Arseblog News understands that Ivan Gazidis has agreed leave Arsenal to join AC Milan.
The 54 year old has been at the club since 2009, and in the last 12 months has overseen major developments such as the appointment of Unai Emery as Arsene Wenger’s replacement, as well as Raul Sanllehi and Sven Mislintat to head up the footballing executive committee.
Talks between all parties have been ongoing for some time, with a lack of clarity frustrating for some, but it now seems as if the deal has been finalised.
Late last week, Milan president Paolo Scaroni said, “Negotiations with Gazidis are ongoing. The process of selecting a CEO must be done well and calmly.”
It’s likely that Gazidis’ replacement at board level will be more closely aligned with soon-to-be 100% owners KSE, with Josh Kroenke strongly tipped to take a more active role in the running of Arsenal.
There could be further changes at board level too, as some of the old guard make way for the new American style operation we’re about to get.
More on this when we get it.
Don’t let the door hit you.
And that’s really all that is to be said about Gazidis. I can see why he’d want to leave – more money, more power at Milan, also a fresh start after clearly failing to get closer to the likes of Bayern Munich – but if I were a fan of AC Milan, i wouldn’t be overwhelmed by his appointment. While at worst I’m shrugging my shoulders, I do worry for what’s to come. If Josh Kroenke is going to be installed, he might be hard to get rid of for obvious reason. Of course, he could do just fine and… Read more »
Gazides – a living legend, for the real fans.
In the very near future, when this greatest of clubs has returned to winning the Champions Leagues, the Premier Leagues, and every single match – as we were used to back in the old days – everyone will say that it all started with Gazides, who did the seemingly impossible and gave us our Arsenal back, from the clutches of that terrible dictator.
Thanks Gazides!
… satire, yeah?
Though I do look forward to ‘returning’ to the days of winning the Champions’ League. Blast that infernal Arsene for taking all our previous european glory away from us, blast him!
Not sure why this gets so many downvote tbh.Am i missing something? Most news outlets released his comparison with past dictators like mugabe and the similarities were pretty obvious.If he really loved the club he would’ve moved on after the invincibles.Even during that season lose to Chelsea in CL exposed some glaring hoes.if we moved swiftly and got someone like Van Gaal or Ancelotti at that time we would be dominating English football now.Instead we stuck by him and look where it led us.
Erm..
In what universe do you compare a legendary all time great manager to a dictator? stubborn? yes. dictator? you’re pushing it.
Dunno about you but “exposed glaring hoes” sounds fun to me.
Depends from where the glares are emanating
Yes, you are most certainly missing something…
I blame myself, clearly today I woke up in The Upsidedown and have so far failed to readjust my mind to this new topsy-turvy way of the world. I must go to the archives and watch all the videos of Arsenal’s Champions League final wins prior to AW, and obviously, all the footage of Arsene Wenger’s prolific and provocative military parades and evil propaganda. That is of course, if Arsene hasn’t already burned down all the libraries. Ivan Gazidis, the Robin Hood of football (no doubt on a low salary…!), thank you for rescuing football from the clutches of tyranny,… Read more »
Damnit, there was so much crazy in that post I was overwhelmed before I even saw the words ‘van’ and ‘Gaal’
Did you never wonder the real reason why we had so many players ‘injured” for 6 months+? Obviously they were sent to a Siberian Gulag! Or are you going to tell me that it is just a coincidence that Cazorla is fit again as soon as Wenger was deposed? Wake up sheeple.
Strange
Not really that strange. He has been at the club since 2009 and has been pushed to the side to look after the commercial side which he did not really do that great in. I think he could have achieved more, but he was selling a club in purgatory to potential investors while being denied anyreal power to alter the make up of the staff or squad. The poor guy has been working with one hand tied behind his back all this time. The manager went over his head regularly and when Arsene finally left, he was able to make… Read more »
He was denied the appointment of Mikel Arteta? Where do you get this info from?
