Kia Joorabchian has downplayed suggestions that he has the power to influence Arsenal’s transfer strategy, dismissed links with his clients Joelsen Fernandes and Pierre-Emile Højbjerg and accused Sven Mislintat, the club’s former head of scouting, of making ‘cock-ups’ on the recruitment front.
Long-established as one of the game’s powerbrokers, Joorabchian didn’t have much of a sniff during Arsene Wenger’s tenure despite being a supporter of the club. Since the Frenchman’s departure and a restructure of the football executive committee, the club has increasingly leaned on his expertise and the contact book of Sport Invest, the company he runs, when looking to get deals done.
Both David Luiz and Cedric Soares arrived with his help, Willian is set to do the same and he even played a role in Alex Iwobi’s move to Everton.
Against the backdrop of a big scouting cull, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Joorabchian’s recent work has led to suggestions that Arsenal are moving to a more agent-led recruitment policy. The arrival of Unai Emery and Pablo Mari, facilitated by another mover and shaker, Arturo Canales, have added further credence to the theory.
Joorabchian disputes the suggestion, telling talkSPORT that if anything he has fewer players at Arsenal than he does at certain other clubs. He also had a theory as to why the speculation started.
“I actually think a lot of rumours have occurred and I don’t know why.
“But obviously I think when Covid happened there was not much to say so people figured David Luiz was the key picture to speak about.
“And the situation of David because he is a big player, he is an important player, created this vibe of – ‘Oh, I have such great influence at Arsenal’.
“Factually, David had a two-year contract at Chelsea. Arsenal bought him for one plus one, so actually he went backwards. He took a major gamble to go there because of the situation.
“So that was the first player. The second was a free transfer of Cedric. They (Arsenal) needed the position. He was free. It made economical sense for them.
“The third [signing] is a very young boy that came from their academy, he is name is Omari [Hutchinson]. He has not even made it to the first team.
“Everyone else has made £80million transfers, £60m transfers, £50m transfers.
“You know, people forget about the previous guy, Sven [Mislintat], he made a bunch of, I don’t like to use the word, but cock-ups, with players that he brought in at very, very large numbers.
“We never did any of those deals. In fact, if you look at the profile of our group, we probably have a player at every single Premier League football club.
“I counted yesterday there are six Champions League teams left. We have players in five of those clubs.
“Having said that, Arsenal is probably the least number of players and the least amount of transfers.
“But when a story picks up, it goes. I was talking to Jose [Mourinho] after Pierre [-Emile Hojbjerg] signed [for Tottenham], and he said: ‘Ah, you were trying to get him to Arsenal’.
“We never tried to get him to Arsenal. He had an offer from Everton. A rumour picks up and people kind of think, oh that sounds good, let’s try and build on that because we have nothing else to write.
“But it is not true obviously. We have three players, one of them is not even in the first team, he is with the kids. The second one was a free transfer and David has proved himself.”
On a Joelsen, who Portuguese publication A Bola yesterday claimed was the subject of a €32 million bid from Arsenal, he added: “We have never ever spoken to him about Arsenal. It is so untrue.”
Whether Joorabchian is proactively looking to embed his presence at Arsenal or not is up for debate. What is clear is that this won’t be the last time we hear from him. He’s on very friendly terms with some sections of the media and has absolutely no qualms about piping up in defence of his clients whenever he gets the chance.
While our board seems happy enough to maintain an age-old policy of keeping quiet, it’s a pretty unseemly when a man who clearly has their ear doesn’t play by the same rules. More and more it feels like the club is having its dirty laundry aired in public for them and it’s not a great look.
To be frank the only thing I care about is the quality of player he brings. If the entire 1st eleven is in his portfolio and winning things, I wouldn’t be worried.
That should be the only criteria when dealing with a agent, the quality of the player he’s representing
So when Kia Joorabchian refers “Steve Mislintat” as the “previous guy” does that mean he is the new guy for transfers now?
