Technical Director: Smart hire or an emotional one?

by .

via @Arsenal Instagram

Arsenal is interested in hiring Edu as a technical director. The classy Brazilian who had an injury prone stint with us way back when has played the role of Director of Football at Corinthians, and he’s now the Technical Director for the Brazilian national team.

It’s unclear what exactly this technical director role would entail and which part of the business he’d be looking after, but you’d assume if Sven is looking after recruitment and scouting, then maybe Edu would be responsible for excellence elsewhere in the club.

It’s hard to say whether a hire like this is a good one. On the upswing of things, he was part of some spectacular moments in our history (when we played stunning football). He knows the club, he knows London, and from an experience perspective, he’s been all around the world and seen how many different clubs do things from top to bottom.

A specialist voice in the room who has actually been a very good footballer working with the coaches to help define a playing style and identity would be very interesting. Working out how you scale that vision across the club then becomes a very fascinating role. Again, I’m not exactly sure how operations like this work, but once you have your north star of who and what you want to be, one would assume you have to build your whole structure around it.

It’s quite an undertaking. You need to hire the right kind of coaches who share the same beliefs. I think Red Bull do a really incredible job of this. Bringing people through the ranks at their various clubs. They seem to have a Google-like mentality, bring in the best at a young age and train them in the ways they set out as the standard. It’s a competitive game as well. A few seasons back, I heard from a source in Germany that a lot of clubs were tracking Red Bull’s Zsolt Low, a coach that wasn’t very well known in the mainstream, but he was a hidden superstar that Rangnick adored for his intelligence and innovation. He eventually found his way to PSG last year for £1.3m (record for an assistant). That’s why I was so surprised Arsenal let Emery bring in all his mates at Arsenal, versus building a team around him like a lot of the best run clubs do now.

You need to find players with all the correct technical attributes, but also, they need to want to play that way. The pressing philosophy they enact at Spurs only works because they find boys that will work like dogs for the greater good. Emery has been with us for over half a year now, and he still can’t find the consistency of pressing that you need to be a threat. How do we solve for that?

You’ll also need to have somebody at the club who is paying attention to the trends that are coming out of the game. Who are the next hot managers? Which are doing interesting things? What can we learn from these people and how can we integrate it into what we do at Arsenal?

Then you can start to get really deep. How are the club training the brains of players? How are Arsenal approaching cognition in football? This quote from Dr. Dan Bishop from Brunel’s Center for Sports Medicine and Human Performance is very interesting.

“I can see top teams employing neuroscientists in the future,”
“That’s because we have the skills and resources to witness very subtle changes in perceptual abilities that may not initially manifest in performance data, because people can change their mind midway through a task and therefore give an erroneous response, when in fact their initial ‘preattentive’ brain response was the correct one.
“I imagine that this will be most useful at academy level, to assess the development of young players.”
Arsenal seems to be a long way off even thinking about areas like this, but when you look at teams like Barcelona or Manchester City, you can see that the players just think in a different way. They’re not chasing the ball, they’re understanding the patterns in front of them, they’re blocking off space instinctively, they’re understanding the dynamics of what is happening around them, and making better decisions than the rest of the league.
‘Playing experience and development also can play a role in performance in elite footballers. During adolescence, a better, smarter and faster brain is developed. While age provides some guidelines in the development of cognitive ability and vision, it is experience that highlights how well these tasks are implemented and plays a role in the outcome. However, the environment and learning experience plays a big role in the rate of development. Brain connections that are stimulated and used repeatedly grow stronger and unused connections wither away. The amount of experience coupled with the type of experience and the development experience are important factors in ensuring that the general cognitive and visual abilities are enhanced in the sporting context and that players excel on the field. However, the quality of the player’s problem-solving capacity will be linked to their knowledge base and quality of their motor-skill development’ (reference)
How do you identify the smartest players in the game? How do you develop the most intelligent footballers? How is your approach better than all the other teams in the league?
There’s a lot of art in this game, no doubt, but technology and science is advancing so quickly, that these technical roles at clubs are becoming outrageously complicated that they require a lot smarts to master.
What I’m getting at here is this: I hope Edu isn’t another emotional signing. We really do need a person that knows their shit, and ideally, you’d want someone in that role who can speak to all of the above with demonstrable evidence that they’ve implemented processes and strategies that have shown tangible results.
Fingers crossed.
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Champagne charlie

