Arsenal director Josh Kroenke believes the club have laid the foundations for “a really bright future” by backing academy players and investing in youth.
Kroenke and his father Stan, who owns the club, faced protests from supporters last year following Arsenal’s involvement in the failed Super League proposal, but he has urged fans to back the current project as they bid to qualify for the Champions League this season.
Arsenal spent nearly £150million revamping their squad last summer, specifically targeting players aged 23 or younger, and manager Mikel Arteta has already called for the recruitment drive to continue after a quiet January transfer window.
Despite supporter unrest, Kroenke is convinced he and his father can succeed at Arsenal, highlighting the success they have had with their other sports teams such as the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams, who won the Super Bowl on Sunday.
“Now that we have 100 per cent of the club, we’ve had it only since 2018, we’re laying the foundations of a really bright future,” said Kroenke.
“I think if any of the Arsenal fanbase wants to look at our teams here in North America, which surprisingly they don’t do very often. I don’t think they don’t care, they are really curious as to how we do our operations. ‘How do you do this? How do you do that? How do you want to do this?’
“Really what I just say is we’re very proud - over here [in America] we draft and develop - at Arsenal we have an amazing academy, where these kids come through and work their way up.
“So you see the foundation of the culture that I talked about starting to take shape and I think you see it starting to manifest itself on the pitch.
“We’re sitting in sixth in the league, we need to be higher, our goals are to be higher, but to be there with the youngest squad in the Premier League, I think is something every Arsenal fan should get behind.”
Kroenke faced a fierce backlash from supporters after Arsenal were part of the failed Super League project last season.
He has attempted to build bridges since then, appearing at a fans forum in April last year, but has admitted it is hard to truly relate to the club’s supporters due to the passion from European football supporters being greater than sports fans in America.
“I do listen to our supporters over there,” Kroenke told the Road Trippin’ podcast.
“The level of passion that is involved in European football, and support that goes into these clubs — I don’t want to say it is way deeper than anything we have over here, but it is way deeper than anything we have over here.
“It is hard to truly relate as an American or a foreigner heading into the UK, the passion that really goes on from the people that support these clubs.
“To be frank I am encouraged by the whole [Super League] process, because it has brought me and our staff closer to our supporters than ever before.”