I don’t know what he means, the article appears to have been edited and now doesn’t include those quotes
Also, what signings would he be referring to? Aubameyang? Leno? Torreira who was bought at a good price and had a great first season in the role he was bought to play in. Guendouzi, who although he’s a twat, has talent, was bought under the radar and will be sold at a profit? Sokratis who was a decent stop gap signing. Noone makes perfect buys but I wouldn’t class any of his signings as a cock up.
I feel for Sokratis. Defensively, he is a Spartan and arguably the best defender in the squad, whatever that’s worth. Unfortunately, he is the undoubted worst with the ball at his feet. We all know how important ball-playing defenders are to the strategy going forward, and those FA Cup victories wouldn’t have been possible if he was in the side.
I hope he and the club find a solution that involves a significant fee and a good club. If that takes a salary pay off for a portion of his 90k wages, let’s get it done.
Yep that screamed at me also!
what are the chances that the best sporting and financial fit for each of our needs in each position are all Kia clients?
Well that depends on how much we pay for them. And it isn’t exactly in this guy’s interest to minimize this cost, to say the least.
Well, quality of player is important, but fit, motivation and salary are important too. If we spend so much money on a Kia first XI that we have no money for backups, then we have a problem. Or if we bring in a good player that doesn’t fit how we want to play. Or one on a super high salary who ends up not motivated.
Heh. Depends what ‘things’ you have in mind. Another FA Cup? Maybe.
The Premiership or the ECL? You’ll be waiting a long time. Like forever.
David. Soares. Willian.
Is this the quality we need to propel us to RPL glory?
The quantitative vs qualitative argument has been done to death. It’s been argued in psychological and social science research, it’s been argued in sports, it’s been argued in just about every arena in which research plays a role. If by now you can’t see that one enriches the other, then there’s no hope. Have we forgotten that Arsenal own their own database and analytics company? Which the club acquired way before Mislintat was on the scene. Just because we had Mislintat never meant we didn’t also rely on agent relationships to help gain access to deals that otherwise may have… Read more »
Kia Joorabchian, get out of our club.
Never trust the greasiest looking slug in the garden.
He could at least have done his tie up and washed his face. Grease is the word mate, grease is the word. ?
Talk sport and Kia are a shitstirring match made in the most shitstirringest of heavens.
Talksport (with the occasional exception of our own Ray Parlour and Perry Groves, whose insightful intelligence is often wasted on whoever they’re talking to) is about as dumbed-down a radio station as any self-respecting muggy Tottenham fan could ever wish for. Adrian Durham (cunt), Alan Brazil (McCunt), Mike Porkie Parry (cunt) and Jason Cundy, the biggest cunt of the lot. Such is his cuntishness, the universe made sure that at least the first three letters of his surname left all and sundry in no uncertain terms as to what the man (if you can call him that) is. So the… Read more »
Classy stuff from one of The Stooges.
Not.
Joorabchian is going to really hurt our club. The sooner Raul and Edu are shown the exit door, the better.
Out of curiosity, how is Joorabchian going to “really hurt our club”? By offering us players which we have the power to sign or not sign?
You do realize there are more players than just the ones he represents? We have David Luiz, Cedric, Willian incoming. We’re also linked with Joelson Fernandes and Coutinho. This is the makings of what I saw happen to Valencia and QPR, the latter of which had Joorabchian’s finger prints all over it. Should we not also pursue players with other agents? Try promising players with low release clauses and high upsides? I personally think we should be diversifying our transfers. It shouldn’t be solely contact based. We essentially got rid of our scouting system which has served us well because… Read more »
I’m at a loss because I’m not sure what you are talking about. Currently, our first team has Luiz and Cedric (and hopefully Willian soon). That’s 2 Kia clients and maybe a third. Last summer, as a quick reminder, we signed Nicolas Pepe (our record signing just FYI), Saliba, Martinelli, Tierney, Ceballos and Martinelli. So I must ask what world you are living in? Almost all our recent signings are “players with other agents” (Pepe, Ceballos) and “promising players with high upsides” (Saliba, Martinelli, Tierney etc.). Hardly just Kia clients…. We haven’t signed Coutinho or Joelson, and actually have a… Read more »
I do understand that we have to work with super agents – and I don’t necessarily have a problem with that. But you do understand that the club is working with Joorabchian in rather close quarters. I don’t like the influence of one agent in a club’s affairs. I am happy with the young players you mention, and I think cultivating those young talents is where Arsenal’s identity truly lies. But I don’t like the optics of having Joorabchian in the expensive club box watching matches with Raul, Edu et. al.
