Klaus wrote:
That's why we brought in Mislintat and he was similarly discarded of because Raul preferred to go with his contacts-based approach. The straw was when he and Emery made such a fuss over Denis Suarez. He got pushed out and then Edu with his close ties to Kia came in.
We've cut down and marginalised talent-spotting and scouting for a long time now rather than attempting to improve it, that much is undeniable fact to me. In its place we've seen more and more of these agent transfers where we're having our pockets picked while signing players that either don't fit or aren't particularly good.
[spoiler]Raul Sanllehi can sometimes be spotted walking his dog on the wide green fields of Hampstead Heath. It is easy to lose yourself there. It feels a world apart from the bustle of nearby central London. These moments must be a godsend for Arsenalâs head of football. There is not much room for respite from the endless hectic swirl of the football business.
Since joining Arsenal in February 2018, Sanllehiâs status has changed, which is reflected in the scrutiny he now lives with. He is the man holding the keys to the Arsenal operation off the pitch. It is the first time in his career he has held a position of such authority in the game, at a time when head coach Mikel Arteta says he is concerned that his club wonât be able to compete financially in the transfer market.
Although he technically shares the CEO role with Vinai Venkatesham, whose oversight is more on the business than the football side, it is Sanllehi who attracts more of the spotlight as the man who directs alterations to the make-up of the squad. In a way, for Arsenal, his choices are almost as important as Artetaâs in trying to make the club more competitive again.
In football circles, Sanllehi is described as an expert salesman, persuasive, with a trusted network. At his previous club, Barcelona, he had a reputation for being a Mr Fix-it, a smoother of paths, a negotiator rather than an actual decision-maker. At Arsenal, if Sanllehi reckons they need the assistance of particular intermediaries â as was the case to bring in the likes of Nicolas Pepe and Bernd Leno, or to sell Alex Iwobi â he will do it. If the football committee decides it looks good to showcase their success in convincing Bukayo Saka or Gabriel Martinelli to sign that all-important new contract, he will happily be part of it.
Like anything in football, perceptions are linked to results. If results go well, those are presented as excellent qualities. If not, it is natural to wonder if those characteristics are the most prudent ones to lead a club that has dipped into mediocrity and claims it has to be very careful with limited finances.
Recently, Arsenal have paid higher than the basic asking price for players â exceeding the expected fee for Leno, for example. It begs the question why. It happens, of course, that in any walk of life sometimes extra costs come into play to get difficult deals done â but given Arsenalâs financial situation, as the only Premier League club to enforce a pay cut, itâs essential they are as efficient as possible in their spending.
Sanllehiâs methodology â particularly in terms of player recruitment and the tendency to work more often with close contacts â is under the microscope. If money is tight, then dipping into a smaller pond with fewer options rather than expanding the pool to fish for the best catches is a policy that should be seriously examined by Arsenalâs owners. The recent appointment by Kroenke Sports Enterprises (KSE) of Tim Lewis, Stan Kroenkeâs lawyer in London, to the board may bring an extra level of oversight.
Arsenal are not alone in having more trusted collaborations with certain intermediaries. It happens to a degree at a lot of clubs. At Wolverhampton Wanderers, for example, that situation is even more pronounced. Their head coach Nuno Espirito Santo is a client of Jorge Mendes, and the clubâs Chinese owners have a stake in the agentâs company, Gestifute. Mendesâ influence on Wolvesâ transfer strategy is writ large.
The point of it, though, is that any association with a superagent should ideally lead to signing some super players. While not every transfer is a success story, Wolves have benefited considerably from Mendesâ involvement. At Arsenal, the jury is still out.
Ultimately, if Arsenal were not mid-table, nobody would care too much about who shakes hands with who for a deal. But since they are, it feels prudent to examine how the clubâs transfer strategy has evolved and why Sanllehi â whose reputation as a closer of deals was a big part of why Arsenal wanted to hire him in the first place â has seemingly leaned on such a level of support.
Things have changed since the end of the Arsene Wenger era, which underlines how differently the club operates these days. Elements the Frenchman vehemently disapproved of, such as alliances with powerful agents in transfer arrangements, are part of the new football world Arsenal have joined.
The mechanics and machinations of football transfers can be mind-boggling. As one lead in Premier League recruitment puts it: âWhen you are agent-led, you donât know the monster waiting around the corner for you. You have to take the rough with the smooth.â
Sanllehi is the man who has introduced this new style of business into the club. Arsenalâs recruitment did need an injection of new impetus after years of transfers resting on Wengerâs hunches. As the task of playing the market became a much more convoluted game influenced by increasingly powerful connectors, they were criticised for being weak and getting overrun sometimes.
