Technical Director Profile: Ralph Rangnick

by .

There is absolutely no doubt about it, Arsenal stand at a forked road, to the left is the abyss (Think Blackwall Tunnel at rush hour). A rocky, pothole-filled side road where we limply try and compete with the big boys, peeling away aging substandard players with faded reputations, or young player lost in their careers because of previous application issues. Down here, we invest in haggard ideas, journeyman staff, and bland football.

To the right is the footballing equivalent of the yellow brick, where we settle on an exciting vision for the future and skip down to Emerald City, where I believe a Champions League medal awaits. Down here we take chances, invest in bold ideas, empower our staff to innovate toward excellence and run their departments independently, structure the club around transparent decision making, and make the football stand for something. This path is not easy, but it sets us up for a brighter future. The road may not be paved with gold, but it could be further down the line. This road is honest about who we are and realistic about how we achieve success.

That’s why the hire for our first technical director is so incredibly important. We need an idea. We need something to rally around. We need to reshape 3 very confused transfer windows. We need to avoid careening off the road into a ditch of insignificance.

Last week I profiled Andrea Berta. As a refresher, he’s delivered two Champions League final appearances on a net spend of 13m euros a season. His total net spend over 6 seasons is £6m more than we spend last summer.

It is not acceptable to say that Arsenal cannot compete within our financial constraints. We just need to have a better plan than the current one.

Today, I am covering one of the great minds of the game, both on the playing front, and on the operational side of the business.

Profile: Ralph Rangnick, Red Bull

A legend in managerial and coaching circles, Rangnick has been the top guy at 13 clubs, he has many achievements to talk of, from taking Schalke to runners up in the league, to his stellar work moving tiny Hoffenheim up two divisions and cementing them mainstays of the Bundesliga, but for most, no achievement can eclipse the incredible work he’s been doing at the Red Bull football franchise which now encompasses 4 clubs in Austria, Germany, Brazil, and America.

He joined as the Sporting Director of Salzburg and Leipzig in 2012. The German club moved up the divisions rapidly, hitting the Bundesliga 2 with two straight promotions. He spent a couple of seasons there, even dropping into management himself after failing to hook Thomas Tuchel as his appointment in the summer of 2015. He won promotion that season, resigning at the end to focus on his Sporting Director duties, he then appointed Ralph Hassenhutl to takeover. The team went undefeated in their first 13 games, a record for a promoted team, and made Europe in their first season, qualifying for the Champions League.

Additionally, it’s worth mentioning that the much-derided Leipzig franchise has seen gate attendances go from 2,000 to 39,000 a game under Ralph. He knows how to build clubs successfully, and he knows how to attract the fans with a brand of football that is high intensity, aggressive and fun to watch.

He’s fondly known as the professor, like Arsene Wenger, though he has a more rigorous philosophy when it comes to football and business than the Frenchman . He works to the three Ks (wouldn’t call it that in New York)… Kapital, Konzept and Kompetenz (Money, concept, and competence).

“If those three things come together, then you can be successful. If you only have one or two of them, it’s more difficult,”

“Our club is always reduced to the financial muscle of its owner. There are lots of clubs in the Bundesliga like that. Put it this way, the Bundesliga table doesn’t correlate with clubs’ budgets. If it did, the table would look very different.”

Red Bull sure have money, no doubt about that. But there’s also a smart philosophy in how they spend that cash, something Arsenal sorely lack these days. Here he is speaking to The Blizzard.

‘The difference between us and other clubs is that when we sign or scout new players, we are fishing in a very small pond. We only interested in players aged between 17 and 23, as from our experience, when you are 23 you are no longer a talent. If you look at other clubs and their development, you can see that players start their careers earlier than 10 years ago and finish earlier too. So we are only scouting those players. The maximum age is 23. The second difference is that in both clubs, we try to implement and play the same style of football and of course between the two clubs, we make use of synergies that can be developed out of those two factors.’

