Well, there we are Arsenal fans. I’ve campaigned on Raul Sanllehi for about a year now, and finally, the club has acted and moved him on with a beautiful ‘mutual consent’ parting of ways. A staged exit works best for everyone in this situation.
It wasn’t just me, Arseblog, Gunnerblog, and Amy Lawrence all played a role in raising deep concerns about the way the club was run. I didn’t run my stories blindly, lots of information was fed my way about where to look. There was absolute horror at Arsenal about the way things were being run. Someone who had worked for Arsenal messaged me this last year after reading this post.
‘Last post = spot on. Sven warned everyone….’
That wasn’t the only leak. Lots of good people left the club and I have no doubt their exit interviews helped contribute to this most excellent culmination of a miserable chapter in Arsenal’s history.
So what went wrong for Raul?
He was a chancer. It’s as simple as that. He wormed his way into Ivan Gs ear as a fixer of deals. He wasn’t a leader, he didn’t have a vision, he had no clue how to run a professional football club. When you don’t know how to do something, what do you do? You look to other people to help you make decisions. In this case, Raul didn’t look internally, he looked to the deeply seedy world of super-agents.
I extensively covered some of the deals that looked wasteful yesterday, and there were lots of them. Nicolas Pepe played at a club with a murky structure, part run by one of his ex-colleagues, and we dropped an outrageous fee that didn’t line up with reality. Unai Emery told the press it was his agent that put him on the list to replace Arsene Wenger, Emery joined up with that agent just before he landed the job. The Luiz deal was disgusting. Agents were reportedly injected into the Leno deal. The Iwobi deal also had agents injected per The Athletic. Our Technical Director came from a favoured agent. We then used Edu’s agent to bring in Cedric Soares in January and we just inked Willian.
You don’t need to be a Clifford Chance partner to see potential glaring conflicts of interest that have come from our deals.
Nothing we did looked data-driven and lots of our deals looked very much in support of people Raul liked versus being in support of a better Arsenal.
I’ve pondered if he’d have survived if he’d delivered us Champions League or there wasn’t a pandemic. I don’t think so. I think the disgust at his modus operandi at Arsenal was becoming problematic for KSE. At the end of the day, he was wasting frugal billionaires money. I said months ago, you don’t make rich people look like mugs. I wrote at the time the hiring of Tim Lewis was ominous. He is one of the few trusted confidants the Kroenke’s have in London. From what I’m told, he asked all departments to give him information on their budgets and deals… then he landed on Raul’s department.
I honestly thought it would take longer, but average operators are often sloppy and I can’t imagine the paper trail of his decisions made for smart reading. If bloggers can see what is going on, can you imagine how easy it must have been for an elite lawyer who is an Arsenal fan to get to the bottom of the issues? Tim Lewis was appointed to Arsenal July 1st, by August 15th, Raul is out the door. That is incredibly efficient work that tells you Raul was not the sharpest tool in the box.
So where do we go from here?
Well, you should be fucking excited. 10 months ago we were looking over the wreckage of what Raul had done to Arsenal. We had Unai Emery bumbling on TV, we had a broken squad of uncoachables, we had a shit scouting setup, and there was no hope for our future.
Fast-forward to now and we are starting to looking like an actual football club. Our broken football process is dead. With Raul goes outsourced scouting, shit recommendations, and horrible management of our precious money.
We have one of the brightest young coaches in the world. He could be generational. He LOVES Arsenal and he’ll treat the club like it was his own.
The fans are united around the direction of the club. There’s no divide because there’s no divisive characters at the club now.
We’ve won an FA Cup. We have Europe next season. There will be a direction.
We are still skint, nothing will change that, but we now know that the same mistakes won’t be made moving forward.
Every decision will come from a good place, all in the name of a better Arsenal.
Vinai is now running Arsenal football club. He’s barely 40. I am extremely jealous of his achievements here. I’m told that he’s straight as they come and moving him up is a good thing. Split leadership was always a fucking joke, Netlfix share price dropped on news they were trying it. VV needs to hold everyone accountable to a high standard. It doesn’t matter that he doesn’t have a football background, you don’t need one to run an organization properly. Look at the mess Raul left and he was brought in because he got the game.
