Saturday, April 20, 2024

Kroenke era begins to bite as cost saving measures demanded

The reality of Arsenal’s 100% ownership by KSE has begun to manifest itself with a communication to all departments asking them to make savings wherever possible.

Arseblog News is aware that an email was sent looking for cost saving measures to be implemented across all areas of the club, and it comes in the wake of news that January transfer funds will be extremely limited.

With the Gunners in need of defensive and attacking recruitment during the transfer window, David Ornstein of the BBC advised that transfer business would most likely come in the shape of loan deals with some cash to spend in the summer.

Chelsea’s Gary Cahill has been mooted as potential addition to help shore up a defence which has been porous, conceding 30 goals in just 20 games this season.

With Aaron Ramsey set to depart on a free transfer in the summer, only a sale this month would add funds to invest in the squad, but there are few options in that regard anyway.

Mesut Ozil does not want to leave the club and finding someone to take his £350,000 a week salary as well as paying a fee would extremely difficult.

It means that if Unai Emery is to achieve Champions League football next season he’s going to have to extract everything he can from an imbalanced squad.

The very best of luck to him, because it seems at this point that January won’t bring us what everyone knows we need.

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Parlour’s Pay Packet

Unpopular opinion but neither of these things comes as a surprise or appears particularly unreasonable to me. It’s natural to come into a business and look at how things can be run more efficiently and where costs can be saved. We have also heard of the clubs committment to a self sustaining model so as long as the money we generate is genuinely available I don’t feel we can gripe that the owner isn’t injecting additional funds, no matter how badly we may think we need them.

SBEEZY

You do realise he’s using the club as collateral to raise funds for his LA Rams stadium? Also he’s part owned the club for over 10 years. Not just coming in now to the business. Not an unpopular opinion, just a misinformed one.

Faisal Narrage

Out of interest, could you provide proof of the LA Rams collateral story? I’d just like to read about it.

SBEEZY

It’s simple bank lending eligibility/criteria.

Faisal Narrage

I’m sure it is. I just want to know if you have proof of him doing so.

SBEEZY
kaius

Seems like Kroenke has the authority to load Arsenal PLC with debt accrued by his other businesses, but because he has no obligation to be transparent as the sole shareholder, we won’t have insight into when and if he does it.

He could also inject a few hundred million from his own fortune and we wouldn’t know about that either right? :/

Hamburg Gooner

Sorry, this is no proof at all, only lazy speculation

Pires4life

I love when we call people out like this. More of this please.

96Kel

“Can you provide proof?”
“Here, look at this other not related thing!”
Sigh

Stonroy

Blogs, can we check if accounts like FAISAL NARRAGE and other pro-Kroenke posts are from recently added accounts. I’m betting he’s hired a bunch of mindless twats to hijack the message board.

Greg in Seattle

Stonroy: Comments asking for validation of unsupported claims are the work of hired mindless twats. Genius deduction, pal.

Alexandra Anderson Field

You have no proof that is what he is doing

IamaGoober

At this point I wonder if he will stick to his word, and not use any of the clubs money to pay off the £600 odd million bridging loan he took out with Deutsche Bank to buy Arsenal… one of the most dodgy banks in the world.

I’m no detective, but I have a sneaking suspicion he will be using the clubs money…

Better than Cannavaro

The loan to raise money for purchase of Uzmanov’s shares is most likely in the CLUB’s name, not Kroenke’s name. This is why finances are so tight – repayment of principle and interest on £600m. How this works: 1) Arsenal Football Club take on £600m loan from Deutsche Bank 2) AFC makes a special dividend worth £600m to Kroenke 3) Kroenke pays £600m to Uzamanov for his 1/3 of Arsenal’s shares In leveraged finance (my career for the past 20 years), the above 1-3 happens pretty much simultaneously and about EUR250bn of similar deals happened in Europe last year. There… Read more »

Winterburn Wanderers

https://twitter.com/GiantGooner, who works in corporate takeovers, pointed out on the Arsenal Vision Live Stream after the takeover that Kroenke owns a load of Shopping Centres in the US and would get a much better rate borrowing against them – they provide a more reliable revenue stream, borrowing against a football team would be more expensive. Football teams can get relegated, collapsing their value. Ergo to borrow against them would be more expensive, so he wouldn’t use us as collateral.

