Do you know what I didn’t want to write about this morning? Anything at all about the Arsenal executives. And yet here we are. I could be writing about the wonderful 8-2 defeat of Barcelona at the hands of Bayern Munich, and drawing all sorts of parallels and contrasts to the same Man U – Arsenal scoreline from all of those years ago, but instead Arsenal dropped a story so big that I have to put that all off until tomorrow.
I would die a happy man if I never had to hear a peep from Arsenal about their executives, these glorified middle-men. The best news we can hear from the executive tem is that the club is doing well on the field. The worst news we can hear from the executive team is that there is trouble in the boardroom, that there’s an investigation, that there is infighting, or that the executive team is showing Unai Emery the hallway. In fact, if your club and their supporters are talking about the executives at all – EVER, your club has a problem. It doesn’t matter if that’s because the execs are incredible (like Monchi) or because they are shady. Either way, if these parasites are in the news, it means the club has major problems.
For example, Monchi. You would think that Monchi being a superstar is a good thing but underlying Monchi’s genius is a sickness at that club which requires a genius transfer guy to keep the club afloat. And of course the examples of a bad executive at the club are far too numerous to list here but again, while these execs can be bad actors in themselves, the factthat they make the news always represents a deeper problem.
So we come to Arsenal and Raul Sanllehi. Arsenal announced yesterday morning (via the Guardian) that they were investigating the Pepe deal and then announced yesterday afternoon that Raul Sanllehi was leaving Arsenal by mutual consent. It wasn’t quite a Scooby Doo Mystery Machine investigation but the reveal at the end was pretty predictable.
You can read all the gory details about Sanllehi’s departure (there are almost none) on the Guardian. But the facts are that Arsenal’s owners hired a lawyer (Tim Lewis) to come in to the club and basically figure out what the heck was going on. And again, being very reductionist, there were a lot of huge and obvious problems at the club which even the Guardian felt like they could point out without threat of recrimination. Theirs are in regular, mine are in brackets:
- Appointing Unai Emery
- (Not firing Emery after that awful first season)
- (WANTING TO EXTEND EMERY AFTER HIS FIRST SEASON)
- Paying £72m for Pepe
- (Whatever was going on with the Ramsey deal)
- Paying Barcelona £2m for that Denis Suarez loan
- (Derelictsteiner)
- Signing David Luiz
- Extending David Luiz
- (Some folks believe Raul was telling the managers not to play Ozil)
- Taking Cedric Soares on loan when he was injured
- Signing Cedric Soares to a 4-year deal
- (A lot of folks hate the Willian deal too)
- (I would count the whole paycut/55 fired deal here as a problem as well)
The point here is that Arsenal are in a huge mess. Such a mess that they had to hire a fixer to come in and investigate why.
But an even larger point is that Arsenal are in a huge mess and have been since about 2015. I know that sounds like I’m repeating myself but what I’m getting at is that Arsenal didn’t properly prepare for Wenger’s departure.
Before I get too deep into this, you should know that I am a huge fan of Arsene Wenger as a human, a coach, and as one of the (if not THE) greatest ever Arsenal managers. But despite all of Wenger’s tremendous prowess – and I invite you to go back and watch the entire 2015/16 season and see how that team played football compared to the way that we play now as evidence of his tremendous vision as a coach – the signs were all there that Wenger’s powers were in decline.
In 2014 Arsenal gave Wenger a new 3-year deal running through 2017. A good football organization would have noticed the decline and used that time to build a new structure around Wenger and find his replacement. But Arsenal didn’t do that. Instead, Arsenal did nothing and let Wenger’s contract run out, which produced the truly awful 2016/17 season. And then, because they still didn’t have a plan, they actually handed Wenger a new two year deal which ran through 2019, to give them time to make panic adjustments.
Those panic adjustments resulted in hiring Raul Sanllehi, Sven Mislintat, firing Wenger (and paying him for an entire season of nothing), and then bringing in Unai Emery. Even at the time, when people were calling him “Don Raul” because he did something they liked, you have to admit that a lot of people were sounding alarms. A club appointing an exec who bombed out of Barcelona and a coach who bombed out of PSG was total panic and looked like a club on the way down, not up.
And thus it has been. No matter what you think of the Wenger tenure (which should be that it was incredible, very good, mediocre, and then not great) you absolutely have to admit that even the “not great” years under Wenger were better than whatever it is that we have been doing the last two years. Objectively, on the field and off it, Wenger did a better job by himself than Unai Emery and Raul Sanllehi combined.
