• The Houseboat

  • Monchi rumoured to be appointed Arsenal sporting director

I thought we could have a thread here instead of using the one about Sven in the main forum.

Marca and The Mirror have reported independently of eachother that we've approached him for the job and that he has agreed. Supposedly we beat out PSG and Man United who were also in the running for him.

Corriere dello Sport - via Tribal Football - claim that Roma are looking at potential candidates to succeed Monchi now. One of them is Francesco Totti. Another is Inter's current technical director Piero Ausilio: https://www.tribalfootball.com/articles/roma-accept-arsenal-target-monchi-leaving-4270710

Ornstein also said he heard from one source inside the club that a deal with Monchi has already been sealed.

Best possible Sven replacement out there.

I've only seen people say on here that Ornstein has claimed that. Is there a tweet or article?

It was on some podcast

He also claimed back in January, after the Sven story broke, that Monchi was on our shortlist of replacements, so he's being consistent if the quote is true.

I know relatively little about Monchi, but isn't he more about organisational side of dealings (players in, players out, contracts) rather than player ability/potential evaluation which was Sven's primary forte? So it doesn't seem like-for-like replacement.

Let's say we get Monchi, who is going to find us hot talents for Monchi to get? Would Monchi bring his own scouts? Or "contacts-based" scouting?

To be fair I wouldn’t mind Overmars either - so many good players have come through at Ajax recently

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

I've only seen people say on here that Ornstein has claimed that. Is there a tweet or article?

He was on Arseblog arsecast a while back. Worth a listen, was pretty interesting.

Incidentally Arseblog said as recently as Monday that he’s heard from his own sources that this has legs, and he’s generally reliable.

ornstein has name-dropped him a few times, so there's clearly something afoot. would be great to plug that gap so swiftly. maybe we've been warming him up for a while, knowing that sven was on the way out

He knows the gaffer well and has achieved success with him. Score. He’s pulled together some interesting pieces at Roma. Score. He has a cool name, sounds like a refreshing cocktail. Score.

His record in Rome isn't nearly as impressive as the resume of names he managed in Seville. Anyway, great news if true

Monchi has had hits and misses, but he has shown a consistent eye for talent.

The only issue I have is with CB purchases. For me they have been underwhelming from him, but everywhere else he has had great success.

This is the best replacement we could have lined up after Sven.

Overmars would have been interesting too.

Notable Roma signings-

Cengiz Under
Justin Kluivert
Nicolo Zaniolo
Steven N'zonzi
Javier Pastore
Lorenzo Pellegrini
Robin Olsen

Notable cheap sales-

Mo Salah
Paredes

Olsen absolutely bang average goalie, Nzonzi/Pastore misses. The rest are okay

Olsen is okay, punching slightly above his weight at Roma, but he was one of their best players for the first half of the season. He had brilliant games against Real Madrid and Lazio. If he hadn't come into a team in complete disarray as the replacement for a freak goalkeeper who was the best they've ever had in the club's history he'd get a lot more leeway.

N'Zonzi was highly regarded for his work at Sevilla & wasn't he part of the French squad for the WC?

He was great at Sevilla, but in this case he meant miss as in that he shouldn't have brought him to Roma.

Old interview with Monchi if anyone like me that want's a bit of insight into him.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/may/17/sevilla-monchi-liverpool-europa-league-final

It seems, like Mislintat, he has a methodological approach to identifying players, i.e. making heavy use of stats, which is comforting. He also strikes me as perhaps being more suited to a technical director role? He certainly seems more willing to work within his given remit rather than Mislintat who strikes me as very single minded. On the downside, and this is only a feeling, I don't get the impression he's as good as Mislintat in spotting rough diamonds.