Emery in Aubalaca wonderland

That’s MBA class material, my friend. We are supporters and we want to win. Other owners manage to put in the right fund to achieve this. I am sure if a world-class striker is available, Chelsea will put the money.

Husni

I genuinely find it very weird that all of sudden everyone wants this idea of kronke putting his own personal money into the club. That seems like a recipe for disaster especially with what we know about the man till date (there is no way a person like that would give you his own personal money without “the bill coming due” in a bad way for the club and us supporters). I think a focus on clearing the bad deck that the previous manament left behind and freeing up the money the club generates, while using said funds more effectively… Read more »

Twatsloch

Isn’t that hypothetical though? I mean he never opens up his wallet for any of his team’s. That’s what he’s known for. The issue is that a man like that became owner of a club that was once a top club in one of the top leagues in the world. We can bemoan that, and rightfully so, but it’s on a level us fans have no say over what so ever. The Kroenkes of this world are like gods that hover over everything and everyone as their money moves back and forth between investments.

Alexandra Anderson Field

I agree i dont want his funds exception being the short term to clear the dross out faster

Sean Williams

Total Rubbish. Don’t use Ray Parlour’s name. He was a legend. You are not an Arsenal supporter.

Leno me, I’ll be your friend

I’d love us to address about four positions, but sadly we won’t see such magic. If Sven & Co could bring back Nelson (I know it’d be good to see him go a full season in Germany but we really need reinforcements and his form has drifted a little the past eight weeks, he may already be preparing for a return), and find a cheap gem of a CB/FB cross we may be able to scrape by until the end of the season.

Nelson is barely starting games for a mid-table German side. Other than a few impact sub appearances, is he going to get much game time in a squad with Aubameyang, Lacazette, Ozil, Ramsey, Mkhitaryan, Iwobi. Plus Bellerin will be back soon for a much needed boost to our right wing.

Leno me, I’ll be your friend

I think you, and most others, failed to realise my comment was about tempering expectations, rather than ‘we have to get Nelson back asap!’. It’s simply a comment aligning with the club’s ‘restrictions’ (self-imposed or otherwise), in that if we can get something, it’s likely to be much better than nothing. He’d clearly not be challenging Lacazette or Aubameyang, but he could come on in the last twenty to rest either. As for Ozil, Emery clearly isn’t counting him as a priority, nor Ramsey, Mkhitaryan is out injured for at least another 4 weeks, Iwobi can’t play every single game,… Read more »

Leno me, I’ll be your friend

Sorry, reading that back I came across pretty cold in my response, hope it didn’t cause any offence pal ?

Leno me, I’ll be your friend

For the record, I am in no way justifying the actions (/inactions) of the club, just openly stating my diminishing levels of expectation.

Jack4343

See that little button off in the corner covered in dust that says “Reset”? Someone please push it. ?

Alex

I also wonder how much the new regime costs. How many new faces have arrived after Wenger left? How many new salaries? How much do they cost ? A club’s costs is not only the wages of a handful of players.

Cliff Bastin

Have you played FM? Staff wages are insignificant.

Faisal Narrage

Let’s be honest; the wages of those pale in comparison to player costs. Swiss Ramble had the previous accounts of costs, and our wages of players was huge. Adding a few corporate figures at high 5-digit and even 6-digit annual wages pales in comparison to paying players that same amount in a week.

ScotchEggsRule

I’ll wager Emery is on far less than the reputed 8m plus per year Wenger was.

Badaab

Staff wages are largely offset during the sales made at matches with regards to concessions and merchandise- these employees make a pittance in comparison to what the players and board members are paid, and are often the first areas to be cut when a club looks to tighten its belt.
I would argue that this ‘cost cutting’ measure is nothing more than the nonsense often peddled by the managerial class as they look to increase personal profits at every opportunity, pulling the wealth from the pockets of those that create it in the first place.

Ya gooner

Our descent into mediocrety continues for now….

Fatgooner

“Hey, Uni: we’re gonna tie your arms and legs together. Now please go and run that marathon.- and make sure you win it!”

