Ruthless Raul pushes Sven out in stunning land grab

by .

 

The truth is out, Arsenal will part ways with Sven Mislintat after little over a year at the club. Le Grove broke the story yesterday afternoon. I’d done my due diligence and verified a story I was first told about last week (and again yesterday). The Arsenal journos all came with stories after, and it was clear the club was briefing against Sven, with some very connected journos insisting the decision wasn’t made yet with some saying there was discontent amongst the clubs established scouts (who did such a great job over the last 5 years). Proper recognition for the legitimacy of our story arrived from the well-connected Rapha Honigstein who dropped more detail a little later in the day (quashing rumours the Bayern story as a nonsense as well).

‘According to club sources, Sanllehi, the former director of football at Barcelona, favoured a recruitment policy based on his extensive network of contacts throughout Europe, while Mislintat had been tasked by Gazidis to follow the kind of analytical and stats-based approach that saw 19-year-old midfielder Matteo Guendouzi join from French second-division club Lorient and 22-year-old Uruguay international Lucas Torreira arrive from Sampdoria.’

David Ornstein ran a piece stating Arsenal refused to deny the #SVEXIT after the above piece.

The Mess

This mess stems from 9 months under weak King, Ivan Gazidis, an heir apparent who hid behind Wenger for 10 years. His short-lived tenure as defacto leader was always going to be a non-starter because he was driven by self-preservation and dodging anything that looked like accountability. He spent so long hiding from responsibility, he didn’t bother investing in a real vision for the new Arsenal.

To compound the meekness of his approach, he adopted a flat football decision-making structure designed to spread the risk of a bad decision making between three people (remember the ‘we all wrote a name on a piece of paper’ story). That structure appears to have created an unresolvable rift between Sven and Raul.

Ivan allowed two competing ideologies to duke it out in a winner takes all death match. When Ivan slinked out of Arsenal, the real fight for power ensued, and ultimately, Raul garroted the German when he was wearing football boots on a tiled floor (he had no chance). The man closest to Ivan is now metaphorically deceased.

Now it’s just two people at the club that matter. Raul, who is a down and dirty corporate hitman, along with Vinai, who is 37, and looks very much like he’s there to play nice. They say in business you should always have a good number two, so there’s someone to take the fall if things go to shit. Remember Zuck being accused of naivety for not letting Sheryl take the fall for his Russia woes?

The Ideologies

The idea that we’re parting ways with a Head of Recruitment who wanted to identify talent using stats and analytics, for Raul’s approach that sounds like it’s straight out of chapter one of ‘Arry’s Way: The Hammers Years’ is fucking baffling. Raul might be many things, but he’s no expert in the world of player recruitment. Leaning into a network of contacts (super agents) sounds very familiar to Manchester United’s approach of the last 6 years. That didn’t work out well for anyone, bar the fat cat agents. Main difference is their commercial revenues dwarfs ours, so they can afford that approach.

Is Raul the real deal or a chancer that built a reputation off a cushy job at a mega-club? Has he just cleared the way to enact some atrocious ideas on Arsenal, unchallenged? Looks that way. This feels like a huge power play. Barcelona is not Arsenal. We don’t have the money to be them. If the vision is to create a Barca light, it is doomed to failure. I would place money on Raul not lasting longer than 3 years.

The Mixed Bag of Sven

The next question is the reality of Sven and his mixed bag tenure. As Matt and I discussed on the podcast, there have been a lot of depressingly poor decisions that have cost us dearly over the last year. The new exec team all signed off on the Ozil deal, they all allowed the club to roll into the season with Aaron in the last year of his deal, they all signed off a pack of older exDortmund players that won’t provide long-term value, they all thought Emery’s presentation for the new Arsenal was charismatic and clear. Those decisions have cost us a budget this window, which considering the caliber of manager is probably not a bad thing. However, Sven is not guilt free here.

