A nostalgic look back, no wait – back to our away-winning ways with Unai Emery
Once upon a time, any action that could be likened to “taking coal to Newcastle” was the sign of a needlessly pointless activity.
That Arsenal scored two goals and, for the first time in a year, earned maximum points from two consecutive away games, can be considered anything but pointless.
That our current go-to whipping boys found themselves richly rewarded at the goal-face could really have only been bettered had the these-days-permanently-errant Hector Bellerin found himself also on the scoresheet. It never fails to amuse me when this happens, not least because it happens a lot. ‘Useless Xhaka’ and ‘Lazy Ozil’ both inconveniently on target to ruin the naysayers’ current targets of choice. Almost worth a point in itself in my mischievous book.
And of this game of two halves itself?
Well a flattish first half was quickly superseded by a super-charged second which had most observers nodding sagely on the evident efficacy of Gunner Emery’s Half-Time Talk.
That such a talk was considered necessary was perhaps the only disappointment against a poor team trying to sell itself to the highest – or indeed any – bidder. The pre-match Geordie protest, said to have centred on the club shop, brings back the less than fondly remembered recent ‘protests’ of our own but whilst our Kroenke worries (if indeed such ‘worries’ are a ‘thing’) are unlikely to get relegated any time soon, the Emery honeymoon period continues with some gusto as we hurtle towards October.
At the start of the season I suggested, with profound wisdom, that it would be 10 games before we could make any half-stab of a judgement on Unai. And, still safely stroking my chin, I stand by that, five games in, with three wins, two defeats and zero draws under his belt. Drawing any kind of conclusion, let alone matches, feels a little beyond the likes of most of us this early into the season, though I know it won’t stop some from sticking their reckless necks out.
Personally I’ve not learned all that much from the new boss’s post or pre-match ‘pressers’ but that possibly says more about me than him. I frankly don’t expect to hear that much from a man so recently appointed to a role where the previous incumbent’s mastery of the media was so evident for so long. Wisely, UE is doing his talking on the pitch, largely. Or at least in the half-time dressing room. This semi-silent approach has certain positives and negatives – the most notable being that in the absence of an actual story – or even a real sound-bite snippet – the usual media culprits won’t shy away from quite literally making stuff up that is immediately repeated as fact, throughout the online world.
I can not recall a single season since before Wenger (BW) when I have paid less attention to so called ‘news’ about Arsenal. Like taking coals to Newcastle, I can hardly think of anything more pointless than to read the half-witted ramblings of a headline desperate Daily Mirror, for example.
I note we still have many wonderful players for the new manager to call upon and Ramsey is still at the club (for now). But along with Wenger, sentiment largely left the club last Spring. Aside from the bloodbath amongst the back room staff (at least some of it hard to fathom), the heavy influx of new players and the steady stream of player exits suggests a work very much in progress. The significance of Match Day 10 will give us an idea of how long Emery is likely to continue this revolution. On current form, he may well end up on 6 wins and 4 defeats which would be enough to put us far off the pace of the league leaders, yet high enough up the league to allow further progress to be attempted, with the next transfer window becoming the next moment of truth for the post-Wenger set-up.
At the very least, as insurance, Emery needs to deliver us the Laughing At Spurs Trophy and to do that he may need to be blessed with the great good fortune of their continued collapse, as our homeless, hapless neighbours look anything but ‘grounded’ this season (feeble pun intended). In some ways, sadly, failing on this point may have been Wenger’s greatest crime in the eyes of the ‘average’ AFC fan, whoever he/she is.
Personally I suspect a fifth or sixth-place season finish is on the cards as it’s hard to imagine our Kroenke-reined-in budget (boo, hiss) will allow for much more given the expansive budgets of most of our nearest rivals (no I’m not looking at Watford, before you ask).
But a win:lose ratio of 3:2 by season’s end is unlikely to see a parting of the ways for young Emery. On the other hand, those recently joined fans who became ‘Arsenal’ on the back of Le Prof’s success and who, in the sporting world’s most richly ironic moment, became his fiercest critics, may just get bored and clear off. To leave those of us who could appreciate a good ‘1-0 to the Arsenal’ scoreline from the BW days which was as aspirational as it was factual.
