According to the latest reports, Arsenal football club’s non-executive director Josh Kroenke has admitted that the Gooners faithful should not expect the club to compete for major honors over the recent future because of the lack of funds for the arrival of new players. Things were looking different for Arsenal at the start of last season when a new era donned as Unai Emery took over the reins from the legendary Arsene Wenger. The Spaniard guided Arsenal to a 22 game unbeaten streak across all competitions and a top four berth looked quite certain until a horrendous last few weeks in the Premier League.
Arsenal had another chance of making it into the elite Champions League tournament if they beat Chelsea in the Europa League final, which was the main-target of not just the manager, but the players as well. However, a 4-1 loss to their local London rivals in Baku indicated that there is still plenty of work that needs to be done over the summer and beyond for Emery if he is to deliver success.
There was more shocking and disappointing news for the Arsenal fans as reports claimed that the club will be given a mere £40m transfer war chest to head into the summer transfer market and purchase players. There has been an out-pour of discontent from Arsenal fans and they are voicing their opinion on the owners demanding and begging for more consideration.
However, Arsenal’s owner Stan Kroenke’s son Josh Kroenke has sent out an official message on the clubs website to the loyal fans to not get their hopes up. As Arsenal headed into a third straight season without Champions League football, the 39 year old Josh addressed the issue in a statement which read, “As much as we would love to say that we will be competing for the top trophies tomorrow, we know that that is not the case and that we have to get to work on that, That is a daily approach to the little things from the top down. We understand that there are a daily approach and a daily requirement of detail that goes into the overall approach of building the club back to where it needs to be. For me, on a personal level, I am not sure how to address my passion. Anyone that knows me knows how passionate I am about Arsenal Football Club. Is it hard to take? Absolutely. But I am not in this business to make friends; I am in it to win.”
“If anyone is ever going to question anything about our ownership – which I view as a custodianship, the supporters trust us to be a custodian of the values – that is what we are trying to do. We are trying to win whilst also respecting the values and traditions of the club. I have sat down with supporters’ groups. I have not been afraid to sit down to have tough conversations with people because I am transparent, we are transparent, we do not have anything to hide. We all want the same thing and we are all trying aggressively to make it happen. It is just sometimes our timeline might not be as aggressive as others would like to see. But we are not going to compromise the values that have kept Arsenal Football Club the way it is for over 130 years.”
Well, hopefully the owners now spend and buy in some top players, as per what has been suggested by the recent comments that have come in. It will be an interesting transfer window for The Gunners. Let’s wait and watch.
