Arsenal do a Technical Director madness

by .

Well, my plans to cover a wide range of potential Technical Directors in my profile series appears to have come to an end. All of the hot journalists in the Arsenal sphere are running strong with the story that Raul has offered Monchi the Technical Director role at the club with a view to him joining at the end of June.

This is huge news. Monchi represents more than just an administrative hire, he is the poster child of the new era of Raul Sanllehi. This is the exBarca man’s big bet for the next 5 years. This is the make or break move as he tries to acquire more power and authority at Arsenal football club. This is his attempt at an LA Rams roll of the dice.

Folks, this is Hollywood glamour and it’s making me frisky.

No one really knows what the role entails at the minute, but one would expect all of the major footballing functions within the club will report into him. He’ll be in charge of the grand vision for how The Arsenal will play, and he’ll build an operating model around that. The Academy, scouting, medical services, data, tech, and analysis will likely all fall under his remit. The role is important. It’s essential. It’s the future of Arsenal football club. The success of Monchi, if he is signed, will dictate whether we fulfill the ‘sleeping giant’ potential we boast, or we become an utter irrelevance in European football, which is path we’ve been following aggressively for 10 years now.

Technical Director: Monchi

Let’s get one thing straight, if this man were heading anywhere else in Europe, we’d all be jealous. If Chelsea or Liverpool pulled him into their exec fold, we’d be crying into our Alex Hleb 2006 red currant collectible shirt. The man has more sauce than a freshly loaded truck of Cholula. The guy has gravitas, he looks like Netflix crime boss, and he has a record to purr over. Make no mistake, this is the sexiest signing we could have made in the world of technical directors.

As fits go, again, it’s hard to imagine a better candidate to take the club forward. He’s been rocking low net spends and ‘sustainable models’ for longer than Wenger has been talking about handbrakes. This is him on being announced at Roma.

“My goal is to build a sustainable economic model. On the sports side, my job is to bring Roma as close as possible to their top level. These are my main goals”

The good news is his ambitions go a little beyond simply balancing of the books and he’s acutely aware he should be held accountable to more prestigious objectives than flashy spreadsheets, namely: big moments, big trophies. This comment from his Sevilla days.

“No one takes a ‘what great economic results’ banner to the stadium,”

Damn right they don’t.

What I like about the man is he seems to have guiding principles when it comes to how he operates, there are very specific patterns in the way he does things.

Firstly, it’s worth noting that he’s a culture vulture. He has to believe in the city he’s in to operate there. He could sell Sevilla as a place, because it’s ace. He moved to Roma, because he knew he could sell the city to young players. He moved to London to learn the language and ‘work it out’, but there’s no doubt the real reason he learned the language was because he saw his big payday here.

This is him talking about the folly of English clubs when he was at Sevilla.

“England’s a good client,”

“There are loads of off-field things in which they beat us easily,”

“And on the football side, I saw very good work being done. But there’s a disconnect between that work and the advantage they glean from it. I know English clubs that are very professional, scouts everywhere, but the information they gather isn’t always applied. Why? Because they have money. That enables them to take fewer risks: ‘I’m not going to discover Keita at Lens; let Sevilla do that and then buy Keita from Sevilla.’”

There is no club in the world better at wasting money than Arsenal. But at the same time, there aren’t many clubs capable of recovering their finances and making a real go of it like us. Monchi at Arsenal would have access to a brand bigger than anything he’s ever worked for in his life, he’ll have better tech, a better City to sell with more resource than ever. Arsenal really should be his dream ticket. We have the finances to always win in the markets he wants to raid, and we have the financial security to hold onto players if they blow-up.

He’s not coming to Arsenal to perpetuate the self-sustaining model, he’s coming to build an empire. Sometimes taking the model of a small venture doesn’t translate into a bigger one. I’m hoping that’s not the same for football. We’re in the talent game. We need someone who can fast track us access to raw talent we can convert into worldclass.

He has an approach to how he tracks players. Here is how he described his operation in Spain.

