The Kroenkes, Arsenal

The Kroenkes

McNicholas, Ornstein and Lawrence
Nov 20, 2020

(Contributing writers: James McNicholas, David Ornstein and Amy Lawrence)

Editor’s Note: This story was included in The Athletic’s Best of 2020. View the full list.

It was the day before the transfer deadline. The Los Angeles Rams were leading the New York Giants by ten to six at half-time, when Stan and Josh Kroenke broke off from watching the game to join a conference call. During a telephone conversation with trusted associate and Arsenal board member Tim Lewis, the owners authorised the club to trigger the €50 million release clause for Thomas Partey.

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Such is life when you sit at the summit of a multi-billion empire spanning five sports and two continents. The Athletic has been told that the Kroenkes consider the Rams and Arsenal the twin jewels in the KSE crown. Some Arsenal supporters will take comfort from the fact the owners stepped out of a Rams game to attend to urgent transfer business. For others, the Kroenkes’ association with Arsenal still doesn’t feel right.

Stan Kroenke’s initial investment in 2007 was met with icy hostility, and the relationship with some fans has not thawed as his stake has increased. Until Kroenke arrived on the scene, Arsenal was a club that spoke not of “owners” but “custodians”. For many supporters, the Kroenkes are indelibly linked to a change in Arsenal’s traditions and culture, and a gradual slide towards being a corporation — just another “franchise” in KSE’s hefty portfolio.

The accusation is that a lack of focus has allowed Arsenal to drift. In the decade prior to Stan’s first involvement, Arsenal won three Premier League titles. They have not won one since, and it was 2014 before they won a trophy — the FA Cup. The club have slipped from Champions League certainties to Europa League regulars. At times, the club has appeared directionless. Is it possible to keep a firm hand on the tiller when you are overseeing an entire fleet?

There have been banners, hashtags and full-on protests. It has not been uncommon to hear the Arsenal fans tunefully urging Stan Kroenke to “get out of our club”.

Though some feel calling the owners passive is wrong. “It is unfair to say the Kroenkes are not in touch enough,” says one source. “They care about it, but in a way that care comes through the two or three people they trust 100 per cent. Then it’s very important that these people confirm their trust is well deserved, that they take care of the club as if they were the owners themselves.”

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The club’s response to the pandemic has raised new concerns, with many supporters enraged by redundancies. Stan Kroenke is estimated by Forbes to be worth $10 billion, yet Gunnersaurus’ salary has been deemed unaffordable. Arsenal’s books for 2013-14 and 2014-15 revealed £3 million had been paid to KSE for “strategic and advisory services”, a sum which cannot possibly be worth to Kroenke what it cost him in goodwill.

But then we come to Partey, and Stan and Josh Kroenke finding the time to ensure Arsenal got the midfielder they needed. They found the money, too. Given the ongoing losses Arsenal are suffering as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic, there’s no way they could have found the cash reserves required to buy out Partey’s contract without significant owner support. At the end of a summer in which Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE) had helped the club restructure their stadium debt, the outlay for Partey felt like another significant statement of intent.

The Kroenkes have long suggested their intention was to invest once they took Arsenal private as 100 per cent owners. The two years since they completed their takeover have not brought stability — it has been a period of tumultuous change. The year 2020 alone has seen Arsenal weighing the glory of an FA Cup win against the financial fallout from COVID-19. There have been wage cuts, redundancies and a substantial restructuring. Throughout, Arsenal’s position has been that those changes were designed to put the club in a position to strengthen the first team — and they undoubtedly emerged from the transfer window with a stronger squad.

This then is an appropriate time to take stock — to explore the nature of KSE’s involvement in Arsenal, and cast some light on the personalities behind the corporation. The Athletic has spent the past weeks speaking to those who know the Kroenkes best in order to paint a picture of Arsenal’s owners. Our findings include:

  • Stan Kroenke has attended Arsenal matches more regularly than reported.
  • KSE have a small network of trusted executives they use to monitor activity at Arsenal.
  • At no point during the Wenger reign did the ownership turn down a direct request for funds from the manager.
  • The decision to sign Nicolas Pepe was made at a BBQ at Josh Kroenke’s Los Angeles home. The ownership made certain financial guarantees in case the club was not able to sell players to fund the deal.
  • The players’ pay cut was not a mandate from the ownership. Executives made a presentation to the squad using the image and analogy of a sleeping bear.
  • Tim Lewis is now a “boots-on-the-ground” presence for the Kroenkes, has visited London Colney to observe training and was the man to tell Raul Sanllehi he was fired.
  • In the summer transfer window, Arsenal attempted to use instalment-based payment structures to land two of their top three targets from Partey, Houssem Aouar and Jorginho.
  • The Arsenal ownership are prepared to make further investments in the team, with Dominik Szoboszlai already under discussion with hierarchy and technical staff.

