7 key takeaways from Josh Kroenke interview including "aggressive" Arsenal vow

Arsenal director Josh Kroenke has opened up on his family's divisive ownership of the club in recent days, agreeing to rare interviews with the press.

The son of club owner Stan is currently in London to watch Mikel Arteta's side take on Premier League rivals Watford at the Emirates on Sunday afternoon.

Victory for the Gunners could see them finish the day on 20 points, level with fourth-place West Ham and above big-spending Manchester United.

Kroenke has discussed several controversial talking points, including his family's aims, Arteta's position and the European Super League (ESL).

Here, Mirror Football summarises the seven main takeaways from the rare interview.

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Arsenal not for sale

Swedish billionaire Daniel Ek, best known for running Spotify, tried to purchase Arsenal in May - offering a staggering £1.8billion to the Kroenke family.

That bid was rejected and Kroenke insists the club will not be sold anytime soon, even though they've received "many" other bids.

He told the Daily Mail : "The club is not for sale. We just took control of the club in 2018. I'm 41 years old. As far as I'm concerned we're just getting started.

"We received many, many other offers behind the scenes in addition to the one that was public and we only issued one statement on the whole thing and that was that the club was not for sale."

Arteta has a vision for Arsenal

Manager Arteta has been questioned since his appointment in December 2019, guiding the team to a lacklustre eighth-place finish last term.

The inexperienced Spaniard has developed the team this season, though, as they haven't lost a game in all competitions since August.

One of Arteta's main aims is re-establishing the club's culture after a few tricky seasons, recently redecorating the home dressing room at the Emirates.

Speaking about the manager's vision for Arsenal, Kroenke said: "When I sat down with Mikel, all he talked about was culture.

"He wanted to build on the foundations that Arsene [Wenger] had laid and the great people that had come before him.

"And also to help renovate the house back into a beautiful modern-day home that our fans can be proud of and you're starting to see those foundations are really taking shape and he's renovating the Arsenal home in a beautiful way.

"Hopefully, whether that's one year, three years or five years, it's going to become a home all Arsenal fans are proud of."

Kroenke wants to rebuild relationship

Arsenal fans are used to high standards after winning three Premier League titles and seven FA Cup under previous manager Arsene Wenger.

Since the Kroenke family have purchased the club, though, the team has been in decline and arguably reached their lowest ebb last season.

Arsenal's eighth-place finish was well below standards and the ESL debacle strained the board's relationship with the fans.

But Kroenke wants to rebuild that in the coming months. He said: "The more we get to know each other, the only thing it's going to do is strengthen our relationship.

"There's scepticism, I don't know if I'll ever be embraced with open arms.

"But to unite the global Arsenal fan base around a young manager and a young squad, would be one of the more powerful and rewarding experiences of my life."

European Super League is "dead"

Speaking of the ESL, Arsenal are actually still part of the "Super League" company as it is yet to be dissolved. Kroenke, however, insists this is just a legal formality.

He said: "There are so many legal aspects to that, I definitely can't comment. There are many people with highly trained legal minds working on this."

As to why Arsenal joined the ESL in the first place, Kroenke added: "We were presented with an opportunity and the main question we asked ourselves, the key concept, was talking about stabilising certain parts of the football pyramid.

"We knew it wasn't a perfect concept. But the question we kept asking ourselves was, 'What's worse: a Super League with Arsenal or a Super League without Arsenal?'

"And in the moment, when things were moving as fast as they were, we got that question wrong. We quickly pivoted out of it. We apologised to our supporters."

Arteta's job was never in danger

At one stage last season, Arsenal went seven Premier League games without a win, suffering home defeats to Wolves and Burnley.

The Gunners also embarrassingly lost their first three league fixtures of the current season to Brentford, Chelsea and Manchester City.

Despite their occasional dips in form, Kroenke insists the board have never considered sacking Arteta. He said: "There were never any doubts on my part.

"There was always going to be a tough transition. And as long as we understood that and stayed together there was never any doubt in my mind.

"There were only words of encouragement going on behind the scenes... with the power of positivity, we've come through it and everyone is stronger for it."

Kroenke played at "academy" level

Some Arsenal fans may claim Kroenke doesn't know anything about football, although he definitely knows what it's like to play in front of a crowd.

As a youngster, Kroenke played basketball for the University of Missouri. Colleges are where America's finest sporting talents are developed, with the Arsenal chief often playing in front of 30,000 spectators.

His basketball career was ended by the brilliance of four-time NBA champ LeBron James, who, aged 14, was already better than Kroenke at 19.

Kroenke said: "I'd guess the eighth grader [James] was a lot better than anything we were doing. I can live with that.

"There are moments in time for every athlete where you realise either how gifted you might be or that there is a different level of athleticism that someone else has been blessed with."

Wants to win Premier League

Arsenal are way off from winning the Premier League right now, yet Kroenke wants to see Arteta's side compete for the biggest trophies again.

In fact, the club's current owners won't be satisfied until the Gunners return to the top of the pyramid.

Kroenke said: "I state the Premier League as our goal. It is the strongest league in the world and if you're competing for that trophy then you're competing for every other trophy in the game.

"But if you're competing for the Premier League trophy you're competing for the Champions League trophy."

Will be as "aggressive" as possible

Arsenal fans have lamented the team's poor returns in recent seasons but Kroenke insists his family have spent "aggressively" as possible in recent years.

The club's owners have invested a net spend of around £340million since taking full control of the club in 2018, with only Man Utd splashing more cash.

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Kroenke 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."