‘When Mr Mateschitz called me, the average age of the two squads was 29. In fact, it was almost 30 at Salzburg and 29 in Leipzig. The players they were signing were signing their last contracts. When he asked what I would change I said, “The commercial slogan says, ‘Red Bull gives you wings’. The target market [for Red Bull] is 16-25, and young people don’t identify themselves with 30 year olds, so you need players the same age or slightly older.” So we have changed the average age in Salzburg to 24 and in Leipzig it’s similar. We have reduced the average age of the whole squad by four years in the last two seasons.’

He also set the vision across all his clubs on how the club should play.

‘Here are the principles: one, add maximum possibility to the team and act, don’t react. So you need to dictate the game with and without the ball, not through individuals. Two, use numerical superiority and let the ball run directly whenever possible, with no unnecessary individual action and with no fouls. Three, use transitions, switch quickly. Try to win back the ball within five seconds with aggressive pressing. After winning the ball back, play quickly straight away, play direct and vertically towards the opponent’s goal, surprise the disorganised opponent to get into the penalty area and shoot within ten seconds of winning the ball back.’

‘At Hoffenheim, we did research and showed that the likelihood of scoring is within eight seconds of winning back the ball. In training we have a countdown clock and the target is to score within 10 seconds. Jürgen Klopp has said that the best playmaker is ‘perfect counter-pressing’. So four, the more a team sprints (i.e. the more the players sprint) faster to win back the ball then there is a greater likelihood they will score a goal once they have won it back quickly.’

This is what focus looks like. This is why you can’t be satisfied with loose ideas like ‘contacts’ based transfer strategies. This is why having a belief system when it comes to how you play is so important.

The second layer of interest in how the Red Bull operation operates is how they are not only a factory for players, they are also a hothouse for the best young coaches in football. Rangnick is one of the best mentors in football. He helped oversee the education of Julian Nagelsmann who is making the trip back to the loving arms of his mentor next summer in Leipzig. Ralph Hassenhutl went from a very adept organiser of defences, to combining it with the powerful attacking energy of the Rangnick pressing philosophy. Roger Schmidt passed through Salzburg. PSG made a world record purchase for an assistant when they landed Zsolt Low last summer.

I would also guess that the F1 analytics team partner with the football guys to build advanced analytics models to assess performance in novel ways. Just a guess though…

Things get very interesting when it comes to Red Bull and money. On the face of it, the German club is a mini-Chelsea. They have made a huge outlay over the past 8 years dropping a whopping 160m euros in expenditure. The money has been well spent because they’re competing for CL, but it’s hard to say they’ve had many constraints on what they’ve been doing.

However, when you look at the Austrian club at the same time, you start to see the smarts behind the Red Bull machine. Salzburg, who have been incredibly successful themselves have spent 63m euros in that time, but recouped a whopping 201m euros.

When you even that out, the total net spend between clubs is 22.3m euros. Not bad with two clubs making the Champions League qualifications 2017.

It’s also interesting to see that Leipzig like to raid Salzburg. The German team sent 89m euros their way, which would actually mean that the Red Bull franchise made 66m euros building all that success.

Additionally, look at some of the names that have passed through the club.

Saido Mane, Naby Keita, Emile Forsberg, Timo Werner, Joshua Kimmich… these are not poor players.

Now, I know that the Bundesliga is weaker than the Premier League, but Arsenal spent 83m euros in one summer. Are you still going to tell me that it is an impossibility for us to come up with a sharper plan than the one we’re currently adopting?

The Red Bull owner isn’t into football according to Rangnick, ‘Mr Mateschitz said to me when we first met in 2012 that he’s not a football man but he has a vision and this is what I like most about him.’

Sadly, we don’t have an owner with a vision or any real ambition for Arsenal. However, I truly believe if we made the right hire for the Technical Director role, success would follow. If you hire in folk with a vision and the drive to deliver it, you don’t need an owner to be checking in and micro-managing (see the LA Rams where I’ve read that Stan isn’t heavily involved).

