Arsene Wenger compares Arsenal fans' frustrations to Brexit

James Olley28 October 2017

Arsene Wenger has compared frustrations among fans at Arsenal’s lack of recent success to Brexit.

The 68-year-old was given a first-hand demonstration of the antipathy felt in some sections of the club’s support at yesterday’s Annual General Meeting, when chairman Sir Chips Keswick, chief executive Ivan Gazidis and majority shareholder Stan Kroenke were all verbally abused.

Wenger’s speech pleading for unity among fans was a brief respite from an otherwise hostile gathering which ended with slow handclapping and Keswick drawing proceedings to a chaotic close by stating: “I think you are getting very angry so there is no point continuing.”

The Frenchman watched on as two lengthy delays ensued with a poll vote required to re-elect both Keswick and Kroenke’s son Josh to the board of directors.

But he insisted the volatile meeting only reinforced his view that short-termism has overtly affected judgements on everything from football to the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union without a coherent plan in place.

“The club is first about values, and in the modern game we lose a little bit the perspective of what is important and what is not,” he explained.

“It is always here and now and forever, and the now is permanent, the judgement is permanent and forever - but it is in society as well. You have the same example with Brexit - it’s just here now, but where do we go from there? Nobody really knows. Maybe it is good, maybe it is bad. I don’t know.

“But nobody has explained what will happen in the future if we do that. So what I think about the club that has been created is first about values. I know that nobody cares anymore.

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“Somebody said 500 years ago the target was to be a saint for people. Fifty years ago a hero in war. Today a billionaire, even more celebrity. That is instant and here now. But it has to be sustained by something.

“What I liked when came to England the weight of the past was there and you could feel it was important.

“The evolution of the modern society the weight of the present has become predominant to the past and the future and no matter if is it a football club, you need to get that balance right.”

Wenger told shareholders his hunger was greater than ever despite questions over whether he deserved a new two-year contract, signed at the end of last season, and he added: “There are two ways: you ignore your age and you live like you live forever, or you think ‘OK- I think I am born for competition. I don’t know why, and what happened, but it is like that. No matter what I do.

“The need is the desire to compete. That’s my real need. It has never been financial. If it was financial I would not be here.”