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
Mornin’
2
3
Tr4phy
Pedro
Ease up on your hatred of holding
Played well when he came
Your lil snipes constantly at him are wearing.
Holding
Balogun off it seems. Shame.
SVEN was not responsible for saliba for the love of God, Valentin said so the other day and i went to do a comprehensive research, there is nothing that suggests he did.
Tierney lol
The same guy that we’ve been chasing since he was 18? Yeah Sven really did. What next Martinelli, Pepe?
Its not like we’ve got Ocampos from Lille, trying to push this Sven good Raul bad is tiring.
Peter, unless your recommendation for improving Arsenal includes arson…I’m not bothering.
There isn’t anyone at the club, now or in the future, who cares enough to give Arteta or any manager the helping hand they need. This is a gravy train. Period.
We are the worst run club in the world. We have to be. In fact, I imagine clubs in war torn countries probably have a better infrastructure than we do.
Someone decided the best way to run Arsenal was to look the other way.
Have to agree with the general thrust of this piece. As I’ve said many times before, Raul is not a football man in the slightest, he’s a dodgy Spanish spiv that will damage our club (even if he doesn’t do some iffy Neymar style deal again). When are we going to put someone with real football experience in a position of power at this club? You can argue about Sven did this, Raul did that, but this is the key issue. You’d hope that Edu will step up and take charge of the football side but is he too beholden… Read more »
Edu?
Lolz. Worst appointment ever. No cunt wanted the job. Monki passed. Overmars either passed or was overlooked. Not sure who else but the fact remains we got another dud. A salary man dud.
Think back to that moment Dein convinced the board to go with Stan instead of Usmanov. Historical.
Since the manager is the one who ultimately decides how to play, ultimate decision to buy or sell any player should belong to the manager.
Let others bring scout reports. Only Arteta should decide whether to buy any player.
Raul should only negotiate.
Then things work smoothly.
It’s how it worked when Wenger-David Dein partnership worked.
Wenger identified what players he wanted,Dein negotiated and got those players.
Best possible way forward.
GoH, I don’t think that Dein convinced the board to go with Stan, they said ‘no’ and by the time Danny F changed his mind Dein had changed horses to Usmanov. Either way our ‘custodians’ well and truly screwed the club over that one.
Leftie.
Absolutely right. Thing is that they were football men first an foremost. Now the people running the show are businessmen first, second and third. The only thing these people are interested in is their own prospects and they’ll trample over anyone or anything for that cause.
I expect that we’ve all worked for firms at some point where there’s been people like that who ravage the business for their own gain and then move on to the next thing before the shit hits the fan. Welcome to football as a business.
Pedro Liverpool won the league because of the culture and ethos within the club. They never lost that winning feeling. It has always been there. The owners, board, manager and fans know what is expected at the club. At Arsenal, this was gradually eroded as the acceptance of the status quo set in. Blinded by ten years of success, we sat back and assumed it would all come good again. It never did. We have been consumed by an ignorant/arrogant belief that we were superior to other clubs because we had superior values, when in fact we were falling apart… Read more »
Record my word for it, Guen is going nowhere but the top. I saw this kid play against Citey, taking the game to Citey while our so called big players played like cowards. All other Arsenal players on the field seemed afraid to do anything with the ball other than to quickly pass it but Guen was holding to the ball, driving with it and drawing fouls from Citey players. Two more players like Guen on the pitch that day and we would give Citey a run they wouldn’t have forgotten in a hurry. If a very young boy like… Read more »
Daily I read the posts of Pierre and CG on here and shake my head in disbelief at their ignorance as to why we are where we are.
They blame everyone but themselves and don’t want to admit that the vast majority of the footballing world were talking about Arsenal’s demise for a decade or more.
Delusional fans like these two make me 🤢🤮.
