The energy has changed at Arsenal. Winning can do that, and for Josh Kroenke, sitting down with reporters, including football.london this week, there is an aura of confidence, belief and joy.
This has been a long journey for the Arsenal football club that began before the arrival of Mikel Arteta, but it has been the work of the Spaniard that has catalysed this club toward its return to the top. 22 years have passed since the last time the Premier League trophy was lifted by an Arsenal player, but it has been the last six and a half of those 22 years where the real progress has been made.
Josh however points to his contribution truly stepping up in 2017/18, during the period where Kroenke Sports Entertainment, owned by Josh’s father Stan Kroenke, took full control of the football club. It was just a year later several supporter groups, high-profile Arsenal fans and podcasts came together for the We Care Do You petition which called on the ownership to take a greater interest in the club.
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It was a moment before Arteta’s arrival that Josh remembers very well. He recounts the period and also how the defeat to Chelsea in the Europa League final was a realisation that the club might have to go backwards to go forwards.
“There was a lot of heavy lifting going on behind the scenes at the club at that point in time,” he said. “We had taken the club private the year before, I was spending a lot of time over here during the 2017-18 season.
“We went through a big transition from Arsene, obviously a legendary person and manager. Transitioning to a new era after 22 years was going to be difficult. We transitioned from him to Unai.
“One: it was taking the club private that summer. Two: You had a legendary manager moving along, us trying to reinvent ourselves. Third: An underestimated thing for me on the back end was Ivan Gazidis’ departure. I think for a club of our stature change is going to be healthy but that was way too much change in way too short of a period of time.
“We had to really react to that over the 2018-19 season, regain our stability. We were straddling strategies at the time, almost. We had been out of the Champions League for a year or two, we were trying to bring some younger players into the squad but not get too inexperienced to keep pushing for the league.
“I flew all the way to Baku for the worst 45 minutes of that season, I think, that second half. I think we gave up four goals. The Champions League had slipped through our fingers in a top four setting. We were still going to go after it at the Europa League final. Seeing that happen was the first time where I came back from that trip, and I told my dad that I think we need to really embrace where we are. Now that we have 100% of the club we might need to take a step back to go forward at some point.”
It was the summer of 2019 when William Saliba was also signed. A player who has now become such an integral part of the Arsenal structure.
Josh explains that it was the defeat to Chelsea in Baku which prompted him to look outwards, to the successful clubs of the time, and the business they were doing to achieve their goals. It was the Arsenal head of academy who made it clear Saliba was the Virgil van Dijk-type player he thought could transform things for the club.
“It’s funny to think back on this one, I had a great conversation with Per Mertesacker. After the final in Baku I made a comment about Virgil van Dijk, who had arrived at Liverpool a year or two before. I said how do we get one of these guys into our system. ‘Well, unless you’ve got 100 million quid, you better not be thinking about him.’
“I said well who’s the best young defender in Europe? He turned without hesitation and said ‘William Saliba.’ That summer there were already conversations around building to the future.
But it was the arrival of Mikel Arteta in the December of that year which would begin the new path which so far has led to the Premier League title, and hopefully, much more.
“There were so many moving parts at that time,” Josh explained. “From the transition from Arsene, [the exit] of Ivan and into a new ownership model, there just wasn’t enough stability. And that’s why I still think the world of Unai. I’m glad to see him having success at Aston Villa. I think he’s a wonderful coach.
“But when we pivoted from Unai and came to Mikel, the conversations were all about culture and reinventing that. And perhaps taking a step back to go forward. And Mikel really embraced that, especially the cultural aspect of what it was.
“I knew he was kind of a.. if you knew anything about Mikel Arteta from his playing days and then transitioning to Pep’s staff, is that he was a kind of a madman when it came to football. And so all of our conversation was all about culture. And that’s why I think, I think I’m so proud of where we are today. One, for obviously the trophy that we lifted yesterday, but culturally where the club is today.”
There is no doubt that the club did go backwards positionally, finishing eighth twice, before they then went forward. But perhaps the most dramatic part of the process was dealing with the impacts of a pandemic.