That said, he’s given us Mavrapanos, Torreira and Guendouzi. Those moves, without doubt, should have set the tone for our transfer strategy moving forward. You also don’t know what Ivan’s marching orders were. He could have asked Sven to bring in experience to save our season last January. The plan failed, but there’s merit to that thinking.

‘However, the German’s position has been further undermined by the club’s willingness to appoint a technical director, a move that would amount to a de-facto demotion.’

There’s also the technical position the club is trying to fill, which has apparently miffed Mislintat, as they’d sit above him in the pecking order. I can’t really sympathise here. If you’ve been tasked with coming to Arsenal to recruit players, expecting a promotion before you’ve served 2 years or proved anything, you’re behaving in an entitled manner. It does beg the question as to whether Sven saw Arsenal as a stepping stone, versus a long-term home?

What comes next?

Now we have the chance to reset, we can’t fuck up. I loved Edu as a player, he’s a dreamy looking chap as well. If he’s here to set the style of the team and make sure we’re the most advanced innovators in the world, great.

However, there’d best be a very good answer to: WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR FOOTBALL LATELY?

Give me actual achievements. We can’t be bringing in folk because they were once loved as players. Give me doers with a vision and the tools to be utterly ruthless about what they find. We cannot continue to support mediocrity at Arsenal. We cannot continue to hire people that are happiest surviving in the shadows. We need people that are willing to place smart strategic bets on taking the club forward.

There are lots of clubs we should be looking at as we hire for the two open positions.

Who has been unearthing gems at Porto, Benfica, Monaco, Toulouse, Udinese and maybe even Shakhtar? Find talent that has successful records in situations that relate to Arsenal. Those that are doing things that haven’t been done before, who have found markets no one else is raiding, who can bring a level of detail and analytics that’s never been seen before. We cannot accept a hire that’s merely reaching parity with others. We have to use this chance to breeze past the competition.

We need to make smart decisions soon, we cannot have Emery leading the summer squad rebuild. He is not qualified to do that job. Outside the big names, his hit rate at PSG was poor. He signed slow and ill-suited players, we can’t be having that again. We are better than Suarez, Banega, and Carrasco. Those are Everton signings. We also need someone who can assess performances and make a really good decision on the next manager when we need one. Tell me where to find the next Monchi!

The biggest worry about Arsenal moving forward is the lack of leadership and accountability. We’ve opted for the Houllier/Evans dual operation and it stinks. Stan should go out tomorrow and beg Bepe Marotta to come in and shape up Arsenal. Someone who understands how to manage a club of prestige, create a winning culture, work the markets hard, brand a club, create a purpose and a guiding philosophy we can all believe in. These things are hard to execute, they require big balls and charismatic leadership. But the right hires can make magic happen.

Raul has completed his takeover of Arsenal, he sits atop the iron throne, and it’s not clear that he has what it takes to move us forward. The current strategy on offer looks like he’s trying to create a Brazil-Iberia talent pool underpinned by a detailed ‘Mino Raiola says buy this guy’ scouting report. Fanciful at best, a slow motion 5-year car crash at worse.

Arsenal were in choppy waters already, now we’re betting our future on one man with no track record for turning clubs around. I am very, very worried. The boat is rocking and water is coming aboard. All we can do is wait and hope the bad weather blows over…

The deeper worry is this: a lot has gone to shit since Stan took us private. Coincidence, that something more insidious?

(and listen. To the below podcast. Right now).

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Guns of SF

Russian not Ukrainian-
actually uzbekisan

Negation

Emmanuel Petit has claimed Unai Emery is producing “the same old story” that Arsenal had under Arsene Wenger. Petit says Emery needs to completely rebuild the squad because it is not good enough defensively, lacks team spirit and they even got “lucky” during their unbeaten run earlier in the season. Gunners legend Petit now fears the mood could quickly change against Emery even though the Arsenal manager has no cash to rebuild a squad which was already failing under Wenger. “You are telling me that Emery has the same problems that Wenger had. “Nothing has changed. So why did they… Read more »

Negation

Good copy and paste though. *applauds*

Cesc Appeal

Yeah, reads a little different when you post the whole thing.