Marko Allegri isn’t Emery, he didn’t want a consensus approach to transfers that Emery is fine with. Their profiles as managers aren’t even comparable. We’ve made 5 moves far and it appears Emery is getting what he wants, but there’s a very real possibility that Raul/Sven will sign ‘their player’ at some stage and Emery will have to lump it. The possibility of this was a no go for Allegri, it’s that simple. Receding Tell you what, you stick to whatever you like to think and I’ll do me. You’re a waste of time on the subject of Emery. “If… Read more »

WengerEagle

Anyone else remember Nei.l?

Made Joe and Bob look presidential in their ranting.

raptora

Also comparions between Leicester and Monaco are also on the life after their respective titles. Selling of their superstars and failing to buy well and keep their positions at the top. Jardim and Ranieri suffered the exact same faith. Too many similarities in there. Leicester was playing great counter attacking football as well. Scale was bigger at Monaco. They have/had more money and better footballers that’s why they did well in Europe.

Cesc Appeal

WE

Sock?

Check you out you posh c**t!

Receding Hairline

. “If you were smart enough”….good lord, you want to dick measure?

You carry your brains in your pants??

WengerEagle

He only appeared during the witching hour as well, middle of the night never to be seen when everyone else was on here.

Marko

Bring her back she sounds hilarious

Receding Hairline

Then there is Rhys Jaggar who doesn’t miss a chance to slander Pedro on ANR

Below is one just from the 4th..apparently Pedro works for Kroenke

“If Kroenke will not back that, he has an agenda and is using Peter Wood et al to try and pimp it. ‘Arsenal are skint’ i.e. try and cover the £50m LBO repayments looted from Arsenal revenues as anything but owner larceny.”

WengerEagle

Raptora

I dont think it’s a psychological issue with Morata, he’s just not that good.

Was a reason that he was never a starter at Real or Juve, while a good CF he was never at that level.

Chelsea fans are sick of him, you know he must be terrible if they’re pleading for 32 year old Giroud to start over him.

WengerEagle

Oh shit forgot about Rhys, he was a gem albeit unhinged.

Great poster with his one a day fire-rants until he became a little too paranoid towards the later days.

WengerEagle

Lol Pedro can’t even imagine the level of lunacy you deal with on a daily basis between emails, dms and screening multiple banned offenders regenerating under an alias.

Sancho Monzorla

WE

I remember Nei.l. And Bob. Or maybe an angry Steve as well, or was it Phil? There was one period where a series of really nasty one-named posters came out of the blue,

Rhys Jaggar always had these long esoteric posts where I could not really understand what he was saying. I don’t know why he hates Pedro?

Receding Hairline

RH, when did he write that?

Last Friday on Arsenal New Review …He seems to find a way to slander you anytime he posts there and Myles seems to enjoy it..,,

Marko

Allegri isn’t Emery, he didn’t want a consensus approach to transfers that Emery is fine with. … but that’s what he’s got at Juve and had at Milan. It’s the same approach to signings that every major club in Europe does. Marotta is the man who is credited with the signings at Juve in recent years. We’ve made 5 moves far and it appears Emery is getting what he wants, but there’s a very real possibility that Raul/Sven will sign ‘their player’ at some stage and Emery will have to lump it. Ridiculous. But okay so we’re blaming him for… Read more »

Cesc Appeal

Hold on.

Pedro has an email address we can use to harass him.

Why am I just finding this out now?

Cesc Appeal

artetainsideme@hotmail.com

I should have known.

Marko

Oh shit looks legit

raptora

You guys are going to kill me. Such a good laugh though. Been literally dying in the last 10 minutes. Fk me, such a shame I wasn’t around when this QoS grill/d00d was around. Sounds epic lol.

Rhys is a nutjob though. Don’t miss him at all. Some of his posts were actually scary.

Sancho Monzorla

I don’t know why but it’s funnier since it’s a Hotmail account.

WengerEagle

Sancho

Yeah remember that.

