Kroenke vows Highbury soul as Arteta renewal looms

Josh Kroenke spent Sunday soaking up Arsenal’s Premier League title with father Stan, then returned to the question that will define the next chapter: keeping Mikel Arteta in charge and using Emirates renovations to bring back the character of Highbury. From t

Josh Kroenke’s 6ft 4in frame is hard to miss as he walks into the London Colney canteen. wearing a T-shirt stamped with big. bold print: “Arsenal. Champions. 2025-26 season.” It’s the kind of detail that seems almost too personal for a trophy story. but for the Arsenal co-chair it fits. The title is his family’s release after 22 years in the making—and the pride in his face is still bright enough to catch the eye.

The emotion was fresh because. just days earlier. he and his father Stan had carried the Premier League trophy onto the Selhurst Park pitch at the Premier League match against Crystal Palace. a moment Kroenke says he’ll never forget. Standing there with the man who first stepped into Arsenal’s ownership story in 2007. he describes the scene as something he can barely put into words.

“In the dressing room dancing (afterwards in a suit) was probably one of the most hot and humid environments I’ve ever been a part of!” Kroenke said. “You had so many people all in there. There was champagne, there was this, there was that. And the energy was incredible.”

Then comes the part that lingers. “But to make that walk across the field with my father (and the trophy) was something I’ll never forget. Those moments are invaluable.”

On Tuesday night, while the party was happening in north London, Kroenke was already on a different time zone. He had just landed in Denver, Colorado, the day before Manchester City’s game against Bournemouth was starting. He watched from home and. when Arsenal’s 1-0 victory over Burnley was followed by Manchester City’s 1-1 draw. he was sat waiting for the final confirmation.

The players were gathered at the London Colney training base. When the result came through, Arsenal were officially league champions after 22 years—and their joy broke into the open. Kroenke’s own moment was quieter but no less intense. He found out while having a barbeque in his garden. and the feeling that hit him. he says. came in waves.

“I was very emotional for a few hours, thinking about the journey and the different points along the way, because there were some very tough times,” he said.

His first phone call went to his dad. His second went to Mikel Arteta. He knew Arteta wouldn’t pick up straight away because, as he put it, the manager was probably doing exactly the same thing he was doing: celebrating and crying with loved ones.

Over half the planet away. Kroenke still felt the supporter burden of the final whistle in a way that made the images stick. “Over here. knowing the ups and downs that the supporter base had been through. the tough times that my family had had on our way into club ownership. when the final whistle blew and they (fans) started to descend outside the Emirates on Tuesday. those were powerful images for me to get halfway around the world.”.

That supporter connection has never been clean for Kroenke’s family. Across nearly two decades, Arsenal fans’ relationship with the Kroenke name has swung between suspicion and affection. The changes have been emotional and, at times, loud.

The summer spending—£105million on Declan Rice—was one visible marker of investment, but the title celebration also carries a memory of the rougher chapters. Kroenke talks about watching Arsenal games that felt unbearable alone, and he doesn’t dress it up.

“I watched the Wolves away game by myself at home — that was tough. That’s when you wish you were with someone else, at least to talk to,” he said, his tone dipping as he returned to one of Arsenal’s worst performances of the season.

There were lighter moments too. The Everton match is one he remembers in a very human way. tied to the chaos of being a new pet owner. “Max and the Everton game… that was a fun one because I was watching that and we had just adopted a puppy. So 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!”.

Kroenke’s “Max” was 16-year-old Max Dowman, the substitute who emerged from the bench to rescue Arteta in that Everton game.

And then there was the moment that tested Arsenal’s patience and forced supporters to hold their breath: the humungous VAR call against West Ham. Pablo was adjudged to have grabbed David Raya’s arm in the build-up to Callum Wilson’s injury-time strike.

Kroenke remembers it with the kind of intensity that only comes when you’ve watched enough decisions go against you. “I was on my hands and knees in my living room and just saying that I thought he closed his hand (on Raya’s arm)!” he said. “I am for sure watching it with red-coloured binoculars. But it was a moment where I think every Arsenal supporter worldwide held their breath. But I’ve had them (decisions) go against us the other way. So it is what it is and I’m just happy to be here with the trophy.”.

Now, with a season-ticket waiting list in excess of 20 years—and extending further after recent successes—Arsenal’s next big question is not just on the pitch. It’s in the building work.

Renovating the Emirates is squarely in focus, and Kroenke made it clear that the plan isn’t only about upgrades. He wants the old soul of Arsenal back inside the modern shell.

Kroenke said in July 2024 that there had been “internal conversations” about an expansion. but his latest emphasis is on recreating Highbury’s atmosphere at the Emirates. Board member Otto Maly is part of the project; he previously played a key role in building the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. a 100. 000-capacity venue costing over £4billion and home to Kroenke’s Los Angeles Rams. overseeing its ownership and operations.

“They (several new board members) are putting together a plan right now to renovate the Emirates,” Kroenke said.

His personal regret makes the goal sound less like a PR strategy and more like a promise. “My only regret being in my position at Arsenal right now is I never got to experience Highbury.”

From there, the aim is spelled out plainly. “There’s some character that I want to make sure we’re preserving and bringing back to the ground as well.”

Kroenke says facilities and matchday experience are something the group already takes pride in across the States, and he believes Arsenal supporters should feel the difference when they come through the gates.

“I do want Arsenal fans to know this is a very modern facility but also character. (We need to) try to figure out a way to bring and preserve some of the character of old English style football as well.”

The Emirates is “obviously a totally different animal,” but Kroenke insists there is still room for the feeling of Highbury—walls, identity, atmosphere—translated into a new era.

