Arsenal are much smoother operators in the transfer market now than they were in recent years under different management.
The final years of Arsene Wenger’s reign, as well as Unai Emery’s short spell as manager, were filled with chaos at executive level.
In the summer of 2018 the Kroenke family finally obtained full ownership after years of a fractured divide at the top level, but there was still plenty of disagreement at boardroom level.
Raul Sanllehi and Ivan Gazidis brought Emery to the club, but both directors would leave within two years. Edu Gaspar arrived, and he eventually brought Mikel Arteta to Arsenal, and the pair have thrived since.
Arsenal have since improved dramatically in terms of recruitment and squad building, and now have a young squad capable of competing at the top level.
Arteta has played a huge part in Arsenal’s improved recruitment, and he has solved a huge issue which haunted both Wenger and Emery over the last decade.
Mikel Arteta has brought clarity to Arsenal transfer approach
The Athletic have now explained the clear impact Arteta has had on Arsenal’s scouting and recruitment process.
“The main thing Arteta has brought to Arsenal’s recruitment process is clarity. When Arsenal have a positional need in the squad, Arteta provides clear direction on what attributes he is looking for. The manager brings his ‘non-negotiables’ to every aspect of the job — and when it comes to transfers, that insistence on specificity seems to work. When the parameters are clear, less mistakes are made,” they revealed.
This is something that was evidently lacking in Wenger’s final years and under Emery. Players of different profiles were targeted, in what was a more chaotic, scattergun approach to the transfer market.
Arsene Wenger and Unai Emery’s transfer chaos at Arsenal
Wenger’s final season saw a lot of transfer chaos. He lost players such as Alexis Sanchez and Olivier Giroud, but there was no clarity when trying to replace them.
Arsenal spent a club-record fee on a striker in Alexandre Lacazette, but they would break this six months later to sign Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, in what became an unbalanced squad.
Giroud’s profile was not replaced, and Arsenal took whatever they could get in the market, with Henrikh Mkhitaryan also arriving in a swap deal for Sanchez.
Arsenal also astonishingly bid £92m for Thomas Lemar on deadline day in 2017, when it appeared that Sanchez could go to Manchester City. The two players are of completely different profiles, and the lack of forward thinking was obvious.
It was a similar story under Emery. The change in ownership structure allowed for increased spending, but Arsenal spent a club record £72m on Nicolas Pepe, when it was clear that Emery wanted Wilfried Zaha instead, with the lack of rapport between the hierarchy and the manager obvious.
Now, Edu has revealed that he and Arteta would not act without each other’s approval, and Arteta has stamped his authority when it comes to signings. If his first-choice target cannot be acquired, other players with similar profiles are scouted as backups, and this has led to a lot of success, and very few mistakes, in recent transfer windows.
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