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LONDON. — With the famous five-legged chairman’s chair and the surrounding oak panels that were lovingly transported two streets from the site of the old Highbury Stadium, history seeps from every corner of Arsenal’s boardroom. Yet when any major judgment is taken inside these four walls, says chief executive Ivan Gazidis, the future will always take priority over the past.
One of the biggest decisions of all now looms and, as our conversation takes its inevitable turn to Arsène Wenger, Gazidis is emphatic about the thought process that will shape every deliberation, not least those of a man who will reach a remarkable 20th anniversary as manager in October.
“There is not nostalgia on either side,” says the 51-year-old Gazidis. “It’s not what motivates us or him. The reason we have Arsène as our manager is because our board believes he can deliver success. The reason that Arsène is here is because he believes that he can deliver success. If either of us didn’t believe that we would not be constrained by nostalgia or longing; we would have to make a change. Arsène would understand and support that. But it’s just not how either side feels. We feel we are on a good path.”
Wenger is now into the final year of his contract and, while he himself has said that he could wait until the end of next season before resolving his future, the club believe that they will know much earlier.
There has been no hint of him winding down.
“He’s in his mid-sixties, it’s natural to think about when his time here might come to an end, but the truth is nobody knows,” adds Gazidis. “He is in fantastic shape. He is deeply engaged and excited. One of the biggest challenges we will face is the transition, whenever it happens, but that is not something we are going to be facing imminently. Obviously, he is going to be managing us next year and we are planning and making many decisions for the long term.
“The reality is we wouldn’t leave things until the last minute. I’m comfortable both that if Arsène is going to extend we will know that and if, whenever that is, he is going to come to an end, that he will give us the time that we need to prepare for that transition. The relationship with Arsène is very deep. It will be done behind closed doors and we will have our transition plans well worked out.
“He has always put the long-term health of the club first. He wants to hand over a football club, whenever that it is, that is in great shape. He views that as a massively important part of his legacy. But we are just not in that mode. I know Arsène wouldn’t stay on if he thought the club wasn’t heading in a good direction and thought he wouldn’t be able to deliver what the fans want.”
The debate about the extent to which Wenger and the club are indeed delivering is, of course, never ending. An attempted “Time for Change” protest in April focused on the 12 years since Arsenal have won the Premier League. The counter argument, of course, is Arsenal’s consistency, the two FA Cup wins since 2014 and consecutive Premier League finishes of fourth, third and second, even if this most recent season was clearly a big missed opportunity.
Gazidis’s answer is that, yes, the past year cannot be looked upon with anything but frustration, but that the broader picture must also remain in focus. “We have to be disappointed, certainly not satisfied, to end up second,” he says. “We wanted more than that and I think that there were chances during the season. We are taking a long, hard, realistic look at why we fell short of our ambitions. You can’t say second place is a disaster, but it’s not what we are about.”
Gazidis believes that one of the lessons throughout football last season was the gains that could be made not in the “messiah complex” of a manager or star player but the structures inside a club. “What is clear is that the big spending was not the solution to all problems,” he says. “It was clever spending and a lot of ‘difference makers’ underneath the surface.” — The Daily Telegraph
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