Great post. PedRo talents never cease to amaze. Delving into investigative work too, now. 10/10 Summary: There are two types of people in pro soccer. Firstly, there are people like Wenger/Sven and then there are people like Raul and Edu. Wenger & Sven types make decisions ( good and bad) but for all the right reasons and what they feel is the best path for the club they are working at to choose. And then there are the likes of Raul types -men who just make decisions for all the wrong reasons and for what is best for their’ long… Read more »
“Tomorrow, I’m going to lay out how Arsenal can borrow from their playbook and bring back greatness to N5.”
___
Drive Kroenke out of the club, sack the manager and replace about 90% of the squad would be a good start.
How did my post disappeared?!😯😯😯😯
Pedro I agree with most of the article but you can’t blame arsenal for going hard for a winger last summer (though you can question if Pepe was the right call) Last season we had zero wingers in the squad. We were playing numpties out wide as usual. Players like ozil, mikki, I imagine Ramsey played wide at some point… iwobi, welbeck…torreira maybe late in the season, I don’t remember. Ironically welbz who is a terribly footballer was probably our best winger for the few games he was fit there last year So whilst I’m the first to say our… Read more »
Was it this one . GentlebrisJune 29, 2020 09:57:17 Graham ‘If he’d gone when he should have done, we’d have been in a much better place.What you see is what you get when a decade of regression goes unchecked.’ According to most who share your opinion, Wenger was finished as far back as 2010, yet we remained in the CL for 7 years after, and added three more FAs to our collection. It would be a major miracle if we get to win the FA or get the CL qualification within five years of Wenger’s departure. Year three running now… Read more »
Gentlebris
I did say many times that Wenger’s last 5 years will go down as one of the ( not the) more successful periods in the club’s history.
My post disappeared but here is a summary: *You all thought Wenger was finished because he wasn’t breezing past a heavy spending Bayern in the CL and not winning the league ahead of a heavy spending Chelsea and a more established United. I dare you to give Arteta 3 years to deliver a CL semi and a prem title and to fly a plane over him if he doesn’t deliver. *You thought Wenger was finished a decade before he was pushed out, yet he produced 3 FA trophies and 9 CL qualifications in his last decade. It would be a… Read more »
Yes, Pierre! Thanks for finding it! I have had to do a summary and also forgot to ask in my summary if the fact the these rascals running Arsenal promised they would sell any player who refused to sign an extension within two years of his contract expiration, and are now not doing as they promised is also Wenger’s fault?
Pierre That’s right! 14 years into his tenure, he should have gone The reason the majority of fans wanted Wenger gone(that’s right the majority) was because he became incapable of rectifying simple problems, even though he had a core of excellent players and first class resources at his disposal. You, of course, bought into all the excuses, as many others did. As I’ve said numerous times on here, if your not prepared to rectify the visible frailties, you’ll never compete with the better teams. That’s why we were being mocked year in year out by the footballing world. You of… Read more »
if you’re not
Gentlebris
Why did we leave Highbury?
Was it to progress or regress?
Every defeat was met with an excuse.
Every capitulation was met with an excuse.
Every club that came along with money to burn, it was met with an excuse.
Every time a referring decision went against us, it was met with an excuse.
Every time a team physically bullied us, it was met with an excuse.
Every time we we’re embarrassed, it was met with an excuse.
Every time Wenger failed to show tactical aptitude, it was met with an excuse.
Yeh but from 2006-2018 we won three FA Cups and consistently qualified for the CL.
Great stuff!
‘The reason the majority of fans wanted Wenger gone(that’s right the majority) was because he became incapable of rectifying simple problems, even though he had a core of excellent players and first class resources at his disposal.’ Graham, Now we are getting somewhere. *Are the said problems(most notable of it being defense porousness)rectified now? *Did Wenger take the ‘excellent players’ and ‘first class resources’ with him when he was leaving? * Who won three FAs in four years against a state owned City, Crazy spending Chelsea and super rich United all competing in each of those three years? *These excellent… Read more »
were embarrassed.
Angel gomes going to leave Man U after failing to reach a contract agreement.
With Pogba and Fernandes ahead of him its probably a wise move, but he does have a few attitude issues apparently.
Could be a pogba situation for them again, I would give him a shot here and see it the hype is true
Graham,
Excuses! Pathetic, were they not?
