seems highly unlikely they are going to leave anytime soon. i just want to make a few points that may not be popular here:
we've started to spend a lot more money in the last few years, even as we've been without CL football. there were windows 7-8 years ago where we literally spent nothing. we are NEVER going to spend like citeh and chelsea do, because kroenke cares about making money, and the club isnt just a toy for him. that said, we made one of the most expensive transfers in football this past summer when we signed pepe. its not like we're running on a shoestring budget
we spent £25m on a fullback. until the ozil transfer, that would have shattered our transfer record as a whole, let alone the most we've ever spent on a defender. we spent a fortune on an 18 year old CB and immediately loaned him. we're not broke and we're not acting like a small club in the market like we used to, even without CL revenue
the biggest gripe was the lack of pure football people in the executive setup. we brought in edu. whether you like raul or not, he was in important roles at barca, unlike egghead who had no experience at top clubs before coming to arsenal. the aim has been to overhaul the antiquated "just let the manager have all the power" structure, and it hasn't been smooth, but entirely switching models usually involves bumps in the road. gazidis was a worthless asshole and he stayed here too long, and i do blame kroenke for that. but we've made a real effort to re-shape and modernize our football structure. whether raul, edu and the others are the right people, i dont know yet, but we're at least making an effort.
we picked the wrong manager to replace wenger. obviously. im not sure how much blame for that goes on kroenke, as i doubt he knew emery from a hole in the ground. the technical team picked emery, they fucked up. to their credit, i think, they did sack him in season this year. i suspected with our cautious history, we'd have given him till the end of the season, even if it meant bad results and finishing 14th in the league. he should have been sacked 2 months ago, but at least they did it before things got even worse.
wenger stayed too long, he held on to too much power for too long. but they didnt make the same mistakes with emery. we've overhauled our entire structure, and we've already sacked the underperforming manager after 18 months. there are definite questions to ask of raul and co. and i suspect if this summer goes poorly, they will be on very thin ice. but expecting to completely rebuild the club and our model in a year and have no downturn was maybe too optimistic.
the kroenkes are shitheads, they want to make a profit, and i think they will surely realize that if things continue to go sideways on the pitch, fans are going to lose interest and the revenue is going to continue to decrease. according to deloitte, here are our revenues since 2010 in euros, along with our rank among all clubs
2010: 263M (5th)
2011: 271.1 (5th)
2012: 251.1 (5th)
2013: 290.3 (6th)
2014: 284.3 (8th)
2015: 359.3 (8th)
2016: 435.5 (7th)
2017: 468.5 (7th)
2018: 487.6 (6th)
2019: 439.2 (9th)
we are still one of the most valuable clubs in the world and we're still generating a shitton of revenue, even if we are underperforming on the pitch and on the commercial side of the business. hes never going to sell the team. the club is worth about £2.4B. in 2011 when he bought the majority of shares, the club was valued at around £1B. hes already made a fortune on the club.
last summer we spent £70m on leno, guendouzi, torreira, and sokratis and made a small amount on sales. this summer we spent £131m on 4 players, and got back around £55m on sales, for a net spend of close to £80m. the problem isnt a lack of funds/spending like it was 6 or 7 years ago. the problem is we've neglected certain areas and we havent gotten the most out of the players we purchased. for years, as wenger was diddling around and dragging his feet in the market, we were calling out for a proper infrastructure at the club, and having a team in place beyond just dickie law trying to save us every pound he could. now we have that in place. the results havent been great, but it seems like we at least have a plan.
the most worrying thing, at this point, is the manager role. we've lost our identity on the pitch. emery chiseled away at whatever identity wenger left with the club, and he turned us into a bunch of scared cowards who show even the most mediocre side way too much respect. was he the wrong hire? yes surely. were the kroenkes responsible for it? probably partly. but they put the system in place that we all wanted...a dedicated structure where the manager doesnt do everything. so, where kroenke and his spawn will have to answer to is whether they've installed the right people to make that structure work. we were singing raul's praises when we sealed the deals for saliba and pepe and tierney. things have gone sour since. if hes not the right man for the job, then he needs to be replaced. the hiring of the next manager is going to tell us a lot about whether we have the right people in place within the new structure.
