Josh Kroenke issues strong response to Daniel Ek's interest in buying Arsenal

Arsenal director Josh Kroenke has once again insisted that the club is not for sale following interest from Spotify founder Daniel Ek.

Arsenal fan Ek made headlines over the summer by making bids to Kroenke Sports Entertainment to buy the Gunners.

The Swedish entrepreneur spoke to the Arsenal Supporters' Trust and had support from club legends Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp.

He made bids of £1.8billion and £2bn but both were rejected by the American owners, who are fronted by billionaire Stan Kroenke.

The club released a statement in June which said they remained "100 per cent committed to Arsenal and are not selling any stake in the club".

Josh Kroenke has flown over from the US for Sunday's Premier League game against Watford - his third visit this season - and took the opportunity to reiterate his family's commitment to Arsenal.

"The club is not for sale," Kroenke told The Daily Mail.

"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.

"Lots of parties, all over the world [have made offers]. Arsenal Football Club is a global thing and there are people paying attention all over the world and there's people who want to get involved in this club all over the world.

"The club is not for sale. We're just getting started."

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Ek's bid to buy Arsenal came in the wake of the club's involvement in the failed European Super League, which prompted fans to protest against the Kroenke's ownership.

He pitched himself as a reforming figure, offering "fan ownership, representation at the board and a golden share for the supporters" before being turned down by KSE.

"I respect their decision but remain interested and available should that situation ever change," Ek said in a statement in May.

KSE have been involved with Arsenal since 2011 when they purchased a 66 per cent stake of the club.

It is only since 2018, when Alisher Usmanov and Everton owner Farhad Moshiri sold their stakes, that the Americans became sole owners.

Kroenke met with the Gunners' new fan advisory board on Thursday and is therefore aware of his unpopularity with supporters, but he believes KSE's record in the past three years shows their commitment.

"It [the financial model of the club] was tighter before 2018," 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."