I’ve no idea what happens to Huss Fahmy. The guy inking contracts for all these agents and hangers-on must be worried right about now, but we’ll see.
The football side is all with Edu. I don’t think the concern with the Brazilian is that he’s up to no good, I think it’s that he might not be very good at Technical Direction. Some say that he’s been in Raul’s shadow. Whatever is going on, he’ll now have to be on his sharpest game, and he’ll have to prove that he knows what the fuck is going on. It’s a chance for him to shine and make some magic this summer.
Kia J must be feeling sheepish this morning. No doubt his embarrassing carry-on in the media added to the troubles for Raul. To have a super-agent brazenly share news on impending structural change at the club and then to slag off Sven was the inmates running the asylum type stuff. It was also a direct power challenge to the owners. Moving forward, Arsenal has to control super-agent influence. Any fees have to be signed off by a neutral party or a committee of sorts. We have to bring rigor to an ugly but necessary part of the business.
There are a number of people that are worried that this summer of recruitment will be run by Mikel Arteta and Edu. I wouldn’t worry too much about that. Arsenal didn’t fire all their scouts and end up with nothing. There is plenty of talent still at the club that can help with that side of things. I’ve no doubt that Arteta will have more of a leadership role now, but he’s not literally scouting players on his own. I’d also not worry about the fixer issues. What did Raul’s ‘fixing’ bring to the table? More complication. He added layers where they weren’t needed, he paid over the odds time and time again, and he allowed the decision-making process to be swayed by outside influences. Why would we miss that? We need to do things by the book and we need to be perceived as straight-shooters.
What I am interested in is how the profile of player changes. Arsenal shouldn’t be signing players like Willian, we should be finding 22 years olds that can become the next Willian. I want to see us looking at the right names, the club should shift focus to where the game is going, not where it has failed. Barcelona vs Bayern was a choose your own adventure for the future of football. Do you invest heavily in young talent for the future and base your decisions on data harvested by experts mapped to a vision? Or do you ignore your scouting department and throw money at big names recommended by super-agents like Barcelona have? No one doubts the talent at Barca, but the lack of coherent planning has led to some of the most wasteful years in their history.
I’d rather have a squad that looks like that of Bayern and Leipzig, bustling with young talent, explosive power, athleticism, and outrageous technical skills. I would like to bring in clever players that can understand complex systems and execute them with precision. That is where the game is heading. Edu and Arteta need to formalise a plan, share it with the fans, then get cracking.
We’ve rid ourselves of a cancer today. This was a good day for Arsenal football club. We now look like we have a direction. All the ingredients are there. Hunger, elite talent, young players, brilliant brand name, a huge stadium, and a massive desire from all that have remained to return us not to the top 4… but to the very top of world football. Who wouldn’t support that?
This is an exciting time to be an Arsenal fan. We’ve finally moved forward. I cannot tell you how thrilled I am that we can share the next 5 years together thinking about all the good that is happening. It’s been a long time since I felt this positive. I hope you feel the same way. This is going to be a fun, fun ride.
See you in the comments. x
Crazy going on’s
Yeah
🙂
Top 4
Great positive read.
“CC, not sure there’s a weird vibe, but you have to agree, I’ve been gas-lit by people like Marc for a year on something I knew I was right about. Even yesterday I was being called a lunatic.“ I mean weird in the sense that some are pushing an idea Raul had supporters, I don’t think that’s accurate or fair of anyone tbh – even Marc. He’s been vociferous about things I’ve also disagreed with you about, which is attributing all manner of things to Raul speculatively. But I’d hardly have him down as someone who considers Raul a saviour… Read more »
Barça legend Hristo Stoichkov spoke to Bartomeu about Alphonso Davies months before Bayern came on board. Bartomeu’s response was “he is Canadian, no thanks.”
Big lolz
CC,
Good things:
Arteta
Scouting re-org
Sacking Raul
Putting one leader in charge of the club
Blooding young players
Revamping backroom staff
We are shaping up nicely.