Also was a good run for a while there where we had a steady stream of top notch posters in RP, Louis Almeida, Sal, Carts, Underrated Coq, Midwest, Dan Ahern, London Gunner, Radio Raheem, N5, Karim, Ozy, Leeds, Nasri’s Mouth, TYAG none of which really post anymore.

WengerEagle

Thought I was the only one just as tickled by the hotmail address.

Champagne charlie

Marko You can dress it up whatever way you fancy, that’s quite literally all it is though so you’re boring. If you don’t want to accept what I’m saying feel free not to, no obligation. You’re sitting there with your headset on speculatively chewing over tabloid headlines so I’d be less brazen in your “assessment”. Some managers feel entitled to want more when they’ve achieved a certain level in the game, it’s not a difficult one to grasp. Allegri would get more say than Arteta because he’s Allegri. How he operates now has brought success, whereas he wanted more from… Read more »

Mr Serge

Pedro my point was regarding city infustructure. If we are to do well that’s the kind of set up we need and it does not matter if Unai brings in a few of his mates as long as others make the big decisions off the field

WengerEagle

Allegri is a different animal to Emery, he’s won Scudettos at Milan and every year at Juventus and took the latter to 2 CL Finals in 4 years, improving them from Conte”s era. Only reasonable that he would expect 200 odd million for a rebuild as that is what we need to compete for the title, with respect Emery isn’t in the same class at all. Winning the league with PSG is a formality and he actually failed to win it in his first season there. Tuchel is showing that basically anybody can manage them to Ligue 1, you’d nearly… Read more »

Sancho Monzorla

WE

Yeah lot’s of good posters don’t frequent as much! Wallace, and who can forget Keyser, to name a few more. Think there is a good bunch holding it down currently as well though. Although opinions differ most of the people on here are quite knowledgeable and passionate about football.

The scouting on this comments section is top notch, for instance. If we’d signed some of the gems that were discussed around here ages ago Arsenal would be much much richer currently.

Mr Serge

I wish we got Alegri he is a top 5 coach sadly we don’t have one of those but he is better the the ancient one that just left

Mr Serge

Sancho agreed about the scouting on here top notch.keyser left because of butter like Joe annoying him constantly if I remember correctly

Freddie Ljungberg

Could it be that we get injuries because our players are old and/or injury prone? Whose fault is that? Could it be that our fullbacks have to get up and down the flanks constantly (Pierre) because we have 0 wingers in the squad? Whose fault is that? Is it it the guy with 6 months in the job, 70m spend when that isn’t much and limited say on transfers or is it the guy with unlimited power and 22 years to form the team into his image? Answers on a post card… The reason we have to run more than… Read more »

Charlie George

Why did Emery get The sack after winning the treble at PSG?
Because he lacks, gravitas, charisma and personality.

In the movie world. He would be Andy Garcia
C Rater!

Not getting the Cruise, Pitt and Clooney roles .
A bit of high budget TV Perhaps..

Marko

that’s quite literally all it is though so you’re boring. If you don’t want to accept what I’m saying feel free not to, no obligation. You’re sitting there with your headset on speculatively chewing over tabloid headlines so I’d be less brazen in your “assessment”. Less speculating more using common sense Some managers feel entitled to want more when they’ve achieved a certain level in the game, it’s not a difficult one to grasp It’s not difficult to grasp no I get that but you’re saying he turned us down because he wanted more say over transfers and I said… Read more »

Champagne charlie

Marko No that’s you conflating things because you like to twist everything that comes out of certain posters mouths. Allegri was interested in Arsenal, we didn’t get him because we wouldn’t sign off on an aggressive change to suit HIS football philosophy, we didn’t make reasonable funds available, we didn’t give assurances that he wouldn’t receive players without signing off on them. He wanted us to be knocking on the door of the top clubs from day one and he didn’t want a slow burn. The ambition didn’t meet his plain and simple. I know, shocking revelations after we’ve appointed… Read more »

raptora

Allegri was/is probably a bit above our level. The only way to seduce him was to offer him astronomical wages but managers unlike players they are more settled and wise so money don’t always come first. Coming from Juve to Arsenal would be a downgrade in any way or form you look at it. Looking for an adventure wouldn’t go that far. Conte did it but for a Chelsea team that was much stronger than we currently are. Allegri also had the option to go to Real as he was their first choice to succeed Zidane. Why would he decline… Read more »

raptora

Emery was as good as we could ever get. I actually think we did better than I thought we would. Now, he might prove to be a failure but not because of his skills. More like, we are probably in a state that a head has to fall before a drastic change is done and he’d be the casualty paying up for the ex manager and ex CEO’s sins.

