According to the Evening Standard, Raul Sanllehi and Vinai Venkatesham are in no rush to appoint a technical director at Arsenal even though the transfer window opens in 10 weeks time.
The Gunners offered a three-year deal to Monchi, who’d recently departed the same position at AS Roma, only for the Spaniard to reject the chance of a reunion with Unai Emery in favour of a return to former club Sevilla.
As things stand, there are no other external names in contention to fill a position that is due to sit between the club’s football operations team and the coaching staff.
Tentative links with former players Edu and Marc Overmars, who extended his deal at Ajax yesterday, have also both fallen by the wayside. Internally, Francis Cagigao, currently head of international recruitment, is an option, although it would represent a big promotion.
On the surface, it looks a bit of a mess but the club is keen to put a positive spin on the situation claiming our transfer plans for this summer are already at an advanced stage.
James Olley’s report even goes so far as to say, “one source claimed this was a reason why Monchi turned the Gunners down.” We’ll let you make your mind up about that.
We certainly know a number of players are on the way out. As for incomings, perhaps Sven Mislintat left us his little black book?
Sven’s little black book
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015%E2%80%9316_Borussia_Dortmund_season
Oh yeah…here we go again!
Can someone explain to me Mr Cagigao’s credentials, because my initial reaction is wow what a genius! This guy ‘identified’ three kids already in La Masia.. I could have done that. I don’t see him picking the next big thing out of Greece or Ligue 2.
He was also credited for cazorla….i guess that was easy to be honest
our transfer plans for this summer are already at an advanced stage and that’s the reason why monchi didn’t join……REALLY??
who is in charge of these transfer plans then??…….really confused right now
Well we do have a fantastic team of scouts all around the world, a coach who’s more than a coach and salhini himself who was pretty good at Barcelona.
And when you think about it, Mislintat only just left. The club probably had a plan in place for the next 1 or 2 upcoming transfer windows based on Sven’s targets.
Right now, getting top 4 is far more important than appointing a Technical Director.
“When you think about it.”
First mistake.
We think about it. Most of the club is blissfully thought-free.
(M)Mislintat joins Arsenal.
(S)Salhini : Welcome, lets get the plans for next two seasons, good chance to prove your worth.
After few months
M : Its done.
S : Thanks.
M : Cool, whats next.
S : Not sure, think we are set for now.
Why dont you take a unpaid break, eh bud ?
or you know fire youself.
Moral : Dont produce output before time, it only helps your manager/boss.
Do you really think Arsenal do not have transfer plans just because of one vacant position? FFS stop being so stupid, naive little idiots on this site these days.
I agree that there’s not much cause for alarm over this situation, but people are just worried and trying to express that. No need for the name calling, save that for the spu*s fans
shame on every up-voter of this comment.
Considering they haven’t had actual Transfer plans for the last 15 seasons is it’s not that far fetched.
” the club is keen to put a positive spin on the situation claiming our transfer plans for this summer are already at an advanced stage”
this is why i love arseblog. They dont take any bullsh*t, not even from the club itself and always provide a neutral opinion. Long may it continue
I think blogs is labouring this point a little more than is necessary. We’ve got, historically, competent people overseeing things and I’m not sure we dont have a database of potential targets. We can ride out one summer.
Gazidis left us in disarray! He was the bridge between the Yankees and the club.The likes of Raul and that Indian whose name I cannot write
cannot decide anything until Josh Kroenke wags his tail and his father nods in agreement!!!Those 2 guys have no powers to decide anything in the club.
“That Indian whose name l cannot write”.
Are you for real?
Voldemort? is not indian
Hahaha
Hahahaha
Actually – *pushes glasses up bridgge of nose – Stan Kroenke was born in Missouri – in the american war of independence missouri was claimed by both the union (yankees) and the confederacy and indeed had two competing state governments.
Most missourians at the time while sympathising with the goals of the north, emotionally connected with the south
So – Gazidis left us in disarray! He was the bridge between the essentially neutral civil war americans and the club.
I think you might need new glasses. Not the “American War of Independence”(against Britain, ended in 1783). Missouri was a slave state that did not join the Confederacy in the Civil War.
I don’t get the downvotes on this post.
He is NOT Indian!