I’ll be honest with you I kinda skimmed through the article taking a victory lap for some reason seems a bit weird to me considering the only reason you started to dislike the man was because he made an unpopular hire as manager and not “your” man the first time around. Since then it’s been daggers at the ready. Question now becomes who’s the new target? I’m guessing Edu for reasons unknown now
But anyway it’s Edu and Arteta calling the shots now and I’m still excited for the summer window until otherwise. The news the past 24 hours doesn’t change that view
Marko,
I know this is really hard for you to grasp, but perhaps my agendas come from a good place because I know more than you?
You consistently go against me, you are consistently wrong, i have to ask, why are you here? Why don’t you find a blog to comment on that meets your needs versus coming on here trying to pour cold water over my work every day?
Pedro
Right, I totally agree with that, but I’m asking who you hold responsible in the main for all of it?
Edu? Josh? Stan?…..is it Arsene? 👀
I am one of the few on the site who criticizes Raul. He is more interested to do a favor to his friends. I doubt he has any love to Arsenal.
The FA cup win is just papering over cracks. We struggle to break a deep block, and I’m not convinced it’s a coaching issue, that’s why Arteta turned us into a counter attacking team that did well against sides who leave a lot of space in behind. The same problems remain, and if we’re unable to purge this squad of overpaid dross, and recruit incredibly well? Then I really don’t see much changing. We’re a bottom half of the table team, with an elite goal scorer, and a few potentially elite youngsters, who don’t look ready to perform consistently yet.… Read more »
Juventus apparently want Laca after Pirlo has given the nod.
OPEN THE FLOODGATES
so will any of this change our transfer targets?
no more Coutinho no more Partey I presume?
There has been no suggestion of any wrong doing in the clubs statement.
If he has done something wrong would he really be described as being ‘part of the Arsenal family’?
Could Raul just be one of the 55? It doesn’t look good handing out 55 reduncies when you have two men at the top, on huge salaries, doing one man’s job. Somebody said we have more than twice as many backroom staff than Man City.
Arteta is another Raul signing that needs more scrutiny
You heard it here 1st!
I do not have any strong view on Edu/Raul etc. but got to give it to Pedro that he got it right on Raul. There must be something shady about Raul’s dealings for the club to sack him in the middle of a transfer window.
CC, I think there’s a mix of decision makers.
Right now, I am just thrilled we’re making positive moves that will lead to a better Arsenal.
LT, he’s not one of the redundancies.
I don’t know about others but I have deep concerns about Edu, have had for a while.
The shady deals for Luiz, Mari, Soares and Kia’s growing influence happened after Edu came onboard. At best Edu was a yes-man who got sandwiched between Raul and Kia, or at worst he was complicit in the whole thing. Either way his presence is bad news for Arsenal. If Kia’s influence has to be curbed, Edu HAS to go sooner rather than later.
Pedro
Kudos you based your narrative on some inside info. few of us have here hence sometimes our skepticism.
Genuine questions:
1- Do your sources tell you that Kia’s bad influence has nothing to do with the fact that he is actually himself Edu’s agent ? (our Tech Dir)
2- Vinai: lots of praise and by all accounts “good guy” But Arsenal is financially weaker largely because our commercial income is worse than any other big 6 clubs. I would have hoped Vinai deliver some progress on that front over the past years…
Sanllehi*
Now we have clear evidence that Raul has been sacked for chicanery.
What a huge opportunity for the authorities to make him an example.
(Our George got his 12 months suspension)
Raul deserves his comeuppance too
Barca FC
Arsenal FC
Proud institutions, ravaged by the spivs with their insane deals .
I know this is really hard for you to grasp, but perhaps my agendas come from a good place because I know more than you?
