Arsenal Chief Executive Ivan Gazidis has claimed that the club showed ambition by keeping Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil.
The pair are into the final 12 months of their contracts, and look likely to run those deals down and leave by start of the 2018-19 season, but Gazidis is claiming that the club have shown ambition by keeping the pair.
“It was a clear statement of our ambitions and should help refute suggestions we are just about the money.” he said.
“That is simply nonsense.
“At the end of the window, reviewing all activity, we have once again improved the quality and depth of our squad.”
I’m not sure how bringing in two new players, and letting 12 leave the club brings ‘depth’ to our squad, and I’m not even sure that I can agree that keeping Ozil and Sanchez shows ambition…
Alexis showed his true character in the loss to Liverpool in my opinion, and Mesut Ozil has got way too comfortable with his first-team role, leaving us with two top players, who are not performing as desired.
Showing ambition would have been to bring in a top quality replacement, and showing that the club is bigger than Alexis Sanchez especially. The Chilean has made his intentions clear, and we should have stumped up the money much earlier to persuade Lemar to join, but instead we left it too late.
We finished down in fifth place last season, and as if that wasn’t enough to force the club to invest seriously, we also started the new season with two losses from three.
Despite these facts, we bought only one player, while signing Kolasinac on a free transfer also. Our rivals have all spend lavishly, while our club made a profit…
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s exit may have been good business, obtaining £40 Million for a player with only year remaining on his contract, but that money had to be reinvested. He has played a first-team role in each of our four competitive matches this term, and has been a rare fresh of breath air in the past 12 months, and now he has gone without being replaced.
Our club has gone backwards regardless of what Gazidis claims, and the wool won’t be pulled over my eyes.
Does Ivan seriously believe we made improvements overall this window? Does this only highlight how much of a problem the board are becoming?
Pat J
Keeping the current stars without fixing the problems is not an ambition. This guy and the other executives must be replaced, because they cannot improve Arsenal, just sucking Arsenal’s blood every month.
did you guys see what stan said? he said our goal is to be like leicster city.. hahahaha why the hell did we leave highbury then?? LOL A club like arsenal hahaha! Guys listen. There are always good managers and bad managers. They can change. Look at pardew, he gave newcastle an amazing season before he became a wenger. But nothing can be done if the owners don’t back the manager. Its a known fact arsene wanted lemar. Board told him to get rid of players.. Board also said they would approve alexis and ozil contracts only if the wage bill was trimmed. This isn’t arsenes fault completely. You guys need to grow a pair and get kroenke out. Those of you who get behind the team aren’t arsenal fans but you are kroenke fans as well. Screw the team! They are players, they get their 100k a week regardless! and if they get more elsewhere they will be off! A club is built by the fans and the owners. Right now the fans and the owners seem to be supporting the club.. Do something. Otherwise you could see arsenal turn into everton this year, followed by becoming like stoke. A stable 7-15th place finishing club.. With a couple of shaqiris to give “fans” a couple of happy moments. Its all in the hands of the london gunners. Buy out billboards and put kroenke out posters. Paint the city with kroenke out banners. Invade the pitch every now and then and disrupt play. Show your might and save your club from kroenke!
Kroenke basically said “F-off. You can only expect a fluke title push like leicster from arsenal. My goal is to just run a highly profitable epl franchise so stfu and get off my case.”
And you guys want to “support the club no matter what” there just isn’t any other word for you other than “fanatics” literally. You don’t know any better.
Stanatics is another word;)
Exactly haha. All stanatics. Anyway over time as we slowly become stoke city type team because of these “fans” then I could support arsenal generally because I like them and they are my chosen club. And then I can support a genuinely ambitious team for the title challenge and UCL.. you know.. Then finally we can enjoy football. Liverpool is a peoples club. I’m currently supporting them in the title push and the UCL.. They have a good manager and they hate Utd.. That would make me a better fan the ones who support Kroenke no matter what..
And Kroenke is responsible for who Wenger selects for games……tactics and formation……if Wenger’s job is being interfered with…..then he should resign……….Wenger…….Kroenke …..are the problem at Arsenal…………they want to be like Monaco………..buy young………and sell when they reach their potential…………except they have competition now…….and they don’t want to spend the money…….we are doomed….
Brilliant idea! Invade the pitch, get thrown out of the ground, and pick up a stadium ban, absolutely bloody fantastic.
Why the thumbs down, that’s what happens.
I can only assume the thumbs down are from people who’ve never been to The Emirates Stadium, or any other English ground for that matter.
They thumb you down as they are to stupid to realise that what you say is the truth- they have probably never even been to an Arsenal game!
We invade that pitch and that’s a life ban- no more ever getting to go to Arsenal again. If they think I am willing to lose my season ticket after supporting Arsenal in far leaner times from the 70’s and onwards they are deluded.
