Raul Sanllehi Interview

[A_G]

“I loved it at Arsenal. You cannot imagine — the people in the club, the history of the club,” Raul Sanllehi says.

“I really felt I was at the top of the world there. I love the owners, the Kroenkes. But the last 10 months there were horrible. I had to lay off 55 people, without knowing I was the 56th.” Sanllehi is speaking to The Athletic in his office at his new club, Real Zaragoza of Spain’s second division, whom he joined as director general last June. He was hired by an ownership group that includes MLS side Inter Miami president Jorge Mas and directors of Atletico Madrid, France’s Lens and Colombian club Millonarios.

We will talk about all that soon, but first Sanllehi wants to make it clear there are no hard feelings about his Arsenal exit, even if it came as a surprise to him at the time.
“I don’t feel betrayed by the Kroenkes,” he says. “The Kroenkes had the LA Rams, Denver Nuggets, Colorado Rapids, and all of a sudden, all those teams could not play (due to lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic).

“You still had to pay the salaries. You did not have guaranteed broadcasting revenues. They entered into panic, but a logical panic, as the world entered into panic. Without COVID, I am sure I would still be there, as my relationship with the Kroenkes was great.
“It is funny now, but I remember in December 2019, I had dinner with the four guys: (Arsenal’s then newly-appointed head coach) Mikel Arteta, (technical director) Edu, (head of football operations) Huss Fahmy and (academy manager) Per Mertesacker. On the toast, I said, ‘Now, it is on us. Now it is exactly the model I asked for. If it does not work, we have no excuses’. That team for me was a dream team at that time. Then in March, everything just fell apart. It was sad.”

Sanllehi says this “dream team” of Arteta, Edu, Fahmy and Mertesacker fitted a circular club-management model he learned in two decades at Barcelona, and is now implementing at Zaragoza. “Within the model, there are four points: head coach, sporting director, football operations and academy,” Sanllehi says. “And they need to be very well coordinated.”

Sanllehi’s model was what convinced Ivan Gazidis, then Arsenal’s chief executive, to recommend that the Kroenkes hire him to oversee the transition from Arsène Wenger’s 22 years as manager. “Arsenal had decided to move on from Arsène Wenger — one boss who did everything,” Sanllehi says.

Sanllehi joined as head of football relations in February 2018 and then in the April it was announced that Wenger would leave that summer. It was Sanllehi who identified Unai Emery as the team’s new head coach and when Gazidis left for AC Milan that September, he was moved into a new head of football role. In Emery’s first season, the team just missed out on Champions League qualification twice — finishing a point off fourth place and then losing the Europa League final to Chelsea. Sanllehi says that it was difficult to get immediate results on the pitch while the club’s structure was being updated.

“It was crucial for Arsenal to make the Champions League,” he says. “We had a good coach in Unai, but losing the final to Chelsea made us stay in Europa League, which made the second year hell for Unai. It had been the one-boss model. All respect for Arsène — what he did for Arsenal is unique and probably at that moment in time the best way to do it — but you had to develop, and that is what happened.”

The key to Sanllehi’s model was to have a sporting director or technical director — when he was at Barcelona he worked closely with Txiki Begiristain, who now has that job at Manchester City. So former Arsenal midfielder Edu was tempted away from a role at the Brazilian FA to take the position back in north London in July 2019.

“The sporting director setup was very new in England,” Sanllehi says. “I had to explain that. His highest priority is the first team, but he also needs to be in contact with the academy and to know the transfer market. When things don’t go well, you change the head coach. But the technical director is the one who protects the sporting philosophy of the club and safeguards the model.”

After Emery was sacked that November, Arsenal finished the Premier League in eighth position under new head coach Arteta. Sanllehi still believed the structure put in place, with him at the centre, was moving the club towards success.

I am in the middle, like the director of the orchestra,” Sanllehi says. “Here are the drums, the cymbals, the violins and the trumpets. They are very good, but if you do not coordinate them, they may sound awful. At Arsenal, as head of football, I put Huss, Edu, Mikel and Per — the perfect cross.”
Sanllehi says the English idea of the manager being in charge of all football affairs at a club, the way Wenger had been at Arsenal, or Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, does not work in the modern game. “I do not agree when clubs call the first-team coach ‘the manager’,” he says. “First-team coach is first-team coach, that is enough. Nowadays, the workload is overwhelming, and I need him to concentrate on the first team.

