At a rather acrimonious Arsenal general meeting, Arsene Wenger once again paraded his Uefa coefficients to justify his approach to management. He argued, ‘the first quality of a club is to be consistent. We have had 18 consecutive seasons in the Champions League. Only one club – Real Madrid – has done better.’ One might argue that doing well includes winning the competition or at least getting close to it.
At a rather acrimonious Arsenal general meeting, Arsene Wenger once again paraded his Uefa coefficients to justify his approach to management. He argued, ‘the first quality of a club is to be consistent. We have had 18 consecutive seasons in the Champions League. Only one club – Real Madrid – has done better.’ One might argue that doing well includes winning the competition or at least getting close to it.
Nevertheless, Wenger insisted, ‘We have played more than 150 games in Europe. If you look at the percentage of games won in Europe, you will we see that we are in the top five.’ It still might be nice to have a trophy to parade around Islington, though.
Wenger insisted that he is ‘absolutely committed’ to seeing out his contract which expires in 2017. But he hinted that he might leave then when he would be 67.
Wenger was quick to dismiss his reputation for parsimony in the transfer market insisting that he is not scared to spend money, despite failing to add a single outfield player in the summer. He argues that it is only worth spending if the player has quality, but then one might ask how other clubs have managed to find players they regard as quality. However, some of them have spent unwisely.
There was some mystery about a £3m payment to Stan Kroenke Sports and Entertainment, the investment vehicle of the club’s majority shareholder. It is not clear what the club got in return. Kroenke was at the meeting, but declined to speak.
There was a lot of discussion of Arsenal’s high ticket prices, but chief executive Ivan Gazidis mounted a robust defence of them. He argued that season ticket renewal rates were very high, but all this shows is that Arsenal has some very prosperous supporters. A protest is planned by Bayern Munich supporters over the price of away tickets, but Gazidis said that comparisons with Germany were inappropriate given public funding for stadium construction.
A full account of the meeting can be found here.