So in conclusion, a man like Rangnick shows how you can implement a vision across 4 clubs and succeed. He’s created a school of excellence for managers, he’s mapped a vision of how the football should be played, he’s worked out a business model that allows him to farm talent between his clubs and make big profits in the process, he’s also delivered unbelievable results in a short space of time.

Arsenal do not need 5 years to unfuck the dying days of Arsene Wenger. We do not need MBS to inject £100b into our team to move the club forward (would be nice, but be real, I’d not last long). We need someone with an exciting plan to move us forward. Who that will be, I have no idea, but there are plenty of exciting names I will continue to explore while we wait.

P.S. Listen to the podcast and follow my guest on Twitter who is @TopicalStorm (Grover)

SPOTIFY | STITCHER | ITUNES | GOOGLE | POCKET CASTS

350 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
WengerEagle

29 Clean sheets and just 28 goals conceded in 48 apps for Szczesny at Juventus.

And we let him go for… €13 million.

Charlie George

“”Banega wouldn’t be a terrible signing in addition to another”””

Wenger E- please tell me ( or name the player ) that would constitute to be a terrible signing then??

Peter Crouch ?
Gareth Barry?

We would be the laughing stock of English football….

Is this Arsenal 2019?
Emery
Raul
Suarez
And Banega?

And what and who comes after.?

Charlie George

“””I’m not saying that 3 games in 6 days doesn’t fatigue a player. I’m saying he is a professional athlete capable of doing that.”””

Clearly not goober- Holdings out for the season.

Now, we expected this sloppiness at the end of Wenger s tenure….

This new regime were supposedly cutting edge in all these facets- we were led to believe.

They are about as cutting edge as your in-flight cutlery.

WengerEagle

Banega’s played 65 times for Argentina and has a tonne of CL football experience under his belt, he’s not remotely comparable to Denis Suarez who’s never been anything more than a reserve.

Charlie George

WE
If he was 21 – you would be reluctant to sign him!

If he was 31- you would be negligent to sign him!

AMN in centre midfield is a better player than him anyway..

Insane.

WengerEagle

Of course we can do better Pedro, but you are selling him short as a player. He’s played well in the CL.

Even if the current Argentina side is average you don’t win that many caps if you’re not a decent baller. And he’s been a feature for a long time, been in the squad for 10 years not like he’s racking up caps under an incompetent gaffer like Jonas Gutierrez was under Maradona.

WengerEagle

DDG and Ederson are both top drawer but Allison?

I’m yet to be convinced by him. Obviously a good GK but elite? Not for me.

Rather than compare Chezzer to 2 of the best 3 GK’s on the planet the other being Ter Stegen, why not compare him to Leno?

Of which he is clearly superior.

WengerEagle

Pedro

Ha well look we’re ultimately in the same boat because I agree that Emery isn’t up to the job to take us back to the elite table of clubs even in England, much less Europe. I really don’t want to waste another season persisting with him but I reckon that we will, and we’ll live to regret it.

He’s never overachieved in a league season, think about that for a second. Even Brendan Rodgers can say that he has.

Tony

Good post Pedro. Like when Fergie brought in young Beckham and co, he still kept some older experience to balance the team. We need to do the same. It’s a long unsettling wait until the end of the summer TW and who gets the TD job. Problem waiting for Overmars is we need to be planning and negotiating now not at the end of the season. Like Charlie I don’t know enough about suitable candidates for the DOF/TD position, but we won’t be able to get Berta or Rangnick, so the question is do we take a chance on the… Read more »

qna

WE. Very few players that play Banega’s position play great football when they are 31, 32, 33. The few that do play high quality football for the top clubs were elite when they were 27, 28. That is not Banega.

Guy will be 31 in the summer. We will be lucky to get even a single good season of football from him. What a waste of 10m that would be, when we could be spending it on players that could be our future.