Jayobee

Isn’t what Wenger was asked to do for the last 10yeats? He even managed to get a new stadium built…

goonero

Wengers downfall was that when he did go and spend big after years of being hamstrung, he didn’t spend wisely. Lacazete and Auba, great players, not the best use of money. Granit Xhaka and Shkodran Mustafi, definitely not value for money. Don’t just want to reshash the arsecast extra but it’s a painful truth: we had money to invest, we’ve invested it poorly and now we’re going to have less money to invest until we can generate more ourselves by getting into CL and finishing higher up the table etc.

Emery in Aubalaca wonderland

Auba and Laca not best use or money ? Can you explain?

goonero

Far too similar players. We’d get more value from having a great 50 million defender/winger than we do from having two 50 million centre forwards.

NotWenger

Auba and Laca weren’t similar in any way (aside from being able to play upfront) and Wenger bought Auba because of that and perfectly balanced the two.

Lacazette likes to run from his position while Wenger wanted him more to be in the box and not come deep to help with build-up. Aubameyang on the other hand preferred to look for space and run at them. That’s why Wenger put Auba out wide to take full advantage of space created by Lacazette.

asda

That’s so unfair evaluation. No one gets all the calls right, and you don’t even know who was making them. Those investments came after ten years of making profits, i.e. after huge investment debt. And finally, you are cherrypicking the hell out of it, for example, you mention Mustafi but don’t mention Holding, who was bought in the very same window.

Martin

Granit Xhaka the best deep lying midfielder in the country has been excellent value for money.

goonero

In what country? Madagascar?

NotWenger

Only one who can be considered better than Xhaka is Jorginho. Not even Fernandinho is good as him.

Angus

Also… Wenger was never hamstrung… that was propaganda/ Wenger’s view on building a business… He could have bought a big player each of the years from say 2004 onwards, but he chose not to because he wanted to continue unearthing his gems a la Anelka. Many of us said at the time certainly from 2006 onwards we were one or two players short of prem leading team… Wenger always refused to adopt that model… and as we see as a result our best players left due to lack of ambition etc… I have always argued that such an investment would… Read more »

SBEEZY

Or fans just need to temper their aspirations to be in line with ownership.

Walmart Heiress

Is that a joke?

Jack4343

Nah…just finish fourth. ?

Lord Bendnter

Haha well said

Stuey

At least it will be easy to get tickets for games in the future!!
If we aren’t competitive, Arsenal fans vote with their feet.
And so begins a viscous circle.

Clockendrider

Sounds like a sticky situation…..

chuffy

I think as a club, we’ve been run very poorly in the last few years. Who is blame is up for debate, but I think we are unlikely to progress until the high earners have been moved on and some sort of equilibrium has been restored. It’s obvious Kroenke is not going to take any risks so what we have right now is going to determine where we are. I think it’s going to be a number of years in the wilderness for Arsenal, whether that means we can stay around 5th or 6th. That depends on how the club’s… Read more »

Yas

I would agree with you but why would they then spend 100m plus on abeymang and Lacazette? I think we do smart transfers. It’s not necessary to pay over the odds. I trust sven we need a way to stop injuries. I know it’s easier said than done as ive played a lot of football however our history of recovery and decision making s really bad

Spanish Gooner

I love Auba and I think he’s a brilliant player, but we should never have bought him. Imagine what £58m + 250k a week could have done to our back line.

GraeB

Could it have bought a quality defensive coach? Again, we see teams at lower levels who are better organised than us but at a minimum price.

Bob

Because those sides have different aspirations and are just trying to stay in the league or scrape a draw. If Emery was going to put 10 men behind the ball and try and nick a draw then we’d probably look more solid but he isn’t going to do that and in most games it isn’t even feasible

A Different George

I am glad you said this; I am tired of hearing about how organized, and tough (often code for “English”) the defenders at bottom-half of the table clubs are. And yet, we keep finishing far above them.

BigStick

If we hadn’t bought Aubameyang, we’d be sitting in the middle of the table, no doubt about it. Lots of work in front of Emery, hope he can make it work.

Martin

As he is arguably one of the three best strikers in the country your statement is nonsensical. Sure we need defenders but we can’t win matches without goals and he’s one of the best at scoring them

Dan

Why don’t all the fans that are physically in London that can stand up for all of us start boycotting so this piece of shit owner can actually care about winning or get out. All his other franchises suck but that is in the US. Don’t let him take control in England

Red-Sky

This.

