Ivan Gazidis On RvP, Last Season And Next, And Unity
Jun 5th, 2012 by 'holic
Chief executive Ivan Gazidis has been talking to Arsenal Media about a range of topical issues. From our performance in the season just ended, through our ambitions for this summer and the season ahead, and covering commercial activities, it is a fairly comprehensive and honest assessment of where he feels we are at present.
And yes, the situation surrounding the captain is mentioned but, as Robin himself has already said, the content of the discussions that have already taken place are to remain between club and player until after the Euros have concluded.
“We have to respect the fact we have agreed to keep that among ourselves. Robin is clearly focused on the Euros at the moment and we wish him well, and at the right time we will make the right announcements. But at the moment we are not saying anything.”
Those carefully chosen words will do nothing to assure those who are looking for a sign that Robin will still be leading the side out next season. I’m all for not making that ulcer worse. Let’s wait and see what transpires. A collective venting of spleens in frustration won’t bring forward the date of any further concrete information.
On the topic of last season Ivan concedes it was “challenging”, losing key players for various reasons, and not for the last time acknowledged the contribution of the support.
“We have ended the season in third place with guaranteed qualification for next season’s Champions League and that allows us to plan with certainty going into next year, but none of this is cause for popping champagne corks at Arsenal. We want to win things. So while it is a creditable performance it is not achieving our ambition. What we have to work out this summer is how we can take the Club on and take a step forward.”
“I felt that under pressure at difficult times, our fans, players, team and club really came together. I felt at times like our new stadium really began to feel like our home. There was a tremendous unity that pulled us through those times and developed momentum which ultimately ended up carrying us across the line to the Champions League places, which earlier in the season we had been written off from.”
On a day when the current manager of our nearest neighbours was foolishly downplaying the importance of Champions League football it is good to hear recognition from our boardroom that it is a minimum requirement, and that winning trophies is our ambition. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating though. Have we learned the lessons of last summer?
“We want to win major competitions, we want to win the Premier League. We want to compete to win the Champions League and that is our ambition. That is what we are planning for during the course of the summer and everything we do is geared towards that, it is very simple. I think the good thing about this summer is that there is more certainty in terms of our Champions League position. We have acted early to get the critical signing in Lukas Podolski. The great thing about Lukas is that not only can he contribute goals, but he can also play in different positions so you get tremendous versatility and Arsenal class. He is technically a top-class player.”
Ivan goes on to point out although he expects things to go quiet on the transfer front while players are at the Euros he is expecting a period of activity thereafter. You wouldn’t expect him to say anything else I suppose, but again it would appear that those in Highbury House are well aware of the need to strengthen during the summer, and that any such activity should be a two-way street with further departures to free up money and squad places.
Another area where the club have come in for some criticism is in the area of commercial revenues, and Ivan doesn’t duck those questions. The supporters have been asked to dig deep in their pockets, particularly last summer. It is not unreasonable for supporters to want to see more benefit from the move to the new stadium and for our commercial team to make the sort of strides that we have seen at our major rivals.
“One of the things we have to do as a club is become less reliant on our match day revenue. As a big club we are very reliant on the revenues we generate in the stadium, more so than any other big club. We are developing our commercial revenues and our commercial partnerships well ahead of our five-year plan. They are going very well and we are seeing renewal of major partnerships like Citroën. We are seeing new partners come in like Indesit or Betsson and most recently we have just announced Malta Guinness in Africa. So there are tremendous developments on the commercial front and that is important for the Club that we have partners who can help us to connect with fans all around the world, develop our commercial revenue streams and take some of the pressure off locally-generated revenues here in London.”
Admirable words indeed, although I suspect many would like to see a more ambitious five year plan to be put in place. Ivan also discusses the importance of the tours abroad as we attempt to connect with a wider supporter base. There is acknowledgement of the contribution of Stan Kroenke, not entirely unexpected, before Ivan returns to the subject of the support, and the effect they had at various stages of the year.
I would like to thank the supporters. This at times has been a really challenging season. This football club was placed under terrific pressure at times and I think, for a different club, there would have been the possibility that we would begin to fall apart, panic and make decisions that would have been bad. That is not what happened. When we had our most difficult times this football club came together. The supporters, the team, the front office staff, the back office staff – they all came together. It was that strength and that unity that managed to pull our season back on track this year. My message to our fans is that we are doing everything in our power to make sure that Arsenal can challenge for trophies next year. That is what this summer is about and that is what we are focused on for next year. We have a good team, we have a good young core of players and we need everybody involved to have belief so that we can push forward into next year and make a run at the Premier League trophy and for the Champions League. We believe we can do that.
That is both an acknowledgement and a rallying call you might argue he has to give, but only the truly cynical could doubt the sincerity of the sentiment. Ivan knows full well that words alone will not quell the misgivings of a significant chunk of the support. He will face more searching questions on Wednesday evening at the Arsenal Supporters Trust end of season Q&A. There he will experience the full range of feelings about where we are at the moment, and it will be a fascinating watch on Arsenal Player later this week.
There is no doubt in the course of the last year the club has made great strides in its efforts to communicate better with its supporters through a variety of channels. Ivan will know full well though that despite those improvements the undercurrent of unrest that surfaces from time to time is poised to rear its ugly head again if we fail to have a competitive squad in place by the start of the season. I can’t help but feel that the period of activity he mentions post-Euros will be the most significant few weeks in Arsenal’s recent history.
I’m not aggravating that ulcer yet however.
113 Responses to “Ivan Gazidis On RvP, Last Season And Next, And Unity”
1st?
What a boat load of old nonsense. Why bother talking if are going to say nothing of interest?
“They are going very well and we are seeing renewal of major partnerships like Citroën. We are seeing new partners come in like Indesit or Betsson and most recently we have just announced Malta Guinness in Africa. So there are tremendous developments on the commercial front ”
This is pure crap. In the period that we signed those Utd have signed twice as many.
You are indeed gars…
shoulda waited another ten minutes.
top four?
‘holic, have a brandy and milk for that nonaggravated ulcer. ivan’s putting a good spin on it, but i wonder about the five-year plan.
lew, where’s the link to manu’s doubling of our signatories? or is that just faff?
What deals have utd done Lew? I thought they had massive probs with their intetest rates?