If the red arrowers want to make this so called noble (I call it fruitless) gesture then please feel free!
Might be best they just suck it up instead though or if that disgruntled go support someone else.
Pitch invasion not necessary.
Protests will do.
Will leave you guys to judge everyone else whilst you do absolutely bugger all.
Not really – I am not willing to lose my season ticket and to be honest there are many teams out there that have not won anything for years and years and still support their team with passion every game. It’s seems some of the prawn sandwhich brigade at the Emirates have had enough though and throwing their dummies out of the pram.
Perhaps it would be good if some of these so called fans actually cheered and shouted in a game as well, you know- cheer their team on…as for the most part they sit their and don’t make a squeak.
Are things the best they have ever been at Arsenal? ….no…..but they certainly aren’t the worst! Plenty of other teams out there that have won nothing at all – similar ticket prices, you don’t hear them moaning.
Stop looking down at the also rans try to lift your head up and look at the winners and aspire to be that. Arsenal used to be a winner now we are happy being just like the other 15 or so teams that have no chance of winning. Is that what you are talking about?
Someone was obviously trying to sneak Sanchez out the door on deadline day, another held the move to ransom by insisting on having a replacement ready before giving his blessing to the move… Figure out for yourself which is likely to be Wenger and which is Gazidis. Wenger did not sanction Perez to Arsenal hence why he was inexplicably left to rot on the bench as a show of defiance, and Gazidis not to be outdone points to Mustafi as an expensive flop and was going to flog him off to Inter in retaliation to Wenger not wanting to eat his vegetables. These guys are charlatans capable of turning an exotic museum into a brothel just to make an extra buck, they already have upmarket “massage parlors” on the the museum top floor, Wenger is that long serving curator who has to play a balancing act to keep the charlatan owners happy hence they kick him to the kerb and turn the whole place to a full on brothel. We are the lifelong members of the museum who want the curator gone because the works of famous artists are being auctioned off without replacement and in case you were going to talk Wenger’s tactical ineptitude, genius and art loathes a dispirited atmosphere, when the hierarchy functioned well, he went the whole season unbeaten.
Arsenal needed to freshen the squad up and Wenger blew it. With all the drama last season Wenger should have asked the players, “Do you want to play for Arsenal next season?” All the players that said no, sell. All the players with one year on their contract and not signing new ones, sell. All the players he thought weren’t good enough, sell or release.
There were enough good players in that transfer window to improve the squad and Wenger failed.
wenger didn’t blow up shit. He wanted certain players. But the board wouldn’t approve unless wage bill was trimmed. I know this from my friend/source. Get kroenke out first. But you fans like kroenke and thats why you sing songs of praises. No worries. You support arsenal football club. Not the owners. Next time just make sure the money goes to arsenal football club and not into the fudning of the LA rams and Kroenkes ranch alright…
Wage bill had to be trimmed due to League regulations. Who bought all the deadwood – Wenger. Who gave them high contracts so that they cant be sold – Wenger
Who let Ox,Ozil and Sanchez enter their last years of contract – Wenger.
So you and your source can go…. yourselves
We are unable to attract top talent to the club these days. I’m curious in understanding how Gazidis think that it is ambition to keep one player who’s head and heart is not here anymore and another player who is so inconsistent like Zimbabwes electricity supply (flobt), just to lose them for free next summer. Maybe they looking at cashing in, in January, cause we know there are not lots of player movement then. So it will be good excuse to tell us there where no players available. Another £80m profit sends SAG smiling to the bank.
or rather SWAG Bob?
Wish they would pack
their swag and go
I think you are just one sad fan who cannot think beyond what is fed to him by the media. If the club wanted to cash in on the players, the just ended transfer window was the best time to do so. You banked on the club selling its star players son that you would have reason to come and moan here. How you know that Alexis’ heart and head are no longer at Arsenal is anyone’s guess. Is Alexis the first player to see through his contract in world football? Didn’t Khedira did the same at Madrid? Why wasn’t that an issue?
The greatest challenge in football today is the following triad:
(1) Billionaires throwing money around like confetti;
(2) Hysterical media; and
(3) naive fans who always live for today
Well mister, if Sanchez’s heart is with arsenal he would have signed a new contract since last season, so u wanna tell us the reason why he hasn’t put pen to paper other than not wanting to be with us or laughing on the bench when we were being hammered by pool.
Alexis would have been sold if Lemar had said yes from all the reports and articles I have read, this showing ambition is BS to keep people like you fooled, if we was showing ambition then why did AFC wait till last day when the logistics was blocking the move as much as anything else?
AFC do not need the funds from Alexis if they would spend some of the savings they have generated over the many years, they can not dip into funds like that every year but this year we dropped out of UCL and needed an injection of investment…
Did Gazidis make it happen? Or did he fail like he has done so often?
