According to James Olley in the Evening Standard, Arsenal will attempt to kill two birds with one stone by making an internal appointment to a mooted sporting director position that ensures one of the club’s most esteemed members of staff stays at the Emirates.
Spaniard Francis Cagigao, the Gunners head of international recruitment, is considered as a serious candidate to move up the ladder in any structural reshuffle as the board work on a long-term plan for life after Arsene Wenger.
It’s claimed that a sporting director could be hired even if the Frenchman signs a new deal with Marc Overmars also touted in some quarters for the role.
Cagigao, who has been working with Wenger for nearly 20 years and is under contract at Arsenal until 2020, is credited with recommending the signings of Cesc Fabregas, Jose Antonio Reyes, Manuel Almunia (*cough*), Lauren, Hector Bellerin, Santi Cazorla and Alexis Sanchez.
During Rafa Benitez’s tenure, he was linked with a move to Real Madrid while his knowledge and experience are also believed to have turned the heads of clubs in England, Germany and South America.
Having teased the media with an imminent announcement about his future it now appears that Wenger’s future won’t be decided until the end of the season.
To add to the confusion there’s a lot of speculation about what might happen with stories spinning out of the club about transfer warchests, player contract negotiations and internal friction with CEO Ivan Gazidis doing the rounds.
Change is being demanded, however, what form that change takes remains to be seen. If there’s to be any at all.
Oh dear, the last thing we need is the kind of shake up that Wenger himself pushes for, the kind where nothing at all changes…………….
Agreed. Don’t see the point of Cagigao. He is on great terms with Wenger having been part of the scouting setup for ages. Arsenal need someone who will challenge Wenger and push him out of his comfort zone. This is of course assuming Wenger stays, which he will, because the Arsenal board as spineless and gutless cowards who are too scared to take the tough but correct step of showing Wenger the door, and also because Wenger is too greedy to turn down a new 8 million UKP contract, even if it means destroying his legacy in football, and destroying… Read more »
At least try and be level about it. You are one of the biggest arsene-haters on this website. Every story is littered with your objections to anything wenger.
Scouting definitely Has not been the weakness. And neither has it been throughout his entire tenure. Aquiring the targets, is another story.
Nothing is more boring than someone complaining all the time. Except when they decide to also ignore the factsz
Yeah ignoring things must your area of Phd. Preach all you want but atleast make it relevant.
I mean for all your preaching about how important it is to keep facts in mind and all that, When have I said that scouting has been bad. What are you even on about.
Here is me thinking this was an article about the sporting director role, where one of our lead scouts is in contention.
You quite obviously said this appointment would be pointless, then carried on into your obligatory rant about wenger.
– Why not
The only one who needs to be level about things is you. Who has even said that the scouting at the club is bad. Nothing is more boring than someone complaining about something no one even said.
Atleast read what someone has posted before getitng all worked up about it and then descending to address irrelevant points.
I did read it. It was very boring. Was like watching the same patch of paint dry over and over again.
if you don’t think scouting is one of the problems, then you are probably in need of some dried frog pills
Scouting hasn’t been a weakness ? Really? Sansogo ,Eboue , Sqillaci, Stephanovs ,for every Anelka or Fabregas there has been at least two like the aforementioned Andre Santos , Baptista etc oh yes and Nelson Vivas whose schoolboy error lost us the game at Leeds and 99 season title by a single point ! The article also mentioned Almunia who in my opinion proved he wasn’t good enough the first time I saw him against Man utd when his stupidity cost us the game and our title hopes! Please stop making excuses for Wenger and his chums the evidence is… Read more »
Didn’t know Arsene was a card carrying member of UKIP… What next?!
exactly . the reason we are yet to see any benefits of appointing a ceo in gazidis is because he is after all working under wenger himself . wenger was famously amoung the board who selected gazidis. if a ceo of a club is working under a manager then there is simply no point in appointing him . in similar vein appointing a director that dances to wengers tune will have any kind of benefit to the club . we need a director that is indipendent ,ambitious , analyses the work the manager and players are doing and takes decisions… Read more »
*will not have any kind of benefit
This would be utterly pointless. So Arsene has hired his own boss in the form of Ivan ‘lost in the wilderness’ Gazidis. And If this goes through as well, he would of also appointed one of his best mates as the new ‘sporting director.’ Oh yeah – we swear we are going to make loads of things different, like loads, like big, big changes, like you wont believe the stuff we are changing over here, Sir Chips is even changing round some of the furniture in his old mahogany office too… like look, the elephants head used to be mounted… Read more »
Out of topic, but I think Per should be considered to play now, we severely lack composure at the back and his understanding of the game is underrated in my opinion.
or Holding. Can’t be worse than what Mustafi has been offering lately.
perhaps, he always look assured when he played, Liverpool game aside.
And can someone please tell Mustafi that he is NOT a playmaker. His long pass completion rate must be well into the low %s.
hey tries be like Mats Hummels or Jerome Boateng. zero success so far
Yeah, I genuinely don’t understand what the situation is with him.
Wenger said that he lacked “competition”. What the fuck does that mean?
