Ivan Gazidis says that sentiment plays no part in the club’s planning and that they’re ready and willing to make changes when necessary.
However, he believes that in Arsene Wenger the club has the right manager, and says that there are no imminent plans to do anything about the managerial situation at the club.
Speaking to the Telegraph, he said, “There is not nostalgia on either side. The reason we have Arsene as our manager is because our board believes he can deliver success.
“The reason that Arsene is here is because he believes that he can deliver success. If either of us didn’t believe that we would not be constrained by nostalgia or longing; we would have to make a change.
“Arsene would understand and support that. But it’s just not how either side feels. We feel we are on a good path.”
Ahead of a new season, he said that their thoughts are more with Wenger than a replacement.
“One of the biggest challenges we will face is the transition, whenever it happens, but that is not something we are going to be facing imminently.
“Obviously, he is going to be managing us next year and we are planning and making many decisions for the long term. He’s in his mid-sixties, it’s natural to think about when his time here might come to an end, but the truth is nobody knows.”
The Arsenal CEO, who will meet fans and shareholders this evening in a now customary end of season event, and says that Wenger’s passion for Arsenal will play a part in his eventual succession.
“The reality is we wouldn’t leave things until the last minute. I’m comfortable both that if Arsene is going to extend we will know that and if, whenever that is, he is going to come to an end, that he will give us the time that we need to prepare for that transition,” he said.
“The relationship with Arsene is very deep, and we will have our transition plans well worked out.
“He has always put the long-term health of the club first. He wants to hand over a football club, whenever that it is, that is in great shape. He views that as a massively important part of his legacy.
“But we are just not in that mode. I know Arsene wouldn’t stay on if he thought the club wasn’t heading in a good direction and thought he wouldn’t be able to deliver what the fans want.”
There’s also plenty of stuff about season ticket renewals, the usual well-versed speak about how bright the club’s future is, and transfers this summer, which you can read from the link above.
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We’ll have an extensive report from that shareholder’s meeting, so keep an eye on the site for that.
We hope for the best for arsene.. whenever the time comes, we owe him everything we are today as a football club. Legend.
Don’t forget Herbert Chapman…
Absolutely right. Herbert Chapman is the one who really set Arsenal on a path to greatness. Intelligent and innovative, he passed away far too soon.
Whatever has been the opinions recently.Bottomline is, he is still the man,lets support him and Lets hope that Arsene gets his title winning mojo back,it does’nt have to neccessarily be Golden like the last time,regular silver would be fine too 😉
If ST renewals are at an all time high – and I speak as someone who just renewed – why was this released a day after the deadline? Clearly the club were worried about how some ST holders might react.
For what it’s worth I’d have renewed anyway. Will be fucking ice age in Hell before I give up the thing I waited so many years to get.
Lots of season ticket holders will renew then not go to 50% of games.. to put it bluntly – morons, if you’re going to buy a st go to everygame you can, and that doesn’t mean making up lame excuses for why you can’t, I’m not saying you’ll do this as I don’t know you but a lot of the st holders do this and its very annoying especially as a lot of them don’t even bother to use ticket exchange, it’s no wonder the atmosphere is so poor at the Emirates a lot of the time, I wish people… Read more »
Arseblog today ” Since they haven’t put any new seats in or built a new wing onto the stadium I can only assume that they’re available because others haven’t renewed. Maybe the people who emailed me just got lucky, or lots of people have died and not simply said ‘Nah, I’ve had enough’.” I’m pleased that two thousand or more new season ticket holders have the opportunity to watch Arsenal play ” live”. It’s great that the negativity posse have left the building , and new blood is coming in. “If you don’t support us when we are down and… Read more »
Interesting that he says arsene would give them the time to prepare for the transition. Puts The reports of aw waiting till after that fa cup final in a different light entirely
Gazidis is Wenger’s puppet, waste of space, I doubt they’ll make any plans and if they do it will involve Wenger appointing his own successor.. laughable stuff, but that’s what you get with a dictatorship, no accountability (apart from bean counting) and a bunch of 60+ rich blokes who have no idea about football in the ‘boredroom’.
No disrespect to Arsene and what he’s done for us but the fact that he’ll tell them when he’s leaving kind of smacks of the tail wagging the dog.
I don’t want him sacked by any means but I question whether being in a position that he basically dictates the length of his own employment is so strange and unique in this day and age.
I am not convinced Arsene dictates the length of his employment. As Ivan says, the club will replace him if they think its necessary. Ivan is just saying that Arsene is the kind of fellow who would give plenty of notice if he says ‘look end of 2018 season I am outta here’, giving the club plenty of time to find a successor and plan the transition. Rather then waiting until April 2018 and saying the same thing, therefor giving the club 2 months to find a successor.
While I agree he has a much larger say on his future than most managers, The first half of the post quotes Gazidis as saying they’d make a change if they thought Wenger was not on the path to success.
I think there’s a huge difference in what the fans call success and what the board do.
