Fury as Gazidis salutes Gunners success

ARSENAL chief executive Ivan Gazidis has made the puzzling claim that the team are ‘over-performing’ in the era of huge transfer spending.

His remarks were met with fury from fans at yesterday’s tense annual meeting.

The Gunners have spent close to £300million on players since the summer of 2013, but rivals have spent considerably more in that period.

There is growing discontent following the failure to qualify for the Champions League for the first time in 21 years, and Arsenal have not won the Premier League title since 2004. That disappointment was tempered by their third FA Cup triumph in four seasons last May.

There have been calls for Arsene Wenger to go and for the board to be replaced — including majority shareholder Stan Kroenke, who refused to speak at yesterday’s meeting.

But Gazidis said: ‘It is very simple to compare team performance by a series of objective metrics, usually league position or points, against expenditure on transfers. No club has a perfect record every year under this scrutiny, but Arsenal have probably been the most consistently overperforming team over time.’

Gazidis wasn’t the only man in the firing line. The resolution to re-elect chairman Sir Chips Keswick and director Josh Kroenke — son of owner Stan — was forced to an official vote when a show of hands from the floor overwhelmingly backed their removal. Given the board have a huge majority in terms of weight of votes, Sir Chips and Kroenke Jnr survived.

Wenger revealed he will review his future at the end of the season when his deal has 12 months to run, but said: ‘My hunger, my commitment are bigger than ever.

‘But I accept when you have been at a club for a long time, everyone questions that. No matter what happens one day, I will always love this club and be an eternal fan.’