Three weeks after the transfer deadline passed, Arsenal won a league match at Old Trafford for the first time since Stan first bought into the club, 13 years ago. The Arsenal owner, 73, is understood to have been particularly delighted by Partey’s commanding midfield performance.

He would have had some idea of what to expect from the Ghanaian. As part of the recruitment process, technical director Edu walked the ownership through step-by-step on how Partey, along with other potential signings, would fit into Mikel Arteta’s tactical plans. While KSE place huge trust in their executive teams, when it comes to the biggest decisions “Silent” Stan Kroenke remains the man with the final say.

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That particular epithet has been with Stan since he fell foul of a Denver sports columnist many years ago. It has stuck because Stan is not someone inclined to court the media. “He’s a better guy than people think he is,” says one former employee. “But he’d rather be private than be liked.” What’s more, the Kroenkes recognise that when it comes to sports ownership, actions speak far louder than words. Two years into their time as Arsenal’s sole owners, the presence of the Kroenkes is beginning to be more keenly felt.


It began with a meeting on a building site.

It was 2004 and Jeff Plush had recently been installed by KSE as an executive at their US soccer franchise, the Colorado Rapids. One of his first goals was to partner with a European football club, ideally in the Premier League. “I knew immediately we needed far more football knowledge, pedigree, connections,” Plush tells The Athletic. “And I wanted to talk to Arsenal — not just because I was an Arsenal fan, but because it’s a club whose pedigree speaks for itself.”

Plush reached out to Dick Law, a contact who had worked with Arsenal on their transfer business in South America. “I thought Jeff was crazy,” says Law. “The Rapids and Arsenal? This isn’t apples and oranges, this is watermelons and peaches. But Jeff never gave up.”

Plush eventually secured meetings in London with two Premier League clubs: Chelsea and Arsenal. He flew across the Atlantic and travelled to Stamford Bridge, only to be told the meeting was cancelled. When he explained how far he’d come, he was given a cursory meeting, but it was clear they had no real interest in collaboration. Watermelons and peaches indeed.

But at Arsenal, Plush found a warmer welcome. He met with David Dein and then commercial director Adrian Ford, who supplied him with tickets for the weekend’s game and were, in Plush’s words, “proper gentlemen”.

A dialogue began. Dein was eager to explore the commercial opportunities of a partner in the States. A year later, arrangements were made for the Rapids’ owner, Stan Kroenke, to meet Dein on the site of Arsenal’s new stadium project. This time Law joined Plush in attendance. “We literally met in Highbury House on the third floor in the midst of furniture being moved in,” he recalls. “There was nothing there except boxes, and we scraped together a table and about six chairs. And then David invited Stan to look at the stadium. The rest of us dutifully marched a few yards behind, and David and Stan walked over to the stadium.”

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Their conversations proved fruitful. By February 2007, Arsenal and the Rapids had a formalised partnership. By April, Kroenke had purchased a 9.9 per cent stake in the club from Granada Ventures. It was Dein who brought Kroenke to the table, convinced that Arsenal required a billionaire backer to remain competitive with the likes of Chelsea and Manchester United in the shifting Premier League landscape.

Kroenke saw opportunity too. For a man with a background in real estate and sports, the Emirates Stadium project was incredibly appealing. “Stan understands the value of things,” says Law. “Not the cost, because there’s a difference, but the value. The best way that David Dein ever described Arsenal Football Club, was that in the world of global football there’s only so much ‘beachfront property’. Arsenal happen to be one of those beachfront properties. And Stan knew that.”

Kroenke saw the benefit of a London location, marvelling at how accessible the stadium was from the centre of a city that he regards as the financial capital of the world. Although he enjoys spending time at his main home in Missouri or his Texas ranch, in a pre-COVID environment he still made time for plenty of trips across the Atlantic. In one Arsenal season, he attended 14 matches home and away. As well as Josh, Stan’s wife (and Walmart heiress) Ann, and daughter Whitney have also attended games. Whitney is a passionate patron of the arts and is said to have brought some interesting guests to the directors’ box. In the Kroenke family, Arsenal is a dinner-table subject.

After the tour of the site back in 2007, Kroenke and his associates grabbed a pint stood outside Ye Grapes pub in Shepherd’s Market. At times, this billionaire can come across to others as a very ordinary guy.

