PHOTO: Arsenal Chief Executive makes outrageous demand from Wenger, saying: ‘the aim next season is to win the Premier League’
The board and chief
Executive of Arsenal football club, having given a two years contract to French
man and manager of the club, Arsene Wenger, have demanded nothing less
than the Premier League trophy from the French man...
...the board insists, the
aim of the club this time around, is to win the trophy that has eluded them for
over twelve years now...clearly a prize Wenger would have to pay for his new two years contract at the club...But with the likes of Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho, Pochettino, and Klopp all wanting the Premier league next season...this clearly will be a tough task for Wenger come next season...
Given their record
achievement in the FA Cup, the board are hoping the manager and team could
transfer that to the premier league, as the fans are patiently waiting to
return to the old days where Arsenal were known as the Kings of London...before
the emergence of Chelsea as a power house in London...and Spurs are slowing
doing same...
In this interview,
granted to www.Arsenal.com, the chief Executive answers all the questions and plans
the club have for next season...see the transcript of the interview:
Ivan, the club and Arsène have signed a new
two-year contract. What’s the thinking behind that decision?
I will start by stating what the ambition is. The
ambition is to put this club in a position where we are winning the Premier
League, where we are competing to win in Europe and pushing forward. Football
is constantly evolving and we need to evolve and move forward and improve with
that.
That is the objective that the club has, that our owner has, that the
board has and that I know Arsène has. Arsène is somebody I have worked with for
over eight years now, and I know the quality of the man, I know the quality of
him as a football person and I know the quality of him as a human being as
well. Those values that he has, those qualities, are world class in every
respect. His DNA is the same DNA as this club.
He is driven to move forward, he
is driven to evolve and he is driven to achieve those objectives of winning for
this club and making those fans proud. When you look at the world of football,
and you think about the great candidates that there are - and there are many
great coaching candidates in the world and Arsenal is a club that all of them
would want to work for because of the things we represent in football - but
when you look around and make that assessment, you don’t find any better
candidates than Arsène Wenger.
According to reports, there was a contract on the
table in the autumn. Why didn’t the announcement come earlier than this?
It is not really a question about contract
discussions, that is not the issue here. The issue is a deep conversation on
Arsène’s side and on the club’s side about what is right for Arsenal Football
Club. It is not about people, it is not about contracts, it is about Arsenal
Football Club.
It is a very mature conversation that involved conversations
between people who have deep respect for each other and who care about the
football club, and want to make the right decision to push the club forward
towards its goals. That is a decision we wanted to think very deeply about: is
this the right decision, both for Arsène and for the club, but above all for
the club.
That is the reason we have reached the decision we have, because I
think on both sides there is a recommitment to the future and to moving the
club forward, to evolving and to improving. We have the right person for that
and I know Arsène is committed to that. Looking forward this is not a
sentimental decision, this is not a backwards-looking decision, this is all
about looking forward. Arsène does not look backwards, and neither does this
club. We are looking forward and we are confident about the future with Arsène.
It’s a two-year deal. Do you know yet what happens
after that?
We don’t. Football is constantly evolving,
constantly changing. This is a two-year deal so we are looking at at least the
next two years. Again, at some point of course we will have to transition to
the era beyond Arsène and that is not a sentimental connection that we have,
that is a connection that is driven by what is best for the football club.
I
will say this, this is not just the club not being sentimental, this is Arsène
not being sentimental either. Arsène would not make this commitment if he did
not believe he could push this club forward. That is an assessment we continue
to make as we move into the future, and who knows what the future holds.
You’ve talked about building on the manager’s work
and going to the next level. What constitutes the next level for this club?
The next level is to get us from where we are, to
competing deep into the season for the Premier League. If we are at that level
and of that quality, then we can compete in all competitions. That is what we
want to do, and the differences in football are not massive -
I know the
judgements are black and white, but in reality the differences can be down to
small details, periods when you in bad form but find a way to fight through, a
player who is available as opposed to injured, the right mental decisions and
right mental approach through the year, unity within the club and the support
base - all of these things play a part and make a difference at the end of the
season.
So we have to get all of those things right across the club, on the
pitch and off the pitch, to make sure we are in a world-class environment and
have a world-class attitude with that goal in mind.
Again, I would say we have
discussed this very deeply, we have faced uncomfortable truths within the club,
inconvenient facts, and we are looking at them squarely in the face and working
out what we need to do improve and step up from where we are to that winning
level. I am convinced we have the right person to do that.
The critics have said that a top-four finish seems
to be enough for Arsenal. I presume you would say nothing is further from the
truth…
I think that’s just absolutely not true. The
objective is not [just] to finish in the top four.
I know people will jump to
that conclusion because we’ve done that so consistently for so long, but that’s
not what where we’re moving to. If we think about where we finished last year,
we finished in second place, invested over £100m in the transfer market, the
biggest investment this club has ever made. It was made to push ourselves
forward.
