From Barca bagman to running Arsenal. How? (long read)

by .

People on the internet are making a big mistake. They are fighting over the records of Raul and Sven. This is an incorrect comparison. We need to put a stop to the madness because it is making it difficult to see the mess at Arsenal with any sort of clarity. My patronising hope is that this article might help you understand why the situation at Arsenal is as nuts as it is at the moment.

First things first, let’s get into the history of Arsenal’s latest mess.

Ivan Gazidis had a pretty good plan post-Arsene Wenger (give it a chance), at least on paper. He had three things he needed to accomplish:

Firstly, he had to find someone that could upgrade the way Arsenal scouted. We’d become bloated, dated, and the hits had dried up. We were Disney under 90s-Katzenberg. After Alladin, The Lion King and the Little Mermaid the future wasn’t more 2D animation, it was guys like 3D world builders like Steve Jobs and John Lasseter at Pixar. Disney moved on their problem, Ivan didn’t have the power to, but when he sensed the end, he geared up for action.

There was very little creativity in the way Arsenal approached things and the good people were being crowded out of the important decisions. We were missing out on too many gems and there was a bottleneck in the system. Gazidis spent a very long time headhunting Sven Mislintat from Dortmund, who arguably had/has one of the best scouting records in the world over the last 15 years. We beat out other Premier League clubs for his signature (Spurs/United). What we were hiring was a data-centric approach to recruitment and a new way of doing things.

Secondly, Ivan needed to replace Dick Law, who was the man in charge of negotiating deals for Arsenal during the Wenger reign. The club needed someone ruthless, that knew the dark arts of agents, that could work the angles with UEFA. He found Raul Sanhelli, reportedly Ivan had been captivated by him at UEFA shindigs.

Now, let’s talk about what Raul did at Barcelona, because people get very confused.

He was not a scout or a talent guy. In the industry, they call his role a fixer, a runner, or a bagman. The role is important because you can’t have actual talent messing around on long flights or doing laborious jobs they aren’t suited for. There is a clear split between bagmen and talent spotters.

The Barca approach to buying football players is as followed.

The Sporting Directors picks the players, likely sourced through intense data and scouting. Once they decide on a player, then people like Raul would be activated to make the deal happen. They’d be given the rules of the road and sent wherever they needed to go in the world to make the deals happen. Raul would be instructed to lowball clubs, work with the agents and families involved, to plant stories in the media to unsettle the target players, to do what was necessary to bring the deal home. Arguably, the murkier side of this process (though legal) was what we lacked. Remember, we were the club that missed out on Mbappe because of a £7m fee.

Let’s get this straight. Raul is not a football guy. That is not what he did at Barcelona. He was a fixer of deals. He executed whatever plan was handed to him. To bring it back to film, the magic of an excellent production is technically down to the person that negotiated the fee for an Oscar-winning actress (Raul fan mindset), but the truth is the real smarts lie with the casting director or the film director that helped the actor bring the story to life.

The idea on paper was that Sven would find the players using data-driven smarts, because that’s what he was excellent at, and Raul would push the deal over the line because that was his thing.

If Sven was the architect, Raul was the estate agent.

Simple, right? Wrong.

There was a third thing Ivan had to oversee. A new manager.

Ivan G set up the new system, then caved to a Raul-special-friend-agent recommendation to bring in Unai Emery. To make matters more complicated, he had promised that Sven would be made the Sporting Director at Arsenal when Wenger left. However, when Ivan was supposed to be CEOing and ensuring his new leadership team was playing nicely, he was actually negotiating a sweet deal with The Elliot Management Group to take over at AC Milan.

Disaster.

He quit without seeing his plan through. When he fucked off he left a big fat power vacuum at Arsenal. A bland CEO was allowed to suggest what his succession plan looked like and it was fucking garbage.

The club decided, in its infinite wisdom, to give the leadership of the club to a 37-year-old finance guy, and to make Raul his partner. One did commercial deals, the other ran the football side of things.

This was a huge mistake.

Sven was not given the position of Sporting Director. We can point to many reasons why this didn’t happen, but the reality is that his process wouldn’t have worked for Raul who doesn’t seem to believe in data, and that eventually played out when Sven decided to leave because he didn’t like the way the new leadership team did business. I was told there were allegedly tensions dating back to the Auba deal, with someone preferring to bring in a Brazilian forward that is now playing in Russia instead. An additional clue to Sven’s angst might be how the Iwobi deal grew in complexity (adding more agents to deals), per the Nick Ames Guardian story yesterday. That is pure speculation of course. Whatever the issue was, Sven didn’t like the way Raul did business, and Raul didn’t like Sven. The friction between the conflicting philosophies was well known on the training ground.

Sven left.

Now Arsenal was fully at the mercy of a bagman who had ambitions to be the club lead who ran the football side of things despite not being qualified in that role.