It was a few years ago but gazidis said along the lines of if arsene doesn’t have a plan then as a club we don’t. I’m paraphrasing but it was along those lines. Terrifying
We all know it’s Arsene’s decision. Gazidis and co say they would make the change but let’s face it we’d have to do a Aston Villa before they were brave enough to make the call to ask him to step down.
Well, at least he left out the ”we want to be like Bayern Munich in the next few years” bullshit because that failed immensely…
Reality is that ‘interview’ could have been made any time in the last six years. Same old crap ; same old spiel. I accept that that is what he has to say to an extent. But in value terms it’s utterly worthless and anyone who listens to him with any credulity is a fool.
So is the club’s ambition is to finish top 4 . Winning trophies clearly isn’t a priority then.
Come on gooners lets have a moaning free season and remember who the real enemies are!!
I’m sorry but this is bulls##t. What has he shown us that he can deliver success? Unless you define success by its value instead of by trophies.
Well, he did win 2 FA Cups in 12 years.. I mean LVG just got sacked for winning one in 3 because he wasn’t pushing the club forward… Goes to show what different views and targets both clubs have.
Yes and MANU have done the unthinkable and recruited the most despised manager of all time. Also says a lot about the different levels of class between the 2 clubs.
Great, I hope to see manure in the cheampions league next season. Sure we can’t get out of the round of 16. Last season they couldn’t even get in…
LVG was sacked because not finishing in the champions league and getting out of the group stage in 2 season and in the process spending 400 million, which if wenger had that kind of money to spend he will win the league back to back.
I’m pretty sure it was a combination of all those things.. United grossly underperformed for the past 2 years considering the money they spent, true. But it was a transition phase and yet we have won just one more trophy than they have since their transition began… the sacking of lvg and replacement by mourinho is a clear example that these guys aren’t fucking around. They want to win. Now. And will do anything in their power to do it. I’m not saying that we should be doing the same, but perhaps showing similar ruthlessness or ambition might help us… Read more »
Don’t compromise on morals. Never. Moronho. Not Even Once.
@Bould’s Eyeliner: I’m not sure we have any great claim to moral purity, not if the Guardian exclusive is to be believed. They say we’ve triggered Vardy’s release clause. Christ on a bike, have we no shame, trying to steal players away from a club with a fraction of our money, albeit better scouting and coaching? Add to that, Vardy was involved in a racist incident in Thailand last summer so isn’t the sort of player I’d want in our team – repellent though Mourinho is, he’s never to my knowledge been guilty of racism. Anyway Vardy’s 29. Big clubs,… Read more »
And another thing… how can our ST renewal rate be ‘higher than ever’ as we’ve always sold our whole allocation so surely it’s just the same as ever not higher!?, maybe faster than ever due to the way the club threatens you with deadlines but I bet you the waiting list is smaller than ever..
Gazidis said ‘Our renewal rate on season tickets is higher historically this year than ever.’
The waiting list is irrelevant to the ST *renewal* rate.
The owner and the board dont measure success in the same way us supporters do. For them the last decade has been immensely successfull. Recently even broke the 2 billion barrier which put us among a very exclusive little group of Mega Clubs such as Barcelona and Bayern Münich. Now if only our squad strenght and on pitch performance could reflect this then i would be happy 😛
I love Arsene Wenger. I think he’s a great man, and I feel incredibly sad when I see or hear people abuse him. He doesn’t deserve that. And by the way, I was one of the voices this spring saying Wenger was one of the reasons we’ll never win the title. I still think a change will do the club good, but I think he deserves to see out his contract. If he makes the right moves in the transfer window, and brings the club back to winning ways next season, then maybe we can talk about a renewal, but… Read more »
We all wish he wins the league next season…..
I don’t understand the mentality of people who disagree with this. Surely what we all want is for the club to be successful? Are some people so anti-Wenger that they’d rather see him fail, just so they feel justified? Mad. Mad mad mad.
First of all Arsene is our manager going into next season so like it or not let’s support the team as in past seasons we’ve let the in-camp fighting get the better of us. I believe Arsene has his issues as I will highlight later, but for all he’s done for us I don’t mind another season, hoping he gets things right as he really deserves to leave on a high. Now the issues with Arsene or Arsenal the last few seasons has been discussed to death: 1. Abysmal transfer windows, going into the season 2-3 players short 2. Arsene… Read more »
lnteresting to see arsene sitting with david dein at wembley tonight
Oh to have him back involved
I hope after Wenger we (and the board) have more patience with the new manager, unlike you know who.
I ll be with Wenger if he signs Chicarito. ZLATAN or Morata along with a defender.then he shld be on his job.play physical like the invincibles.b good to the refrees and pay the press for a positive title winning boost pep paper talks. ITs EASY..☺
I didnt mean Gurdoila I meant pep(encoiragin) fizz talks..