His foot has been in his mouth much of the time.
dr
I think it’s actually the natural next step for him. He has a wealth of experience now in financially navigating thin times at a world renowned club – exactly what AC Milan needs. This just might be his primary value as a CEO, and now he’s off to a new project. Arsenal are now set on the early stages of a new track with a new structure that will just need time to develop. He might not see much left for himself to do here. If this is indeed the case, I have to give him proper credit. He did… Read more »
The thing is we never really got to see what he can do if given the same authority as Daniel Levy. He will now forever be know as the guy who is best at working a club out of a financial mess. I don’t think all this hate he gets can be justified, people just need a villain now that Arsene is gone, or they just used him as an excuse of the board doing nothing and letting Arsene take all the blame. Ivan did what he was hired to do, as best as he can. He sold a club… Read more »
It’s reasonable to knock Gazidas for his failure to attract more commercial revenue, but I would add the caveat that as you point out, it’s difficult to get people excited about a stagnating club. Levy acts as a defacto head of football for them, which really never should be Gazidas’s remit given what his expertise/background is.
Sp*rd won 5 trophies in the sixties, 4 in the 70s, 3 in the 80s, 2 in the 90s etc down to zero this decade. Who’s stagnating?
There is growth. Investors look at growth and it might be hard to admit but this sp*rs team has progressed a lot since 2008. That’s 10 years of going from a joke of a club to dominating Real Madrid home and away, and that wasn’t even a surprise that they did that. Growth is an investors dream. Can anyone say Arsenal have shown any signs of growth in the past 10 years? We nearly ran away with the league in 07/08, while playing the most amazing football I have ever seen. Are we good enough or ever been as good… Read more »
The vast majority of our growth commercially the past decade is down to nothing more than the overall growth of the PL. Within the confines of the PL however the team has clearly stagnated which has made selling the club to advertisers an extremely difficult proposition. Not a lot of commercial partners get excited about being associated with a club who mainly has become known for collapsing whenever the pressure is on.
That lot may have progressed, but they’re one manager change away from heading back to the hole from whence they crawled.
My compliments on a well-written comment. The decade of Gazidis, will be a case study for future generations. Shareholders selling out. No new investments. Huge debts. Oligarch money flooding in. Player power increasing. Television dominance.
The landscape altered entirely during this period, and he stood shoulder to shoulder with Wenger, and they kept the wolf from the door. With new owners who wanted family control, it was time for the old gang to leave. He stayed behind till the last to handover the keys.
Wish him well. Fair to say he’s been very successful since announcing his goal of making the club as big and successful as Bayern Munich back in 2013 ?
To be fair, we are the Bayern of the Europa league.
Here is a simple question, do you think Ivan could tell Arsene that all he could acquire for a new season is a goalkeeper from Chelsea and have his word be followed by the manager? Because if he could do that, I would say he is to blame for not matching his own target of being like Bayern. Arsene is a legend, no questions there, but it seems people are now ignoring his flaws in the last 6 years, and just allocating blame on the rest of the board. There is a reason we need a squad rebuild, and that… Read more »
It is if you consider contract negotiations.
Arsene by all accounts handled contract negotiations – deciding who was paid what etc. There are all sorts of stories about deals not being able to be finished until Arsene ok’d the details. There is a lot of revisionist history going on lately by a lot of fans now the Wenger is gone.
Yes, I do actually believe Arsene would follow the board’s wishes, because that’s what he did for so long. He marched in lock step with their financial concerns and took it as his responsibility too.
But also remember that Ivan, even as CEO, was beholden to the shareholders and Stan. Follow the money. If the owners wanted A&I to spend more money, they would have spent more money.
Must be a good offer. Hard not to look like cowardice.
Good riddance, you useless waste of carbon.
Bit aggressive, I don’t think he deserves that.
I agree, dial it back a notch son.
I’m not convinced on his legacy at Arsenal, he didn’t make the sort of changes he has done recently when Wenger was there, that would have made us a stronger club then eg to get strong support for Wenger on the transfer front so we got some of the French (now World Cup winning) players that we used to get. Has made some apparently better changes and then is leaving, so not sure if that implies that he thinks he is leaving a great legacy behind. He seemed better at politics than running a club as historic as Arsenal. I’m… Read more »
Agree, my only problem is if we are going to find someone better, if as expected Josh Kronke is going to take a more active role as reported.