There are plenty of reasons for the unpredictable total costs of a deal and the need for a specific intermediary to be involved. It might be they can conclude talks very speedily, see off a competitor in a bidding war, or cut to the chase where a less experienced agent represents a player. They sometimes act for the player, and sometimes for the buying or even the selling club.
The first significant transfer Arsenal made in the post-Wenger era was for Leno, who arrived early in the summer of 2018 from Bayer Leverkusen. The initial asking price was around âŹ18 million.
It was surprising Arsenal didnât use the expertise of Sven Mislintat, then their head of recruitment, in his home market in the manner that helped to get Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang signed from Borussia Dortmund. But he was not involved in the Leno deal at all. The Athletic has been told that the agent Arturo Canales, who had done business before with Sanllehi and struck the deal for Unai Emery to become Wengerâs successor, was introduced to the deal. In the end, Leno joined Arsenal for a âŹ22 million transfer fee.
Although there are plenty of reasons why Canalesâs involvement was needed, the lack of transparency in general in football transactions means we donât know to what extent his fee might have increased the price Arsenal ultimately had to pay, no matter who he acted for. Sources at Arsenal and Leverkusen say neither club paid the agent.
The following summer, Arsenal pulled off what was regarded at the time as a masterstroke when they shattered their transfer record for Pepe. Sanllehi had a connection with the Lille chief executive, Marc Ingla, an old colleague from Barcelona. Nevertheless Jorge Mendes, who had considerably more experience than Pepeâs agents and a working relationship with Lilleâs primary negotiator Luis Campos, stepped in
The sale of Iwobi to Everton saw Arsenal pay a fee to Sports Invest UK, the company for which Kia Joorabchian is a director. Joorabchian (below) is a businessman whose profile in football in the UK is due to him representing David Luiz, Carlos Tevez and Philippe Coutinho, among others. Sports Invest UK was paid for its part arranging what was a handsome sale price for a homegrown player who did well without setting the world alight. Notably, though, the lines of communication between Arsenal and Everton in January 2018, just before Sanllehiâs arrival in London, did not require an agent for the selling club in the transfer of Theo Walcott.
The FA has published data on intermediaries involved in transfers for the last five years. In that time, the occurrence of a selling club using a third-party agent for a transfer involving an academy graduate between Premier League clubs is very unusual. Arsenalâs payment over Iwobi is one of three such cases over five years.
Arsenal are confident their use of intermediaries is justified. A spokesman said: âThe bottom line is that in order to compete to sign top players in the modern football world, it is an advantage to have strong working relationships with the people who manage these players.
âAcross our football operations team we have such relationships with a very large number of intermediaries, and a wide variety of intermediaries have represented the players we have signed in recent transfer windows.â
It was also pointed out that it is not unusual for Arsenalâs payments to agents to be spread over several years, usually the length of a playerâs contract. The ÂŁ13.5 million total commission paid by Arsenal between February 1, 2019 and January 31, 2020, published by the FA, includes up-front payments and not always the full amounts paid in stages over time. That is common practice in the game.
For better and for worse, Arsenal operate so differently these days. In the words of someone close to the club: âMost of the guys just assume, âOh, this is football â and football has finally come to Arsenalâ.â
In 1991, Sanllehi was arrested in America â for wrapping toilet paper round a rival collegeâs goalposts.
Having spent time in a US high school as an exchange student, Sanllehi returned to study economics, marketing and finance at Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina. Mark Keersemaker was a freshman in Sanllehiâs senior year, and remembers a young man âvery animated, very colourful off the field â and fanatical about soccerâ.
Guilfordâs local rivals are Greensboro College and, after a hard-fought 3-2 victory, Sanllehi and his team-mates decided to launch a late-night invasion of the Greensboro campus. âWe piled into a few cars and drove over there,â recalls Keersemaker. One of the captains had a Jeep and I believe Raul surfed on top of the Jeep from our campus to their campus!â
At around 1.40am the following morning, eight members of the team, including Sanllehi, were arrested for vandalism. Local reports cited daubs of paint around the campus, toilet paper being wrapped around the goalposts and used to spell âGuilfordâ, and an âobscenity scrawled on the sidewalkâ.