China1

Good article Pedro. Seems like a quality guy

Re Banega, no thanks

He’s never been elite and he’s now old and not getting any better. As a bench player he’s probably worth it but not for us when our first team is piss poor

What are the benefits of having an old less than elite guy taking up space in the squad when a young man with potential could be there instead?

China1

Chesney is no doubt a good keeper, I wouldn’t argue against that

I would also imagine that playing in a poor league with one of the world’s best squads (and defensive units) in front of you will have a pretty big impact on the clean sheets tho

Not to shit on the guy because I always have liked him – but being a keeper at juve is like being a striker at Barca, it would be surprising if you didn’t have good numbers

Dream10

Fantastic to see Mister Wenger in great form last night. What a man. Looks like giving Emery two seasons to improve the side might have been the plan. Arsenal mouthpieces have been fed the line that we’re looking for a LB, CM and wide forward. Probably one CB as well. So the new CB and Mavropanos will be replacements for Mustafi and Koscielny. Fits in line with the reported budget. Then by next summer a bulk of the old guys in the squad will be moved on. Believe Emery has a two yr deal with a third yr option. So… Read more »

qna

Dream. To be fair, Emery wasn’t our first choice. So it makes sense that the plan to go ahead with a manager that wasn’t your first choice was short term, with an option to continue if everything goes well. Stan Kroenke isn’t about winning trophies or building great teams. He wants top 4 because it adds significant revenues, but the cost-reward of anything more is too great for him. The worrying thing is that he is an owner of a big football club that cannot see the economic rewards of building a great team that wins trophies. He thinks like… Read more »

Emiratesstroller

Tony What is going on with Ozil is an absolute scandal. Based on what we have seen in games against Huddersfield and BAT the idea that this player is not an upgrade on what we have seen in our midfield is ridiculous. The way that Emery and the hierarchy at Arsenal are managing this situation beggars belief. If you want to offload such a player as seems to be the case you play him and hope that there is some club and owner who is willing to spend the dosh. If you have a player on your books who is… Read more »

Dream10

qna The point of classifying Arsenal as a franchise makes sense. It’s worrying as well. The top 6 might be the new top 4 in the Kroenkes eyes. Out of all the clubs they could have bought, it’s a big shame they chose ours. It’s a massive opportunity for us to qualify for the CL this season. Chelsea are shit, but they have assets to sell and will get better. Utd were trending downward for half a season, now the opposite. They have the ability to spend the same regardless of cl football. Unlikely we don’t make next yr, if… Read more »

peanuts&monkeys

“Would any manager in the world not at least try and build bridges with one of the most sublime creative talents in the world, even if he is lazy? Would you not try and work out a system that could protect against his weaknesses in some way? Could you not put your pride to one side to make some magic happen?” This is exactly what has to be done. Let’s hope Emery has built bridges already. i think even in lowering his guard, Emery will still hold sway because that is like putting the ball squarely back in Ozil’s court.… Read more »

qna

Dream. Yeah, we are in a great position to qualify for top 4. But the wheels look like they have already fallen off. Would be a huge effort to get our house in order and stay with United.

Chelsea will probably sack their manager soon too and those that have downed tools will be back and firing.

Emiratesstroller

It does not matter that we have on our books two decent strikers. The reality is that the rest of our team is fairly dysfunctional and bluntly mediocre to poor. Our current defence is in my opinion the worst that has played for Arsenal in the last 30 years if not longer. The idea that we can improve and compete at the top level with current crop of players and no proper investment in team is ridiculous. We know that both Man Utd and Chelsea will throw money at their respective problems and improve their teams. That applies also to… Read more »

