Arsenal shareholders in tonight’s Q&A session. In truth I am sure most of us could guess what the content of the evening would have been before he uttered his first word. Much of what he said has already come out to the press only a few days ago. There will be some detailed articles on this evening and tomorrow I am guessing from those who attended this evening. A few of those attendees were kind enough to tweet the goings on via the weird and wonderful world of Twitter. I thought I’d pick out a few of the questions and his answers and then give my view if you don’t mind

I wanted to write something Arsenal related earlier but there was pretty much nothing going on. Transfer speculation is freaking me out a little now, especially after reading this article called The truth behind the transfer window rumour mill.

Certainly worth a read and should make you take a step back when hearing the latest twitter rumour. If I want to check on a rumour then looking at the odds via Betfair may well be the best idea.

I thought I would save my blog until this evening once Ivan Gazidis has spoken to Arsenal shareholders in tonight’s Q&A session. In truth I am sure most of us could guess what the content of the evening would have been before he uttered his first word. Much of what he said has already come out to the press only a few days ago. There will be some detailed articles on this evening and tomorrow I am guessing from those who attended this evening. A few of those attendees were kind enough to tweet the goings on via the weird and wonderful world of Twitter. I thought I’d pick out a few of the questions and his answers and then give my view if you don’t mind.

Gazidis: “Arsene’s seen us through a difficult period”. Says they’re now able to give him more resources.

— Gingers for Limpar (@Gingers4Limpar) June 10, 2013

Gazidis says the aim has been to get revenues to £300m, onto a similar level of Bayern Munich’s – & thus we’ll have their spending power.

— Gingers for Limpar (@Gingers4Limpar) June 10, 2013

That first part has been a long standing debate amongst Arsenal supporters, it wasn’t too long ago when I consistently read that it was Arsene’s vanity project, that he had stacks of cash locked in his safe but he was so arrogant that he wanted to win without spending or such nonsense. If that was/is your opinion then apologies in advance but you need to book an appointment with your local doctor so he can take a look at you.

The Swiss Ramble and the AST have informed numeracy illiterates such as myself that due to poor commercial income as well as stadium debt we have been pretty much breaking even without the aid of profiting from the transfer market. It pretty much confirms why Arsene had to chop off the invincible’s in such a short space of time due to their large wages as well as needing the transfer fees to reinvest in younger, cheaper and longer term replacements.

It kind of makes you wonder, during such a vulnerable time where would we be today without the regular Champions League income, say we missed 3-5 seasons of that competition how would we have managed, would we have had to gain even more money from the transfer market by selling more and replacing with even cheaper players? Or perhaps promoting even younger youth products. Instead of paying the money for Emmanuel Adebayor maybe the best striker in the world Nicklas Bendtner may have had a different footballing career to the one he has had thus far at Arsenal. Who knows, well Liverpool do I guess. Actually no they do not, they didn’t have to juggle funding a stadium whilst trying to stay competitive, but I guess they did manage to splash the cash on a £35m super striker *chuckle*

Onto the £300m revenue part, the club have clearly been waiting until they were free from our previous financial shackles. You all know about why they were needed and how far behind we were so there is no need to delve into that but we have come out the other side. Stadium naming rights, soon to be named kit deals and also small additional deals that should keep rolling in.

While we will never have the bottom less pockets of multi billionaire owned clubs, I think we have a better chance of closing the gaps now. Good management can make us the best now where as that was never going to be the case when you are trying to make transfer profits every season.

Woah – Ivan says our wage structure “will have to evolve” as top players will keep seeing wages rise, why mid-players’ wages could stagnate.

— Gingers for Limpar (@Gingers4Limpar) June 10, 2013

Am I misreading that last answer, or is Ivan hinting at an end to wage “socialism”?

— Gingers for Limpar (@Gingers4Limpar) June 10, 2013

We haven’t been efficient enough with our wages in the last few years, I think every man and his dog know that. Players like Samir Nasri in the last year of their contracts would sign new deals today because we can get closer to those above us. It will be interesting to see how far we push our highest earner assuming we do break that this summer.

Gazidis says they “act on the assumption” that we’ll get through the CL qualifier when doing transfer deals during the summer window.

— Gingers for Limpar (@Gingers4Limpar) June 10, 2013

Gazidis says that players have never brought up the CL qualifier as a problem, when negotiating a possible move to AFC during summer windows

— Gingers for Limpar (@Gingers4Limpar) June 10, 2013

Very interesting if correct, I am convinced that we haven’t done that in the past due to our reliance on guaranteed CL cash. I am also convinced that we have lost out on some key players for this reason, not only that but also not being able to sell players in time before we could buy. Our guaranteed commercial cash should now mean that we can act nice and early without the fear of not making the CL group stages.

Btw, Ivan repeated what he told the press – that this summer’s activity is slow because of lots of managers leaving their club.

— Gingers for Limpar (@Gingers4Limpar) June 10, 2013

So perhaps we shouldn’t expect big deals to be done imminently. And *maybe* it’s a hint re. the Higuain situation. Maybe.

— Gingers for Limpar (@Gingers4Limpar) June 10, 2013

As G4L puts it, maybe it is an indication as to where we are looking. Doesn’t really help a great deal though as so many managers are changing this summer.

That is about that for now, sounds as if Ivan has spoken plenty of sense, although it is fashionable to suggest that he doesn’t know what he is talking about or doing. While we have been without trophies, the club have obviously improved dramatically since 2006.

Our foundations look unshakable but now is the time to build upon those foundations with real quality. We are going to have to be patient though. Let us not throw our toys out of the pram when PSG, Monaco, Manchester City and their ilk make their early moves, we have to be smart and thoughtful this summer. Cazorla, Monreal smart.

Thank you to @Gingers4Limpar for the Q&A tweets, check his timeline for the full caboodle.

’till tomorrow.