By Tony Attwood
First, the draw very much delayed through sheer, absolute, and total incompetence…
- Chelsea v Bournemouth
Arsenal v West Ham United
Leicester City v Manchester City
Bristol City v Manchester United
And so on to the AGM.
I have had a couple of meetings with Ivan Gazidis and exchanged emails with him very occasionally, but I am most certainly not a confidant of his in any way.
But I must admit I do like his style and his stance, and have always found him the most courteous, charming and forthcoming man. So it is I guess not surprising that I was rather pleased with what Mr Gazidis said, at an AGM complete with the sort of heckling that now seems to be the norm in AGMs of big corporations that have some shareholders with modest numbers of shares but loud voices. Indeed from what I have read of Arsenal AGMs in the late 1920s and early 1930s they were rather rumbustious too. Sir Henry Norris who had been deposed on the technicality of there being a legal case running with Fulham FC made the event the best show in town and the coverage the resultant meetings got was much larger than Arsenal’s AGM will get today.
These days are placid compared to those events, but I particularly liked the way Mr Gazidis had a bash at the media not because it hasn’t been done before, but because he was specific about the way the media misleads supporters. It was almost as if he had a read of my notes.
So yes, quite obviously, I am with him in attacking all of the media for misleading the public and as he said, “inflaming emotions and driving opinions and narratives.” That is pretty much what we’ve been saying for quite some time. The complete historical context is at How fake news came to dominate the reporting of football in all English media in case you haven’t seen it yet.
Specifically he confirmed that Arsenal had no intention of selling Shkodran Mustafi in August, and implied that the stance of not even bothering to answer such inane rumours is the one that Arsenal are adopting throughout now.
As we all know from the two years of research by Untold, 97% of all transfer events rumoured in the press never happen, so why should anyone spend their time denying them all? It would need a full time person and would simply mean that everyone involved in the fake news generation would just invent more and more. We already get over 100 a summer, so why bother?
Mr Gazidis could have been quoting an Untold script when he said, “There are many agendas at play and many stories during a transfer window – only a fraction of which are accurate.” He didn’t mention Everton’s megaspending and where it has got them, not Manchester City’s which of course cannot be matched by anyone save Chelsea and Manchester United, but his point was clear enough.
Mr Gazidis continued, “No club has a perfect record every year under this scrutiny but Arsenal has probably been, of the big clubs certainly, the most consistently over-performing team over time. That is despite the criticism we get and the emotion here in the room and despite some very loud subjective narratives and a great deal of inaccurate information. In fact, on an objective basis, we perform very well and have over a long period of time….
“The decisions on Alexis and Mesut Özil are certainly not decisions that fit the narrative that we put money first. We have taken that approach to give the club the best possible chance to compete for trophies this season.
“You don’t always have a choice of where you sell a player – nor do you control whether a player extends with you or what demands their agent makes. None of this information is going to be in the public domain. Those on the outside don’t know the dynamics, don’t know the demands being made, don’t know the constraints.
“It’s quite possible that, in retrospect, people may say that some of the decisions we have made this summer prove to be wrong or foolhardy. We need to be humble, continue to learn and continue to evolve our thinking and our approach. But it’s also absolutely clear that the decisions we’ve made don’t fit the narrative from some that we are financially motivated.”
Of course many are already citing this as a total shambles of an AGM, leaving the club in ruins. I can only assume that they are not regulars at company AGMs. I can assure you that AGMs of publicly quoted companies can be a lot, lot worse than this.
I thought they handled it all rather well.
- How fake news came to dominate the reporting of football in all English media
- The return of FFP with a vengeance. Two PL clubs now face serious financial battles if relegated
- Xhaka and uselessness. It turns out it wasn’t him at all, but can you guess who was useless?
A draw 90 minutes late not broadcast on tv? and the 4 large teams left in the draw kept apart.
