Mikel Arteta says that restrictions on how young players can be recruited by Premier League clubs means Arsenal may have to explore a multi-club ownership model – along the lines of Man City and Chelsea.
As it stands, English clubs are unable to sign players from abroad until they turn 18, a significant change from the past when talents like Cesc Fabregas, Hector Bellerin, Gael Clichy and others arrived to become first team fixtures.
The Arsenal manager was asked if it would be helpful for the Gunners to have a club in Europe to ‘park’ young talent in, as a way of getting around these post-Brexit regulations, he said, “That’s something that a lot of clubs have at the moment.
“So that restriction obviously in the country has provoked what many other clubs have now, like sister clubs or multi-club systems.
“So looking ahead in the future is something basically to explore, because obviously with the actual system it’s very, very difficult.”
Arteta insisted this was something that had to be decided at board level, by owners KSE, who would have to figure out if this was something they wanted to do, and how it should be done.
Pressed on whether or not he’d be involved in that, Arteta continued, “My involvement is in the team and the squads, and full trust in what the club has to do there is for them to decide.
“If they want my opinion at some moment, obviously I’m more than happy to, but my focus is on the team.”
We’ll have to wait and see how this plays out. For many, the multi-club model is one which benefits only the biggest, richest clubs at the expense of so-called ‘smaller clubs’ – including the ones who are taken under the umbrella. Look at how 777 Partners model left a mountain of debts, and the possibility of exploiting players and financial regulations is impossible to ignore.
Others may view it as a necessarily evil, that if everyone else is doing it and gaining an advantage, Arsenal may have to do it to keep up. Let’s see.
The Spaniard had earlier spoken about his time at La Masia, the famed Barcelona Academy where young players live and train, which has produced some incredible players down the years.
From Arteta’s group, the likes of Andres Iniesta, Carles Puyol, Thiago Motta, and Victor Valdes all graduated, and for the Arsenal boss the quality of the players produced was down to the environment in which they were educated in football.
“To replicate that here is impossible,” he said. “You cannot do it.
“It’s the most unique environment that I have seen in my life, the most competitive, the most inspiring and the most, probably, professional environment that any club that I have seen or academy that I have seen that replicates a first team environment at 14, 15 years old.
“From that room we were 32 players there. I think 29 of them made it to the highest level. The six that they share a room with me, they were legends in the football world.
“That’s unheard of. So there is something special there. That’s not a coincidence and they’ve done it for decades now.”
Go for it! Talk less,do more..
I hear all this talk of a multi club model.
But people forget that we’ve owned Sp*rs for generations…
Spurs have broken Big Ang mate. He’s been Tottenhamed. Poor bastard was ready for a nervous breakdown in interview post game.
People talk a lot about karma. And I think it’s real. You only have to look at Jose Mourinho. He said all those disrespectful things about the profound gentleman that is Arsene Wenger.
And he was forced to manage the two clubs that will suck your soul out of your ears and use it as a bongo drum – United and Sp*rs.
Amorim already looks 10 years older. Ange has pretty much given up with the “nice guy” facade and is truly showing his true cuntours.
It’s a great time to be alive.
He needs to hold on for a couple more weeks, don’t want them getting the new manager bounce before we play them again.
They should go for the Bournemouth manager, but being spurs they will probably go for ten haag.
I love that guy. He would be my first choice if Arteta left tomorrow.
That’d probably make me learn his name too.
But until that day, I’m going to call him Sergio Valera Bombadiero.
I believe he played in the same youth team as arteta and Alonso.
Multi club model would be a complete joke if it wasn’t so serious. The fact that the 115ers can meet another club they own Girona in the CL is a joke. As is the fact they could take a player like Savinho from them for €15 million.
I totally agree with you. But it’s becoming increasingly obvious that the FA, UEFA, FIFA… have absolutely zero interest in dealing with corruption in the game. Zero interest. And to be fair, even if they tried, they’d get destroyed by powers that burn money for fun. I hate the way this sport is going. I hate Chelsea, Newcastle and City. I hate mid season world cups in the desert. I hate inflated sponsorship deals from parent businesses. But I also hate the idea of Arsenal not being a footballing super power. So come on FC Utrecht. Come on Royal Antwerp.… Read more »
I believe there is a team called Arsenal Sarandi in Argentina with our name on it………literally
The Go Ahead Eagles could become part of the Tottenham sporting franchise.