As yesterday’s scoreline suggested, getting the ‘nil’ back into the AFC scoreline could prove Unai’s greatest challenge and, ironically, his ability to dig up the next Adams, Winterburn, Dixon etc, could be the key to his own longevity at the club.
And who’s going to queue up to appear on the ever-lamentable AFTV, with those kind of results? Consistent, albeit unspectacular victories are hardly going to generate the online hits of old.
Oh dear, online world, what have you done?!
Positively Arsenal 
Yaay we won!
That’s about the extent of my analysis. As you say, there’s no point drawing conclusions so early. At times I miss the swashbuckling Wengerball play that we would have had with this attack, but never mind. I trust it will all come together in time.
Mustafi’s errors did have me hoping for a ‘big hulking no nonsense CB’. So…Is Chris Samba still playing?
Goals from Xhaka and Ozil made me laugh at their critics. Of course they won’t stop because now that’s their job. In some cases, quite literally. But still, a victory and I am happy. On to the next game.
PS. I heard Nelson scored for Hoffenheim? I saw a bit of our old pal Gervinho tearing it up in Italy with newly promoted Parma. Amazing dribbling skills. He really could have been a great player for us, but just lacked a little something. Maybe like Zaha he just felt like he wasn’t allowed to play, and that affected him?
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So again an unconvincing win and people thinking that we are going forward. But I still dont see any improvement over Wenger years rather we have gone poorer in attack and reckless in defence.
Can anybody say we play better football with Alexis Giroud Ozil in the attack in 2015 than currently Auba Laca Ozil.
Or even our previous with Cazorla Rosicky Van persie Theo /Cesc Nasri Arshavin
were more attractive and exciting to watch. Though we are keeping posession but lack the cutting edge as we usually did better under low ranked teams. It has been 5 matches and we still are unable to find a balance side. Infact our defence is in a constant decline. Even our defence with Per Kos Arteta was better than we are today with zero clean sheets. Our worst record in 20 years for sure. Ramsey had gone from our golden boy to a novice Ozil can’t be seen doing his trickery he used to do in Wenger’s setup. Can we finish in top 4 with such performance? Certainly not.
On the other hand lampost Giroud providing 2 assists for Chelsea’s openers.
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Ohh and keep in mind the Wobs count the EPL trophy as the only success.
Top 4 is a faliure…. ……..
Which Wenger provided us for 20 consecutive years.
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Pleased with another 3 points on the road. Nice that Ozil and Xhaka were scorers.
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Andrew what Emery’s pressers have brought up is him at least twice so far calling out journos for their lies about Arsenal, – Ozil/Emery row and Emery telling groundsman not to water the pitch pre man city game – for me this is great, for Emery it will mean journos waiting to pounce if things go in any way wrong.
We had last night MOTD not showing Xhaka’s goal in their analysis of the game, GL implying Ozil did not like Wenger, and of course we had Arsenal described as “not a good team”, all on the back of the same programme ignoring the eye gouge in the spurs game, not only in their highlights but also in the analysis and not forgetting they also ignored it in their paper roundup despite it being the big headline in at least two of the papers it reviewed.
Also Andrew, yes it was great that Xhaka and Ozil scored to shut up some of the loudmouth bloggers and experts on twitter, but it only meant more abuse for Ramsey and even Mustafi – you do know he fell over once in the game, and that was enough for the hissy fit brigade.
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Lovely stuff Andrew, its good to get tings off your chest. I feel that was a long time coming.
I think we have to accept that the aesthetically pleasing Wengerball is to be a distant memory, and graft is the order of the day. Thankfully it seems its a graft that values possession and goals, so it’s not all bad.
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” I can not recall a single season since before Wenger (BW) when I have paid less attention to so called ‘news’ about Arsenal. ”
That line really popped out Andrew, although in fairness to you it could have been anyone you wrote including ” oh dear online world what have you done?”.
I think this often, but its not just in football, its everywhere, (online)and it drains the life out of you if your not careful. Experts? Id rather have amateurs back any day, at least all is possible with that attitude, and we can still enjoy things.
Thanks for your review of the game.