There’s a lot of things happening under the surface that are not
public. The new facilities we’re building, the new improvements we’re making
all around our support staff, as well as on the field. All of this is driven
towards the ambition of winning the Premier League.
Does it mean you can win
the Premier League every year? Of course nobody can guarantee that but that is
the ambition. I think in football, the judgements are so black and white that
often, if you don’t fire your manager, then you’re seen as being unambitious. I
think that’s ludicrous.
You don’t fire good people, you don’t fire people who
are world-class, you don’t fire people who are driven to improve. What you do
is work out how you can improve together and how you can move forward. That’s
what this club is doing and we have a very clear ambition that we want to
deliver it in.
You’ve touched on the fans’ frustrations this
season. What message have you got for those fans?
I would say that what we want to deliver is pride
to our fans, the kind of pride that we had at Wembley Stadium this weekend.
Those are magnificent moments that live in the memories and the history of the
football club forever. To me, that feeling of unity that we had at Wembley,
that support that we had from our fanbase, made a massive difference to that
performance and the way the players were able to respond.
We’ve had a
tremendously strong end to the season where we’ve seen some of the divisions
that we’ve had put on the side for the sake of the football club. Again, I
would say let’s put the football club above everything else.
Let’s get behind
this team because they deserve our fans’ support. Together, we can achieve
great things. Remember, the motto of this football club is ‘Victoria Concordia
Crescit’, victory through harmony. We need to restore that harmony by getting
behind the team to achieve success together. That’s where we have a chance.
What happens if the fans continue to criticise the
manager and the board?
We have to deliver performances to get the fans
behind this team. We’re very conscious of that. It’s up to us to lead through
the commitment we have on and off the pitch. We need to show that to the fans
and we will. I’m convinced that our fanbase will put the football club at the
top of their priorities and will get behind this team.
Together, we are much,
much stronger than we are when we are arguing and trying to prove who’s right
and who’s wrong. Let’s get behind the team, let’s get behind the club. We’ve
seen progression at this football club in the last few years and Arsène’s seen
us through a very difficult period where financially we didn’t have the kind of
capabilities that we have today. In the last three or four years, we’ve seen an
era where we can sign players like Ozil
or Alexis or Granit and others.
We’ve seen the club move forward and we’ve seen
vast improvements across all our support operations underneath the surface as
well. All of this had led to three FA Cups in four years. I don’t say that to
say that’s our ultimate ambition and we’re satisfied and feeling self-satisfied
about that, but I do think that the environment we’ve been in at times has been
very difficult. Again, I would say that we can achieve a lot more together so
let’s come together and push this team forward.
Where do we need to improve as a club on and off
the pitch, and how do we go about reviewing that?
We do this continually by the way. We talk
continually about how we can evolve and what’s happening in football. It’s
constantly evolving and we need to be not only evolving with it, but we need to
be ahead of it. We’re very conscious of that and we’re going to be very
proactive again to improve both on and off the field in all areas. Today’s not
the day to get into the specifics of that. I think you’ll see that commitment
in the months ahead and I think you’ll see that commitment coming into next
year.
What are your hopes for next season?
Well, what I hope is that we can start the season
strongly, we can have that sense of togetherness and hope that drives football
at every football club. And that we can achieve great things together. I want
this football club, Arsène wants this football club, our board and our owner
want this football club to be competing to win the Premier League. And that’s
my hope for next season.
Before that we head off on tour - first stop Sydney.
How excited are you about that - have you been before?
I have, I lived in Sydney for three months when I
was a student and it’s a city that I love. It’s absolutely spectacularly
beautiful. I’m delighted that we’re able to visit Sydney and I can reacquaint
myself with it. I’ve got relatives there and it’s going to be a brilliant
preparation for the team, a great way to connect with the very big Australian
fanbase that we have and a wonderful, wonderful place for our players to visit
that we’re looking forward to.
Let’s finish with that incredible day at Wembley.
An FA Cup win is always special but what do you think made this year’s success
so satisfying?
You know, I’ve spoken to so many fans, many of whom
have been fortunate enough to see many Arsenal FA Cup victories, as many as 10
and 11. And all of them say that this was the greatest one. I think it’s partly
because of the difficult period that the club went through and the team went
through, partly because we were the underdogs in the match, playing against the
champions who were coming off an absolute high, having finished the season so
well and having won the Premier League.
We ourselves had picked ourselves up
and had an incredibly strong run of results towards the end of the season, but
in the end had that disappointment, really profound disappointment of missing
out on the Champions League places by one point. So for the team to have the
leadership and the strength to pick themselves up and to come back, put in a
performance like that for the fans, which really was such a strong performance
against a top class team in a top class game, and to have the fans completely
unified behind them, was an incredibly powerful statement about what we can do
together.
I was phenomenally impressed, not just by the performance of our
players, but also by the way that our fans got behind the team and I’d love to
take that forward into next season.
source:www.Arsenal.com
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