While every club had to deal with Covid-19, for Arsenal, there could not have arguably been a worse time for that to hit the club. Josh recounts how the club was unable to fulfil what he had initially promised Arteta, the implication being that it was financially constrained at the time due to restrictions placed on the club, caused by the loss of almost all its matchday revenue.
“You know, I was thinking about this in the spring, fall of 2019, when we went through the transition to Mikel. One of my promises to Mikel was I would be here as much as I could. And I had been over three or four times in December of that year around the hiring process and then I came back over at the end of February to start putting different plans in place now that we kind of had a little bit of runway.
“And then I think that the craziest thing to ever happen and could happen was COVID. And so that was an interesting moment in time where Mikel was just coming on board and I couldn’t fulfil my promise. And not only that, but I think the club had to come together in a way where you had to have some very tough conversations because all of a sudden you’re dealing… The question I kept asking was ‘How do you prepare yourself for when the world stops?’ And the answer to that question is, ‘I don’t think you can.’
Perhaps one of the best parts of this untold story is a conversation that Josh had with former chairman Sir Chips Keswick and the understanding of this process that had to go back to go forward. The fear from Sir Chips being that Arsenal might end up going too far back!
“So during that transition phase, when I was there in February, and I started to talk to, actually, our previous chairman, who was a big mentor of mine, Sir Chips-Keswick, we would go to lunch all the time, and we talk through things about the club and, having just taken it private, we were starting to talk more and more about the future. I told Chips at lunch one day, I said ‘Chips, you know, in the States, we’ve had to take a step back to go forward at times, so I think at some point we may have to do that’.
“And he kind of smiled, and he agreed, and he just looked at me, and he goes [puts on impression] ‘Bloody hell, don’t relegated!’ And I said, ‘I will do my best to try to thread that needle.’
“But it was a funny, funny moment, and timing. If anyone knows Chips, rest his soul, he had a great sense of humour and a great timing for things, and when that came out, it disarmed all my thoughts, and it was a great moment I’ll never forget. But I knew what we shouldn’t do, Chips made that very clear.”
Fans this past week turned out in their thousands to celebrate the league title. The Emirates has not witnessed scenes such as those seen before Atletico Madrid, Burnley and now once the championship has been won, since perhaps 2021, when for very different reasons the Emirates was surrounded.
Not with celebrating fans, but instead angry supporters reacting to the news of Arsenal’s aims to participate in the breakaway European Super League. While not wanting to excuse the mistake, which he speaks on further, it is evident that the impact of the pandemic is what perhaps gave the club that nudge to commit to the plans at the time, where without it maybe a different thought process would have been considered.
“When your matchday revenue gets shut off overnight, we had extended ourselves financially. I think we were about to eliminate the stadium debt at the time, and for our model, that was a big shock to the system, without a doubt.
“So you had to rethink things, and it was such a crazy time to really look back on, and I don’t want to dwell on it too much, but you think about ‘how do you prepare for when the world stops, matchday revenue gets shut off’, that’s how the conversation around a Super League actually… you rationalise it in your mind, and now you can look back on it and say ‘Wow that was a crazy moment’ and now say ‘what were we thinking’, but you’re thinking from a place that you’ve never been or really kind of games in your own mind before, so it was a big shock to our system across football, commercial, everywhere.
Some of what was seen outside the Emirates, be that banners or even an effigy of Stan Kroenke, make it hard to think how quickly the sentiment has changed. As Josh and Stan walked across the Selhurst pitch, it was only cheers and celebration.
Winning does that. But those tougher times still sit firmly in the memory of Josh.
“When they were hanging us from lampposts? No, that was part of the journey and its one that while we’re not proud to talk about, we’re not trying to hide from it.
“It was a moment of reflection and even though it was painful at the time, it brought me closer to the supporter base as well. I was in and around the supporter base at different points in time leading up to that moment.
“After that, I sat with our now board member Ben Winston, we went to lunch in LA, and I already knew, but he wanted to explain to me a couple more things from a supporter’s perspective. So, really, coming out of that conversation, all I did was apologise.
“We are all humans, we all make mistakes, and it is one on a grand scale that really ignited a lot of emotion in people, but hey, we’re still people. We made a mistake. Can we sit down and talk about it?