Agreed with your assessment especially about Gazidis the politician, he certainly has a way with “choiced wording”.
The news seem to leave a lot of fans feeling rather indifferent (myself included).
It’s got me thinking though – how many CEOs (or equivalents) of major football clubs have actually made a significant difference to the way a team operates and performs on he pitch (and ultimately had a big hand in the team’s long-term success?) I struggle to even name one.
Maybe he wasn’t allowed to make those changes? We all know how Wenger felt about a Director of Football, that was Ivan trying to make change and Arsene blocked it. I would say he was denied his appointments until Arsene was under pressure.
No to Nepotism!
Hopefully Josh has the “soccer” bug, fallen in love with Arsenal and can now persuade Daddy to invest billions…
*checks glass*
Yep, still half full.
Of something pretty strongly alcoholic by the sound of it.
iugaibgausdvf.
*hic*
Nepotism is only a problem when the inheritor doesn’t do the job properly. It’s too early to make that call on Josh – he could be terrific for us.
Josh already has a track record, and it’s not a good one. The denver nuggets still haven’t recovered from his time as general manager.
Urgh great. Can’t wait for Kroenke’s cronies to take over. Sure they’re the right people to lead us forward…
Bring back Dein!!!
David Dein, the former vice-chairman whose football nous is still commonly said to be missed in today’s corporate operation, began by selling his stake to Usmanov for £75m, after he was marched out of the door, oddly, for encouraging Kroenke to buy into the club. The sitting Arsenal shareholders, led by the late Danny Fiszman, took against Usmanov amid unease about his backstory and decided a sale to Kroenke. Dein seems like he should shoulder some of the blame from what i know. Or maybe I am wrong, but why is his reputation not sullied by his actions? I really… Read more »
That’s a top post Devlin.
Sucees at Arsenal on the pitch. He was a counterpoint to Wenger that Gazidis never was.
He was Wenger’s close ally, not a “counterweight.” (Not sure we wanted a counterweight when winning the double.) I think the answer to Devlin’s post is that the years of success and his partnership with Wenger in transforming the club are judged more important than his actions as he left.
See the answer above on the success.
Counterpoint. Which Wenger needed to succeed, someone to both support and challenge him.
Wenger basically appointed Ivan. So I guess he didn’t want someone to challenge him.
#WengerIn
Wouldn’t that be a twist.
I would love to see him as a CEO or on a board. But I think it would be a poor decision given the fan base morale baggage it would likely bring.
It would be nice to have a CEO who knows football and cares about the club
Perhaps not great for Emery though
So for years he wants to be the main man, all the while hiding behind Wenger and letting him bear the brunt of the fans and the failings on the pitch. As soon as he gets his wish he up sticks and leaves, probably realising that he no longer has the big man to hide behind, and that any and all shortcomings will be mostly aimed in his direction. Coward. Good riddance.
Pretty sure this being the case he wouldn’t have decided to take on same role at a club that’s arguably far worse a situation than our beloved club.
It’s purely business and he’s free to live, I’d even wish him well even as I’m pretty sure we won’t miss him
If you join a club in a terrible situation, then it should be a lot easier to make it better relatively. Can’t be blamed for their failures if your the white knight coming in to fix everything 😉
There are many, many CEO’s in the corporate world who are valued and hired exactly for being ‘fixers’ of struggling businesses or navigating leaner (relatively, in our case) times.
Personally, I don’t think it’s business. It doesn’t make sense to crave control for years and then leave as soon as you get it. The situation at Milan is completely different, if he fails there he won’t take much or any blame as he walked into the supposed mess to begin with. If it all goes wrong at Arsenal over the next few weeks and months the blame is solely at his door.
Hiding? Where does this come from?
It comes from the numerous times he was suspicious in his absence when things were going badly.