Say what you want about Sven Mislintat, we were a very short amount of time into the tenure of someone that had an actual track record with talent.

He was responsible for: Saliba, Auba, Leno, Guendouzi, Tierney, and Torreira.

No one has truly thrived at Arsenal over the past two years, but it’s hard to sniff at those players and not think that we were at least on the path to a smarter way of working.

Raul ran last summer then brought in Edu, who was represented by Kia. As far as I am aware, Sven didn’t have a super-agent repping him. Let’s try and imagine a world where it’s a good idea that a super-agent brings a Technical Director to a big club, and then starts buying from his portfolio. If you were Business Affairs Manager at any reputable company, what would you think about that setup?

As expected, the Raul/Edu era hasn’t exactly been coherent. We blew £72m on a winger last season when central midfield and defence was the problem. I won’t relitigate some of the oddities of that deal (read here), but needless to say, there was a connection to Raul in the Lille exec team. We spent £24m on David Luiz for a single year according to The Athletic who as far as I am aware have not retracted the story. We signed Pablo Mari to a 4-year deal after about 22 competitive games in his career (out for 4 months), we’re having to justify giving a 29-year-old right-back that Southampton thought was good for glue a 4-year deal, and we signed David Luiz for another year despite performance issues (now injured). Yes, Gabriel Martinelli was a good signing. He was a recco from Cagigao. Do with think he’d have recommended the other players? I have my reservations.

Letting Sven Mislintat go has been a disaster for Arsenal, not because of the person, but because what ditching someone like that means for your standing as a club. We don’t believe in data, we’ve put scouting on the back burner, we are making it clear even to other agents that the game at Arsenal is only played by a select few. It’s so bad, we have Kia in the press talking like he’s an Arsenal representative.

We have cleared out a bunch of scouts. We didn’t replace Sven. The StatDNA guy left. We lost Lord Harris and Sir Chips from the board. There’s very little accountability. According to multiple outlets, there was a fight to make sure David O’Leary was not added to the board, why? I have my concerns it was his behaviour at Leeds that was the tipping point.

The best thing Arsenal have done in the last 6 months is Arteta, but even that decision is slightly tainted by the kingmaker concern. Though I will reiterate, he is not a mistake and I don’t care how the club landed on him. He’ll be the reason Edu and Raul keep their jobs for longer than they should.

So in short, we’re not being run by a football guy. We’re being run by a fixer who made deals happen. The guy that was widely praised for his role in the Neymar deal is the person we’ve entrusted to use his contacts to get us back to the top. Does it look like that’s working out? Do you read the story of Liverpool and think Arsenal’s leadership is capable of making that many good decisions over a 4 year period?

I have my doubts. We’ll see this summer though. Will we bring back the scouts we lost and add something different? Will Edu put forth a plan and explain what value he’s offering the club? Will we put the Willian deal in the bin and spend £150k a week on players that actually have a future in the game beyond one season?

It remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure, the pressure on those two is now immense. They have to deliver this summer and the deals have to look like they are for the good of Arsenal, not their mates.

It’s time for Josh and Stan to wake up. Every year we entrust chancers with the keys to our club is another £50m down the drain. We need to act smart, build out a proper infrastructure around Arteta, hire in the right talent and put the super-agent recommendations in a very deep hole. Contacts football sounds sexy, but it’s a load of shit. It’s like pining after dickhead players that cause problems because they are perceived as more passionate than the cause. No serious business would allow this type of carry-on. No one would let the conflicts of interest slide so easily. Ownership needs to put a stop to the madness now before we have another shocking summer.

I will leave on a positive because there is always a path to a better future.

Liverpool just won the league.

They did it the proper way.

It wasn’t grotesque, it was about smart people, and money well spent.

Tomorrow, I’m going to lay out how Arsenal can borrow from their playbook and bring back greatness to N5.

Right, that’s me done, see you in the comments. x

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Zacharse

Wasi

Are you crazy? Pushing an agenda? Dude writes a daily blog and when his content gets too real you imagine he has some power to create change at arsenal. Lolz. We are owned by the kroenkes, its their money laundering and real estate agenda you should be worried about

Valentin

Wasi,

Raul is in charge so EVERY contract are signed under his watch. So arguing that Raul signed the contract is pointless.
What we are arguing is that finding the player was done by hard work by Sven and his team rather than Raul taking a phone call from Kia and Canales.
You will have difficulty arguing that Raul personally researched and discovered David Luiz via hard work.

Finding gems before everybody else is lot more difficult than dining at the Savoy with your agent mates.

