Raul has set wheels in motion for disaster duo (Long Read)

by .

Today I’m writing out of desperate concern for the future of our club. I think Arsenal are perched on a dangerous precipice. There is a Trojan horse at the gates of Highbury House, inside it lurks a super agent looking to control his biggest club yet via a managerial proxy.  The idea of Jorge Mendes installing his boy Nuno as our manager has to be squashed with brute force because outside of it being a painfully bland appointment, it comes with dire ramifications for how we are operated and run.

We cannot let this happen. It would be a mistake with grave consequences for our future.

Arsenal is an institution. A club dedicated to closely guarded values. Yes, those values have been used to defend mediocrity over the past 10 years, but forget that for a minute, we stand for something bigger than trophies and that is something you should cherish.

Whether it’s passing on Frank and Ronald De Boer because of what it said about our respect for contracts 25 years ago. Replaying a cup match with Sheffield United because of a rules infraction. Or the general standard of how the club conducts itself in the local community, we are a special club. There is an Arsenal way and it makes us proud to be fans.

Those values appear to be under attack by some in the leadership team.

Look no further than the open arms welcome to ‘contacts’ recruitment and the introduction of super-agents for evidence. Much like Unai Emery’s early subs in September 2018, we initially welcomed the shift towards a more pragmatic era, but 18 months in, with next to nothing to show for it, it’s starting to look like we’re being taken for a ride by Raul’s process for getting things done.

The last 18 months will pale in comparison if he is successful in selling us the dud vision of Nuno and Mendes running things at Arsenal. To be clear, this is not just agent talk. His name will be on the managerial shortlist the club is pulling together. Nuno might look a reasonable suggestion on paper, the one-season wonder has had some spectacular results, but as with Emery, scratch beneath the surface, and it’s clear all is not as it seems with the charismatic Portuguese.

So what’s the problem? Outside having a bland-on-toast resume that’s been heavily fortified with great wins against top 6 sides, the main issue is his super-agent kingmaker, Jorge Mendes. Every article leaked into the Arsenal ether this week has gone to great lengths to tie Raul and his friendship with Mendes to this potential deal. This is not an accident, Raul is canvassing fan opinion to see how we perceive this sort of partnership: You should be disgusted.

Mendes has a history with Arsenal. He has fucked us in the past. The biggest, and perhaps most consequential shafting was the Ronaldo move way back when. Mendes used Arsenal to earn a better deal from United. This is Wenger on the deal.

“There is always something you could have done differently, but the problem of negotiations is to know when you give in and when you don’t give in,” he added.

“Once we were at 4.5 million pounds, we were still in negotiations… so we were very close. But Man United went to 12 million pounds, which we could not afford at the time.”

Mendes was also responsible for sending Ricardo Carvalho to Chelsea when we were close. There are also numerous other deals that didn’t go our way. He is no friend of the club and there was a reason Wenger wouldn’t deal with him (no doubt it’ll be in his book).

Now let’s move onto Nuno. He was Mendes’ first-ever client in football way back when he was a reserve keeper. They have a storied history together.

Fast forward to Spain in 2014.

When creditor, Bankia, were trying to find a buyer for the beleaguered Spanish club Valencia, Asian billionaire Peter Lim brokered a deal for 70% ownership, his one stipulation? Nuno had to be put in charge of the team. The deal went through, the popular Pizzi was sacked, Nuno was given the managerial role. Who brought Peter Lim to the table? Jorge Mendes.

Things went as you’d expect, this from Sport 360.

‘And since Lim’s arrival was confirmed, the club has signed an unsurprisingly high number of players who are managed by or have close links with Mendes, including Joao Cancelo, Zakaria Bakkali, Danilo and Enzo Perez, creating suspicions that they owe their chief loyalties to the agent rather than the club, and that they will only stay until Mendes decides it is time to sell them.’

Things went deeper though, Mendes made real jobs redundant because he was the king. His roster of players was all that mattered.