I’m not having a go at you Brett. I am just a bit baffled why our fans are willing to forget the values of our club, just because we can buy a couple players from one particular huckster. Maybe this is an issue that I have with the game.
What values?
George Graham’s bungs? Lowballing Ashley Cole? Having several members of our squad looked after by our vice-chairmans son?
If you don’t understand the values of the club, then I am not going to waste my time explaining it to you. I’d like to remind you that the Arsenal were admired all around Europe under Arsene Wenger’s tenure, even towards the end. Since his departure (which was a right decision), that class has been slowly eroding, in part because of the new structure in the club, the board and the ownership. What is more, the kind of reactionary fanbase that we have has created a culture that reflects poorly on the club. As a foreign fan, the values that… Read more »
Let me tell you MontrealGooner that as a born and bred Londoner and Arsenal fan who predates Wenger what you’re saying is nonsense.
Ask a hundred different people and you’ll get a hundred different answers if you ask them to state the “values of the club”.
The truth is it was a vague platitude Wenger rolled out in his later days to deflect criticism in regards to our regression on the pitch. He never actually divulged what these mystical values were just that we had them and were morally superior (and less competitive) because of it.
John, I have every right to express what I think. This is what being a fan is about. It must be a luxury being from London and supporting the Arsenal. I started supporting the gunners back in 1998 when I was living in a small town in Canada (22 years ago). I am not a neophyte when it comes to supporting Arsenal and I have – much like you – reasons for being a fan. I’ll leave you with another vague platitude: a foreign fan is as much a fan as a local one. All the best to you.
Absolutely you have every right, it was you who brought geographical location into the conversation. I was pointing out to you these “values” never existed pre-Wenger and in fact didn’t exist under Wenger under it’s suited him to roll them out at some point in the last 10-12 years of his reign.
‘The Arsenal Way’ goes way back to Herbert Chapman and The Arsenal in the 30’s.
For someone who professes to have been supporting the club as long as you have, you don’t know your clubs history, do you? ?
And you think this club is in better shape now, than it was under David Dein? ?
What values?
George Graham’s bungs? Lowballing Ashley Cole? Having several members of our squad looked after by our major shareholders son?
I personally just feel that working with agents was never particularly emblematic of Arsenal’s values, and that such naivety was a large reason why we began falling down the league table…I’d gladly have Arsenal work with an agent than waste money even more egregiously with the likes of the “scouted” Elneny and Perez, to name a couple.
Exactly my thoughts. So long Arsenal as a club is not corruptly being exploited by the said agent (in collaboration with some board members), then am cool with such mutually beneficial alliance. We need to look at the bigger picture here, and not squint to sentiments.
“The values of our club” ?
What values – any more…??
I am struggling to remember what the second Martinelli looks like!
I can see how well they have obviously served us in the past couple of years.
Yes mate. Well said.
If it happens once it’s fine. But our recruitment policy should be an organic one. Can these setups work like at Wolves and elsewhere? Yes they can work, but what we need now is imagination in the transfer market. Scouting, data, etc. If the redundancies don’t tell you anything then the massive involvement of Kia should signal a change in recruitment philosophy. One that Wenger railed against for years, and in many of our minds rightfully so.
@BK, totally agree. Scouting is a really important part of the game, and putting our eggs entirely in the agent basket is potentially perilous – particularly when we are almost exclusively working with one or two agents. I know that I am not getting good play with my comments here, but I am just saying what the club has done in the past year or so from a structural standpoint. Not only did we get rid of our scouting network (who recognized the likes of Tierney, Martinelli, etc.), but we also allowed the Stat DNA guy to move on. If… Read more »
You didn’t need scouts for Tierney, he’s been celtic best player for past 5 years and edu found martinelli
The identity of a players agent should play no part in our recruitment process.
