Gazidis Q&A Breakdown & Gervinho update

Morning Gooners,


All together now, Hurrah!! Something to write about other than transfer rumours!!

Arsenal CEO Ivan Gazidis bravely stepped up in front of the Arsenal Supporters Trust among others to front a question and answer session. I can only imagine that Gazidis prepared long and hard for all of the inevitable questions that would fly his way and he wasn't left disappointed.

To be honest, nothing that came out of the session was at all surprising. Mr Gazidis stated that the board support Kronke and in turn he fully understands the club. He said that everyone supports Wenger and also said that Wenger will and does answer to the fans (This statement got a very disrespectful laugh from many of those present) he expressed his "profound disappointment" at the way the season ended and he echoed Wenger's comments that the club expects a very busy pre season. He said:

“Coming off the end of the season, I share with you a sense of profound disappointment. We had a season that promised a great deal and looked like it could turn into a very special one but in the end a familiar story began to tell itself. I understand the feelings that we all felt.  “It is very clear we had some shortcomings and in this close season we are going to see some turnover of players. Some new signings will be coming in and some of our existing squad will be going out. As Arsène has said, it will be a busy close season for the Club.

"The trick will be identify which parts to keep and which parts to turnover. And we will do that within our financial capabilities.”

"Mr Kroenke is known to the Directors and they have confidence in him. In his track record in sports, and also very importantly his track record with Arsenal, he has used a self-sustainable model and brought success to his sports teams and he wants success for Arsenal. 

"He has grown to love Arsenal but he will remain in the background. This is not somebody who steps forward and looks for a public profile."

Now, I wasn't there but from what I've seen and heard Gazidis handled himself very well and although  he will not of cleared up all of Gooners worries and fears I feel he has gone a long way to reducing them. Gazidis made a point of saying that the football and it's fans seem to have too much distance growing between them and he didn't want Arsenal to be part of that, these forums give fans a fantastic opportunity to get face time with the club's bigwigs and their voices be heard.

If you are more interested in how this event went then pop over to Arsenal.com where they have provided the videos for free.

OK, OK, you've twisted my arm, I'll talk about transfers.

Chatter seems to imply that Arsenal could have as many as three deals virtually completed and up to another three in the pipeline. The three that seem to be holding the most weight are Samba, Chamberlain and Gervinho.

The Alex Chamberlain deal has been bubbling since January and his Dad has been less than subtle about his preference for his son's next club. Samba is a defender who's style does not currently exist at Arsenal. Personally I think he will be able to do a great job for us against so called lesser teams but I still think any transfer depends on two factors, firstly if Samba himself is OK playing only a handful of games because if everyone stays fit, that's all he will get and secondly if the clubs can agree a fee which is now much more doubtful now that Blackburn will be desperate not to lose him after seeing Phil Jones already leave for a bigger club.

The biggest movement at the moment seems to be with the Gervinho deal. Speaking to RMC Radio, Lille general manager Frederic Paquet said:

"He actually wants to go," 

"We have developed contacts with Arsenal. We will soon discuss with them to see what they want.

"He expressed his desire to leave for England so we'll see what will happen.

"Gervinho chose to leave for England, so that limits the scope of the situation.

"We will meet soon with Arsenal, see what they offer - but he is a player of value."

A lot of Gervinho's qualities are obvious and he will be a very useful addition to our squad but one factor that seems to be overlooked is that he has just won the domestic double in France against teams with more money and experience. He has the very thing that our squad is missing,  that mythical knowledge of winning trophies.


Hopefully over the next couple of weeks we'll see a few new faces appear in an Arsenal photo shoot.


Till next time,
Goonerfish.


Don't forget, for my pointless ramblings throughout the day on all things Arsenal follow me here on twitter.