NigelTufnel

To be accurate, the Rams are in first place and favorites for the Super Bowl. Nuggets are top of their NBA conference at the moment. Avalanche are well competitive and have some of the top talent in the NHL. I’m not a Kroenke shill but those are the facts.

Giroud's scorpion kick

In USA sports, it’s often a matter of time. Browns are about to have a positive season after a couple of eons. Rams sucked big time for quite some time, so did Nuggets and the Avalanche. They just had their shot at this time because USA sports have salary caps and stuff that restrict teams having all the best players at once, for a long period of time, so they age and others get fresh blood from the draft. That’s even more accurate.

Somebloke

We are owned by Mr Walmart, if you’ve ever spent anytime in one of their stores, you’ll understand. Their only ambition is to be profitable, not the best.

Faisal Narrage

Hopefully in the future Amazon kills off Walmart.

Bob

Like hoping Darth Vader kills off Donald trump…

ScotchEggsRule

At least those two have aspirations of dominance…

SBEEZY

Stack ‘em high, sell ‘em low. Aldi/Lidl do it better

Bob

We aren’t owned by Walmart though, are we? Kroenke doesn’t own Walmart, his wife’s family do, and if you look at the LA rams it doesn’t look like must cost cutting is going on there. That’s not a defence btw, this news worries me but I don’t think your comment is accurate. In any case, Walmart’s entire business model is that it’s cheap and affordable, I don’t see how that would work with Arsenal at all given the importance of prestige in football. If Kroenke wants to run arsenal like a Walmart he’s a total moron.

NigelTufnel

True. Even Walmart customers don’t go around wearing clothes emblazoned with the Walmart logo. (…and Fly Southwest across the chest.)

A Different George

The fact that some of the American teams Kroenke owns have had recent success is simply irrelevant. If the LA Rams or the Avalanche played in a league set up like European football leagues, they would have been relegated years ago. Instead, American sports leagues, especially the NFL and the NHL, have various devices to rotate success and generally prevent anyone from staying on the bottom for too long. For example, a hard team salary cap makes it impossible to keep all your players as they become stars (and, of course, prevents bidding wars for even the biggest superstars: no… Read more »

Yas

I know a lot of people think the same but it’s important to note that our main defence problem will not be solved by throwing in money. We need smart investment (like torreira holding etc) capped with training out the end of Wenger era tactics where we simply folded time and time. Which will take emery sometime to embed.

Our biggest problem which remains season after season after season is injuries.

SBEEZY

Didn’t everyone say last season it was down to Wenger not being able to coach them or have good enough defensive tactics? I’m confused

BigStick

You’re half correct. Sure, Emery needs to do a better job at improving our defense, but a manager still needs quality players to carry out his instructions. We need a leader in the defense and we don’t really have one. Lovren improved because of Van Dijk, if we sign a marquee defender to lead the back line, we will definitely improve.

Yas

Yes but we have to be realistic there is no way fenway would have given 75m for vvd or 60m for a lisson without the sale of couthinho and knowing klopp has pushed them into champions league

Emery in Aubalaca wonderland

The way some gunners talk of Ozil here, big clubs should be ready to pay us a big fee and even increase his salary. After all, Juventus managed to buy Ronaldo.

Mesut O'Neill

There is a reason no European team would take the cunt, even on a free.

Our only chance would be China but I doubt Ozil would want to go there.

Drew

Just play devils advocate for a second because it’s unlikely I believe anything I’m about to type but maybe the Kronkes have identified a load of unnecessary wastage in all departments of the club. Streamlining the way each department works could save the club a load of money especially if we are going to keep in the self sustaining model. However, I suspect that self sustaining may well be replaced with profit earning model for the owners. I fear for our club and where we are heading.

SBEEZY

Check the Denver Nuggets/Rams history under Kroenke to see our own future

Bob

Aren’t the rams actually good?

jw1

Nuggets now ranked #1 or #2 in NBA Power Rankings at midseason. Rams are ranked at #3 of 32 NFL teams entering the playoffs this weekend. Rams just loosened the pursetrings and signed a number of high-priced free agents last off-season.

What’s happening at Arsenal started at each of those franchises 2-years ago.

jw1

A Different George

Please see my post above–the Nuggets would have long since been relegated if they were a European football club, joining the Rams and Avalanche.

