Arsenal annual general meeting

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/41760850

Main points taken from the meeting:

• Arsene Wenger has confirmed that the Arsenal board will review his position as manager at the end of the season.
  
• The Arsenal Supporters' Trust had issued a letter on the eve of the meeting urging small shareholders to vote against the re-elections of chairman Sir Chips Keswick and Josh Kroenke - the son of owner Stan - to the Arsenal board.
  
• A vote was held, but with 97% of the proxy votes, held by majority shareholders Stan Kroenke and Alisher Usmanov, in favour of both re-appointments, the rebellion was quickly quashed.
  
• Keswick defended a £2.6m pay-out to Gazidis after shareholders questioned why his payment remained the same despite a poor season on the pitch. "Ivan is doing a fantastic and first-class job leading the development of this club across every aspect of its operations," the 77-year-old said.
  
• Gazidis answered a series of questions about Arsenal's on-field performance, claiming that "according to objective metrics - points versus transfer expenditure - no club has over-performed as much as Arsenal".

The highlight of the meeting was "according to objective metrics - points versus transfer expenditure - no club has over-performed as much as Arsenal". Then we wonder why fans are becoming more disfranchised, lacking passion and driven by success first. This statement alone proves why Arsenal has become a business first and football club second.

 

Our board sure do know exactly how to sound completely inept and out of touch.

 

Tottenham spend less than us and have a better team, not sure what these metrics he's looking at are

 

They sounded like ****s

 

Probably trophies. That is what the supporters said they wanted the club judged by. Of course back then they didn't realize that 3 Trophies in 4 years would be 3 FA cups and nothing else.

I guess there is a lesson there about being specific when you state your requirements!

 

Whats the point in things like this. The board don't change anything and they don't listen to the fans.

 

As a CEO it’s the type of language he uses. But It comes across as being totally devoid of any understanding about what makes the fans happy.

On a technical point. I’d still challenge it too. He’s saying that compared to our spend, we have the most points ? That can’t be true ?

 

according to objective metrics - points versus transfer expenditure - no club has over-performed as much as Arsenal"

Do you reckon we start a song with this ?

 

It all depends on how it's measured. You can make numbers tell you anything.

 

Exactly. If it’s over the last two decades, then yes we probably do have one of the best spend to points ratios.

But fans want to know what the club are going to do to address the current situation, where we are spending big (not Chelsea or City big) and struggling to maintain top 4

 

The whole thing looked to be a shambles but the question on diversity at board level was embarrassing. He treated the lady asking the questions like sh*t.

 

I'm the operator of the objective metrics calculator

By pressing down a special key,
I top the over-performing league.

< Hutter / Schneider / RDBD >

 

And when you do manage to get hold of the
"objective metrics" calculation method(s) ,
please ping me as I would like to run it on
the data for Spurs.

 

What a blow to the fans. The board gave off the exact essence they love to - we don't give a f*** about the fans think and we make whatever decisions we want.

When is someone going to realize they need to bridge the gap between board and fan base not widen it.

It was literally business as usual.

Only thing we found out is wenger still has support from a lot of fans. I'm sure that's what we needed...

 

I don't think many fans would have realised it would come to this. All the promises and expectations have fallen flat. We've become the one thing a football club shouldn't, a business. It's soul destroying thinking about what we used to be and what we have become.

 

I've been saying it for a while now - the board needs a shake up. We need more football people, better negotiators and an owner who actually gives a ****. This year instead of Wenger Out banners I hope we see Kroenke Out banners if people want to protest against someone.

 

Chips Keswick and Gazidis didn't exactly cover themselves in glory in that Q&A either.

 

Also, I'm very surprised that Usmanov voted in favor of having Josh Kroenke and Chips Keswick re-elected. Given how vocal he has been about wanting to take over and has previously criticised the current structure of the club, that was a little confusing.

 

Maybe he is trying to get the hierarchy onside so they finally give him a seat on the board and he can start to influence things at the club?

 

I saw a video clip of the Chips Keswick Q&A which was embarrassing. He is a patronising **** stain of a man and totally belittled the shareholders. Dismissing their questions and telling them to go and read the Daily Telegraph if they want to know the views of majority shareholders, after again Stan Kronke refused to address the audience.

Kewick is also a merchant banker who sits on the board of corporate donations to the Tory party. That makes him an even bigger **** in my opinion. How have we got to the stage where this board are so far removed from the fans and treat them with contempt ? I know they've always been businessmen with other financial and political interests, but at least with Danny Fizman, Ken Friar and David Dein, they were actually Arsenal fans who were passionate about the club.