Quote Originally Posted by Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie View Post
We were one of the richest clubs in the world before Ivan Gazidis joined us.

Qualifying for the champions league season upon season on relatively low expenditure, high ticket prices (especially for season tickets) has maximised the clubs cash flow. Now I don't think any CEO could have made us as big as the size of Man United and Real Madrid, but their respective kit sponsorship with Addidas dwarves ours with Puma by some way and Addidas flatly turned us down in terms of what we were asking for, which is due to our lack of success on the field.

So you have a point there where lack of success on the field is hindering us from making more money off the field, so again if he is a CEO letting Wenger have carte Blanche shows either complacency or weakness on his part.

Either way you look at it, he is Wengers boss if you are having to accept you have no power over him, you shouldn't be at the club not if you are a man of ambition anyway.
That's a poor argument. You can't apply a similar argument I've made about Wenger's ambition just because Gazidis has no power over Wenger. His role as a CEO isn't to exert power of Wenger just for his ego. He was appointed to help grow the club as a business so we have the resources to compete at the top level. Also, let's put things into perspective, at which other club have you heard the CEO giving the manager their marching orders?

Also, the sponsorship deals were good for what they were at the time and what has enabled us to buy Ozil, Sanchez and Xhaka. Since the sponsorship deals, we've broken our transfer record and can comfortably match that record again and again. And of course Man Utd and Real Madrid's sponsorship deals are going to dwarf ours. You're giving examples of two of the most successful clubs in the history of football. Some perspective is needed here.