What ties all of it together, from the title to the trophy walk and the building plans, is a single obsession: keeping Mikel Arteta at Arsenal.

Kroenke said tying Arteta to a long-term deal is top of his summer list. Arteta’s present deal expires next summer, with talks having already begun earlier in the year and set to resume after this Saturday’s Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain.

“If there is a singular person you can trace this all back to. I’m going to give 100 per cent credit to Mikel. his staff and the players. ” Kroenke said. “Keeping Mikel around is (an) utmost priority and I think the good news for Arsenal fans worldwide is he’s enjoying the project. he’s enjoying being here and from his time as a player all the way up until now. He’s an Arsenal man through and through.”.

The long wait for the title has been accompanied by the kind of scrutiny that doesn’t disappear after success—especially when decisions were unpopular before they looked right. Arsenal’s ownership story under the Kroenke umbrella dates back nearly two decades. Stan first became involved in 2007, initially taking a minority stake before steadily increasing his holding over the years. By 2011, he was the majority shareholder—but the structure remained fragmented. Rival investor Alisher Usmanov held a significant minority share and influence inside Arsenal.

The decisive turning point came in 2018. KSE completed a full takeover of the Gunners, buying out Usmanov’s remaining stake and taking the club into private ownership.

From that moment, Kroenke says decision-making became more streamlined with a view to the long term. But the long term still needed a reset. Arsenal’s Europa League final 4-1 defeat to Chelsea in May 2019, in Baku, left Kroenke aware that a rebuild was needed.

With Arteta’s arrival in December 2019, older players on expensive contracts who were not in the Spaniard’s plan were moved on. The contracts of Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Mesut Ozil and Shkodran Mustafi were terminated, and David Luiz left.

Kroenke describes an ambition that was, in his mind, tied to a specific type of centre-back. “Kroenke was after the next Virgil van Dijk.” He says he spoke to ex-academy manager Per Mertesacker after the final in Baku. In that conversation, he raised the idea of getting “one of these guys into our system.”.

“‘How do we get one of these guys into our system?’ he says. ‘Well unless you’ve got 100 million quid, 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’. That summer there were already conversations around building to the future. There were so many moving parts at that time…”.

That summer’s recruitment—William Saliba, Gabriel Martinelli and Kieran Tierney—was part of a broader plan to build for the future, with Hale End academy pathways too. Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe rose to prominence in a team that was trying to get back to the summit.

Then came the fallout in April 2021 that took years to recover from.

Arsenal were one of six Premier League clubs to sign up to the European Super League. The project collapsed within 48 hours amid fan protests and widespread opposition from governing bodies. For Kroenke’s ownership group, it meant direct conflict with fans. Supporters protested outside the Emirates demanding the Americans sold the club. An effigy of Stan was left hanging from a lamppost near the stadium.

Arsenal issued a formal apology days later, with Kroenke admitting the club had “got it wrong” and pledged to rebuild trust with fans. That apology was a turning point that made Kroenke more visible and more involved in explaining decisions.

“When they were hanging us from lampposts?. No. that was part of the journey and its one that while we’re not proud to talk about. we’re not trying to hide from it. ” Kroenke said. regret etched on his face even five years on. “Even though it was painful at the time, it brought me closer to the supporter base as well. After that. I sat with our now board member Ben Winston in LA and he wanted to explain to me a couple more things from a supporter’s perspective. So really coming out of that conversation, all I did was apologise. 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.”.

He adds that it was “fortunate it was in Covid,” because he was doing it “all on screen where they couldn’t throw tomatoes at me.” Then he returns to the point that mattered most for him: the conversations after the anger.

“It brought me closer to the supporter base as well. So really coming out of that conversation, all I did was apologise,” he said again, tying emotion to action rather than excuses.

What comes after that—title success—is inseparable from Arteta’s work, Kroenke believes. He points to culture, to conviction, and to the unpopular calls that reset the club. He says Arteta tore out the roots and rebuilt a club from mediocrity. that disillusioned fans weren’t wrong to be questioning things. and that players weren’t good enough in Arteta’s eyes before the turnaround.

Kroenke links his belief to the “big picture.” He says Arteta talks in metaphors about whether you are in the boat or out of it, and that the club needed to identify people who were not only out of the boat, but trying to pull the club back with a rope.

“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,” Kroenke said.

Last week, Arteta admitted he had previously questioned whether he was good enough to win silverware at Arsenal. Kroenke insists he was always convinced. His focus, he says, was on removing those he believed were dragging the club down.

Now with the trophy secured and the Emirates renovations in motion, the title isn’t the end of the story for Kroenke. It’s a checkpoint that heightens the pressure on what comes next—most of all, whether Arteta will extend his deal beyond next summer.

There is also the matter of how the Kroenke family’s long relationship with Arsenal fans will look once more beyond the pitch. Kroenke has already tied the next phase to matchday feeling: “elevated matchday experience,” preserving Highbury’s character while keeping the Emirates modern.

For Josh Kroenke, this title is the culmination of years of scrutiny and belief in Arteta’s vision. After 22 years of waiting. Arsenal are back on top—and with Kroenke already talking about the future. the club’s supporters are left with the same question everyone will feel in the stands: how much longer can the atmosphere keep changing. and how much of Highbury’s soul can they actually bring home?.

Arsenal Josh Kroenke Stan Kroenke Mikel Arteta Emirates renovation Highbury Premier League title 2025-26 Max Dowman Declan Rice William Saliba Champions League final Paris Saint-Germain European Super League Otto Maly