The man partly in charge of convincing our key players into renewing their contracts decides to leave us with the first opportunity on offer. Talk about loyalty eh…It’s all about the money these days, starting from the owner down to the cleaners. The fans are the only loyal ones. “Ivan the terrible”
i think cleaners are ok.
So there’s an empty seat at CEO? Wenger in!
(Because sarcasm is difficult on the internet, I should say that this is a joke folks.)
I actually think Wenger will be given a seat on the board.
Not sure it’s a great idea? If we were appointing someone to our board who wasn’t Arsene but with his level of experience? I’m sure it would be seen as an outstanding appointment.
But like Trump derangement syndrome, Wenger derangement syndrome is also very real amongst our fan base.
What makes you so sure Arsene is willing though? I think he wants to coach.
And he’ll be missed by nobody. Hid behind Wenger for years, did a pisspoor job at increasing the clubs revenue (as noted by the excellent piece by Swiss Ramble), was useless at sorting contracts, and now jumping out at the first opportunity.
“From a financial perspective Ivan Gazidis has not been a bad chief executive at #AFC, just not especially good. Whether his track record merits Milan’s eager pursuit is debatable. If he does leave Arsenal, the club should be able to find a replacement at least as capable” (RAMBLE, Swiss, 2018).
Couldn’t care less. I never felt like he was an Arsenal guy – he is all about Ivan – and this only confirms it.
Next!
Good bye
So he spends ten years battling Wenger and the club’s antiquated structure and when he finally gets his way he leaves before his vision has had a chance to get off the ground properly.
Why?
Why not? He’s been at Arsenal for 9 years (which seems like a long time for a CEO at a large organisation) and is going to get a much bigger salary (if reports are to be believed). Plus, the project at Milan probably sounds quite exciting, considering the amount of change that can be made there and the backing from the top. People in high-power roles change organisation all the time. I don’t know why we need to be so affected by it (in either a positive or negative way). It’s the same with managers changing – we should just… Read more »
Arsenal, like a football clubs, is not a large organisation. It’s a relatively small one. The pay for the CEO is also completely disproportional to other organisations of similar sizes.
Honest question, as I think we might be defining ‘large’ differently: how do you define a large organisation?
I’m basing it on the EU’s definition of a large enterprise, i.e. anything over 250 employees and €50m turnover.
(I didn’t down-vote, btw, as I’m conscious that I’m probably wrong.)
Pay is often relative to the revenues an organization brings in and the available pool of talent to run said organization. Arsenal generated almost 500m euros of revenue in 2016/17 – that is not a small organization by any definition. Football, especially the PL is a major business.
Because the one thing he could hide behind (Wenger) is now gone so he knows he’d have to take responsibility if he sticks around.
10 years battling? I would be tired of it all. Especially when his choice for manager was thrown out the window this summer. I’m suprised he stuck around for so long while working above a man who could go above his head.
He was not amazing, but let’s not act like he worked in a normal football environment.
This summer he was meant to be the man calling the shots, yet he still couldn’t get two men he appointed to agree with him on such a crucial area of the club? What does that say about his capabilities as a CEO?
I don’t blame him for everything that went wrong during his time here. But he certainly contributed to fans feeling disillusioned and angry at the way the club has been run.
Thanks for the memories but it’s time to say goodbye
So he instigates what essentially was a coup d’etat against Wenger, and promptly fucks off as soon as the dust has settled?
So you didn’t think the manager needed changing, then?
he fought so hard to be the main man. Why is he leaving? I dont get it? Hope he doesn’t try to convince sven to join him there
Kroenke the even younger or kroenke the embryo to take over.
Moved, I resorted to the poetic device of Haiku to express my emotions:
Ivan Gazidis.
Largely ineffective,
then off to Milan.
Nope, can’t be bothered. It’s bad enough obsessing over player transfers, if the next step is this nonsense, count me out. Seems like life is increasingly becoming a parody of itself over the last few years. Welcome to planet pantomime.
That being said, if Josh Kroenke takes over I probably will be a bit annoyed.
Just after Stan assumes full control of shares, Ivan leaves. Coincidence?