“Anything that distracts you from that is not your responsibility — travel arrangements, the pitch, salary budget, medical department. We will get other people to do that. The first-team coach is short-term oriented — just win tonight’s game.”

When Sanllehi was fired in August 2020, Arsenal’s owners streamlined the model. Edu and Arteta’s responsibilities expanded into areas he had been in charge of. Arteta’s job title was changed from first-team coach to first-team manager. Sanllehi believes this was a mistake, that the once-circular model is now squashed out of shape. “They have betrayed the model a little bit now,” he says. “By going back to the manager at the top, that is a mistake, but that is their mistake. I would have not allowed that to happen. But that’s fine, it is working so far for them.

 

[A_G]

Spoiler: PART 2

But that’s enough of Arsenal. Let’s get back to Zaragoza.”

---

Sanllehi was not involved when the group that took over Zaragoza came together back in the spring.

The impetus came from Jim Carpenter of Riverside Management Group, a merchant bank in Connecticut in the United States. Carpenter spoke with Jim Miller and Mark Affolter of Los Angeles-based Ares Management, who were already involved at Inter Miami, where brothers Jorge and Jose Mas are shareholders, alongside David Beckham.

Ares is a minority partner in the holding company that controls Atletico Madrid. From 2016 to 2017, Atletico owned a 35 per cent share in Lens before selling to the Ligue 1 club’s current president Joseph Oughourlian, who is the founder of London-based Amber Capital.

Oughourlian is also the majority shareholder in Millonarios in Bogota and Padova of Italy’s third division. Gustavo Serpa, also part of Amber Capital, is president of Millonarios.

So Carpenter, Miller, Affolter, the Mas brothers, Oughourlian and Serpa decided to buy Zaragoza together. Ex-Atletico player turned agent Mariano Aguilar and former Atletico and Getafe coach Emilio Cruz also became involved. Continuity came from local businessman Juan Forcen, who was on the club’s previous board.

Once you find a project like Zaragoza, it is much easier to get people to join the project,” Sanllehi says. “The group of investors gave us a lot of synergies to work with — different clubs in different leagues, different continents, different cultures — which is great. They were ready to provide resources. When I had the first meeting with the investors, I realised this is what I wanted to do.”

Real Zaragoza were identified as an opportunity.

Roughly halfway between Barcelona and Bilbao in the north east of Spain, Zaragoza is the fifth biggest city in the country and the capital of the Aragon region, which has 1.3 million inhabitants. Founded in 1932, the club have won six Copa del Rey trophies, most recently in 2004, the old Inter-Cities Fairs Cup and a Cup Winners’ Cup, which they lifted in 1995.

However, Zaragoza have spent the last decade outside La Liga and accrued more than €100million (£89m; $97m) of debt following disastrous signings such as Roberto Ayala and Jermaine Pennant under president Agapito Iglesias. Iglesias was forced out in 2014 and an alliance of local businessmen cut the club’s debt but could not deliver promotion back to the top flight.

So now is an excellent time to come in: the club’s finances are in better order and there is the possibility of returning one of Spain’s best-supported clubs (22,278 season-ticket holders last season) to La Liga. In June, once safety in the Segunda was achieved, the new ownership group acquired 97.3 per cent of Zaragoza’s shares and invested around €26million.

“The project is fantastic, unique, bringing an old-time, very historic club back where it belongs,” Sanllehi says. “It is just exciting. Once we do that, we will be able to look back and be proud. It is definitely value-driven, it is not about speculation. The potential is obvious.”

---

The new owners’ first big call was to replace veteran coach Juan Ignacio Martinez with Juan Carlos Carcedo, who had been Emery’s assistant at Arsenal, Paris Saint-Germain and Sevilla, and more recently, guided Ibiza to promotion into the Segunda.

“I was very pleased to bring in Carcedo,” Sanllehi says. “He is honest, hard-working, knowledgeable, modern. With Unai, normally at half-time (Carcedo) was the one giving the speeches on how to adapt to the game.