That’s not to say that I want Wenger back but I do hope that we can put the idea that Wenger’s final years were a disaster to bed. Even the worst Arsene Wenger was better than the best Unai/Raul. I mean, Wenger left the club with £100m+ in the bank, my guess is that’s no longer the case. And while some will blame Covid, Covid is 8 months old: the rot at Arsenal has been going steady since 2017. Actually earlier, as I suggest above, the club should have started preparing for Wenger’s departure in 2015 or sooner.
Anyway, ‘Don Raul’ is gone and Arsenal are now in the hands of Edu and Arteta. And I hope we can get back to talking about football again soon.
Tomorrow!
Yea or maybe yea, but how are you shaped if you’re pining for the power in 10 years. Become top dog, set up the organization with Sven and Raul and then fuck off to ACMilan!
What a moron and then anoint Raul, the sob, sleaze job as your replacer!
This whole Don Raul thing, even if it was in jest was so embarrassing. I’m happy he’s gone, if only for that reason. I guess the Kroenkes aren’t very smart at running a team where the results really matter, they’re better off owning American sports teams where mediocrity is rewarded.
Wenger was structure and soul to Arsenal.
At the end of the day the bucks stops with KSE. Since a year into their ownership their ambition, passion and sacrifice has been in question.
You’ll always find people who will pay dearly for having such owners and others who will cost the club dearly for being run in such a manner.
Off topic but I wish Arsene would write a tell it all. A frank and honest one. Be publicly introspective.
Another thought, maybe, just maybe, now we can forget the 8-2 drubbing at ot as Barca just lost 8-2. The mighty Barca came tumbling down. Not just us, other teams, even Barca, maybe we can forget that and never mention it again😉.
Wenger fielding traore with his poor attitude was treason.
Sanllehi was a power-monger. That’s the short of it. Every move he made was to consolidate his personal position for as long as possible. We’re fortunate he wasn’t competent– or he might have been in place far longer than 2 years. As soon as he shot down Arteta’s hiring and pressed for Emery (on nobody’s list of candidates) it reeked of a coup. Surprised me not that Sven was pushed out. Even the only positive skein of events in Raul’s tenure; the early 22-match unbeaten run — was fool’s gold. A mirage of extremely good fortune and gifted penalty calls.
Think it was clear after Baku last May– that Emery had lost his team. But Raul, ever the consolidator of his own power, sought to cement his biggest mistake in place– with a contract extension.
The fissures and fractures early this last season weren’t fixable. The right move to have a chance to salvage Arsenal’s 2019-20 season, would have been bringing in the new manager before the international break in October. Had it been Arteta then? It might have allowed him the time to right things. Possibly a shot at a top-4 spot.
If that had happened? Who knows if the Kroenke’s would have still parachuted Tim Lewis in– to unravel the story and lay the framework in diminishing Raul’s grip on power.
Seems we’ve been full-circle. Back to a familiar position. Consolidating power in the manager’s role. With all the risks inherent in doing so? Still one that most transparently allows for decisions and moves to be evaluated clearly.
The king is dead. Long live the new king.
I’m sorry, it’s a beautiful sunday summers day here and I’m sort of protest drinking as summers over and yet it’s still awsome. Pretty sure I’m soon gonna light up a cigar down soon in the lusthouse by the boat.
Yepp, it’s a Sunday and I’m drinking, soon smoking and posting. You know what, I’m sorry, but what a great weekend, summer here in Sweden, the sob Rauls gone and the 2015/16 team was pretty ……. awsome (Ramsey, Giroud, sanchez, Ozil, Cazorla, we were awsome going forward🙂).
🙂 what a team
We were unfortunate losing Cazorla so early in that season. I had high hopes wathcing the early season. With Cazorla dictated the play we were awesome. Truly
Darn, don’t drink and post, true story.
To qualify what I’m about to say – Sanhelli struck me as a bit of a sleaze ball that saw Arsenal as a piggy bank to grease his agent friends and intermediaries. He didn’t have a vision for the club beyond figuring out how to milk the cow for all it could give. Horrible.
That said, what’s our transfer and recruitment strategy now? Scouting department is eviscerated. Don Raul’s Rolodex packed up with the rest of his office belongings. Are we now Kia Joorabchian’s club the way Wolves are Jorge Mendes’ club? Are we going to become Samba on the Thames with a pipeline to Brazilian prospects… and that’s basically it? I think this comes at the worst time, ideally it would have happened three months ago.
