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Arsenal: Now is not the time to ask Stan Kroenke to sell
By Josh Sippie
Arsenal fans were once at a point where they were begging Alishair Usmanov to become the majority shareholder. Things are different now.
Arsenal fans are a proud bunch, and they have every right to be. When an American (gulp) comes in, presuming he knows what he’s doing, and cinches the funds of the club, it’s bound to create a bit of uproar.
You may recall the ‘Wenger Out’ and ‘Kroenke Out’ brigades in full voice before and after literally every game. Or at least every loss.
The carousel continues to turn in that theater. Aliko Dangote has re-emerged as an interested party in buying the club and Alishair Usmanov looks like he may be on the brink of selling his shares to Kroenke.
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Which is all big news, no matter what happens. But for as big as the news is, it isn’t nearly as bad as it used to be.
I have an analogy for you. What this club used to look like was an hourglass. Right in the middle, tight as a sphincter, was Arsene Wenger. Above him, sending the cascades of sand down, was Kroenke and the board. Below him was the club, the players, the fans.
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We don’t know how much control Wenger had. Maybe he was just jammed in there and told to do what he could with the sand that that gave them. Who knows. What we did know was that there was a significant jam up causing major delays in the development of the club.
When he was removed from the picture, the sand flowed seamlessly from the top of the hourglass to the bottom, such that it really wasn’t an hourglass at all, but more like a straight cylinder.
Nothing is blocking the club up anymore. And as long as that is the case, I don’t want anything to change. At least not until we see how well this can work for a couple of seasons.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but as of this very moment, I don’t want Stan Kroenke to sell. I want everything to remain exactly as it currently is. If Kroenke is hands off and the board is fine allowing Ivan Gazidis and his gang to keep doing what they’ve been doing, then this is a system we should all be just fine with.
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It feels weird to say that I don’t want Kroenke to sell anymore. I’m sure this may change in the future, but for now, let’s just enjoy the unanimity of getting behind the club and watching them progress.