‘The Go Behind Cocks’
They didn’t sign him from Girona, they signed him from another team they own Troyes, who then loaned him to Girona without playing a game. The Troyes fans are not too happy about the way their club is being run – as detailed here
https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/troyes-man-city-multi-club-model-2908815?srsltid=AfmBOopx44RrfVnfc_HDy-v6lyU-Gs2EAEg5TNduuE1UyS86c5IzmSrF
It’s like finding out who owns a ship that seems to be bringing crude oil (not coals) to Newcastle. It flies under a Maldives Island flag but is owned by a Panama company that is owned by a Cyprus company that is a wholly owned subsidiary of a sovereign wealth fund that is not, I repeat NOT, really the same as the government.
Even the pirates give them a wide berth as they can’t be arsed with the hassle of figuring out who the ransom goes to
This shit is going to ruin football, if it hasn’t already.
This particular shit out of all things? This is one in a list of things that have ruined football in the last couple of decades, and a fairly minor one at that. Out of all of those things I’d rather focus on the fact that states and oligarchs are allowed to own football clubs and spend as much as they want without a shit being given by whoever is supposed to enforce FFS regulations, if I had to pick just one. If I could fix all of those things, including the ridiculous amount of games now, the way too many… Read more »
The multiclub model can be a great system for developing young players, moving them around to play in increasingly stronger leagues. The problem is when organisations like City use it to obscure/deflate/inflate transfer fees.
I think we have to be careful of picking out what we think is good and say that is the “function” of the multiclub model, and then pick what we think is bad and say that is a “missuse”.
The model is made to circumnavigate regulations. It doesn’t matter which ones there are.
Sure, but that’s like saying “they shouldn’t allow the dark arts in football so we’re not going to practice them” whereas we all know that within the current system we’d much prefer our current team with Ben White doing his antics than late-era Wenger’s “when they go low we go high” teams. If you’re not going to fix those regulations then I’d rather we use them in a way that benefits both us and the players being developed, and maybe at the very least they could prohibit transfers between same-owned clubs and fix that aspect of it.
I mean prohibit transfer fees, obviously players would need to be able to go between those clubs on a free transfer.
I would rather not be associated with a multi club system unless it benefits everyone (not just Arsenal). Football clubs are communities, and the multi club model could be pretty detrimental to communities if it is implemented with greed in mind. Someone above mentioned Savio – the city group signed him for Troyes, he is their record signing, didn’t play a minute for them as loaned straight to Girona, then signed by city from Troyes. Their record signing didn’t play a minute of football for them. At Troyes the city group appointed a manager that came from another team from… Read more »
Excuse me to say, but this symptoms we have been seeing of late: multiclub (which sounds bad for the game in general), ever growing number of fixtures (which are damaging for players health), increasing number of products like t-shirts (which just take our money). These all are inevitable symptoms of having football be a business, because business has to grow to survive. And everything else becomes of secondary importance, thus you get some batshit crazy modifications that are mainly there to get more profit out of the show.
Oligarchs, Billionaires and Authoritarians are ruining the world we live in, why would football escape such a fate as the environment we live in or the social systems we have created as free people. Those with that level of power play by their own rules not ours. This is reality. Hope we fuck up Brighton today.
Their private jets alone contribute an insane amount of carbon emissions in one year- more than you or I will in our lifetimes.
Personally I am looking forward to the batshit crazy modifications that will inevitably result when growth slows. May I suggest ‘multi ball’, where at random moments during the game a load of additional balls are launched onto the pitch, and the players have 30 seconds to smash as many as they can into the opposing goal before it returns to standard play. If you don’t do it then sky will
Football fucking Hogwarts sounds like. No wonder the Spanish achieve so much (apart from the corruption etc, Spain national team is the nuts).
Multi club is trash, sorry. Also kse already own a second club, colorado rapids.
And since I forgot this (bit of boilk this morning, you see) we should be getting the English leagues to allow for b teams in the lower divisions instead of multi club ownership, like the Spanish clubs do, as it prevents money laundering, like city do.