But those things for which Wenger gave excuses, how come they are still here and in double portion 3 years and £200m since Wenger has gone?
Lichsteiner was an “experienced” player whose club thought he could not make it any more but Arsenal thought they knew better.
David Luiz was an experienced player whose current club thought he could not make it anymore but Arsenal thought they knew better.
Cedric was an experienced player whose current club thought he could not make it anymore but Arsenal thought they knew better.
Spot a pattern there. Who was there for all three deals.
Clearly it is Wenger and Sven’s fault. They conned poor Raul into signing those players.
Tell me Gentlebris, why do think our top players wanted to leave?
Do you think it was down to money?
Why are you comparing two years of change with 22 years of control? Very naive.
Wenger was a different animal post 2006.
Thereafter he bought into his own hype and became bigger than the club.
‘Spot a pattern there. Who was there for all three deals.
Clearly it is Wenger and Sven’s fault. They conned poor Raul into signing those players.’
You are wrong, Sven doesn’t share in the blame; it’s all Wenger’s faults.
Thebackpass, Yes you keep saying that Arsenal discovered Saliba before all the other clubs under Raul. Yet how come in 2018, before Raul instigated the deal there was rumours of Saliba to ManUtd. https://youtu.be/puxI4VfeCTQ Saliba was known to people who were following U21 French football. He had been scouted before by Sven who basically made his specialty to spot U21 players. There are pictures of Sven attending Saint Etienne Gambardella games before he joined Arsenal, but none of Raul there. Raul has never been a scout. He does not spot players he is a negotiator and a poor one at… Read more »
Gentlebris
For your information Wenger left the club at the end of April 2018.
That’s just over two years.
Where did you get the extra year from?
Pedro
You’re trying to inundate us with nonsense this morning hence the lengthy post.
At this point, you’re all geared up Nd strapped unto your rocker, shooting into that delusion that you’ve created; Raul- bad, Sven good.
You’re a true believer, once you’re in, there’s no exiting,. That’s the same way you went about Gazidis.
How do you know Raul doesn’t believe in data by the way? Do you know him personally?
Be honest, it’s not all black or white is it? Wenger lost his mojo but that doesn’t mean that Emery was the correct hire or that we should have stuck with AW. It doesn’t mean that MA is the right hire either, that remains to be seen. Similarly just because Gazidis turned out to be a snake oil salesmen (something many spotted far earlier in his tenure than others) it doesn’t mean that Raul is the answer. Bottom line is that this club has been making a series of terrible decisions for over a decade. No wonder confidence in any… Read more »
Gentlebris
Take your seat( social distancing of course) with Pierre and CG.
‘Tell me Gentlebris, why do think our top players wanted to leave?Do you think it was down to money?’
Graham,
I will tell you, but first tell me why Saka is refusing to sign an extension, then tell me why Iwobi who was having good play time here hopped out at the first sight of opportunity. Then tell me why a golden boot winner has not signed an extension 12 months till he can walk out for free. Do you think these are actually down to money like Nasri, Adebayor, Song, Cole were all for sure about the money?
‘Where did you get the extra year from?’
Because we are already into the third year, or your calendar doesn’t work that way, Graham?
Nice group.
One lives in Australia, one lives in his mum’s basement and plays the role of an old man on the internet, one lives in South Africa and calls football ‘soccer’.
All three are in love with Wenger, and none go to games or contribute financially to Arsenal’s bottom line. Textbook armchair supporters.
We’re winning games again and these three dopes are still pining for their ex.
Dissenter
Still waiting patiently for the Arteta quotes about Guendouzi that Pep would never utter publicly.
