According to Mikel Arteta, Arsenal are continuing to discuss how they want to structure themselves following the departure of Raul Sanllehi.
The Gunners announced the abrupt departure of our head of football two weeks ago following reports of a review of our transfer business. His responsibilities now look set to be swallowed by those already working at the Emirates with managing director Vinai Venkatesham, technical director Edu and contract negotiator Huss Fahmy likely to bear the brunt of the workload.
In the clearest indication yet that Sanllehi’s departure was hastily arranged rather than part of a long-standing plan, Arteta revealed that he and his peers are still talking through the fallout and how the chain of command will operate going forward.
On how Sanllehi’s exit affects his role, he said: “It’s something that we are discussing at the moment.
“First of all, I want to wish Raul all the best, he has all my respect and admiration because I worked with him and alongside him and enjoyed it.
“The club made a decision, a very difficult decision, but the way he left the club, we honoured him, everybody had nice words towards him and now we have to figure out what’s the best way to figure out how to run our football club on the sporting side.
“It’s what we’re trying to do while we are trying to achieve as well all the targets we have for the transfer market.”
Arteta certainly seems to be very keen on having a more hands-on role than his predecessor.
From day one, Unai Emery seemed happy to defer transfer and contract matters to those above him whereas Arteta’s has made clear he needs players with specific qualities and has proactively persuaded the likes of Granit Xhaka, David Luiz and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to stay put.
Asked whether he’s assuming the mantle of a manager rather than coach, Arteta went on:
“I don’t know what’s going to happen. These are things we are discussing internally at the club.
“We want to try and find the best way to be as efficient as possible and to maximise the people we have at the club to make things the right way.
“We’ll finalise those talks and communicate with you guys how we’re going to do it.”
At least there is a dialogue and not an assumption that it’s what Arteta wants in his role – he had a tough enough time coming in 9 months ago, has done tremendously to steady the ship, so it’s only right that there is consultation internally regarding structure. He’s also seen how having full control over footballing matters can affect an individual having played under Arsene, though I’m sure he will have given a lot of thought as to what level of involvement he wants over transfers, though it does make sense for him to hold input over the players… Read more »
It sounds like Arteta wants to be in control. Raul left to give Arteta and Ddu more power. I remember Ian Wright tweeting “protect Mikel by all means” after Raul left. This could be directed to disagreements on the way forward for the club. Arteta wants to be the manager and not the head coach, that way he will have more power on the players in coming, out going, loans and so on and also have full control and responsibilities of the squad. He’s already starting to add more staff to his coaching team which shows a lot of authority.
Consultation is good. Two good heads are always better than one (of course so long they are not in conflict with one another).
So not always then 🙂
Feels like the only person at the club with a plan is Arteta. Sigh.
To be honest I never understood what Edu was supposed to do with Raul being the guy in charge of transfers. It seemed like two people for 1 job, much like Raul and Sven. This set up seems much simpler and clearer
More evidence that something terrible happened. NDLs all around, agreement on this publicizing this as overly cordial which it obviously wasn’t. It reeks of bullshit when everyone at the club say all these nice things about the head of football operations getting fired at the beginning of the transfer window with no plan in place for succession and restructuring. Makes me feel like my club is a media conglomerate with a sleezy CEO that finally got MeToo’d.
Huh?
If you mean they’re covering up Raul’s misdeeds for the benefit of the club’s reputation you may well be right. It wouldn’t be the first time, and could be argued it is the best worst option. But if Raul was siphoning off money from the club, how much was it? Looking at recent transfers we could be talking tens of millions of pounds.
This worries me a bit. I fully understand when the owners sometimes feel the need to sack people for whatever reason: financial, professional, personnel not getting along, etc. But what truly worries me here is that our American owners seem to still be lost as to how to STRUCTURE the club management and administration. It tells me that they bought this great club thinking that it could be administered in a manner similar to US sports franchises. It can’t and they now seem to be searching for the solution. If this is indeed what is happening then it is scary.
This is a manager speaking. The authority he exerts is precise, logical and consistent. However we have landed ourselves with Arteta at the helm… we are supremely lucky.
id rehire Arsene Wenger to replace Raul Sanheli but that’s just me. hope they figure it out soon and hopefully it leads to us getting a few good transfers like Partey.
Perhaps then we could sign Sanogo, some no mark Japanese teenagers and the like.
wenger was great. But he faded badly. Let’s just leave it at that rather than pining for 2004.
I did read somewhere that Sanogo is available and would like to return to England
#WengerforCEO
Is it just me or does Edu look twice the size of Mikel – he is a big unit…..
Yeah I didn’t realise he was that big when he played. Looks like he still goes to the gym as well.
Arteta came into the club with a clear vision of what it is he wants to do and Arsenal to achieve. He may have a plan, but this does not mean that it fits perfectly with that of the club – assuming they had one. I read his comments, incl. those about pay cuts & redundancies, as a direct effect of this. Remember, the club brought Emery and Raul in to run things. When it didnt work it’s a good sign that they are gone but what that means for governance going forward … I think Arteta will have to… Read more »
It looks like a wholesale re-organisation, doesn’t it. Contrary to opinion at the time, it looks increasingly like Freddie was “let go”, and others may well follow. We weren’t really getting anywhere fast under the old structure and it needed a good shake up. It’s also good that Arteta appears to be more pro-active with the other movers and shakers. Interesting times.