His investment, however, was met with hostility, both by the supporters and other shareholders. The then chairman, Peter Hill-Wood, told The Guardian: “Call me old-fashioned but we don’t need Kroenke’s money and we don’t want his sort. Our objective is to keep Arsenal English, albeit with a lot of foreign players. I don’t know for certain if Kroenke will mount a hostile takeover for our club but we shall resist it with all our might.”

Arsenal’s Englishness had become a point of pride. At the 2005 FA Cup final, their fans taunted the Manchester United support with ironic chants of “USA! USA!” Even when the board came round to Kroenke Snr, when the death of Danny Fiszman in 2011 meant a decision had to be made on who might be Arsenal’s new custodian, hostility from the supporters endured.

That was most palpable at the shareholders’ annual general meetings, which took on a pantomime feel as the antipathy deepened. As recently as 2017, some stakeholders, including the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust, voted against the motion to reappoint Josh Kroenke to the board. That was something the Kroenkes anticipated, and were prepared for. They have been described to The Athletic as possessing a “rhinoceros hide”, with Stan particularly intransigent in the face of criticism. Their belief is that they cannot allow themselves to be swung by fan sentiment, or they will lose the handle.


Kroenke, at an Arsenal AGM in 2011, faced opposition before and after his investment (Photo: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

There is, nevertheless, an acceptance at KSE that the early years could have been better. The AGM environment did not suit Stan, who does not share Arsene Wenger’s skill for oratory. The Arsenal Supporters’ Trust have been frustrated by Stan’s reluctance to meet with supporters’ groups personally. Executives believe they have engaged sufficiently with the trust, but say they are unable to provide personal access to Stan. Perhaps engaging more directly could have spared him a few enemies.

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Stan’s first investment was in 2007, and in pure football terms the club did not lift a trophy for another seven years. Beyond that, there were other issues to overcome. Staff have not always felt valued: when the commercial department secured the landmark sponsorship deals with Puma and Emirates within the space of 12 months, there was disappointment at bonuses being capped below the expected level.

Some of these teething problems can be attributed to a steep learning curve — Arsenal are a different animal to KSE’s other sporting franchises; the UK is a different environment. On the subject of ticket pricing, there is a cultural difference between the US and UK that KSE have had to adapt to. Supporters in London simply won’t accept the kind of price hike that is plausible in the States. “You have to remember Stan is not a guy who is sat there in a board meeting thinking about left-backs and right-backs and strikers,” says one former staff member. “He’s thinking about numbers, because that’s his skill-set… but there’s good and bad to that.”

The key issue, however, was that the Kroenkes did not own the club outright. With a minority shareholder in Alisher Usmanov’s Red & White Holdings, the Kroenkes never had absolute authority at Arsenal. Despite this tension, there was no palpable antipathy from the Kroenkes towards Usmanov.

Steadily, the Kroenkes ingratiated themselves with Arsenal staff. Many at Arsenal appreciate that they are given the autonomy to do their jobs themselves. The ownership do not seek to interfere, merely to oversee.

KSE is a family business, and the Kroenkes have sought to welcome Arsenal staff into their wider family. During the 2012 Olympics, they entertained Arsenal executives and other business associates on their yacht which they had moored in Canary Wharf. The Athletic has learned of a tasteful, understated boat with beautiful Italian decor — one dwarfed in size and opulence by ones owned by the likes of Roman Abramovich. The Kroenkes also made arrangements to take the staff to one of the swimming events, in which Denver native Missy Franklin was competing.

If relations with the fans were sometimes rocky, the Kroenkes did at least begin to feel a unity with the board. Sources have suggested that being accepted into such company would have meant a great deal to Stan; that Arsenal’s sense of tradition and history are aspirational to him. There is no royalty in the United States, no aristocracy. For a man whose first job was sweeping a lumber yard floor in Mora, Missouri to be accepted into the fold by the old-Etonian crowd — to be welcomed into the marble halls — was significant.


Kroenke, addressing the squad in 2011, is said to “love” Arsenal (Photo: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

When Kroenke’s elevated status sees him encounter world leaders, the international renown of Arsenal provides a frequent topic of conversation. It is one of the reasons staff close to him cite when they express a hitherto unheard sentiment: “Stan Kroenke loves Arsenal”.


In the spring of 2018, Josh Kroenke relocated to London for a period of around eight weeks. His intention was to immerse himself in the club and the culture; to gain a deeper understanding and experience of operations at Arsenal.