‘Conversely, fan favourite Nicolas Otamendi was sold to Manchester City, with the deal facilitated by his agent – Mendes, of course. For many fans the most troubling aspect of the summer, however, was neither the club’s failure to significantly invest in players nor the Mendes links with those who did arrive. It was a political battle between Nuno and three of the club’s key backroom staff: president Amadeo Salvo, sporting director Francisco Rufete and scout Roberto Fabian Ayala, who felt marginalised by the powerful influence of Mendes and threatened to leave unless the situation was rectified.’

‘Nuno stood his ground, Lim backed him, and Salvo, Rufete and Ayala all departed – with the startling fact that chief scout Ayala was not even replaced speaking volumes for the club’s current recruitment policy, which appears to be based upon little more than shuffling around Mendes’ personal portfolio.’

Nuno was eventually fired despite returning Valencia to the Champions League, fans were disgusted at the power grip he and Mendes had on the club. By December 2015, Peter Lim had spent €200 million on players (lots of dross), many of whom were represented by Mendes. What did Nuno have to say about it?

“A short time ago I heard that it was a privilege to be able to work with the best agent in the world,”

“I don’t know why this has changed. He remains the best agent in the world. He has helped Valencia a lot.

“The players he has brought, I believe they will soon be the best in the world. You must recognise his work. The squad planning was what we believed was the best. I believe we were right in all the individual judgements. There is a young squad with a lot of potential, the youngest in La Liga. This project will have success for sure.”

Completely oblivious to the real reasons the fans turned on him, Nuno echoed an excuse reminiscent of what Emery said in yesterday’s press conference.

“The players believe they can give more, they must. But they need to be supported, to feel people are with them, that the fans understand their youth, that they are with them in every game, so their quality can come through.

“I had become the problem, because the fans were not supporting us, but had turned on me. Now I ask them to support the players, because they have the quality they have shown before.”

Valencia finished 12th the next two seasons.

Fast forward to 2016. Xi Jinping, the top boy over at China mainland, is a huge Premier League fan. He encouraged investment from his big shot entrepreneurs in the beautiful game. Fosun, a Chinese investment conglomerate, went out and picked up Wolves for £46m. Who was there to broker the deal? Jorge Mendes. He is the go-to broker for Asian billionaires looking to move into European football.

To make matters more complicated, Fosun’s owner has another firm called Shanghai Foyo that reportedly owns a 20% stake in Jorge’s agency, Gestifute. This from Wolves in 2018.

“Fosun have a percentage stake in the Gestifute company headed up by Jorge Mendes,”

Leeds Chairman, Radrizzani, was livid at the complicated relationship Mendes had with the club, obviously fearing conflicts of interest could arise.

“Not legal and fair to let one team owned by a fund who has shares in the biggest players’ agency with evident benefits (top European clubs giving players with options to buy) … why the other 23 teams can’t have the same treatment?”

It’s too boring for me to get into the details of every single player Wolves have signed or moved out of the club, but do the research yourself. Read commentary on Neto and Jordao.

It was swift, it was sudden, and it came as if from nowhere. Wolves, on Friday, with minimal warning until less than 24 horus beforehand, announced the signing of Portuguese duo Pedro Neto and Bruno Jordao from Italian outfit Lazio – for a combined fee of £18million.

Significant money for two players who were largely unheard of outside of Portugal and Italy, and two players who between them had barely racked up 100 minutes of senior football. From the outside, it looks like a confusing piece of business, perhaps even a rip off if you will, and a sign of the market spiralling completely out of control.

Read the Italian press write about the money Lazio spent to NOT play the two mentioned above. Read this 2018 article that cites 13 players as linked to Mendes that moved to Wolves. Or this Sun puff pieces that basically reckons UEFA would be killjoys if they let rules get in the way of a very strange setup. Remember Bebe? Mendes.

So now for Arsenal.

