Arsenal may be on the hunt for a new sporting director following Edu’s unexpected exit last month, but Mikel Arteta insists the club is well-equipped to handle whatever the January transfer window brings.
While the Gunners conduct a thorough recruitment process, which could extend until the summer, Edu’s deputy, Jason Ayto, has been promoted on an interim basis.
A former club scout with a decade of service, Ayto has Arteta’s backing and, notably, received high praise from his former boss, who spoke glowingly about his qualities in an interview with The Athletic.
All in all, it sounds like the club is happy with how the dust has settled and, anyway, they aren’t expecting January to be particularly busy on the transfer front.
Asked about the current absence of a sporting director, Arteta was quick to point out: “We have one. Jason Ayto is our sporting director, interim sporting director, and he’s got the full capacity right now, our full support, the support of the football club and he’s doing really well with his team.”
Given Arsenal’s tendency to promote from within – evident in Vinai Venkatesham’s rise to CEO and Richard Garlick’s promotion to managing director – it’s widely believed that Jason Ayto is the frontrunner for the sporting director role, despite links to several higher-profile names.
“The [hiring] process is open. The club, with the support of all of us, and intervention of all of us, will decide who they think is the best person to move us forward,” said Arteta.
“Timing-wise, it’s difficult to understand and I’m not running that process, so it’s more a question for the club to respond.
As for whether he wants it sorted sooner rather than later, he added: “Yeah, but [only when] we are convinced that we have the right person with the right team that can work with a lot of people that are doing extremely great work at the moment and that someone is going to help us to go to the next level. We might have it internally.”
Compared to the summer window, the month of January rarely sees blockbuster transfers. More often than not, it’s used for squad tweaks and injury reinforcements.
Arsenal certainly have plenty of fitness issues at the moment, so it’s not impossible Ayto could be pressed into negotiations for a new face or two.
“I don’t expect and never expect January to be super busy, but we have to wait and see where we are,” said Arteta.
“Some surprises can come, we are prepared for that, some opportunities as well, and we’ll have to see. Hopefully, the squad and the availability of the squad is going to be better in a few weeks.”
Edu did well, if we can find someone to match him I’d be happy.
In terms of negotiating and identifying players, Edu did well overall but I feel like we can upgrade on that a little. Quite a few poor decisions have been made in terms of both selling and buying. It will be hard to replace his charisma and positive aura around the place though. You can tell he was well liked and respected.
indeed, he did very well. but the only time we were good at selling, was last window. before that, we let a lot of people leave for free or pennies. and coincidentally, the last window i thought was under average at recruiting. calafiori is great and merino’s alright, but it’s clear we’ve been trying to reinforce our forward line for some time now and we haven’t done so at all. so while i think edu was great, i agree with you that things could go better in the future.
On the other hand we are no longer a selling club. We were so so poor at selling when we were giving away our starters for peanuts in the days of Fabregas and that Dutch fella with a chocolate leg I hate to mention. Back then clubs wanted our starters, our best players but blaming Edu for not getting 50M for Nketiah ( who I like) or 40 M for Guendouzi etc, who nobody wanted starting games is ridiculous on some level. Nobody wants Saka or Saliba sold. If Edu sold them for 70M it would be a bad sell.… Read more »
I hope he does. He’ll need it. Reinforcements are needed.
I’d love to see a fresh face or two. But I think we only buy if we sell / loan. And I’m not sure who would go. Tierney is on big wages and untrustworthy injury-wise. Kiwior could have been an option a month ago but now is in regular rotation. No one is touching Tomi with a thirty foot chopstick. Could Saudi come in with a monster bid for Trossard? It’s not unthinkable. But I think our two most likely departees are Jesus and Zinchenko. After MLS’s performance on Wednesday, maybe it’s bin time for Zin. I don’t know why… Read more »
How – after the “sell first” summer we just had – would we still need to sell before buying? This club has revenue streams other than the transfer market, you know.
The issue with January is also about who’s desperate enough to sell you their best player or how desperate are you to over pay for their best player. Look at a Madrid or PSG, we can’t sell them Saka, Raya or Gabriel in the middle of the season. Even players out of form like our attacking Gabriels wouldn’t make sense to let go even for big money unless say Napoli or Villa were stupid/desperate enough to sell us Khvara/Watkins mid season at a discount. Realistically we need our players to pick up some form and our fans to get behind… Read more »
Because there are European and premier league spending rules to follow. Some may conflict with others, plus the new rule on shareholder loans.
Yeah. Wot he said.
But joking aside, it feels like we have a pretty full squad. If you buy a forward, where does that leave Jesus or Sterling?
If you buy a midfielder, where does that leave Nwaneri?
If you buy a defender (god forbid!) then where does that leave MLS or Tomi?
I dunno. I just think we have a pretty full squad right now.
We need a left winger or striker, the finishing for the Monaco game was dreadful, we won’t get that many chances in the majority of games.
It’s stupid to pine for the past but an alexis sanchez would have been absolutely perfect in this current team.
Perfect as a player, not as a mentality IMHO.
I think he would annoy the fuck out of Arteta. Sanchez was a wild card, a free spirit. He wouldn’t have tracked back or done what he was told tactically.
we have a very thin squad, i don’t know why the heck you think we need to sell anyone. we’ve been looking for wide forwards for at least two summers now, and that was before selling/loaning some last transfer window. why would we even think about selling trossard, even more given martinelli’s current form? why the heck would jesus go to italy? what are you smoking? can i have some?
I support Jason Tayto
For now…..
i want a sporting/technical director that wont budge on selling our starting CB pair!! not now, not ever, no saudi, no galactiNOs.
Can we hire a sporting/technical who will put a “fuck off” clause into Saka,Odegaard, Timber, Nwaneris, MLS’ contracts.
Finally someone who could understand Arteta and our vision, and push the Kroenkes all the way in getting maximum support
#Simples