Dissenter

Mislintat was an excellent chief scout at Dortmund- he scouted the players, wrote up his reports and submitted for for executive action from the sporting director. That was the scope of his work. Arsenal wasn’t prepared to let him go further than this so he left. It was the Borussia Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc who made those key decisions as to who to sign and who to take a pass on. Our pre-Mislintat scouts did their jobs too and submitted the dossiers to Wenger – that where those scouting reports died. Wenger has confirmed how close we came to… Read more »

Freddie Ljungberg

How has Marcus Thuram been doing this season? Wanted us to sign him on the cheap last summer but haven’t followed him after he went to the bundesliga.

Binning Laca for him last season would have left us with a ready made striker now.

Ok, looked it up, 10 goals and 9 assists in 38 games, not Auba levels but not too shabby for a 22 year old in a new league.

Wouldn’t have replaced Aubas output for us but he can do everything Auba can’t, hold up and distribution, winning headers etc.

Probably missed that train by now.

Dissenter

Wenger on Drogba: ‘I missed him when he played in France at Le Mans – not even in the top league,’ Wenger admitted. ‘I knew he was good player there and I missed him. And secondly because he hurt us so much in big games that all this pain would not have happened.’ ” Scoting report success – poor follow-up on report ……. Wenger on Ronaldinho” ‘We could have got Ronaldinho before he went to PSG,’ Wenger revealed. ‘I met his brother, who is his agent, a long, long time before he went to PSG – when he was 20… Read more »

Dissenter

Wenger on Kante: “‘I tried to sign Kante when he was in France and when he was at Leicester,’ Wenger said. ‘We can’t explain everything – transfers are transfers – but it is quite obvious when you look at where he has gone. I believe Kante has had a huge impact. It’s no coincidence Chelsea are where they are and Leicester did what they did.’ Scouting success, failure of executive action from the manager- he had to bites at the pie ans still got it wrong. ……………. Wenger on Yaya Toure: ”It would be up at the top [of my… Read more »

Valentin

Dissenter,

Nothing to do with 3rd party ownership issue for Ronaldhino. He just was not an international at the time and would not have met the work Permit criteria.
Arsenal, but also a lot of other English club missed on South American talent because of the work permit rules. At the time players had to be fully international with up to 75% of international appearance to qualify. Hence that list of Brazilian players caught with fake passports given to them by dodgy agents.

azed

“If we really need a punching bag lets line up Gazidas ”

Sal,
I’m not sure Pedro is ready to confront his “ex”..

Valentin

Dissenter, Again you are wrong for Yaya Toure. The rules meant that if he stayed a further six month in Belgium he qualified for citizenship and as a European citizen he would be allowed in UK. He refused and joined a club in Ukraine or Greece. When Yaya Toure joined ManCity, he was a full international. The entire agreement between Arsenal, Jean-Marc Guillou and Beveren was entirely based on that premises. Have a Belgium club hosting Ivorians until they have Belgium nationality and Arsenal had first choice on those players. Eboue joined earlier than his 3 years stint because he… Read more »

Dissenter

Valentin
With all due respect, you’re wrong about Ronaldinho
He got his international all-up for Brazil for the copa America in 1999. He was already an international for Brazil for two years when he moved to PSG in 2001.

Chelsea have signed three Brazilian players with third party ownership – Ramires , Kenedy and Oscar. There were creative fixes to these deals- you have to negotiate with all parties with ONE agent or buy out the minority owners and negotiate with the majority owner. We we so goddamn conservatively lazy. It was murky, involved more work but was doable.

Wasi

Valentin We have many have hard-working scouts at the club. And anyone could have discovered. If you read my comment above , you’ll see I agree that there’s a slight chance Sven may have found him. But there’s a very high chance that he didnt and someone’s from our pre existing scouting team did. Zacharse If not an agenda then what. Im not against someone who has an agenda (maybe even a biased ) and pushes it but when the one in question spouts flat lies and blames someone innocent ( Raul ) . CG ‘Posters ,like Wasi ,defending Raul… Read more »

Wasi

‘I’m not sure Pedro is ready to confront his “ex”’

Maybe there are some still feelings there. 🤪

Sid

Issa Diop is a black Mustafinovs,
Alex Ferguson wss known to be fatherly as well as authoritarian,
Diet Pep is plain passive aggressive,

Dissenter

Valentin’
We coukld have signed Yaya Toure and sent him away on loan

Duh.. is that so hard… c’mon man.
All that long story when the answer was staring at you in the face.
How much do you think Metalurh Donetsk paid for him?

My point is unchanged; our scouts did their jobs exceptionally well. It’s the failure of out-the-box problem solving and conservatism that let us down.

Sid

Passive aggressive like his mentor Moyes

englandsbest

Thank heavens, Pedro, you are homing in on Stan. A bit late in the day but, hey, better late than never. How a guy can allow a billion pound plus asset sink to this level beggars belief. He is either a dope, or buying Arsenal was an act of vengeance.