Even on the English language level, this makes no sense.
If he needs games, give him games in the Reserves. If he’s too shit to play at Premier League level, well, he’ll fit right in.
He loves having CB like Kos and Mustafi, although he failed before with Verm and Kos, Gallas and Toure. We were quite stable at the back with Per and Kos (or someone similar to Kos).
I remember one of 7amkickoff article that we conceded less shot on goal from open play during the season where practically Kos and Per were playing.
I think we all agree that Mustafi has been a disappointment and this is where the desire to play Mertesacker comes from.
Kos is a good solid EPL level defender, but after that the quality of our defenders takes a nosedive.
Mertesacker however is not the solutions. Holding is a better option right now.
That being said, Mustafi is still in his first season and there is a big learning curve in the EPL. Hopefully there will be improvement in his 2nd season.
Hope so. My weird colleague, who follows spanish football (meaning 98% Barcelona) said he was jealous when we signed Mustafi. He said he had always been a stand out player in games against Barca, and had hoped they would sign him.
So I really hope its just first season jitters…or could be he just stopped Messi a couple of times, and my colleague noticed.
Can’t believe Dick Law isn’t in the frame. No one at Arsenal has done so much to bring Joel Campbell to the club.
Haha yeah and whoever keeps finding Joel a new team to go and play for!
Dick’s getting out while he can…
No.
No, no, no!
The last thing this club needs right now is someone who has worked with Wenger for 20 years. This is far too cozy of a relationship. They need external ideas at this point.
Merely moving around one of Wenger’s loyalist isn’t change. While i agree we need to appoint a sporting director. It ain’t no change if Wenger remains the manager! The change we urgently need is a gaffer who can motivate the players, alter tactics in view of the opponent being faced, substitute a player on time if not performing as expected, not afraid to drop star players when they are consistently subpar, someone who respects the fans and not take us for granted.
With all due respect to Mr Cagigo, it wouldn’t have taken a football genius to recognize that Alexis Sanchez or Santi Cazorla were players that could improve Arsenal.
So basically he scouts La Masia.
As far as I’m awRe neither Sanchez or Cazorla came from La Masia.
The war chest stories are so ridiculous. The players they link us with are pretty uninspiring anyway, the one I read said we would sell Ozil, Giroud and the Ox and bring in Tierny, Lacazette, Moussa Dembele and Zaha, I mean if you’re going to try and get fans excited at least pretend we’re going to go about our buisness better than that.
you know , i would really love to have worldclass players in our club . but the kind of situation are in , we are not even able to keep hold of our own damn players let alone going to buy ballon dor players. had we taken some harsh decisions sooner , we would’ve never been in such a drab situation
I agree, Arsenal and Arsene squandered the reputation he built at the turn of the century. Lots of “world class” players would have wanted to join the title winning team that Bergkamp, Henry, Viera, and others played for. Who is going to want to join the also-rans that have been stagnating for a decade and whose best players abandon the club regularly. That the owners and board do not appreciate is that football success brings greater financial succcess. We might in fact be on a downward spiral now. I don’t buy tickets to games, but I am canceling my tv… Read more »
No World Class player will want to come and play for Arsenal under Wenger now.
The prospect of never challenging for the league and just fighting for Champions’ League qualification in perpetuity, only to then not even make the QFs, is not as exciting as Wenger would have the fans believe.
Yeah I agree but I’m going off the assumption that this story is just something put out by the club to placate the fans rather than anything serious. In which case they might as well be a bit more ambitious with our supposed “transfer targets”. In reality we’d probably struggle to even get the names mentioned in.
I have read stories of 200 million warchest. I just pity the writers who come up with such trash. Do they not know Arsenal? The club would never spend 200 mil in a single season, unless it was to buy Kroenke a new boathouse or something.
What a wonderful and exciting solution.
Get the guy who was responsible for us getting all these outstanding players that have done so well for us as the Director of Football.
Next you’ll tell me they’re making Theo the capt… oh.
United Airlines: We will create the biggest PR disaster of 2017. Arsenal: Hold my beer.
This was hands down the best comment of the day!
Your sir, deserve a pint for that comment
Internal solutions its like a new signing! Bring back oleg luzchny as director of football
I don’t know about him as sporting director, but he does make for a very good model for watch advertisements, as we can see from the photo at the top of the page.
No problems with this guy. It’s Arsene who needs to go. Nothing to say this guy will be Wenger 2.0.
Exactly what position is he is to dissent? His job as head of international recruitment makes him a great candidate with great expertise. Arsene needs to go, that’s it.
