Josh Kroenke sticks to "aggressive" Arsenal promise with £200m transfer splurge
It's shaping up to be a busy transfer window for Arsenal.
The Gunners announced the signing of Kai Havertz from Chelsea in a £65million deal on Wednesday evening. The Champions League winner, 24, has agreed a long-term deal with Arsenal and insists "it's super exciting" to join Mikel Arteta's squad.
Havertz is set to be joined at the Emirates by West Ham captain Declan Rice shortly. Arsenal have agreed a £105m fee with the Hammers for the England international, also 24, and there should be no problems regarding his medical or personal terms.
Arsenal are also waiting to find out if their £30m bid for Ajax defender Jurrien Timber, 22, has been successful. That would take their spending up to £200m... and we've not even reached July. It's fair to say co-chair Josh Kroenke is delivering on his promise.
Jose Kroenke has promised Arsenal will be "aggressive" in the transfer market (Sky Sports)Back in November 2021, Kroenke gave a rare interview on his family's plans for Arsenal. The club's owners were deeply unpopular at the time after signing them up for the doomed European Super League project, which aimed to create a closed shop of elite clubs.
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Kroenke and his father Stan had also failed to invest sufficiently in the squad for many years, which caused Arsenal to slip out of contention. They finished eighth in the Premier League in two consecutive seasons leading up to the aforementioned interview.
The Kroenke family were under significant pressure to sell at the time, as Swedish billionaire and Spotify CEO Daniel Ek tried to buy the Gunners. Ek's bid was supported by fans, as well as Arsenal legends Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira and Dennis Bergkamp.
Declan Rice is heading to Arsenal (Getty Images)Do you think the Kroenke family have delivered on their promise to Arsenal fans? Let us know in the comments below!
Yet Kroenke insisted his family were going nowhere and promised to be "aggressive" in the transfer market. The summer of 2021 saw Arsenal spend more than £140m on the likes of Martin Odegaard, Aaron Ramsdale, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Ben White.
That was a big outlay for the Gunners, but Kroenke assured supporters they were going to continue to spend. Speaking to the Daily Mail, he said: "Since 2018 we have been as aggressive as we can in our singular ownership of the club.
"We’ve refinanced multi-hundreds of million pounds of stadium debt, we’ve broken transfer records and this past summer we had the highest net spend of anyone in the Premier League.
"Does that mean we’re going to keep doing it? I’m not 100 per cent sure. But we’re going to continue to be aggressive and when we see areas where we can improve the club on and off the pitch we’re going to keep doing it."
Kroenke stuck to his promise last season by giving Arteta more than £160m to spend - bringing in the likes of Gabriel Jesus, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Leandro Trossard - and the Gunners are on course to invest even more money into their squad this summer.
Arsenal are slowly but surely adding more quality and depth to the squad, which will only bring them closer to Pep Guardiola's Manchester City. Kroenke and his family's aggression in the transfer market is exactly what Arteta needs to deliver silverware.
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