Given that weâre yet to see Sanllehi careering through north London on the back of a 4Ă4 armed only with a pack of Charmin Ultra Soft, we can only assume he learned his lesson.
Sanllehi spent a couple of years at Barcaâs La Masia academy from the age of 10, but his first real entry into his home city club came in 2002 as head of FCB Merchandising, a newly-created joint venture between Barcelona and his former employer, Nike. After Joan Laporta won the club presidency the following year, Sanllehiâs role at the Nou Camp expanded into institutional relations with UEFA and FIFA. Over time, Sanllehiâs job description gradually extended into transfer activity.
Sanllehi was particularly active in South America, dispatched as a âcloserâ to help get difficult deals over the line. Closer to home, his negotiating skills made him an effective diplomat: when Arsenal and Barcelona were in dispute over the transfer of Hector Bellerin in 2011, it was Sanllehi that Barcelona opted to deploy as a peacemaker.
In 2013 he spent weeks in Brazil making sure Barcelona beat Real Madrid to signing Neymar. It was one of the great modern transfer stories, involving one of most coveted talents in the world. When the former Santos starlet was presented at the Nou Camp on June 3, 2013, then vice-president Josep Maria Bartomeu offered special thanks to both Sanllehi and the clubâs long-serving Brazil scout and deal-maker Andre Cury for their role in âvery long and sometimes quite difficultâ negotiations which had now been successfully concluded. Cury and Sanllehi have a long-standing association: the pair were linked to Barcelonaâs ill-fated and expensive signings of Brazilian âstarletsâ Henrique and Keirrison, as far back as 2008 and 2009. Cury has been credited by the Brazilian media with smoothing over dealings between Arsenal and Flamengo over this yearâs signing of Pablo Mari.
Neymarâs unveiling with Bartomeu and sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta in 2013
Sanllehiâs next big public appearance came on January 24, 2014, the day after Rosell had surprisingly stepped down as president with the high-ranking Audiencia Nacional court now investigating the Neymar deal. âWeâre very proud of the Neymar signing, but it seems like weâre being asked to apologise for it,â Sanllehi said. Now officially titled Barcelonaâs director of the football management area, he detailed the âtransfer feeâ paid as âŹ17.1 million, but then explained that payments to companies owned by Neymarâs parents, including a âŹ40 million âpenalty clauseâ and other side-deals for services including scouting, marketing and âdevelopment workâ brought the total cost to âŹ86.2 million.
In June 2016, Barcelona accepted the payment of a âŹ5.5 million fine and formally pleaded guilty to tax fraud.
Sanllehi came to know the then Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis through the European Club Association. Arsenal were on the precipice of a period of transition: transfer negotiator Dick Law was poised to retire, and the assumption was that Wenger would not be too far behind.
Gazidis identified Sanllehi as someone who could lend Arsenal credibility on the European level, had a track record of pulling off difficult deals and could plug the club into a new network of contacts. Sanllehiâs value on the continental stage grows as Arsenalâs place in European football diminishes. When inevitable conversations about the structure of European competition surface, Sanllehiâs standing with the ECA helps ensure the club will have a voice.
Arsenalâs new transfer world veered away from the Wenger era. In shaking it all up, they put in place what looked to be an ideal blend of new ideas designed by Gazidis: bringing together Sanllehiâs contact-led approach with Mislintatâs more analytical and scout based experience looked to be a brilliant combination. A dream team.
But it turned into a clash of cultures. Mislintat left. Arsenalâs owners trusted Gazidis implicitly and they transferred that trust to the men he anointed to take over. Sanllehi assumed full power over Arsenalâs recruitment team. This includes input from the rest of the football executive, including technical director Edu, contracts guru Huss Fahmy, and any conversations with scouts and head coach Arteta himself. Arsenalâs emphasis has shifted sharply towards a contacts-driven approach, rather than a blend to try to bring the best of both worlds.
Sanllehi quickly found popularity among his peers in England. He is an engaging character, and a good talker. âHe is very eloquent and has clear rationale in his ideas,â one Premier League sporting director told The Athletic. âAnd what an amazing voice he has. He has an extremely deep voice! Itâs incredible, as though he has smoked 50 cigars every morning!â
These days, the Arsenal directorsâ box is significantly more welcoming to intermediaries. The presence of some attracts more attention than others â nobody passes comment when incoming defender William Salibaâs representative, Djibril Niang, is a guest of the club. When Joorabchian appears, itâs a story.