 “Sixteen people cover a series of leagues. For the first five months we watch a lot of football but with no particular aim: we’re just accumulating data. Every month we produce an ideal XI for each league. Then in December we start watching players who appeared regularly in different contexts – home, away, international – to build the broadest possible profile.”

Monchi pulls out his phone and, carefully reducing the image so the names can’t be seen, says: “That gives us this.” A colour-coded spreadsheet shows players by position. Around 250 potential targets, in all positions. “The manager says: ‘I want a left-back who averages 11km a game, runs 800m at full speed, uses both feet.’ And from these, 10 will fit.”

And here’s what he did in Roma.

“We are a team of 15 scouts. Each of us works on a defined set of data that are inserted on a platform at a later moment. On the basis of this data, we decide which players must be followed not spending time on all the others. Not all of us are working in Rome. Now, we are building a network of 20-25 scouts that will report to the one in Rome”

He has a proactive view of transfer targets. If someone pops up who he doesn’t need but he can sense value, he’ll take a punt. It’s worked as well…

Fabiano, Adriano, Negredo, Baptista, Gameiro, Krychowiak, Medel, Kondogbia, Ever Banega, Fazio, Bacca, Vidal, Alves, Rakitic, Keita… the list goes on.

There are questions that hang over his head. I think some Roma fans think the jury is out, he’s not won anything there and he his first actions were to flog Rudiger, Salah and Paredes in his first season. Not exactly crowd-pleasing decisions, and again, certainly makes you wonder why Arsenal keep telling all their journos that there’s only £45m this summer.

‘It’s normal, the last ones who can be blamed are Roma fans because they’re right. I can not say anything more —- I’ve always had the feeling that they are close to me, but it’s true that we also have to give them something: they have not won anything in so many years so it’s normal. I did not come here to sell Salah, Ruediger and Paredes, but to do my job, and my job is to fix the numbers. Last year, slowly, slowly, we got the numbers in order and we made normal sales. I do not have a magic wand: what I did is what I’ve always done in the same form, working with young players and mixing in older ones. I believe that in the end, slowly, the fans and, you too, will begin to understand what my idea is. I know there’s hardly ever any time in football. But I am convinced because I know how I work and work with those around me, that we are right.’

I think the key point here is although he took a hammering from the Roma Ultras, he has a very fixed vision on what needs to be done. There is a philosophy behind what he’s doing.

My main concern with his hiring is I very much doubt Arsenal did an extensive search for a Sporting Director and I’m pretty sure this hire has been made on reputation alone. He’s Unai Emery’s mate, he’s Spanish, it’s all very cozy and it reeks of the Arsene Wenger model of entrenched power structures. It’s also fair to say that his success has been in wheeler-dealing with small clubs, versus taking bigger clubs to greater heights like Andrea Berta.

Additionally, it’s hard to establish his credentials beyond scouting. How is he with tech? What’s his view on running a great academy? How will he work with the medical team? What is his belief about style? Where does he see the future of value in players? How will he inspire the fans? The players? The backroom team?

Small critiques that we can overcome… but being able to make tough decisions on hiring and firings when you’re mega pals with the manager is awkward for even the most ruthless of operators.

That said, Andrea Berta was never going to take a job with Arsenal. We have to take a chance on someone who wants to make the next step in their career. I very much doubt there are many people in the world with the experience he has, mapped against the success, lined up against his outsized profile. This is a smart move. Worst case, he settles the mess that’s going on behind the scenes at Arsenal. He’ll resolve the unbalanced squad, he’ll straighten out the wage structure and he’ll set a template for a more exciting Arsenal.

I just really hope he’s a moderniser. Someone who keeps pushing forward. A man with an open mind. We really need that, the nightmare would be hiring someone who has dined off a formula that’s not developed. An absolute no-no in the Premier League where you have to keep evolving your approach to keep up with clubs who can vastly outspend you.

Anyway, can you really ask for more at this stage? I don’t think so. If this happens, I will doff my cap to Raul and buckle up for a summer of transfer madness.

A very exciting move… see you in the comments.