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There was a time, of course when Amateur implied doing something just for the love of it (and this was considered a good thing) whereas Professional was seen as a slightly dirty word, with connotations of sharp and, at best, unsporting practice. Its interestng (to me, anyway) how the words have come to mean something quite different these days – and I suppose all that tells me is that language is not set in stone, and to want it to be so perhaps also suggests a general unwillngness to credence change.
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Don’t believe Wengerball is possible without a Cazorla, Rosicky or perhaps, differently, a Fabregas in his prime, I believe a lack of finding or replacing such rare players was wengers ultimate downfall, he was not a coach for the purely functional.
Now,we don’t have those players, and unless we get them before others, our relative budget means we never will.
Emerys team will shape up very differently, not to suggest he won’t make us very effective given time.
As for Giroud, I always thought losing him , especially at the time was a big and slightly unfathomable mistake.
On backroom staff, Bould aside, quite a cull, perhaps even a statement, I am sure refreshing of staff was needed but always believed things were initially set up for Arteta to bring a few crowd pleasers in to assist him, but something changed at the last moment , perhaps at the behest of a man it seems will soon leave the club
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Yes youre right foreverheady. Attitude is everything, my guff is that AFTV etc see themselves as authorities and as professionals. Perhaps this is partly due to the online outlets, somehow being in any media form we think this as authoritarian?
Of course it would be a major post to go into all aspects of how these terms operate, the more I think about it the more complex it becomes. Would it be fair to say you were a professional, who had the attitude of an amateur when you played?
Im also a professional in what I do in life, a profession that people think should be more amateur like for it to be authentic.
An amateur to me also incorporated the whole attitude of sportsmanship( real sportsmanship not dictates from sporting authorities etc). But its not easy. I cant say that I wouldnt have made the same decisions at RVP.
Perhaps these terms are also a bit abstract and utopian, like most blanket terms? Perhaps neither the amateur or professional really exist and even so in the contexts of their terms maybe they are fine? I dont know.
But the amateur also wanted to win, but to me had more of a reasonable understanding if they lost?
Youre right about language and its meanings changing, and perhaps Im a barking up the wrong tree for wanting a different attitude when the worlds populous are going at different speeds. Perhaps I out of date, but is that a bad thing?
Odd thing are all our critiques are in hindsight and are soon forgotten..much ado?
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Yesterday another potent reminder how bad a place twitter is to look for updates unless we’re a couple of goals ahead.
I followed the first half on there and it was painful stuff.
Interesting part was seeing, later on, the two incidents which prompted the most ire- Mustafi’s loss of balance and Ramsey miscuing a cross on his left foot.
Admittedly, it’s a whole lot easier to not give a damn about mistakes afterwards, when you know we won, but still…they both looked like such ordinary football moments, things that can happen to any player, with the difference between them and the internet howling incredibly vast.
I’m totally open to discussions of a players weaknesses or faults, though I can understand the notion of support which largely ignores them and focuses on positives only, but, ach, it’s hard going when there are so many who do near enough the reverse.
It feels like some watch it in the spirit of…phhhh…a (humourless) Olympic judge, watching someone on the pommel horse or something : a few mistakes and you’re not getting a medal today, one glaring error and the dream’s over.
Except this judge is a dickhead, shouting ‘wtf’, ‘ffs’ and ‘you’e crap’ if someone errs.
Football is so damn different (and better). So much more dynamic, unpredictable, longer. Mistakes happen and though one can lead directly to a goal conceded, chance missed, and even a loss, in another real sense that isn’t true (it’s decided over 90 minutes)
I suppose this is all just me bemoaning the rubbish assessments of our players from many within our own fanbase. It just happened to feel so clear that many are getting football and support wrong when I got to see that moment with Ramsey on Motd.
Twitter had welcomed it with a chorus of ‘wtf’, then I had found out it was something to do with a cross, so I assumed he had made a very bad choice to go for goal instead of picking out an obvious pass.
But no, it was just execution going askew. A human moment and an oblique reminder of how much better top players are than their amateur cousins. But to that wrongheaded, wrong sport Olympic judge…
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I suppose the problem is that we want our defence and midfield to be professional, to employ the dark arts, to close out games, while at the same time yearning for dizzying, unpredictable and unstoppable pyrotechnical displays going forward. The sadness these days is we can’t really afford the players who can do both.