We’ve already had our fingers burned by the Kia deal for Luiz, I was told all in, that deal will have set us back £40m. We should have been looking at players with a high ceiling on the up, not a busted flush from Chelsea. Everyone is fully aware that we went above and beyond on Pepe with fees so steep, Napoli pulled out.

We also signed Unai Emery out of the blue and did the deal in 8 days. Without going over all the things that were clearly wrong with that hire, one huge miss stood out… Emery couldn’t speak English to Sven or Ivan G who interviewed him, yet we still signed him. How was that bulldozed through? No one at Arsenal asked if being able to speak the language was an issue? Very odd.

Anyway, it happened, we’re 18 months on, and who is being linked? Emery with a beard. A man with a very uninspiring resume, with very, very, very deep ties to a super agent that comes as part of his package whether you like it or not.

Signing Nuno is not about his talent as a manager, it’s about what it’ll cost the club in terms of a future. His introduction will make Edu an irrelevance, same for the scouts and the analysts (just like at Valencia)… because Jorge Mendes will become our Technical Director, Chief Scout, and Club Strategist. Why would Raul invite such a force into the club?

This move will create a lack of trust in the system. If you’re upset about the lack of transparency at Arsenal since Stan took us private, my word, you’re in for a treat if Raul gets his way with this manager. On the technical side, this move will rupture the already diminished culture at the club because our approach will shift from data and intelligence, to whatever works best for the fees.

To use Josh Kroenke’s words, it would not leave the fans proud. The Nuno suggestion is an assault on everything we believe about the club we love. It should not and cannot happen. If it does, you’ll know what Raul is all about, and you’ll know where it’s going to end… a financial/football disaster we’ll be lumped with for the next decade.

This sort of carry-on does make me wonder if Sir Chips’ fight to have Arsenal people on the board is about more than hurt feelings. Perhaps Raul’s ideas are alarming the sleepy old men? The same folk that were content with average football for 10 years might not be happy to see the club taking an unsavory path toward opaqueness. One can only hope.

I think it’s very telling that top journalists are being briefed very specifically that Raul is the one responsible for Unai’s continued tenure, as well as being the one that went off-shortlist to make the horrendous recommendation to hire him in the first place, that tells you he has enemies internally because those stories are an attack on his leadership, judgment, and credibility.

My hope is that the good people at the club are aware of the motives behind this managerial suggestion. Josh Kroenke needs to get off his Instagram and start speaking to the folk at the training ground with real football knowledge before he’s hoodwinked into another Raul shambles. Nuno is a Trojan horse that must be burned to the ground before people start entertaining the idea that the horse would look ace on The Emirates concourse. Arsenal are not Valencia. We are not Wolves. If Manchester City are valued at nearly £5b, then so are Arsenal. Nuno isn’t Arsenal levels to start with, factor in his baggage, and I wouldn’t even give him the courtesy of an interview. The absolute last thing we need to be doing is giving Jorge Mendes a parking spot next to the power at Arsenal FC. We are better than that.

My hope for this article? Firstly, you see the danger here. Secondly, that fans steer clear of falling in love with the Nuno idea, see it for what it is, bitch about it online, and share this story with anyone that thinks otherwise. This move is an attack on your club, it would fail miserably, and it must be dismissed with the same vigor we used to swat away the Jose stories.

See you in the comments, but not before you’ve gone onto Twitter to complain about this Nuno nonsense. #NuNoFuckingWAY

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Cesc Appeal

Apparently Luiz might be playing CDM

Ishola70

There was far less talk of class and values among fans themselves pre-Wenger.

That is different to saying that Arsenal have always had class and values.