Guns of SF

Watch Suarez score a hat trick tomorrow and Barca say no.

No for real, they are just playing hard ball with us. I sometimes wonder about relations between clubs. We have sold them a good share of players. Why fuck with us? Give us Suarez sharpish

Dissenter

That article should have been summarized as “Petit knocks Arsenal for not giving Emery the tools to rebuild the squad.”

Dissenter

The Italian sky is reporting that Chelsea have agreed a deal to loan Higuain till the end of the season.

There goes fourth place. They’ve solved their goal scoring problems and one more than enough to lock up a CL spot.
I hope Higuain cannot play in the Europa league.

Guns of SF

Dissenter-

Hig is older, 10lbs heavier, not the old Hig
I still think they suffer up front

Guns of SF

well the old hig was about 10lbs heavier so.. lets see if Sarri can get him firing

Dissenter

Guns of SF
“Hig is older, 10lbs heavier, not the old Hig
I still think they suffer up front”

He still knows how to score. Chelsea have all the ingredients i.e pacy wingers, dribbling AMs and central midfielders that can pass the ball.
Higuain is a stop gap solution that will score goals,

Mr Serge

Dissenter as I said earlier I also think 4th is out of the equation now

Guns of SF

Chelsea broke too? or FFP kicking them too?

Leftsidesanch

Not as worried as some, we have two who can score. All this meek surrendering, we need to go back to having more belief.

Sancho Monzorla

Belief is for the weak, for those who have nothing concrete to stand on.

So yes, belief it is then.

bennydevito

PierreJanuary 16, 2019    20:27:19 ” …… Seems to me that you have the hump because you know deep down that we are going nowhere with this manager , the football is poor , his tactics are poor and his team selection is poor ……” 🤣🤣🤣 Oh the delusion! More points away from home this season already than the whole of last season Most 2nd half points Most points from coming from behind Most points from substitutions And we’re only 6 months in… 😂😂😂😂😂 But hey; if this is poor tactics, poor team selection and poor football then I for one… Read more »

David Smith

The press reporting Steve Rowley could be bought back into the scouting fold for a bigger role.
Let’s just bring back Tony Colbert and Gerry Peyton while they’re at it

Guns of Brixton

Isco and James Rodriguez are 2 players whos situation is defo worth monitoring

👀👀

Guns of SF

GOB
James is too similar to Ozil/Mikki-
Isco would be nice- how to fund that?

China1

Edu reportedly turned us down

Smart move probably lol

China1

Ah Steve rowley. The same guy responsible for such awesome signings in the last 5 years as.. well… there was…. never mind. HES ARSENAL THRU AND THRU!!!!

Freddie Ljungberg

Still think Fekir is the one we should be going for, even spurs are after him now and they have less money than us. He has 18 months left of his contract and Lyon wants a resolution this month. Ramsey for Benatia, Elneny for Suarez and if we can shift Ozil get Fekir in and take the economic loss until the summer, ffp is not judged on a year by year basis anyway. Leaves us much better equipped to fight for top 4 and makes our summer much much easier. Gives us time to evaluate our CBs and see how… Read more »

Charlie George

A bit of plagiarism here- but netherless

Outgoing Swen buys dembele for 12 million

Raul Sanellhi buys dembele for 130 million.

Surely we need to keep the former. ?

Geniuely intrigued to find out if Raul has ever made a profit on a player in his life?

Freddie Ljungberg

Just to clarify, most of the selling and new CM , RB young players are for the summer window

Freddie Ljungberg

And by RB I of course mean left back, smh

jasongms

Freddie

absolutely, it’s what I’ve been advocating for a while now

Guns of SF

Freddie it doesnt explain where our cash is. We have no cash for player purchsess
Stan doing nada
No one buying our shit players

Where has all our money gone?
After all the prudency, its gone

jasongms

Departures 17/18 gross £140.58m
Arrivals 17/18 gross £137.57m
Net spend £-3.01m

Departures 18/19 gross £5.76m
Arrivals 18/19 gross £71.10m
Net spend £-65.34m

Not taking in this window and over the last two seasons, we have a net negative spend of £68.35m

Guns of SF

Jason so that is about 70 M we should have in the bank
interesting

jasongms

Arsenals estimated weekly wage £2,150,000
Man city’s estimated weekly wage £2,280,000

This is the main issue, we have a squad of players that are paid some of the highest salaries in world football, with the production levels or output of a squad of championship players. Trying to move these players is a fucking nightmare, that’s why you have the likes of Jenks refusing point blank to leave.

