Arsenal will not miss Ivan the terrible

IvAn GAzIDIS lived happily in the shadow of Arsene Wenger for almost all of his decade at Arsenal. It wasn’t the worst life. In a good year he could pick up as much as £2.65million while travelling safely beneath the radar. every now and then he would pop up to say something really daft, like when Arsenal bid £92m for Thomas Lemar hours before the transfer deadline closed. When that mystifyingly failed Gazidis sent out an email to staff offering perspective ‘amid the hysteria’. This was around the time he claimed Arsenal were the most ‘consistently over-performing’ of the big clubs, which may have come as a shock to the five that finished above them last season. ‘every empty seat is a tragedy,’ Gazidis once pronounced, and by the end of that campaign at Arsenal there was barely a dry eye in the house. Yet, through all this, no grand protests against Gazidis. no fly-pasts, and only a supporting role in the phone-in fury. Wenger was the front of shop. he took the criticism, the abuse, the airborne, airwave tirades throughout those years when his club made fortunes, but not many waves, by remaining in the vicinity of the Premier League winners. Finally, Wenger has moved on and Gazidis (above) is free to oversee the shaping of a new Arsenal. he can be the catalyst of change that he spoke about with such commitment. So, obviously, he’s quit. Bit of wider responsibility flying around now the old man has gone; bit of backlash if it doesn’t go right. There’s good money to be had with AC Milan and, short term, they will take any improvement they can get. They haven’t finished inside Italy’s top six in five seasons and are now in their fifth year outside the Champions League. Arsenal were plainly shaped by Wenger’s vision: but while he took the glory, he also carried the can. Gazidis told the club he might be leaving as long ago as July. he didn’t even do a public month without his human shield. It’s tough at the top.