Andrea Berta hasn’t put a foot wrong since becoming the Arsenal sporting director.
The Italian replaced Edu Gaspar last year, and since then, he has done a truly outstanding job with transfers and player retentions.
Arsenal fans are all looking forward to seeing what Berta has in store for them, but one of his first moves in this window hasn’t quite gone to plan.
The Premier League champions are set to miss out on Jeremy Monga.
What grade are you giving Andrea Berta? Explain your answers!
Arsenal missing out on Jeremy Monga is embarrassing for Andrea Berta
Monga has been a target for Arsenal for a long time now.
The Premier League champions had been in talks with the exciting teenager, as well as Leicester City, for a long time now over a move.
Max Dowman was even educating Monga about Arsenal to get him ready to become a Gunner.
Arsenal kept trying to agree a fee with Leicester for the young winger, but they just could not convince the Foxes with their offers.
There was still optimism that a deal could be done, but Manchester City entered the race out of nowhere and have now struck a deal.
Fabrizio Romano tweeted: “Jeremy Monga to Manchester City, here we go! Deal in place with Leicester City and the player’s side.
“Fee worth £10m package as MCFC got the deal done after long talks with Arsenal, but no breakthrough.”
That is really embarrassing for Berta and everyone else involved behind the scenes, as the feeling in football was that the Gunners had this deal in the bag.
To go from that stage to missing out on the player completely in about a day is not a good look at all for the champions.
Berta hadn’t put a foot wrong since joining Arsenal. This may just be his first misstep.
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