Eh I would say agendas are bad generally because it’s at odds with being objective or impartial and sometimes trust and facts or truth. More of a general statement in case you’re quick with the ban btw
Best news for a very long time, and better than any transfers. And kudos to you, Pedro, you have been calling this for a considerable time, and got it right. I wonder if the ridiculous Pepe deal was the final straw. Although I also think that Kia on Talksport must have enraged people like Lewis, since I do not believe for a second Kia was just talking for himself, but was part of Raul and co’s plan to drop spin to Arsenal fans. Twice in a row. Which brings me to the one question I have about it – when… Read more »
So at best Raul was incompetent, at worst was lining his pockets through some sort of arrangement with super-agents? Have to wonder where he goes from here. Maybe I’m alone on this, but I don’t think his tenure was an unmitigated disaster, although it could’ve gotten far worse over the next couple years. Hopefully he’ll be nothing more than an Emery-like footnote in 12-18 months. FA Cup in the bag, EL next season. A couple of smart signings and a few outgoings to reduce the wage bill and I think we’ll do well next season. I still think Willian will… Read more »
Redundancies are never nice, but cutting unnecessary bureaucracy would definitely be a good thing.
Put competent people in place, streamline the decision making process, and then hold people directly responsible for their decisions
Do well? Get a bonus
Do badly? Get handed your P45
Pedro
100%. On a basic level it looks like we’re getting a non-football mind out the brains trust, which will only serve us well imo.
Club can generate some seriously sexy momentum this window, and this could be the catalyst for achieving just that.
Charles we’re apparently the only club to have made a move for Aouar as well
Pedro
Curious to know your take on Edu.
He cannot possibly be innocent in all the chicanery when Kia is HIS agent, can he ?
If Kia is a problem, how could Edu not be ?
Pedro,
Love the picture you’re painting of a new data informed future driven by technically knowledgeable people (Arteta, even if Edu is in question) who know and understand what types of footballers they want/need AND have the best interests of the club in heart.
It’s a vision of a shiny new North London Dortmund FC / Redbull North London that you’ve consistently had in mind and is clearly close to your heart.
I really hope that this is not yet another false dawn.
Pedro, Arseblog , and Amy Lawrence can all fuck off ……..trying basking in glory of the one true pioneer , CG, who called it right from day one.
Shameless imposters!
CC, also, won’t it be nice to maybe come out of a window and not have to wonder if everything was done in the best interests of the club?
Really great article , enjoyed it very much it seems to explain so much about what has been going on. Thank you for explaining. I had no idea about all this . All I hope is that now this Tim guy is here we can all get back to being a top footballing club again with our great history
I know they are a little slow to re-act sometimes but you have to give the Kronkes credit for putting Tim in to sort it out, & for getting Josh over last time to sort things out
Re. Edu I thought he looked quite stressed / fatigued on this video talking about Willian… maybe having some sleepless nights lol
Raul was not the sharpest tool in the box.
——————–
Probably but he walks away with millions, at least maybe with the appointment of Lewis shows that Kroenke has woken up, better late than never.
Its important to have experienced winners in your squad. 22 yo with high ceilings should always be the priority but the squad has to be balanced. And Bayern do have some elite young players Kimmich, Gnabry and Davies being prime examples but they are complimented by experience around them in Boateng , Neuer , Lewandowski , Perisic. They also have a few players currently in their peak age in Alaba , Thiago and Muller. Need to see a good summer now from Edu and Arteta and I trust Arteta and I am ready to give Edu more time given his… Read more »
‘One figure familiar with his remit recently told the Guardian that Lewis had in effect “come in and read the riot act” in reviewing the club’s process; another suggests such a quick reshuffle in their hierarchy is little coincidence.” Interesting. One would assume if he read the riot act, he was appalled at what he found, which would also of course explain the rapid defenestration of Raul, before he could do more damage in the transfer window. One can only hope he didn’t walk away with a huge pay off, but I bet he did. He’ll turn up at another… Read more »
Tom
“””Pedro, Arseblog , and Amy Lawrence can all fuck off ……..trying basking in glory of the one true pioneer , CG, who called it right from day one.
Shameless imposters!””‘
(Thank you Tom)
I’ll let you into a secret.
Been contacting Tim Lewis at Clifford Chance most days
Phone calls and emails.
All the way from Johannesburg too.
Cost me a fortune
Worth every penny/rand you can think off.
Our Wenger may have been good, bad or indifferent.
But he was never a Spiv.
No one likes them.
The only question remaining now is what was Arteta’s involvement in all those transfers Pedro and others have been so critical about.