“And he is a maniac for developing talent. Even after leaving Arsenal, Emile Smith Rowe, Joe Willock, Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka still kept writing to him, many times: ‘Have you seen my game? What should I do? How can I improve?’. He would stay after training sessions and train with them, private lessons, to get where they wanted to be. And for us, that fitted with our idea — to bring up the academy.”

Another priority was renewing contracts for the team’s promising, homegrown Spain Under-21 internationals — midfielder Francho Serrano, defender Alejandro Frances, both 20, and 19-year-old Ivan Azon — on better salaries.

“We believe very much in the pyramid of serving players to the first team,” says Sanllehi, who spent time at Barcelona’s La Masia academy himself as a youngster. “Not only for financial reasons but also for identity. The best teams ever in the history of football are based on academies, including the Barcelona team I know well.

“Even if they are not the best players, they are the guys who show the stars coming from outside what the institution means. Pep Guardiola did that with Luis Figo at Barcelona, helping him integrate. But he stayed eight years at Barcelona and was the captain. Neymar the same case.”

Sanllehi knows Neymar personally: he was deeply involved in the controversial deal that brought the Brazilian to Barcelona from Santos back home in 2013. He laughs when The Athleticasks if there was room under La Liga’s sliding salary cap limits to sign the Paris Saint-Germain star for his new employers this summer.

The rules dictate that Zaragoza can only spend just over €10million on football operations in 2022-23, with no “gifts” from the owners allowed. That is the seventh highest figure in the Segunda this season, up from €5.7million last year.

Zaragoza’s six signings in the summer were all free transfers or loans. The owners’ contacts were useful, though: they have borrowed centre-back Jairo Quinteros from Inter Miami and Spain Under-21 winger Victor Mollejo and Giuliano Simeone (son of Atletico head coach Diego and younger brother of Napoli striker Giovanni) from Atletico.

We do not have the money, but we have the connections,” Sanllehi says. “We have leveraged the network we have, not only with clubs but also the strong connections I have with agents. I wanted them to understand this is a great project for a player to belong to right now — every home game with 25,000 people, the pressure of the media. There is no other team in Segunda like that.”

Zaragoza’s La Romareda stadium is one of Spain’s most historic but it was last properly renovated to host three games at the 1982 World Cup. Their training ground was the first dedicated “Sporting City” in Spain when it was planned in the early 1970s but now badly needs modernising.

The new owners have done some fixing up: La Romareda got new floodlights and improvements to the dressing rooms, which were required to host Spain’s Nations League game against Switzerland on Saturday. New synthetic pitches for the youth teams have been laid at the training ground. The club shop adjacent to the stadium has been brightened up significantly, and their offices are to be moved so that Sanllehi and his staff have more natural light.

That will all be a process. The Zaragoza city authorities own the stadium, so the money for renovations would have to come from the club, potentially including some via La Liga’s deal with CVC Partners. The question as to who would own the stadium after that is still to be decided.

Sanllehi says the new owners are very keen to show Zaragoza’s fans their intentions are genuine and respectful of the club’s traditions.

“We want to show that we want to return Zaragoza to where it belongs,” he says. “And we have a serious, solvent football idea behind that. We did not want to be, as we say in Spain, an elephant in a china shop.

“Zaragoza’s fans are very frustrated and fed up. The positive side is they are very proud, very numerous, and when they are with you, they are with you.”

---

“If we score first today we’ll win; if we don’t, well…” says Sanhelli, as he accompanies The Athletic to the stadium a little over a week ago for an evening game against Sporting Gijon, another former top-tier club currently in Segunda.

La Romareda is buzzing before kick-off, with 21,416 supporters in its bare-concrete bowl.

Carcedo’s cautious 5-4-1 formation does not fit perfectly with the fans’ enthusiasm, but his team are on the front foot. Midfielder Manu Molina smacks a 25-yarder off the angle of post and crossbar early on, and wing-back Fran Gamez and Mollejo both have closer-range chances. Simeone’s battling up front unsettles the Gijon defence and energises his own team’s fans.

The breakthrough comes six minutes after half-time. Mollejo races in behind and finishes well. Everyone thinks it’s offside, but the VAR finds he timed his run perfectly. The celebrations are raucous. Zaragoza have chances to make it 2-0, but as nerves creep in, they are fortunate that the visitors miss clear opportunities.

