Arsenal: Stan Kroenke sole-ownership isn’t a big deal anymore

Arsenal look set to see Stan Kroenke take over sole ownership of the club, which may seem like the worst thing ever, but honestly, it’s not.

There was a time when hearing that Stan Kroenke was going to buy out Alishair Usmanov would have sounded like the worst thing that could possibly happen for Arsenal. The divide over Arsene Wenger was nothing compared to the unanimity over Kroenke.

Nobody liked him. And you didn’t have to look far to see why. He was, and still is, a businessman first. He has numerous sports ventures in America, and few (if any) have found success beyond being financially viable institutions.

Needless to say, fans didn’t want more of that mentality at their club but, to be fair to Kroenke (yes, we have to do that), none of his other ventures come with the same pedigree as this illustrious North London club.

And all of those other ventures require some degree of ‘umph’ to get them on track. Arsenal really doesn’t. They have the name value, they have the investment and the right people in charge. Kroenke isn’t a cancer on the club like he once was.

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No, he hasn’t changed. But the circumstances have. As mentioned, there are people in charge who know football, who love it, who live and breathe it, and they are all ensuring that the club does indeed recover from the depths of despair (which was literally just finishing outside of the top four for two years).

Kroenke isn’t going to interfere with that. Sure, he may cinch the coin-purse a bit. Maybe he doesn’t allow the club to spend Pogba-esque money on Pogba-esque players, but do we really want that?

This is the second time I’ve written about how Kroenke maybe isn’t so bad and it makes me feel dirty, so let me be clear – there are better people to have owning your club. Obviously. But the one bright side to Kroenke, the side that used to be his biggest downside, is that he doesn’t meddle. He lets the people that know what they’re doing, do it. And he sits back and wipes his arse with $100 bills.

So long as the club is improving, as it looks like they are, at long last, then I don’t care who owns the club insofar as it doesn’t affect the club and, as of right now, it isn’t anymore.

Buy the full shares then, Stan. Just keep your hands out of the day-to-day as you’ve been doing since the beginning.