Nice my first first heh.back from a stag in marbs today I don’t want to see another drink till Friday!Ivan says all the right things as you said going to be a huge few weeks holic after the euros,but theres a hint there about making the right announcements at the right time,personally don’t think van will leave.
scruzgooner
And these are just the ones I could find:
August 2011- Concha y Toro official Wine sponsor
August 2011- Beeline Mobile content in Vietnam
August 2011 – DHL Training kit £10m per season (probably more then we earn with all our second tier sponsors put together)
Oct 2011 – Telco du – mobile content in the in the UAE
Oct 2011 – Zong- Mobile content in Pakistan
Oct 2011 – Malaysian snack Mister Potato
Oct 2011- Turk Telekom- mobile content in Turkey
Feb 2012- GLOBUL- mobile content in Bulgaria
Feb 2012- Epson- official office equipment supplier
May 2012- Chevrolet – official automotive partner
http://www.arsenal.com/the-club/sponsors-partners
http://www.manutd.com/General-Footer-Section/Privacy-Policy.aspx?filter=partners
Interesting words from Ivan, very positive stuff.
He is an intelligent man, so he knows if the club fails to strengthen this window, he has given the fanbase a stick to beat him with.
If youre a glass half empty type, you may see it as lip-service, but this message seems very clear from IG.
We do have a great squad, we just need to add 2 more top quality players to our ranks. If we do that and sign 2 more big players, I honestly believe we could at least mount a respectable challenge.
Ivan, if youre bullshitting, you are going to feel more wrath than you ever imagined!
thanks for that, lew. but maybe we should be looking at what the club had 5 years back, rather than comparing against manu? if, in five years we’re not there, then i could see cause for complaint…similarly if we don’t significantly up our shirt/stadium deals when they come for renewal.
scruzgooner
Sorry pressed enter prematurely
As you can see Arsenal are not having “tremendous developments” in this area that is just standard PR guff that holds up to no scrutiny. Utd earn more then £30m more then us in the big deals (Shirt sponsor and kit deal-that can’t be helped until 2014) but they also outstrip massively in the second tier deals an area that our expensive commercial team should be looking to make up the short fall but which we fall further and further behind in.
Hey Holic, This two-way street business is critical if we are really serious about strengthening our squad.Time to put sentimentality aside, and make the painful cuts. How many times did we collectively sigh this past season when we knew there was no one on the bench who could provide that vital spark.
Lew, interesting stuff I must say but like it or not I am pretty sure the Mancs out sell almost every other club in the world commercially? I don’t like that either, and I certainly will not defend Ivan here, but I struggle to see too many others with a more worldwide name than the mancs?
scruzgooner
I suppose I’m not as forgiving as you. Tom Fox is paid £500k (+bonuses- a joke if ever there was one) a year and the best he can come up with is wait til 2014 where even if we get the £30m extra (which I personally think is wildly optimistic) in the main deals we would still be £40m behind Utd in commercial revenue (discounting Utd’s commercial revenue growing).
I suppose what really annoys is the “tremendous developments” line- a pure fiction.
Steve T
Nope Utd are third/forth on that list after 1. Bayern, 2. Real Madrid, 3. Barcelona (may have gone above Barca with the new deals).
I agree we will not match Utd fully ever probably but say that rather then spout nonsense about “tremendous developments”
lew, i suppose, but maybe they are “relatively” tremendous. how do the increases compare year on year by percent?
Good read Holic, Ivan’s probably turning in bed as he thinks about what’s going to happen at the AST End of Season Q&A, not going to be pretty methinks.
An interesting insight from Gazidis but I must say that I am far from convinced about the man. I am still to be convinced that he is a football man, let alone an Arsenal man. He comes out with various statements that can be spun to mean so many different things. He talks about the wonders of finishing third but how that is not good enough and how we want to challenge. Warming words indeed. However, in finishing third we managed to lose 10 games and concede 49 goals. Those stats are not good enough to win anything. An excellent February and March does not constitute a successful season. It is more than 2 months long.
Ivan then eludes to a more successful summer this year because Champs Lge football, and no doubt the financial rewards that go with it are safe for another season at least. Time will tell I guess but all that says to me is that last summer very much was panic mode and also that despite what has been said, the money from the Champs Lge is very much vital.
The increase in commercial deals will always be welcome, although I do take on board the valid points made by Lew. I would also add whilst welcome that I do not see Citroen being able to supply someone to strengthen the midfield? I do not see Betsson supplying a player likely to get 20 goals a season and I certainly do not see Malta Guinness in Africa providing a credible back up/challenger to Shez? Perhaps he could have directed some of his time to talking to RVP at Christmas? Perhaps he could have sorted out deals for Song and Theo at the same time rather than wait until now? Just an idea.
“This at times has been a really challenging season.” It truly has been Ivan. But, did it have to be that way? My take on last summer’s activities are well documented on these pages. They were a blood shambles and so unnecessary.
“My message to our fans is that we are doing everything in our power to make sure that Arsenal can challenge for trophies next year. That is what this summer is about and that is what we are focused on for next year.” Are you Ivan? Are you really doing everything possible? As I said earlier, I am far from convinced with Ivan and his merry men. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating I guess. I am prepared to see what happens this summer before I make a final judgement. I hope I am very much wrong in my assessment but if we do not get it right this summer then I feel we are in real danger of being left behind. I am not so sure that I can ever remember a close season that has had so much importance attached to it form an Arsenal perspective. Arsene continues to tow the party line as you would expect form a good company man, but you can say this is the best squad he has ever had and judge me at the end of the season so many times before patience runs thin.
We are all glad of out third place finish. All glad. But do not let it paper over the cracks. It is time for Ivan and the boys to do their job. They very much got out of jail free last season, and if they have any sense they will realise that. If the same mistakes are made this close season then sadly I do not see the fans being that forgiving. Their were rumblings last season as all will know. As I eluded to above, this could be one of the most important periods in the club’s illustrious history.
Yes, interesting stuff ‘Holic.
As I do not occupy a vacant corner of Ivan’s brain, I cannot possibly know whether his words are indicative of true intent or are, indeed, just more words.
They all sound a bit familiar: we want to be winning trophies, not coming third or fourth; we are making tremendous progress; we must develop our commercial revenues.
In those famous words – it’s like deja vu all over again.
I’m glad he recognises that the supporters paid, and continue to pay, far too much of our overall revenue.
I’m glad he recognised how we all responded when the team needed us most.
It’s now time for the board, and particularly our ever silent owner, to do the same.
It makes a big difference, see Ivan. Oh, that’s right, you did 😉
Wind, I’m looking forward to hearing his thoughts on youth development, esp. with Bould on board now. Steve, agree with you. Also pains me to admit I fret over AW’s stubborn loyalty to players (who for whatever reason ie lack of play time, perennially injury-prone, etc.) that are compromising our chances to compete at the highest level.
While I share many of the same concerns regarding particular aspects of how the club is run–i.e. the revamped commercial team does not yet appear to be paying for itself–I find the criticism of what IG says to be rather baseless.
