Top football agent and boyhood Arsenal supporter Kia Joorabchian has joined the chorus of fans sending a message to the club’s owner Stan Kroenke over his lack of financial backing.
On Monday morning, a group of influential Gunners supporters’ organisations, fanzines and blogs joined forces to hit out at Kroenke’s ‘passive ownership’ and called for ‘better leadership’ of their club.
A total of 16 signatories published a statement demanding change as the north London side prepare for a third successive season without Champions League football.
Under a heading of ‘#WeCareDoYou’, it criticised the imbalance of the Arsenal board, “soulless” atmosphere at the Emirates Stadium and a lack of transfer strategy.
Iranian-born Brit Joorabchian, who represents a number of high-profile footballers including Barcelona and Brazil playmaker Philippe Coutinho, grew up an Arsenal fan and told talkSPORT he shares the frustrations of his fellow Gooners.
He praised Arsenal for their recent appointment of former player Edu as their new technical director, but also questioned why club chiefs would hire such a strong back-room staff if they won’t give them funds to ‘deliver what they’ve been brought in to deliver’.
“I feel for the guys that have just come in – Raul [Sanllehi – head of football] and Edu and Unai Emery,” he told talkSPORT host Jim White.
“I feel for them because we have finally got incredibly knowledgeable footballing people there.
“Raul came in from Barcelona, Edu came from the Brazil national team and is an legend at Arsenal, and Emery is a fantastic coach who has coached at Sevilla and PSG.
“Finally Arsenal have people who really understand football and are footballing people in the back room staff, but the question is whether or not the finances will be made available.
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“If you don’t make the finances available, there is no big secret. If you cannot buy some strong players… they have to reinforce in defence, they have to reinforce in midfield and they have to reinforce out wide.
“Arsenal have a great advantage that they already have what many clubs are looking for – two world class strikers in Aubameyang and Lacazette. The problem is they have to rebuild everywhere else as the rest of the team is lacking.
“So unless the finances are made available it puts a lot of pressure on the guys they have hired to be able to deliver what they’ve been brought in to deliver.”