Gazidis attempts to ease fan fears

IVAN GAZIDIS, the Arsenal chief executive, is a slick salesman, but the message from the club’s fans at present could not be clearer: This isn’t what we bought into.

Last season was the club’s sixth successive without a trophy. Ticket prices, already the highest in Europe, went up by a further 6.5%. The club’s top stars want out. The manager, a man who has transformed the club, is now openly being questioned about his future. In short, the walls are closing in for Gazidis and Arsene Wenger.

That much was made clear to the chief executive on Monday night, when he hosted 200 fans from the Arsenal Supporters Trust at the Emirates Stadium. Gazidis handled himself with aplomb, but the questions from the floor were relenting, as fans demanded to know how the side would move forward from their disastrous finish to last season, in which three victories in the final 15 games condemned them to failure in all four competitions.