Martin Keown on Arsenal’s Americanisation: Arsene Wenger will make key signings
Written by Jeffrey on April 13, 2011 4:45
Former Arsenal defender Martin Keown branded the move by Stan Kroenke to increase his shareholding in Arsenal to more than 62% as a shame as the Club is now longer owned by a small group of people, all on the same wavelength.
Speaking to BBC, the 44-year old explained that the move was inevitable and only the future will tell whether the American is the right person for the Club as he stressed the important for the Gunners to impose themselves both on and off the pitch.
Believing that manager Arsene Wenger will welcome any extra cash available for transfers, the ex-centre back concluded by saying that he is convinced the Frenchman will make new signings during the summer transfer window as after years working with the same players he now knows what the team needs.
On Stan Kroenke’s takeover, Keown said:
[A foreign owner] is a shame, really, I must say. It’s been the Peter Hill-Wood family for many years now, the Bracewell-Smith and of course Danny Fiszman and in later years David Dein.
That’s been nice, just a small group of people essentially with the same belief, the same ideals, now of course it’s going to change, it’s going to go to one particular person.
[Stan Kroenke] is an expert buyer of sports businesses and we have to see that only the future will tell us really whether or not Arsenal made the right decision.
There are a lot of American people around the Club, they are very good at business, very good in sport [but] what Arsenal need to do is to be the best off the pitch and the best on it.
They used to call Arsenal the bank of England, didn’t they, but certainly it’s not now the bank of England, it’s the American bank. I think it’s a shame that we’ve really lost one big Club in English game but it was inevitable, it’s how really the Club respond from this.
I’m sure Arsene Wenger will make key signings, he worked with the team for many years, he knows exactly what he needs for that team.
I don’t think any of Stan K’s teams have ever won a championship which doesn’t go well for Arsenal. It’s good if he’s not here to make a profit but then again who spends this much $ to not make a profit? Too many bad business decisions already made in the move to the new stadium.
If other clubs have profits they put it towards players. If arsenal have profits its not enough, because they want to show high net profits on the financials. They have NEVER in the last however many years spent funds from their ridiculous profits. All spending we did was from the sale of existing players. Pathetic and greedy.