The redundancies tell me that for many years our club has been poorly run and no more so than on the player recruitment side. Where policies like not dealing with certain agents, not signing better players so not to “kill” the career of a poorer one, and a socialist wage policy as slowly eroded the quality and competitiveness of the club.
Can we have more Ozil’s please?? As an emblem of anti socialist wage policy 😀
Ozil is a symbol of the face saving policy, a policy born from not wanting to look incompetent losing your 2 star players on free transfers.
It was an over compensation legacy of the socialist wage structure, an indulgence that was harmful and unnecessary.
A bit of slide-rule pass creativity in our sterile midfield wouldn’t go amiss either…but, hey, what do I know? Ozil is the font of all evil, apparently……
Lol, socialist wage policy. Yes, better to throw far higher wages than the team average at a couple of star players and end up inflating our wage bill drastically in the long run. Giant disparities in pay do and have resulted in rifts between the players or the players and management. Look at PSG, they’ve done just that and I think we can all agree they are a circus. Pay Neymar and Mbappe 500k a week while your academy boys and cheaper signings are on a fraction of the wages. There’s no coherence, no chemistry and they discard players on… Read more »
We have the fourth highest wage bill in the league, equal with Chelsea, so we can afford it.
What we need to do is allocate our funds better, for instance we currently have 7 centre backs of questionable quality when it would be better to have 4 top class ones at the same price
We do have the funds. It’s just that the tight fisted toupee wearing cunt won’t invest any funds in. He just helps himself and takes out every now and then. The cunt.
And what if those players, as has thus far been proved, are nothing but a crock of shit?
Is Edu’s honeymoon period over already?
As I said before, it’s like watching a good mate getting mixed up with entirely the wrong crowd. People talk about Ozil’s Arsenal legacy – well, Edu’s isn’t looking too healthy either. On the Ashley Cole scale, I’d say he’s up and running on about 3, maybe 4. If he sticks with Stan and The Stooges, he’ll eventually become a 10. And that really would be a shame.
He also denies how much David Luiz cost. And calling Soares a free transfer is laughable.
It’s probably exactly the same lines he sold to the board. This guy is free, this guy’s isn’t making much more than what get is paid already, blah blah.
Then when the bill comes you find out it didn’t include a hefty service charge.
Is not laughable he is telling the truth. Media as a way of make a mountain out of mull
He wasn’t free because we paid a loan fee to have him on loan while he was injured for 6 months and then signed him on a free when we could have just had a pre contract verbal agreement. Dodgey deals are happening and I wouldn’t be suprised if raul was pocketing a bit on the side.
We paid a loan fee because the board was trying to outsmart the market. When he’s with us when he became a free agent, we will obviously be having the upper hand in negotiations.
Players in their last 6 months can sign a pre contract agreement though.
But why him then? why the injured him? Don’t tell me there is no other options around. But we just look at Kia, and say yes.
If there wasn’t a covid break, we might have never seen Cedric play till next season.
If the loan fee was an insignificant amount then it’s not too bad but from what I remember the fee was around 5mil?
Kia just use your influence to draw Coutinho to play for Arsenal and all would be forgiven ?
Really? Another washed out old has-been who would cost us an arm and a leg for a mere loan? ?
Who needs scouts when we can just ask this guy who he has available? Follow the money. If the agent fee tail isn’t wagging the transfer dog I will be very surprised.
Not exactly bringing in the cream of the crop though, is he?
Heard this on talksport…Who exactly are these “cock ups” he is talking about?
The most dubious player in the lot that cam in recently is Soares. From what I have seen so far, Arsenal could have saved money and used Osi Tu Tu in that role. Completely not needed/unavailable last year and frankly would have preferred to Osi Tu Tu given the chance. Claims of not having any funds.
Now this guy trying to bronze his image about have players in the champions league…certainly have not shown any to Arsenal…
I fully agree. In fact, even Desmond Tu Tu would have worked. What bothers me is that Ainsley Maitland-Niles is truly terrific as cover for both Bellerin no Tierney and yet we paid significant fees for a “free” transfer of a player who had become the second or third string RB at Southanpton.
