Perhaps the Arsenal board deserves some respect?
Keep calm. We are Arsenal by Richard Hall
Yesterdays AGM meeting has, according much of the press, left a bitter taste in the mouths of fans and share holders alike. A lack of clarity, a lack of vision, a failure to answer the questions that apparently so many of the fans need answering, are all accusations that have been thrown about so far. The shareholders must ask themselves however, what did Kroenke, Wenger or Hill Wood actually say that was wrong?
Being accused of not saying enough is possibly true, but what did shareholders like Stanley Slater expect? He claimed there was a lack of respect? But why? Is this because the questions had to be submitted before hand? It was hardly censorship? Did any get rejected? The shareholders wanted answers that are not there yet, and then were disappointed when they did not hear a “magical” solution.
Firstly they wanted to hear the man dubbed ‘Silent Stan’ speak and they got this. Albeit for two and half minutes but the what did they expect? The American who is not known for public speaking was never going take on a Mussolini style speech, slamming his fists on the table, promising endless amounts of money along with seven of Europe’s highest paid players. Instead he spoke of his pride of being with a club with these traditions and how he thinks it is a good business model and that he has the right team. The key point was that he said he will be around for a long time. This small speech screamed stability which in the modern day is a minor miracle in itself. Lets not forget this is an extremely successful businessman with fantastic track record, he will not be planning on letting Arsenal slip into the abyss.
‘A lack of respect’ was the earlier line used by the shareholders when talking of this meeting, however, where was the respect when Peter Hill-Wood was faced with a question that almost asked him to step down instead of David Dein?
Arsene Wenger has always conducted himself in the manner of a man that means business as he acknowledged not only that, he could see fear in the faces of the share holders about the direction of the club but also the part he has played. He admitted that he had made errors in the previous season by expecting that his young team could win everything. He did however, point out that Fabregas and Robin Van Persie had only played 24 games between them, and left the thought in the mind of what might have been.
The fact of the matter is that Wenger admitted that Arsenal can not compete financially with clubs such as Manchester City and Chelsea, but this does not mean that they do not want success. Quite simply Arsenal are living within their means so that the future of the club can be to compete at the highest level whilst waiting for the financial fair play scheme to level the playing fields a little.
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Can plZ someone explain me what actually financial fair Play is???plzzz I m waiting for answers..
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what a one sided prejudiced piece of shit…
Opinions divided. What do you think?
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As an ex (small) shareholder who had to sell out recently to Kroenke I can tell you the AGMs were always carefully managed so as to stick to the mere bromide. And you DID have to pre submit questions before they would be accepted for open forum. That is NOT how an AGM should be.
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Hi,
I’m not so sure the board deserve much respect for our recent success, the credit for that all goes to Wenger, the training staff and the team. The board can be thanked for the huge profits and lack of meaningful transfer activity but that debate is for another day. Things are on the up gooners, it’s time for the doubters to swallow their pride and enjoy the fortunes.
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
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The Board, IMO, deserves no respect until it invites a shareholder owning nearly 30% of its shares, to become a member.
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@ zainkiani
Don’t even bother about what financial fair play is mate. it is so ambiguous. can you imagine barca, real, man city, united etc etc being left out of CL because of their finances? even AW finally admitted it:
From the official arsenal website. AW on FFP:
“I am less optimistic about it coming in than I was a year ago,” he said. “And when it comes in, it depends on with what kind of rules.
“I am not sure that UEFA has completely worked out all the rules that will make it work.
“UEFA has been challenged by the Sion case when they excluded them [from the Europa League for fielding ineligible players] and it looks like they are scared they could be challenged by the big clubs if they bring in [FFP] by force.
“So I am not sure they will be capable of imposing it.
“I am hoping they are because I am a big fan of it but I am less convinced than a year ago.”
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
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One thing about Respecting the Board;
GET USMANOV IN!!!!
Respect the board,Please!!! & those AKBs can go suck a fat one for all i care.We had over £80 Million + Money received from selling Cesc & Nasri & time to get replacements for them,but still we had to Panic Buy on Transfer Deadline day!!!
Opinions divided. What do you think?
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Chelsea is the best example of when heavy spending DOESN’T give you lasting success, but to condemn them to be compulsive overspenders in order to keep up with the latest big spender. Despite Chelsea’s annual splurge, it now has a core which has passed it’s prime. Soon Terry, Lampard, Drogba, Anelka must be replaced if they want to keep up at the top and Roman knows he is no longer the one with the deepest pockets so his strategy does not work now with Citeh leading the money game. Eventually all owners will realise that overspending only buys you temporary advantage and is not sustainable. Yes Arsenal sold key players over the years but to the detriment of the overspenders like Chelsea, they still can’t shake Arsenal off! Roman finally realizes that he is stuck in a corner, can’t beat copy cat money spending Citeh, and does not have the brains to beat Arsenal at it’s game plan! Chelsea model is doomed and so will Citeh’s eventually also be!
