Claudius wrote:
You really think that will matter? I don’t believe Arsenal is looking to make a grand Ajax or Barcelona type statement. We just needed to be well-run like Pool or Dortmund. The noises players and agents continue to make about us suggest that we are a three ring circus sans animals. I don’t think adding a technical director will change that. Might just add complexity to the absurdity. If outsiders are confused about who runs transfers, and there is still a feeling that this Club Med, it speaks to real issues of direction, philosophy and execution. We are behind Spurs/Pool here, and can’t match City/United for the money. What’s the hope?
Agreed that I do not think we are looking to try to position ourselves in the same echelon of football significance as Barca or Ajax, but I do think we are looking to use Sanllehi's experience at Barca to help us to establish those structures at Barca that enable a measure of continuity. I think BVB are a good example of what we should be able to achieve as we are a bigger club that both Ajax and BVB in terms of resources.
There was a lot of talk about KSE's investment with the Rams, not just in regards to the move but also in regards to their new management/coaching team. I suspect that Josh's visit/fact finding mission was both a response to their on field success of the changes to their team management, and also may have been a response to the financial figures - whatever we think of them I don't think they are stupid or incompetent. As such I think that the changes over the last 18 months on and off the pitch are their response to their Rams experience. I also think that their decision to relocate the Rams to LA is perhaps recognition of the strength of our being located in Inner London.Â
Whilst we are behind the other current top6 both on the pitch and in terms of revenues, there are still reasons for hope going forward. Â
On the pitch our Home form is comparable to the top of the table - if our Away form matched the PL average these last 2 seasons we would have been challenging for the title. Â
As for finances our strategy to date has been based upon our Home gate which has resulted in our football based revenues being the highest % of the top20 clubs in the game. Before the current TV revenues our ratio was 60/40 in favour of football based, whilst the top20 average was split 40/60 in favour of commercial sponsorship. The only reason our ratio has changed has been directly as a result of the TV deal, which means our potential growth of our commercial revenues is something like a third of our current total revenues, which also puts us ahead of all but MC & MU. Â
Whilst we have botched / blown / wasted over 500m in recent years we do not need to change our self sufficiency or self funding in order to recover, however we do need to change the way we use those revenues. As such we have the most potential for growth on and off the pitch of any club in the PL if we actually decide to get serious, and at no point do we require a massive injection of funding from KSE, although it would not be unwelcomed.  TBH if I was KSE I'd want to be certain that I had the right structure and people in place before I invested.
Bottom line KSE are not 'bad' owners just because they have not invested directly into the team. The issue has been their ignorance of how sports works outside the US sports franchise closed system & putting their faith in the extant club structures and decision making. I'd be more concerned if our structure and management had not changed at this point & in some ways I'm actually glad that we are no longer run by the shareholders/BoD who are those that have placed us in this position - not KSE who are now trying to put things to rights.
We've had some harsh realities exposed over the last couple of seasons but at least we are no longer living in a bubble of ignorance. Irony being that whilst we may have lacked the ambition to go forward previously, the actions required to fix the mess may end up having the same effect.
