Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis has promised fans to expect big signings this summer that will improve the first team, though he was later heckled over his defence of majority shareholder Stan Kroenke.
The Arsenal CEO was speaking at a Supporters’ Trust Q&A on Thursday evening at the Emirates Stadium, and laid bare the club’s approach to recruitment this summer.
They have already been linked with the likes of Kylian Mbappe, Thomas Lemar and Alexandre Lacazette, and Gazidis confirmed that Arsenal are chasing players of that ilk, choosing quality over quantity.
‘We signed one of the players in the Bundesliga team of the season [Sead Kolasinac],’ he explained to the audience of supporters. ‘We’re looking for top quality players.’
While those remarks would have pleased Arsenal fans, his defence of Stan Kroenke was considerably less well received.
The American businessman has drawn plenty of criticism over the annual £3 million payments his company, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, have been receiving – though they were eventually stopped in 2016.
‘He hasn’t put debt on the football club. He’s been nothing but supportive,’ Gazidis argued when it was suggested that Kroenke was taking money out of the club.
Fans continued to audibly disagree in the audience as he continued: ‘If you think it’s all about money [with Kroenke] there are far easier ways than owning a sports team.’
Arsenal could only manage a fifth-place finish last season, failing to qualify for the Champions League in the process, and now face the prospect of losing both Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil during a difficult summer transfer window.
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