Ivan Gazidis,chip keswick and Stan Kronke have shown at Arsenal AGM that they are everything that is wrong with Arsenal football club.They have utter contempt for the true fans ,the rest of the majority (usmanov)and minority shareholders at Arsenal.Whilst they keep on making more money from the Arsenal gravy train along with the manager they are all happy to maintain 4/5th in the league and the odd cup.Utterly disgraceful.No wonder ozil and sanchez want to leave.Arsenal football club has long ceased having any ambition and is all about fleecing the fans and makin profit!!
Something smells fishy with that draw. What are the odds of 4 big teams been kept apart?
Maybe the promoters/organisers of the cup are willing the 4 teams to reach the semis as a way of shining more light on the league cup. Who knows?
Could be the old hot and cold balls routine – but probably not!
lewis – ever considered following another club? How can you support a club that has nothing to your taste?
Arsenal has ambition but do not have a stupid approach to business. The clubs success is ensuring quality within every aspect including HR. An over hungry agent will not be fed nor will his master. The club chooses who to pay & how much to pay. The gravy train is not an Arsenal objective.
Congratulations Menace you have finally posted without mentioning referees and corruption.You mention that the gravy train isnt an Arsenal objective but our CEO,Manage and owner are making more money that 99% of other clubs .That would be acceptable if we were performing on the sporting side but we are not!!
Jog on you numpty, you know jack, Mr quotes mc negative quote. Where do you get all your sound bites from?
Lewis
No wonder ozil and sanchez want to leave.
Do they?
If that is correct one has to wonder why they wanted to join in the first place being as we were an even bigger disgrace back then.
You really are wasting a lot of air that could be put to far better use.
Ivan’s in a no win position at these meetings with some, not sure what the guy is supposed to say. Ilooked to me like he said as much as he could, interesting words about demands of players and agents as well.
Like it or not, Arsenal act on a self sufficiency model that others do not, and some do not seem to realise that money in the bank and profits are used for things other than just transfers, eg upgrading training facilities, sports science facilities.
Stan is not the most charismatic of owners, he doesn’t seem especially ambitious , dynamic or engaged in his sports clubs in general, but he is doing ,it seems to me pretty much what he and the club agreed when he arrived. The problem in football isn’t Arsenals model, or owner, it is clubs financed above their means by friendly banks, states, petro dollars, oligarchs, and the spineless authorities unwilling to enforce FFP, the media who glorify ridiculous spending. These clubs will buy their successes in the short, medium and in some cases maybe even long term, who knows, we may even get an owner one day who joins their ranks, but for certain, some of these clubs will eventually fail spectacularly on their precarious models.
Just get the feeling that Wenger is starting to tire of this BS though, interesting what he said about reviewing things at season end, stand to be corrected, but think previously he said he would never break a contract, end of.
Mandy Dodd
“….but he (Stan Kronke) is doing, it seems to me, pretty much what he and the club agreed when he arrived. The problem in football isn’t Arsenals model, or owner, it is clubs financed above their means by friendly banks, states, petro dollars, oligarchs, and the spineless authorities unwilling to enforce FFP, the media who glorify ridiculous spending.
Spot on.
“Just get the feeling that Wenger is starting to tire of this BS though, interesting what he said about reviewing things at season end, stand to be corrected, but think previously he said he would never break a contract, end of”.
Indeed. And add to that the comments of Belerin and it seems that finally the bullshit is starting to get to them.
A bit worrying really, especially as the media being as they are, if they sense that, it will only make them worse. Apparently Belerin has already been called ‘paranoid’.
I wont read or listen to the media, but I don’t have to, to know that our guys will be torn apart.
I’m sure I’ll hear about it through Untold.
Agree on the media Nitram, fake agenda driven news everywhere. And people are falling for the most ridiculous things, even going along with philosophies, views that are completely against their own interests.
A lot of sheeple out there
Mandy, Nitram,
well in 1914, on one side the media were screaming : at Christmas in Berlin, on the other side : at Christmas in Paris.