Marko

Allegri…wasn’t keen at all on the committee style approach to transfers…Allegri isn’t Emery, he didn’t want a consensus approach to transfers that Emery is fine with…We’ve made 5 moves far and it appears Emery is getting what he wants. I’m not conflating nothing you’re saying Allegri wanted total control over transfers and not a committee style approach and that’s why he turned us down. Then you say that the signings made so far are signings that Emery wanted so why did Allegri turn us down? Besides the fact that he’s used to the approch to player recruitment that we do… Read more »

Sancho Monzorla

I disagree that Allegri is above Arsenal’s level, I think any manager would jump at the chance to manage Arsenal. But if the club balked at handing over the keys from the jump to a new manager after a decade of mediocrity and let’s face it, 3 years of nudging him out the door for fear of giving too much power to one person, I kind of get it.

Dissenter

“Jardim created one of the most exciting teams of the past decade in two seasons. That is special sauce. He beat out the most expensively assembled side in history with kids. That is special sauce.”

Nah Pedro you’ve got it all wrong
Dmitry Rybolovlev’s money created the most exciting team … until his ex-wife took him to the cleaners.
It’s not like Monaco were paupers. They had Falcao who’s paid about 500k euros weekly.

Sancho Monzorla

What happens if Allegri wasn’t the answer and Arsenal spent £250m and lost the first two games? If they staggered behind Spurs by 6 points? Wasn’t competing with Liverpool and City?

With how reactive fans are, with how much was unknown after Wenger left, I think the measured, collective approach would be the only one that made sense for the first year.

Redtruth

Charlie George

Emery got the sack at PSG because he didn’t win the Champions league..muppet.

Redtruth

WengerEagle

Reaching 2 Champions league Finals in 4 years is a failure in my book

Redtruth

WengerEagle
“Winning the league with PSG is a formality and he actually failed to win it in his first season there.”

He lost it to won of the best teams in Europe.

Redtruth

Any fucker can rebuild Arsenal if they are given £200m …silly sausage

Redtruth

WengerEagle
“Winning the league with PSG is a formality and he actually failed to win it in his first season there.”
He lost it to one of the best teams in Europe.

Champagne charlie

Marko

I’m not doing the back and forth you crave on here.

Allegri was there if we showed ambition, we didn’t. That’s the only point worth a damn in opposition to your ignorant shit about it never being a possibility.

My mates a lawyer, and I know a couple of the medical staff too. That ok with you?

Valentin

I am far from convinced with Sven. He basically went back to buy Dortmund. Like I said we should have gone to France and Toulouse in particular. Barcelona has just snapped another Toulouse defender: Jean Clair Todibo on a free transfer. Issa Diop, Joris Gagnon (all defenders), Jean Clair Todibo and Alban Lafont (goal keeper) were all available together for less than the cost of Sokratis. Even if they are not all success on the pitch, they would have be financially beneficial. Before people insists on Matteo as a great success of Emery, please review his interview where he stated… Read more »

China1

Fairly sure artetainsideme@hotmail.com is being shared as a group account by a few on here haha

China1

Did emery really choose banged over Suarez tho?

We have to be careful how much we believed whatever is printed in the news

azed

Can’t believe non of you guys mentioned Le groove’s number one legend.
He had the username of an animal which has a car named after the cat.

Dude was hilarious in his rants against Wenger be and Dudaby.

Sancho Monzorla

I would imagine Banega was in the works only in the case Ramsey was able to be sold this window.

Sancho Monzorla

Jaguar is a legend. He was the predecessor to Dialsquare/MarbleHall/Redtruth.

WengerEagle

Dissenter

I mean Monaco were relative paupers when compared to PSG.

They spent big on three players, Falcao, Moutinho and James Rodriguez and the latter wasn’t even a Monaco player anymore past 2014.

Whereas PSG paid huge amounts on Cavani, Di Maria, Thiago Silva, Lucas Moura, Kurzawa, Marquinhos, Pastore, Lavezzi, Krychowiak, Jese, etc.