I’m not sure what he is supposed to say? He can’t very well say that the players are average, the fans moody, and the commercial deals suck. His role as Chief Executive, just like others in this position throughout the EPL, is as much PR man as anything else. This is why I find the annual Arsenal Supports Trust Q&A to be a particularly useless exercise other then a venting expertise for some or a ready made club to beat AFC with.
Fans of course want answers and information but there is no advantage for the club–represented by IG–to provide them. In some instances this lack of clarity simply makes PR sense while at other times discretion is required to protect business deals and transfers, etc.
The fans frustrations are understandable but I find IG’s articulate yet ultimately opaque responses to be just as understandable.
MAG, How does lack of clarity make good PR? Reminds me of a patient of mine (big Chelsea fan), first thing he had to say about Arsenal, I kid you not, was that we are a selling club.
In fairness Steve,
I do think that they’ve tried to tie RVP down. But it takes two to come to an agreement and when the player won’t sign, the best the club can do is give him time and wait to see what transpires. If Citeh offer 300k pw to RVP, then I think he’ll go. He can make all the excuses we wants, but if he’s getting 3 times his salary then there’s pretty much no argument. Of course we can always hold him to the extra year in his contract, but as with Nasri last year, all that talk proved to be posturing. We’ll cash in and get a player on a longer more permanent deal………and the re-building will begin again……..until another star emerges…….
As for Theo – I am completely behind the club on this one. I don’t think he deserves a new contract on those wages (100k pw). He hasn’t done enough for me throughout the season and has only shown up in patches. Sadly though, I do think he’ll get his way because of his age and profile.
Last season was a shambles – but its not entirely the clubs fault. Barca & Citeh took forever to close out the deals with Cesc & Nasri as is the case with negotiations for big value players. While we still had to qualify for the CL against a Udinese (where we got a result relying on players like Frimpong, Chamahk, Jenks and Djourou). When the deal were done and qualification assured – Wenger tried to buy M’Vila, Goetze and Mata. Arteta was actually fourth choice! And of the other four players he did buy I don’t think he did all that poorly, Park excepted.
Bottom line is that I don’t think we’ve done too badly this season all things considered. And I’ve no doubt there will be more changes to come with personnel after the Euros. I’ve been impressed with IG (and I’ve long been a silent supporter of Dein). And hopefully Bould will make an impact on the defensive front.
Lew:
Its easy to look at Manu or Bayern, Real and Barca and compare. Its not apples with apples. The reason Arsenal is even mentioned in the same breath is because of Wenger. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t doubt there might be some padding in the IG line on “tremendous opportunities” but there’s alot of common sense spoken too.
The only reason to hold off on an announcement for RvP, I suspect, is because he is going. If he was staying, there’d be no better way to go into the Euros than to have his club future settled, if he is truly happy at Arsenal.
So we can make all these “great” deals off the pitch, which probably amount to a whole heap of nothing financially, and continue to lose what really matters – quality on the playing staff.
It’s all about money, and how not to spend it, for this club.
Still, another three or four overpriced wannabes at £10m each, rather than one truly outstanding world class talent for £30m, and we can all hope again. For about three matches.
arsenalbeatbarca, opaque responses and platitudes can obscure the some unpleasant realities. For example if he was really being honest he might say “its gonna be very difficult to win the league or CL when competing against teams with bottomless resources (and no morals) and that 3rd might be as good as we can realistically hope for until our long term commercial deals are up and ffp (hopefully) starts to bite.” I think that would be a bit of a downer for most fans and I think it might negatively affect the views of potential sponsors and transfers.
I guess I’m still left with my initial question: I just don’t know what people expect him to say. In all honesty, I find IG’s communication skills to actually be one his best qualities.
As for your patient saying we are a “selling club” I’m not sure how that really reflects on the club or its PR. “Being a selling club” seems to simply be the pajorative thrown at well run and sustainable clubs by those that piss their money away or profit from it being pissed away (tabloids). If a Chel supporter was to say that to me I’d simply remind him that his club is an oil baron’s play toy and that they’d have won fuckall had AB not dumped a billion pounds into mercenaries. I’d also mention that the club are soulless and some of the worst humans involved in the game i.e. JT and Cashley Cole currently ply their trade there–but I digress 😉
Well, at a PR event you expect to hear something other than PR guff?
I feel it’s ridiculous to expect someone connected with Arsenal to come out and say “Well, we’re trying to sign X, Y and Z” because within hours we’ll be in a bidding war that we could very well lose.
And we can offer whatever deals we like to players but if they don’t sign, surely that’s not the club’s fault? It takes two hands to clap.
I’m happy that new commercial deals are coming in personally. It might not be as much as ManU but guess what? We haven’t won the Premier League 12 times so how can we expect to bargain for the same commercial deals? At least it’s a good starting point…
I’m hoping that what he says about Arsenal restructuring the ticketing situation really happens though. Hopefully more sponsorship will help with that.
A congenital liar who repeats the same lies every year before season ticket renewal.
“we are doing everything in our power to make sure that Arsenal can challenge for trophies”: Big big lie. Selling our best players and hoard the profits for the owner, that’s what he’s been doing.
Abb, So glad to hear about your pet prairie dog in the last set of drinks. Enjoy. 😉
Jim, I still don’t understand the argument that selling players or not spending profits benefits the board. Unless I’m mistaken we don’t give out dividends and we don’t pay salaries to board members so surely the only way members of the board profit is when they sell their shares. Furthermore, a member of the board would, presumably, want the value of the company to increase prior to cashing out and one of the best methods of achieving this–one would assume–would be sinking fists full of the club’s hard earned money into chasing trophies. Since we don’t do this but instead run a self sustaining club I’m afraid I’m back to my original query: how does selling players or not spunking out 50 million on Torres line the pockets of the board?
Where does my logic fail me? Just what is it that I’m missing that Jim and all those of his ilk seem to grasp? Where is the Swiss Ramble or Paul Krugman when you need them? Sigh.
Hey MAG, (I can see how you did so well in challenging the Bar exam). The point I’m so poorly tring to make is that it isn’t all about money. It’s about making the hard choices and explaining the poor ones made as well. The fellas talked about our baffling acquisition of Park, on the previous post. Talk about the eight hundred pound gorilla in the room that no one from the club will discuss. As for my patient’s comments, well the media has commented on that theme, is that not public relations gone wrong? I’m a softie and for me to be so direct is not easy. Ivan says the club wants to win the EPL and the CL, terrific. We need another prolific striker and an experienced backup goalie. Time to go shopping Ivan.