I’m sitting on this bus lmao!
Desmond Tutu?
I find this whole “Arsenal are moving to a recruitment-led policy” rhetoric quite misguided. Arsene Wenger didn’t deal with some agents, that’s a fact. The only possible outcome, given these agents have many good football players as clients, is to see an increase in the amount of business we do with them. We’re coming off a base of zero – of course there’s going to be an increase! Is it sad to see people lose their jobs?? Absolutely. But I can also understand that professional scouts with tenure at Arsenal probably weren’t making the same money as the bag boy… Read more »
Sorry mate, it doesn’t wash. We have an eight time billionaire majority shareholder, who likes to call himself ‘The Owner.’
That being the case, there was absolutely no need whatsoever for those 50+ people to lose their jobs. ‘Saving a bit of money here, saving a bit of money there’ – the man’s a crook. Under him, we have now become a red and white Everton. Soon, we’ll be a red and white Bishops Stortford.
Who are the supposed cockups Mislintat brought in?
Oh, you know, those awful players Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Bernd Leno, Lucas Torreira. Ok, ok, he signed a few duds as well, but if I was Kia Joorabchian (thank fuck I’m not) I would have signed someone a bit fucking better than David Luiz before opening my mouth and criticising others on a national radio station.
He is not expanding his influence at the club… and we should take naturally that this allegedly innocent agent has an opinion on Sven Minslintat, an ex-employee of the club at precisely the area that is of interest to agents. If this is not someone making a PR piece to cement himself in the power struggles at a club, I do not know what it is.
I’m really sad to see how this executive comitee has been developing, because having an agent as a shadow part of it wasn’t how I thought it would play out when Wenger left.
I really hate to say this but Arsene Wenger shielded the club from a lot of unsavory situations and individuals
Oh hello Mesut I forgot you were still here
Check out our current league position and tell me if you still feel like joking about our attacking midfield options?
16 points from a possible 30 since lockdown.
AW endorsed the 50%+ contract wage increase for MO to an eye watering 350K per week. I’d call that an unsavoury situation then and I’d call it one right now wouldn’t you? If we’re stuck for attacking midfield options how is it helping to be hamstrung with an 18.2 M wage bill for the next 12 months on one ‘player’? MO was a busted flush in 18.
He did not. He was in favor of keeping Ozil but he told Gazidis that the money was excessive. Wenger was being pushed out and was forced to tell Giroud to get out of the club to a direct rival because he was forced to do so. In the vacuum left after Arsene, Raul won by default when Gazidis took the first flight to Italy. Raul then demoted Mislintat and Sven decided to leave too. Just classic power grab from Raul and Edu is just his subordinate. Arteta has to navigate in there. As to Kia Joorabchian, he is married… Read more »
I’ll tell you something. It’s no secret on this page that I’ve always backed Mesut Ozil – and still do; he still has more natural ability than any of our other current attacking midfielders and merely exercised his rights in refusing to take that pay cut and make a stand against this cowboy posse of a board. But I digress. No one will be more pleased than I when Mesut moves on – why? Because perhaps then, people will quit going on and on and on and on about his fucking contract. How is it a crime that Arsene Wenger… Read more »
Kroenke has no problem parting with money, he paid £550m for Usmanov’s share, billions of $ building a stadium in LA, didn’t he buy 100’s of thousands of acres in Texas?(not sure where).
There’s ample evidence that Kroenke is prepare to speculate to accumulate , Kroenke’s crime is that he doesn’t get involved and has allowed those in charge of the club over the years to run it into the ground, i.e. Gazidis and Wenger
Ha!
You shouldn’t hate to say it. A great deal of what we associate with Arsenal’s values depended on Wenger’s own values. I don’t think any club will ever be run that way again–and there are good reasons, as well as bad for that. The closest, since Ferguson and Wenger, has been the way Eddie Howe put his stamp on a much smaller club, but even he is gone now.