Until that point, the Arsenal executives’ contact with the Kroenkes was not day-to-day. Their most frequent point of contact was Tomago Collins, the communications expert who forms an invaluable part of the KSE infrastructure. Collins, who has joined the club on pre-season tours in the past, is said to monitor and understand the dynamics within Arsenal intimately. He has attended many board meetings, and provides a pair of eyes and ears for the Kroenkes as they balance their various commitments.

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Collins is part of a small trusted network that Stan keeps close. “That’s born out Stan’s background,” says one former staff member. “Fifty years ago, as a real estate developer, you’re out there on your own with a vehicle and a phone. He’s comfortable with a small group of people. But that’s why it’s interesting that he chose to get deeply involved in a business that requires you to be around a lot of people. It’s a bit of a paradox.”

Josh’s arrival in London roughly coincided with that of Sanllehi as head of football relations, and the two struck up an easy rapport. Sanllehi was part of a new executive team, along with German scout Sven Mislintat and contract negotiator Huss Fahmy, that Gazidis had set up to help the club manage the transition out of the Wenger era.

Josh was not sent to London to deal with the Wenger situation. There had been those among the Arsenal hierarchy who firmly believed Wenger should go in 2017, after the FA Cup final win over Chelsea, but it was the ownership’s faith in their manager that saw him awarded a new contract. Consequently, his departure in 2018 was regarded by some as something of a formality.


Josh relocated to London in 2018 which brought him closer to his father’s investment (Photo: David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

It was not a decision anyone took lightly, however. Stan Kroenke knows the value of things, and in buying into Arsenal one of the assets he was effectively acquiring was Wenger — a head coach and sporting director in one, and someone who shared Stan’s conviction that sporting enterprises should be run in a self-sustaining manner. Dein’s decision to bring Kroenke to the table to help Arsenal rival the spending of Abramovich was in some ways mistaken: Stan wants to win, but not at any cost. While some felt that may have held the club back, there were also staff who were very proud of taking that approach. Kroenke is a successful businessman and has always been determined to apply those same business principles to his sports teams.

He is willing to invest when he sees a clear business logic. The ownership were involved in Arsenal’s acquisition of Stat DNA, and had contact with Jaeson Rosenfeld prior to the deal going through. Kroenke helped the club acquire a new CRM, which allows the club to communicate with its members in a bespoke manner. He backed the opening of  a club store in Brent Cross in 2012, but also saw it closed down a couple of years later. That is indicative of KSE’s approach: they are willing to back executive judgments, but it had better work. If they do not pan out, they will correct the course.

The question of whether KSE inhibited Wenger in the market is an interesting one. Wenger has spoken of working under financial restrictions. “I did that sometimes against my own deep desire,” he said earlier this year. “I did it even though I didn’t completely agree with what was going on. I did it, even though people inside the club sometimes let that noise come out.” The Athletic is told, however, that at no point during the Wenger reign did the ownership turn down a direct request for funds from the manager. If there was internal frustration about a lack of signings, it tended to be directed at Wenger rather than the ownership.

Wenger and Stan had a deep mutual respect. There was a personal element to that relationship too, with the Arsenal manager meeting for meals with the ownership several times. It was, therefore, a delicate situation when Josh Kroenke and Gazidis met Wenger at the training ground a few weeks before the end of the 2017-18 season to discuss his time as manager now coming to a close. The decision to announce prior to the end of the season intended to change the sentiment among the supporters and allow Wenger a fond send-off. It did lead, however, to a somewhat hurried and inglorious announcement on a Friday morning. Wenger did appear to enjoy his lap of honour, but had until that point been firm in his resolution to continue.

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With Wenger’s fate now clear, thoughts inevitably turned to the future. Arsenal’s executive team flew to America to meet with the ownership to discuss the budget for the 2018 summer transfer window. The trip included a tour of the new LA stadium development, which impressed the Arsenal executives.

Their intention was to lay out their squad building plans, with potential investment levels set against different possible outcomes. The meeting did not go well. Sources have suggested that Arsenal’s executives felt wrong-footed, and that Stan felt cornered and reacted angrily. Conversely, some have suggested that in KSE terms this was a relatively mild grilling. The meeting was tough “but not so impolite that you shouldn’t handle it if you work in football and you are speaking with a billionaire,” said one source.

Tall, quiet, and withdrawn, it is easy for Stan to appear intimidating. The Athletic has been told that KSE employees have trembled in fear when faced with Stan in confrontation mode. Although generally quiet and calm, Kroenke is said to be intensely analytical with an impeccable memory, and not one to suffer fools.