He was terrible at his job if we want to be honest. He job was to build Arsenal’s commercial portfolio. We lag behind other big clubs in commercial revenue.
I am sure it is not beyond the wit of Kroenke to come up with a long-term incentive plan for Gazidis. Plenty of private companies have key-executive shadow/synthetic equity schemes.
?????
Not only do we have an absent owner, if Josh gets the gig we’ll have an absent CEO.
How do you know that Josh would be absent?
Like father like son?
That doesn’t seem fair, or accurate. Case in point, my dad is a lovely man, yet I’m a right prick.
If we’re talking about Josh K becoming CEO, didn’t he move to London to get a better understanding of the day to day running’s of the club?
Maybe they knew then that change was afoot re Gazidis.
It doesn’t serve their best interests ($$$ value of the club) to be an absentee CEO.
Interested to see that Niels De Vos is stepping down as UK Athletics Chief Executive after 12 successful years. Has helped deliver success to a sport with limited funding compared to PL – outside runner for our new CE. Thoughts?
I don’t have strong feelings about this either way, just hope his replacement has some real ambition.
When good news is also bad news.
I wanted him to stay, if only for a bit of stability at a club that’s undergone so much change recently.
Now concerned with what might follow him.
Exciting times. We’ve got a number of good guys in place already, so this is more of a transition than a house of cards exercise.
Welp,he is the guy who released our best midfielder Wilshere (Iniesta called him best in the world) and gave Ozil 350k a week.tells you all you need to know about his calibre.Muppet..
Well, Iniesta was wrong.
Maybe Sir Chips should be the CEO?
No? No takers? I’m I right, huh huh? Hi fives all around
Thanks for your services, Ivan. I think it’s time for Wenger to take a seat on the board.
The general consensus is that ‘Sarri’ has got off to a great start @ Chelski, because he inherited a top squad. So is that a dereliction of duty by Wenger or both Wenger/Gazidis/Sven etc to leave Emery a hotch potch?
Cunt
Welcome to Arsenal inc
more cunts
more corporate cuntery
Ramsey to A.C. next
This is so sad, I am not sure if these new American owners can make this club great again. It’s a huge loss again for us
K
It’s an opportunity to bring in someone as CEO (or at least on the board to replace the departing old guard, if Josh Kroenke is stepping up) who has some real Arsenal DNA. Someone who is more than just vaguely conscious that the club has true class and a great history. We are, after all, the only club to have been ever-present in the top division since the first half of the last century (in fact, since 1919).
Can’t say I care about the man, or whether this will be a good or bad thing for us.
But for all his failures increasing/utilising the club’s revenue, he did some very good work when it became obvious it was well past the time he could continue to hide behind Wenger
Come si dice “this is our tunnel” in italiano?
Snaky suit be gone. NEXT.
“… make way for the new American style operation we’re about to get.” This made me puke a little in my mouth. Not pleasant in any way, shape or form.
MONEY SPEAKS.
Its very easy to call someone dictator and say he leaves the club. But he stayed when HE was top of the world, and now we find its impossible to retain any half decent talent with what Arsenal offers.
Chinese curse says, “May you live in interesting times”. Well, Arsenal are now living in very interesting times.
Let’s be positive here.Gazidis at best did average.Won’t take an Einstein to improve upon that.And with 100% ownership,pretty sure Kroenke’s won’t fuck around.Fingers crossed.We wanted change.We are getting change.Gambles are more fun than stale continuity.
Oops, money talks bullshit works
A bit of an odd timing this.
I guess opportunity knocks but for the club, we are going through a difficult transitional period and could have done with a bit of stability with Gazidis helming for another season or so at least.
Still not irreplaceable.
Question now is who can fit the job to help us push further upwards.
Seems to be Wenger’s job to lose. Now wouldnt that be ideal?….
I hate this side of our club. Bandied around like a fucking plaything.
It’s naval gazing I know but fuck, I liked it when we had guys in charge who had me fooled into thinking they gave a fuck.
Well, we thought he finally got what he wanted but I guess he just wanted money. How noble of him. ?