Martin Keown agrees with Ian Wright and Arsenal fans about Stan Kroenke ahead of protests



Martin Keown shares the same opinion as a lot of Arsenal fans regarding owner Stan Kroenke.

Ahead of kick-off against Everton at the Emirates Stadium, a number of Gunners supporters are planning to protest against the club’s owner – although it is not known at this stage how many will be in attendance.

This comes after fans have urged the American billionaire to sell the club – with Aliko Dangote a popular choice to take over.

Furthermore, Arsenal legend Ian Wright has called for Kroenke to leave following their Super League exit announcement, tweeting the hashtag ‘#KroenkeOut’ to make his feelings clear.

And Keown agrees that Kroenke should sell up – unless he’s willing to heavily invest in Arsenal’s first-team squad in the summer transfer window.

“I can see why the fans want change, and in all honesty unless we see money on the table – and we see the colour of that money – then I think they should step aside,” Keown told talkSPORT. “If they don’t want to spend money now – when the club needs it the most – then they should step aside.

“It’s a wonderful club, but they [the owners] talk about culture but they don’t seem to have picked any of that up.

“They don’t seem to understand the values of the English game, how much we love it, the history and the core values of Arsenal football club.

“Do they just see us as fools? We’re just fools in the group? They go off and do this behind our backs.

“I mean I can only imagine what’s it like working at the club as an employee and you find out overnight they’re trying to take the club anyway.

“As soon as there’s a hint of financial difficulty with the pandemic they run off with the family silver.”

His comments come after Josh Kroenke addressed supporters at an Arsenal fans’ forum yesterday to apologise for the angst caused by the Gunners signing up to the European Super League, while he also confirmed that he and his father have no plans to sell the club.

But in terms of the planned protest before kick-off against the Toffees, Keown is “100 per cent” behind the idea.

“Oh, 100 per cent. I don’t think we should tell the fans what they should and shouldn’t do,” he added. “We now find ourselves at a massive crossroads – Arsenal football club, a club that I played for from a boy all the way through to a man, you stand back and you wonder, what’s their ambition?

“They [the owners] came in and progressively bought shares in the football club from 2007 and I haven’t seen any real money of their own go into the football club.

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“Now Josh Kroenke is saying that they’re going to invest now, and we really do need investment because for the first time in a really long time European football looks almost impossible, unless they win the Europa League

“The club now is in a really difficult position. It needs investment – more than ever before – but they’ve put no money in of their own.

“The club is crying out for that investment, the manager certainly is. So we’re at a crossroads.”





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