So, fortunately, at that point in time, still being in Covid, I would sit, and I would meet with many supporters from many different supporters groups, and I say this endearingly, fortunately, it was in Covid, and I was doing this all on screen, where they couldn’t throw tomatoes at me.
“So it was OK from that standpoint! But we had some great conversations, I think we all looked each other in the eyes and hopefully they understand I wasn’t just trying to pay them lip service.”
Many had suggested that had the results been as poor as they were during the pandemic, Arteta might not have lasted as long as he did in the role. Without supporters to make their feelings heard like they were on social media at the time, it would be natural that it could have changed how the manager was viewed.
Josh is a subscriber to this way of thinking. But equally, it is important to remember results might not have gone in such a way were it not for the impact of the pandemic, so it is a fine balancing act.
“I think that’s part of the story but anybody that gets a chance to be around Mikel, you can buy into what he’s selling pretty easily. So I don’t want to give myself or my father any credit, I think that Mikel and his staff and our players are the ones that earned those rights to have the patience in those moments by the amount of work and energy they were putting in behind the scenes.
“And I also want to say, that I think that Mikel – I don’t know if I would ever acknowledge it, or Mikel or anybody – there was something about Mikel having a little bit of what I would say ‘space’ during Covid when there weren’t fans around. There were some growing pains that went on during matches, different moments, and obviously we won the FA Cup in there, but to not have that extra pressure of fans being on top of you at different points in time when we were going through different growth phases was probably something I don’t think any of us would acknowledge in the moment but, looking back on, I think we can say ‘maybe that was a little bit of a benefit’ but for myself or my dad, as far as patience, that’s Mikel, his staff and his players, with the amount of work and energy they were putting in.”
It was till tough for Arteta despite this space that a lack of fans in the ground allowed for the Spaniard. There is a scene in the All or Nothing documentary where both Josh and Mikel sit together at a table after the opening defeats of the 2021/22 season, and Josh says, “The only people you can trust are those in the room with you.” Adding: “Onward we go…”
And after both the 21/22 and the 22/23 season it was time for Arsenal to recognise what was needed to take them to another level. Having spoke previously about the impact of Van Dijk at Liverpool, the time had come to add a figurehead of their own which turned out to be Declan Rice.
Josh recounts his role in the transfer and while keen never to take any credit, he explained that he takes on an enquiry type position with any more. Trying to find out the ‘Why?’ of a transfer.
As that player took shape, I remember Edu [Gaspar], Mikel, Tim [Lewis], Rich [Garlick] all sitting here in the conference room and walking me through it for the first time. My eyebrows raised because I didn’t know if we were in that phase just yet to go after a player like that.
“So I asked Mikel a couple of pointed questions about how we might use him, which I never really ever do. My main question centred around, if we are going to be spending this tell me how we’re going to use him. Because this should be what I refer to as ‘plug and play’. He should fit right into the starting XI and hit the ground running.
“But if we are also going to be paying this much, what’s the person we are getting? Because this better be a leader as well.
“I think just like Mikel when you sit down and talk to Declan you understand the person he is, how focused of an individual he is and so you get more comfortable with the price tag. That doesn’t mean it still fits into our financial model but that was a big moment for all of us. And we were happy to get that one across the finish line, I thought everybody at the club did a great job getting that one done.
“It was a big moment for us for sure.” And added: “I don’t think that type of deal would have been possible prior to 2018.”
Even with Rice though, it was still not yet enough and the injuries in the 2024/25 season meant that despite Manchester City falling away, it was Liverpool and an in-form Mohamed Salah who went on to claim the league. What followed was the single biggest spend by Arsenal in a summer transfer window ever.
Nearly £250million in transfer fees plus the loan for Piero Hincapie which contains an option that all parties are of the mind will be activated this summer to make the deal permanent for around £45million.
“There were different conversations over the years, whether it was youth, positional quality, all of the areas that we needed to improve on,” Josh said recounting 2025.
“I thought we had finally reached a place, or we all thought we’d finally reached a place, last spring, where we had a chance to achieve something special. But for whatever reason, you know, it didn’t happen, and I think one of those reasons is injuries.
