Arsenal's brutal Succession battle: Inside the cold-blooded sacking of 'pompous feather-ruffler' Tim Lewis as Josh Kroenke seized power, what they'll lose without divisive figure and why rivals are 'popping champagne'

The creator of Succession, the smash-hit drama about a billionaire family vying for control of the empire, has vowed that there will be no more episodes after four riotous, award-winning seasons.

Jesse Armstrong is a Fulham supporter - but should he ever change his mind and need some fresh material he may wish to take a look across London, and at recent events at the Emirates Stadium.

Last week, in a move which stunned the world of football, Arsenal bluntly announced that Tim Lewis, the outspoken lawyer who had effectively run the club for five years as executive vice-chairman, had ‘stepped down’ as part of a wide-ranging reshuffle that would make Gunners fan Sir Keir Starmer blush.

The obvious question in boardrooms across English and European football was: why? To his allies, and there are a few, why would Arsenal get rid of a man who had transformed the image of the club from compliant to combative and whom had helped to drastically improve things on and off the field, despite the continuing elusiveness of a Premier League title?

Detractors wondered if the controlling Kroenke family had finally woken up to their view from their base in Denver, Colorado. That Lewis was a pompous feather-ruffler, who made a habit of making enemies, and that they had heard enough.

Daily Mail Sport has spoken to sources at Arsenal and at executive level at clubs across the Premier League and beyond. Arsenal have refused to comment, other than to instruct lawyers who acted for Roman Abramovich, the ousted former Chelsea supremo, and his club. Lewis has also declined to speak for this article.

But the picture that emerges is one of a cold-blooded move, direct from the set of the Hollywood blockbuster. A tale of gradual ascent and of rapid downfall, ending with a brutal axing which few – least of all the man himself – saw coming.

A situation in which Lewis, who until last month was involved directly in spending vast sums on transfers, has been left having to ask if he can buy a season ticket.

It is a story 18 years in the making. Oxford-educated Lewis, a lifelong Arsenal fan and mergers and acquisitions lawyer, first appeared on the scene in 2007. He advised patriarch Stan Kroenke, who made his billions in real estate, on the family’s investment in the club, which they would eventually take full ownership of 11 years later. 

In 2020, with the Covid pandemic raging and Kroenke needing someone he could trust to steer the ship through choppy waters, Lewis joined the board and undertook a swift audit. 

Quickly, the remaining stadium debt of £144m was restructured thanks to a loan from the club's parent company Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE), a simple move which allowed Arsenal to drop a £36m debt service reserve and improve cash flow.

Finance ran through every decision. Two months after Lewis’s arrival, Arsenal announced an intention to make 55 staff redundant thanks to the pandemic, while head of football Raul Sanllehi was also shown the door. The view was that they already had a managing director and a technical director, and that Sanllehi was a luxury they could not afford.

Inside the Emirates, Lewis was seen as a whirlwind. Stan’s man, firm in self-belief and who got things done. Others across the Premier League got their own glimpses when he started to appear on the club’s behalf at shareholder meetings.

‘He was a nightmare,’ an exec at another top flight side explains. ‘He didn’t discuss, he would lecture everyone in the room and would attempt to hold court like he was the emperor.

'He certainly liked the sound of his own voice. You would look around the room when he was pontificating and people would be rolling their eyes: “Here he is again”. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who was so aggressively confident of their own intelligence.’

Opinion is split. ‘He is a lawyer, so he is naturally abrasive,’ said another insider. ‘But Arsenal went from being moribund, drifting aimlessly and half asleep in the corner, to a club who were a force to be reckoned with.

'Few people speak at Premier League meetings but Tim certainly did. He cleared out the old guard and he transformed them from a place where they couldn’t be taken seriously.’

Lewis was a firm advocate of spending controls, something that put him on a clear collision course with others, most notably Manchester City. Last season he raised eyebrows in the Etihad directors’ box when he marched out following a late equaliser for the home side in a high-stakes, tension-filled clash, failing to shake the hands of those present, as is the custom.

By this stage, Lewis effectively had the keys, promoted to his final role in 2023. He worked closely with Mikel Arteta, who has spoken of his sadness at recent events, and new sporting director Andrea Berta.

This summer, he played a key role in a hectic transfer window that saw the club spend £250m, intervening directly in the late grab of Eberechi Eze from Crystal Palace. Under his watch, revenues have risen to record levels north of £600m.

But then he was gone, with the news relayed via a club statement, which led on the promotion of managing director Richard Garlick to chief executive. Perhaps it is telling that Lewis’s shock exit was not mentioned until the fourth sentence.