4th time of asking now, do I take this as you talking bollocks? Let me know when you’re done telling Pete he’s talking bollocks…
Valentin Stop spreading lies to fit your narrative, I never ever once said Arsenal discovered Saliba before other clubs , I simply said Sven wasn’t the one that signed Saliba that you claimed. “Yes you keep saying that Arsenal discovered Saliba before all the other clubs under Raul. Yet how come in 2018, before Raul instigated the deal there was rumours of Saliba to ManUtd.” FFS, am not dead, why are you saying i said something when there is no proof of that, people like you are scary, lying gainst someone to prove a point. Who ever said Raul was… Read more »
In life, there is no turning back the clock or “what if”. I only want to look at the future. I would like Josh spending more time in the club or at least speaks to the fans from the States. I wonder what is Pools’s financial model. I don’t think it is the S. S. model. What is their management structure? Do they have both a CEO and a DOF. It seems that Klopp decides the signing.
There are pictures of Wenger in Brazil during the worldcup, while there he scouted Martinelli
but non of Raul there, he does not spot players he is a negotiator, a poor one at that.
You heard it here 1st!
“There are pictures of Wenger in Brazil during the worldcup, while there he scouted Martinelli
but non of Raul there, he does not spot players he is a negotiator, a poor one at that.”
Yep, pretty much.
Am guessing this is free?
‘One lives in Australia, one lives in his mum’s basement and plays the role of an old man on the internet, one lives in South Africa and calls football ‘soccer’.’
I don’t live in Australia, but yes I don’t live in London as well.
‘We’re winning games again and these three dopes are still pining for their ex.’
Yes indeed we are winning games, and in great fashion too. Only that a less deluded fan would say we have won two in a row after losing two in a row, playing pathetic in at least three of the four games.
Pedro I agree with much of what you have posted. The club is rudderless at the moment with weak Board and cloudy management structure. BOARDROOM Currently since departure of Gazidis the club does not have a single Executive Director sitting on the Board. The club needs an employed CEO just like every other major club in EPL. The Chairman has just retired and the only other non executive directors left on Board who are not Kroenke family members are Lord Harris and Ken Friar. Harris is in late 70s and Friar in 80s. The club needs to employ immediately a… Read more »
“Heck, Mourinho was also talking about Saliba after he was sacked from Man.u, Mourinho claimed he reminds him of Varane having watched him.”
Zouma not Varane
CC
I asked you repeatedly to state the specifics of what Guendouzi did wrong in training.since you repeatedly asserted he had violated some unknown rules.
I asked you to state with specifics what ‘guidelines’ he had violated.
…and this is the 17th time I’m repeating my request.
Dissenter
Matteo Guedenzi didn’t take his turn in the shower stall…apparently it’s a game the Arsenal lads like playing together.
By all accounts, he likes taking but not giving.
That’s why he’s being frozen out.
Every good thing that’s happened to Arsenal is from Mislintat, every bad result is owned by Raul.
The Ozil deal was signed weeks before Raul resumed at Arsenal yet its Raul’s fault.
The Saliba deal was done 6 months after Mislintat left Arsenal, yet Sven is the one that signed Saliba.
I attacked Raul for the Soares, Luiz and Mari deals by the way.
Pedro
Giving Sven credit for Tierney and Saliba now too? I heard he was responsible for signing Henry and Cesc too.
Still peddling the 24m for a year of Luiz thing? You’re better than that Pedro.
8m + 600k ish + 120k a week isn’t 24m.
Haven’t read anything about Luiz taking a huge wage cut from his 120k to stay on another year, waiting for the Athletic to confirm first?
It’s fine that you don’t like Raul, once burned and all that but this is getting out of control.
ES “”””””The MD is not a Board Member. He is an Accountant with expertise in finance. There is no issue about his competence in these matters.””””” ???????????? People use words like ‘expertise’ and ‘experts’ like kids use the word ‘ bro’ these days. He ain’t no expert. If he was such an ‘expert’, we would not be giving Luiz £24 million per annum or asking players to take wage cuts for 12 months or be caught wandering the Manchester streets in the middle of the night. What he is. Is useless, a lackey to his boots and out of his… Read more »
“I asked you repeatedly to state the specifics of what Guendouzi did wrong in training.since you repeatedly asserted he had violated some unknown rules.“
No, I’ve said that’s allegedly the case with the disciplinary action being taken against him. You wanting me to unveil specifics of training ground behaviours is about the level though.