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
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WE SHOULD BE TALKING ABOUT THE WIN TODAY INSTEAD OF SOMETHING ELSE….WELLDONE GUNNERS!!!!!
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I find it quite amusing that people who don’t run multiple-million pound organisations have opinions on how AFC should be run. It’s like asking a third grader: how do you trade stocks on the share market? It would be utterly ridiculous to assume that the general public understand any of the complexities of running a club like AFC! The funny thing is – not a single person (board member, manager, shareholder) of ANY team in the EPL has ANYTHING bad to say about how AFC is conducting it business. Why? Because the people that know and understand the business of football (not your average punter who as I have mentioned above – know diddly-squat of how to run a football club of Arsenal’s stature) know that Arsenal is doing very well in it’s financial position.
Yes – shareholders want return on their investment. But anyone in business understands at least these 2 things: keep your affairs in order – don’t don’t spend money you ain’t got, or cannot pay back, and don’t think only about tomorrow, but make sound plans to be around to make money today, tomorrow, and the day/s, weeks, months etc, ahead. Surely if money is the motivator for the largest shareholders (and for arguments sake, let’s assume it is), they would be most interested in the long term success of AFC! Because in a solid strong business model – there is where the big bucks are! Apple, windows, google, hsbc … Or whatever other mega company you can name, make big money by remaining (year in, year out) financially smart. I get the impression this is what is happening behind the scenes at AFC.
Furthermore, we supposedly have £120 million in “working capital” set aside for AW to spend if he chides to do so. (I read it in an article about 2 months ago). I just think there is more to a picture than most people are aware of, and when we start winning titles and trophies – and I do genuinely believe we will – everyone will boast of how we did it … With smart business also.
Anyway, that’s my two cents worth.
Gunner forever (irrespective of who is the major shareholder, who the board is etc)
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
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Younger Hamii
We beat a team today who spend relentlessly on players, if you haven’t learnt from today that spending doesn’t guarantee yousuccess, you never will.
PS, who said Wenger didn’t want to spend, I thought it was the board being tight to balance the books
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Nope, but credit should be given to manure for waking all the greedy board up from their sleep on those expensive water bed! Go gunners!
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i dont give a damn respect on u trio boardie…hill wood,gazidis n kroenky! i keep mentioning this is all their fault..not wengie..wengie that help the teams till now bt he dd nt hv the same suporr from the board like him and dein use to cmbine with..dein cn bring sumthng special too..this trio is a manshitu fans n myb othr team..yea admit it they jst wnt the profit for them..thats why kroenky happy to bcame the major shareholder..cus he cn tkes advntages of it..to buy his cars..fix his hair..he wudnt even wana spend over 20milion..we sure cn win evrythng..dpends on player mentality..jst read hw magical dein is to the club..he is wndrful..he cn mkes changes..
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The pride of london!
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@KickuPthearsene
dude..bt with dein we hv sucess n trophy n our financial position is the same..with current board in business they r pro bt their ambition for arsenal to win trophy this season r past 6 season is nothing..yea we do leve fact that its current financial of our team is good..yea for tomorow n future..bt just to maintain that 100 years streak without trophy..bt succes in busines??we dnt mind we gt huge profit..we loves the fact that our club is healthy on that..bt wengie need the suport from the board too..wana keep buying over 10 milion..then developed player n sold them..is that their ambition?yea thats good..the profit from the player arsenal bought for 5 milion n dvelop to a superstar 30+ million.. we jst wnt to see their ambition in wining those 4 cup..atleast one of them..balance the book for the future..bt dd nt balance it with sucess on the pitch..they promys to spend..bt yet left it ol late after being thrash by manu..wat if we won that day?those 5 late transfer wud nt even come.. it is nt bout the profit only..we do satisfy bout that..
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Arsenal board dont deserve respect, Arsene Wenger, the players and the true fans are the ones that deserve respect. Hell i even have respect for Adam kemp, who does my head in every now and than but the board is messed up, they know something that the fans dont, and it is as if though theres some kind of a conspiracy going on, wheather thats the case or not i dont know, but it sure does feel like like that
I have to say though yesterdays match was emotional, its good to be feeling good as a gunner, its been so frustrating over the last few months, but yesterday in a long time i felt good, happy, even cocky with a few friends. If i feel like that and im sure a lot of you do as well, than think how Mr Wenger and the boys feel? the celebration said it all.
