Arsenal have confirmed that Richard Garlick will become the club’s new Managing Director and will lead the Executive team when CEO Vinai Venkatesham steps down from his role next summer.
Garlick joined the Gunners from the Premier League in 2021 and is currently Director of Football Operations with responsibility for all football operations and administration across the club.
Over the last three years, he’s worked closely with Sporting Director Edu on recruitment and contract matters, helping to reshape both the men’s and women’s first teams.
We assume, his new role will entail a broader remit although it’s unclear at this point whether it includes overseeing commercial operations, headed up by CCO Juliet Slot, and financial operations, headed up by Stuart Wisely.
Venkatesham, who announced his upcoming departure in September, previously held the title Managing Director for two years while working in tandem with ex-Head of Football Raul Sanllehi. He was promoted to CEO in 2020 when the Spaniard was booted out.
There had been some speculation that Tim Lewis, who holds the title of Executive Vice-Chair, might take more control of the day-to-day running of the club. Potentially, that remains the case. We’ll see.
On the decision to appoint Garlick to his new role, Co-Chair Josh Kroenke said: “Richard is recognised and respected across the industry for his vast experience, and we were delighted when he joined us back in 2021 to take our football strategy to the next level.
“He has made an enormous impact since joining us, working closely with our Sporting Director, Edu, on the development and implementation of the club’s football strategy. He has developed strong relationships right across the club and wider industry.
“Rich has been key to the progress we’ve made as a club – including recent transfers – and I’m thrilled he will now lead our Executive Team and continue to drive the club forward with passion.”
For his part, Garlick thanked Edu, Venkatesham and the board and added, “I’m excited to take us forward in my new role as we move into the next phase of delivering the vision of our owners, Stan [Kroenke] and Josh.”
I don’t know much about this guy but hopefully he’ll keep away the vampires.
Interesting hire for sure, but could also just be a case of the emperor’s new cloves
Hopefully he can have some impact on the lacklustre commercial performance that is dragging down our ability to fund transfers
The biggest driver of strong commercial performance is what you do on the pitch and the associated attractiveness and profile of the brand. We have to recognise we’ve had loads of years not competing for the title and being outside of the Champions League – we should be in a considerably stronger position as and when commercial deals come up for renegotiation; whoever is doing the negotiating. The bigger point I would note is we have the third highest net transfer spend of any club over the last 10 years. Where I’d challenge Garlick is sorting out our player sale… Read more »
Your point about player sales is quite valid, and I’d say a huge proportion of the responsibility for it belongs to the manager. It was Arteta who knocked back Wolves’ bid for AMN, only to then bench him for the whole season. That decision tanked his value so hard, and also clearly rocked his confidence. I’m not saying AMN was a world-beater, but he wasn’t horrendous. Another example is Auba. We had to pay him to go play for Barcelona because Arteta made it clear to the entire world that we had no use for him. Not even a year… Read more »
Great comment. 👍
I do not wish to trivialise this but does he want to have a beard or not? Is indecison a character trait?
Say what you like about Josh Kroenke but his beard leaves no one in any doubt. At least not as far as beards are concerned.
It always seems like when someone leaves the person who replaces them gets a slightly different job title. Makes it hard to know who does and doesn’t do what, for me at least.
E.g. CEO Vinai leaves and is “replaced” by Garlick but he is Managing Director.
Or Raul “leaves” as Head of Football and Edu replaces him but he is first Technical Director and then Sporting Director.
All a bit confusing for me.
Its really just strategic labels which determine pay/bonus/the possibility to promote and incentivise. It doesn’t mean much to us. Garlick will essentially do the same job as Vinai and Edu does the same as Raul (with perhaps some minor tweaks to targets/role)
So… What’s the difference between a Managing Director and a CEO?
Of course, this might not be the case with us as a football club, but generally speaking, the managing director is usually more closely involved with day-to-day operations, while the CEO’s role is to lead the organization, set the vision, and provide overall direction. The CEO title is one step above the managing director.
I’m pleased that the club have promoted from within, rewarding a person they know and trust, rather than looking outside. I think we’ve been very fortunate to have Vinai and it’s nice that Richard Garlick can step into that position. Rather that than employing a dodgy ex Barcelona con man, we’ve been down that road before, other clubs have yet to learn. 115 charges, anyone?
Bit concerned by Garlics last comment. Vision of Josh/Stan? Why the hell wasn’t the vision of MA8 Mentioned? Brown nosing his bosses? If it wern’t for MA8 (whether you like him or not) and us fans supporting thru thick and thin where would our club and his vision be ?
Garlic,Rice will mark an era at Arsenal