Once again all we see/hear from Gazidis is more and more non-commital b*llsh*t !!!
We have far too many AVERAGE players on contract in the first team squad, we do not have a strong base to work from as the only true CLASS players we have are, Verm, RVP & Willshire (but both depend on fitness!) Ox has potential and maybe Podolski (but he isn’t exactly hot property when it comes to being wanted by the big clubs, I would ask the question why not one other top club try to buy him – surely if he is top class we would have had a fight to get him?? and remember he was not being played by Bayern so he had to drop down to a smaller club to get games – what does that tell us??)
There has not been a single top class player purchsed for 8 years!! And dont tell me that Arteta was a top signing, at very best he is a good average player (again judge by the fact that he did not attract interest from any other club, and of course he has never been considered good enough to make the Spain squad, who have many top players so if he were good enough he would have made it there!)
Look at signings in recent years – they have got progressively worse (apart from Ox – there has been the signings of Chamakh, Gervinho, Squillachi, Jenkinson, Mertasacker, Walcott, Vela, Park, Almunia, Fabianski, Senderos, Cygan, Denilson, Diaby, Djourou, Bendtner, Eboue …… to name but a few, These are not the sort of players that any TOP club would buy at least not one who wanted to be serious title contenders!!
I have not included Nasri as I never raated him that highly yes he was better than most of the players we had and sure he was bought by City, but I think he is was being found out at the later part of the season and I feel he will be used less and les before he is shifted out of the club next season.
Arsenal are no longer a club who are intent on being winners! As with all Stan Kroenke’s possession’s we will be used to make PROFIT, that is the bottom line as far as he is concerned, we are just another business to him, no matter what Gazidis says (and he is just a frontman who spouts a lot but actually says very little!) This current ownership will see Arsenal drop out of the top 4, and wont be bothered about it as long as the balance sheet still shows PROFIT – the proof of that was stated last year when Wenger, Hill-Wood and Gazidis all stated that winning trophies was not important, just finishing in the CL places for the money it brings in was the priority! If and when the finances show a loss or even just breaking even we shall then see the real Stan, I predict he will offload his shares fast! He would not want his name associated with anything that is going down the tubes!!!
Oh 8ball, hey there kiddo. Cheers!
arsabeatbarca, I don’t think your doing a poor job articulating your position but perhaps I’m simply coming from a different perspective. Perhaps there are things IG and the club can be more upfront about which wouldn’t cause any unforeseen difficulties and in fact might be beneficial.
Park’s baffling acquisition may be one of them. If he was being completely honest I would imagine it would go something like this: “Park was a cheap panic buy that wasn’t as good as AW had hoped and since RVP remained fit there was no need to play him.” That type of honest explanation would be refreshing but I wonder if it would simply raise additional uncomfortable questions i.e. why was last summer such a clusterfuck; why are we buying bargain basement buys; how can our scouts be so wrong, etc.
I really want to know the answers to all these questions but I’m not sure its wise for our Chief Executive to open himself and the club up to such questions. My first and perhaps most practical concern with such a course of honesty is would it make it even harder to offload Park? A secondary concern would be that the press and doom and gloomers would have a field day with these comments. A tertiary concern would be if these comments would lessen the confidence of players, supporters, and sponsors in the club.
I don’t know, maybe I’m making a far too much of all this but as I said in my original post I can understand fan frustrations–which I often share–but IMO I understand the rationale behind IG’s cautious and guarded approach.
P.S. In the interests of full disclosure all I did was graduate law school. I’ve still gotta pass the beast that is the bar…and should probably be studying for that now rather then indulging in great discussions like this one.
Cheers
@Middle America Gunner
What has happened to the sales proceeds of Cesc and Nasri (and Adebayor and Toure before that)? Clubs sell players and reinvest in replacements. Arsenal sell best players and reinvest in kids and bargains.
Look at the cash reserve of Arsenalm a whopping £115.2M http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17180296.
The money is there for the distant, silent Yank to grab at a later stage. And don’t fool us with this dividend crap.
MAG, Good luck then chap, for some reason (chuckling), I think you will do quite well. Smiling.
Can’t speak to what Kronkee will do with his Arse shares in the future–I’m not a mind reader–but based on his prior ownership experiences in the States it seems he is unlikely to turn a quick buck and run. Perhaps others have the inclination to research but as far as I can recall the only franchises he has sold were sold to his son to avoid the NFL prohibitions on owning other sports franchises.
Not sure how his status as a competent businessman fills one with less confidence then having an Oil tycoon with a passion for splashing cash on toys.
Now Kevin, son we have to have a little chat (sighing). Do you feel like arm wrestling. ? I read your post, and said to myself “oh no, did he just say that?” Tis my fault. Our first team is loaded with heart and talent, just needs a couple of stategic reinforcements. Tell me this Kevin, if you went out with Kos, Song, Sagna and Arteta for some drinks, wouldn’t you feel like the luckiest fella in the world?!
Jim, I’m not fooling anyone–no biz. degree here. I did, however, think most credible companies kept cash reserves so that they could pay their bills and didn’t have to crawl to their pet Spanish bank for a quick loan when the player payments are due over the summer (cough, Barca, cough).
As for dividends and club finances you should check out the Swiss Ramble for a nice summer of Arsenal or any club. How will Kronke grab the money at a latter date, explain to me how that works. I don’t know. Perhaps there is a way. Do you know?
arsabeatbarca,
Thank you–I think;) And you can bet your life I’d feel like the luckiest fella in the world to share a beer with our “average” players Kos, Song, Sagna, and Arteta. Hell I’d sell my a left nut to to see our boys play a game at the Grove. I know its no fun paying silly ticket prices but there are many supporters worldwide who would love the opportunity to see the team in person.
Morning Holics. Interesting comments all round, especially from lew, steveT and MAG. Here’s my take on all this commercial business and whatnot from a Southeast Asian perspective.
Lew pretty much hit the nail on its head when saying AFC is lacking in the second tier commercial deals. I live in Indonesia, a country with the world’s fourth or fifth highest population in the world, and despite Indonesia’s very problemmatic national team and football league, the population in general are football maniacs. Which is why everywhere I see commercial deals being done in Indonesia with Manutd, Barcelona, Real Madrid, and to a lesser extent Chelsea. These include phone paycards, peanut snacks, and other ‘minor’ sponsorships, which all adds up to increased commercial revenue, and perhaps more importantly brand awareness and recognition.
