So, that’s it then. After 125 years (almost to the day), Arsenal, the “Bank of England Club”, founded in 1886 by ordinary factory workers of the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, steeped in history and tradition and controlled by committee for more than a century, is now owned by an individual. An American individual. With a moustache.
I’ve spent the past couple of days wondering what it all means and why it matters. I’ve asked myself who or what I actually support. In the past nine years the club badge, the stadium, the board of directors, the backroom staff, the physio and all of the players (except Gael Clichy) have changed. So who or what exactly do I support other than a name and some memories? Maybe it’s Gael Clilchy. I doubt it. But that’s a discussion for another day.
What has surprised me the most so far is the general air of positivity and acceptance around the whole takeover. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing any of us can do about it – if the directors decide to sell their shares they have every right to and a takeover by Stan Kroenke has been inevitable for some time now.
But whether it’s the frustration of not winning a trophy for six years or just a great piece of PR work by Kroenke and his team, everyone seems pretty happy about the whole thing.
I’m not. It’s true that Kroenke has said he will respect the traditions of the club, that he won’t place any debt on it and that he’ll stick with Wenger and the road we have been treading. He’s also a man with good sporting credentials – owning a number of sports teams in the US
But Kroenke is a businessman. Businessmen buy businesses to make money. Football doesn’t make a lot of money from simply winning trophies. It makes money either through debt being lumped on to clubs for the owner’s personal gain, through clubs selling their best assets or by these investments being sold on at a profit. This takeover means all of these things are a threat to us now.
What’s also a threat is that if Kroenke pumps his own money into the club for transfers – effectively throwing out our sustainable-living blueprint – we become dependant on him. I’ve said many times in this blog that the day Abramovich calls in his £750m “loan” from Chelsea
And while pumping cash into a club for success can bring the greatest stars to your team and plenty of trophies, doesn’t it also remove the romanticism a little? A team’s success used to be the culmination of putting a calculated long-term plan into place so you rose over time to conquer those around you. Where’s the romance and the achievement in buying a trophy by calling on the bottomless pockets of billionaire businessman who sees you as his plaything?
Of course, single ownership also means Kroenke can do what he wants with this club’s history. Our history has, effectively, been sold. The asking price was £730m. Because if Kroenke decides tomorrow to erase all that has gone before him in the famous Marble Halls and that we should be called the Arsenal Nuggets, the Ashburton Rapids or the Go-Go-Gunners, he can do it. Just like that. It’s true the fans have never really had much in the way of power at any club, but while there was a board of major shareholders there was at least a layer of protection against the idiotic. Not anymore.
Kroenke may yet prove to be a force for good at The Arsenal. Single ownership - and foreign single ownership at that - was inevitable, and all we can really do now is hope that in Kroenke we will have an owner who genuinely wants to protect our history and the things we have stood for over 125 years. He’s certainly more likely to do so than a Russian steel magnate. But if doesn’t, I won’t be getting my cheque book out to line our new owner’s pockets.
I'll be on the next Greyhound outta here.
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