The final whistle brings a huge cheer and relief for the fans — and for the owners. It also eases the pressure on Carcedo. Two points from their first four games was Zaragoza’s worst start to a season in a decade and though two consecutive wins improved things, they lost 2-0 away to Mirandes on Saturday and sit 17th in the 22-team division after seven matches.

Club president Mas said when visiting the city last month that promotion this season is the objective. The ownership group is full of different voices and personalities who are used to success. However, lots of other clubs in the division have very ambitious owners, including Jeff Luhnow at Leganes, Gerard Pique at Andorra, Mexico’s Orlegi Group at Gijon, and Granada’s Chinese owners.

“Patience is very scarce in football. I am very clear about that, and especially here in Zaragoza, after 10 years in Segunda,” Sanllehi says. “The second division in Spain is so competitive, it is crazy. You can win any game, and lose any game. We all want to get promoted this year. But I don’t feel pressure to do that, not even next year.

“As long as we can show we are heading on the right path, we are going to be fine. But nothing makes sense without being in the first division. We need to do the right things to get here.”

If they secure promotion, the next step for a club of Zaragoza’s size and traditions would be to return to European football.

Sanllehi smiles when reminded of Arsenal’s place in the biggest moment in his new club’s history — when Nayim lobbed David Seaman to score a winner in the last minute of extra time in that 1994-95 Cup Winners’ Cup final.

“It is very ironic, yes,” Sanllehi says. “That goal is incredible. You could not have a movie script with that ending. I would love Zaragoza to play Arsenal again, as that would mean we have made it back.

“That would be a dream, actually. I still have all the love for Arsenal. I am just very sad it had to finish. But this project for me right now is very fulfilling. I am loving every minute.”

 

[Makingtrax]

Spoiler: PART 2

But that’s enough of Arsenal. Let’s get back to Zaragoza.”

---

Sanllehi was not involved when the group that took over Zaragoza came together back in the spring.

The impetus came from Jim Carpenter of Riverside Management Group, a merchant bank in Connecticut in the United States. Carpenter spoke with Jim Miller and Mark Affolter of Los Angeles-based Ares Management, who were already involved at Inter Miami, where brothers Jorge and Jose Mas are shareholders, alongside David Beckham.

Ares is a minority partner in the holding company that controls Atletico Madrid. From 2016 to 2017, Atletico owned a 35 per cent share in Lens before selling to the Ligue 1 club’s current president Joseph Oughourlian, who is the founder of London-based Amber Capital.

Oughourlian is also the majority shareholder in Millonarios in Bogota and Padova of Italy’s third division. Gustavo Serpa, also part of Amber Capital, is president of Millonarios.

So Carpenter, Miller, Affolter, the Mas brothers, Oughourlian and Serpa decided to buy Zaragoza together. Ex-Atletico player turned agent Mariano Aguilar and former Atletico and Getafe coach Emilio Cruz also became involved. Continuity came from local businessman Juan Forcen, who was on the club’s previous board.

Once you find a project like Zaragoza, it is much easier to get people to join the project,” Sanllehi says. “The group of investors gave us a lot of synergies to work with — different clubs in different leagues, different continents, different cultures — which is great. They were ready to provide resources. When I had the first meeting with the investors, I realised this is what I wanted to do.”

Real Zaragoza were identified as an opportunity.

Roughly halfway between Barcelona and Bilbao in the north east of Spain, Zaragoza is the fifth biggest city in the country and the capital of the Aragon region, which has 1.3 million inhabitants. Founded in 1932, the club have won six Copa del Rey trophies, most recently in 2004, the old Inter-Cities Fairs Cup and a Cup Winners’ Cup, which they lifted in 1995.

However, Zaragoza have spent the last decade outside La Liga and accrued more than €100million (£89m; $97m) of debt following disastrous signings such as Roberto Ayala and Jermaine Pennant under president Agapito Iglesias. Iglesias was forced out in 2014 and an alliance of local businessmen cut the club’s debt but could not deliver promotion back to the top flight.

So now is an excellent time to come in: the club’s finances are in better order and there is the possibility of returning one of Spain’s best-supported clubs (22,278 season-ticket holders last season) to La Liga. In June, once safety in the Segunda was achieved, the new ownership group acquired 97.3 per cent of Zaragoza’s shares and invested around €26million.