Did Arteta suggest the names of players and simply stayed out of financial aspect of their contracts, or were they imposed on him and he just went along not wanting to rock the boat.
Seems to me he’s on the record endorsing all of them.
Over to you Pedro.
Now Edu will be in the spotlight. A good move for him would be to release a statement on his plans for the future of our wonderful club…
The only way Raul walks away with a sweet severance package is if he’s only deemed to have been incompetent. If he was in bed with Kia and has been effectively embezzling Stan’s money with shady transfer dealings, he could find himself in legal hot water. I would’ve loved to have been a fly on the wall to find out exactly what he was dismissed for, and that the internal investigation uncovered. Could be juicy, could be nothing more than too much money spent/committed with such a poor return in the league, and KSE can’t keep sacking the managers if… Read more »
and what* the internal investigation uncovered
Fantasic piece, it actually backs up with facts that nagging feeling I always had about Raul, he always seemed like a cartoon villain.
Pedro
We are getting happy too soon. Edu was very much a part of every deal. All his answers are from Brazil. He is junior Raul. If we have to be efficient we should bring some one who knows what Technical Director role entails. and am afraid Edu hasnt shown anything to say he fits that role. he was brought in by his agent after all.
“Charles we’re apparently the only club to have made a move for Aouar as well“ Saucy. Wonder if I graduate to ITK if we do it? Pedro Tbh when we hired Arteta that was enough for me to feel assured that matters would be dealt with in our best interests. Maybe I’m overselling him, but I was never anxious that Arteta would be overruled or swayed by the likes of Raul. Guy is built different, I think he’s as savvy a communicator as he is a coaching prospect. One of these guys that is perfectly at home amongst the biggest… Read more »
Jamie
We’ll never know. It will be covered by NDA’s. Either he was paid off to leave, or he was told there was serious malpractice, but the club wouldn’t pursue legal avenues if he walked.
We can but speculate. Of course they will issue bland thankyou’s blah blah blah. There’s a carpet somewhere at the Emirates with a hell of a lot swept under it.
CG
Ha ha , You welcome.
Now, You know I’ve been known to take a piss( as the saying goes around here) but this one I really mean.
You have been on Raul’s case from day one so there
I’ll pick another time to point out your ,shall we say ,less accurate predictions, like Watford breaking top 6 for example.
😜
Don’t know how this is a victory lap for anyone, the big bad boss we were never getting free from got sacked because someone else can presumably do a better job. I don’t think anyone was supporting Raul to the death over the months, more like commenting in response to the narrative that he was holding the club hostage with his actions and behavior. Never seen a hostage just sack his captor. Maybe the club weren’t hostages after all then. Moving forward even if one transfer figure is presented without the fees and VAT added in the weekly salary, the… Read more »
into the redAugust 15, 2020 16:36:59 JamieWe’ll never know. It will be covered by NDA’s. Either he was paid off to leave, or he was told there was serious malpractice, but the club wouldn’t pursue legal avenues if he walked. We can but speculate. Of course they will issue bland thankyou’s blah blah blah. There’s a carpet somewhere at the Emirates with a hell of a lot swept under it. ———— Exactly right. They already have thanked him for his fantastic contributions to The Arsenal family which he will be a part of for the eternity and then some blah… Read more »
The Willian deal I applaud all day long, he’ll proof to be the best all-round offensive player at Arsenal next season. We are skint on top talent, guys. Auba will score his usual 30 striker goals, with a few magical moments here and there but by and large he’s not technical and misses a lot. Hate to say it but as it stands now, Willian is the most technical player at Arsenal provided Ceballos returns to Real. Can’t say the same about Mari and Soares though. Jury is out on Mari, but Soares’ signing appeared very shady, I must say.… Read more »
Who said Raul walked away with millions? Did he even earn millions to start with?
His position was as redundant as any of the 55 employees that got laid off.
What in the world does ‘director of footballing operations’ mean when the club also has a sporting director in staff ? It’s like those murky positions you create for people to just hang around and not do much.
Raul’s position was as redundant as the former director of high performance, Darren Burgess .
