Ivan Gazidis Receives £1M Arsenal Bonus Despite Lack of Silverware in 2015-16

Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis received a bonus of over £1 million for the year ending June 2016 despite the Gunners picking up no silverware of note in 2015-16.  

According to Charles Sale in the Daily Mail, as well as a lack of trophies, Arsenal's "commercial revenues were flat" last term, but Gazidis, 52, still received a pay package of £2.648 million, which included his hefty annual bonus.

Sale added that constituted a pay rise of almost £400,000 for Gazidis, making him the second-highest paid football club executive in the Premier League behind Ed Woodward, Manchester United's executive vice-chairman.

Gazidis' salary was revealed upon the recent release of Arsenal's club accounts, a summary of which the Associated Press' Rob Harris provided on Twitter:

Per Harris, the chief executive insisted that the main aim for the Gunners is to win major trophies, and that the club is in a position to do just that:

Though Arsenal won no silverware in 2015-16, they did manage to secure second place in the Premier League, their best top-flight finish in over a decade.

They have started the new campaign in fine fashion and have won their last five Premier League games on the bounce to move into third place after seven matches.

The famously frugal north London outfit loosened the purse strings somewhat in the summer—spending almost £90 million on Granit Xhaka, Rob Holding, Lucas Perez and Shkodran Mustafi—and it looks to be paying dividends.

As discussed by a Bleacher Report panel, speculation continues over manager Arsene Wenger's future, but currently only because he has reached a 20-year milestone at the club rather than due to poor performances on the pitch:

Despite the current positive situation at Arsenal, last season was still hugely disappointing as the Gunners again failed to make a genuine title challenge and dropped out of the UEFA Champions League at the last-16 stage for the sixth year running.

After back-to-back triumphs in the FA Cup in 2013-14 and 2014-15, last term Arsenal could make it only to the quarter-finals of the world's oldest football tournament.

As a result, there is likely to be some dissatisfaction that Gazidis was rewarded so handsomely despite Arsenal underperforming.