Arsenal AGM: Part triumph, part shambles (19/10)

[gooner.ed]

http://www.onlinegooner.com/editorial/index.php?id=79

usual thread starter… sorry to poop what should have been a faultless party, but this needed saying. Simply not good enough. Yes there is room for some humour at a football club AGM, but this was on the edge of farce at times. I do think the chairman is not a well man, and it would serve both him and the club best if he could be persuaded to step down now. I honestly would not be surprised to be writing his obituary before next October. Yes, he makes some good one-liners, but he can’t chair an Annual General Meeting to the required standard anymore. As a result it came to an embarrassing conclusion which could so easily have been avoided.

[Bergkampisgod]

I must say I cn see where you are coming from but the chairman is stil good value, and I thought he had asked for questions from the florr, but I may have been mistaken

[gooner.ed]

he called the writers of pre-submitted questions to ask them at the microphone. hence he was reading the replies off a sheet of paper, no spontaneous questions he was not prepared for. at least until the end when he was interrupted in trying to wrap up the meeting.

[Amos]

The guy that interrupted the AGM at the end to demand Deins deification was Alex Fynn. Along with a lot of other work connected with football he has written a few books on the subject. A couple of these were in conjunction with a Kevin Whitcher. If this is the same Kevin Whitcher as the writer of this article wouldn't it have been prudent to declare the association so that any chance that this might have been reflected in the views of Peter Hill-Wood could be taken into account? There is no doubt that as he is in his 70s PHW isn't going to be as sprightly as he would have been 10 or 20 years ago but this would have been understood and accepted by the audience. There isalso no doubt that he is an Arsenal man less intent on the personal glorification sought by some former members of the board.

[gooner.ed]

Yes - it is true I co-wrote a book with Alex Fynn. However, if you read my views on Dein both here on the website and also in The Gooner itself, you would realise my views on Dein are not the same as Alex Fynn's. I don't think my criticism of Hill-Wood's handling of the meeting was related to the content of Alex Fynn's interruption. My big bugbear is the lack of opportunity for questions that the chairman did not have a scripted answer for. I don't see the relevance of my association with Alex Fynn regarding my views on how the meeting was handled. I regretted the way it ended with the interruption and wished that could have been avoided. I am sure it would have had questions been allowed from the floor. PHW's overall performance was symbolised by this error. He was incompetent. Where you at the meeting? If so are you telling me you went away satisfied with how it was handled? I may have co-written with Alex Fynn, but we do not share the same opinions on everything. So I saw no reason to state an 'expression of interest'. I would have reported events exactly the same way had anyone got up and done what he did. I don't agree with what he did, but I do know it took guts. But believe me it is not a matter of PHW v DD for me. Both have varying faults and I wouldn't trust PHW to chair a meeting whilst I wouldn't trust DD to do pretty much anything at all.

[Amos]

Thanks for the explanation. I must confess that I haven't read your views on Dein so my post was without any background knowledge of your position. I'll make a point of buying the 'Gooner' starting tomorrow to complete my education. I wasn't at the meeting but have spoken to someone who was who tells me it was pretty standard AGM fare but expectations can differ I guess. I have no reason to defend PH-W. He is cracking on a bit ,though if he intends to wait around for Arsene to succeed him as Chairman as he has suggested then he may be around for a while longer.

I was intrigued as to why Alex Fynn felt it neccessary to wave Dein's flag. If it was to lend support to Dein then it probably failed and just cast him in an even more grudging a light. Why was he there? Is he a shareholder or there by proxy? Your piece seemed at variance with reports elsewhere. That may just be good journalism but my conspiratorial mind saw the link and wondered whether we were seeing some attempt to settle scores on Dein's behalf. I accept now that it wasn't - at least not on your part.

[dvbrisgooner1]

The fact that Alex Fynn is a well known "friend" of David Dein is not to be discounted here. I have more of a problem with someone interrupting the Chairman than I do with anything else here. The Club have issued statements in the past giving thanks to David Dein, so there was no need whatsoever for an attempt at public point scoring from the pro-Dein supporters.

[26may1989]

I'm not a shareholder and so wasn't at the meeting but the report, although probably on the harsh side, does reinforce my feeling that Hill-Wood should be replaced. I'm all for tradition but I could do without the old duffer style of chairman, especially when the old duffer in question comes out with so many gaffes.

Time for a gold carriage-clock embossed with "PHW".