AGM - Big fish talking small

I have returned. No explanation, just got quite lazy. I will try and make a sustained effort to write on a regular basis now. Could do me good.

Thursday was the AGM which is always sound-byte-central. While less strained than in previous years, there were still a number of issues to be discussed. Crippling injuries, an indifferent start to the season and a substantial payment to Shady Stan's Company That Does Real Stuff and That were all on the agenda.

The later was perhaps the most worrying being that in this day and age, a solid financial platform is pretty much a necessity to be able to compete at the top level. The £3m that the club shelled out to Stan in return for 'advisory services' seemed to confirm the as yet unsubstantiated fears that many Arsenal fans held; that despite Ivan Gazidis' assurances of his 'great ambition' for the club, Mr Kroenke really intended to use Arsenal as a balloon from which he could suck out lots of lovely, heliumy money until we were all deflated and he was having a high pitched giggle, quite literally our expense. Although the payment was small, equivalent to around one percent of the clubs revenue in the last financial year, it set a precedent which some fans felt needed to be questioned.

I can't find the quote right now but I thought the answers given by Sir Chips the Chairman were thoroughly unconvincing. There was still no explanation as to what 'advisory services' actually entailed and the admission that no tender was put out does nothing to assuage my previously stated fears.

Anyway. While it's a situation that will continue to be monitored, there was actually another quote which caught my eye. It came from Ivan Gazidis who said:

'We’ve seen with clubs like Borussia Dortmund or Atletico Madrid that you can compete at the very top of the game and I wouldn’t be doing this job if I didn’t believe we could compete at the very top level.'

I found it interesting because, well, it's only a half quote in reality. It's an incomplete story. Sure the man's right when he says that Dortmund and Atleti (I have Spanish friends) proved that the 'very top of the game' is not an inaccessible destination. But leaving aside the fact that both appear to have been one season wonders with regards to hitting the highest heights in Europe, there is a further caveat to the statement.

They both did it without spending. Yes I know that's hyperbole. Diego Simeone didn't keep his team onside by offering free wax and polishes at his brother-in-law's car wash just as Jurgen Klopp brought players to Dortmund with more than an offer of complimentary lawn mowing. But I think I read somewhere that Atleti reached last season's Champions League final with a budget comparable to QPR. Contrast that with financial power of recent winners and you see that what those two sides did was remarkable.

But why didn't Ivan mention Malaga, Quarter finalists in Dortmund's year or PSG, a club who five years ago finished thirteenth in a weak league of twenty playing in front of as little as 14,000 fans, and yet to whom a failure to reach this season's Champions League semi-finals would likely represent failure?

In a word: money. Now, I know we've ditched our thrifty image in recent times but nevertheless what Gazidis said and the implications of it stand out to me. Perhaps I'm reading to much into it, but by using examples of clubs that have crossed the Rubicon in canoes rather than super-yachts, it creates the impression that there is still a reluctance to go big, to spend what is necessary in addressing the squad's deficiencies.

Look, I'm no advocate of PSGing it. I like the way in which the club is sustainable in its spending. It gives a genuine reason for pride as opposed to blind loyalty (which I engage in sometimes too). But in a week when the imbalance of the first team was laid bare, I find it kind of frustrating to see the big shots promote the small fish in a big pond mentality.

I get that this is just one quote, which in fairness goes against previous statements he has made but hey; I've written a post now and I stand by the stuff I've said. I can't even be Hulled right now so that post will come later. I was there though and in case you didn't know, It was pretty annoying to say the least.

Bye for now.