This is where AFC could really use some improvements. Yes we mit need to wait till 2014 to make new, major deals, but in the meantime surely more second tier deals can be wrapped up? Have we been using our brand recognition as AFC to the maximum in the past decade? I for one does not think so. When we had our ‘golden era’ under Wenger, Arsenal’s brand awareness around the world was massive. People knew TH, Bobby Pires, DB10, et al – and people loved them. But at this time did Arsenal do its best to stretch our brand recognition and extract commercial deals from around the world? Probably not… And as results started to wane on the pitch, star players were sold or retired, as expected our fanbase and recognition started platooning. Hopefully we will see more deals like Citroen and Malta Guiness being done sooner rather than later.
Regarding Ivan, I agree with Steve T that Wenger pretty much bailed him out of jail with a third place finish after horrendous summer activities last year, when AW himself made clear that he wanted both Cesc and Nasri to stay. All I have to say is that Ivan has done all the talking, and mind you he’s plenty good at talking, but it’s really time to walk the walk now.
On shareholders only looking for profits at AFC, well, Ivan said all the profits are being reinvested in the football club, but I’d really like to see more proof of that. All I see yearly from the financial statements are record profits, not record investments. Surely we are hence a very sound investment purchase to make – we don’t take big gambles on expensive signings, we have a large cash balance (if true?), we make large profits each year, and we achieve a consistent top four finish and qualification out of the CL group stage to earn more revenues. Blimey.
Time to go work now. Gotta add 1 more thing, at least there’s some interesting news in the world of Arsenal today. Have a good one folks.
MAG, How right you are ! Boy oh boy, those across the pond don’t know how blessed they are. Positively jaded, some of them. It was a real treat for me to have my patient even know what Arsenal is! We talked for twenty minutes or so….I kept on teasing him about Chelsea and we both laughed. That’s what so great about the bar, listening and talking with gooners from all over the world, sharing our hopes, fears, concerns with those who love our club. Nite mate.
arsabeatbarca, I whole heartedly agree. Goonerholic and his band of regulars make this a great place to share thoughts on the Gunners. I usually just pop in to catch up in the drinks but felt compelled to comment when I saw one or two–not you–taking shots at the club which I felt were questionable. I’m always open to good arguments and will change my mind if persuaded–I am after all training to be a mercurial, shady, money grubbing ambulance chaser so you’d expect nothing less 😉
Cheers
I stand with Joe and MAG on all points (CoR too) … for some reason some people don’t take to Ivan at all – but I quite like him and see nothing wrong with the points he made. He is CEO of his corporation and he has stated his goals in a clear & concise manner:
1. We are on track as far as our 5-year plan to become a self-sustaining club; we are proud not to be dependent on any single individual, but stand on our own feet..
2. No we are not satisfied with finishing 3rd – even though doing so gives us the tremendous advantage of being able to plan with a degree of certainty that we did not have last year – we are planning to win the Premiership and the Champions League (and we will go on stating those goals until we achieve them).
3. We are building the commercial side of our business (after the major investment in the Emirates Stadium, The training ground & medical facilities, and the Hale End Academy). Our focus is on Asia. We have had a great response from fans all through Asia and Africa – The Arsenal are among the biggest brands on those continents. We have had a great upsurge of interest from China after our tour there last year and we have been invited there again this year (incidentally the game versus Shitty at the Birdsnest will be the largest televised event in China this year)..
4. He has thanked the supporters for sticking with the club though difficult times and has said that the manager and players really appreciates this support..
Now wtf is wrong with that? If people really think that United is a better club then why don’t they just join the crowd! I for one am glad that we are not like united, or shitty, or the blue cunts from Fulham. And I am certainly glad that we are not like the lilly – “oh the champions league is overrated” – white cunts down the road..
MAG,
Sitting on 110+M cash (which by the way can’t all be used to pay off the stadium loan. That’s why it’s sitting there) and shouting that we don’t have money to spend. Ask yourself, why? On accounts, it’s classified as profits retained for investment. For investment my arse.
110+M is a hell a lot of money for any emergency cash for any company. Come on. Or you think Kroenke will spend that on charity some time in the future.
Jim,
Its too late here for me to address your post–I’m not the smartest at the best of times and now I’ve got the added handicap of being really tired. All I can do is point you to the excellent work of the Swiss Ramble. You’ll find a nice discussion of AFC’s finances and even the operating cash on hand in this article (link below). You can find the discussion on the operating cash under the photo of undoubtedly one of your favorite players…Squillaci!
One thing to note, the Swiss Ramble doesn’t ever definitively say that Kronke isn’t secretly biding his time and waiting to take the cash war chest but I think he’d mention this if he thought it was likely.
Perhaps you’ll be convinced but perhaps not, in which case we will have to agree to disagree. I tend to think that a businessman like Kronke can find a way to profit from his investment (Arsenal) without secretly raiding it but I’ve never owned a football club before…might be tempting.
cheers
http://swissramble.blogspot.com/2011/05/arsenals-transfer-budget.html
P.S. As you’ll learn from the article, there are still plenty of other things about Arsenal’s finances and the way the club has been run in recent years which you can be upset about.
Too many clever posts, I stopped reading early on.
So I stopped at Trev 19, which is spot on.
Just one interesting thing I noticed: abb:
we collectively sigh this past season when we knew there was no one on the bench who could provide that vital SPark.
Was that a pun?
scruzgooner
“Relatively tremendous” Somewhere my English teacher is weeping :). In fairness (having had a nights sleep) adequate progress has been made. He never mentioned the Carlsburg deal the biggest one at £3m per year. But where we have (this is just for effect and is not true) an alcoholic drinks sponsor. Utd will have an alcoholic beer sponsor, a non-alcoholic beer sponsor, a cider sponsor, a wine sponsor, a spirts sponsor, etc.
Surely ‘holic should be delegated to negotiate sponsorship with Laphroaig?
@ ‘holic
Thanks for the transcript. I listened to the interview and I think your take on it is pretty fair.
Good sensible stuff from Joe and Cannons of Rhetoric and GoonerTerry, too. We operate in the real world.
Some people’s dismissal of Gazidis as “not a football man” is bizarre.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Gazidis
Ignore the bit about supporting Man Shitty!
I think there is an unacknowledged assumption amongst many football fans that if you love football you have to be totally impractical about money. And while we’re on the subject of money, surely the company and the shares of the board would be worth more if we won silverware, not less? We’d get better commercial deals, too. They’ve got every incentive to go after trophies, even if they don’t care about the football (which I don’t believe for one second). The unpalatable truth is that the playing field is not level. Nobody who has not outspent us by hundreds of millions has finished ahead of us. Nobody who doesn’t pay much higher wages has finished ahead of us. Even an extra £50 million over the past five years wouldn’t have made that much difference – what we need a bit of luck!
