Arsenal: Ivan Gazidis mess will take years to fix

While the jury is still out on the current management regime at Arsenal, Ivan Gazidis left them in a bind. The mess he left behind will take years to fix.

In recent years, Arsenal have established themselves as what many would deem a laughing stock, on and off the pitch. The on-field performances have reached an impossibly low standard, the club has sunk into mediocrity in the Premier League, and the management structures off the pitch are not much better.

Many of those who many would consider culpable for the club’s present turmoil have parted ways. The most notable of these is former Chief Executive, Ivan Gazidis. Gazidis accepted the post in November 2008. He gradually gained power and influence behind the scenes before finally parting ways to venture off to A.C. Milan in 2018.

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Gazidis oversaw the departure of Arsene Wenger. While that was largely viewed as the correct decision at the time, he then drove forward the hire of Unai Emery. Emery was never the right man for the job, and with Gazidis jumping ship within months of the Spaniard’s arrival, the new management team that he assembled, including Sven Mislintat as the head of recruitment, another who left shortly after, the club was left in turmoil.

Along with deeming Emery as a suitable replacement for Wenger, Gazidis’ biggest mistake was his mismanagement of the Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez contract saga. Through not offloading Sanchez for a maximum price and then signing Ozil to a contract the club couldn’t afford, Gazidis crippled the future and financial flexibility of the team.

Both Sanchez and Ozil’s contracts were coming to a close. The first mistake was to let their pair enter the final two years of their contracts. Gazidis was always fighting a losing battle from that point on. But then, with six months of their contracts remaining, Gazidis swapped Sanchez for Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who was not so keen on the move and bartered for £180,000-per-week wages.

Mkhitaryan has been a disaster. Not only has he performed terribly, but he is also currently on loan at Roma with Arsenal still paying a portion of his wages. Sanchez might have done comically poorly in Manchester, but Arsenal still took a gigantic hit from the deal thanks to Gazidis’ poor leadership.

Then you can add in the £350,000 per week that Gazidis agreed to hand Ozil, who has since offered next to nothing. Both Ozil and Mkhitaryan have been massive drains on the club’s resources, and they have provided little to make such spending worthwhile. The pair’s contracts do not expire until next summer.

While criticism aimed towards the new regime of Raul Sanllehi and Edu is understandable, the mess they were left to clean up is ridiculous. The insurmountable financial disadvantage they inherited will take years to clean up. It leaves the club behind the top six off the pitch, which leads to a decline on the pitch.

Sanllehi, Edu and Vinai Venkatesham talk a good game, but now it is time for them to deliver. There have been positive steps, including some good recruitment in the transfer market, but cleaning up the disaster that Gazidis left behind has taken its toll. Until the mess is rid off, it will be difficult to truly assess the current era.