Speaking at anti-discrimination group Kick it Out’s Raise Your Game Conference, Arsenal’s chief executive had some words about the ambitions of the people at the very top of the club.
Gazidis alluded to a ‘destination‘ that the club is trying to reach and it isn’t as simple as winning the Premier League or Champions League.
“When we talk about the destination, it’s not winning a Champions League, it’s making fans proud,” he said.
“It’s about making the people at the football club proud of what we do and how we do it.”
Gazidis has been at the club since 2009 and has received plenty of criticism from fans. However, his work with commercial deals has seen the club’s revenue increase, evidenced by the big money signings of Mesut Özil and Alexis Sánchez.
“We get a lot of criticism, but we have people at the club who are very firmly fixed on where we want to get to and won’t get knocked off course by the whims that happen day to day.”
Gazidis described Arsène Wenger as a “world-class manager”, and still seems to have unwavering faith in the Frenchman who has guided the club through a difficult transitional spell since the stadium move in 2006.
Arsenal haven’t reached a Champions League quarter-final since 2010, but Gazidis believes the club is on the right track to reaching the levels expected by fans, the board, and the manager.
“We are very much on that journey, and we may never reach the destination.”
Next month we have the chance to retain the FA Cup after nine years without a trophy, and are on course to finish second in the Premier League for the first time since 2004-05, when we were still at Highbury.
Progress is being made, and in the right way.
That should make fans proud.