Guess who were the blokes who never made it there and never made it home ? Not the journalists, nor the editors, the newspaper owners nor the politicians.
Not sure if anyone of you watched the FIFA Award. When Giroud was announced as the winner, the commentator had to mention that a Manure player had done the same thing the past week.
WTF? Why did she even had to mention that other than devalue the winner on the basis that someone else had also done it before him, so nothing special.
What “expletive”!
Sorry, rant over.
The fifth round League Cup draw that took place today should be redrawn if there is strong protest that calls for that as the draw today looked to be suspicious because it was not transparently drawn but hat the look of rigging and doubt written over it as none of the 4 big clubs remaining in the competition were seen drawn to play against each other after the draw was done.
The annual Arsenal AGM formality has come and gone today but without any change or changes carried out in the club current policy direction as being hoped for by some few Arsenal minority shareholders and Arsenal supporters who attended the meeting and hoping to see a change in the current policy of the club but apparently must have been disappointed. At the end of the day, it was the status quo powers at the club that had their ways absolutely all through at the meeting. What kind of outcome in effect to changes in policy at the club in the meeting that will be different from the old order in policy at the club as seen in the past outcomes of the AGM under the watch of the current Arsenal board the minority Arsenal shareholders and some anti-current Arsenal board Arsenal supporters were hoping to see happened today as they went for the AGM? Certainly nothing different in new policy direction at the club from the old policy order at the club is expected will happen today under the current board manning Arsenal.
Well, I wouldn’t blamed Ivan Gasidiz, the Arsenal CEO for coming down hard on the media in his accusing the media outlets for instigating the Arsenal supporters to rise up in protest against the Arsenal manager, the Gunners, the board and Stan Kroenke. If I were him, I will make the same anti-media statement or comment for what my selfishness reasoning that I perceived as throwing sands into my food which in actual sense it is not. Save, if Arsenal want to continue with returning themselves in becoming like the big clubs of Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool who have not won the Premier League Title since it’s inception, but Arsenal had on three occasions under manager Arsene Wenger but stopped winning it for now 13 seasons consecutively. But the 3 Arsenal big rival clubs of Man Utd, Man City and Chelsea have in the 13 seasons Arsenal last won it have been sharing the wins among themselves to sideline Arsenal into becoming the runners up or a 3rd or a 4th place finish finishers in the table for 13 seasons running. Arsenal being a big club in the PL with strong financial resources and with strong human capacity which can enabled it compete for the PL Title and win it at least 3 times in the last 13 seasons it won it last have come under the media scrutiny for it’s failing to re win the PL Title when it ought to have rewon it in the eyes of the media I suppose. Therefore, I don’t think the criticism of Arsenal for their failing to win the PL Title for 13 consecutive seasons is totally out of place IMHO.
Gunner6;did she mention offside fuck did she fed of scumedia
Looks like the club has noticed the wrong doings but need to fight back without being ridiculed. What is the solution?
Since the replay of the 4th round tie of the Carabao Cup match between Arsenal and Norwich City now looking out of the way as the FA and League management board have not said anything over the issue despite the media insinuating the replay could happen, Nevertheless, Arsenal will beat West Ham at the Emirates Stadium next month to qualify for the semifinal of the completion. This is because in this fifth round tie between Arsenal and West Ham, Arsenal will not make the mistake of starting the match with the weaken Arsenal team 2 but will start the match with a strong Arsenal team 1 side to beat the Hammers who will certainly start the match with their Premier League team 1. But even then, they will lose the match to Arsenal because of the superiority in quality in all aspects of the Arsenal team 1 over the weaken quality of West Ham team 1 that is vastly inferior to Arsenal team 1.
OT: The (sweet) FA
OT: Corruption News
Various sources:
> Football Association has failed and lost public trust, admits chairman Greg Clarke
Did the FA ever have the public trust?