 

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Jamie

I loved reading this piece. A gem:

“He’s been rocking low net spends and ‘sustainable models’ for longer than Wenger has been talking about handbrakes.”

Hysterical!

Charlie George

Un P A

“”””It’s not his job to win titles “””””

Definitely, definitely do not need him then!

Just another tier of management.
No responsibility- no pressure..

The reason Why Wenger was so special…..is because
He took responsibility…. success and failure. Real management.

Never once in 20 years- did that man not front up. And face his responsibilities
..
This new regime – won’t. And aren’t!

Charlie George

Upstate Goon

Nailed it.

mysticleaves

Nigeria decides today. Nigerians here go and exercise your civic right please

salparadisenyc

Times are changing Marc.
San Fermin at the Emirates, bulls up Holloway.

HighburyLegend

“The reason Why Wenger was so special…..is because
He took responsibility…. success and failure. Real management.”

Another priceless quote by CG.

James.wood

Talking about soup (Gazpacho).?
“Did Bamford wind up in it),.?.??”
No posting’s for day’s .?
“Was there a gun incident”.?

HillWood

Arsenal are looking to sign Costa del Sol in the summer transfer window

Globalgunner

No Doubt Charlie G is Wenger in disguise and Perre is his exotic rapper babe

Un Battle Angel

Hill wood

More like costa not alotta

HighburyLegend

“Arsenal’s Alexandre Lacazette suspended for both Europa League games against Rennes”

Terrific… why nobody’s talking about this ??

HillWood

Un
We are hoping to sign him on an All Inclusive deal

Marc

Highbury

I thought the standard ban was 2 matches that could be extended. I hadn’t heard that the ban had been? To how many?

Marc

Come on Burnley fucking do Kane. Two footed on his ankle.

Graham62

Yes, losing Lacazette for both these games could prove pivotal.

He would have been really up for it.

HighburyLegend

“The UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body (CEDB) decided to suspend him for three games so the player, having already served one match of the ban in the second leg win over BATE, will be suspended for a further two matches against Rennes.”

Upstate Gooner

GoH
“I can’t see the frogs or the greaseballs or the nazis just stopping sending us shit.”

Wow, just wow. Why stop there? Plenty of nations left to insult. Sorry, just couldn’t let this one slide.

bennydevito

Charlie GeorgeFebruary 23, 2019    10:41:41 Good to see PedRo back to his sizzling best. A very energetic piece- and I thank him for it. I am from the always perceptive GoH school – until this boring and useless non entity-Emery is removed- they can add layers and more tiers of management until the cows come home – we will remain in this mire of mediocrity…. >>>>>> Really CG? Really? May I remind you AGAIN! More points at this stage of the season and much closer to the top 4 than at this time last season = PROGRESS More points and… Read more »

salparadisenyc

Talking about soup (Gazpacho).?
“Did Bamford wind up in it),.?.??”
No posting’s for day’s .?
“Was there a gun incident”.?

Oh Le Grove you’re funny as fuck at times.
The harsh realities of life on the interweb.

Just Another Customer

Another positive news in the backroom and as long as there is a desire to improve I’ll applaud that.

Hopefully we can see the harvest on the field soon.

bennydevito

Upstate GoonerFebruary 23, 2019    13:37:55

GoH
“I can’t see the frogs or the greaseballs or the nazis just stopping sending us shit.”

Wow, just wow. Why stop there? Plenty of nations left to insult. Sorry, just couldn’t let this one slide.

>>>>>

Pedro you need to seriously get control of this comments section. These comments by GoH are completely unacceptable.

Add CG’s constant months of xenophobic spanish hating bigotry as well.

What the fuck is going on???

Upstate Gooner

Woooood!

Marc

Get in Burnley

salparadisenyc

Burnley showing the way.

Leftsidesanch

I dont even get excited when teams score against Spurs. Son with his annoying face is due to level it soon enough.