Goobergooner

I’ll tell you what’s ironic, Pierre coming out with all his criticisms of the defence (and team in general, especially the manager) now that Wenger is gone. You sir are a wind up merchant of the highest degree. I don’t know where you get 5 defensive acquisitions from since last window. But only 3 of them are starters, with the rest of Wenger’s plonker defensive unit including the shocking xhaka in midfield still in the first team. I get it that we aren’t performing to the levels we should be. It’s just fucking frustrating hearing your whinging all of a… Read more »

Sid

Pedro Arteta would be a better manager than pv4 because he is assisting? Who did your darling Jardim assist before Monaco? It beggars belief how you still are on the Arteta agenda when there is ZERO proof of him being any good. I suppose your Arteta love stems from the same mushy feelings you had for Gazidis who you now name-calling in your posts? We can then safely say that your feelings/belief aren’t up to scratch. I’m left scratching my head at suggestions of Arteta, appointing the manager of top club based on assisting experience alone? Would any organisation hire… Read more »

Redtruth

Monaco reached 95 points scoring over 100 goals and were one of the top 4 best sides in Europe so it wasn’t a case of PSG just strolling to the title…..

China1

Regarding edu, I read elsewhere he is specifically being lined up as director of football.

We’ll see how it pans out but sounds nice

Dissenter

Why do we need EDU as technical director. I thought that was responsibility of Raul Sanllehi…Director of football? We are becoming a civil service type of operation. There’s a lot of duplication in what’s going on. We are going from one or two person rule to an over-dilution of responsibilities. I just hope they Edu stuff is a sick joke. It was understandable when Gazidis was running an insurgent battle with Wenger, at the time he was setting up parallel structures. We have since gone on to make permanent this duplicated roles for contracts and for physical trainer. What’s the… Read more »

Tony

Pierre “So Tony ,instead of coming out with little snide remarks towards me and my opinions of players , I would suggest you look at the bigger picture , it may open your eyes to the game .” Ok looked at the bigger picture and taken into account the majority of posters’ comments here and other blogs and there is only one conclusion: Mhiki is still a shit player needing to be sold with Ozil. How about you open your mind and try to give a balanced, thoughtful and insightful view of the club instead of your benile agenda driven… Read more »

Guns of SF

I agree with you… its a dilution and confusion of responsibilities at the club. Why all this? What exactly would Edu do? He can change his title to South American lead scout if that is what his purpose is?
My worry is that who is in charge here? Seems like a bunch of highly paid people sitting around thinking of ideas and hiring someone to do them.
Not sure I get all of it…. Thought we had a team with Sven Raul and Vinai

Dream10

Guns of SF

If Edu is joining, it may mean that one of Raul or Sven is being pushed out. Mislintat doesn’t seem the type to be a fan of Denis Suarez or Ever Banega. Raul is the senior man, so he may be the one getting his way

Guns of SF

Dream Quite possible… would really be a statement if one of them were to leave now. Just when the plane is about to take off… I can see it being Sven- hard to find players when the owner cannot pay for them, nor the team. You would think that Sven has south america covered as far as scouting.. for the most part? I dont know – now Emery is bringing back Reyes etc. Seems like a power struggle at the club possibly behind the scenes. Reyes would do what? Try and motivate the attacking players? I think Emery might be… Read more »

Guns of SF

OF course I could be all wrong and its part of the larger master plan…. and its just coming together…. ?

Tony

Pedro Interestting post Sancho “Also you hear that guys? Emirates has tons of cash at his house.” Very funny UnDon Shark tooth, long haired hippy- wow – now there’s an image. Bet the beach fire back packing discussions were lively with you there unless the herbs were flowing. You probably thought your fellow camp or hostel mates were being generous by them keeping passing the weed to you. lol Anyway good for you spending time around different cultures and learning from them is a good life education providing you look at their cultures from all sides. What’s on your travel… Read more »

Dark Hei

Sid I think there is some misunderstanding about Arteta. What Pedro means is that none of the gold standard coaches will come to Arsenal given we have no $$ nor CL football. Thus if the objective is to beat City and Liverpool, Arsenal’s only way is to identify someone unproven, but with a lot of upside and bank on him. Arteta ticks a lot of those boxes. He has zero managerial experience but proven as a very good coach. Emery on the other hand feels like someone capable of winning the 4th place trophy. He is in many ways a… Read more »

Receding Hairline

In what way has Arteta proven to be a very good coach?

