Arsenal balls: Josh Kroenke knows talk is cheap
Can it be true? Arsenal manger Unai Emery says Arsenal are trying to sign some “very big, very expensive players” this summer. “Our target is to achieve three or four players who really improve our team and our squad now,” says Emery. “We have very good players and very good young players who can progress to take and get big performances with us. Other players can come here to help us. We are being very, very demanding and we are first speaking about the possibility to sign very big, very expensive players.”
Arsenal have invested in one new player this summer: 18-year-old Brazilian Gabriel Martinelli. They are being linked with Saint-Etienne defender William Saliba (18), and have bids of £25m for 22-year-old Celtic’s Kieran Tierney, plus £40m for 26-year-old Ivorian Zaha rejected.
The fans are upset about the club’s stagnation under owner Stan Kroenke. But Arsenal chief executive Josh Kroenke (qualifications for the job: absentee owner Stan’s his dad; knows the Gunners player soccerball in London), tells one and all via an open letter, in which he guffs:
“For us, the most important thing to achieve was not simply change for the sake of change, but to ensure we put the right people in the right roles to work together in a positive environment to achieve our stated goal of winning silverware both domestically and in Europe.
We know this can bring uncertainty, and perhaps everything we’ve done in the past 12-14 months has brought about additional uncertainty during a period of unease when supporters, coaches, players and management are rightfully frustrated by lack of success on the pitch.
“With all the work we’ve done on the structure of football, commercial and operational departments, we would say that the club now needs a period of stability rather than additional change.”
To translate: we drifted along collecting fat dividends whilst Arsene Wenger’s regime was winning the occasional tin pot and finishing fourth but now that’s all gone because the patriarch got too old, we’re clueless about what to do. You’re all hungry for success but I’m stinking rich and don’t really need it.
Key part:
“While we’re not going to be in the market for some of the top players in the world at the moment whilst they are the top players, we’re actively scouting the globe to find the next big thing to become great at Arsenal Football Club. And not only will we bring them to the club, we’ll be able to retain them in the fold going forward.”
Translation: We’re desperate and buying cheap. And dad won’t be putting a penny of his absurdly large fortune into the pot. (That ok, dad? Can I come home yet?)
Posted: 17th, July 2019 | In: Arsenal, Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