I am with you all the way on Arteta. I make him our best (only?) hope. Stan should hand him the keys of the kingdom.

Graham62

Dissenter

I’m sure these stories will come out in his upcoming book.

‘My Life in Red and White’ and all in his own words. This folks is the reason many Arsenal fans will take what Wenger has to say with a pinch of salt.

I’m sure he’ll be looking for a sympathy vote from us all.

Worth the read though.

Dissenter

englandsbest
“I am with you all the way on Arteta. I make him our best (only?) hope. Stan should hand him the keys of the kingdom.”

Hand over the keys of the kingdom to a rookie manager with 6 months of on-the-job head coaching experience?
We’ve gone from Wenger-knows-best to Arteta-knows-best.
From giving control to a manager with 50,000 substitutions to trying to give control to another with less than 50 substitutions .
Arteta needs help to save him from himself so he can focus on the head coaching job only.

Graham62

Come on, how many of you actually absorbed(believed) the Wenger rhetoric after 2010?

Oops, almost forgot.

Sorry CG and Pierre.

Chris

“Theres a limit to how much one can lie , right.“

Valentin – “Hold my beer”

englandsbest

No question Arteta’s hands are tied, judging by the latest signings/extensions. They directly contradict his avowed policy, and suit Raul’s very nicely.

Will his hands be be untied in the summer? Will he be allowed to rid the club of the overpaid and the underperforming, to bring in the young and vigorous? If not, will he hang around to carry the can, take the flak? IMO not a chance.

R.S.P.C.Arsenal

Stroller
The Arsenal board are reminiscent of the grace bros off are you being served.

You know who will fill it at the end of season.

Wenger

Radio Raheem

Even two shitcunt teams like Burnley and Crystal Palace can muster some tempo to their play.

R.S.P.C.Arsenal

We are meant to be building for the future…
So we sell an 19 year old

Forget Gomes he’s of to kraut land.

R.S.P.C.Arsenal

Northampton winning
RIP Theo…

Ishola70

englandsbest

“No question Arteta’s hands are tied”

Not a free pass at all.

He will be judged and expected to reach certain standards. He knows it. Everyone knows it.

If he fails to meet these required standards he will be on his way. Tied hands and all.

Ishola70

The requirements are that he has to make a challenge for top four next season.

Same requirements as before for the previous managers.

No different for Mr Arteta.

Ishola70

At least make a challenge for top four.

The bar is not even set at the highest level for him.

Nelson

“Even two shitcunt teams like Burnley and Crystal Palace can muster some tempo to their play.”

I like the way Burney deveelope their attack. If they have their two strikers available, they can cause some damages.

Valentin

Ronaldhino was supposed to join in 1999, before he was an international. He only met the qualification for an UK work permit at the end of 2000. Because you needed to have played 75% of the last two years of international games. He was able to join PSG because the work permit rules were different. https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11670/2359161/wenger-bemoans-permit-rules Arsenal wanted Yaya Toure to stay in Belgium for an extra six months, so he could get Belgium citizenship. His new agent convinced him that moving to Greece rather spend six months in Belgium was a better move. We could not have loaned him,… Read more »

Receding Hairline

Hands are tied? Man is directly responsible for four year deals handed to two players no one is convinced on ( no one but Charles of course).

No one is going to be drinking up all this Raul is the devil distractions next season regardless of whatever happens in the transfer market.

We had a squad good enough to challenge for the top three last season despite being coached by a “disaster”, surely the sauce can do one better considering his Standards are set pretty high

Dissenter

Valentin
You’re quickly devolving
You’re saying Yaya Toure didn’t want a loan but preferred to go to Metaluh Donesk on a permanent transfer from Beveren??? That’s like going to Siberia for a young African.
We missed out because we were too conservative and unwilling to do the dirty with our transfers.

Dissenter

Receding
The hands are tied mantra is one of the manifestations of the new AKBS [ Arteta Knows Best]
Arteta-sauce needs only the best ingredients or it won’t come out well.

Daniel Altos

. ZacharseJune 29, 2020 17:14:29 DanielPart of being arsenal is bringing in class players. I don’t think an Ings signing would appropriately replace laca or auba and imagine the fan bCklash after the contracts offered to soares and Zarchase and how many ‘class players’ have we bought?I don’t understand why Arsenal fans are obsessed with glamourous players when there are good players who are better than what we have…Ollie Watkins at Brentford for example could literally blow up next year we should be all over signings like this but no,they don’t have exotic names If Ings was called Dany Inglesias… Read more »

Daniel Altos

Freddie LjungbergJune 29, 2020 17:32:03 How has Marcus Thuram been doing this season? Wanted us to sign him on the cheap last summer but haven’t followed him after he went to the bundesliga.Binning Laca for him last season would have left us with a ready made striker now.Ok, looked it up, 10 goals and 9 assists in 38 games, not Auba levels but not too shabby for a 22 year old in a new league.Wouldn’t have replaced Aubas output for us but he can do everything Auba can’t, hold up and distribution, winning headers etc.Probably missed that train by now… Read more »

salparadisenyc

Dissenter

Safe to say if Arteta tanks the side in similar fashion to Emery there will be none of your “AKBs” about.

