Arsenal's co-chair reveals secrets of how Kroenke family went from furious fan protests to Premier League title glory and dynasty planning
In a rare media appearance ahead of Saturday's Champions League final, Arsenal co-chair Josh Kroenke reveals untold stories of the club's transformation from 'banter era' and fan protests to Premier League champions with plans to build a trophy-winning dynasty
Thursday 28 May 2026 17:33, UK
Josh Kroenke smiles at the mention of Max Dowman's breakaway goal in Arsenal's win over Everton in March. It ranks as one of the defining moments of an historic campaign and it is remembered for another reason in their co-chair's household.
"That was a fun one because we had just adopted a new puppy," says Kroenke. "When Max went on his run, I scared the hell out of the puppy by jumping up. That dog peed on the floor right there next to me with what I was saying and yelling at the television."
It is one of many anecdotes told during a wide-ranging conversation with a group of journalists at Arsenal's training ground which shows that Kroenke, who runs the club alongside his father, Stan, has lived the emotions of their title-winning season intensely.
He recalls watching the 2-2 draw with Wolves in February alone at his home in Denver, Colorado as a low point. "That's when you wish you were with someone else, at least to talk to." He relives the pain of the defeat to Manchester United in January. "I still think it was a handball," he says of Patrick Dorgu's opening goal.
What about the VAR check, all four minutes and 11 seconds of it, to overturn West Ham's equaliser at the London Stadium? "I was on my hands and knees in my living room. It was a moment where I think every Arsenal supporter worldwide held their breath."
He describes his role in supporting Mikel Arteta during the tough moments. "That's when it's just a one-sentence text - 'hang in there, we got this, you aren't alone' - or a couple of sentences or thoughts: 'Stay the ground, stay focused, tune out the noise.'"
He marvels at the defiance typified by Declan Rice after the loss to Manchester City in April. "I thought Declan's mentality was spot-on. 'It's not done'. I was glad to hear the fans sing his name and say that the other day because in that moment, it wasn't done.
"I think our group still believed, even if the rest of the world had started to move on." Kroenke was there, inside the away dressing room at the Etihad Stadium in the aftermath. "The players all looked at each other and were like, 'we can still do this.'"
Inside the celebrations
It culminated in those scenes of celebration at Selhurst Park, where Kroenke and his father carried the Premier League trophy across the pitch - "something I'll never forget," he says - having been doused in champagne by jubilant players in the dressing room.
"That was probably one of the most hot and humid environments I've ever been part of," he says with a smile as he relives the scene. "You had so many people all in there. There was champagne, there was this, there was that. And the energy was incredible."
The title-clinching moment had of course come with Bournemouth's draw against Manchester City. Kroenke reveals he almost missed it having just flown back to the United States following Arsenal's win over Burnley at the Emirates Stadium 24 hours earlier.
"I left early on Tuesday morning to get back to the States and was planning to come back for Palace," he explains.
"I was telling the group when I left, 'Hey, don't worry about tomorrow, let's focus on Sunday. We need to win no matter what.'
When we won it, there was an unexpected outpouring of emotion from me
"And then all of a sudden, as I was landing, Bournemouth scored.
"And you couldn't not pay attention at that point."
Kroenke raced home, frantically following the game on his phone, then watched the closing stages in his bedroom - "I didn't think anybody wanted to experience the energy I was having at that moment" - only emerging in the moments before the final whistle.
"I wish I could have been present with the group here at the training facility, but when we won it, there was an unexpected outpouring of emotion from me. I was very, very emotional for a few hours, thinking about the journey and the different points along the way."
His first phone call was to his father. "Jubilation," he says of their conversation. His second? "To Mikel. I figured he wouldn't answer right away because he was probably doing exactly what I was doing at that moment, which was celebrating and crying with my loved ones. But a few minutes later, he called me back and we had a great moment."
Soon, he was being passed around the room at the training ground via video call. "I just sat there in an emotional state as the phone was going around, seeing everyone's faces," he says. "You never know how you're going to react until you're in that moment."
Fan protests and a Baku epiphany
The Kroenke family are of course no strangers to sporting success. Kroenke Sports & Entertainment's portfolio includes 2022 Super Bowl winners the LA Rams and 2023 NBA Championship winners the Denver Nuggets. But it has been a long road at Arsenal.
Within a year of completing their full takeover in 2018, fan disillusionment over the plight of the team and the perceived aloofness of the new owners had led to a protest campaign using the slogan 'we care, do you?' and calling for a change of leadership.
