http://m.portadelaidefc.com.au/news/2017-06-19/burgess-bound-for-arsenal

PORT ADELAIDE has agreed to release head of high performance Darren Burgess to English Premier League club Arsenal.
The terms agreed between Port and Arsenal will see Burgess continue to fulfil his duties to Port Adelaide for the remainder of the 2017 AFL season and the start of the 2018 pre-season.

Burgess, who was handpicked by Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger, will commence his new role in July.

Under the transition terms agreed between Port Adelaide and Arsenal, Burgess will:

  • Return to Alberton in late July to continue to supervise the club's high performance program for the end of the home and away season

  • Should Port Adelaide take part in the AFL finals series, return to Alberton for the entire duration of the finals campaign

  • Return to Alberton in both October and November to plan and implement Port Adelaide’s 2017/18 pre-season program

  • At that time hand over to a successor whose international search and recruitment process will be led by Burgess

  • Undertake daily remote consultation with Port Adelaide’s high performance team and football program, including coach Ken Hinkley, for the duration of this transition period

  • Remain an integral part in Port Adelaide’s China high performance program

Port Adelaide chief executive Keith Thomas said Burgess went to Arsenal with the club's blessing, and with integrity around Port's high performance program remaining.

"We acknowledge that this is a life changing opportunity for Darren," said Mr Thomas.

"But what we've been able to do is work with Arsenal to enact a transition process which limits any impact or disruption to our football program for this year, and retain Darren's expertise for our 2018 planning.

"We are appreciative of Arsenal's understanding that the integrity of our football program is the absolute priority for our club."

Keith Thomas thanked Burgess for his contribution to Port Adelaide, which has seen it develop an industry and nation-leading high performance program in the years since 2013.

"When we set out to rebuild our program we committed to being a global best practice sports organisation. To have a club like Arsenal hand pick Darren is testament to the calibre of our personnel, our football program and ultimately our organisation," Mr Thomas said.

"It also further underlines the impact and influence Port Adelaide is having on the international sports stage, from our success in China, to being named as one of Sports International's top 20 sports innovators globally.

Global partnership beckons
Further to recent developments in the global partnership space, Port Adelaide will pursue an arrangement with Arsenal - one of the UK's biggest football clubs - to grow sports science and professional development opportunties between Highbury and Alberton.

"Arsenal have indicated their desire to be part of a new collaborative partnership with Port Adelaide in a range of areas including sports science, professional development and international growth. That brings some amazing opportunities with it and we look forward to putting that arrangement in place as soon as we can," said Mr Thomas.

"It’s part of our ongoing journey and desire to becoming a world class sports organisation".

Mr Thomas will meet with Arsenal CEO Ivan Gazidis in Australia in July to finalise Port Adelaide’s international partnership with Arsenal.

Burgess thanks Port
Darren Burgess extended his thanks to Port Adelaide and its supporter base in the club's Monday media announcement:

“Reaching this decision has been one of the toughest decisions in my professional career”, said Mr Burgess.

“My family loves the lifestyle of Adelaide and more importantly we love everything about the Port Adelaide Football Club.

“When the opportunity came up to return to Port Adelaide I had no hesitation in returning. Port Adelaide is like family and once you’ve worked in this environment with so many outstanding people it is very difficult to leave.

“It’s especially difficult knowing the club is on the right path for sustained success both on and off the field.

“However, the opportunity to return to the English Premier League and work at one of the world’s most successful sporting organisations in Arsenal is an opportunity I simply couldn’t refuse.

“I look forward to continue having a relationship with Port Adelaide from afar and thank the entire club for their support and many great memories over two stints.”

Burgess has also previously worked for Liverpool - under Dalglish, Hodgson and Rodgers - and the Australian national team. Read around a bit and he seems to be very well respected. Port Adelaide are known for their great fitness levels in the AFL and in particular their relentless running ability, so it'll be interesting to see what changes here. 

Hopefully our resident Aussies have some good things to say about him.

I'm glad to read he's joining Shad rather than replacing him. Our injury situation seems to be a lot better these days and this can only help.

Hopefully there's more 'restructuring' to come, particularly in the scouting and recruiting department.

From the Telegraph

The highly-rated Burgess will report directly to Wenger but is expected to be given a wide-ranging brief to include overall control of medical, fitness, psychology and performance analysis at the club, as well as working with the academy.

In fact, it appears that Burgess’ planned role encompasses everything apart from player recruitment and scouting, and is a sign that Wenger has won his battle to ensure Arsenal did not appoint a director of football.

Seems Burgess is going to have quite a wide ranging involvement.

Despite what that second paragraph says, I reckon the club's plan has always been to appoint one or two guys that each oversee a number of connected departments within the club. I'd imagine someone else will come in to take over from Dick Law in an expanded role that also incorporates scouting, player recruitment and retention, whilst Wenger will remain responsible for the "technical performance" as he puts it.

Hand picked by Wenger.

So just another yes man, but I'm sure Gazidis will see this as radical change.

He's very highly regarded. It can't be seen as anything but a good thing. Anwyay, there has also been another appointment of guy with a big reputation;

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And a link to a Telegraph article with more details:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/06/19/arsenal-backroom-shuffle-continues-signing-new-legal-expert/

It seems Fahmy is the man that will take over from Dick Law in negotiating contracts for new and existing players.

Fahmy and Burgess will have no involvement in the identification of players at Arsenal and it is understood that there is likely to be at least one more significant off-field appointment this summer.

With one more significant off-field appointment to come it would appear.

That's a shame, when I read he's from Team Sky I thought we were finally going to catch up with everyone else and start doping.

Ray wrote:

Hand picked by Wenger.

So just another yes man, but I'm sure Gazidis will see this as radical change.

He's a fucking fitness coach. 😆

What an appointment. Exactly what we have been crying out for all these years.

So bloody excited I can't contain myself.

Qwiss! wrote:
Ray wrote:

Hand picked by Wenger.

So just another yes man, but I'm sure Gazidis will see this as radical change.

He's a fucking fitness coach. 😆

In other words, the guy every fan is going to abuse when our players get injured again. 😆

Pires, 43, who has been linked with a role as sporting director, is aware of the calibre of player the Gunners require to sign and already has a personal shortlist.

“I have a long list. Mbappe, Alexandre Lacazette, Ousmane Dembele, Thomas Lemar - this is my list, be careful. I’m not the manager but I believe in Arsene Wenger for the new season and to spend a lot of money on players. He knows the market is very difficult this summer and he has a lot of work to do but I’m confident," he said at Arsenal’s Puma home kit launch event in Kings Cross.

That's a great list.

Just let Pires negotiate, he can't be any worse than whoever is doing it now.

I don't give Pires any special credit for that list as it is obvious to anyone not called Gilles Grimandi, Luis Boa Morte, Daniel Karbassiyoon, Dick Law and Arsene Wenger.

Some unbelievably demented, tin-foil hat logic from Le Grove, as usual. Don't even know how you can genuinely perform the mental gymnastics it takes to get worked about about this! Egregious abuse of power? Arsenal isn't a bloody nation-state! 

He should have gone, but he's stayed. That's all. There is no Arsenal Fan's Bill of Rights. 

Le Grove is a muddled blog that sometimes comes out with great pieces but also just as often comes up with tripe like that.

some of our players performed like they were high last season. hopefully he can sort that issue out

12 days later

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Would be both surprised and delighted if old Jens Lehmann came back as a coach. He's as outspoken as he is nuts. It would be a hard one for the 'Wenger only works with yes men' crowd to rationalise that's for sure.

Really hope it happens.