Dan Mountney
On Sunday night, Stan Kroenke and the European Super League tried to kill the club loved by myself, millions around the world and even more who have gone before us.
Mr Kroenke, I am now speaking directly to you. You can try and take our club away from us, but you cannot erase all the memories we’ve made, the moments we’ve lived through and joy we have experienced. Rest assured, we will fight tooth and nail to get our Arsenal back.
Thinking of no one but themselves and their bank balances, Arsenal’s silent owner and 11 other football mercenaries formed the ESL, taking the clubs away from the people who matter the most: The supporters.
For more than a year, we’ve heard the rhetoric about fans not being in stadiums because of the Covid pandemic. ‘We can’t wait to see you again’ and ‘we miss you so much’. Do you b******!
Kroenke simply views Gooners like you and I as nothing more than customers, when in fact, we are the heartbeat of Arsenal and what truly makes it great. If the #WeCareDoYou? campaign from last season wanted an answer they got one. It was a resounding no.
It is greed of the highest order.
What would David Danskin and the 15 other workers from the Royal Arsenal armaments factory who founded our club back in 1886, think of this?
What would Herbert Chapman, the manager who revolutionised both Arsenal and the English game in 1930s think?
What would David ‘Rocky’ Rocastle, a player who devoted his tragically short life to the club think?
I am sure they are all turning in their graves, with the shameless greed of Kroenke threatening to take away everything they worked so hard to build.
During my years as a journalist, I’ve had the pleasure of speaking to the likes of Lee Dixon, Bob Wilson, David Seaman, Freddie Ljungberg, Liam Brady, George Graham and many more players who gave their all for Arsenal.
Every single player I have ever spoken to expressed their joy at having represented The Arsenal, their pride at the history and tradition of our club and their memories of achieving great things in the famous red and white.
What about them? They didn’t work tirelessly to see us become a corporate husk.
And the fans, those who have been there through all the ups and downs, the good and the bad.
Regardless of whatever was happening on the pitch, their love has been undying. But, despite all of this, we have become nothing more than an afterthought. It is wrong. It is unacceptable.
Rocky once famously said: “Remember who you are, what you are, and who you represent.”
Most of those to pull on the Arsenal shirt or lead a Gunners team have done exactly that.
Every single supporter who has roared on the team from the marshy fields of Plumstead Common and the rickety stands of the Manor Ground, to the terraces of Highbury and the seats of the Emirates has done exactly that.
Those behind the scenes who work so hard to allow us the pleasure of watching our team have done exactly that.
To try and take away everything we have worked for, everything we have loved is the lowest form of treachery. I feel like I have lost my club, as do many, many others.
Kroenke would argue that he is trying to save Arsenal by returning us to Europe’s elite. We all want to be back where we feel the club rightfully belongs, but this is not how we wanted to do it.
We want to see the club strive and succeed through hard work and effort like it has always done and should rightfully do in the name of fair competition, not buying our way back to the top.
Despite Arsenal’s owner and his merry band of morons seemingly determined to make the European Super League a reality, it remains to be seen if it will actually happen.
If it doesn’t and things go back to normal, then what? Do we simply forget what Kroenke tried to do? Do we ignore the fact he doesn’t care about us and only himself? I for one, will never forget.
All we can do now is stand together and fight this, while hoping the powers that be put a halt to this disgraceful cash grab.
I am devasted to see the club I love, a club that once prided itself on class, history and tradition, turn its back on all of us and everything that has gone before.
I feel ashamed and disgusted that Kroenke has threatened not just the club, but the very fundamentals of the game we love, a game built by the poor that has sadly been stolen by the rich.
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