An Annual General Meeting (AGM) held at Arsenal on Thursday gave the managers of the club and coach Arsene Wenger a medium to speak to fans on plans for the club and as well justify their recent doings.
The big moment of the day was when Arsene Wenger revealed that the club are very likely to make one more key signing in January since it wasn’t possible on the summer transfer window.
“We tried to buy one more, a defender, but we didn’t find one. But we will try to rectify that in January,” Wenger said.
On the recent defeat suffered from Chelsea, the Frenchman said “It was paradoxical.”
He adds: “We were remarkably consistent but, when we lost we lost… we got battered. We kept 17 clean sheets. Today, if you lose the first goal in a big game, you have 85 percent of getting beaten. That’s a statistic.”
Chief executive Ivan Gazidis also let out on the issue of the club conserving it’s finances rather than exploring the transfer market.
“It is simply not the case that we are hoarding a vast cash balance for some unspecified reason,” Gazidis said.
“We always have to keep cash in reserve to comply with debt calculations. Most of the remaining cash after that is needed to run the club across the season, including player wages.
“We do try to keep further amounts of cash available for investment in the team. We try not to disclose that amount, because it would be
uncompetitive.”
Chairman Sir Chips-Keswick defended the three million pound Arsenal paid to one of its owners Stan Kroenke for his company, KSE LLC, for ‘strategic and advisory services.’
“The three million pound fee was proposed by myself and Lord Harris in respect of a wide range of services offered by Kroenke Sports Enterprises.They have an extensive experience and it is of upmost important that we use it to our best advantage,” the Chairman explained.