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AGM: Angst, Grumbles and Moaning

1,158 comments October 26th, 2012

Before you read this piece, I highly recommend the excellent write-up of the AGM by Hayley Wright for Arseblog News.  It gives you all the relevant detail on the piece, and makes sense of everything that follows this.

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We’ll never know now, but if Arsenal had gone in to this AGM on the back of two victories rather than two defeats, I suspect it would have been a rather different affair.  Not in terms of content: many of the points raised by the shareholders yesterday would remain valid.  I can’t help but feel, however, that the tone would have been rather different.  Reports of yesterday’s meeting sound more like a stroppy teenager questioning a belligerent parent than any kind of constructive debate.

In the rather catty dialogue, both parties are at fault.  The heckling and jeering from the supporters who were present simply does not help.  Nor does the patronising and dismissive tone employed by chairman Peter Hill-Wood.  By the end of yesterday’s events things seem to have taken on a pantomimic tone, and the result is a plethora of headlines about “revolt” and “restless natives”.

I think it is possible to ask probe and even pressurise, to drive at the heart of the matter, and ask the questions that sorely need to be asked without resorting to the bitter register adopted yesterday.  I think that a man standing up and asking how he is supposed to explain to his ten-year old son that Robin van Persie has left is adopting emotive language that adds little to the debate.  His ten year old son will cope.  There are plenty of men entering their forties now who survived Liam Brady’s departure for Juventus, and most of them seem to have escaped any lasting damage.

Whilst I don’t doubt that some of the fans present at the AGM are experts in football finance, I do feel that the majority of our fanbase seem very quick to forge opinions on the economic policy of our club without the necessary expertise to undertake such a role.  I would refer such fans to the Q&A with Tom Fox and Mark Gonella, our Head of Marketing and Head of Communications respectively.  From my unashamedly ill-informed perspective, this new team do seem to know what they’re doing.  Granted, their appointments could have come sooner, but it’s better late than never, and news of a forthcoming £25m kit deal with Adidas is evidence of the work they’re undertaking.

I have to say that as a rule I’m far more interested in events on the field of play.  It’s when economic matters impact upon our performance on the pitch that my interest is piqued.

In general, I’m a fan of the “self-sufficient model”.  It is not just admirable – if FFP does come in to play, it will swiftly become necessary.  However, I do understand some fans’ concerns that our penny-pinching is leading to stagnation.  The question has to be asked: Self-sufficiency is all very well, but what exactly are we sustaining?  A competitive team?  Not really.  The status of the club?  Barely.  We’re sustaining a very functional, very well run business.  We won’t be going under any time soon; everyone gets paid on time; debt is minimal.  But all the while we tick over, trophyless in fourth spot, our stock falls just a little.  Talismanic players continue to leave, and we’re perceived as a feeder club to Europe’s giants.

Arsene, of course, would argue that we’re not truly ‘trophyless’.  In an intriguing speech, he said:

“For me, there are five trophies – the first is to win the Premier League, the second is to win the Champions League, the third is to qualify for the Champions League, the fourth is to win the FA Cup and the fifth is to win the League Cup.

I say that because if you want to attract the best players, they do not ask: ‘did you win the League Cup?’, they ask you: ‘do you play in the Champions League?

I say that as well, because recently we had a meeting in Geneva about when a manager is in some situations, what does he do? For example, a guy came out with a problem. He said ‘I played the semi-final of the Europa League at home and three days later, I played the decisive game in the championship to qualify for the Champions League.

And I was thinking ‘what do I do?’ Do I go for the semi-final of the Europa League? Or do I go for the qualifier in the Champions League?’ And the whole meeting was about that decision.

What came out as a 90 per cent conclusion, is that all the managers said ‘if you take care of you, you go for the semi-final of the Europa League. If you take care of the club, you go for the Champions League position.’ And that’s what we do, always.”