Any conflict appears to have been predicated on a misunderstanding. The Arsenal executives believed they had prepared sufficiently in producing a detailed presentation. There is discrepancy over the degree to which Stan had been properly briefed about the content of the meeting.

Nevertheless, this proved an important moment for the executive committee — it provided them with an insight into how Stan operates, and showed that if they were to come to him in future, it was essential to do their due diligence.

In accordance with KSE’s ownership philosophy, the hunt for a successor to Wenger was entrusted to Gazidis and his new executive team. The owners like to have a good degree of understanding and involvement, while also granting autonomy to those they employ.

The executive recommended the employment of Unai Emery; their thinking being that this was a tactically-minded coach with Europa League success behind him. It was argued that he could maximise the talent already within the squad, and help establish a baseline of Champions League football. The recruitment process all-but complete, Emery flew with Arsenal executives on the red-eye to meet the Kroenkes. Although Emery’s English was not good, he impressed sufficiently for the owners to rubber-stamp the deal.


There are those among the Arsenal hierarchy who believe 2018 was simply a year of too much change. Wenger leaving was seismic, but the Kroenkes had not reckoned on the aftershock of Gazidis’ departure for AC Milan. The Kroenkes’ ownership style is based on trust, and in the space of a few months they lost two men they trusted implicitly.

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When Gazidis left, the owners followed his recommendation to appoint Sanllehi and Vinai Venkatesham as head of football and managing director respectively. While some have queried the wisdom of that decision, there are others who understand it. “I’m not sure I wouldn’t have done the same thing,” says one former Premier League executive. “It’s difficult to find really good people in football. If you’re an electronics manufacturer, there’s lots of guys that can come in and be the CEO of your electronics manufacturing company, and you can do a public search and you can probably find someone really good. In football, that group is so narrow. Taking the word of someone they trusted is not a totally crazy thing to do.”


Venkatesham with Josh Kroenke, Edu and Raul Sanllehi in the summer of 2019 (Photo: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

Another hugely important moment arrived when KSE completed their full takeover of the club in the autumn. While this was the source of more fan unrest, from the Kroenkes’ perspective it meant that Arsenal was finally their football club.

Unfortunately for Arsenal and the Kroenkes, the 2018-19 season ended in frustration. Emery’s team stumbled over the line in the Premier League, before succumbing to a 4-1 thrashing in the Europa League final against rivals Chelsea. Arsenal had failed in their attempt to qualify for the Champions League. Josh Kroenke flew back from Baku with the Arsenal executive team, bitterly disappointed.

The disheartening climax to the season fed directly into the fan-led “We Care, Do You?” movement. The campaign cut to the heart of many supporters’ issue with the Kroenkes: a belief that they simply don’t care.

Some of that can be attributed to the fact that for Stan, public relations has never been his priority. It’s not a story he has particularly sought to tell — arguably to his detriment. His focus is always on the numbers and the success of the team, with a belief that good press will follow. While it’s clear that Stan was not exactly a boyhood Arsenal supporter, he has now been invested in Arsenal for more than 13 years. Those who know him insist there is an emotional bond there and a love of London, which he views as the financial capital of the world.

Part of the issue is that he is simply not that expressive. Some have described Stan as shy, reserved or even socially awkward. When he has hosted post-game parties to celebrate Arsenal FA Cup wins, he has basked in the moment with an air of quiet content. When the Rapids won the MLS Cup in 2010 they were invited to tour the White House. Sources say Stan was filled with pride, but not inclined to show it. If Arsenal fans are hoping for a more public display of affection, Stan does not appear the type to provide it.

In that respect, Josh differs slightly from his father. Although father and son present a united front in business, they are not the same person — and passionate disagreements behind closed doors are not uncommon.

Stan and Josh did both play basketball; it is their first sporting love. Consequently the Denver Nuggets have always been a natural passion project for them. Stan maintains a good level of physical fitness, lifting weights and walking on a treadmill. He doesn’t sleep much, a function of a business mind that is always busy. He is an avid reader and enjoys spending time in nature — the family enjoyed a trip to Alaska earlier this year, although work was done on it. Stan is also a connoisseur of wine and has stakes in several wineries including Screaming Eagle, Jonata, and prominent Burgundy winery Domaine Bonneau du Martray.

