Inside the Kroenke Blueprint that ended Arsenal’s title drought: A ‘total reset’ in 2019, the vital meeting Mikel Arteta was trembling over, Josh Kroenke’s cheeky rebuke of Stan and pre-Atletico speech… and what’s next including stadium expansion

The final whistle in Bournemouth on Tuesday night ended Manchester City’s title challenge – and kickstarted a serious party at the Emirates Stadium.

Arsenal fans of all ages converged on the club’s home for a raucous, joyous celebration that continued into the early hours. Lampposts were scaled, flags hoisted and fireworks exploded. On the adjacent trainline, passengers heading north took in a chaotic scene 22 years in the making. Club photographers were quickly despatched to capture images of euphoria and of relief. At long, long, last, Arsenal were champions. The man from Sky News was mobbed but did his best to get some sense from the happy hordes.

Miracle manager Mikel Arteta, midfield engine Declan Rice, homegrown Gooner Bukayo Saka were among the names on champagne-drenched lips. But had he asked those present what they thought about the Kroenkes, the club’s American owners, the approval rating would no doubt have been something that the nation’s Arsenal-supporting Prime Minister could only dream of.

And yet just five years ago, the same site had played host to an entirely different picture. It may seem like an eternity now, but in April 2021, scores of Gooners gathered in the shadows of the stadium for another emotionally-charged gathering. This time, however, the banners spoke of anger, rather than joy. ‘Love the club, support the team, hate the owner’ read one. Others stated bluntly ‘Kroenkes out’. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there were no club photographers present on this occasion.

The head of the ownership family, ‘Silent Stan’, the now 78-year-old US real estate tycoon, had been widely viewed as one of the driving forces in the failed European Super League bid. For many, it was the final straw. There had been no Premier League title since 2004 and the perception was that Arsenal were drifting under clueless Americans interested only in profit. The Arsene Wenger-led era of dominance, of trading heavyweight punches with Manchester United and Chelsea at the top of the table seemed a distant memory. Now came the final straw.

So what happened? How did the Kroenkes go from there to here? Daily Mail Sport has spoken to a variety of well-placed sources to reveal all.

As the old saying goes, success has many fathers and failure is an orphan. What cannot be disputed is that Arteta has been key to the turnaround and deserves the worship coming his way. His appointment can be traced to a scene of dismay seven months earlier.

Arsenal’s thumping 4-1 defeat in the Europa League final to Chelsea in Azerbaijan in May 2019 meant that they missed out on Champions League football. It triggered the prospect of a major financial loss and a discussion between father and son.

Josh Kroenke, placed onto the board, told his father that they needed to go younger, both in the dugout and on the field. That the club needed a ‘total reset’. A commitment to youth was something that was already running through the DNA at the Kroenkes’ many other franchises and it was needed here.

Two years previously, the Kroenkes’ Los Angeles Rams had broken a modern-era NFL record by making Sean McVay head coach at the age of just 30. In his first year McVay took a team that had finished last for points, yards, touchdown passes and first downs to the playoffs and was named coach of the year. To say that they liked what they saw would be an understatement. McVay would go on to lead the Rams to two Super Bowls.

When Stan had initially raised doubts over heading down a similar path at Arsenal, Josh – then 36 – had asked: ‘Am I too young, too?’ In November, Unai Emery was sacked and after Freddie Ljungberg’s interim spell, Arteta, at 37, was handed the job.

The Kroenkes had been around since 2007 but finally bought out Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov in a 2018 deal that valued the team at around £1.7billion. It had been, to say the least, a rocky start for the men based in Colorado, but they now had the first rung of the ladder in place to climb their way up the table.

Why had they bought the club in the first place? ‘Stan loves sport,’ one insider explained. ‘He started by sweeping the floor of his dad’s lumberyard in Missouri and doing his books. He knows the value of money from way back and he saw Arsenal and the Premier League itself as undervalued. To him, businesses can be a little predictable. The beauty of sport is that it can be unpredictable.’

Kroenke attempts to make it less predictable by putting people in senior positions at his franchises (the Rams, the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche, MLS’s Colorado Rapids and the Colorado Mammoth Lacrosse team) who tend to know what they are doing. He has been rewarded with titles across the board. He is not, according to those who know, a fan of boards or bureaucracy. His experience has taught him that owners who meddle do not tend to be successful.

But it would be wrong to view the family as hands-off. While they may not be highly visible, they sign off on all major decisions. And if money is to be spent, there needs to be a justification. Josh, co-chair, is the link between club and owner. Indeed, he gave a speech to the team in the Four Seasons hotel in Madrid before their Champions League semi-final first leg with Atletico Madrid in which the message was clear: ‘Play hard, have your team-mates’ back, represent the badge with pride and have fun.’ He would repeat that message in an all-staff meeting at the Emirates earlier this month.

Early in his reign, in December 2020, you may well have found Arteta swotting. The Spaniard and former executive vice chair Tim Lewis, Kroenke senior’s long-term lawyer who had joined the board that summer, were due to head to Denver for the first of what would become regular meetings. It was to take place in the offices below Kroenke’s penthouse at the Pepsi Center (now Ball Arena), home of the Nuggets, Avalanche and Mammoth.