All the best to him. That Barca style of team building is a failure.
CG must be Wenger himself
You heard it here 1st!
Looking like David O’Leary is coming in
If this season is trash, I’m wondering who the author is going to blame. You can go about “Vinai is now running Arsenal football club. He’s barely 40”, it seems like the age of an individual really gets you happy but the bottom line is this dude has no football background which is a massive worry in Club football. As to date Edu is trash and Mikel is still a novice. Don’t be surprised with the end result, football games are won on the pitch, not in the board room.
CG
We all have our own inbuilt perceptions about our club, mine have been clearly evident on here for more than 3 years.
I commend you though for calling it as it was and despite our differences on most things Arsenal, I hope that this action will lead to a new and healthy period for our beloved club.
By the way, I look forward to our regular disagreements.
🍺🍺
Agree with you there Tom and Into the Red. No way would any self respecting owners want to publicise dodgy dealings if they found any. Not only would it make them look incredibly stupid but if anything either illegal or contrary to football regulations (payments to unlicensed third parties for example) has occurred they would happily pay Raul off and sweep it all under the carpet pronto.
I saw the amazon documentary on Brazil’s Copa America win at home last year. It’s easy to see why anyone would Edu as sporting director. He’s smart, affable, a people person and speaks several languages It’s also easy to see why Chelsea didn’t want to get rid of Willian. He’s a very humble hardworking player who will make us more competitive from day one. Raul was brought in for something else than what he ended up doing. Gazidis exit blew up everything. I believe Gazidis wanted to use Sven and Raul to balance out each other. Once he left, that… Read more »
so Dissenter in the end it’s really Sven good Raul bad huh?
way to backpedal
Barca got beat so bad that other clubs are canning ex-barca employees just to be safe.
lol
Love to you Pete! Spot on from day one. Can’t believe I was on the Don Raul bandwagon, before I started reading your blogs about him. Keep up the good work chief. Hussein Fahmy is off next.
Raul’s position was as redundant as the former director of high performance, Darren Burgess .
——-
There was an actual position of “director of high performance” at Arsenal and it hasn’t been vacant since , say, about 2012-13 season?
Talk about stealing ….
PETE PLEASE DO A POD CHIEF. LITERALLY BEGGING
Great read that, Peter. Thank you.
As I said in one of my post, Arteta must have felt betrayed by the board. He was asked to push the players to accept a paid cut for keeping the jobs of other employees. Now that Raul is gone, Arteta should have more power in the club’s decision making.
As for Edu, he was just a dummy up to now. I read that he plans to base more on technical data for future recruitment. In any case, Arteta will have more say in the player recruitment. Let’s see what happens in this TW.
A great read and another tantalising hint of what the future could hold. Young and hungry players secured by a data driven approach elevating the club higher and higher.
Let’s just hope the Kroenke’s are awake now and stay sharp to what is happening. The fact is this has all been happening under their ownership for a while now and they have only just reacted. They still have a long way to go as owners but this would appear to be a step in the right direction.
Barca got beat so bad that other clubs are canning ex-barca employees just to be safe.
Nice
Edu has to follow Raul out the door. He has no tech director experience, was an Kia recommendation to Raul. And we need all Kia-Arsenal access to be blocked moving forward. Vinai needs to now find a proper technical director to work hand in hand with Arteta to rebuild this unbalanced squad.
Can we sign Szoboszlai now then and forget this Coutinho nonsense please? Not sure about the reign of terror spiel in the narrative when all the glimmers of hope in the club came about in the last year under Raul? Apart from Auba and Saka the only genuinely top talents we have was brought in last summer. Pepe, Saliba, Tierney and Martinelli will be mainstays in the team and have the potential to be in a title winning team. Arteta was signed. The scouting set up was restructured. Was there some bad decisions, remains to be seen, too early to… Read more »
Freddie
No, stop trying to recruit young Hungarian boys.