Sanllehi and Venkatesham clearly have no ultimate authority to act independently but it should benefit Arsenal to get Josh Kroenke in officially as Chairman (and also take the opportunity to clear out most of the current Board, some of whom are an embarrassment now). Rebuilding the club on the pitch and behind the scenes after the slow-motion car crash that was much of the last ten years under Wenger is going to take time though.
That’s impressive…the way you talk out your arse.
Superhuman, actually. Bravo.
Some racist overtones there, not cool
Tough day at the UKIP conference?
“Indian” Yes those people who you looted for centuries and killed the craftsmen, tradesmen and market off only to sustain your shite Empire for so long. That stolen Indian money is probably keeping Britain above the water at the moment. So choose your words carefully and know your history you cretin
You have some hate in there. Your version of history cannot be taken as the unvarnished truth when it is given without citation or references as part of an angry anti-British rant.
Talk about steroetyping.
The guys whose name you cannot write is not an Indian, even.
I don’t even know which guy he was talking about. Have a few of you assumed you know which person he was speaking of and then assumed some sort of racist bias as a result? Shouting “racist” at somebody is a rather strong example of stereotyping.
Makes sense.
Mislintat, along with all of our other scouts, would have been working hard all season; filing their reports on potential purchases. Initial contact with these players would’ve been made already.
No doubt that Raul probably has a bit of clout in the market himself, with enough affluent contacts to make enquiries. That could be the reason why we’re linked with Barca’s Umtiti…
There’s a long history of players following a manager or other contact, such as Mislintat, from club to club. Some of those he may have made initial contact with may be rethinking an Arsenal which he did not feel was good enough for him.
I don’t see what the big deal is. There once was a time when managers actually bought players. Emery know what he wants and should be allowed to go out and get them. The gargantuan elephant in the room is the fact that our owner isn’t exactly an incontinent spendthrift. Even if we qualify for the CL next season I don’t expect to see much money being made available for new signings. I can see a repeat of last summer’s transfer business, with maybe 3 or 4 cheap buys coming in.
You know, Fatgooner, that allowing the coach to choose and buy the players he wants (with serious financial limits) is kinda what we did for the past two decades. I don’t think anyone was more unhappy with that than you.
What did we get in return for those 2 decades? Absolutely nothing apart from 3 league titles, 7 FA cups, and 20 uninterrupted years in the top 4. What a waste of 2 decades
That’s because we’ve had the wrong manager for the last 5 years.
Nice response Fats. But is Emery the right one now in your opinion? x
No. Emery sucks.
I am sure you have been bitching and moaning for longer than that.
Yeah it was 10 years at least
So you put in for it but were rejected then?
“There once was a time when managers actually bought players.” – Yes, like three transfer windows ago. Not that long ago. But that’s not how the club has been set up to operate anymore, however. The more modern structure is to separate the head coach from directly wheeling and dealing, because not all (or many) coaches are adept at contract negotiations. That’s why we need someone appointed to the position that is responsible for closing deals.
We need to get a transfer director in, but given how important this role is in our current setup it’s absolutely vital we make a good appointment. The worst thing we could do right now is to rush out and just get anyone (especially b/c they once played for Arsenal) as it’s likely Raul/Emery/Scouting team already know who the targets are for this summer.
Why we need a Technical Director if we don’t plan to spend any money on transfers?
#SanllehiOut
There’s some misconceptions about what Sanllehi’s role was at Barca which has put some people off him. Txiki Begiristan was the player spotting guru during Raul’s time at Barca (which is why Man City’s sheikhs snapped him up even before they got Pep). In Raul’s words, “my job started once the player had been identified by the club”. So he dealt with players, agents, familie, and clubs to get deals done. He’s already said in a recent interview that “identifying players is not my area of expertise”, so this idea that Raul is amassing power because he wants to lord… Read more »
Of course, when I say “Sanllehi Out”, I aim my words and Kroenke. It is their fault that they appointed as Director of Football a man that wrecks everything he touches. Ramsey, Sven, now Monchi..
It shouldn’t be rushed but it does need to be done pretty quickly
Why?
Arsene did pretty well for many years without one.
