“You know something,” he says. [Stan Kroenke] “Arsène is one of my favourite people I have met in the last 20 years. He is a great person and I love the way he handles himself.
“I love his focus. He is a very intelligent guy. You can talk to him about anything and, when he starts talking to people, I really love to listen to him. He should hold seminars he is so good at it. I have tremendous confidence in him. He is one of the great managers in the world.”
Well Stan Kroenke doesn’t say a lot but when he does it’s pretty emphatic stuff! This is from an interview in The Telegraph today where he sets out his views on Arsene Wenger and taking a calm, long-term view about club management.
Clearly a big part of the motivation behind doing this interview now, and we know how few he does, is to steady the ship at a difficult time. In doing just that he doesn’t hedge his bets at all. When asked how long Arsene Wenger will be at the club, his reply is all about how well Arsene Wenger keeps himself in shape despite the punishing schedule of a club manager and not a word on his ability.
Now I’m not so naive as to believe this means Wenger can never be sacked, but it does underline a calm, long-term approach that seems to be borne out by the handling of his other sports clubs.
Another key theme is building up Arsenal’s commercial income. Kroenke admires the Glazers, not for the debt leaden way they bought Manchester United, but for the way they’ve driven up the worldwide commercial activity to support investment in the team.
On the Fabregas and Nasri saga the interview is rather less telling. Kroenke gets away with endorsing the final decisions without expressing any view at all over the long drawn out way Arsenal arrived at them. Was he happy about that or does he, like Wenger, only do criticism behind closed doors? On that one we are none the wiser.
It’s an interesting read though and you can find the whole interview here.
