Kevin Whitcher
Arsenal. The gift that keeps on giving. Some element of farce, be it on the field or off it, is only ever just around the corner. The Queen once described a year as an annus horribilis, and in spite of an FA Cup win, there is a lot about 2017 that the club will not look back upon fondly.
Things reached a head with the AGM, the only opportunity shareholding fans get to make the board account for themselves. It descended into farce with a landslide majority of shareholders present rejecting the re-election of the chairman Sir Chips Keswick and Stan Kroenke’s son Josh to the board. This was symbolic given that Stan has 67% of the shares, so what he says goes. However, it did necessitate the formality of a card vote which took quite some time and caused huge embarrassment to the directors.
Given that the answers to pre-submitted questions are generally vague or answered with a “we’ll look into doing something about it” kind of response (translation – nothing will change but you’ve made your point), then this was the best thing that could have happened. The meeting serves zero purpose except to allow shareholding fans the opportunity to make their points in questions they are all too well aware will never be satisfactorily answered.
Tim Stillman always does a good account of the meeting and this year’s version can be read here.
There is really no point in me going into any kind of detail when this account is available, but a few observations. First up, after the resolutions were finally passed thanks to Stan’s shareholding, we had Ivan Gazidis introduce a video rather than bore us, as he admitted himself, with “death by powerpoint”. Self awareness is the first step to change, so this can only be a good thing. Before its screening he did say a few words including “the negatives and the concerns are right and proper”, but it was time to focus on the positives with the video – a feelgood compilation, a lot of the content irrelevant to the annual report in that it reflected events after the end of May 2017 – which did a similar job of eating up the same amount of time the CEO’s speech normally does. There was no round of applause for the video at its conclusion, demonstrating that the shareholders were not in the mood to congratulate the club on anything, even its charity work.
Arsene Wenger gave his speech before the answers to pre-submitted questions which was a change in the format. Significantly, he did not get the round of applause when he stood up to address the meeting, which I think might be a first. He lightened things a little, but his message was pretty simple. We can’t afford to keep up financially with the big boys, as the successful clubs are now owned by states rather than individuals, so we will have to develop a lot more young players. And please, get behind the team until the end of the season when you are free to slate us (conveniently when he is on his hols rather than in the dugout), although he didn’t actually say that in quite the same wording. He told us he spends “99% of my lifetime to trying to make you happy”. I’d suggest he tries to use some of that time trying to get some sleep if those figures are accurate. In contrast to the start, the manager received a warm round of applause at its conclusion. And the bottom line is that he has no obligation to even attend the meeting, let alone address it.
The pre-submitted questions for the directors followed – and were flashed up quickly on the screen – too fast for most to read them. This was probably deliberate in that they pointed out flaws. As stated earlier, the questions at the AGM are normally to make a point. Answers were generally given by Ivan Gazidis reading off a piece of paper. Sir Chips had a couple of those seethrough cue screens politicians sometimes use to read their speeches off at party conferences for the words he needed to say.
It was interesting to note Stan Kroneke never really made eye contact with the shareholders. He kept his head down looking at the questions on the paper in front of him, probably wishing it would all end. This behavior was replicated at times by several other directors, with the exception of Josh Kroenke who eyed the assembled like a sentry on lookout for enemy movement. He had more balls than his father in that respect.
There were some shouts from the floor at certain of the responses as individuals got the taste for rebellion. Gazidis told us that Arsenal are over performing based on their spending. Great, but how about spending a bit more so we can over-perform even better? A £28 million surplus after last summer’s transfer window does not indicate serious ambition to compete.
The meeting is normally shut down at 1pm so that the directors can go for lunch (with the exception of Gazidis, who in fairness, hangs around to take some more flak). However, shortly after that time, Sir Chips opened the floor to questions. Only three were admitted, the first, from yours truly, ironically requesting that next year’s AGM start half an hour earlier at 11am to allow more time for questions from the floor arising from the responses given at the meeting itself. I could see what was coming. Two questions later, at 1.09pm, the chairman closed the meeting down (having initially failed to acknowledge questions were even being asked from myself and a lady that followed me) in spite of a long queue of shareholders waiting to ask questions.
Another video should have ended the meeting, but it was drowned out by boos and slow handclapping. You can hear the chaotic end to the meeting here.
It was even more of a shambles than normal, the idea of pride and values were talked about a lot, but the dismissive attitude of the chairman to the meeting seemed a long way from the standards the club is supposed to embody. Sir Chips has become as bad as the latter day Peter Hill-Wood.
The bottom line is that the board have received a clear message from the majority of shareholders that the job they are doing is not satisfactory, and that they need to change the make up of the board to get people on who can do a better job. Don’t hold your breath.
It was a PR disaster – head of communications Mark Gonnella didn’t know where to put his head but for the most part he stared down at the table in front of him in similar fashion to Stan Kroenke. However, knowing how little we normally get out of these meetings by way of explanation (and an awful lot of hollow words), it was hugely entertaining. A far better 90 minutes than many the team have served up of late.
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