No, we’re not. Just put an end to that and can look forward, I think.
Wenger was structure and soul to Arsenal.
At the end of the day the bucks stops with KSE. Since a year into their ownership their ambition, passion and sacrifice has been in question.
You’ll always find people who will pay dearly for having such owners and others who will cost the club dearly for being run in such a manner.
Off topic but I wish Arsene would write a tell it all. A frank and honest one. Be publicly introspective.
I agree the entire article, particularly with Wenger being one of the best (manager, speaker, person).
I think there is an unsaid part of the article – succession planning for Wenger in 2015 and not going for Klopp at that point!
I think we will look back on the Pepe transfer and say we’re glad we got him. While many have moaned about him for not winning us everything single-handedly, he has produced better than many are giving credit for.
He outscored Asama Traore who many gush over.
He created 1 fewer big chance than Raheem Sterling, Pepe ‘only’ produced 8 big chances and had the most big chances created for Arsenal in the EPL.
He led our Assist charts with 6, while not massive, it was the highest in our team for EPL assists.
After Auba and then Laca, it is Pepe who has the next most shots for Arsenal and one thing we lack is shots per game…
I’ll thank Raul for getting us Pepe. I don’t really care about agents offering players as it is down to Arsenal to choose the right ones, best if we had every player offered to us but that aint gonna happen XD
It was delightful news to hear that the club had terminated Sanllehi’s contract. Sanllehi has already committed several termination offences that are public knowledge: firstly, the appointment of Emery in summer 2018 (tho it can be argued that the Emery experience allowed KSE and our most irritating fans a clear view of the abyss); secondly, his attempt to extend Emery’s contract after Baku; thirdly, the failure to sack him far earlier in the season than the October interlull when it was clear he had lost the dressing room; and fourthly, his failure to sack Emery before the October interlull to give Arteta time and fixtures to rebuild the team’s organisation and confidence. There are two further capital offences that are on his charge sheet: his attempt to get Nuno as Emery’s replacement so his pal George Mendez could get a bigger and more lucrative club to fleece and the overpayment of fees for Leno, Pepe, Soarez, Mari and Luiz. There’s also the fact that he is a Spanish wide boy whose personal achievements at Barca are undocumented. It didn’t take long for Tim Lewis to suss out the problem. Thank heavens someone in KSE smelt the rat and called him in.
We now have a more streamlined executive structure with markedly less blurred areas of responsibility and hopefully clearer lines of accountability. The poisoned dwarf will not be missed. Edu has to demonstrate he’s 1) competent and 2) on he side of the good guys (despite his agent).
Forward Arsenal.
We went out and hired a man with experience of running a super club, at the time when we have officially entered Dortmund, Lyon and napoli territory. He just wasn’t fit enough for the job. And for that, TBH, I personally would forgive him for all that you have listed above. However, what I can’t forgive him for is how classless he was while conducting his business. The one thing Arsenal fans always cared about, and the club always took pride in, is conducting everything with class. He took that away from us.
It all started with when Kos was publicly humiliated, and through the club website too. Never saw anything like that before, in over 20 years of watching and following Arsenal. Than the Rambo saga, clasless. Public arm twisting of Ozil, classless. Class is one thing we carried with pride, he made us look worse than who we curse.
Completely agree. My concern is whether the values you mention are true Arsenal values or were Wenger’s values. TBH it does feel like the class elements departed with the great man
Even as we muse over the confusion, positives and negatives of recent Arsenal upheaval, including Sanllehi , don’t forget
1) we still managed to win a trophy.
2) to have a genuine laugh at Chelsea, Barcelona and both Manchester City clubs. Hahaha!!! Who owns the F.A. Cup? WE do!
It would be useful to know how many items on your list figured on the crib sheet given to the lawyer, not least because it would inform the level of additional oversight required. The infiltration of the club by super-opportunistic agents demonstrates our vulnerabilities; we seem so naive! I’m also not sure of Edu’s position within this mess. We can be thankful of Raul’s crassness, Arteta’s potential and that at least we overpaid for a good player. While the Johnny Jenson chant remains one of my favourites, I have no appetite for more bungates.
Does this mean we can hire Sven back?
