IT SAYS “chief executive” on Ivan Gazidis’s Arsenal FC business card.
‘Executive’ means having the power to put plans or actions into effect. A ‘chief’ is being a leader. At the moment, neither term seems to apply.
Arsene Wenger’s job description, on the other hand, is manager – and boy is he having to manage while his board goes into hiding on the issue of his future.
The 67-year-old says his decision will be “adult, lucid and objective”. But what is not at all adult, lucid or objective is why on earth the judgement over his future is his in the first place?
Instead of publicly pleading with Wenger to stay, a board which since the departure of David Dein have abdicated all major decisions throughout the club to Wenger have now in cowardly fashion left a two-year extension surreptitiously on the table and walked away.
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It leaves Wenger in the invidious position of having to tear himself up in a battle between head and heart which genuinely, one still feels, could go either way.
But it is technically Gazidis steering a ship that continues to drift while the future of the manager is in doubt.
The sand is running through the timer of Alexis Sanchez’s current contract and there is no wonder the grass is looking greener anywhere but the Emirates at the moment. Lack of silverware is one thing, but lack of direction? Emotionally, the Chile international needs little more than a nudge to remain at a club where he has been largely happy, but who is there to provide it.
By contrast, it is Mesut Ozil’s price tag that demands immediate action on his own contract situation. His worth to the team is somewhat questionable at the moment but no chief executive should be comfortable with wiping a £40m asset off the books for nothing.
And at the same time, Arsenal’s very future hangs in the balance. In 1996, former chief executive Dein made not one vital appointment, but two.
Three months before the arrival of Wenger, Liam Brady was appointed head of an academy that went on to develop first-team players and win youth competitions in a tenure that lasted 18 years.
This week, his replacement Andries Jonker left after three having undone a lot of that good work. Luke Hobbs has taken over in an interim capacity and no permanent appointment is expected before Wenger makes his own future clear. More dithering.
Meanwhile, across north London, Tottenham continue to churn out exciting young players while planning their own new stadium move from their offices at a state-of-the-art training facility.
Daniel Levy may be as silent as Stan Kroenke but he is far more dynamic a character than Gazidis.
And true, he has got his own managerial appointments wrong in the past, but at least he has had a go. Certainly, with Harry Redknapp, he showed he is an executive who can execute.
Arsenal continue to lack that cutting edge at all levels for the moment.