Five of the worst things the Kroenkes have done during their time at Arsenal

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For the past week, it seems as though #KroenkeOut hasn’t stopped trending on social media.

For many, this may seem to be a direct result of the rise and fall of the European Super League, and while that has certainly played a part, the Kroenke’s ownership has been an issue bubbling under the surface for years at Arsenal.

The American owners have made some pretty serious mistakes during their time at Arsenal, and we’re going to look through five of the worst things they’ve done.

The Super League

Let’s start with the obvious.

The Super League was a ridiculous concept from start to finish, but the fact that the Kroenke’s thought that it was an acceptable move for the club to sign up for it shows just how out of touch they are with the sport and their own fanbase.

The Super League would have removed every element of competition from the sport, and it would probably have been a bit of a disaster for Arsenal on the pitch as well as they’re nowhere near ready to compete with Europe’s elite.

People like Gary Neville, Jurgen Klopp and Jordan Henderson have summed it up better than we ever could, but this was a move wholly driven by greed.

The Redundancies

The coronavirus pandemic has hit everyone hard financially, but you have to feel for the 55 staff members who were made redundant by Arsenal last summer.

The Gunners were attempting to cost-cut, and in doing so, they laid off 55 members of staff due to the financial difficulties brought on by the pandemic.

Of course, the financial impact of the pandemic wasn’t catered for, and plenty of companies have sadly had to make redundancies during this time.

However, we can’t help but point the finger at the Kroenke’s here. How can you justify letting 55 hard-working members of staff go just weeks before splashing £45m on a new midfielder?

Arsenal and the Kroenkes could easily have afforded to keep these workers on, but they saw an opportunity to save a quick buck and went for it.

The Relocation

This one is kind of cheating as it’s not necessarily linked to Arsenal, but it happened during the Kroenke’s ownership of the Gunners.

The St. Louis Rams moved to Los Angeles in 2016, leaving the city of St. Louis with no NFL team and a huge stadium, owned and paid for by the city, left empty.

As you can imagine, Rams fans were left furious by the move, and the city is still reeling from the loss of the franchise.

Fortunately, relocations like this are very rare in football, but it just goes to show the contempt Kroenke has for the supporters of his sports teams.

Sacking Gunnersaurus

The redundancies were unethical and awfully sad, but this one was downright ridiculous from start to finish.

As we mentioned earlier, letting staff go when you’re about to embark on a summer spending spree totalling over £70m is preposterous, but getting rid of a club mascot who’s worked there for 27 years and probably doesn’t earn that much is just absurd.

Gunnersaurus is a bit of a joke amongst fans these days, but for kids who are just getting into the game, he’s a popular figure who can make those matchday experiences that much more fun.

Fortunately, Mesut Ozil came to the rescue offering to pay the wages of Jerry Quy, the man who has played the mascot for almost three decades.

The fact that, like the Super League, Arsenal had to do a U-turn on this shows just what a poor decision this was.

Lack of investment

While the above issues are all terrible in their own right, we probably wouldn’t have seen mass protests at the Emirates if Arsenal had been tasting success on the pitch.

Now we’re not going to say that Arsenal are hard-done-by when it comes to transfers. After all, they spent £45m this summer on Thomas Partey, £72m in 2019 on Nicolas Pepe and £56m on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

However, all of those transfers were paid for by funds raised by the club itself with Kroenke reportedly not putting a single penny of his own into the club since 2015.

Meanwhile, the Kroenkes have been happy to take money out of the club, with the club paying KSE something described as an ‘advisory fee’ on the books to the tune of £6m.

The owners have been more than happy to line their own pockets, but when the club has needed a cash injection, they’ve not helped.

Of course, there are clubs in worse positions, but under the Kroenkes with this lack of external investment, Arsenal may never fully realise their true potential as a club.