A thread full of quotes from the PR mill...

"We need to think how do we responsibly grow revenues and then we have to think on the other side how do we spend the money we generate as efficiently as we can knowing that every football club, including us, makes mistakes on players as they go along.

"We're not going to get those decisions all right. But how do we do it as efficiently as we can?

"In any graph that you see, any analysis you see about efficiency of spend, we are at the top of the pile. We do it very well.

"That doesn't mean we do it as well as we can and it doesn't mean we don't have to do it better, we clearly do because we haven't won a trophy in the past few years. So we're not achieving our objectives.

"We need to be better at efficiency of spend."

Quote Originally Posted by The executive said the club were working hard to achieve similar revenues of those achieved by Manchester United who made more than twice the amount Arsenal did last year from their commercial contracts.
"It's imperative for us if we are going to be able to drive the same kind of revenues (as Manchester United) on the commercial side that we make those investments and we have.

"Those investments will pay off many many times over and by the end of this year I will predict they will be more than washing their own face and anything else is pure uplift.

"The Indesit partnership is a first announcement. It is dramatic new announcement in a category - white goods - where we have never had a secondary partner before so that represents in itself a significant change. This means it is brand new revenue to the club in a category where no one was interested to come to us before."

"There will be more announcements on the commercial front. I'm feeling very, very good about this. There will be some more announcements over the next couple of weeks of new partners in existing categories and renewals of existing partners in their categories.

"This is an area that I'm convinced represents a great investment for the club. It's very high margin and it's essential if we're to compete at the top level."
Quote Originally Posted by An AISA member asked the CEO: "Why aren't we aggressively going after a couple of centre halves?"
"How do you know we're not?"

"I have not had an evening off - and I'm leaving here to do some more work - we are working extremely hard on this but it's not a supermarket where you go in and pick good players off the shelf. That's not the way it works.

"I'm sorry but it's much much more complex than that."

"Arsene recognises we need to have additions and addition or additions in our defence. He recognises there has been an issue there.

"And he will take steps to do that. Now they haven't been taken yet and I can't give you the whole inside story on every reason why that isn't the case.

"Of course ideally what you'd really want to do is sign players early. Manchester United have been successful in doing that this window. They're not successful every window in doing that. They've been successful this window.

"Other clubs haven't been that successful in doing that this window.

"We've also got a slightly different challenge than some of the other clubs.

"Some of the other clubs - our major competitors - have older squads where they've got players who's future they need to look at and they need to bring players in to replace those players.

"Our challenge is a little bit different. We've got a young squad and so we're actually looking the other way round. They're looking to sign young players to come in. We need a little bit more know-how and experience to supplement some of the young players that we have."

"We do have money to spend. We're in a financially healthy situation but we don't have the kind of money to go out and spend £50m on a player. I don't think that is what our fans are asking for."
Quote Originally Posted by Members of the Arsenal Independent Supporters Association (AISA) questioned Ivan Gazidis over why the club's Chief Commercial Officer Tom Fox (pictured) and team of highly paid staff had only managed to secure one deal in the two years they'd been at the club.
Gazidis was quick to point out that Fox and his team were on the verge of securing a number of deals which would create serious amounts of income for the club.

The CEO said Fox and his team were more than achieving their targets which Gazidis hopes will grow the amount of cash generated away from ticket sales and match day income.

The executive said the club were working hard to achieve similar revenues of those achieved by Manchester United who made more than twice the amount Arsenal did last year from their commercial contracts.

"It's imperative for us if we are going to be able to drive the same kind of revenues (as Manchester United) on the commercial side that we make those investments and we have.

"Those investments will pay off many many times over and by the end of this year I will predict they will be more than washing their own face and anything else is pure uplift.

"The Indesit partnership is a first announcement. It is dramatic new announcement in a category - white goods - where we have never had a secondary partner before so that represents in itself a significant change. This means it is brand new revenue to the club in a category where no one was interested to come to us before."

"There will be more announcements on the commercial front. I'm feeling very, very good about this. There will be some more announcements over the next couple of weeks of new partners in existing categories and renewals of existing partners in their categories.

"This is an area that I'm convinced represents a great investment for the club. It's very high margin and it's essential if we're to compete at the top level."
Quote Originally Posted by The chief executive was asked whether there was a need on the club's board for someone with the footballing knowledge of Dein who had successfully worked with manager Arsene Wenger following the Frenchman's appointment in 1997.
"I can't talk of David Dein because I wasn't here when he was here, so I can't speak about the relationship in the club when David Dein was here.

"That to me is a different era, a different time in the game.

"As I've said, the game now has moved to a different place where there are petro-dollars / petro-pounds pumped into the game and Arsenal has to try and compete with that landscape which is very very different a landscape to 10 maybe seven years ago.

"I believe that we've got a board whose strength is in their steadiness. I think sometimes that is interpreted as disengagement or non responsiveness. I don't think that is what it is at all.

"I think we've got literally hundreds of years of Arsenal fandom on that board and these are people who care about the club and who have created a stable environment in which the club can operate."

"There is no shortage of debate and counter balance if you like. There is no shortage of energy and ambition.

"Arsene's ambition is to win things for this club. That's what he's trying to do. That's what his life is about. Outside of his family, that's what his life is about.

"Trying to win for this club. I don't know how you could make him more accountable than that. I think it's impossible.

"There are some people within our fan base that might say his time is up.

"I don't see that. I don't see that at all. I don't see someone who isn't open to challenge. I've challenged him many times, we have challenging conversations."
Thanks mostly to:
http://www.ashburtongrove.co.uk