Arsenal director Josh Kroenke admits he finds it ‘hard to truly relate’ to fans

Arsenal director Josh Kroenke has admitted he finds it ‘hard to truly relate’ to the club’s fan base, admitting their level of support is ‘way deeper’ than fandom in the United States.

Kroenke has served as a director of the Premier League giants since December 2013 under father Stan Kroenke’s divisive ownership. 

The 74-year-old American took a 9.9 per cent stake in Arsenal back in 2007 and slowly increased his shareholding until it reached 62.89 per cent in April 2011.

Arsenal fans have lamented the Kroenke family’s control of the club in recent seasons

Kroenke admitted that the decision to sign up to the European Super League was wrong but believes it’s made his bond with fans ‘closer’

The American family then assumed full control of the club in 2018 after Alisher Usmanov accepted his bid to buy him out of his remaining shares for £550m.

Arsenal fans have lamented their control over the club though, hitting out at a lack of investment and determination to return the club to the summit of the domestic and European game. 

Those thoughts were strengthened by the site of the Kroenkes celebrating on Sunday as their NFL franchise, the Los Angeles Rams, won the Super Bowl against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Arsenal have not competed in the Champions League since 2016-17 and have not won the Premier League title since 2004.  

And Kroenke has now done little to enhance his connection to the club’s fans by admitting he struggles to understand just how passionate the fans are.

Kroenke told Road Trippin’: ‘I think that one of the messages that I said to our supporters and I do listen to our supporters over there. I listen to our fans here [in America] with our teams but the level of passion that is involved in European football, and support that goes into these clubs – I don’t wanna say it’s deeper than anything we have over here – but it’s way deeper than anything we have over here.

‘It’s hard to truly relate as an American or a foreigner heading into the UK the passion that really goes on from the people that support these clubs.’ 

Arsenal have their best chance of finishing in the Champions League for a number of seasons 

The Kroenke family were forced to reiterate their commitment to Arsenal back in April 2021 and insisted they ‘are not selling any stake’ amid interest from Spotify founder Daniel Ek. 

The Americans faced backlash from fans and even protests outside the Emirates Stadium over their involvement in the doomed European Super League. 

Arsenal were one of 12 founder clubs of the controversial breakaway competition but withdrew just 48 hours later amid fierce backlash. 

Kroenke admitted that the decision to sign up to the controversial competition was wrong but believes it’s made his bond with fans ‘closer’.

‘I think that whether or not they fully understood the concept of what we’re trying to do, it didn’t matter,’ said Kroenke. 

Mikel Arteta’s side are sixth in the table but can go up to fourth if they win their games in hand

‘They didn’t want the change. That was the only thing that mattered that we were going to make changes to the system they love. I understood that.

‘I think part of being a good leader is making unpopular decisions on behalf of the group and part of being a good leader is listening to the group and understanding when to back off.

‘That’s what we did. Once we had a full understanding of what was going on – very quickly – the right thing to do as a leader was to get out of the process.

‘I’m encouraged by the whole process because it’s brought me and our whole staff closer to our supporters than ever before.

‘I really enjoy sitting down and talking with our fans about sports because whether we see it through the same lens we all want the same thing and that’s to win.’