I also find it ironic that you talk about naive fans while being naive yourself over AFC and how the board will sell for profit… or by the sounds of stuff with Alexis, funds withheld from spending to cover that loss. We only spent on Lacazette which was half of the reported war chest but we had no funds after season tickets was sold…
We are not asking for AFC to throw money around like confetti, we are asking the board to invest properly into AFC, there is a difference which naive fans don’t understand. We do not want to see panic buys or Wengers 8th, 9th or 10th choice bought because it was cheaper than buying his main target.
When Wenger is replaced then we will want to see the new manager get their main targets and not have to put up with players he doesn’t really want and trying to make do, not throw money around like confetti, to invest it correctly.
changing a new manager will not change how the owner and management run Arsenal…Things will still be the same…there will be a budget for everything
Not unless the new manager goes by the name Josh Kroneke
The only positive to be had from changing the manager would be (we’d hope) better tactical and player position decisions and an injection of enthusiasm. A new manager would (again, we’d hope) come in and start from a clean unbiased position regarding individual players and determine which players play, where/why/when, without the current stale and predictable pattern we see today. You want to play? Prove it! Earn it!
Of course, new upper-management and/or ownership would cause even a greater shift at the club, but saying things would be the same even if a manger change were to occur is untrue, to an extent. Yes, budgets would likely remain similar, however, changing the manager would/could be a huge change on the pitch!
To accept selling the Ox to Chelsea but not Liverpool shows that, to Wenger, finishing fourth in the league is more important than winning it. Is that ambition ?
Gazidis……..your father!!!!
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. ”
Joseph Goebbels & Ivan Gazidis
Every summer Manager, CEO
players and now even Stan say
“the goal is to win trophies”
But crucially they never categorically
place a definite time frame for this trophy haul to take place.
Secondly there are no clearly defined consequences
should this trophy haul fail to materialize.
The 9 year “promise but fail formula” is working so well
all the foundation members remain ensconced at the club.
Arsenal supporter are not dumb so I can only conclude that 90%
of Arsenal supporters are happy with Swags false hope model
because a real PL tilt is too hard for the gentry at the library.
SMH @ Gazidis
You’ve had already made a fool of yourself. This statement just makes it look like you are thick.
The guy has been selling our future for years and what we got now is largely down to him, an average CEO (being polite) is not good enough to lead AFC forward, we have fantastic support globally and Gazidis will not make the most out of it, as long as he can show profits each year to Silent Stan then he will feel like saying “A job well done”… Pfft.
I do believe if Gazidis left AFC then within 5 years we will be competing for the EPL and back to Arsenal of over a decade ago now…
An ambitious CEO would have called this transfer window a failure and wouldn’t accept it, wouldn’t accept Wenger making such stupid mistakes time and time again…
It would be easier and faster if Usmanov was AFC owner but I still believe AFC can make enough funds itself to compete IF we had a smart CEO who can do a good job.
to make enough funds to compete….Arsenal need to be a global club like Utd
Utd has enormous fan base in Asia….that alone can already fund for Mbappe and Dembele every season
which Arsenal is lacking and trying to tap on
I’m from a middle eastern country and Arsenal has a massive fan base here !
See sead got Arsenal player of the month despite only playing 1 game. Still anyone who can set up a goal for Danny Wellbeck, deserves it!
Keeping stars against their will shows weakness to me. It shows you failed to convince them that you are an attractive proposition and that they are bigger than you so your last chance is to keep them against their will.
It must mean that they believe there are better opportunities than you and that’s not good.
Now if a bench player wants to leave that is a little different. But if your best player wants to leave it can only mean a lack of belief in the club or a breakdown with the manager. Either way, you are better of letting them go.
Gazidis might think that he’s ‘Keeping the Stars’. I’m sure they’re probably thinking that they are under duress to stay. Plus, he’s hardly keeping them. Come the end of their contracts they’ll walk, (well Ozil will has he doesn’t seem to do much running), as they will be free agents and free of any contract obligations.
Gazidis is only postponing the inevitable !
Keeping our stars is a good thing, many of us including me r not happy the way we sold our stars in d past, why r we saying different thing now. The only issue is that players r still needed in d team but was not brought in.
Next home game I plan to streak onto the pitch with kroenke out on one button cheek and you’re an arse on the other!
On my nether regions I will write…..
What has happened to this beautiful club and we’ll will it end? Who will free us by buying the club and then who will run it? When will the old arsenal return coyg!!
Get it? 🙂
True ambition would have been should either by (1) actually RE-SIGNING stars rather than just “keeping them” for another year, or (2) dealing them out and bringing in quality replacements, ideally early in the window, and making much-needed additions to other lacking lacking areas.