Lordgunner

@GEORGE most team in the US would have been relegated…stop comparing us franchise with euro model club.
Except the spurs in the nba (san antonio of course) every team has drop to near bottom of the league in the last 20 years.lakers would have relegated 2 season ago ..
And the nuggets are a small market team.so draft is the only way they can get any sort of success.and thats a lotterY

until the move to LA rams were a small market franchise too..actually most of his franchise are

GraeB

Seeing the BBC article today, how long before we charge £450- like Spudz – to be a mascot?

Vonnie

That’s pretty disgusting, charging kids to be mascots. A lot of teams are doing it, and it makes me happy that Arsenal are among those that don’t. The club does well with Junior Gunners.

Faisal Narrage

I’m not gonna get myself into a fury about this. This all sounds reasonable, in truth. I do find it completely at odds as to how for so many years Arsenal fans and Arseblog in particular, have saddled on our high horse that we are not funded by sugar daddies; how we’re better than all the rest and how it is in the moral rights of football to stay away from such folks. Even this site spoke against Usmanov, that we should resist and not be subject to the whims of a sugar daddy and be their plaything, and times… Read more »

Timsh

It’s just that sometimes you need to take risks and invest if you want to take the next step. I don’t see us outsmart the other big clubs as much.
Even on the comercial side of things.
I fear that even our homeless neighbours will overtake us permenantly (for a good few years) which is just sad.
The question is: Does KSE want to make a step up?
I think we all know the answer.

Faisal Narrage

Oh I don’t deny it, in fact I feel Stan’s inaction when the signs of Wenger’s decline were there and him stopping Ivan’s plans to oust Wenger at that time means he’s directly at fault for our current situation (especially for a man who used to pride himself on not getting involved, then got involved to keep Wenger past his time). For that reason alone, he should put money in. We just can’t ignore the irony that after so many years of speaking against sugar daddies, as soon as we need one (just as City and Chelsea needed one), we… Read more »

jw1

I rather think you’re on the right side of the argument– both here and the comment you had heavily up-voted upthread. What incorrect are all the calls decrying ‘StanStanStan’. At the least? Be complaining about ‘Josh Kroenke’. It’s his vision that’s being introduced at the club. Why I see it differently? Has to do mostly with the way that KSE has handled managerial, executive and fiscal change within it’s US-based sports franchises. In each case (NFL LA Rams, NBA Denver Nuggets, NHL Colorado Avalanche) those clubs ‘cleaned-house’ 2 years ago. They’ve avoided retread coaches (managers), hiring younger forward-thinking types. They’ve… Read more »

Arsenalnut

All the American sports have salary caps. Some are stricter than others. The point of team salary caps is to save team owners from voluntarily putting themselves into administration and to avoid having the super rich owners from buying titles. The caps provide both sustainability and competitive balance. Smarter teams prevail over time. The Kroenkes appear to have applied these principals to our beloved Arsenal. Unfortunately the Abu Dhabi Vulgarians and F.C. Chelsea do not want or need to play by any rules since FFP is a joke. We need to be as smart as we were from 1996-2006. In… Read more »

A Different George

It is nonsense that “smarter teams prevail over time” in American sports. With a handful of exceptions, the truth is that American teams go through cycles of failure leading to success; the key is that no one can be relegated, no matter how many years they are awful, so even the handful of genuinely poorly-managed clubs stick around and eventually most achieve some success.

Arsenalnut

Uh, aren’t your “handful of exceptions” the smarter teams? Everybody can’t be smarter.

N10

jw1: You’d think a long unbeaten streak, practically out of the gate, and the performances demonstrating clear needs would paint a vivid picture of a hard working thoughtful manager capable of producing quick results who needs one or two marquee signings to make top 4 or win EL this season. Emery’s made a really strong case for immediate investment to greatly enhance being competitive for CL spot. Sometimes a risky one off investment is what you need a la VVD to start a virtuous cycle, and timing is crucial. That said, backroom conversations might have a different tone; maybe there… Read more »

Bob

Ivan’s plans to oust Wenger? Stop buying what Ivan was selling, he was happy to hide behind Wenger and many of our failings are on him. Ivan was the CEO afterall.

SBEEZY

When you’re at the top you can look down and laugh. Once that’s taken, desperation and hypocrisy reigns. Just look at Utd

Walmart Heiress

It’s called ambition, and if fans can’t have aspirations for their team that may seem unrealistic to you then wtf!

