AGM - Protest

[Dave Clark Five]

Fox to be gone before end of season just my view.  Chairman will want his own man in, tis often the way in 'troubled organisations' where 'governance' is lacking and there is a need to conduct a 'root and branch shake up'.

Definitely. There aren't many sticking up for a Fox. He needs to find another vocation.

[saunders_heroes]

I'm not gonna stick up for Fox, but if he leaves he'll only be replaced by yet another Lerner mouthpiece.

[Dave Clark Five]

I'm not gonna stick up for Fox, but if he leaves he'll only be replaced by yet another Lerner mouthpiece.

One step at a time. Get rid of Fox first.

[passport1]

Isn't it so reassuring to learn that Randy has just realised that the club hasn't been very well run.If its taken that long to work out there is a problem I wonder what timescale he is working to in order to fix it?

[ciggiesnbeer]

Did anyone point out to Fox that the Championship is below the Premier League and we don't want to go into it?

They seem to think the Championship is some fabled land that we sort us out financially and we will piss the league and stroll back in to the Premier bigger and better than ever. Unfortunately with fuck wit Fox and his ilk involved I find this extremely unlikely.

Completely agree. I actually have no animus towards Fox but he really should be more measured about what he says.

He seems to believe we have been some kind of massive spenders the past few years and finally its time to stop the fire hose.

In fact we are looking like we will be relegated because we STOPPED spending on quality a few seasons ago, not BECAUSE we bought expensive quality. Its backwards logic he has. I fear the board all nod their heads and have convinced themselves that buying high quality expensive players is a proven failed strategy. It isn't. trying to muddle through buying middling or un proven players at a low to mid price points has been the failure.

[tomd2103]

Established players don't want to join us though, surely it's not defeatist to say that?

I think that's just a cop out. There are decent players out there that might join on short term deals if we offered them the money. That's the problem though (in my opinion), we won't pay the wages for these players. Our wage bill goes down every season so it's no wonder the team is sinking like a stone along with it.

I honestly think our best bet of getting the type of quality players we need to make a decent fist of the end of the season is on loan.  I think, however, though we would probably need to shift a couple of the bigger earning time wasters before that could happen.  If we did happen to go down, we wouldn't be in a place where we had expensive players tied to big contracts.

[OCD]

Sounds like Fox has negotiated our biggest ever kit deal - even if/when relegation is confirmed and has a track record that includes the biggest kit deal in Arsenal's history. Clearly the arguments for him going are related to what we're seeing on the pitch and not what's happening commercially so the logical thing to do would be to make sure he's only involved in the commercial side.

[tomd2103]

I'm not gonna stick up for Fox, but if he leaves he'll only be replaced by yet another Lerner mouthpiece.

Won't Hollis be tasked with appointments like that?

[ciggiesnbeer]

Sounds like Fox has negotiated our biggest ever kit deal - even if/when relegation is confirmed and has a track record that includes the biggest kit deal in Arsenal's history. Clearly the arguments for him going are related to what we're seeing on the pitch and not what's happening commercially so the logical thing to do would be to make sure he's only involved in the commercial side.

Worth repeating if it ends up being true. That would be a huge plus to his credit.

[Steve67]

So, we are really no further forward after all that.

[tomd2103]

Sounds like Fox has negotiated our biggest ever kit deal - even if/when relegation is confirmed and has a track record that includes the biggest kit deal in Arsenal's history. Clearly the arguments for him going are related to what we're seeing on the pitch and not what's happening commercially so the logical thing to do would be to make sure he's only involved in the commercial side.

Worth repeating if it ends up being true. That would be a huge plus to his credit.

Sounds good, but let's be honest we're probably only talking about a few million extra, which is probably what the likes of N'Zogbia and Agbonlahor earn in a year.  It certainly is pittance compared to the revenue that will be lost if we do go down.

[aj2k77]

I thought this AGM would give a bit of hope to fans but Christ I walked out of there feeling even worse.

