This was our second meeting with Ivan since he took over the Chief Executive’s role and the plan is to hold them on a quarterly basis from now on. Ivan will also be meeting with other Supporters groups like AISA and the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust on a regular basis as well. He will also be attending the regular Fans’ Forums.

These meetings are a massive opportunity for us to put forward ideas etc that we have received over the past few months, so if you do have ideas let us know. You can rest assured we will take them to the club if they are workable and as we are going straight to the top, so to speak, we will have answers very quickly as well.

Our feeling with Ivan Gazidis is that he very honest and very pro-supporters. He has told us that he will not always say ‘yes’ to plans but if he has to say ‘no’ he will at least explain the reasons why.

We started the meeting discussing the ‘Arsenalisation’ of the Stadium. I suppose not strictly an ‘atmosphere’ issue but nevertheless something that our members have constantly e-mailed us about. The main beef has been that the stadium is very soulless and that it did not feel like ‘home’.

As some of you may know a couple of REDaction’s finest including my good self have been active on the Fans’ Forum over the last couple of seasons and we have pushed very hard on this topic throughout those meetings. There was not a lot of headway for a considerable time but once Ivan was in place the situation changed rapidly.

In simple terms Ivan agreed with us about the stadium and several plans have been put into operation and there will be more over the coming months.

Firstly the lower concourses are going to be decorated in a variety of ways including murals of Arsenal’s greatest moments. A replica of the Arsenal underground station mural from the last season at Highbury will also go up, plus lots of other stuff that I believe will add to most people’s enjoyment of the ground. I am hoping to have some ‘exclusive’ images from these changes and they will posted for you to see asap. These will mostly be in place by the time of the Pompey match and will be completed by Wigan.

Some of you will have seen the pictures of how the external cores are going to be decorated. 32 of Arsenals greatest players will adorn the walls and again these will be place latest by the Wigan game.

There is also going to be a ‘shrine’ over the Armoury. This will be a massive image of Highbury with a ‘squad photo’ of every single player who played for Arsenal during the Highbury years on it. A massive task to collate all the names and pictures but it has been done.

In the pipeline to happen probably towards the end of this year is that the coloured quadrants will be dropped in favour of the North, South, West and East stands, so another major bugbear for some supporters will be going.

Ivan agrees that the Clock is in the wrong place and that it should be put in its rightful place inside the ground at the south (or should I say Clock!) End!

The club have found that such a move can take place and did try and get it resolved during the close season. Unfortunately because of the short amount of time for the preparation of this season’s pitch and because the move will entail scaffolding etc being put on the pitch it could not be done at that time.

However the aim is to carry the move out in the summer next year. Of course if we continue to make sure that Ivan knows, as supporters, how strongly we feel about this issue, then we can make sure it stays high on his agenda.

I am sure you will agree all this is pretty positive, and a big shout must go out to everyone who worked hard to get these things through. Whether it was through an organisation like us or indeed our friends at AISA or through the numerous people that wrote in individually to back the ideas, you know who you are so give yourselves a big pat on the back.

Moving on to one of the ‘complaints’ we have had about REDaction is that we don’t give enough notice of our plans to anyone. Therefore we have started to work on a bit more of a timetable and this combined with us becoming a bit more ‘media friendly’ through our messageboard and website etc we hope will do the trick. On this point, the club have said that they will give us more opportunities to get ideas over through their various media outlets as well.

Plans so far include:

Pompey home – although not strictly our idea we have been asked by the club to try and find as many volunteers as possible to hand out 57,000 scarves prior to the match. I’m sure there will be some gripes about this and in fact I‘ve seen a few already being voiced by what appears to be the usual doom and gloom merchants on various websites. All I would say is that at least the club are trying to do something, let’s hope people bring them back for future games rather than just sell them on eBay this time!

Fulham away – A Boat Trip again. Oh dear… much drink will be consumed no doubt

West Ham away – As you know the charity of the year is Great Ormond Street and we will be organising a sponsored ‘bed push’ from the Grove to Upton Park. Anyone who wants to get involved just get in touch, it should be a craic and yes we are trying to sort out a few nurses to come along and be pushed!

Spurs home – The general feeling is that the atmosphere tends to need no tampering with on this occasion, but we do feel that they should be ‘welcomed’ with the respect they deserve. It has been commented that a not so subtle reminder of the fact that it is nearly 50 years since they last won the league might go down well. Of course again your ideas/comments on this match are more than welcome.