Bob

It’s also how you end up being Leeds

Red-Sky

The playing field is not leveled.
clubs out there spend the equal of our summer budget in one player.
we need a sugar daddy!
at least to jumb-start us and get us in a comfortable situation to start implementing a self-sustaining model.

Gudoguru

I guess letting Ramsey go for free is a cost saving move

Faisal Narrage

My other point of the day is, I feel that we’re about to enter a very long period of being adrift and being an also-ran. Everything in life is about timing. Just as how we built the stadium coincided with oligarchs, I think the owners being too slow to make a decision on Wenger in the previous years has doomed us to being adrift; namely that Wenger should’ve stepped down earlier and not been indulged. By prolonging it, now only did it utterly mess up our business model and assets, but we’ve potentially missed out on the perfect timing. By… Read more »

N10

Unless… nah. I agree. I said something similar above re timing.

So right now, with the momentum and thirst for change, with undeniable proof we need what we need, we should be spending. Instead it’s more small-ball fuckery.

Expecting Emery to take this lot to the CL in his first year with no winter investment, ie now, is pretty sadistic.

Emery in Aubalaca wonderland

This is ridiculous, how much did we spend in the summer ? Other than Leno, everybody else was cheap.

SBEEZY

£70m

Mesut O'Neill

Sad, spent less than Chelsea did on a keeper ?

Karl

It is still too comfortable at the Arsenal for players to under-achieve and coast. Emery is a little better, but we need Ozil off the wage bill if he contributes so little and I would attempt to move Mustafi on and Ramsey in this window.

Players have so little motivation these days because money is such an issue.

N10

Not too cozy anymore. I think Emery has made things relatively unbearable for the coddled 20-something sybarites, what with their huffing whippets and posing with chicks and sports cars. No but seriously, they look like a bunch of beat mules these days, they don’t know what hit em. It’s a slow transformation but most of us (anyway) are seeing it.

Roof attack

We need to look to the lower leagues and the European back waters and find some bargains and mould them to what we need. The board expecting unai to get the current squad into the champions league this season is massively out of reach via the league.

N10

I think they are working this angle hard. Who the fuck heard of Torreira or Guendouzi this time last year. And they have insane Rolodexes. But it’s just timing, we need people NOW to save the rest of the season re CL qual.

Roof attack

Here is some Lego. Please build me a lifesize working replica of the golden gate bridge. You got 20 minutes.

Rich

I don’t really have a problem with a self sustainable model, I just don’t trust Kroenke not to dip into our accounts for dividends to fund his takeover, I also wouldn’t trust him not to use the club as security against other projects, also sometimes you need to speculate to accumulate and take a few calculated risks every now and again. The feel good factor around the club is disappearing, I really hope the fans don’t turn on Emery, top4 this season was always a long shot, and without investment into the squad, it’ll likely be even more difficult next… Read more »

N10

Yes to all of this, right there with you.

Spanish Gooner

Our lack of money this transfer window isn’t a result of Kroenke’s ownership, it’s a result of Wenger/Gazidis leaving us with an unbalanced squad as a result of expensive panic buying when things started going tits-up. Ornatein said there would be substantially increased funds available for summer, and since we’re not going to do much this year anyway I’d rather we saved our money for summer when we Raul & Sven can work with a plan and start building a sensible, balanced squad again.

Don't boo Paul Davis

Yes, save the money until the summer and develop the players we do have. I’d rather give Mav the games rather than Cahill. The one I would take now if we can get him is Banega. Emery needs an experienced and trusty lieutenant out on the pitch.

N10

Agree, and I think Banega can help with the crucial task of getting players “sold” on Emery.

Karl

I guess we are banking on Mavropanos becoming the world beater we all hope for.

Sadly, even Cahill feels like the kind of Benayoun loan desperation.

Bobby

LOL when mgmt introduces cost savings you know something is wrong. Jump ship and get the fuck out. It’s also the worst thing you can do as mgmt because cost savings of stuff is 0.1% of the total cost of your business. This is a fucking JOKE. Get the fuck out KRONKE!!!