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It brings up the question as Arsenal fans what do we really want? I liked your comment a lot though fh, really great food for thought. Its hard to not be of different standards. Its so complex. Arrgh!
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Yes – following the game on Twitter is a painful experience – especially the timelag between finding out if “ffs Mustafi” has led to a goal. And as Eduardo points out, there is precious little balance to be found among pundits and on MOTD. I used to listen to the match show on Arsenal Player, but even that can frustrate.
I was a bit disappointed with yesterday as I had felt we would win 3-0 beforehand, so to end up on the back foot for the last five minutes or so wasn’t quite what I’d planned. Rest assured, I shall be having words. Ive just seen the highlights on the Club”s site, and it could easily have ended 3 or 4 nil up, and had it done so this morning would have felt a bit different.
But it was the second weekend in a row when we won and the lot up the road didn’t, so that in itself is a very good thing. And despite not caring very much at all for Man U I was pleased that they beat Watford, for they are a horrible side with significant Stokish tendencies. I was glad to see Zaha call out the laxity of the officials, and shall be interested to see what response there is to his comments.
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Arsenal FC
Verified account @Arsenal
13h13 hours ago
M1Ö 〽️
@MesutOzil1088 now has a combined 104 goals and assists in 200 games for us
#WeveGotOzil 🎶
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Marvelous piece by AA. He should do this a lot more.
Brilliant comments as well. I feel Ro in particular. But as AA wisely emphasizes we should give Emery 10 games before coming to any conclusions. Certain trends will become statistically evident and we may be able to make some reasonable predictions.
As far as I am concerned the mark of a true professional, is one who detaches himself from the wild emotional gyrations that we feel during a game, especially the type promoted by both mainstream and social media, and let the facts unfold. Nobody at PA should be surprised that after 22 years of our greatest ever manager, who was exceptionally consistently in keeping this club at or near the the top, nobody should be surprised that we will initially struggle under a new manager.
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some shit media outfit the other day ran with – “Eriksen the player Ozil wishes he was”
well I’m sure Mesut would love to be treated by the media the way the spurs guy is, all his poor games ignored, all his good ones blown out of proportion, the merest hint of some skill drooled over, and not having every comment by the manager about him twisted, and not have his words on serious issues ignored and misrepresented, yes I’m sure Mesut wishes he was like Eriksen in those regards.
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Brilliant review Andy (it must be in the name), While I think your correct about not being able to make a judgement about the side until ten games, I also think the same is there for Unai. There is lots he wont know about his players until at least ten games in. As he starts to know then in turn we will be greater able to asses the manager, the team, and any progression.
There are flickers of Wengerball there and when the strikers become clinical the sheer joy of our play may come back. There seems to be a greater emphasis on greedyness and the decision to pass at critcal times was lacking yesterday and this may have an effect on Aaron as he arrives late into the box. Hopefully it wont make any difference o any long term decision he makes.
The defence is still making odd mistakes and when I say defence I mean the whole team as sometimes missing players in attack or midfield have a big impact. Newcastle’s goal saw many players out of position and considering the timing of the goal and the importance of the cleen sheet, the laxness in the last couple of minutes was incredable. We had dealt with 104 corners and a multitude of crosses adquetely and so the set up for the last two crosses in the last few minutes were up out sorts from the rest of the game.
This game could easerly finishes 0-5 so 1-2 was quite frustrating howerever I do believe as the season goes on we will improve and other teams including the lot down the road will deteriate.
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Ive just spotted that Jack W is out with an ankle issue again, so won’t be playing this afternoon. And on a theme of injured midfielders, is Elneny out of action or out of favour atm?
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foreverheady, Elneny was in training on Friday, Iwobi was too but could not make the match day squad, there is not room for everyone.
Emery hinted that he would be rotating for our next game, EL, so we might see both of them, and the likes of Leno, Lichtsteiner, Holding, Mavropanos and others start their first game of the season
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also foreverheady, on Jack, I did see he was out of today’s game, add in Ox out for the season, and it might be said their injury problems had little to do with AFC medics, as some would like us to believe.