Now do grace me with the quotes from Arteta about Guendouzi that are so damning.
“If he was such an ‘expert’, we would not be giving Luiz £24 million per annum
or asking players to take wage cuts for 12 months
or be caught wandering the Manchester streets in the middle of the night.”
1. He didn’t
2. Why not? It saves the club something like 25m this year and most of our players are vastly overpaid anyway, completely 100% the right move.
3. He’s a finance guy, not a ninja or cat burglar ffs.
According to Jamie Redknapp, what Guen did after the BHA game was normal reaction amount footballers. I agree with that also. I don’t know other “bad” behaviors from Guen. Some people may have an agenda and have made him looked worse than he is. In any case, the club should reintegrate him first. He would worth less if the club is eager to get rid of him.
I knew Peter should have knocked these agitators down last week when they started piping up. It’s turmoil on here. Raul is a fucking arseclown. Whoever signed what and how is actually irrelevant, it’s the nature of the deals that should be in the spotlight. I believe that’s what Peter is calling out. Also the hierarchy at the club is a mess. Every man, woman and animal wants to be the one who ‘called’ a superstar player. Everyone from that arsehole that ‘found’ Best etc to the nursery school teacher who wiped Maradona’s bum. No one gives a shit. Our… Read more »
ES – pretty fair assessment there, the only issue I have with the Edu appointment is that he will have a very limited familiarity with European football and players. If he was appointed with a view to using his knowledge of South American football and the market there then that’s perfectly understandable but he’ll take a while to get up to speed which may be another reason why we’re leaning on certain agents right now.
andy1886
Edu has considerable football background and many Brazilian footballers play
in England and Europe. Edu himself played in Europe so he does have a good
understanding of the game in this country.
What is true is that Arsenal’s scouting and academe coaching programme was not fit for purpose and that was expressed to me on a number of occasions during Wenger era. Hopefully Edu and Mertesacker will put the house in
order.
G of H “”””Our club is a shambles. Off the field, on the field and in the stands. For every business to succeed there has to be a traceable chain of command. This means accountability. At Arsenal, we have a bunch of people with titles but no real job…or if it is a job, the description is fuzzy.”””””” (Well said.) Or even any guts to come out and explain it to the fans. Wenger fronted up 3 times a week for 20 years! Just cast you mind back when Arteta was anointed. The gutless cowards ( Edu and Raul and… Read more »
Backpass,
You argued that you could not find any trace of interest of big clubs in Saliba before Arsenal.
I gave a YouTube linking him to ManUtd six months before Arsenal. Maybe you don’t consider ManUtd as still a big club.
Like Pedro explained to you, Sven’s job was spotting young talents to buy. Raul’s job was never to spot them. It was to buy them cheap.
CG
Funnily enough I don’t even know what the Arsenal BOD look like. Honestly, apart from Stan, I couldn’t pick them out of a lineup.
I miss Arsene’s press conferences. Mad as a fish but great copy.
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.
——————
Bloody well right, he’s celebration when Leeds beat us in the 37th game of the season to deny us the title was disgusting, see below at 2:34, what a cunt:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wceMKNvuH8
I know 4 people who are not renewing their season tickets.
All long term supporters 25 years +
All will continue to watch select games only.
No Elite European qualification will have long term effect
on the club when will this Owner of the club see the light.
Good stuff Pete, seems most have a dividing line with Raul on one side and Sven on the other.
Reality is in the end Sven’s departure was a red flag moment for future direction of club. Many of us said so at the time. I don’t care whose doing the signings as long as they know what there doing and are fully utilizing all tools at disposal looking towards future.
Something Raul and co have not yet illustrated.
How are Season ticket sales going for next season anyone privy.?????
I don’t know what is the rule to award a place in the European Cup competition. Since the last 3 teams remaining in the FA cup competition all most likely guaranteed to play in Europa next season, wouldn’t Araenal be awarded a place also even if we loses to MC?
