Janusz Michallik breaks down Arsenal’s win over Burnley, which moves the Gunners past Tottenham into the top four. Arsene Wenger has insisted that Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez will not leave Arsenal in January ahead of their match with Huddersfield.
It’s time to give Ivan Gazidis some credit.
The Arsenal CEO has backed up his talk about bringing change to the club with this month’s hires of Raul Sanllehi and Sven Mislintat, two heavy hitters who have proven to be among the best in Europe at what they do.
Whether the backroom shuffle signals the beginning of the end of Arsene Wenger’s long reign as manager is still unclear. But one thing is certain: Arsenal are in a better position to deal with life after the Frenchman.
Last year’s drawn-out speculation surrounding Wenger’s future highlighted just how badly prepared the club was to fill the void the 68-year-old will one day leave after more than two decades in charge.
What was once one of Arsenal’s main strengths — that Wenger oversees pretty much every aspect of how the club is run — had become a weakness. Most of his assistants and key staff members, such as transfer negotiator Dick Law and chief scout Steve Rowley, were close allies and deeply loyal.
Had Wenger been shown the door in May, chances are that the club board would have been faced with the task of replacing not just him but a number of senior positions across all areas — from the training ground to the recruitment division.
Now, the most important of those changes has already been made. Sanllehi, Barcelona’s outgoing director of football, will be tasked with closing deals on the transfer market, something Arsenal have struggled mightily with in recent years.
Sanllehi is the closer the club has been missing, able to charm players, executives and agents alike. This was evident when he persuaded Neymar to join Barcelona and helped seal a deal with Liverpool for Luis Suarez (something Arsenal failed miserably with).
Arsene Wenger has always craved full control but clearly needed help with off-pitch matters.
Meanwhile, Mislintat proved at Borussia Dortmund that he’s one of the game’s greatest talent spotters and he should help rejuvenate Arsenal’s scouting department. While the Gunners have continued to bring in good young talents to their academy, their transfer buys have been hit and miss lately. With Mislintat’s help, Dortmund were much better at following the model that Wenger once perfected — finding hidden talents on the cheap and turning them into major stars.
It was clear that Wenger needed more help when it came to matters off the pitch. He couldn’t have asked for better helpers than Sanllehi and Mislintat. That said, it’s unclear how the manager feels about these changes; he has always craved full control over all operations and last season mocked the idea of working with a director of football.
In addition, Sanllehi and Mislintat have a reputation for being independent, strong-willed characters who won’t serve as yes-men. Mislintat clashed with former Dortmund manager Thomas Tuchel and probably won’t be afraid to challenge Wenger’s views on certain players.
Sanllehi’s title is “head of football relations,” but there’s no doubt that he is closer to a director of football than anything Arsenal have had in the past. Once Wenger is gone, it wouldn’t be surprising to see his title change.
It’s also clear that, while the newcomers will have to work under the manager initially, both have been hired to help usher in the post-Wenger era. It will be interesting to see how the longtime Arsenal boss, who has always been the one outlasting the people around him, handles that dynamic.
Some have even taken the hires as a sign that Wenger could leave as early as this upcoming summer, but all signs still point to him wanting to say on at least until the end of his current contract.
Make no mistake, Wenger will still leave a massive void when he does leave. But filling it has now become a lot easier. Gazidis and the Arsenal board had been heavily — and rightfully — criticized for allowing the club to become too heavily dependent on Wenger. But, with these moves, Arsenal’s future looks much brighter.
Mattias is ESPN FC’s Arsenal correspondent. Follow him on Twitter: @MattiasKaren.
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Source: espn.co.uk
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