Ivan Merc
Do you really think that Arsenal performances in recent years have been disappointing? Me too. But the biggest Arsenal shareholder is probably of another opinion.
One year ago Stan Kroenke owned 40% of St.Louis Rams when his partners decided to sell their 60% and they already had a buyer - Shahid Khan. But suddenly Kroenke made a decision to exercise his right of first refusal to purchase the stake that Khan wanted.
The team itself at this time had lost 88% of their games in past three years
Nine out of ten games! And Kroenke bought it out. Why? Because even at this bad point the team was still generating EBITDA of $29m (that’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization). Is it now clear why he bought an extra 37% of AFC this spring?
He doesn’t care about sport results. He cares only about profits. And Arsene Wenger is the ideal manager for Kroenke as he generated club profits. The only chance for AW to be sacked is if he make several consequent annual financial losses. Kroenke doesn’t care if Arsenal play in Champions League or not. He cares about profits. If 10th place brings the same money as 2nd – it is ok for him.
Let’s say Arsenal offload several hugely overpaid losers, reduce the wage list to £70m a year and do not need European competition to make profits. We all know that this is very possible – the same (but new) mediocrities with reduced wages under AW’s management can achieve the same profits.
So trophies are a bonus but not a goal. The ultimate goal is profits. What kind of profits? If Kroenke spent £400m and bank interest is 4% then AFC must generate at least £16m profits to cover interest. And let’s say 1% for pocketing. So £20m annually. And manager is (and was) able to operate with all other club resources.
I guess this model was created by Fiszman and the new stadium was the easiest way to reach stable profits (compared to winning trophies). And that is why David Dein was kicked off the club – because he was the only director who is keen to bring sport success to the club. And who preferred sport success to profits.
So you can forget imagining Dein coming back with today’s regime. And we can forget that AW could be sacked by today’s regime as long as he is bringing profits.
The 2011 Deloitte Annual Review of Football Finance stated that in last five years Arsenal spent £500.1m for wages plus net transfers. Man United spent £609.6m at the same period for the same budget items. It means that in average Arsenal was annually only £22m short of Man United’s spending, but spent much more badly than Man United.
The Board’s responsibility – as they understood it – was to make profits. Arsene Wenger had full credit to spend profits before and he spent a lot. But after onlinegooner even the Daily Telegraph now admits that “Arsenal’s general transfer policy has been to invest heavily in the player contracts of the existing squad but pay relatively less on transfer fees.”
All transfers and wages decisions were made by manager. All the current team is his handmade achievement. Denilson / Diaby / Bendtner / Almunia / Squillaci / Eboue / Fabianski etc. is “the best ever” Arsene’s Arsenal.
£60K a week for unsellable losers is Arsene’s Arsenal. A mentally defective team is Arsene’s Arsenal. A provincial-minded transfer policy is Arsene’s Arsenal. Happy as second best is Arsene’s Arsenal (to be honest I have forgotten when we were second best and played Community Shields).
“I didn’t buy Xabi Alonso because it would kill Denilson” (AW, autumn 2008). Denilson was finally killed, but not by Alonso’s arrival of course, but by the “incubator” policy, which failed in two out of two episodes – in Monaco and in London. (Who knows – maybe the Brazilian lad could have successively played all these years for the likes of West Brom if not told that he is under AW’s protection and not to fight for a place in the Arsenal team.)
But AW’s “incubator” obsession is not only useless, but dangerous for AFC now. And AW’s sport debility involves a serious lack of commercial revenues. And therefore it forces Gazidis & co to get money from every source they can imagine. The recent season ticket price rise is one of them. They are afraid of not getting serious sponsors’ contracts with a losing team. So the attendees must compensate.
I always thought that Gooners are some kind of community and not clients. But the current AFC policy shows that Gooners mean nothing for the club and the club started to replace loyal Gooners with so called “plastic” fans who can pay more but have no roots with the club, no knowledge of club history and no emotional connection with the club. The problem is that “plastic” fans will easily leave the club when concluding that for this money they can buy winning entertainment.
This is a huge danger – losing loyal long-term supporters and their families. But our Americans don’t realize it. They treat Gooners as consumers.
Did Gazidis & Co ever hear Stanley Marcus’s phrase? Consumers are statistics. Customers are people. I guess never. But Gooners are even not customers, they are more.
So the current Board and ownership are destroying Arsenal Football Club.
At the same time it is not the Board and Kroenke, but Arsene Wenger to blame for all sport failures after moving to the new stadium. And Americans and French are currently happy with each other. That’s it.