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Of the two, Josh is the more natural communicator. At 40, he is able to have a slightly more relaxed relationship with KSE athletes. The ownership is known to provide players with occasional words of encouragement via text message, or support if they’re going through an injury or personal difficulties. When Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang signed his new contract this summer, he received a congratulatory FaceTime call from Josh. When individual players sign big contracts, the ownership are inevitably involved to give sign-off. On the day Mesut Ozil signed his contract extension in 2018, Josh Kroenke was there at London Colney, as he was for many transfer deadline days.

As a college basketball player, Josh underwent media training to enable him to deal with inevitable questions about his family. When the Arsenal fans demanded a response, it was Josh who provided it. “We need to understand that we are a group together and we all have the same interests,” he told the club’s official website. “We’re really excited about the challenges that lie ahead and we’re not going to shy away from them. We’re excited to one day look back and point at these moments, where this group came together, as the start of something special.”

Against the backdrop of fan unrest, Arsenal set about making plans for the 2019 summer transfer window. There was some debate among the Arsenal hierarchy about whether the club should be prioritising major expenditure on a centre-back or a winger. Emery ideally wanted additions in both positions, but his preference was for a winger — ideally Wilfried Zaha — and as long as the head coach had the support of the executive committee and the board, KSE were resolved to back him.

During the pre-season tour of the US, Josh Kroenke hosted the Arsenal hierarchy for a barbecue at his Los Angeles home. In this more relaxed environment, the Arsenal executives were able to talk openly with the ownership about their plans for the summer. In the case of Zaha, Crystal Palace were reluctant to sell. At that stage of the window, they felt entitled to ask for at least £100 million for a player who could prove the difference between staying in the Premier League or being relegated to the Championship. With concerns over Zaha’s price tag and age bracket, conversation turned to Pepe.

Arsenal were said to be privy to an €80 million offer from Napoli, so were able to discuss the specifics of a potential deal. A consensus was reached, and approval was given — Sanllehi flew direct from America to negotiate the transfer. It was a club-record outlay, and one that meant Arsenal would have to sell players. To facilitate the initial transfer, the ownership provided financial guarantees against the required sales in case they did not go through.

The Pepe transfer illustrates something that casts doubt over one of the central narratives around Arsenal: this is now a club that spends money. The ownership had long suggested full ownership would lead to more substantial investment. Pepe arrived in that window alongside the likes of Kieran Tierney, David Luiz and William Saliba, all at considerable expense. The efficacy of that spending is of course another question, and The Athletic understands the ownership began to develop some concerns over efficiency in the transfer market in that summer of 2019.

Despite the substantial investment, Emery could not halt his team’s slide. Some felt the ownership were too slow to act — the Spaniard was allowed to go seven matches without winning before a home defeat by Frankfurt proved the final straw. KSE are reluctant to change any coach in mid-season, owing to the inevitable disruption. The only circumstance when that changes is when a coach has lost the dressing room. When such sentiment towards Emery began to filter up into the hierarchy, action was taken.

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Sanllehi and Venkatesham had a pre-scheduled arrangement to meet the Kroenkes in America that fateful thanksgiving week. Over lunch, Josh Kroenke and the Arsenal executives reached a consensus on terminating Emery’s contract, and that recommendation was then made to Stan, who approved it.

When it came to hiring a new manager, the ownership decided to be more actively involved in the process. Their principal role was ensuring that everyone had a shared view of the future. Despite the club’s dismal form, the focus was not on saving the season, but charting a course for the next few years.

After Emery was dismissed on the Friday, Josh flew out to address the team on the Saturday. “My message to Freddie and the players was let’s get back to basics and most importantly let’s get back to having some fun,” he told the club’s official website. “I think footballers are at their best when I see smiles on their faces and going out there and winning matches. That’s a winning formula to me.”


Josh Kroenke the coaching staff and squad following Emery’s departure (Photo: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

The Kroenkes encouraged Arsenal’s executive team to meet as many candidates as possible — the interview process was an opportunity to learn how the club was perceived within the game. A decision was taken that neither Josh nor Stan Kroenke would meet with a potential candidate before the executive committee had arrived at a consensus. Josh visited London several times in December 2019 in order to be kept abreast of the process.

The question posed was straightforward: Who is going to be the best Arsenal manager for the next three to five years? Unanimously, the key decision-makers chose Mikel Arteta. On Sunday, December 15, a newspaper photographer caught Ventakesham and head of operations Fahmy leaving Arteta’s Manchester home. What they missed was that the following morning, Josh arrived for his own private audience with Arteta. As always, Stan was talked through the process before being made a firm recommendation. Given his knowledge of Arteta’s character from his time as club captain, he did not hesitate. Stan and Arteta have not been able to meet in person since his appointment, but have spoken over FaceTime.

