Arsenal: The key line from Josh Kroenke interview

On Tuesday morning, David Ornstein of BBC Sport released a wide-ranging interview with Josh Kroenke. The key line from the son of the Arsenal owner focuses on the trust, or the lack thereof, of the fanbase.

The ‘Silent Stan’ mantra is being challenged on Tuesday morning. David Ornstein of BBC Sport conducted a wide-ranging interview with the son of the Arsenal owner, Josh Kroenke, who is the more interested and active party of the Kroenke Sports and Entertainment Group regarding goings-on at the Emirates, discussing a range of topics from the heavily praised summer business to the aims of the club in the coming years.

Find the latest episode of the Pain in the Arsenal Podcast here — Dani Ceballos, the Best Player in the World

It is a very interesting interview with some extremely positive comments from Kroenke. You could read the full piece here. I would recommend that you do.

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I will touch on much of what Kroenke discussed in future pieces on the site. For now, however, there is one key line that I want to pull out that I believe is the most important and impactful line in the whole interview.

It comes right at the end. Kroenke is discussing his and KSE’s relationship with the club and fanbase. He talks about trust, which is something that has been short supply in north London in recent years. This is what he said:

"“When I met with some of the fans’ groups last season I told them that trust is earned over time and I would love for you to trust me now but unfortunately that trust has to play out over the next several years. We’re just getting started and hopefully we’ll start to earn more and more trust with the more and more work we put in.”"

As we saw earlier in the summer transfer window when Kroenke told fans to ‘be excited’ for the business that was to come, large portions of the fanbase now reserve themselves to believing the contorted PR that Arsenal are so brilliant at crafting until they see it backed up with genuine action. In that case, the words were supported by action: the Gunners’ business genuinely was exciting.

Nevertheless, the track record of what the club — and especially the Kroenkes — says and what the club does is not a positive one. It is difficult to believe their promises of title challenges and returns to the European elite. However, here, Kroenke admits that there is a trust chasm between KSE and the fanbase, understanding that supporters now need more than empty words to get on board.

This is extremely encouraging. The first step to solving a problem is admitting that there is one, and the fact that Kroenke has the wherewithal and humility to cede that KSE must earn the trust of the fans through their actions and not just empty but spirit-lifting statements is both surprising and reassuring.

We will see if Kroenke’s promises of challenging for the Premier League title come to pass. I still certainly have my doubts. But unlike in previous years, the comments come without the arrogance of expecting the belief and support of the fans. Kroenke understands that they will be judged on their actions. Now they simply have to execute.