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northOr long after 10:30 p.m. on the deadline, a car stopped in front of La Liga headquarters and two men got out. They rushed into the building, signed some papers, and left. At 11:28 p.m. the League officially informed Atlético de Madrid that Arsenal had paid the 50 million euro termination clause for Thomas Partey and Atlético, in turn, announced their departure at 11:55, five minutes before it closed. window. The Ghanaian was a gunner. Everything had happened fast.
Only he hadn’t. This was only the final stage of a six-year process. Francis Cagigao, then Arsenal’s head of recruiting, had first seen Partey, 21, on loan at Almería. On Saturday Partey is in line to debut at Arsenal; Cagigao will have to watch him on television from Galicia, northern Spain, after leaving the club in September after 24 years of service, a free agent awaiting a new project.
Although his case was separated, Cagigao’s departure came when Arsenal announced that 55 employees would be laid off. However, there is gratitude in place of an ax to grind. After all, he insists: “The day I entered a meeting with Arsène [Wenger], Pat [Rice] and Steve Rowley, I didn’t expect to spend so much time at a prominent institution like this. You cannot allow yourself to be bitter in life. I feel privileged to have been there and I prefer to look forward than backwards ”.
There is much to remember. Born in Paddington, the son of Galician immigrants who arrived in 1964, Cagigao attended his first game at the age of four, watching Chelsea and Arsenal. His father was crazy about soccer, a Brian Clough fan who helped found the Sunday team Deportivo Galicia, for whom Francis would later play. Cagigao, a Stamford Bridge regular who recites lineups, also played in the Isthmian league with Wembley before joining Arsenal, where he won an FA Youth Cup and describes being “enveloped by values, tradition and class”, comparing those hallways marble with Rome. .
Cagigao signed for Barcelona and represented the Spanish Under-19 team, but his impact was not so much a player: he got nine minutes at Camp Nou with the B team and describes a career at Racing Santander, Southend and Racing Ferrol as “mediocre “, but identify them. After earning his UEFA license in Loughborough and his work experience with Don Howe, he was playing in the Spanish third division for Club Lemos, where he would go on to coach, when he was called to the meeting that changed everything.
“[Arsène] Wenger wanted a new global structure. It was not intended for conscription; my ambition was to train. But when a club like Arsenal and a man like Wenger offer that, it’s hard to say no. “
Cagigao was 26 years old; He is now 50 years old. At first he held two roles, head of scouting in Spain and Portugal while at Lemos, but soon he was full time: Europe, then the World Cup, maybe 180 games a year. With a London accent that he says is more pronounced when in the pub, he talks about small places in Asia, Africa and America and tells the “terrifying” story of being stuck in Ukraine, sitting on his suitcase singing outside a military airport , “An absolute odyssey.” It could be a lonely existence, “the life of a suitcase”, and it didn’t always work out. But in the end he says, almost lovingly: “There is always a soccer field.”
There is a smile when they ask him if he was really close to signing Lionel Messi, a 15-year-old who plays alone in the Catalan competition. “Yes,” he says. “Messi, [Gerard] Pique, [Juan] Mata were very, very close and there were others. With Messi, the work permit problems ensured that we couldn’t get as close as we would have liked ”. There is a pause, an almost conspiratorial smile, and Cagigao says: “And that’s all I can say about it.
“Many escape, two, three, four a year, but I prefer to look at the ones we got.”
The list begins with midfielder Lauren when Cagigao was still juggling two jobs: “I highly recommended him as a right-back, and we had our disagreements,” he says, and encompasses more than 20 people, including Robin van Persie. , Nacho Monreal, Kieran Tierney, Carlos Vela, José Antonio Reyes, Gabriel Magalhães, Emi Martínez and Santi Cazorla, “the epitome of the born footballer”. When Gabriel Martinelli scored a magnificent goal against Chelsea, Cesc Fàbregas tweeted “Francis Cagigao strikes again”, adding And Francis Cagigao attacks again and again. Legend ”when Bellerín made two.
Fàbregas, signed by Cagigao at age 15, is now a friend. Cagigao tells Cesc’s qualities on his fingers: “A combination of very good technique, vision, awareness, intelligence. I was looking at a boy with a GPS on his brain, maturity beyond his years. His decision making was already near perfect. A pioneer who won it all, just a great player, a great person. If you’re talking about exceptional players from Liam Brady’s Arsenal, you’d say Cesc and Santi.
“Cesc showed how strong our exploration department had become, how well we could identify and then recruit,” continues Cagigao. “Yes [a player] he’s willing to sit around a table the first part is done and whatever player we brought to the club, a 16-year-old fresh from Paris, Barcelona or Rome or an established professional, we sat him in front of Wenger, and Arsène insisted. You couldn’t get a better sales pitch. No matter how good your draft is, you need a brave coach who, while fighting for the titles, throws in young players, gives them confidence. If it weren’t for Arsène, many races could have gone a different path. “
There is warmth in every mention of Wenger: “someone who didn’t have time but who made time for people.” Cagigao says: “One of the reasons why I was there so long, that I didn’t leave when I could, was that relationship. And Steve Rowley, who was brilliant. I always felt like I was in a club that valued me. I worked with people who would listen to me, and Arsène is an exceptional listener. My greatest success is working with talented and loyal people in a club that held those values for years: like Pat Rice, David Dein, Ken Friar, David Miles, Vic Akers, so many high-level scouts, and many others. “
Wenger is gone, along with others, and Arsenal have restructured. The game has changed and, Cagigao notes, Brexit will change it even more. The influence of the agents grows, the communications are different, the tools and the methods. All that means exploration is squeezed. “There’s been a lot of talk about it,” Cagigao responds, “People talk about ‘exploration versus data’, but it’s a ridiculous argument. Scouting and recruiting must be tailored to the culture and philosophy of the club. You need live exploration, video exploration, data analysis. They are all important, but we must never lose the essence. There are still players out there: they have to be found, if that’s in the fourth division of Brazil. It’s not the Peaky Blinders cap, the long coat and the worn shoes, but the technical vision of a trained eye with knowledge and experience is vital. “
And someone who works 100% for the club? “Yes, it is very important that the clubs control the market, not that the market controls the clubs.” Does that happen too often? Are there agent-controlled clubs? “I don’t know what other clubs are doing … I’ll leave it there.”
For Arsenal, culture was tied to a single man for nearly three decades, a void and uncertainty left behind. Cagigao’s departure could be seen in that context, as could Unai Emery’s. “Transitions are never easy,” he says. “Unai [Emery] He is a very good coach who arrived in a difficult period, but we reached a final of the Europa League and we were one point away from qualifying for the Champions League ”.
And Arteta? “He has a combination of ambition, talent, youth and a fantastic learning experience with Pep Guardiola, clearly one of the best coaches in the world. He has been a player for Arsenal and has those values. Arsenal have the ideal coach ”.
They also have a squad that Cagigao helped build, Partey perhaps his final service. “The department will have played an important role in what happens in the next year. They have more options up front than probably any Premier League team. You have a very good midfield combination; two fantastic and expansive sides; a central that has entered. It is well balanced, very strong. I don’t see better squads than Arsenal.
“At Almería Thomas was different from the player we have seen at Atlético: more advanced, more from box to box, attacking. I think we will see Thomas Partey without shackles. Played in a restricted midfield unit [at Atlético] where it was about positional play; now he could add things to his game that we haven’t seen much of except with Ghana. He is a player we have pursued for a long time and we highly recommend, a great addition, a prototype we did not have. I think it could be the final piece of the puzzle that makes Arsenal compete for the title. “
And Cagigao will be watching, although this time on television.
“Always says.
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