What is next for Arsenal after European Super League U-turn?
By Dec O'Reilly
Two decades ago, Arsenal Football Club had one of the best teams in Europe and were competing at the highest level in the Premier League and the Champions League.
That famous 5-1 victory at Inter Milan, the Invincibles, the first English club to win at the Bernabeu, the first English club to beat AC Milan at San Siro, the list goes on.
In 2006, the Gunners narrowly missed out in the Champions League final after two late goals from Barcelona in Paris.
Now, the club has hit a new low since making the move to Emirates Stadium. Arsenal are currently ninth in the Premier League, nine points behind the top four and 28 points behind leaders Manchester City.
"Emirates Stadium - The Concrete Arsenal" by fakelvis is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
Where has this decline stemmed from?
Standards have dropped on the pitch since the final years of Arsene Wenger’s reign. For the vast majority of Wenger’s 22 years in charge, Champions League qualification was the minimum goal at the end of a league season.
Arsenal fans can only dream of returning to the Champions League, with Stan Kroenke owning the club, this is becoming less likely as each season goes by.
Kroenke took the majority share in Arsenal in 2011 and now has full control of proceedings at the club, the club has been in decline since then.
He is branded “Silent Stan” by supporters, claimed he never bought shares in Arsenal to win trophies and has taken full advantage of the club needing to pay off debts caused by building Emirates Stadium in 2006.
The breakaway European Super League is nothing short of a disgrace, a complete money-grab by all owners involved. Kroenke has moved away from the traditional morals of the football club, making redundancies at the club and dismissing any opinions from the fans.
Arsenal have not won a Premier League title in 17 years, yet Kroenke has the nerve to become a founding member of the European Super League on the day Arsenal celebrated a late equaliser at home to relegation-threatened Fulham.
Kroenke sees Arsenal supporters as customers, nothing else. 135 years of history has been disrespected by this decision and although Arsenal have now distanced themselves from the European Super League proposals, fans have had enough and will not forget this error.
What is next?
Love Arsenal, hate Kroenke. #KroenkeOut