Ivan Gazidis leaves Arsenal just as his biggest challenge was about to begin | David Hytner

Sep 19, 2018

The Arsenal chief executive is departing after nearly a decade and says he is energised by a move to Milan. Did he decide the gap to the top at the Emirates was too big?

Ivan Gazidis loves to talk about process, about journeys, about minutiae, and he was in his element at Emirates Stadium on the day that Unai Emery was unveiled as Arsenal’s new manager.

It was 23 May and the chief executive went into extraordinary detail about how Emery had been chosen to succeed Arsène Wenger. He brought up challenging discussions, long lists, short lists, detailed personal references, outside perspectives and the analysis of “tens of hours of video tape on the three finalists that we eventually narrowed it down to”.

Tags: AC Milan Arsenal Football Sport