Nelson
“I don’t know what is the rule to award a place in the European Cup competition. Since the last 3 teams remaining in the FA cup competition all most likely guaranteed to play in Europa next season, wouldn’t Araenal be awarded a place also even if we loses to MC?”
Nice try
The unused automatic EL spot will be diverted to the premier league.
Dis
OK. Normally, the two EL spot are awarded to 5th and 6th place team. If MC is banned from the competition, then the 7th spot will take it. Adding the spot from the FA cup, the 8th spot team will also be awarded . Am I right?
Neslson
If we were losing finalists at the FA cup, maybe we get the non-automatic EL spot – the one that needs 1-2 qualifiers to get into the main event. Note that Watford didn’t get a EL qualification after being shellacked by City in the last FA cup finals
It would be a stretch to award it to the losing semi-finalists
Arsenal need to recruit to the Board people with football background and brains.
An ex Arsenal player with the right pedigree might be Liam Brady. He was rated by Ken Friar as one of the most intelligent footballers of his era and apparently smart with money as well.
Brady is aged 64 and has of course worked administratively for many years at
the club and so might be well suited to join the Board.
The reality is that we can “blame” whoever we choose for the state we are in . It’s is likely that many people contributed something. I would say that the issue is bigger than that. The issue is a legacy manager. I am not criticizing wenger – he was a powerful and successful man (although I did think he’d peaked by 2011) nor am I saying the club should have booted him – they was a tough call. And thats the point. Pretty much every club that’s had a legacy manager has struggled for years afterwards. Clough. Fergie. Busby wenger.… Read more »
Emirates,
The sporting Director and Director of footballing operations sit on the board, don’t they.
What’s Liam Brady going to offer that Raul or Edu aren’t already doing. Will Brady have a direct line to the Kroenkes?
The BoD is just ceremonial, the power center of the club is not even based in the UK. Josh Kroenke can bypass or overrule all of them if he so chooses.
Dissenter, though board power is ceremonial, the checks and balances are not
Valentin “You argued that you could not find any trace of interest of big clubs in Saliba before Arsenal.” I’ve said you should stop lying, why do you keep on saying something when it is false? I’ve never said there was no trace of big clubs..FFS why do you keep on lying just to prove a point. I only posted once about (sven and saliba) prior to today. And this is what I said replying to you when you claimed sven signed Saliba. “The BackpassJune 19, 2020 11:22:01 ValentinStop saying what you are not privy too, this is not the… Read more »
Pedro
Arsenal is owned by a sole shareholder.
What “checks and balances” are you referring to?
What Kroenke wants, Kroenke gets – that’s how a sole share-holder company works. Don’t be fooled by the smoke and mirrors.
Another long agenda driven , full of lies read by Pedro. These have quietly become the norm now haven’t they. Wont even go into details of the countless lies and biases in the above piece. Will just mention 2 or 3 . Most here anyways have been brainwashed by Pedro thanks to the constant hammering of lies and biased agenda. 1- Pedro says dont fight over the records of Raul and Sven. Well the signings made under the different regimes are the only hard pieces of evidence and its clear Raul has won out there. 2- Lies as clear as… Read more »
Dissenter The only Current Board Members of Arsenal Football Club PLC are: Lord Harris Ken Friar Stan Kroenke Josh Kroenke The MD, FD, TD are senior managers, but are not executives sitting on Board. The Board has of course Oversight on what goes on at the Club as Pedro suggests. I am going to make a forecast on what I think will happen at the end of this season despite all the pessimism. 1. There will be a significant clear out of playing personnel. The Club will maximise where possible revenues from transfers, but in any event will offload players… Read more »
lies*
Pointless talking about board members when we are completely owned by KSE.
They can and will do whatever they want.
Reportedly we’ll have a new head physio next season. At least someone’s taking a look at the number of nibbles and injuries we suffer and taking action.
Hearing rumours this is a Sven signing too.
Some have gone so far as to say that Gazidis played a part too .
Raul reportedly wanted Kia’s cousin for that role who is also Edu’s friend of a friend. Dodged a bullet there if you ask me.