It’ll be onto the next manager.

Useroz

“ We blew £72m on a winger last season when central midfield and defence was the problem. I won’t relitigate some of the oddities of that deal (read here), but needless to say, there was a connection to Raul in the Lille exec team. We spent £24m on David Luiz for a single year according to The Athletic who as far as I am aware have not retracted the story. We signed Pablo Mari to a 4-year deal after about 22 competitive games in his career (out for 4 months), we’re having to justify giving a 29-year-old right-back that Southampton… Read more »

Useroz

…character *better* than Raul

Daniel Altos

Bloody hell the supposed new arsenal physio looks like he could knock out Sead K… Liverpool also poaching one of ours

Champagne Charlie

“ Man is directly responsible for four year deals handed to two players no one is convinced on ( no one but Charles of course).“

😂😂 man is fresh off a year of using Emery’s briefs as a face mask and wants to throw shade about who is convinced by this or that player.

Absolutely state of this goldfish, back in your bowl.

Receding Hairline

Go on Charles, do tell more tales how they both fit the standards of professionalism Arteta demands and how they save us money to spend on the midfield.

As for the briefs part no need sharing stories from your AKB days, keep em private

Champagne Charlie

Receding

I’ve very little to tell you, you’re just a continual embarrassment on here. Spent over a year defending Emery tooth and nail only to flip the script and discover scathing levels of scrutiny for Arteta after a dozen games.

You’re a boring cunt fact of the matter.

Receding Hairline

Yea and that year we finished on 70 points and got to the EL final. Had the third best home record in the division only bettered by City and Pool. Outscored both Chelsea and Spurs in the league. Wonder what exactly I’m supposed to be ashamed of. The you supported Emery thing can’t be used as a diss, man did his best first season here. Lost it this season and was rightly sacked. Change the record. Now tell me more about the positive changes you have seen and the style of football and identity gradually being built, you seem to… Read more »

Champagne Charlie

“Now tell me more about the positive changes you have seen and the style of football and identity gradually being built, you seem to have dropped all that for standards.“

Don’t impose your own scorned views unto me. I said this season was a wash when your lover was still here pissing up the walls.

The matter of a pandemic interrupting the new manager, in his first gig no less, makes the level of expectation this season plummet still.

Would worry about yourself a touch more, sad little man you are.

Receding Hairline

Sad? Amused more like. Reading you daily fighting every criticism or perceived criticism of Arteta like a medieval Knight has been most amusing. No one but you has defended the two bums handed four year deals not even Pedro. You on the other hand…….lol

Enjoy fighting the good fight.

Drop the whole lover bit by the way, not really that witty

Valentin

Dissenter,

We wanted Yaya Toure to stay a further six months in Belgium but he was unwilling to do so, despite being the entire purpose of him moving from Abidjan to Beveren.
Short of kidnapping and locking him up in Belgium there was no way to force him to wait.

https://www.footballwhispers.com/blog/the-rise-and-fall-of-yaya-toure/

Receding Hairline

The pandemic wasn’t restricted to the Arsenal first team by the way. Ideas already taking shape, your words not mine, don’t disappear because you went on a small break. Many teams came back still playing decent football.

We play like petrified kids with zero confidence and zero game plan

Redtruth

ARSENSL TRUTH BLOG: People often say it doesn’t matter how you win as long as you do. That may apply in certain circumstances, but it’s not a long-term strategy for a club of Arsenal’s repute two years into a rebuilding process. Wenger left Emery a squad that was unmotivated, arrogant, part-decrepit and psychologically moribund. Arteta inherited a better group with lots of young players to work with. They still lack experience, but at least they’re 18 months further down the road in their development. This elicits hope and gives the manager something to work with, but the group cannot fulfill… Read more »

Graham62

Redtruth

Yeh, that was a strange one with Ceballos man marking McBurnie.

Is it not common sense to get your biggest players marking their biggest players?

englandsbest

Try reaching for anything if your hands are tied.

Champagne Charlie

Receding I don’t get attached to individuals the same way you do so spare me. Arteta represents a progressive view that I’m more than glad the club have taken after the dogshit one they chose last time out. It’s yourself that’s on here day after day going after a manager that represents the downfall of your lover. Had it been any other manager we’d be fully appreciating the manner of destruction Emery left, but because it’s Arteta (the guy many wanted from the start) it’s prime opportunity to land blow after blow in the name of your hero. Do me… Read more »

Dissenter

Valentin
Really….
C’mon and subject that reasoning to some Socratic questioning.
Yaya Toure preferred to go to Metalugh Donesk that to stay in Belgium on loan from Arsenal?
Does that even make sense to you?
Ever been in a Ukrainian winter before?