@ abb, MAG,
The way I see it, Park was a punt – Bendtner found somewhere to go on loan thus freeing up some money. Bendtner was third choice, so is Park. He’s played in the Carling Cup and been on the bench a bit. We dropped out of the CC and FAC earlier than usual, or he’d have played more. RvP was on fire and fit, so he played. Even if you think that Park has turned out not to be as good as AW hoped, it’s not a disaster – one out of nine buys not working out as planned. It happens.
A thought
The transfer proceeds account was set up and ring fenced in order to protect the investment of those who loaned Arsenal the money for their new stadium.
When the stadium debt is cleared in the very near future, the need for ring fencing the account is no longer there, which means there will be a HUGE stash of dough available for any use whatsoever. Like paying directors huge dividends, or maybe even just to be taken away and spent on wigs, should Kroenke wish to do so. He could even, theoretically, use that money to buy shares in the club, thereby literally making it pay for itself?
Unhappy
Stadium debt won’t be repaid until 2031 and the transfer proceeds account is being used now for player purchases and wages and new contracts for player
2031 are you sure? I thought I’d read much much earlier than that somewhere though I have no idea where, I admit.
Ollie
The following from Swiss Ramble:
In any case, the 2010 accounts clearly stated, “Further significant falls in debt are unlikely in the foreseeable future. The stadium finance bonds have a fixed repayment profile over the next 21 years and we currently expect to make repayments of debt in accordance with that profile.”
http://swissramble.blogspot.ie/2011/10/arsenals-finances-21-questions.html
Point 18. Can the club pay off its debt?
Arsenal’s Gross debt is still £252 million so a while to go yet.
Ah, I see indeed. Thanks lew.
Ollie @ 46 Afraid you’re giving me too much credit for that ! Hey FG, sure we all make blunders (I’m the queen of that) BUT this chap is a big one or Arsene would have played him more. I’m proud Arsenal’s philosophy is built on being self-sustaining (one has only to look at the ‘big’ clubs and shake their heads. Or read what is happening in Greece or Italy. Scarry stuff.) Ollie @ 52, my Chelsea mate said Arsenal would be in the clear in ten years, for what it’s worth.
Steve T
I checked that Utd are fourth and Barca third on the commercial income list. The full list is here and it is a doozy:
http://swissramble.blogspot.ie/2012/02/arsenals-mystery-dance.html?utm_source=BP_recent
Bayern Munich £161 million,
Real Madrid £156 million,
Barcelona £141 million
Manchester United £103 million.
Re: GoonerTerry @43: We are better than you could ever hope to be, and by the way, the Champions League is utterly useless as we saw a couple of seasons ago when we were in it. We rent right through Milan’s defenses as I imagine you recall. Bunch of fucking loser clubs.
‘Chelsea mate’, abb, heh. What do they know about debts? 😛
And did I just see someone twitching?
As far as Gazidis goes, I am pretty much in Keith Dover’s camp:
“I wouldn’t let Gazidis paint my fence….”
However, I don’t see how anyone can expect him to say anything different at this juncture.
Talking about specific transfer targets will result in a self-fulfilling prophecy where we won’t get them because we will alert the noveaux riche (and others) to come to the negotiating table, and then all the usual hard-of-thinking will moan about how we don’t pay enough to get top-of-the-range players.
As for the drink above @ 31, I had a near-fatal engagement with my corn-flakes when I read that, this morning. I can only assume you are 12 years old….
Oh bugger, forgot to remove the italics font…..
Beware of the random italics monster
zitalico
try to unitalic if it is possible, or am I screwing it up further?
Re Gazidis, prescient passage from an early (2009) Swiss Ramble post just after IG was hired:
Arsenal’s accounts state that the club derives a significant amount of revenue (£48 mln) from commercial activities, but any risk is lessened by the long-term nature of the arrangements with its partners, so that naming rights and shirt sponsorship contracts with Emirates Airlines only expire in 2021 and 2014 respectively, and the kit sponsorship deal with Nike only runs out in 2011. However, in their annual Football Review, Deloittes pointed out that in 2008 commercial revenue represented only 21% of total income and was much smaller than Chelsea (£17 mln less) and Manchester United (£20 mln less). To further place this into context, Arsenal’s commercial revenue is less than half of what is earned by Real Madrid – the real purpose of the Galacticos project. Therefore, Arsenal’s long-term commercial contracts are something of a double-edged sword: although they may bring some certainty to future revenue, it does mean that Arsenal have fallen behind other clubs in this sphere, as seen by the £80 mln shirt sponsorship deal that Liverpool signed with Standard Chartered last month.
This has to be one of the drivers for the appointment of former Major League Soccer (MLS) Deputy Commissioner Ivan Gazidis as the new Chief Executive. The Board clearly hopes that Gazidis and his team will help boost future growth. The problem here is that this will inevitably involve things like growing the brand, increasing the global reach and the continuing “Arsenalisation” of the stadium. Although Gazidis seems like a sound chap, I sincerely hope that he does not morph into a Peter Kenyon or Garry Cook with their constant references to “the project”. It will be interesting to see whether Gazidis tries to pressurise Wenger into undertaking lucrative pre-season tours to the Far East or the States, like Chelski and Franchise Utd, instead of the usual, cosy trip to Austria.
http://swissramble.blogspot.ie/2009/10/moneyball.html
Good spot, NBN.
And it’s funny because I seem to remember that article as if I’d read it only yesterday.
I see the barman has now used some silent diplomacy to negotiate a closing italics tag into zico’s post@59 🙂
Can’t really join in the upset over what Gazidis has said. As others have pointed out, what do you all expect him to say? It’s mostly a load of corporate BS, that’s what someone in his position does because it would be stupid to say too much. If you expect any concrete and detailed answers about what the club’s specific plans and strategies are from him, you are in for a long, long, long wait.
i nearly fell of my chair i’m so dizzy with all that spin
italics gone indeed, well done.
Seeing as Lars is around, drinks for all!
Can’t disagree with the content of your post either, Lars.
Lars, If I could ask Ivan only one question, it would go something like this. Do we have an exit strategy for those players (some, through no fault of their own) who contribute little to the club and are taking up valuable space on our 25 member squad?
Thanks Ollie re @19
Yes, good spot indeed NBN.
Zico – good to see you here.
Excellent post as always ‘holic.. Cheers!
Can’t disagree with Lars either, but I’m tired of corporate BS.
Abb, my question would be – Hand on heart, are we going to go for it with everything we’ve got, or not ?
Note: not with stupid debt, but EVERYTHING we’ve got.
