Arsenal fans fail to get answers

It was the sneer that said it all. “Thank you for your interest in our concerns,” said Peter Hill-Wood, the Arsenal chairman, as the club’s stormy AGM ended in typically fractious circumstances.

The point Hill-Wood had so spectacularly failed to register was that he was speaking to the club’s shareholders, people to whom it very much was ‘their concern’.

They had wanted answers from Arsenal’s secretive majority shareholder, ‘Silent’ Stan Kroenke. They had demanded that Ivan Gazidis, the chief executive, explain why the supporters pay the highest ticket prices in England without a trophy in seven years. And they had called for clarification on why the club has around €62m to spend but allowed Robin van Persie, their captain and top scorer, to join Manchester United last month. They left sorely disappointed.

It was a shambolic affair, with Hill-Wood coming across as a rude and out-of-touch figurehead.

Around a dozen hands went up to register their disapproval with John ‘Chips’ Keswick being re-elected to the board. A similar number went up to demand Gazidis was removed from his post. Hill-Wood’s response was instructive. “The same old lot,” he muttered, seemingly unaware he was talking into a microphone in a room with 400 people in it.

Yet Hill-Wood has no real power at the club. Those that do — Kroenke, Gazidis and Arsene Wenger, the manager — were all on stage alongside him. They had walked past the protest banners outside the ground. They heard the heckles and the catcalls. Then they stood and watched as the anger came tumbling out. And who was protesting was as instructive as what they were protesting about.

The Arsenal Supporters Trust is by far the most reasonable and patient of the supporters’ groups, but their twin leaders, Tim Payton and Nigel Phillips, stormed the microphones to ask questions that were laced with fury. They were met with blank faces and, in the case of Kroenke, a rebuttal.

Asked directly if he would take money out of the club in the manner of the Glazers at Manchester United, the American talked without answering the question.

This is a club that struggles with context. Compared to this time a year ago, when Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri had been sold late on in the transfer window, they are in a superior position. The vast majority of their rivals are envious of Arsenal, their Champions League record and sparkling new stadium.

But they have gone seven years without a trophy. The best players leave every summer. Money is available but not spent. The manager is still hugely respected but swims against the tide, claiming that third place is worth far more than winning the FA Cup or Capital One Cup.

“For me, there are five trophies. The first is to win the Premier League, the second is to win the Champions League, the third is to qualify for the Champions League, the fourth is to win the FA Cup and the fifth is to win the League Cup,” said Wenger.

“I say that because if you want to attract the best players, they do not ask, ‘did you win the League Cup?’, they ask you, ‘do you play in the Champions League?’.”

That is true, but it doesn’t answer the key questions about where Arsenal go from here.

Kroenke: “I have only one regret with Arsenal — that I didn’t get involved earlier,” he explained.

“We have never put any debt on this club for acquisition, and never said in any meeting that money was not available. We have a record of reinvestment in our other clubs, and that is there for everyone to see.”

But Arsenal fans do not care about the St Louis Rams, the Colorado Avalanche or any of his American franchises.

They care about their club. Anger was vented after the game against Schalke, and again yesterday. The board know how the fans feel. Winning trophies is the only way to secure their future, and until Uefa’s Financial Fair Play rules kick in, that doesn’t look like happening any time soon.