It has been an old boys club since it first started. I don’t think it has ever cared about the public.
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The Guatamalen judge who was sentenced in the USA this year, got his hand slapped. He got 8 months in jail. About long enough to get contacts with all kinds of corrupt people to help his retirement needs the rest of his life.
Sad!
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Newcastle to become spender of Petro-dollars?
Newcastle could be taken over by another bunch of deep pockets investors. Just what we need, another team that will ignore that there is even a concern about financial fair play.
From Wikipedia
And she now wants to do a good job in further alienating fans of football.
Yes, she wants so make Newcastle into a Man$ clone.
The U23 recently lost 2-3 to the Tottenspuds.
Saturday at 13:00, the U23 are visiting Chelsea. Good luck to the Young Gunners!
https://www.arsenal.com/news/u-23s-chelsea-v-arsenal-preview
The Arsenal twit account will have at least one comment on the game.
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Loan news
https://www.arsenal.com/news/lucas-scores-asano-assists-emi-makes-debut
Takuma Asano got an assist in winning the game.
Emi Martinez finally got to appear (in a cup game), but sadly lost 0-1.
It would be a great help to us and also illuminating to us all if posters on here would share their experience and business acumen with us. Please tell us how things are done in your Fortune 500 company.
Or what you , Jack Ma and all your other esteemed Millionaire/Billionaire colleagues talk about in your spare time and do pass this knowledge on to the rest us who , are just about manage our finances , companies and places of practice.
Just taking potshots at the administers of our club without any proof or without the support of evidence is just hearsay . Do write a comprehensive and detailed article to highlight your points and findings and argue your case .
Before I break into a hysterical and hyenal laughing fit , let me once again remind you that the opinions of journos , ex-players , half baked bloggers , self appointed experts and the boys down at the pub don’t really count.
Am truly looking forward to your positive contributions and insightful suggestions leading to the overall betterment towards the running of Arsenal FC .
While waiting to hear from …whoever , let us contemplate the great strides, advancements and changes taking place in education ,the sciences and in the world generally.
I think that even football team formations are soon to be irreversibly changed forever.
http://www.clickhole.com/article/7-shapes-will-be-completely-obsolete-after-i-intro-6880#1,
lewis – there’s nothing wrong with taking from what you make. The Arsenal model is impeccable business without impropriety. Learn from it & try to model your methods around it. Do not let jealousy get in the way. If you think that the field is unsuccessful then do not invest in the club. It is obvious that several hundred million believe in the club & invest in it. I am totally taken by the football, style & honesty of the team at Arsenal, & that includes the players & staff.
Speaking of Jack Ma , the following is attributed to him but I cannot verify this.
Jack Ma said : If you put bananas and money in front of monkeys, monkeys will choose bananas, because monkeys do not know that money can buy a lot of bananas .
In reality, if you put money and health in front of people, people tend to choose money because too many people do not know that health can bring more money and happiness！
Nothing is valuable but health is the most valuable!
Everything can wait but health can’t wait!
Wishing everyone good health, happy and long life.
And speaking of having your cake and eating it too….
At a Health Talk/Forum , the speaker asked ,” What food causes the most suffering for years after eating it?”
After a long silence , an old man in the audience answered ,” Wedding cake!”
Was he wrong ?
Lewis,
I don’t get it. Mr Kroencke invested heavily in Arsenal. He bought a majority of shares, cost him a fortune. Then he runs the club as is his right. And financially he does so on a sound basis, long term.
Then a second person decides to buy a bunch of shares – a minority bunch must be said.
And doing this purchase this second shareholder knows full well that with it he will not ever be able to influence day to day management, nor long term management because he is in a total minority. Now let me ask you. Why do you think someone would invest millions into shares of a company where he cannot have any influence ? Only one answer comes to my mind : earn more money – don’t believe this second shareholder does it out of love AFC.
At the opposite of what is done at most clubs were ego is the most important factor, the owner has decided he wants the club to generate profit.
