Last week was an illuminating one at Arsenal.
Until Wednesday, I thought Ivan Gazidis was working for Wenger. When Gazidis spoke, I figured I was listening to HMV : his master’s voice.
But since Danny Fiszman sold that 8% shareholding to Stan Kroenke, the tone has changed. Gazidis sounds like a different man. Personally, I welcome everything Gazidis said. But I was quite shocked.
On Arsenal.com , Gazidis said, “Stan is a real model owner. I think the fact that Danny felt comfortable selling his shares to Stan speaks volumes.”
Wow! That is a huge statement : STAN IS THE OWNER.
I think the fact that Danny felt comfortable selling his shares to Stan speaks volumes.
CORRECT !
In other words, Usmanov is NOT a model owner and Danny’s mission as custodian of the club is to sell Arsenal to the best owner he can find. I’ve always felt this was what Danny had in mind. Otherwise, why emigrate to Switzerland?
The new CEO is only telling you what I said on ANR: It’s Stan’s club now. I’m just surprised it’s been confirmed so soon and so explicitly.
He says (1) Fabregas is what he is because of the opportunities he was given at Arsenal.
He says (2) success depends on the players, who work in a superb environment and are protected by a unique manager.
He says (3) fourth isn’t good enough!
He says (4) the club will be able to keep all its players for next season, even if they don’t win a trophy this season.
Amazing stuff ! I love it. I’ve waited years to hear Arsenal talking like a big club. In truth, I have waited decades
Three years ago Arsenal moved into the Emirates but carried on talking as if they were still at Highbury, where they were the biggest medium-sized club in the world. After they moved to a 60,000-capacity stadium, they earned far more money but they had debts and still sounded like a medium-sized club.
Four Champions League places for EPL clubs allowed Wenger to win nothing and keep the money rolling in, so he sold you the future and you bought it.( I didn’t buy it because nobody can tell how good a teenage footballer will be in four years time.)
This is exactly what Gazidis said to reporters at a dinner in London:
“I can’t marry the stories I read with the reality, which is that Cesc is extremely happy at Arsenal, totally committed to the club, and that’s every message that Arsene Wenger has ever received or I have ever received from him or his representatives.
“I can’t guarantee success because success depends on those very players, but am I confident that I can keep those players and we can make progress? Absolutely, very confident.
“For any player who aspires to be successful, who wants to become a better player, it’s difficult for me to imagine a better environment to be in than Arsenal under the guidance and tutelage of Arsene Wenger. There is a responsibility that is on their shoulders that they deliver trophies, and that’s a team effort. If we want to be the club that we want to be we have to be competing for the Premier League title, and it’s not good enough for us to be in fourth place. I think there are a variety of reasons we are in fourth place but it’s not the level of our ambition – not the level of Arsene Wenger’s, the board’s or my ambition.”
Hearing this, Wenger may be concerned. He has been the King of Arsenal since his double in 1998 and now has more power than any manager in world football. The directors tiptoe round him because he makes a profit and takes so much pressure off them. Arsenal had been a one-man show for a long time.
Fortunately, Stan is bigger than the old board members. He doesn’t fear losing a coach because he knows the world is full of football coaches. American entrepreneurs are not terrified by change.
From now on, I think Stan and Ivan can manage Wenger, who now has to adapt his ideas a little bit. Maybe we can look forward to a bright, shiny future with an exciting, balanced Arsenal team that can challenge for everything.
This team has won nothing and I will never accept that in three years time it will beat everybody and win everything. That is utter poppycock. This team may be unbeaten in 17 games but it survives on the resourceful sales-spiel of sport’s greatest spin-doctor, who had been selling us the future for the last four years. The future is an abstraction, a fantasy that is sold and re-sold and re-sold again by the greatest media manipulator I’ve ever seen.
These Gazidis quotes all came out since the share deal.
As soon as Stan Kroenke became the biggest shareholder on the board, his man started talking like a proper chief executive. He is talking as if Arsenal is a proper football club. He is saying: We can keep our stars, we are big enough to keep our best players. Why would they go anywhere else? We have everything here. Cesc Fabregas is where he is today because of Arsenal Football Club. For once, somebody senior has dared to say : Cesc, you are there because of us. You’ve had opportunities to play, to learn, to grow, to improve, that you would never have had anywhere else as a teenage midfielder. So we helped you to become good enough to start the final of Euro 2008 and win the tournament ! Spain’s first tournament for 44 years. How big is that?
For Gazidis to say, “Look what we’ve done for you!” reflects a new attitude. We have not heard that before : If you leave, someone else will have what you had. If you go somewhere else, who knows how your career will pan out?
What a breath of fresh air that is ! Hold the back page ! The Arsenal CEO is telling the players how it is. At long last, Arsenal has started talking like a big club.
It’s not now about whether Arsenal can match a player’s ambitions, it’s about what the players can do to prove they deserve their wonderful daily life, their obscene wages, and the year-round protection they get from a manager who has been wiping their arses and apologising for them every week, every month, every season.
We’ve given you the environment to succeed, to win trophies, and now we want to recoup the huge investment we have made in your wages and your training facilities. What club has superior training pitches? Where else can you play and train without anybody shouting at you? Where else can you be driven into a 21st century super-stadium in a coach with black windows and never have to sign an autograph on the way in or on the way out?
Thinking about it, I reckon what Ivan Gazidis really said is : Arsenal FC is bigger than Liam Brady, Dennis Bergkamp or Cesc Fabregas.
We tend to forget that. We have today’s “big names” thrust in our faces all day long and 99% of them are only big names because all footballers are more famous than they have ever been. And all footballers are paid more than they have ever been paid. So we need to remember that a footballer can only win trophies at a top club. That needs to be said from time to time. Arsenal is bigger than any player. And any manager.