Josh Kroenke sat down with reporters this week, projecting an aura of confidence, belief and joy as Arsenal’s fortunes have dramatically transformed in recent years.
Winning has visibly changed the energy surrounding the club, and Kroenke’s demeanour reflected that shift during the wide-ranging conversation with journalists including football.london.
Twenty-two years have passed since Arsenal last lifted the Premier League trophy, but Kroenke pointed to the last six and a half of those years as the period of most meaningful progress.
The work of manager Mikel Arteta has been central to catalysing the club’s return toward the top of English football after a prolonged period away from the summit.
Kroenke identified his own contribution as truly stepping up during 2017/18, when Kroenke Sports Entertainment, owned by his father Stan Kroenke, took full control of the football club.
Just a year after that takeover, several supporter groups, high-profile Arsenal fans and podcasts united behind the We Care Do You petition, calling on ownership to show greater investment in the club.
Josh remembers that difficult period well, including how the defeat to Chelsea in the Europa League final became a turning point in his thinking about the club’s direction.
“We went through a big transition from Arsene, obviously a legendary person and manager,” Kroenke said, describing the upheaval of moving on after 22 years under one manager.
Kroenke outlined three overlapping pressures that made that period particularly turbulent, saying “taking the club private that summer” coincided with a legendary manager’s departure and what he called an underestimated blow.
“An underestimated thing for me on the back end was Ivan Gazidis’ departure,” he said, adding that the volume of change in such a short period was far too much for a club of Arsenal’s stature.
He described the club as “straddling strategies at the time,” caught between blooding younger players and maintaining enough quality to keep pushing for a top-four finish and the Champions League.
The Europa League final in Baku proved to be a pivotal moment personally, with Kroenke describing the second half as “the worst 45 minutes of that season” after Arsenal conceded four goals.
“The Champions League had slipped through our fingers in a top four setting,” he said, reflecting on the mounting sense that a fundamental rethink was urgently needed at the club.
Upon returning from Baku, Kroenke told his father Stan that a more honest assessment of Arsenal’s position was necessary, regardless of how uncomfortable that conclusion might be.
“Now that we have 100% of the club we might need to take a step back to go forward at some point,” he told his father, a message that would ultimately shape the rebuilding project that followed.
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