What a mess :-/
I always knew the post-Wenger Arsenal world would be tough but I didn’t see the upheaval continuing this long. That was probably naive of me. Great leaders like that are impossible to “replace” in the common sense of the word.
I do think perhaps we do not remember acutely enough what his last few years were like. There was infighting among fans over his continuing employment. There were planes being flown over grounds with competing messages about his continuing employment. There were banners flown at every home match asking for his removal, the atmosphere was increasingly toxic, and somehow he was pretty much the only one who maintained his composure throughout it all.
The club only acted when the situation boiled over to such an extent that it was starting to hurt the bottom line. I think until then they all leaned on Wenger and secretly hoped he would just figure it out like he always did. After they fired him, the vacuum was enormous in every sense: emotional leadership, financial leadership, coaching leadership, the face of the club, chief negotiator, and probably several things I am forgetting. He was all of those things.
The club hired 3-4 people to do the job Wenger was doing. They needed about 10. Even those 3-4 couldn’t agree on how they would share the responsibility they were handed. This fallout is still being felt today. The club needed the same brand of quiet competence Wenger brought to all aspects of club management from its new hires. It finally has that in Arteta, at least. As for Edu and Vinai, the jury is still out.
It will be interesting to see how things go forward from here. Edu is also closely linked with Kia. Can he keep that a little more separate?
Tim Lewis, the bigshot lawyer now watching over things for KSE, is reported to be a life-long Arsenal fan. That’s probably a good thing.
Supposedly Raul was the one that pushed back on David O’Leary being added to the board. Be interesting to see if that happens now, though obviously the board are sort of figureheads now.
And on the Manchester front….ha, ha. Not sure what’s going on with Pep. No idea why he got so conservative in a match like that.
News in the wind– that almost all of the steps taken since Tim Lewis’ arrival?
Are congruent with the sale of a club. Lewis was the adviser who assisted with KSE’s purchase of the club after David Dein’s intro of the Kroenke’s to AFC.
After having been through (and survived) seven layoffs in 5 years some time ago? This is just what occurs– in terms of streamlining an entity to distill down the financials.
Make it so.
Where are you reading this news, JW? I mean, I’m just not sure why one would interpret Tim Lewis’s involvement as connected to KSE selling Arsenal. It could just as easily signal KSE’s long-term intent to set the club in a better direction. So…?
Following an Amy Lawrence/James McNicholas article in The Athletic– my antennae pinged ‘true’ — when reading comments/replies from individuals whose insights indicated a keenness in the M&A market. The rep of Tim Lewis in that arena specifically.
Some of the ideas mentioned– gave clarity to recent moves that didn’t make sense. Timing, sequence, reasoning expressed– that didn’t mesh. When moves don’t make sense? Something out of the norm is driving them.
I just heard James talk about this on the recent Arsecast Extra and it’s all just highly speculative and based on nothing more than Tim Lewis’ involvement in sales and acquisitions. It could just as easily be a matter of whom KSE trusts, and probably more likely as well. I don’t think the club is up for sale.
I’m glad Raul is gone, but still not confident we have the right people in place to guide Arsenal to a seat at the table with the elite of Europe. Truth be told, I’d be happy with a well run club that frequently makes the top 4, challengers for the title on a somewhat regular basis and plays attractive football.
Speaking of captaining a ship, Tim, I came across this and thought of you: https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-true-life-horror-that-inspired-moby-dick?utm_source=pocket-newtab
Yes! I’ve seen a movie based off the Essex (which stars the guy who played Thor) and it’s really good. My version of Moby Dick has a huge appendix of letters and articles written about the text and includes a short story called “Mocha Dick” which many believe to be the source for the story wrapped into Melville’s anatomy.
Potential sale rumors seem to be genuinely out there. Whether the rumors themselves are genuine remains to be seen. I’d file this under the “people are saying” Trump meme.
There is a huge pent up demand for anything to do with getting out from under KSE.
Who else wants to see Santi Cazorla in Arsenal colors, score one more delicious free kick goal and kiss his forearm tattoos just one more time?
Seriously, I live in the hope that he comes back on Arteta’s coaching team and we put on a testimonial match for him.