Again this is not on Emery, but a remnant of the previous regime

jasongms

Guns of SF

no dude, that’s a negative spend, accounts payable

Guns of SF

in the hole 70m ok
bad bad bad

jasongms

To put things into perspective Tottenham’s estimated weekly wage bill £1,460,000 Arsenals estimated weekly wage £2,150,000 So please, all these Wenger devotees, how is the above any of Emery’s doing? Tottenham have far the better productivity for the capital invested, we, on the other hand, were an old failing manager’s last attempt to buy the players loyalty with gifts and handouts. Which has in effect hampered the new managers attempt to expedite change. Yes, it’s on Emery as he should have known what he was walking in on. But it’s one thing reading a spreadsheet to understanding the realities on… Read more »

Dark Hei

jasongms Yeah, but you can’t absolve the new management of any responsibility whatsoever. You can blame Wenger for sparking the Sanchez and Ozil situation by running their contracts down to the final year. But the ones that “cleaned” up his mess with the Sanchez-Mik swap and Ozil’s 350k jackpot were Sven, Raul and Ivan. Even Emery does not get away scott free. He walked into a job knowing he has a 350k Ozil on a 4 year contract and a Mik on a 220k. He walked into Neymarlite with his eyes opened because he wanted a gig at another big… Read more »

jasongms

Dark Hei

Ok, let’s stop the blame game then and stick to the issue. We have an overpaid underperforming mediocre squad, that’s the reality Emery has to deal with and trying to work through this mess is going to take more than 6months, I’d suggest it’ll be closer to 2 seasons before we see any significant change in style and philosophy.

Dark Hei

jasongms Personally, I feel Emery needs to take responsibility for his actions; i.e. he needs to do the job that he is hired to do. Turn this bunch of talented misfits into a title winning side since he is a “proper coach”. It is difficult but not impossible. The thing holding us back season was the away form. So in theory, or Emery needed to do was to instill some spine for the away games right? The problem, I feel, is that Emery is trying to do things his way by forcing the club to take a loss on some… Read more »

Tony

Pedro Great insightful post and congrats for breaking the Sven story. Dissenter Too busy to reply to you yesterday. Vinai is the MD and Raul only Head of Football. See link. https://www.premierleague.com/clubs/1/Arsenal/directory I don’t need to spell it out to you what a MD responsibilities are. However, if as you say Vinai only has CFO responsibilities, then it’s even more farcical he has the MD title. To be honest I’m sick of the hierarchy incompetence and have been since Gazidis was hired/approved by Wenger. I genuinely feel for the STHs; it must be disheartening for them with the continued upheaval.… Read more »

Unai

Hei

‘Turn this bunch of talented misfits into a title winning side since he is a “proper coach”.’

Your day dreaming, ain’t gonna happen.

I’m not an Emery fan by any means but be fair, our squad is in a shocking state.

It’s going to take 2-3 years just to clear the deadwood and in that time other players will age and quality player’s will refuse to join.

This isn’t changing any time soon.

jasongms

“Turn this bunch of talented misfits ”

sorry dude over the last three seasons we’ve yet to see anything that resembles talent in the squad.

Graham62

We eventually got rid of Wenger.

If Kroenke doesn’t start to pull his finger out, we can do the same with him.

Shite, it’s not Brexit for god’s sake.