The talk of class and values became more prevelant with fans after Wenger’s big title wins began drying up.

edu998

Pedro, great work mate. You can just imagine the Nuno presentation, talking about the great Arsenal “project”……..boak!
Would even be happy to write off this season if we could get an agreement for Ten Haag or Arteta for the summer. Even take a shot at Gallardo? May be available soon?
I keep hearing Vieira being mentioned because he is a legend (Nice 15th in the table!!)
Unsure about the direction of the club.
#Svenboyz4life

Alexanderhenry

Pedro As I’ve said previously, I think Stan has overcooked it. He’s committed to a $5 billion new stadium for the Rams and they’re tanking. He bought out Usmanov’s shares for a huge price to secure complete ownership of arsenal when he didn’t have to. Right now, I’ll bet the arsenal share price is a lot less than it was. He’s employed the wrong people to run the club and is probably paying them huge wages. He’s banked on CL qualification and unwavering loyalty from paying fans to keep the club ticking over and he’s lost one and will lose… Read more »

CG

Who suggested Gerrard as manager….

Good shout that.

They are consistently playing well.

And have been so for a while.

A touch of Scouse at The Arsenal?

Ivan

Alexanderhenry –

KSE inital investment probably doubled in value before he bought Usmanov shares.

Usmanov had 30% and as the story goes Kroenke paid £550m for them.

In 2011 when Krenke had his takeover Arsenal was valued £730m.

Today Arsenal is worth over 2 billion £ so I would hold my breath for foreseeable future about KSE feeling the heat of devaluing Arsenal.

Thorough

If this change saves Emery job I’ll be sad. He’s practically destroyed our top 4 hopes. But he’s now trying what he should have tried all along when we had a chance. Mug. That’s probably our best attack.
Luiz should be a dm not a central defender.
Sokratis isn’t fit for purpose but this team is so well set up they can still accommodate his flaws.
If he’s made these changes when the season started we won’t be running shoulders with midtabme clubs by now.

James wood

15-20 thousand German supporters marching along Camden Rd towards the ground.
Pictures on Facebook.
Exspect the Emirates to be noisier than usual.

jwl

And it’s Arsenal,
Arsenal FC,
We’re by far the greatest team,
The world has ever seen.

Cesc Appeal

Wow.

Attendance is shocking.

Just Another Customer

I remember in 2009 against United in CL most left before half time this is even dire. That Ronaldo freekick lol of course Almunia couldn’t catch that.

Ivan

Thorough

We play with 2 mfs, one of them being Xhaka and this formation looks like 5-2-3!
Any decent team should tear apart this.

Left Testicle

BT ticking the female co commentator box again.

Tenerife Gooner,

Time to watch.Unfortunaly ,it’s a bit of a punishment, nowadays.

Guns of Hackney

No one wants to watch Arsenal anymore. We’re not relevant.

Just Another Customer

oy vey I’m triggerred now by that guy’s name

Adolf H_t_er

TheLegendaryDB10

Come on The Arsenal!!!!

Can’t belive Xhaka has been selected. Is UE desperate to be sacked???

azed

David Luiz in midfield ????

HighburyLegend

Time to watch what, exactly ??

Incompetent manager, unmotivated players, silent and disparate crowd… Thanks but no thanks.

Arsenal is a dead weight

Nelson

Emery has to change clothes.

HighburyLegend

No Xhaka, no party!!

Nelson

At lease no one boos Xhaka.

Just Another Customer

ahahagga the meme wrote itself!!!

the fucking coat fails another manager

TheLegendaryDB10

UE told to change jacket as the color clashes with Frankfurt’s away kit. Pfft, god are we weak. We’re even told what to wear at home.

Left Testicle

She is getting on my tits.

Guns of Hackney

Who’s actually paying to watch this shit?

It’s nearly Christmas. Go buy something nice for the one you love.

HighburyLegend

“At lease no one boos Xhaka”

And so Torreira will not cry, fucking awesome.

Nelson

Luiz is injured

CG

I think tonight we have finally seen emeryball.

I always suspected it was something like this.
(Others had different versions, I guess.)

Matt Scott’s a fan of it,( allegedly)

TheLegendaryDB10

GoH

I am not paying anything.

What a miss by Saka. He should’ve be headed that in (chested in by the look of the replay!)!