Why do you hate to say that? Arsene is amazing <3
Spot on. And I used to tell this to all the ‘Wenger Out’ muppets, namely that when Wenger left, this club would become infested with self-serving agents bringing in, for the most part, absolute rubbish.
Good, he actually over shielded us.., but he equally lost his know clever touch in the transfer market towards the end. With the benefit of hindsight, some of his later years deals were not that clever and it reflects on the overall qualities of some of them also the overall balance of the squad.
What Wenger achieved at this club, given it’s tight wad reluctance to invest and overseeing the building of a new training ground and the Emirates, was nigh miraculous. He had clubs like Barca and Real – with more or less an open cheque book and subsequently a far easier job in the transfer market – literally begging him to sign for them. But he turned them all down, one after the other, year in, year out. Because he loved The Arsenal so much. And, for his troubles, he was stuck with a tightwad owner and took the brunt from at… Read more »
Kroenke spends, Wenger didn’t. The behaviour of each individual is quite clear on that. Where Kroenke uses his judgement to invest, he does, examples are our Club, and the others he owns. It is Wenger who famously said if he was given £100m to invest in the team he’d give it back. Wenger didn’t altruistically stay at the club, he arrogantly wanted to build a club in his image, like Rinus Michals at Ajax and Cruyff at Barcelona and he did it in exchange for being the highest paid manager in the league for years. These two things were the… Read more »
If Kroenke doesn’t mind spending, why are we hunting around Chelsea’s dustbins instead of buying from Barca, Real and PSG…? Why we’re the players asked to take a pay cut and why did an eight time billionaire see fit to lay off 55 members of staff, whose jobs he could have financed with his pocket change….?
You can’t blame Arsene Wenger now! ?
I don’t like this man commenting on our club. Who is he to criticize Sven and arsenal transfers??
Don’t understand this loyalty/longing for Sven…It’s not like he really lit the world on fire for us…Mavrapanos? Sokratis? Torreira? Lichsteiner? Mikhi?
That’s not what I meant. By commenting on Sven he’s actually commenting about the club. Why does he care who we buy and sell. Just because we didn’t buy his players we aren’t smart enough.
Or maybe I’m reading too much into it
Loose lips sink ships.
I see you conveniently left out a Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Bernd Leno from that list….?
I dislike this human immensely. Dislike how my club is being run in the most being honest, connection between the real fans and club is gone. Must make writing Arseblog a chore now, fair play to you for keeping it up.
“You know, people forget about the previous guy, Sven [Mislintat]…” interesting choice of words. By saying “the previous guy” seems to me to imply he sees himself as “the current guy”, ie. a ‘scout’, of sorts, for Arsenal, as opposed to the agent of three players at the club.
Just as Auclair says in the podcast, Kia isn’t a builder. Even if Mislintat made mistakes, he knew that the player would generate money for the club. And have resale value.
It’s almost as if the club just use the scouts and staff on long term contracts but just terminate them once they have given their all
Uhmm what?? Sokratis and Mkhi in no way are going to make money for the club. Auba cost a fortune which we will not get back but at least has performed to expected level. Torreira we will probably break even on. Guendouzi may realise a profit but nowhere near the figures I routinely see being thrown around here.
This just feels like Jorge Mendes is doing at Wolves. I do not mind if he brings good players at good prices but I fear we miss out on decent talent outside his portfolio. Maybe we are getting a deal we don’t know about “Buy two and i’ll waive one fee”.
We seem to have dismantled our global scouting network and replaced it with Kia Joorabchian. I don’t see this ending well.
The guy has been accused of money laundering in Brazil. I wouldn’t put much store in the fact he was acquitted. He did dodgy business with Boris Berezovsky going back to 1999. Their involvement in Corinthians in 2007 led to relegation. Copious Russian money flooding into a jurisdiction with high corruption? Maybe Berezovsky was just a massive Corinthians fan but it does reek. Went on to cause trouble at West Ham. Uses the press to cause friction between his player and a club. Oversaw massive investment in QPR squad in 2012/2013. Relegated. Constantly sniffing around other clubs apparently wanting to… Read more »
You conveniently forgot that Corinthians also won the league in 2005 thanks to his players.