“The project is fantastic, unique, bringing an old-time, very historic club back where it belongs,” Sanllehi says. “It is just exciting. Once we do that, we will be able to look back and be proud. It is definitely value-driven, it is not about speculation. The potential is obvious.”

---

The new owners’ first big call was to replace veteran coach Juan Ignacio Martinez with Juan Carlos Carcedo, who had been Emery’s assistant at Arsenal, Paris Saint-Germain and Sevilla, and more recently, guided Ibiza to promotion into the Segunda.

“I was very pleased to bring in Carcedo,” Sanllehi says. “He is honest, hard-working, knowledgeable, modern. With Unai, normally at half-time (Carcedo) was the one giving the speeches on how to adapt to the game.

“And he is a maniac for developing talent. Even after leaving Arsenal, Emile Smith Rowe, Joe Willock, Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka still kept writing to him, many times: ‘Have you seen my game? What should I do? How can I improve?’. He would stay after training sessions and train with them, private lessons, to get where they wanted to be. And for us, that fitted with our idea — to bring up the academy.”

Another priority was renewing contracts for the team’s promising, homegrown Spain Under-21 internationals — midfielder Francho Serrano, defender Alejandro Frances, both 20, and 19-year-old Ivan Azon — on better salaries.

“We believe very much in the pyramid of serving players to the first team,” says Sanllehi, who spent time at Barcelona’s La Masia academy himself as a youngster. “Not only for financial reasons but also for identity. The best teams ever in the history of football are based on academies, including the Barcelona team I know well.

“Even if they are not the best players, they are the guys who show the stars coming from outside what the institution means. Pep Guardiola did that with Luis Figo at Barcelona, helping him integrate. But he stayed eight years at Barcelona and was the captain. Neymar the same case.”

Sanllehi knows Neymar personally: he was deeply involved in the controversial deal that brought the Brazilian to Barcelona from Santos back home in 2013. He laughs when The Athleticasks if there was room under La Liga’s sliding salary cap limits to sign the Paris Saint-Germain star for his new employers this summer.

The rules dictate that Zaragoza can only spend just over €10million on football operations in 2022-23, with no “gifts” from the owners allowed. That is the seventh highest figure in the Segunda this season, up from €5.7million last year.

Zaragoza’s six signings in the summer were all free transfers or loans. The owners’ contacts were useful, though: they have borrowed centre-back Jairo Quinteros from Inter Miami and Spain Under-21 winger Victor Mollejo and Giuliano Simeone (son of Atletico head coach Diego and younger brother of Napoli striker Giovanni) from Atletico.

We do not have the money, but we have the connections,” Sanllehi says. “We have leveraged the network we have, not only with clubs but also the strong connections I have with agents. I wanted them to understand this is a great project for a player to belong to right now — every home game with 25,000 people, the pressure of the media. There is no other team in Segunda like that.”

Zaragoza’s La Romareda stadium is one of Spain’s most historic but it was last properly renovated to host three games at the 1982 World Cup. Their training ground was the first dedicated “Sporting City” in Spain when it was planned in the early 1970s but now badly needs modernising.

The new owners have done some fixing up: La Romareda got new floodlights and improvements to the dressing rooms, which were required to host Spain’s Nations League game against Switzerland on Saturday. New synthetic pitches for the youth teams have been laid at the training ground. The club shop adjacent to the stadium has been brightened up significantly, and their offices are to be moved so that Sanllehi and his staff have more natural light.

That will all be a process. The Zaragoza city authorities own the stadium, so the money for renovations would have to come from the club, potentially including some via La Liga’s deal with CVC Partners. The question as to who would own the stadium after that is still to be decided.

Sanllehi says the new owners are very keen to show Zaragoza’s fans their intentions are genuine and respectful of the club’s traditions.

“We want to show that we want to return Zaragoza to where it belongs,” he says. “And we have a serious, solvent football idea behind that. We did not want to be, as we say in Spain, an elephant in a china shop.

“Zaragoza’s fans are very frustrated and fed up. The positive side is they are very proud, very numerous, and when they are with you, they are with you.”