Leedsgunner

I love RR’s philosophy summed up by the quotation below: “‘The difference between us and other clubs is that when we sign or scout new players, we are fishing in a very small pond. We only interested in players aged between 17 and 23, as from our experience, when you are 23 you are no longer a talent. If you look at other clubs and their development, you can see that players start their careers earlier than 10 years ago and finish earlier too. So we are only scouting those players. The maximum age is 23. The second difference is… Read more »

gonsterous

I think the idea with ozil is, since no one wants him, and ozil is happy sitting on the big chunk of money, make his life harder so he forces a move, May be with a lower salary. hence the decision to freeze him out of the squad. Give him an occasional game so he knows what he’s missing. The other alternative is, ozil plays and is happy in London, so why should he move to any club where he has to show his capabilities, or take a drop in salary. Also if reports are to go by, he refused… Read more »

Freddie Ljungberg

Gonsterus

I think that’s the plan, his sponsors are going to abandon him if he’s never playing, could be worth a smaller weekly wage for him to go and play elsewhere just for that reason.

We have to move him on to move forwards and he’s barely contributing even when he is playing. 1 game in 13 isn’t close to good enough.

qna

Emirates: As far as I am concerned Arsenal have enormous potential because of their history and location, but under the current ownership totally underinvested emotionally and in ambition. Agree. I might be biased, but I feel that a decade ago we had the most potential of any club in the world. English football is the most watched in the world. And we were the biggest club in London. With another owner, things could have gone very differently. But we have to accept the things we cannot change. We still have massive, massive potential. But we aren’t going to realize that… Read more »

Moray

Transitions…Clough must be turning in his grave (if it wasn’t full of empty bottles)

qna

Just using the back of the envelope to look at the task ahead. Assume that we don’t have any players that would be part of a super team that we set out to build (just for arguments sake here). So the task at hand would be to recruit 25 new players that are not currently in the squad. Gradually phasing out the existing players. If we have really good people tasked with the job, we might get 1 top quality player for every 3 players we buy. One of the other two will be good squad players and the third… Read more »

Moray

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/feb/19/arsene-wenger-mesut-ozil-comfort-zone-arsenal

Arsène Wenger suggests Mesut Özil’s new deal put him in ‘comfort zone’

Moray

QNA, your assessment is spot on. The cancer at Arsenal is the salary pot. It’s way too high for the quality it offers. What we desperately need is some sensible planning over the next few years to reduce this. And it doesn’t mean losing quality either: Spuds have been very circumspect with the salaries they offer and managed their wage bill well, so if those numbnuts can do it then it’s not rocket science. It’s probably also worth pointing out that we need some patience as fans while the team transitions and the long term strategy drops into place. Again,… Read more »

Graham62

qna I agree. It sounds ludicrous but Arsenal are now a sleeping giant. Given the right leadership, both on and off the pitch we can awaken from our slumbers and move forward. My one concern now is will our owner have the fortitude and conviction to lead us down this path, or will we continue to stagnate? The fans, as they always have, will have the ultimate say in all of this. If, one year from now we remain in this status quo of nothingness and our owner has not made an effort to inform the fans of his “footballing”intentions,… Read more »

James.wood

Had to laugh at Wenger ‘s comments on Ozil.
“He is in his comfort zone.”
I would say that’s easy for Wenger to say seeing
the position he took up on his watch.

And was it not him that convinced Ozil to resign
Seems like old Wengers rubbing it in.

qna

Moray: It’s probably also worth pointing out that we need some patience as fans while the team transitions and the long term strategy drops into place. Agree. I am ready to give them that patience. But we need to see a strategy that we can be content to be patient with. It is early to judge Raul, but I didn’t like the signing of Sokratis. That screams we are all about top 4 to me. Mkhi was a disaster decision. I was also against Auba for the same reason. So lets see them put in a strategy that we can… Read more »

Emiratesstroller

Qna Arsenal are not short of “squad” players good enough to play in EPL and there are also 3 or 4 youngsters like Smith-Rowe and Nelson to promote to the squad. However, Arsenal’s shortcomings are primarily in defence. It is hard to judge how to resolve this problem short of rebuilding the entire back line. It is inexcusable that a club like Arsenal cannot put together a defence which is solid, disciplined and “intelligent”. Arsenal have this season jointly with Ipswich the worst record of clean sheets of all clubs in the professional game. That is a shocking indictment of… Read more »

Ishola70

Wenger has spoken.