Profit that can be re-invested and profit that can be paid out to the shareholders. Do you know the financial results of Liverpool for 1015 – 2016 ? Well they did lose around 30 million pounds….and here we are talkinbg of one of the iconic-historic clubs that used to be great decades ago. How many times did they have CL football in the past 20 years ? How many trophies did they bring home in the past 20 years ?
The owner put his money into the club and runs it like he wants. Who are you to expect to be able to dictate terms to him because you pay tickets to watch the show. Do you think going to see Star Wars gives you the right to have an influence on the script ?!?!
You do have one right : stop being fleeced, as you put it. So do yourself a favour, go next door to White Hart Lane or cross the city to Stamford Bridge, or wherever, there are enough others clubs around. They will all be happy to have a follower like you among their followers.
According to Ivan we’re number one in ‘Objective Metrics’. Nice one that, put It on the roll of honour next to the Charity Shield.
And if people still don’t believe that the Telegraph has a direct line to Gazidis (I’m looking at you KomicKid), just take Sir Chip’s word on it.
Va Cong
Of course not. What a joke!
Chris ” profit that can be reinvested”???Where has our massive profit from the transfer window been reinvested??Where has the £150 million pounds we have in the bank been invested?Where has the sky money gone??Where have the highest gate recipts in world football gone??It certainly hasnt gone into tying our two best players down who now want to leave.Its fine hoarding the profits if your Real Madrid and dont need to spend but we did.Hell Fleetwood spent more in the transfer market than us Fleetwood..If you want to believe smug Ivan gazidis telling you everything is rosy at Arsenal so be it but the club at the moment is a shambles and is all about profit and not ambition.
Re the AGM
Yes, Gazidis & Wenger were quite well received (especially Arsene from what I’ve read),but why no mention of the appalling Keswick?
For a more rounded report I would recommend the one by Tim Stillman over on Arseblog who never misses an AGM.
Lewis – two best players? says you & many others. Best is when they have integrity. Wanting to go to wealthier clubs with Jose & Pep does not make them best! If they go like RVP did, then they will end up like him.
Players do not make the club. The club makes the players via its manager & staff. The best players for me are those that want to remain at Arsenal for life & love the club despite the success of others. These players are now on obscene incomes & I do not have any sympathy for those who feel above their team mates & want to leave.
In the same way I do not have any sympathy for you & your ‘I want’, when what you have as an Arsenal supporter is one of the most stable, honest, successful football clubs in the history of the game.
Norman, an old retired sailor, puts on his old uniform and heads for the docks once more, for old times sake and some hot sex.
He engages a lovely prostitute and takes her up to a room.
He’s soon going at it as well as he can for a guy his age, but needing some reassurance, he asks, ‘How am I doing?’
The prostitute replies, ‘Well Norman, ya old sailor, you’re doing about three knots.’
‘Three knots?’ he asks. ‘ What’s that supposed to mean?’
She says, ‘You’re knot hard, you’re knot in, and you’re knot getting your money back.
Did he also mention Micky Tatiana was clearly offside at the time?
I suppose the Liverpool AGM is right larf?
I wonder if the opening question went something like this:
‘When the fuck is this once great club actually going to win something? I mean, lets be honest, if that is still possible at this club, we’ve spent enough money to prop up a small Nation, and all for what? One poxy Carling cup win in 10 years and not a sniff of a title for over 25 years? How many false Dawns can a club have? How many duff players can a club sign? How many incompetent managers can a club employ?
Not only that but our CEO embarrass’s us with his lies. We break the rules on academy players. We are a laughing stock. We even had a vampire playing centre forward FFS.
But despite all that, every Summer our fawning media make me believe that ‘this will be the year’. Every Summer the old boys tell me that “this will be the year” and every year it’s the same old shit. It’s getting so bad that we’re beginning to make Lawro look a right twat.