---

“If we score first today we’ll win; if we don’t, well…” says Sanhelli, as he accompanies The Athletic to the stadium a little over a week ago for an evening game against Sporting Gijon, another former top-tier club currently in Segunda.

La Romareda is buzzing before kick-off, with 21,416 supporters in its bare-concrete bowl.

Carcedo’s cautious 5-4-1 formation does not fit perfectly with the fans’ enthusiasm, but his team are on the front foot. Midfielder Manu Molina smacks a 25-yarder off the angle of post and crossbar early on, and wing-back Fran Gamez and Mollejo both have closer-range chances. Simeone’s battling up front unsettles the Gijon defence and energises his own team’s fans.

The breakthrough comes six minutes after half-time. Mollejo races in behind and finishes well. Everyone thinks it’s offside, but the VAR finds he timed his run perfectly. The celebrations are raucous. Zaragoza have chances to make it 2-0, but as nerves creep in, they are fortunate that the visitors miss clear opportunities.

The final whistle brings a huge cheer and relief for the fans — and for the owners. It also eases the pressure on Carcedo. Two points from their first four games was Zaragoza’s worst start to a season in a decade and though two consecutive wins improved things, they lost 2-0 away to Mirandes on Saturday and sit 17th in the 22-team division after seven matches.

Club president Mas said when visiting the city last month that promotion this season is the objective. The ownership group is full of different voices and personalities who are used to success. However, lots of other clubs in the division have very ambitious owners, including Jeff Luhnow at Leganes, Gerard Pique at Andorra, Mexico’s Orlegi Group at Gijon, and Granada’s Chinese owners.

“Patience is very scarce in football. I am very clear about that, and especially here in Zaragoza, after 10 years in Segunda,” Sanllehi says. “The second division in Spain is so competitive, it is crazy. You can win any game, and lose any game. We all want to get promoted this year. But I don’t feel pressure to do that, not even next year.

“As long as we can show we are heading on the right path, we are going to be fine. But nothing makes sense without being in the first division. We need to do the right things to get here.”

If they secure promotion, the next step for a club of Zaragoza’s size and traditions would be to return to European football.

Sanllehi smiles when reminded of Arsenal’s place in the biggest moment in his new club’s history — when Nayim lobbed David Seaman to score a winner in the last minute of extra time in that 1994-95 Cup Winners’ Cup final.

“It is very ironic, yes,” Sanllehi says. “That goal is incredible. You could not have a movie script with that ending. I would love Zaragoza to play Arsenal again, as that would mean we have made it back.

“That would be a dream, actually. I still have all the love for Arsenal. I am just very sad it had to finish. But this project for me right now is very fulfilling. I am loving every minute.”

Doesn't give much away. Just a lot of sucking up to the Kroenkes. Nothing about the Pepe deal or Joorabchian etc.

 

[Macho]

“And he is a maniac for developing talent. Even after leaving Arsenal, Emile Smith Rowe, Joe Willock, Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka still kept writing to him, many times: ‘Have you seen my game? What should I do? How can I improve?’. He would stay after training sessions and train with them, private lessons, to get where they wanted to be. And for us, that fitted with our idea — to bring up the academy.”

This was probably the most interesting tidbit out of the whole thing when I read it, the rest of it I already knew.

 

[Macho]

Raul will insist that his dismissal was budget cuts (which I personally believe) but many enjoy the scandelous version of events. Even though signings like Saliba, Tierney, Martinelli, Maghales look even better in the light now and have ended up having more staying power than some more recent buys.

I kinda agree with him, I think the Wenger/Dein model we've slipped back into is definitely a step backwards and something I have spoken a lot on. Although I will admit Pepe and Chelsea's past couple summers is probably worst case scenario of the continental model.

We won't really feel it until one of or both of Edteta's tenure is up and the next manager realises he doesn't want CB's at rb, or Ødegaard as his main #10, just random examples.

The Champions league finals and Emery missing out on CL by a hair seems to have been sliding door moments for the club in hindsight.

 

[A_G]

Raul will insist that his dismissal was budget cuts (which I personally believe) but many enjoy the scandelous version of events. Even though signings like Saliba, Tierney, Martinelli, Maghales look even better in the light now and have ended up having more staying power than some more recent buys.

