David Oudot
(Ed’s note – the pdf of the full survey results is not ready yet. Don’t shoot the messenger! It will be available for download in the next week or two, and I will link to it at the bottom of two or three editorial pieces when it is in place. Apologies to those who like to see the percentages of the voting in a more orthodox form)
The final survey review comes today in two parts. The first takes a brief look on your view on how our beloved Club is run and what we think about the Board, the Owners, and what we fans do in relation to that. The second part is a quick review of The Gooner itself, its website and Podcast
The main question is whether you are happy with how Arsenal is run as a football club and 89% of you agree that is well run – half of them saying ‘very well run’, the other saying ‘moderately well run’. Only 45 people believe that it is run terribly, and when you look at how our London neighbours are getting on in all parts of the City then there’s little to argue about. Sure, the performance on the pitch is one thing but ultimately the Board themselves have nothing to do with what goes on at London Colney Monday to Friday or on the pitch on the weekend, and as our Club is in a brilliant stadium, there is cash in the Bank, and we’re still growing then maybe they are doing a terrific job.
One aspect of the behaviour of 21st century football that becomes vitally important for regular CL-qualifiers like us is the Financial Fair Play Rules. Amongst us, it’s a 51/49 split as to whether we’ve any confidence in Arsenal will benefiting from our self-sustaining model in comparison to the likes of Manchester City, even though Uefa have come down and fined a few clubs. That split says a lot though as while we look to have our heads above water at the moment and Citeh themselves were punished, if the rules themselves aren’t really applied to the Uefa favourites (Barcelona, Real Madrid etc.) then what’s the point? And if the £150m+ literally just sits there in the Club’s current account not evening earning Kroenke enough interest, then what’s the point?
On the subject of Kroenke, 45% of us are dissatisfied with the way he has managed the Club since becoming the majority shareholder three years ago, and only 18% declare themselves as being satisfied. The remainder are very much ‘undecided’ but the bottom line is that if your ticket prices continue to rise, that money sits in the Bank doing sod all and our season aim remains ‘Finish 4th’ then I’m sure they’ll become dissatisfied very quickly.
Of course, Stan’s arch-nemesis and second largest shareholder in the Club is Uzbekistani oligarch Alisher Usmanov so some would say that selecting one or t’other is akin to ‘Sophie’s Choice’. Having said that 2/3 of you believes that it would be a good thing for him to be represented on our Board, and only 11% fervently against it. If you look at the rest of our Board made up of pensionable Hill Wood’s old mates and Stan + son, it may not be a bad idea. Although when asked whether they would support or oppose a takeover by Usmanov and his Red and White Holdings, 37% of us were unsure, 29% in favour, and 26% against it, so that would suggest that there isn’t a set feeling amongst the group of fans as a whole. Regardless of who sits in the Boardroom smoking cigars and counting £50 notes all day, for us fans the day-to-day running of the Club as a business is down to our CEO, Gazidis, and the feeling on him is also very much split. 35% are neither happy nor sad with him, 32.5% satisfied, and 32.5% dissatisfied.
Regardless of what they feel about Kroenke, Usmanov, Gazidis, or the rest of them, 79% agree that the Board needs new appointments and when asked whether that new appointment should be one of our ex-players, 70% were made keen on that. Some of the suggested guys were Pat Rice, Bob Wilson, Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp and Frank McLintock, but the most popular guy with nearly 300 nominations was Tony Adams. Let’s face it – his nickname of Mr Arsenal is very, very well deserved, and we all want him to be involved with the Club in some way. Ideally he would have been our next manager but as Wycombe, Portsmouth and Gabala will confirm, he ain’t no manager, so if we can get him involved this way then so be it.
When it comes to forming a more formal relationship between the Club and its fans, there are many different Arsenal supporters groups with there being 4 main players – AISA, AST, BSM and REDaction. As for you guys are concerned, the best group is REDaction with 47% of you thinking they’re doing a good job, and a further 18% ranking them as ‘ok’. The AST have 68% behind them and AISA 54%, but BSM are split with 23% of people certainly less than impressed. Whatever the ratings are, though, the fact that we have 4 separate groups of Arsenal fans looking out for the best interests of all Arsenal fans is only a credible thing. Personally I actively back all 4 groups, but as long as you’ve had some contact with at least one of them then that’s a start.
Before we sign off for this summer then let’s have a quick look of what you guys think about The Gooner itself. The favourite cover this season the BFG effort, whilst the one you hated the most was the Dates of Destiny effort… probably because of how those dates turned out for us! Amongst the regular articles thankfully nothing is truly hated by a large number of people and the most popular efforts are Well Played/Pain in the Arse, The Spy, In the Away End and our own editor’s intro to every issue with Talking Reds. A newcomer in the favourite regulars is Programme Through the Years and hopefully that’ll stay this year. Aside from the regulars you were asked as to who your favourite writer was and the overwhelming winner is Simon Rose with his colossal 30% vote, and Matthew Bazell in second with 10%. As the man who finished 6th I thank the 62 fans I seem to have! Thanks to you all!
A slightly worrying thing is that 38% of you guys didn’t buy a copy of the fanzine itself last season but hopefully we sell enough to keep us being printed. Remember, we’re not a money-making organisation, chaps – we only get it printed if we can afford to have it printed! Thankfully 75% of you say you’ll buy the same number as you did this year and 22% say you’ll buy more so hopefully we’re going to keep on going for another few years at least. However, it is 2014 so whilst magazines are going out of fashion and we’re reliant on free newspapers, there’s always the internet and this website - onlinegooner.com is far more popular. Only 16% of you never visit it but 21% of you are on it at least once a day. Regardless of whether you read it online, offline, on the bog, or rely on what your friends tell you about it, 78% believe that it is ‘just right’. Some say we’re too sad, some say we’re too happy, but if we’re just about ok then we’ll keep on going just the way we are. Cheers all!
As the presenter of over 100 Gooner podcasts I am more hurt than you can imagine learning that only 1/3 of all of you listen to them and only 5.8% of you a regular listener. HOW DARE YOU! All joking aside, looking at your comments on how to improve it all, you’re asking for a lot more and frequent podcasts so that we’re keeping track of everything in the Arsenal world and not lagging behind. If this means an extra podcast or two here or there then this may be looked into. I’d prefer to find a girlfriend instead, but so be it… ;-)
And that’s your lot. Thank you to each and every one of you for taking part in the survey this year. Believe me when I tell you we really do take notice of what you have to say and if we have to tweak the fanzine, the site and/or the podcast to make you all happy then so be it. Cheers!
Twitter @DavidOudot