Arteta’s impact was considerable — although the Kroenkes were not able to share in Arsenal’s FA Cup win in person, their first trophy as sole owners will have meant a great deal.


The year of 2020 has been testing for all football clubs, and Arenal are no different. Josh Kroenke has referred to the club having a “Champions League wage bill on a Europa League budget”, and consequently the financial impact of the pandemic hit Arsenal harder than most. Their reliance on revenue from gate receipts is greater than many of their rivals, so the absence of fans has taken its toll.

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In April, with the fate of the Premier League season still in the balance amid the COVID-enforced shutdown, Arsenal became the first (and ultimately only) Premier League club to take a pay cut. This was not a mandate from the ownership, but a recommendation from executives. A presentation was made to the Arsenal players in the dressing room at London Colney. During this, executives projected a picture of a sleeping bear. They employed the analogy of the animal entering its cave to hibernate for the winter while hunting opportunities and food are in short supply, so that when spring arrives and nutrition returns that stored energy can hopefully be used to great effect, in order to explain why Arsenal needed to conserve their resources.

The wage cut proved a highly contentious issue, although the vast majority of the players eventually pledged their agreement. There was nevertheless considerable disappointment when the club announced 55 redundancies less than four months later, with some squad members left feeling angry and betrayed.

The keyword at Arsenal since the pandemic broke out has been “efficiency” — the economic crisis has forced a restructure that was in some ways overdue. Some within the hierarchy feel Arsenal had arguably become overstaffed in recent years, and that a degree of streamlining was inevitable.

When Sir Chips Keswick stood down as chairman in the spring, the decision was made not to appoint a new chairman. Due to the small size of the board, a chairman was no longer deemed necessary. However, the ownership did decide to add Tim Lewis to the board.

Lewis is a partner at Clifford Chance, who advised Stan Kroenke on his purchase of Arsenal from the very beginning. With Josh and Stan suddenly unable to cross the Atlantic, Lewis provided a boots-on-the-ground presence for the ownership in London. An Arsenal fan who had travelled with the board on away trips in the past, Lewis was well-positioned to help lead the club through such a tempestuous period.

Lewis’s legal background provided expertise and gave comfort on regulatory issues. He has even recently been spotted watching training alongside technical director Edu. As with Tomago Collins, the Kroenkes understand the value of having trusted people keeping an eye on matters. It sends a message: they are always watching.

The ownership are aware that when they themselves visit club facilities, staff are naturally cautious. They tend to see everyone on their best behaviour. It was thought that having someone like Lewis there more regularly to serve as eyes and ears could prove invaluable. Given the geographic difficulties and the Kroenke’s other responsibilities, perhaps an appointment such as this might have been made sooner.

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Day-to-day, Lewis is still with Clifford Chance. On Arsenal matters, he is in regular contact with Josh Kroenke, as per Stan’s preference. Wherever possible, the Kroenkes like to follow a designed workflow. One of his first responsibilities was to help refinance the club’s remaining stadium debt — a long-term goal for the Kroenkes and something they would only have considered doing as 100 per cent owners. The AST estimate that the required loan from KSE would have been in the region of £184 million.

A board operations committee was formed to oversee a restructure of the club and ensure efficiency. That was comprised of Sanllehi, Venkatesham, Lewis, board member Lord Harris and CFO Stuart Wisely. It was this operation that led to the redundancies, and indeed Sanllehi’s departure.

In the case of Sanllehi, the club felt there was a need to restructure and adapt to the new economic climate — ultimately, Arsenal did not need two leaders.

More broadly, the ownership had concerns over transfers, relationships and the culture at London Colney. When it came to dialogue between the executive team and the ownership, the appropriate process and communication hierarchies were not always followed. Contact between Josh Kroenke and the executive leadership consequently diminished.

There was concern from the Arsenal hierarchy about the situation regarding David Luiz’s signing a contract extension. It is understood that the player had only wanted to leave Chelsea for a two-year deal. At the time, Arsenal were not thought to be in a position to offer him that, so they proposed one year with an option of an additional 12 months. In the summer, there were a series of tense conversations between executives and ownership over whether or not to trigger the additional year, culminating in Luiz’s post-match interview after the defeat at Manchester City on June 17.  “I should have taken a different decision in the last two months but I didn’t,” he told Sky Sports. “All about my contract, if I stay here or not. I have 14 days to be here and that’s it. I should have tried to decide my future as early as possible, but I didn’t.”

