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Arsenal’s new chief executive Vinai Venkatesham defended the club’s restructuring and suggested that the Gunners could “afford to miss” the Champions League next season.
Early Thursday, Mikel Arteta’s position was changed from “head coach” to “first team manager,” which was the latest move in a broader overhaul aimed at improving the Gunners’ operations.
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Soccer boss Raúl Sanllehi left the club last month in a shakeup in which Venkatesham is no longer CEO, while manager Edu works more closely with Arteta to identify first-team players.
The club has also released a string of long-standing scouts and laid off 55 non-playing staff members as they are also adjusting to the loss of income created by the coronavirus pandemic.
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Senior executives have accepted pay cuts, as have the entire first team team apart from Mesut Ozil, and Venkatesham said: “I have been at this club for 10 years and this is not a great organization, we don’t have hundreds of thousands of employees all over the world.
“We have hundreds of employees, all within 30 miles of each other. I know the people, I know their families, I know the people very closely. So making the decision that we had to propose layoffs was very, very difficult and we did it for the right reasons.
“Unfortunately we see a different economy ahead and we needed to restructure our organization and make a really tough decision and sadly my job is to make tough decisions to make sure we have the right structure going forward to make sure we are more agile, faster and equipped to deal with a different economy and that’s really tough. I’d be lying if I said there haven’t been sleepless nights. “
Arsenal have signed Willian and Cedric on free transfers as well as extending David Luiz’s contract, renewing Real Madrid’s Dani Ceballos and spending £ 23 million on Gabriel Magalhaes from Lille.
Top agent Kia Joorabchian played a critical role in the transfers of Willian, Cedric and Luiz, leading to claims that he was having an overt influence on the club’s recruitment, but Venkatesham said: “We did not select players based on the identity of your agent We select players based on the position we need to strengthen and the characteristics we are looking for in a player and if the player is out there who meets those characteristics.
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“Who the agent is is revealed at the end, once we’ve decided who the player is. We’re not hiring players based on the agent’s identity. That would be a crazy strategy.”
Edu led much of the exploration restructuring to shift focus back to using data-driven contracting with an emphasis on using StatDNA, a US-based data analytics company that the Gunners bought in. 2014 and were carried out internally.
“With my position here I want to start a clear process of how we are going to sign, who assumes the responsibilities, where do we begin to understand where we need the player, the position we need, the characteristics we need,” Edu said. , who spent four years at Arsenal as a player between 2001 and 2005. “That has to be very clear internally at this point.
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“The decision we made, to change our infrastructure a little, is clear to me. I want to work with fewer people. I want to work much more with StatDNA, which we have internally here at the club and it is very important.” . The people I want to work with, I want them to be very close to me. I want to create a group of people working together.
“I do not want individual people to work in an area or for a country. I want a group working together. Fewer people with many more responsibilities. That is my vision and for me in this process the most important thing is that everyone is very clear about the responsibilities that everyone has to make the right decision. “
Despite the financial pressures facing Arsenal, Venkatesham believes the club could face missing out on the Champions League this season.
The Gunners last competed in the main European competition in 2017. But when asked by ESPN if Arsenal could afford another year without the Champions League, Venkatesham said: “I would say we can afford to lose. If you miss the European qualification, you have Cut your cloth accordingly. Yes, we can afford to lose it. But if we want to achieve what we have to achieve by getting back to the point of ambitions, then we have to go back to being a Champions League club.
“Yes, it is important financially. But it is also what the fans want. They want us to play Tuesday and Wednesday night, preferably with them in the stadium rather than on a Thursday. I’m not trying to be negative about the Europa Liga. an important competition and you know how seriously we take that competition. But we want to go back to the Champions League. We have to re-establish ourselves there. “
So far the club has struggled to sell players this summer with several first-team players deemed surplus to the requirements, including Matteo Guendouzi, Lucas Torreira and Ozil.
Ozil’s £ 350,000 weekly salary continues to cause problems at a club being streamlined elsewhere, but Edu insisted the door was open for the German playmaker to revive his career as he entered the senior year of your contract.
“Here, of course, we are talking about performance,” Edu said. “Players with performance in training, in the game, are going to have opportunities because Mikel has already shown it. It’s for everyone.
“We know how important everyone is. I know how important and how great the player is when you mention Mesut, but in the end, we are talking about performance here.
“If he is performing well, people are doing well, who is the best in training, the best in the game, I’m sure Mikel will select them to be in the squads to play games or to be in the bench”. . “
Source: espn.co.uk
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