Though admittedly that was a much filthier arrangement in which Kia owned the players contracts.
That’s the actual worry, otherwise his presence should not be much of a big deal.
This is the guy selling his hand-me-downs to us.
He can get fucked!
As a matter of principle, I don’t think it’s desirable for any club to develop such a close relationship with one agent that could result in the increasing exclusion of others. I’m not saying that this is the case here but the best option must be to retain links with several agents. There are also potential dangers in relying upon agents at the expense of effective scouting – the article refers to this. Recent evidence suggests that this may be happening at Arsenal, although it’s early days and other arrangements could be introduced to maintain the network. It’s down to… Read more »
The great George Graham was once shown the door for doing some business on the side. Nowadays, nobody looks into how transfers are done. What Raul & co. are doing with these shady agents surely worth a little probing. But nobody who cares enough is left on the board/ownership side to do it.
Kia isn’t offbase with his analysis of Mslintat. -Sokratis cost 15m, was a poor investment almost immediately and he’s certainly on the way out. -Torreira was someone he identified as a Kante-lite. Cost 26m. Neither Emery nor Arteta has fancied him and he’s on the way out. With the way he’s been in and out of the team and the cost of COVID, we may be looking to break even here. -Leno is a very good keeper and 23m for a 26 yo with his experience was reasonable. It’s not Sven’s fault, but we may have had someone better at… Read more »
Don’t forget Auba
maybe a bit ironic though that Sven’s most successful signing was very much a contact book signing. Sokratis and Mkhitaryan were contact book signings too. Sokratis was average and Mkhi very much an expensive mistake. Leno was probably his second best signing. I’m not sure if that was a contact book signing too, but he was hardly a hidden gem either.
His “diamond eye” signings on the other hand (Torreira, Guendouzi, Mavropanos) are very much a mixed bag as well.
Shhhh, don’t you realise this is the arseblog comments section, objectivity is not condoned. Grab your pitchfork instead and go for the nearest pantomime villain. Shit, next you’ll be spouting something as uncomfortable as Raul might actually be doing a decent job so let’s give him the benefit of the doubt for a while. Although that might earn a lifetime ban 🙂
What a fucking cockroach.
Slimy piece of turd to have climbed out from under a rock. What a crock, he’s trying to portray himself as an upstanding guy? I won’t trust this guy even if I’m in desperate need of help.
No need to trust him (just like most agents), but also like other agents, we can still deal with him while looking out for and protecting the club’s interest. Most business arenas have strange bedfellows like him, yet business gets done in the end. It’s about protecting your own interests while dealing.
“You know, people forget about the previous guy, Sven [Mislintat], he made a bunch of, I don’t like to use the word, but cock-ups, with players that he brought in at very, very large numbers.”
I’ll take Sven any time over this weasel.
You’re not alone mate. Sven was/is worth a hundred of this oil slick.
Seems to me like the T***k S**t radio station are desperate to keep a narrative going. Thing I love about Arteta’s appointment is some section of the media/punditry universe would have been so annoyed at our FA Cup win so they can’t use the same old analysis about Arsenal’s lack of character etc even though that was warranted at times in the last decade or so.
Cedric wasn’t free though was he. £5m for a 6 month fucking loan. Kia is a leach of the worse kind for Arsenal who are basically fucked financially. I detest him and all those like him. Utter cunts.
We tend to long for what’s past: Sven did not light the transfer market on fire. Granted transfers are always a risk, but Leno is the only one we can call a success. Were the previous scouting team not part of the decline at Arsenal the last 10 years? We have to go back a while to find successful additions to Arsenal via that group. And do we even remember the bombs they scouted and brought in? No harm in clearing out some the remnants of previous regime if the club wants a different direction. I really don’t really care… Read more »
Everyone recognised that change is needed but when it comes to clearing out the old and replacing it with the new certain sections are up in arms.
How do these people expect the change to come if you’re not actually allowed to change anything?