It’s an interesting debate – one that’s almost too big to open within this blog.  In Arsene’s defence, I’ll say this: every so often, such as in the light of Wednesday’s defeat to Schalke, I’ll hear fans saying: “Maybe it’d be better if we didn’t qualify for the Champions League one year.  That’s shake things up at last; show the board.”

Let me tell you now: no good would come of such a thing.  Would you rather win the League Cup and miss out on the top four?  Really?  I’ll give you one last chance to rethink that before I hit you with this: that’s what Liverpool did last year.  It got Kenny Dalglish sacked.  It meant the players they bought in the summer were from clubs like Swansea and Heerenveen.  They missed out on a player from Fulham – to Spurs, of all people.  They currently sit 12th in the table.  It is not a recipe for success.

Top players want to play in the Champions League.  And we need to top players in order to win a trophy.  The problem we currently have is that there are three sides in Britain who are comfortably better than us.  No Arsenal player in his right mind would move to another club other than that Chelsea, United and City.  From this position, we need to move up once more in to those echelons, not down to join the Liverpools of this world.  I think we’re one disastrous season away from that happening, and it doesn’t bear thinking about.

To move up, of course, requires investment.  I still believe we have the right manager.  I still, just about, believe we have the right board.  But whichever of those two entities truly holds the purse strings (and my firm belief remains that the reluctance to spend comes primarily from Arsene) needs to loosen up a bit.  Cazorla and Podolski show you don’t have to spend crazy money to get quality players.

If the AGM had been a month or so ago, it might have been a very self-satisfied affair.  The new signings looked inspired, we were defensively solid, and being talked about as genuine contenders.  That AGM would have been misleading: it would have overlooked some of the crucial issues that it was essential to raise yesterday.  But by the same token, a couple of bad results shouldn’t cast an ugly light across the entire club.  Arsenal don’t need saving: they just need to get a bit better.  Starting tomorrow.

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Pssssst.  I found a few (a very few) of these in a cupboard.  Half a dozen, to be precise.  If you missed out on them last time, grab yours quickly.  But don’t talk too loudly about it.  We wouldn’t want to jinx anything.

Friday round-up: Injury news, Director of Football & more

42 comments September 23rd, 2011

It’s another one of those ‘big week for Arsenal’ weeks.  For the first time since the defeat to Liverpool, we have two home games in a row, and a chance to generate some crucial momentum before traveling to White Hart Lane for a match that will have a great impact not just upon North London pride, but also on the battle for fourth place.

First up, it’s Bolton.  After the trip to Blackburn, it’s another one of our supposed bogey teams.  And, just as Blackburn were prior to our visit, they’re a side widely purported to be in a bigger crisis than even ourselves.  I’m sure a few pundits will have a good old chuckle about this being a “relegation six-pointer”.  The truth is that both teams are in need of the points, but for very different reasons.

Bolton’s ambitions won’t reach higher than mid-table.  For Arsenal, beating the Trotters, Olympiakos in midweek, and then Spurs on Sunday would do much to put our disastrously rocky season back on an even keel, and see us push on back towards Champions League qualification.

Early team news is that we’ve lost Yossi Benayoun and Johan Djourou to slight strains picked up in Carling Cup action.  Both should be out for around a week.  Bacary Sagna has recovered from the knock picked up at Blackburn, whilst Aaron Ramsey has suffered no repercussions from his return and is fit to start.  Arsene also expects Thomas Vermaelen and Abou Diaby to be fit for our next game after Spurs – Sunderland, on October 16th.  There is no news yet on Jack Wilshere – no assessment can be made until he comes out of the plastic boot in a couple of weeks’ time.

The absence of Benayoun means there’s a chance Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain could earn a place on the bench tomorrow.  You can read an in-depth Q&A with him on Arsenal.com, in which he talks about his desire to push on and play in the more prestigious competitions:

“If you don’t aspire to achieve these things then you are not going to go anywhere. Whenever I get the call, I will be delighted with it. You have got to push to become part of the squad more regularly and that only comes with hard work and impressing when you get the chance.”