"That was a big moment for me because it was very deliberate from a supporter standpoint," says Kroenke. "When I saw it, I understood. But I already had so much time and energy and emotion invested behind the scenes at that point.
"We had taken the club private the year before. I was spending a lot of time over here during the 2017/18 season. We went through a big transition from Arsene Wenger, a legendary person and legendary manager. Transitioning to a new era after 22 years was going to be difficult but we transitioned from him to Unai [Emery].
"I think, one, it was taking the club private that summer. Two, you had a legendary manager moving on and us trying to reinvent ourselves. And three, the underestimated thing for me on the back end was [chief executive] Ivan Gazidis' departure.
"I think for a club of our stature, change is going to be healthy. But that was way too much change in way too short of a period of time. We had to really react to that over the 2018/19 season, regain our stability. We were straddling strategies at the time, almost.
"We had been out of the Champions League for a year or two. We were trying to bring some young players into the squad but not get too inexperienced to keep pushing for the league. I flew all the way to Baku for the worst 45 minutes of that season."
The 4-1 Europa League final loss to Chelsea in the Azerbaijani capital was a low point which confirmed another year out of the Champions League. But it was also an epiphany for the Kroenkes, who resolved to pursue a long-term and youth-focused strategy.
"Seeing that happen was the first time I came back and told my dad that I think we need to really embrace where we are," recalls Kroenke. "Now that we have 100 per cent of the club, we might need to take a step back to go forward at some point."
Kroenke smiles as he remembers explaining the decision to Arsenal's then chairman Sir Chips Keswick.
Bloody hell, don't get relegated!
"He was a big mentor of mine and we would go to lunch all the time and talk through things about the club. Having just taken it private, we were starting to talk more and more about the future.
"I told Chips at lunch one day. I said, 'Chips, you know, in the States, we've had to take a step back to go forwards at times, so I think at some point we may have to do that.'
"He kind of smiled and agreed and then he just looks at me and goes, 'Bloody hell, don't get relegated!' And I said, 'I will do my best to thread that needle.' If anyone knows Chips, rest his soul, he had a great sense of humour and a great timing for things.
"When that came out, it disarmed all my thoughts and it was a moment I'll never forget.
"But I knew what we shouldn't do.
"Chips made that very clear."
Signing Saliba, trusting Arteta
Arteta became the figurehead of the new strategy with his appointment in December 2019. But the Kroenkes first major recruit after the defeat in Baku six months earlier was a young player, who, like his manager, has gone on to fulfil every bit of his potential.
The signing in question came about following a conversation between Kroenke and former centre-back Per Mertesacker, who was a year into his role as Arsenal's academy manager at the time.
"After the final in Baku, I made a comment about Virgil van Dijk, who had arrived at Liverpool a year or two before," says Kroenke. "I said, 'How do we get one of these guys into our system?'
"Well, unless you've got £100m, you better not be thinking about him.' I said, 'Well, who's the best young defender in Europe?'
"He turned without hesitation and said William Saliba."
His £27m arrival from French side Saint-Etienne was an early signal of the club's intention to pivot towards youth but it would be three years before he was brought back from loan and into the first-team fold, a delay which frustrated many supporters but highlighted the trust placed in Arteta by the Kroenke family.
I was sitting over in America laughing, going, 'Please let this kid work out!'
"I don't get involved in transfers," says Kroenke. "I think my job is to understand the 'why' on the front end, so there's accountability on the back end if it goes wrong. So, I'm not taking credit for any transfers or anything like that, but I want to be around and understand why we're going after certain things.
"The Saliba one is interesting. Mikel and I have now laughed about this because I didn't tell him the story until much later, but when we purchased William and he went on loan for two seasons, and then we were transitioning to Mikel by the time William rejoined us, there some thoughts on the front end about him rejoining our squad that were very well covered. I'll let you guys fill in all those blanks.
"I was sitting over in America laughing, going, 'Please let this kid work out!' But I was never going to say, 'Hey, someone told me a few years ago that this kid was going to be great!' What am I going to do? No. They go do it themselves. They make the decisions.
"To be honest, if I get involved in certain areas, how do we ever have accountability on the back end? I'm no sporting expert when it comes to running our football side. That's why we have really good people and try to hire really good people."