Lucas?
I take it you mean Torreira.
Come on now Torreira has hardly been a “disaster”
Lucas Perez .
The reference was to the disaster of a transfer window reportedly led by the Statsdna guy Pedro still wants at the club.
If only everything was as black and white as some portray in this space.
Funny enough , Pedro always manages to minimize Arteta’s role in the recent dodgy signings.
-Soares was highly rated by Arteta, people are saying h was on the Arteta list. Presumably he was discussed as an option for City whil eArteta as Pep’s assistant.
-Mari is a 100% Arteta signing – he worked wit him briefly at City
-Luiz is an Arteta buddy, fresh from all the smoke he’s blown up Arteta’s rear.
Backpass, My apologies, it was Wasi and not you wrote that there was 0 links to big clubs before. However the point is that the role of a scout is to spot players. If you spot a player for your current club, it is a given that when you move to a new club you bring your list of players with you. Having spotted Saliba at in his previous job, it is clear that Sven came with his list and that we then worked on that list. When Nkunku was linked with Arsenal, do you believe that it was because… Read more »
Great! Folarin Balogun looks to be on his way out. Not fancied by Arteta who feels we have a number of youngsters ahead of him (Nketiah, Martinelli and John-Jules).
Our new physio is rumoured to be Bruno Mazziotti recently sacked by PSG because of the number of injuries they have suffered!
‘Our new physio is rumoured to be Bruno Mazziotti recently sacked by PSG because of the number of injuries they have suffered!”
Wait for it —- Emery Alert! He worked with Emery.
Pedro will have field day. some articles have already written themselves in auto-pilot mode
‘My apologies, it was Wasi and not you wrote that there was 0 links to big clubs before.’ Spouting lies again , eh Valentin? I never said there were 0 links to big clubs before. You were going on and on that Saliba was a Sven signing. And all I said was Saliba was signed under Raul and there were no links to Arsenal when Sven was in charge. Proving that Saliba is not a Sven signing. Then you went out and found an article saying big clubs were looking at Saliba and then somehow revealed that the big club… Read more »
Valentin Saliba and Nkunku were well known to every scout in Europe with a basic scouting software. Many people who were not professional scouts has formed opinions about them by just watching them play. Don’t credit every bit of good business to Sven. You talk like there were no scouts at Arsenal before Mislintat. Nkunku played 55 games for the senior PSG team, including finals of domestic cups and the CL. I won’t be surprised if our scouts had followed him since he played for PSG in the 2015 UEFA youth league final when they lost to Chelsea. He was… Read more »
French forums when speaking about Saliba say he was spotted by Mislintat. Why would French fans who have an interest in Arsenal be biased in regards to Mislintat? What is going on here is that fans don’t like the idea that Mislintat left and what is current and in place at the moment is always better than what has left you. No different to when a player leaves the club. You can bet your bottom dollar that the majority here who are saying Mislintat is a no mark would be the same ones bigging him up if he was still… Read more »
A Spanish outlet has reported that Arsenal has submitted an offer for Levante 24 years old midfielder, Enis Bardhi. Is Kia his agent also?
Nothing more boring than this never ending backroom staff discussion. Manager of a football club is the most important person. All the buck stops at him and to some extent at the owner’s doorstep.
Revisionist bullshit again with Balogun. Now Arteta has let the most talented youngster since Beethoven go out the door.
How many of you have seen this bastard actually play? I’d say maybe one of you…if that. I’ve never even heard of him.
I’m sure Arteta has his reasons but the main one is probably he’s a pile of shite.
Ishola “What is going on here is that fans don’t like the idea that Mislintat left and what is current and in place at the moment is always better than what has left you. No different to when a player leaves the club” Yes like Saying Giroud was better than Van persie because he left to Man.u? LOL What is going on is simply Sven good, Raul bad. When it could be Raul bad,Sven bad. Nobody is saying Raul is fantastic, most are just tired of Sven good because he has left, just like people pinning for Wenger because we… Read more »