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Great stuff. When Arsenal win I couldn’t really care less whether we dragged ourselves over the line or not. Though I do admit if we win with style I get a bit excited. And as long we don’t pick up injuries everything is peachy. In the later years of Fergie Manutd won games deep in added minutes upon extra time and at times with the help of a friendly ref and hardly gave a damn. So why should I complain.
I don’t think we are less potent in attack than in recent years; averaging 2 goals per game is nothing to scoff at especially if we are presented with so many clear chances to add more. The rather tense moments in defense is a concern but I get the motives behind it. Emery want to draw opposition players forward so their defense can be less bus parky.
Emery do want to utilize the attacking players to the best of abilities without changing the philosophy of wanting defenders to build things from the back. This Thursday we’ll see how Lucas and Leno, do playing this style from the start, also perhaps whether Rob and Dinos got calm heads on their shoulders. It would definitely leave many us a bit wiser.
Rolling on!
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As the first half wore on I thought lord this is going to hard watching!
Second half its as if the lads came out and were like hang on we are playing a shit team and then proceeded to put them in their place.
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On the Know your Emery front, thought he said something interesting, in tone more than words, on his brief Motd Interview.
Was something about wanting the keeper and defenders to be comfortable with playing from the back.
Appeared to be said with sympathy and understanding for them, containing maybe an acknowledgement of it not being particularly easy… hints of a philosophy which sees comfort or enjoyment as being necessary to doing something well?
Maybe- to have my cake and eat it- a suggestion of a bit of flexibility (allowing the players to ease off a bit to a level they’re comfortable with), or even (to have another piece of cake) if they can’t get comfortable in time, looking for those who can.
Caught my attention the way he said it, anyway. Fits with my early impression of him as a sympathetic realistic bloke who is going to ask a lot of the players but not be an arsehole while doing so.
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Arsenal have won two away games already this season, that’s progress in my book, albeit the opposition haven’t been top level.
A new manager, trying out players in new positions and systems, I’m more hopeful than pessimistic about the season but I think first or second is beyond us unless the defence vastly improves.
There are a couple of games in Europa to see what the fringe players can offer, but beware of Brentford in the league cup!!
Wenger and Emrey and the club were more right than I was about the level Jack Wilshere has dropped down to, sad, but the club had to look after its interests.
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Arsenal Women
Verified account @ArsenalWFC
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Full time at The Dripping Pan: @LewesFCWomen 0-9 @ArsenalWFC 🙌
Montemurro’s side maintain their perfect start to the season, thanks to goals from @DanielleDonk, @_KatieMcCabe9, @LisaEvans_17, @VivianneMiedema (3) and Kim Little (3) 🔥
#WeAreTheArsenal 🔴
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Looks like u18’s rode luck in one sense for win on weekend.
But not in another- check out the sending off towards end.
https://player.arsenal.com/video/u-18s-southampton-h-highlights
So often see refs go very easy on poor or really bad challenges at youth level, with commentators almost always approving and saying you don’t want to see reds at this level.
Every time I think, well, in the limited games I see of our youth teams there’ve been a number of softish sendings off for us. Gets no softer than this one.
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Arsenal Under-23s to play Blackburn U23’s away this evening: Iliev, Olayinka, Saka, Bola, Ballard, Medley, Coyle, Willock (c), John-Jules, Gilmour, Burton. Substitutes: Hein, Olowu, Omole, Clarke, Smith.
pleggy left out might mean he plays in EL, same for Smith-Rowe and Nketiah
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jack rodwell, remember him, well he is playing for Blackburn’s U23’s tonight v Arsenal U23’s
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HT: Blackburn Rovers U23s 0-0 Arsenal U23s
rovers official twitter making it sound like its our keeper Illiev v Rovers, as its chance after chance
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49mins: OFF! Arsenal forward Charlie Gilmour shown a straight red card for kicking out at Lewis Travis. 0-0
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wonder if the sending off is as deserved as Nelson’s in those parts in youth cup. Pushes someone who two-footed him, gets pushed back. Sent off while the other kid got yellow. Northern justice!
