Like the team, the Arsenal AGM sets a brisk pace.
It’s pretty compressed and fast-moving because the club likes it that way.
This year there was a lot of applause and laughing and, significantly, we never heard either of the taboo words “Kroenke” or “Usmanov.”
The format of the AGM, partly dictated by company law, always includes : a welcome by the chairman, a financial summary of the business by the MD, then some hand-picked questions from the floor, followed by coffee, biscuits and socialising, a chance to get the manager’s autograph, and maybe chat with a director.
Chairman Peter Hill-Wood announced an extension of the “lockdown agreement” so that the directors can only sell their shares to “permitted persons,” such as close family, before April 2009, and had to give fellow board members first option until October 2012. “After that date, for the remainder of the term of the agreement, they can only sell their shares to another person if the other parties to the agreement do not wish to buy them.”But there is a termination clause which can be activated October 2010.
Managing Director Keith Edelman told us about the club’s commercial activities in the Far East, which are more extensive than I had realised.
Hill-Wood then said, “We’ve not received any written questions on the finances but if anybody did have any question that they’d like to ask, feel free to do so, on the accounts. I’ll tell you a little story about that. A long time ago my father was chairman and he said ‘I just want questions on the accounts’ and this chap jumped up at the front and said, ‘Why d’you go on playing that bloody fool McCullough at left back ?’ ”
Then we had the unveiling of a bust of Arsene Wenger, which he had not sat for, and knew nothing about until yesterday. He didn’t he know that his tall, blonde wife Annie would be there to remove the red cloth draped over the sculpture.
Hill-Wood said, “The bust you see today is a plastercast version which will soon be cast in bronze in recognition of the truly fantastic job that Arsene has done at Arsenal Football Club. Since joining in 1996 Arsene has guided the Arsenal team to seven major trophies, and has revolutionised the club, not only through the brand of stylish, successful football which his teams play, but also through his detailed and insightful input into the development of Emirates Stadium and our training centre at London Colney. Only recently we were obviously delighted to announce that Arsene had signed an extension of his contract keeping him here till at least 2011. He will as a result of his contract extension become the longest-serving manager on the history of the club. Arsene, we thank you for your immense contribution to Arsenal Football Club, and long may it continue. And now I would like to ask Annie Wenger to unveil this bronze sculpture.”
Arsene was now on the left of the stage facing his wife, with the bust between them as it was unveiled to loud applause.
He said, “What a surprise…a double surprise…I thought you had bought shares as well! ”
Quite a witty remark, but you had to be there.
Then Arsene, without notes, gave a nine-minute speech whose rhythm and structure was marvellous. Relaxed, expansive and heartfelt, he touched every base and pressed every button in an apparently effortless exposition. What he said, and the way he said it, was absolutely fabulous because, as he talked, it all made sense, everything fell into place, everything became simplified and clear : it was a report from the front line as well as a declaration of intent. Here was a wise leader communicating ambition, hope, pride, love, deep loyalty to the tribal family of Gooners. I was convinced that no other football manager on this planet could speak this way in this situation, and say so much in a short time. His briefing was a tonic, a vitamin injection which made everybody feel five years younger. I found myself thinking : If you were a shareholder of another club, and you saw Arsene Wenger right now, you’d be absolutely gobsmacked by the charisma and popularity of the guy.
THIS WHAT HE SAID :
“Thank you very much, it’s a great gesture, and I’m personally very touched because I think it’s too big an honour that you made here for me. What can I say ?
” I would like first of all to thank you very much for the support you’ve shown during these eleven years. I’m sorry if we could not win every game..but I promise we will try in the future.. I must thank the board as they have shown, this year, trust when they signed me. Now they cannot get rid of me! (laughter)
“I will of course try to do my best in the coming years. I extended my contract not because I wanted to see the end of the endless roadworks on the M1 (laughter), but because I want to to share with you the vision I have for this club, and for this team. It was not an easy decision because I want to do well, I’m hungry for success. I decided to extend my contract because I feel I share the vision I have for the team with you. We want to win in a modern way, with a big hunger for success, of course, but we want to win with style, with class, with respect, and with a great solidarity we have always shown through the difficult periods we have had at this club.
“I’m very proud to manage this team this season because we feel that until now we have shown it’s qualities, it’s enjoyable, I’m very excited to help them to improve because from game to game we have strengthened our belief and we have started quite well. We are not stupid . Because we know there is a long way to go, and we know that the competition is very hard. But the only thing I can promise, every day these boys try to improve, and we are up for every game, and we try to do well in every competition, even in the Carling Cup.
“So it looks quite promising, we have a young team, and the future of a young team is always decided by how they much they want it. Until the age of 20 you can see how good you are, how talented you are, but you can not see how much you want to win. That is when you are confronted with top-level competition.The signs our teams show are very good. They want to win, they are up for it. When their backs are to the wall, they can respond, they are not scared to play, they are not inhibited, and they are hungry to learn.
“It is quite boring, frankly, to hear about the numbers, but they are good.. ( laughter). But we know as well that the numbers are the consequence of how well we do together on the pitch, how well we play, and how many games we win.
“Because this club is so big that when the team is doing well, we always have a full stadium. So we have to make sure together that we can keep that team going and develop it, because I feel we have good work behind us as well. Good young players – we spoke about that today, the first years, the young English generation, – yes, English generation ! – is very promising, and very good.
“We hope that in a few years we’ll have a very strong English base, a good mixture with players from abroad, and local players, domestic players – especially after the result last night.”
Some laughter as people realised this was a reference to England’s 2-1 defeat in Moscow.