I makes no sense.
We effed up the deal like we seems to do under Wenger. We were not thinking out of the box and were too conservative with out loan deals.

It’s the same way with third part ownership. It never stopped Chelsea from signing Ramires and Oscar who had third party ownerships.

Dissenter

Our transfer deals under Wenger stopped at the pearly gates of heaven Chelsea were ready to go into Hades to sign a player, that’s what Emenalo specialized in. Third party ownership for a Brazilian player? – Pompous Arsenal walk away…but Chelsea will find a Brazilian fixer to buy the ownerships, one by one, then buy the 100% rights from that that one fixer. Bayern did a similar thing with us; Got Werder Bremen to purchase Gnabry off us for 5 million, park him there for a year and then brought him over. They showed us you have to be nasty… Read more »

Valentin

The last three years of Wenger reign Steve Bould was in charge of organising set pieces and we were playing a zonal marking. We had one of the best defensive record at set pieces (one we season we had the BEST in the league). Emery decided to switch to a man marking approach at Crystal Palace which was unfathomable. Guendouzi and I think Torreira were marking Scott Dan and Benteke. Knowing that Arsenal squad is one of the shortest in the league, I had hoped that Arteta would have switched away from man marking back to zonal marking. I still… Read more »

Nelson

To be fair, they have more than one tall player. Our players are just shorter than them. They kept sending high balls into our box. Auba would be more helpful than Laca/Eddie.

Receding Hairline

You started the whole comment with a lie…you don’t get attached to individuals… Yea right!!

Arteta represents the downfall of Emery? How? How did you even type that and it made sense to you? In what way was Arteta Emery’s downfall? You see what happens when you start off with lies.

Manner of destruction Emery left…again with this gem. He led them to a cup final and 2 points off third. The next season started poorly and he was sacked before November. Some destruction that… How can we ever survive that? …go to sleep you are drunk

Champagne Charlie

“In what way was Arteta Emery’s downfall?“ Arteta replaces Emery, he serves a reminder your lover failed. Not a hard one to fathom. It’s made all the better for you as a scorned lover that Arteta took over, because prior to Emery he gained some traction with folk and now you have ample opportunity to fling mud daily to distract from the piss poor job Emery did. “Manner of destruction Emery left…again with this gem. He led them to a cup final and 2 points off third. The next season started poorly and he was sacked before November“ What happened… Read more »

Dissenter

*It makes no sense.

Receding Hairline

Makes it kind of hard to take you seriously with all the lover thing, this isn’t high school dude, you are a grown man.

Yes we started the season poorly, dunno whats funny about that either, Emery was in November, we were 8 points off fourth place then, so what exactly do you want to call it? Disaster? Great disaster…what now?

The rest of your post is nonsense. A manager replacing another does not his downfall make …calling Arteta Emery’s downfall was just thick but then its you.

Goodnight you sad lonely mess

azed

Valentin

We are a short team so we place our taller players in the zone. The shorter players are responsible for disrupting the run of our opponents.

It’s why you see Ceballos and Torriera marking players far taller than them.

Champagne Charlie

“calling Arteta Emery’s downfall was just thick but then its you“

Oh Receding…

“It’s yourself that’s on here day after day going after a manager that represents the downfall of your lover.“

But I’m thick? Fuck me what do we get to call you then you dribbly prick?

Pierre

RH “Yes we started the season poorly, dunno whats funny about that either, Emery was in November, we were 8 points off fourth place then, so what exactly do you want to call it? Disaster? Great disaster…what now?” I’m not sure you quite get it . If it was just a case of starting the season badly but the players and the team were showing signs of understanding what the manager required , then you have an argument. But that wasn’t the case was it , we were sliding towards the relegation zone, the football ( if you could call… Read more »

Ishola70

It was serious yes the downfall and it was very quick and rapid regarding Emery. But with a “disaster” hire well these types fail really early on. Fail really hard early. Emery may have fallen short in his first season but a massive failure it was not his first season. In that case we also need to look at the players rather than just the simplistic view that just one horrible bogeyman was all that was wrong. And there is a possibility if Arteta doesn’t meet requirements in his first full campaign next season with these players then they will… Read more »

The Godfather

Dissenter, A lot of people give Juergen Klopp credit but fail to recognize how the synergy of Manager, scouting and executive follow through helped bring success to Anfield. When Arsenal had David Dein, we were the perfect model in Recognizing talent and having the assertive Dein close the deal in spite of Wenger’s dithering. When Dein left (something Wenger could’ve prevented) the Prof’s ego got in the way of reason. He saw total power and believed too much in his own hype. He must’ve read too many X-men comic books and thought he was Charles Xavier who could locate these… Read more »

The Godfather

I remember watching the champions league game when Barcelona was at their pomp, and Wanyama at Celtic totally dominating the field in a shock win. I remember being shocked that he ended up at Southampton and later Van Dijk. Imagine how much less it would have cost then and how much success we could have had with those two instead of Mustafi And Chaka. When I think and talk of Xhaka, I remember all the arguments Tottenham fans used to have with me about huddlestone … another slow, hulking wanker who had this great shot and supposed range of passing,… Read more »

Redtruth

No
.

