Win or lose in Saturday’s Champions League final, Josh Kroenke says KSE remain committed to pushing Arsenal forward as they look to cement their place at the summit of English football after ending a 22-year wait for the Premier League title.
The Gunners’ 46-year-old co-chair was present on Sunday alongside his father, Stan, to present the trophy and medals to Mikel Arteta’s squad, a long-awaited moment of vindication after what has at times been a turbulent 19-year relationship between the club and its owners.
With Manchester City staring down the barrel of 115 Premier League charges, Pep Guardiola set to depart, and rivals including Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Sp*rs all in varying states of flux, Kroenke Junior hopes Arsenal’s moment has finally arrived.
“Our stated goal was winning the Premier League, because if you can put yourself in contention for the Premier League, you’re in contention for everything else,” he said this week.
“In one sense, we’ve achieved one goal, with another one on the plate coming on Saturday. Should we get a great result it’s not going to change or affect who we are.
“When you win something, the sun’s still going to come up the next day. You’ve got to get back to work and there are many teams trying to gain on you, including some historically great ones around the Premier League.
“We’re going to look to strengthen because we know teams around us are going to get better. If you’re not trying to continually evolve and improve, you’re standing still.
“We have very strong foundations in place to continue to build and try to sustain.
“Pep is just moving on and even a few years ago, you think back to 2019, 2020 and think, ‘When is our win window going to open?’”
KSE first took a 9.9% stake in the Gunners back in 2007 when they bought out Granada Ventures, although it wasn’t until 2018 that they assumed full control of the club after buying out the remaining shareholders, most notably Alisher Usmanov.
In the years since, they have repeatedly pointed to that takeover as the watershed moment in their ownership, the point at which they finally took full responsibility for the day-to-day running of the club.
It also meant becoming the focus of supporter frustration. In 2019, fan groups and outlets ranging from Arseblog to The Arsenal Supporters’ Trust, The Gooner to Gunners Town, Red Action to Le Grove united in criticism of the way Arsenal was being run under KSE.
The ‘We Care Do You’ open letter covered a broad range of concerns, including the marginalisation of supporters, a lack of accountability at boardroom level, the need for younger voices in leadership positions, failures in the transfer market, poorly handled player contracts, the atmosphere at home matches and the looming threat of a European Super League.
Josh fronted up at the time and, reflecting on the moment this week, said: “That was a big moment for me because that was very deliberate from a supporter standpoint. When I saw it, I understood. But I had already had so much time and energy and emotions invested behind the scenes at that point. I personally wrote the response to that letter. There were competing agendas and it was difficult to unravel.”
If the legs were kicking furiously beneath the surface, it was not always obvious from the outside. Still, the hierarchy recognised Unai Emery was not the right fit and handed Mikel Arteta his first opportunity as a manager.
That’s not to say mistakes weren’t made along the way. The redundancies during the Covid-19 pandemic left a bitter taste, while the club’s involvement in the European Super League quickly became a public relations disaster.
On that episode, Josh said: “We are all humans, we all make mistakes and it is one on a grand scale that really ignited a lot of emotion in people. I spoke to many supporters from different groups and I say this endearingly, fortunately it was in Covid and I was doing it on screen, where they couldn’t throw tomatoes at me. We looked each other in the eyes and hopefully they understand I wasn’t just trying to pay them lip service.”
Since then, KSE have doubled down on their investment, refinancing the Emirates Stadium debt on improved terms while backing significant spending in the transfer market.
As owners of several major American sports franchises, many of which have enjoyed success in recent years, they believe the experience gained across those organisations can benefit Arsenal too.
That appears particularly relevant when it comes to plans for the Emirates Stadium which, after 20 years, has started to lag behind newer arenas both in England and abroad.
While details remain vague, large-scale expansion within the existing footprint feels unlikely. Technological and aesthetic upgrades, however, appear firmly on the agenda.
“I had different comments from people over the years about the walls of Highbury and its character. They’re putting together a plan right now to renovate the Emirates.
“We’re starting these exercises with some of our advisers, but the Emirates has been an amazing stadium for us.
“We took it to a different level this year, that’s credit to Mikel and those players. But there’s some character I want to make sure we’re preserving and bringing back to the ground as well. I think we can do that in a very elegant manner that’s really to the benefit of Arsenal.
“We do this stuff in the States in our facilities and our teams. We take great pride in it so we have a chance to come over and really give the supporters an elevated matchday experience.
“Hopefully sitting here now, people know that we’re really invested emotionally, financially and with time.”
In the short term, once the Champions League final is out of the way, the priority will be tying Arteta down to a new deal. The Spaniard has one year left on his current contract, although Kroenke sounded relaxed about the situation.
“Keeping Mikel around is [the] utmost priority and I think the good news for Arsenal fans worldwide is he’s enjoying the project, he’s enjoying being here and from his time as a player all the way up until now, he’s an Arsenal man through and through.”
For all the resentment and scepticism that defined much of the Kroenke era, the mood around Arsenal feels fundamentally different now. Supporters do not need convincing the owners care, they need proof the ambition will continue to match the rhetoric.
Winning the title has bought KSE enormous goodwill. Delivering sustained success, while preserving the connection between club and supporters that was frayed for so long, is the challenge that comes next.