In Stan Kroenke, Arsenal's glory days are only getting started

The good years had been long gone for Arsenal as they struggled to maintain relevance following the departure of the greatest player in their history, Theirry Henry, in 2007.

Though the Frenchman admitted the reason he left was to give room for the younger players to star but it was obvious that he had become desperate to win the Champions League, the only major honour that eluded him at the time.

Arsenal lost the Champions League final to Barcelona, a team at the start of what went on to be unreal dominance in European club football. Henry joined them a few years later and was able to win the title in 2009.

Over the years, the Emirates has been graced by talented players but unfortunately, they have come seldomly and in different periods - thus discouraging those available to commit future.

Seyi Emmanuel Adebayor, Francesc Soler Fabregas, Samir Nasri, Robin van Persie, and many more of whom have come around on the last two decades, left having found the club not competitive enough to help them become better.

There has always been a missing piece in fulfillment for the Gooners. At a time, between 2008 and 2012 in the English top-flight, Arsene Wenger's side had one of the most exciting players. The impact of not having quality across every area of the pitch hindered them from winning the league since the Invincibles.

While speaking in an interview in 2020, former Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas said he left the club because the pressure on his shoulders became too much as players around at the time were not mentally and technically on his level.

The Spaniard said to Arseblog; "I used to suffer, I used to spend sleepless nights suffering. And then you lose a game, you're in the bus like this, destroyed, and then you hear some players laughing, thinking about where they will be going out later.

"This was going on for a few years. We were playing beautiful football and I enjoyed that side of things but I was putting pressure on myself to lead, to do everything and at one point I felt kind of lonely.

"Especially in the last two or three years, I felt Robin (van Persie) and Samir (Nasri) were the only players - it's not an arrogant thing to say, it's how I felt at that time - were the players who were at my level mentally and technically."

After the departure of the trio of Robin van Persie, Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas, Arsenal have also paraded the likes of Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil, Santi Cazorla, Aaron Ramsey and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang but the timing hasn't been great.

Moreso, the team was predominant by players who wouldn't even get into the team of any of their top rivals in the league - hence, top players jump on the next train at the slightest of chances.

For almost a decade, the only source of pride was finishing in the top four and earning a place in the Champions League in the following season. Yet they only suffered humiliating defeats year in and out, in the immediate round after the group stage.

In the fullness of time, they lost that right in the 2016-17 campaign and would go on to spend six years out of the top four and not qualify for the UEFA Champions League before finally doing so in the concluded campaign.

Whilst out of the Europe's number one club competition, the Gunners did reached the final of the UEFA Europa League in 2019 but unfortunately we've humbled by their London rival, Chelsea in Baku.

Club owners have been criticized for their lack of proper investments and even after Stan Kroenke became the majority shareholder in 2011, there were no positive changes, which infuriated fans even further when the American acquired 100 per cent ownership of the Club in 2018.

The 2020s was more famous at Arsenal for the Wenger-Out and Kroenke-Out protests because the club had fallen short of rivals massively, and fans had gotten tired of the administration, which hasn't helped them maintain the standard they've reached in years past.

Despite owning a large sports empire, it appeared Stan Kroenke is not really interested in the progress of Arsenal, yet his other franchise are improving by the years.

Also, their legendary now former manager, Arsene Wenger went on to spent 22 years, the latter 14 years which were unfulfilling, even a hat-trick of FA Cup titles can do nothing to mend what was a disastrous spell.

Retiring for a process

Following the departure of Unai Emery, the club was a big mess and at that time, it looks as though nothing is working for them. To worsen matters, it was not attractive to players. There were also clashes between players and fans - take Granit Xhaka's incidence against Palace in the Emirates.

Arsenal, the only English club with an Invincible record, most FA Cup titles and third most League titles, needed saving. Ex player, Mikel Arteta was approached and the Spaniard left his role as assistant to Pep Guardiola in Manchester City to take up the five year project in his former club.

Even Mikel Arteta did not hit the ground running but looking back, the FA Cup success in his first six months and the reintroduction of Emile Smith Rowe in December 2021 have helped him survive the tough days.

The progress of the process started to show in the 2021-22 season. Though they eventually missed out on a top four finish, the signs were there to see that Arsenal have made a lot of progress in their rebuild.

Owners' backing

In 2019 under Unai Emery, Arsenal made Nicolas Pepe the record signing in the club's history in a £72 million deal with French club, Lille and in the same window, Kieran Tierney, David Luiz, Dani Ceballos (loan) and Gabriel Martinelli all joined.

Arsenal also signed William Saliba from Saint-Etienne in a €30 million deal but the French defender would remain at the Ligue 1 side, not debuting for The Gunners until the start of the 2022-23 season.

That window saw the club spent £155 million on signing new players, their highest expenditure in a single transfer window.

The following one, Thomas Partey and Brazilian defender, Gabriel Magalhaes were the major signings, combining for a fee of around £70 million — Martin Ødegaard (January) and Willian were also major signings on loan and as free agent respectively.

The amount spent was not much but the players brought it were quality whilst not forgetting their failed attempt to sign Houssem Aouar from Lyon in the summer.

Unfortunately, the likes of Willian and Nicolas Pepe did not live up to expectations and that did significantly affected the performance of Arsenal in their years of struggle.

In the summer of 2021, £129 million was spent on major signings as Ben White, Martin Ødegaard (permanent), Takehiro Tomiyasu, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Nuno Tavares and Aaron Ramsdale all signed for the club.

That was a crucial window as Arsenal were able to secure players that fit into the philosophy of Arteta, while several names were cleared off the books, including the older players and the ones not really fit to be at the club.

Around £110 million was spent on major signings in 2022-23 summer window as Gabriel Jesus, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Fabio Vieira arrived on the back of winning the league with their respective clubs.

In the winter, Jorginho, Jakub Kiwior and Leandro Trossard joined them at the Emirates while a big money move for Brighton's Moises Caicedo did not materialize - they also came close to breaking their transfer record but for Chelsea beating them to Mykaylo Mudryk.

Mikel Arteta would maybe be relieved now that he hasn't signed the Ukrainian, who is having a horrendous time in the Wast side of London. Nonetheless, things might have been different had he choose Arsenal.

This summer, Arsenal are closing in on the sensational signing of midfielder, Declan Rice in what will be a club record move, while several other big stuff are expected from the club on the transfer front.

Kai Havertz is also a big name on the radar if a deal can be done with Chelsea.

Secret behind the change in attitude

Lately, Stan Kroenke owned franchise are bringing him a lot of joy. Last year, the Los Angeles Rams and the Colorado Mammoth were Champions of the Super Bowl and the National Lacrosse League respectively.

Even so, Colorado Avalanche, another one of Kroenke's franchises won the Stanley Cup and this year, Denver Nuggets were crowded NBA Champions after beating Miami Heat in the final.

Arsenal fans are aware of these successes and with the recent happenings at the Emirates, they can be optimistic that their own time is here because the owners are more than ready to take them to that next step.

Last season, Mikel Arteta and his minions came close to winning the Premier League title despite finishing out of the top four the season before. The belief is to continue with their process and success will be achieved.

The same ownership that had been criticized over the years is starting to put smile on the faces of Gooners worldwide and the secret can be said to be nothing but the fact that sports has also brought joy to them.

For Kroenke, it is time to transmit that joy to football and even without the Arab money, Arsenal can count themselves lucky to have this owners at this time.

Kehinde Hassan Afolabi