JAMES WOOD

SALPARA.
Still does not answer the question.
Bamfords missing.
I care .:)

Upstate Gooner

benny
It really boggles my mind when I read some of the stuff that’s been posted here. Never knew before LeGrove that cvnt is apparently a perfectly fine word.

Sincerely,
Commie

Marc

Cunts

bennydevito

Bamford got banned but cunts like Charlie George and Guns of Hackney are allowed to peddle racism.

This comments section is a fucking mess.

By the way I’ve been screen shotting every racist/xenophic comment and have months of them saved.

HillWood

benny
Are you Spanish by any chance ?

Upstate Gooner

Switched off

Leftsidesanch

Well another mug with an annoying face levelled it but expected it

qna

How are you allowed to run down the side of the pitch, crossing the half way line to take a throw in.

Kane is a quality goal scorer though.

Marc

Goal shouldn’t have stood – cheating cunts

Marc

Bamford got banned?

Where the fuck is Cesc haven’t seen him on here for a while.

Leftsidesanch

For real, Pedro lets some of these posters get away with any/everything.

You can say what you want about Bam, Marko etc but I’ve never seen them make ignorant racist remarks.

bennydevito

HillWood,

Nope. English through and through.

Marc

Leftside

We’ve had plenty of racist comments against Marko as well.

Leftsidesanch

He probably had enough Marc, you try to come on here to read/participate in good convos but you have to scroll past the same nonsense filling up the blog. It’s offputting.

bennydevito

Yes, Bamford s been Tweeting about it.

Marc

Leftside

Wouldn’t be surprised but it is a shame Cesc was one of the more balanced posters on here.

Rambo Ramsey

“By the way I’ve been screen shotting every racist/xenophic comment and have months of them saved.”

You leave us all gasping in awe of the amazing life you must lead

qna

Bamfords been tweeting about what? Surely he’s not banned?

bennydevito

Yes Bamford is banned. He keeps messaging me about it but I didn’t want to get involved but the racist comments in here have forced my hand.

Graham62

Charlie George is just a troll. Out to incite and cause as much of a reaction as possible.

Criticise by all means but all these personal attacks are inexcusable.

Comes across as a bit of a bigot.

Marc

“Comes across as a bit of a bigot.”

Only a bit of?

qna

That’s pathetic. And hilarious. Bamford wouldn’t know how to be insulting if he tried 🙂

bennydevito

Rambo Ramsey,

I’m not seeking approval from anyone so whether you’re gasping in awe of my life or not I couldn’t give 2 fucks.

I have 4 kids so actually my life is pretty amazing actually.

The reason I’ve been screen shotting is because racist hate speech is now a crime.

That’s all I’m going to say.

Marc

4 kids fuck me haven’t you heard on contraception?

bennydevito

I don’t like racism and I’m perfectly entitled to speak out against it.

Simple as that.

bennydevito

Marc,

Lol! 🤣

At 42 I’ve had enough believe me!

Burnley!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Marc

Come on Burnley!!!

qna

Hahahahaaha. Yes.

Rambo Ramsey

I’ll sleep easy now ,benny, now that I know you’re out saving the World.

Leftsidesanch

Get in Burnley

Upstate Gooner

Just realized that our game tomorrow is at the same time as Pool/Utd. Chelsea were supposed to play at 7am ET but it was obviously cancelled as they play City later on in the Cup final. So why not move ours into that slot so people could enjoy both games? SMH.

bennydevito

Rambo Ramsey,

I’m glad.

You’re welcome.

Marc

Upstate

It’s a major ball ache – Utd – Liverpool is usually well worth a watch but with Liverpool’s title challenge at risk it’s going to be the biggest head to head for some time.

salparadisenyc

Turf Moor rising from the ashes, fear the worst with last minute jammer from the scum.

Alexanderhenry

Pedro

Another cook in the kitchen but they’re all working with blunt knives and tin openers.

Also, to quote you:

‘There is no club in the world better at wasting money than Arsenal.’

Really? What about man utd?

Marc

Pedro

Can’t believe you banned Bamford!

Upstate Gooner

benny
4 kids?! Brave man.