Sven came to us from Dortmund, the number two team in Germany with several BL titles and one CL final to its name. He was responsible for recruiting several world class players that went on to win titles for them as well as being sold for big fees to other teams. He was there for over 10 years and with us barely a year. What’s done is done. He’s gone and we’ll have to move on from that but don’t tell me that this slimey piece of shit agent cunt motherfucker out to make a quick buck from whoever is… Read more »
It’s difficult to know with scouting, because the players they recommend may not be the players the club decided to buy. All those annoying Arsene stories of who we nearly bought/could have bought would seem to indicate that the scouts were doing their job. Cigagio is a highly respected, loyal, long serving employee who has found some gems in his career, including Martinelli, so replacing him with scum like Kia and Mendes makes me very unhappy. I think it’s a power play by Raul, and I don’t trust him at all, or Edu any more, sadly.
I can understand the concerns around an agent having too much power (I would be concerned with this as well) but it’s still a fair dose conjecture at this point. As others have said the ultimate decision to sign or not sign a player is decided by Raul etc. Not a super agent. The buck stops with them not him. Wenger never dealt with them for certain reasons (I’m sure defensible ones as well) however there is a flip side to this change – we now have access to signing a lot of players we perhaps didn’t have before –… Read more »
Kia’s involvement has its pros and cons that’s been delved into enough. What I will say however, is that ever since Kia’s been involved, our chances of actually sealing a deal has really shot up. All those days of faffing sucking our thumb not know what to do. Anyone remember Luis Suarez? Kia represents players we are actually interested in landing, like Joelson, Reguilon. And he’s an Arsenal fan. He spends so much time at Arsenal. I don’t think that’s because he thinks Arsenal are suckers. We have a reputation for being cheap. I do think it’s because he’s a… Read more »
What’s his being a fan got to do with what’s best for the team? Piers Morgan is a gooner, should we ask him for his input? I mean, Osama Bin Laden was a huge Arsenal fan too, so by your logic Arsene should’ve been on the blower to Tora Bora asking his opinion on how much we shoulda bid for Xabi Alonso back in 2009.
Is everybody forgetting when Darren Dien was at the Club? This isn’t new, fans micromanaging the owners and middle management is.
Finally we have an “in” “out” conundrum again! Whoop whoop! 🙂
Thumbs up for Sven thumbs down for Kia
the kroenkes are idiots and these guys are fleecing the club right in front of them.
Been saying this for sometime now. We have been slipping in our practise since Wenger was ‘relieved’ of added duties in charge of transfers as well as coaching/management of squad. 1) Mslintat was largely hit and miss. He was a glorified scout out of his debt, the real genius was Zorg. What Mslintat did was mine his old contacts. He was suceptible to poor deals the stand out being not selling Alexis to City instead leaving us completely at mercy of another Super agent Raoilla and then having take on a supposedly good deal in a free Mhkitaryan, we know… Read more »
So you are saying Kia is part of the problem but not the root cause.
Except you took 865 words.
Kia Joorabchian talking like he runs the place, 55 people losing their jobs so we can supposedly “invest in the team”, the player wage cuts and the Mesut Ozil stuation, putting Maitland-Niles up for sale just when he’s coming right, have all damaged the club for me. I still love the players, the coaches, doctor etc., the lovely people who work for the club who are always polite and helpful and friendly, without fail, the Arsenal in the Community staff who make us all so proud. But the owners and executive have been damaged for me in the last week.… Read more »
Can’t stand this Kia guy. Even his name is irritating to me and it’s obvious he doesn’t care about arsenal at all, just his pockets.
If agents didn’t serve a purpose, players wouldn’t use them
Well no one in the comments seem to be able to refute what he says. There are factually more clients of his at other clubs. And we brought in players for minimal amount, So what’s the problem. People just need something to get offended about and cry foul. Agents are greasy? Clubs are not? The owner is not? Football is a business and power would not be concentrated under one person like before. We have to get with the times.
Hes a slimeball. A dishonest slimeball.
AW rightly shunned these shit heads. Fook off Kia Joorb-whateverthefuck. .