Just WhatsApp your boy Tim Lewis and ask him to spill the tea.

 

[Macho]

Just WhatsApp your boy Tim Lewis and ask him to spill the tea.

lol the only tea getting spilled is the one he'd send me to get for him back in the day before I escaped the rat race. It's very unlikely Raul will ever deal with Arsenal ever again, so he could have said whatever he wanted. Quite telling he spoke in glowing terms about the club and ownership.

Furthermore, the stuff you see about Arsenal's financials (and certain actions from Arteta along with salarygate with Özil) does back up the idea that Arsenal had to (and will have to) operate on a more stringent basis.

 

[<<reed>>]

This was probably the most interesting tidbit out of the whole thing when I read it, the rest of it I already knew.

 

[Makingtrax]

Raul will insist that his dismissal was budget cuts (which I personally believe) but many enjoy the scandelous version of events. Even though signings like Saliba, Tierney, Martinelli, Maghales look even better in the light now and have ended up having more staying power than some more recent buys.

I kinda agree with him, I think the Wenger/Dein model we've slipped back into is definitely a step backwards and something I have spoken a lot on. Although I will admit Pepe and Chelsea's past couple summers is probably worst case scenario of the continental model.

We won't really feel it until one of or both of Edteta's tenure is up and the next manager realises he doesn't want CB's at rb, or Ødegaard as his main #10, just random examples.

The Champions league finals and Emery missing out on CL by a hair seems to have been sliding door moments for the club in hindsight.

The 19 window just before Arteta came ranks alongside the 22 window imho with respect to its impact on the rise of Arteta. Jesus, Zinchenko, Vieira v Martinelli, Saliba, Tierney, Pepe

Pepe may be on loan now, but his performance in that FA Cup final gave Tets a trophy that his zealots keep on and on about.

 

[Macho]

The 19 window just before Arteta came ranks alongside the 22 window imho with respect to its impact on the rise of Arteta. Jesus, Zinchenko, Vieira v Martinelli, Saliba, Tierney, Pepe

Pepe may be on loan now, but his performance in that FA Cup final gave Tets a trophy that his zealots keep on and on about.

2019 should have been the goat window and it actually still can be depending on where Saliba and Martinelli end up. For one reason or another whether through injury, age or adaptation issues none of them could help Emery in that moment and we are where we are today.

If the Pepe signing had the immediate impact desired that window would be looked at a lot better, but instead Raul's tenure seems to hinge almost entirely on that.

 

[BigPoppaPump]

I wouldn’t believe this guy if he said the sky was blue.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

I'm sure there's some truth in a lot of the stuff but its pretty clearly Raul is doing a bit of PR here.

If he was as good or forward thinking as he projects, I doubt he'd be knocking about in the Spanish second division today.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

I fundamentally disagree with Raul on the manager / head coach stuff also.

Sure no future manager should have the depth of responsibilities that Arsène did, it's too much for one person to handle but you also want to give the manager the best chance of being a success and know that his success or failure in the position was down to his abilities. With someone like Emery I don't think we can say that. He wasn't given the adequate level of responsibility.

 

[Macho]

I fundamentally disagree with Raul on the manager / head coach stuff also.

Sure no future manager should have the depth of responsibilities that Arsène did, it's too much for one person to handle but you also want to give the manager the best chance of being a success and know that his success or failure in the position was down to his abilities. With someone like Emery I don't think we can say that. He wasn't given the adequate level of responsibility.

Some just want to coach though. Like Emery and like Tuchel who felt weighed down by the owners constantly wanting his input for signings and teaching them about football. It impacted his preperations etc.

The main benefits for this model we are seeing is there is a bit more culpability and players being tailor made for the manager, but in my honest opinion this is only good in the short term. Having someone to blame doesn't make the club less sh*t and I've already briefly explained the potential drawbacks of the existing personnel.

If people took the agenda's and beefs I have to the side, I have always maintained from last summer that I am no longer Arteta Out. Not because I like or rate the guy, or even think he's the best use of the club's time or resources but if for whatever reason he leaves the project the club is buggared.

Who do you even get to take this on? which manager do we all rate that will realistically listen to novice Edu? You end up looking at Benitez to steady the ship and "just get top 4 we don't care how you do it" like what Emery was doing.