“I’m convinced that football has become a world sport. Can you imagine that every game in England now, every Premier League game, is watched by a minimum of 500 million people all over the world, and some games go to a billion. And we have a responsibility to show that Arsenal Football Club can be a modern club, can live together, create the culture in the club, with foreign players, with local players, and promote support all over the world, and as well promote the way we think we should behave.
“I travel quite a lot and I must say we have developed quite well the brand of Arsenal Football Club all over the world. At the moment I must say we don’t make a lot of money with that, but we are loved all over the world, and that’s a great sign, a great reward for us. Everywhere you go you can be proud to say, I’m from Arsenal Football Club.
“And we have a responsibility, as I said before, to show our fans that we love them. How? By playing the football they love, and by showing them that we care about them. This club traditionally has done that. Because we have so many fans all over the world, as well in England, that is the traditional respect the club has built. And the care that we always show to our fans is essential to our future. And we want of course to take care of that in the development of our club.
“Today there is a big competition on television. You go home, you have a choice to watch – not in England maybe, but anywhere else in the world – the guy who lives in Thailand, the guy who lives in Africa, he goes home, he chooses : Do I watch tonight Real Madrid or Arsenal? Do I watch Inter Milan or Manchester United?
“Everybody has the choice to watch what he wants to see. And therefore the quality of what we offer has become very, very important. Because people have access to the best in the world, and today, to have a reputation, you have to try to be the best in the world. That’s what we want to achieve. At the moment we have the best numbers in the world, maybe not the best team in the world. But we want to achieve that.
“It’s special day today for me and what I’ve liked at this club is that under pressure we have always been very strong, resilient. We didn’t give in to any media pressure. I’ve been in many board meetings and we just did, always, what we thought was right. And that kind of strength is very needed in a club because this is a special job, we are always under public pressure, everybody has an opinion about everything. This year we have been very strong under fire. And thats a great point because it’s not shared by many clubs and I would like to keep that quality inside this club.
“I’ve known a few clubs in my life. And that is a special quality – faith and strength under pressure, hat I have found here in this club. I’d like to finish my speech on that. And hope that quality will remain here at this club.”
He looked across at his wife
“Thanks as well, Annie, we have shared eleven years, difficult ones… I didn’t expect you here today but it’s very nice. I’m very pleased.”
The applause went on for over half a minute and then Arsene said, “Don’t forget we have a game on Saturday – see you Saturday !”
Hill-Wood then said, “As usual, it’s a great pleasure to listen to Arsene’s words of wisdom. That concludes the Annual General Meeting, I think. I thank you all very much for coming –
As Hill-Wood was thanking us for coming,he was interrupted by author Alex Fynn from the floor. I’ve known Alex for a long time but never realised he has such huge cojones.
Alex said, “I know David Dein very well, I have no illusions about Mr Dein, we’ve been friends for a long time. His departure was a matter of conjecture. I’ve got a good idea why he left. It’s not a black and white situation. But I find it very disappointing that no recognition of Mr Dein has been made today. Without Mr Dein there would be no Mr Wenger. Without Mr Wenger, there would be no Arsenal as it is today, so I would just like to make the point that it’s a great pity that Mr Dein has not been recognised at this meeting for all the work that he’s done, whatever the reasons for his departure.”
This ballsy intervention earned considerable applause
“I apologise for the omission,” said Hill-Wood. “We did refer to his work in the accounts and I’m fully aware of the contribution he’s made over the last few years.”
“Thank you for your gracious apology,” said Alex, sarcastically.
There were a lot of giggles.
In the coffee area I introduced myself to Annie.
“Hi, I’m Myles Palmer, I wrote The Professor.”
“Very nice to meet you,” she said, smiling.
Annie is as tall as me and I’m six foot two, although she was probably wearing high-heeled shoes under her long off-the-shoulder dress. Alex Fynn, a Totteridge neighbour of the Wengers, had told me how sweet she is.
As we chatted, people came up and asked her to sign copies of The Real Arsenal Story, a free book published by the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust, and she did this graciously, writing dedications to them and their relatives. One woman’s book had been signed on the same page by Arsene.
My friend Martin Wengrow was there and I was able to introduce Annie to a supporter who gave up playing football when he was 18 to go everywhere with the Arsenal 1971 Double team, and became a close friend of all the players.
Eventually, a steward came up to us. He was young and stocky and wore a headset and spoke to Annie in a polite but firm manner.
“Are you ready to go?”
It wasn’t really a question.
Annie shook my hand and off she went and then I joined a friend for another coffee, and then I saw the Sky Sports News reporter again.
“Please don’t use that,” I begged.
I’d done an interview outside the stadium before the AGM started.
“OK,” he said.
“Seriously, don’t use it, OK?
“Alright,” he said.
Then three of us strolled round to the Arsenal tube station and got a Piccadilly Line to Kings Cross, and I came home to a phone call from Philippe Auclair telling me that Drogba is leaving Chelsea in January.
Philippe says Didier is a delightful man who never speaks in cliches, very honest and sincere, a guy who has learned his trade the hard way. Eric Bielderman of L’Equipe also told me that Drogba is a great guy.
The striker has told FranceFootball that, “Something is broken at Chelsea. Nothing can stop me from leaving now.”
Then Jan came home from work.
“How was the AGM?”
“Really good fun.”
“Did you talk to the directors?”
“No, but I had a lovely chat with Arsene’s wife.”
“You’re such a playboy,” she said, amiably.
I’m not a playboy but I do love tall, friendly blondes. I used to love chatting to Dee Harrington, Rod Stewart’s girlfriend, at Faces gigs, and one night I met another tall blonde at Thames TV studios on the South Bank. My best friend Doug and I went down with singer Frankie Miller and while Frankie’s song was being recorded we bumped into Twiggy, who is a sparky, charming, gorgeous Cockney angel.