Very well. SANTI CARZOLA, KOSCIELNY His problem was not in finding the players but whether he would spend enough. He often short changed himself. But as far as identifying players he is way ahead of Mslintat by several country miles. Let’s also not forget he converted Santi into a midfielder as he did Toure into a defender, RVP and Henry into strikers. Those who imagine Mslintat was an upgrade are having a wank frankly. Unless we are freeing up more resource for the manager to spend, nothing has changed fundamentally. Instead Raul AND Sen have over loaded on salaries curtailing… Read more »
Lol you are hilarious
The reason we overpaid for ozil and was forced to sell Sanchez with 6 months left is because wenger refuses to get business done in a timely matter.
Wenger inability to let mediocre players go and cash in on them in a timely matter when they still had some potential and instead holding onto them until their values cratered.
I live what AW did withnyhe club but he never evolved with how the transfer market became and it cost us headaches in the last 5 seasons after the stadium debt was lifted.
I think we are leaving the kernel of the thread gradually. I know the name Wenger evokes several emotions in us, and it might be difficult to think objectively really.
The point is: why the seeming urgent need for a DOF as Hantal suggests?
Emery is not particularly a dud when it comes to finding players. In fact, if reports are to be believed, one of Monchi’s reasons for not coming is that summer transfer dealings are at an advanced stage already.
I still think we can do pretty well without one at the moment.
Arsene only identified the players that he would like and gave them the “Uncle Arsene” talk to convince them that he would love them if they signed on. As far as I understand it he had Sweet F.A. to do with making/closing the deals. He did not decide fees or wages or how much we would spend. We had people for that. I don’t think they survived the emergence of Korporation Kroenke. They either jumped ship or were pushed. Wenger remained the talking head of Arsenal because a succession of useless and cowardly mismanagers preferred not to be in the… Read more »
Arsenal have been going since 1886, and have somehow managed to survive all that time without having a technical director/director of football/sporting director on it’s payroll.
The club have even managed to sign plenty of players along the way too, despite the absence of the above director role.
I think that, no matter what happens regarding the proposed recruitment of a technical director, Arsenal will continue, and be fine.
So lets keep calm and carry on.
Yes, I am missing Wenger too..
Well said.
Arsene would be perfect.
You mean the black and yellow book, right?
Sanllehi seems to have no more idea how to get things over the line than did his much maligned predecessor. I can still hear the chants of “ Ivan Gazidis, what the f*ck do you do?” As they rang round the ground. How long until his succcessors name is used?
If you’ve decided that you need someone in this role, then you need to go and get them. Saying we haven’t had one before is irrelevant.
Lest you forget it’s a Raul and Sen double act. MSLiNTAT is equally culpable.
Ill tell you who has a good track record of finding talent, has a good knowledge of our club and is available – Arsene Wenger
Sounds to me like noone wants to be Sanlleli’s n2.
There’s a reason Mislintat left so fast.
This really is one of the more difficult high profile jobs out there given: 1. We can’t just buy our way to success as virtually every other top club does. It really doesn’t matter if Man City, United, Liverpool, Barcelona, Madrid. etc. fail a few players as there’s always more money available. It also lowers the need for a great Academy as they just buy everyone else’s best players 2. The fight for CL places in the PL is far and away the toughest of anywhere. Virtually every other top European League begins the year with pretty much a guaranteed… Read more »
I’ve been mentioning for many seasons now when Arsenal detractors complained about us not spending. True we can spend more but 1 Wenger was correct that Top4 trophy was a priority over domestic cups. Now that we are outside top 4, it’s suddenly become all important bc Spurts are in it for one season…to the small minded punditry at least. 2 there have always been 7 or 8 clubs ahead 9f us with greater resource to bring to bear. ManU, City, Chelsea, PSG, Barca, Ream, Bayern, Juve take your pick. Bearing that in mind, Wenger (and Law) did an excellent… Read more »
Wenger left the new team in tough spot with his inability get contracts and transfers done in the last 5 years. He was horrible at it in recent times.
In reality it doesn’t matter if there Are 9 clubs with more revenues. There are enough players out there beyond the top 9 revenue clubs can acquire.
Wenger was NOT responsible for getting contracts and transfers done. He did not decide how much money we spent on players.
Is the Interlull over?
Remember when Bobby Pires said he wanted this job? What’s he up to these days?
(Not saying we should offer the job to him.)