So we’ve gone full circle? From…. Arsene has too much power, we need more bureaucracy. Onto…. Arteta doesn’t have enough power, let’s make him all powerful. Don’t forget, Arsene also has relatively recently won 3 fa cups. Arteta should identify what he needs, we should then have people find him options, then Arteta should sign off on any deals, Hopefully Edu can come up with some better ideas than his first 3 signings, he’s off to a shocker. The mismanagement is staggering, we have 8 senior centre half’s, and other than Saliba who’s 19 and an unknown quantity in the… Read more »
Pedro You may be right about the decisions which have been taken, but we will have to see whether Raul was sacked. 1. If you are right why did Arsenal proceed with acquisition of Willian particularly if as so many suggest we have agreed such an inflated financial package? 2. What are or will be the consequences on the contract extension for Aubameyang?Has he agreed a new contract? 3. How will Arsenal resolve the Ozil situation? 4. We know that Arsenal are exceedingly weak in personnel particularly in midfield. Ceballos has gone back to Real Madrid and both Guendouzi and… Read more »
Freddie
Agree with what you say but two questions on:
“Very little experience in the management team now so hope they can still pull off a blinder of a transfer window so we won’t be left behind first of all, would be even better if we could actually catch up with the teams above us talent wise too.”
Why do you need experience if you’re not going to sign any players?
Do you really think we’ve got a chance of catching the teams above us right now?
Great result that Raul and his filthy hands are now out of the club. I see most articles are emphasizing the “nothing Proved illegal” line, but our transfer activity of the the last few years stinks.
The problem is that we will be suffering from these “mistakes” for the next few years. We have worthless Soares for four years, worthless Luiz for another year, and 50m still owing on Pepe. If there can be soem malfeasance proved then I hope we could go after the money.
ES
“””””You may be right about the decisions which have been taken, but we will have to see whether Raul was sacked.””””
They wont tell you ,
But I will,
He has been sacked unceremoniously
Weeks after an independent and competent lawyer arrived.
I hope the authorities take the appropriate action and look into every Arsenal transaction he has been involved in.
You have been Duped by a tubby Spanish conman.
Marvellous ain’t it ….
no Freddie and Marc you don’t understand it’s all data driven now
out with the rolodex
in with the stats
chances are we will get top top qualidee that can suit our system rather than just mere names
that’s how it is with RB model that Pedro advocate so much
think the likes of Mustafi and Xhaka
or Santos and Park Chu Young
Marc We’re most likely getting decent fees for Torreira, Guen and Laca, or decent swap deals. Maybe Bellerin too. AMN should generate a decent fee too if we offload him. The rest of them won’t generate much funds, more a redressing of the wage bill. There will be signings, all the noise from the club, from Arteta and Edu, indicates as much. Right now as it stands with Willian and Saliba coming in and us losing Ceballos it’s 2 steps forward and 1 back. Our midfield is still too weak and it’s going to be lacking in bodies even if… Read more »
I have an alternate theory for Raul leaving.
Pedro
You said the money spent on Pepe was this summer’s transfer budget brought forward and Raul couldn’t have done that without approval from the Kroenke’s so what if Raul made a bet on using this summer’s transfer funds last season, hoping that we qualify for the Champions League and now that didn’t happen, he had to go?
Freddie
Afraid not we’ve actually had a £90 million bid for Xhaka this afternoon but as Kia was involved we told them to fuck off.
We are seriously looking at a bid though where we pay someone £200 million to take Auba off our hands – thank God there’s no Super Agent involved otherwise we’d turn it down.
All I know is the transition from Wenger/Gazidias to what we have now has been one long 3 year clusterfuck.. of chaos. I hope we are settled now for awhile and can get on with the business of football and winning. It really didn’t have to be this way. But that’s what you get when you have previous regime not wanting to leave when everyone knew it was time and lack of planning from the owner who was busy ignoring things. Anyhow… never boring is it? Good on you Peds for writing what you believe that’s why we are all… Read more »
“FreddieNo, stop trying to recruit young Hungarian boys.”
————
Jesus, that sounded like a desperate plea from the Children Abuse Protection Org.
Freddie
My prediction for the next few weeks – AMN is offered a new contract to stay – he is asking to leave but Arteta wants him to stay hence the hefty pay increase.
35 minutes later he reverts to the form.