The deals to sign Pablo Mari and Cedric Soares permanently also proved divisive. The players were assured in January that their loan deals would be made permanent, but there is a discrepancy over to what extent the ownership were aware of that commitment. In each instance, the owners ultimately backed their executives and went through with the deals — but it did begin to raise questions. There were also rumblings of discontent over the degree to which agent Kia Joorabchian felt able to comment on Arsenal’s inner workings in the media, even if that was something outside of the executives’ direct control.

Sanllehi left Arsenal in the midst of a transfer window. He was leading Arsenal’s contract renegotiation with Aubameyang, as well as spearheading the club’s pursuits of Partey and Gabriel. It was Lewis who called Sanllehi to inform him of his fate. The timing of the head of football’s dismissal was undoubtedly awkward but deemed by the ownership to be essential given the recommendation that was made to them. To date, Stan Kroenke has not spoken to Sanllehi, although this is said not to be particularly unusual given the scale of his operations. Huss Fahmy wanted to leave the club, and the Arsenal hierarchy felt it was a good opportunity for a clean break.

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Despite the considerable disruption, Arsenal feel they had a successful transfer window. In the final weeks, the club were involved in negotiations to sign more than one midfield player. There was optimism that if they could find a way to structure payments, they could land two of their top three targets: Partey, Houssem Aouar, and Jorginho. They ended up with just one in Partey but Chelsea’s Brazilian midfielder was not simply a back-up option — he is greatly admired by Arsenal’s technical staff, including Arteta.

As with all major football decisions, the ownership were across these internal debates. by the end of this most recent transfer window, Stan Kroenke is said to have been sufficiently au fait with football vernacular to discuss Arsenal’s midfield targets in terms of “sixes, eights and No 10s”.


A former Arsenal staff member suggests “the Kroenkes are good owners — as long as they have the right people running the club”. If your philosophy entails giving absolute trust to your executives, it becomes all the more essential you make the right hires.

Clearly, mistakes have been made in the wake of Wenger’s departure. Arsenal adopted a continental executive model that was Gazidis and Sanllehi’s vision and now have veered away from that entirely.

Arsenal are confident that their new set-up is leaner and more efficient. The relationship between Arteta and technical director Edu echoes the coach and general manager structure the Kroenkes are accustomed to in US sports. There is tremendous faith in this youthful team. Edu has impressed with his negotiating ability, but there is also an acceptance both from the Brazilian and ownership alike that he is still developing. South America and Europe provide very different contexts, very different challenges, and he will be given room to grow.

It is not unusual for Stan Kroenke to take a long-term view. When you’re a real estate developer, that is your business model. In terms of Arsenal, he is known to have raised the subject of Arsenal’s stadium naming rights deal, currently set to end in 2024, to board meetings many years before its potential expiration.

Until now, KSE’s different teams have been run in a somewhat siloed fashion. There are indications that could be changing. KSE recently struck a commercial deal with aluminium packaging company Ball Corporation, that will benefit teams across their network. If more of that kind of collaboration is forthcoming, there could be a benefit to being a part of this wider family.

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The injection of funds for the Partey signing is not necessarily an isolated incident. The Kroenkes are aware that there may be similar market opportunities in the next 12-18 months. There is understood to be awareness that in the current market, cash is king. Dominik Szoboszlai, who has a €25 million release clause, is already the subject of discussion among the technical staff and hierarchy.


Szoboszlai has been discussed by the hierarchy  (Photo: Laszlo Szirtesi/Getty Images)

From a business perspective, Stan’s investment in Arsenal already looks shrewd. KSE insist they do not and will not sell; that this family business will remain just that. The fascinating thing now is whether the Kroenkes can yet win the hearts of the fans.

That will not be easy. KSE have not always struck the delicate balance between corporate efficiency and human empathy Premier League fans seem to desire. For some, the pay cut and the redundancies left a bitter taste in the mouth. Clubs being owned at the highest level by lifelong supporters is increasingly rare. “I think Arsenal want to be run by one of the ‘nice billionaires’,” jokes one former Arsenal staff member. “Maybe Oprah should buy a club?”

In 2019, the Arsenal fans asked, “We Care, Do You?”. There’s no verbal answer that could satisfy the supporters, and Stan is not about to change the habit of a lifetime and provide one. Recent events do, however, appear to form a riposte to the charge of “absentee owners”. KSE appear to be across matters, and determined to provide support when possible.

“I think the Kroenkes love Arsenal,” says a former executive. “I just don’t think they tell people.”

It begs the question: if not the Kroenkes, what kind of owner do Arsenal fans want?

 

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