Eight years, no trophies, but Gazidis reveals he wants Wenger to agree new Arsenal deal



Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis has confirmed that he wants Arsene Wenger to extend his contract beyond the end of next season and lead the club to the top of European football.

Wenger’s deal expires next year and he has been in demand, not least in his native France where Paris Saint-Germain and his former club Monaco are rich from overseas investment.

Sign him up! Gazidis (below, left) wants the French boss to extend his deal with Arsenal beyond next summer

Rumblings of dissent at the Emirates sparked suggestions that the 63-year-old might seek a fresh challenge but Gazidis expects him to stay and build a powerful team from the club’s new position of commercial strength.

Arsenal forecast their annual income is set to rise by £70million, launching them into the £300m-plus bracket along with Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United and European champions Bayern Munich.

This will allow them to compete for those players who command fees beyond £25m and wages over £200,000 a week such as Wayne Rooney, one of this summer’s top targets.

‘Of course we could do that, we could do more than that,’ said Gazidis. ‘We are beginning to see something we’ve been planning for, which is the escalation in our financial firepower. It’s a progression over the next two seasons. It’s quite significant for the club. It means we can look at some options that weren’t really in our financial capability.

‘It really is time now for us to turn that into sporting success. I know Arsene is focused on that and we are together. This is not some veiled message.

‘The key to this summer is going to be making the right decisions without damaging the great team unity which we have — and I think we have the right person to do that in Arsene.

‘The most important thing is that we have the right chemistry. It could be big-name players but it also might not be. It’s going to be the players Arsene believes in. He is pretty blind to price tags. He looks at what he sees and makes judgments based on that.

‘I think he will make the right decisions. We are not going to go through what we have in the last couple of summers with a major departure to wrestle with. If any players are to leave, those will be Arsenal’s decisions.’



The Premier League’s top three — Manchester United, City and Chelsea — have all changed their manager, but Arsenal retain faith in Wenger.

‘We think we have a fantastic manager,’ said Gazidis. ‘We hope he wants to do what he is doing for the long term. I believe he does. I think he is still ambitious, still driven and sees the potential of the club. I think he is very excited by that.

Champions League regulars: Arsenal finished fourth at Spurs' expense to qualify for Europe's top competition

Non-mover: Wenger has been at the helm at the north London club since 1996

‘We have a great relationship and he has a great relationship with the board.

‘We have got a lot of confidence in Arsene that he is the right person to take the club forward and I think he will want to do that.’



Wenger joined the Gunners in October 1996, winning the title in his first full season and qualifying for the Champions League every year since. But he has not won a trophy since the FA Cup in 2005.

The Gunners finished last season in fourth, 17 points behind champions Manchester United. They were embarrassed by Bradford and Blackburn in the domestic cup competitions and beaten on away goals in the Champions League by eventual winners Bayern Munich.

There has been dissent from some fans, who believe it is time for change at the club.

‘We want to be competing at the top of the game and in order to do that you have to be in the Champions League,’ said Gazidis. ‘So we are pleased to have qualified but it is not ultimately where we want to be with moving the club forward.

‘We want to be a club that is competing at the very top end of the game and that means competing to win the Premier League and competing to win the Champions League.

‘It is not idle ambition when we talk about wanting to get there. I think we have a very solid plan that will give us the ability to compete at that level provided we do things well.’



New financial strength comes from sponsorship, including the lucrative deals with Emirates to sponsor shirts and the stadium and a new deal for Puma to take over from Nike as kit suppliers next year.

‘The club is on a good path,’ said Gazidis. ‘We have been through a difficult and in some ways disappointing season which ended satisfactorily. But we are not crowing about that. We are looking ahead and to how we can push forward.

‘We’ve seen two clubs this year in the Champions League final, both of whom run responsible financial models and they are pretty fantastic teams and very exciting to watch. There’s no reason why we can’t do that.’