Happy time.
CC
Leave me my hungarian. You had your old brazilian in Willian and you can have a young one in Gabriel. No more soup for you!
So much Criticism but not one factual Evidence. Everyone that defended Raul wanted some evidence before calling for the man’s head. In your opinions he was a slob who did nothing. But I see what transfers we have made as Evidence. If he was lining pockets of super agents for the likes of Soares and David luiz, Do you think he would just leave the club? They would make him accountable legally. We might have over paid for Pepe, which is based on FACT. 72 mil in Installments. David Luiz cost arsenal 24 mil or 40 mil or whatever are… Read more »
Tom
That’s CC, always trying to cheapen my desires. Smh
Un
Mate that was the last two seasons. Is Ceballos coming back? Doesn’t look like it – what have we offered fuck all with a bit more fuck all with a nice shiny dollop of fuck all on top.
I don’t think we’re going to spend much of anything this summer so we can look forward to a CM of Xhaka and Willock next season with back up of no one.
“It means we will discuss tactics, Scouting and football from now on.”
Oh, you’re so naive. This is le grove,, that’ll only last 5 minutes.
Thanks Midwest!
Habesha
Can’t remember who and I can’t be bothered to go back and check but some made a comment earlier along the lines of “if Sanllehi was doing something illegal the club would hide it to save face and avoid punishment by the powers that be”.
It’s that kind of thinking that makes some on so detached from reality. You don’t hide it you sack the individual responsible and go to the authorities – if you get caught covering it up you’re as guilty as the person who was responsible.
Arsenal have just one month to sort out our squad for next season.
At the moment there is uncertainty about Aubameyang and a lot of holes to fill in our midfield, which we know is weak.
No-one has responded to questions I pose.
Marc if we could somehow give Soares a free, sell Bellerin and Osei-Tutu for £30-£35mill? Then sign Aarons and give Niles a new 5 year deal? It would be great business.
I’d also take Niles as competition for Tierney instead of Kolasinac in a heartbeat.
Niles is 22, he’s still young, has plenty of room to grow still.
Soares looks average at best, and Max Aarons look like a real gem, apparently Bayern were interested? But he’s lined up for a PL move, whoever gets him? Will be picking up a right gem
Matt Smith has reportedly signed for Swindon City on loan. They just won league 2 and will be giving their all to stay in league 1. So a good choice of club imo.
Rich
Stop drinking you’re clearly not used to it.
ET All signs point towards Raul being sacked. Otherwise why would he leave in the middle of a TW when he is the Director of Football. The club played the same mutual consent game PR game with Wenger but we all know what happened. Willian is on 100k a week basic wage and like every other player in the team has bonuses and clauses in his contract. He was pushed forward by Arteta and not Raul because he makes a lot of sense- Free , Quality , Winner , Hard-worker and a top athlete. Theres been only positive reports about… Read more »
Marc yeah. It is because people hear the same thing over and over again. It will feel like the truth if you repeat something again and again. And you will be committed to a skewed truth. What I see is Pepe, Tierney, Saliba and Martinelli where none of them have super agents. They are 4 starters of the next 5 years. And that’s where a large chunk of transfer fees went to and that’s not bad management for me. And you need to deal with super agents some times. A cheap old backup or an elite potential player where your… Read more »
Midwest It actually started even earlier than that, when Arsenal , including the fans as well, started believing their own mantra of duplicating the likes of Bayern as a way forward. It sure sounded sexy and all, except outside of comparable players wages the two have absolutely nothing in common. Bayern are to Bundesliga what Man U would be to PL if you removed the other big five. They have the pick of top Bundesliga talent and since Germany is the creme de la creme of modern football, they have top players at their disposal without paying abhorrent transfer fees… Read more »
Emirates
The reason no one is answering your question is because they’ll all congratulating themselves on how clever they are.
With what’s gone on with the redundancies right now Sanllehi looks like he was surplus to requirements – who needs a guy to make big deals happen when your business is going to be very limited.
On top of the lost income last season, reduced matchday income for this coming season there’s going to be reduced TV income for the season after this one as Sky and BT recover money.