If Sir Chips Keswick didn't exist, someone would surely have to invent him. An Eton-educated merchant banker, who gets up in front of Arsenal supporters and minor shareholders at the AGM and delivers an answer which infuriates his audience, yet still carries out the public service of perfectly encapsulating the divide between the club and its supporters as it currently stands.
A stormy meeting of Arsenal shareholders on Thursday gave Sir Chips a rare outing, and a fairly calamitous one as it turned out. When one supporter quite reasonably asked to hear from majority shareholder Stan Kroenke, in attendance but living up to his "Silent" moniker, Sir Chips replied with a comment which could ring out with infamy for years.
"Read the Daily Telegraph," was his tone-deaf reply, referring to an interview the American had given to the newspaper on the morning of the AGM.
It had echoes of another infamous comment, this time from his predecessor, Peter Hill-Wood, who infamously responded to a question at the 2012 AGM about whether Arsenal would take any steps to diversify their board by dismissively telling his audience, "Thank you for your interest in our affairs."
Sir Chips' tribute act was a pretty slimy way to dodge some tough questioning, but in terms of evading accountability, it fit perfectly with common perceptions of how the club operates at the moment.
It was a revealing comment, exposing how those at the very top of the Arsenal executive view those beneath them. Kroenke's chat with a couple of newspapers was deemed to be sufficient to placate the restless masses. A lively conclusion to the AGM showed that not to be the case, with heckles reportedly flying.
Photo by Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images
Conflict-ridden AGMs are nothing new. Former vice-chairman David Dein once had to dampen down his own band of hecklers unhappy with how much the club had spent on a Serie A flop by the name of Dennis Bergkamp. But the revolt staged on Thursday was different. It was the first time, according to a prominent supporter group, that shareholders had voted down a resolution, forcing a formal poll vote on the question of whether to reappoint directors Josh Kroenke and Sir Chips.
This was significant. While it proved no obstruction to their re-appointment, Kroenke's 67.05% shareholding means he always has the balance of paper, it provided a perfect visual metaphor to go with the audible one supplied by Sir Chips: legions of individual shareholders registering their protest votes, desperate to be heard, desperate to be recognised, and the will of a detached and distant American billionaire crushing them all -- with the assistance, on this occasion, of Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, who also voted to keep the two men in place. This is how Arsenal function now.
Another sign of the detachment between club and supporters was a second tone-deaf comment, this time from chief executive Ivan Gazidis. "Every club has successes and failures and we want to do better, he said. "Arsenal, of the big clubs, have been the most over-performing club over time." To which one member of the audience caustically replied: "Losing to Bayern Munich 10-2 is successful?"
Maybe it was an unfair burn. Gazidis had already explained that he wasn't talking about specific results but Arsenal's general performance set against expenditure. He may even have a point -- with three trophies in four years thanks to the FA Cup, and regular visits to the Champions League -- but having slipped out of the top four last season and with three defeats already in the league in 2017-18, this wasn't really the right moment to make it. There was no kidding this audience or the millions of Arsenal fans extending out from it. This is now a fully global community, held at arm's length by those in power while the other arm gently rifles through their wallet.
Did Gazidis really not understand how his comment would go down? Did Sir Chips really not consider how dismissively we would come across? It is the same noise the fans have been hearing for years now, and they are tired. Until Kroenke opens himself up to some kind of accountability they will remain disaffected and disenfranchised. Heckles are the retort of the powerless masses on the sidelines, not those whose voices will actually be heard while Kroenke remains in charge.
Source: espn.co.uk