And not in the favour of Ozil.

Pierre do you dare to question the professeur, the king of Arsenal?

qna

Graham. You could be right. I think he is in it to sell it eventually. But I think he would want to see a much bigger appreciation in value than it has right now. Stan just needs to get the right people in charge. Specifically he needs to get Raul’s position right and that would lead to that person putting in the right strategy, the right technical director and the right manager. For me, its all about Raul now. The owner isn’t going in the short term. Raul is pulling the strings. He can’t be any worse than Ivan, but… Read more »

Freddie Ljungberg

qna

To be fair the Sokratis signing made sense when you look at our squad, all our senior defenders are either crap ( Kola, Mustafi) or too old (Kos, Monreal) we do need some competent experienced leadership in there. We should definitely sign someone young this window though.

Mikhi and Auba is on the old regime, and Auba is hardly a bad signing although we should have gone for a younger winger instead maybe.

Ishola70

We say it over and over again. Arsenal need to ditch Mustafi and Xhaka from the first team to see some improvement in the team. Those should be the first steps. You keep playing these two in the first team the side will continue to look fragile. Then you look at adding wingers maybe a LB. Herrera on a free from Porto should be seriously looked at. Guy is a mature footballer unlike the Swiss we have, has some acceleration unlike the Swiss we have and can give protection to the defence which the Swiss fails to do on too… Read more »

Graham62

My days off attacking Wenger are now well and truly over, unless, that is, he passes comment or makes snide and unnecessary remarks about the club. Interestingly, he has remained rather quiet these past few months. I can only assume he has had time to analyse and evaluate his many failings over the past few years and, out of embarrassment, has decided to hide away to avoid further grief. Then again, he’s probably sitting and painting a self portrait to hang in the glass bubble he built for himself during his long and tedious tenureship at the Emirates. No disrespect… Read more »

Graham62

of

Emiratesstroller

Graham 62 There is no point in slagging constantly Wenger as some continue to do. He has gone and there is regime change. The real issue is whether the current Head Coach and his staff are improving team. At first when we went on a 21 game run undefeated I thought that he might manage to put house in order. However, since November matters have reverted to type. We keep on leaking goals and losing away games. Moreover a team which under Wenger offered at least some craft and skill in midfield is now lacking in that department. If you… Read more »

Ishola70

Xhaka is shit as a holding midfielder ES even with someone alongside him.

How much more evidence do you want that this guy is a massive liability playing in front of the central defence?

I mean for gods sake he was booked after 5 minutes against BATE Borisov because he was beaten like he was a stationary traffic cone yet again. Players of the calibre of BATE Borisov level are strolling past him.

I will have no sympathy for Emery at all next season if he still sees Xhaka as a guaranteed first team starter.

Ishola70

How many yellow cards will the Swiss traffic cone end up with by the end of the season and perhaps a red or two?

He’s on a healthy number of yellows already and we are just halfway through.

He gets these yellows because he struggles to keep apace with players going past him taking him on. Has no positional sense far too many times.

qna

Freddie: To be fair the Sokratis signing made sense when you look at our squad, all our senior defenders are either crap ( Kola, Mustafi) or too old (Kos, Monreal) we do need some competent experienced leadership in there. We should definitely sign someone young this window though.Mikhi and Auba is on the old regime, and Auba is hardly a bad signing although we should have gone for a younger winger instead maybe. True. And Sokratis has been good. But he cost 18m and in 3-4 years time he will need to be replaced. I understand that they had to… Read more »

Graham62

ES

Sorry but only responded to earlier comments.

Tony

ES
Agree with all you said earlier.

bennydevito

New post.

Last!

😎

Globalgunner

Wenger would know everything about being in the comfort zone