All the top clubs globally are run by the continental model, where if one piece is missing the show goes on.

 

[BigPoppaPump]

If people took the agenda's and beefs I have to the side, I have always mainted from last summer that I am no longer Arteta Out. Not because I like or rate the guy, or even think he's the best use of the club's time or resources but if for whatever reason he leaves the project the club is buggared.

Who do you even get to take this on? which manager do we all rate that will realistically listen to novice Edu? You end up looking at Benitez to steady the ship like what Emery was.

They're good players that player in a 4-3-3 not really that difficult for future managers. Not like it's a team full of Mustafi's and Pepe's. It's a team full of young quality players that can play different positions.

 

[Macho]

They're good players that player in a 4-3-3 not really that difficult for future managers. Not like it's a team full of Mustafi's and Pepe's. It's a team full of young quality players that can play different positions.

Yeah I don't really buy into this. A lot of the players we as a fanbase champion don't necessarily start for every manager or every team.

If you want me to name names, I will give an example - Ramsdale. I am not convinced every manager gets rid of both Martinez and Leno for him but that's just my opinion. You have Sambi there, will the next coach bother with him?

I think it's naive to assume the next coach will want to be judged off Arteta's work if it's a big name, his players are super specific.

 

[Maybe]

Who do you even get to take this on? which manager do we all rate that will realistically listen to novice Edu? You end up looking at Benitez to steady the ship and "just get top 4 we don't care how you do it" like what Emery was doing.

People here wanted Alegri, so I'll just stick with Arteta and appreciate him knowing we could get much worse (if you listen to what AM experts have to say). At least Arteta is pushing for a young squad now and some normal attacking football, don't care about the results at this point.

Anyways, think Don Raul did much better than people give him credit for... Overpaid for Pepe and Torreira turned out to be a complete *****, but both transfers looked legit at the time when he did it. Getting the GOAT for 30mil is an achievement on Wenger's level, I'd like to remember him for that

 

[Macho]

Anyways, think Don Raul did much better than people give him credit for... Overpaid for Pepe and Torreira turned out to be a complete *****, but both transfers looked legit at the time when he did it. Getting the GOAT for 30mil is an achievement on Wenger's level, I'd like to remember him for that

Torreira was Mislentat, who's only real saving grace is Auba depending on who you ask. I'd add Leno personally as he had good seasons but many think he was terrible so whatever.

I think the notion that Arsenal signed bad players until Arteta came in and saved us is an overblown one anyways.

Apart from the KIA boys, I think Arsenal sign very capable guys with a good profile but what tends to happen is they come, start well then tail off for a number of reasons but this isn't the topic of this thread.

 

[AbouCuéllar]

Sanllehi is speaking to The Athletic in his office at his new club, Real Zaragoza of Spain’s second division

For those who can't be arsed, this is pretty much all you need to know. There's a reason he's there. We all tell our stories about why things have been unfair to us, but the market doesn't lie.

“Anything that distracts you from that is not your responsibility — travel arrangements, the pitch, salary budget, medical department. We will get other people to do that. The first-team coach is short-term oriented — just win tonight’s game.”

So simplistic. Ironically, for all his talk about updating, this is actually a rather unforward and backwards approach. Was this Pep's approach when he arrived at City, did he not involve himself in every part of the club? Klopp? Any good project for that matter? Nah, c'mon. You are just trying to defend the same model that was responsible for Pep leaving the greatest project and team of this century in his hometown because of disconnects between those 'four pillars' of yours. In short, a bit of a clown, this guy.

 

[jones]

If he was as good or forward thinking as he projects, I doubt he'd be knocking about in the Spanish second division today.

That's not an argument at all imo. I don't like them because of their far right support but Zaragoza have one of the biggest supporter bases in Spain, they've just been managed poorly for ages. They survived the drop in La Liga2 last season and have new owners who are apparently about to invest into the club

Sanllehi never had the biggest profile but after almost two years out of a job taking a lower profile job doesn't mean he's useless. Mislintat left Arsenal for Stuttgart in the second division and took them to the top flight, Ancelotti had poor seasons at Bayern and Napoli and managed ****ing Everton for a year before becoming the best manager in the world again etc