Arsenal is always opaque.
The club has never done transparency.
In the 20th century, Arsenal never told you what was really going on.
And Ivan Gazidis certainly didn\’t reverse history on Monday night.
So you really have to read between the lines. In particular, you have to listen to what hasn’t been said and what can never be said.
Clearly, a CEO has to be very careful about what he says in public. However, since he is an accomplished corporate lawyer, Gazidis can always tailor his message to his audience. He knew, and mentioned, that the media would exaggerate what he said.
Coming home on the tube on Tuesday night, I read The Evening Standard.
Their headline was ‘Fans will decide Wenger’s future’ – Though Arsenal chief Ivan Gazidis is backing his troubled manager, he insists the supporters will have the final say.
The morning\’s Daily Telegraph headline was Arsene Wenger has board’s full backing but will go if fans want him to, says Arsenal chief Ivan Gazidis
We all know that Wenger\’s team implodes every March.
Question : What can be done about that?
Answer : something, maybe.
If silent Stan Kroenke can manage the intransigent Wenger. If the billionaire can manage a dictator who has always said : Don\’t interfere, or I\’ll walk.
Remember this : for the last year, Kroenke and Gazidis have been putting pressure on Wenger through the media.
They made him promise to win a trophy at last year\’s AGM. He really didn\’t like being made to do that. But when the opportunity to win that trophy arose at Wembley, his complacent stars lost the Carling Cup Final 2-1 to Birmingham, an average team that was soon relegated.
Kroenke is an experienced sports tycoon who should be able to figure out what Arsenal needs to do to be successful again. We don\’t know much about his plans but he was on the board before he took over. He\’s had three years to figure it out. Maybe he has told Gazidis to keep Wenger. Maybe, as I suspect, Stan Kroenke told Danny Fiszman last autumn that he would buy his shares only if Wenger extended his contract by three years. That extension shocked me last August but I think I understand it now.
What will happen in the future? I have no idea. I have no crystal ball. Nobody does.
All I know is that at that Q & A, Ivan was doing what everyone expected him to do and saying, pretty much, what everyone expected him to say.
But there was something else going on as well.
He was repositioning himself. He was saying : I\’m on your side. You know I have to defend the current manager, but I\’m on your side. I suffered in the last 12 games, I hated that collapse as much as you did, I\’m ashamed of a team that implodes every March, and I know, as you all do, that it’s Wenger’s fault.
Those 200 shareholders are some of the club’s smartest fans. They know more than most punters, and care more than most as well- or they would not be there.
The AST members know that Wenger bottled facing the AST in 2010 and 2011. He thinks he’s untouchable and reckons his wealth and status put him far above the rest of us. He lives in a bubble with his laptop and his ProZone stats and his fixture list. He doesn\’t think he owes the fans an explanation for what he\’s done and not done. He\’s told us that everybody has an opinion, but people who haven\’t worked half a day in football don\’t know what they\’re talking about. He thinks we all know nothing. Since he hates confrontations, he gave the AST a red card in 2010 and again in 2011. He won\’t meet them. He won\’t listen.
What\’s interesting is that while Wenger has isolated himself, Ivan Gazidis has re-positioned himself.
He didn\’t bottle facing the shareholders because he sees that as part of his job.
Mainly, I think Ivan Gazidis is in his prime and Arsene Wenger is past his best.Gazidis is 46 and Wenger is 61, so Gazidis thinks he\’s going to be around when Wenger has gone. If Gazidis is the right man for the job, which he has not proved yet.
Incidentally, while I was in Colorado, I heard from an impeccable source that Gazidis was livid after the 2-1 defeat by Aston Villa in the last home game. He was very, very upset by that fiasco.
Obviously, Gazidis can\’t say : The manager is a stubborn sod, so we all have to work round him.
He can\’t say : Wenger hasn\’t given my marketing guys anything to work with, but we have now insisted on this Asian tour.
He can\’t say : If Wenger keeps buying players from the French league, he\’ll be sacked in 2012.
This chief executive is a canny politician and that\’s par for the course, since a lot of lawyers are politicians and a lot of politicians are lawyers.
Basically, that’s the news : Gazidis has aligned himself with the fans.
The CEO and the fans are now sending a message to the manager : Deliver !
Can Wenger function under this new pressure? Knowing that he is no longer untouchable? Knowing that he can now be sacked? Knowing that, for the first time since 1996, he is now just another manager? Knowing that he can no longer live on past glories? Knowing that he can never again say : Third is a trophy. And never again say : I\’ll take second for the next 20 years.
So it’s a wait-and-see situation.
July will brings news,
August will bring meaningful games.