One week’s decisions leave Kroenkes with mountain to climb

WHEN Stan and Josh Kroenke settle down to tonight’s Super Bowl in Atlanta it will be to near universal acclaim from the supporters of their NFL franchise, the Los Angeles Rams, who play the New England Patriots.

Just over two years after a controversial restructuring, which involved a bitterly contested relocation from St Louis, and after hiring an innovative young coach in Sean McVay, their team are close to the pinnacle of American sport.

Would that it were so simple at Arsenal. They have the young coach in Unai Emery. They have the same owners. Josh Kroenke, son of Stan, is in almost daily contact with the Arsenal board and has been a driving force behind the restructuring of Arsenal in the post-Wenger era.

Josh Kroenke met Emery, head of football Raul Sanllehi and managing director Vinai Venkatesham shortly before Christmas in London. ‘We had a wonderful meal and talked about the journey we are on,’ said Kroenke. ‘As a group we are unified. We talked about climbing the mountain together.’

Yet returning to the Premier League pinnacle will be considerably harder, as may be clear when the Kroenkes tune into Arsenal’s game at Manchester City as part of their pre-Super Bowl viewing.

Increasingly, it look as though the decisions made in one week at this time last year have hamstrung the Kroenke-Emery revolution.

Tensions were fraught as a Premier League title challenge had failed to emerge. In the autumn of 2017, the debates inside Arsene Wenger’s office were intense. Among his staff, discussion centred on the role of two star players, Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil.

There seemed no chance of getting Sanchez to renew his contract, and his statistics were alarming in terms of his contribution.

But Ozil was different. It seemed Wenger’s love for him was immovable. At one meeting, he was urged by confidants to sell him. The manager was first shocked and then defensive about his playmaker.

Wenger had told the club he wanted Ozil to stay, as his contract finished in 2018. But the deal was in the hands of Ivan Gazidis and when Wenger became aware of the figures being discussed — £350,000 a week — he had reservations.

But Arsenal’s course was set. Sanchez joined Manchester United in a swap with Henrikh Mkhitaryan. On January 31 2018, Pierre E me rick Auba me yang joined Arsenal in a £56million deal. The same day, Arsenal announced the biggest signing of all: Ozil had signed a new deal until 2021.

In the short-term, Arsenal had avoided the calamity of losing both star players for next to nothing as their transfer value ran down. But the club would repent at leisure: Gazidis was soon off to AC Milan, leaving others to clean up the mess.

Wages of £18 ma year had been committed to Ozil, about £11m to Aubameyang and £10m to Mkhitarayn. So when at the start of this season Aaron Ramsey agreed a deal worth £10m a year, Arsenal had to withdraw it.

Last week’s financial figures revealed why: income was down to £388.6m and wages up to £235.7m, or 60 per cent of turnover. And that’s with only half a season’s worth of Ozil, Aubameyang and Mkhitaryan.

It’s not that Arsenal don’t have money to rebuild. Their profits were a record £97.4m, though they’re heading for a large loss this season. But their commitments to a player in Ozil whose value to the new manger is marginal and another in Mkhitaryan, who has been injured, leaves little room for manoeuvre.

The arrival of Denis Suarez on loan this week feeds that narrative. Had Yannick Carrasco arrived as well, that would have been another wide player. Emery knows both well from his time in Spain. Presumably he was confident both have the energy to press defenders in the manner his style demands.

What seems to be developing, with the departure of head of recruitment Sven Mislintat, is a process in which the manager is more dominant than anticipated. Suarez was a deal clearly driven by Emery and Sanllehi. Matteo Guendouzi is another signing driven by Emery, and Carrasco was Emery’s choice.

What the club now wants is a director of football to liaise with Emery and implement a footballing vision throughout the club.

That is why former winger Marc Overmars, Ajax’s director of football, is touted for a return to the club though it is still possible that Sanllehi will look to Spain to fill that role. Edu, another former player, has been urged to stay in his role with Brazil’s FA.

For the new man in charge, the task will not be easy. The Kroenkes are not about to start throwing money at the problem. It could easily take another three transfer windows to unpick the problems of the past, offload expensive luxury players and start rebuilding.

It can be done, as Liverpool have shown. But it will take time. Much longer than the two years it took the LA Rams.