Marc

Mike Dean really is an incompetent cunt of epic proportions.

Alexanderhenry

Has Bamford been banned?

If so, I fear for his sanity. You might have broken his heart Pedro.

Marko

Monchi is going to be a great hire. Got a good track record and you’d want him driving your recruitment in the transfer market instead of Raul (notice how I don’t say or Emery). Guy very much has his finger on the pulse of the club he’s at

Marc

It sounds like a country song!

Don’t go banning my Bamford.

salparadisenyc

RIDE it out boys.

Leftsidesanch

Pedro, how dare you ban Bamford, guy?

Bit harsh, don’t you think?

HillWood

Just hang on in there Burnley

Marc

Pedro

I’m taking the piss mate! The sun is shining, the Spud’s are losing and I haven’t even had a drink yet.

bennydevito

Pedro,

You’re post was brilliant today, but like I predicted in here last night when the Monchi news broke, Charlie George has absolutely ruined it.

Marc

Poch “This is a must win”

Fuck me about the worst thing you can say to a team with a history of bottling it.

Leftsidesanch

I was jesting Pedro, that is how Bam types it may have went over your head.

Well done Burnley

bennydevito

Burnley you beauties!!

Receding Hairline

Spurs do a Spurs

bennydevito

Oooh Poch’s having a melt down!!!

Marc

Poch losing the plot!

Freddie Ljungberg

Pedro, they spend 13m net, that’s a bit different, especially when you have had a competent setup for years and easier access to the south American market.

We on the other hand will get peanuts for our so called superstars so will have to spend a lot more net to be able to compete.

In a few years if Monchi recruits well and picks up gems every window it’ll look different and our net spend could go down if we want it to but that takes time.

Up 4 grabs now

Nice to see it go spursey!

Upstate Gooner

I’ll take Kane scoring and Spurs losing any day of the week

salparadisenyc

Spursy bastards well done Burnley!

Leftsidesanch

Spurs having a bad afternoon means I’m going to have a good afternoon and evening

Marc

Funny how the Poch doesn’t think that stealing 10 yards on the throw in for their goal was an issue.

Up 4 grabs now

Wanna see pochetinno get a nice ban for that, pressure finally got to him. Lolz.

HillWood

Pochettino losing his rag Lol lol lol

Upstate Gooner

What’s with Poch? He’s got nothing to complain about. Him and his players bottled it, as usual.

Dissenter

Pochetinno is going to get a lengthy ban
I’ve never seen anyone go at Mike Dean like than

Leftsidesanch

Wenger would get a ban for what Poch did, lets see if everyones favourite underachiever when it matters gets one

Marc

I know it’s a long shot but we have Southampton and then Bournemouth at home. The Spud’s have Chelsea away.

If we could beat them next week the gap could close to a point! Everyone needs to pray and make sacrifices to the football Gods. If the Spud’s finished outside the top 4 with the new stadium it would be a disaster for them.

Batistuta

How anyone thinks this lot up the road have any chance in hell of winning the league talk more of a champions league is well beyond me.

Dissenter

Mike Dean was supposed to be the closet spurs fan.

Marc

“I’ve never seen anyone go at Mike Dean like than”

With Mike Dean’s record that’s actually worth a debate in itself.

Marc

“‘a man, typically characterized by flashy dress, who makes a living by disreputable dealings.’”

I thought that was someone in marketing.

Vintage Gun

Good post Pedoro and this announcement dropped in perfect timing with the theme of your recent posts. (if this announcement is true of course)

The netflix crime boss quip was a gem. Gave me a hearty laugh!!

Alexanderhenry

Pedro Depends on what your expectations are for arsenal. If you think the club can actually win the premiership with a spend of 13 million (euros or pounds) per season, you might be being a tad optimistic. Looking at the current squad, I think we’ll have to spend a lot more than that just to secure a top four place- at least for the next few seasons. If there’s ever been a time for some stick it on the credit card and forget about, it’s Christmas type spending at Arsenal – it’s now. Once the squad is boosted and we’re… Read more »