STEPHEN PEARSON

Sorry to state the obvious but we are now a second rate club – with 5th or 6th in the league our aim. The owners are not interested in winning anything but are happier with the threat that we might do something like finish in the top four. The club is now relying on loans – free transfers – and cheap transfer fees and live in the hope that a few of our youngsters might make it big, (then sell on at a big profit) Arsenal are finished as a big club unless there are new owners. Man City, Man… Read more »

Hobart

I think the current malaise is down to a large chunk of our support realising that just getting rid of Wenger hasn’t solved everything.

SB Still

The sound bites over the years have aspired to be Bayern Munich and now Liverpool.

However the reality is we have become the new Spuds! Season highlight could probably beating those homeless guys and spending less than them!

Bob

Ah fun… you know what, I’m tempted to bury my head in the sand on the ownership and try and focus on what happens on the pitch. There’s nothing I can do about it and it’ll only make me depressed to read but, realistically, I know that’s not going to happen because I care too much. Really does feel like we’re a twig in a strong current though.

Croarse

Happy New Year to all arses. I wish much less frustration to all of us. Unfortunately it looks like we are on our path to becoma stabile mid table PL club.

Sajjadgunner

Fuck you kroenke

Mr Arsenal

Give the damn academy players a chance if you are not gonna buy. What’s the academy for then? I’m tired of playing players out of position. I don’t wanna hear the inexperience this or that, Mbappe gain experience by getting playing time. We need two academy defenders to step in and help. Every top player was given a damn chance stop moaning about limited transfers budget and produce magic with what is available.

Keith

Exactly..We have a fairly decent plethora of talented youths. Blood them in now for the remainder of the campaign.
No chance of qualifying for CL through the league. Let the youths have a taste.
Rest our FEW stars for the Europa Cup. Might have a better chance there to reach the CL.
SAKA looks like a tricky fast winger..id give him a run of games. Experience and confidence to be gained heading to next season. Medley and Smith Rowe are also looking good. Any decent central mids at out academy ?
Not sold on Willock personally.

gunner17

making tea-ladies homeless at christmas, not a good look

Comedian

In Seven We Trust

Comedian

*In Sven We Trust

don’t forget

Literally this is the worst news I’ve heard this year.

Sean Williams

‘Greedy Stan Kroenke’ is Arsenals nightmare. The ‘billionaire’ could inject money or not. To see the comment by ‘Parlour’s Pay Packet’ is an insult to Ray Parlour. That comment is pathetic and that guy is no Arsenal supporter. Ray Parlours Packet sounds to me like an anal retentive. Go and support another team you are not an Arsenal supporter. The real Ray Parlour is an Arsenal legend.

Ricardo

Then they should cut back on coffee purchases.

Skinnyarse

Here we go again, he knows we need to buy players.
Kroenke’s way of telling us we can’t afford anybody ?
Can’t help but feel for Unai Emery, basically being told sorry Unai we have no money for you.

Merlin’s Panini

How aboit not taking a £3 million advisory fee ever again? That would be a good cost saving measure.

Alexandra Anderson Field

I really hate that particular American , how the hell he managed to.fool so many people is beyond me NEVER have any of his so called sports franchises won anything while he has had 100% ownership

Weasel

SK spent fuckloads on Rams players last offseason. In combination with the shared stadium build (LA Rams and Chargers will (co-occupy), he has a lot of $ commitments to LA, a very large market in which he’s trying to build market share in a town full of entertainment options. Unsurprising for him to siphon money from Arsenal, a business with a stable fan base operating in a much less balanced (less competitive) than the NFL. Too bad for us, with all the CTE, the NFL’s ling term prospects are bleak. Hell, real football is now #4 in the USA, having… Read more »

Matt P

You can say what you like about Kroenke. But no one can deny he’s a good businessman.
And a good businessman will not avoid investing in the squad. His shares will lose value if Arsenal start to miss out on CL for a prolonged period. We will become Everton.

Hamza

Forget about kroenke putting his money in the table. Howabout arsenal stop wasting theirs? We should have sold alexis in 2017 and made 50 mil easy. Should have given özil and ultimatum that same summer. Ramsey, welbeck should have been sold summer 2018. We continue to leave money on the table while looking for stop gaps. Just take a look at the squad roster for a moment. We are in trouble

Badaab

This scheme is about the maximum extraction of capital from the club, and nothing more. Its incredibly difficult to imagine that the Kroenkes are struggling to pay their bills with the massive tax cuts, government subsidies, and corporate giveaways they receive every year from the US government alone.

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