There was also the news that two-time Emmy Award-winning producer Ben Winston, a lifelong Arsenal fan and season-ticket holder, would be joining the board as a non-executive director.

After congratulating ex-Premier League director of football Garlick, co-chair Josh Kroenke, one of three children, turned to Lewis, thanking him ‘for his continued dedication and commitment to Arsenal in a period of transformational change for the club’.

Kroenke Jnr added that the new group, which includes KSE execs Kelly Blaha, Otto Maly and Dave Steiner along with the retention of long-serving director Lord Harris of Peckham, ‘will bring a different skillset and expertise while injecting fresh thinking and energy to support us all to achieve our ambitions’.

Daily Mail Sport has learned that Lewis was offered the opportunity to stay at the Emirates in a non-executive role with diminished responsibilities and a salary that would eventually be cut by three quarters, from £2m a year to £500,000. He declined that offer.

He is thought to have previously pointed out that, at £2m, he was actually underpaid compared with other execs at similar-sized clubs. Whether Arsenal thought there was any prospect of Lewis agreeing to the changes - and an apparent demotion - is unclear.

Those close to the 62-year-old say he is ‘devastated’ at how things have played out, that he is of the firm belief that he was effectively sacked and that the axe landed out of nowhere. There has even been talk of legal action.

And this is where Succession comes in. Some believe Lewis’s exit is reflective of manoeuvring by Josh Kroenke, who is now expected to become more involved in the running of the club. 

A senior Premier League executive adds: ‘It feels like it’s a 45-year-old who was born into wealth as the son of two billionaires, who is now saying to his 78-year-old father “Look dad, I can do this”. Like the kids in Succession, all jostling to be the ones who take over when the fateful day comes. He’s showing his father he is ready.’

Those of that view point to a dramatic day in March, when Josh, president of the family’s NBA franchise Denver Nuggets, pulled the trigger on the club’s head coach and general manager on the same day. These were the two people responsible for bringing home the Nuggets' first NBA title just two years before and it came as a huge shock.

Titles are a theme of the Kroenkes' recent reigns on the other side of the pond. The Nuggets' first crown came a year after their ice hockey team, the Colorado Avalanche, had won their first Stanley Cup in 21 years. Four months before that, Stan Kroenke was walking around the pitch at the £4bn SoFi Stadium he built in Los Angeles cradling the Vince Lombardi Trophy, as his LA Rams ended a 22-year wait for a Super Bowl victory. 

Josh, who is the Kroenkes' eyes and ears on the ground in London, now needs to complete the set of trophy droughts being ended with Arsenal. 

‘Josh needs a purpose,’ says another Premier League exec. ‘He’s seen how it’s done while Tim’s been there and now he’s going to get more involved. You see it a lot in family-owned sports teams. He is very much of the next generation and has been a decent operator in the US.’

This source believes Lewis’s departure could be bad for both club and competition. ‘You need chief execs who act like owners,’ they add. ‘People who get things done quickly. Tim got things done quickly.’

They also believe Arsenal will be one to watch. ‘It will be interesting to see how the new board, under Richard, gets on. They have a lot on their plate, with stadium expansion, the regulator, the fallout from City’s 115 battle with the Premier League and what happens on the field. The training ground could also use an upgrade and there’s the Thomas Partey legal situation (Ex-player Partey is charged with five counts of rape over alleged offences during his time with the club). If Mikel can win them a trophy it will buy them time.’

Some, however, are clearly not sad to see Lewis go. ‘If you ever wanted to clear a bar at last orders then just get Tim Lewis in,’ was the blunt view of one official at a rival club when asked for their opinion.

That group may well extend to refs’ body PGMO, where Lewis was viewed by some as a ‘prolific’ complainer – especially if something had gone against Arsenal, with some of his views branded ‘outlandish, at best’.

Those connected to the Arsene Wenger/David Dein regime which brought success to in the late 90s and early noughties may also be raising a glass.

In football, directors of home clubs often invite old friends from rival clubs to the boardroom when their team is in town. On more than one occasion those who had welcomed certain figures from the previous era were subsequently asked why they had seen fit to do so. Indeed, there is a suggestion that certain, well-known faces felt they were no longer welcome at the Emirates.

At Sunday’s match with City an ‘almost celebratory atmosphere’ among some of the home contingent was described. ‘There will have been champagne corks popping at boardrooms across England and Europe this weekend,’ says one former contemporary.

Succession ended its run with 75 Primetime Emmy Award nominations and 19 wins. 

By the end, it felt like everyone was watching. That may well become a familiar feeling at Arsenal over the coming months.