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85mins: OFF! Carter, who had already been booked, is shown a straight red card for bringing down Willock right on the edge of the area. 0-0
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Blackburn Rovers
Verified account @Rovers
58s58 seconds ago
FT: #Rovers U23s 0-0 Arsenal U23s
No goals, but two red cards, as Rovers and Arsenal play out an entertaining goalless draw at Ewood Park.
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Look out tomorrow 9/18/18 for my piece at UniteForVAR.com on the PGMOL’s secret trial of VAR last weekend. Your head will spin.
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Great to win at Newcastle. Not an easy place to go, just ask Chelsea in recent seasons. Xhaka can make a habit of shooting from outside the box, apparently he’s only ever scored for us from long distance! Ozil scores too, that’s one in the solar plexus for the doubters. Certainly too early to judge Unai, even Guardiola didn’t win in his first season at City.
This attachment to Wengerball has always bewildered me. Is it the rather dull sideways passing that seemed to become our trademark in recent years or the sublimely crafted goals involving numerous passes in and around the box that is being rhapsodised over? I’ll take the latter but the former can r.i.p. I don’t know if a game against Bournemouth a few seasons ago where both teams were mirroring each other in pointless tedious crab passing was the perfect example of Wengerball but if it was it was sleep-inducing. I love a good pass as much as the next man but I prefer it to go a few feet forward. That’s why I’ve been enamoured with Toreira so far. Whatever Wengerball was it seems we’re not doing it anymore judging by the comments here. Explain it to me, I think I’ve misunderstood and I’ve no wish to offend anyone with my ignorance over the matter.
Europa next and hopefully a win against Vorskla.
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Good morning all, I should go away more often – excellent from AA and as good a set of comments and post match discussion as I can remember.
Good win at SJP and winning at ‘those’ grounds and against ‘those’ teams essential to fixing our league position. Probably much too early to speculate where we might end up in the final PL chart because it is not all about us but how other clubs among our six fingered cohort cope with the ups and downs of life.
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Ivan’s a goner then.
I’m uneasy about it to be honest, especially as ivan must have a great understanding of what our future plans and finances are, and must from there have done plenty of thinking about possibilities and probabilities for the future.
Still, much we don’t know, as ever, and just maybe he was attracted primarily to a brand new difficult challenge.
All we can do is hope for the best.
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I continue my expose of the PGMOL’s (and PL) opaque, secretive implementation of VAR at http://uniteforvar.com/?p=1248
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Club names new leaders as Ivan heads to Italy
Arsenal Media 18 Sep 2018
Vinai Venkatesham and Raul Sanllehi
We can announce that Raul Sanllehi and Vinai Venkatesham will lead the club following a decision by chief executive Ivan Gazidis to join AC Milan.
Raul, head of football relations, has been appointed as head of football, and Vinai, currently chief commercial officer, becomes managing director.
Josh Kroenke, deputy chairman of Arsenal’s majority owner Kroenke Sports and Entertainment UK, said: “It has been a pleasure working with Ivan. We will miss the wisdom, insight, and energy he brought to our club on a daily basis over the past decade. We are confident we have outstanding people in Raul and Vinai, and we look forward to working with them and coach Unai Emery to continue to move the club forward on and off the pitch.”
Club chairman Sir Chips Keswick said: “Ivan has led Arsenal with skill and dedication and leaves us in a strong position. The club has been transformed and he has recruited talented people, such as Raul, Vinai and of course Unai Emery, who will take us to future success.”
Raul joined us in February after 16 years at Barcelona where he was director of football. Vinai arrived in 2010 from London 2012 and has overseen all our commercial activities.
Raul, who will lead our football activities, said: “Although I joined Arsenal just months ago, I’ve felt embraced by this great club and part of its family from the first day. I will do everything possible to maintain our strong values which will be as fundamental to our future as they have been in our past. Vinai and I will need everyone’s help, to do everything right and secure the success everyone connected to Arsenal wants. I sincerely thank Arsenal’s board for their trust in us and thank Ivan for bringing me to this great club, and for consistently supporting me every day, in every way. It’s with overwhelming pride and utmost excitement that I face this new opportunity.”