FFS EVEN ARSENAL ARE BETTER THAN US, AND LOOK AT THE SHIT THEY GET. EVEN THERE OWN FANS HATE THEM.’
–Somehow I doubt it, but hey we all know this will be there year.
Spurs must be similar except its over 50 years since there last title. But hey, we all know that ‘this will be the year’.
Honestly, some of our fans are, as my best mate said, f**ing embarrassing.
We all know that every year is going to be Spurs year. Now they’ve got the greatest player who ever lived, who can doubt it?
The AGM yesterday was a disgrace. The only positive was the anger expressed by rightfully disgruntled shareholders.
Let’s put it into perspective. Kroenke has been involved in arsenal since 2007 and had had full control since 2011.
During that period arsenal have gone from being the best or second best side in the country to being the fourth best- this season we may slip further.
The quality of player has deteriorated as well- our recent teams don’t compare with wenger’s early sides.
Also during this period, arsenal’s share price has more than doubled and Stan hasn’t put a penny into the club while the fans have been saddled with the highest ticket prices in football.
Stan Kroenke is the worst thing that has ever happened to arsenal.
Yeah, it’s been enough to trigger a depressive illness. One of the best stadia in Europe, almost unbroken Champions League, trophies, buying a and selling players with the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona…real bummer to be such a tinpot outfit scrabbling around the arse-end of European football.
Shabby Arsenal fairweather ‘fans’ with their panties in a wad because we haven’t won the league in over a decade. That’s all it is. That’s all it ever is. Really upsets the emotional apple cart of those who can’t get what they want when they want it.
Alexanderhenry
“During that period arsenal have gone from being the best or second best side in the country to being the fourth best- this season we may slip further.”
Why exaggerate? We have not become ‘4th best’
Since 07/08 season we have finished:
2nd once.
3rd 4 times
4th 4 times
5th once.
So with one 2nd and four 3rds, and one 5th and four 4ths, you could just as easily of said our average over his tenure has been 3rd. You chose 4th.
Why is that?
You say “we may slip further”. True, but we may climb higher, so why say that?
Tend to be a bit of a glass half empty kind of guy don’t we?
Also, you don’t think you could possibly put this ‘slip’ from an average finish of 1.5 to an average finish of 3.5 down to the 100’s of millions of pounds being pumped into Chelsea and City then do you?
No of course not, you’d much rather put the blame squarely at Kronkes door, in which case, why don’t you just say what you mean, which is that he, or whoever our owner might be, should simply pump 100’s of millions of there own money into the club, or get out of dodge.
That’s fine if that’s what you want, but please stop assuming that that is what everyone wants. I certainly don’t.
Can I ask, has the notion of working hard for your success rather than just printing of another 100 million quid to do it ever entered your head?
It sure doesn’t sound like it.
You also say:
“The quality of player has deteriorated as well our recent teams don’t compare with wenger’s early sides.”
That’s your opinion, not a fact as you seem to think. And even if it is true, again don’t you think that has something to do with the buying power of those clubs that are banked rolled by Billionaires?
“Stan Kroenke is the worst thing that has ever happened to arsenal.”
That is a massive over exaggeration, and again just your opinion.
My opinion is that our club is run very well and we are being run in the way that we were told we would be run back in 2007.
You sound so unhappy with our 3 fa cups, I wonder why the lads even bothered.
Me, I’ve been loving it, and I just count my blessings I’m not a Liverpool or Spurs fan, although you probably think there run brilliantly.
@ Alexanderhenry
It may be sheer coincidence that I can never find a jot to agree with you about but you’ve well and truly exposed yourself this time.
“…..highest ticket prices in football”. FFS that is a complete misnomer put about by the media who are either too lazy to work it out or are deliberately trying to fool people into moaning about us. Do some maths and some research of your own. On a per game basis we’re not even the most expensive club in London. If you believe crap like that, there’s no wonder you believe some of the other stuff .
alexanderhenry clearly never saw Gus Caesar play