They are really playing with fire now. One dissatisfying Summer and a bad start to the season and the floodgates of dissension will kick in.
Hell hath no fury like a scorned fanbase.
I heard Ed Woodward might be available
Not sure that being able to balance three planks on your head is the right skill set.
How much wood could Edward Woodward chuck if Edward Woodward could chuck wood?
If Ed Woodward really could chuck wood we’d have seen him fling Jose far earlier ?
I wonder what makes us so unappealing?
The thought of having to sell Mustafi.
Send him out on loan, that’s what I would do. Mustafi isn’t a bad defender, he just isn’t Arsenal standard.
Who is Arsenal standard?
Jenkinson and Elneny are even worse.
Mustafi is a better defender than given credit much like Giroud was a better striker.
Torreira has made asany if not more mistaken leading to 3 or 4 goals against which have cost us 8 points against BHA, Soton away and Liverpool (also at West Ham)
Smh
You know the mistakes that mustafi makes may not lead to direct goals but can indirectly by other players covering for his many mistakes and leaving other areas exposed?
He stinks.
Lack of funds, unsettled backroom staff and the need for immediate success.
I really doubt we’re paying top end either
We always pay well….
Is it just me or is anyone else also thinking of Gazidis, Sven and Monchi as sailors abandoning a sinking ship ? or in the case of Monchi refusing to board one ?
Everyone seems to be very optimistic (or ignorant) about the fact that 3 high profile names have left us for pastures new. Could it be a sign that we are fucked up long-term because they got to know KSE’s plans/character after becoming full owners ?
Only I seem to be overly worried about that it seems!
It’s just you.
That’s one of the worst conspiracies I’ve heard in a long time. Ivan left for more money and power. Sven left because he ran out of names in his little black book and Monchi couldn’t hack it in Rome and didn’t fancy his chances in London.
That’s exactly what the sailors that remained on the ship would think until they drowned…
But anyway these are just musings of my negative side, might not come true at all.
Actually you have a good point. It’s not like KSE are known to be ambitious owners, if anything we should be more paranoid.
you know what your saying about Sven is non sense, your just slandering people for not wanting to be at or join arsenal, dreadful points.
He wrote it. It isn’t slander. Its libel.
FACT – Sven left.
REASON – Unknown
THOUGHT – KSE known not to plan to spend much money.
RESULT – Nobody wants to work for tightwads
Why on earth let Mislintat leave (particularly in-season as well) without a proper plan to replace him? Whoever takes over will be third choice, unless there’s another cock-up, and they’ll know it. That isn’t great preparation for someone going into a new job which is going to be difficult enough given there’s relatively little money to spend. A lot of this goes back to the lethargy that infected Arsenal for much of the second half of the Wenger era. It will take some time to get back the much more professional attitude needed, not only on the pitch but off… Read more »
There’s no fiasco.
There are plenty of better DoFs than Hit and msiss.
Campos at Lille formerly with Monaco.
Zorc is the real brains behind Dortmund.
Also PSV.
Plenty of options.
No one is saying Sven is the greatest talent evaluator of all time. What is your hate on Sven!?!? There are only soo many out there though until you have to start giving unproven ones a chance. I don’t think arsenal is a club to learn to do the job you are hired for.
The lethargy that infected Arsenal for much of the second half of the Wenger era rather neatly matches the Kroenke years. I wonder why.
Marc overmaas is in the same boat as rvp to me. Im glad his not back that traitor. Dennis was the last dutch football player that i will enjoy watch.(replays ) i never want to see a Dutch player wearing arsenal colours again. F…. them all.
Don’t look at the ladies team then!!!
Oh by the way they are doing much better in their league than the men too!
With a Dutch lady topping the scorers’ chat.
WOLF!!!
Why would we need Mislintat’s little black book? He was useless in any case.
Should have spunked £60m on Mahrez in January and not bought Aubameyang.
We should have used AMN as back-up instead of Lichtsteiner this season. Plus Sokratis is old and slow.
Oh, and Torreira isn’t that great either – what about when he lost the ball a few times over the Christmas period? If that had been Mustafi everyone would have brought it up all the time. Speaking of which, did I mention that Mustafi is awesome?
Santori is that you under a new name? The comments about Mahrez and mustafi give you away ?
