Kevin Whitcher
An easy ride expected for the board this year, and so it proved. There were a couple of awkward questions, but as traditional, these were answered with either agreement that something would be done (when experience tells us it won’t) or take it or leave it style responses.
When all is said and done, Arsenal are second in the table, money was (eventually) spent in the summer and the fact that Leicester won the league was glossed over because no-one felt in the mood to give Arsene Wenger a hard time this year.
One striking thing that was immediately apparent was the number of seats this year having sunk dramatically. This, a combination of the Arsenal Supporters Trust’s fanshare scheme no longer existing and individual small shareholders selling up. This AGM was almost intimate, a reminder of fifteen years ago when shareholders were less interested in what the board had to say.
One assumes that it was held on a Monday this year to suit Stan Kroenke’s diary, with him being at Twickenham on Sunday to watch the LA Rams and presumably busy later this week. All of the board of directors were present and correct, although only Sir Chips and Ivan Gazidis answered any questions. Secretary David Miles summarized those previously submitted and Stan Kroenke did say a few words but more on that shortly.
Shareholders arrived to find a red envelope on their seats, the kind of thing you would normally find a giant Valentine’s Day card inside. In fact it was a booklet of Ivan Gazidis’ Powerpoint slides that he would talk the meeting through when it was his turn to address the assembled.
The stage was different this year. Normally you get the top table with the directors, and then a gap to the front row. However, this time, we had a mini walkway in front of it allowing space for a presentation to the manager and then Ivan to take stage front as if he was Mick Jagger singing ‘Honky Tonk Woman’. Actually, thinking about that, maybe ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’ would be more appropriate. There were autocue screens on the floor anyway, in case anyone forgot their lines. Arsene Wenger also delivered his traditional words from this protrusion.
It was good to see @Angry of N5 turn up in leather biker’s trousers, showing the appropriate amount of disdain for proceedings. The only other style note to remark upon is that Josh Kroenke was sporting the 50’s style short back and sides haircut currently in vogue amongst Premier League footballers and many men of a certain age. Dad Stan wore a customary toupee, although of a slightly more realistic shade this year. While we are on the subject of hair, I hadn’t really noticed that chairman Sir Chips Keswick has a comb over before, but the sharpness of the images on the club’s videoscreens left us in no doubt that state of the art technology means there is no place to hide when it comes to these things.
So much for the important stuff. It was the 20th anniversary of Arsene Wenger’s tenure at the club, which meant the presentation of a framed print of the artwork on the cover of the recent Ludogerets programme by artist Arwyn Thomas. This happened stage front where Stan Kroenke delivered a short speech, reading off a sheet of paper, with all the enthusiasm of a man at a funeral, forgetting to put the mic he had in hand anywhere near his mouth. It was frankly a bit shambolic, but Arsene took it in good grace. “Arsene Wenger and Ken Friar were the reasons we got involved in this club,” he said. Really? The only board members Kroenke met before he bought a 10% stake in the club were David Dein and Keith Edelman. Anyway, “We are very excited about the club this year, we think we have a great club – we are very excited about the season,” he read from his cue sheet with such a lack of conviction that he wasn’t fooling anybody.
At least, standing next to the majority shareholder, the recipient of the framed print could hear what he was mumbling. The artwork, consisting of the manager’s face made up of the names of the 210 players he has fielded in the first team during his 20 years at the club (Bischoff, Danilevicius, Denilson, Stepanovs – all the legends are there), is excellent, although one suspects it will end up in the Wenger attic, a bit like the portrait of Dorian Gray, although rather than the image aging, the memories of some of those players are more likely to put lines on the face of the man himself.
I digress. Sir Chips then delivered the line of the meeting. “Thank you for all your efforts, which have been titanic,” before realizing the implications of what he had said. No doubt the stadium move turned out to be an iceberg in terms of Arsenal’s ability to win the league. Certainly, there have been some choppy waters for the good ship Arsenal since 2006, with an array of captains and… enough of this nautical imagery. The band played on.
A couple of questions related to the account followed. Ivan’s salary hike of £1 million was queried. The club’s renumeration committee is chaired by Lord Harris and Sir Chips is on there too. No danger of the turkeys voting for Christmas then. “Ivan is doing a first class job in leading the club”. Google Translate – Income has gone up so here's your slice of the pie for taking the flak for the club not winning anything.
Vote time – a symbolic formality. On the show of hands, the re-election of Stan Kroenke to the board needed two votes for the meeting to approve it, as it was quite close and some initial abstainers had to push it through. As Sir Chips pointed out, if required the proxies would provide 97% in favour of Silent Stan getting back on (the combined votes of Kroenke and interestingly, Alisher Usmanov, who apparently abstained last time if was Stan’s turn to be voted on). However, it was good to see the shareholders showing a bit of resistance rather than meekly accepting things.
A tribute was paid to Ken Friar after his own re-election. One lady voted against (and explained why later), although no-one else would dare raise a hand against Ken, who is effectively the Queen Mother these days in terms of his status at the club (and still drawing a fairly handsome salary, presumably in recognition of his knowledge of sooooo many skeletons in the cupboard). When he received a very warm round of applause after some words of tribute from the chairman, his face resembled Albert Steptoe for an instant. Now 82, there is no question he has been a great servant to the club, but might the board benefit more from someone like Patrick Vieira rather than an octogenarian in 2016?
Next up it was time for Ivan to run through his powerpoint slides for 15 minutes and tell us how brilliant the club is and what a great job everybody is doing. Tim Stillman will give you a fuller rundown of this, but I can summarize it in three words: Aren’t we wonderful?
And indeed, some of the community and charity work highlighted is very laudable, so kudos to the club for that (although the PFA agreement that every first team squad player does an hour of community work a week is quietly forgotten these days).
Anyway, with Ivan’s turn at stage front done, it was Arsene’s opportunity to address the assembled. It was a shorter speech than normal, and in truth most of it washed over my head as my brain didn’t pick detect too much he hadn’t said in previous years, although he did start with a gag – “Yes it’s 20 years – I am sorry”. I did make a few notes – “I would like to apologise for every minute I made you suffer for 20 years – but you don’t look too bad.”
“We come out of the training ground and see people from all over the world” – just a shame that the players are strictly forbidden from stopping their cars and signing a few autographs for these people that have travelled halfway across the globe to see their heroes then. Time for a change of policy perchance?
“The job is about selection and decision making.” In-game tactics? Maybe we could throw that one into the mix?
He seemed to be reading off the autocue screens below him – as if the lines were lyrics to old hits not played for too long to remember them properly, however familiar the words seemed.
“82 – 86 points will decide title”
