Quote Originally Posted by SMatthews View Post
The revisionism over Gazidis is already in full swing. Just as it was when the tide swung in favour of Kroenke when Usmanov first arrived, then back once again as he became the bad guy once the realisation dawned that we are nothing more than another investment. Nothing has changed with the ownership of this club. It's still the biggest problem preventing the success of any manager and its players. A manager can only go so far with this lot in charge. Gazidis is a banker in charge of a football club, a man who answers every question in full without saying a thing of substance. Emery will bring change and some difference on the pitch and it's a breath of fresh air after Wenger became stale but the ultimate outcome will be the same.

Granted, there are only 4/5 clubs in the world who will offer a budget bigger than £50m (Utd, City, PSG, Barca, Madrid - Cheslea no longer operate in that way) but this "catalyst for change" is for the snake-like Gazidis to slither his way into being the man in charge. Top four is all that matters to him and the board, along with some shitty shirt sleeve sponsorships and commercial deals. Kroenke has shown over years of ownership of various franchises how little of a fuck he gives about success. It's nice to have a change of manager and some new things happening but it has to be tempered with the reality of the blood-sucking frauds running our club. Arsenal will always be owned by some form of billionaire now given how much it costs to buy but it's the varying degrees of interest in the making sure it is successful that ultimately make the difference. City, Utd, PSG and Chelsea have demonstrated that.
I’ve held my stance on Gazidis for number of years now. No revisionism on my part. Also, people are allowed to change their opinions. That’s not revisionism.

For me, it all started from his first few press conferences where he tried to clear up the ambiguous nature of our finances. Wenger was purposely coy on the subject when Dein left and kept on talking about not ‘doing a Leeds’ and bankrupting the club. That was pure manipulation of the fans and press on his part. I never liked that. Gazidis didn’t do the fear mongering stuff. He let it be known that our stadium repayments were small and not enough to push us to the brink of bankruptcy. He also made it clear that the club backed Wenger with his vision and if there were players out there that he really wanted, they’d try to find a way to help him. I’ve always maintained that Wenger had a big enough voice to dictate our direction if he wanted to.

For example, look at the difference between how quickly and swiftly we acted to Sanchez leaving and Ozil’s contract once we appointed Sven and Raul in comparison to that time we had sold Nasri and Fabregas. We decided to sign two marquee players after losing Sanchez instead of trying to save money by signing 5/6 cheap bargain basement players. The bargain basement stuff was all Wenger. It’s fine if he still had the ability to develop players but we soon learned that he lost his touch. Hence why we needed outside help.

Also, look at how quickly we let go of underperforming staff members once Wenger left? Le Grove argued years ago that Colin Lewin was supposed to have been given the boot once Shad Forsythe was appointed but Wenger argued for him to be kept on as head of the medical staff. As soon as Wenger is gone, Lewin was given the boot too. For years, Wenger would make excuse after excuse about our fitness record. Similar to the money issue. We once heard him blame the brand of hairspray Aaron Ramsey used as a reason why he picks up so many hamstring injuries. Fair enough if you don’t really know the reason but it seemed liked Wenger had no real desire to fix the issue, hence why Lewin was kept in a top job. It’s Gazidis that’s hired Forsythe and Burgess because we can’t keep using injuries as an excuse as to why we can’t progress.

I’ve got a load of more examples how each one of Wenger’s excuses has been addressed. You only have to look at his attitude and response to when he heard Sven and Raul were being appointed. He was hostile to the idea. He saw it as him being undermined and not support. If not for some of Ivan’s appointments, we’d be in terrible shape. I have no idea if he’s all about the money and has no real sporting ambition. We’ll soon find out. But one thing for sure, Wenger was no better. He hasn’t been in the fans corner to help cut season tickets and he’s the one that roped us all into believing this self-sustaining con job is a great idea. I’ve got time for Ivan because a lot of crap we’ve complained about for years hasn’t been mocked or dismissed. There has been an attempt to address it. I won’t knock him for that.