The appointment of Edu as technical director opened the door to Joorabchian, and indeed Luiz. The purpose of fostering relationships with these intermediaries is presumably to help Arsenal acquire a class of players they could not otherwise get â but Arsenal had been offered the chance to sign Luiz in January 2018, and refused.
Luizâs time at Arsenal so far has been turbulent. Well-liked off the pitch, the regularity of his mistakes on it have been problematic. Therefore it was controversial when the 33-year-oldâs contract was extended recently, even though Arteta was forthright about wanting him to stay. The question over whether that is the best possible use of a large chunk of salary for an ageing defender lingers, particularly in tandem with a four-year deal for Southampton loanee Cedric Soares, who turns 29 next month. Talk of another possible deal for another Joorabchian client, Chelseaâs soon-to-be 32 Willian, is hardly the sort to set the fansâ hearts racing.
When Arsenal were in urgent need of a centre-half in January, their favoured choice was an Arturo Canales client, Pablo Mari. Canales, a long-standing associate of Sanllehi, was not the only intermediary involved in the deal. Andre Cury was also part of the negotiations.
Sanllehi is not the only person in world football who values trusted connections. It was Canales who hammered out the terms of Emery joining Arsenal, despite the coachâs long-time association to another agent â although it is not entirely uncommon for managers to change representation when joining a new club; Rafa Benitez, for example, did the same when moving to China after leaving Newcastle last summer. Emery even went as far as thanking Canales for introducing him to the process in an interview with the Spanish newspaper AS.
Shortly before the end of the 2018-19 season, Sanllehi was involved in high-level discussions about a proposed new contract for Emery, which would have involved Canales. The Athletic understands that it was strong internal opposition, grounded in Arsenalâs dreadful underlying data, that put the brakes on that deal â though the club say this is not their understanding of the situation. Had it been signed off, Emeryâs pay-out later that year would have been even more costly.
Few in football would contest the idea that close relationships with agents can prove beneficial. In the past, Arsenal were criticised for refusing to play the game: Wengerâs staunch moralism was characterised as naivety. When it comes to recruitment, Arsenal are at least getting deals done.
Some are very promising. Martinelli has already shown the talent to suggest his signature at age 18 was outstanding business. Kieran Tierney, whose progress at 23 is now shining after injury, and 19-year-old Saliba, who joins for next season, both represent excellent potential. Matteo Guendouziâs maverick style remains unharnessed but if the 21-year-old is sold, he is clearly already worth considerably more than they paid for him.
Another success was the impressive amount of churn managed last summer. Arsenal needed to offload a number of players. That is a tricky part of any rebuild and Sanllehi was very smart in that department in organising the sale or loaning-out of 18 players (19 if Salibaâs loan back to Saint-Etienne is included).
The question is whether Sanllehiâs approach is one with sufficient variety. Arsenal have access to an extensive scouting network and the well-regarded Arsenal Data Analytics (formerly StatDNA). Some people in both departments are understood to have felt somewhat alienated by the new approach. It is no coincidence that Mislintatâs departure was followed by that of Jaeson Rosenfeld, the analytics guru whose role was focused on recruitment. Sanllehi and Edu (together below) form a tight unit â one that is not proving easy for other staff to penetrate.
So far, the Kroenkes have shown that they like to run Arsenal on trust. KSE have always given the impression the way they like to run their various professional sports clubs is to have faith in the people they put in place to do the day-to-day running.
Hereâs an interesting observation from someone well connected to Arsenal: âI think the Kroenkes are actually very good owners â if you have a well-functioning club.â
Where it leaves Arsenal now is this: they have nailed their colours to the mast of a predominantly agent-led approach led by Sanllehi with all that can entail, including intermediary fees and a smaller pool of targets. They mix that with faith in the encouraging crew emerging from the academy currently run by former Arsenal captain Per Mertesacker, with Saka, Eddie Nketiah and Joe Willock leading the way.
Arteta inherited a real assortment of components to try to build a coherent team when he arrived in December but he will need backing, and plenty of it, to try to make Arsenal more competitive next season. This feels particularly pertinent given the risk of missing out on European football for the first time in 25 years. He talked of having âa very clear planâ of the âspecificityâ of players needed in a rebuild. He doesnât seem the type to be relaxed about who comes in.
So the question of who does, and how they do it, is vital for Arsenal.[/spoiler]
Some interesting "coincidence" and insights on how we deal our contact based signings. Mari for example if you are wondering where we plucked him from. Certainly not scouts.