Luuz down. Broken rib???

Just Another Customer

Torreira please no more Guen

the 2 DMs with good lofted pass could’ve been good by spamming balls to pacy forwards upfront

Samesong

2 minutes as DM and hes injured already.

Nelson

Can’t believe our two players can’t head the ball into the net.

habesha gooner

No away supporters but the home section also looks like some kind d of ban has been placed on Us. That is an actual message right there if you ask me.

CG

I hope Edu is Teck Decking this game or he has gone shopping for another suit?

Left Testicle

Will be interesting to see the ‘official’ attendance.

60,000?

Just Another Customer

Saka at left flank is really suspect now only outlet from the right with Martinelli

TheLegendaryDB10

I’ve never seen the ground so empty!!

That’s the sum of shite football + Thursday night football.

Damn we are loud…. ahh, the opposing fans are banned from attending the game.

GG

I’ve never seen Lee grove so quiet during a game

TheLegendaryDB10

The Upper tier is fucking deserted….. if we can do that for an EPL game, what a message that would send

Jim furnell

Sure Emery chucks the names in a hat. Pepe on the fucking bench, Auba on the fucking pitch. Xhaka in the fucking ground.

Cesc Appeal

Frankfurt look utter shite

Nelson

Willock can cover a lot of space.

Just Another Customer

uggh the quality on both sides

get rid of Chambers can’t even trap that beautiful pass from Martinelli

he’s 24 now not gud enuf

Danny

It’s actually very sad to see a home match like this. I don’t hate Emery like I did Wenger from 2008 onwards, I reckon he’s a nice bloke. All blame for this fuckfest lies solely with Kroenke. He’s been our owner since 2011 and we’ve been getting steadily worst since then.
Lets all hope for a better future for our great club.

Just Another Customer

clearly they were a one man Jovic show last season

for our side nice interesting gameplan only lacking quality execution

Left Testicle

Do we not start sentences with a capital letter, or end them with a full stop?

Just Another Customer

fucking hell how else can Torr get a gametime?

Just Another Customer

r u a teacher like Binford too?

Sorry lad why put such an effort on shitposting innit?

Just Another Customer

suddenly we are erratic now culminating in Martinelli getting yellow

thanks Guen

Marc

That attendance could be below 12,000.

You can make allowances for the competition.
You can make allowances for it being crappy weather and mid week.
You can make allowances for it being close to Christmas and people are watching their money.

That crowd level doesn’t even hit apathy.

Samesong

We look terrible.

Left Testicle

r u a?
good enuf?
innit?

Are you Troopz?

Left Testicle

r u a?
good enuf?
innit?

Are you Troopz?

azed

Do we not start sentences with a capital letter, or end them with a full stop?

Nope.

CG

Beyond delicious irony that Frankfurt are being sponsored by The Indeed jobs recruitment company.

The Clown will be needing them tomorrow.

habesha gooner

Can I just say in a shit season martinelli has been a really bright spot. He is gonna become world class whether withus or not.

CG

Go home Walt.

Marc

I reckon they’ll count the players on both benches to try and make the attendance look more respectable!

Nelson

Xhaka plays good against a german team.

Marc

CG

Not at the game – don’t do Spursday night group matches. Haven’t the last couple of seasons and I certainly wasn’t going to start tonight.

CG

Wise man Walt

Only Loosers attend The Loosers.

Marc

Is Holding injured?

He wasn’t about at the weekend either.

Nelson

Luiz has a much bigger physical presence than Guen.

Marc

CG

The annoying thing is you can’t sell your tickets so I’ve paid out for the group stages with no chance of getting any money back.

Major_Jeneral

Pedro welldone on a very good post.

#NuNoFuckingWAY

CG

Walt

You and your money.😉
Money mad.

Nelson

Such a poor touch from Auba.

Left Testicle

JAC
Apologies, feeling guilty now.

