefer Coke.
Pepsi is trash.
Coke rules!
Both shite water
As if Silent Stan gives a shit. A man with a string of mediocre American sports franchises (and married into the Walmart fortune) is strictly in it for the easy money. He will continue to live up to his nickname even as he does nothing.
Thank fuck for this. Well done all of you. Only frustration is that I can’t sign it too.
lol.
I’d be surprised if Stan knew who anyone on that list was.
It’s a great letter although sadly I don’t think it will make a flying fuck off difference. The only thing that will get rid of KSE is when he stops making money out of the club.
This is a good start, and that’s how it has to be viewed… the start. This alone will not work and so it needs to be the first of many steps that get progressively more vociferous and impactful.
I mean it isn’t like we are asking for much. Just a commitment from our owner to live up to the promises he made.
Can you hear that noise? That’s the sound of the horse galloping away in the distance, just as the stable door is being bolted. This statement would have been fine about 5 years ago but now it’s much too late. Stan doesn’t give a flying fuck about Arsenal and our hunger for success. He only wants our money. And that’s why we should not give him any of it. Years of us acting like pussies and just accepting mediocrity has led the Yank to rightly believe that he could take the piss out of us, and so he has done.… Read more »
Jesus, depressing but oh so accurate.
Unfortunately Fats is right, the only way to save the club in the long term is to cause it harm in the short term.
Nothing but absolutely NO fan spending and loud protests will help. I for one love the tension on everything the Arsenal some-team sends out.
Well done!
If English was not my first language I might also have thought H comes before G
Kronke is in it for the money and NOT the fans opinion of him. As sad as it sounds this statement is futile.
Nice letter! But i highly doubt that Kroenke would care reading it.
I think we should look at Liverpool book. How their fans were able to suit Tom Hicks in 2009.
I think our situation is pretty much the same. Kroenke certainly has put his debt into Arsenal. We look like his cash cow.
Welcome development. If no response from the club then the next steps should be not buying the season tickets and then boycotting matches.
Where do I sign?
Hang on….Signed by JuiceJ all the way from South Africa, the state of our club is deplorable, the signings are questionable, the bids for some players are laughable and utterly disappointing to say the least. We showing no ambition whatsoever. Stan and Co. need to get their shit together and now. Newcastle was great at one point and where are they now? Leeds Utd? We need a jerked up team of footballing experts to spot talent and great business minds to ensure these deals are done properly. Mediocrity shouldn’t be appreciated at this club we should rejected it in the… Read more »
Im sorry but the letter is weak. Maybe its a first step, but still weak. It needed fire, it needed threats, it needed plain honesty regarding expectation and reality. These guys have taken us for a joke for far too long. The fact is that the fans have to sacrifice in order for real change to happen but I don’t sense that we are truly ready yet. We need to start with empty home stadiums, stop purchasing arsenal merch, stop buying season tickets whatever it takes but you have to hit them where it hurts to make their head turn… Read more »
Well said. Also, nice to see that the knobheads in aftv are not here to monetize it as well
Like them or not they are a visible part of the fabric of the club now and they reach a lot of people. As much as I like this blog and the podcast, AFTV isn’t evil and they reach a hell of a lot of more people.
99% of whom support rival clubs. They are fuel on the fire of the Arsenal dumpster fire. Not a single true fan despite what people say. Fans don’t profit from decline.
That should be scrapped making us a laughing stock. My mates watch it when there teams lose it makes them feel better about there prospects. And is that fat prick who runs it even an arsenal fan? He seems to be there just for the money and fame, another parasite like kroenke.
Have you gone absolutely mad? They need a boycott too.
AntiArsenal Fuckhead TV have absolutely nothing to do with the fabric of our club. They are idiots with a camera, that is all.
There’s nothing to disagree with in the statement, and it’s certainly worth making. However, Kroenke’s interest in Arsenal is, and always has been, purely as a business. That means a clear focus on the “bottom line”. Unfortunately, there’s very probably more pain to come and, if you haven’t, you should read an excellent report on Arsenal’s financial position on The Arsenal Supporter’s Trust site. I fear we’re stuck with Kroenke’s way of doing (or not doing) things, regardless of any protests.
Doesn’t read very well, does it?
You need AFTV, I know not everybody likes them but they reach a huge audiance
Of mainly Utd fans
If Kronke uses Arsenal as purely an investment vehicle then we should ALL stay away from matches at the Emirates stadium. A big reduction in income would ensure the club are not such a viable investment.
Some May find this harsh but I hope he dies
Jesus
Blasphemer.
I always read Arseblog, and have never posted a message, but I am in full support of this. Our silent owners and clueless board are ruining the club!
The letter is starting to be covered by major media outlets, so good work on being the first spark of what is hopefully a cleansing fire.
Brave words that need to be said. We have fallen over a long period and to be honest, we have become a joke. When you look at the past decade you can clearly see now that it’s been a managed decline by the Kroenke team and it’s made fans like me really bitter. Especially since when it came to Arsene leaving. Instead of celebration of our greatest manager and what he had done for our club. The literal blame stopped at Arsene’s door when it has become clearer since that the owner took advantage of an honourable man who kept… Read more »
Wow. Have not heard many ppl make this point. I was defending Arsene forever while I saw 90% of our fanbase with signs that said #WENGEROUT.. Did we need a new manager/coach and change of style? Maybe.. But I completely agree that his exit was sad, and not enough praise was given at what he did for our club. The Kroenke team may very well be the problem.. BUT I also have to say this.. weve only had Emery one season.. weve got a new technical director… and weve added great KEY pieces in guys like Ghendouzi/Aubu/Lacazette/Toreira…. is there a… Read more »