Arsenal are advancing in talks to appoint head scout Maurizio Micheli from Napoli to join Andrea Berta’s team.
Berta blew fans away in the summer transfer window, but it’s thought that he could outdo all of his Arsenal signings so far by appointing Micheli.
As Arsenal Insider understands, Arsenal are impressed that Berta has landed Micheli, who boasts a very impressive hit-rate from his scouting work with Napoli.
One of the most impressive scouting projects the Italian delivered to Naples was Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who arrived at Napoli unknown, only to become a club icon in less than a year.
Maurizio Micheli humiliated Edu Gaspar at Arsenal with Khvicha Kvaratskhelia transfer call
Napoli paid £9m to Dinamo Batumi, a club from Georgia’s top flight, not knowing that by the end of the 2022/23 season, Kvaratskhelia would have racked up 31 goal contributions.
Micheli saw a diamond in the rough in Kvaratskhelia, presenting him to Napoli to essentially hand the Italian giants the Serie A title.
What is so interesting about the scout’s work to land Kvaratskhelia is that Arsenal were right there too, but Edu Gaspar’s judgement wasn’t as sharp as Micheli’s.
As The Sun revealed in the summer, Arsenal scouted the winger when he was at Dinamo Batumi, but the club’s former recruitment team were split on where his potential would take him.
Therefore, the Gunners chose not to take the risk, paving the way for Kvaratskhelia to join Napoli, and the rest is history.
Hindsight is a brilliant thing, as now, there’s evidence to show exactly how Micheli is going to improve Arsenal, as the Italian’s judgement and risk-taking with Kvaratskhelia’s transfer landed him a world-beater.
Regrettably, for the North Londoners, the embarrassment over the scouting call did not end with merely failing to land the Georgian.
That’s because two weeks after his move, Arsenal signed Marquinhos as an alternative to Kvaratskhelia, a player Edu said his team had been ‘watching for a while’.
Unfortunately, time has shown that the scouting work was a failure, as rapidly it became evident that Kvaratskhelia’s ceiling was astoundingly higher than Marquinhos’.
What Marquinhos has done since his Arsenal transfer compared to Kvaratskhelia
Marquinhos is a very talented player, and at only 22 years old, he has an entire career ahead of him to prove himself.
What’s difficult to digest is that Kvaratskhelia is only two years the Brazilian’s senior and has gone on to give Arsenal an idea of what they could’ve had.
| Player | Appearances | Goals | Assists |
| Khvicha Kvaratskhelia | 153 | 41 | 40 |
| Marquinhos | 83 | 5 | 6 |
The comparison between the two players is astounding, even more so when remembering that it was Kvaratskhelia’s potential that was questioned.
While it was a miss for Arsenal, with all of Europe now desiring Kvaratskhelia, it’s a positive sign of the change that will happen behind the scenes with the help of Micheli’s expertise.
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