Amen. I’d love to see Santi on the pitch as coach and in a testimonial. One problem with him scoring…he’d have to take off his cleats and sock to kiss his tattoo. 😊
i had no idea how thrilled i could be to see someone i don’t even know get fired. i’m truly excited to see the back of sanllehi.
shard was spot on, and made my ears perk up, when there was mention of him coming to arsenal from barcelona. i’ve watched that club cock up tons of transfers for many years, especially the ones they signed from arsenal. despite sanllehi, the club managed to find huge success. initially, i gave him benefit of the doubt and hoped for success. however, when mislintat left, i began to cringe. that quickly turned to anger the way koscielny, the club captain, refused to play for the club. that anger quickly transitioned to rage when a statement concerning koscielny was put out on the dot com. since the beginning of last season, that dude couldn’t be gone fast enough; i was on shard’s coat tail.
it’s why i love this forum. you guys are so smart!
Great post Tim and thanks for the post on Willian.
With regard to your post about Willian I found your math interesting in terms of how much each goal scored or assist created is worth in dollars. I completely agree that those 2 stats are the most critical measure of a players positive influence on the attacking end and the best way to put a value on the players contributions. I am not suggesting the other stats are useless and intangible contributions are unimportant but goals and assists are far and away the most predictive of the players ability to improve the teams chances of winning games. That seems like a no brainer. I also agree with your assessment that not all goals and assists are created equal. Goals in the group stages of the Europa league and during the early rounds of the FA cup and league cup much less valuable since the majority of those games are used for squad rotation and we score goals and win the majority of those games no matter who we play. The goals that are most valuable and can most accurately be compared year after year are the league goals and assists. Last season Willian had the best of his career in terms of goals and assists in the league games with 16. The last 5 years his goals/assist totals were 16, 9 13, 10, 11. Its not very often that a player has his best season at age 32 and usually when players have a career best season late in their careers they regress to the mean the following year and often regress to below their mean. To suggest that Willian will continue to produce goals and assists and play at the same level next season is probably not realistic. The other thing to consider if Frank Lampard really thought he could be very valuable player next season then why would they let him go? They certainly could have afforded more then we paid in wages.
All of that said I do think Willian is a good signing because we can’t afford the transfer fees to completely rebuild the squad in 1 or 2 years. IMO even the version of willian who probably will not be able to replicate what he did last season and might start on the downward part of his career arc still improves our starting 11. That’s how far behind we are in terms of talent and having a player like Willian can’t hurt
Thanks for the compliment Bill, which was the part of my post that you thought was great?
As for your reply,
1. They didn’t “let him go” he came to Arsenal because we offered him three years – Bayern were also after him.
2. To continue your logic, not all league goals are really worth the same either: the 2nd goal in a 2-0 win is probably worth less than the first; a goal against Spurs is worth more than a goal against Fulham and so on.
2a. to wit: He scored two goals in a 2-0 win over Spurs this season, provided an assist against Arsenal in that win, scored one and assisted one against Everton, and scored in their win over Man City
2b. He also scored against Liverpool and assisted against Leicester in their FA Cup final run and scored and assisted against Lille in the Champions League.
2c. In the prior season he played a MAJOR role in both the group stages and knockout stages of the Europa League, assisting 7 times and scoring three goals. That had not only a specific value for that particular season in terms of prize and TV money (£40m) but also meant that Chelsea got into the Champions League where the earned another £60m despite getting knocked out by Bayern Munich in the round of 16.
3. £1m per goal is pretty universally seen as a “ridiculously low” value for goals. Please feel free to avail yourself of the articles (there are a number) which detail the processes by which people arrive at these values and note when you do that goals are worth less and more depending on the team.
With regard to today’s post. I am happy to see the end of Raul’s reign. I completely agree that the club did not probably prepare for the departure of Arsene. Unfortunately the team was set up for failure when Arsene finally was fired because the squad that he left was on a steep downward trend and reversing something completely rebuilding the squad and reversing such a steep downward arc quickly is almost impossible. Usually it takes several years and often a lot of experimentation and changes in the front office. Look at ManU and Liverpool. Just like Emery, I think Raul was almost doomed to fail. That said, Raul has certainly made some bad decisions and I doubt that giving him more time is going to produce better results so its time to move on.
Any stats including goals and assists which are compiled in all competitions can be misleading. I think the stats compiled during the league games give a much better picture of a players true value to the club. Imagine of the stats that our first team regulars could put together if they played in the league cup or early round FA or Europa league games. Think about the dozens and dozens and dozens of players who have looked like sure fire can’t miss superstars in waiting based on their performances and stats in the league cup and early rounds of the FA cup during the post 2005 Wenger era.