Vinai, who will oversee all business operations, said: “From the day I joined Arsenal I have always considered it a privilege to serve this great football club, so it’s an honour to take up the position of managing director and lead the club alongside Raul. Together we will work tirelessly with the extraordinary staff we have at Arsenal to respect and enhance our unique history, heritage and values; with the overall objective to bring success to our millions of fans all around the world and make them proud of their club. I thank Stan and Josh Kroenke and the rest of the board for their trust in me, and Ivan for all the support he has given me since I joined the club in 2010.”
Ivan will leave by the end of October and becomes chief executive at AC Milan on December 1. He said: “For the last 10 years I have been privileged to dedicate myself to this great club. Arsenal is entering a new chapter and I have done everything I can to ensure that it is strongly placed to take on that challenge. This includes world-class facilities and outstanding leaders in every sector who carry the values of the club, including, of course, Unai Emery, Raul Sanllehi and Vinai Venkatesham in whom I have enormous faith.
“We have been building on the club’s progressive social values, leading the way on the women’s game, diversity and inclusion, and establishing the Arsenal Foundation. This will remain central to the club’s philosophy.
“Although it is very hard to do – the hardest decision of my life – I believe that, after 10 years, it is the right time for me to step aside to allow new leadership, energy and ideas to take the club forward into this exciting new era. I believe in the positive force of change, both for me and for the club. I am excited to see what the future holds for this great club and I am energised by a new personal challenge with AC Milan.
“My sincere thanks go to Stan and Josh Kroenke for their support and guidance on everything we have done. To Sir Chips Keswick, Lord Phil Harris, Ken Friar and my wonderful management team and staff, on and off the field, to Arsène Wenger, Unai Emery and to the fans of this giant and incredible club, thank you for your immense support and friendship over so many years and for the wonderful privilege of being part of the journey.
“We lived through many emotions together, the highs and the lows of football, and I am proud to be able to say that I gave this club and its fantastic people everything that I had in me. I am excited and energised for the future for myself and for Arsenal Football Club and I will always hold it in my heart.”
Copyright 2018 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to http://www.arsenal.com as the source.
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so with Ivan not going for a few weeks, but with his replacements already at the club, the big question is
who is doing the Q&A with the fans forum before Sunday’s game v Everton, will it be Ivan or Raul, or Vinai
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Hopefully Ivan eddy – he can speak his mind.
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Excellent stuff from Andrew. Hard to disagree with anything. I even thought the ‘grounded’ pun was something more than feeble, to be honest.
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I’m back as well now. Anyone fancy doing a blog on Ivan, his tenure and legacy? I know some feel animosity towards him, but he has been with us long enough, and achieved enough, for us to at least tip our hat to him?
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Ivan Gazidis, I am sure he is a decent man, who has done an excellent job in the role assigned to him. well rewarded yes, but I would imagine he has put a shift in, both behind the scenes and in a more public manner,with big infrastructure improvements and staff increases, pressures with a club with this profile, the media, he has probably had to put up with a lot of crap from the disgruntled, yet seemed willing and able, to face the fans or varying opinions, and it seems he has left in place his own succession plan
He is a CEO, not a star player going to a rival, so I dont really get any animosity out there.
The fact is, at this club,I am sure for very good reasons, we know very little of what goes on behind closed doors at this club, it is very hard to properly critique or appreciate Ivan’s true contribution, yes there are rumours, half truths and downright lies that all seem to conflict, so in the absence of anything concrete to make Ivan terrible, can only wish him, and those who replace him the very best, the latter at least will probably need it.
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well Mandy from what I see its those who a year ago who wanted Ivan out of the club, who are now attacking him the most.
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plain bizarre, just wonder who is off limits with these people, when I saw the photo of the guy with the Ackers out slogan, thought he was joking, but now wonder
For much of my time following Arsenal, I had no idea who the CEO was, or even if we had one
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the Arsenal first team squad
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Now 3 losses in a row for our nearest and dearest, despite them leading with 5 mins to go
Remember a few weeks ago, all that fuss when we lost two in a row to two of the richest clubs in the world and the last two league champions, with a new manager and coaching staff
The media might have to recalibrate
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