I checked Deloitte’s eight most recent Money Leagues to see which clubs that have consistently been in the Top 10 were relatively most successful in increasing their commercial revenue (so that is the 2004/05 season to the 2010/11 one, the most recent accounts available). Doesn’t make particularly cheery reading for Highbury House:
1. Barcelona +233% £42.4m –> £141.1m (+£98.7m)
2. Man Utd +112% £48.7m–> £103.4m (+£54.7m)
3. AC Milan +112% £39.1m –> £82.9m (+£43.8m)
4. Bayern M +102% £79.3m –> £160.5m (+£81.2m)
5. Liverpool +102% £38.3m –> £77.4m (+£39.1m)
6. Inter +89% £25.9m –> £48.9m (+£23m)
7. R Madrid +86% £83.7m –> £155.7m (+£72m)
8. Arsenal +56% £29.7% –> £46.3m (+£16.6m)
9. Chelsea +52% £37.2m –> £56.7m (+£19.5m)
Greetings Holics
I totally agree that lucrative commercial deals or the lack of them need addressing as a matter of urgency.
Perhaps Bendtner and Arshavin will have blinding Euros and bids will follow to fill the transfer coffers, I can only hope! What I really want is a vast improvement in the standard of our play.
There were too few games last season where I went home a happy bunny. Even though we weren’t winning a trophy, 2008 saw some great football being played, the sort that makes you smile. Please don’t turn us into another version of the Chavs. Arsenal please find us that special player who will make the difference, so that the best of Wengerball can be enjoyed at the Ems next season.
Perhaps someone could have a word with Ivan the Terrible at the meeting!
Not too sure what to make of all that, it all sounds a bit too “American pep rallyish” to me, taken from the Harvard and Princeton book of “Tell them what they want to hear without really addressing anything”.
I still feel we’re way behind when it comes to global sponsership and marketing.
It’s all well and good having a great history, but if you want to sell shirts etc worldwide today, then we really do have to start winning stuff, don’t get me wrong I’m exstactic that we came in third this season, but that result is not what’s going to make little (add name here) on the streets of Jakarta/Nigeria/Japan/Wherever want to sport a Gunners shirt.
Point in case, I’d never ever seen a Man City shirt on sale here anywhere, even in the largest sports shop, but low and behold last week in a smallish sport outlet store in Alkmaar, there was one hanging in the window, stinking the gaff out.
I understand that times have changed since I was a regular on the Highbury terraces and football is now a business and the bottom line is the bottom line. However, the business of Arsenal is football, first and foremost. We want to do well in the market then first we have to do well on the pitch and just qualifying for the CL every year just won’t cut it in the long haul. From a business point of view we really need some silverware in the cabinet.
In the UK maybe Theo is a good image/icon, a nice clean cut lad that can shift a few shirts. Over here he don’t mean jack shit. Why? Because basically he’s achieved the square route of sweet FA, to be brutally honest he’s not even that a good a player. A RvP, a TH14, even a Cesc will shift shirts worldwide, Theo with all due respect won’t.
To lose RvP will not only be a massive sporting blow, but also a business one.
Lars
Tell the truth? (I know a novel concept in football 🙂 ).
Why not say we are working to bring it players but we have to work hard on every deal to get the price, wages, bonuses, etc down due to our financial situation (City, Chelsea, etc make it worse)
Why not say we have a problem moving on some players that are not of use to Arsenal anymore (not saying bad players, situation did not work out, etc.) as their wages are too high, this was a large miscalculation on our part, not an exact science, etc.
Why not say Robin will probably go as we cannot give the wages he would get at City and be honest he will have more of a change of getting a trophy there then he would here.
Why not say we would love to challenge for the PL and CL but to be honest it is a 1 in 20 shot at the moment so our main aim is CL Football until we can grow our commercial revenue to try and compete and hope Uefa fully enforce FFP.
Would never happen in a million years though.
North Bank Ned
Ouch, that list is not pretty reading at all. Great work. Surprised about Chelsea though so much for turning the world blue :). Although their CL win should boost those figures soon enough.
Eejit of the day award has to go to Alan Hansen because being shite at domestic football punditry just aint enough. He now goes internationaly pants as he predicts Germany, Portugal & Holland all to make last 4 even though they start in the same group;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18091750
Group Fuckwit award goes to whoever does the Fifa rankings;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18341905
England in 6th? How? What? Where? Why?
lew1234@79: most commercial deals are long-term contracts, albeit often with performance triggers that can affect actually earnings in any particular year. The Chavs changed their kit supplier (Umbro–>Adidas) and shirt sponsor (Emirates –>Samsung) during the period, but early on so before they had had much success. Otherwise they haven’t done much else. Silver lining to our figures is that there is plenty of room for improvement.
lew1234:
Well, he could in theory tell the truth but you will almost never hear anyone in his position tell the whole truth. And there is a reason for that, any company (if we, as much as I hate it, allow ourselves to view the club as a company for this argument) always wants to convey as positive an image as possible about the state of affairs. It’s just basic psychology, if you start sending out messages that things are going south then you run a much bigger risk of the bad things accelerating. It’s just like going into a game saying “oh, their team is so good, I just hope we can keep the numbers down” – that is a game you’ll never win. Like it or not, corporate BS is all we will ever get from Gazidis or anyone in his position.
Why not say we are working to bring it players but we have to work hard on every deal to get the price, wages, bonuses, etc down due to our financial situation
Well, I guess he could say that but we all know that anyway, don’t we?
“Why not say we have a problem moving on some players that are not of use to Arsenal anymore”Now this is something I think he just could not say. This would tell other clubs that we are desperate to get rid of them and it would be even harder to get rid of them because potential buyers would most likely just say “what, you want that much money for that player that you don’t want to keep? Forget it, I’ll give you half of that”.
Why not say we would love to challenge for the PL and CL but to be honest it is a 1 in 20 shot at the moment so our main aim is CL Football until we can grow our commercial revenue to try and compete and hope Uefa fully enforce FFP.
If he said this he would be absolutely slaughtered for “lacking ambition” and stuff like that. And besides, I have no doubt that the club IS trying it’s best to be as competitive as we can and I honestly don’t think that us winning anything next season is in any way impossible. Hell, far worse teams than us have won stuff in recent years – not the league of course, but no one can seriously say that Chelsea had a better team than we did but they won the FA Cup and the CL anyway. There was a huge element of luck involved, yes, but we have every chance of having a decent enough team next season to need far less luck than Chelsea had this season to win a cup or two.
Why not say Robin will probably go as we cannot give the wages he would get at City and be honest he will have more of a change of getting a trophy there then he would here.