They had drawn up a five-year plan, with each position covered, along with a list of transfer targets. The success of other clubs, such as Manchester City and Chelsea, featured in a presentation they had rehearsed before crossing the Atlantic.

Arteta, who had grasped the significance of the meeting, was nervous. He need not have worried. As things transpired things went so well, and Kroenke was so receptive, that the delegation did not finish what they had come to say. The point that they had made was that to turn Arsenal around, to turn the family’s reputation around, would take serious backing. Kroenke was convinced and investment followed. Those meetings would become a regular occurrence.

On the business side, there had previously been, according to insiders, a culture of ‘marking your own homework’. While there would need to be funding from the family, the view was that the club could be more dynamic and resourceful. Executive bonuses had often been based around the ability to run to budget, rather than specific targets. That was changed as part of an ultimately successful attempt to turn the business side into a more serious operation.

And so, when the European Super League debacle happened and the protest took place, in the background steps were already taking place to return Arsenal to the top.

Akhil Vyas, from the Arsenal Supporters Trust, was one of those present on that angry day. He was also the man who had, following the completion of the takeover, asked Josh Kroenke what his ambitions were.

‘He told me it was to win the Premier League and Champions League,’ the 38-year-old recalled. ‘I remember chuckling. I was sceptical but it was good of him to show up. Lots of people didn’t even know who he was at the time. It sounded like PR spin. We were a million miles away – and then the Super League happened.

‘There was a meeting and we demanded that someone from the board attend. Josh came and it was fiery. I told him that his family clearly didn’t understand English football or Arsenal and that it was time to sell up. I think I said: “We don’t want you here”. Josh apologised. He said that they had got it wrong and he asked for us to give them the opportunity to rebuild trust. They have done that.’

Vyas can (now) not speak highly enough of the custodians. ‘We have an advisory board with the fans and Josh always attends. He’s relatively quiet but he gives up a couple of hours every quarter to speak to us. They clearly do a lot behind the scenes but they tend to stay in the background. There’s a bit of a trend there. Richard Garlick, the CEO, is similar. They want the players and Mikel to get the limelight.

‘After a rough start they have turned into great owners. When Josh said they wanted Premier League and Champions League I may have smiled but now we’re only a game away from them delivering on that promise.’

Much has been written about the value of co-operation between various teams in the Kroenke group. The reality is that, when it comes to Arsenal, that tends not to be the case from a sporting perspective – although there is crossover between commercial departments, with the Londoners keen to capitalise on any opportunities to bring in American partners.

Revenues are predicted by industry experts to smash Premier League records this season, and top £700m. Arteta and McVay do have a good relationship but it should not be overplayed, according to those who know.

There are commonalities, however. It is a Kroenke trait to bring in mainstay players to build around. It is also a Kroenke trait to pull out the chequebook and get those who will turn a solid team into a winning one. They have done it at the Rams with star quarterback Matthew Stafford and with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope at the Nuggets.

In February 2022 the Rams won it all in Super Bowl 51, claiming their first Vince Lombardi Trophy for 22 years (sound familiar?). Fittingly it came at home in their SoFi stadium, the most expensive sports venue ever built at £4.1bn and a jewel in the Kroenke crown. Four months later the Avalanche claimed a first Stanley Cup for 21 years, and a year on, the Nuggets followed suit by lifting their first ever NBA title. Now, it was Arsenal’s turn to break their drought.

The last two transfer windows have seen that key extra investment that deepened the squad in N5 and made Tuesday night possible. As is so often the case, money talks, but it has to be – and has for the main part – been spent wisely.

There are challenges ahead that may tell us a little more. Lewis abruptly departed in September following a boardroom reshuffle, and highly-regarded technical director James Ellis – viewed as the brains behind much of the club’s transfer business – left in February and is now sporting director at Bristol City.

As Daily Mail Sport revealed at the time, Lewis was the victim of a Succession-style coup, with some believing Josh wanted the opportunity to take control and show his father what he could do.

Whatever the reason, and while it is safe to say he split opinion across the league, it would be wrong to airbrush Lewis’s impact on the turnaround.

Josh, along with Garlick – promoted to chief executive from managing director – will be tested in the years and months ahead. Finance will need to be found to expand the stadium, to ensure a significant and needed uplift in matchday revenues.

Lewis had been overseeing what is an incredibly complex situation. Arsenal, like Chelsea, are hamstrung by a lack of space. To deliver an extra £100million or so a year from an expansion of around 10,000-15,000 seats (not to mention further provision of all-important high end corporate facilities), and to fund that project, will require some seriously creative thinking.

The Emirates sponsorship deal for stadium and shirt expires in 2028, while in the short term, there may well need to be a sale of homegrown talent this summer, as seen elsewhere, to ensure compliance with UEFA and the Premier League’s cost controls.

On Wednesday, Garlick thanked staff for their hard work over champagne in the office before taking a large group to the Drayton Park Arms for an afterparty. 

When the hangover mist clears all minds will be on Paris Saint-Germain in Budapest next Saturday, but there will be little time to rest on laurels.

For now, though, they will revel in an unlikely story and they have every right to do so. These are the Americans who came and delivered. Who managed to turn fan opinion and club fortune.

Chelsea may have emerged victorious on the night in Baku seven years ago that led to Arteta’s arrival, but their current, under-fire owners will now be casting envious glances at their compatriots across the capital.