Nice, I get it 😉
Thanks. Nice to be appreciated. (I’m surprised the bit on Mustafi at the end didn’t make it more obvious, but hey-ho.)
Crash Fistfight= Santori???
Either you need to lay down in a darkened room or I do…
You do. He’s right. But I disagree on Auba, think we needed Mahrez instead of Mhkitaryan. Mhkitaryan is a decent player but we already had Ramsey and Ozil. If anything we should have held on extending Ozil , leverage on Ramsey. Instead they panic extended Ozil loading the wage bill. Then added Mhki an older player on high wages as they did later sokratis and Lichsteiner if only for one season. It tied our hands this Jan and we ended with panic loans forget panic buy. Mahrez we could have got for 40m or less even. Price was hiked at… Read more »
Actually, that’s not true. You spent all of January saying we should have kept Giroud and not signed Aubameyang, as he was cup-tied for Europa.
Definitely Santori = Crash Fistfight.
Go easy on each other old son, arguing with yourself like this could do your nut in.
You could lay down in the same room.
Santori?
Don’t know if this is high quality sarcasm or ‘santori’ in disguise!!
It’s kinda like Inception, within Crash Fistfight lies Santori, within Santori is Blogs in disguise drumming up heat on the comments section to keep it lively haha
…Damnit, that sounds less like Inception and closer to Human Centipede, sorry for that image folks!
I just thought I needed to get in there early before the comments inevitably showed up (like they do on every article).
It was impressively done, good sir. We nearly had our first proper Arseblog conspiracy!
Small minded people who think Mslintat is the dog’s bollocks. He has been hit and Msiss Did nothing to address our need for a Rwinger. Miss the boat on Mahrez instead went for low hanging fruit and laid us vulnerable to Raiolla and United. There are lots of options out there beyond Monchi. Campos at Lille is doing a superb job in Ligue one following his stint at Monaco. Arguably the real genius behind Dortmund is Zorc. Also Should be looking at PSV I’m not sure why some people have a habit of hysteria and illusion. We can be doing… Read more »
There was not enough money to get mahrez, could you give up on that!!!
We sold Theo and giroud to help finance Auba. That still wasn’t enough to outbid city for mahrez. No, mahrez couldn’t be had for 40m. Leicester had no reason to sell him unless they got the offer they wanted.
If we didn’t get Auba and somehow found extran 5-10m to buy mahrez we wouldn’t have had a striker for 6-8 weeks last season because laca got hurt or probably was already hurt.
Who else would have taken Sanchez at that point?!?!
I didn’t really want Monchi or Overmars to be honest, and who knows if Mislintat was really the bees knees or not. I can see us promoting from inside, he might not be a big news names but Cagigao was apparently the one who identified Santi, Cesc and Hector so I’d be happy with him, he knows the club and what we need so could be the answer, he’d be worth a chance, surely?
“Arsenal won’t rush technical director appointment”…is this a quote from last year? 🙂
Hahaha true, but I’d still rather read that than something like “Arsenal won’t rush defensive signing”
I imagine our negotiation went something like this;
“Hi Mr Monchi, would you like to be in charge of all of the signings at Arsenal?”
“Yeah sounds great, how much have we got to spend?”
“Fuck all”
“Ok on second thoughts, perhaps I’ll go to Savilla instead”
No one wants to work under “Satan” Kroenke.
Arsenal is a corporation and the owners will have made sure those actually running the club on a day to day basis already have a transfer plan for the upcoming summer window. That’s what they’re employed to do. The club will now relentlessly pursue best value for money in an age of increasing player and agent power. They don’t actually want to waste money if they can help it. The owners wouldn’t be billionaires if they did. They want to eek out every last penny of profit whilst convincing fans that the club is competitive. The club can only continue… Read more »
? ?
Personally, I think there must have been no reason at all, not even one, why Monchi turned Arsenal down. People never have reasons for what they do.
Well…. I’m sure you’re right when it comes to assistant refs 🙂
“Internally, Francis Cagigao, currently head of international recruitment, is an option, although it would represent a big promotion.” If he’s the right person for the job it shouldn’t matter. I’m sure we all know people who should never have been promoted at all and some that should be well ahead of where they are and those they’re behind.