Gazidis: Wenger is the key to our future as a club

Chief Executive Ivan Gazidis, speaking to the Daily Telegraph, has said that manager Arsène Wenger is key to the club's future, and that the Frenchman's work at the club is not yet complete, his legacy not yet written.

Wenger has not won a trophy for the last five years, and some Arsenal fans are incredibly asking whether it is time for the Frenchman to go, despite the club being in its best ever financial state, having posted record half-yearly pre-tax profits of £35.2 million.

Gazidis and the club's board of directors are hoping that Wenger will renew his current agreement which expires in 2011, and manage the club for the next foreseeable future, emulating the legacy that Sir Alex Ferguson is leaving at Manchester United.

Gazidis said: "Arsène's contract negotiations, for the moment, are very low-key and will be discussed at the right time.

"I think it is very difficult to encapsulate in any succinct way what Arsène Wenger has done for this club.

"His discipline and his vision are why we are in a new stadium and why we are redefining the way the game can be played. He has created a young squad that has a tremendous future without having the resources that some other teams have.

"Those achievements are down to Arsène's sense of responsibility not to himself but to the club. When he interviewed for the job, Danny Fiszman [an Arsenal director] asked him what are your ambitions for the club? Arsène said: 'That when I leave, it will be in a better state than when I arrived.'

"I think Arsène has accomplished that but I also think his legacy is not written yet. There's no diminishment in his passion, competitive edge or ambition. Arsène's work is not finished.

"Arsenal are a deeply traditional club but has always had this tradition of innovation. When you think about the Marble Halls of Arsenal and the Bank of England club you might think of a stuffy place with cobwebs in the corners.

"You probably don't imagine a French manager with a radically different vision for how the game should be played with a spaceship stadium in the middle of London.

"The trophy draught is something we are very aware of. The ultimate aspiration is not to produce a wonderful business model, the reason we adhere to those principles is so that we can preserve the values of the club and create the foundation on which we can deliver success on the pitch."

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