Covid impact, Super League debacle
The appointment of a young, up-and-coming former captain in Arteta generated goodwill from the fanbase but back-to-back eighth-placed finishes followed the 2020 FA Cup win and Kroenke admits plans were severely set back by the Covid pandemic.
"One of my promises to Mikel was I would be here as much as I could," says Kroenke. "I had been over three or four times in December of that year around the hiring process, and then I came back over at the end of February to start putting different plans in place now that we kind of had a little bit of runway.
"And then the craziest thing to ever happen, and could happen, was Covid. That was an interesting moment in time where Mikel was just coming on board and I couldn't fulfil my promise.
"The question I kept asking was, 'How do you prepare yourself for when the world stops?' And the answer is I don't think you can.
"We had extended ourselves financially. I think we were about to eliminate the stadium debt at the time. For our model, that was a big shock to the system, without a doubt, so you had to rethink things. It's such a crazy time to really look back on."
It was in that context, a year later, that Arsenal were announced as one of the 12 clubs joining the swiftly-abandoned European Super League, a decision which reopened old wounds and caused a furious reaction from supporters.
"When they were hanging us from lampposts?" Kroenke says, in reference to an effigy that was suspended outside the Emirates Stadium during the protests.
"That was part of the journey and it's one that, while we're not proud to talk about, we're not trying to hide from it. It was a moment of reflection and even though it was painful at the time, it brought me closer to the supporter base as well.
"We are all humans, we all make mistakes and it is one on a grand scale that really ignited a lot of emotion in people. But hey, we're still people. We made a mistake. Can we sit down and talk about it?
"I would sit and I would meet with many supporters from many different supporters' groups and, I say this endearingly, fortunately it was in Covid and I was doing this all on screen, where they couldn't throw tomatoes at me, so it was OK from that standpoint.
"But we had some great conversations. I think we all looked each other in the eyes and hopefully they understand I wasn't just trying to pay them lip service."
On the pitch, meanwhile, Kroenke reflects that playing behind closed doors may have helped Arteta stay the course during the most difficult period of his tenure.
"I think there was something about Mikel having a little bit of what I would say 'space' during Covid when there weren't fans around," he says. "There were some growing pains that went on during matches and in different moments.
"Obviously we won the FA Cup in there, but to not have that extra pressure of fans being on top of you at certain points when we were going through different growth phases was probably something I don't think any of us would acknowledge in the moment but, looking back on, I think we can say maybe was a little bit of a benefit."
The £100m man and building to win
Soon, though, the club's upward trajectory under Arteta had become clear and the Kroenkes knew they had to react accordingly to equip the manager with the players he needed to fulfil their aims, including a first £100m signing in Declan Rice, who joined in 2023.
Kroenke remembers being walked through the deal for the first time by Arteta, former sporting director Edu, former executive vice-chair Tim Lewis and now managing director Richard Garlick during a presentation in the conference room at the training ground.
"My eyebrows raised because I didn't know if we were in that phase just yet to go after a player like that," he says.
"So, I asked Mikel a couple of pointed questions about how we might use him which is something I never really ever do.
"My main question centred around, 'If we are going to be spending this much, tell me how we're going to use him.' Because this should be what I refer to as 'plug and play'.
If we are going to be spending this much, tell me how we're going to use him
"He should fit right into the starting XI and hit the ground running. But also, if we are going to be paying this much, what's the person we are getting? Because this better be a leader as well.
"I think, just like Mikel, when you sit down and talk to Declan, you understand the person he is, how focused of an individual he is, and so you get more comfortable with the price-tag.
"That doesn't mean it fits into our financial model, but that was a big moment for all of us. We were happy to get it across the finish line. I thought everybody at the club did a great job getting it done. I don't think that type of deal would have been possible prior to 2018."
Rice arrived during the same transfer window as Kai Havertz, Jurrien Timber and David Raya, all of whom have become key figures in Arteta's team. But after three consecutive seasons as runners-up, a different approach to the market was needed last summer.
Having already raised the level of the team, there was a concerted effort to bring the squad up to the same standard, with eight players signed at a record cost of over £250m.
"There were different conversations over the years, whether it was youth, positional quality, all of the areas that we needed to improve on," explains Kroenke.
"I thought we had finally reached a place, or we all thought we'd finally reached a place, last spring where we had a chance to achieve something special. But for whatever reason, you know, it didn't happen, and I think one of those reasons was injuries.
