An interesting Arsenal AGM for different reasons yesterday. I’ll just pick out the stuff that caught my own imagination rather than attempt to provide an authoratative view. Myles Palmer normally gives us a transcript of the manager’s speech, but I am not sure he was in attendance yesterday. However, when he posted this earlier today, I was delighted. Even the Spurs funnies emails doing the rounds haven’t made me laugh so much. I am now totally convinced that Leopold Mendacious is ghostwriting MP’s columns sometimes. Caroline, please fetch your father from the back passage before he’s lost in there forever. In fact, let’s not mess about, send a search team.

Peter Hill-Wood is still chairing the AGM. In fairness to the man himself, the other directors should allow him to stand down as chairman. Once again we had pre-submitted questions only, although it would make for a more interesting meeting if open questions were additionally allowed from the floor. This is unlikely to happen again now that we’ve seen two consecutive years without them, but in fairness, the pre-submitted questions allowed didn’t shirk the difficult issues.

Completions on the Highbury Square development becoming available are slowly falling, percentage-wise. Flats have been released as ready for sale in two tranches so far (a third occurs today). Take up on the first set was okay, but there are more unsolds from the second. This relates to those built at the Clock End. Basically, for the club line about completions from those flats with deposits on being healthy to be true (only two failures so far) this assumes that a decent proportion of the unsold properties (i.e. without a deposit on them by an intending buyer) are located in the Clock End blocks.

However, the chairman emphasised that the club were in it for the long haul, that no more money would be needed to be loaned to complete the construction and that the flats were regarded as reasonably priced, even in the current market. My suspicion is that the club have accepted they will have to rent out some of the unsold properties and sell them over a period of years once the market recovers. He emphasised that the Highbury Square money is ring-fenced from the football club. This ignores the fact that the land, with planning permission could have been sold for a healthy sum in 2006 with that money being immediately available to either pay off some of the stadium debt or help the manager in the transfer market.

The board are still optimistic that Highbury Square and Queensland Road will eventually net them around £350 million. There are £133 million of loans to repay there. Some of the £350 million has already been used by the club – I remember Keith Edelman saying that. Somewhere around £50 million. It wasn’t spent on the footballing side though. Probably spent when the stadium loan was re-structured at preferential rates involving a one-off £27 million payment, alongside some unspecified first year stadium expenses.

As for Keith Edelman, the chairman as good as admitted he was given the boot. It was time to move on, he’d been at Arsenal for eight years and a change was required. He’d say no more as they’d agreed a ‘mutual vow of silence’ – which basically accounts for the £1 million consultancy work that Edelman is supposedly doing for the club until the first anniversary of his departure. Apparently, much of this is being done from a villa in Portugal. Nice work if you can get it. There is no rush to get a new managing director as they want to get the right individual rather than rush to fill the vacancy.

Stan Kroenke was present. He cut an interesting figure. Almost menacing in a weird sort of way. It was strange to see him in the flesh after all this time. Having said that his minder was even more menacing. A bit like a WWF star in civvies, although without the potential for pantomime that goes with the wrestling gig. Stan’s using hair dye these days, but he’s still substantially younger than the rest of the board. The first two minutes of AGMs I often find myself thinking – God this lot are getting on! Are they going to make it through the meet? With Ken Friar and PHW in the centre, it seemed like a valid question this year. Ken gave an 'everything in the garden is rosy' speech and there is certainly a lot of profit and turnover. And if money isn’t being spent in the transfer market, it’s certainly being spent in wages. It looks as if there isn’t a member of the first team squad earning less than £50k a week from these figures. And quite a few earning closer to £100k. Some underperforming players are receiving a hell of a lot of money.

Back to the board, and, with Ken looking more and more like a Thunderbird puppet as the years pass, the need for dynamism is not a new idea, but is Kroenke going to provide it? He flew in from New York just to be present at the meeting, returning immediately afterwards, although Danny Fiszman didn’t make it – presumably from Switzerland. His name card was on the stage while the staff were setting things up, but it was removed. Who knows what happened, but my guess is he was expected. Significantly, when the chairman welcomed Kroenke, he received a warm round of applause from the attendees, and was unanimously voted in by the meeting as a director. How times have changed.

The chairman stated in an answer to one question that the board would never sell out to someone who did not have Arsenal in their blood. That’s great, but what of the children of Danny Fiszman? And whoever inherits Lady Nina’s shareholding? This of course assumes the pair hang on to their shares till they pass off this mortal coil. They are of course relative striplings compared to some of their fellow directors. So if they don’t sell, it’s a problem that isn’t going to trouble the chairman as by that time, he certainly won’t be chairing AGMs. Referring to Red and White Holdings, the board hoped to improve relations, but were not prepared to give Usmanov any more information than they would to the shareholders present. Doesn’t sound that promising to me, but as I’m not an Usmanov fan, that suits me fine. Who wants a Man Utd supporter having intimate knowledge of what’s going on at boardroom level?

The only non pre-submitted questions from the floor that occurred were for the manager after he gave his customary speech. It was ironic that he pointed to the crowd’s lack of passion. Firstly, the stadium move has helped create it. With so much more corporate hospitality and indeed higher ticket prices, then atmosphere will inevitably suffer. Additionally, it’s the younger fans that are more inclined to express themselves. Can they afford to get in anymore? The club certainly aren’t making it any easier with the abolition of the Cannon Club. And then there’s the stewarding. Stand up and do a bit of chanting and someone texts a steward to have you sit down and shut up or ejected. Do me a favour.

You either want atmosphere or you don’t. If you the club decide to quash it, I don’t want to hear the manager complaining about the lack of it. You want the fans to support the team? Create the conditions that allow it! A redsection ever third block of seats. And a clear message to anyone that buys a ticket in said blocks that they will be up and down throughout the game, exposing themselves to people singing at volume. And the club to start lobbying for safe standing areas as they have in Germany. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I heard the manager complain about the fans failing to get behind the team. Maybe he should remind some of his cosseted stars to show a bit more appreciation for the fans after away matches, and allow kids who attend members’ days to get some autographs and pics with the players. You can’t have it both ways.

The questions for the manager were the last of the meeting. Eduardo will be back soon, Rosicky in January. Wenger wants to win trophies this season, not next, so there is no long term plan with this team, he considers them ready now. The final query was about his failure to address a vulnerability to high balls into the centre of the defence in the transfer market (he’d said that he would buy a defender to answer this problem back in May) given the club’s extensive scouting network. He said buying players was not like going to a supermarket and finding exactly what you want on the shelf. He cited the example of a six feet five left footed centre back.

So in world football, there was no stopper that could not be persuaded to come to Arsenal that would improve the manager’s options? I am still scratching my head on this one. Either the money wasn’t in fact there or the manager failed to do his job properly. The board line effectively points to the latter. And the profit figures certainly back that idea up.

After the last year’s meeting, many of the directors joined the shareholders for coffee and biscuits laid on by the club. Not so this year. A shame. That some of them scurried away fairly quickly was not a good sign, and hopefully not symbolic of what might happen in the not too distant future. I wonder if they will all be back next year?