Marc

CG

If you’d paid out 1300 odd quid for how we’d played this season you’d be pissed off as well.

London gunner

I love how anti raul pedro is yet how pro ivan he was.

Pedro will bacl whowver gives him access. He is a media spin doctor with an agends.

Left Testicle

Xhaka’s second touch is a tackle.

Samesong

Such a poor touch from Auba

Auba is looking worse by game. he may score a hat trick tonight but my my my we I miss a Van Persie or Henry that can actually control the ball.

Nelson

Yeah. That’s how it is supposed to be done. Saka and Martinelli doing the build up . Auba does the finishing!!!

Left Testicle

Emery lives to fight another day.

Marc

Samesong

Could you do me a massive favour? Just do a post along the lines of “Marc’s never going to win the lottery and has no chance of banging Ana de Armas”

TheLegendaryDB10

Goal by Auba. 1-0 to The Arsenal. Insipid performance so far but I’ll take the goal.

Not that it really matters as we are already qualified.

TheLegendaryDB10

Slip by Xhaka. I wish he could just slip out of our club.

HighburyLegend

We should enjoy Auba while he’s still at Arsenal.

Cesc Appeal

Expecting the Twitter rumours after the game to be ‘board members encouraged by what they saw and want to give Emery time to work on translating Europa League performances to the EPL’.

I think basically at this stage the board don’t want the cost of sacking him and replacing him. They are unsure about who they can lure and think Emery might win the Europa League and secure UCL football before sacking him in the summer.

They have to live by their gamble if that’s the case.

Nelson

We are playing like a team again. I always think that Emery’s tactical problem started when he tried to fit both strikers into the team. The attack became imbalance.

Left Testicle

Agree with Samesong. Henry, Bergkamp and Van Persie would grab the game by the scruff of the neck.

What does Xhaka add to our midfield?
Pressing – No
Speed – No
Leadership – No
Goals – No

Left Testicle

Nelson, are we watching the same game?

Left Testicle

Keown and Hartson. Two of the worst pundits on TV.

Marc

Left

Yeah but he can walk off slower than any other player in the world when we’re chasing a result.

Marc

Cesc

I don’t think the board think they could get away with that with tonight’s attendance. Even for a competition that doesn’t attract the crowds tonight is poor.

Danny

Imagine next Thursday night with an attendance like tonight! That will be worth seeing……

Marc

Danny

That’s a thought – I’d forget our league match has been moved to a Thursday night.

Nelson

Good looking attack!

Pierre

Obviously Emery has told his full backs not to bomb forward continuously and playing with 2 holding midfielders in a 4-2-3-1.

Probably 16 months too late to start playing more conservative but we do look better defensively though the Frankfurt attack are nothing to write home about

Nelson

Chambers booted the ball high up.

azed

Xhaka actually beat a man…. 😮 😮 😮😮😮😮😮😮😮

Off to find unicorns

Gunnernet

Very thorough post Pedro. I almost fully agree with you. However, i dont feel that strong against Nuno as you. He has done quite decently with wolves to deserve an interview imo. It is imperative board become more responsible and strongly decisive and multivocal instead of keeping low profile. We need someone to question Raul so everyone feels replaceable. I personally understand your concern and potential perilous ramifications of Nuno appointment, nonetheless i cannot really disregard him just because he has a strong connection with a super agent. On the other hand i must admit that well before Emerys name… Read more »

Cesc Appeal

Frankfurt are shit.

Really bad.

Gunnernet

Willock and chambers fucked it up.

Nelson

For once, we have more shots on goal than our opponents.

Gunnernet

Still unbelievable Sokratis from all people was yelling with open hands to martinez to get the 1st pass in penalty area. We still believe we can build from behind like City.. Absolutely oblivious..

Danny

Great shot by them

Jim furnell

I (have to) watch Wycombe Wanderers on occasion. They’d have bullied this lot into submission by now, and they are pants. Great goal, another nail.

Nelson

Guen is weak!