Pedro

‘A lot of people give Juergen Klopp credit but fail to recognize how the synergy of Manager, scouting and executive follow through helped bring success to Anfield.‘

Elite observation here

salparadisenyc

The same synergy and scouting the led club to Klopp.
Data driven madness.

Dissenter

Godfather
I agree with that post addressed to me
My premise is just that the Arsenal scouting has always been elite and excellent, even under Wenger
The scouts work is done once they turn in their dossiers and brief the sporting director/executives. This was the missing piece at Arsenal.

Pedro has been acting like Mislintat was dong any thing other that scouting at BVB and arrogating the success of Michael Zorc to Sven

Our pre-Mislintat scouting body of work is greater than anything Sven ever did.
Our problem has never been a failure of scouting.

The Godfather

Dissenter, I am actually in agreement with you in regards to the problem not being the scouting but in the congruence of ideas and execution btw scouting, manager and deal closers …. we lost the closer aspect when Dein left. And believe it or not, I think Mislintat might still be here if Gazidis didn’t bail. And that’s where Liverpool and City have had the edge on us. And yes Chelsea. They scout the player and then execute the transfer. I still remember how Mourinho closed the deal on Cesc and Costa and strolled to a title. Arsenal on the… Read more »

The Godfather

If we are serious about business this summer we can pay for Upamecano and Partey by selling :

El Neny
Mikhi
Ozil
Lacazette
Xhaka

I’d give Auba a take it or leave extension offer and if he refuses I’d let him play out the season and gamble on the introduction of

Upamecano
Saliba
Partey

Changing our fortunes and convincing him that he could still make something happen with us

Aussie Gooner

You have to marvel at the reverse engineering going on at the club. Since Dien left no one has had the bottle to pull the trigger on deals for players identified by the extensive and efficient scouting network. I won’t go on about all the talent that we were first to identify and let slip through our hands (I’ll leave that to Wenger to sell a few more books!). Because the executive is so dysfunctional we have not capitalised on the work the scouts have done and consequently not signed the talent identified. That is one reason we are where… Read more »

Freddie Ljungberg

Yeah, we haven’t dismantled the scouting network though. We have let some of the bloated mess leave, something Sven wanted to do the year before. We’ll still have plenty of scouts, people talk like we now have no one out there discovering talent and it’s just Raul on the phone to Kia, smh. Raul is doing what we didn’t really do since Dein left, getting the deals we want done, not quibbling over a mill here or there, thought that was what people wanted? Last window was great long term imo, let’s see how this one turns out before judging,… Read more »

Receding Hairline

Pierre I guess the football is great now isn’t it? Last time I checked he still left in the Europa with a chance of progression in Europe, someone else dropped out of it. The Emery PTSD has grown stale, no one is buying that crap. You all argued he had a quality crop of players and was mismanaging them which he was this season, he ran out of ideas and out of friends, now let’s see a better manager take them to new heights next season, none of that hands are tired nonsense. Next season we should be in and… Read more »

Wasi

Freddie ‘We’ll still have plenty of scouts, people talk like we now have no one out there discovering talent and it’s just Raul on the phone to Kia, smh.’ Pedro has hammered it into their brains and now many seriously believe theres no scouts left at Arsenal just Raul and his buddy Kia. ‘Raul is doing what we didn’t really do since Dein left, getting the deals we want done, not quibbling over a mill here or there, thought that was what people wanted?’ We wanted it but then we moan when we finally get someone to do it. Also… Read more »

Receding Hairline

Filipo Inzaghi leading Benevento back to Serie A with record points in the league was nice to see. One of my a time favorite strikers

We will have two siblings facing each other in the dug out next season in Serie A

Northbanker

There are far too many people on here being negative and panicking over a couple of defeats. So great to see so many more rational and calm posting with proper debate this morning. The structure at AFC is nowhere near as bad as some are making out although I would like to see a proper CEO in charge. Actually I’d like Josh to grow a pair and take the role over and live in the UK. He’s the heir to the throne so we really need him on the case while the Kroenkes own the club. Whether Raul is a… Read more »

Northbanker

One aspect of our scouting system i would take sure with – we haven’t produced a decent defender for years. When was the last time anyone emerged and became a first team regular who came through our academy? The nearest is Bellerin, who was poached from Barca. Ashley Cole perhaps before him – but he was a converted LW. No CBs have emerged at all since the days of Adams and Keown.

