Arsenal: Ivan Gazidis leaving makes sense for no one

Ivan Gazidis is reportedly interesting Elliot Management, who are currently conducting a takeover of AC Milan. Him leaving makes sense for no one, especially Arsenal.

In recent days, there have been growing rumours that Arsenal Chief Executive and growing figure of power Ivan Gazidis has attracted the interest of Elliot Management, an American firm that is currently conducting a takeover of turbulent and tumultuous Italian giants, AC Milan.

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The reports, stemming from Corriere dello Sport, claim that Milan officials Marco Fassone and Massimiliano Mirabelli flew to London for a meeting with Elliot Management bosses regarding the takeover and restructuring of the behind-the-scenes management of the club. During the meeting, the name of Gazidis surfaced.

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From a Milan perspective, it makes a lot of sense. A club desperately looking for a new lease of life, in disarray after a series of irresponsible and corrupt owners, the latest of which, the Rossoneri Sport Group owned by Li Yonghong, had to dispel claims that they were bankrupt, using Donald Trump’s famed phrase, ‘fake news’ and lost control of the club earlier this year when they failed to repay a £28 million debt. This is a club is in chaos.

Arsenal have never quite been in chaos. But in the nine years that Gazidis has been at the helm, they have steadily grown off the field. They are one of the most commercially successful clubs in the world, they are widely considered as one of the best-run sporting organisations in the game, executing a self-sustaining model that perfectly lends itself to the anticipated evolutions of the modern era of the sport, and their revenues exceeded £400 million as of September 2017, a mark that only five other global clubs bettered last year. Gazidis can run a football club, that much is certain.

But his leaving makes little sense, both to him and to the Gunners, and it’s because of the same reason: the departure of Arsene Wenger.

Gazidis has fought for the power that he now has for nearly a decade. He has had to wrestle for the position that he now finds himself in. Now is the time to press forward with the plans that he has wanted to instill at the club for many years, not abandon them to join a club that is going through yet another takeover.

And for Arsenal, the Gazidis project is just getting started. Sven Mislintat, Huss Fahmy, Raul Sanllehi, Unai Emery. They are all at the club because Gazidis wanted them at the club. Why leave just as the work is getting started, just as the anticipated fun is getting going, just as the winning, at least in Gazidis’ eyes, is about to start? It makes no sense.

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Are these rumours actually true? I don’t really know. Arseblog says not. But whether they are or not doesn’t change the fact that it doesn’t make sense, not for Gazidis, not for Arsenal, only for Milan. This is one for everyone to avoid.