Emery is no Wenger, Wenger won league titles in his prime with Monaco and Arsenal

What Emery has proven over his career is that he gets the best out players not minding the limitations, he is not a diva, even when it was all stacked against him at Spartak he didn’t moan and bitch. He may or may not be the man to steady the ship but arriving at that conclusion after 6 months is not only ridiculous but also unfair.

Emiratesstroller

Arsenal are going through transition at the moment with Kroenke taking full control of the club and a new management regime in place. There are bound to be mistakes made in the interim as the new regime finds its feet. The main negative under Kroenke is that Arsenal is perhaps run too much as a business and not enough as a Football Club. Nevertheless it should not be forgotten that the club has currently despite not playing in CL the sixth largest revenue stream in European Football. I would agree that the corporate and football structures are rather bloated at… Read more »

Dark Hei

Hairline

I think it is a fair conclusion that Emery is a safe pair of hands and with him around, I doubt Arsenal will sink.

But can he turn himself into a groundbreaking coach?

You can be sure that without being exceptional, we ain’t getting near City unless we get super lucky. Example, Pep G quits City and for some reason they hire me as manager.

Dark Hei

Stroller

Here is your answer to the ambition question. See where we are on the owner contribution scale.

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/1080749293814902784

Emiratesstroller

Dark Hei

As I posted above Emery is not a dynamic coach but a “safe pair of hands”.

Leopards don’t change their spots,but he will suit the owners whilst the football side of business is put in order. Somehow I don’t see him being at club in two years unless he wins a major trophy.

Pedro is a fan of Arteta as I was when we were looking for a replacement for
Wenger. However, perhaps his appointment was a couple of years too early
for club.

Emiratesstroller

Dark Hei

I have read Swiss Ramble last week so I was well aware of Kroenke’s failure to
invest in club.

However, Kroenke will sooner or later have to make a decision to either invest
properly in team or stand aside. Commercial sponsor/investors like Adidas are not going to invest indefinitely in a club with no ambition.

Samesong

Another couple of posters way back when Lurch leggrove and Midwest miss those guys. So many legends have passed through this site.

Mr Serge

Arteta was hated in the dressing room at arsenal and mocked as arsenes yes man. Also have you seen him in the all or nothing documentary? he says about 3 words in all 8 episodes and is gormless the only time he said anything was when Pep told him to scout us and come up with a plan to beat us

Sid

Dark Hei Arteta ticks a lot of those boxes. He has zero managerial experience but proven as a very good coach. That’s is the problem init? I could still understand taking a punt on a young but inexperienced MANAGER but taking a punt on a COACH makes no sense. It’s unfathomable that a club as big as arsenal would put someone like that in incharge. You also have to look at the circumstances, when Wenger was sacked (finally) the most important thing was to not lose track, hence it was paramount that the manager could at least steady the ship… Read more »

Un na naai

Guns of SFJanuary 8, 2019 03:17:14
Unnai ( why did you chose that handle?) and his buddy KC, are just haters.
Haters going to hate
Players gonna play.Both do not live here but yet keenly have an awareness of what is wrong with our cities and country. Apparently they can speak to this more than locals.Its ok… every time they post they stick their foot in their collective mouths.

SF

Yes. It’s called the news.

Un na naai

Tony

I didn’t stay in a hostel in Thailand (most of the time) I actually got in with a group of English expats who knew the area and all the best spots. Was amazing.

Where’s on my hit list?
Japan
South America
Yellowstone park is a big dream
Jungle trekking in Borneo
Many I’ve been looking into a an Alaskan wilderness trip with an outdoors survival group called woodsmoke. Ice fishing and all that. Hunting your own food.
Want to do Mount Fuji and kilamanjaro.

India and Sri Lanka
Montenegro

WengerEagle

Eh, Kilimanjaro is overrated…

Un na naai

WE

You been?

WengerEagle

Nope, my pitiful attempt at morning humour.

As you were.

Champagne charlie

Snowdon > Kilimanjaro

Champagne charlie

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