He certainly did that on Tuesday night, and would be well deserving of a place in the matchday squad if Arsene felt there was room.  Time will tell.  We have a big squad at the moment, so it’s far from guaranteed.

Finally today, Peter Hill-Wood has surprised no-one by insisting that Arsenal will not be bringing in a Director of Football.  Given Arsene’s irritated response at his last press conference, we won’t be hiring a new defensive coach either.  If we’re to turn it around, it will be with the current set of staff.  A set of staff, let’s remember, who’ve brought us fantastic success in the past.

Roll on tomorrow.  Another game, another leaf to turn, and another chance to get it right.

Hill-Wood reveals Cesc talks and Jagielka bid

44 comments July 29th, 2011

It is one of Premier League football’s great mysteries.  Why does Peter Hill-Wood, chairman of one of the clubs who demonstrates the most caution in commenting on transfer speculation, choose to let fly with his occasional volleys in, of all papers, The Daily Star?

Is it the paper that arrives on his front porch every morning?  Does he have a close friend on the sports desk?  Do they have photographs of him doing unspeakable things with Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith and a horse?

Alas, we’ll probably never know.  But thanks to his comments in this morning’s edition, we do know an awful lot more about the transfer situation at Arsenal, particularly as regards Cesc Fabregas.  Hill-Wood said of Barca’s interest:

“They have been messing about for a year and a half now and they have got to make up their minds.

The ball is in their court. They have made one bid of around £26m and another rather tentative one.

If they want to buy the player they are going to have to pay the right price – and when you look at what is being paid elsewhere I don’t think what we are asking is at all unreasonable.”

Asked whether the time was approaching we would call off talks, he added: “We are getting close to that.”

It confirms a few things: first of all, that there has indeed been a second bid from Barcelona, which has also fallen short of our asking price.  It’s also the closest the club have come to officially confirming a willingness to sell the captain.  All summer long, Arsene has insisted he doesn’t want to lose his captain. But here, Hill-Wood is conceding that if Barcelona come up with the money he’ll be off.  The allusion to an “unreasonable” fee suggests that the £40m mark often referenced in the press is probably about right.

He’s clearly irritated by Barca’s dallying, and I would suggest that this public declaration of Arsenal’s frustration is calculated move to flush our their interest once and for all.  The player, the club and the fans are clearly all feeling the strain of this situation, and resolution – one way or the other – is essential.

He also spoke about the possibility of bringing in some new faces, saying:

“We are trying to buy a few players but it isn’t going to happen overnight.”

The suggestion we’re after “a few” players lends credibility to stories claiming that we’re attempting a double swoop for Juan Mata and Phil Jagielka, with Hill-Wood going as far as to confirm a bid for the latter has already been rejected:

“We have made a bid for him but they didn’t think it was enough.”

Whether or not that bid will be raised this week, as widely reported, remains to be seen.

The Chairman can occasionally make comments that appear a little ill-judged, but in this instance I think fans should be universally delighted to finally hear a bit of straight talking from the club.  I understand why Arsene and Gazidis are often so reticent to comment, and I respect that, but it does feel good to hear from the board just what is really going on, rather than having to rely on what is often guesswork in the national press.  Here, the chairman has both reassured supporters that efforts are being made to reinforce the squad, as well as very publicly challenging Barcelona to make the bid they’ve been threatening to make for almost two years now.  Good on him.

Finally, rumours of Nicklas Bendtner’s imminent departure to Sporting Lisbon could be a little premature – apparently their President said last night that his wage demands could be beyond their means.  It seems that although Arsenal are keen to move on a few members of the squad, finding clubs able to take on their salaries is proving more difficult.

If you enjoyed those quotes from Peter Hill-Wood, their might be more on the way today as Arsene gives a pre-Emirates Cup interview to Arsenal.com.  After a very quiet week, the club do seem to be saying and doing the right things.

No need to panic.  Yet.