Now this is something he REALLY could not say. For one thing, what if he is actually confident that he will stay? What if negotiations are ongoing, what if Robin has said “don’t worry, I’ll just get the Euros out of the way first and then I’m sure we can get this done because my number one priority is to stay”? And secondly, the backlash he would get for saying that our best player would be better off elsewhere…
Basically, in almost all cases whoever the face of any corporation must convey a public message of optimism. We all want to know the strategies and plans and what is going on, but those are basically corporate secrets and shall only be known to those who must know.
Everyone knows that we need to improve comercially (and Gazidis also says so) and we have improved. We do have a team working on it, maybe they haven’t produced enough yet but then again we have only just begun tapping into the Asian markets in a serious way and we will go to Nigeria to start exploring the African markets as well. And in two years both the kit provider deal as well as the deal for the name on the shirt (i.e. the Emirates logo) are up for grabs and maybe there is a lot of work going on there? It’s just a guess, but an entirely plausible guess. Etc etc.
We all want the club to do better and I am quite sure that that goes for Gazidis as well. But again, dont ever expect him to come up with anything more than corporate BS.
H2H: hate to have to defend Hansen, but his quotes have been misreported according to Gary Lineker on Twitter. Those are not his semi-final candidates, there was a press conference where him and others were asked to name four contenders to win the tournament.
North Bank Ned
Thanks I didn’t know that will be interesting to see which club grows more in this area in the next few years with our major deals ending (and theirs I think- Samsung I know ends next year)
‘Holic, Gazidis is well schooled in the American executive way of putting the best face on public statements while keeping them mostly content free. In as much as what you quote above goes, he is saying, or implying, the right things — club has ambition, working to strengthen team, focused on summer transfers, decreasing dependency on matchday revenue and increasing that from commercial contracts, etc. But he, and the club, have said as much before. What is in question is whether the club can deliver on the rhetoric.
Separately, neither Gazidis’s words on RvP’s future nor the code-of-silence agreement between the two sides reassure me.
Another reason to hate twitter.
Pele, Maradona and Messi. Rags to riches. Played on dirt fields, kicking ‘balls’ fashioned out of discarded bits of cloth bundled together. So what do these guys have in common with Holic’s post? They all shared a dream, to become the greatest the world had ever seen. With hard work, a clear vision, they overcame many obstacles in their way. Don’t let the financial aspects (alone) obscure or detract from what is really needed. A fully integrated marriage of Wenger’s asthetically pleasing futbal while staying within the club’s means. We are so darn close to achieving our dreams, just within our grasp…
Lars
I was being mischievous more then anything else I know how the corporate world works. I just think his total spin is a nonsense, I know it, you know it, everyone knows it so why bother to say anything at all. A little truth and plain speaking would be nice.
lew, then we seem to be in general agreement! I usually don’t pay much attention to any of these official statements since they won’t ever tell me anything anyway. Saves me from being annoyed, if nothing else 🙂
Lars & Lew1234
Lars, I completely agree with your assessment of the situation–essentially what I was attempting to say in my prior posts but I think you did a much better job.
Lew1234, I largely agree that much of it is corporate bs and that everyone would probably do just as well if it went unsaid but since Arsenal fans (AST for example) insist that the club do these meetings I’m not sure what else one can expect.
cheers
Since when did people pay attention to the FIFA rankings anyway? If you want to rank international teams, just wait and see the outcomes of international tournaments.
I’m with you there too, Lars 89. Better ignore than over-analyse every word of corporate bullspeak.
Blessed is he who banished the random italics monster @ 59, 60 and 61.
He knows. 😉
Have Cardiff City sold their soul?
Discuss.
Always a red, never a blue…
If the people who put money into football (and I mean on the Corporate side) fail to understand the emotional attachment fans have with the colours, then the game is lost (to us).
It’s enough to drive a mn to drink. So who’s driving? 😉
Lars.
I think old Big Ears was telling porkies on twitter.
As the beeb have now edited the page adding this;
[Alan’s predictions recognise three of his heavily-fancied teams are all in Group B. However, he is tipping the two teams that qualify to do well at Euro 2012.]
Subeditor trying to save face. Fail.
platini is a toffeehead:
http://espnfc.com/uk/en/news/1088152/uefa-president-platiniyellow-card-players-leave-pitch.html
that’s a great solution, monsewer.
so rather than kick the racist scum out of the park, give a yellow card to the player getting the abuse.
reports are coming in that the yellow card will be in the shape of a banana.
and z, i’ll drive, if lars is buying.
BOOM! Top corner!
Good work Lars – well done!
Scruz -what have you learned?
Lars is ALWAYS buying. He has consumer DNA.
From what i could glean from the twitterized version of the meeting between the AST and Ivan “the absentee from the big Milan match-up” Gazidis – the most interesting bits from Ivan (imho) went more or less like…
let’s wait for FFP to kick-in and sort out the financially doped blues of all hues – as the football world is turning our way and wants this to happen. And when it does happen (in 1,2,3,4 years?) AFC will be in a very good position.
I hope he’s right and FFP works, though i have me doubts – like many of us – i reckon
But to be fair to IG big-picture wise it’s difficult to see what other choice we have at this place in time.
As someone else, somewhere else already said the self-sustaining model isn’t Arsenal’s model, it’s the model by which 99% of football clubs have to abide by; if they don’t have a petro-dollar pumped patron or don’t want to go bust.
A pride please guvnor, and whatever anyone else is drinking
UREDS!
Just caught Snir on Facebook being offensive to everyone except Boston Celtic fans… That guy is a professional. I need a summer past time that allows me to hurl abuse at random readers…
Hmmm..I wonder if…NAH 😎
AL
Relying on FFP to cure all our ills is naive.
It is well intentioned but doomed to failure.
The rich are rich for a reason. 😉
That reason being a shit load of cash. 🙂
btw Lars the congratulations was as much for your 82 as your rocket shot to bring up the century..
🙂
Am afraid you’re probably right on the FFP front Zico – it’s clear those clubs due to be most affected by it are already making moves to get round the restraints those constructing it seek to impose.
FFP may have no affect, or indeed a partial one – we can’t be totally sure yet.
And on the big picture front does anyone have any suggestions/ideas for any alternatives? Like G. Linker i’m all ears them.
Please bear in mind that carpet bombing of some parts of South-West London and Central Manchester is not an option
More of the same (Sorry!) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
H2H piles in with an in-depth analysis.
I was still figuring it out….. 😉
Fack off Dr Zee you party-pooper 😎
“them”???
But seriously, I agree.
The mega rich will find a way to circumvent the rules and regulations, for example that sponsership deal for the naming of the Citeh stadium for 500milll.
Unfortunatly FFP will probably end up another empty Uefa/Fifa slogan like Fair Play and Kick out Racism.