This is a huge blemish on our scouting system.

Northbanker

Issue

Valentin

Northbanker, This is an issue with the academy coaching not the scouting network. The defensive part of the game is viewed as an afterthought. Because the club focus so much on proper ball players, it ignores defensive prowess. Most of our academy defensive players are converted players not good enough to play in attack rather than proper defenders. However nowadays players cannot move from winger to fullback or DM to CB at 19 years old and expect to be as good at 21 or later than people who have been defenders for 4 or more years before. Some do, but… Read more »

Graham62

Aussie Gooner Unfortunately, there are now many “teams that have moved ahead of us”. The attraction of Arsenal FC started to deteriorate long ago. It was then that the footballing world started to realise that winning for us was not a priority. This had nothing to do with money because, with a few adjustments here and there, we could have competed far more. This had to do with an acceptance of failure. “Yeh, but how do you expect us to compete when the top teams have so much financial power”. You mean teams like Leicester City? Leicester won the EPL… Read more »

Aussie Gooner

Northbanker “The structure at AFC is nowhere near as bad as some are making out….” Are you for real? The current structure at the club is appalling from the top down! We have an owner who owns 100% of the club and knows/cares nothing about football or the club. He is a sports investor and is only concerned about his collateral. We have a puppet board with only one true Arsenal member. They have no financial stake in the club, no influence on policy or procedure and can only wring their hands when shit happens. We have an executive in… Read more »

Graham62

Aussie Gooner

Correct.

Ten + years of structural defects and regression = failure.

Aussie Gooner

Graham

” Leicester won the EPL because they had a belief within the club that they could do it. When was the last time Arsenal had that?”

Spot on! Leicester had an owner that was passionate about football, the club and the City of Leicester. He was indeed a foreign owner but that did not matter – the commitment and passion was there for all to see!

englandsbest

Am I right, there is no longer a BoD at AFC? Not that it matters: the last bunch were Stan’s yes-men who didn’t own an Arsenal share between them.

David Smith

It should be becoming abundantly clear to all that our ownership is an issue, and has been for some time. You don’t need me to plot the trajectory of the club since Stan took over , and that decline is getting steeper. Stan isn’t a tyrant, he allows club made money to be spent, he lets those on the ground get on with it, to a fault, but has a lot of other things on his mind. Josh seems to care , but is very inexperienced at running a club over here, and is liable to be taken for a… Read more »

CG

Arsenal 43 goals scored.
Arsenal 43 points attained.
Arsenal 43 points behind Liverpool.

Aussie Gooner

Englandsbest

We still have a board of 4 directors (if you could call it that!):

Stan Kroenke
Josh Kroenke
Ken Friar (60 years at the club – last man standing!)
Lord Harris (rich carpet bagger in for his political connections)

And that, I am afraid, is it!

Ishola70

Valentin

So Wenger’s influence still very paramount.

David Smith

The best thing about Raul, he might well be given enough time, doing what he is doing, to put the Kroenkes in a position whereby they have to sell, this club could easily end up as Leeds ++.
but will be painful for those who follow the club and see the mistakes they are making

Graham62

Aussie Gooner Kroenke has not got where he is without a desire and commitment to succeed, however, in Sport, when it comes to winning and achieving success, it is a slightly different ball game(to coin a phrase). Kroenke has no feel for the club or the game in general. He has no connection with the fans, is unable to communicate in a constructive and positive manner and is only concerned with expanding his business empire. Good for him but bad for us. Look at Chelski, Man City, Liverpool and Leicester with their owners. Yes, they want to expand and develop… Read more »

Graham62

One thing.

Can Stan Kroenke actually communicate?

Terraloon

The story emerging about Guendozi is that he wants out because he feels he is now bigger than the club and that he is deserving of a far bigger pay packet than he is getting or indeed been offered.

Be careful the door doesn’t smack you on the arse on your way out !

Northbanker

Kroenke isn’t going anywhere – so we need Josh to step up and at least manage his club properly by taking over as CEO. At least then there’s a hope that the club can be reviewed And run properly rather than acting as absentee landlords and leaving Raul to his own devices.

Valentin

Ishola70, You should really seek help for your Wenger obsession. Most English academies suffer from the same problems. They overlook forming defenders because the reward of making a great attackers are greater. Moreover most great defenders need experiences that U21 football does not give them. Hence good British defenders tend to be players coming from lower league or less fortunate leagues where they are used at an earlier age. Before Wenger arrived the academy was a shambles. Liam Brady improved it but could not come to grip with the change in the social representation of young players. Discipline was at… Read more »