Stan Kroenke followed his clueless AGM performance with an unexpected meet-the- press session where he took questions and showed us how American his thinking is.
No surprise there.
We know that Arsenal has never done transparency and that suits the new owner just fine. Stan\’s style is to tell us almost nothing.
Americans now own Man United, Liverpool Arsenal, Aston Villa and Sunderland.We know that most Americans own sports franchises to make money, not to represent a community or embody some high ideal of sporting endeavour.
He said : The Glazers take money out of Man United ? So what?
He thinks selling Nasri for £24m was good business and insists that was “Arsene\’s decision.” Stan, it\’s only good business if you then buy Juan Mata for £18 million.
I\’ve heard that Mata was warned off Arsenal. And I\’ve also heard that Wenger blew out the Mata deal because he thought he could keep Nasri. Denial again. Denial as usual. Why was he in denial? Because he lives in a bubble. Arsenal is his bubble and he creates the parameters of the bubble and all the rules that apply within that bubble.
On Monday, Stan made it clear, again, that he worships the sophisticated Frenchman.
He said, “Arsène Wenger is just an unbelievable manager. I think he’s a tremendous person and he is just as good as there is. You can’t judge a manager on one game or on one stretch of games. You judge him over time.”
Stan doesn’t realise that half a million Gooners find it unbelievable that this manager makes the same mistakes year after year after year.
Basically, Stan can\’t imagine AFC without Arsene, so the pair of them will be happy to grow old together. The biggest star at Arsenal will always be Wenger and the second biggest will always be the stadium.
Stan\’s clearly not bothered that Arsenal have been also-rans for the last six years. And he\’s not bothered if this season is like last the six. Arsenal is just one page in his portfolio and he’ll always be telling us how they do things in the States. I\’m fairly sure that Stamford Bridge was the first Arsenal game he\’s seen since April.
This season after 10 games?
Well, sport is unpredictable, and the EPL has rocked and rolled more than usual in this season\’s first 10 games. The league race has revealed a topsy-turvy scramble between a number of flawed big teams, some of whom are mired in controversy, with matches providing scorelines like 2-8 and 4-3 and 3-5 and 1-6.
Man United, remarkably, are missing new boy Tom Cleverly, so Rooney has to be Cleverley till Tom comes back, while Arsenal are missing Jack Wilshere, who can make the team 25% better than it is right now, if he’s playing at the top of his game.
On what we\’ve seen so far, Arsenal could be third or sixth and Chelsea could be third or sixth. Liverpool and Spurs look more stable and coherent than they\’ve done for years. Where Arsenal either lose or win, Liverpool can draw games.
Right now, Arsenal could be playing for fourth place without knowing whether Spurs, Liverpool or Chelsea will be third. Still, Stan thinks fourth is OK, fourth is fine. He says : Nobody wins trophies every season and some of my friends have been owners for 30 to 40 years and have never won a trophy.
My own best guess is that this Arsenal season will be just like last season – and next season will be more of the same.
The last week has told me a lot because Stan Kroenke has now defined himself by what he has not said. This “billionaire sports tycoon†is delighted to employ a spin-doctor of genius who can rewrite the past as he sells the future to diehard Gooners, mug punters, gullible companies and naive tourists. And his team can mostly score a goal or two more than their opponents, however precarious a game might look, and however fragile his defence is.
In March, April and May, Arsenal don’t win enough of the matches that matter. Why would next Spring be any different? After they sold their best player to Barcelona?
I think most football fans get bogged down in the details of now, today, last night’s games, this morning’s headlines.
But look at the big picture : an absentee owner who likes the sustainable model, an elderly board with no ambition or power, and a young, American-thinking CEO who is really an MD, an administrator who gets paid £2m to suffer the humiliation of working under the club’s dictatorial manager.
Enough tragi-comic elements for a West End stage play.
Who can think of a snappy title?