@Unai

Most of us on here understand the inner workings of a business Unfortunately, Arsenal FC, it’s owner, and executive board members don’t quite fathom it.

gonsterous

‘Turn this bunch of talented misfits into a title winning side since he is a “proper coach”.’

lmao, this isn’t a movie, where with a pep talk the bunch of misfits band together to win the league in the final minute on the final day. *cue music*

Graham62

Tony

My mind is now not so open.

Receding Hairline

Seems some posters are simply asking we return Wenger back and hand him more money

Or we hire a new manager and hand him a war chest..why you don’t want to extend such to the present manager is a matter of personal opinion

Higuain is finished, coming to the premiership at the wrong time, don’t think his signing changes anything. He was supposed to be banging in the goals for Milan, a league he knows very well, but failed miserably

Graham62

I think one very simple question that should be asked to Mr Kroenke and the executive board at the next AGM is this –

Apparently we have little or no money to spend and yet, why have we continued to haphazardly throw money down the drain on player salaries and contracts these past few years?

Can someone please explain?

Bob N16

Graham, sounds like you’ve dropped a tab of acid!

Tony

Graham62 I’m more sitting back watching and will react to what I see. I have no real expectations right now, which is a sad thing for a supporter to have to admit. Had we replicated the Spud’s game more frequently we could at least have some hope that another such game is just around the corner. Will there be an AGM now the company is privately owned? Throwing money down the drain is what we do best and have done for too many years. We are world leaders at it as well as hiring and rewarding incompetence. We’re being run… Read more »

Mick Kartun

Fuck me.

Can’t even afford to chunk 3 millions for James Rodriguez’ loan ?

Rich club my arse, I thought I’ve already thrown my own money by paying the Satelite TV monthly fee.

What would that AFC corporate pigs and Billionare Stan want more from me and other fans?

More donation to the sperm bank to raise transfer funds ?

Tony

Bob N16
What is this tab of acid? Is it heavy?

Tony

Mick
“More donation to the sperm bank to raise transfer funds ?”

You might be onto something there.

Maybe TH, Paddy and the rest of the invincible should donate sperm for the best women footballers to use.

You never know what you might end up with in 16 years time.

Mick Kartun

LOL, good one Tony, great idea.

Terraloon

Guns of SF.

Not sure Chelsea is aFFP issue .If the Higuain deal is as being reported seems that pretty smart business.
Loan is said to be initially a 6 month loan with the option to extend it for another 12 months based on goals and appearances.Dont forgetbthey have already spent £50+ million on a player in the window.
Within the next 6 weeks the accounts for Arsenal’s year ending 31/5/18 will be published they will make interesting reading and will tell far more about what’s going on behind the scenes and indeed what’s likely to happen going forward.

Pierre

Bennydevito

“Most 2nd half points

Most points from coming from behind

Most points from substitutions”

I’m not sure …are you trying to impress us with those stats or confirm that Emery sets his team up poorly from the picMost 2nd half pointsMost points from coming from behind Most points from substitutionsk off

Dark Hei

Terraloon

A private company does not need to publish its accounts publicly.

Wenker-wanger

Don’t blame emery…he isn’t a miracle worker. 6 months in and the impatient fans(many ironically backing the totally spent force that was Wenger for years),want him out. The basic truth here is that emery has been given the steering wheel on a rotting, heavy ship that’s taking on water and veering in a direction difficult to control. Sure he has made some errors of judgement with player selection and other peripheral issues, but that’s inevitable…yoiu cannot win every match. I’m afraid it will get worse,and it may well culminate in emery being sacked. Emery will be the handy scapegoat for… Read more »

Dark Hei

WW All Emery needs is to get results. Beat Chelsea and the EKBs will be back. When he was on a 22 match unbeaten streak, there was only talk about how much better than he is than Wenger. Now he has a wobble, you say it is Wenger’s fault. It does not cut both ways. And as many posters point out (they hate Wenger far more than me), it is simply regressive mentioning Wenger. Wenger is gone. He is jobless, enjoying his jobless existence. What we have now is Emery and this set of players. It is his job to… Read more »

Rainman

sh

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