Whatever will be will be.. I love arsenal
same old same old and arsenal fans lining up to drink the kool-aid. no wonder this club is stuck in neutral. i absolutely love how arsenal fans go on about man united being shit and yet they won the fa cup. it should put arsenal’s fa cup wins in perspective, but most arsenal fans still point to it as a major accomplishment by wenger. ignorance is bliss as they say.
We ain’t got no kool-aid in Landan mayte.
what??? that’s crazy! what are the children drinking over there?
You hate wenger because you are used to wenger. It has been proven over the last couple of seasons that the winner is normally the team with the least injuries. We even go on great runs without injuries. Unfortunately we never last a season of good health. Sometimes the amount of injuries is comical and we can’t have 3 players for every position. Even 2 quality players can be a problem look at debuchy. I don’t lack ambition but teams lose teams slump. Teams get up and try again. If we supported wenger unconditionally would he stop trying to win?… Read more »
New season tickets to first time holders are at an all time high I agree, with the waiting list being used…existing renewals are most definitely not. There are four in my immediate vicinity in the stadium who will not renew until the squad is strengthened.
‘Our renewal rate on season tickets is higher historically this year than ever.’
So he is lying or telling the truth? If 4 of your mates haven’t renewed yet that doesn’t mean that Gazidis isn’t telling the truth, given the number of season ticket holders in the stadium. Of the seven season ticket holders that I know the renewal rate is 100% but that doesn’t guarantee anything.
Oh dear, the vicious cycle is repeating itself. Wenger makes one big signing in the transfer window, then everyone starts looking forward to the new season with hope and optimism. But deep down we all know he’s going to leave the team criminally short, again, and he’s going to fail to win the league, again.
Pull your head out of the sand, guys. Wenger has to go if we’re going to have a chance at glory again.
Genuine football fans look forward to a new season with hope and optimism
precisely because it is a new season, one in which anything can happen.
In other words, the hope and optimism is there irrespective of what signings
may or may not have been made.
I do think Wenger should leave in the next 2 seasons but be given a director of football or some sort of role (although that could be problematic).
So fingers crossed, the transition when it happens, goes well.
We need a young talented manager like Unai Emery who unlike Wenger has a european pedigree, winning the Europa League three times in a row, whilst keeping his team competitive in La Liga, where the top 3 is more or less nailed on.
Shame he’s being linked with Everton then.
It’s just that this path is pretty much longer than in Lord of the Rings. In similar fashion, we do get some treats along the way. Some relief in a troublesome journey. For example when Balrogs are killed (Mourinho) but then comes back just to drag down Gandalf (Wenger) to a bottomless pit. Will he find his way out again? Who knows. Or when Pippin and Merry celebrate a won battle with some of the finest tobacco and food (FA Cup). Let’s just hope that we are able to throw the habit of not winning th PL in to the… Read more »
legend for the LOTR references, I thumbs up you good sir, and f the haradrim who downvoted this.
“He has always put the long-term health of the club first.” there is a difference, between staying alive and living your days. we are always a project for the future. always promising enough to keep us from giving up. always taking part in competitions like forever. but does it matter in if you dont win it? I mean in that future we are talking about are people going to say Arsenal had more champions league qualifications than Chelsea Liverpool and United? I dont think so. I wouldnt be sad if we missed two CL spots and won a couple. I… Read more »
Some of the wenger haters are so funny. They literally would rather arsenal performed super bad just so that haters could ‘justify’ their ‘opinion’. It only goes to show how many people have zero understanding of football of this day. It’s not like it was 15 or 10 years ago. And variables have changed immensely and signing ‘big’ names does not guarantee anything. But hey I guess Torres is Chelsea great, so is van gal for United. Big names do not guarantee anything. Past few seasons wenger has proven the point by spending less than most and still achieving same… Read more »
None of that guarantees success your right. But when the same mistakes have been occurring in the team now for ten years, the players have changed, there is only one consistent factor remaining and that’s the manager.
He failed to sign an outfield player last summer
He persevered with fucking alumnia for years when it was clear to everyone he wasn’t good enough
I don’t question his commitment etc I just don’t think the quality of the work is what it once was. Football has moved forward and he hasn’t moved with it
I think we all know we should have won the league this season just gone but we didn’t because Wenger didn’t invest in the squad last Summer, injuries kicked in like night follows day, players got over played because we didn’t have the depth in the squad, players lost form, more players got injured, tactics went out of the window, etc. etc. This is what Gazidis and co need to challenge Wenger on. His stubborness to take the opprtunity. Interesting to see now what he thinks of the squad going into next season. Last season he was happy with it… Read more »
Wait, what happens if Leicester didn’t have a freak season???
Kroenke, Gazidis, Wenger on the right path? More like the road to nowhere.
Just finished Ancelotti’s book. For success, you need not just good players and a good manager but an owner/board hungry for success (not Roman Abramovitch style interfering) on the field, not just financials.
I doubt Kroenke could name a single one of our players and thinks a corner is something he goes round in one of his fleet of Porsches.