Arsenal are currently thriving under the management of Mikel Arteta, and club owners Kroenke Sports And Entertainment have seen their popularity rise in recent years.
Arsenal are now a well-run unit from top to bottom, with Josh Kroenke taking over the main duties from his father Stan in recent years, and employing an executive including Edu Gaspar and Richard Garlick to support Arteta’s work.
This has seen Arsenal jump from a side struggling in mid-table in latter stages of Unai Emery’s reign to title challengers under Arteta, and everything has improved, from recruitment to sales.
The Kroenkes were highly unpopular for a significant period of their time in charge of Arsenal, but they have redeemed themselves since they caused furore by agreeing to join the European Super League in 2021, which sparked huge protests outside the Emirates Stadium.
Josh Kroenke has now explained how KSE’s project, which has seen them bring Arsenal back to competing at the top level, was able to be launched from 2018.
Josh Kroenke claims change in Arsenal ownership structure allowed KSE to improve
Speaking in an interview with ESPN, Kroenke claimed that since KSE gained full 100% ownership of the club in 2018, they were able to start building their project which eventually landed on Arteta and Edu.
“The results that we’re having on the pitch obviously help but from the time that my father was able to purchase 100% of the club — and I know that came with its own criticism — that allowed us to enter a different phase of how we wanted to operate the club and operate it like we operate our teams over here,” Kroenke stated.
How Arsenal’s ownership structure changed in 2018
The end of the 2017-18 season saw significant changes at Arsenal. Arsene Wenger departed after 22 years in charge, whilst there was a major turnover within the first-team squad over the course of three windows, with long-serving stars such as Alexis Sanchez, Santi Cazorla, Jack Wilshere and Olivier Giroud departing.
This also saw a huge change in ownership structure. KSE, who until that point, had owned 67% of the club, bought the rest of the shares outright.
KSE bought the 30% of shares owned by Russian Oligarch Alisher Usmanov, and controversially bought up the rest of the shares, a lot of which were fan owned, to ensure they had 100% ownership.
This did not go down well with fans and shareholders at the time. The Arsenal Supporters Trust shared the view of shareholders, who were furious with the decision.
“I feel disenfranchised, as if I am no longer part of this club. I have little enthusiasm for this club. Kroenke is only interested in making money, not in winning trophies. I am not interested in supporting a club with no ambition,” one shareholder stated in response to KSE’s decision to buy up all the shares.
The positives of KSE acquiring 100% ownership of Arsenal
Although an unpopular decision at the time, it led to increased spending power from the club and ownership. A year later, Arsenal smashed their club record to sign Nicolas Pepe for £72m, and the ambition was clearly there to invest in the team.
It then took Edu and Arteta taking over from Emery and Raul Sanllehi to steady the ship, and since then the Kroenkes have not been afraid to back their executive with the funds to build a title-challenging team.
“Within a year and a half or so [of Wenger leaving], we had certain people in certain roles. Edu was on board. Unfortunately it didn’t work out with Unai Emery but I am pleased to see him go on to have success. He is a good man, I really respected him. I’m glad to see a good person having success somewhere else,” Kroenke added.
Arsenal are now run a lot smoothly than they were when the ownership was fractured, and KSE will now hope that this will lead to major trophies.
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