“You look back at the Champions League semi-final and the squad that we had out there. A very, very, very strong squad. But there were some guys playing out of position. There were a couple of our back-ups in there as well.
“Last summer, it was about allowing Mikel the freedom to rotate more when he was choosing to and still have a level of quality coming up. So it was definitely more about quantity and making sure that we were, relatively speaking, deep at every position.”
And it worked. Arsenal won the Premier League title and now have a shot at becoming European champions for the first time in their history. Josh admitted that the question he had been asked more than any other was which of the two he wanted more.
Now having claimed the English top flight, it is obvious the craving for more is embedded in his psyche.
“Which one? The one we don’t have. But, champions of England sounds pretty good and champions of Europe could sound even better, especially with the double tied to it. But we think we have a chance here.
“We have very strong foundations in place to continue to build and try to sustain. Getting the foundations in place is usually the hardest part of the journey, and now we have all this, it is about trying to stay at the top, knowing everyone is trying to climb the mountain after you.”
And when everyone is trying their hardest to catch you, it means taking further steps to ensure to stay as the leading pack. What will perhaps bring joy to supporters the most from this is the blunt and determined promise that the plan is to keep improving, keep investing and to keep aiming to win more.
“When you win something, the sun’s still going to come up the next day. You’ve got to get back to work and there are many teams trying to gain on you, including some historically great ones around the Premier League.
“I think I can think back and say that our stated goal was winning the Premier League. So, we’re going to look to strengthen because we know that teams around us are going to get better. If you’re not trying to continually evolve and improve, you’re standing still.”
But it is not just about bringing in talent; it is also about keeping it, and perhaps the person the club must keep more than any other is Mikel Arteta. Josh confirms this is the club’s number one goal.
“If there is a singular person you can trace this all back to, I’m going to give 100 per cent credit to Mikel, his staff and the players,” he said. “Those are the ones.
“As much as Mikel is putting together our tactics, the players have got to go play the games, they’ve got to go and win for you. Keeping Mikel around is [the] utmost priority, and I think the good news for Arsenal fans worldwide is he’s enjoying the project, he’s enjoying being here, and from his time as a player all the way up until now, he’s an Arsenal man through and through.”
The Kroenke ownership has gone through a lengthy and rollercoaster-like journey as majority shareholders and now owners of Arsenal. There is no doubt that their stock with the fan base is the highest it has ever been.
The motives behind individuals who own football clubs can vary wildly. The chance of incredible profits, perhaps a future sale or just for the fun of it all, a passion for the game.
But looking across KSE and all their clubs and American franchises, the common denominator has always been winning. To close, Josh maintained that what was seen at Selhurst Park, lifting the famous silver and gold trophy, adorned with red and white ribbons, is exactly what they want, and what they will continue to want.
“It’s easy to pay lip service and say we’re in it to win it. And I understand that there’s a lot of hesitation. Because when you come into something in the sporting world, what else are you going to say? We’re in this to do this. We’re in this to kind of be okay.
“But no, we’re in to win. But learning how to manage something up to a winner is a process at times. And it’s one you don’t get right. And it’s for sure not linear. If we started here [gestures low] and we’re trying to get to here [gestures high], it doesn’t look like that [a straight line up]. It’s going to go like this [a fluctuating journey toward that high-end point].
“And it’s going to be a big squirrely thing that finally gets us there. But once you do reach there, hopefully, you have a knowledge base that allows you to stay there. But you’re in to compete, and you’re in to win. And my dad and I are very competitive people.
“My mom is too. So is my sister. Some of my best friends back home in college, they would call me ‘Competition Kroenke’. Because we were in the pool of volleyball. And I may have spiked a little too hard. And there was someone that was not ready for it. And my competitive side gets the better of me at times.
“But we’re competitive people, and you’re in it to win it. And that requires patience at times. That requires being aggressive at times. But if you’re not in it to truly try to win, you’re just kind of bouncing along in a world of people around you trying to.
“This was a journey beyond belief. And I’m very proud. I’m very proud of Mikel and the players.”