Exactly. Who’s to say giving him more authority wouldn’t allow his knowledge to have more of an impact
Join the discussionIts 2017 & there still some among us who actually think Wenger can change. Have people been listening to this man at all for the last 13 yrs ? If anything once he manages to get an extention he will be even more determined to persist with the same flawed methods that he in his delusional mind believes they will work out after all. As long as Wenger is still around NOTHING will change at arsenal. As for the DoF, if ever Wenger is gonna agree to one it has to someone he can control Thats why i… Read more »
Its 2017 & there still some among us who actually think Wenger can change. Have people been listening to this man at all for the last 13 yrs ? If anything once he manages to get an extention he will be even more determined to persist with the same flawed methods that he in his delusional mind believes they will work out after all. As long as Wenger is still around NOTHING will change at arsenal. As for the DoF, if ever Wenger is gonna agree to one it has to someone he can control Thats why i think this… Read more »
FFS! Someone wake me up when next season starts and the transfer window is shut, I just can’t take anymore of this…
I listened to the Arsecast extra yesterday and holy shit they got me worrying way more. The thought of what our club’s hierarchy looks like without Wenger is scary. Who becomes the decision maker in that situation? Gazidis??? You’re taking the piss… And what does that mean about Silent Stan, if the man had something to contribute to Arsenal he would have by now. Remember he was appointed when Wenger was here and Wenger has always been the main man, but after he’s gone do we rely on Gazidis and Kroenke’s ambition to take us forward? We’re fucked. After seeing… Read more »
Hello All,
I need some help. I would like to if possible get to the game against ManU. I have Red Member but not renewed as I live on the continent so can’t afford to get to the games frequently. I know it’s not going to be easy to get to such kind of a game but I would like to just know if tickets are available. Maybe with such a run in the league maybe it’s possible.
I hope you will help.
You want to watch the match ?
Well maybe that’s strange for you but I do.
Anyway, is in here anyone keen to help, fellow Gooners?
Bit harsh on Almunia. This might not be popular with everyone but he was a much better keeper than many gave him credit for. And was very far from being one of worst signing of recent times.
No. He wasn’t. He was useless.
They should bring in someone that adds something to the club! I never agreed to the appointment of Steve Bold! All because they had to choose from within the club. Bring in someone with the same or even more experience in football than Wenger, that can be a figure head.
Nonsense. What Arsenal needs is someone in place with experience not someone to challenge Wenger. The Sporting Director is not there to challenge the manager. That would truly be a disaster. The sporting director is there to assist in recruitment. Note the word assist. If he is challenging Wenger, there will be even more problems. Two heads do not make good direction. Therefore whoever comes in is for the future. It makes absolute sense to have someone familiar with the workings of the club. Aside from this fellow I believe we also signed ex Leicester chief scout Ben Wigglesworth (yes… Read more »
santori -while the sporting director and coach need to have a good relationship, you seem to be working off the assumption of the all powerful British manager who simply dictates what players to get and the sporting director simply signs them. At many European clubs and even a few British (Leicester for instance) those are truly split jobs. The coach is responsible for coaching the players while the sporting director is responsible for building the squad (Juventus, Atletico, Dortmund). The coach can indicate what types of players he wants (pacey winger, defensive mid) but the exercise of squad building truly… Read more »
“Hey Arsène, there’s this chap called Alexis Sanchez at Barcelona, I don’t know if you’ve heard of him…”
Sporting director won’t mean shit if that fraud is given a new deal. They’ll still answer to Wenger, not the other way around. He’s a cancer to the club and nothing will change until he’s gone.
Can someone tell me what the DoF will actually do as opposed to the CEO? I believe it is often used where a young manager is at a club and needs help in things like transfers and contract negotiations – hardly the case if Wenger is still there. Or DoF will form the link to the Board to explain thinking in more business-like terms – again hardly necessary if Wenger is there with his 20 years of Board involvement and his economic degrees. Or DoF will identify the players needed for the club’s style of play – again a Wenger… Read more »
It’s become standard at most European clubs. In a normal situation the manager really is a head coach and simply worries about coaching the players he has under his disposal. The DOF in this case scouts and signs players and also worries about contracts – he builds the squad. There’s obviously different degrees of power where in some cases (highly powerful manager) the DOF simply gets who the coach wants (United) but in many cases while he listens to the coach the DOF signs who he thinks is needed (Dortmund, Bayern, Althetico). Let’s just assume that Wenger stays and this… Read more »
Cheers Atom. As I thought, Wenger will hate it!
So basically getting the head of scouting to become the head of recruitment and give him a different title. Thatll do the trick!
Bye, Bye Miss American Pie. does anyone think old Kronkie listened to Bob Dylan, Don Mclean, Joni Mitchell etc when he was young. Or was he reading his own version of the ‘Art of the deal’ Soulless bastard, Hill wood you old fart you helped ruin this club! Shame on you & Sir pissing Chips, even old Ken Friar yeh Ken you love this club so much do something.
Any reason in the world why Dennis Bergkamp wouldnt be perfect for this job?
Yes. No Avios points.
Hates flying, doesn’t he? Imagine that would be a non-starter for any transatlantic negotiations…
On radio on Monday it said Marc overmars is in for this position. After a successful time St Ajax . I think this is good news.
This club always try to treat us as children,even my 2 years old know this is bullshit.Wenger is not going to change,the guy is a socialist people like that do not leave their hold on power easily.This man does not like Arsenal but his pride is more important to him than the club. The only reason he has not leave the club is because it’s the only club that can accept his excesses.WENGER OUT WENGER OUT IF YOU LOVE ARSENAL PLEASE LET GO!!!!