All change at Arsenal: What Stan Kroenke’s buyout and new manager Unai Emery mean for the Gunners’ Premier League hopes | City A.M.
Patience is a difficult virtue to preach to a set of fans who waited years for a change of direction at their club.
But now that change has come at Arsenal – and to the extent that scarcely any corner of the club remains untouched by the overhaul of the last few months – patience feels more necessary than ever for Gunners supporters.
Arsene Wenger’s departure after 22 years as manager is the most seismic alteration, with the appointment of Unai Emery as his successor set to herald a shift in playing style, but the revolution runs far deeper.
Read more: Stan Kroenke tables £1.8bn cash offer to buy Arsenal
Deal-maker Raul Sanllehi, talent-spotter Sven Mislintat and fitness guru Darren Burgess have all arrived to fanfare in the last 12 months as part of a restructured hierarchy designed to be less dependent on Wenger. It certainly is that now, at any rate.
Confirmation that majority shareholder Stan Kroenke is set to take full control of the Premier League club by buying Alisher Usmanov’s 30 per cent stake, meanwhile, sees that upheaval spread to the boardroom.
Perhaps of greater immediate significance is the possible departure of chief executive Ivan Gazidis, who has been courted by AC Milan’s new owners, American hedge fund Elliott Management.
It all adds up to a turbulent time at a club once synonymous with stability.
The manager
Emery (centre) arrives with a point to prove having been let go by PSG (Source: Getty)
Emery’s credentials are sound – he has won silverware in different countries – and was probably the most high-profile candidate at Arsenal’s disposal by the time they came to seek Wenger’s successor.
He has indicated that he will address the team’s defensive shortcomings and place greater emphasis on developing a promising crop of young players that includes Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Reiss Nelson and Eddie Nketiah.
Having been let go by previous employers Paris Saint-Germain, Emery is also clearly highly motivated.
Some questions remain about the Spaniard, however. As something of a name, he is simultaneously a safe choice for the board yet also a gamble, given that his only success away from Sevilla – very impressive though that stint was – came at PSG, who enjoy enormous financial superiority in France.
His evolving grasp of English is another variable in the mix. In short, the jury is out on Emery.
The squad
Centre-back Sokratis Papastathopolous is among a number of sturdy new signings (Source: Getty)
Emery has been furnished with a handful of new signings, all completed uncharacteristically early in the transfer window and with minimal fuss by Arsenal’s recent standards.
Tough-tackling midfielder Lucas Torreira, experienced centre-back Sokratis Papastathopoulos, veteran full-back Stephan Lichtsteiner and goalkeeper Bernd Leno point to the desire to toughen up the lightweight Gunners, albeit with players from somewhere below the top bracket.
If those arrivals lack stardust, Emery is fortunate to be inheriting attackers in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Mesut Ozil, Alexandre Lacazette and Henrikh Mkhitaryan who would be the envy of most teams.
The new head coach’s job is to fit them into a system more pragmatic and effective than Wenger’s cavalier sides.
With just days until their league opener against Manchester City, however, it remains unclear what formation Emery will favour, let alone who his starting XI will be – a predicament not helped by uncertainty over Aaron Ramsey’s Arsenal future.
The ownership
Kroenke’s £600m buyout of Usmanov and the remaining minor shareholders – many of whom are Arsenal fans – ends a long-running battle for supremacy between the billionaires and will allow the American to operate the club entirely as he wishes without the transparency that public ownership demands.
The Arsenal Supporters’ Trust called it “a very sad day”, pointing out that Kroenke will now be free to siphon off money from the club, in the form of dividends and management fees, with impunity, as the Glazer family has at Manchester United. Kroenke has also borrowed to fund the buyout, raising the possibility that the debt will be loaded onto the club – again, like the Glazers.
With Premier League clubs now in an era of profitability, taking dividends is more feasible, as is leveraging the buyout. In order to do so regularly, however, Arsenal will need to continue to thrive – and that ought to incentivise Kroenke to ensure the team remains competitive on the pitch, rather than treating it purely as a cash cow.
The chief executive
Chief executive Gazidis has been linked with a move to AC Milan (Source: Getty)
An unexpected factor in the uncertainty around the Emirates Stadium is the position of Gazidis, who has so far passed up the opportunity to scotch reports that he is bound for Milan. Were he to leave, it would leave Arsenal needing to replace their chief executive of 10 years just weeks after their manager of 22 years.
Having overseen the internal restructuring that involved hiring Sanllehi and Mislintat, paved the way for Wenger’s replacement by Emery and manoeuvred himself into a position of unprecedented influence and strength, it would be an extraordinary time for Gazidis to leave his £2.6m-a-year post. A penny for Wenger’s thoughts, too.
The upshot
From the most predictable of clubs, Arsenal have become among the most in flux and amid so much change it is difficult to imagine a major improvement on last season’s sixth place.
Anything above that would be a success, while a return to the lucrative Champions League would have champagne corks popping – perhaps not least on Kroenke’s ranch.
Higher than fourth looks unrealistic for now. Patience, then, is a tough ask for Arsenal fans, although on the other hand when you have waited so long for a turnaround, what’s another year?
Central to late-era Wenger was the soul-sapping predictability of their failures; it’s hard to know what awaits in this new age but it will be a different story at least.