The thinking holistically was, instead of signing one particular player, filling out the squad with very high-quality depth
"You look back at the Champions League semi-final last season and the squad that we had out there. A very, very, very strong squad. But there were some guys playing out of position. There were a couple of our back-ups in there as well.
"Last summer, it was about allowing Mikel the freedom to rotate more when he was choosing to, and still have a level of quality coming up. It was definitely more about quantity and making sure that we were, relatively speaking, deep at every position."
The business was overseen by newly-appointed sporting director Andrea Berta, who arrived from Atletico Madrid knowing full well that Arsenal were in their "win window" and that the Kroenkes had reached a point where they were expecting to emulate their trophy successes in other sports across the Atlantic.
"Andrea has won things," says Kroenke. "He's been around the business for many years. Coming into the Premier League was a new experience for him but we've had some good moments too.
"When he first joined, I was here and I actually had a dinner with some people. It's not often I really ever do anything like this, but Andrea was there and I had brought them for a separate reason just to show them to some friends, so I went into Andrea and I laid out our championship rings.
"I said: 'This is what we're here for. So, as we start to shape our thinking, know that this is what we're going for.'
"He was looking at them pretty close," Kroenke adds with a chuckle.
"The thinking holistically was, instead of signing one particular player, filling out the squad with very high-quality depth.
"You have to tip your hat to Andrea and our entire sporting staff for that."
A 'weight lifted' and dynasty plans
Arsenal's Premier League success has vindicated the approach to last summer and there may be better to come as they prepare to face Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final in Budapest with the entire Kroenke family in attendance.
"One of the most fun questions that I've been asked over the past couple of weeks before we clinched the Premier League was, 'Which one means more?'" says Kroenke.
"Which one? The one we don't have. Champions of England sounds pretty good and champions of Europe could sound even better, especially with the double tied to it."
Meanwhile, with Pep Guardiola leaving Manchester City and upheaval and uncertainty elsewhere in the Premier League, planning is well under way, on and off the pitch, to maximise Arsenal's chances of consolidating their position at the top for the long-term.
Kroenke, whose family oversaw the construction of the stunning SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, confirms discussions are being held to develop and expand the Emirates Stadium with an emphasis on retaining aesthetic links to the club's old Highbury home.
He is also optimistic about tying Arteta to a new contract.
It is all part of a bigger picture.
"We think we have a chance here to dominate. We have very strong foundations in place to continue to build and try to sustain.
"Getting the foundations in place is usually the hardest part of the journey and now we have all this, it's about trying to stay at the top knowing everyone is trying to climb the mountain after you."
He talks up the significance of the moment to come in Budapest. "I'm very excited, one for Mikel, but two for the players. I think there's a weight that's now lifted off their back.
"When that weight is lifted, maybe there's another level to unlock when they are playing a little more free."
Regardless of the result on Saturday, vast crowds are expected at Sunday's parade in Islington. Kroenke has been blown away by the scenes of celebration he has already witnessed, reminded, again, of how far the club have come under their ownership.
"I knew we were a sleeping giant that we needed to awaken in some way. We haven't had a team, a squad like this in the social media age.
I think there's a weight that's now lifted off their back. When that weight is lifted, maybe there's another level to unlock
"Social media evolved with the Twittersphere and everything else around it. The instantaneous information, the 'banter era' - I'm aware of all this. I turned 46 last week. I've grown up around this, and I've seen it all from my own perspective.
"That's what I'm so proud to see. There was almost a time when you were a closeted Arsenal fan. You were still a fan, but everyone was so on top of you that, at times, you were afraid to show your spirit. But you see the outpouring of emotion just driving over here.
"The guy in the bike cab wearing an Arsenal shirt. Everyone is flooding London with all of their Arsenal gear right now and it just makes me so proud to see."
Most important of all, though, when it comes to the challenge of sustaining the success now being celebrated, is to continue to nurture the culture put in place by their manager which has underpinned the transformation and all that has followed.
"There were moments that culture got tested," Kroenke says. "Mikel has different metaphors on how he tries to say it, whether you're in the boat, you're out of the boat.
"Sometimes we had people who were not only not in the boat, but underneath the water with a rope trying to pull us back.
"We had to figure out who those people were and we had to snip that rope along the way, and so the boat metaphor maybe still carries on to this day, because everybody is in that boat, and everybody is rowing in the same direction."
Back home in Denver, then, the Kroenke family puppy might have to get used to the sound of celebrations.