You didn't think that at all surely. What did you expect them to say? The only unknown was Mr. Hollis and he has to be given a chance. Without the board structure of old, we were not able to give a vote of no confidence in the board.

I'd have hoped for a bit of fighting talk from the board that we were still ambitious and positive about staying up, and perhaps a hint or two that we were to spend our way out of trouble this month.
What we got though was a load of twaddle about keeping our exciting young squad together for next season. It was almost like they're already embracing relegation.

The squad is shit and the football as exciting as Vera Duckworth, the only part right is the young bit. We have 12 points and it's nearly February, do they think we are morons, we've seen the young and hungry guff before.

[eamonn]

So, any other craic at this meeting? Something to raise our spirits.
Were even the biscuits any good?

[GarTomas]

Didn't attend the meeting (on account of living in the US) so obviously following what's been reported here and elsewhere.

Hollis has been here 5 minutes so very harsh to judge him as another Lerner puppet or similar.  I read the 'customer' remark and it seems to have been a genuine use of a bad word; I take it more that what he was trying to say was the fans have still being very supportive despite the results on the pitch (which ultimately is what fans are looking at rather than new sponsorship or kit deals for record sums of money) but also an understanding that this level of support wont last forever if results do not improve.

With regards to transfers the caution approach whilst frustrating is actually I think the best approach here.  Contrast to several years ago where we spent 24million on Darren Bent and that was seen as good business in terms of his goals keeping us in the division.  Fast forward a few years and the legacy of that sort of contract is a contributing factor to the financial issues we faced/continue to face.  In terms of the the value in the market right now; I'm not convinced the money being laid out for Shelvey, Naismith or others represents good value.  For example, Everton are not getting relegated.  Selling Naismith now for 9.5m; they could sell him for the same fee in the summer.  If we paid that money now for him either we'd need to guarantee his wages wouldn't drop if we were relegated or insert a release clause below what we paid for him and to sell him in the summer.  If we were a closer to staying up that kind of financial gamble maybe worth taking; where we are not maybe not.  It's a calculated risk.  Likewise with Shelvey; Swansea selling him for 12m is actually very good business for them given they command a much lower fee for him in the summer and I think it's widely understood that he wasn't 100% happy where he was.  For the risk Newcastle took on selling him see above re. Naismith.

The comments around the summer recruitment and Sherwood are interesting.  Its debated back and forth on here several times which group of signings were the best; those by the "committee" of Ayew, Amavi, Veretout, Traore, Gueye or those picked by Sherwood of Richards, Lescott and Richards.  I'm of the opinion the former both from a current impact this season and also who would be better for the team longer term and in terms of resale value.  Sherwood has happy to go along with the recruitment in the summer but the integration was clearly lacking.  Fox appointment of Sherwood was arguably correct last year but he may not or should not of been tasked with taking the team forward this season.  Likewise the "no football club lets one guy pick 15 guys" is a defence of the committee that has been debated many times.  Fox has constantly said that many clubs sign players in this way and it's hard to disagree with this.  Our committee has been scrutinized alot here but it was this lack of committee or otherwise that gave MON free reign to buy a number of expensive players on big wages to keep the bench warm.

I'm not convinced of the view that Fox will be gone if he and Hollis dont see eye to eye; that's why you have multiple people in a decision making approach.  We could have 12 board members but if they all agrred all the time 11 of them are superflous.  I think Hollis role will be to oversee the other members of the team, Garde, Fox, Reilly and Almstadt and aid and mediate in the decision making process allowing each member to focus on their specific area (as OCD articulated rather better than I just have)

Any fan expecting Fox and Hollis to come out with lots of bravado that we are definitely staying up and new expensive signings are coming was never going to get that.

[villadelph]

Sounds like Fox has negotiated our biggest ever kit deal - even if/when relegation is confirmed and has a track record that includes the biggest kit deal in Arsenal's history. Clearly the arguments for him going are related to what we're seeing on the pitch and not what's happening commercially so the logical thing to do would be to make sure he's only involved in the commercial side.

Championship font kit number and Under Armour makes my skin crawl.