It was sweeeeeeeet beating Chelsea
God bless Arsenal
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I believe in AW, especially after the 5-3 win, but the Board WTF!. do something, RVP is the best striker in the world right now if u ask me, give him a contract and 200,000+ a week so he doent leave, thats when we’ll be convinced that we in a strong financial position.
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i believe in Arsene, he is a top top manager, but i believe his spending policy has been very much influenced by the Board. The problem is that the board seems to be very unwilling to change, and seems only interested in the club’s finances. It is a disgrace that Usmanov is not allowed on the board despite owning 29% of the club, he at least deserves some outlet to express his views. I also feel the club could do more in terms of deviating from the wage structure in order to keep/attract top talent, we could have signed Sneijder or Kaka had the board signed off wages in the 150,000 range. imo get rid of Hill-Wood and bring back David Dein and we will have a more proactive board when it comes to bolstering the squad.
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get rid hill wood n gazidis that is.. is it true that RVP is opening contract talk with arsenal? that is good news for the club..
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Hi guys, In regards to showing the board some respect can be viewed in 2 different options, firstly as loyal arsenal fans and secondly as businessmen and share holders of arsenal. Its very clear to everyone football fan in the country that Arsenal FC are the only Club in the Premier League that is run like a business and turns over profit every year and that because of wage and spending restrictions like not paying any players over 100k a week and not breaking the bank to buy players like Hazard or goetze who I’m sure we could of got but for around 40 million pound, which we had in the bank due to selling our key players fabs and nasri. The truth is our board are the guys who have put limits on our wage and spending structure, if we had the same guys that man city have got now or roman ambrovich then we would not be in this position struggling for a top 4 finish and we would be right up there with utd and city fighting for the title. I’m just praying at the moment stan kroenke will take our club to a different level, we have the stadium, we have a world class manager and we have a quality bunch of players and we just need a few guys like hazard or wesley snieder and we would be challenging for everything.
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My problem with Kronke is that he sees Arsenal purely as business from which he can make a profit. What has he added to our club since he has been on the board? Nothing as far as I can tell. At least with the likes of Fiszman and Dein you had genuine fans who only had the clubs best interest at heart. First and foremost they wanted the club to win and be the best. Kronke invests nothing in the team doesn’t watch games and is only interested in what he can get from the club not what he can contribute to it. Personally that’s not what I want from an owner, I want someone in love with football who cares as much about seeing the team win as I do not a well dressed parasite.
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Well said Arsenal1982.With these restriction of wage and spending limit we still can compete to no.4.Imagine if the restriction is lifted,I am sure we will compete for the title all the time Wenger do knows what to do to be invincibles,he only need financial support!Even when he didn’t get that he never complain and keep working(not like Mourinho),what a great manager we have.Wait till he gets the money and he will show us sexy and winning( no.1 footballstyle in the world.)
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J.Lo –
My point is – what if there are other factors at play? It would be an interesting question to ask: how much of the profits is actually being taken by the shareholders? ( I suspect non, or very little). This is because we are paying our debts off, keeping a clean financial sheet (unlike out defenders … Sorry bad, bad pun), and re-investing. Also, not buying stupidly. Does anyone else out there think £50mil for Torres, or £35mil for Carroll was a good buy! Nuff said. We buy smart. The only player that deserve a good deal at the moment for our club is RVP. He is prob one of the top 5 strikers in the world at the moment.
I just think we need to use our brain a little, and not just follow the crowd by saying “the board is greedy”. I just don’t think people behind the scenes have other motives. I think the goalie the same – make our club successful. It’s just they think that this particular strategy will get us there. And maybe, just maybe they know a little more about how to get us there than the rest of us.
Face it – Kronke owns some very successful clubs in the US. Maybe he knows more about how to succeed than the fans give him credit for.
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Must say that I dont usually agree with you but you spoke a lot of sense here.
Nice article. I Agree with everything written.
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My only problem is very simple.WHY HAS EVERYBODY IN DS DAYS BOUGHT INTO DS CRAP OF ’4th PLACE FINISH IN DE EPL BEING A SUCCESS FORS ARSENAL’! I simply dont get it,1st it was brain-washn frm de board and now almost all fans(including evn those wth good intentions) hv subconsciously started 2 accept it!Incredible!Has it occured 2 fans and ppl who support ds Board dat ds lowering of our standard of expectation cld be a ploy 2 keep dem frm spndn??Afterall if u dont need to win de Epl or CL wat is de use in spndn or buyn marquee signings rt?While at de same time thier profits will remain status quo….at least for a longwhile!A Big club like ARSENAL DESERVES MORE DAN 4th PLACE FINISH SUCCESS!!..4th Place Finish Success my ass! [GFL]
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